Witches Going Live 1.4

Need to wait on a draft revision before I can move onto 5, so I'm going to do some lore stuff for Breeding Madness next.

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Chapter 4 - The Color of Love

Leo's relief lasted only a few minutes after he dashed away from the rooftop, sober thought hitting him like a punch to the face. That was stupidly reckless, and he couldn't even say where it came from. Just because it made him feel good in the short term didn't make it a good idea, but it's not like he could take it back.

Still, though... it was nice to completely forget everything holding him back- to let loose and roar however he pleased. Leo wished it was possible to live his whole life like that, but that was easier said than done.

At least he had something to look forward to.

Last on his list of quests for the day was heading to Grimme's Grotto- possibly his favorite district in all of Imperalis and one of only two places Leo felt comfortable beyond his room at the Inn Between. It wasn't just that Liri lived there, but that certainly helped his eagerness.

The only thing that killed his eagerness was the massive gate blocking off the mage district from the rest of the city, as Leo would have to submit himself to the security protocols if he wanted to enter. Same as always. Pressed against the southwestern wall of the Imperalis, two smaller walls ran around the border of Grimme's Grotto to close it off.

Prospective visitors were processed through two gatehouses built into the north and east walls. If the grotto wished to entirely disallow visitors, these gatehouses would merge into the wall and create a seamless barrier around the city within a city. Doing so also happened to complete a mana circuit inside the wall itself, transforming the defensive fortification into a magic circle that gave power to the numerous ten-foot-tall inactive security golems built decoratively into the architecture.

This, along with the magical barrier projected overhead and the regiments of Grimwatch troopers stationed inside of the wall ready to draw on the wall's power and sling spells at any imposing force made Grimme's Grotto one of the most secure places in all of Karnalle- maybe even more so than Castle Lundreame itself.

The reason this incredible piece of magical engineering ever saw the light of day was to keep the mages within safe from the wrath of the royal family in times of emergency.

Throughout Karnalle's history, the Lundreame monarchy gave way to numerous rotten branches of its family tree. For every just ruler and beloved, there were two mediocre ones, three bad ones, and one tyrant. Directly after King Grimmevaldo Archastus Lundreame constructed the grotto with the intent of fostering a community of mages within Imperalis to compete with House Palemist and Mithimere's Council of Archsages, his immediate successor razed it to the ground after a court jester invoked their wrath by conjuring a phantom cockroach as a prank.

Grimme's Grotto would be burnt down an additional seven times throughout its history. Each time, it was built back stronger than before and with additional defenses thanks to House Palemist's efforts and funding from Mithimere, ironically.

In the modern era, the grotto was impenetrable. The mad tyrants eventually turned their gaze on other, easier-to-bully scapegoats for their problems, but the mages would forever hold their past transgressions over their heads. That said, it's not as if they could say the quiet part out loud. Doing so would be political suicide- tantamount to a slap in the face of the royal family. Even if you had yourself a mighty wall to hide behind, you still don't want to go around kicking intentionally deadly hornet nests. You never know when they might figure out how to slip into the cracks.

The official explanation for all the absurd defensive measures was that they were meant to protect the homes and families of the many mages occupying numerous essential positions throughout the kingdom. Anything beyond that was left as subtext, and the nonnegotiable ten golem 'bodyguard' detail assigned to any royals visiting the grotto made things clear enough.

Leo was thankful he didn't have to deal with any of that, but he still had to go through the routine screening. He entered into the line of incoming visitors, bouncing on the balls of his feet to keep busy and express his frustration. Inside the gatehouse, he'd have to pay a toll and sit at a booth across from an empath who would screen his intentions through a short conversation. There was also an unseen number of seers at work divining whether or not the individual requesting visitation would cause any trouble, but Leo had never met any of them himself.

All in all, Leo wasn't the biggest fan of the process. He never liked when anyone analyzed him or peered into his inner self, but it was what it was.

One by one, the line ahead of him dwindled until he was inside the gatehouse and directed to a booth by a trooper of the grimwatch- the grotto's well-dressed magical guard force donning black suits with purple accents. Leo smiled as he saw his destination. Where else would it have been? He wasn't sure what star he was born under or why it kept happening, but somehow or another, every time he visited the grotto, Leo always ended up at the desk of...

