Fate

One

Dodging a group of fishermen returning from the docks, Tonius ran towards the little rundown townhouse he and Elyssa currently called home, feeling as though he were about to burst out of his skin in exhilaration. He skirted around a woman carrying an armload of bread loaves—just barely missing her—ignoring her sharp cry as he rushed down the stone steps, bursting through the wooden front door and startling his housemate.

"Tonius!" she scolded, standing from their pathetic little table with a swish of her skirt, some of her runes clattering to the floor as she bumped it with her hip. "What has gotten into you? Bursting in here like that and giving me a fright!"

He was oblivious to her anger as she dropped to collect the fallen runes, walking to her with a grin that threatened to split his face. Crouching, he grasped the tops of her arms, tan hands on tanner skin, waiting for her to look him in the eye. Only when she finally did—albeit with a cross huff—did he share his news. "There is a caravan. Leaving tonight. And they're willing to let us join."

He saw her hopes rise clearly on her face, anger momentarily forgotten. "Truly?" His eyes were shining eagerly as he nodded. "How did you manage it?" The happy moment was put on hold as a dark shadow passed over his face.

"That's the trouble. They approached me. Apparently, word has spread of a fortune teller wanting to get out of the city as soon as the thaw hit. And that I was the person to talk to." Her expression fell quickly, and he immediately tried to remedy it. "It's not forever. Just until we get far enough away to put this awful place behind us. I promise." She nodded, but he could smell the uncertainty coming off her in droves. He passed a hand over her hair and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. "Go pack."

He watched her putter around and shove their meager belongings into their shared knapsack as he scooped up the runes, his thumbs brushing over their smooth surfaces absently, thinking fondly of Elyssa, of the seasons they had spent together. It almost made up for his shitty childhood. Offering her a place of safety had been the best decision teen-Tonius had ever made.

Choosing the city of Watercrest as their place to wait out the frost had definitely made the list of awful decisions that adult-Tonius had made.

It was a long list.

To be fair, the town hadn't been that bad when they'd first arrived. In fact, one might even call it pleasant. But then Elyssa's secret had gotten out. Sure, the townsfolk had thought her to only be a simple fortune teller, rather unaware of what she really was, but the damage had already been done by that point. They had very specific feelings towards anything that wasn't what they considered "normal", and neither of them seemed to fit the bill.

Some folk called her a witch and threw stones at her as they walked down the street. That ended pretty quickly though once Tonius had bared his teeth to a group of particularly catty women. After that, they had been kicked out of their inn and forced to squat in a cold and drafty abandoned home that had certainly seen better days. He wished more than anything else that he could just erase the last season entirely. But there was nothing to be done about it now.

He carefully poured the runes from his hand into the dark velvet sack, tightening the drawstrings and tying them off. The action reminded him of his gift for her, leaving him to rummage through his pockets. When she passed by him again, her arms full of threadbare fabrics that she had painstakingly collected during their stay in hopes of keeping them warm, he stopped her and took the fabrics from her, letting them fall to the floor at their feet.

"Tonius, why—"

"Hold out your hand and close your eyes," he instructed. She did without further comment, though a bemused expression crossed her face as he pressed something cold and round into her palm. "Open."