forgotten

[mute_pen]

It's past dark, but when you need the outhouse, you need the outhouse.

Isabel picks her way across the yard of her father's house in the moonlight, hoping to sneak back into bed without waking him.

Comments

[mute_pen]

"I know," says Etty ruefully, and she hugs back.

[growcrooked]

Hugs. Snuggly blankety hugs.

[mute_pen]

"I am so afraid of losing my mind," Etty murmurs. "Of writing so carefully so I don't forget and one day looking at the scroll and not remembering what it's for, or not being able to read it."

[growcrooked]

"I know," she says. "It'll be years, at least. Years and years."

[mute_pen]

"Depends on what goes first. I don't know why he cares if Odettes have minds left, but it's probably not for our literacy or our introspection."

[growcrooked]

"I don't think what the Baron wants matters that much to how the spell works, or there wouldn't be a way to break it like there is."

[mute_pen]

"Did he just - find the entire curse in a book, or is part of how you build spells a matter of obeying restrictions like allowing a way to break them?"

[growcrooked]

I'm supposed to know?" she snorts. "I just know he wouldn't have made it like that if he'd had a choice."

[mute_pen]

"No," agrees Etty, sighing, "I suppose he wouldn't. How do you light candles and freeze raindrops?"

[growcrooked]

"With magic," she says, leaning her head on Etty's shoulder. "I don't know how to teach it; I've never tried before."

[mute_pen]

"But - what do you do, are there steps or is it just like lifting your arm?" Tentatively, thoughtfully, Etty lifts her hand to rest it on the other girl's hair.

[growcrooked]

She snuggles up a little, smiling.

"I just look at the candle," she yawns, "and make it burn. It takes a little time, but it's more fun than the other way."

[mute_pen]

"Hm."

[growcrooked]

"Hm?"

[mute_pen]

"...It's not almost dawn, is it? I feel - odd."

[growcrooked]

"I don't think so. The sky's still dark."

[mute_pen]

"That's what I thought. There's this odd warm feeling. But if I'm not about to turn into a swan I don't know what it could be."

[growcrooked]

"I have warm feelings too," she offers.

[mute_pen]

Etty blinks. "Do you think it's the same thing?"

[growcrooked]

"...Mm?"

[mute_pen]

"My odd warm feeling and your odd warm feeling. Do you think they're related or were you just saying?"

[growcrooked]

"Mine's not odd at all. It's nice, I like it."

[mute_pen]

"Mine's - nice, I guess, it's just confusing, it's like someone's laid their arm against my spine and has their hand on the back of my neck. And I don't know why that should be because that's not where your arm actually is."

[growcrooked]

"Oh. Mine's not like that," says the baron's daughter.

[mute_pen]

"What is it, then?"