Chapter 31 #2
“But… you…” Rabbit whispers, and Lyric tugs at Rabbit’s wrists, moving toward Rabbit’s own cock, and together they get ahz undressed enough that all four hands are touching.
Rabbit leans up, shifts ahz hands to Lyric’s shoulders.
While Lyric plays with ahz cock, Rabbit kisses him, aware Lyric is focused on his hands and not his mouth, but Rabbit doesn’t mind.
Lyric shoves one hand deep into ahz trousers, reaching back along the cleft of ahz ass, pulling Rabbit closer, and then Lyric gets a hand between their lips and sucks on his own fingers.
Rabbit tries to keep kissing him, even though Lyric’s mouth is very busy and also smiling.
When Lyric touches ahz cock again it’s better, and then even better when Lyric presses behind ahz balls and Rabbit bends over him, panting against Lyric’s forehead, trembling, and only ahz grip on Lyric’s shoulders keeps ahz from collapsing as az comes with a little yell.
Lyric holds ahz, sacrifices a hand-wrap to wipe up, and the whole time he’s smiling. They stand and get back to their hike, get back to marking the most exact northern point of the valley.
The entire time Rabbit is thinking that if anything happens to Lyric, az might just destroy the whole world.
(And that is how az truly resembles ahz mother.)
Not slowly, but painstakingly, Lyric, Rabbit, and Setka, to a certain extent, make a force-map of the valley.
Lyric commandeers Rabbit’s small collection of paper, and at first Rabbit expects for him to use it to create his plans for a balanced design, but no, Lyric writes letters and seals them to be returned to the crater city eventually.
For the design, he uses less permanent means: drawing in the snow, using ash from the fire to sketch diagrams on the wooden kitchen floor.
He also has Setka practice her Sarenpet letters that way.
The chimera’s education has been neglected, and it took Lyric’s displeasure to make Rabbit see why it mattered.
Nobody in the crater city expected anything of Setka, so they didn’t sink resources into her, not even time.
Lyric has plenty of time here, as the days are short and they must spend the nights in the house together, but that isn’t the point to him.
Lyric cares because Setka should learn what she wants to learn, what Lyric believes all people should learn.
It warms Rabbit, so az helps. The things az teaches Setka are poems and histories az learned in the Moon-Eater’s fortress, and az notices Lyric paying close attention, memorizing the poetry and asking questions about the timing of this or that historical fact.
Rabbit can’t quite name the feeling it gives ahz, to know that Lyric, who is strong and wise, educated and smart, is also willing to learn from Rabbit.
The balancing design will not work over the lake water, Lyric says, so they align the quarter threads at its edges, as equally as possible.
Over three afternoons they choose a chunk of mountain granite and split it into four pieces as similar in mass as possible.
They drag them to the quarter marks after taking a whole afternoon to build a wheelbarrow, and then each of them uses a pick and hammer to etch the force-sigils into the rock.
Setka does rising, and Rabbit falling, while Lyric takes the remaining two.
They situate everything, and the next step is finding markers—Lyric calls them steeples—up the peaks that are exactly, or as near to as possible, in alignment with the cardinal directions and the markers at the lake.
They’ll ignite all four, and it should draw the whole valley into Holy Design.
The three of them practice, making anchor necklaces out of everything they can find.
Setka likes the game, likes earning Lyric’s approval.
Rabbit isn’t jealous, because the look Lyric gives the chimera is not the look he gives Rabbit. Not even close.
Together, a day before the equinox, they awaken the southern marker, for the flow force.
Lyric says it will hold the longest on its own, given the nature of flow, and given the small anchors set around it that should bind the force into a loop around itself.
When the moment comes, Turo has agreed to stomp away the anchors and unleash the flow marker.
Lyric’s gaze unfocuses for a moment as he looks at the marker, humming a flow melody, which is two notes back and forth between flat and true and sharp.
Rabbit watches as Lyric’s expression takes on a sad edge, ready to nudge him out of whatever sorrow he’s considering, but Setka claps and spins in a messy circle. “It is set! Tomorrow we balance the valley for Aharté and Silence!”
Lyric’s gaze flicks to her and then away again, and Rabbit wonders at it, wonders if Lyric has truly forgotten he is a god, that Aharté embodied herself and lives in him. Or if there is no such thing as a god. It doesn’t matter to Rabbit, except that it matters to Lyric.
When Setka scampers off to tell the snow foxes, Rabbit asks, “What is wrong, Lyric?”
“Nothing, that I know of.”
