In the sitting room, as soon as he joined her at the piano, Larexa said, “Your brother fortified the embankment as soon as he knew there was a problem, didn’t he?”
Varex had revised the entire inspection and reporting process to try to ensure nothing like that ever happened again.
“Hmm?” Tor murmured.
She laughed. “All right, keep your very diplomatic silence.” She sobered, and told him very seriously, “Thank you. Pel has been trying for ages to get Father to see the severity of the situation. Father wouldn’t have reacted until everything flooded, and then he would have been angry and blamed everyone else. I think he’ll actually have proper repairs done now.”
“I’m glad.”
She was playing a very sprightly, happy melody, and Tor couldn’t help but grin.
“Is your supply of mental music inexhaustible?”
Larexa laughed. “If I’ve played it before, I remember it. It just sort of sticks in my head. And if I get bored, then I make something up.” She cast an arch look his way. “So I have enough material for you to be ostensibly turning pages for me forever. If, for example, you happened to have a reason to stay for quite some time.”
Tor rolled his eyes. “Don’t even go there. We’re friends, and that’s great, but it’s pretty clear I got a little overexcited about what might happen while I was here.”
She raised a delicately arched eyebrow. “Are you saying that you’re giving up?”
Tor blew out a breath. “I’m saying that I’m not going to do anything your brother doesn’t want.”
She considered him for a long moment, and then she smiled again. “That’s more than fair.”
Tor suddenly had the feeling they weren’t having the conversation he thought they were having. And then what she’d said a moment ago actually processed in his brain. “Wait. Are you actually making this music up as you go along?”
She grinned at him. “I sure am.”
Tor’s mind boggled. She could make up music and carry on a conversation with him at the same time? And both were coherent?
Larexa was laughing merrily. “Oh, you should see your face.”
“I’m really impressed,” Tor said blankly. “Wow.”
Larexa’s expression was wry. “Says the man who single-handedly held up an embankment today in order to save everyone.”
It was Tor’s turn to laugh. “That was brute strength.”
But she shook her head. “No, it was a lot more than that. I couldn’t have done it, not even if I were as strong as you, and I don’t think I am. But I couldn’t have reacted as quickly. I haven’t been training since I was fourteen. You didn’t suddenly know how to do what you did, you trained for it for years. So, if we’re talking about things that we’re impressed by, then you should know that I’m equally impressed by you. You’re good at what you trained to do, and I’m good at what I trained to do. Finding your passion is important.”
Tor could definitely see that music was Larexa’s passion, but he wasn’t as certain that he’d found his. He’d done his duty… until he hadn’t done his duty—and now it felt like he was doing his duty again, but maybe in a more natural way than before.
Had he wanted to be the captain of the guard? If it had been his passion, as Larexa said, might he have fought harder to explain himself and keep the title? Or had it been a bit of a relief even as he’d burned with the shame of all his mistakes?
He certainly hadn’t made Darmila’s transition easy, and she’d never done a thing wrong, apart from being named captain of the guard after him. They had a reasonable relationship now, but Tor mostly stayed out of her way, and he was pretty sure she appreciated that.
Ugh. What was it about Tond that made him question everything about himself?
Striving for a light tone, he told Larexa, “I guess we’re both going to have to be impressed with one another.”
She grinned back, and she then brought the sprightly tune that she wasmaking up as she went alongto an end with a flourish.
Tor was definitely still in awe. She winked at him.
“That was wonderful,” he told her.
Passions were commonly thought to be goddess-blessed, and Tor wondered if people were somehow able to put a little bit of their magic into efforts that weren’t normally magical. Tor had often heard it conflated with duty, a reason why healers could heal, why Illustrious guards were so good at Mantling, why rulers were able to protect their people and make the land flourish.
But he wondered if it extended all the way to people like Larexa, who didn’t want to use her magic for offense, who was never going to find a passion in defense, but who loved music so fiercely.
