“Not me!” I point at Zan. “He has a thing about destroying walls, I’m learning.”
Sunani’s lips quirk.
She’s taking this—us—well, I think?
“I’ve done thattwice,” Zan mutters.
“That I’ve been present for.”
He arches his eyebrows at me. “Shall we start counting how many walls we’ve each broken in five hundred years, then?”
Hmmm.
He’s had more time to break walls, but on the other hand, I did alotof destruction in a very short time before I created the Quiet—
“I’m still winning,” I finally say.
“Or losing,” Zan points out.
Valid, but that actually leaves me pensive as I take the first step inside.
Breaking down wallsisn’twhat I want to do, actually. I think I want to build them—but... differently?
With doors, maybe.
I stop in the entryway, blinking.
“What’s wrong?” Sunani asks.
“I was expecting to find my ice cream melted on the ground here,” I say slowly, coming to alertness. “I suppose with the house wide open anyone could have come in—
“It was me,” Zan cuts me off. “After I finished my search for Teren on the island I came back here to put it in the ice house before heading to the meeting. It’s past the kitchen—mmph.”
He breaks off in surprise when I practically tackle him in a kiss.
But how can I not, when he prioritized the people we care about and was still thinking of me and trying to support me all the while?
“You’re the best,” I tell him fervently as he blinks at me, a little dazed.
Ha.Idid that!
Happily I tug him after me, the place where our hands touch magically and existentially warm.
After a moment Zan must realize I don’t actually know where the ice house is because he tugs me a different way, out the door to where a much smaller ice house waits.
The ice cream is still alittlemelted, but not as bad as I feared.
Sunani asks, “Could you re-freeze it? Is that something sage powers can even do?”
“Great question,” I murmur.
“You don’tknow?”
I shrug. “My life was very focused on learning ways to murder people. Hang on, I think I’ve got this—”
Gathering my wrath, I spin into a new kata, flowing my magic through a form to increase wrath in the ice—which is weird in the abstract sense, but very similar to what I’d once planned to do to the volcano, so—
The ice bulges.
