Girl Genius - Nuée Ardente - Chapter 8 + Epilogue (COMPLEEEEETE)

[askerian]

Their luck held all evening, and all night, and into the morning. They drove in shifts -- Sorin had found it preferable to be asleep in the back when Velimir drove, for all that the jerk had complained about his driving, but it did help that he could see a little better in the dark than Sorin did.

It was about ten on a drizzly, quiet morning and the lava engine was thrumming along nicely with Velimir's snoring when they ran into the blockade.

Sorin braked hard, threw the transport into reverse -- half-spin on the rain-wet road -- and a half-dozen spider clanks burst out of the trees, cannons ready. He was going to burn.

Maybe he could ram one first.

"Give up, Sorin!"

His hands gripped the brake closed. The transport made an unpleasant crumpled-metal noise.

Rozalia stood, braced on the shoulder of one of the spider clank drivers, heavy black braid draped over her shoulder so she could clench her fist on it. He didn't need to be close to know she was glaring at him.

"You're caught, so just give up and--"

He was so monumentally fed up with her right now, with the whole situation really.

"Are you damn well dreaming?!" he yelled back, and revved the engine, or whatever it was that made the temperature jump five degrees in two seconds and the whole frame tremble with barely leashed power. God, he was going to ram her clank, and no doubt she would barely get hurt -- maybe she'd fall out and sprain her wrist -- but if he had to get burned to death so close to escape he was damn well going to make her look at his carbonized corpse while he was at it.

"I've got your mother with me!"

--Oh.

Rozalia pulled on someone's arm in the back, tried to make them get up, didn't manage. The clank's driver leaned obligingly to the side to free the view.

It was his mother, graying hair in barely tamed curls, a heavy chignon. Gagged.

Oh, hellfire and damnation.

What the hell had they gone after the letter for then, why had he even worried it would betray him, when Rozalia could have -- had -- done just that.

He was vaguely aware that Velimir wasn't in the seat beside him any longer, wasn't aware of when he'd left -- it didn't matter right now. The only thing that did was how angry he was, suddenly.

"Did you drag my mother into this thrice-damned disaster, you asshole?! What the bloody hell for?!"

Rozalia actually rolled her eyes at him. He gritted his teeth. The only reason he didn't rush right at her clank was that his mother was right beside her, and tied up to boot; she'd have no way of holding herself up. "Where's the Jäger, Sorin? I know there's no way you ditched him!"

Hell. Okay. Gain time. He could do that. "He's half-unconscious in the back, and I can't believe you'd bring my mother into this, no, seriously, explain that to me!"

"Oh, please, it's not like I've hurt her yet! I was perfectly happy to leave her alone, but it's not like you left us a lot of better ways to make you listen, mister good, sensible rules are for other people!" She tossed her head, braid swinging.

"Hoy," Velimir muttered from the shadows outside the transport, "Hyu did not say she vos an ex-girlfriend!"

"She's not an ex-girlfriend!" Sorin yelled back.

Um. Okay, now they were all staring at him weird.

"No?" Velimir replied, amused. Rozalia was sputtering.

Why was this his life. He wanted a refund. "There was some talk of getting us engaged so I'd get the forge, only she broke it off. You broke it off, okay?!"

Velimir was still here, was chatting instead of going around disabling clanks. Couldn't he cross the... very empty space all around without being seen... Cripes, of course he couldn't. Delay, delay --

He could see her fisting her hands from here. He had no doubt that if they'd been in arm's reach she would have punched him in the face. "You thought I'd marry someone who treated me like an adorable kitten instead of a woman?!"

The spider driver coughed in her hand, nudged her with an elbow; Rozalia breathed in hard, calmed herself down. Damn, Sorin didn't want that.

"Well," she said, not yelling anymore, though he could still hear her well enough; "the Mistress doesn't treat me like a kid sister. And she wants you, so that's what she'll get. She was even generous enough that she promised me your family wouldn't have to pay for your stupid, and you'd just go to jail, so really, this is as good as you'll get!"