"Mavis, my love," Leo seated himself and greeted the empath sitting across from a glass screen with a genuine smile. "Love the hair. Absolutely killing that bun, Mave, killing it. Stop me if you've heard this one, but you know I have to ask. What's your secret?"

The aging witch whose name tag read 'Mavis Agartella' regarded Leo from behind her thick, horn-rimmed glasses through cold, gray eyes that'd seen their last twinkle of joy half a century prior. She looked the same as the last time he'd seen her, the time before that, and so on. She still wore her black, gray-streaked hair in an austere bun, still carried the long, slender pipe smoldering with choice halfling tobacco, and still wore the same dark purple blouse and long black. In her youth, she'd likely been a beauty, but although mages were notorious for aging on their own terms- if at all- the slightly visible wrinkles on Mavis's face betrayed her to the ravages of time.

"Infants," she exhaled a plume of obscuring smoke that buffeted against the glass between them, her drawn-out and gravelly voice a victim of her vice. "Newborns, preferably, but if y'know the right way to prepare 'em, you could probably get away with toddlers in a pinch."

"You don't say? Never would've thought of that."

"Most people don't," Mavis blinked uncaringly. "Put on the ring, state your name, and state your business. An apathetic reminder that 'seeing your smiling face' is not a sufficient response."

"Apathetic? I don't get a friendly reminder?"

"Put on the ring, state your name, and state your business."

Leo clicked his tongue and extended his hand toward the magical ring in question, which Mavis slid under a dropbox built into the desk that transferred it over to his side. He affixed it to his finger, where it tightened and became the perfect fit. Mavis, an empath trained at psychically reading the intentions and emotions of others, would have her abilities boosted by the ring until it left little margin for error. The only step up from there would be outright telepathy, which even the grimwatch couldn't get permission to implement so intrusively.

On top of amplifying her abilities, the ring would also flash certain colors reflecting his emotions as a form of double authentication. On the off chance someone could lie and convince themselves of their lie, the ring helped project the speaker's true feelings under the surface.

"Leo Lowlion, your biggest admirer."

"Some fuckin' admirer," Mavis rasped. "Didn't even bring me cigs."

"Why would I do that, Mave? That stuff'll kill you."

"Don't threaten me with a good time..." At last, her indifferent persona cracked ever so subtly, and a hint of a smile lifted her wrinkly lips before it was ruined when she took another drag from her pipe. "Business?"

"Pleasure, actually."

"Yeah? I'll fuckin' believe it when I see it..." Mavis laughed dryly. "You've been seeing that sweetheart of yours for... what? A year now? All that time, and you've never asked for a single overnight pass..."

Leo suddenly went quiet as he scratched his head, obscuring the ring glowing bright yellow with anxiety. "...I'm here for business. Dropping off some goods Liriene Cardaign requested via a quest she registered with the Guild."

"That's what I thought," the empath nodded in understanding. "That poor fuckin' girl... ah, whatever... you know what you have to do, so let's hurry the fuck along."

"Let's," Leo agreed, suddenly feeling a lot less playful. He presented his badge, his copy of the quest Liri submitted, vastbag, decorative short sword, and the geodes. Mavis took them through the same system she transferred Leo the ring with and dumped everything into a handy magic center plate that authenticated his badge and paperwork while scanning everything else for various threats.

A few seconds passed until a lantern on Mavis's desk spontaneously burned with an indigo flame signaling that the behind-the-scenes diviners had finished their job and foresaw no issues with letting Leo into the grotto. After another long drag of her pipe, Mavis took a small paper card and inserted it into a device that turned the blank sheet into a pass good for the rest of his visit, then slipped it to him along with the rest of his stuff.

"There- now try and have some fun for once in your fuckin' life, yeah? Tell her you're there to give her your package. Works every time."

Leo closed his eyes in flustered frustration and removed the ring as soon as he finished reorganizing himself and his possessions. "Appreciate it, Mave, but if I whip out a banger like that, I might need one of those all-night passes. Maybe next time?"

