Rorri

　　Rorri would never remember the feeling of coming back to reality. His mind mercifully blotted it out. The world had never been so loud, its smell so overwhelming. The life and magic that lit the forest blinded him all over again. Every fiber of the carpet scraped his skin as if he were laying on a bed of rusted nails. If the Guard hadn`t starved him for so long, he would have soiled Shacia`s floor. He sent the knife away, begging it to take him back, but it wouldn`t let him.

　　But he remembered coming out of that dreadful fog to see Shacia`s worried, periwinkle face in perfect detail. He felt her one hand on his cheek, while the other stroked his hair. He remembered her soothing voice - It`s okay, it`s okay, I`m here&

　　"H-hi," he said with a small smile. Shacia breathed a deep, shaky sigh. Rorri flinched as a wet drop hit his nose. Tears did not emit light, though he saw her eyes wrinkle clearly. His gaze drifted down, and he spooked again, looking away.

　　"Y-you`re naked," he blurted out.

　　"...What?"

　　"S-sorry - it`s really hard to explain - I can see things better, now, sort of, so instead of clusters of random lights like before, I can see peoples` whole bodies of light - I can see you quite clearly, actually - but I can`t see objects, mostly, which, erm, includes clothes, so - well, it`s not that I don`t quite enjoy you, how you look, I mean - but it seems wrong not to let you know, at least." He tittered. "Um, I think I can s-see magic as well, so if it would make you more comfortable, you can, you know, illusion some clothes on, and that would cover you up - that`s why I didn`t know it was you at the&"

　　Shacia shushed him gently, touching a finger to his lips.

　　"Thank you for letting me know," she whispered with a bemused smile. He glanced down again - without moving his head, as much as he could, eyes still covered by his blindfold - to find her wearing her comfortable clothes, with the pants cinched at the ankles, and the soft river of silk sloping down her shoulders. He opened his mouth to speak again, but before he could, she pulled him into a hug so tight it squeezed the breath from his lungs. The initial shock passed, and he squeezed back even tighter. They melted into each other, silent, warm and soft, and they stayed that way for a long time, just breathing each other`s dust.

　　"Thank you," he whispered into her ear. "Without you, I`d be d-dead tomorrow&"

　　She sniffed, burying her face in his neck.

　　"It worked, then?" she said. He nodded.

　　"I can`t begin to understand it. You`re brilliant, you know. You`re the smartest person I`ve ever met."

　　"Oh, stop," she chuckled.

　　"I`ve missed you so much," he said.

　　"I`ve missed you too..."

　　Her shoulders shook. He squeezed her again. They fit together so perfectly. He wished he had hugged her like this before. Maybe it wouldn`t have changed anything, but it didn`t seem right that this was the first time, and probably the last.

　　"You can`t stay for long," she said. He nodded. He already knew.

　　"Is it n-nighttime?"

　　"Yes. Everyone`s asleep, for now. We have maybe just over an hour before sunrise&"

　　"They might come looking for you," Rorri said with a jolt, pulling away. "If they find out I was your s-student-"

　　"They already came," she said. "I showed them your invitation to the lessons, dated after the Widow` stole from my family. It wasn`t hard to sell the narrative that we were just taken advantage of. I`m safe, Rorri, please don`t worry about me-"

　　She winced and jerked away as her shattered legs lit up again.

　　Rorri wrinkled his brow. "You`re in pain&"

　　"Woman`s blood," she said. "I got to postpone the wedding because of it, so it has its perks-"

　　When she spoke, her breath had that same smokey gray he had seen coming from Mum, obscuring some of her voice`s color underneath. She tensed through another spasm, still silent as she could be.

　　"But-"

　　"Don`t worry about me, Rorri," she said in that tone she took when she meant it. He knew her well enough. He wouldn`t be able to draw it from her, not in an hour, the last hour they might ever have.

　　"You need to leave the city&"

　　"I know," he said.

　　"I want you to have the Madam`s necklace. I`m sure traveling with the weapon was exhausting, so this should be a bit easier on you. We had papers made, so you can leave through the gate as long as you`re disguised."

　　Rorri nodded. To all of this, he was numb. He couldn`t let himself feel it, not yet. The whole walk to the Plateau, he`d thought about what was going to happen. But they only had an hour. He couldn`t let it go to waste.

　　"That weapon," he started, his voice trailing off. The rage that he`d felt when he first saw it, that sickness that overwhelmed him had abated long before he reached the manor. He was just too exhausted to hang onto it. He still wanted to know, but he sensed that the burden of knowing might not be worth the knowledge itself.The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

　　"It has to do with& With what I found out about the military. I`m sorry, Rorri, but I can`t tell you. Believe me, I don`t think you really want to know. And if it ever got back to me, then-"

　　"It`s okay," he said. "I understand."

　　"I`m so sorry," she whispered. A long silence passed between them. They had so little time&

　　"There`s s-something about me - something you need to know," Rorri said. "But I can`t just t-tell you& I can, but I want you to see it& I want you to understand."

　　"What do you mean&?"

　　"The M閟poulis&" Rorri`s throat bobbed. He saw her eyes light up as soon he said it, that curious sparkle he knew so well. "The Belethlian elves` mind-reading` magic - it`s not what people think it is, and I`m not s-supposed to tell you about it at all, but you`re the only one I trust - the only one I`d ever trust with it."

