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“I am almost offended by how easy that was”
“You would prefer smuggling contraband to be more difficult?"
“I'd prefer it not be contraband at all, even if it does seem relatively logical. No, it's more the principle of the thing. If you're going to occupy a city and put in place stupid rules you should actually try and enforce them. Otherwise, what's the point?”
The contraband in question was a relatively large box of chemicals that Viago had handed to Lucanis almost as soon as Rook had agreed to help. A box of chemicals that the Antaam had decided were far too dangerous for anyone to have. Including the craftspeople who actually needed them. Which was why the Crows had been asked to help with getting the necessary supplies across the city. Lucanis had expected the half an hour walk across Treviso to be complicated (despite Teia’s insistence that the two of them did not need to return to the Lighthouse to collect their armour), or at least complicated enough to justify ruining his vague plans for the day, but the most difficult thing about the entire trip had been avoiding the crowds of locals so that Eleonore could pet every cat they saw.
“I don't think they're very good at following their own rules, so why should Treviso be any different?” Eleonore shrugged but brightened almost immediately when she noticed a small sign proclaiming that they had entered the Distrito artesanal. “What makes this district so famous then?"
That was how Teia had tried to sell them on this mission. A trip to the famous artisanal district of Treviso. His main thought at the time had been irritation (mollified eventually by the fact that it had been Eleonore herself to make the decision to help), but now he could see that Teia had practically gifted him the chance to show Eleonore more of the city. Which he knew was something the woman who lived and worked in the Necropolis wanted. To see as much of Thedas as possible. Lucanis paused before he answered, trying to remember exactly what was here. He could make this work, and it would be much better than his original plans anyway. “The artisanal district Is famous across Antiva and Thedas for one thing, hand blown glass. Antiva is known for its wine. Which needs a lot of glass. The artistic stuff just kind of grew from there”
“Blown glass? Like making bubbles out of it?”
Lucanis knew it was much more complicated than that. He was no expert, but on one of Catarina’s slightly kinder days she had sent both he and Ilario to one of the workshops to see some of the glassblowers at work. Though as often happened on days like this they had been questioned on the exact details when they returned home. To test their observation skills apparently. He couldn't remember the details now though “Kind of, but also not. I'll try and find somewhere you could see them making something. As soon as we can deliver this”
They were stood in the middle of a small courtyard of glass fronted shops; every window filled with brightly coloured glass. He eventually spotted a small Crow symbol on the window of a shop, directly in front of a collection of glass animals. He smirked slightly at the insinuation and led Eleonore into the shop. She immediately drifted to stare at the shelves of glass sculptures in wonder, but Lucanis approached the elf behind the counter while the shop was empty and spoke in a low voice. “A gift from the Crows”
The elf cracked open the lid of the box almost instantly and smiled in relief. “Thank the Maker we were running out of sulphur and arsenic”
Lucanis frowned slightly. He would never fail to be astounded and slightly disturbed by the number of things used to make colour. He glanced back briefly at Eleonore, but she'd only moved further along the shelf to stare at the smaller pieces of glass. “Are you making anything artistic today? Would you let us watch? Rook hasn't ever seen glass blowing before.”
The elf's eyes widened slightly. "Si señor. We're working on a few different projects today. One team needs to finish señor de Riva’s bottles and the others, myself included with them, need to work on sculptures for the shop. If you want to follow me…”
Eleonore smiled excitedly as she joined the two of them at a large black side door. The shopkeeper introduced himself as Pedro and led them into a tall room dominated by a large metal dome. Lucanis could feel Spite’s interest as soon as he realised it was a furnace with small windows built into the side. There were multiple long metal tables throughout the room, with several large and very strange tools. A female elf was sat at one of these, mixing sand with various chemicals and a pair of elves were stood in front of one of the windows, one with a long pipe and the other with what looked like an extremely large pair of tweezers as they worked at something small. Pedro pointed them to the next window and waved over another elf to assist.
