Watching Khaivor with children still feels strange sometimes. Not because he behaves differently around them, but because he does not know how gentle he already is.
Tali practically attached herself to him after the festival. Now she wanders into the workshop every other day demanding stories, illusions, or sweets he pretends not to carry. She points toward the half-finished resonance harp resting beside me. “Are you making another magical thing?”
“I am trying.” I answer briefly.
“That means yes,” Khaivor says.
“It means maybe.” I quickly counter.
“It means she has not slept properly in three days because her brain refuses to stop inventing things.”
I glare at him. “You are becoming extremely comfortable in my workshop.”
“Your workshop?” He gestures broadly around the room. “Half of these tools are mine now.”
“That sounds like theft.”
“That sounds like shared domestic space,” Vi says while entering through the open doorway.
Brohm follows carrying two fresh barrels over his shoulders.
Tali immediately abandons the chimes to sprint toward them. “Is the brewery open today?”
Vi grins. “Officially tonight.”
The excitement in her voice softens something inside me.
For weeks after the festival, I thought the damage would linger heavier than this. That fear would settle permanently into Bellmere’s bones. Some of it still has. People glance nervously toward the temple whenever bells ring too loudly. Several homes near the shoreline remain abandoned while repairs continue.
But life keeps pushing forward anyway.
The brewery reopening feels bigger than barrels and tables.
It feels like Bellmere deciding not to remain frightened forever.
Brohm sets the barrels down carefully before looking around the workshop. “Council wants to commission new instruments once the docks finish rebuilding.”
My brows lift. “Instruments?”
“Apparently travelers heard about the resonance bells already,” Vi says. “Now everyone wants Bellmere craftsmanship.”
The words settle strangely in my chest.
Travelers heard. Ysoria’s warning returns immediately afterward and others will hear too. Khaivor notices the shift in my expression almost instantly.His gaze lingers on me for half a second too long.
Enough for Vi to notice.
“Oh no,” she says dramatically. “You two are doing the silent eye conversation thing.”
“We are not,” I retort too quickly.
“You absolutely are,” Brohm says.
Tali looks between us curiously. “What is the eye conversation thing?”
Vi points toward Khaivor. “That is the look of a man painfully in love.”
Khaivor nearly drops the tuning fork in his hand. My face burns hot enough to rival the forge furnace.