"Long as there is one," Mavis stamped a couple of forms, pretending to disregard him as he walked away. She only looked back at him after he was gone, shaking her head in dismay. "Girl's not gonna wait forever, dumb brat..." Mavis mumbled upon gazing into the last vestiges of the fading pink light emitted by the ring.

Trying not to think of the old crone he'd left behind, Leo presented his card and was let into the grotto proper.

Regardless of how often he saw it, Grimme's Grotto remained as breathtaking. In contrast to the nigh authoritarian levels of security, the city within a city was bright and alive with wonder. Mages from across Karnalle congregated here, teleporting in from every major city in the realm with access to the warpstone network and giving way to a vibrant community of eccentric individuals.

Leo always kept to the streets in the grotto. If he tried using his typical fancy footwork, there was a high chance he'd catch the attention of the grimwatch, one of the roving security golems, or otherwise activate some other anti-trespassing enchantment he wouldn't notice until it was too late. You never knew what you would get with any of the buildings around here. A home was never just a home- every family dwelling and singular shack doubled as magical sanctums and alchemical labs, and the mages who lived in them were brimming with creativity when it came to hoarding their ominous secrets.

There was also a chance that he might somehow disturb someone in the middle of their work, which Leo wanted to avoid at all costs. He'd personally witnessed multiple buildings explode throughout his previous visits and often passed through many vacant lots caused by some catastrophic failure- spells or experiments gone wrong.

Houses burned down on the regular, although it was just as common for them to be polymorphed into grapefruits, dissolved into sand, transmuted into bubbles, and what have you. Leo was confident that no two buildings in the grotto had ever been constructed or demolished in the same way twice, the unending changes leading to any unfamiliar visitor quickly becoming lost in the maze of magic.

It was good that Leo wasn't an unfamiliar visitor and knew the place well. He was steadily making his way across town, taking in the sights of robed townsfolk talking amongst themselves in hushed whispers as he entered into hidden alleyways and crossed over a small bridge covering a chasm that wasn't there the last time he'd come through.

There was always the towering silhouette of Wiggledorpen's School for the Magically Gifted looming off to the west to guide him.

The formidable structure was a castle in its own right, and while dwarfed by Castle Lundreame to the far northeast, it was still an impressive landmark. However, that wasn't the only thing Wiggledorpen's stood in the shadow of. Liri always told him that Wiggledorpen's is the second greatest magical school in Karnalle- with the first being Mithimere's Magicademy by a wide margin.

Every child in the grotto born with a hint of magic potential was required to go to Wiggledorpen's, but if they showed a high enough aptitude or gained recognition during their schooling, they'd get to go to 'the good school' instead while everyone else got to stay behind and languish in mediocrity.

Relatable.

Eventually, Leo found himself passing by Molligale's Emporium. This sprawling shopping center would've qualified as another major landmark if only for the fact that it wasn't tall enough to compete with all the other strange constructions in the grotto for a place amongst its skyline. Just looking at it made Leo question whether he needed to stop in and pick up some mana crystals. It wasn't just the cheapest place to get them, it was the cheapest place to get many things.

If someone told Leo that the building was enchanted to mess with his sense of time and direction, he'd readily believe them. The inside was a veritable labyrinth of aisles filled with imposing shelves that put the ones back at the Guild's storage room to shame. Each was stacked with all sorts of magical trinkets and supplies. Finding what you want out of the place was almost a quest in and of itself, which Leo assumed was intentional. The more you were exposed to the vast selection of goods on offer and the many deals strategically placed throughout the store, the more you spent.

It always made him feel slimy to buy from there. Liri had explained to Leo just how bad of an influence Molligale's was on the grotto, how it affected countless small businesses- including her own- but... it was so convenient that even she had to shop there sometimes, too. It sucked, but he knew he'd be back eventually. It wasn't like Leo could power his smart-orb by himself.

Leo wasn't far from his destination. His restless mind had quieted down significantly through his walk, and he had a soft smile as he traversed the area. Simply put, he was fond of Grimme's Grotto. Even in a city dominated by multicultural influences from across the realms, the grotto still managed to be the most unique place in all of Imperalis.

