Immortals

“If you’re certain,” conceded the man with a feeling of resignation. It was out of his hands, he realised with a sinking sensation. If Alex hadn’t destroyed his body in the swamp so long ago, he could have intervened and saved Aria himself. Now he considered it fortunate that Alex was unaware that a part of his brother lived on, for surely he would have sought a way to destroy what was left of him if he could.

Even troubled, David found curiosity getting the better of him, as it so often did. He’d never really felt a romantic love in any of his lives. He had felt it unfair to get attached to a human woman who would have no choice but to grow older as he stayed ever the same. The immortal had also feared the pain he would feel if he had to watch his loved ones die. He’d always kept his distance emotionally, at least until a babe had wound up on his doorstep.

Nevertheless, he found love a topic of endless interest. He’d seen people fall in love, fall out of love, fall in love again. A part of him had always desired it, but he’d known intuitively that romantic love wasn’t meant for him and his kind. Immortals were a kind of abomination that rarely occurred. He was the bastard son of a god and a mortal, and his life was a gift and a curse. He was eternal- more everlasting than the mountains and the sea- but doomed to watch those around him die, and forced to never get too close, lest anyone learn his secret.

To hear Aria speak of the man she felt affection for caused an unsettling feeling in him that he couldn’t name. He was all at once protective of her and keenly interested in her as a person. When they had first met, he’d seen her as only a means to an end, but now he was worrying about her, proud of her, and not sure at all how he felt about this man who had earned her affections.

“Is there anyone who is aware of your feelings?” he asked, his hands brushing along the smooth trunk of a tall tree as they passed. “Is the man himself aware of how you feel?”

Their walk had resumed through the woods, and Aria took the moments of silence to gain her bearings as she had not been paying the slightest attention to where they had been walking for a long time now. It did not help, as she had never memorised the whole forest that lay behind her hometown to heart. Until they came across a landmark she would remain oblivious as to their location.

“What?” Aria was very glad that she had been looking away from David at this particular point in the conversation, though her head did snap around to stare at him at an impressive speed. Annoyance rose, but she fought against the urge to snap at him, for if he had to ask, that meant he was unaware. That, if nothing else, worked in her favour as her panic at being discovered overrode her good sense.

“No one! How is that even relevant, anyway?”

Discussing her feelings about David with David was nothing short of disturbing, and Aria was appalled at the slight bite in her tone. Then she realised she was staring, which only had the knock-on effect of unsubtly tearing her gaze down towards the forest’s grass covered ground. Her hand trailed along the trunks of trees to make sure that she did not walk into anything, walking at the same pace without any clue of obstacles that might appear before her.

“So it’s not a problem if no one knows, right?” Aria’s reinforcement sounded fierce but as her green eyes rose up to meet David’s, they portrayed uncertainty. Aria felt thoroughly wretched at her own cowardice and at the mere thought of harm coming to him.

David’s eyes glanced over in surprise to Aria, whose face was scrunched in annoyance, her voice sharp and defensive. “No, it’s not relevant, I suppose,” he conceded. “I just had a personal interest.”

He’d have to be more careful about what he said, the man realised. He’d had no idea how private she was, even subconsciously in her dreams. Aria had built up some very high walls around her. All the better to keep him out.

“Though, if he’s as wily a fellow as he sounds,” said David, thinking to himself that Alex was even more wily than poor Aria would ever realise, “I suppose he could well find out. It’s probably best if you keep that item of information to yourself, at least for the time being.”

David felt oddly curious about who the lad was that she fancied, and had to restrain the impulse to ask outright. It wasn’t fair to ask her to reveal her secrets, especially in her dreams. She might begin to divulge the truth, even if she didn’t want to, simply because her mind was in such a vulnerable state while she slept.

It was then that he began to notice that, as they journeyed deeper into the woods and as Aria grew increasingly anxious, their surroundings were beginning to take on a surreal quality. The deep mist of the dream realm floated in between trees, and leaves began to take on fanciful colors. He feared what could happen if he suddenly took control of her dream and tried to alter it in any way. For the moment she was unaware, and he could only hope she either wouldn’t notice, or that her thoughts would clear and begin supplying information to the dream once more so that a lifelike setting could be created.

