Girl of Iron and Magic

19.

19.
PRESENT DAY
Both Lotte's heart and head were threatening to explode. Her heart, because of Blue, and her head...because she was still half human.

It was almost a relief to know that she couldn't function very well without sleep. Lotte only looked like an elf, she only felt weird, but she was still Lotte through and through.

"Good morning," Maloru said, solemnly and respectfully.

Lotte sighed. In those hours as she tried to drift off, her mind worked out the riddle of the hurt caused by Maloru's lie.

She kept being led right into Rowan's words, and eventually, they wormed their way into the most stubborn reaches of her consciousness, until she wasn't quite sure why she was still cross.

After all, hadn't she just solved the problem by casting yet another enchantment?

That's what she did, problem after problem, all solved with crazy feats of magic.

What would happen when she reached her limit?

Last night, with Blue, she had felt invincible. Nothing could stop her magic when she set her mind to it. All the limits in her life were self-inflicted. All of Poe's warnings were misled. He was misleading.

Now, though, in the stark light of day, Lotte wasn't so sure.

She saved Maloru with an enchantment, and lost her voice.

She made the car as fast as the wind, but it had been out of their control.

She solved the problem with the Nahilan cult by trapping herself in the skin of an elf, a stranger to herself for who knew how long.

The bigger the magic, the heavier the cost. What else was she going to pay with?

She reached out and took Maloru's hand.

He stiffened and his eyes began sparkling with tears.

Lotte felt her own eyes prickle.
"I'm sorry, Lotte. I'm so sorry," he said. "I didn't mean to lie to you. It just got out of hand. I... I didn't think it through. And after you sacrificed so much for me. I'm..."
He no longer had control of his tears. But at least, with Rowan nearby, he had the sense to catch them in his hands and not let them wander off.

Lotte had an empty vial in her pocket which she had kept since last time Maloru burst into tears. She handed it to him.

It's alright, she thought. I understand. We'll get better at this.

He was busy catching tears and stuffing them into his vial. "I'll never lie to you again."

Don't make promises you can't keep.

"Ouch. That's cold, Lotte."

Lotte laughed silently and hung her arm around his small shoulders. I'm just saying, you can have secrets, and sometimes lies. I'll stick through it. We're friends.

Maloru let out a shaky breath. He stared up at her from the corner of his eye. "That's..." He swallowed hard. "I'm going to become an elf worthy of that kind of friendship, Lotte."

Rowan stretched her arms. "Right. That was the most touching one-sided conversation I ever heard. Shall we get going?"

It was an easier walk to reach Amoca. Rowan, with Lotte's enchantments still under her clothes, complained a lot less about her poor human legs. Maloru, when he wasn't gawking at Lotte in her new elven look, appeared to be more comfortable around Rowan than he was the day before.

Even Fintan, who clung to Lotte during the argument with Maloru, was warming up to Rowan considerably, occasionally choosing to sit on her head.

The road they were following sloped downward and the village came into view. It seemed to have only one street, and then more isolated houses scattered away among rolling hills.