why me?

[small_magics]

Isibel spends her last day on the island flying, and then she rejoins her expedition, and packs, and sleeps, and in the dawnlight she gets back on the boat to sail back to the Elven Lands.

She is kept quite occupied with small magics to keep the ship operating smoothly, and also with notebooking - writing quite small, as she brought more than enough notebooks for three weeks but then unexpectedly used many of them to draw and write with the demon and has only half of one left for several days at sea.

They land on the shore of the Elven Lands on schedule, and disembark.

Comments

[endragoned]

"But he did not say what?"

[small_magics]

"No. Well, I'm sure he would have. The Wild Magic didn't tell him."

[endragoned]

"A mystery," the demon sighs. "Well, let's find out, then."

[small_magics]

"I don't know a spell to find whoever it is. My teacher thinks that if I could have delayed a season or two to Bond at all I can wait the extra moonturns to become proficient at Elfmagery and that this will give me a better chance of doing what I must when I do find the enemy."

[endragoned]

"I think you need a better teacher," says the demon.

[small_magics]

"I could look for another, but this one is willing to devote her time to me, and she is good at explaining the things she chooses to explain, and she might take offense and refuse to teach me more if I failed to find a better one."

[endragoned]

"Then... I don't know," he sighs. "I'm sorry."

[small_magics]

Isibel shifts from foot to foot. It's getting dark.

"I could sleep in my guesthouse," she says, "or - here."

[endragoned]

"I would like it, if you slept here," he says.

[small_magics]

"Then I will."

She leans on him and closes her eyes and tries to focus on the comforting love and not on the spying. She's not even thinking anything in particular that she cares about having read, right now, but she doesn't know how to make it less - not concentrating on that not concentrating on that, just on the warmth the love the sleepiness -

She sleeps, eventually.

[endragoned]

The demon curls up and holds her. All night. He spends the time practicing, to see how long he can go thinking about his love for her and nothing else.

[small_magics]

Might she find him mid practice when she wakes in the morning?

[endragoned]

She does, in fact!

[small_magics]

That is nice. Snuggle-snuggle-sigh.

[endragoned]

Oh, snuggles! He can snuggle without thinking. Just loving her, and touching her, and breathing the scent of her hair, and draping his wing over her like a leathery blanket. Just that.

[small_magics]

Nicenicenicenice. If it were like this all the time - well, she still wouldn't have wanted to Bond, she wanted to accomplish things with her life - but if it were like this all the time it wouldn't have frightened her so much.

[endragoned]

He notices 'nicenicenice', but he doesn't quite notice it all the way - he doesn't break out of focus, just wraps his arms around her and loves her some more, content in half-conscious sensual enjoyment of the fact that someone he loves is happy.

[small_magics]

Mmmmm.

[endragoned]

Snuggle snuggle snuggle love.

[small_magics]

She wonders how long he can do this, now.

[endragoned]

He is not doing it perfectly - he has thoughts, slow lazy things that dawdle across his mind, formless and wordless - but he manages it for a good while longer.

[small_magics]

When he's lost his hold, Isibel sighs. "I'll go to my teacher," she says. "And concentrate on magic."

[endragoned]

"I love you," he says, cuddling her a little more. "I'm sorry."

[small_magics]

"I love you too. I'm sorry too."

Hugs, and she withdraws and goes back to her instruction. She hyperfocuses through every explanation she gets and every spell she tries.