Rain

The beginning of autumn was already beginning to frustrate Zane to no end. Still warm enough to not need a jacket, but wet enough to wish he had brought one with him. Even the short walk to the apothecary had left him soaked through, and he had barely been able to dry himself by the time Madame Rosevin shut up shop for the day. Despite Zane putting on his best puppy-dog eyes, she had refused to let him stay any later than his chores for the day ended, not to mention that she refused to lend him her umbrella, so it would be one wet walk home regardless.

Not that he was even going home anyway, because of course she had more work for him to do that revolved around travelling to the cliffs through the west gate. Even if Zane had gone home to pick up a jacket, he would still be soaked to the bone, so there was really no point in even trying to keep himself dry. Perhaps if she had allowed him to view one of the ward tomes he would have a better understanding of how that conjuration magic even worked, but alas, he was left with nothing.

His hand hesitated on the door handle just long enough to warrant Madame Rosevin calling him out over it.

‘You aren’t made of sugar, Zane,’ she said as she wrapped her hands around her steaming mug of tea. ‘You won’t melt, it’s just a bit of rain. Just think, you’ll be home in no time.’

How fast did she think he was? Not only did the walk home take a good thirty minutes, but the walk to the west gate itself took fifteen. On top of that, the route to the cliffs was more than likely flooded due to the piss-poor drainage the town put in place last year when the old ones finally gave out. Even at six in the evening, Zane wasn’t expecting to be home until gone nine with all the travel and errands, and he still had to cook since Merrin wouldn’t be in until past eleven at the earliest.

But when Zane opened his mouth to reiterate those points to Madame Rosevin, he caught a flash of movement just outside the door. Auburn hair, one curled antler, and green stained glass eyes glowing softly in the dark of evening.

‘I’ll see you tomorrow,’ Zane said and left without waiting for a response.

Outside, Talathion was waiting with a cigarette already lit and held out in offering to Zane. The smoke curled in the air between them, and Zane took it without a second thought, taking a long drag and watching the embers glow bright before handing it back over to Tal.

‘Let me guess,’ Tal said and looked between Zane and the door. ‘Not home time yet?’

‘Not by a long shot,’ Zane said, exhaling the smoke. ‘Have to deliver something to the woman up on the cliffs, pick up whatever it is that she has for Madame Rosevin, then come back here to drop it off. Then I can go home.’

‘That couldn’t have been done during the day?’ Tal asked, keeping his voice low so the woman all cosy in her shop couldn’t hear them.

‘Apparently not,’ Zane said and took the cig back when Tal offered it out again. ‘You don’t happen to have an umbrella on you?’

‘How rich do you think I am?’ Tal laughed and gestured over himself.

He was already wet from the walk over, not as much as Zane had been that morning, but his shirt clung to his skin in all the right places and his hair was a wavy mess against his head.

‘I had hoped you had something up your sleeve,’ Zane said with a shrug and took one last drag before handing the smoke back to Tal.

‘You’re lucky I got this here intact,’ Tal said and raised the remaining embers of the cig before taking the last drag and flicked the butt to the ground and crumpled it with his boot. ‘Ready to get wet?’

Zane rolled his eyes at Tal’s smirk and looked out at the rain. ‘Did you have to phrase it like that?’

‘Like what, bunny?’ Tal asked, knowing exactly what it meant but was more than happy to try and make the colour in Zane’s face warm even more than it already had despite the chill in the air.

‘You know what,’ Zane said, looking back at him. ‘Come on, those rainclouds look like they’re going to get worse. We should go now before we end up stranded on this porch.’

‘I don’t know,’ Tal said, coming up beside him so close that Zane could smell the smoked oak wood clinging to his clothes. ‘We could always break into the tea shop and steal whatever cakes they have out.’

‘Who are you? Merrin?’ Zane asked with a laugh. ‘I’d love to see you try and pick that lock without getting caught.’

‘Rude,’ Tal said and jabbed Zane’s side with a gentle hand. ‘Come on then, let’s see what that woman has for you. Sooner we get there, sooner we can go back to yours, I left a  little something on the hearth for us.’

‘It better be edible,’ Zane said and made sure the pouch at his belt was secured. ‘Because I’m already starving.’

‘Why would it be anything else?’

Zane simply shrugged in response and stepped out into the rain. It wasn’t as bad as the downpour had been earlier, but any more than ten minutes in the open would have his robes soaked through. The only good thing was that Merrin had made sure his boots were fixed before the storm came in, so atleast his feet would be dry at the end of all this.

The cobbles beneath his feet were slippery, but not enough to warrant any extra care in walking. He checked for a moment to make sure that Tal was following behind, before slipping down the nearest alley to find even the smallest amount of cover. Ten minutes until the east gate, another thirty to the woman’s house if he was lucky.

But at least he wasn’t alone.