The Beastkeeper's Redemption

Twenty-Three

Twenty-Three

-ˋˏ ༻❁༺ ˎˊ-

Bathed, encased in a clean, heavenly thick and soft robe, Izzy couldn't prevent herself from smiling as she sipped at a fresh cup of tea. The centre of her attentions?

Kaede C'lainn, who was devastating to her senses as he whipped up delicious-smelling food from practically nothing in her kitchen. The male, she realised, was astounding. The more she learnt of him, the more she adored.

"2863 and 927?" Kaede asked, a similar smile on his face as he pivoted to face her, turning away from the heat of the fireside oven in her sparse kitchen with a steaming loaf tin cradled between his hands. Her mouth practically watered at the aromas filling the space despite having been fed just moments ago- the remnants of their shared meal littering the table before her.

"3790," Izzy answered for him. It was now the third time he had asked her some random assortment of numbers to ascertain for himself just how fast she was to draw the correct answer.

"That sounds correct," he mused, setting the loaf tin on the table and then tossed the cloth he had been using to hold the heated metal over a nearby chair. Once done, he placed his hands on his hips and grinned down at her. Wearing a loose linen shirt and a pair of dark trousers and little else, he was as intriguing to her as he was were he not clothed at all. "I have no means to check your answers with, so I will simply have to believe you."

"I am correct," Izzy told him. "But it is not so much the numbers that I've memorised, but rather their patterns and formulas. If you can remember those, it becomes easy to solve and recognise most algorithms."

He snorted, coming around the table to sit next to her. Kaede slung an arm around the back of her chair and dropped a kiss to her temple. "Easy? Many would disagree with you there," he said, pride lacing his tone. "You have a gift, Iz."

"Mmm, I suppose," she mused. "It certainly came in handy when I was on the stage."

"And you do not wish to re-immerse yourself in thespianism once more?" His words were punctuated by a piece of fresh bread being laden with cheese and preserves and dropped into his mouth- quite possibly the largest hunk of food she had ever beheld a person consume before. But, then again, the size of the male before her certainly warranted a sizeable diet of some sort.

"While Cassie is making her rounds within society, I cannot," she admitted. "It is not the sort of occupation that is considered respectful. I'd be shunned the moment someone recognised me and associated me with Cassie, and then my sister would never stand a chance to improve her station. She has voiced many times how happy she is currently... I couldn't stand to be the one to have to take her away from everything she has attained so far."

He was silent a long moment, considering her words with a serious expression on his handsome face. All the while yet more food was being plastered to a thick piece of bread. Her larder, Izzy ruminated, had never been so well-stocked.

When they had both convened downstairs, it was to a flurry of activity at her front door. A scuffle, a faint chirrup, excited tinkling, all indicative of the curious nature of the fae beings that had surrounded the premises at the flare of the mark's magic. Curious, respectful, they had flocked to witness the new branded couple who had been honoured by a foreign god, leaving gifts and trinkets that Izzy had collected with a profound gratitude.

Most were confections- freshly made tarts, punnets of vegetables and muslin bags of fruit, chestnuts, and pastries- and others were swatches of glistening fabrics, necklaces of seashells and other trinkets fashioned from the natural world with a dexterity and finesse that astounded her.