“You’re sad.”
Lyric smiles at ahz, but it retains that same sorrow. “I’m not trained for this. I know the basics of balance, and how to make these anchors, and how it’s all supposed to work. But I don’t know everything to consider.”
“Iriset would,” Rabbit says, focused more on the sun-brown eye in Lyric’s face.
Az doesn’t know how az truly feels about this person Lyric has told ahz so little about—at least not with words.
Lyric is very plain in how his expressions speak of her.
Grief, yes, confusion, yes, love maybe, but most of all Lyric misses her. Misses many things from his past.
“Iriset would,” Lyric agrees. “And argue all the things I’m doing wrong.”
An urge to prove ahzself makes Rabbit take Lyric’s hand. “I won’t argue.”
“I know.” Lyric kisses Rabbit. It’s an open invitation for Rabbit to take what az wants, and welcoming, but Rabbit can’t help but sense az said something wrong.
Then Lyric pulls away, touches ahz jaw. “Help me make a bath.”
While Lyric relaxes in the water, Rabbit checks that the griffons and Turo have everything they need, trying not to overthink or overfeel.
Is az supposed to argue? Az unbottles some preserves to go with the pickled eggs and hard cheese for dinner, glad it shouldn’t be long before they venture down to Hehet to get more supplies, before the winter lets go enough to hunt fresh meat.
But Lyric calls to ahz from the bedroom, and when Rabbit swings in, it is to find Lyric naked except for a blanket. He’s already a little hard, Rabbit notices right away, striding to him instantly, as az strips off everything az’s wearing eagerly.
“I want,” Lyric starts, but Rabbit is on him, throwing him on the bed, licking warm water from his stomach and up his flat sternum.
Az pulls up Lyric’s legs, grabbing his thighs, and Lyric arches his back.
He says, “I want you to be inside me,” and Rabbit kisses him, biting and wrenching open Lyric’s jaw.
Rabbit’s strength melts Lyric’s whole body, arms and legs falling wide open.
It is strange and blissful how Lyric relaxes in Rabbit’s arms as he tells ahz what to do, how to love him. Lyric gives and gives and lets Rabbit do whatever az feels. Rabbit wants him forever.
On the morning of the equinox, Setka corners Rabbit out by the lake while they wait for Lyric to finish speaking with Turo.
The water is not frozen over in the heart of the lake, though at the edges it remains thick enough there’s no swimming even for weather-tough people like ahzself and Setka.
Patterns of freeze and thaw make the ice shaded gray and white in waves, and beneath it, dark water ripples in strange shadows.
It’s easy to be drawn into the rhythmic pattern, attention pulled toward the center of the lake.
The sky above is clear, with only the most threadbare clouds so high they merely fade into the pale blue.
And the sun is a cold white star, its light turning golden only where it glares against what remains of the snow.
“Will Maimeri leave with Lyric and Setka?” Setka asks quietly. She’s staring at the ice, too, her alliraptor green eyes darting eagerly for signs of catfish.
“A journey down the mountain is called for,” Rabbit hedges, aware she doesn’t mean a visit to Hehet for supplies.
Setka scratches her rear claws against the stiff mud frozen against the bank. There are pockets of melted water here and there along the water, especially in the southeast, and inside them, ripples make cute slurping sounds that remind Rabbit of sex.
“Will Maimeri go with Lyric?” The chimera cuts through ahz mincing.
Rabbit sighs. “Yes. Lyric asked.”
She nods. “And Maimeri won’t hurt Lyric.”
“Hurt him?” Rabbit echoes, surprised enough that ahz mother’s language slips out. It’s been good speaking it quietly with Lyric this winter.
“Setka sees what Maimeri does,” she says with a growl in her voice. “Bruises, bites. The—the distance in Lyric Aharté now. Lyric used to be…” Setka shakes her head in frustration. “Not so quiet. Silent, not quiet.”
Rabbit stares at her in growing horror. “Setka thinks Lyric is hurt? By—” Az puts ahz hand over ahz chest.
“Setka thinks…” She shifts both her clawed feet against the hard mud again. Her tail thumps. “Setka should be careful with Setka’s claws and teeth.”
Curling ahz fingers into a fist against ahz chest, az frowns at her, thoughts flying.
Az reaches with ahz other hand and rubs ahz thumb against the thick scales at her brow. They’re cool and smooth, and az turns ahz rub into more of a pet, soothing ahz and hopefully reassuring her. “Lyric does not seem hurt,” az says.