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Chapter Thirty-Four: Kit Starts a Fire

Amid the crisp air and amber tones of their second autumn at the citadel, Jasper sits in one of the citadel's gardens. Twirling the brittle stem of a yellow-speckled leaf, he calls out colors to Skander.

From where she stands beside Jasper, Edeline slowly counts backward from seven every time a color is shouted out. It's her first time being an observer to this game instead of the archer being directed.

With his bow in hand and a quiver tied to his belt, Skander's eyes scan the colored wooden targets that hang intermittently among the tree branches. Any time Jasper calls out a color, Skander must locate the corresponding target, take aim, and successfully hit his mark before Edeline finishes her count.

The soft mist of the morning is so enticing, and the copper quality of the light so inviting, that others have come to sit outside as well. Skander, willing his fingers not to quake from the tension of an audience, hits each target steadily.

The last one is painted a rust-orange and hangs the farthest away. It's the most challenging mark by far-- not only for its distance, but for the way its color blurs into the warmth of autumnal foliage. Skander takes careful aim, breath slowing as he wills his eyes to sharpen and his arms to keep from loosening the arrow prematurely.

Just as Edeline reaches "one", his final shot rings true. The arrow sinks decisively into the orange-painted wood.

Even while panting from the exertion, as well as the sudden onslaught of every nervous feeling he'd so far been biting back, Skander is visibly overjoyed. The sudden look of elation as he lowers his bow makes his onlookers wonder if he had been expecting this to go half as well as it had.

Jasper is ecstatic, flinging his leaf to the side and scrambling up to throw his arms around Skander. "You did it!" he exclaims. This is the first time Skander's hit every mark within the seven-second limit. Edeline delivers her congratulations as well, basking in the glow of having her tutelage finally pay off.

"Thank you," Skander tells them, still smiling.

He couldn't have accomplished it without them: Edeline has tried her best to disseminate two decades of archery knowledge to something palatable for a newcomer like him. And Jasper is someone who has been so easy to confide in since their conversation after the chess game, so many months ago. From then on, the knowledge that Jasper understood something of how he felt had been invaluable.

His audience had grown to include Lionel and Zahara, hand-in-hand now as they often are. His brother's loud exclamations make Skander flush, but he doesn't have it in him to ask Lionel to quiet down.

Far removed from the small celebration, Skander realizes that at some point, Tai had come to watch too. Someone as rigid and poised as him stands out oddly under the crimson garland of the garden's trees. Despite this incongruity, though, there's something about the sight of Tai that makes Skander's joy go crooked. The resulting feeling is almost similar to nostalgia: an odd combination of pining and bitterness.

He tries to gauge Tai's reaction to his little victory: indifference, maybe? His feat certainly isn't as flashy as silver swords or golden shields. But the expression Tai is watching him with is one that he can't read at all. "Well done," is all he says.

Skander drags his eyes away, back to his brother and friends. But his mind is elsewhere: trying to parse through the look on Tai's face; calculating how many rustling, leaf-strewn steps there are between them.

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Tai wakes on the morning of his birthday to a face full of sleeping cat. He clicks his tongue in irritation. Puzzle has curled himself onto the bed's second pillow, a sizable gray lump that Tai already knows will leave behind countless scattered hairs.

As if sensing his owner's exasperation, Puzzle starts emitting a low rumbling sound. Tai softens immediately at the purring. He scratches Puzzle between the ears for a few minutes as the sun continues its slow rise.

Letting his cat have the bed, Tai washes his face, dresses, and runs a comb through his hair. Opening the door without much thought, he tenses right away when he sees who stands outside.

"What are you doing here? Your room isn't even in this hall," he says.

"I wanted to talk to you, if you're able to spare some of your precious time," Skander says.

His tone is edging on sharp, but Tai really has been busy lately, even with the dearth of new doors since summer. He's in constant communication with the council, requesting updates on Aedus Kade's training. He corresponds with the other outposts of those with chimera gifts; he receives scouting reports from soldiers who scope out the lower foothills of mountains in search of specters.

From what he can discern from the reports, there are specters hiding within the cracks of the mountain ranges in the north, south, and west, without a particular concentration in any one direction. It isn't exactly heartening news, but Tai would rather know this than be ignorant. And he might never have learned it, if he had let his attention slip to other things.

He's glad of his decision, he tells himself, even as Skander stands outside his bedroom door.

Tai opens his mouth to say something, but silently closes it again when Skander hurriedly hands him two objects. "For your birthday," he says.

The first is a cushion. The soft woolen material has been dyed purple, the color so rich Tai almost wonders if it will leave smears across his hands.

"Lionel helped me cut and sew the fabric. I thought it might be nice for Puzzle to have his own bed," Skander says, more ready to talk about this first gift than the second.

But Tai eyes the second one anyway, holding it up to better accommodate his vision. It's a brooch. The base is silver, with a ribbon draped decoratively around the small centerpiece of a miniscule clock gear. The ribbon is the same intense shade of purple as the cushion, but the vividness of the tone isn't what keeps Tai's eye on the object.

"Where did you get this gear from?" he asks, even though he knows already.

Skander has the grace to look embarrassed. "I'm sure you already know."

Tai remembers, two years ago now, when he had wanted to speak to Skander. He had sabotaged his own clock to have a reason to summon him.

"You stole from me," he says, trying to cover his delight. He lowers the brooch to better appreciate Skander's sheepish look.

"It's not as if I ran off with your family jewels," he says. "I only took the gear. Did you never notice that the clock was still broken?"

