Chapter Text
After the kids had all scattered from game practice, he bounded up to her and looked over her shoulder. She was drawing not in her mission journal but on a pair of separate pieces of paper. As soon as he came close, she slipped them back into a folio before he could look.
“Aw, I thought you were drawing the game,” he said. “What's that stuff?”
“Homework.”
His brow furrowed. “You’re in school again? Why would you do that to yourself?”
Taako slid an arm around Magnus’s midsection.
“‘Cause she’s a nerd. What’cha studying, Lucy-lu?”
“I’m sitting in on Abbess Oriana’s lecture series on the nature of leadership. Cap’n’port thought it might be helpful? And, uh….” She looks down at the folio with a shy smile. “They have an architecture class that doesn’t have an engineering prereq?”
“Architecture?” Taako arched an eyebrow. “Doesn't that require math ?”
“You're gonna build stuff?” asked Magnus. “Like, on the deck?”
“First,” she said, counting on her fingers, “it's less math than you'd think, at least for design, and second, maybe someday we'll be able to stop running.” She wrinkled her nose in a sweetly shy expression. “Maybe I could design a house for all of us. And you could…. Learn carpentry, I guess?”
Magnus laughed and Taako snorted.
“More like I burn a bunch of spell slots Levitating stuff into place,” he said.
“I mean, it could happen,” said Magnus. Then his eyes twinkled and something sly came into his smile. He leaned over to Taako and whispered something into the elf’s ear. Abruptly, Taako vanished, reappeared about an inch away from Lucretia, grabbed the folio out of her hands, then vanished again.
“Taako! That's not fair, I'm not done! You can't look yet.”
“Mags totally can though.” He reappeared next to Magnus and pushed the folio into his hands. Magnus flipped through the sketches.
“Wow, Luce, these are good. They look like real buildings.” But then he snickered as he pulled out one sheet and held it up. “This one looks like boobs, though.”
“They’re domes,” she said. “How old are you, Magnus?”
He shrugged, still grinning. “Fifty, I guess. Still look like boobs to me.”
Taako grabbed the floorplan sketch out of his hand.
“Uh yeah, am I gonna have to tell my sister that you’re pining over her again? Because that’s a lot of boobs.”
She fixed them both with a fierce stare, then stood and strode over, snatching back both the sketch and the whole floor plan. She’d been watching how the Abbess moved and talked: no one would ever treat her like a little kid.
“They’re domes, not boobs ,” she said, a bit peevishly. “Did you know that domes are the most efficient structural form known? They use less materials to build a larger stronger building and take less energy to heat. Plus they hold up better under large storms, like hurricanes, and earthquakes too.” She waved her plans at them for emphasis. “They allow better airflow and ventilation. Plus they have great acoustics….” She trailed off, looking a little sheepish, then shrugged. “I just like ‘em.”
Taako laughed again.
“Alright, nerd. Domes. Sweet. When we get somewhere we actually get to stay, you build us a big ol’ dome. ‘Til then, I’m off to get some tasty grub. Coming with, Mags?”
He looked at her and gave her a shy smile.
“Sorry I gave you a hard time about your project. It looks pretty cool.”
“When you get back, can we go out? I want to show you something?”
He nodded, kissed her forehead, then ran after Taako.
When he came into her apartment, it was piled with architectural sketches and small models of all kinds, including a sculpted cluster of white domes on a green felt surface. He picked up the drawings, not knowing quite how to interpret all of them; he touched the models, laughed nervously when a balcony fell off of one. She slapped his hand, but not unkindly. Then she led him from her apartment up onto the roof of the building.
It was a bright night, the stars dimmed by the brilliance of a pair of full moons.
“Here, this is what I wanted you to see,” she said, taking out a pair of binoculars. “You can just see the monastery from here.”
He put them to his eyes and looked where she was pointing: the monastery where Merle was sequestered, training, hopefully proving himself so they could recover the Light.
“I went out there a few weeks ago for a visit, and it was inspiring.”
Out beyond the city, he could see the ancient stone buildings of the monastery, the grey domes catching the light, reflecting it into the night. They almost seemed to shine in the distance.
“That’s what I’ve been trying to capture,” she said.
“It’s beautiful,” he replied. “I think you’ll get it, eventually, with all those drawings?” He squeezed her shoulder and she smiled. “Still kinda looks like boobs.”
“A little bit,” she replied. “Don’t ever tell anyone I said that, though.”