The assistant gathered a selection of different coloured glass filaments and a blowpipe. She filled the pipe and lifted it to the fire as Pedro picked up something which he called a block, but Lucanis thought looked more like a giant ladle. Eleonore watched intently as a large ball of glowing plasma emerged from the pipe. Pedro used the block to create the basic shape of a vase before he took another large set of tweezers to work on the finer details. it was a very slow process, the glass almost seeming to resist being shaped, but Eleonore just stared, her green eyes practically alight with curiosity.
Lucanis realised he wasn't even watching the elves anymore, he was far too busy watching Eleonore instead. He still couldn't really believe that they were here. That she had been able to help him and Spite was incredible. That she had gone even further and agreed to a relationship was something he had no right to have hoped for. Something that needed more than just cake to commemorate. A gift then…
He hadn't expected to feel quite so nervous when it came to giving the gift though. He gave members of the team gifts all the time, so he was slightly confused as to why the thought of giving Eleonore the small gift he had bought in hurried Antivan while she had been deep in conversation with the assistant left him quite so unsettled. Granted this gift meant a lot more than the others, and he needed her to understand the deeper meaning of the gift but even so.
“Eleonore,” he said quietly as they made their way out of the dark glass shop and into the almost offensive brightness of a Treviso afternoon. She'd asked to see the city during the day, but he suspected the mage regretted that decision as she raised a hand to shield her face from the sun. “I've bought you something from the glass-shop. The instant I saw it it made me think of you. And I just had to…”
She turned to face him, a soft smile on her face. It very quickly changed into a laugh. “I've done exactly the same thing! I just couldn't not when I saw it” She held up her other hand as if to prove it, and there was an almost identical box in it, albeit without the fussy little ribbon that had gone around her gift almost without him noticing.
He stared at her, completely at a loss for words. He hadn't expected that. But then again, since when did she ever do the expected thing? He smiled. “Well, ladies first”
She handed him her gift, tucked her dark hair behind her ear impatiently and turned to open hers. She let out a small gasp as she removed the lid. Inside the box was a very delicate glass dark blue tulip in a thin necked vase. It hadn't weighed nearly as much as he thought it should, given how much work had surely gone into it. Her fingers trembled slightly as she traced the edge of the flower. Lucanis flinched.
“I can swap it for something else, if you would prefer?”
He thought he'd remembered the meaning of the flowers correctly, but it had been a long time since he'd read about it.
“What? No, it’s beautiful! I just didn't expect you to…” She met his eyes and smiled. “Thank you so much”
He smiled back, secretly thinking that if it earned him more smiles like that, he might just have to buy her more gifts. She smiled readily, but there seemed to be a special one just for him. He was quite sure he would never get tired of seeing it.
“You're very welcome”
She very carefully placed the lid back on the box and tied the ridiculous ribbon it had come with in a more delicate way. “Your turn now”
He removed the lid hesitantly, almost in disbelief. A small glass wyvern was stood in the box, orange wings stretched out over its head in either triumph or defiance. He couldn't stop staring at the details – the way it's teeth almost seemed to glitter in its multiple mandibles, the almost translucent red frills on its neck and back and its muscular tail which was as long as the entire figure.
“It just reminded me of the wyvern from your book The Joyous Wyvern. When she finally finds her cave at the end after getting lost escaping the hunters and having to search through all those different areas. I would certainly want to celebrate finding my bed after all of that too, if it were me…”
Lucanis almost didn't trust himself to speak. The book had suddenly appeared in the pantry a while ago and he had read the short story to Eleonore incredibly shyly. The book had brought back numerous happy memories when he needed them most and now, she'd given him something even better. Something that could hold new memories as well. Lucanis beamed at her. “You and she are wonderful. Thank you” Eleonore blushed.
“You're welcome,” She looked around the small courtyard again, and noted the general direction of people. “Where are they all going? Is there more in this district?”
