More of the community began frequenting the shop, and soon people started asking Fael for help with odd jobs.Ren’wyn secretly loved hearing them call him “Calora’s man,” as though she was the powerful one in their relationship.Fael joked that she was his patroness and character reference, which made her laugh—but their assumed relationship kept the few unattached men in town from harassing her.He gave her a sense of security, and she didn’t mind when Fael slipped an arm around her waist on their way back to the inn afterwork.
In their free time, Fael often snagged a bottle of wine, and they shared it in one of their rooms.He told her everything about his visits and work.Ren’wyn sent him out with remedies to deliver to distant homesteads, and he returned with stories.
They learned about the rebellion that had been quelled in Kareht and that some forces had escaped.Brigands were active along the border of Loringa, and pirates had grown more numerous along the trade routes in the Serath Sea—but even with their magic and visits to the surrounding countryside, they found no one else with powers.
“The empire has been brutal here,” Fael said one night.“There are so many abandoned homes in the countryside, and the farmers all say the same thing: the families left to ‘find more profitable locations.’Everyone uses the exact same phrase, Ren’wyn.It’s code—they mean people left to escape persecution.”
Feeling his distress, Ren’wyn took his hand, hoping to dispel his haunted expression.
“I remember so much, Ren’wyn.So many horrible things.”For a moment, he looked torn about continuing, but his mouth kept moving.“Torture.Murder.Maiming.The horrific things we did to those with magic and to those who loved or protected them.My nightmaresare...”
Silence fell between them.Nightmares she could understand.Murder?She understood that nowtoo.
“Hold on to the good, Fael,” she whispered, and his breath caught as he pressed his fist to his mouth.“And when you can’t, hold on to me.”
By the second month, the apothecary became, if not busy, at least regularly attended.It was clean and bright, and Ren’wyn began making regular trips—often accompanied by Fael—into the woods, wetlands, and fields to collect local plants.He listened attentively as she showed him how to harvest certain herbs in the early morning, while they were still covered in dew, or others at night under the moon and stars.She explained why lilies were never gathered after a rain and insisted he carry her mushrooms in a beechwood crate.
The plant world was a realm of happiness and familiarity.It didn’t matter where they trudged—her love of botany knew no bounds.Waist-deep in muddy water for cattail flowers?Knee-deep in muck for sweet flag?Scrambling up a small rocky waterfall for liverwort spotted mid-trek?Every moment was pure delight.
Each time she caught Fael’s gaze, she swore he had never seen anything like her.She tried to ignore the pride and confidence his open admiration stirred—the strange swirl of desire deep inside her as he watched her wild pursuit of her leafy treasures.
Eight weeks in, Axel pointed out new customers from the neighboring village of Trisin, a day’s travel away.The apothecary from Trisin paid them a visit, arriving in a carriage filled with medicines.Ren’wyn bought a new dress for the occasion—green with slit panels of white in the loose skirt.Fael told her she looked like summer reborn in the fall, and she tucked the compliment into a secret corner of her heart.
The Trisin apothecary, Axel, and Ren’wyn spent the day chatting and trading preparations for various illnesses.When Axel presented Ren’wyn’s ghost pipes, she beamed with pride, and the Trisin apothecary’s eyes widened.He purchased three of the small bottles for an astonishing thirty gold marks, which Axel insisted they split.
Meanwhile, Fael had borrowed the innkeeper’s horse to deliver a remedy to a family suffering from chronic cough.He promised Ren’wyn he would return before supper.
As supper approached, the Trisin apothecary kept Axel and Ren’wyn busy with questions about their inventory and remedies.Finally, they paused to relax with chamomile tea on the front step when the sound of hooves reached Ren’wyn’sears.
Looking up from where she sat between the two older men, she saw Fael perched like a prince in disguise on the large black charger.
“Hello, Tern,” she said, smiling warmly.
Fael dismounted in one smooth motion, holding the reins in one hand and reaching for her with the other.
“Calora,” he greeted her with a smile.“Did you forget supper?”
“No,” she countered.“Though I thought you had, as late as youare.”
“I smelled chicken as I passed the inn,” he teased, stretching his hand a little farther.“I think we won’t be disappointed.”
The movement caught her attention, and she finally met his gaze.Fire burned intensely in his hazel eyes.Anger radiated off him in waves, and the echoes of his magic stirred herown.
Suddenly, a thousand tiny shards of glass seemed to slip from within her shadows, slicing against her will.Broken magic sang like discordant music against her own—an intense, searing pain that triggered a visceral reaction.She recoiled within her own power and reached desperately for Fael’s outstretchedhand.
“Gentlemen.”She turned and smiled at each of them in turn, though her mind raced in terror.She gripped Fael like a lifeline.“It has truly been a pleasure.”
He wrapped his arm possessively around her waist and pulled her close.She let him lead them away quickly, relaxing into his hold.His anger radiated as physical heat, thawing the icy fear coursing through her veins.
“That’s a man in a hurry for a bedding before dinner,” the Trisin apothecary chuckled.
The comment only coaxed her to lean further into Fael’s embrace.He was her refuge, her protection from whatever still grated againsther.
The broken, twisted magic swirled around them, and as it peaked, she finally located the source: the Trisin apothecary’s cart.Never before had anything disturbed her like this disembodied magic, which twisted and licked at their heels as they hurriedaway.
During their tense, quiet supper, the apothecary’s carriage passed by the inn on its way out of town.Ren’wyn felt as though broken glass scraped against her power as its presence lingered.Across from her, Fael stiffened, his jaw tightening, until the grating sensation disappeared into the gatheringdark.
Fael offered her a false smile as he finished his chicken and potatoes.He had been right about the smell—it was an excellent dish—but she had barely touched her food.She simply wasn’t hungry.
