Ch. 230 Sava, Halen and Damar

Chapter 230: Sava, Hamlin and Damar

I noticed the change while shaving.

At first, I thought frost had formed on the mirror.

That happened often enough now.

I wiped the glass.

The frost remained.

Only then did I realize it was in my eyes.

My pupils were no longer entirely black.

Pale white-blue spread through them like frost across a dark pond.

At the edges, tiny sparks appeared and vanished.

Not enough to cast light.

Enough that I stopped moving the razor.

“Evelyn.”

My wife answered from the other room.

“What happened?”

“I’m not certain.”

“That answer has become less comforting.”

She came through the door carrying one of Garrick’s shirts.

Then stopped.

For several breaths, Evelyn said nothing.

I put down the razor.

“My eyes.”

“I see them.”

“Do they look dangerous?”

She stepped closer.

Her fingers touched my cheek.

A spark moved at the edge of my vision.

It crossed to her thumb and disappeared.

“No,” she said.

“That took a long time.”

“I was looking at the rest of you.”

I frowned at the mirror.

“The rest of me?”

Evelyn took a lock of my hair between her fingers.

It had been dark the night before.

Now pale blue-white ran through it.

Not one strand.

Dozens.

More waited near my temples.

I looked toward her reflection.

“How much changed?”

“Enough.”

That was not useful.

I stepped back from the washstand.

My nightshirt pulled tightly across my shoulders.

It had not done that yesterday.

I looked down.

My arms appeared broader.

The muscles along them more clearly defined.

Not swollen.

Not unnatural.

As though years of training had settled into my body during one night.

Evelyn’s gaze followed mine.

“You’ve become more muscular.”

“I noticed.”

“And taller.”

“I have not.”

She came close enough to compare.

“You have.”

“By how much?”

“Perhaps half an inch.”

“That seems unnecessary.”

“I don’t know.”

She looked at me again.

“It has certain advantages.”

I turned toward her.

“Advantages?”

“You are becoming more handsome.”

“I was under the impression you already found me handsome.”

“I did.”

“Did?”

“Do.”

She smiled.

“This is additional.”

I tried to look offended.

The sparks around my eyes made the expression less convincing.

Evelyn touched the new pale strands in my hair.

“They look like winter morning.”

“That sounds old.”

“It was meant kindly.”

“It still sounds old.”

“You’re twenty-two.”

“Nearly twenty-three.”

“That remains younger than most gods.”

I looked back at the mirror.

“I don’t think most gods changed their hair before breakfast.”

Aurelia spoke from the doorway.

“Some did.”

I nearly cut myself with the razor I was no longer holding.

Aurelia entered without apology.

She examined my eyes.

Then my hair.

Then the way my shirt fit.

Evelyn folded her arms.

“Well?”

“He is settling into his domain.”

“Will it continue?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“How far?”

“I don’t know.”

“That answer remains popular.”

Aurelia lifted one hand near my face.

The frost within my eyes brightened in response to her power.

Lightning sparked at the outer edges.

“Winter and storm,” she said. “Your body is beginning to show what you carry.”

“Will I become entirely blue?”

“No.”

“White?”

“No.”

“Made of ice?”

Aurelia lowered her hand.

“You are asking questions because you want me to become annoyed enough to leave.”

“Yes.”

“It is not working.”

Carol appeared behind her.

Our daughter wore one shoe.

She held the other in her hand.

“Papa.”

She looked up at me.

Her eyes widened.

“Snow.”

“That was your mother’s conclusion.”

Evelyn crouched.

“Where is your brother?”

Carol pointed toward the corridor.

“Gone.”

That word concerned me.

We found Garrick in the linen cupboard.

The door remained closed.

The cupboard had no second entrance.

Our son sat among the folded sheets eating a biscuit.

Helena stood in the passage with both hands on her hips.

“I did not give him that.”

Garrick hid the biscuit behind his back.

Half of it remained visible.

His understanding of concealment had not grown as quickly as his other abilities.

I lifted him from the cupboard.

He stared at my face.

Then placed both hands in my hair.

“Cold.”

“Apparently.”

A spark moved from my eye to his fingers.

Garrick laughed.

Lightning ran harmlessly around his wrist.

Carol pushed between us.

“Me.”

Evelyn caught her before she climbed my leg.

“That is enough experimentation before breakfast.”

Carol disagreed.

The room warmed.

Aurelia’s domain moved through her.

Compassion had apparently not yet extended to accepting delay.

The twins had grown again.

Not during the night.

Not visibly.

Still, Garrick’s trousers ended above his ankles.

Carol’s sleeve no longer reached her wrist.

Helena had altered both garments less than two weeks earlier.

Their faces had changed too.

Baby softness remained.

So did the roundness of their cheeks.

But their attention had sharpened.

They watched conversations.

Remembered names.

Understood instructions they sometimes chose not to follow.

Their second birthday was still approaching.

Some mornings, they appeared older than two already.

Other mornings, Garrick put porridge in his hair.

Development remained uneven.

That was almost reassuring.

Thor joined us for breakfast dressed for travel.

Mjölnir hung at her side.

Melody sat beside her with the expression of someone who had slept very little and regretted none of it.

A half-empty barrel remained near the hearth.

Eliza looked at it.

“I thought that was the emergency reserve.”

“It became necessary,” Thor said.

“What emergency?”

“Farewells.”

Melody nodded solemnly.

Eliza looked toward me.

“You allowed this.”

“I was asleep.”

