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Sparks specialized in tea, but the Citadel being what it was, they also had a small selection of coffees and a slow, old espresso machine that mostly kept running on luck and Mending cantrips.
Ame preferred the teas. In a perfect world, she would be able to pick out the teas for the person, perhaps after listening to their troubles, and something about the teas would alleviate their issues. Maybe not completely, but maybe they’d breathe a little easier. And maybe she could give a little bit of advice - she thought she would be good at giving advice - and people would leave the shop a little more at peace than when they entered.
Instead, people typically looked blankly at the list of teas and then asked which had the most caffeine in it, or what went best with a Lesser Restoration. Wizards.
This was all to say that the young woman bursting into the shop loudly demanding a triple red eye with a shot of hazelnut and a sound dampener wasn’t unexpected. But the way that she froze at the sight of Ame was a little different.
Maybe Ame was trying to sneakily finish a croissant behind the pillar and was dealing with the inevitable crumb damage, but she didn’t look like that much of a disaster.
She quickly shook off her apron and her skirts, wiped her mouth with her thumb, and took her place at the register.
The woman was still staring at her, her mouth slightly agape, the small incense burners hanging from her vibrant blue hair swaying slightly. Which was weird. She didn’t look like the kind of person who was easily flummoxed. She looked like a lot of the Citadel wizards did - like they were so used to magic and comfort and their word being law that they’d just demand that anything not to their liking be made just so, and it would be done.
“You’ve got a little bit of chocolate,” the woman said, gesturing to the edge of her mouth.
“Oh, sorry!” Ame rubbed a little harder at the side of her mouth, and then switched to the other side when the woman still was giving her the same look. “Welcome to Sparks. I think I heard your order from before but could you repeat it for me, just in case?”
“You don’t know who I am?” The woman sounded incredulous and a little hurt.
Ame looked at her again. She did look - not familiar, but like she should be familiar, like she was an important anniversary Ame had forgotten. She didn’t think the woman was a regular, and there were so many Citadel wizards doing their best to stand out that they all ended up blending together.
“I’m sorry, I’m new here, and not good with names.” Ame did her best to sound apologetic.
“Okay. What— Where— How-- Is— curses,” she said, which was a kind of old wizardy thing to say instead of just cursing. Maybe she was actually someone important, or secretly 174 years old or something. Then the woman sighed again, and said through gritted teeth, “I’m sorry. I’m being rude to you. My name is Suvi. I’ll - I’ll take a tea. You choose it. And, uh, whatever pastry you were eating earlier.”
“Really? I mean, you don’t have to feel weird about being rude - you shouldn’t be rude, but you can get your triple shot of espresso with whatever if you want.” Truthfully, Suvi seemed kind of high strung as it was and probably didn’t need any more caffeine, but Ame still felt like she should offer.
“No, really, it’s fine.” Suvi gave her a quick forced smile and something that sounded like it was halfway between a sigh and a laugh. “Please.”
And it was so close to what Ame had always wanted to do that she didn’t protest anymore. She thought of what someone like Suvi might like - something rich and spiced. A tumeric latte with cardamom and ginger, maybe. She was going to add the typical blue glitter - with added sounds of soft rain in the ears of anyone who would take a sip - to the drink, but something about Suvi changed her mind, and she decided to go with the red.
Of course, the red powder (that instead added the pops and crackles of a campfire) was rarely used, and stored on the top shelves on the side wall of the long U-shaped counter space that surrounded the tea shop’s work area. Ame eyed up the counter, made sure the surface was completely dry, and hoisted herself up as gracefully as she could manage.
“Oh, that has to be a health code violation,” Suvi said from below. Ame did her best not to turn around and look. It’d be just her luck that she’d fall.
“It’s fine! I clean the counter afterwards. And have to clean the bathroom every hour, so there better not be any complaints on that front.”
“Really?”
Ame crouched, jumped down while keeping a firm hold of the counter, and shrugged. “The owner wants to be known for having clean bathrooms.”
“Weird.”
Vague fear of reports to the shop owner kept Ame from agreeing, so she just went back to brewing the tea and heating up the pastry.
