forum secrets only the sun knows // O/O // Closed

Started April 23, 2021 by @MarDeColores this is not it kids

tune

Theo followed, trying to keep track of where they were going, but it was a little distracted by the snake coiled around their leg. I'm getting dizzy, stop moving so much, she would complain, and then the next moment go, You're so much warmer than that library!
When they reached the kitchen, Theo felt themself becoming rather uncomfortable with all the people around. It was too much for them, and besides, going by themself would reduce the chance of someone asking questions, or Ko getting paranoid and causing an incident. Even staying with the one person who happened to be their parents' murderer was better than being stuck with all these Opreian folk.
He nodded. "Yes, I'd like to see the garden, please."

Kuno silently cursed but managed to keep his face and voice mostly neutral. "Okay. Let's get some food first." He waved towards the spread of food. It looked like today was bunyu-gune (a simple soup of noodles and vegetables) and sol-majey (a small cornmeal cake). Kuno ladled himself a serving of the soup, adding a cake to the side before heading out a different door. They could go back the way they'd come, but it would take longer. At this point, he was assuming that Theo was following him. He should have been nicer, but it was annoying that his lunch was getting interrupted by someone he didn't know. Then again, this could be Sol's way of encouraging him to get to know his new assistant better.

They dutifully followed behind him, helping themself to a serving of soup. A homesickness started coming over them, as they wished it was the classic seafood dishes of their homeland that were being served, not… this. It would be suspicious of them to complain though, so they remained silent.
He stared at Kuno. He got the feeling that the other man was once again annoyed, and he once again wondered why.
Can I bite him now? Ko’s question held an eager tone.
He rolled his eyes. “No,” he said, hoping the hum of chatter in the room would hide his voice from Kuno.

Kuno glided down a hallway that quickly emptied into the gardens. They were decently large, full of native plants and trees. Kuno paused briefly in front of a bed of solar qbi-kiqei, small golden flowers he used for spells, to inspect them. They'd been planted recently, and though it wasn't his job, he wanted to make sure they were doing okay. They really were beautiful flowers. The flowers seemed to be doing wonderfully, so Kuno moved on. The path wound through a small grove of delicate trees and ended at a large pond dotted with white water lilies. Kuno headed towards a low table sitting near the pond and sat down. He'd managed to set down his food and settle down before he remembered that Theo was also there. "Oh, uh… feel free to sit down." Kuno waved at the table, then glanced towards the pond. Sol, he really needed to work on his social skills. This was just getting painful.

Theo looked all around, the beauty of the flora around them capturing their eye at every turn. They didn't have plants like this back home, in Indri. Theo was usually more interested in the fauna rather than the flora, but curiosity tugged at his mind, and he couldn't help but ask, "What are those flowers?" when they stopped at the bed of golden blooms.
The table was placed in the perfect spot, Theo had to admit. No one else was around, and the scenery was quiet and beautiful. For a moment they stood there, staring at their surroundings before they heard Kuno speak. They nodded and sat down. Ko, finally sensing that they at finally stopped moving, uncoiled herself from their leg. Theo resisted the urge to shudder as the imprint of her body was left on his shin.
Still wary of the soup, he stirred it absentmindedly as he took to staring at the librarian, seeing if he could gauge his weight and height. He did not have the best social skills either if he was being honest. He wasn't sure how or if he wanted to strike up a conversation.

"Those flowers?" Kuno asked, frowning at Theo in confusion. "Solar qbi-kiqei. Golden dew-blood, if you want it in Neza." Anyone should know what those flowers were since they were such an important flower. Then again… many of the occasions when that flower had been used had to be stopped during the war. Still, it was a little odd.
Kuno quickly put that thought out of his mind. Being suspicious of everyone had been a good habit to have during the war, but it would only cause trouble now. People tended not to like being suspected of some dark secret. In order to keep the thought out, Kuno reached into his menileofe, a small pouch that hung on his waist, and pulled out a book too large to actually fit in there. Theo didn't appear to want to talk, so he wasn't going to make things painful and try to have a conversation with them. The book contained spells, both ones he knew and ones he was trying to learn. Kuno flipped to a particularly interesting one he'd yet to get a hang of and studied the page, taking bites of his soup as he did. Every once in a while, he would mutter a few words under his breath.

