He nodded, and we began discussing our plans. We decided to browse the market stalls again. We’d done it once before, just a few days prior, but our attentions had been split between the wares sold and the elves milling around us. I promised him a visit to the transport center. There were always new technologies on display there, and Castien’s eyes lit up at my agreement. He assured me that, while we browsed, he would not make me suffer through the apothecaries. There was nothing that would be sold there that would interest me, and if there were, I couldget it from Emberleigh or from my parents at the campground. We would end our morning with an early lunch at the prepared food stalls.
I was willing to sacrifice a little coin to have a meal with him other than cold sandwiches in his stall.
We started our explorations in the gardens around the shrine as we were already there. Our hands brushed and bumped against each other as we walked through the garden. I kept wanting to grab his hand, to lace my fingers with his as we walked around like we had the day before. We talked as we walked, and this time, it was me telling him the little I knew about the flowers and plants around us. While I could not tell anyone the medicinal properties of a plant, I could identify a good number of them.
It had been part of my education in my youth.
He listened and asked questions, but I did not feel as if my intelligence was being tested or questioned. It was just another step in his eternal quest for knowledge.
After the gardens, we paid our respect to the Gods at the Shrine itself. There were couples there, asking for blessings upon the unions they’d found at the market. There were families praying that their children would find good matches, and there were people there, just sitting silently. I could not fathom what they were asking for from the Gods. Maybe nothing, maybe everything.
Once we began our explorations of the market, our conversation turned more personal. He told me more stories of his childhood with four parents and a mess of siblings. I laughed as he told me of his family’s antics. There was one story in particular that stood out. He’d gone home after his first fortnight living on his own and found a child in his room that he did not recognize. It took him more than an hour to learn that the child did in fact belong in his house. His baba had found him in thewoods on one of his merchant’s trips, lost between Gearwick and one of the territory’s smaller cities, Bloomforge. Baba had spent days attempting to find who this child belonged to before deciding the Gods had delivered them to their family. The child was still with their family, an unquestioned addition that had been there for years.
Castien said he could no longer imagine life without his newest, but not youngest, sibling. They’d even had a Naming Day for them months after they arrived.
My stories were not as interesting, but he still laughed at the right time and looked as if he was hanging on every word I said. I still was not used to the level of care he put into listening to me. I added it to the list of things I wanted in a partner. I needed someone I could converse with, someone that cared for my words no matter how dull they were.
At one point, in the clothing area, I lost track of Castien. When he returned, he had a small bag with him. I was too distracted looking across the market at the man I’d seen the first day, the one I had thought was Raylen.
I saw him again when we stopped at the Pavilion for a rest, only this time, I got a better view of him. It was him. My eyes went wide, and I felt heat flood my face.
“Are you okay?” Castien questioned.
“Uh I—I see someone I know.” Or knew of. I didn’t actuallyknowRaylen of Moonscliffe, but I had followed his exploits as if they were a particularly compelling novel. I felt as if I knew him, and I’d had many dreams of meeting him. Fantasies of meeting him, really. Fantasies that I would not share with anyone, because they were nearly as heated as my encounter with Castien beneath the tree the day before.
“You should go say hi.”
Could I? Could I really walk up to Raylen and just speak to him? He was Raylen of Moonscliffe after all. He was acelebrity known all across the realm, and I was a nobody from Emberleigh. What would I even say to him? But Castien was looking at me with such expectation in his eyes that I couldn’t say no.
I told him I’d be right back and walked over to Raylen. I could feel Castien’s eyes on me as I cut through the crowd, and that dreamer’s voice suggested that maybe this would make him seethe with jealousy.
I approached the handsome Dun Steorran man. My mouth was dry, and I had no idea what I would say to him when I got there, but I kept moving. Surely the words would find me when I reached him, and I would sound suave and smooth and like a competent member of society.
“Oh my Gods, are you Raylen?”
Or not.
He looked at me, his bright eyes curious. “I am,” he confirmed. “And who might you be?”
The tales had not been exaggerated. His voice was as smooth as honey and just as sweet to my ears. He was muscular and tall, and his arms. Oh, his arms. I could imagine how they would feel wrapped around me, pulling me close to his body in a lover’s embrace. My cheeks grew hotter.
“N-nobody,” I stuttered out. “I mean, I am somebody, but nobody you would have heard of.” I did not sound smooth or suave or competent. Why had I allowed myself to think this was a good idea? I was good at finding lovers in Emberleigh and the surrounding villages, lovers who had enough in common with me to find grounds for conversation. What did I have in common with a celebrity like Raylen?
He was still looking at me, though, and he had not wandered off to mock me with his glamorous friends. It occurred to me that he was still waiting for an introduction. “Oleander,” I toldhim. My family’s surname wasn’t important. “What brings you to market?”
“Work.”
“Not marriage?” Why would I ask that? I had sworn off my mission to find a spouse, because my attentions had been captured by Castien. Hearing that Raylen was here seeking a lifelong companion would just fill me with regret when I returned to Emberleigh, make me questionwhat ifonce the high of Castien’s presence faded away.
“No, not marriage.” He looked around the Pavilion for a moment before the full weight of his attentions landed on me. “Are you here for marriage?”
“I was.”
“Did you meet someone?”
I looked over my shoulder and found Castien where I’d left him. He smiled when he saw me, and my heart fluttered. “I did, but I do not think it will be for marriage.”
“And why is that?” Raylen questioned. He followed my line of sight. “He is very handsome.”