It took extraordinary effort for Aria to hold her tongue in asking after his ‘personal’ interest in her attractions. After the way she’d reacted to his questioning and past experience, the hypocrisy would not lend itself in her favour. “What if you meet him?” she questioned softly, watching David with a curiosity that cancelled out everything around her, including the distorted reality that her panic had brought down on the dream.

“You know. Please don’t tell him.” Aria punctuated her little plea with a hand on David’s forearm, knowing that it was unnecessary but thinking that it might make her words more heartfelt. Not that they could get much more. Her green eyes looked upwards, and Aria felt her earlier panic begin to settle, as if she already knew that she could trust him.

“What if I meet him?” repeated David, smiling at the thought. Oh, there were many things he would do if he could get his hands on his brother, and at the top of the list was make sure he never touched Aria again. He shook his head faintly and chuckled. “I doubt that’ll happen.”

Her small, delicate hand came to rest on his forearm, and his green eyes swiftly met hers. He stopped in his tracks and looked down at her. “Everything you tell me I consider confidential. I would never tell anyone, especially him.”

The fact that he didn’t have anyone to tell didn’t even matter. He would have kept her secrets regardless. Even if he’d had a body, he thought, he would have been her confidante. Although, if he had a body he could be so much more. It had been so long that he’d been nothing but a spirit in that realm, and he’d stopped after a time to miss what he’d lost. Now, standing across from Aria, he longed once more for a life, and perhaps the opportunity to see if allowing himself to grow close to someone was worth the eventual, inevitable pain. He’d never regretted taking in Thomas, after all, even as his son grew physically older than him, then grew frail and weak with old age. He’d always known that one day his son would die, as all humans did, but he’d cherished their time together. Why had he never realised he might feel that way for someone else?

Her reaction to that was one of those winning, earnest expressions of delight that Alex was trying to extract from her by force, reaching all the way to her eyes. “I hoped you’d say that,” Aria confessed, sounded shy in her tone but not turning away. “Thank you David, and don’t you tell me not to bother saying that!”

The forest around them had settled into its lifelike state once more, Aria’s panic soothed by her complete faith in this man that, within the Dream Realm, she never doubted was anything but real. She was positively giddy at the moment, in fact and laughter escaped her without warning.

That had been a serious moment and she had ruined it. Aria sighed self-deprecatingly and shook her head, though her sunny deposition did not fade for a moment. It did not feel wrong to be attracted to him, and it felt completely natural to be beside him. “You should come to the town. I’m in a much better mood now and actually want to go home.”

Her hand slipped down his forearm to grasp David’s hand, imploring him with actions and expression alike, Aria tugging at him to try and make him come with her. Never mind that she had no idea where home was; she’d figure that out as they went.

The pretty young woman beside him grasped his hand, and his fingers slid easily over hers, enveloping her much smaller hand in his. A small smile of not-often-felt satisfaction grew on his face and he allowed himself to be led by her as she bounded more quickly between the trees, which were once more rightly colored. Her anxiety had lessened, and now the woods had returned to their lifelike clarity. Birds chirped with happy song, mirroring the emotions of them both. If the setting of the dream was a reflection of their inner feelings, mused David, then surely they both felt at ease and happy. He couldn’t recall ever seeing a more beautiful wood. Or perhaps he was seeing the same wood but with different eyes.

“I’d love to go to town with you Aria, but I’m afraid I have no idea where we are anymore.”

They’d ventured so far that he was no longer certain they were in a real location. For all he knew, the place they were in was an original creation of her imagination. However, if she could imagine the town ahead of them, it should appear. At least, that was how things usually worked in the Dream Realm, which had no rules that were hard and fast.

It had not really been much of a concern for Aria, contented as she was, but at David’s words she reluctantly stopped her aimless walking and actually looked at her surroundings. Nothing had changed from earlier on; she still had no idea where they had walked themselves to.

“Neither do I.” And that was strange, seeing as she had walked these woods ever since she was a little girl and knew them inside out. Inherent worry seeped into her expression as Aria looked around once more, hoping for a landmark that she might be able to figure out their location from but there was nothing.

“David...” It was out of the corner of her eyes that she spotted the mists, and instinctively shifted a few steps closer to her companion, oblivious to the fact that it was her fear that was causing the change. The world felt strange all of a sudden, losing its realistic colours just as it had not long before.

Something, Aria realised, was very, very wrong. Anxious eyes darted around, noticing all the changes before finally settling on David who remarkably solid at the moment.

