Chapter Two

Orina exited the bathroom, a towel draped over her shoulders so that her still-damp hair wouldn't turn the nightshirt soggy at the collar. It fit well enough, though the thin fabric made the small swell of her stomach more apparent. She passed through the living room -- which had seen an eruption of books about Zeal -- and into the kitchen, where Elgin sat at the table with her sodden robes spread across its surface. She watched him deftly repair a hem that had come loose and smiled at him when he noticed her presence. His eyes widened when they settled on her midsection.

"Yeah," Orina said. "I'm pregnant." It was the first time she'd admitted it to anyone, and she was inwardly amazed at how casual her confession had been given the miraculousness of its subject. She also hoped it wouldn't affect Elgin's decision to let her stay. She wasn't sure what would be worse: him throwing her out because she was pregnant, or him feeling obligated to let her stay because of it. And she wasn't sure how to broach the subject either way.

"That's wonderful! Then I have two guests," he said cheerfully, then returned to his work.

"I... guess you do," she said. "And thanks." She pulled out the chair across from him and sat down. She'd never had need to repair her own clothes -- that had been the job of the Palace servants -- and watched the process with some interest. Elgin hummed as he worked and, after a while, Orina laid her head in her arms and closed her eyes. She awoke to the smell of food and jerked her head up to see that her robes were gone, replaced by a tragic-looking concoction of rice and beans on a chipped plate. It looked revolting, but smelled delicious. She quickly discovered that it tasted just as good as it smelled.

Elgin was nowhere to be seen, but she could hear books being moved around in the living room. "Elgin?" Orina called.

"Are you okay, Orina?" he called back.

"I'm fine," she answered. "Did you eat already?"

"Just finished, actually," he replied.

"Oh," Orina said quietly. She returned to her plate, then turned to look at Elgin as he entered the kitchen. He carried a massive stack of books and had what she guessed would be his chin pressed against the top of the stack. He wobbled awkwardly to the table and set the books down, snatching one up before it fell onto Orina's plate. "You didn't have to," she said, once again aware that he had heard her.

"Nonsense," Elgin said. He sat down in the chair across from her and resumed reading, humming again like he had before. When she had finished eating, he set the book down and took her plate away. "I think I might've found some mention of you," he said as he washed off her plate. "I'm not certain, though, since it doesn't sound right. Take a look for yourself -- it's open to the page."

Orina slid the book over and looked at it. It spoke of some strange sorceress named Nightshade, who'd been disfigured by a demon. Apparently the sorceress had arrived shortly before the Fall and was appointed the temporary title of Guru. The author seemed to consider her a main contributor to Zeal's downfall. "That's... not me," she said. It sounds like Ithonie... but I saw her go into the timegate! How'd she get back? And why did she destroy Zeal?

"That's what I thought, but I wanted to be sure," Elgin said as he returned. Orina gave him back the book and he set it down and picked up another. "I'll have to keep looking. I haven't found any mention of your Decamerone, either."

"You probably won't," Orina said. "I wasn't anyone important. You might find Decamerone, but I doubt it. I don't think he was officially recognized as part of the court."

"Was he a Mystic?" Elgin asked.

"No, a half-demon... the only one in Zeal, " Orina said. "I had a crush on him for years before he noticed me, though we didn't act on it until years later. All those wasted years... but we had to be careful," she continued wistfully. "Loving him was forbidden."

"You were very brave, then."

"We were just about to announce our engagement to the court, when..." Orina stopped, her shaking jaw clenched tight. She took a deep breath and held it before continuing. "He's still my late husband."

"I understand." Elgin picked up another book, a massive one marked with tabs and notches, and opened it seemingly at random. "I shouldn't ask you about such things, I know. Sorry."

Orina took another deep breath to compose herself, fighting back the tears in her eyes. "It's okay," she said and was surprised that she meant it. "So how about you?"

"What about me?" Elgin asked, head tilted. "No great loves or tragedies, if that's what you're asking. I'm just an ordinary schoolteacher. I'd have at least nine cats if I wasn't afraid of them."

"I never had pets, either," Orina said. "Do you like teaching?"

"Very much. I wanted to be a professor at the university in Truce, but I ended up having to set my sights closer to home. Not that I mind, really. Most days." He set the book down and rubbed at his temples. "It'll be better by summer -- less headaches."

