Nightsworn | The Whispering Wall #2

Thirty Four: Thirris

The day didn't get any less surreal as it wore on. They had herb tea in a small parlour at the back of Thirris's home, which thankfully was lit when they entered. The back door opened onto a small veranda and then a patch of woodland that the Unspoken appeared to have commandeered as a garden, judging by the profusion of strange scents. Ren had already crept to the door and stuck her nose out to sniff curiously, and came back in a fit of sneezing.

Jordan sipped at his tea and looked around at the walls, which were adorned with paintings and skeletons, or frames that contained small creatures pinned to boards. It was much neater than the front room. Jordan suspected that the back of the house was where Thirris lived, and the front was just somewhere to store everything. He tore his eyes away from a specimen that resembled a moth, pale mint green and easily the size of a human hand. A pin speared it neatly through the thorax, and the cream-coloured eyespots on its wings seemed to stare dolefully at him. Thirris sat down beside him with a heavy sigh, and Yddris's amusement at Jordan's awkwardness was tangible from across the room.

"So what kind of demon set you off, then?" Thirris said, quite amiably, as if this was a normal thing to ask someone on their first meeting. Of all the Unspoken Jordan had met, no one had ever asked about his manifestation so bluntly.

"Bone Wight," Jordan replied. He shuddered at the memory. He had a bad track record with Bone Wights, almost as bad as it was with Listeners. "Though I think a Listener might have triggered something before then."

"You have a strange accent," Thirris commented, as if to himself. He turned to Yddris. "I'm assuming Harkenn approved of you taking him on?"

"He's already lined the boy up for my job."

"Ah," Thirris said. A thread of concern entered his voice. "He will have the chance to roam about first? Get by on his own for a while?"

"I'm not dead yet, old man," Yddris grumbled, pulling out a pipe. Jordan resisted reaching for a cigarette. "I'll step down when he's ready, not before."

"Good, good." Thirris nodded vaguely, and then flitted to the next point of conversation like a moth himself. "And how is Nika? I saw him before he left for the Reach, of course, but I understand much has happened over this last season."

"He's managing," Yddris replied, and disappeared behind a cloud of smoke. "As well as any of us are, I suppose. He's been helping teach Thorne." As if the words were being dragged from him, he added, "He's been an invaluable help this season, actually. What with everything going on, I haven't had as much time with the boy as I should have."

Pinpointing what went unsaid with uncanny accuracy, Thirris said, "The thing about Harkenn is that he expects things to be done with little knowledge of how long they take."

Jordan agreed, but kept silent as he always did when he was the topic of conversation. He had gathered that Thirris didn't know where he was from, and wasn't even certain if Cara did. Too many times during his time in Nictaven he had given it away without realising that what he'd said or done would be considered strange, so the best policy was not to say anything in the first place.

An animal called in the woodland beyond the doors, and a breeze set another bunch of handmade chimes to jangling. Steam swirled around his face as he lifted his cup, carrying bitter notes and sugar sweetness in one breath. All around them, despite turning down the volume on his sensitivity to magic, he felt Nictaven thrumming with life. Ren spotted a beetle as it whirred into the room and then out again, and this time Jordan let her go, watching her stalk through Thirris's garden with her bushy tail twitching and feeling a deep sense of peace creeping over him.

"Magnificent creature, that," Thirris said. He also watched Ren scampering around.

"She was a gift," Jordan said absently, the encroaching calm making him forget his awkwardness for a moment. "From a Varthian bookseller. He had a litter born in the shop."