　　"Are you sure?" she said. Rorri nodded.

　　"It lets you read a person`s memories," he said. "I told you how people get lost in the forest. They do it to the stragglers they find, to make sure it`s safe to bring them in - make sure they`re not taking in a murderer or r-rapist or something. I had it done to me once, before, and it goes by in an instant to the person who`s being read, but it leaves you with this weird sense that the person who was reading you was there all along, for your whole life, watching&"

　　"That sounds& unsettling."

　　"It is, and it never really goes away, but, um&" He chuckled. "Well, I did it to Poppy - I didn`t even mean to - but he wouldn`t leave me alone after that, in a good way."

　　"You got to read my Poppy`s mind?" Shacia squealed. "That`s amazing, Rorri! Oh, I`m so jealous! What was it like?"

　　"I saw when he was a kitten, and I saw when you f-found him," he said. He watched as her core warmed her aura, cheeks pushing into her smiling eyes. "I watched him grow up with you. He really loved that pink pillow on your bed, so you always let him have it, but - well, as far as he was concerned, it was his to begin with. He hissed and hid under the bed any time the M-Madam came in. He never caught a mouse in his life, and he wouldn`t even bat at a fly, he just watched them. He definitely wasn`t a hunter. He wouldn`t have survived if you hadn`t found him."

　　"I told you he`s the sweetest boy," Shacia said, beaming. "So& he must have thought you were there the whole time, too? That you were there when I found him?"

　　"I think so, yes," Rorri said. "But, um, I found out that when you`re the person doing the M閟poulis, it`s like you`re living it - living whatever the person went through - you`re not just watching it, you`re& You`re right there, behind their eyes. You can`t feel things the same way, exactly, and you obviously can`t do anything, but it`s still very intense, and it f-feels like you`re in there for a long time. Maybe not a whole lifetime, but& I don`t know, it`s sort of hard to remember when you come out of it. Maybe you only see the most important memories, the things that made the biggest impression, or maybe you really are in there for their whole life, and you only retain some of it. I don`t know how it works, but&"

　　He let his voice trail off. The more he described it, the more he realized how much it was to ask, how much he would be subjecting her to.

　　"You said there`s something about you that I need to know, that you want me to see?"

　　"I can t-teach you how to do it, if you want," he said, speaking quickly. "But only if you want - there`s a lot of, um, very dark things you`d have to see, and the more I think about it, the more I-"

　　"Of course I want to," she interrupted, taking his hand.

　　"Are you sure?"

　　"I might have to get naked first," she teased. Rorri chortled.

　　"I guess it won`t be easy to keep your clothes on while you`re in my head," he said, provoking her giggling snort. "But, um& If you really do want to read me - there`s death, and war, and things that I`ve done, things I`m not proud of& Are you really, really sure you want to put yourself through that?"

　　"Rorri&" She ran her thumb along the rough skin on his knuckles. "I don`t think you understand what an honor and privilege it is that you`d even be willing to let me in that deeply."

　　Rorri flushed, then took a deep breath.

　　"It might change everything," he whispered, dropping his head. She tucked an errant strand of hair behind his ear.

　　"I`m not worried about that."

　　They sat quietly, just holding hands. Rorri found himself swaying left to right as if he might fall asleep, but his heart was thrashing with fear.

　　"You have to evoke from s-somewhere else," he said. "Not your fingers or eyes or voice - it`s more like& Like the pit of your brain. You feel it in your neck. And then you send it out of your ears, sort of, with a phrase, like you would anything else. When I did it to Poppy, the phrase I had was show me your whiskers`."

　　Shacia chuckled. "That`s adorable."

　　"I know," he said with a sheepish grin. "But when it happened to me, I remember hearing her Will into my head say show me who you are`. And you`ll have to look into my eyes, like you want to crawl into them, with your fingers on my forehead - evoke in your brain, and out your ears, and crawl into my head. Does that m-make sense?"

　　"It does, actually," she said. "You`ll have to take off your blindfold."

　　"Oh - right." Rorri untied it and set it on the floor beside him. He fluffed out his hair, keeping his head low, his nerves hammering against the inner shell of his skin. Shacia gently nudged his chin up, and his eyes fluttered open. Looking into hers always shocked him, and this was no different, but her eyes were brighter than he`d ever seen. Magic simmered behind them, in the depths of her head, like a light at the end of a dark tunnel.

　　"You`re amazing," he said. "I can see you`re doing quite well - are you sure you`ve never done this before?"

　　She smiled. "No, I never have. But I`ve dreamed about it hundreds of times."

　　Before he even realized he was doing it, Rorri leaned forward and took her lips in a kiss - the boldest he`d ever been - and she leaned in without hesitation.

　　"Finally," she said as they parted. Rorri grinned and snuck another kiss in, which she returned just as sweetly, lingering as long as they could. He guided her hand to his forehead, pressing her thumb into the place between his eyebrows, in the groove at the top of his nose.

　　"Are you ready?" she said. She never ceased to amaze him with the strength of her magic - it took her no time at all to figure out this strange new way of evoking. Rorri nodded, smiling, trying not to cry.

　　As she imparted her Will, he felt her pierce through the thin veil that covered his mind, a painless arrow shot by a master of the bow. In the space between his ears, where one can only hear their own thoughts, her voice rang clear as a bell:

　　S H O W M E Y O U R W H I S K E R S