When Isra woke, she found that she and Verity had moved together at some point in the night, close enough that their legs were pressed against each other, and one of Verity’s hands was touching the bottom of Isra’s rib cage. Extraction from this situation took a fair bit of time, mostly because Isra was trying her hardest not to wake Verity up, but some of that time was also spent with a tracker’s eyes, seeing how they had come to be touching. They had both moved toward the center of the bed, but it had been Isra’s leg that invaded Verity’s space, and Verity’s arm that had invaded Isra’s.
Isra had vague memories of sleeping next to her father as a little girl, snuggled together under the covers in the winter, but when she was old enough, her father made a bed for her, and they had bunks, away from each other but in the same room, so she could hear her father’s snoring. Her only other experience with sleeping next to someone was with a pack of wolves she’d kept in the house for a week during a particularly bad winter storm.
She had the urge to do that with Verity, to curl up next to her like they were two wolves with a storm howling outside. She wondered whether that was a normal thing to feel, but given that the rest of them had different rooms, she suspected that it was not.
She was the first to rise and spent some time in the common room of their suite, reading from a book that Mizuki had left there the night before, originally borrowed from Hannah. It was a romance novel, of the sort that Isra had only read a few of before, focused on a naive young milliner and a much older wizard who lived in a local castle. There were ten books in Isra’s home, plus the six holy books, and Isra had read all of them from cover to cover many times. It had only been in the past year that she’d discovered there was a small library in Pucklechurch, and then after that, discovered that at a library you were allowed to take whatever books you wanted if you promised to bring them back in good condition. Isra came into town on market days and always stopped at the library to return what she’d read and get something new. There was something that felt both social and intimate about reading, even if she wasn’t sharing what she read with anyone else.
Hannah and Alfric were next to wake up, and they exited their rooms at virtually the same time. Alfric was dressed casually, without any of his armor, just a button-down white shirt that was slightly open at the neck, and a pair of well-tailored trousers secured with a leather belt. Hannah was wearing nearly the same outfit, though her clothes fit her far less well, and they were far different from each other in almost every other way. If they noticed the similarity of their outfits, it went uncommented on by either.
“So,” said Hannah. “I s’pose we’ll do breakfast?”
“Mizuki and I were supposed to go see friends of hers,” said Isra.
“How was Verity?” asked Alfric.
“Good,” nodded Isra.
Alfric shifted. “I’ll try to spend some time with her today, if she’s amenable. We have things we need to do, primarily selling some of what we got from the dungeon. It would give us a good opportunity to talk.”
“Or give her space,” said Isra.
“Perhaps give her space by not talkin’ about the things she doesn’t want talked about,” said Hannah. “But still be there with her, in case she wants to.”
“I suppose,” said Isra. She looked over at the doors and pursed her lips. “It will be some time until they wake up.”
“Schedules are off though,” said Hannah. “Verity went to bed earlier than she normally does.”
“We spent some time talking,” said Isra.
“Oh,” said Hannah, leaning over and looking at the book. “And how’re you findin’ that one?”
“It’s not to my tastes,” said Isra, frowning at the book.
“Ay?” asked Hannah.
“They’re… men,” said Isra. The young milliner and the older wizard both.
“Ay,” Hannah said again, this time not as a question, but rather, with a hint of aggression, like she was getting ready for a fight.
Isra shrugged. She didn’t know what she was supposed to be feeling, or why Hannah might be upset. “It doesn’t matter,” said Isra, setting the book down with no intention of ever picking it back up. She had nothing against romances, but there was something in how the book was written, in how it portrayed the characters, that she hadn’t liked. To try to put it in words would assuredly embarrass her in front of people who seemed to respect her prowess in hunting and fighting.
“Ay,” said Hannah, softening somewhat. She picked up the book and looked at the bookmark that Mizuki had placed in it. “I’ll have to speak with Mizuki when she wakes and see what she has to say about it. I suppose I only told her it was a romance, and it might not be to her tastes either.” Isra was confused by what that might mean, and let it pass.
