RINASCITA | #ONC2020

7- Greenwood Conversations

After a pleasant dinner, Ailbhe insists on taking me on a walk around the backyard. Their backyard garden is literally a mini forest, which makes me wonder if some spatial spells are being used. There's no way a forest would go unnoticed in the capital! Still, it's beautiful- tall trees illuminated by the moonlight, cute little mushrooms scattered across the forest floor, a sprinkling of lavender here and there... 

Every once in a while, as we walk through the surprisingly bright scenery, there's a shimmer that I catch in the corner of my eye. The air wavers like the ocean waves, almost like a blurry painting. Then it fades back into focus. Yup, definitely a spell! Explains the lavender, as well. Lavender is extremely grounding and important when casting spells of this magnitude. It keeps the spell rooted in place. 

Still, even with the help of the lavender, a spell like this takes a lot of effort and time to cast! I'm impressed! Had to be a witch with an affinity for earth and there aren't many of them left. It takes a lot of patience to work with earth since it's much more stubborn than the other elements. 

It takes me a while to realize that, while I've been admiring the spellwork in this forest, Ailbhe has been trying to get my attention, sounding increasingly amused as time goes by. Finally, he laughs and takes my hand. 

"Come on, I'll show you where the core of the spell is!" he says, pulling me along. 

"I'm sorry, I was just-" I start. I can already feel my face flushing. 

"Admiring the spell, I know," he finishes with a laugh. " It's okay, I get it!"

Soon enough, we get to the core. It's a raised stone altar, surrounded by lavender bushes. There's a faint iridescent glow to it and it illuminates the area around it in a beautiful way. I step closer to inspect the sigil engraved on the altar and recognize it.

"Oh, Dahlia did this?" I say, tugging on his hand to get his attention. For some reason, we're still holding hands.

"Yeah, how did you know? She's an old family friend!" he answers. His hand is warm and so is his smile. 

"I recognize her sigil, I'm a big fan! There's not a lot of earth witches left and she's absolutely the best!" I ramble, aware of his eyes on my face. "Her work is spectacular! And what she did here is impressive! I'm sure you don't understand, but bending space like this is extremely difficult!"

"Well, you'll be glad to know she was paid accordingly," he responds. He's still smiling down at me and it's starting to make me embarrassed. "Why did the Council send you, little witch?"

That sobers me up.

"I... I don't know," I respond, and I really don't. The Council could have sent anyone on this mission and they chose me. "I'm in charge of odd jobs, which usually entails gathering information and reporting back to them. Sometimes it means cleaning up a mess. But never a fucking diplomatic mission. I don't know what they're thinking."

It's the most I've ever shared with someone since I've started working for the Council. I don't have any friends and the only person that has ever cared about me is under lock and key. It feels good, like it lifted a curtain that I didn't know was covering my heart. 

He hums and pulls me to a nearby tree, where he sits down. I settle down next to him and we sit for a while in silence. After some time passes, he speaks up again:

"Why do you stay there then? It doesn't sound like you're very happy there."

"They uh... They have something really important to me." I say, my heart clenching at the memory.

"So they're blackmailing you?" he adds, and his voice is dark. 

"Kind of..." I trail off.

There's a tense silence after that, in which Ailbhe tightens his hold on my hand until it's nearly painful. But it never is. Eventually, his hold loosens and the tension starts draining from the air, like it's being pushed into a box and put away.

"Tell me about yourself, little witch," he says.

"What do you want me to tell you?" I ask?

"Anything," he answers. I can almost swear I hear 'Everything' but when I look at him, he's looking towards the altar with a pensive look. 

"Um..." I try to think of anything, anything at all. "I really like candles! And people think I buy candles for spells, but only witches with fire affinities need candles to cast them. Earth witches need sigils and water witches need moon water. Witches with an affinity for air only really need to carry an amulet," I say, showing him my amulet. 

It's really just a stone imbued with magic. Mine is tourmaline because I was born in October. It's a beautiful stone and it's welded with iron. 

"What can you do? Air seems like such an ambiguous element," he asks.

"It is. There's not much we can do with air. It's why most air witches have a secondary power." I explain.

"What's yours?" he asks.

"Um, it's better if I don't tell you," I respond. 

He looks at me for a while before he says:

"Okay. It's about time we get back either way."

We both get up to walk back, hands no longer linked. The walk back is silent but it doesn't seem like he's mad at me. When we get to the house, he holds the door open for me and walks me to my room. Before I go in, he says with a warm smile:

"Good night! Sorry about all of the precautions but it's for everyone's sake. I'll come pick you up in the morning!" 

"It's okay, I understand," I respond. "Good night, see you tomorrow."

The door closes behind me with a click and I lean against it for a moment. That was the most I've ever talked to anyone in a while and it threw me for a loop. He was incredibly nice but I can't forget he's a vampire. They're known for being very charming. 

Replaying the night in my head, I stumble over to the bed, where a fresh pair of pajamas await me. I change into them and sneak into the double-size bed, taking a moment to appreciate the elegant decoration. This really does look like a hotel room. 

I fall asleep thinking about Ailbhe's smile.

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I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Let me know what you think of it!