Sorin was pretty sure she believed it wholeheartedly, too. But he remembered the aqueduct, and all the clanks the Viscountess had thrown at them and lost, only to throw more.

She could bury the cave again, easy. Fill it, make it so it had never existed.

As long as he was alive he could be found, he could talk.

He was sure the Viscountess would be very sorry when she told Rozalia it had been necessary, or he had tried to escape, or.

--Wait a minute. Not like a kid sister? How did --

"She's three times your age!" he -- maybe -- kind of shrieked.

From the shadow of the transport Velimir coughed. "Hy iz like seven or eight times hyurs," he muttered. Sorin made a choked-off, growling sound in his throat.

"Oh god, shut up or I'll drive over you, shut up."

Rozalia had gone pink and he was aware that the clank drivers were -- looking... a little distracted?

Yeah, that had totally been his plan from the start. Yep.

"Why am I even bothering to talk about this?!" Rozalia yelled. "This has nothing to do with anything! This is about you snooping in restricted areas when you should have been indoors following the law!"

"It's a stupid law!"

He could see her gritting her teeth from here. "Shut up and surrender right now."

"Let me think about that..." He throttled the engine. "Nope."

Velimir needed to get closer. Okay. Sorin could give him that.

He threw the transport forward with all the speed it could gather in one burst. His head snapped back; he forced it down, chin tucked in, mulish.

He could hear Velimir yelling a cheerful war cry from the side of the transport, where he was no doubt hanging on somehow. Okay. Good enough.

Lava came at them. He swerved. Spiders were falling back, but not quite fast enough in reverse when their drivers were trying to keep an eye on him. Good. He had to close in.

The difference between Sorin's driving and a well-trained transport driver's was, he didn't care if he wrecked it. He didn't care if hairpin turns and sudden reverses made the frame groan and sing with stress, if his manhandling made the wheels stutter and jerk strangely -- it was good. Unpredictable.

It was probably the only reason he wasn't roasted in the first five seconds, despite the sheer size of the transport.

Spider clanks started to go down to the side of him. He'd lost Velimir, the Jäger busy cutting a swath through the herd. That was fine. He was in a good position to arrow straight for Rozalia and his mother, and Rozalia's hand was still on the gunner's arm, mouth open like she was trying to talk the woman into not strafing him down.

The gun under the spider swiveled up and he swerved, and then it was scorching hot in the cab until his speed brought fresher air in. He could hear the roof dripping molten metal, splattering and sizzling (awgh, and that stink was the rest of their boar being charred black.)

The spider danced aside, dodging him, and he braked hard on one side to bring the back of the transport whirling against its legs. He had to grip the controls hard not to be flung out of the cab, his ass sliding on the wooden seat. (The door on Velimir's side was missing, it would be so easy to fall out.)

Stopped. He shook his head, dizzy, craned his neck even as he started the transport moving again. He'd felt an impact, but nothing huge --

There it was. Limping, but not down. Skittering away. His mother was staring at him. He couldn't read her face, that stupid gag was in the way; Rozalia had fallen into a crouch and was clinging to the gunner's seat. She was yelling something.

Yeah, he still wasn't listening. He couldn't have if he'd tried, with the blood pounding in his ears until he was deaf to everything but the explosions.

The air was so hot against his back. If the lava that had hit the roof melted the engine's casing his death would probably be quick. Not painless, but you couldn't have everything.

He started forward again.

"Sorin!"

Velimir. Yelling. He braked. (So hard he tipped forward and into the console, oof; the back of the transport briefly left the ground and thumped back down)

There was a mountain on the side of the road (there were mountains everywhere) and there was lava flowing down it, but in arches, in bridges. Red and gold and darkening in seconds, almost no splash, the bridge growing new legs and then cooling there, contained, encased in -- in rock -- gleaming-wet, Spark stuff, it wasn't natural, none of it was.

At the apex of the bridge there was a gold-painted spider clank, bigger than any of the others. One he remembered.

"Sorin!" his mother yelled, and his head jerked back. She'd rubbed the gag off, she was standing, though Rozalia tried to drag her back down, though the clank wobbled, unbalanced. "Sorin, go! The Baron--"

The bridge's molten legs touched down between him and his mother's clank. No, no --

"Go!"

