cheated

[mute_pen]

The castle is livable indefinitely. Etty flies over the space around it, but she's not as fast as the Baron was in his owl form, and she can't fly for very long if she's hungry and can pack nothing if she travels as a swan; she doesn't range farther than she can travel in a half-day, and she doesn't find Astgabels or anyone who knows where it is. (Not many people are willing to talk to a girl in a feather dress from out of nowhere, but a few are.) She flies home to Nona after each failed journey. They feast on what appears on the dining table. They snuggle. They pick through the library. Etty writes her thoughts. They sleep, curled up together in Nona's bed.

One morning they wake up together and are lying there in comfortable silence when Etty scoots up and kisses Nona.

Comments

[pythbox]

So you don't secretly wanna date me? he says whimsically.

[subtly_artistic]

Is dating even a thing nymphs do?

[pythbox]

Ask me if I care, he giggles.

[subtly_artistic]

Fine, is dating even a thing you do?

[pythbox]

Not yet, he shrugs. I was joking, anyway.

[subtly_artistic]

Thought so.

[pythbox]

He giggles again.

[subtly_artistic]

Bella waits, while Etty writes.

[mute_pen]

Etty pauses to ask Nona a question.

"If there are ever more people around - all the time, not just here - how much do you need to do this...?"

[growcrooked]

"I don't know," she says. "Do you mean how much of it do I need to do? I definitely don't know that. Or how strongly do I feel about doing it? I'm not sure I know that either. I know how I feel about never ever doing it again, though, and it's really really bad."

[mute_pen]

"I meant the first thing."

Write, write.

[growcrooked]

Nona curls up and has some more sads.

[mute_pen]

"I'm sorry," murmurs Etty. "I just - I don't want anybody but you, and I don't - understand."

[growcrooked]

"I don't understand either," says Nona. "I don't understand why it's such a thing the way it is."

[subtly_artistic]

Bella will Not Be A Sex Therapist some other day, apparently. "She doesn't want anybody but you. For a monogamous person that's connected with - depth of feeling, commitment. If Etty heard a reliable prophecy about the future that said she slept with somebody who wasn't you, she'd assume this meant that in the prophesied future, you'd broken up or that she didn't like you much anymore or something was unsatisfactory about the relationship - correct me if I'm wrong, Etty."

[mute_pen]

"You're not wrong."

[growcrooked]

"Oh," says Nona. "That's not - no. At all. No. How much I love you doesn't have anything to do with how I feel about anybody else."

[mute_pen]

"I don't understand how that works."

[growcrooked]

"I don't understand how not that works," says Nona.

[subtly_artistic]

Can you be of any help here? Bella asks Celo.

[pythbox]

You're the telepath, he points out. Ask Nona if you can read her, then explain her to Etty and then maybe explain Etty back to her because you seem to have Etty pretty well figured out. I'm a nymph; what I know about monogamy amounts to 'don't fuck it'.

[subtly_artistic]

"Celo suggests that I could read Nona and then try to explain you to each other," says Bella.

[growcrooked]

"Sure," says Nona.

[subtly_artistic]

"Is there anything I should not look at?"

[growcrooked]

She shrugs. "There's some stuff you might not like, but I don't think there's anything I'd be upset about you knowing."