Lillik’zeil watched Nomi stumble out of Talos’s chambers, hair a mess and a victorious smirk on her lips. They had barely been back at the tavern for an hour before Talos’s resolve had crumbled again.

  “Your shirt is on backwards.” Lillik could hear the chittering in her own tone, even with the potion.

  “Thanks.”

  “...I don’t understand why you keep chasing after Talos.”

  “You know why.”

  Lillik was quiet for a moment, her human eyes shifting away while her spider eyes involuntarily kept Nomi in her sight. She momentarily let her consciousness drift toward the ones still fixed on Talos’s door.

  “And do you really think this is the way to make him forgive you?”

  Nomi paused, her playful smile fading for a moment, her younger sister finally letting her expression darken.

  “...At least this way he won’t leave me behind.”

  Lillik was quiet for a moment, the human gaze moving back to Nomi with a mix of pain and something heavier.

  “It’s not good for him either.”

  “I know.”

  “...You should talk to him properly.”

  “He still won’t let me.” Nomi’s small smile returned, the mask coming back up. “Still, it’s progress. A couple months ago he wouldn’t even look at me, now I’m back in his bed.”

  Lillik shifted an appendage out from under her cloak, a corked bottle meant to stop the clicking. Nomi didn't react or care, waiting for her sister to drink the potion held in its grasp.

  “He cares about you still, but he’s furious. And with how Rinerva has been treating him, I don’t know if this is the best time to be pushing for physicality.”

  Nomi’s mouth opened, then closed. She looked away, finding a sudden interest in the floorboards.

  “...Did he say that?”

  “You know I can’t tell you that.”

  “Not even for your favorite sister?” Nomi paused for a moment. “Second favorite sister?”

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  “You’re still my favorite sister.” If Lillik could smile, she would, but even so Nomi could see it in her eyes.

  “Aw, so sweet to me Lily. Still won’t help me fix things with Tal though?”

  “I am helping you.”

  “...Mm.” Nomi rose and stretched, her focus drifting briefly back to Talos’s door, as if weighing her chances, before she reluctantly made her way to the room she shared with Lillik. A moment after, Agon crouched through the inn’s open door. The barkeep winced as the giant man’s weight threatened to fracture the chair across from Lillik that he settled in.

  “Hail, spider.”

  “Hail, giant,” Lillik echoed, her eyes slightly amused. “Trying to find Tal a sword?”

  “Trying to convince Rin to stop torturing the lad.”

  “I can’t imagine that went well.”

  “Then your imagination is realistic, spider.” Lillik normally towered over the populace, yet beside Agon, she felt small—a rare sensation. He ordered himself four cups of whatever was the cheapest, downing them like shots. “Though, if you just stop making the healing potions…”

  “Talos wouldn’t accept that. We’ve had this conversation so often, Agon.”

  “...Aye. And you’re right, spider.” He downed another mug. “Then let’s talk about something else, eh?”

  “Tell me about the desert. I’ve always wondered what Thul is like, though I’ll never be able to go there myself.”

  “Afraid of drying up?”

  “Yes. I fear I wouldn’t last a day.”

  “Hrng. Well, you aren’t missing much, spider. It’s a harsh mistress.” Agon stared into his cup, the cheap ale swirling. “But the dunes... aye, they’re beautiful at night. Everything I hoped the sea would be, I envisioned in the dunes. And the stone...” He tapped a finger on the table, a heavy thud, making his pile of cups dance. “Nothing beats Thul architects. We didn't just build cities; we carved our legacy into a land that gave us nothing we didn’t earn.”

  “I’ve heard tell of the Rethnians hiring your people since the end of the war. Perhaps I’ll live to see your people’s craft.”

  “And a sight it is to see! Rethnian slate took some time to grow accustomed to, aye. But it’s soft. It yields.” Agon let out a rough, sarcastic laugh. “It's no wonder whelps like Rinerva care little for their workers, when the land itself is so willing to comply.”

  He paused, the humor fading as he stared into his cup, before he emptied it and added it to the growing collection of emptied tankards.

  "Perhaps that is why Rinerva left her homeland. She has never been one to yield."

  "Hmph. True enough."

  "You know, she and Tal met in the Crucible?"

  “Why by all the gods was a null in the crucible?”

  “I’m not sure either, Rinerva only mentioned it once, and Tal refuses to talk about his time there.”

  “Aye. But a university for mages, and a man with no mana?”

  “It is odd.”

  “I suppose it makes sense Rinerva is from there, her magic is a damn sight on the battlefield, and while I don’t approve of some of her choices… she gets results.”

  Lillik nodded. Her human eyes met his, but the arachnid cluster on her brow drifted past him, skittering over the wall behind and onto the other patrons, one still fixed on Nomi’s door. She rarely forced them to focus on the giant. He was simply too big. If she didn't avert them, his sheer mass flooded her peripheral vision, leaving her feeling dizzy and cross-eyed every time he shifted his weight.