Sometime in the early drievett, when the city was just waking, Mezalie had the realization that she had left her wet, muddy clothes in the washroom. When she let herself back out in the hallway she spotted the mien that had already made their acquaintance. She made a noise to it as she approached and it turned to look at her, ears perking at first. Once she got closer though it’s big pointed ears suddenly laid flat back against it’s head and a rumbling growl emitted from the creature. She drew her hand back, confused by the change in behavior. She paused, crouching down low before reaching out again, offering her hand. The previously friendly furball now swiped at her and scrambled past her to run off down the hall and down the stairs.


    Mezalie was left stunned and wondering what had just happened. There wasn’t anything she could do though, so with a sense of bewilderment she made her way to the washroom and collected her clothes. She thought she’d seen at least a spout around back if not a hose. When she came down the stairs she cautiously peered around, checking to see if the mien had stayed close or wandered further off. When she saw no trace of the angry poof she continued her search in the dim light. Finally she spied the end of a hose peeking out from behind some boards leaned up against the back wall of the building. There were palettes stacked nearby and bags of soil, clearly overstock for the owners gardening. She dropped her clothes and followed the hose to a spout. She had to move a bag of soil to get to it but once she was able to turn it she heard the flow of water burst to life.


    She hosed the mud off of her clothes against the palettes until they looked reasonable enough to put in a laundry machine. She was thankful that the mud had come out so cleanly from the blouse. She felt selfish for wishing she had something more to her taste to wear when she was lucky to have what she did due to the kindness of strangers. But still, she found herself wanting.


    Sooner rather than later she would need to figure out their money situation. Perhaps sooner was now. It wasn’t like they had much else on their agenda aside from hoping to stumble upon something useful in a book in the archive. Mezalie was starting to have her doubts about that anyway. LoVelly couldn’t help, and she’d spent lofvs reading until her eyes hurt and she didn’t feel much closer to figuring out what to do, what was going on or why it was happening to her…


    First though, a job.


    She wrung out her clothes as best she could and took them to the laundry room on the corner of the ground floor. The machine was thankfully empty this early so she tossed her things in and set the cycle. She sat back on the table that was set against the wall opposite the machine. It was meant for folding, with one side having a fold out for ironing as well. It had peeling diamond patterned laminate that she thought had probably looked quite nice once. It was cute now.


    She was content to sit and wait for her clothes, listening to the sound of the tumbler go round and round. She felt remarkably good for once, a feeling of peace settling over her as her eyes slipped closed. She listened to the soft thump of her wet clothes as they went around. She wanted to sigh but, once again, had no air left in her lungs. She took a deep breath and she tasted as much as she smelled the savory, salty flavor in the air. There was something meaty and rich cooking.


    She closed the door to the laundry behind her on her way to the propped door that appeared to go into the back of the kitchen as she peered in. The lights were much brighter inside and she squinted her eyes against it as she stepped in.


    “Go’vendri.” She called in her barely passable Lelistik. It didn''t seem to matter much though because the inn owner paused and turned to her from his place at a chopping board, a smile on his face.


    “Ah, an early riser,” he said.


    “I suppose so,” she answered.


    “I bet the smell brought you in. I have some toast and yawk ready.” He pointed his knife towards the stovetop where there was indeed some food ready and waiting. “Tor juice in the pitcher in the sink.”


    “Tari bi ov.” She thanked him as she moved to grab a plate from the stack set out on the end of the counter. She looked back over her shoulder at the man as she stacked two pieces of toast on the plate. “I need to find some work so I can continue to pay you.” She added two thin slices of meat to the plate. “Do you know of any large machine shops that might need extra hands for the season?” She asked as she went to the sink, plucking a glass from the rack beside it and pouring a drink. She balanced the plate in one hand and the glass in the other.


    breathe.


    The reminder did not startle her this time but what did was the fact she didn’t know if it had come from her or the creature. She could still feel the awkward other-ness of the creature that intruded in her mind always but no more than usual. Sure enough however, she took a breath and then another, settling into a steady rhythm. The man did not seem to notice her momentary strangeness as he nodded eagerly before returning to his dicing.


