“Well, are you going to tell me why you’ve been avoiding me?” Shissa demanded.

Erethiel set his book down and shifted in his armchair. This was going to be awkward, he might as well get physically comfortable first.

Shissa waited a moment, but then continued, unrelenting. “Look, I know we’re stuck with each other now. That doesn’t mean that you get to relegate our lives to an utterly dull existence, day in and day out.”

Erethiel sighed.

“I need more than this. I feel like I’m either suffocating or shriveling into a dried husk,” the nymph said, turning towards him with a glare. “Don’t look at me that way.”

Erethiel raised his eyebrows and shifted his gaze towards the fire crackling in the fireplace. The room was nice enough for the coin it cost, a suitable place to call home for the time being. Two beds lay on either side of a large window, curtains drawn for the night. A writing desk and a nearby bookshelf spilling over with recent finds. An ornate rug and two armchairs arranged before the fireplace, a decanter of wine on a side table, an idyllic painting of the Sellen River hanging above the mantel.

They had been here for almost three months. Maybe it has been too long, Erethiel thought. His research into ley lines and their possible connections with the Night of the Glowing Sky had initially proven fruitful, but now his leads were becoming fewer and the bright flares of discovery farther and farther between. The knowledge he could glean from this city was drying up.

Shissa leaned forward and placed both of her hands onto the armrests to either side of him, forcing him to look up. Her black hair spilled past her shoulder, the dancing light of the fire filtering between the strands. She looked intently into his eyes.

“We need more.”