You could look around and spot gatherings of like-minded mages occupying side streets together, only to notice that every building on that street was a small clay castle or a tower of sand telling you that you'd found a small collective of geomancers. Then, you'd look at the next street over to see several houses replaced with lush, untamed gardens filled with vibrant and exotic plants that looked so fantastical that they couldn't be real, but there they were. Leo couldn't say whether the overgrowth was someone's ingredient garden or an outbreak of man-eating plants after an experiment gone awry, but that was the charm of it all.

That, and knowing both streets would likely be gone within a month only to be replaced by something equally absurd or fantastic- if not more so.

Take the building right in front of him, for instance, why-

Leo stopped midstride, confused by the sudden, painful pounding in his head. He could've sworn he was looking at a large mansion only a second ago. Yeah. It was squeezed between a single-story wooden cabin to the left and a geodesic dome building with an array of telescopes penetrating through its roof on the right, but... everything went fuzzy when Leo tried to look straight at the lot...

The lot?

Was there a lot? Or maybe-

"Damn it," Leo forced himself away, cradling his forehead.

With some distance between him and the source of his confusion, he knew full well what that was all about. Plenty of buildings in Grimme's Grotto had privacy wards- enchantments that befuddled the mind and psychically repelled intruders- but none were as strong as the one he'd just witnessed.

He'd run into this building several times throughout his many visits, so it was hard to mistake even though he'd never gotten a good look at it. It never popped up in the same place twice, so Leo assumed the building hopped around the grotto somehow as an additional form of protection. How needlessly thorough.

"If you're gonna go to all that effort to hide the damn thing, why even build your stupid fucking wizard mansion in the city, to begin with...?" Leo sighed, bemoaning the scent of entitlement it took to think they had the right to fuck with the heads of anyone passing by. Whoever lived there had to be rich. Probably nobles, most like... seemed like something they would do.

At least the ensuing headache never lasted long, and he was able to go on with his business soon enough.

Leo turned onto a small side street, making his way past a ridiculous-looking magical bakery designed from the exterior to resemble a three-tiered cake- snagging a pair of cupcakes that were offered as free samples by an artificial woman made entirely of frosting as he did, and then made another turn around the corner. After passing a boarded-up apothecary that had recently run out of business and a tailor specializing in fixing and resizing clothes made from magical materials, Leo finally came upon the sight of his last delivery for the day- Crystal Clear.

The shop was a two-story brick building with a flat roof- easily one of the oldest-looking buildings Leo had ever seen in his wanderings of Grimme's Grotto. The once colorful brickwork faded to a more neutral tone, slight cracks working their way into the facade over the years. Despite its evident history, it still looked in good repair and presented a charming, if slightly dated, appearance to any passerby.

Given the shop's wares, Leo always found it ironic Liri never bothered prettying the place up. Maybe she liked the contrast?

The shop took the whole lower floor, with living quarters on the second story. Stepping through the door set off a string of bells that rang in a merry burst, alerting the sole proprietress of the oncoming visitor. Or at least it would've if she was anywhere to be found. Leo looked around and only saw neatly stocked shelves filled with sparkling chroma crystals of every color Leo could imagine and plenty more he couldn't.

These crystals were in the shape of a marble about two inches in diameter. Each was essentially a one-use magic catalyst with a pre-charged spell embedded within that, upon activation, would transfer its given color into another object before disintegrating when the amount was used up. Unlike paint or ordinary dyeing methods, chroma crystals changed their target on a fundamental level so vividly that it's like they'd always been that color, and there were no limitations on what they could be used for.

The creation of chroma crystals was a finicky and fairly advanced combination of magic and alchemy, but Leo wouldn't pretend to know any more about it than that. It had something to do with extracting the 'essence' of color from its source and binding it to the crystal container, at which point you just broke off a piece and pointed it at the target. Though it was all the same to him, Leo understood that if a manufacturer wasn't skilled at the process, the crystals would turn out ruddy, muddied, or dim.

Unlike the selection at Molligale's, you wouldn't find a single imperfect crystal on Liri's shelves.

Leo loved how Liri's crystals shone with vibrant light, the colors saturated and clear. Though dull on the outside, beautiful glimmering hues lit up the inside of her intentionally dimly-lit shop with brilliant rainbows. Only the counter at the back of the showroom had noticeable lighting, an island of normalcy amid the sea of shining gems.

