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Late September sunshine streamed through the large window of Olruggio’s workshop, gently dappling the stone surfaces and catching the myriad of metal contraptions throughout the room with sharp bursts of light. It settled on the sleeping figure in the bay of the window, wrapping him in a warm embrace. Olruggio woke in the way that all beings desired in the depths of their bones, gradually, wrapped in the weight of his favorite blanket as a cool breeze caressed his skin. He stretched and cursed himself for not even making it to the hammock; the stone window bay did nothing for the ache in his back and the knotted muscles in his shoulder.
The sun had not yet reached its zenith in the autumn sky and Olruggio groaned. Where had the days gone when he had worked until the wee hours of the morning and then slept until lunch? It was a silly question. Weeks spent sitting next to Qifrey’s bedside, taking over the girls’ meals and lessons had left Olruggio aligned with the rest of the world’s sleep schedule. He’d trade, had traded, any amount of sleep for the fact that Qifrey was here, living, and free of that awful, parasitic Silverwood. The thought of his comfier bed just down the stairs called to him, but after leaving Qifrey alone for the past week, the insatiable need to know he was alright was far stronger.
Sitting up, Olruggio took stock of the fact that he was still in yesterday’s clothes. The job hadn’t even interested him, but Qifrey insisted that he take it anyways. Finally back to functioning as normal, Qifrey had wanted the opportunity to run his atelier as normal, without Olruggio insisting on helping him with everything. Which, Olly thought as he undressed and donned a fresh tunic and skirt, he could understand, but Qifrey hadn’t been the one to burn the Silverwood out of himself. Qifrey hadn’t watched his best friend nearly die and waited day and night for him to wake up. So excuse him for not wanting to leave Qifrey alone.
Olruggio made his way across the stone bridge and down into the kitchen. He was surprised to see Coco sitting at the table, hunched over something that didn’t quite look like a spell sheet. “Master Olly, you’re back!” She startled as he came down the stairs. “Master Qifrey said you wouldn’t be back until tonight!” Olruggio didn’t miss the way she scrambled whatever she was working on off the table but didn’t dwell on it. There was only so much room in his brain on so few hours of sleep.
“Came back last night,” he said. His patron had offered him another night’s stay but the thought of waking up only for some other request to consume his day and fueled him through the long journey home.
“Tetia! Richeh!” A pair of heads popped up over the wall from the living room. “We should, um… We should go let Agott know!” The two other girls nodded and the three of them dashed off toward their bedrooms. On another day he might have found their behavior suspicious, but, well, he could be forgiven for being more focused on making himself a cup of thornbark tea.
“Ah, Olly, you’re back early.” Olruggio nearly jumped out of his skin at his friend’s voice behind him. Qifrey stood smiling warmly with a basket of mountain apples in his arms. His white hair was windswept and his cheeks were flushed pink from his morning excursion. Olruggio’s stomach did a little flip at the sight him. “I didn’t expect to see you until later.”
“That’s what everyone around here keeps saying.” He took a sip of tea and relished in the warm path it traveled down into his chest. “How are things around here?”
“Oh fine, fine.” Qifrey bustled around the kitchen, grabbing bowls and knives before setting up a station for peeling apples. “The girls and I spent this week going over the nuances of overlapping signs, quite boring stuff really. We did have a little trip to that village east of here. Terrible rainstorm and they were looking for some help getting their crop stores dried since they’d just started harvesting.”
Olruggio raised an eyebrow. “I thought I told you to take it easy while I was away.”
“And now you’re back.” Qifrey smiled. “The girls did most of the work anyways.” Qifrey finished peeling one apple and started on the next. “Richeh wants to talk to you about your link rings by the way. She has an idea for improving them that I do find most interesting.”
“Improving them?” Olruggio sat down next to Qifrey, shoving him over with a bump of his hip. “Those are some of my best work.”
“Your best work from when you were twelve.” Qifrey passed him an apple and Olruggio joined him in the methodical scrape of his knife. “Surely you can admit the design could be iterated upon.”
“Well excuse me for needing a quick solution to get my friend to go take a damn bath,” he responded in feigned offense. Qifrey let out what could only be called a giggle and Olruggio’s face flushed.
