Amphitrite - Wilbur Soot

~seven~

"Thetis is still here?" Techno asked me, his blood-red eyes boring into my skull. "Does Phil know?" He was talking to Wilbur now.

"I'd assume so. I think I heard him and Lilith talking about it earlier today," Wilbur replied, suddenly letting go of my hand. Good. It was getting to be too much for me anyway. "Why? Do Dad and Thetis know each other?" He spoke with such childlike curiosity that I would have thought he was a twelve-year-old again if he wasn't sitting right next to me.

"You could say that," Techno sighed. "Listen Wil. We'll talk about it later, okay?" He said, his voice softening. Wilbur nodded. He was about to say something when the sound of an out-of-tune piano began to waft through the busy atmosphere. The tall red-haired woman was standing on the stage, gently swaying to the music, her eyes closed and a soft smile on her face.

"Ophelia's singing now," Wilbur whispered to me, a look of wonder on his face. The woman, Ophelia, had a voice that was like songbirds. High, pretty, and ornamental. Her song had a lot of moving notes and flair. Funnily enough, she was singing a song about two birds. How ironic.

"How does the golem tie into your family?" I asked under the music. For a moment I thought he hadn't heard me until he looked down in thought, his brow furrowing.

"Her and Techno are really close. Something about an invasion in our last kingdom. I really liked it there. Always snow on the ground and when Callista came to visit I got to tailor her dress. Our family's gotten rather convoluted since we moved to Helia," he chuckled lightly. "Ophie is like Techno's older sister."

"How old is she?" I asked, genuinely curious. I would be lying if I said I didn't like to listen to his voice though. It was like speaking to an old friend you haven't heard from in a while. I think. I wouldn't know; my only friend was Daphne.

"Pfft," he scoffed. "Who knows." He sighed. He sounded tired. "Well actually, judging by the length of her hair... Maybe, oh I don't know, fifty years?"

"She does not look like a fifty-year-old." In fact, she looked no older than I did. She could pass as a twenty-something-year-old any day of the week, even if she didn't want to.

"Well golems don't age," he chuckled quietly. "She said something about her hair indicating her age? I don't know I was young." I looked across the table to see both Queen Callista and Techno fully engaged in the performance on the stage, along with everyone else in the small pub.

"It was nice talking to you, but I should probably get going. It's rather late," I said and stood, pushing in the chair to the table. Wilbur stood with me, also pushing his chair in. I shuddered at how much taller he was than me.

"Allow me to walk you back to the beach since I know you don't have a house to retreat to," he smirked, his golden-brown eyes twinkling in the candlelight.

"Oh, no thank you. I wouldn't want to take you from your family." I gestured to all the royalty in the room. "I can manage on my own," I said with a forced smile and I began to leave.

"No, please. I like to hear you talk. Your voice is..." He trailed off, a dust of pink on his nose and cheeks. "Never mind. Please?" He asked again. I was standing by the door at that point, Wilbur just a few paces behind me. I noticed how the girl behind the counter's eyes kept flicking up from the cups she was cleaning to us. We were making quite a scene.

"Fine. But you can't follow me all the way to the shore; I don't think Thetis would take too kindly to that," I relented, and together we left the pub. The night was brisk, but not cold. I don't remember the last time Helia was cold. The cloudy sky obscured any light that would have come from the moon and stars, leaving us with only the sparse lanterns along the village's roads.