Time passed peacefully at the library, despite Hireth and Illius’ paranoia. Twig checked in on them every few days, and whenever they got low on food, Kaz brought them more. Hireth was about to start on dinner one day, when Eric objected. “You’re always cooking. Let us do that.”
For a moment, she looked at him skeptically, then shrugged. “You make a valid point. Don’t burn anything down. Actually, I’ll just stay here and make sure you don’t.”
“Oh, go read some more questionable romance.” Eric waved his hand at her. “We’ll be fine.”
Illius wasn’t sure how he’d gotten roped into this, but he didn’t question it. Hireth, however, took a seat in the kitchen to watch what they were doing.
Eric looked at her for a second and then ran upstairs, only to return a minute later with a piece of paper. He gave it to his aunt. “Here. Go solve sexism.”
“Mmm.” Hireth took the paper and headed for her bedroom.
“Finally. Now. Any ideas what to make with all this?” Eric asked, pulling stuff from the pantry.
Illius looked through everything quickly, “I can make some kind of spiced noodles. If you want meat, you’re cooking that part, though.”
“I’ll just help you.”
“Where are the knives?”
“I got it.” A shimmering, blue knife coalesced from mist, and Eric caught it midair. Illius watched the watery-blue blade flash as he chopped up carrots.
“When did you learn weapon materialization?” Illius asked.
“I’ve been playing around with it a bit. So far, it’s still pretty simple—knives and staffs are okay.”
“That’s awesome.” Illius reached out to touch the top of the knife. The magic instantly dissolved, and Eric looked up at him, cracking a grin.
“You just had to break it.”
Illius sighed. “Maybe I’m related to Hireth.”
“Pretty sure neither of us are.”
He nodded his assent.
Eric created another knife and continued chopping while Illius got a bowl of water going for the noodles and started pulling spices from the cabinet. When Eric finished chopping up the veggies, he handed them to Illius, who transferred them to a skillet. Even as Eric worked around him, Illius was so aware of his presence. Eric bumped into him, and their elbows touched; their knuckles brushed as he transferred the peppers into his pot. Why is it so fucking noticeable?
“Smells good.” Eric said after a moment, hopping up on the counter.
“Thanks.” Illius’ ears burned with the tiniest tint of pink. He washed his hands and stirred the vegetables. Yes, it was a bad idea, but he walked over to Eric. “My mom always put me on the counter when she cooked. I remember being tiny enough to fit under the top cabinets. She always said I was the secret ingredient.”
“I would agree with that.” Eric started counting off on his fingers. “Unique, very secretive, looks delicious to eat.”
“I’m… not edible.” Illius managed to get out. He didn’t move, his face dangerously close to Eric’s. What the hell am I doing?
“Parts of you are,” Eric whispered, his breath tickling Illius’ ear.
“I think I solved it!” Hireth burst through the doorway, then stared at the scene before her. “I thought you were cooking?”
“I am!” Illius could feel the heat from his face as he jumped away from Eric and dutifully stirred the vegetables.
“Well, something’s smoking in here.”
“What?” Illius started checking pans. Nothing seemed to be burning.
Eric hopped off the counter and walked over to Hireth, who had a subtle grin on her face. “Was that your attempt at humor?”
“I thought it was funny.” Her lips turned up even more. “And I really do prefer my food unburned.”
Eric sighed. “So, what did you solve?”
“Sexism.” She held up her paper.
Eric took it, looked at the scribbles all over it, and then looked on the back before flipping it to the front again, “What is this?”
“I’m going to build a giant rune around the whole country, power it with like fifty to a thousand mages, and turn everyone into a woman.”
Illius, still cooking, just shook his head.
“Uh-huh.” Eric turned her paper on its side. “That still doesn’t explain this catastrophe.”
“That’s the country! It’s a map!”
“Right.” He handed it back to her. “And, thank you very much, I like being a dude.”
“Yeah, but you wouldn’t oppress women so much if you were one.”
“I don’t oppress women to begin with,” he objected.
“Well, if you did.”
Eric sighed. “Not to mention that this kinda means everyone dies out in a generation.”
“We’ll go out with a bang,” she said.
“Who let you become a witch?” he wondered.
“No one let me do anything.” She crumpled up the paper and threw it at him. “They all highly advised against it, and I did it anyway.”
“Yeah, that adds up.”
She slumped. “The truth is, I have no idea what I’m doing. But… I’ll tell you a secret, no one else does either.”
“Not sure if that’s a good thing, but you’re certainly mysterious,” Eric agreed.
“No, that’s not what I meant,” Hireth said. “I meant that no one really knows what they’re doing. And for some reason, that’s a small comfort.”
“It wasn’t a very fair task to give you anyway,” Illius said as he turned around, hoping his emotions were sufficiently buried. “Solving sexism on just a single piece of paper.”
She spoke softly. “In all honesty, it’ll probably never go completely away, but it’s sort of like an asymptote.”
“An ass what?” Eric asked.
“Asymptote, pervert.” She glared at him. “It’s a mathematical concept of a line that goes on to infinity, and when it reaches infinity, it reaches its goal—but since we can’t define infinity, it never reaches it.”
“Then what’s the point?” Eric looked offended. “That seems like such a stupid concept!”
“Well, technically it’s a connection of points, because it’s an arc.” She smirked.
“I hate you right now.” Eric shook his head.
She sighed. “The point is, you get close but never reach it.”
“Yeah, and that’s a stupid idea.”
“But if you never try, you never get close.”
“I knew I hated math for a reason.” Eric sank down in a chair. “Stupid mathematical ass. How do you even know about this?”
“I went to school?”
“A magical school, I thought?”
“Oh.” She scratched the back of her neck. “You know that magic has a mathematical base, right? I mean, I know you do—I’ve seen you scribbling away at theories. I had advanced mathematics before I was even out of secondary education.”
“What a nerd,” Eric said.
“You could give me a competition for the title… nephew nerd.”
“Auntie,” Eric retorted.
“Nerd.”
“Auntie.”
“Nerd.”
“Dinner’s ready,” Illius announced, pulling his vegetables off the stove and carrying the pot over to the counter.
“This looks really good,” Hireth remarked.
“It’s not much.” Illius tried to brush it off, but her praise made him grin.
“So, Eric watched while you made all the food?” Hireth asked Illius.
“I offered commentary.” He smirked at Illius.
“Just eat your food.” Illius shoved a bowl at him, not thinking about his comment. Anything but that. The noodles look delicious. The noodles. But… did Eric mean what he said?
