The Alchemist by Megan Derr

Author:Megan Derr [Derr, Megan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Gay, Bisexual, Fantasy, Fairy Tale, Romance
Publisher: Megan Derr
Published: 2020-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Five

"I hate this damned sun," Goulet groused. "How do you humans put up with it glaring down on you all the time?"

Marcum laughed. "We stay indoors."

"That is not remotely true. Humans go everywhere but indoors, so far as I can tell. At least, they never go inside their own homes."

That got more laughter. Marcum still wasn't used to chatting and laughing so easily with Goulet, like they really were friends now. It was heady, and if he let it go to his head too much more he'd do something stupid. Better to enjoy what he had, instead of ruining it for the chance of something he knew damned well was impossible. "You're not entirely wrong, I suppose. For a more serious answer, we're adapted to it, more than goblins are anyway. It's too bad Bluebeard could not have waited a few more weeks to start his revenge; I would have had the special glass I ordered to make shaded spectacles for you. They'd have helped immensely."

Goulet's brow drew down in confusion. "I don't need glasses."

"They're not for vision, not that way," Marcum said. "It's not even technically glass, but a special kind of smoky quartz, grinded down to make lenses that will help protect your eyes from the sunlight." He rubbed the back of his neck and looked away from the startled expression on Goulet's face. "I had some other ideas too, to supplement what Levaughn has done for you, but…" He dropped his hand and shrugged.

"Like what?"

Marcum slowly looked toward him again, then skittered away again. "Um. Tinctures for your eyes. Special lotions. A charm to add humidity to your room, supplement Levaughn's spells. Little things like that. I was still fine-tuning everything, since most spells and such of that nature in my books are clearly human-centric, and I couldn't exactly ask a bunch of goblins to be test subjects."

Only silence met his words, sending tension through his shoulders that he tried in vain to relax.

He nearly jumped right out of the saddle when Goulet finally spoke. "Do you miss home?"

"Miss home?" Marcum sighed. "There are little things I miss: certain foods, music, the familiarity of it all. But for the most part, no, I don't. Now that I'm far from it, I can feel just how much it was pressing down on me. To have that weight lifted… it's nice, for lack of a better word. Or was, until the reason home felt so oppressive escaped its cell and came to hunt me down." He cast another tentative look toward Goulet. "I assume the matter is not quite so simple for you."

"I'm not sure you get to describe your life as simple," Goulet replied.

Marcum laughed. "All right, fair enough. I assume you do miss home, though."

"Yes and no. I think my getting kicked out was always a matter of when, not if, depressing as that is. There are too many of our beliefs I simply don't hold with. It caused friction with my parents, my friends—all my relationships, really.

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