They Split the Party by Elijah Menchaca

Author:Elijah Menchaca [Menchaca, Elijah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: CamCat Publishing

Elizabeth dusted off her hands as the fireplace lit up, bathing the room in a dull orange glow. Their room for the evening was small, but the wooden walls, furs, and firelight made it cozy.

Arman sat at the little writing desk next to the fireplace, using a tuning fork-shaped device to clean his coat and armor. A faint hum came from the fork, and wherever he waved it over his things, dirt simply scattered and dissolved. Arman had never been one for neatness—the usual state of his workshop attested to that—but his hands always sought out tasks when there was something on his mind. The slight frown on his face only confirmed Elizabeth’s intuition. Something was bothering him.

She half leaned, half sat on the corner of the desk. When he didn’t notice her, she switched to the direct approach.

“What is it?”

He twitched in surprise, as if suddenly remembering she was there with him and looking briefly embarrassed that he’d forgotten.

“I was thinking,” he said, “about what’s going to happen to this place once we’re gone.”

Elizabeth gave him a puzzled look. “They go back to living their lives, minus a crazed tree man trying to kill them.”

Arman shook his head. “They can’t though. Not for long, out here, alone. This whole town . . . it’s too small to defend itself but too big to go unnoticed by everything in the forest. One warden can’t protect it alone. Which means it’s only a matter of time before something swallows it up. They can’t stay here. It’s suicide.”

“They have to try,” Elizabeth said. “Somebody has to try.”

Now it was Arman’s turn to look confused.

“Wilderness is always advancing,” Elizabeth said. “Everybody just stays where it’s safe? Sooner or later, there’s nowhere safe left. Living out here on the fringes like this is dangerous. But if they can survive, make it work? That’s how new, safe places get made.”

She paused for a moment, studying his reaction to her words.

“But that’s not what’s really bothering you, is it?”

He shook his head. She’d known even before he did. Like usual.

“This place is like this because of Relgen. Because of me. And it was my fault, at least a little. I thought I made peace with that. I thought I could live and . . . maybe not do better but not do anything worse. But I don’t want this to be the world I leave Robyn. I made her world more dangerous. And I don’t know how to fix it.”

Elizabeth ran a hand along his cheek, hoping to ease his mind. “We make it better. How we can, where we can.”

Arman sighed, leaning into her touch and nodding. “Make it better.”

He sat upright, his gaze locking straight ahead, staring into space. His hands froze in their work.

“Arman?”

“I need to talk to Dietrich,” he said, immediately getting out of his chair, donning his coat, and starting for the door.

“What?”

He paused at the door for a moment, then turned around and planted a kiss on her confused lips. His voice came out both relieved and excited.

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