And then there was Fire [DragonSong]

[Goldie]

"Oh." He hadn't thought about love in that way before. In fact, he really only considered love as something people fell into and then were together. This love that Adri was talking about, he felt the same way about her as she did about him, just never thought of it as love.

He stepped forward and scooped her into an awkward hug again, hoping she wasn't so uncomfortable with him that she'd pull away.

"I'm sorry. I didn't know what you meant and I misinterpreted it and...I'm sorry." He gave her a gentle squeeze.

"I suppose I love you, too, then." He pulled back and frowned, chewing on what he was about to say and trying to decide if he was ready to be as vulnerable as it would make him feel.

"I've only ever had Herald. He took me on as an apprentice when I was 6 after my aunt couldn't afford to keep me anymore and my uncle, who I'm told is in Adela, never returned any letters. I've never been...wanted..."

[DragonSong]

Adri hugged him back with a relieved sigh, glad that what she'd said had apparently made any amount of sense and things weren't weird now. Well. No weirder than they usually were.

"Don't apologize," she laughed lightly, squeezing him back before they pulled apart. "I didn't...say it very well."

She smiled at him, but the expression shrank and softened a bit when he talked about how young he'd been left with no family--she couldn't empathize with that, exactly, but she could imagine how difficult it must have been. In way, she wondered if she was lucky to have never had a family to miss.

"I want you," she told him firmly. "And Herald wants you, doesn't he? He wouldn't have taken you in if he didn't."

[Goldie]

Idris just chuckled at that, "I mean, I'm sure he wanted my help more than me. And now he'll probably just want the business I bring."

He smiled broadly at her, feeling a sense of giddiness and belonging he'd never actually felt before.

"Thanks for saving me that day. For keeping me from doing something stupid over someone stupid. And for staying...I don't want a life without you in it, ok?" And then he was embarrassed again and immediately threw himself into his work and pulling out the tiny intricate gold chains he had spent days, no, weeks creating so he could just start weaving his creations to life without necessarily needing the forge.

Earrings first, he decided.

[DragonSong]

Adri stared at him as he set to work as though he hadn't just tilted her world on its axis slightly with those words. Then she huffed a quiet half-laugh and moved forward to place a hand on his shoulder and gave it a quick squeeze.

"Me too," she told him softly, with a small, warm smile.

They would figure out this mess with Illuvieau. They would. And then things could go back to normal.

Gods, she hadn't realized before how much she loved their version of normal.

She gave Idris' shoulder another quick squeeze before moving away. "I'll fetch some breakfast."

[Goldie]

Idris nodded absently as he placed the magnifying contraption on his head and got to work. He would need to create some intricate prongs and casings to hold the tiny stones he was planning to place, but first he wanted to get the main design - and he wanted to practice with cheap metals.

The aluminum and nickel wires would work well enough for the bones. He wouldn't be able to sell them, of course, since these would be designed explicitly for Marigold's family, but he didn't want to waste precious materials if he was going to make mistakes.

Adri would act as his model as he worked and he would constantly call her over to hold the practice pieces up to her ear to gauge size. Hours would pass and without her urging he wouldn't eat, wouldn't take a break, and would just exist in the metal itself.

Of course that would hurt him later. This kind of work was rough on his shoulders and his back. This kind of work used completely different muscles than the big hammers and fire that most people imagined when thinking of smiths.

By the end of a few hours he would have three different options laid out on the table.

[DragonSong]

Adrianna fell into the by now familiar rhythm of Idris' work, approaching the worktable when he called for her but for the most part leaving him to his own devices--save for the couple of times she vanished into the larder and then reappeared with small plates of food that she would leave on the table beside his project. A few times she had to nudge it toward him pointedly, but it was usually enough to ensure he at least got a few bites in between tasks.

This was normally when she would have been going on deliveries, tending her gardens, or manning the main shop. She didn't quite feel up to any of those things after the previous day, but she didn't like to feel useless either. She found herself drifting to arranging and rearranging the clusters of metal flowers that dotted the windowsill of the forge, just needing to do something with her hands.

Every once in a while, her fingertips would brush over the gently lit crystals that decorated one metal bloom or another, and she found herself hoping for that feeling, that gentle buzz of energy--of magic.

It was never there. It really must only happen when the magic was actively being channeled.

Her hand drifted up to flutter nervously around the collar on her neck.

