Chapter 02

Home was hardly better than the gathering of noble daughters.

Elmery stood in Lyona’s shadow, trying to blend into the painted panels of their father’s hall. Their cases were stacked beside them in the entryway until he sent his staff to pass on his greetings.

She was glad her notebook was in her waistband when Lyona’s case was gathered up but hers stayed sitting. No doubt it would follow her later; after a swift visit to the Grand Study, and her father’s review.

Then, they reached their rooms.

“Welcome back, ladies.” Devin was bright against the window and its dull-grey sky. No books were showing, but the tousled cushions and the wrinkles of his dipped-hem shirt told Elmery he had been there some time.

Lyona barely looked up as she passed him.

“You didn’t come to meet the coach.”

“I thought your Father might greet you.”

“You’ll have to act like his Ward, eventually. He’ll start mistaking you for a scullery maid.”

“I do look good in a mop-cap.” While she put the key in the broad doorway, Devin passed a wink behind her shoulders. When Elmery smiled he asked, “How was confinement?”

“Crowded.”

Lyona pushed through into their rooms. Elmery walked after her, murmuring in her wake, “Sorry.”

While her sister directed the page to set down her cases and went to dress out of her travel clothes, Elmery tossed her jacket to Devin and unwrapped the wool from her waist.

Dropping onto an ottoman, she started unrolling the cuffs of her trousers until they reached ankle, again, “How’s transfiguring?”

“That was almost a hello. Nice to see you.”

“I had a thought about why you were getting chips. Was the rest of the surface dull, or shiny? Because getting flaws is one thing but if the whole thing’s unhealthy then it might be the material you start with.”

Devin shook his head but pulled up another ottoman. “It’s not the material. The cracks stopped once I’d practised for a while.”

“That’s great. Congratulations.”

“Thanks.” Sitting down, he folded her jacket onto his lap, “We put pennies on the baby before you left. Was I right?”

“Oh. No, it was a boy,” Elmery put out her hand. As Devin sighed and rooted through his inner jacket, she asked, “Are you off sigils, yet?”

“There’s nothing wrong with using sigils.”

He showed her three copper discs and offered them to her one at a time. The last he held on to; their fingers butting together as she tugged at the coin.

When she stopped pulling and simply watched his face, he told her,

“I’m glad you’re home.”

Lyona’s voice picked up from the door to her room,

“You’re not getting changed, El?”

Devin let go and the coins immediately disappeared into Elmery’s sleeve.

Leaning back, fidgeting with her sleeve cuff, Elmery said, “I’ll wait until dinner.”

“Suit yourself.”

Lyona moved to the tall bureau and started tugging the drawers open. She put her embroidery away and picked out projects ready for their final touches.

Kit in hand, she came to the duet of couches and asked,

“Will you be staying, Devin?”

“If I won’t be troubling you.”

“I want to see you transfigure,” Elmery nodded. “I’ll get the metals.”

His smile was quick but unfinished as she sprang up from the ottoman and went to get the row of vials.

Through the slip of space through the doorway, he could make out the spilling piles of books and papers. Dusty and untouched since she’d been away.

He turned aside to look at Lyona; a red string drawing up with her needle and pulling taut.

“It’s been very quiet without you both,” he said. “Honestly, I’m sure how I filled my days.”

Lyona’s eyes stayed on the cherry knot that she was sewing. “I heard you started riding. Does it suit you?”

“I haven’t fallen yet. Though, it seems inevitable that I will.”

“Are you so careless?”

Devin laughed a breath, “I have my moments, same as the rest.”

“Nothing a decent instructor couldn’t-”

“Silver, iron, and copper,” Elmery held out the wooden tray of vials even before she’d crossed back in the room. “Take your pick.”

Lyona missed the apology on Devin’s face; her lips pursing against the sting when he looked away.

“You have a thumb of copper?”

“Of course.”

“I’ll take that.”

Elmery set the tray on her abandoned ottoman and plucked out the largest red-orange sample. Devin tipped out the pitted length onto his palm and took out his pocket watch. Elmery rolled her eyes as he opened it and tipped out the stub of chalk.

“You don’t need that.”

Devin put his watch away and knelt down on the carpet beside her.

“When you start demonstrating, you can lecture me,” he said, putting chalk to tufted wool.

Though Lyona couldn’t read the blended sigils, she let her sewing rest on her lap and watched them bloom across the carpet.

Devin made short work of three concentric circles, each one brimming with curling lines and flares. He set the copper into their centre and waved Elmery away from it.

“I’m happy here,” she smiled.

“No interfering?”

“Never.”

Devin made a point to study her closely before confronting the copper.

“Hold on to your pins, ladies.”

When he raised his hands, Elmery saw a tremble in his finger tips. The tip of his tongue pushed out through his lips, a shine of pink, before he clapped his hands together.

The copper changed.

A thumb length of pitted metal was now a finished crescent. From one moment to next it lost its dark craters to a polished shine. It curled like a roll of wood under a hand plane and sat, content, atop the sigils.

“Done.”

Devin looked up, all ready beaming. Elmery’s mouth twitched to answer his and she gestured at the circles, “It’s good. It’s a very nice…bracelet?”

There was still pleasure even in the long breath he pushed towards her, “Here we go.”

“Can I touch it?”

“It’s not a bracelet.” Devin picked up the copper and dropped it onto Elmery’s hand, “It’s not anything.”

She checked and tested it; the metal cool to the touch and reluctant to bend.

“No cracks,” she praised.

“May I see?”

With a glance to Devin, Elmery held out the copper towards her sister, “It would probably fit your wrists. You should try it.”

“Except it’s not a bracelet,” Devin started rubbing the sigils into the carpet. “Not everything has, or wants to be, a perfect form.”

“That’s why it needs you.”

“All life is chaos, Elmery,” he recited.

“And all sorcerers are its master,” she returned. “What else are we good for?”

“Fine jewellery?”

Lyona’s voice called back their attention. The copper band was on her wrist; its sheen fading to rose in the light.

Devin sat back on his heels, brushing dust off his fingers, “I’m glad you like it, Lyona, but I can’t take credit.”

“Then, you should try again,” Elmery told him. “Use sigils all you like. Just…coax it, this time. Help it remember the shape you want it to take.”

“Why is it we’ve read all the same books and, yet, I never know what you’re talking about?” Devin asked.

Despite his smile, unease fell on Elmery like a cloak.

“I don’t know…” She looked up, but Leona only sniffed and adjusted her needle.

“Don’t take it to heart, Devin,” she advised. “The rest of us wouldn’t.”

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Edit: have devin be uncomfortable at Elmery’s ‘we’re masters that’s what we’re here for’ opinion. Lyona makes it about her (you could be fine jewellers, look at me flashy flashy) to distract Dev and help Elmery, despite looking selfish. Also, have Lyona take the skirt back since Elmery borrowed it?