“Ah,” Theo said quickly. “Just needed to recall the name.”
He cursed himself for not holding his tongue. Clearly his asking questions looked suspicious, and he was going to risk discovery if he keep looking for answers via conventional means. Perhaps there was something in the library he could take a look at to familiarize himself.
They continued to stare at Kuno. It was hard to tell how tall he was when sitting, and the weight was especially hard when he had the table in the way. Of course, they could come up with random estimates, but Theo didn’t want to make a mistake. They sighed, finally deciding to try the soup. It was surprisingly much better than expected. They switched their focus between their food and Kuno’s book. They felt Ko slither up his arm and curling around his shoulder, flicking her tongue in Kuno’s direction. Theo sighed. I guess there’s no way to talk her out of this. Can’t hide her now, he grunted silently.

"Hmm, alright." Kuno went back to reading, moving on to the next spell. He quickly finished his soup and moved on to the sol-majey. After finishing that, Kuno cast a quick glance at Theo to see if he was done eating. He froze, staring in confusion at the snake on Theo's shoulder.
"You have a snake?" Kuno tried, pointing at the snake in case Theo wasn't aware. Well, he was probably aware. He just wanted to make sure. It would be a real shame to have his assistant get hurt on the first day, though that would allow Kuno to try one of his newer healing spells. Apparently, it was a combination spell for both healing and purifying water. Very interesting, and it worked for water, but he didn't know about the healing part. No one had gotten poisoned recently, and he doubted they would let him try to help him with a spell that may or may not work. He could probably poison himself and try it out, though that posed the question of what poison to use… Kuno shook his head and focused back on Theo. This wasn't the time to think about all that.

Theo sighed. “Yes, I have a snake. And she’s really annoying and obnoxious, so just a warning. But she doesn’t bite. Do you, Ko?” he glanced at her pointedly.
Was it glee that was sparkling in those slitted eyes? I want to bite something, she said.
“Then at least bite something that’s not one of us,” he groaned. “And let me eat in peace.”
But that means moving away from youuu, the snake whined. Biting ball?
They sighed again and reached into their pocket, producing a thick wad of cloth and handing it to Ko. Like lightning she struck it, burying her fangs in the cloth. She hissed with satisfaction.
Theo carefully let go and let her have it. He returned to eating, avoiding eye contact with Kuno.

"Ah. Okay." Kuno stared at Theo. He didn't really care about the snake– he'd had lots of experiences with them, especially in his childhood. Still, he thought it was a bit weird that Theo had one as a pet. Maybe that was just because he'd never had a pet himself. Kuno looked back down at his book and figured he could take a little time to make a few new jars. He didn't want to go back to the library just yet, but he also didn't want to move to somewhere else. Hopefully, Theo wouldn't ask any questions about it. That was why Kuno generally practiced magic and did anything related to magic away from people. They asked too many questions. He liked to answer questions, especially about magic, but too many were too much for him. Kuno pulled a pair of small jars and a couple of lengths of silver twine out of his menileofe and set them by his book.

“And before you ask, she’s not my pet,” Theo said. He’d gotten questions and comments before about his snake friends being pets, and he wanted to get it over with before it happened again this time. “She’s my friend. An annoying one, but a friend nonetheless.”
As they ate, they watched Kuno in fascination. They weren’t really the type to delve into magic or anything of that sort, especially of the Opreian kind, but seeing Kuno now made him curious. He simply waited to see if Kuno would do anything with the jars and twine.
Keeping his eyes on the other man, they asked, “Ko, when was the last time you ate?”
Three days ago. Her hiss was muffled.
“Then why do you feel the need to bite?”
She seemed to make a hmph sound. There’s a difference between feeling hungry and wanting to bite, dummy.
Theo rolled their eyes. “Whatever. It just came into my mind.”
They went quiet, still watching Kuno but trying to avoid eye contact.

