4. Abi

IN WHICH A brEAKDOWN IN LEADERSHIP LEADS OUR INTREPID GUARDS TO SEEK OUTSIDE HELP

"Still nothing?" Abi asked as she and Senka sat down to their lunch a week later.

"Nothing. You would think that after a week they would've figured something out," Senka answered, opening their lunch. "I'm just not convinced that they're actually looking. The Shift-Captain didn't believe me, I'm sure both he and Gufi wrote that in their reports."

"Yes, but both of our reports were very clear about what we saw. I don't see how they couldn't investigate it. Who knows what it could even mean! She moved!"

"I know," they said, rubbing the back of their neck. "We should have written about the snackcident, I bet that would motivate them to clean the lake or something."

Senka started swaying back and forth, refusing to look at Abi as they continued. "Listen, I was thinking, most of my recipes make enough for more than one person. I didn't ask you at first in case it all tasted horrible, but maybe tomorrow I could bring what I make, and then you wouldn't have to make your lunch. That way you could give me tips and ways to improve. I'm still not sure how my food will taste to anyone else's palate. I think it's good, but it might taste like dirt to you, and I wouldn't even know."

They looked at her with eyes huge and pleading, as if she could ever say no. Abi's new affliction, her pathetic little crush on Senka, liked that idea very much. Her stomach flipped with joy at the thought that Senka wanted to do something so special for her, that they wanted their food to taste good to Abi.

They want their food to taste good to humans, not you specifically. And be professional, for Lady's sake.

"I'd be happy to! Though, I hate to tell you, I'm not any wonderful food critic or renowned chef. I can tell you if it tastes too strange, but I'm afraid I won't be giving much in the way of helpful feedback," Abi said with a grimace.

Senka giggled, patting Abi on the shoulder, sending a now-familiar thrill through her body. "At this juncture, I'm aiming for edible, so we can start there," they reassured her. "I don't have any books about baking, though ..."1

"Oh! I could see if my mum has any you could borrow!" Abi volunteered, nodding her head, certain she was smiling entirely too wide.

"That would be wonderful," Senka said, their wisps vibrating again. "Though, I was wondering if maybe you could show me sometime? I'm worried I will get it all wrong ..."

Joy suffused Abi like the sun after a rainstorm. Even if her feelings for Senka might be complicating things for her, she was more than happy to have them for a friend, and thrilled that they wanted to spend time with her. She really wasn't certain how helpful she would be; she was honestly happy just to spend quality time with them.

As was often the case, they ate in an easy silence. Senka would ask about Abi's family, or Abi would tell them about her night. After a short while, they turned because there was noise coming from the cavern.

Sirin and Sigfinn entered, waving at them. Things had been quiet for the last week or so after Sirin and her husband's fertility ritual.

"Hello," Sirin called, her voice lowered to preserve the sanctity of the room. "I'm so sorry we haven't been by, I was quite indisposed for the last little bit and took a few days off."

Next to her, Sigfinn raised his eyebrow ridges and smiled. They all knew why she'd been indisposed, and Abi wasn't sure it was any of her business.

"That's all right, things have been quiet around here since the big snackcident," Senka said, waving her off.

Sirin frowned, looking between them. "Big snackcident? What do you mean? Did I miss something?"

"We just had a situation last week. We thought we saw the Lady move, but since no one else saw, it seems like they aren't investigating," Senka continued. "And it was a snackcident because in the commotion Abi dropped some cookies, and then a few crumbs might have ended up in the Lady's lake."

Senka reached over to grab Abi's hand, squeezing tightly before tilting their head toward the researchers.

Both stared at Senka, rapt at their words. "Move? She moved?" Sirin squealed, bouncing on her toes and looking extremely interested.

"What do you mean move?" Sigfinn asked, his big eyes even wider than normal.

"Well, we were chatting on break, and then suddenly, she just ... twitched her arm," Abi explained, catching on to the fact that these two might actually be allies.

Sigfinn pulled out a notebook and pencil as Sirin peppered them with a litany of questions about which arm had twitched, the time of day, the weather, the topic of their conversation, the date, and all sorts of other details they could barely recall. After telling Sigfinn to make a note to look up the moon phase on the day, Sirin stopped speaking abruptly, her mouth dropping open. She gasped, covering her mouth with her hands and Abi thought she looked like she might cry.

"It was the day of our ritual," she whispered. "I don't dare assume the Lady was answering us, but—oh Sig, this could be exactly what we've been waiting for!"

Hands shaking in front of her face, Sirin turned to pace along the bank. "Don't get too excited, we don't want to draw any spurious conclusions," she said, quite to herself.

"It was during the ritual, now that you mention it ..." Abi observed. Sirin's arm shot out, silencing her.

"Please, I can't afford to hope. I need facts. Though, I suppose that is, in fact, a fact. I'm sorry, I'm just so flustered." Sirin's face softened. "Have either of you ever seen such a thing before?"

Senka's features twisted in confusion as their eyes roamed across Abi's face. Abi nodded, ever so slightly and squeezed their hand. They were still holding hands, and the thought made Abi feel like she was swooping through the sky as her owl.

"Maybe? This is the first time I have ever had anyone near me at the time, and all of the other times, well, I had convinced myself that I was making it up. Now, I'm not so sure," Senka said, shoulders hunched, their hand wrapped tightly around Abi's.

"I see," Sirin said, nodding, "it can be easy to doubt yourself in such circumstances. It seems to me we need some method of obtaining proof. Before we can begin to explore why she might be rousing, we need to establish that it is, in fact, happening."