He went, eyes burning with smoke, he turned around with the transport gritting out protests, clanging -- gears loose somewhere, but he was still moving. He could barely see, barely breathe (not crying, no, not, thwarted rage and unfairness and smoke.)

Where was Velimir? He couldn't drive off without -- there, he needed -- the Jäger had abandoned his pile of victims, was running toward him, waving his arms--

--not this way? Not --

The ground trembled and lava flowed in a spreading, smoking puddle on the wet ground and he swerved -- something broke off with a clang -- (he was abandoning his mother) -- he went --

It was very hot on his face, in his nose, it was hot and red, and then it was black.

Then it was nothing much.

--

He woke up. It hurt.

He made a noise.

Things went floaty, dragged him away.

--

He woke up. Maybe.

Floaty. Nausea. It was dark.

Oh. Closed eyes. He could fix that. He could...

--

He woke up. It didn't hurt. Didn't feel like much. Maybe he was a cloud now. Maybe he was a river.

Velimir floating down the river, lazily sprawled on a trunk. He couldn't swim. Mmh.

Sorin's mother had tried to teach him, when he was a child. He wasn't good at it. Ludy was. Ludy was good at everything like that. She was going to be an adventuress. Sorin needed to get married because it sure wasn't from her that grandchildren would come.

"... awake?"

Of course he was. Did rivers ever sleep?

"...Interesting philosophical question, but... dosage..."

Maybe he was a cloud. Clouds were kind of pre-rivers in a way, if he remembered his schooling well... cycle of water, river to the sea, racing, running, you couldn't hold a river you could try but it'd escape, he'd escape. Get to the Baron. Tell him.

Tell him...

--

It hurt but he couldn't let the Viscountess know. He woke up teeth clenched, throat locked. No sound. No complaint.

He knew from burns.

It was only really bad when it didn't hurt. If so, he was pretty okay.

Mostly okay.

It hurt.

He opened his eyes to his cell. The ceiling was brushed steel arches, far away, not a black stone dungeon.

There was a bag with fluid in it on a stick at the corner of his vision. He didn't want to turn his head but he had to. (He regretted it, but not enough to stop.)

Glowing things. Little square lights. Brass dials. A long sheet of paper unrolled slowly into a basket underneath. Some kind of wave-spiky pattern on it, endlessly repeating.

The back of his neck hurt. A bit on his face, too, barely noticeable against the screaming of his shoulder, his chest.

His arm also hurt, but differently. When he looked down he saw a cast on his wrist. Well then.

There was a clean, crisp white sheet on him.

He was in a hospital gown.

It was nothing like the town hospital's.

"Avake den?"

He flinched when he tried to turn too fast to the other side, to the voice -- accent -- Veli? but no, not the right voice, the right --

There was a row of white, clean beds. A Jäger Sorin didn't know reclined on one four beds down. He was furry, red. Not in uniform; in his undershirt, not a gown, both (human-shaped) legs stretched out before him and looking badly bruised at the tibias.

Wulfenbach's winged tower sigil on his hat. Oh.

"Hoy dere." He grinned, goofy-harmless to offset the teeth.

"Where's Veli?" Sorin asked, because he couldn't think of anything else. The Jäger's smile didn't change but the look in his eyes did a little. "--Velimir. I mean. I."

He was not going to hyperventilate. None of that. He stopped, breathed out all slow.

The last thing he remembered was a handful of oddly disjointed images, the ground from odd angles, the cloudy sky. Too much light, his eyes had hurt.

"... Did I explode?"

The Jäger chortled. "Hyu shore deed."

His accent was bad. Sorin briefly wondered if he was putting it on, too.

"Figures." He closed his eyes for a second, opened them again. "Velimir? -- Do you know him? You've got to, all of you know each other, right? You--"

"Shush. Gonna rip hyu grafts, und de nurses vill stab mine poor buttcheeks again." A snort, and then he relented. "Veli iz reportink to der Generals. He iz fine."