    “Hin hin, I will get the address for you. You can tell them Dren sent you. I’ll slip it under your door,” he offered.


    “I cannot thank you enough.” She hoped the sincerity survived her less than perfect accent.


    “It is my pleasure.” He said with a smile, not looking up from his task as Mezalie made her way back towards the door she’d come from and into the cold drievett, plate held close.


    When she opened the door upstairs she had expected LoVelly to still be asleep. She hadn’t expected him to be pacing back and forth gripping a sheet of paper held in front of him. His attention snapped to her as soon as the door opened, eyes going wide.


    “I told you I could read something! I knew it. What does this say?!” He ran to her side, showing her the paper he held so tightly. On it were a variety of small scribbles written in an unsteady script. She tilted her head, squinting at the scrawl and trying to make sense of it. She paused and looked to LoVelly instead.


    “What do you mean? If you can read it, why don’t you know?”


    “I can’t read it now.” He said, which somehow made less sense.


    “What?” she said bluntly, appropriately. LoVelly took a step back from her so she could finally step away from the door. He walked to the little desk and picked up another small scrap of paper with writings on it. She nearly forgot she was holding a glass and plate until she moved again. She held both out to him and took a breath. “I brought you food. Eat it before it gets cold.” He took the plate with a bewildered face, eyebrows scrunched in.


    “Thank you.” He handed her the papers in exchange and took the glass. He dropped to the floor right there in the middle of the room, plate on his knee and glass beside him. She had no reason not to so she dropped down across from him as well. He picked up a piece of toast and took a bite and she saw something in his face light up when the sweet jam hit his taste buds and he took a second and third bite like a starved man. To be fair he hadn’t eaten for…a while. She waited for him to finish the first piece of toast, finally slowing down. He took a long drink from his glass, gasping for air when he finally came up.


    “Okay. I had a dream and during it I saw all this writing and in my dream I could read it! I remember writing things, books, manuals…something like that. But the point is I could read it in my dream so I must have been able to read it before.” He was waving wildly with his hands as he told his story. “When I woke up I tried to write down as many things as I could remember but now that I’m more awake I can’t really…see them right anymore. When I look at them they stop making sense.”


    She spread the papers out on the floor between the two of them. She tried to make sense of what was there in front of her but…she turned one of the pages, seeing if maybe it made more sense that way.


    “I have no idea what language this is.” She admitted, puzzled. “I know at least a little bit of every spoken language and this is…well I don’t know what this is.” She looked up at him, his mouth full of yawk and toast, he hmm’d and continued to chew his food. She turned the paper again, trying to decide which way made the most sense. It was definitely a language, even if it was one he made up. She recognized repeating characters and some semblance of structure to the writings but beyond that she wasn’t so sure. “We have got to get into that head of yours.” she told him as he started on his second piece of toast. “I’m going to find out about work, maybe we can find a doctor while we’re at it. Someone who’s qualified to dig around in there.” She reached across the gap and poked him twice in the forehead to illustrate her point.


    “That sounds like a great idea.” He finally said, washing his food down with more juice. “If I could just remember something, or if I could read, maybe I could be more help.” Mezalie could hear the frustration in his voice.


    “LoVelly it’s okay. Even if it turns out we can’t fix it. We will find other ways for you to help.” She assured. He met her eyes and she felt like he must know she meant it. Even without a touch that felt like a live wire at times, she swore she could still feel his emotions spilling over into her own. She thought it probably went both ways, or she hoped it did.


    “Yeah, okay.” He sighed. “But I would just feel better if I could help more.”


    A noise suddenly caught both or their attention, just a soft swish but in the otherwise quiet space it was noticeable. Mezalie immediately identified the folded slip of paper that had slid under the door and into the room. She got to her knees and crawled just the short distance needed to be able to reach out and snatch the paper. She sat back on her knees, flipping the paper up and finding the address and name of someone who could hopefully get her a job.


