The Light in His Darkness

An Inkling

"No, it was right there," Sophie argued.

"How do you know that?" Dex challenged. "I remember being right here."

Sophie threw up her hands. "I'm the one with the photographic memory."

Dex considered. "True enough. But why would I remember things at a different angle from you?"

"I don't know!"

"Guys!" Linh interrupted. "Chill out. I was right there." She pointed to a map that had a river of Ravagog. "Floating along here."

"That does seem right," Sophie said. "And I landed here, which is where they came."

Tam had to listen as they recounted all of their memories of the Neverseen, as per Glimmer's instructions. It was mind-boring work, and while he knew it was supposed to lead to something new, he had a hard time paying genuine attention, even if it was at a battle he'd been to.

"I have an idea," Biana eventually interrupted, right as Sophie was recounting her tales from Lumenarai.

"Shoot," Tam said, sitting forward.

She shrugged. "Just lure them out, surround ourselves with lots of goblins and guards, and take them down. There's no way they could incapacitate that many people at once, right? We've never seen them do it."

"I feel like that would need to be more detailed," Sophie said skeptically.

"And we've tried to lure them out before. Remember Nightfall?" Marella asked. "And how well that turned out?" Her eyes traced over Biana's scars.

Tam wondered if Glimmer knew what happened to Biana and the whole story behind her scars.

"And they'd be able to look before they came and see all the guards there."

"Well . . . first, we have to offer them something they'd really want," Biana explained. "And second, we'd have to have a reason to have a lot of people there . . . ."

"What?" Tam said, hearing the scheming going on in Biana's voice.

"I mean . . . what if we didn't have bodyguards there?"

"What?"

"No, we reach out to a bunch of elves beforehand, to make it look like a normal event in the elvin world."

"Is there a holiday coming up?" Sophie asked.

"Not necessarily," Dex said. "But I mean, Keefe made Gisela promise that she wouldn't attack us again. We could say that . . . it was a party someone was throwing to celebrate the end of the struggle with them."

"And we send them a secret message, saying that if they came, then we'd give them something," Stina finished.

"But what would we give them?" Maruca asked.

"We have something valuable in our possession that they don't. Something that knows all their secrets, that I'm sure they want back. Two somethings, actually."

Tam felt his stomach sinking, knowing where Stina was going. "We lure them out by saying they could have Tam and Glimmer back. And Linh."

Tam sat back in his room after their day was over - it'd been another long one. Evidently, it was too much to ask to have one slow-going day. 

Tam's door banged open. "Alright, dude. Let's just get this conversation over with."

Tam was startled to find Stina at his door, bursting her way into his room like it wasn't anything at all. She started closing the door, but before it shut all the way, he saw a glimpse of Dex and Glimmer out in the living room. Odd, he thought.

Out loud, he said, "What conversation?"

Stina sat down on a chair across from his bed, giving him a major eye roll. "I think you know."

Tam groaned. "Enlighten me."

Stina crossed her legs. "Fine. You have a crush on Glimmer."

And that was it - someone saying it so simply, so matter of factly, Tam couldn't believe his ears.

Even if he was starting to come to the realization that his feelings towards Glimmer weren't entirely "just as friends", he'd never thought it so laid out in front of him like that.

"You came all the way to talk to me about that?" Tam asked.

"Well, Dex was coming over anyway, and I figured I might as well tag along and embarrass you."

"Then let me ask you this: do you really care all that much about my having a crush on Glimmer?"

"Not really, if I'm being honest," Stina admitted. "But your whole friend group is soo annoying, with Sophie going on and on about Fitz and Keefe. I'm just curious as to what's happening. It's new, it's a break from Sophie and her current drama."

Tam wasn't about to argue with her. "There's not really that much to tell," he said. "So I like her. I'm not going to do anything about it."

"Why not?" Stina asked.

"What are you, a therapist or something?" Tam scoffed.

"No. I'm here to help you talk through your feelings."

"So a therapist." Stina waited until Tam sighed. "No, I'm not going to do anything, because I don't want to put that stress on her."

"Mmhmm. And you're not afraid of being rejected?"

Tam paused. "That's a factor, but not the main one - she's going through a lot and the best I can do is be there for her as her friend. Nothing more. That's all she can handle right now. Maybe in the future, when we're older, either of us would be more open to it. But . . . not now."

"I suppose that's fair," Stina said reluctantly. "Look, I can tell she's pretty special to you. I can also tell you're pretty special to her. Just . . . talk to her, okay? You might be surprised at what you find."

Tam rolled his eyes again. "I talk to her every day."

"Here's the thing," Stina said. "Relationships that don't have secrets like a crush between them can benefit in the long run. It shows that you want to be open and honest with her about it. So consider what I've told you." She stood up. "I need to go find Dex. We have some stuff to get done for Team Valiant."

"What was Dex doing here?" Tam wondered.

"He heard that Glimmer likes human things, so he brought her something he thought she might like."

"Who told him that?"

Stina shrugged. "Word gets around."

Tam followed Stina out of the room to find Glimmer and Dex messing with some kind of contraption - a . . . clock?

"Tam, did you see this?" Glimmer stuck the clock up in Tam's face, right as something popped out of it and into his face, startling him back into nearly falling over.

Stina laughed. "That was priceless, watching Tam trip himself over a - what was it?"

"A cuckoo clock," Dex reminded her. "It has a little bird that pops out every hour and makes a lot of noises."

"Cool," Glimmer breathed. "I'll be messing with this a bit. Thanks, Dex."

After Dex and Stina had left, Tam watched Glimmer twiddling with the clock a bit. He ran his hand down his face.