They were sat such that the length of them touched, from feet to shoulders, and Qifrey hadn’t yet moved away. The realization had his pulse racing. This was… This was good. Olruggio had always thought Qifrey just didn’t like to be touched, at least by him. When it finally came out that it was because of the Silverwood, because he made Qifrey feel safe, it had rekindled the tiny, ever burning flame he’d held for the man since they were children.
It was perhaps naive of Olruggio to think that once Qifrey was able to feel comfortable that he’d seize the opportunity with both hands. Well, that wasn’t necessarily true. Qifrey had tried. When he’d finally awoken he’d embraced Olruggio so tightly that he thought his bones might shatter. But since then… Qifrey’s mind had caught up with his body, and old habits died very, very hard.
Olruggio had tried in the time since to cautiously initiate contact with varying degrees of success. It usually worked better when it was Qifrey’s own idea, or when, like now, his mind was occupied with other tasks such that it couldn’t solely focus on the looming threat that no longer writhed within his body.
“So what are we making?” The number of remaining apples in the basket had considerably dwindled.
“Oh, just some dessert for later. Nothing too exciting.”
“What’s the occasion?” There didn’t need to be one, but Qifrey had a habit of coming up with some reason for there to be dessert, even if that reason was the simple celebration of a well-drawn spell.
“Tetia asked if we could do something special to welcome you home,” said Qifrey. He finished peeling the final apple of the bunch and angled his body towards Olruggio’s. “So of course, I said yes.”
Olruggio’s chest tightened as he watched Qifrey take a breath and then slowly but deliberately place a hand on his forearm. He’d let the sleeves fall back as he worked and Qifrey’s palm and fingers on his bare skin were cool, even slightly sticky from the apples, yet lit a fire through him. Qifrey, for his part, had the awed look of an apprentice who’d mastered their first pyreball and was now realizing the danger they held in their hand. “Qifrey are you—”
“Yes,” he breathed, voice soft but determined. They sat there for a few moments, Olruggio too scared of frightening Qifrey off to do anything but sit there quietly and enjoy it. “I missed you,” Qifrey admitted, breaking the silence.
“Missed me? When I left you were practically shoving me through the window way.” Qifrey laughed, gripping his forearm in a way that did things to him he’d rather not think about.
“I decided that I much prefer your mother hen-ing to that of four thirteen year-olds.”
“Did you?” Olruggio grinned. Qifrey returned it with such ease that it nearly took Olruggio’s breath away. He wasn’t sure if there was ever a time, even as children, that Qifrey looked at him the way he did now, unguarded and free and with such adoration. It took every measure of self control he had not to reach over and caress the sharp cut of his jaw, place delicate kisses over those dark eyelashes…
He must have flinched, made some motion of making the fantasy in his mind real, because the next thing he knew the warmth of Qifrey’s hand was gone and his friend was practically shoo-ing him away. “I could still change my mind,” he teased. Olruggio didn’t miss the slight sadness in Qifrey’s eye, or how his eyebrows furrowed with frustration. “Now go, don’t you have work to do or something?”
“I just spent the past week working,” Olruggio groaned. Qifrey followed him to the stairs, dish towel in hand. Olruggio thought he might actually flick it at him.
“And you should see the pile of correspondence that’s grown while you were away.”
“You’re a real slave-driver, you know that?” He took the stairs two at a time, stopping at the top.
“Olly?”
“Yeah?”
Qifrey’s mouth twisted before settling back into his typical pleasant smile. “Welcome home.”
-
Olruggio spent the rest of the morning and afternoon making sense of the state he’d left his workshop in. He’d barely stepped foot inside besides to sleep while Qifrey recovered, and even then half the time he’d spent his nights on the couch or in an armchair he’d brought into Qifrey’s bedroom. The remnants of he and Coco’s work to burn out the Silverwood still lay scattered about his desk. Olruggio picked up one of the prototype sketches and couldn’t help but admire the craftsmanship. Had he really done that?
It wasn’t the most elegant of spells, but it had worked. The Silverwood didn’t care about the efficiency of the signs and sigil within the spell, only that it had burned and burned and…
“Master Olly!” A voice that surely belonged to Tetia called. He looked down to see all four of the girls standing rather anxiously in the doorway.
“Up here.” The four of them scurried up the stairs to where he sat at his desk.
“Master Qifrey says it’s time for dinner,” said Richeh in her usual, matter of fact way. Tetia and Coco meanwhile looked like they were ready to burst out of their sylph shoes.
“What’s gotten into them?” He asked directly to Agott, the most reasonable of the bunch.