"Is Jade that bad?"

"Alone? Yes. When Shade's around? Yes and more." Elgin groaned. "She's a very human-looking Mystic, even more than Shade. Ordinarily, that's looked down upon and holds lesser status... but she's already discovered the power she holds over humankind as well as other Mystics. She'd be dangerous if she wasn't so lazy."

Orina rested her hands on her stomach. Usually, she would have rolled her eyes at the idea of a grown man letting himself be bullied by a pair of teenaged brats, but, at that moment, she found Elgin's distress more worrisome than tiresome. While she hadn't known him very long at all, in that short time he'd been nothing but kind to her and had gone out of his way to help her. She'd have to see if she could do anything about Jade's attitude problem tomorrow; it would be the least she could do to repay his generosity. Unless... A sick chill shivered down her spine as she remembered Shade's taunting words. She rubbed her stomach, frowning.

"Mostly, she's like Shade, though, and likes to run her mouth. You'll be okay." He paused. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, fine. It's been a long day," Orina said. She glanced around the room for a clock and, though she couldn't see one, it didn't look like there was any light behind the curtains. It felt like all she'd done since her arrival was eat and sleep, and, somehow, she was still tired.

"You've been through a lot, I can tell," Elgin said. "It's not that late, but I can fix you up a place to sleep if you want to lay down."

"All you've done since I got here is wait on me," Orina sighed. "Let me do this: just tell me where the blankets are and I'll sleep on the couch."

"No no no, please, allow me," Elgin insisted. He set his book down, then pushed his seat away and stood up. "If you're going to stay here, you need a room to sleep in. I'll sleep on the couch. It'll give me an excuse to catch up on my reading and watch late-night TV."

"But this is your house!" Orina protested as he left the room. She got up from her chair and followed him through the kitchen and into the living room, feeling equal parts awestruck and foolish. She started to say something when they passed by the sofa, but he clacked his beak at her and continued walking to a room at the back of a short hallway. She took a deep breath, then entered his room. "I can't take your bed!"

Elgin picked up a pillow from the bed and tossed it to her. "Well, we can't share it! Go put that on the couch, would you, please?"

Orina stared dumbfounded at the pillow, then turned and left. She fought the urge to giggle with relief as she walked to the couch; no wonder Elgin had been so outraged by Shade's accusations! She set the pillow down on the arm of the couch and turned around, nearly running into Elgin, who had a wadded up bundle of sheets in his arms.

"Just going to tuck these in here... and here... like so, and there we go!" he said as he arranged the sheets on the sofa, then pulled the blanket draped over its back onto them. "Perfect. Now to get yours."

"But, really --" Orina began, but he had already scurried out of the room. She waited until he walked by again, this time carrying a folded set of sheets and a few pillowcases, and grabbed onto his arm to stop him. "Wait, Elgin, I --"

"I insist," he said. "You can help me put these on, though."

"Thank you," Orina said, giving his arm an awkward squeeze before she let go, then followed him back into what was now apparently her room. She felt a pang of guilt when she saw the bed: it was about the same size as the one she had back at Zeal, and certainly looked more comfortable than the narrow sofa.

"The frame belonged to my grandparents, who inherited it from my grandfather's grandparents," Elgin said as he set the sheets and pillowcases on top of the bedside table, then pulled out one of the sheets and waved the sheet onto the bare mattress. Orina caught the edge of sheet and tucked it into her side of the mattress while he did the same on his. "It's overkill, I know, but it's a family heirloom and I've always been partial to it."

"I can see why: it's beautiful," Orina said. She pushed the sheets around the foot of the bed, reaching between the footboard and the mattress. It really was a pretty bedframe: the headboard and footboard were decorated with wooden inlaid flowers and the four short posters at its corners were topped with carved blooms. "What about the quilt?"

"My mother and her mother -- my other grandmother -- worked on it together, back when she was a teenager," Elgin said. He tossed her a pillowcase, then unfolded the other sheet on top of the bed. "Once it's spread out, you can see which squares she got annoyed at," he added with a laugh. "One's even stitched upside-down and it galled my grandma to no end that she didn't notice until after it was finished. They made better ones, later, but this one's my favorite and I didn't have to fight my sisters and brother for it."