He smiled again. They were back onto topics he felt much more confident in. “There's a very good artistic market here somewhere, but far more importantly this district has in my opinion the best Gelato shop in all of Treviso. I don't know if you will have ever tried it before, but there are very few situations that are not improved by its inclusion”
Eleonore looked at him, curiosity and excitement clear in her expression. “I can't say I have, what is it?”
“I could be childish and say It's like the Maker’s gift in a bowl, but to avoid any risk of blasphemy I will just say it's a frozen milk desert with spectacular flavours. You might have tried ice cream, but I think gelato is far superior”
“Flavours? As in more than one?”
“Yes, some are quite famous. It's normal to order three scoops, but I thought if we ordered six scoops to share, you could choose the flavour and then try a bit of each. Then I can finish what is left”
They entered the small but already crowded shop before she was able to answer, but she managed to order six different flavours anyway, somehow managing to navigate the written Antivan without him. Lucanis carried them outside, trying not to wince at the thought of the different flavours mixing. She had gone for an eclectic combination. Chocolate and coffee were only to be expected, and he knew that peach and pistachio were very popular, but he dreaded to think what the strange combination would taste like when it mixed with the sour cherry gelato and the lemon scoop.
“As it's going to be a race against the Sun, you should start at one end, and I will start at the other?” Lucanis said quietly as she debated where to start.
Eleonore grinned in agreement and moved the bowl slightly so that the coffee scoop was closest to him. He raised an eyebrow but didn't bother to speak. She knew him a little too well it seemed. He stopped caring however the instant he tried it.
“Cold. But good? You said food needs to be hot?”
Mierda. Spite was always disturbingly good at remembering the random offhand comments he had made months ago and then asking about them like he’d just said them. “Most things need to be, but not everything”
Spite seemed unsatisfied with his answer, but instead of saying anything more he just frowned at Lucanis. Lucanis stared back, unsure how to help until Eleonore reached for her next scoop. “Eleonore, can you help explain? I think Spite's confused because I've told him mortals don't eat frozen food. I think he took it as a capital R rule, and I can't think of how best to explain”
Spite perked up immediately and moved to stand directly next to her. She smiled and turned to him. Spite grinned as they made eye contact even if she couldn't quite see him. Lucanis suspected the mage could have said anything now, even if it was entirely unrelated to the original question and the grin would remain in place
“I can try… We don't normally eat cold foods, but sometimes it's necessary. I didn't know that it could get this hot in a city near the sea, so it's exactly what's needed. And it tastes so good Spite. You should try the next bit when Lucanis does,” She paused to take another bite. “And since when do mortals follow rules anyway? We're far too ridiculous for that”
Spite nodded seriously. “You are all. So irrational”
Lucanis frowned but relayed his words anyway. They had both agreed that Spite would cause a little too much alarm if he were to take control in public, so Lucanis would repeat everything he said. He was just glad that the demon was not nearly as angry around Eleonore as he was with the other members of the team.
Eleonore smiled. “Why do you think I used to do so much work with spirits? You're so much more logical”
Spite grinned broadly but didn't respond as he stepped into Lucanis. “Following the instructions of the only Smart person here”
Lucanis rolled his eyes but didn't bother to argue. How could he when the demon was correct? He resigned himself to the almost inevitable discussion about flavour and the taste of the three scoops of gelato that were left.
The discussion had gone okay until they had tried the sour cherry scoop. Lucanis had left that one until the end because he knew that would be the trickiest to explain to Spite and as expected, he had fixated on what made it sour. Eleonore had to intervene in the end, somehow managing not to smirk as she pointed out quite how quickly the scoop was melting. Which of course had prompted Spite into a second round of complaints about the irrationality of mortals and their food, even though he had been enjoying it moments before she spoke.
When he eventually stopped (only after making Lucanis swear to return so that he could try more flavours) Lucanis had led Eleonore to the artistic market. It had been smaller than he remembered, but after buying a few things for herself, she had helped him pick out some frankly ridiculous shades of wool to knit with. He had agreed to try making a jumper for her, but as he was paying both he and Eleonore had realised quite how much time had passed and that they would be greeted by a very smug Andarateia Cantori.