Chapter 18: Chapter 18: Class is starting. There’s a lot to do, but there’s not enough time. The frogs are com-

Crickets chirp outside as Hineni lays in bed, laying on his side and facing away towards the wall. Obscura lays behind him, also on her side, but she faces the other way and the two of them sleep back to back. Honestly, with him having never had a grip on social situations of any kind at least, he has no idea what’s ‘normal’ in this situation and what isn’t.

 

The boundaries between the actions appropriate for people to take in their circumstances are vague and undefined as far as he can understand the situation. They’ve been intimate with each other several times now, but walking and holding hands is still a bit too much for Obscura. Hineni meanwhile often finds himself awkwardly standing there, not sure what to do with his hands when they hug. It’s an odd gesture that he doesn’t really know how to respond to, except to lift his arms and then feel like he’s either squeezing her too hard or not hard enough. There’s always something still missing from the formula, somewhere.

 

Hineni lets out a quiet breath. It’s the middle of the night. Why is he worrying about weird, random, dumb stuff like this again? Isn’t he over all of this already? The man rolls around, taking the initiative and simply wrapping his arm over her, before pulling the blanket up higher, pressing his face against the back of her head. He wonders, if this is what ‘normal’ people always live like?

 

Imagine what life must be like, if you grow up in an environment where this kind of touch, this kind of warmth is a constant given. It’s just there. It’s expected as much as the sun rising in the morning. It must be a strange way to grow up, right?

 

Then again, he can’t say that he wouldn’t choose it either. He doesn’t remember much honestly from the period of his life, between the incident and his return back home. It’s all kind of a jumble. It feels like he was in a half-dazed state for the entire time, just wandering through life like a dead-eyed zombie.

 

Obscura stirs, rolling her head around to look back at him from the corner of her eye. She turns her head back forward, before scooting back tighter against him and tugging on his slung-over arm, wedging it between herself and the sheets so that he can’t escape.

 

Hineni closes his eyes and accepts his fate as he falls back to sleep.

 

It’s not so bad, really.

 

---

 

“This kind of water damage?” asks the man, looking around the house. He presses a foot down onto one of the floorboards. The old wood lets out a loud creak in protest. After the last flood, they had tried to dry it all out as best as they could together with the help of Obscura’s wind magic. But it might have just been too much. He might have been a little optimistic about his earlier assessment of the kitchen. The man clicks with the back of his tongue, making a sucking noise. “I’ll say eighteen-hundred. For this room.”

 

Hineni takes in a sharp breath, allowing the pain to settle for a moment. “And the kitchen?”

 

“’Bout ‘nother twelve on top,” says the man. “But you gotta move the cabinets yourself. Otherwise it’s another five.”

 

“Three-thousand?” asks Hineni, rubbing his forehead with the back of his thumb as he thinks. That’s a lot of money. It’s a fortune, in fact. He looks around the house. A month ago, he would have been willing to just let things be as they are. So what if there’s a little water damage? As far as he would have been concerned, the house could rot together with himself. But that man is dead now and the house needs him to step up, just like Obscura had needed him to step up. A man takes care of his home after all, right?

 

He nods. They have just barely enough saved to get started with these kinds of payments. “Do you know anyone who does glass?” asks Hineni, nodding to the broken window that is still covered haphazardly by the flipped-over table.

 

“My cousin does glass. Should I bring him by next time?”

 

“Please do,” agrees Hineni.

 

The man nods and the two of them part ways, leaving Hineni standing there with his back against the door, his arms crossed and his head lowered as he thinks, staring at the creaky floor through the gap between his scarf and his wizard’s hat.

 

Three-thousand. That’s just about what he’s made so far from everything he’s sold and delivered, give or take. But that’s before the food he bought. With another order, he’ll have the money for the floor. But the window…

 

Well, glass is expensive.

 

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The man rubs the back of his head, letting out a long exhalation as he walks away from it, deciding to get to work early today. He has money to make. He has to provide.

 

“Sorry,” says Rhine, looking up from the table he had been awkwardly sitting at while the carpenter was here. The boy looks down at the table, not able to look Hineni in the eyes. He’s awfully prideful, but now with a tangible threat like a large bill hanging above his head, he seems to be a little more flattened.

 

Hineni stares at the surfaces of the tables all around him that were once covered by ash and then by so much more dust on top of that. He shakes his head, patting Rhine on the shoulder as he passes him on the way to the forge. “Accidents happen. Come on, we need to work or we won’t have dinner tonight.”

 

“Huh? We’re eating again today?” asks Rhine, sounding somewhat surprised.

 

“Ideally, we eat every day,” replies Hineni, looking over his shoulder at the blue-haired gestalt. “But I guess you’re from the tower-quarter. You’re probably used to better food.” He shakes his head. It seems like an odd problem. But perhaps this is just one of those weird social issues that he isn’t familiar with. Best tread lightly, to not be a jerk. The tower-quarter is a very expensive, decadent place to live. Anyone coming from there likely wouldn’t be happy with the garish things that they eat down here in this part of the city. He supposes the boy’s parents probably don’t want him eating away from home either. “Don’t worry. You don’t have to eat anything if you don’t want to.”

 

“Huh? No! I do!” says Rhine eagerly.

 

Hineni nods once and then turns his head back forward to go to the forge. He doesn’t understand kids either, apparently.

 

---

 

“So you make weapons?” asks Rhine.

 

“I’m a weaponsmith,” explains Hineni, setting down a bar of iron and a bar of copper onto the anvil. “Apparently.”

 

The boy looks at him, a bit confused. “Apparently?”

 

Hineni stares around the room. It’s still early in the day and Obscura is missing, off doing whatever it is owl-gods do during their time away. “It’s what the owl-god wants.”

 

Rhine tilts his head, looking around the empty forge. By the look in his eyes, Hineni can see the familiar tinge of fear. The boy is scared of her. Though, to be fair, he has good reason. She hasn’t exactly been kind to him.

 

“Don’t worry about it,” says Hineni. “She’s not as scary as she seems,” he says, looking at the fearful worry in Rhine’s eyes. It reminds him of the expression the man had had, in the monastery. The one who had attacked him.

 

He isn’t sure if what he just said was a lie or not.

 

---

 

Rhine isn’t really suited to working in the forge. He’s small and his arms are very much weak and untrained. He doesn’t really have an eye for detail and he seems to be really impatient, always walking around Hineni as he works, offering ideas on how to do this and that. It’s not that Hineni doesn’t appreciate the input and the boy’s clear interest in the work. It’s just that the suggestions aren’t really good ones. But that’s fine. Honestly, he still isn’t really sure what it is exactly that Rhine is supposed to be doing here.

 

“So how come you’re mixing those?” asks Rhine, pointing at the bars of metal that Hineni has his hands hovering over. Traditionally, these two ingots, iron and copper, would be merged together in an extremely hot furnace, to come together as a singular alloy. But he’s just taking the easy way. Time is money.

 

Singularly, they both have their uses. Iron is great for cheap weapons and tools and copper is well suited for house-hold items and for magical crafting. It holds magical residue well inside of itself, compared to iron. He doesn’t really know why, that’s more of a magical-science question, which is outside of his domain. Maybe the library has something on it?

 

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