“That has never prevented people from blaming you.”

Mary entered carrying three folders.

“Correct.”

Thor studied my face.

Then my hair.

“You look more like a storm.”

“I preferred handsome.”

Evelyn buttered a piece of bread.

“He is both.”

Thor laughed.

Lightning moved around her shoulders.

My own answered.

Every spoon on the table jumped.

Mary caught hers before it landed in her tea.

“You will both stop doing that indoors.”

“I didn’t do it deliberately,” I said.

“Then you will learn.”

Thor raised her cup.

“She truly belongs in the pantheon.”

Mary ignored her.

The Castellan brought the first gate specifications before Thor departed.

They filled an entire wooden case.

Thor looked inside.

“I rode here with beer.”

“You will return with calculations,” Melody said.

“That feels like a poor exchange.”

“The beer is staying.”

Thor looked toward the remaining barrels.

“I had not agreed to that.”

“You established the alliance. Shared resources.”

“That is not how treaties work.”

Mary opened one of her folders.

“I can show you the wording.”

Thor closed the case.

“The beer may stay.”

The plans included the minimum foundation dimensions.

The metals required.

The form of the paired recognition chamber.

The emergency closure system.

The procedures for testing the empty passage before any living person used it.

Thor listened carefully.

She asked whether Mjölnir could provide the initial power.

The Castellan said yes.

Then added that it might destroy the first foundation.

Thor considered.

“Could we make it stronger?”

“Yes.”

“Then we will.”

Eleanor approved of that answer.

She sent Thor back with a separate page containing questions for Concordia’s builders.

Perrin added a sketch of the adjustable supports.

Eleanor removed two unnecessary hinges before handing it over.

We saw Thor off at the western gate.

The packhorses carried documents instead of barrels.

Melody walked beside Thor’s horse.

“You could stay another day.”

“I could.”

“Then stay.”

“I have to bring the agreement to Lexander and Io.”

“That sounds like Mary’s work.”

Mary stood behind us.

“No.”

Thor grinned.

“I’ll return.”

“When?”

“As soon as Concordia finishes arguing over a gate.”

“That could take years.”

“We have Loki. It may feel longer.”

Thor embraced Melody.

It was not a restrained embrace.

Melody’s boots left the ground.

When Thor set her down, her hair had become tangled around one side of her face.

“I liked you better before that,” Melody said.

“No, you didn’t.”

“No.”

Thor clasped Eliza’s forearm.

Promised Eleanor payment for the cracked road.

Thanked Aurelia for welcoming her into the Accord.

Then she stopped before me.

“Tell Lexander I look forward to meeting him,” I said.

“I will.”

“And Io.”

“She already intends to write Evelyn again.”

Evelyn nodded.

“I’ll answer before the gate is finished.”

“Wise.”

Thor glanced toward the keep.

“Guard the children.”

“We will.”

“Concordia will too.”

She mounted.

Mjölnir gave a low hum.

Storm clouds gathered above the road.

Thor looked up.

“They do that.”

“I’ve noticed.”

I asked the wind to remain calm around the horses.

Thor felt it.

She smiled.

Then rode west.

Lightning crossed the sky once.

The sound reached us after she had disappeared beyond the lower road.

Melody remained at the gate.

“She left the beer.”

“I believe you arranged that.”

“Yea, she’s my new buddy.”

The new gods arrived that afternoon.

There were three.

They came on foot.

No divine call preceded them.

No light opened over the road.

The gate guards saw travelers approaching and sent word to Eliza.

By the time I reached the outer yard, Aurelia and Maelin were already there.

The newcomers stopped beyond the boundary.

All three looked tired.

One was a narrow-faced woman named Sava who tended song, mourning, and the memories carried through music.

Another was Halen, a quiet god of patient craft and work completed by many hands.

The last man was built like a section of wall.

Shorter than Thor.

Broader than most doors.

His beard was dark grey and contained enough dust that I suspected it had been there before he reached the road.

“My name is Damar,” he said.

His voice traveled through the ground.

Not loudly.

I felt it through my boots.

“What domain?” Mary asked.

She had arrived before introductions finished.

Damar looked down at her book.

“Earth. Stone. The finding of metal. Safe passage beneath the ground.”

Mary wrote.

“Mining?”

“Yes.”

“Ownership of mines?”

“No.”

The answer came sharply.

He looked toward the castle.

“Stone does not belong to a god because he can hear it.”

I liked him immediately.

All three accepted Greykeep’s terms.

Sava’s entrance made the wind sound briefly like distant singing.

Halen caused the repaired section of gate to settle more firmly into its joints.

When Damar crossed the boundary, every stone beneath the yard gave one deep pulse.

The Castellan appeared beside us.

His eyes brightened.

Damar looked at him.

“You are spread through the foundations.”

“I am.”

“You are not trapped within them?”

“No.”

Damar nodded.

“That was my first concern.”

The Castellan tilted his head.

“Why?”

“Othellos liked to put living things where they became useful.”

The yard became quiet.

Aurelia stepped closer.

“You are safe here.”

Damar studied her.

“I hope to learn that.”

We gave the newcomers rooms.

Sava chose one near the chapel.

Halen asked to stay near the workshops.

Damar requested the lowest available chamber.

“Do you prefer being underground?” I asked.

“I prefer knowing what stands beneath me.”

“That sounds sensible.”

“It is also quieter.”

He looked toward the nursery tower.

A small roll of thunder came from an upper window.

Damar reconsidered.

“Usually.”