Suvi had commandeered a spot in one of the small two-person booths that lined the walls of the shop; still watching Ame, but with an angle that allowed Suvi to also keep an eye on the door from the mirror behind the counter. Ame would have usually called out the order instead of bringing it to the customer, but she wanted a few more seconds to steel herself for this odd encounter, and the booth seemed more friendly, somehow.
“Sorry for being, uh, weird and intense earlier,” Suvi said as Ame set down the cup and the plate in front of her.
“Don’t worry about it, I’m weird all the time. You want to talk to me about it?” Ame smiled, and took a chance by sliding into the seat across from Suvi.
Suvi gave her a mortified look and quickly took a sip of her latte, as if this was the first time anyone had suggested that she talk through her feelings.
“Or. Not?” Ame tried not to panic. She wanted to be friendly, but now she was being weird. She’d just met this woman, and everyone in the Citadel seemed to have a Wall of Force around their emotions. “So what do you do in the Citadel, that you expect lowly tea shop workers to know your name?”
“I’m apprentice to the Archmage Silence.”
“That sounds impressive.”
“It is,” Suvi says with a grin.
“Sorry I didn’t know your name.”
Suvi’s face fell. “It’s - it’s fine. It’s not like I actually expect complete strangers to know it, it’s just — ” she sighed, and slowly spun the teacup around its saucer. “My parents were much better known. If I really need something done, I usually mention them, instead.”
Something sounded wrong with that, or didn’t quite follow. But it was such a fragile admission that Ame couldn’t get herself to question it.
Instead she smiled warmly. “You’ve got time. I’m sure you’ll be great - that you are great, but enough people will know about your greatness that you’ll be able to be known throughout every Tea Shop in the Citadel.”
The way that Suvi smiled at that - quiet and sharp, like she was sure of the praise and yet so unused to it - made Ame want to be impressed by her again. And maybe Ame could impress her back, somehow.
And that’s when the milk delivery came bursting in the door. Well, Eursulon did, and he was hauling the milk.
Suvi jumped back, and that’s when Ame realized that both of them had been leaning forward.
“Oh hello!” Eursulon bellowed, after coming to a complete stop once he laid eyes on Suvi. “Well met, complete stranger!”
You think that Eursulon would have been better at acting like he could fit in after so many years in the material world - not to mention acting, but he was definitely acting weird now.
“Oh of course, we have never met before,” said Suvi, sounding strangely stilted but at least a little amused.
“Suvi, this is Bear, my best friend. And Bear, this is Suvi, she’s a wizard here at the Citadel,” Ame introduced them, as if she knew that much more about Suvi than Eursulon did.
“Did you manage to find Suvi for help?” Eursulon asked.
“No, I just stumbled on this place - my usual coffee shop was closed for some recastings. What kind of help are you looking for?” Suvi sounded like she was trying not to give away her interest but she was also studying Eursulon intently. To Ame’s surprise, Eursulon was studying her right back.
“Eursulon is under a curse. I mean Bear - I mean. He should explain. But before that we have to put the milk away right now,” Ame lied, and then fled.
She’d expected Eursulon to follow her so they could get their story straight, but instead he’d taken Ame’s spot in the booth, even though he barely fit into the seat. Ame considered if she could somehow get to join her without being suspicious, then decided to trust him.
Besides, the store room had a special scrying charm that allowed someone in the back to see what was happening in the front of the shop. Usually this irritated Ame; it seemed like an excuse to get out of hiring another person to help. But if it also allowed her to listen to what Suvi and Eursulon were saying, the better for it.
“Don’t worry about it, she takes forever to do any sort of inventory,” Eursulon was saying. “It’s amazing that we’re allowed to keep on working here. I’m pretty sure it’s some sort of front.”
Which. Okay. Sometimes she lost track of time doing inventory, but it’s not like the tea shop was bustling in the middle of the afternoon or that she left anyone waiting out in the front for too long.
“How did you two even end up at the Citadel?”
“I found her by the side of the road, wandering. I convinced her to come with me so we could get help.”