    It felt surreal to be worried about finding work with everything going on but here she was anyway. She held the paper up for LoVelly to see what she had. “It’s a contact for someone who might be able to help me find work.” She told him. He was finishing his last piece of meat but he nodded at her, swallowing it down to speak.


    “I could probably find work too.” he offered.


    “You can’t read. And we don’t know what’s wrong with you.” She countered.


    “Ouch. First of all I don’t need to read to do what I know how to do. It’s a trade skill and that''s always needed. And second we do know what’s wrong with you and it feels a lot more dangerous than whatever I’ve got going on.” He argued. He kept his voice low but she could hear the tension to it and she realized she had genuinely upset him.


    “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like-”


    “No it’s fine.” They spoke over one another. LoVelly put his hands up between them. “Really. It’s fine. I am just worried about keeping us safe until we can figure out what to do about the creature.” He picked up his plate and pushed himself off the floor, putting the plate on the desk. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.


    “Thank you, I do appreciate it.” She stood up so that she could shuffle back to sit on the edge of the bed. “I want to see about finding you a doctor before a job though.” She reiterated.


    “Yeah, that’s reasonable,” he sighed, coming over to drop down next to her on the edge of the bed. “Might as well do it while we’re out and about, yeah?” He turned to her, glancing at the paper she held and she watched the little wrinkle form between his eyebrows as he tried to decipher the letters. She folded the page in half on itself and leaned back a bit to stuff it in her pocket.


    “Exactly.” She stood up and went to the door, grabbing the handle and turning back to wait for LoVelly. She tipped her head at the door once in an attempt to get him moving. He took the cue to join her, tilting his head at her.


    “Did you not like the other clothes?” He asked, perceptive as ever and she internally groaned.


    “They just…smelled stale. Kind of dusty, so I wanted to wash them.” She lied. LoVelly''s extra clothes were still neatly folded on the end of the bed. “I should grab those before we leave, actually.” She had almost forgotten about her things, truthfully.


    “I''ll meet you downstairs then. I''m going to use the washroom.” He told her as she opened the door and they split ways. Mez headed down to the laundry to find the machine still running. She popped the door open, feeling for dryness and while they were just a little damp it wasn''t so bad they wouldn''t finish drying on their own.


    She hurried them back upstairs and dropped them next to LoVelly’s things, promising herself she would fold them when they got back. For now she laid them out flat to dry. She heard the washroom door open and quickly turned and locked the door on her way out, barely remembering to grab the key off the hook just inside the door. LoVelly was waiting at the bottom of the stairs for her as promised and they found themselves together in front of the inn again.


    It was still very early. Ahraan had not yet risen and the street lights were all still bright as they dotted along the street. There was a chill in the air that was punctuated by each of LoVelly’s exhales, a plume of breath rising up and away from them and fading away into the dark sky past the lights. As they made their way down the same street they were beginning to know Mez realized just how early it was. There were hardly any lights on in the windows they passed, and they had only crossed paths with barely a handful of other people by the time they made it to the station. The people they passed were sleepy and as quiet as the city around them.


    The station was relatively empty, just a few people standing silently on the platforms as they waited for the first cars of the driev. On the far side of the station a car was just pulling into the station and the sound echoed around the open space. Its lights swept across them briefly as it came around a turn before settling into its docking.


    “Backup plan is looking less likely considering how few people are around.” She joked as she exaggerated looking around at the handful of people lingering about.


    “Yeah I think we might be on our own. I didn''t realize how early I''d gotten up.” LoVelly admitted.


    “Oh yeah, you slept like the dead.” She told him as she led them to the center of the open station where the signs and maps were posted. There were lights along the top and sides of the boards which illuminated them enough to read even during the darkest driev of Votton.


    “Did you manage to get any sleep?” he asked. It was an innocent question but she felt no small amount of dread rise up in her from it. She kept her eyes resolutely on the board in front of her when she took a small breath and answered.


    “I don’t think I sleep anymore,” she said evenly. She could feel LoVelly’s eyes on her even if she couldn’t see them.


    “But…I’ve seen you…?”


