Zan’s eyes crinkle at the corners.
“You make the ice cream,” he says, “and I’ll decorate.”
My breath catches.
That’s the first time I’ve heard him admit out loud that he wants to do the work of making a space for himself.
Making ahome.
With me.
“As soon as you pick a name,” Zan adds. “I do have a few suggestions...”
Our new neighbors laugh.
“No need,” I say sweetly, and announce, “Forevermore Ice Cream is opening for business!”
Crystal Hollow cheers and envelops us.
As one of them.
InCrystalHollow’smarket,the town is bustling.
It looks a little different now.
Mainly this is because the sabotage Mujin wrought has continued bearing fruit, and Nomi has had her hands full rebuilding—and building new homes, too, for the people that Jiran is recruiting to work on the ice line.
And Crystal Hollow has stepped up to help their neighbors.
Nomi's work goes faster, too, when a dragon with super speed doesn’t have to hide who and what he is.
And with three sages practicing their control to do the heavy lifting.
We’d initially planned to bring Eraya to Celestial Sanctuary Temple to learn how to live as a sage without the priesthood, but Zan’s dragon instincts immediately rose up in rebellion—he could control them temporarily while we fought off the priesthood, apparently, but at the prospect of sharing his mate’s space indefinitely with a potential threat was too much.
I feel responsible for Eraya, but I’m not as upset about that as I probably ought to be.
In part, because my guilt was assuaged when Nomi pointed out that a critical part of rehabilitating a sage is integrating them with other people and informed us in no uncertain terms that as the sage guardian of our generation, Eraya washerresponsibility and would be staying with her.
Eraya’s expression at that was one I couldn’t read.
But with help from Teren’s quick learning and willingness to help, Zan’s dragon scales, and my knowledge, the Sage of Compassion is able to be around Crystal Hollow safely while we continue teaching her control.
It takes a village.
Andthatis perhaps the most important thing for a sage—foranyone—to learn, I think.
So Zan and I spent most of the week following the showdown more or less attached to each other. He claims the mating instincts will calm over time, but so far...
So far they’re only climbing.
I’m not mad about that, either, and am in factsohappy to reassure Zan about it.
But today, finally, it’s time to unveil what we’ve been working on in between not being able to keep our hands off each other.
The other difference in today's market.
Smaller in some ways... but also bigger.