Orina, still holding the empty pillowcase, edged aside to let him straighten the other side of the top sheet. "I have two sisters... I'm the youngest, and I don't think Ithonie ever really forgave me for that." She paused. "But she and Alyse got to know our parents, so I think they won out. Ithonie's the middle and Alyse is the oldest by a bit. She's the one that raised us, after our parents died."

"Second youngest." Elgin handed her a pillow. "My brother Harvel's first -- and he can never do wrong, just ask him -- then my sisters Elsa and Sabina, followed by me, then my sister Aurora. We were close when we were small, but it's been a while. They moved away and I lost contact with all of them."

"Oh." Orina stuffed the pillow in its case, then handed it back to him. There was a bitterness in his tone that surprised her, but since he hadn't commented on the edge that followed her mention of Ithonie she decided not to comment on it, either. She was already invading his privacy enough. "I'm sorry."

"Not your fault," he said with a sigh. "Not mine, either, but that's life." He shoved the last pillow into its case and set it down on the bed, then stuffed the cast-off pillowcase half into the pocket of his suitcoat. "Alright: you grab that end of the quilt and I'll grab the other. Don't worry about not getting it on straight because it's crooked no matter what."

Orina did as she was told, inwardly marveling at the chaotic mix of colors and patterns that made up the quilt. No two squares were alike and, looking closer, she could see places were the stitching had been pulled too tight and puckered the fabric. She pointed to one of the squares. "It's that one."

Elgin nodded. "That's the one." He then moved to the dresser with a mirror above it placed against the opposite wall. He opened and closed the drawers, pulling out folded clothes and putting them all in the bottommost drawer. "There we go! First two are yours, last one's got my extras. The closet's got a bookshelf stuck in it. Feel free to read whatever catches your eye, though we may not share the same taste in authors. If you want more, my study is in the room across from the bathroom. Most of the stuff in there is academic, but there's some light reading, too. We can turn that into the baby's room later. I've got enough places for books."

Orina sank down on the bed, stunned. "Elgin, I -- you really don't --" she stammered.

"Or until you find your feet, your choice," he added, studying her expression in the mirror. "However long you want until you get sick of me. Sorry."

"Don't apologize -- it's just that... I really don't know what to say..." she said. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," Elgin said. "The door locks, too. I'll give it a knock in the morning, if you're not awake by then. If you wake up before me, you're welcome to anything you find in the kitchen. Your clothes are in the laundry room -- speaking of that, can I take your towel or are you wearing it?"

Orina removed the towel she had draped around her shoulders earlier and held it out, fluffing at her hair with her other hand and running her fingers through any tangles she found. That continued for a few moments, her other arm still outstretched, until she cleared her throat.

Elgin coughed. "Oh, right," he said. He turned away from the mirror and took the towel. "Goodnight, Orina," he said as he left the room and shut the door.

"Goodnight," Orina said to the closed door. She got up and turned the lock, then turned out the light and crawled under the covers. Sighing, she removed the jade frog from the pocket of the nightshirt and brushed it against her lips. None of what had happened in the past few hours, days, weeks, or months seemed real; everything had started to carry a feeling of horrible unreality after Decamerone's death. Part of her felt like she'd breathed her last breath along with his, but she knew she had to keep going for their child. That desire was what propelled her through the brief, yet terrible battle that ensued with Ithonie and Kezmet, as well as the shock that followed her entry into the timegate. She'd lost sight of both her sisters after that: while she didn't care where Ithonie went, she hoped Alyse was safe.

And, as for her, was she safe? She really wasn't sure. She'd been swept into a far away time, far from everything and everyone she'd ever known, and dropped into a city of Mystics. Whatever fate that would have awaited her if Elgin hadn't found her remained unknown, and she still marveled at her incredible luck in meeting him. Not only had he given her food and shelter, he'd practically turned his entire life upside-down for her benefit and not asked for a single thing in return. It didn't help that, as much as she hated to admit it even to herself, that she wouldn't have extended the same level of hospitality to him had their roles been reversed. She would have given him food and shelter, sure, and not asked for any compensation, but he'd still be sleeping on the couch and she'd still be in the room that locked. And there'd be a definite end time to his stay. She sighed again and brushed the frog against her lips once more before setting it on the bedside table.