Behind the counter were a bunch of projects the owner was working on. In addition to selling her crystals, Liri made a living by creatively applying them to just about anything, whether it was clothes, children's toys, adventuring equipment, and anything else imaginable.

Despite her absence, Leo wandered up to the counter, where he saw a small stack of illustrated magazines featuring Colosseum fighters in skimpy armor and a couple of scattered adventurer novels published by the Association. One of the magazines was cracked open and left upside down, suggesting she'd just been reading it moments before. On the cover was an illustration of a tanned, spiky-haired blonde girl with a wicked smile as she obliterated a troll's skull with a devastating strike. 'Calamity Strikes! Rising Star Sidney Vail Wins Again!' it read, and Leo couldn't help thinking she looked familiar.

Liri's reading habits weren't his current concern, though. He hit the small service bell on her counter, sending another ringing message to alert her as he announced himself. "Hey, got a delivery here, and it can't wait forever! If you don't hurry up, you'll have to drag your ass over to the nearest kiosk or pick it up tomorrow at the Guild."

Sure enough, that got a response from the owner. Leo heard something heavy being dropped, followed by muffled cursing coming from the back room that only got clearer as the speaker approached.

"Gah- fuckedy fuck that smarts! All the magic in all the realms, and we still don't have shin-deflecting tables...?" A lazy, somewhat high-pitched voice echoed out as Liri hobbled out of the back room, favoring her right leg.

At twenty-one years old, Liriene Cardaign wasn't the sort of person you'd expect to find running their own store.

The five-foot-two, pale-skinned young woman was wearing a comfy, fur-lined magenta hoodie with a twenty-sided die graphic front and center, black hotpants with fur trimmings, and knee-high laced boots. In her arms, she carried a dress that obscured her face until she hung it on a rack beside a dozen others of its like- giving Leo a good look at one of his most favorite faces in the world as she turned to look at him with her undivided attention.

Liri had a round, freckled face with thick eyebrows, a cute button nose, and wide, drooping blue-green eyes covered by a massive pair of round-lensed glasses. Her hair- dark, with the slightest hint of wine- was almost always pulled back in two large pigtails held by a couple of orange scrunchies. It made her forehead look bigger than it actually was, but Leo always thought it was a cute look on her.

She wasn't just your average cute and dorky nerd girl- Liri was the absolute dream version of that type of girl, and she could hold her own against any witch on the orbnet as far as Leo was concerned. It also helped that she had just a hint of plumpness to her stocky frame, though she was always wearing baggy hoodies and sweaters that kept his imagination guessing.

Maybe it was weird of him, but Leo liked Liri's smile more than anything else. She dished them out liberally, especially in his presence, revealing a pair of large buck teeth whenever she did.

In response to her own, Leo grinned unconsciously, unable to keep a straight face as Liri tried to play off her recent injury like it was no big deal. "Hey. Really kept me waiting, didn't you? How's the shin?"

Liri swept back her pigtail and adopted a threatening stance, pulling her fists against her hips and leaning towards Leo from across the counter to give him a stern look. "Totally fine, juuuust fine- but you're, like, the last person I want to hear that from, y'know..."

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

"I'm just saying, coming from the undisputed king of testing my patience..." Liri let her words hang for a moment- long enough for Leo to catch on to the undertones he wished were absent- but her playful sassiness didn't last long before she returned to smiling. "For real, though. Sup? Thought you'd be here a lot sooner, Leo."

Determined not to let the implications bother him, Leo shrugged with mock innocence and took out one of the cupcakes he'd stashed in his bag. "Things happen. Maybe I should've skipped bringing you a snack and saved me some trouble?"

Liri snatched it out of his hand with righteous fury and bit down, staring at him unblinkingly. "Not if you know what's good for you. Bring me enough of Miss Bellatris's treats, and I'll forgive just about anything!"

"Good to know. Anyway, I would've gotten here quicker if I didn't have to sprint all the way to the Odarri Foothills for some unexpected spelunking. I guess next time I could just skip all the hoops-" Leo leaned in across the counter, closing the gap between himself and Liri with an honest-to-goodness teasing grin. "And come straight here... in... stead?"

