Ghost and the Writer

Epilogue

August leaned down to kiss Leum, although not for the reason Mandy thought he did as her eyes sparkled up. But seeing her look told well enough she had meant it when she said she was fine with it as long as she got to join in.

<Play along,> August conveyed to Leum who was looking both surprised and curious at the same time. The good part of communicating by encoding aether like this was that it took only as much time as thinking did, but there was no trace of magic use.

<I think Veri will figure,> Leum replied. About this being a conversation, not something else.

<I'm fine as long as Mandy doesn't,> August said.

<Doesn't that mean going all the way?> Leum checked.

August was aware. Mandy doing this and that with her tentacles was one thing, but-- <I will curse you if it hurts.> There was a reason why it took him close to five months to have a conversation that should have been had on the very same day after this asshole tricked him into making August his master.

<I wonder what kind of curse?> Leum asked, some excitement present in the aether he sent over.

Ugh. Yes. Leum was this kind of character, the fact that Leum had not killed August at any point in time even if August was about 99.9% sure he had been the one who had caused everything bad in that broken future branch should have told everything about just how risk-loving this damned dragon of fate was.

<One that knocks you out for a few years maybe?> August said. That wouldn't be exciting even for Leum.

<You won't do that,> Leum said.

Damnit. <Fine, I won't curse you at all.> He gave up.

<Mhm, yes, I suspect a backhanded blessing,> Leum said. And August wasn't sure if he liked that Leum knew him so well or hated it or both at the same time. Same how he wasn't sure if he liked it or hated it that he didn't mind feeling Leum's hands on his body. Leum was playing along and it didn't feel like an act on either side.

This is why it was an asshole move to form familiar contracts - you never knew how much of the attraction was soul fragments resonating and how much of it was real.

<How much of the stuff you said in Grisham's cabinet was the truth?> August asked. He was confused back then, but now he knew a bit more and realized that Grisham was just helping Leum out. No artifact - truth detection or otherwise would act against Leum.

It was likely even that Leum had pointed something at Grisham's back or someplace none of them would see to get Grisham to cooperate.

<It's true that I loved you even then,> he said. <But becoming your familiar was my last-ditch effort to save this planet without killing you.>

Figures. That made far more sense. August hadn't known a lot of things back then - about 'undead' dryads just being new dryads, or about history, or what Riveria and Ceruleum actually did or wanted, or what kind of people Gaius, Tiamat, and Purple were. He was very ignorant.

But he hadn't been wrong about everything - the things he imagined might happen really were possibilities. If he was found out he would have problems with all the groups he imagined, even if the shape was a bit different. August had no idea for what reason all of them would cause problems, so of course, he wouldn't know how it would work.

Yet, the thing he never said to anyone was - that his plan for 'what to do if my family or I become a hostage' was actually making the core of Urea collapse on itself, his personality was too bad to let anyone use him. August had spent years observing and wandering through the thing other dryads had set up to be automatic then plain ignored - he knew how it worked and he knew how to break it.