"Oh." Kuno nodded, picking up one of the pieces of twine. A snake as a friend… well, he didn't have anything to say about it. He carefully tied the twine around the neck of the jar, double knotting it. "Tejen", Kuno whispered, running his fingers over the knot. That spell wasn't necessary, but it did ensure the jars lasted much longer. The first time he'd made these types of jars, he hadn't done that spell and the twine had unknotted after a while. He'd reached into his menileofe one day to find it full of powdered charcoal. That was something he never wanted to happen again. Kuno glanced over at Theo, but they seemed to be having a nice time talking with their snake. He looked back at the jar and linked pointer fingers over it. "Enal." The twine flashed gold for a second, then reverted back to its normal silver. Kuno reached down and picked a small stone from the ground, dropping it into the jar. He was pretty sure it has worked, what with the flashing and all, but it never hurt to check. Kuno picked up the jar and flipped it over. The stone fell but stopped at the mouth as if it was covered in glass. Success. He picked the stone out and threw it back onto the ground. Now the next one.

Well, it seems they didn’t have to worry about eye contact. Kuno looked way too focused on his magic anyway. Theo couldn’t blame him, their own gaze was glued to what he was doing. Their eyes widened as the twine flashed gold, and they leaned forward slightly when the stone stopped at the mouth of the jar. He was reluctant to admit to himself that he was impressed. This was Opreian magic. Wasn’t it evil? Wasn’t this the same magic that imbued the blade with the power to slice mother and father’s necks? Why then, was it so fascinating, so captivating to watch? Perhaps that is why they died. The magic held them fixed, they couldn’t react fast enough. Theo couldn’t stop a bitter chuckle from escaping him. Well, they hadn’t seen the sword being enchanted, of course. That seemed to be the fascinating thing about this. Knowing what was done to allow a mundane object to do incredible things, seeing it for yourself- that was what mother and father were unaware of. Was it possible they didn’t know? Had they told them that this was evil merely because they had seen it do evil things?
He felt something soft rub against his cheek. “Stop it, Ko.” He pushed away the snake, who had been shoving the cloth ball in his face out of pure desire for attention.
You’re mean. She hissed, slithering around his neck and stopping at his other shoulder.

Kuno repeated the process with the other jar, doing the same checks he did with the first one. He carefully set the two new jars into his menileofe. They would be filled later. Kuno looked over at Theo when he heard the laugh coming from their direction.
"Are you okay?" Kuno asked, glancing between Theo and his snake. Hopefully, he hadn't just been laughing with his snake, and Kuno just randomly butted in on their conversation. Still, he was rather protective of his magic. After the end of the war, he turned to magic to keep his mind off of… everything, really. It was something he loved, and on top of that, it meant safety. It was Sol's blessing to the Gealei people, after all. Kuno was pretty sure he needed a blessing or two. "Um, never mind. Are you done eating?" He glanced down at the table, eager to get the rest of the day over with. After he finished his work in the library, he would go down to the beach and work on his attack spells. It was always nice there, and attack spells were always fun.

Theo glanced up at him. "Hmm? Yeah, I'm fine. Why do you ask?" Then he registered that Kuno said never mind. "Oh. Um…" He glanced down at his bowl, surprised to find it nearly empty. Did he really find the dish that good? Well, he still didn't think it compared to the Indrian shark fin soup. He pushed the bowl away from him. "I'm done. You want to head back to the library?"

