Should someone warn Winifred? She doesn't seem like the sort of girl who would appreciate being warned of much. And maybe her mother would in fact appreciate the existence of a tall handsome foreign person of interest who's as unlikely as Benedict is to get her daughter into that particular kind of trouble. Maybe Benedict's the one who needs the warning.
All of those thoughts are contained to a single glance in their direction before Bastien turns his smile back on Nadine.
"Two days," he improvises. The eluvians are a secret even from sweet sisters and fierce nieces. And that's a fair amount of time, right? Enough for estranged siblings to find a bit of comfort with each other to carry home and nurture in their letters, but not long enough to be burdensome or press things too quickly.
He puts his hand on Byerly's back. Companionable, but also a way to quietly communicate, despite By's occupied hands, if anything Bastien says warrants voluntarily or involuntarily tensing up muscles.
"But we will—we cannot talk about it. But there is work that will probably bring us back again before the end of the year."
Half a lie. But without disclosing the eluvians, they can't explain that they won't need much of an excuse to come to Gwaren anymore. The day-long journey through the forest to reach the city, that will be the hard part. The rest of the distance will be crossable in minutes.
no subject
All of those thoughts are contained to a single glance in their direction before Bastien turns his smile back on Nadine.
"Two days," he improvises. The eluvians are a secret even from sweet sisters and fierce nieces. And that's a fair amount of time, right? Enough for estranged siblings to find a bit of comfort with each other to carry home and nurture in their letters, but not long enough to be burdensome or press things too quickly.
He puts his hand on Byerly's back. Companionable, but also a way to quietly communicate, despite By's occupied hands, if anything Bastien says warrants voluntarily or involuntarily tensing up muscles.
"But we will—we cannot talk about it. But there is work that will probably bring us back again before the end of the year."
Half a lie. But without disclosing the eluvians, they can't explain that they won't need much of an excuse to come to Gwaren anymore. The day-long journey through the forest to reach the city, that will be the hard part. The rest of the distance will be crossable in minutes.