I should get something for Luchian while I'm out. He likes currant cake. The thought arrived quietly and he followed it, turning toward the market stalls ahead.
The currant cake stall was run by an older woman with experienced hands and the look of someone who had been cutting cake since before Clyde was born. He walked up and tapped the wooden counter twice.
Tap tap.
"Excuse me, how much for two slices of currant cake?"
She looked up. "What flavor, young man?"
"Currant, just a plain currant cake please."
"Two slices is four pence. But we're running a discount right now. Four pence for three slices."
Clyde paused.
Wait. He worked it out quietly in his head. Two slices, four pence. Three slices, also four pence. That's... the same price. She's charging the same amount for more cake.
He looked at the cakes. Then at the woman.
Is she making a mistake? Or is this just how the discount works? Or am I the one who's confused here?
"Young man, are you buying or not?"
"Yes, sorry. Four pence for three slices please."
Snick snick snick. Three clean cuts and three slices of currant cake were wrapped neatly in paper and slid across the counter.
"Here you go."
"Thank you very much. I hope you have a good day."
"You too, young man."
He walked back through the market with the small paper parcel under his arm and a quiet sort of satisfaction at having gotten the better deal, whether it was intentional on her part or not.
The house was still empty when he got home.
Thump. He set the currant cake on the kitchen counter where Luchian would see it, pulled off his coat, and went to his room.
He sat on the edge of his bed.
I've got enough ichor reserve right now. I could probably try the Moon Barrier on my own. Just a few attempts.
Then Aurelian's voice came back to him, clear as anything. Don't practice alone tonight. Let the wave settle first.
Clyde thought about this for approximately three seconds.
Then he closed his eyes, activated his Hollow Eyes, and started.
The particles appeared around him immediately, far clearer than they'd been even earlier that day, He began arranging them, compressing, shaping the lattice. The first few attempts were clean.
The fourth one was too.
The fifth.
He pushed further, compressing harder, thinning the structure out toward a proper barrier sheet. Over and over, each repetition faster, each one taking less conscious effort than the one before it.
Then his head started to feel strange.
Like a low buzzing behind his eyes, the kind of feeling, but he kept going. The buzzing turned heavier. His vision at the edges started to shift slightly, the particles he was watching beginning to blur at their boundaries.
Ugh. He pressed his fingers against his temple. Why does my head hurt?
He tried one more arrangement.
His vision swam.
"Ugh!" He grabbed his head with both hands, squeezing his eyes shut. The room tilted slightly. His stomach turned. "What is this? Am I getting a migraine?"
He cut the Hollow Eyes off immediately.
The swimming stopped, mostly. His head still ached dully behind the eyes, and his stomach still felt uncertain.
The particles, he thought, lying back slowly against the mattress. All that movement. All that constant shifting while I'm watching it. It's like motion sickness.
He stared at the ceiling, waiting for the dull ache to ease off.
The bed was solid underneath him at least. Copper and brass frame, the metal cool against his arm where it touched the edge. Three layers of mattress with straw at the bottom, horsehair packed firmly in the middle, goose feathers on top, the kind of layered construction that wasn't elegant but genuinely worked. He'd noticed it properly for the first time the night they moved in. It was better than anything they'd slept on before.
Aurelian did warn me, he thought, with the specific clarity that only arrives after you've already ignored the warning.
His eyes got heavy.
I'll just lie here for a bit.
Hm.
Just a few minutes.
The voices of vendors drifted up faintly from the street below, muffled now, the sounds of the mechanical day going on without him. Somewhere in the kitchen, the currant cake sat on the counter waiting for Luchian to come home and find it.
Clyde's breathing evened out.
His eyes closed properly.
And he was asleep before he'd quite finished deciding to be.
Outside, Luchian had set up his stall near the edge of the market lane with one basket of carrots priced at two pence. He straightened his brown coat quickly when an older man shuffled up, making himself look as professional as a vegetable stall in a cobblestone lane would allow.
"Good day to you, Sir. What can I do for you today?" Luchian said, warm smile already in place.
"Good day, good day." The old man squinted at the basket. "What are you asking for them carrots then, mate?"
"Two pence a basket, Sir. And I promise you they are sweeter than anything you will find further down the lane."
"Right then. Give us two baskets. But mind you leave out any bruised ones, eh?"
"Only the finest for you, Sir. You have my word." Luchian held out his hand and the old man dropped two pence into his palm with a satisfying little clink.
Luchian grabbed an old sheet of newspaper from under the counter and began wrapping the carrots quickly, folding and tucking the edges shut the way he had watched other vendors do it a hundred times before.
"There you are." He passed the neat parcel across with both hands. "Much obliged to you, Sir. Good day."
"Good day to you too, son."
Luchian watched him go, then looked back at his remaining stock and smiled to himself.
"Sold again."
Back at the house, Clyde was deep asleep.
Then something tapped his forehead.
A flick of cool air that somehow landed precisely between his eyebrows.
His eyes opened.
Aurelian was standing in his room wearing his blue suit, hands in his pockets, looking entirely too cheerful for whatever time it was.
"Did I ruin your sleep?" Aurelian asked.
"No." Clyde pushed himself upright and rubbed his face with both hands. "Why are you here? And did you flash step through my window again?"
"Yes. Aldric wants to see us."
A new mission probably, Clyde thought.
"Alright. Give me a minute."
"Don't take too long." Aurelian grinned. "Or I'll ask Aldric to dock your salary."
"If you do that," Clyde said, pulling on his black coat, "then you're paying my monthly rent on this house."
Aurelian laughed and then, without any further warning, turned and vaulted straight out of Clyde's open window.
Clyde stared at the empty window frame for a second.
I really should say something to him about that. If he breaks that window he is paying me tenfold. And didn't Soren say not to use ichor abilities in public? Apparently that rule doesn't apply when you're a narcissist.
He finished buttoning his coat and headed ou