>>5782898In a day-and-a-night of seeing Henzler at her lowest since that incident with her mother—from being rejected by the True Fey and denied her lessons, to losing out on Muffins—you had not heard her speak so grimly or look so ashen as you did then, lit by the panoply of bright carnival lights and yet still grey… Save a brilliant, furious greenness in her hazel eyes. The queer light cast her pupils as slits, if just for a moment, but when you blinked they were normal… Save that they were watering.
“Hey,” you asked, feeling a little awkward, “it’s not… I mean, they’re not all awful.”
Henzler said nothing and, not so comfortable with her as to proffer a hug, or yet wise enough to offer any words of deeper consolation, you’d settled for a gentle pat on the back.
“Come on,” you’d offered, “let’s go find the others.”
She’d obliged you without enthusiasm and, in truth, there was little more fun to be had. After all, you DID have a rambunctious, fractious little creature to look after, and with fireworks beginning NO amount of <Calm> that you were capable to caste could contain the (admittedly cute) carnage of your little chimera. The rest of your friends stayed out—eager to have drinks (or MORE drinks, perhaps more accurately) and to revel until the wee hours; only Henzler and Pearce accompanied you back to the Tower, and Henzler broke away from the two of you as soon as you arrived.
“The Archmage will want to know where I am,” she’d said, still avoiding your eyes and altogether unconvincing in her explanation.
“Right,” you said. “Goodnight, then, Henzler.”
She was already running up the steps, but she stopped at the top of them, and glanced back at you.
“Izirina,” she corrected quietly.
“Huh?” you said, blinking. “Um, right. Izirina, then.”
Well, she must have SOMEWHAT enjoyed the evening’s excursion, you reason. “Did you want to maybe do this again sometime?”
Her eyes flitted to Logan Pearce, who stood awkwardly there in silence, and se did not commit one way or the other, though she did ask: “Can I come see Muffins, sometimes? Like… When we met before?”
You shrugged, and nodded. Sure, why not?
She was gone a moment later, and then Pearce was whistling a long, keening whistle.
“What a weirdo, huh?”
You smiled slightly, reflecting on the odd things in the world, and nodded again.
“Come on, let’s both get home as well,” Pearce suggested.
You nodded again, and followed.
