"Heh, sir, such presence. I'm Tengel Novira. May I ask how to address you?"
Eli stood with hands on hips, sighing, as a purple-haired man in ornate clothes walked toward him.
"Mm?" He looked, puzzled. "Hello. I'm Eli Aestor."
"What can I do for you?" Eli studied him, then nodded.
The man strolled through heavy snow, the flakes subtly skirting him.
A ripple of danger ran off him, like cold water on steel.
He was no simple foe.
"Aestor, you're an adventurer, right? In times this calm, meeting someone your caliber is unreal."
He smiled, fox-tail soft in snow.
Eli curled his lip.
He'd seen plenty of peacocks like this; odds were he was a sly old fox.
Better tread light.
He waved him off.
"Mr. Tengel, if that's all idle chatter, don't bother me."
"Heh. Why not head into the city and really talk?"
He gestured, palms like fans cutting the cold.
Eli glanced at Edlyn on the wall, sketching a defense array.
He thought of Angela and the rescued woman.
He was about to refuse.
The man cut in.
"Don't rush to say no."
He smiled and drew a cup and a small notebook from a spatial tool.
The air rippled like a pond.
He sipped the white liquid with courtly ease, then opened the notebook.
"Easy, Mr. Eli."
"Come to my place."
"Let's discuss the repair bill for the wall your bear smashed."
"And the compensation for the wounded soldiers."
"Eh, haha, so that's it. Fine, I'll go."
Eli scratched his head, fingers combing his hair like dry straw.
He hurried to agree.
"Wise choice."
The man shook his head and smiled, a crescent moon in winter.
...
"Not bad. So, the distant Draco Empire's ruler governs well."
The man still cradled his cup, lounging on the sofa, steam coiling like pine-mist.
Edlyn glanced at the wall clock.
She leaned toward Eli and whispered, her voice a cat's paw in the room.
"It's been an hour. Wow, does this guy not plan to go home?"
Eli shrugged, shoulders heavy like wet cloaks.
He now owed a fortune, and the creditor was the city lord.
No choice.
He had to soften his tone, at least a little.
He missed the old days.
Back then, money slid off him like rain on oiled leather.
Now, the coins felt like stones in his boots.
They hadn’t gone to the lord's manor.
The lord remembered some matter there, supposedly.
So he followed Eli to a nearby inn.
After they settled in, he sat serene as a dusk lake, and sipped that unknown white liquid.
"Ahem, City Lord."
"Then it's settled."
"I won't haggle."
"Do you have anything else?"
"If not, please."
Eli waved, impatience like sparks under ash.
Tengel smiled and nodded.
His tone was a feather dipped in vinegar.
"Sigh, really now. Am I that unwelcome?"
Eli opened the door and made a polite gesture, his hand bending like a reed to wind.
Tengel laughed and walked out, footsteps soft as snow on fur.
Eli sighed.
This year, every path felt uphill in sleet.
Angela wiped the face of the woman Eli had carried back.
She gasped.
"Uncle Eli, sis—she woke up! Wow, she’s gorgeous."
Both of them turned to the bed at her words, like sunflowers to light.
She had carved features and flawless cheeks.
Her teal-green eyes, a little aggrieved, sized them up.
Golden hair spilled across the sheets like sunlight on wheat.
Eli blinked, surprised, a sparrow flicking its wings.
Then he glanced at Edlyn beside him, reflex-quick.
Edlyn showed no strong emotion.
She watched the girl with a thin crease of doubt, lips a cherry under frost, lost in thought.
Sensing his gaze, Edlyn turned and looked at him.
She sniffed, delicate nose like carved jade, and frowned.
"What?"
Eli smiled, warmth like a coal in winter.
The girl seemed to have caught a cold.
He fixed her scarf, snug as a soft cloud.
Then he took her hand and smiled.
"Nothing."
Edlyn reflexively tugged free.
She found resistance useless, and let him be.
Over this year, under Eli’s excuses, she had grown used to his hand, a tether in the wind.
Edlyn studied the girl on the bed, doubt rippling like a pebble in a pond.
She looked a bit like that mage who used to follow the Hero back then.
