The Ether Witch

“So? What do you think?” Jeong’s face was bright and eager as he clutched Luca’s slim shoulders.

The boy’s dark eyes were fixated thoughtfully on the wooden floorboards of the inn they had slept in the first night in Zinfera. Jeong had just finished explaining his plan on having Tam and Eli pose as a married couple, with Luca as their son. Tam sat off on his own in a corner, pouring over a Zinferan map so that he could best understand the new route they would be taking to Junya as opposed to the wide expanse of the Torti Desert.

The future duke was far enough away that he couldn’t overhear the conversation, and it most likely was for the better. While he intended to talk to Luca about their revised travel plans, he would not have been able to explain the plan with the same enthusiasm as Jeong.

Thanks to Jeong’s exuberant delivery method, Luca cracked a smile. “Does that mean I get to call Tam, father?”

“Of course! It’d be strange if you called him anything else! You’ll have to call Eli mother as well– hopefully that doesn’t bother you!” Jeong responded sunnily while dropping his hands back to his sides.

Luca hesitated, his smile fading as his eyes rounded.

Jeong, seeing this, changed his mood swiftly to match. “Oh Goddess! I’m terribly sorry! You must miss her! I’m sure we can-”

Blinking rapidly, Luca gave his head a firm shake. “N-No, it’s fine. I… I want to.”

Jeong started to wince and inch back from Luca as he noticed the telling gleam of tears in the boy’s eyes that he was battling against.

“Would… Would you like a dumpling? It’s hard to be sad with a dumpling! Here!” Jeong reached over to the table where he had been eating breakfast before Luca had come downstairs, and shoved two dumplings into his own cheeks. Making his round face bulge like a chipmunk hoarding his entire winter supplies in a single mouthful.

“THee?! Har’ ta b’ thad!” Jeong waved his hands out demonstratively, and Luca couldn’t help but giggle in the face of such absurdity.

“Everything alright here?” Tam’s voice sounded behind Jeong, making him jump.

The Zinferan was unable to respond still as he struggled to finish consuming the dumplings.

Seeing this and raising his eyebrows in bemusement, Tam didn’t bother waiting for a coherent answer from Jeong, and instead looked to Luca who, by that time, looked right as rain.

“Luca, mind joining me outside? I have to go over a few things before we leave today. I ordered breakfast for you, so it should be ready for you once we return.”

Luca nodded tentatively, and so his father reached out and gently started to guide him toward the door, though the boy still stole a glance over his shoulder at Jeong and gave his best conspiratorial wink, and Jeong responded by giving him two thumbs up with as much of a grin as his bulging cheeks could spare.

*

“You really don’t mind having to be involved with this…?” Tam asked his son carefully as the pair stood just outside the inn. Despite being no more than a foot or two from the thick wooden door with its black grate window, the father and son were already on the hem of the morning traffic of the port town. Though the clientele that filed by them were not of the cleanly or refined walks of life.

Luca wrinkled his nose as one particularly odorous fellow stumbled past them, his jaw jutting forward revealing more missing teeth than remaining, and his clothes tattered.

“I-I’m fine with it… But… I… I can really call you… father?” Luca had been excited when he’d first realized that this was a possibility with the new plan, however, having to think about it on his own or with Jeong was entirely different than bringing it up to Tamlin Ashowan.

Tam stiffened, his shoulders broadening as a result. “No.”

The tears were instantaneous, and so Luca directed his gaze to the tips of his crude, woven shoes, his lips quivering, his heart aching…

“Being called ‘father’ sounds far too awkward. I call my own father da, so that might be odd as well… Dad works. What do you think?”

Luca’s face snapped upward, and it was the second time that morning that Tam jolted in surprise.

“Wh– Oh… Shit. I’m sorry, Luca! I should have clarified sooner!”

“N-No! I’m stupid for crying!” Luca breathed angrily before wiping his eyes on his right sleeve. “I don’t cry like this! Not all the time! It’s- it’s really really stupid!”

Tam slapped his own face before rubbing his hand over it in vexation for his own blunder. “No, Luca, I’m the stupid one. You’re getting dragged across a kingdom with your estranged father who you’ve never gotten to meet until a few weeks ago, and you’re now getting involved in matters I can’t even fully explain. The fact that all you’re doing is occasionally crying is… Both incredible and worrisome from my point of view.”

“S-Sorry.”

“Don’t be, Luca. I’m sorry. Again. The reason I didn’t want you calling me dad or father before was-”

“THERE’S BONG’S CARRIAGE!” Jeong exploded from the inn, his left cheek still stuffed full, and another dumpling in his right hand that he expertly shoved into Luca’s mouth while pointing at the black peaked carriage approaching them.

Tam turned around to see the vehicle approach, the two horses pulling it stomping to a stop, and casting clouds of dust up into hot, morning air.

Bong opened the door and bounded out of the carriage with a bright smile.

“We got everything for the trip fooor a young Mr. Luca,” he bowed to the boy who was struggling to chew through the dumpling that had been delivered forcefully into his mouth, and produced a pair of black leather boots.

“Fank oo!”

“Do not mention it, Mr. Luca,” Bong reassured happily while then stepping to the side. “But I also have the great privilege of introducing you to your wife, Tam!”

Tam opened his mouth to object to the theatrics, before Bong swept his arm out, and Eli stepped from the carriage, looking wildly grumpy that she was forced into going along with Bong’s antics…

She wore a icy blue top that tied to the side, with pink flowers embroidered near the shoulders, a long, full, white skirt that Luca instantly thought should be nowhere near the dirty road… Her short hair had been slicked back with water, but a silver hair pin with a dainty white flower rested near her right ear.

Tam was struck speechless.