Eventually, Idris seemed to have reached a pausing point in his work and she drifted over to the table again. She smiled at him--just a little distant--and cocked her head slightly.

"They're all lovely, you know," she chuckled quietly. "As usual."

[Goldie]

"I don't know..." he held his chin in his hand while the other sat across his chest. "Maybe I should have started with the necklace?"

He reached forward and picked up the first practice piece and held it up to the light. This one was longer and the spirals that twisted with movements were looser. Then he grabbed the second which he had made the spirals tighter. The third had a combination of the two, but with two separate spirals that spun around each other. The looser spiral was thinner and he planned to place the glowing crystals all along it.

He held the first up to Adri's ear, then shook his head and held up the second. It was so hard to tell because Marigold was taller, as were most of her family, but perhaps they were just not the right proportions for Adri?

Then he held up the third.

"Can you hold this?" He asked, moving her hand up to hold the hook without stopping to actually get an answer, then he was on the other side of the forge scrutinizing.

He groaned and threw up his hands, "I just don't know! You pick!"

[DragonSong]

Adri couldn't help chuckling a bit to herself at his indecisiveness, but she made sure to keep the reaction quiet.

She held up the different pieces when he asked, then laid them all out next to each other on the worktable. She considered them for a moment, head tilted. "Either the first or the third," she decided after some consideration.

Glancing up at Idris, she started thinking aloud slowly, "I mean...you could make both, and offer them to her as a choice. Make her feel like it's more personalized that way. And then whichever one she doesn't pick is your design--we can sell them in the shop to whoever we like, right?"

[Goldie]

He frowned and tapped his finger on his chin. It wasn't a bad idea but he was worried it would show a weakness in his own abilities if he couldn't style them perfectly and with confidence.

"I'll need to make both in full pieces..." he said slowly, staring at the two options, "and then hope someone else with that kind of money could afford it...we'd be eating the costs up front..."

Whatever he said about his own lack of abilities with other humans and the business side of the forge, he didn't do things impulsively and always had six plans for everything. Adri brought that side out of him - the side that could look a little bit further than his own nose and into the minds of others.

"Do you think it would be worth it? They wouldn't hold it against me? Against us?" His was a double ended question. If he didn't dazzle Marigold and her family then...

[DragonSong]

Adri pursed her lips as she considered that before answering. "Well, as far as I can see, there are a few ways it could go." She started ticking options off on her fingers. "Marigold picks her piece, sees another noble's daughter somewhere wearing the design she didn't pick, gets huffy about it and wants to withdraw her patronage." She shrugged. "Which means her uncle has to step in and either explain why they can't do that, which he most certainly does not want to do—or he buys the rights to the second design as well to get her to stop bitching." She quirked an eyebrow. "It's your work. You promised them one design, they have no say over what you do with the rest."

She ticked off another finger. "Option two: nobody cares. Like I said, it's your design, you're not breaking any part of a patronage contract by selling the one she doesn't pick."

Her brow furrowed a bit and she slowly lifted another finger. "Option three...Illy sees it as a challenge. And he decides to make a point with us." Her hand drifted up to the collar at her throat. "Which I guess—I guess means we have an opportunity to test some theories."

[Goldie]

He nodded, taking a breath to settle his nerves while letting the practicality of Adri's personality wash over him. She was perfect. Everything she touched turned to gold. If she thought it would be ok, then it would be.

It had to be.

"Ok." He let the breath out, "I'll need to go see the gem merchant and hope there is enough in stock to use for these pieces. The quick turn around might change what I can actually do."

[DragonSong]

Adri nodded briskly, quickly dropping her hand from the collar. "Right. Okay then."

Good. If they focused on the logistics, it would keep either of them from obsessing too much over maybes.

She hesitated a moment, then offered in a softer, more hesitant tone, "Do you...want me to come with you?"

She wasn't entirely sure herself if she was asking more for his sake or for hers. She knew he was entirely capable of visiting the merchant on his own, but tended to seem more confident when she was there--even when she wasn't actually doing anything but offering moral support.

And on the other hand, while she didn't exactly relish the idea of going out and being around people just yet...she also didn't want to be in the forge by herself.

[Goldie]

"Yes." He said a little too quickly. He didn't like shopping for these things alone. There wasn't a rhyme or reason for it, but there were always so many choices and he wasn't that great at identifying rocks versus shaping and guiding metal. He had meant what he'd said to Adri before about rocks being clunky and completely different than his own craft. They were like....sprinkles on top of a cupcake for him. At the end of the day they didn't actually make it taste better, just made it look a bit more appealing to buyers.