"Oh." Sorin went loose in his bed with relief, noticed a bit late the pressure that put on his injured shoulder. There was no position to be had that wouldn't put strain on one of his burns, though. He grimaced and stayed put.

Velimir was okay.

They'd gotten to Wulfenbach.

"I don't suppose you know what happened to my mother." Or to Rozalia. He supposed he still cared a little bit. He hadn't realized she'd noticed the distance he held her at, the lack of... She was pretty, it just was the kind of knowledge he didn't really care about, and what if it had pushed her toward...

No, he wasn't going to hold himself responsible for this, she wanted to be treated like a grown woman, okay, fine. Besides he didn't know what else he could have done, save from faking attraction better, and that just... No.

He decided then and there that if he did get married it would be to a woman who knew the score and didn't mind. It'd be too unfair otherwise. And if that never happened...

Well. It'd be sad, but less than the other way.

"Sorry, keed. No idea."

Sigh. They were probably alright. They'd been on the other side of... they'd been far away. He thought. "It's fine. Thank you."

He was so tired, and it hurt -- everywhere, relentless. It made it hard to corral his thoughts.

"... I didn't ask your name, did I? I'm Sorin."

"Hm. Hallo, Sorin."

Sorin waited a second, two, turned his head again to blink at him.

"Hyu still haff not asked," the Jäger replied with a what-can-you-do shrug.

"... May I know your name?"

"Shore ken!"

Then nothing but a slow blink and a close-mouthed, vague smile. Sorin's eyes narrowed. "May I pick up a bedpan and throw it at your head."

A reluctant laughing snort. "Anton."

"Thank you."

Sorin shifted a bit on his bed. His skin prickled, felt too warm, too tight, like if he shifted too fast it would rip open.

Soft footsteps on the floor. He squinted; a nurse was coming to his bed.

"Hello. Nice to see you awake, Mister Petrescu."

"Oh. I -- have I been asleep long?"

She regarded him like she wasn't sure he could handle the answer and was weighing the decision to tell him. Sorin tried to look calm and levelheaded.

"This'll be your third day on Castle Wulfenbach." A reassuring smile. "We kept you unconscious the first two days, until the skin grafts took."

She checked his wounds, making little noises -- hm, yes, hmmm. Sorin thought about the fact that he'd been burned so badly he'd needed grafts. Wow. Huh. Wasn't so bad he'd been unconscious for it, he supposed.

"It all seems to be taking well so far. I'm going to give you another dose of painkillers--"

"Wait! Uh. I don't -- don't want to sleep yet, I wanted to see, there's someone..." Yeah, there went the blushing.

The nurse was pretending she hadn't noticed. Professional habit, he supposed. "Do you know when they'll visit?"

Sorin threw the Jäger a helpless glance. Anton shrugged.

"Um. No. But could I stay awake another hour, and then if he's not here I'll sleep?"

She was frowning a little. "You do need to rest, and constant pain is not helping you do that. It takes a lot of energy to be in pain, you know." Sorin looked dejectedly at her. He supposed he must still look utterly crappy from the whole ordeal, because she softened. "Half-dose for now? It shouldn't knock you out, but it will relax you. You may doze more easily."

... Well. His burns did hurt a lot. "S'good. Thank you."

She did something to his IV. He waited to feel it.

The nurse turned to fix his sheets, leaned in, whispered, "By the way, if you want a screen you only have to ask. We can't really move you any farther apart, but..."

Sorin blinked, confused for a moment until he figured out she thought he'd have a problem with the neighbor. Who was, uh, several beds away?

"Oh, no. It's fine. I like Jägers." Um. Wait. "I mean. I don't mind them. I mean... I think I know how to handle them by now? Yeah. Thank you."

From the way Anton was staring long-sufferingly at the ceiling, he wanted to be gone just as much as the nurse wanted him out. Also, he could totally hear them.

If he wasn't walking off whatever injury he had, fair bet his legs were actually broken.

The nurse finished fussing, wrote some things on the little notebook thing at the end of his bed, and then left. Sorin waved the tips of his fingers, since he couldn't move his head and his good hand -- which was also his left hand, and he was no southpaw -- suddenly felt pretty heavy.

