>>5243355Edwin is surprised to see you, equal parts excited and embarsssed at your visit.
“Izzy, it’s… Um, it’s good to see you!”
You put it off for quite a while, for almost a month, but eventually you caved. The danger has passed, you tell yourself. There is no reason NOT to be with Edwin now… But, in truth, a part of you feared he would reject you, turn you away from his very door. Another part of you, no less substantial, fears the effect he has on you—the effect that made you spare the Yosef bloodline’s final heir, in defiance of your gods, to maintain some absurd artifice of human morality.
But then you see, through Irinnile’s eyes, the way eh sees you—the way his aura warms and glows with affection, and it’s all worth it.
“I… Was just about to head out, actually,” he says, avoiding your eyes and fidgeting slightly.
“To ssee Paula,” you surmise.
He flushes.
“I’ll come with you,” you say. “We have ssomething which the three of uss should discusss.”
Edwin does not protest, and you draw no small pleasure in riding in such close quarters with him in his family carriage, even if here is less cuddling than in days gone by, and scarcely more than small-talk. However, your stomach drops a little when you realize where the carriageman is taking you…
“MY old apartment?” you ask.
“It’s not like that,” Edwin says quickly. “She just… They canceled the staffing and internship programs at The Mages’ Tower, and the apartment blocks in the Initiates’ Village are being evicted, torn down, and repurposed for… Something else. She had nowhere to go, so I…”
So he put his new lover in the same convenient love-nest that he once used to house you. You can see by his guilty expression and luminous blush that the implications and appearances of this arrangement are not lost on him… But, as ever, you also sense the honest kindness in him. Despite your outrage, you think you actually believe his intent as altruistic.
‘Bet they still fucked on our old bed,’ Irinnile grumbles.
You try to ignore that when you meet Paula, who grets Edwin with great warmth and a tiht embrace, only to freeze when she sees you.
“O-oh, Ismena…”
“Yesss,” you say. “It’ss me. Hello, Paula.”