"You're better at knowing if someone is being dishonest and those gem folks always seem to be dishonest...." He smiled at her sheepishly and then realization dawned, "I mean...if you want. You said you didn't want to work today and I'll be an adult if you'd rather stay home. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to forget and...please don't feel pressured, ok?"

[DragonSong]

Adri smiled, her shoulders relaxing a bit from the tension she hadn't even realized she'd started to hold. She nodded quickly. "Yeah. I mean, yeah, I'll go--I wouldn't have offered if I wasn't okay with it."

She shrugged and scuffed one foot back and forth over the floor for a moment. "I just...working the front of the shop would be different, I guess. More people. Talking to merchants is easier, more one-on-one. And, ah..." She coughed and glanced away. "I um...don't really want to...be by myself. Right now."

[Goldie]

He nodded, reaching for her hand and giving it a gentle squeeze.

"Thank you." He smiled. She made him feel so much more confident. Herald was right when he made the choice to withhold the master seal from Idris - without Adri he would have just floundered and probably spent all of his time shoeing horses because it was what he knew. She allowed him to do what he loved.

"Hey! Maybe we can stop by and get some of the city's finest pies!" He exclaimed with sudden enthusiasm, "It's on the way!"

[DragonSong]

She grinned, the expression tired but genuine, and squeezed his hand back. "We can certainly see if he's in," she chuckled, "but if he went to see Tressa, he might be, ah...busy."

Her grin turned into a smirk for a moment before her expression sobered a bit again. "Tress's shop isn't all that far from the upper city market, actually...if we have time, maybe we could check on them both?"

She didn't really think the Dagger would have bothered to go after either of her old friends--Tressa's position was too stable, too noticeable, and they'd already made their statement with Hamond. Still, she couldn't help worrying a bit.

[Goldie]

Idris smiled down at Adri, his heart welling in his chest just knowing that she was here before him, that she was safe. He didn't know when he became so attached to her, or when he began to think of her as a kind of life-long companion, a best friend if you will, but here he was. The past few days had taught him that her safety was more important than his own and the dagger had really chosen well in picking a good bartering point. Or blackmail. He trusted her. He respected her. He wanted to make sure she had a good life, whatever that looked like for her.

For now, though? That looked like pie. That looked like walking out into the world together and acting like everything was normal. That looked like spending time with friends who cared about her, while also helping support their business. That looked like some fun before work.

"Let's go then, yes?" he held out his arm to her as if offering it to a Lady.

And he might as well be. Adri was more a Lady to him than any noblewoman he'd ever met.

[DragonSong]

Something about the way he looked at her then made Adri's chest go tight. She blinked at his offered arm, momentarily startled by it, then took it with a slowly starting smile of her own.

"Let's," she agreed happily, tucking her hand into the crook of his elbow. Her eyes softened a bit as she glanced up at him and she squeezed his arm gently as she pressed into his side for a brief moment.

"And...thanks, Idris."

[Goldie]

He felt a warmth spread through him as she took his arm and he couldn't help the slightly goofy smile that hinted at the edge of his lips. Despite everything, it felt like a good morning. She was alive and she was safe - for now, but he wasn't going to dwell on that just yet. He was acutely aware of her hand on his arm as they made their way into town.

"So...try Hamish first? And if he's not there we can go to the gem merchant before trying Tressa?" He was definitely someone who loved, and needed, a well thought out plan.

It didn't really matter which way they ended up going. All that really mattered was the bit of normalcy that this brought him. He could forget about everything.

For a time.

[DragonSong]

Adri nodded with a small chuckle. "Sounds like a plan," she assured him, well familiar with his particular idiosyncrasies around this sort of thing. "Hmmmm, I wonder if Hamond might have someone running the stall even if he's not there... Never as good as the fresh-made pies, but it's still something."

As they exited the forge and started off down the street, she tipped her head toward him slightly and asked, "So, the gem merchant-- were you thinking the usual guy, or that pricier toff that Herald recommended. And if we do wanna try that, what do we know about 'em?"

It was just a bit forced, but on any other day, in any other circumstances, she would have been trying to gather as much information about a potential supplier as possible. So that's what she did now, trying to ignore all the things that were not normal about their current situation.