Wizard of Jatte by Rowan Erlking (librera reader txt) 📕

Closing his eyes, Theissen then shook his head. “It’s nothing. Don’t worry about it.”

“Too late. I’m worried. Now, what’s bugging you?”

Theissen sat back and stared at the woodwork around him. “I don’t know, actually. A little of this. A little of that. I just feel…I don’t know.”

“You’ve established yourself, bought new clothes. You got regular human clothes again. That vest looks good on you by-the-way, and the coat you bought makes me envy you. We haven’t seen that creep that had tried to kill Milrina. And that gang boss has fled from the western city district—for now at least. What is it? Are you bored?” Theobold’s feathers ruffled as his face flushed. Since they had settled, even he had been able to obtain some new clothes so he could blend in the city, though Theobold still made all his shirts backless to accommodate his wings.

Theissen leaned back again, looking across the room at nothing in particular. “I don’t know what it is. I’m not bored. In fact, I have still so much setting up to do that I have pace myself just to keep from being overwhelmed.”

“So you feel overwhelmed?”

Shaking his head, Theissen let out a sigh. “No. Not really. I like keeping busy.”

“Is it that you are exposed as a wizard now?” Theobold asked him, cocking his head to the side.

Blinking a bit, Theissen shook his head again. “No. But it has made me uncomfortable now that so many people stare at me. I can leave my tools in the shop and all that, so I guess they don’t see a carpenter much. Maybe that’s it.”

Theobold waited.

“No,” Theissen looked to the floor. “That’s not it. I don’t know what it is I’m feeling exactly.”

“Hello.” Standing in the doorway was a man of dignified stature with mildly paler skin than the usual Jatten, dressed in clean orderly business garb. “Is this the Wizard of Jatte’s shop?”

Theissen hastily got up and dusted himself off. “Hello. Uh. No. This will be a carpenter shop.”

The dignified man looked at him with an expression that said, ‘that’s the same thing’. “I see. Well then, is the wizard, I mean, carpenter in?”

“I’m him.” Theissen did not extend his hand. He held back as he eyed the man’s stature and clothes.

“Goodness.” The man stepped further into the shop. His eyes passed over Theissen more slowly. “Well then, I should introduce myself to you properly. I am Rumi Palon Regenebar Landownerson. I am your…cousin’s fiancé.”

Theissen felt his mouth go dry. Seeing this man more clearly, he noticed Rumi had all the dignity a lord baron should have, without all the pomp. The Landownerson’s eyes had a sincere intensity to them. The way he looked at Theissen was as if he felt a severe duty to speak with him as a man did to a man.

Extending his hand, Theissen replied, “Theissen Darol Mukumar Carpenterson of Lumen Village, at your service.”

Rumi took his hand in his, gripping it in a firm businesslike shake. “Pleasure.”

Theissen was not so sure it was a pleasure. Despite Milrina’s assurances that he would like her fiancé, he felt a decided discomfort in his stomach meeting him.

“I came to inquire after my fiancé. She told me she was working for you,” Rumi said.

“At the inn,” Theissen finished with a nod.

Rumi’s expression lightened a smidgen. “She mentioned that. Does she live at the inn or up here?”

“She helps manage the inn,” Theissen said. “So she stays there.”

Her fiancé took a look around at the shop. “And you live here in the tower?”

Theissen frowned. “Yes.”

Both men met each other’s gaze again. Rumi averted his eyes first. “I suppose you know why it is I have come.”

Theissen said nothing.

“A man can get nervous when finding out his bride-to-be’s former fiancé is in town, especially since you have precedence.” Rumi hardly glanced at Theobold, but then Theobold had been standing silently in the background nodding to himself as if he had at last understood something. Rumi said, “I was going to wait until she introduced us, but I felt I ought not wait that long to meet you.”

“To confirm that I won’t go after her?” Theissen asked, his voice tensing up.

The young nobleman let out a sigh. “I hate to admit it, but yes. You are, after all, her first choice.”

To that Theissen just stared. “I’m what?”

Rumi met his gaze. “She still cares for you, and I worry about that.”

“She cares for me because we are cousins!” Theissen shook his head. He started to pace.

“I don’t see it that way.”

“Well, I can’t help how you see it!” Theissen snapped, still pacing. “It isn’t like that anyway. All she ever was to me was a friend.”

“Good marriages are built on friendship.” Rumi watched him with that intense look.

“Ugh!” Clenching his hair, Theissen shouted at the ceiling. “For pity’s sake! You sound like my mother! What are you trying to do? Guilt me into marrying her? What kind of fiancé are you anyway?”

Rumi blinked, stepping back from him. “I…I just wanted to make sure she—”

“Look, you jerk! If you love my cousin at all, don’t doubt her motives!” Theissen stopped pacing. He poked a finger into Rumi’s chest. “Milrina is a sweetheart, but she and I never had that kind of relationship. Now I don’t know what nonsense my mom or aunty Weaverwife put into her head since I left home, but Milrina and I never once promised that we’d marry. And I certainly won’t make her marry me simply because I’m lonely. I won’t do that to her. I care about her way too much.”

Breathless, Theissen glared at Rumi who had pulled back farther, his eyes wide with apparent terror that Theissen would use his magic against him.

“You care about her way too—”

“Don’t twist my words!” Theissen shouted. “Do you love her or not?”