He cursed his choice of words as she turned to look at her surroundings, which morphed with a quickness before their eyes into something far less substantial and more terrifying, at least for the mortal beside him who didn’t know what to make of what she saw.

“It’s fine,” he assured her, pulling her along more deeply into the forest, hoping her fears would lessen and that her world would begin to look more like the physical realm once more. Things weren’t improving though. The very ground beneath their feet was turning dark and the trees seemed to be drawing nearer. Desperately, David tried to set things right, focusing on the trees and trying to make them stand still. However, instead of adding solidity to the forest Aria had created, new flora began to grow.

Finally, David knew that he could no longer hide the truth from her. The forest had darkened to the vague smoke of the Dream Realm. He held tightly to her hand, afraid to let it go. “We need to talk,” he told her, but knew she would never feel comfortable in the insubstantial realm which he lived. “But not here.”

A doorway appeared in the fog, with a heavy wooden door that was tightly closed. David lifted the bar and opened it, urging Aria over the threshold. The door closed behind them and disappeared, and he blinked against the bright sunlight of the orchard, his feet once more finding hold on solid ground. Here at least, he could insure the world stayed solid. He had never intended to scare her- he’d never even intended to let her know that he was only a dream. Now that his original plan was ruined, he had no choice but to salvage what he could. He took her other hand in his, so that he could hold them both together, and drew her nearer. He pulled her hands close to his heart so that she stood very close and he could look down at her and at least try to reassure her that she wasn’t crazy, and that he wasn’t crazy, and that things weren’t any less real just because they were in a dream.

“Aria...”

He didn’t know how to begin. He’d never considered himself a well-spoken man, even for all his sincerity, and he struggled for words. “I didn’t want it to happen like this. But I need to tell you... I need to tell you that right now you’re asleep, and this is a dream.”

The world was vanishing into darkness and shadow, leaving Aria not only speechless as she helplessly let David pull her through the last disappearing remnants of the woods that she had believed to be real. Her world was crumbling down at all sides and apparently that was fine. The tightness with which her hand was being held both terrified and reassured her. He was the anomaly to the strangeness all around her; one stable point in all the chaos.

And now he wanted to talk? Aria could not fathom what he possibly wanted to talk about right now, and certainly had no time or self-awareness to articulate that as his cryptic ‘not here’ was explained away by a door. Aria blinked hard, trying to figure out whether it had been there before, wherever there was, but David did not even bat an eyelid as he guided her towards and through it. She only followed dutifully because she wanted to escape the unending blackness that had taken over her reality.

Her hand rose to protect her eyes from the sudden sunlight, eyes squinting as Aria half-stumbled in surprise. Was this an orchard? There was barely enough time to have a decent look around as David demanded her attention, drawing her close in a way that would have made her heart skip a beat were she not so thoroughly confused. Frightened, she turned her gaze upwards at him as David spoke her name, but what ended up coming from him did not give her the reassurance that Aria was so hoping.

“A dream?” He seemed so out of sorts and Aria, despite all her panic, curled the tops of her fingers over his clasped hands, shaking her head in the same moment.

The very idea that she had actually dreamt everything about David up, and that she felt affection for someone that her mind had created... Aria looked nothing short of devastated. “This isn’t real? I just dreamt it all up?”

Aria did not want to believe it, but her wretched mind began to connect the dots against her will. She had danced with David at the social in front of everyone, but no one - not even her meddling sister - had mentioned that, or even tried to figure out who he was.

“Gods above! I’ve been a fool.” It had all been too perfect, she realised with a sinking heart, closing her sad green eyes so that she did not have to look at him and wish against all hope that it was a lie, when David’s explanation made sense. David was not real. “Such a fool...”

His eyes closed in consternation for a moment. “No, I didn’t say that...” he began, and sighed, opening his eyes to look into her worried ones. “Just because this is a dream doesn’t mean it’s not real. I’m just as real as you, or Alexander, or your mother and father, or any other person you’ve met in the Physical Realm.”

David took a step back and let go of one of her hands, but didn’t release the other. “Does this feel real to you?” he asked, and brought her hand to his lips, brushing the back of her hand very lightly in a kiss.