Shit.

Leo fucked up the delivery. At the end of his statement, he lost his steam and could not follow through with the flirtatious tone he was going for. What would've been a smooth line landed like he was asking a question, and his carefully practiced expression was now filled with doubt.

Liri looked at him silently for a moment before adopting what Leo assumed to be a pitying expression. She was judging him- she had to be. All the temperature-regulating enchantments in the realm couldn't stop Leo from nervously sweating, but the tension was eased when her expression softened, and she regarded him a bit warmer with exasperation.

"Yikes- no good. Four out of ten, speedy. The line itself was pretty cringe- but heck, if I'm not into that. Your delivery, though...? Maaaaybe you should stick to packages."

"Sorry. Maybe I should..." Leo nodded awkwardly, staring at the counter instead of his friend's face. He would've kept doing so if Liri didn't reach out and pat him on the shoulder.

"I think you're almost onto something there, though. More than you think."

"...Yeah?"

"Yeah," Liri smiled but refused to elaborate, asking, "What took you that far from the city, though?"

Leo gave her a funny look, but all she did was tilt her head. "You did? Unless you're saying you don't want these?" He questioned, stacking the three geodes on the counter. "Your quest said you were having a shortage of ingredients again, so..."

Liri's dull eyes sparkled with recognition briefly before she waved a hand dismissively at the delivery. "Oh, right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just leave 'em there, and I'll sort those out later. Thanks again, couldn't do it without you," she coughed. "More importantly, did you finish?"

Thinking little of her odd behavior because he was terminally down bad, Leo yanked another pulpy adventure novel from his vastbag and placed it on the counter. It was the Zane Steel novel before the one he was currently reading- the first in the series. "Only the first one. Can't help thinking you skipped some choice details about the plot before you loaned it to me, though."

"Did I?" Liri gave him a blank stare of false innocence, her big, round glasses really enhancing the act several times over.

Leo continued, "Well when I asked if it was naughty, you said 'a little'..."

"Uh-huh?"

"Maybe it's just me, but I think when a book ends in a six-chapter orgy with half a dozen women, it's more than 'a little' naughty."

"Maybe," Liri held her stare for another long moment before grinning and waggling her brows at him. "You still finished it, though."

Leo's composure was crumpled like paper in the face of Liri's forthright teasing, his face filling with flush. "I always read what you lend me! Besides, the story was pretty good up to that point, and I- well, it's not like the writing was bad or anything-" He trailed off as Liri's grin widened with every word he spoke. One eyebrow crept towards her hairline as if in utter disbelief that Leo wanted to continue digging himself this hole. She hadn't even said anything, and he could already hear her next innuendo.

Sighing, Leo looked off and asked, "Who are these books even for, anyway...?"

"They're for us, Leo. Isn't that obvious?"

"... I'm going to regret asking this-"

"Undoubtedly," Liri prematurely agreed.

"But are you getting at?"

"Oh, nothing. I just think there's a little something we can each relate to in books like these, y'know? On the one hand," Liri pointed at the illustration on the cover of Zane Steel-depicted with far more muscles than Leo had ever seen on a rogue. "You have the hunky himbo adventurer so lusty he can't be satisfied by anything less than several women at the same time..." Then, she pointed at the heroine draped around Zane's leg. "And on the other, you have the lonely girl who loves the idea of said adventurer using her like a tool to satisfy his needs over and over again, drooling with lust knowing her man is such a beast that he needs more than she can provide... fuck, that hits me hard!"

"I... see..." Leo coughed.

"Come on, Leo," Liri leaned closer over the counter again, tilting her leg back most adorably. "I know you liked it, and there's plenty more where that came from. All you have to do is follow me to my room, and I'll show you my rack. Whoops- slip of the tongue, there..." she shrugged, her grin transitioning from smug to flirty. "What I meant to say was my book rack! Silly me."

Leo might've been a serial flirt, but his tolerance was infinitely lower than it was on the orbnet. He turned around, unable to continue facing her and needing a quick moment to catch his composure. "Tease me all you like, but I still don't get why you'd be into that."

