"That's not for me to judge. He gets an erection, and I get coins in my pockets. Everyone wins," Narcisse replied and made an annoyed sound. "At least we would if I could get the heat right. I keep getting distracted, and it ends up burning. Be a good girl and help your father. I have to make notes on an idea I've had, and I don't want to lose my train of thought."
Delphi sighed and put her bag down by her feet. The beaker on the counter was filled with new ingredients, none of which she could tell would be of any use. The way he used to tell it, Narcisse had been a great and much sought-after alchemist. Delphi often wondered if that was total bullshit, or what had happened to make him fall so low.
Delphi picked up the beaker, ignoring the bad ingredients inside it, and breathed slowly in and out.
She could feel Narcisse's eyes watching her. This was a small trick that she had performed since she was a child. It helped keep her magic from rising when she got angry, even if it made her feel a bit tired afterward.
Her hands pulsed with heat, and the contents of the beaker melted from the solid state into a liquid. It could have taken aminute or an hour; when Delphi did magic, she only existed in between the pulsing beats of her power. Carefully, she tipped the contents of the beaker into a tonic bottle and placed a cork in it.
"Thank you, my girl," Narcisse said, surprising her. He rarely thanked her for her assistance. "It is a shame you weren't born a boy. That kind of ability could have taken you places."
It will take me places still. Delphi didn't have the energy for an argument. "If that's all you need, this disappointing female child needs to go and make some dinner. Try to eat some of it before you go out."
Narcisse made a noncommittal sound and turned back to his notebook. Delphi wondered why she bothered. Maybe it was because there had been times when she was younger that Narcisse had been a good father. He had been eager to teach her alchemy and magic, and she blossomed under the attention.
It wasn't until she started to grow tits and become a woman that he became withdrawn and cagey about his knowledge. He had stopped teaching her, and she never knew what she had done wrong.
Did her adult face remind him too much of her mother? He had never said so. He had just…stopped. Like teaching a woman was a waste of his time.
Delphi knew her mother, Cassia, only by the journal that she had left behind. Narcisse had given it to her when she turned eighteen as a gift. He claimed it held nothing of real value to him because it was only a daybook of 'household notes,' so she might as well have it.
To Delphi, it was priceless. It wasn't so much a journal as a book filled with recipes and notes collected over the years. Food recipes were mixed in with herbology, natural medicines, and how to make cosmetics.
Delphi had discovered a recipe for hair dye, and it had confirmed that her mother had to hide her true identity as well.Delphi was too busy to make it for herself, which was why she had traded for it now, but it was like a touch of connection to the woman she had never known. The recipes in her mother's book had kept them out of poverty and Delphi off the street.
It was already dark, so Delphi made a lamb and vegetable soup, cut herself a slice of bread, and retired to her own rooms. She needed to be alone after a full day of being in the village. She slid the bolt to her bedroom door closed and took her first full breath all day.
Narcisse had stumbled drunk into her room more than once and woken her, and she didn't want to have to deal with that.
Maybe he would be too caught up in whatever his new idea was that he wouldn't go into the tavern that night. For a man who hated the forest, he risked getting lost or eaten in the mist every time he went out at night. It would solve a lot of her problems if he did.
Delphi immediately felt guilty over the thought. There was a twisted part of her that still loved Narcisse and wanted to go back to the days when they weren't sniping at each other, and she didn't feel like he was the ball and chain she was manacled to. She had learned long ago that hate and love were the sides of the same coin and could exist in a paradox with each other.
Delphi ate her soup as she tidied her small work counter and recorded the sales she had made, along with the ingredients she needed for new orders. She liked seeing her little business grow in its own way. It didn't matter if she got paid in bread and hair dye. It was hers.
After using her magic again to heat water in a basin, Delphi bathed and put on a well-worn nightdress. She made sure that her skirts were still clean before folding them and putting them away. She always wore pants when she was at home, but the village was still so stuck in the past that when she had wornthem when she first arrived, she had gotten complaints from the Headman about 'indecency.'
It was just one of the many stupid things she tolerated for the sake of peace. At times, she wished she didn't have such full hips and tits so that she could disguise herself as a young man. No matter what she did, there was no hiding the fact that she was a woman.
Delphi lit the candle beside her bed and climbed into it with her new book. Anticipation licked up her spine as she ran her fingers over the worn cover.
Getting a new book was like making a new friend. She had five books that she hadn't traded back to Gregoire and had hidden under the floorboards. They were her treasures, and she knew that Narcisse would only scoff at them. In his opinion, no one was smarter than him.
Delphi opened the book and sighed in happiness. It was a copy of a treatise composed by one of the magio-philosophers of Kyllene. Anything from the university city or the broader realm of Arkaia was a rare find in Chantelun. It had been worth Gregoire ogling her breasts and wanking over her.
She settled in, the warm glow of the magic inside of her humming with joy. This feeling was why she would never give up on her dream of escaping Grisvallon. Nothing came close to making her as happy as magic and learning.
Delphi swore to the night sky that she would leave this god-forsaken place even if it killed her.
3
Delphi didn't remember falling asleep, but she knew the strange room she found herself in. She had been dreaming about it for years, and she counted it a good night when she did. It always ensured she wasn't going to have nightmares, and that was a relief.
The room was dimly lit, but it gave the impression of space. It had stone floors covered in soft carpets and a grand fireplace in one corner. It was stone, too, and carved with roses and roaring lions.
"Little flower," a deep voice purred from the shadows. "You trespass into my domain again."
"I didn't mean to," Delphi replied, her skin breaking out in goosebumps. "I don't know why I dream of this place, or why I always seem to find you here."