“I’m not at liberty to say,” she replied.
Olruggio narrowed his eyes. “Should I be nervous?”
“No!” Coco giggled. Tetia grabbed his sleeve, pulling him up and off of his stool.
“Alright, I’m coming, I’m coming. Don’t see what all the fuss is about, it’s just dinner.”
“You’ll see,” said Richeh as he followed them down the stairs. “You’ll see.”
Whatever Olruggio had been expecting to find, it certainly wasn’t this. The table had been moved into the living room next to the hearth, with six place settings neatly arranged on its top. Slices of a large loin of red meat were arranged on platter on the center of the table, surrounded by various delicious smelling side dishes and three candles.
“What’s all this for?” The girls all took their places around the table, motioning for Olruggio to sit at the end next to Qifrey’s vacant seat.
“You really don’t know?” Agott asked incredulously.
Tetia directed a disappointed glare at him. “Honestly Master Olly, how could you?”
A flash of panic gripped his chest. “Don’t tell me I forgot one of your birthdays,” he groaned. He put his head in his hands, covering his face. Tetia’s birthday surely wasn’t for a few more weeks and Qifrey’s another month or so after that. He couldn’t be that off on his calendar, and everyone else had theirs already this year, he’d swear by it.
“I think you might have forgotten your own, dear,” Qifrey’s voice came from behind him, accompanied by a hand on his shoulder.
Olruggio’s brain ceased functioning.
“We were keeping it a surprise, but we didn’t think you’d forgotten it entirely,” Coco laughed. “We thought we were done for this morning when we realized you’d gotten back early.”
Qifrey sat down beside him and motioned for the girls to begin serving themselves. Then, with Olruggio still quite hung up on Qifrey’s use of the word dear, the man rested his hand on Olruggio’s thigh, smiled warmly, and said: “Happy Birthday, Olly.”
Olruggio blinked.
“If you’re too tired to eat your venison, I will happily take yours,” Richeh said as she scooped mashed carapace yam onto her plate.
“Venison?” Olruggio asked. That, at least, was something he could focus on without adding to the heat that was building below his collar. “Where in the world did you get this?”
“One of the villagers we helped this week gave us some as a thank you,” Agott explained. “Master Qifrey said it was one of your favorites as a child, so we saved it for your birthday.”
In the days, months, and years following his move to the Great Hall, there was little that reminded him of Ghodrey. There was one memory he still had left, locked away in the depths of his heart. His father demonstrated how to properly butcher a deer, explaining each cut and the appropriate measures, with the help of magic, to keep them stored through the long winter. His mother cooked over a roaring fire with a large cast iron skillet, and the three of them sat down to eat what would ultimately be their last meal together… “Awfully kind of ya.” His voice wobbled, but the rest of them didn’t seem to notice or were smart enough not to comment on it.
Qifrey served him a few slices, warm and lusciously pink in the center, and somehow Olruggio filled the rest of his plate. As the warm food started to restore some of his mental faculties, Olruggio decided that he could be forgiven for forgetting what day it was. His life had stopped and restarted the night they burnt the Silverwood out of Qifrey, and nothing else compared in importance to the man who was still here, sitting next to him.
The girls chattered amongst themselves while they ate, as they always did once their entertainment with the adults had run dry. Qifrey turned to Olruggio and once again wrapped his long, elegant fingers just above Olruggio’s knee. “Are you alright?” Qifrey asked softly.
“Mmm,” he hummed around a roasted gem tomato. He chewed slowly, giving himself a few more seconds to come up with a better response, before swallowing and looking down pointedly at Qifrey’s hand. Turning the question back on the man seemed like the best course of action. “Are you?” Olruggio asked.
Qifrey let out a breath, smiling. Olruggio had seen that smile more and more over the past weeks; Qifrey’s real smile, not the one he’d taught him as children. He loved it. The realization washed over Olruggio in a wave of warmth like he’d dunked his head under the hot water in the bath. “I am. I—”
“Master Qifrey!” Tetia exclaimed, cutting through small bubble that had formed around the two of them. “Is it time for dessert?”
“I think it is.” Qifrey squeezed his thigh gently before he headed for the kitchen. The lack of warmth struck Olruggio keenly.
Tetia and Qifrey returned momentarily, Tetia carefully carrying a cake with three lit candles upon its top. “It’s apple spicebark cake,” Tetia proclaimed proudly as she placed the cake on the table. “I made it myself this afternoon.”