That was also rich. It wasn’t like Eursulon had been doing much better, being forced to act in some random plays as a great beast.
“Okay, but why here? Why not…” Their voices were muffled somehow - maybe there was something wrong with the scry or they’d lowered their voices for some reason. Ame remembered she was supposed to be putting the milk on the cooling shelves and did so at twice her usual speed, just to spite Eursulon.
“If Ame was just out wandering, then something probably happened to…” It was hard to hear again. Ame muttered quietly in frustration, shoved the rest of the milk bottles onto the shelves as best as she could, and ran back to the front of the shop. She could deal with actually confirming the count later.
She returned just in time to hear Suvi tell Eursulon, “Steel - my guardian. She should be back in two days. There’s a whole ceremony, but I’ll be able to ask her afterwards if she can check in. I’m sorry, it’s the best that I can do.”
“So you’re going to help Bear out with his problem?” Ame announced her presence, and they looked up with twin expressions of embarrassment. Huh. Eursulon and Suvi looked like they could be siblings. Maybe that’s why she thought Suvi had looked familiar.
“Yeah. I’m definitely going to try and fix this.”
“And you know what that problem is?” Ame said, looking at Eursulon.
“She knows that I’m an Honored Friend unable to return home,” Eursulon confirmed.
Ame couldn’t help but be shocked - Eursulon hadn’t told anyone else besides Ame that he was an Honored Friend. He’d only admitted it to her as a way to convince her to trust him, or something. He must have sensed there was something to trust about Suvi.
“I’m so glad we all met for the first time, but I should go and get started on research so we can deal with whatever all of this is,” And then stopped after what must have been a hurt look on Ame’s face. “I’m sorry, I’ll be back tomorrow.”
And with that, she quickly picked everything up, ate the last bite of her croissant, and all but ran out of the shop.
It was quiet; that awkward time that was too far from closing to start cleaning up, and yet close enough that Ame felt like if she started anything else, she’d end up staying late. She shifted her weight from one leg to another, back and forth, trying to get a sense of what exactly had happened, and how she felt about it. It felt too good, in some ways, and something in Ame was so close to hope that she immediately tried to inspect it for flaws, just so her hopes wouldn’t come crashing down later.
And then she took a look at Eursulon, who was beaming, a smile firmly planted on his face like it would never leave.
“Well, okay, that was a little weird, but it was the first real lead we’ve gotten. You trust her, right?” Ame ventured. She was only fishing a little.
“Yes. I trust Suvi,” he intoned, oddly serious in the way he sometimes got, even through the smiles.
And then Ame remembered the mess she’d left of the milk and ran to the back again.
Ame and Eursulon rented a room at the top of a house in the Haverward district. It was barely large enough to fit a bed for Ame and room on the floor for Eursulon to sleep - who knew how the landlady thought they both managed to fit into the same bed. The sloped ceiling trapped all of the heat in the day but was still cool at night, and Eursulon couldn’t stand up even at the tallest parts in his true form. But it had a small washroom on the same floor and a door that locked. It got plenty of sun, and Ame had put some silk flowers into some of Eursulon’s empty glass bottles on the windowsill, which filled the room with dazzling colors every sunrise.
Ame had filled the place with small trinkets she’d found around the Citadel - some lightning glass from the surrounding desert, little glowing statues of the Citadel, a tiny gallithopter that could fly in circles at a whisper. On the head of her bed there was a large owlbear plush that she suspected was truly meant for children or maybe a convalescing soldier. None of it was very mature. A wizard like Suvi would probably have made fun of the people reduced to making these things, much less anyone who would buy them. But she refused to be bullied into giving up her own joy and wonder. There didn’t seem to be much softness in the world, one should get comfort when they could.
That night, with Eursulon curled up and snoring on the floor next to her, she floated between unquiet dreams and half-conscious worries, and thoughts of her strange encounter from the day before. It wasn’t that Suvi made her feel anxious, or bad, or angry. It was more … Ame didn’t think that she should feel so safe around a stranger. It was a lot like the way that Eursulon had made her feel, but that had been explained because he was an honored friend, and the first person she could remember that had shown her kindness.