And now she felt a greater fool, eyes snapping open to lock onto his as Aria felt her cheeks burn. That certainly felt real, she admitted to herself, gaping inelegantly. “Yes,” she squeaked out, wanting more than anything to look away from David, but unable to tear her gaze away.

Aria wanted so badly to believe in his words; that dreams could be real but that was something that she had never been taught to accept as a possibility. People dreamed when they slept, often more when troubled in reality but there was no connection from those little remembered interludes and the real world. Except she remembered nearly all of her previous encounter with David, even all of the end now that the mists had invaded their meeting once again.

Somewhere deep within her subconscious, a flicker sparked to life. Hope intermingled with fledgling fancy as Aria found herself reaching out for the hand he had taken from her, clutching to it as if it were a lifeline.

“I’m listening.” Aria had sought David out at the social for answers and he was offering them up readily just when she needed to hear them. It was odd to think of a time where he had not been there, as absurd as that sounded even as a thought. “But I may not understand.”

He nodded, aware she was giving him more than most people would. Aria was at least willing to hear him out with an open mind and heart, and he couldn’t ask for more than that.

“Tysotamia is a place of great magic,” he began. “And that magic was greater still in the past. The people have largely lost the magic, but not the land.”

“I used to live in your world. I, like you, didn’t realise that the Dream Realm and the Physical Realm are interconnected. I had a body and lived a fairly normal life. I raised a son, as I told you. That was all true. But... But I lost my body. Or rather, it got destroyed.”

Here was the difficulty, he saw, and struggled for words, his lips tight in a frown. “Outside of the capital is a swamp. The swamp has a very high concentration of magic, and when-”

Even after all this time, he had difficulty reliving the moment where his body had disintegrated and he had lost sight of Thomas, who had been thrashing hopelessly in the water. “And when the water touched me, it burned my skin. It destroyed my body almost instantly, but not my spirit. My spirit was still very much alive, and that’s how I came to be here. When a conscience has no body, it rests in the Dream Realm, where it doesn’t need a body to inhabit. But it doesn’t make me any less real...”

How he wanted to convince her of that! “I’ve forgotten what the world is like. I’ve forgotten almost what people are like. But when I’m with you in your dreams, I start to remember. When you took my hand I felt it, just as much as I would if I had a body still.”

He hadn’t said this much in hundreds of years, he suddenly realised with a start, and grew quiet. “I know this is all hard to believe, but it’s the truth. I wouldn’t lie to you.”

Some parts were not hard for Aria to absorb. How could she deny the existence of magic when she herself was capable of feats that she knew were beyond normal capabilities? He called the real world a ‘realm’ like it was an official title. Perhaps it was; it would only add to the absurdly long list of things that she was oblivious to.

His explanation for being alive proved more of a difficult conundrum to get her head around, naive to the existence of Immortals and that the link between the two realms existed. Her face fell at the difficulty it took him to tell her of his demise in reality, hands tightening around his in a show of comfort. This all did lend itself to the belief that although he was not alive, David was real.

But if he possessed no presence in the Physical Realm, did that not make him as good as dead, for all intents and purposes? “That... That is a strange truth to accept.” Her eyes searched his, praying to find no deceit in them and was rewarded. Aria had always felt his touches as if they were real, so there was hardly any disputing that point. Some people had very vivid dreams though, did they not?

“I don’t think hard comes close,” Aria replied uncertainly, looking down at the floor briefly. “But you did lie to me... or at least, kept truths. Not that I suppose it did you or I any harm.” It was not exactly something easy to bring up in casual conversation, being a spirit and not a real person in physicality.

“Don’t flatter me, please. I’m sure you’ve been in plenty of dreams in the past if this realm is where all minds go when their imaginations run wild when asleep.” It made a funny sort of sense though, when Aria thought about it. In the real world she was capable of changing the world around her with a simple touch and thought, so why would her dreams not allow her total manipulation to recreate a place she felt secure within?

It occurred to her then that not once had she ever endured a nightmare. What did this all mean, she asked herself, putting aside accepting its validity for the moment. Aria’s mind was having difficulty forcing her to rationalise it all out and just blindly trust David so that she could go on believing he was quite apart from her imagination, even if no one else ever met him. It sounded nice that way; that he was her secret.

“Say I accept that your words are true,” Aria started, not once looking away from David with a tentative smile on her lips that suggested that, against her better judgement, she already had, “what does it mean for... the future? Can you not return to the Physical Realm at all without a body? How did you find me in the first place and most importantly, what are we going to do about it?”