"Mmm, iesa." Kuno nodded and stood. "We should take these back to the kitchen." He picked up his dish and started back down the path. After a few steps, Kuno glanced behind him to make sure Theo was following. Given that they had needed guidance to get to the kitchen, he guessed they would need help to get back too. Unless they had managed to memorize the path in one go. That was a small chance, though, and he didn't want to abandon Theo in the gardens. "I apologize if I'm acting rude. It's not my intention. I haven't had a lot of social interactions in the past…" He trailed off, trying to figure out just how long it had been. "Year, I think." Kuno glanced back again to give Theo a small smile. Hopefully, that would make up for all his ignoring and such.

Theo followed behind him, holding his bowl with Ko still around his neck. He was about to ask the snake to hide somewhere so no one in the kitchen would be alarmed, when he saw Kuno turn back to him.
They raised their brow, though not because of Kuno’s lack of social interaction. It may just be because he didn’t know the truth about them, but they hadn’t thought he would be so considerate. It was once again difficult to imagine this man as the one to kill mother and father, but of course, that didn’t matter.
“Oh no, you aren’t being being rude,” they said. “I haven’t had a lot of social interaction either… at least, with other humans.”
He didn’t return the smile, but a strange feeling rose faintly in the back of his mind as he looked upon it. He blinked, quickly dismissing the feeling as he murmured for Ko to hide under his sleeve. Once she did, he continued walking with Kuno.

"Ah, good." Kuno smiled again, though it was less at Theo and more just for the sake of it. It was nice that Theo understood. "We can get better at it together, I guess," He added lightly, turning back to face where he was going. The kitchen was just as busy as it was before, though there was more of an emphasis on dishes than cooking at this point. Food was still out for the stragglers, though– which would have been him, if not for Theo.
"Do you need any help?" Kuno asked as he set his dishes down. The woman he was addressing turned around with a playfully annoyed look on her face.
"Kuno. My dear res-Kuno. You already have enough to do. Go take a break or something if you have spare time." She flicked a bit of water at him, which Kuno artfully dodged. "I mean, cleaning up that whole library by yourself right as taveni-jolu is coming up? I, personally, think you're crazy."
"I'm not doing it alone anymore. The queens found me an assistant." Kuno nodded towards Theo.
"Huh. About time." Ry rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to her task. "Get going, rusipol." Kuno sighed and headed towards the door. Ry could be a very interesting person, but talking to her was always difficult, at least for him.

Theo nodded in reply. Together, huh? they thought to themselves as they walked. Well, not for much longer.
Once in the kitchen, he set his dishes down with Kuno's before looking up at the woman. Watching silently, feeling a drop of water fly to his cheek. He merely wiped it away, bowing his head and introducing himself once he was addressed.
He wondered what this taveni-jolu was, but knew it would be a bad idea to ask, so he gave one last nod to the woman before following Kuno. Maybe once he got back to the library, he could find a book that could explain it to him.

Kuno let out a small breath as he walked, glad that Ry had reminded him of the taveni-jolu celebration. It was something he enjoyed, and he was looking forward to it. It was a little bad that it was happening right in the middle of the library project, but now that he had an assistant to help him, it wouldn't be so bad taking one or two days off. And those days off were desperately needed. This taveni-jolu would be different than the other ones though, mostly because… well, there were a lot of people missing. The breakfast usually shared with family would be different. Elia and Lainei had invited him to join them anytime something with family was involved, which he appreciated. They really were the best… Kuno let out a soft laugh and opened the door to the library. He shouldn't think about these sorts of things in front of other people.

Ko started to complaining again, which Theo payed little attention to. She whined that she couldn’t breathe and that they should take the biting ball back, but Theo know she had nostrils to breathe through just fine. And being covered by their sleeve may make the air stuffy, but she wouldn’t be there for long.
He cocked his head as he noticed Kuno’s small laugh. “What is it?” He asked quietly. He stepped cautiously into the library.

"Hmm?" Kuno glanced back, then realized he'd just laughed out loud. "Oh." His eyes dropped to the ground for a second. "I was just thinking about the morning of taveni-jolu. It's going to be different this year. What with all the missing people." He paused. "Do you… do you have someone to celebrate it with? If not, I'm sure you could join us. The queens wouldn't mind. It's been a hard few years for us all," Kuno continued, turning back towards the mess of a library in front of him. "I'm sure they would let anyone without a family join them to make sure no one's alone."