    “I haven’t actually fallen asleep since…well since I woke up in that field with you. I can rest, obviously. And more or less I think I can pass out but I think when I do that thing gets control,” she explained, eyes focussed on a single spot on the board. She didn’t know why she couldn’t look at him when she said it but she felt too exposed already. Every admission of something new and strange about this state of being she was in felt like striking an exposed nerve. She felt raw and far, far too seen.


    She wasn’t expecting the gentle bump of LoVelly’s shoulder into hers as they stood there. It wasn’t demanding or overwhelming, just there. She felt the trickle of emotion mingle into hers and while confusion was a strong one so was the warmth of compassion. It allowed her to relax from the tense state she’d worked herself into, allowed her to drop her shoulders that she hadn’t even realized were hunched up towards her jawline.


    “Huh. That sounds really boring. What did you do that whole time I was asleep?” he asked and again, it was a perfectly reasonable question. It just so happened that now she was faced with making the decision: did she tell him about the fae or did she keep it to herself?


    With the flow of energy humming back and forth between them she knew that no matter how hard she tried she probably wouldn’t be able to keep a secret from him for long anyway. It wasn’t worth the extra stress of trying either, she thought.


    “I actually…I went out for a bit.” She admitted. She finally turned away from the spot on the board she was drilling holes into with her eyes. She didn’t look directly at him but she could see his face in her peripheral vision. “I went to a pub. I don’t know why really. I guess I thought maybe someone might have something useful to say.” She shrugged at that. It seemed silly now. “But it didn’t go well-” she felt LoVelly tense suddenly at that so she quickly added, “not in a monster way but in an ‘I had a panic’ attack way.” Thankfully they were the only two standing in the middle of the plaza but she still kept her voice low and private.


    “I ended up leaving and long story short, I ate a couple of treffae. And I think it got me really high and I might have eaten water sprites too? I don’t know if I imagined that or not. It was a really weird time.” She turned her head slightly to meet LoVelly’s eyes finally. She wasn’t sure what expression was sitting on his face but it was somewhere between confusion and tasting something sour. She didn’t know what to make of that.


    “You ate treffae?! But they look so…slimy and wet.” His expression made more sense now.


    “Oh it was slimy.” She said flatly. “I didn’t even mean to do it. My body just acted on its own. It was scary, honestly. And once I was high it was like someone else was at the controls altogether. I was just along for the ride.”


    Another person joined them at the other end of the boards, looking up and assumedly looking for their own route and destination. Mezalie stopped the conversation where she was and actually looked up at the board with intent. She dug into her pocket for the paper she stowed away. She unfolded it and held it into the light. She looked at it and then at the large map, trying to decipher the address format as best she could. It looked like the sections of city were marked by a letter-number combo on the board and she was able to match that to part of the address and from there she was able to narrow it down to a few neighborhoods nestled on the edge of the city not far from where they were. She quickly ushered LoVelly off toward a platform across the plaza. They were the only ones waiting for that car so they found themselves again with privacy to speak.


    “My gods this happened while I was just sleeping back at the inn? What if you needed help? I had no idea you were even gone!” He kept his voice down but he whisper-shouted it at her. She could sense his overwhelming concern even without a touch.


    “I know I know. It wasn’t the best idea but I think I figured out something important. I think eating the fae helps keep the monster happy. I don’t feel the overwhelming hunger constantly all the time like I did. I feel warm again, even.” LoVelly reached out to touch the back of his hand to hers.


    “You still feel cold,” he told her, pulling away.


    “I don’t know. I’m not sure how to describe it but I feel good. I think I can eat them to keep the creature from getting into a frenzy.” She explained what she’d been mulling over in her mind since her discovery.


    “I suppose it’s better than people.” he said, looking down at the ground beside her. Neither of them said anything for several moments because as true as it was it was hard to hear it outloud. LoVelly took a deep breath and Mezalie took none at all while they waited for their car to come.


    “I had another dream of the girl with the red hair.” LoVelly said finally when the silence had grown too heavy. “She was talking to someone. I don’t know who. I couldn’t actually see anything but her.” He tipped his head back, looking up at the sky instead now.