He frowned. Exactly how much was she ready for, he wondered. “Unfortunately, I have no way of ever returning to the Physical Realm, or the place you call home and know as the real world. A body is necessary to live there, which I no longer have.”

David wasn’t ready to tell her about his connection to Alex yet. He feared he would lose what trust he’d earned from her, or worse, that Alex might somehow become privy to the fact that his older brother was alive somewhere, somehow. “I knew of your ancestor, a witch named Margot. It was only curiosity that led me to find her granddaughter, and I decided to help you if I could.”

It was the first outright lie he’d told her, and he hoped someday, if she ever learned the truth, that she could forgive him. And finally, the part that was perhaps unfair to even ask of her. “Your life is a two-part existence. You have your waking hours, spent in the Physical Realm. I would never begrudge you what you did in those hours. But in the hours you sleep, I can always visit you. I’ll always be here. This place... it can be whatever we want it to be. It can feel as real as anything else you’ve ever experienced.”

Another thing to add to the ever-growing list of things about her life that she had no clue about, Aria realised. Her father had never mentioned any relative named Margot, distant or otherwise, which led her to wonder how long David’s spirit had existed in the Dream Realm. How long had he ‘lived’ in the mists that had frightened her not so long ago?

“You intervened when Alexander arrived. Why then, and not at an earlier or later moment?” How was that helping her, not that she was not grateful seeing as it had turned out that the man who seemed intent of getting her attentions with as little effort as possible was an awful, vain creature.

Of course Aria did not really care about the answer, thoughtfulness keeping her quiet as she considered what he had told her. David said he could not return to the Physical Realm because he had no body to claim as his own, and was willing to offer her dream-visits when she slept and let her normal life sit apart from that. It was too perfect; she could marry, have children and live a life like any other person on Tysotamia.

And it was wrong. Aria shook her head, rejecting outright the assumption that she could have two lives, ever contemplate doing anything in her ‘real life’ that would hurt David. “It can’t be that way, and you know it. For the time being it suits. There are no suitors in my life that I would consider seriously, and we have already spoken of me setting those who chase after me in hope that I will weaken over time straight.”

Aria stepped towards him again, hands shifted to bring his together between them, mirroring the action he had performed when they had first come to the orchard. Nothing about this felt anything less than real, Aria decided, as she bent her head just enough to press her lips to his fingertips.

“For now, it will do. If nothing else, it gives me a reason to get a good night’s rest.” She had magic and that had to mean there was something to be done about his lack of presence in the Physical Realm, but no one in the valley knew anything about magic other than legends, let alone practical application. I’ll find a way, Aria vowed silently to him. And when I do, I can give you back the life you thought you’d lost in some horrid, magical swamp, rather than the facsimile of life in dreams.

“Why not that moment, or any other?” he asked, and it alarmed him how easily the lie rolled off his tongue. He’d never been a liar before- hated liars, in fact, but he had to keep this part of him hidden from her. She wouldn’t understand, a voice in his head told him, but it was a voice that made him angry with himself. “It was only coincidence I came to you when you needed guidance. A fortuitous coincidence.”

It made him undeniably relieved to hear that she felt the desire to not separate her life that way. He was elated that she desired to be with him, and realised that earlier she could only have been speaking of him back during their walk through the woods. He almost laughed at how blind he was, but was too troubled by their predicament for much humor. How could he ask for that? It was beyond selfish. It was cruel. There was so much he couldn’t offer her. They could live a normal life in her dreams, but every morning when she woke up, the previous night with him would feel unreal in comparison to her physical life. How could she not compare one life to the other? The Dream Realm, for all that it could be beautiful and peaceful, was lacking. She could never have a family with him, and she could never take him to meet hers. The things a normal woman desired just weren’t capable with a man who was little more than a spirit and soul.

He’d give it time, he decided. She would meet someone and fall in love and realise that there could never be anything between them. David would gradually visit her less and less, and eventually she would forget about him altogether. So long as he saved her from Alex and kept Alex from attaining the one thing he desired, David would be content.

“I can give you more than a reason,” he told her with a smile. “In the morning you’re going to wake up and wonder if any of this is real. I’m going to give you proof.”

