Gods & Thieves ✔

48. Friend and Enemy

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Love is easy. But you have to trust the person you're in love with--and that's hard.

So far, I only trust the idea that Loretto is hiding something from me.

Following Tayen from as far as I can to avoid getting caught, I soon find myself in one of the market squares.

Lo does not pay the slightest attention to the stench and heat around the market, and goes about faer business purposefully and freely, like the wind. When Loretto stops at a flower tent, fae begins to ask the saleswoman about something and inspect the flowers. Even from the opposite side of the street, I can see Loretto's graceful, attentive fingers examining the tender buds.

What kind of secret acquaintance you go to visit with flowers after a night with me? I can't help but grumble under my breath.

Yes, I'm definitely jealous. And I guess I'm being selfish.

As a child, I always had to share toys with Ariane. I wore Kofi's old shoes, and Cale's shirts that he'd grew out of. I am selfish, because all that did not teach me to be an extrovert, but only forced me to cherish all rare treasures that belong to me. And mentor is my treasure. Only mine.

When Loretto leaves the market square without buying anything, a new thought creeps into my head: maybe Lo knows that I'm watching? Is fae mocking me?

But no.

Once in a narrow alley where not a soul lives and where I have to hide behind garbage buckets to remain unnoticed, I see Lo stop. Fae looks around, waits, and then makes the strangest gesture: fae draws the outlines of a jasmine in the air with fae hand.

I've only seen such sophisticated magic once--when Maricela forced me to teleport the blade that was in my hand into her own.

I don't notice any spark, aura, or mini-portal on Loretto's fingers. No, a modest bouquet of one jasmine inflorescence, resembling a ball of blue five-leaved flowers, appears in Lo's hands literally out of nowhere.

"You don't have any aura gemcoins with you," I remember in a whisper. Mentor left the last one to the baker yesterday for the cake, and Lo does not like to steal. At least, in public.

Satisfied with the result, Loretto walks on, with the flower now.

I'm behind.

We pass several more streets and featureless blocks, but Lo doesn't slow down, not for a moment. Fae knows exactly where fae's going. But where? Lost in my frustration, I don't even notice when Lo leaves the streets behind.

My heart skips a beat when we both find ourselves in the opening at the edge of the city, and I realize that Lo now only needs to turn around to see me. And there's nowhere to hide anymore.

However, Lo doesn't turn around.

Mentor continues to move forward without looking back. Fae goes to the cemetery. An old, forgotten cemetery lost in weeds and overgrown with trees broken in bad weather. Even on such a hot day, there is a cold fog there, as if in some otherworldly dungeon, which inspires only fear. It seems that once you enter there, you will never leave...

This cemetery is called the Forest of White Stones, although all its white stone tombstones have long since turned black. I've only been to this cemetery myself once--in my early childhood, when Ma insisted on showing Cale and me the crypt where our great-grandfather's body lies.

I know that no one has been buried in the Forest of White Stones for probably a hundred years, although for a shaman, such a period is probably like a couple of moments. And Loretto hasn't had any family for over a hundred years, which means...