Theo raised a brow, figuring that these missing people were missing because of the war. "Well, I'm not sure if I could really celebrate it with snakes and lizards," he shrugged. Then his gaze on the other man became more focused as he realized what he was offering. Theo suddenly felt very unprepared, unsure how to respond. These queens would invite him, the assumed librarian's assistant, to this event as an actual guest? Mother and father would have never done such a thing, it would've been improper and rather insulting to the more wealthy and powerful guests who were usually invited to a celebration, even if it was in the aftermath of a war. They wanted to decline since it might be rude of them to be there, but then they reminded themself that they were in a different country, it might be ruder to decline than to attend.
"R-really?" he stuttered. "The queens would be so kind?"
As he was distracted, his feet merely wandered in the direction of his piles of books.

"Of course." Kuno nodded, smiling slightly at Theo. "Taveni-jolu is a day to celebrate the summer… though this one will probably just be celebrating the end of the war." He stayed with Theo, half to continue talking with him and half to check on his progress. "If you want to join us, meet me in front of the library the day after tomorrow. You don't have to come, but I'm sure they would love to have you." Kuno glanced around at the piles of books. "I'll leave you to your work." Kuno gave him a nod and headed back to his own area. He hoped that that whole invitation hadn't been too awkward. But the queens really would love to have more people. Something to make it more familiar, and to distract from the many shadows of people long gone.

Theo absentmindedly let Ko slide out of his sleeve and onto one of the bookshelves, taking the cloth ball, suddenly feeling less nervous. He remembered celebrating Jiyo, a similar holiday back in Indri, but it was mostly by himself, or not at all. But at least it sounded familiar. Besides, he didn't know what else he could do when the day came. It's not like he could celebrate Jiyo, as it had a different date.
"Well, perhaps I could do with a bit of change in schedule," they conceded. "I'll think about it."
They returned his nod and went up to his piles of books, beginning to sort them with new vigor. Ko trailed beside them, tasting the air with her tongue.
"If you cause trouble, I'm going to throw you out the window," they said, not looking at her.
The snake hissed with laughter.

"Yeamelo." Kuno gave them a small smile. He just had to tell the queens about it so they could have enough food made, and then everything would be set. The rest of the afternoon settled into a slightly agravating rhythm, at least for Kuno. It would have been nice, except for the fact that he'd started going through the history books in earnest now, and they were all… so, so bad. Absolutely terrible. Book after book found its way into the canyu pile, though they were more thrown than placed. If he'd been alone, he would have been insulting and cursing every one of those books. It would probably have been too much noise for Theo, and he didn't want to interrupt their work. So, he stayed silent and cursed them in his head. Eventually, the sun dipped low enough on the horizon to call it a day. Kuno tried to stand, letting out a quiet curse as his stiff legs caused him to nearly topple over. "You can go, qle-Theo!" He called, leaning on a sturdy-looking pile of books and shaking his legs out. Maybe he should go for a walk that evening to balance out all the sitting around he'd been doing that day.

For Theo, the afternoon merely became a therapeutic routine of sorting books. Sometimes he came across something that disturbed or discomforted him, but he forced himself not to think to hard about it. He found a few more books that he wanted to take a look at later, adding them to his mental list.
Ko was surprisingly well behaved. She was either sleeping or making snarky comments, and that was fine with Theo. At least she wasn’t biting the books or slithering all over him.
Eventually, they managed to get all of the books sorted between fiction and nonfiction. They had been going through the fiction pile, picking out realistic fiction novels and moving them to their respective shelves when they heard Kuno’s call. Looking to the window, they were surprised to find the sun so closed to the horizon. Is the day over already?
He weaved through the shelves, Ko around his shoulders. Finding Kuno shaking out his legs, he asked, “Are you alright?” though he wasn’t sure why.