Holding her hand in his, he led her to the great tree. Its branches spread far and wide, and its thick leaves almost blocked out the light of the sun. No other trees could grow near it, but no one had ever managed to hack the behemoth down. “Right now we’re in an orchard just outside of the city of Cassander. Under this tree is where your ancestor buried her legacy to you. If you come and you dig in this spot,” he said, indicating a spot near a raised root, “you’ll find a spellbook, and that will prove that this all was real.”

Hesitatingly, David pulled her closer by her hand and wrapped his arms around her, briefly kissing the top of her head. “Now go, and wake up.”

Walking up from the valley’s core settlement into the manor’s extensive and meticulously kept grounds was always something of a surreal experience for those fortunate enough to be invited up to Jerse Manor on a semi-regular basis. The well maintained fields were lined with bushes that were just beginning to lose their flowers as autumn began to set it gave the whole area a feel of consistency and grandeur that awed anyone enough to give respect and deference to those who resided in the impressive building that lay central to the grounds. Not that Aria needed any encouragement in that department as she entered the grand welcoming hall, though ‘grand’ was perhaps the wrong word. There was nothing lavish or gilded that did not have a functional purpose within the manor. Lord and Lady Yates were people who believed in living in comfort wherever possible, but not extending their status above that of their protectees with possessions and decoration in abundance.

It was a deliberate decision on their part, choosing to govern over those who lived in the valley with consideration for their welfare and fair treatment when things required their intervention and its success in practice was felt across the valley. They never outsourced their belongings or needs beyond the reaches of the valley, adding to a small but efficient economy that was continually stimulated by travellers who passed through the region for practical and personal reasons alike. This reinforced the opinion that those of the valley were fortunate and they infrequently – and never seriously – bemoaned the way of things, even when times took a rough turn.

The meeting with the lady of the manor went without a hitch as expected, Aria politely enquiring into the occasion and Lady Yates’ personal preference for the gown so she could begin to start compiling rough ideas for design and time scales for creation. The latter was more important at present, as it had to be completed at least two weeks before the celebration at Hightower so that adjustments could be made if required. By the end of the two hours Aria held a few preliminary sketches and a rough list of desires and ideas to compliment it, and she wore the brightest smile that was perhaps not completely reliant on the fact that she was embarking on a project that was a challenge by comparison to her every-day tasks.

There were a number of materials that the lady was particularly keen on experimenting with for this dress, but they were not all in permanent supply within the valley and certainly not in the quantity that Aria would need regardless. That meant travelling to Cassander. The prospect thrilled her and, though she tried to prevent it, a beaming smile of delight and joy crept onto her face as she made her way down through the kitchens to the stables. It would have been difficult to construe a reason to travel to the large city to the north-west without raising suspicion, and explanations would not only be fanciful, they would also risk Aria having to expose her dream-trysts.

Oh, to hold that book in her hands under that beautiful tree and know, without any a shadow of a doubt, that her dreams were more real than she ever imagined. And a spellbook of all things! He had potentially given her a window of opportunity to begin looking into reclaiming a physical body for him barely moments after he had confessed there was no way to restore him. She had magic and that gave her hope that with practice and direction, she could learn to do a lot more than manipulate her immediate environment. Desire to restore David would begin her journey to get his body back on the Physical Realm and it would hold true throughout, she knew.

“Aria?” The stablemaster looked startled as the young woman emerged from the servant’s entrance to the house, but he quickly recovered to smile a welcome. “What a pleasant surprise. We rarely see you down here anymore.”

That temporarily displaced Aria’s euphoric mood as she remembered a time when she would have spent at least two days a week at the manor. Her time was taken up by different things, depending on the time of year but it added spontaneity to life that had been lost ever since Aria had taken up permanent residence in the town as a seamstress. Then again, that old lifestyle would have meant coming across a certain man more often that she would ever find herself comfortable doing.

Happy thoughts, Aria told herself, and an entirely pleasant and genuine smile spread her lips as memories of David came to the forefront. “I assume Bessie keeps you well informed of me though Jack?”

Short, barked laughter followed, with a nod as the stablemaster with a brush in hand, stepped around his current project which seemed to be an impressively tall stallion with fiery eyes. It snorted contemptuously as attention was diverted away towards the newcomer, stamping its front hooves against the ground. Aria jumped, watching the animal with half an eye as she embraced Jack.

