12. Ameriden
Ameriden
Ameriden’s mouth had gotten him into trouble ever since he could form words.
He wouldn’t call himself clever, but he was witty and his words sometimes got away from him. Who knew a joke about a ring would result in the woman he found wildly attractive whirling on him and kicking his shin. The strike was sharp but not deadly. Enough to smart as Ameriden let out a grunt.
“Ow,” he said, though without any heat.
“Can you be serious for one damn moment?” Taldesa growled.
“Marriage this soon is pushing it, even for us, Amer,” Casimine said, looping his arm around his. “Perhaps we should cool it for a moment?”
Ameriden sighed, “Fine.”
There was a time and place for seduction and whatever Ameriden had walked into, apparently the moment was over.
Which was too bad, given he had stirred at the sight of Casimine wrapped around Taldesa like a fine silk robe.
For a moment, he thought Casimine had convinced her, but Ameriden was starting to suspect that Taldesa was a bit…
well, uneducated when it came to social cues.
Between the flirting, body language, and outright suggestion, Taldesa didn’t seem to be picking up on any of it.
Or maybe she is, but she’s not interested?
If she wasn’t, Ameriden would learn to adjust. Despite the malicious rumors, bards didn’t utilize magic to seduce their audience.
Manipulation was highly frowned upon at college, as stressed by the entire staff.
Bending someone’s will to your own through the arcane was seen as cruel, a tactic reserved for war.
That didn’t mean insecure bards weren’t prone to casting it though, but for Ameriden it was a hard line.
There was nothing he despised more than being forced to do something he didn’t consent to.
“Taldesa found the roses outside our door this morning,” Casimine explained as he leaned into his frame.
“The daydreamers already found us, huh?” Ameriden sighed, pulling Casimine closer to him and entangling his fingers in his hair.
“Daydreamers?” Taldesa lifted a brow.
“Our fans,” Casimine replied. “It’s what they call themselves.”
The moniker had come around four years ago, but from where, neither of them was certain.
“Sounds pretty intense if they gave themselves a name,” Taldesa said, eyes drifting back to the ring.
“It can be,” Ameriden squeezed Casimine. “But we manage.”
Taldesa’s face implied she didn’t think so, which Ameriden couldn’t fault her for.
If they were really managing everything, Seira wouldn’t have had to call in a personal bodyguard.
If they were okay, Casimine wouldn’t wake up in the middle of the night screaming.
If they were really okay, Ameriden wouldn’t be wrestling with the urge to burn their entire career to the ground if it meant knowing peace.
“When’s your manager gonna show up?” Taldesa asked.
“She should be here soon,” Casimine glanced toward the window. “Seira can be slow to start in the morning, but she’s never late.”
“Why, what are you thinking, pretty girl?” Ameriden asked.
He hadn’t even laced his words with suggestion that time, but Taldesa still glared, her cheeks puffing slightly as she clenched her jaw. Still, for such an angry thing, she seemed to brush it aside like water off a duck’s back.
“I think Seira might be able to get a hold of a jeweler. Most artisans have a signature—whether we can see it or not,” Taldesa explained. “If we can get it in front of a jeweler, they might be able to tell us the origin. Which means we can find out who bought it.”
Ameriden shared a look with Casimine. While they couldn’t share their thoughts—that spell was far too intimate, even for them—Ameriden was pretty sure his companion was thinking the same thing as him.
Taldesa was smart… and that was hot.
Gods, we’re suckers.
It was weird how badly Ameriden wanted Taldesa to like them.
A woman who could fight with not just her hands, but her mouth?
Who was smart and attractive? Who paraded around their room with wrap shorts that barely covered her thighs with confidence?
But worse of all—a woman who had no idea she was wanted this badly?
Kill me now.
“But until we know for sure, do not under any circumstances put this ring on,” Taldesa continued, dropping it onto the table. “For all we know, you’ll put that on and burst into flames.”
“You think it was sent with malicious intent?” Casimine questioned, fingers tightening ever so slightly on Ameriden’s bicep.
“Well, we won’t really know until we get it looked at,” Taldesa sighed, folding her arms across her chest. “But it’s better to be cautious than reckless—fuck, now I’m starting to sound like Cercel.”
“Oh, yes, that beautiful man that escorted you here,” Casimine recalled. “You spend a lot of time with him?”
Ameriden wasn’t going to complain if Casimine was already thinking of a backup plan, but he was questioning how they would even get the monk into their room without Taldesa’s notice. Unless Casi was…
“If mediation counts, sure,” she scoffed, yellow eyes rolling at the idea.
“Are you close?” Ameriden asked, leaning his head against Casimine’s shoulder for emphasis.
“What? Ew, no,” Taldesa’s nose wrinkled—fuck, that was cute. “Cercel’s a nerd, he’s got his head so far up the High Conservator’s ass, I’m surprised she hasn’t thrown him up yet.”
Ameriden laughed at the visual, dark eyes observing the small twitch at the corner of her plush mouth.
“You don’t like him at all?” Casimine asked.
The real question his lover was asking was whether Taldesa found the drakonis man attractive or not.
Depending on her answer, they could gleam whether she was already attached to someone and at minimum learn if she was even interested in masculine lovers.
Ameriden thought everyone was good-looking, but he always assumed it was because he had been born under the Water Mother’s moon.
Fluidity came with an open mind, an adventurous mind.
“As much as anyone can like a goody two-shoes,” Taldesa shrugged. “I don’t hate the guy, he’s just annoying. Kinda like you two.”
