Chapter 10: Introductions

Corrin tucked the girl under his arm as he walked back into the town, hiding in the shadows. As they walked, he placed himself closer to the street, keeping a steady pace towards Sachse's alley. 

He was dreading the lecture he'd get from him. I mean, bringing a Witch? Preposterous. 

Corrin found the vines and pushed Ostara inside, following her in. 

"Corr? Why are you back?" His eyes turned to Ostara. "Who's this?" 

"I found her outside." 

"Of course you did." He set down his book and stood against the wall, glaring at her. "Darkwood." 

Ostara blinked. "What?" 

He nodded to her leg. "Your wand is made of darkwood. Is that Witch or Wizard-made?" 

"I-I crafted it, so Witch-made." 

Sachse's eyes widened before he swallowed the lump in his throat and motioned to Corrin. "Can we talk?" 

He grabbed his forearm before he could say anything and pulled him into a corner, but the space was so small, she could still hear them. 

Sachse squeezed his arm as his voice dropped to a whisper. "What were you thinking? Bringing a Witch, of all people? What did she do?" He looked through his face, trying to figure it out. "Can she control minds? Did she spell you? You should've spelled her back." 

"So, you think I should've burned her. Look," Corrin grabbed his arms, forcing him to focus. "I couldn't just leave her out there. I allowed her to leave, but then she started crying and I thought of you. Well, I always do, but-" 

"Alright." Sachse hushed him, glaring at Ostara, who was admiring the walls. "When is she leaving?" 

"Sunrise, I'd hoped." 

Sachse let go of him and turned to Ostara as Corrin propped himself on the plank. "You'll leave by sunrise. For now, just...make yourself comfortable. On one condition." 

She nodded, slightly confused. 

"You're not to leave here unless you are with one of us. Is that clear?" 

She nodded again. 

"That settles it." Sachse pulled himself back onto the plank, legs in Corrin's lap. "Sit if you want. I don't have a lot for you to do unless you want these overdue books." 

"Isn't that an affront to Yael?" Ostara asked, sitting in a corner. 

"And they're our patron, why haven't you returned them?" Corrin queried. 

"Don't sit too close to the wall," Sachse called to her, ignoring their questions. "I saw a spider yesterday." 

She sat up with an idea. "Do you mind?" 

Sachse blinked. "What do you mean?" 

Ostara pulled a tweezer from her small bag on her thigh. "I have to harvest the blood. Good for potions." She shrugged. "My sister asked." 

She pulled out a vial, slid off the plank, and crouched before the corner. Using the tweezers to pluck the tiny spider from its web, she squeezed its blood into the vial before she capped it with a cork plug and swirled around the blood, smiling at it unsettlingly. 

"That should be enough." She wiped away the dead spider from her tweezers and put them away as she slid onto the plank again. 

Sachse let out a laugh before he hid his mouth. "Sorry for being rude. Just glad to know you're fun. In a good way." he said quickly, noticing her getting confused. 

She pulled her leg under her chin and looked at them. "So what do you normally do in a Wizards' town?" 

"What have you heard?" Sachse asked, trying to cover the back of the book with his hand so Corrin couldn't read it. 

"You boil Witch infants with your poisons. Wait, no, that was another town." 

"Lanë's?" Corrin suggested as he snatched the book from Sachse and held a finger at the page he had been reading from before he read the back cover. "Who is Autumnhill's patron?" 

"Give it back!" Sachse complained, leaning forward to grab the book before Corrin threw it into his lap. 

"Hey, I asked a question." Corrin smiled, holding up his chin. 

Sachse's face turned red as he shoved the book in the space below the plank. "Autumnhill's patron is Celes and Lanë is the patron of Pibum." 

"That's right." Corrin let go of him and looked back at Ostara. "What have you heard about Yael's Wizardly town?" 

"Not much, really. I've heard more about their Witch town than their Wizardly one, and they're farther than you are from Farehallow." 

"Who is your town's patron deity?" Sachse asked, crossing his ankles. 

"Sayge. Have you two heard anything untoward about us?" 

Corrin looked at Sachse. "You're the cleaner at the tavern. What have you heard?" 

"Do you expect me to believe the words of drunks?" 

"Hey, I ran to you the first night I got drunk." 

"You do that every night." 

"Running or drinking?" 

Sachse uncrossed his ankles and swung his heel into his thigh. "I haven't heard a lot about individual towns, and I doubt the calligraphers have an accurate map of your territory. I do know there's always that one man that gets so drunk that he starts swearing he'll exterminate all the Witches before he falls into the garbage bin on his way to the bathroom." 

Corrin laughed. "Half of the time, it's my dad." 

"Or Tori's." 

Ostara looked around the alley. "So, why do you live here?" 

Sachse's easy smile fell. "Let's not discuss that." 

"Oh, I-I didn't mean to push."

"Then you can't help." 

"I…uhm, I wasn't asking to help you, I was just curious-" 

"Curious why an adult lives alone in a musty alley instead of on a farm like everyone else?" Sachse snapped, sitting up to glare at her. 

"Ostara, jus-just drop it." Corrin hissed, noticing how her body had tensed from his sudden anger. "Change the subject, now." 

Sachse thought otherwise. "No, let's get this out right no-" 

Corrin shoved his hand over his mouth and held his head still. "Shut up, dumbass. We're changing the subject." 

He waited until he'd stopped struggling and rolled his eyes, muttering "fine" into his palm before he let go. 

"What do you do for work?" Corrin asked her, stretching his hand as Sachse pulled his legs towards him. 

"Oh, uh, I work at my family's shop. We develop wands for kids and fix old men's mistakes. Not that they take the advice." she said, her voice dropping to a whisper. 

"Why would they not take the advice?" Sachse asked. "I'm sure you're very knowledgeable in wandlore, seeing how your family has a whole shop around it." 

"Ah, yes." Ostara waved her hand to her chest under her cloak. "These, unfortunately, are very distracting. I'm too young for marriage, and they're too obvious to take off, but I can't wear high-collared dresses until I marry-" 

"What do you mean by take off?" Corrin asked. "Like it's fake?" 

"No, they're natural, unfortunately. But I found out a trick a few years ago that helps." 

She pulled out her wand and muttered a Shifting spell. Two vines crossed across her breasts in an X and when they pulled away, she lifted her cloak with her other hand to reveal a male chest. Corrin noticed she sat up higher after that. 

"It's better this way, but I can't wear this during work. Too obvious." She cleared her throat, putting her wand away. "I'm sorry, I should've asked immediately after. What do you two do for work?" 

"I'm a farmhand for my father. He's a cleaner and volunteers at the library." Corrin pointed his thumb at Sachse, who stretched a leg into his lap again. 

"Any reason why you have two jobs?" Ostara asked, looking around Corrin at Sachse. 

His face twisted into a scowl. "It's hard to find a steady job when you're an outcast. No openings outside of family friends taking pity." 

"That doesn't answer the question." Corrin said. He glared daggers into him, but was met with a smile. 

"Fine. The drunks want to bully me and make my life harder, and the book-keepers took pity on me a few years ago." 

"Ah, right." Corrin said, shutting his mouth tight as he remembered the reason and squeezed his knee in sympathy. "I'm sorry." 

"Blame your damn friends and stop apologizing." Sachse snapped, looking at the sky above. "Seems that Moon's half-awake." 

"Wait, Moon?" Ostara asked, making connections in her head. "We call him Lune." 

"Of course you-" 

In one motion, Sachse sat up and shoved a hand over Corrin's mouth, covering his own with a finger to silence Ostara. 

What? she asked, her lips moving without sound. 

"Witches." he whispered.