"So hyu... like der Jägerkin, huh."

Anton wagged his bushy eyebrows at him, hat tilted up almost like a salute to a lady on the street. Sorin pursed his lips.

"I'll tell Veli you're poaching from a brother." Anton blinked. "Your own brother, how could you. For shame."

The Jäger's lips had gone all pinched together. Sorin hoped he did feel properly chastened. Yes. Good.

Then Anton started laughing. Hrrmgh. Hmph.

It was the great belly-laugh kind, too. Jerk. He'd met two of them and he already knew: Jägers were all jerks.

He didn't mind too much.

"So vhen he call hyu his leedle lava cannon..."

Sorin sputtered himself awake. "He told you he called me that?!"

"Yes." Three seconds, and Anton burst out laughing again. "Naw. He chust call hyu dat vhen hyu haff de bad dreaming de one time. Grossly cute."

Sorin groaned and tried to sink farther through his pillows. It didn't work. No escape.

Okay. Full speed ahead then. "I rammed a lava engine transport into a lava spewing stone spider and assaulted an agent of the mail with a spanner this week," he said as calmly as he could. "Do not test me."

"Huh."

"I also threw a polecat and a lot of rocks. Do not test me. I will test you to destruction."

There was a blissful moment of silence.

"So... Hyu shore hyu iz no madboy, den?"

Sorin considered it. "Nah, I'd have broken through already. Then right now I'd be building bedpans that could throw punches. Pow."

Anton was laughing again. Sorin wasn't sure why. He smiled anyway.

When Velimir walked in fifteen minutes later Sorin was attempting to pull his IV stand closer so he could throw it like a javelin.

"Veli!" Sorin called out. "Help me whack him on the hat. Head. Help me."

Anton just smiled his smug-face stupid smile and waved his fingers. "Hoy dere, leetle brodder."

"Hoy dere, old man." He nodded at Sorin. "Lemme just get a stick thing de nurse won't kill me over, jah?"

"Foul," Anton said, but he almost sounded approving.

Sorin was very disappointed when Velimir just leaned in to punch Anton in the shoulder, and was punched back, because they acted like it was a greeting.

After that though Velimir went around to Sorin's bed and dragged over a little chair and sat. Sorin smiled at him.

"Hi."

"Hey. Good to see hyu awake. Hy didn't even have to kiss hyu much."

"You mean I missed kissing?" Sorin said, eyebrows knit in consternation.

Anton made a loud, wet snorting noise. Velimir pursed his glowing lips. "Hy see this is going to be difficult."

"Aw, no, kissing is pretty easy..."

"Hy meant de useless lump over dere." Velimir leaned in, kissed him, light but lingering. Sorin smiled until his cheek hurt and he had to stop.

"Ow. Burned all over."

"Manly scars! Very sexy." He sobered up a little. "Hyu momma vanted to be here, but she needed to show de Baron's people where hyu poppa und sister were kept."

"Oh." He hadn't even thought about that. That she would be here, outside of the village. It was... nice? "They did find them, right?"

"Heard nothing about how dey didn't." A little shrug. "De town vas very easy, vith its madgirl caught und trussed up already. No injuries. A few gassed people. Dey wake up fine."

Oh. Good. "... But I didn't testify or anything..."

Velimir caught his good hand, turned it over in his. Sorin's fingers were bruised and scratched up, one of the nails cracked. He hadn't even noticed. "Dey kind of got caught while dey vos trying to kill a Wulfenbach Jäger und a defenseless civilian. Vith veapons dey is not supposed to have. Bit moot."

"...Oh."

"Hyu explosion vas very pretty," he said, a bit quietly. "Very bright. De patrol came to see."

"Oh." Sorin blinked. "Lucky."

"Mm."

He was distracted by Velimir's hand around his. Velimir was rubbing his thumb along the bumpy bits. Knuckles. It felt nice.

"Sveethart." His hand was shaken gently. "Stay awake a little bit longer."

Sorin blinked fuzzily. Huh, his eyes had been closed. "Yeah, okay."

"Hy iz leaving tomorrow."