Abi snuck a glance at Senka's face, trying to gauge their reaction to Sirin inserting herself in the situation. They looked ... lighter. Their wisps swayed slower, serene and possibly curious. Their tendrils followed Sirin's pacing and reached toward her when she neared. Traitors.

"All right, I like it," Abi agreed, pleased when a few tendrils wrapped themselves around her arm. "Do you have any ideas?"

"I do have one idea ... though I am unsure if I will be able to get the materials, or if I correctly remember the process." Sirin slowed her pacing because Sigfinn snorted. "What?"

"I've yet to know you to ‘not remember something correctly,'" he observed with a shrug. "If you've read it, I have confidence that you will remember.2 What would we need?"

"A plate of copper, silver, mercury, probably some sort of twine to put around each of her digits—" she said, ticking things off on her fingers.

"Twine for her digits?" Abi squealed, aghast. "You can't possibly mean to tie twine around her fingers and toes! She's, she's, she's the Lady!"

"Well, I know—I know," Sirin allowed, her shoulders bunching. "But we can't wait for her to move around the clock. It does feel less than reverent, but it would be the easiest way to know ..."

Senka, who had just started to look excited and hopeful, shrank in on themself again. Abi's stomach clenched at the sight. She hated seeing Senka like this, she was desperate to get them proof, but the idea of tying strings to their Lady was out of the question, and Senka well knew it. Only those guards with the proper training were permitted to touch her, and the twine would be immediately visible. Further, Abi just didn't see how a bunch of metals and twine were going to provide them the evidence they needed.

"And those things will somehow prove she's moving?" Abi asked, shaking her head.

Sirin opened her mouth to speak, but Sigfinn excitedly talked over her. "Actually, they will! It's for this machine Sirin's told me about, it can capture an image and fix it onto a bit of metal. So, when the Lady moves, it will capture a picture of either the ripples originating from her, or better yet, show that she's changed positions! So, you can see why we need the twine, we need to trigger the capture the second she moves!"

Sigfinn was waving his webbed hands about, gesturing wildly as he continued to talk, going into the details of how it worked. He was still in that gangly stage, where his torso hadn't grown into his limbs, and if the situation weren't so serious, Abi thought she might have giggled. His arm movements wafted air at her, and Abi was reminded of the ripples she and Senka had seen on the water. Then, that reminded her of when she fished, the ripples disturbed her bobber and would make her think she had a fish on the line, when perhaps it was just the wind.

"What about some sort of float? Like a fishing bobber, if it moved that could trigger the capture, couldn't it?" she blurted, likely in the middle of Sigfinn's continuing explanation. Everyone turned to her, Senka's face was open and curious, Sigfinn's was a little confused, but she watched Sirin's face transform from pursed-lip consideration to open-mouthed joy.

"That could work wonderfully!" Sirin said, clasping her hands over her heart and bouncing on the balls of her feet. "And you are an owl shifter, right? So, you could fly them over without disturbing her? Wonderful, so, Sig, we are going to need ..." Sirin turned abruptly to walk away, apparently done talking to them now that they had a viable plan. As they walked away, Sirin waved over her shoulder and called that they would return as soon as they had the supplies.

Turning to her friend, Abi could see that Senka was just as overwhelmed by the experience as she was. They smiled at her, and her stomach did its now-familiar impression of housing butterflies. Senka looked down to their still linked hands, their tendrils almost disappearing as they sunk into Abi's skin. Now that she'd realized, Abi could feel them, almost as a memory of movement. They waved slightly faster than what she was used to, almost matching her quickened pulse. Sucking in a quick breath, Abi looked up to see Senka standing so close, their glowing eyes inches from her, the tickle of their tendrils caressing her all over.

A delicious pressure built between her thighs, and she could feel wetness begin to pool there. Senka obviously had little control or knowledge of what their wisps were up to, because Abi felt one brush against her core, so faint she almost missed it. Abi swayed toward her friend, abjectly mortified but unable to move away. Senka's tendrils, with their not-quite-solid pressure, held her in place, perhaps even pulled her closer. The corner of Senka's deep mouth quirked up, the glint of one of their sharp canines peeking out.

"I was thinking," they said, their multitude of appendages releasing her, unwinding carefully to make sure Abi was stable. "That it might actually be more instructive if we cooked together, instead of me just bringing you lunch. What do you think? Would you want to come by after work tomorrow and cook with me?"

"Yes."

Abi didn't even think about it, didn't even have the chance. Parts of her that were not her conscious self were in control at the moment, and they clearly knew what they wanted. They wanted to spend as much time with Senka as possible. Laughing with Senka, touching Senka, and having those tempting tendrils sink into her wherever they pleased.

1.Mama Ospak's Lemon-Lavender Shortbread 1 cup all-purpose flour1/4 tsp. salt1/3 cup granulated sugar1 1/2 tsp. culinary lavender1 tsp. finely grated lemon zest1/2 cup unsalted butter softened1/2 tsp. vanilla extractpure cane sugar for sprinkling, if desiredGrind lavender, lemon zest, and granulated sugar in a mortar with pestle until fully infused. Mix butter and sugar mixture until fluffy. Add flour, form into a puck, and chill, covered in the icebox until firm. Roll out, sprinkle with remaining sugar. Bake for 12 minutes at 325*F or until golden brown.

2.Luckily Sigfinn no longer holds the delusion of my infallibility. While I remembered the required components for this, there are a great many things that I have forgotten over the years, especially appointments that Berne told me about but didn't tell my assistant to remind me of. Truly, the man is a gem.