"I hardly used that room." But yes, he had noticed. But Skander had said not to call him back. Tai tilts the brooch around in his hand. "You made this alone?"

Skander straightens. He won't meet Tai's eye though, instead fixating on the gift still in his hand. "I asked Marikit for help, since she had been a jeweler back in the city."

That was sensible. Although Tai is mildly disappointed that this gift isn't from Skander's hands alone.

"I've been thinking about what you said. And you were right," Skander begins, still looking anywhere else but him. "About a small part of it, at least. I'm glad I dedicated more time to practicing with my bow, and I'm glad we're all keeping better track of what's happening in the rest of Beledon."

"Of course I was right. I wouldn't have lied to you."

"I know that. You mean what you say," Skander says, finally meeting his gaze. His expression is soft, warm. "It's one of the things I like about you. And I know it's a busy time, what with training and trying to keep track of the specters and what the council is up to. I've been thinking about it throughout the summer, and I understand that now. I just wanted to tell you that eventually, this will all slow down. And when it does, you can find me. Even though you're stubborn and aggravating and probably the most tactless person I know, I would still want you around."

The option is heady. Find him? Tai knows he would fall into him, easily. It's why he had been so quick to separate himself. His mother, when training him with swords and spears years ago, had always emphasized the need for absolute focus during times of crisis. "It will shock you, to see how fast a distraction can doom you," she had said.

Skander is distracting. When he's around, Tai thinks of little else besides him. When he isn't around, Tai will sometimes think of him still. And now he's offering to forgive Tai his earlier harshness, to come seek his company anyway.

Skander wishes him a happy birthday once more. Tai, feeling unraveled, watches him leave the hall. He asks the cool silver metal of the brooch in his hand for clarity, but comes up with nothing.

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That morning brings two notable developments.

The first is a letter addressed to Viveka Diaman, the girl who had volunteered to go in place of her family patriarch. She opens the letter after breakfast while still seated at the long wooden table outside.

Scanning its contents, she stands quickly in excitement. Puzzle— who had come over to try and swipe a crumb of biscuit from her plate— scatters, thinking her rapid movement had been with the intent to catch him. Viveka hardly notices.

"An ambassador is coming," she tells those still at the table. "From Antamery. She'll stop here on her way to Beledon to meet Aedus Kade."

Antamery is the city closest to Beledon, located across the mountains. Despite not being very far, the differences in its culture, customs, and local lore make it feel as distant as Jasper's world.

Perhaps the most notable discrepancy between the two cities is that Antamery has never seen any interference by the chimera. It's never received gifts, and its terrorization by specters is limited to isolated sightings by those that approach the mountains separating the cities.

"The council finally listened to me," Viveka says, beaming. "I've sent them so many letters about asking Antamery for help."

There had often been the same response: dealing with strange, chimera-driven occurrences has always been a challenge unique to Beledon. They have nothing to offer Antamery in exchange for getting mixed up in their dangerous situation.

"Now that they have Aedus Kade as a figurehead, they must think he'll win their aid over," Tai says flatly. He doesn't seem optimistic; from what he's heard of the man, their presumed hero doesn't sound particularly grand. "When will the delegation arrive?"

"In three weeks. They'll send more messages closer to then."

The second development is that Jasper excitedly calls them all to come up the stairs.

There's finally another door.

It's of ordinary wood like the previous two, with a knocker shaped to resemble a lioness.

"Who should go into this one?" Viveka asks. She's quietly hoping this will be her turn.

"No one's going in," Marikit makes her way to the forefront of the group surveying the door.

"Why not?" Viveka asks her.

"We want to lure the chimera to our world. The best way I can think of to draw something out is to taunt it."

"Sometimes I wonder how we didn't deduce your piracy past sooner," Tai drawls, unimpressed.

Any further questions are halted by Kit unearthing a knife (How did she pull that out so quickly? Viveka wonders) and prying at the door with it.

"What are you doing?" she's asked.

"It wants us to go through its doors so badly? How about we break one instead," Kit says, eyes glinting in her concentration. "Giada, put that strength to use. Grab the firewood axe from the kitchen and help me take this down."

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The chapter title comes to fruition on the stone walkway outside the citadel.

After Kit and Giada's exhaustion of nearly all the strength in their arms, the door has been reduced to a pile of wood that they carry outdoors. Kit sets it alight with flint and steel.

"Edeline, aren't your parents blacksmiths?"  she asks. She's taken her overcoat off after the heavy exertion of her work, her forehead shining in perspiration even as she continues to stand tall with her hands on her hips. After Edeline confirms that yes, that's the case, Kit tosses her the lioness knocker that Giada had managed to pull off the door. "Excellent. Find a way to melt this down, please."

As the blaze climbs higher, it really does feel like a taunt. If the chimera watches them from above somehow, the flames leap up to ensure it watches them.

Kit tilts her head up to the sky. The alternating cast of shadows with the fire's heat make her look like a tigress striped in darkness and light. Throwing an arm forward to gesture at the inferno she's created, she calls up to whatever watches.

"Here's your precious door," Kit shouts. She takes out the knife she had used to pry apart the wood and points it up into the clouds. "If you don't like it, come and do something about it. I'll wait."

She stalks back inside.

Still on the stone walkway, Viveka watches her go. "She's terrifying, sometimes," she says.

Dalmar, the gentle physician and Kit's proclaimed first friend, seems remarkably unfazed by it all.

"That's just Kit," he says.


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