Sorin didn't want to sleep anymore. He looked up at Velimir, fingers twitching in his hand with the urge to squeeze, reined himself in. He didn't really get to be possessive about Velimir, now did he. His brothers and his Masters, Sorin knew that.

"Going back to your pack?" he asked, trying to sound cheerful, happy for him. "That's. Good, that's good. I bet they missed you."

"Ho yez," Velimir said through a heavy sigh. "They turn de town ve vos in upside down looking for me. Of course, dey found nothing. Thwarted is not a look ve Jägerkin wear pretty."

"... How literally do you mean, they turned it upside down?" Sorin asked, because he figured it was a question he probably should get used to asking.

Or... maybe not. Yeah. Probably not. Anymore. Mmh.

Velimir laughed quietly, pale eyelashes lowered over his eyes. "Only a lot of people shaken by de feet."

"Oh, okay."

"Und a few suspicious houses. Probably. Dat part vos not clear."

"Pff. Heh."

He spent some time looking down at their hands together. At least Velimir wasn't the kind of jerk who'd just stop touching him entirely and let him figure it out, hey, we're over.

Might be easier in the long run if he was, but. Yeah. Sorin wouldn't have liked him so much if he was like that.

And why was he looking behind him? Sorin looked too.

Anton cleared his throat, coughing into his fist. "Oh, yawn. Hy tink Hy vill schleep now. So verra schleepy." He reclined on his pillows and tilted his hat onto his face. "Ho yez, dat is de goot schleep."

Sorin blinked. "Did he actually say yawn. I mean. As a word."

Velimir smiled, shook his head. "Mine brodder, de sub-tle one."

He brought Sorin's hand to his lips to kiss his knuckles, all soft and gentle and suddenly Sorin really wanted to cry. He blamed the drugs.

"Hyu is staying here three weeks," he said. "Mebbe four, if hyu new skin bits are stiff und need to learn to let hyu bend."

Oh, medical news. Sorin wasn't sure why he wasn't letting the nurse tell him. Why the nurse hadn't told him -- maybe she though it was a lot, for his first day?

Pff. She obviously had never thrown a polecat.

"Who's paying for it?" he thought to ask.

"Oh. De Baron sez hyu is hurt in de pursuit of doing right by der Empire. Iz all paid for. Dey haff a law for that." Velimir grinned brightly. "Und hyu get sum nice money for de vital informeshun, too!"

"Oh. Huh." Sorin considered it. Surprise money was always nice. "Do we share the reward or--"

"Sorin." Velimir gave him a stern look. "Iz mine job. Hy do not need reward for mine job." A short pause, and then he winked. "Plus Hy is not punished for deserting mine posting. Iz all canceled out."

"Oh, good."

He was saying 'oh' kind of a lot. His brain didn't want to give him anything else. He shifted his weight a bit; his burns threw a nice stab of pain at him.

"--Oh. What about your arm?" He hadn't even -- he looked down at Veli's arm but it was in a normal sleeve and not in a sling at all. "Are you -- is it healed?"

"Mostly? Sorin, listen, Hy vos trying to tell hyu--"

"You have to be a bit careful, okay, burns hurt really a lot and wow, I wasn't appreciating that properly before. I've had a lot of spark burns, but nothing so large and deep. Really, wow. Drugs are nice. So nice. I'm sorry you didn't have any." He made himself smile. "But if you're better now, I guess--"

"Sorin!"

He fell silent, bowed his neck a little. It hurt too much to do it as far as he wanted.

He didn't want to listen to whatever it was Velimir thought he needed to be all gentle and careful about. Wasn't like there were a lot of possibilities.

Velimir took in a long, slow breath, and sighed it all out. "Sveetie. Look up? Hey." He leaned in, forehead to forehead, hat tilted up so the brim was resting on Sorin's head. "Hy iz back in three weeks for troop rotation. Guard duty. Hyu vant to meet?"

"Oh," Sorin said, very originally.

His eyes had gone twice as prickly. He was getting mood whiplash, only the drugs wouldn't let him. It was very strange.