“Aye that she does.” He noticed her gaze and sighed. “Beautiful creature, but so wild. If Alex hadn’t come along when he did, well, it might not be so well treated.”

Alexander? Aria’s eyes narrowed, confused for a moment. That horse was well-cared for, but that did not fit into the little category she had shelved the unpleasant man into at all.

“You seem surprised?”

The question was kindly asked, but it irked her that she had been caught so off-guard. After how he treated her at the social, how could she not be surprised? “It’s nice that he puts in so much effort.” Aria paused a moment before adding, “I’m actually here to see him, in addition to a long-expected social call.”

Jack’s amused chuckle faded towards the end though he made no comment on her words, setting aside the brush and peeking out into the courtyard. “Alex! Aria’s here to see you.”

“Alex! Aria’s here to see you.”

Alex paused in the motion of transferring fresh hay from the wheelbarrow to the horse’s stocks, his pitchfork poised in his hands. He straightened up and set the tool aside, leaning it neatly against the wall, and set his face into a frown. It had been a week since he’d last seen Aria, and he’d even taken to avoiding the market just so he wouldn’t run into her. A part of him was deeply embarrassed. Not because of his actions, but because people had seen him be outright rejected by the town seamstress, who was hardly a beauty, and not what he considered a prize. And yet, this woman who was so obviously beneath him had the nerve to reject him and his affections. It was insulting was what it was. The nerve!

As he rounded the corner of the courtyard, Jack and Aria came into view- Jack, ever with that smiling face; a face that smiled even in the heat of the day and under the strain of work- and Aria, whose expression was hard to read. She didn’t look happy to see him though. Why was she bothering him? He hadn’t yet made a plan, and here she was just barging in. Probably, mused Alex as he strode over to them, Aria suffered the women’s curse of indecisiveness. In one moment she wanted to play hard to get, and in the next she longed for him once more. Well, he just wasn’t going to give in to her so easily, now was he?

He crossed his arms over his chest and looked between them, rocking back on his heels. “Miss Aria,” he said with a nod of indifference. “Didn’t expect to be seeing you around here. Is there something you want?”

He did not look pleased to see her. Actually, Aria thought with a watchful gaze on the stable boy, he did not look anything. That was progress in the right direction; maybe this would not be so troublesome after all. Maybe he had already lost interest, and this would be that final nail in the coffin of their brief and inconsequential courting. Her smile was relieved, but her eyes held a slight annoyance about them, as if that irked her in some way.

They had fallen out rather spectacularly at the social and whilst Aria acknowledged that she was more than partly to blame for that, he had not helped matters one little bit. Just do what you came here to do.

“Jack, could you...”

The stable master glanced between the two slyly, making the young woman wondered what conclusions he had drawn himself between gossip and speculation. He dipped his head deferentially. “O’course, Aria. Don’t be too long with him though - there’s work to be done. Not all folk get to enjoy leisurely walks as part of their job.” With that, he was away into the courtyard and the two were alone - well alone as they could be in a place where anyone could walk through at any given moment. Best to be brief then, she decided.

“I’m sorry.” It took a lot to swallow her pride to utter an apology knowing that she was unlikely to receive one in return, but once they had got past her lips with a startlingly amount of believability Aria had sighed, hands gesturing idly along with what came next. “Truly. I was having an awful time of it and instead of forgetting my troubles at the social, I brought them with me and ruined not only your evening, but everyone’s with how I acted.”

She faltered then, at a loss for how to quite address the second point on her agenda with Alex without making it look like she had apologised just so he might take the rejection better. That was not it at all; Aria just did not want to spend any more time with him that was possible. His presence, even coolly staring across her in the shaded alcove that joined the courtyard and servants’ outdoor are, made her uncomfortable.

At least Alex would not cry. Gods, she was so frightened that Brandon would not take it well. They had been friends for years and aside from driving her to the point of humiliation with some of his displays, they got along famously when he was not trying to obviously - and unsuccessfully - court her.

Maybe the apology would be enough, she tried to reason. David had said that it might be best to just distance herself from Alex. He had thought him potentially dangerous and watching him now, Aria realised she was afraid of him with no logical reason for being so.

She wrung her hands nervously but never let her green eyes leave his cool gaze. Aria was no coward and if he chose to be a bastard about this too and prove her right, at least she could believe she had done everything to make it right.