Suvi had been amazing, but it’d be a stretch to say she had been kind.
Was this an infatuation? She hadn’t had a crush on anyone before - not the kind that made you want to impress them and smell their hair and be their best friend instead of just climbing them like a tree, at least. She’d sort of assumed that was something that had happened to other people. Maybe that was it. This was just a crush, and it was hitting her extra hard because it was her first.
All too soon, the sun rose through the window in their little room, and it was time for Ame to descend all the way down to the first floor for two bowls of breakfast juk before they headed to work. Only today, she found that she’d made enough for one or two extra servings.
She must have been more tired than she thought. It was fine - she could buy more rice on the way home, and Eursulon would eat the rest.
She was tired, that was all.
True to her word, Suvi arrived long after the morning rush with a small stack of books and a request for the same drink as the day before. Ame had given up hope fifteen minutes before, and tried her best to not to vibrate with excitement as she jumped back up onto the counter to get the crackling fire off the top shelf. No sooner did she find her balance than she heard someone step behind her. She chanced a glance down behind her, gripping onto the shelves just in case, and saw Suvi looking up at her.
“I’m just making sure you won’t fall. It’d be a really dumb thing to hurt yourself over, after, you know.” Suvi made some sort of waving motion that Ame couldn’t see all that well.
Ame didn’t know what sort of adventures Suvi had thought she had gotten up to with Eursulon, but also she didn’t see anything wrong with making them seem more impressive than they actually were. In truth, it was mostly just walking.
“I’m not clumsy,” Ame protested, and then felt something in Suvi’s silence. “I haven’t really hurt anything badly before.”
“Okay then. Fine. I’ll just stand here anyway.”
Ame took extra care then, grabbing the canister and placing it next to her on the counter, then turning around and sliding off not quite as much grace as she would have hoped. She managed not to land on Suvi’s feet, but just barely; when she went to look up at Suvi, she had the idea that the top of her head was going to brush up against Suvi’s chin.
They stood there for a second, a minute, an hour - Ame had no idea how long; Ame grinning triumphantly and smoothing out her skirts against the side counter; Suvi looking so fond as she looked down. Then Suvi’s face did something and she stepped back, cleared her throat a little, and walked to the customer side of the counter. And Ame remembered that she was at work, and should be making a latte.
As she poured the steamed milk, she did something she didn’t think she should be able to do - something she secretly attributed to her time around Eursulon, though she hadn’t even mentioned it to him yet. Ame concentrated on wanting to keep Suvi safe and warm and felt a little bit of magic flow from herself into the cup.
Ame didn’t know if anyone who received those little bits of magic knew about them - she couldn’t test them on herself, after all. The only other person she’d done this for was Eursulon, and he hadn’t said anything. But Suvi took one sip of the tea, looked up at Suvi, and gave her another one of those sharp, quick, knowing smiles.
It was enough to make her float through the rest of her day.
Eursulon showed up nearer to closing - he had some other hauling job when the tea shop didn’t need him, but Ame welcomed his help setting up the chairs - and the three of them were able to talk about nothing in particular for hours as Suvi showed them parts of the Citadel. Some parts they had been before, and some that had seemed all too fancy for them to even consider stepping into.
Suvi felt a little embarrassed showing off her favorite bakery, like it was somehow cheating, as if Suvi hadn’t lived here her whole life, and Ame hadn’t only worked for a few weeks. But Eursulon pressed on, quizzing the strange spell creatures that worked there and dispelling any sort of tension.
The food was good, anyway.
They spiraled up to the wizard towers, then started their descent back to where Ame and Eursulon lived. And as Suvi started to point out fewer and fewer landmarks, Ame and Eursulon started to show off the places they’d found in their few weeks; places Eursulon would make deliveries, or thrift shops with the strangest items. Suvi took a few places to soften, but when she did, she began to search and absorb with abandon, and Ame looked for more and more novel things that might catch Suvi’s eye.