“It looks delicious. Thank you, Tetia.”
“No, thank you!” She beamed. “Now you have to make a birthday wish.”
“A wish?” This new birthday tradition was something that Coco had introduced to them all. “What could I possibly have to wish for? I’ve got all of you here, haven’t I?”
“I always used to wish to become a witch,” said Coco. “But I had to think of something different this past year, so I wished for us to find a way to help Master Qifrey.” The girl looked up shyly at the two of them. “And we did! So, maybe it works better if you wish for something for someone else, rather than for yourself?”
“That doesn’t make any sense, it’s your birthday, you should make a wish for yourself,” said Richeh.
“I still don’t think this wishing stuff makes any sense,” said Agott. “We know how magic works.”
“Maybe we should let Olly blow out the candles before they burn down.” Qifrey took hold of the conversation. “And so we can all eat this delicious cake that Tetia baked.”
Olruggio looked down at the tiny flames flickering before him before blowing them out in one go. He’d made quite the nebulous wish. Just for his friend sitting next to him, to have him, in whatever way the universe might allow.
The cake was was delicious. Olruggio was about to take a second slice but before he could try Richeh was standing up and heading towards to the door. “My surprise is outside,” she said with no room to argue that they would all now be heading out there. The weight of his cloak being placed over his shoulders by Qifrey initially startled him but was quickly followed by a warm fuzzy feeling that didn’t come from the velvet of his cloak.
It was a clear night and the downs were illuminated by the nearly full moon that hung heavy in the dark sky. Thousands of stars twinkled overhead. They followed Richeh to the large tree that sat behind the atelier and even from a distance Olruggio could see that it was sparkling. There had to be at least a hundred crystal ribbons hung from the tree’s branches, all catching and refracting the moonlight.
“I spent a very long time making them.”
Olruggio turned back towards the atelier, the window of his workshop perfectly in line with the tree. “Did you make these so I could look out at them at night?” The blue-haired girl leaned against his side and wrapped her arms around his middle, nodding. “I— Thank you, Richeh.” He patted the top of her head, ruffling her hair. “They’re beautiful.”
Richeh let go of him and stepped back, giving him her more usual thumbs up with a serious expression. “Now when you’re working late you can see them and think of us,” she said. “And then remember that we’d tell you to go to sleep.”
Olruggio laughed. “I look forward to it.”
“I also have something,” Agott announced. She pulled out her palm quire and finished off a pre-drawn spell. Light burst from the palm quire, turning into the shape of a liongoat, followed by a rhinocerox, a phoenix, and finally, a dragon. The four light animals danced their way around the tree and then moved to circle the group of them. The dragon even seemed to linger around Qifrey, which might have been the most impressive part, and the unadulterated joy and pride on the man’s face made Olruggio’s heart swell.
“Truly impressive, Agott,” Olruggio admitted after the light animals had wandered off and slowly faded away. Not that he was surprised she had pulled the advanced piece of magic off, but the dedication she had put into something that was truly just for show surprised him far more than the skill required.
“I… I was inspired by those deer you had made.” She smoothed down the front of her dress with slightly shaking hands. “And, well— I like them.”
“I think we all do.” Olruggio smiled at her. “Do you think you could show me your spell work later? I’d love ta see how you fit the different animal sigils all into one seal.”
“Yes!” Agott practically jumped. “I can show you all my notes too! I still think there’s room for improvement, I might even be able to fit a fifth sigil in if I rearrange everything properly…”
“It’s already lovely,” Qifrey remarked. “Not every spell needs improvement, some are perfect just the way they are.”
Agott’s blush was visible in the moonlight as she smiled bashfully. “I suppose…”
“We have one more surprise for you!” Coco interjected. She pulled a present out from under her cloak, wrapped in thin, brown paper. Olruggio hadn’t even realized she’d brought anything outside with them. “This is from all of us,” she said. “But I added my own something to it.”
Coco handed him the parcel. Olruggio carefully ripped the paper open and froze before it was even fully unwrapped. It couldn’t be.
In his hands was a belt similar to the one he currently wore around his waist. Olruggio peeled off the rest of the paper and unfolded the belt. It was clasped together and in its middle sat three golden circles, in contrast to the two he currently wore. In Ghodrey, most families had some sort of crest or seal to represent themselves. His had been the golden concentric discs that sat cradled in his hands and traditionally, one added a circle for each decade they’d lived; his father had five on his belt before he’d died.
