WINTER BREAK - December 10th
So, Aries and I meet up for drinks now. Not every night, but almost every night. I know what Aisling would think, but these aren't dates. It's two friends at the tavern. We trade off who's buying.
The Midnight Court is a lonely place over the break. It makes sense Aries would try to get out for a few hours every day. And meeting me for a beer means he's got a reason to shave.
Last night we'd gotten on the topic of that fairytale—Aries's favorite— "Orendell and Luna." I'd read it a few times, most notably because it was particularly hard to tell what was literal and what was just fairytale nonsense. Orendell was real, obviously. So then, what about Luna? Luna is the moon, but in the story she takes mortal form for the one night she disappears from the night sky, the night of the new moon.
In the story, she heard Orendell's howls of pain as he turned himself from man to beast and that was how they'd met. They became lovers because that's how all these stories go. Luna could only meet him on the new moon but watched him from her place in the night sky the rest of the month. Turns out she was the jealous type. She watched him take other lovers, first hating the women he bedded, then as weeks passed forgiving them, and hating him instead. She'd been one of those girls first, hadn't she?
By the next new moon, when she returned to meet Orendell, long story short: she cursed him. A goddess's curse on a mortal mage. He'd never take another lover for the rest of his days.
He shifted into a wolf and groveled at her feet. Luna was angry but not heartless. She looked at the pathetic wolf and remembered why she'd loved him. So, she amended her curse— he would fall in love once and only once and in return for this gift, he would become a wolf and howl her praise under every full moon.
The rest of the fairytale is pretty standard romance. Orendell falls in love again. She dies suddenly and he marches into the depths of hell to find her. It's cheesy, but I already knew Aries was a sap for this kind of thing.
But I had real questions, the kinds the books on werewolves in the library failed to answer. The fact that Aries was the only person I knew who could help answer them was unfortunate. "Is it true that werewolves only fall in love once?"
We'd been talking about that fairytale, but the implications of it seemed to thicken the air around us.
"You mean, do they only have one mate?" Aries clarified. And there was that word again. The one I'd been avoiding - mate. It implied something as serious as spouse but was bandied around with the casualness of a fling. Or at least that was my impression reading the werewolf "memoir."
Aries shrugged. "Yeah? But it's not like in the fairytale. Werewolves still date and choose who they want to be with. They like being coupled up. It doesn't mean that they stay with their mate forever. Things happen. They find new mates."
"You mean if one of them dies?" I asked. I had to. He was downplaying how serious every other resource had said this was.
Aries made a face. "Werewolf couples do break up sometimes. But I guess it's pretty different from whatever it is you're used to up north."
Because that's another thing we didn't talk about. Whenever he brought up Nizari, he found new little ways to reference the fact that Ianthe and I weren't monogamous. It bothered him but he wasn't about to come out and say it. I don't like the idea of you fucking other people. It was an especially petty thing because now I was a werewolf and I wasn't currently fucking anyone. Even him.
WINTER BREAK - December 12th
It's a few days before Fire's Night, a winter solstice festival most of Mesym celebrates, and Kelyn's got it in her head that because I didn't grow up celebrating it, I've got twenty-five years worth of holiday to make up for. This morning, she had me help her hang garland from the roof eaves on the first floor of the cottage. I held the step ladder while she tacked up greens with bright orange ribbon. After, she walked me through a mild enchantment to set ever-burning candles in the front windows. The cottage from the curbside view I decided looked festive, if a bit spooky. Lots of candlelight.
Kelyn had me reserve the afternoon for baking— nevermind that I had no experience, she promised to teach me anyway. "It'll be fun," she said. "Even Elandria usually comes to sit in the kitchen for Fire's Night baking. We can make an extra batch for you to take to Aries."
Right… That was another thing I'd yet to explain to Kelyn. I'm pretty sure she still assumed Aries and I were together. There was a time that I could have corrected her, but that window had closed long ago, and now it was too awkward. Aries would love the cookies. I was going to have to just let it go.
Kelyn had already planned out the oven timers so most of the baking would be finished before I had to leave to meet Aries in town. It wasn't as though I hid the fact that we'd been meeting up. The Marblebrooks and I just didn't really talk about it. Kelyn was much more preoccupied with our baking list: cinnamon swirl shortbread, apricot linzer tarts, gingerbread men, peppermint snowballs, and chocolate chip meringue.
I mostly hovered around the kitchen and did whatever Kelyn told me to do, stirring batter, pulling cookie sheets in and out of the oven, and piping little icing smiles on gingerbread men. Elandria joined us in the kitchen, not to help, but to laugh at me.
"Those cookies look happier than you do," she said over my shoulder.
Kelyn lobbed a marshmallow at her. "Zephyr takes his job very seriously. Unlike you who just eats my chocolate chips!"
"I'm here for seeds actually," Elandria said. "I think Boaz lost another few tail feathers to Seraphina's cat and I need something to lure him in so I can take a look." She grabbed a jar from the upper cabinet and shook it over her head.