"You coming up to my room or the book?" Liri made use of Leo looking away to make a heavily disappointed expression toward him- missing the point as always, he was.

Take the bait already, you dumb, stupid-

"The book," Leo clarified in a hurry.

Sighing, Liri hopped onto the tall swivel seat stool and sat behind the counter, intent on explaining this to him yet again. Maybe if she tried putting it as bluntly as she could get through to him? "I'm saying I enjoy imagining what it would be like to be with a guy with that high of a sex drive, Leo. It's a fetish. Don't know how else to say it, but the idea of my theoretical sex god boyfriend pounding other chicks in front of me gets me going, and these trashy books let me self-insert into the heroine and lose myself in the fantasy. Until I find a nice, strapping adventurer of my own willing to pick me up and carry me off into the bigamist sunset- they're all I got..."

A couple of painfully long moments passed. Leo still hadn't looked back, making Liri wonder if she'd scared him more than she thought she would. "Er, just throwing it out there, but... that last part? Totally optional. I'd settle for a normal sunset, too, hehe..."

Leo's poor brain was still fried. Bad memories flooded his mind- laughter and sneering and mocking disdain. A voice played itself in his head- Liri's voice- but the words belonged to another.

You really thought I was serious?

About you?

Reflexively, Leo honed in on the stupidest possible thing to say in his current situation. "Yeah? Well, it sounds like one of these days you'll make some lucky adventurer very happy."

Liri twitched, slamming one of her heels into the leg of her stool in a tacit display of disappointment. Thankfully, it went unnoticed. "Maybe," She cooed in a teasing voice after calming herself. "Too bad lucky adventurers seem to be in short supply these days, though... but hey, at least I've got you?"

There wasn't any other way to interpret that, was there? Leo wasn't that dense, but he was afraid. Liri's words sent him scrambling for a way out of this conversation.

"Sorry," Leo muttered as he pulled a small box from his vastbag and opened it up, sliding a deck of trading cards onto his palm as he turned to face her with a manufactured grin. "But I'm only lucky when it comes to RealMonster. Are we gonna stand around all night, or are you ready to throw down?"

Liri's smile lost much of its luster, which Leo pretended not to notice. Even if he was wrong about his fears and anxieties, it wasn't like he could just give Liri everything she wanted. She was one of his only friends, and that relationship wasn't worth risking. They'd always flirted, but the way things had escalated these days was bothering him more and more... and yet he always found his way back to Liri, taking her patience for granted as he tried sorting himself out to no avail.

At least she expected this.

Hopping off her stool, Liri rummaged through the counter, and a moment later, she popped back up with a deck of her own. "I'll throw down alright, but... you? Lucky at card games? Now I've heard everything! You better get ready. I've been working on this new deck in secret for weeks now. Your rush-down bullshit ain't gonna cut it tonight, mister."

For two hours, the unbearable sexual tension between them faded into the background as the two enjoyed their games together. With his fashionista dressing style and boyishly handsome appearance, Leo didn't look like your average trading card game player, and before meeting Liri, he wasn't.

The more time they spent together, the more she realized he did almost nothing with his free time beyond pointless quest-grinding and shopping for clothes.

Always searching for a problem to solve, Liri took it upon herself to fill the void with some of her hobbies. It started with the books, then the card games, and lately, she'd been working up to getting him to try out some of her tabletop games- though that one was a harder sell given how paradoxically shy that stupid boy could be. By and large, Leo was malleable and thankful for her effort in getting him to expand his interests, on top of everything else she did for him.

They were just finishing up their twelfth match as Liri went for lethal.

"Okay, sooo... my Lodestone Golem of the End negates the attack of all your Leaper Frogges, and they all get destroyed because Adamant Golem of the Beginning destroys any monster whose attack hits zero. Back here in my spell section, we got Scales of the Stonemason granting bonus attack to all of my golems equal to the number of monsters you lost this turn, meaning I can wipe you out if you don't got anything to stop me-"

"Which I do not," Leo sadly confirmed, tapping at his barren spell and item row.