"Like a friend thing, or like a booty call thing, or like a date?"

Velimir blinked, long pale lashes covering warm brown eyes. His nose scales wrinkled up a little. He'd shaved recently, chin all neat and soft-looking and Sorin was realizing his own face was a week unshaved. "Uh. Like... all of de above?"

Anton had tilted his hat back to stare imploringly at the ceiling, hands held together in prayer. He looked like he was praying for patience more than anything else.

Along the edge of the door Sorin could see another three or four heads peering in, jostling each other for position. One of them had fallen to the floor, and apparently decided to stay there.

Velimir wanted to keep on seeing him. At least once? Maybe -- maybe more, later, but how if Sorin was going back home and --

Going back home to an occupied town. Huh. He wondered if they'd leave a squad of Jägers there, or just have them drop by for patrols every so often...

And at least it didn't look like his brothers would be the jealous type.

And Velimir was still waiting, ears flopped back unsure and a bit sad. Sorin squeezed his hand. "Okay. Yeah. That would be good."

He grinned. His cheek hurt. (He'd have a scar. Oh well. He had it on good authority that it would look sexy.)

------------------------------------------

Epilogue

Sorin finished trimming the animal's leftmost hoof, and checked the still-hot miniature horseshoe against its toe. Good, the last tempering had done the trick. The two fingers wouldn't catch against each other. He plunged the horseshoe in the tub of water to cool it and applied it to the hoof.

He still wasn't sure why the beast needed shoeing at all, but a paying job was a paying job. He hammered the first nail in. The rhinorse huffed through its nose and ate some more of the feed its owner was shoveling at it.

At least the local Spark was making useful animals? Relatively. That horn looked pretty nasty.

"So glad you took it on, Mister Petrescu," the customer was saying. "Raida only trampled Master Lupei a little bit and now he won't touch her at all!"

Sorin hummed an acknowledgement. The beast was well-secured, and anyway they had an agreement. That agreement was that the beast stayed in its harness and Sorin didn't thwap it on the snout with the decisiveness and strength he normally reserved for Jägermonsters.

"And if I could have another two sets of shoes, for after you've gone, unless you mean to stay...?"

Sorin shook his head, more to dislodge a long curly lock that had fallen out of his hat than to communicate. "I'll be gone long before she needs shoed again, ma'am. Might come back this way but probably not for a couple of years. I'll make you shoes, that should be easy now that I have the shapes down."

Now whether she'd manage to convince a farrier to use them, nothing was less certain.

Mrs. Ungur craned her neck to look into the wagon over her animal's massive haunch.

"And where might you have found this clever little forge? I haven't seen you put any coal in it at all!"

Sorin shrugged, hid a smile under his hat. "My sweetie got it for me, for making journeyman. It was, what, six years ago? I haven't had a problem with it since. Good, solid work. I'd recommend it to everyone but I don't think they're for sale right now."

"She must be rich!" Mrs. Ungur said, suitably impressed. "Is this a one-off Spark piece?"

"Mm. It's a prototype." He finished hammering in the last nail, manipulated the beast's hoof-toes to check that they could glide past each other easily, without pinching. Seemed to work! He allowed the beast to put its leg back down. It tested its weight on it placidly, still chewing.

"Still, it must have cost a fortune!"

... Well. Veli had kind of liberated it from the Baron's son's lab when the lad got bored of it and went down another avenue of research. But Sorin had been told repeatedly that it would just have been destroyed otherwise so it was only a very little bit like a theft.

Anyway, Sorin had gotten burned up by one of the forge-cum-lava engine-cum-lava sprayer's ancestors, so he completely deserved payment in kind.

"Not that much. Alright, I'm done!" He patted down his apron for hoof shavings. "Let's just walk her around a bit to check her gait, and she should be good to go."

Mrs. Ungur did so. Sorin stood back and watched. Looked fine to him. The beast was thick and massive and moved with ponderous, deceptive slowness, though he'd heard it was like a train with cut brakes rolling downslope once it was started. At any rate, it walked easily enough, with no visible hesitation.

