“You should be more careful of who you’re saying these things around,” Adrissu sighed, though he looked idly down at his fingernails as he said it. “As long as it does not affect me, I don’t care what you do. But others are... unlikely to be as impartial.”
“We’re not stupid,” Varold muttered, and Adrissu had to consciously stop himself from rolling his eyes.
“Thank you for your time,” Maeve said, sounding only slightly less frustrated, and she grabbed Varold by the elbow and turned to leave. At the doorway of his office, she hesitated, turning back slightly as if there was more she wanted to say. But whatever it was, she seemed to think better of it, and they both turned away and stepped out of his office.
Nothing came of Maeve and Varold’s plot. About a year and a half later, Benit Pallestride was kicked in the head by a horse and died. Part of him wondered if Maeve and Varold had something to do with it, but for two humans to somehow get a horse to kick a man in the exact spot to kill him seemed unlikely to say the least. No, it was more likely a random occurrence that had worked out very much in their favor. It was something of a relief to Adrissu; while he had no particular ill will toward Benit, neither did he want to see a large-scale conflict split the city.
The woman who was next appointed as Lord Representative, Rowena Allistair, was unknown to Adrissu. The Allistair family was one that came to Polimnos when the stone mines were first booming, which was the extent of his knowledge. But coming from working stock, she seemed capable and practical, and she was particularly interested in improving the city’s education system, which bode well for him. That was all he really cared about. If the two advisors had tried to enact their plan of establishing a city council alongside this Lord Representative, the attempt was quashed before Adrissu ever heard of it.
He started walking around town again, looking for wherever Volkmar’s soul had gone. It took much longer to make a full circuit around town now, so instead he broke the city up into small sections and walked a few streets at a time, once or twice a week. He only tried to avoid the small corner of town that was home to most of the city’s elven families, few as they were. He had always taken care to keep his distance from long-lived species, like elves, as much as possible. It was easy to lie to humans about how long he’d been alive, but much harder to come up with a story that would convince an elf, who would see that even a hundred years had not aged him. It was best to avoid them, which was easy enough—there were only three elven families in Polimnos still, and they seemed aware of his distaste for them, even if they did not know why. Skipping those few streets, Adrissu was able to make a full pass through the rest of Polimnos every two months, depending on how often he walked.
But he did not seem to be so lucky this lifetime. While he was acutely aware of how long it had been since Volkmar had died, he one day realized with an unpleasant start that fifty years had passed, and he had been waiting now for much longer than Volkmar had been alive.
But he knew the ritual had worked. Volkmarwasout there, somewhere. Adrissu started taking walks more often, but still never felt that recognizable pull toward any of the people that he encountered.
He kept his focus on the school and his own studies, and he tried not to think about his mate unless he was out looking for him.
Time was a strange thing. The longer he lived the more quickly it seemed to go, yet it still made him unsettled each time he realized that another year had passed, and still he had not found his mate. When it had been eighty years since Volkmar had died, Adrissu quietly accepted that he had somehow missed his mate in this lifetime, and he would have to wait until the next to find him. The realization was bitter and stuck in his throat, but he had nothing but time. All he could do was wait.
One hundred and three years after Volkmar’s death, Polimnos may have very well been a different world entirely.
What had once been a small seaside village now rivaled Gennemont as one of the largest cities in Autreth, sprawling out along the southeastern coast of the continent, and joining the southern rocky beaches to the tall cliffs that rose along the eastern edge and swept northward. Stone paths and stone buildings were all a testament to the productivity of the quarry along the southern edge of the city, depleted now, but with a smaller ore mine deep beneath it. Aqueducts and sewers now ran through the streets, allowing plumbing and clean water to nearly every building—thanks in no small part to the magic-users who kept the water purified and running, even through the summer.
The Polimnos Academy of Magic now boasted twenty instructors and nearly five hundred students, with room for one hundred to live on the school grounds, which had also grown and expanded. The campus wrapped around Saltspire Tower in the shape of a crescent moon with a generous distance between the tower and any of the nearest buildings. The practical applications of magic, fostered by the academy, had helped the city flourish and grow—not only by maintaining the waterways, but providing security and cleanliness in the streets, as well as a myriad of small applications that simply made life more convenient for the citizens of Polimnos. Adrissu was surrounded by his life’s work; it satisfied him in the same primal way as his hoard of treasures deep within his lair.