Liri smiled and adjusted her glasses, signaling her victory with a confident, "Then... boom! That's game." Though she may have intended to look cool, Leo found her cuteness too endearing to be upset. And just like that, the game was over.

Liri enjoyed a victorious win streak, securing eight out of twelve matches with her newly crafted golem deck. This deck was designed to have a robust defensive system, which proved a formidable obstacle against Leo's aggressive deck. Liri's commitment to using any strategy necessary to claim victory was unwavering, even if it meant resorting to tactics that were annoying as all hell to play against.

Leo reclined in the chair she'd brought out for him, letting out a long sigh before gathering his cards and putting them back together. "You were right. What was I thinking? Tonight's just not my night."

"It still could be, you know. You won't know if you don't keep trying!" Liri leaned in a little over the counter and smiled at him, opting for a cute one instead of anything flirty.

"Nah, I think I've had enough..." Leo said after a quick glance at her clock. "It's a little over eight. I should probably get going before it gets too late."

"What's the hurry?" Liri hooped up her cards and shuffled them like she wanted to play more. "You haven't eaten yet, right? I could always whip something up, and after that, we could just keep playing, or chill, or, y'know... whatever...?"

The invitation caused Leo to pause as he was stuffing his deck box back into his vastbag. "...Probably not a good idea. if I hang around, then-"

"Then what, Leo?" Liri asked calmly, though her eyes were anything but. They had a sternness to them that she pulled out whenever he least expected it. "What's the worst that could happen?"

Excuses flooded his mind one after the other. It wouldn't be the end of the world if he stayed in the grotto overnight. He'd just have to pay a fine when he left the next day. The only thing he could say that would've made her understand where he was coming from was the truth- and he wasn't anywhere near courageous enough to tell her that.

"Nothing. It's just not a good time for me right now." He said, standing up and averting his gaze.

Liri didn't say anything back to him at first, and he didn't have the balls to look back at what her face could've told him. The painful silence stretched on and on until, finally, she spoke. =

"It's okay. I understand."

Hard to believe that four words could fill a man with so much doubt, but Leo's heavy heart grew heavier as he lingered at the front door. He felt as if he should've said something back, anything at all, but the only things that came to mind were stupid, and he forced himself to shoot one off.

"It's not you, Liri. It's me."

"I know."

"...I'll see you again soon, though. I promise." Leo exited Crystal Clear without waiting to hear if she even wanted him back.

Had he only looked over his shoulder before he left, he would've seen that Liri wasn't judging, pitying, or looking down on him. Blaming a broken boy for being broken wouldn't solve a thing. Her frustrations were aimed at herself- wishing that after a year of friendship, she'd made more progress on him.

It was all so confusing.

He barely talked about his past, but common sense told her that his upbringing probably wasn't the best- most people she'd met in his position had confirmed as much- but a shitty childhood didn't explain the fear of intimacy he so clearly had.

What made it so frustrating was that he'd obviously didn't want to be shackled by whatever held him back. If he did, he probably wouldn't keep seeing her or trying miserably to occasionally flirt with her.

Liri could fill his time with card games and racy adventure novels, but it hurt that she couldn't fill his heart with the love it so obviously needed.

Slumping over the counter, Liri eventually forced herself to stand up and lock the door behind him. A lot of her good mood went with him, but rather than stewing in her silent sadness, her mind was already working overtime on making things better and progressing forward the next time she saw him. In a trance, Liri collected the three geodes Leo dropped off and carried them into the back room.

In front of her sofa was a shin-high coffee table filled with miscellaneous junk used to craft chroma crystals which she'd never got around to sorting and stashing into her work room. Liri lazily dumped the rocks onto a pile of about ten others and plopped herself down on the couch, face into the cushion to muffle her moan of frustration.

She had to do it.

The only way Liri would ever make any progress was if she stopped relying on playful teasing and outright tell him in no uncertain terms how she felt. It was challenging to think about, as she relied on that strategy so much for a reason... but if that's what it took, that's what it took.

Besides, Liri had plenty of practice exposing herself and her deepest desires- this wouldn't be that different, would it? Probably not, but the thought reminded Liri of something she needed to take care of before moving ahead with any of this.

Now was the time to cut off any distractions, no matter how painful.