"But isn't it hard on the both of you that you travel so much?" Mrs. Ungur asked as she passed by. "Once a year visits are such a strain on relationships!"

Sorin smiled blandly. "No need to worry, he travels a lot too, we cross paths about once every two months. It's pretty nice. And I think your Raida is good to go! Now about payment..."

He'd been right. Ushering her off was much easier when she was flustered speechless. He swept his area and sorted out his wagon, humming. Specialty work brought in a nice bit of money, never mind that he'd only learned how to do a farrier's job relatively late, hands-on. It wasn't all he did, and he usually got the strange, unique jobs that only widened his range of experience.

It also helped that he didn't have to rent or buy a smithy.

Velimir was due for a visit, but he was only two days late; Sorin wouldn't start to wonder until he made it to a week. Things happened, out in the wastelands, in the Baron's service. What Sorin avoided traveling with caravans and surrounding his camps with lava moats, Velimir went looking for. Enthusiastically.

At least this town gave all the signs of actually being nice and sleepy, its local Spark the protégé of the Duke and not the Duke himself, and the Spark seemed happy with his ameliorated animals. The Duke himself was even-handed, with a light touch. The people said good things about him, and none of it came accompanied with forced smiles and nervous looks. Sorin wasn't going to send off any letter to the Baron's secret services this time around.

Time to go look for dinner. He took off his apron, put it away inside the wagon, started locking up.

He was grabbed by the hips and whirled around -- thrown in the air -- grabbed right back, and kissed right there in the middle of the street, back pressed against his wagon.

"Mmph -- Veli?"

The space under their hats was lit up green. Sorin stared, a bit speechless. His lover's face was...

Wide, manic eyes. A grin so huge it looked like he wanted to swallow Sorin whole.

He was doing a shuddery-silent almost-laugh thing that Sorin usually associated with nervous breakdowns. His eyes were wet.

Sorin's calm, patient, playful lover looked half-crazed. For a second Sorin couldn't tell if it was with heartbreak or with glee, and then he realized.

"You found one."

Velimir laughed, breathless, incredulous. "Yes!"

Fifteen years. Fifteen years. And there was a Heterodyne again.

"Hy iz gonna haff to take a long rain check, so sorry, Hy luff hyu -- love you, Hy do, gotta go--"

Sorin pressed a hand against his cheek. Velimir breathed out all shuddery, leaned his face into his palm.

"No problem. Mechanicsburg, eh?" Sorin smiled, he couldn't help it. Velimir had waited for so long. "Might get there sometime in the next three months..."

"Dat vould be good. Very good. Hy--"

"Veli!" someone else yelled from a nearby roof. "Hurry op! Vhat is hyu doink, ve iz leavink -- oh, hey, Sorin. Hi!"

"Hey, Teodor," Sorin returned.

The Jäger waved back politely and started running in place on the roof. "Vell, kees him und ve ken go!"

"Hoy!" Velimir retorted, and turned to Sorin pouting, though that lasted all of three seconds before he was smiling again, sheepish, rueful. Sorin laughed at him. Nicely, even, mostly. Then he kissed him first, because Veli was an idiot like that.

The passion in the kiss left him a bit breathless, even if he knew that most of the intensity was for the new Heterodyne, not for desire of him. He found himself pretty okay with it. Sorin had his own life to lead, and seeing Veli so happy just... It made him happy, too.

And Veli had made a detour to tell him. Hadn't forgotten even a little. Even now he was making his friend late telling Sorin.

Sorin pushed him off, laughing, slapped his shoulder lightly. "Well, what are you waiting for, go!"

Velimir gave him an incandescent grin and hopped straight up to the roof of the wagon.

"Hy introduce hyu later vhen hyu come by!" he yelled as he got ready to leap to the nearest house.

Sorin blinked. "To the Heterodyne?"

"Vell, ov course!"

Sorin looked up at his Jägermonster lover, perched like a gargoyle on the traveling forge Sorin regularly drove through the wastelands -- precautions or not -- and thought about whether he really wanted to meet the scion of one of the most powerful and definitely the most unhinged lineage of ruling Sparks ever, and went, "...You know what, why the hell not."