A Drink Before Battle [M/M] ✅

31: I'll Have That One

The following midday found Sevei with his little band of confidantes perusing the stalls along the street where Kyrzhan's shop was located, killing a bit of time before their appointed meeting. As they strolled along, Sevei couldn't help but steal repeated glances at Yeresym, his heart warring between disapproval and nostalgia. They had all come out in plain clothes to avoid attention, but Yeresym had taken it a step further – his hair had returned to that dull straw color it had been the night they had met, although now he'd partially covered it with a wide-brimmed hat that also shaded his eyes.

Sevei's fingers were itching to reach out and touch that dreadful hair. Even now, he could clearly remember how it had felt - a bit stiff and dry, quite straw-like indeed. At the time he'd found it unfortunate. Now the sight of it brought an unrelenting flood of recollection, not only of that night, but of every intimate moment they'd shared since.

Yeresym glowered as he caught Sevei staring, yet again. His cheeks flushing red, Sevei quickly turned away and pretended to examine the wares on the nearest merchant cart.

His eyes were met with a colorful array of dangling charms and amulets, most taking the form of a cast bronze badge adorned with a short bit of embroidered ribbon, fringed with tiny copper beads on the end. Sevei recognized symbols for luck, wealth, fertility, anything folks might want a bit of help with in their daily lives. His face split into a delighted grin when he spotted one with it's badge in the shape of a cat's face, the mischievous eyes rendered in shiny green glass.

"What is this one for?" he asked the young girl behind the cart.

"Avoiding misfortune!" she answered cheerfully. "You know how cats can always slip out of a tight spot. Some say they can even cheat Death a few times."

Sevei glanced over his shoulder to see the rest of his group hovering around a dried fruit stand across the street.

"I'll have that one," he told her, laying down the amount of coin written on its little tag.

As the girl put the money away, Sevei felt an approach at his back.

"I didn't take you for superstitious," Yeresym said behind him.

Sevei jumped, waving the girl's hand down as she reached up for the charm. She gave him a secretive smile and nodded as he quickly turned around. As Yeresym began to examine the contents of the cart, Sevei put his hands behind his back and leaned towards him in exaggerated scrutiny.

"Do you do that with magic?" he asked. "Your hair?"

Yeresym straightened and looked away with affronted embarrassment. "Of course not! It's... a paste of herbs. Meira does it."

"It really doesn't suit you at all," Sevei complained with a critical shake of his head.

Yeresym shot him a scathing glare. "It doesn't seem to deter you," he grumbled.

Sevei sighed dramatically. "Well, you could shave your head and still have to step over the bodies swooning in your path."

"Our Yeresym is likely to stand out in a crowd, isn't he?" Meira said as she joined them, Thelan and Yanek following close behind her. Yeresym crankily pulled his hat down further around his eyes, but Sevei was certain he'd caught a slip of a smile before he turned his face away.

With everyone momentarily distracted, a small, fabric-wrapped bundle was pressed into Sevei's hand behind his back.

"Well, it's almost time," Sevei announced, shooing everyone forward with a wave of his free hand. "Let's head to the shop, shall we?"

Before following in their wake, he turned to give a wink to the merchant girl, slipping her an extra coin for her discretion.

The Golden Pearl had begun as a very small operation; Kyrzhan had called upon old family business connections to purchase fabrics from Caedra and Thalesia, then hired two very talented seamstresses to sew them into Northern fashions, with a few suggested improvements on the designs. Over a decade later, the business now occupied three floors of a sizable building in Tharlburg's High Street market district.