Chapter 17
Lorali
E ver since the summer solstice, Lorali would find Eldric waiting patiently outside the temple, summer sunset steeping the city in its warm hues as cicadas droned around the wooded path. Laughter echoed around them with every step at each other’s side, as if their bond had been forged over countless lifetimes and not mere months. On days their gallows bond was strained and they both ached, when their hands brushed and they found a glimpse of relief, she would slip her palm into his. Feeling the warmth of him, a quiet understanding that they were intrinsically intertwined, that small touch a balm for the soul.
Perhaps Heinrich had been right; Lorali could think of no other word to describe how she felt now other than thriving , the mask of high cleric crumbling in his presence. With him, she was just Lorali. Someone who forgot her mugs in the oddest places, that would become so focused on the task at hand she would struggle to care for herself. An abysmal cook. A gardener. A procrastinator. A friend.
Hope filled her, a weight lifting as she realized he understood her peculiar ways, and helped maintain the small systems that governed her life. That she could just be. And that in their silent moments, with pulses thrumming beneath the other's touch, she found she liked it infinitely better than being alone. She never knew she craved the peace of being truly known and understood by another until now. Her need for acceptance rooted so deeply she had pruned the branches of herself to please others until nothing of the truth remained but what lay hidden beneath the soil. Then he had found the gnarled parts of her, mutilated beyond recognition, and tended them until she found the courage to grow into something new.
"I have a surprise for you." Eldric blurted the sentence as if it were a confession he was compelled to share.
"Is it a surprise if you tell me about it?" Her eyebrow quirked as she chuckled.
"Why not? We can make our own rules," he said with that lazy smile of his, that she couldn't help but return. "I'm just letting you know there's a surprise, not what it is. That's why it's still a surprise."
"If we make our own rules, then couldn't you just tell me what it is now?" Lorali nudged him, teasingly, as her heart warmed. When Eldric was quiet for a beat too long, she looked up to him and found something she had never seen from him before: nervousness.
"I needed to have something to give you for your birthday."
Lorali stumbled, tripping across a stray root in the road as Eldric's laugh, full and rich, echoed within the forest canopy, scaring several birds.
"How did—" she sputtered; his steady grip was the only thing that kept her from falling flat on her face.
"I did some digging. Birthdays are public record, y'know," he teased.
Her cheeks colored as she looked down, fumbling with her keys as they walked through the flower-lined path. Before she could take the key out, Eldric had already jogged ahead to unlock the door. Her heart fluttered in her chest as she followed him in, finding their small table covered in coils of red and golden-yellow thread. She stopped in her tracks, blinking down at the supplies laid out like an offering.
"It may not be Summer Solstice, but I thought maybe you could teach me how to make one of those bracelets? You were so excited and I thought it might be something you missed doing, so I thought maybe we could do it together." Eldric's smile was hesitant as he turned around, eyes full of hope. When she didn't respond, simply staring at the present before her, his face fell.
"If you want, that is. If not I get it, I also made a cake—"
"You remembered," she whispered, looking from the supplies and back up to him.
"Of course," he said nonchalantly, shrugging his shoulders as if it were no big deal. "Why wouldn't I remember something you told me?"
Lorali closed her eyes as tears lined them, nodding her head with an astonished chuckle. Until that rainy day beneath a solstice sun, she hadn't spoken a word of the city where she grew up. Hadn't dared to look back on childhood memories that were both happy, yet tainted with pain. Wouldn't let herself believe she missed making bracelets with others like when she was a girl. Without a thought, she reached up on the tips of her toes and wrapped her arms around Eldric's shoulders, face buried in his collarbone as he stooped slightly so she could embrace him. It took a few quiet moments and trembling breaths before Lorali could finally whisper a response without her voice cracking. "I would love to show you."
She recognized the threads and scissors from her mending kit, colors she rarely used. It didn't matter—he could have used her favorite materials and she would still reach across the table, pulling lengths of thread and snipping them with scissors. All that mattered was that he remembered. That she was sitting here with Eldric's calloused fingers holding the first knotted loop of thread. She fumbled with the beginning knots; she hadn't practiced in so long, but the memory of the weaving patterns engraved in her very bones came back to her until practice led to perfection.
His voice was soft and distant as he watched her fingers move, their heads bent together as Lorali showed him how to tie the strands, braided together until the interwoven threads became one. They talked about everything and nothing at all. How their days were, when his birthday was, if they should keep feeding the stray cat that had taken up residence in the woods behind the cottage. Lorali hummed in contemplation when he asked what was next for her now that the Summer Solstice was over.
"There's the autumnal equinox, then wynter solstice. Each night until Veridian, I oversee the cleansing rituals that start on the night of the solstice, helping prepare the space for Ostara's return from Athanasios." The god's name fell quiet between them, and they both glanced toward the bottle of honeyed whiskey on the third shelf.
"Each night?" he asked, the knot of his throat bobbing as he swallowed .
"Yes." She smiled softly as she secured the final knot on her bracelet, unable to help the apologetic wince as she continued. "I've been meaning to talk to you about it, actually. After wynter solstice, I may not be around here often since the rituals are rather extensive. I'll probably stay there most nights rather than walk back by myself in the dark and snow."
They worked in silence for a moment, her words hanging heavy on the air between them as Lorali guided Eldric's hands as he carefully trimmed the strands to the perfect length. She then took the loop and held it steady as he concentrated on tying the first knot, his fingers fumbling slightly over the delicate threads. With her instruction, he found the rhythm that came with alternating threads over and under each other.
"I could come get you," he said quietly, not looking up as the words left his lips.
"I couldn't possibly ask you to do that, but I appreciate the thought, Eldric," she said.
"You're not asking me to, I'm offering. Each night I'll walk you home, just like we've been doing. You deserve to sleep in your own bed. To have some place to go when the day is over rather than spending all your time there." His fingers paused as he stared at her in earnest. She couldn't tear her eyes away from his. It felt like there was more, just lying beneath the surface. A truth that they danced around that was inevitably pulling them closer and closer until, one day, they'd collide. The moment felt too real, too close. Something more than just being known by him. As if she were a breath away from reaching into her chest and offering him her still-beating heart, hoping he would keep it.
"This couldn't possibly have anything to do with the fact that you'd miss me, could it?" Words rushed past her lips before she could think, her mind and heart overwhelmed and needing to put a safe distance between them so she could breathe.
His grin turned wry, the corner of his lips quirking as he shook his head with a snort before focusing back on his work. "You know me too well."