    “Do you remember what she said?” she asked.


    “Yeah. It’s weird because it’s the same thing someone said in another vision I had, ‘can you feel the convergence’.” A rumbling sound approached interrupting him and they both looked to see the light of the car swing across the station as their car began to pull up to the dock. It let out a chime that was still rather shrill in the quiet.


    “We’ve got to find out who she is.” Mez raised her voice to be heard over the sound of the car approaching. “She must know something about what’s happening. We’ve both seen her.” They boarded the train and found themselves less alone than they had in the station. There were a handful of others sprinkled about the car but they quickly found themselves a seat together near the middle of the car.


    “When we go back to the library maybe we can look for something about convergence. I’m not sure what it means, to feel the Convergence, but maybe that will tell us something.” LoVelly suggested.


    “Yeah. That sounds like a plan. It’s on the list of mysteries that need solving between the two of us.” She half joked but the list really was starting to pile up.


    The car picked up with a sway and crawled along on its tracks out away from the city center. Several times it stopped at a crowded stop to pick up additional passengers until folks were standing, hanging onto a railing or a seat back.


    Eventually the car took them out toward the edge of the city where the buildings were fewer and further between, toward the eides and eides of land used for farming that sustained not only Temal but the surrounding townships and villages as well. Dotted here or there were large industrial buildings on the landscape, standing tall and stark against the otherwise mostly flat land around them. It was there at a stop in front of one such group of buildings that they found themselves standing from their seat and shuffling out the door with a handful of others. She wasn’t quite sure which building it was but she was pretty sure it was one of them. She looked back at the paper she’d crunched up in her hand during the ride there.


    The inner city may be just waking up but that wasn’t necessarily true of the outer districts. Out in those places were warehouses, manufacturing shops, and the most common- agriculture processing sites. It was more common for there to be two driev and two nente shifts enabling a more even workload among the workers. This also meant those districts never really slept, always rolling over one group for another.


    It was pretty easy to tell which were agriculture by the bins being wheeled in and out full of produce or byproduct. The shop she was looking for was instead identified by the noise emanating from its general direction. There was the raucous clatter of metal on metal and the whirring of fans and ventilation hoods drew her to the end of the hard-packed dirt road, wide enough for three tevvy’s, at least.


    There was an open garage bay door through which she could see an enormous piece of equipment designed to churn huge swathes of soil. It stood almost as high as the bay door itself. There were people with hardhats moving about in and out of the building and she knew she wouldn’t be allowed further onto the site without one so she waited until she was close enough to flag someone down as they were on their way back in. When she showed the woman the paper with the name on it and explained that Dren had sent her, she was told to stay put and the woman would send the site manager out shortly.


    When Mezalie finally turned around with the intention to say something to LoVelly and realized he wasn’t there she was somewhat shocked. He was always just there, three steps behind her and while she wanted to find it irritating, she actually liked it. She couldn’t be lonely if she was never alone. She did have to admit that he had a habit of wandering off though so her shock was somewhat misplaced. She scanned the surrounding area, darkened by the shadows of the towering warehouses in the already dimly lit ambiance of the driev and, ah- there he was under the illumination of a floodlight mounted to a building across the road. He was, of course, adoring a greshgen he’d found. It lay on its back, wiggling with joy as he rubbed its soft, fuzzy belly.


    “LoVelly!” She called out to him, waving her arm to get his attention. He looked up, looking around for her before waving back once he’d spotted her. He gave the greshgen one last pat and hopped to his feet to jog across the road to her.


    It was surely an alignment of the fates that the moment LoVelly hopped to his feet and turned to head back towards her he ran right into someone carrying an overly large box. The man was leaning back and trudging carefully under the weight of the load and as soon the two collided they both went sprawling, the box falling heavily to the ground with a thud that Mez heard even from a distance. She winced and took off at a run as she saw the moment LoVelly’s head hit the hard ground and she hoped against hope that it wasn''t as bad as it looked.