Eventually, Varold and Maeve got their city council, although it came a good fifty years after their deaths. Autreth still had a Lord Representative in each city-state, but now the title’s primary focus was the enforcement of federal regulations within the city, and as a representative of their people’s interests at the annual Council of Lords in Gennemont. The city council handled more of the day-to-day goings-on of a city that was now far too large for one person to handle themself. Adrissu was again offered a spot on the council. This time, he was more tempted, but ultimately declined. He had lived in Polimnos for a long time, too long in fact, and was now known as Adrissu the younger—claiming that it was his elven father who had first taken up residence in Saltspire Tower, and that he had only inherited it a hundred or so years ago now. No one was old enough to remember, so the lie was uncontested, and after some time, it came so easily that Adrissu nearly believed it himself. Nearly.
With the population as large as it was now, though, it was much harder for Adrissu to take his usual walks and be confident that he had canvassed the entire city. He still had not found his mate, but his long walks along the major streets became less and less frequent.
The midpoint of winter had just passed, and the air was cold and damp with fog. Adrissu was not often cold, but this morning had been particularly chilly, so he sat in his study bundled in a thick robe with a steaming mug of tea on his desk, when Vesper uncoiled just enough to peek her head out, looking toward the stairs.
Stranger,she thought. Adrissu idly looked down toward the stairs, and sure enough, a knock sounded at his door a moment later.
Adrissu sighed and got up. With his home in such easy reach of the school, it was not uncommon for instructors, or occasionally even students, to come see him for one reason or another. If Vesper did not recognize the visitor, it was probably a student coming to get his help on something. He generally did not mind, though he did wonder who would be out and about on such a cold morning.
The heavy door creaked as he opened it—he kept meaning to replace the hinges, but hadn’t yet—to reveal a figure that had started to walk away, but turned back to look as the door opened.
The world stopped, a spark jolting through Adrissu’s limbs—he blinked, slack-jawed, as his mate turned around to face him. Big brown eyes peered up at him from a slim, delicate face. A few pieces of long, wavy blonde hair framed the visitor’s features, while the rest was pulled into a low ponytail. His ears, tapered to slim points, peeked out from beneath the long tresses.
“Youarereal,” the man said, sounding nearly as surprised as Adrissu felt.
“You’re an elf,” Adrissu replied, looking him over quickly. Everything started to click into place—his elven-style clothing, the worn traveler’s cloak about his shoulders, and all else told him that the man was not at all local to Polimnos. He had not missed his mate’s last lifetime: his mate had ended up further away and longer-lived than he had expected.
The elf smiled nervously in response, one side of his mouth lifting slightly higher than the other. “Do you know who I am?” he asked.
Adrissu tilted his head, considering. His mate now seemed far more aware of the situation than Volkmar had, but Adrissu doubted the elf entirely understood what was happening, or had any idea of what had already happened so long ago.
“In a way, yes,” he said slowly, stepping to the side and holding the door open. “Come inside.”
“Thank you,” the elf said, quickly coming up the three stone steps and brushing past him. Adrissu closed the door and turned to face the elf again. Behind them, Vesper had already come down the stairs and was making a beeline for the elf who watched her with wide eyes, but no obvious fear.
“Vesper,” Adrissu warned. The snake slowed, veering closer to Adrissu, though her gaze remained on the newcomer. He could tell that she wanted to greet him; but already the elf seemed nervous and unsure, and somehow he thought a giant snake wrapping herself around him would not make him feel more comfortable. He was looking at her with wide eyes; while he didn’t seem entirely shocked, neither did he seem eager to be the subject of her affection.
“Please, sit,” Adrissu continued, gesturing toward the comfortable chairs in the front sitting room arranged around a low table. “Are you hungry? Thirsty?”
“No, I’m alright,” the elf replied stiffly, pulling his cloak off before sitting down. Beneath the cloak he was dressed in an elven-style open robe and long tunic, over thick winter pants and boots. He must have come from Aefraya, Adrissu thought, and he wondered how his mate managed to end up so far from him this time. The worry was distant, though—in the moment, all he could focus on was the sheer relief and happiness of finally being reunited.
“You seemed to know me,” Adrissu started, sitting down across from him and fighting to keep a neutral expression on his face, when all he wanted to do was grin like an idiot. “But I am Adrissu, headmaster of the Polimnos Academy of Magic.”