"Elle, don't bring him here!"
"He can hardly fly, I doubt you'll have to worry -" Elandria was interrupted by the flapping of wings. A plump, gray pigeon landed on the kitchen counter an arm's length from where I was decorating cookies.
"Hello, Bo-bo," Elandria cooed at the bird. It was the same bird that had flown into her office while I was dancing with Noodle a few days before the Masquerade.
"He's not sanitary, Elle," Kelyn snapped.
"Nonsense. He's a familiar!"
"That doesn't make him less of a pigeon! Out! Out!" Kelyn shooed them both. The funny little bird fluttered into Elandria's jacket and let her hold him as she stormed out, rolling her eyes.
Kelyn shook her head, as though remembering again that I was still there. Had been there this whole time. "She loves that stupid bird, but he'll shit everywhere if you're not careful. We lost a whole pie that way while her mother was visiting."
I saw the opportunity, so I had to take it. "What is a familiar exactly?"
Kelyn cocked her head at me. "I forget sometimes that some of you really didn't grow up around magic… It's uh, a complicated question. They are animals generally, yes, but they're also an extension of a mage. A mage offers up a piece of their soul and a kindred spirit accepts, or at least that's one theory. Another school of thought suggests familiars just are that piece of soul made flesh. Though I have a hard time believing Elandria's soul would be pigeon-shaped. That stupid bird… Though she does love it."
I didn't want to ask then, but I was still thinking of the summoning ritual Aisling and I had performed - deathless familiar. She'd been so convinced it'd worked. I could believe that we'd carved out a piece of our souls to offer out, though maybe nothing reached back.
I was still piping little icing faces onto gingerbread men, some expressions more squiggles than smiles at this point, when Kelyn set an orange and yellow tin on the counter next to me. A box for Aries. "Pick out some with your better handiwork," Kelyn said. "Don't be late to see him on account of me."
If I took some of the prettier gingerbread men, it was only because I had also been in charge of making the peppermint snowballs and they'd turned out a little lumpier than expected. Kelyn assured me Elandria would eat them anyway, and if there was one cookie to screw up, she wasn't heartbroken over it.
"And Zephyr, remember to tell him, we're hosting dinner for Fire's Night. Tavern's going to be closed along with most of town, so no use fighting it," Kelyn said. "I know we're professors and all, but you know well enough, we don't bite. Elandria and I will expect him around four."
If there was ever a time to mention Aries and I were not actually a couple, it probably would have been then. But I was standing in the kitchen with flour on my shirt, a tin of cookies in hand, rushing off to meet him. And Kelyn was right, most of town would be closed for Fire's Night. I already knew Aries didn't have plans.
I silently made a pact with myself that I'd tell Elandria that Aries and I were just friends sometime between now and dinner next week, have her relay that to Kelyn, and spare me the awkwardness of admitting it now.
I don't know what I said. Probably something affirmative and quick. I know Kelyn grinned. "Dinner at four and gift exchange at six!"
Gifts?
Kelyn's eyes lit up. "Of course, we do gifts, Zephyr. Nothing big, mostly homemade, but it's one of the best parts of Fire's Night. Don't think I was going to let you miss out."
It was really very sweet, and I'm glad she took my surprise the way she had. Really I was much more caught on the gift exchange piece. I was going to have to buy gifts. Or make gifts… no, we'd seen enough of my handiwork with the cookies today. I'd be buying gifts for sure. And with that she shuffled me off to go see Aries.
I was a few minutes late getting into the Old Wives' Pub. Aries was already at our usual table, two pint glasses in front of him, and looking bored. His eyes lit up when he saw me though.
"I know I'm late, sorry," I said. "Kelyn's been keeping me busy with Fire's Night stuff. Today was cookie baking. I brought you some."
I slid the tin across the table to him. Aries popped the lid. We were both hit with the overwhelming scent of sugar and cinnamon. "You made these?" Aries lifted one of the gingerbread men. In Kelyn's kitchen, among the others I'd thought it had looked pretty good, but now in the tavern, I could only see just how shaky my piping had been. It looked like a child had decorated it.
"Kelyn did most of the baking," I said. "But I did decorate that one…"
Aries laughed. "I have a hard time picturing you baking." He bit the head off the gingerbread man.
"It was a first. And maybe a last. Kelyn had me make the snowballs and she says they're fine, but uh… they're edible, at least."
Aries popped one of the snowballs into his mouth next. He chewed slowly - they'd come out denser than expected. I couldn't help it if I was watching his expression closely. I didn't want him to try to spare my feelings, but Aries was still beaming.
"They're cookies, Zeph. I love them."
I changed the topic next, let us fall back into our normal routine. Aries told me what he'd been reading up on today— sigils again- and had me check his casting gesture for a combat spell from last term he was still stuck on. A few times as we talked, he reached for another cookie. If most of them were snowballs, don't think I didn't notice.