ARCANE INTOLERANCE
Celeste hadn’t gotten a very good night’s sleep. It probably had something to do with all the banging going on upstairs, but even once the knight wore himself out trying fruitlessly to break free of the arcane cell she’d made, her conscience wouldn’t let her rest. She had never imprisoned someone before, not of her own volition anyway, and it felt…bad.
But she was determined to make things right.
The noxscura told her it still had him trapped, so Celeste sent Plum to watch the knight from the hall—not that the wyvern could do anything, but it did make her feel a little better about leaving both of them alone—and she hurried off into town with a plan.
Halfway to Briarwyke, Celeste hustled around a bend and came upon the woman who could disappear into the shadows, Kori she’d been called. She was carrying a massive basket and immediately turned to eye Celeste which made both of them stop short.
Crickets, what good luck—if anyone could possibly understand…
“Good morning,” she called, giving her a wave.
“No.” Kori turned away for Briarwyke proper as if Celeste were not even there.
Under almost any other circumstance, Celeste would have shrunk herself into the shadows and wept at that—in fact, she wouldn’t have even ventured the greeting at all for fear of eliciting that exact response—but today had started out so horribly that she only hurried along to catch up because it absolutely had to improve. “Having a bad morning? So am I.”
The short woman glanced sideways at her, lips already twisted into a frown. That couldn’t be the best answer she was going to get.
“Can wepleasespeak for a moment, Kori?”
She clicked her tongue and glanced back to the road, Briarwyke still a few minutes southward. “I suppose I don’t have much of a choice.”
Relieved, Celeste made a thoughtful noise, and glanced into her basket. It was filled with newly harvested goods, lots of leafy greens and white shoots that smelled of onion. “Are you a gardener?” With all of her weaponry, Kori didn’t really seem like the type, but Celeste liked the idea of the woman using a dagger as a spade instead of its actual, stabby intent.
“What do you want?” she grumbled, not an answer.
“I think I need your help.”
Kori snorted. “Oh, that sucks for you since you’re not going to get it.”
Celeste’s steps slowed, but then she resteeled herself and caught up again. “Please, I just need a bit of advice.”
“I do advice even less than I do help. Go ask Halfrida instead.”
Celeste thought of the woman with the kind eyes and the firm voice who ran the inn and tavern, then shook her head. “No, it has to be you. You don’t seem like you’ll judge me too much for what I did.”
Kori’s gaze sharpened from under her fall of dark hair, interest sparked.
Celeste took a deep breath. “So, I’m not sure exactly how to—”
“Time’s up.”
“I have a man locked up in the temple!”
The woman came to an abrupt halt, interest aflame.
“There was this knight, he just showed up, and then he attacked me out of nowhere. He wouldn’t listen to anything I said, he just kept calling me a witch, and I’mnota witch. I didn’t mean to imprison him, but it just sort of happened, and now I don’t know what to do with him.”
“The holy knight that came into the village a day ago?” Kori started off again, but she was smirking.
“You met him?” Celeste’s stomach flipped over.
“Isawhim. His horse is at the Dew Drop. Big guy, huge sword, kinda dumb looking?”
She wasn’t sure about the dumb-looking part. “Um, most of those things, I guess. He serves Valcord and came to the temple tovanquish the evil within,”—this she said in a low, mocking tone—“which apparently he thinks is me. I was only trying to protect myself, but he wouldn’t stop with all the slashing and the divine spells,”—and this she punctuated with a wobbly pull of her arm through the air—“and the next thing I knew, I had him locked up in a bed chamber.”
“Well, if you don’t already know what to do with a man you’ve got tied to your bed, then I’m not sure me telling you is going to help.”