“How,” his voice trembled. “How did you get this?” The material was exactly the same as his current belt, a particular tanned leather that could only be found in Ghodrey. Olruggio hadn’t been back there since he’d turned twenty, the only time a certain white-haired witch had been as well. It was in fact, the only time he’d been to the place of his birth since he’d been ripped away from it all those years ago. He’d felt it an obligation to continue his family’s tradition, and Qifrey, it seemed, had never forgotten it.
“We happen to know a couple of witches who travel around an awful lot,” Qifrey explained. “Alaira and Euini would like to wish you a happy birthday as well.”
“I can’t believe this.”
“If you look around the rest of it,” said Coco, grabbing the edge of the belt and holding it up, “I added some embroidery to it.”
Golden threads stitched into diamond shapes caught in the moonlight. The stitching encircled the belt in a neat alternating pattern with triangles. “What kind’a magic did you use to make this?”
“Just a needle and thread,” Coco smiled. “And an awl, and—”
Hot tears pricked the corners of Olruggio’s eyes. “Thank you girls,” he sniffed. “I love it. Truly, thank you.” He was at once attacked on all sides, four sets of arms squeezing around him.
“Happy birthday!” Chorused around him.
After a few moments the girls let go and slowly made their way back towards the atelier, Tetia and Coco racing each other with their sylph shoes while Agott and Richeh followed dutifully behind, shaking their heads. Though he might not say it out loud, he loved them. Whatever misgivings he initially had when Qifrey had wanted to take on apprentices had been swiftly supplanted by an overwhelming sense of fulfillment in his life, something his actual work could never replicate.
“You didn’t have to do all this,” Olruggio said once the girls were back inside.
“We wanted to,” Qifrey said. “I wanted to.” The belt hung limply in his hands until Qifrey stepped closer and gently folded it back up. Olruggio wedged it under his arm. “You do so much for us, Olly. For me. I can never thank you for what you’ve given me.”
They’d had this conversation before, after Qifrey had woken up free of the Silverwood, and again, multiple times, as he recovered. “It’s what you deserve,” he explained again. Olruggio didn’t know how many times it would take saying to get it through that poofy, white head of his, but he’d keep trying.
Qifrey stepped closer, close enough that Olruggio could make out the lines in his pale blue iris. “I haven’t given you my gift yet.” Olruggio’s heart clattered against his chest as Qifrey gently cupped his cheek. The pad of his thumb skittered softly over his cheek bone and Olruggio let out a controlled breath.
As much progress as Qifrey had made, he felt obligated to give him an out. “Qifrey, if you’re not—”
“I’ve wanted to give you this for a very long time, Olly,” he interrupted. Qifrey took a deep breath. “If you want it, that is.”
Olruggio’s breath hitched, caught in his throat. He nodded as he placed his hand on Qifrey’s waist, giving it the tiniest of encouraging squeezes. Qifrey’s eyebrows rose in response, but were quickly followed by a smile of pleasant joy. He tilted his head slightly, and placed his mouth over Olruggio’s.
Though he knew it was coming, it took Olruggio a moment to register the warm, soft lips that gently pressed against his own. The feeling was foreign yet deliciously familiar, like trying a sweet for the first time and immediately knowing that it is going to be your favorite. He pressed his fingers more firmly into Qifrey’s side as he returned the kiss that was sending sparks down his spine. Qifrey let out the softest of whimpers and Olruggio nearly lunged at him. He wrapped his other arm around Qifrey’s shoulders, pulling their chests flush together.
At the slight press of his tongue, Qifrey opened his lips with a gasp. Olruggio had absolutely no idea what he was doing as he deepened the kiss, his only thought that he would consume this man if he could. Qifrey smiled against his lips as their tongues danced, gliding along their dance floor with unpracticed steps. Qifrey pulled away a few moments later, just enough so that he could catch his breath. His hand lowered from Olruggio’s face and ran down the side of his neck before settling on his chest, just above his heart.
“Happy Birthday, Olly.” The two of them laughed, so much still to say, but so much that didn’t need to be said. Olruggio took in the sight of Qifrey lit in the pale moonlight, face flushed and lips slightly swollen, and committed it to memory. And then, with all the stars in the sky as witness, he kissed him again.