All the while, Ame felt Suvi’s interest on her. She asked Eursulon questions too and laughed at his jokes, and enjoyed his company. But Ame thought that maybe her eyes strayed to Ame just a little more often, and maybe she listened to her answers a little more intently.
Ame tried not to feel too excited about that. If Suvi liked Eursulon, that’d be fine - Eursulon was good looking and interesting and the one Suvi was supposed to be helping. But some small selfish part of her felt excited about it anyway.
After hours of walking, Suvi bade them adieu at the steps of their home.
“I’m busy tomorrow, but I’ll get word out when I can,” she promised.
Suvi being busy wasn’t a surprise. The next morning was dominated by a strange quiet, the rumble of the welcoming parade like an oncoming storm. The shop’s owner - her boss, a somewhat spindly and opinionated woman who alternated being proud of the business and being somewhat ashamed of not doing something more with her magic, showed up and gave the shop a thorough inspection, and Ame was busy scrubbing out impossible stains under the shop owner’s exacting eye.
Then the dam broke, slowly, then all at once. People rushed in with their reunited friends; siblings; parents; partners, and all demanded the best service and the best food and whatever their personal victorious hero needed. All the while, Ame flew, hands working furiously, steeping teas and setting tiny sparking timers, frothing milk, making small pressed wheel cakes in the tiny irons in the front of the shop, and doing her best to smile all the while. At least the owner was helping out in taking orders. Hours past in a flurry, until the tide slowly ebbed, and then Ame could breathe again.
It wasn’t until she was closing that she realized she hadn’t seen Eursulon all day, either.
That wasn’t too strange. Eursulon had his own life. He knew how to keep himself safe. She shouldn’t worry.
She was still telling herself that hours later, as she laid in bed, listening to every creak in the old wooden house, and every shout from below.
Thumping on the stairs made her immediately sit up. It wasn’t hard to hear Eursulon come up the stairs on a normal night, even when he wasn’t drunk. Tonight it sounded like he was rushing, and there was a second, lighter set with him. Ame quickly looked around for something to arm herself with, grabbed the owlbear, and then dumped the silk flowers out of the glass bottle and crept towards the door.
She heard Eursulon clearly through the door, and her first inane thought was worry that her neighbors would complain.
“Suvi, stop, she won’t understand!”
“And I told you, we don’t have time to explain it to her. We’ll just have to get her to come along with us.”
“And what’s your plan for that? Are you going to knock her out?”
“If I have to.”
Suvi must have charmed both of them. Maybe it was a trick. Maybe she was trying to leash Eursulon, the way that she’d heard rumors of Wild Ones being controlled by wizards in the past.
It made so much sense. The way that Eursulon trusted Suvi implicitly - when he didn’t usually trust anyone. Suvi not even asking questions about Eursulon’s plight - she obviously already knew. The odd way that Ame immediately felt good about Suvi, was excited for Suvi, thought she could trust Suvi.
It had obviously been a trap.
They were at the top of the stairs now. Just before they could open the door, Ame opened it for them.
“What did you do to Eursulon?” Ame did her best to sound steady, and like she wasn’t barefoot and half dressed, brandishing an empty beer bottle against a Citadel Wizard.
“Ame. She did nothing to me.” Eursulon held his hands up, approaching slowly like she was a spooked horse, but stopped when Ame scoffed.
Suvi filled the silence instead. “Ame. Look, Ame, you’re going to have to believe me. You’re- something is wrong. I was going to try to convince you to go to G- a witch, she’s your- the important thing is that she should be able to fix you. Only it sounds like she’s sick. We don’t have time, we need to leave now.”
Ame’s mind whirled, trying to take everything in - the odd silences from Eursulon, the gasping explanation that didn’t include anything for Ame to hold onto, the way that Suvi was so familiar, and tried to make them all fit.
She was just about to say ‘so does that mean that I don’t really want to kiss you?’ when Suvi burst in with a jagged and whispered “Please.”
Ame looked at Suvi’s face, open and tear stained. She looked at Eursulon, showing worry in his own way. And then she breathed in deeply, took their hands, and decided to trust.