Luca gaped at Eli as well, even noting that she had painted lines on her eyelids and a flattering blush on her lips…

She looked incredibly pretty, and despite having a face full of food, it made Luca smile, then it made his smile grow when he looked up at his father and saw how red his ears were.

“Goddess’s pool, did you ever make her lovely!” Jeong complimented his brother who grinned and turned his nose up proudly in response.

“I thought so! Turns out our sister does have excellent taste after all. I never would’ve thought listening to her talk about trends would ever result in me learning anything!” Bong informed Jeong distractedly.

Meanwhile, Luca, having swallowed his dumpling, peered up at his father as he continued staring at Eli who, by that time, was blushing herself.

“Isn’t she pretty?” Luca pressed quietly.

Tam cleared his throat and managed to spare a glance at his son. “Er. Yes. Yes, Eli you look… Quite nice.”

“Do you think he’s ever had to compliment a woman before?” Jeong whispered loudly to his brother.

“Not one he wasn’t related to. It’s obvious,” Bong returned, his whisper even less subtle.

Both Tam and Eli turned to stare at their Zinferan guides to give near identical flat looks.

The brother’s merely smiled, as though they hadn’t allowed their conversation to be overheard.

“Well! Shall we let mini Tam change into the clothes we got him and start journeying toward Junya?” Bong stepped over to Luca, and without waiting for an answer, ushered him back into the inn, leaving both Tam and Eli alone in the street.

Tam cleared his throat and moved them into his pockets. “You do look-”

“My lord it is unnecessary,” Eli dismissed firmly before holding out her hand to him.

Tam stared at it, completely befuddled.

When he did at last reach out his palm to her, she huffed. “Your left hand.”

Tam still had no idea what was happening, until his assistant proceeded to shove a gold band over his wedding finger, and it was then he noticed that she was already wearing one.

Eli still had not yet been able to meet her employer’s eyes, and when she turned to the inn doors, it seemed she didn’t intend to say anything else to him either.

“Eli?”

She turned, and it was plain to see that while she was trying to look composed as usual, there was discomfort and vulnerability storming beneath her mask.

Tam understood all too well how to handle the situation.

“Do you think you can finish packing my books, but leave out the maps and the letters that my father shared with me from Lord Jiho Ryu? I want to review what he has said in the past about the state of Junya while we travel today.”

Lowering her chin obediently, her shoulders relaxing, she responded. “Yes, my lord.”

“Thank you, Eli. For… All of this. You’re a loyal assistant, and dedicated to your employer. I’m sure you won’t have any problems in the future finding work with any magistrate you wish to learn under.”

Eli bowed again. “Of course, my lord.”

Was there a hint of a smile on her mouth just then?

Tam gave a quiet laugh as he then reached for the door handle. At least they both understood nothing had really changed between them. Even if they were pretending to be married.

When Tam opened the door for both himself and his assistant to re-enter the establishment, however, he found their way blocked by Jeong and Bong, who had quite obviously been listening to the entire conversation through the grate.

They remained comically frozen. That is until Jeong looked to Bong and said, “You know, I don’t hear any termites in this door, I think the innkeeper has nothing to worry about!”

“That’s truly excellent news for the man! I’ll go share this with him while I pay our bill!” Bong cleared his throat and hurried over to the innkeeper who had just set a plate down filled with rice, fermented cabbage, and a rolled omelet in front of Luca who stared at the fare uncertainly.

“Yes! Wonderful thinking!” Jeong rushed after his brother.

Tam closed his eyes while taking a very long, slow breath.

He was having a hard time reconciling the wise, calm Jiho Ryu having sons that were so carefree and energetic…

“Do you think they are going to be like this the entire time we are here in Zinfera?” the future duke asked with a subtle note of good humor, and a more pronounced level of exhaustion.

“I’m inclined to think so, my lord. Oh… I… I forgot to tell you,” Eli spoke up, her voice oddly high pitched all of a sudden.

Tam looked down at her at his side, while also feeling several eyes swivel toward her from the dim shadows of the inn, and feeling himself grow somewhat agitated as a result…

“Because I now… look like this…” Eli said haltingly. “You probably should call me by my name.”

Tam rounded on her so abruptly that she staggered back a half step.

“Eli, you really don’t have to if you don’t want to. We can make up another-”

“Elisara.”

Tam’s mouth hung open as he had been in the middle of speaking, but he closed it… Then casually folded his arms across his chest.

“Elliesara? Ellie?”

“Less E sound. More of a… A ‘eh’, and– You’re making fun of me aren’t you?”

Tam held up his hands in surrender. “I would never. I was just thinking it’s a very Daxarian sounding name.”

Eli’s eyes narrowed as though she didn’t quite believe him, but she was tired from having to wake up early and go shopping at Bong’s unrelenting insistence, and so she abandoned any further accusations and stalked over to where Luca sat to take a seat.

Tam watched as she gracefully maneuvered the skirt, how her back had straightened, and her movements became gentler… It was as though the instant she had put on those clothes some unconscious part of her remembered how to act.

Closing the inn door behind himself, Tam was distracted from his drifting thoughts by the glint from the ring on his finger, and as a result, his stomach somersaulted.

Opening his palm up, he stared at the gold band.

It was a strange, uncomfortable sensation…

But at the very least when he was busy talking with Eli he hadn’t noticed it.

Lifting his attention to both Luca and Eli’s backs, Tam felt a larger emotion stirring… One that sparked more anxiety than he had ever known in his life, and as a result, he started to feel that damnable surge of magic in his being. It was pulling at his being, making his movements feel leaden, as it tried to summon him into the black void he feared terribly, and that forced him to lower his eyes as he focused on his every step carrying him over to Eli and Luca, hoping that the feeling would not last long.