Okay, but that wasn’t a no, Ameriden thought.
“You find us annoying?” Casimine mock gasped. “However were we to know?”
“Literally the only reason why I haven’t beaten the two of you to a bloody pulp is because I was assigned to keep you safe. I swear, the minute the contract is over, I will deck both of you,” she sniped. “Repeatedly.”
“Aw, hear that Casi? We’re worth repeating,” Ameriden smirked.
Watching Taldesa lose her composure was quickly becoming one of Ameriden’s favorite activities.
He could tell Casimine found it charming as well by the way his gray eyes danced, head inclined toward his.
Taldesa’s eyes had closed, a knot forming in the middle of her forehead as she gritted her teeth in disbelief.
Her fingers were pressing against the side of her temple.
“Do you two ever get tired of the sound of your own voices?”
“Never,” they both hummed.
“Mother fuck—”
A knock on the door followed by the loud bellow of Seira saved them for whatever rant Taldesa was about to go on. Or perhaps, Seira had saved their bodyguard as she practically bolted to the door and swung it open.
“Whoa, that was fast,” Seira walked inside, arms full of breakfast baskets and her signature work satchel strapped to her hip. “Good morning, y’all.”
“Morning, Seira,” Ameriden and Casimine sang together.
Taldesa glared at them, but Ameriden felt as pleased as a house cat.
“I brought breakfast, obviously,” Seira said as she walked toward the dining room.
“I thought today we could go over some of the notes I took from town interviews. Not gonna lie, a lot of this sounds like hogwash, but I figured the faster we cut through the bullshit, the faster we can get you boys writing a new song and—why are there a bunch of roses on the table?”
“Somebody left them outside their front door,” Taldesa explained as she walked back to the table. “I didn’t find a trace of anyone in the hall when I found them. They’re not poisonous or enchanted as far as I can tell, but I’m more concerned with this.”
Their bodyguard lifted the ring with the quill. A look of exhaustion immediately flooded Seira’s face as her fingers came up to pinch the bridge of her nose.
“Oh, gods, not another marriage proposal! Boys!”
“I didn’t do anything,” Ameriden raised his hands. “I was asleep.”
“No—” Casimine shot him a look before addressing their manager. “It’s not what you think, Seira. I swear we haven’t left our room since we arrived.”
“I also didn’t see anybody I recognized outside of some of the staff,” Taldesa replied. “I’m bad with names but not with faces.”
Before Ameriden could make a smart remark, Casimine was already pinching his bicep.
“We traveled with teleportation magic—who in all of Ordia saw us?!” Seira exclaimed, her stout frame growing more and more frustrated.
“Maybe someone saw us when we traveled,” Casimine said.
“How? You were both magically disguised!” Seira retorted.
“I mean, I can think of a few ways,” Taldesa said as she placed the ring back onto the table.
“Well, tell us, bodyguard,” Ameriden grinned.
Another glare, before she ignored him.
“Well, him for starters,” Taldesa lazily pointed toward—
Ameriden’s eyes widened, “You are not blaming Dumpling!”
“Dude, exotic pets are a huge clue that someone has money,” Taldesa retorted. “Walking around with that pot sticker is a giant red flag. You’re practically screaming ‘come stalk me’.”
He wanted to argue, but damn it if she wasn’t right.
But how was Ameriden going to explain that Dumpling wasn’t just some ‘exotic pet’?
He had found the little stingray washed up on the shore of the Fire Isles a year ago, drying up under the hot sun.
Ameriden had dug a hole as fast as his large hands could before using his ancestral magic to pull the moisture from the air.
He stayed next to the little stingray’s makeshift pool for an hour until the little thing had started twirling again.
By the time Casimine found him, Ameriden couldn’t be parted with him.
I’m responsible for him and he’s my emotional support exotic pet, thank you very much.
“Moving forward, we’ll disguise Dumpling’s enclosure,” Casimine interjected. “A simple illusion and people will see an ordinary birdcage.”
“More like a boring birdcage,” Ameriden grumbled.
“Secondly, if y’all are as famous as you say you are, there’s a good chance you have some fans who also recognize your manager,” Taldesa explained, hooking a thumb in Seira’s direction.
Seira blinked.
“Shit,” she swore.
Unfortunately, their bodyguard was right.
In hindsight, it felt foolish to think they could move the same way they did before.
After the volcano performance, their reputation had only grown larger.
And despite how much Ameriden liked to pretend he wasn’t well known, the truth was that if he were to walk the street the way he looked right then, he’d most likely get mobbed by a sea of fans.
“Look, I’m not here to rub your nose in this,” Taldesa said—though Ameriden was certain she got the tiniest bit of pleasure out of making them look clueless.
“But if my job is to protect you two, you need to be a little more proactive in all this. Yeah, the ring could be just a ring, but it could also be charmed with a love spell, for all we know. And the last thing I wanna do is hogtie you to a chair until the magic wears off. Caution is better than mind fuckery, right?”
“Of course,” Casimine agreed. “Just tell us what you need from us, and Ameriden and I will do it.”
She could tell us to bark, and I bet we’d yap before she could finish the sentence, Ameriden thought.
“Okay, here’s what we’re gonna do.” Taldesa hopped onto the table.
“Seira, I want you to take this into town. There’s a jeweler in the merchant district, old guy.
Smells like incense and cabbage, but he knows his shit.
As for you two, you’re gonna tell me everything you know about your daydreamers… after I scarf down another muffin.”