Rumi nodded, his cheeks flushing. “More than anything. Deeper than the ocean. Higher than the mountains. More passionately than—”

“I get it! I get it!” Theissen glared at him, then folded his arms. He looked away. “So. What are you going to do about it?”

“Did you really hire her just so she could earn money faster?” Rumi asked.

Theissen blinked at him. He calmed down almost immediately. “Yeah. She said she wanted to. That, and she didn’t look very happy in her last job.”

The young lord broke into a genuine smile. He lifted up his chest then bowed to Theissen. “Then I thank you.”

For a moment Theissen looked shell shocked. But he lowered his eyes and nodded back to the young suitor. “You’re welcome.”

Rumi left the shop not long after, nearly skipping when he stepped. Theissen merely went back to work. Theobold passed him one look, sighed, and then flew off to the docks with the letter.

*

“Theissen Wizard, I brought this for you.” The merchant’s wife pushed the large stained glass front doors of the tower open. She was heaving up a basket of bread in her arms, panting and sweating from walking up the hill. Her eldest daughter came in tow, carrying another large basket full of vegetables. Tippany peered about the spacious hall, her eyes widening at the extraordinary foreign arches and mosaic designs in the tile floor.

“He’s in his shop.” The extremely small cook Theissen had hired toddled out from behind a carved partition. One of her daughters skittered after her, peering at the newcomers with suspicion.

“His shop? Where’s his shop?” the merchant’s wife asked. She looked around the large hall taking in the snake, the dog, and the number of cats mewing in their various nooks. The place smelled mostly of vinegar from cleaning, though there was an odor of spices coming from the kitchen. 

Giving her the eye, the hired carnival woman pointed to the new doorway in the back of the room near the rules list. “Over there. The carpenter shop entrance is out back if you want to take that way. I think he’d prefer that, really.”

Nodding to her, the merchant’s wife set the basket on the floor and walked out the doors. She left Tippany in the large hall. The merchant’s daughter looked around curiously, setting her own basket down next to the other one. She crossed the mosaic-tile floor over to the backdoor of the carpentry shop and leaned in, listening.

The shop bell jangled from inside, heralding her mother’s arrival. The merchant’s wife said something, but Tippany could not make it out.

“Hi. I didn’t expect to see you up here!” Theissen sounded happy. He had not been at the inn since he had finished with the woodcarving the week before.

Her mother’s voice was difficult to make out, asking something about a man.

Theissen answered with a laugh. “He did? I’m sure Milrina gave him what for. Well, she certainly chose a bold one.”

Her mother said something, and Theissen laughed again.

“You know, listening in is a bad habit,” the extremely short woman said up to Tippany. She passed her to the door, opening it and going inside.  

The woman announced to Theissen that supper was ready without even mentioning that Tippany was there. Theissen thanked her then finished off his conversation with the merchant’s wife while the other woman walked past Tippany with a knowing smirk on her lips. A mirthful gaze was in her eyes, watching the merchant’s daughter. Tippany retreated with a blush. Theissen came right out soon after. Stopping with a jerk, he stared at her.

“Tippany! Oh. I didn’t know you were here. Why didn’t you come into the shop with your mother?”

Tippany blushed red and curtsied. Then she rushed back to the baskets almost immediately.

“Wait? Where are you going?” He followed after her.

Stopping at the doors, Tippany turned around. “Was that girl really your fiancé?”

Theissen watched her quizzically. “Tha—oh, Milrina? Well, once. But it was an arranged—”

She ran out of the shop.

Theissen hung his shoulders and stared up at the ceiling. “I made her cry again. Didn’t I?”

His hired cook shook her head. Chuckling to herself, she adjusted her apron. Her daughters ran past with impish glee, making kissing noises at him.

“I’d say she has a crush on you,” the woman murmured, picking up one of the delivered baskets.

Sighing, Theissen just shook his head. “Heavens. What next?”

“I’ll tell you what next!” Dobbis stomped into the room from outside, practically yanking the glass doors open. He nearly let them slam (but the doors eased closed with Theissen’s help).

The wizard cast a sharp look to the former birdman.

“The feather merchants are evil conniving monsters!” Dobbis shouted. “They still say they have another feather source! They say no one will buy our feathers except them! They say that they won’t pay any more than a few coppers for what we’ve got! They say we have to go back to our old deal or they will ruin us!”

Theissen stared dryly at him. “They talk a lot. Did you tell them that you had a wizard backing you?”

Dobbis shook his head. “They wouldn’t hear it. They think we were lying.”

“They’re idiots,” the extremely short woman muttered, while marching right back to the kitchen with the basket.

Nodding with her, Theissen said to Dobbis, “I’ll go with you tomorrow. I’m varnishing the wood counters tonight so I won’t be going into the shop for the next few days.”

“And if they don’t agree to the new deal?” Dobbis asked, still fuming.

Theissen started to smile at him. “That’s when we open up a feather shop of our own.”

Dobbis blinked at him. “We what?”

“You sell your own feathers,” Theissen said. He headed towards the dining hall where the others were already gathering. Most of the tower residents were taking their bowls and plates around the large dining table so they could eat.

“But we don’t know anything about—”

Theissen picked up a plate, peering at Dobbis in a way that silenced him.

“Fine, so we have the legal forms, and we have you. But that doesn’t mean people will buy from us,” Dobbis said.

“Have some faith in your product.” Theissen spooned out the potato