6 Oix 4385: Another Surprise!

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

Surprise Is for Swimming

It's good to be back home or at least in Vheshrame. I haven't spent a whole lot of time at home-home except when Glory's there and using cley to ice the place to a pleasant temperature. Mostly I've been at the public pond or out in the river when the pond is just too crowded. Which is why I haven't been writing much because even though I think the Scroll of Infinite Worlds is waterproof I haven't wanted to put that to a rigorous test.

Also it's very very safe inside Vheshrame's city walls! I'm sure Boomsy isn't fretting that, say, I've been impersonated by a mentavore bonstable who keeps my corpse preserved in a dungeon so she can check her likeness for accuracy (yesterday's nightmare.) Also, if I were impersonating me then I'd write more often because not writing would be kind of suspicious, don't you think?

I've spent lots of time talking to ALL my friends because even the people who were all "we're too busy to do anything but say how busy we are" in Lage are now busy swimming with all the Orren. Archonandi is STILL spending half-days at the forge (the FORGE. With a FIRE in it! Can you imagine?) but he does come swim when he's free. He says he's still very happy about giving up adventuring and becoming a smith. He told me he's getting married next Thory which I think is what he's actually happy about. Studies-Too-Hard finished the spraddle he was working on when I left, but he's got another really BIG one to finish before the term is out. (I can't believe the university holds classes during Surprise. Studsy says that most of the classrooms and the library are cooled by magic, though. So it's one of the better places to be this time of year, in that respect.)

But yesterday I saw one person I hadn't expected to see: Absweth! You remember her, she's the one who ran the shop I used to work at. You won't believe what happened!

Absweth, Redux

I was floating on my back in the water, under the redfeather trees. The treefeathers are all bleached to pale pink and wilting now, but they're still dense enough to provide a nice shade for part of the pond. Studsy and Tripriver were drifting nearby, chattering about practical versus theoretical philosophy. Since the shade is the coolest part of the pool, lots of other waterform Orren were packed into it, almost close enough to touch. I heard a shriek of, "Delight!" I tilted up and raised my head above the waterline to see if it was someone calling me specifically or just someone happy to get into cool water.

Abbsers shrieked again when I met her gaze. "It is you! You're back in town! It's SO good to see you again, Delight!"

"It is?" I made a puzzled face at her.

"Yes! Did you have a nice vacation? When are you coming back to work?" Absweth kicked off her sandals and waded into the shallows as she called across the pond to me.

"... back to what work?"

She laughed with a kind of brittle gaeity and walked deeper into the water. "To your booth at the shop, of course! You know we've all missed you."

"... Absers, you fired me."

The Rassimel woman waved one black-furred paw at me. "Don't be silly! Why would I do that?"

"You had a list of like twenty reasons? I wrote some of them down if you want me to check?"

Absweth laughed again, pushing her way through disgruntled Orren bathers to reach my side. She stood up to her shoulders in water beside me, her skirt floating out to either side of her. "You must have misunderstood me, Dee. When will you be back at work? Tomorrow?"

I stared at her head, looking for the Mentador spell that had to be on her. "You had my furstyling license revoked."

She shook her black-masked head, pointing one hand back at herself. "No! No, that was just ... a little accident. It's all cleared up now! Didn't you get the Guild's message?"

"No?" I hadn't actually checked the pile on the counter where Glorious Blue puts all our correspondence since I got back, though.

"You didn't? I'll have words with someone about that! But you don't need to -- " She stopped, perplexed, as I pushed one finger lightly against the damp fur of her shoulder. " ... why did you just poke me?"

"Because you're not under a Mentador spell so you must be an illusion? You're an awfully realistic illusion. Here, hold this." I handed her a twig.

Absweth gave me a confused look as she held the twig. "Don't be silly, Delight, of course I'm not an illusion."

"Then why are you pretending to like me and acting like you didn't swear that if I ever darkened your door again you'd flay me alive and style my hide for a shop mannequin?"

She dropped the twig and grabbed my arm. "Look, maybe some mistakes were made and accidents happened and the point is that's all behind us now! You can have your old booth back! I'll even double your cut. Won't that be great?"

"No?"

"Splendid! So I'll expect ... what did you say?"

"No?"

"... Is that 'no-yes' or 'no-no'?"

"It's no. I don't want to come back to the shop," I told her.

Absweth's expression turned horror-struck. "But ... but ... what else can you do?"

"Adventure? Actually I'm rich now because I just was adventuring so now I'm going to swim and watch puppet shows and basically be a riverbum Orren except without the 'broke and homeless' part."

"But you have to come back."

"No I don't I'm not indentured to anyone so I can do whatever I like." (See this is EXACTLY why I've never ever been in debt.)

She grabbed my arm and started pulling me to the shore. "Don't be ridiculous! I'm not saying I'm your master. I'm going to PAY you!"

Studies-Too-Hard yelped as she shoved him out of the way. He dove under her feet to trip her, and she sprawled face-first into the pond. I wriggled out of her grip as she struggled to surface. When she came back up, sputtering, the tip of a steel blade was six inches from her nose. She froze, her eyes traveling up the blade to the Rassimel hand that held it.

"I believe she said 'no'," Archonandi said.

Absweth got her legs under her and straightened with her hands in the air. She threw me a wild, pleading look. "Delight! PLEASE come back! I'm begging you!"

I kinda felt sorry for her then, but not sorry enough to go back to work. Especially during hot Surprise. I just shook my head at her. She drooped and dripped soggily away from the swimming hole.

"What was all that about?" Archonandi asked as he resheathed his sword.

"I have NO IDEA." I lifted my paws from the water, pads out. "But I'm gonna find out!"