In the main room, Alaster was eating his warm bread with butter and eggs. As he took a bite, he could feel every flavor overflowing and expanding through his senses, his smell and taste acting in a perfect symphony of flavors.
These elven senses are truly incredible, he thought, marveled. I can feel every single detail of the taste of the bread, the butter, and the bacon. Yesterday's cold food seemed delicious to me, but this is an absolute delight. I can't believe it's just bread and butter, such a simple meal.
Alaster closed his eyes with every bite as if he had never eaten in his life, his senses opening for the first time to a spectrum of flavors hitherto unknown... a pity it ended so quickly.
The elf could now see every detail of the steam rising from the hot tea in front of him. The scent of the herbs and the slightest hint of sugar fused in his nose, contrasting with the aftertaste of the butter that still lingered in his mouth.
This is a true experience, the elf thought, drinking his tea deliberately slow.
He got up from the chair and walked over to a couch, sitting down to look outside. In a way, he felt like a prisoner, but there was no helping it; he was a mage without spells, at level 1, and with a legendary attribute that would likely get him into trouble, so staying locked inside was necessary.
He took the last sips of his tea, leaving some residue at the bottom, and leaned back against the gray sofa.
The girl... he thought, remembering the pretty cinnamon-tan face with those gray eyes. I can't just doze off until noon, that's way too lazy. I'll go see if she still needs help. After all, I still have a lot to learn about this world; maybe I'll learn something.
He stood up suddenly from the sofa with more force than he expected, straightening up so fast that he felt the rush of air in his ears. He stumbled forward but quickly regained his balance.
"Ufff, I almost wiped out," he said, feeling his boots firm on the floor.
He didn't notice the stares from some of the girls at their tables watching him. A few who hadn't noticed him until that moment nudged their companions.
"Hey... Hey! Lina! Look!"
Lina turned to look at her friend, showing the face of a woman already in her mid-thirties; a maturity that, far from dulling her, suited her wonderfully with well-maintained curves and a feline gaze.
"What...?" she said in a bored tone, used to her friend's sudden outbursts.
She followed her friend's stunned gaze and there, twelve meters away, she saw the reason her rib had almost been fractured.
A man, she thought, but then she detailed him further. An elf. He is... magical.
The image of the elf trying to regain his balance was unreal. Her friend, a woman with a generous bust and her brown hair elegantly tied up, let out a low whistle.
"I hope he's here tomorrow because I plan on coming back."
"Are you going to talk to him?" Lina asked in surprise.
"Obviously not, I don't want to go through the embarrassment of getting insulted by a frigid elf. Girls who confess to elves never end up well."
Lina thought, That's true. Her aunt had done it, and after telling an elf from the glyph tower a whole speech about how thrilled she was to meet him and how long she had wanted to talk to him, the elf merely told her that if she had nothing else to say, she should leave the tower.
"You're right, it's madness," Lina said.
Alaster passed through a small counter gate where he usually saw Barnaby and his wife, but no one was there; Marly was among the few occupied tables. He then crossed the threshold of a back door that led into a hallway.
The first open door he saw was the kitchen; there was Jinneth, kneading what looked like dough for bread just like the one he had just eaten. Alaster cleared his throat.
"Ahem, ahem!"
Jinneth, noticing the elf, turned around and smiled, illuminating Alaster's vision with her innocent grin.
"Alaster! I wasn't expecting you so soon!"
You took forever, honestly, I thought you wouldn't come, the girl thought to herself.
"I fell asleep after breakfast," he said with an apologetic smile.
"Ahhh, I see. And how was your breakfast?"
"Magnificent," he replied.
"That's great!" Jinneth said.
He liked what I made! she celebrated with a low squeal of excitement in her mind.
"Come, help me with the firewood, please. Oh, wait... look," the girl said, pulling a peach from a wicker basket that was totally not prepared beforehand. Alaster approached to look at it. "Is it fruit?"
"Yes," she said. "It's my favorite! Do you want to try it too?"
Alaster wondered how it would taste with his new elven senses.
"Y... yes, I'd like to, but aren't you in a hurry for the wood?" he asked, pointing a hand at the lower firewood rack, which now held only a few logs.
The girl looked at the rack with a bit of a backache; she had strained herself a little emptying it at top speed...
"It doesn't matter, I still have a long way to go before baking the bread. Come, taste," she said, cutting the peach in half down to the pit and then twisting both halves, separating the seed from the sweet pulp.
The aroma flooded Alaster's sharp senses while the pretty girl used her hands—with nails painted pink—to separate two bite-sized pieces, cutting with the knife and showcasing great skill. She approached Alaster and offered him one while she ate one herself.
The girl's smiling face and her appearance of sheer innocence caused the elf to drop all his guards. Despite seeing her figure in a blouse that didn't cover her waist or belly button, and the fact that she wore a somewhat tight, above-the-knee skirt—which made her tan highlight the freshness of her bare skin—to him, she was just a kind girl.
Alaster opened his mouth, receiving the piece of peach from Jinneth's well-groomed hand. She felt something soft against her finger when the elf's lip brushed it, a gentle touch. The girl froze for a second.
The taste of the peach was perfectly sweet, something she already knew; that fruit was no coincidence, it was the best she could get, extremely sweet and deliciously scented. It certainly wasn't her favorite by mere chance.
Alaster felt the scent of the peach assault his senses; it was sweet and filled his mouth with waves of juice. He leaned against the counter where the girl had been kneading and closed his eyes, enjoying the flavor with evident pleasure.
"Ummm... mmmm..."
His breath felt heavy with the fruit's aroma; it was quite a spectacle for his senses. By opening his mouth slightly, he was able to release the rest of the sweetness that was becoming almost invasive, while the girl stood beside him less than a meter away, watching his expressions of pleasure with rapt interest. The elf's closed eyes, his perfect profile... imagining the taste of the fruit if she could steal it from his lips.
She looked at Alaster with half-closed eyes, unconsciously biting her lower lip, taking a step toward the elf, feeling her heart race...
Alaster opened his eyes and found the girl smiling.
"It's really good!" the girl said. "Do you want more?"
He smiled. "Sure."
He closed his eyes as soon as he saw the girl's intention to give him more. It would be rude to tell her to put it in his hand... How could he reject such a pretty and kind face?
This time Jinneth felt the elf's teeth lightly graze her finger and his lips close over two of them with some of the fruit's warmth and moisture. The girl let out a sigh; it was an ideal situation, just the two of them alone, enjoying the fruit... I'm hot, she thought, but the real heat was in her chest.
"Al, do you have a favorite fruit?" she asked.
Alaster heard that silky voice with his eyes closed. "I think sweet grapes."
"Ohhh, those are very delicious, but they are hard to get around here, it's a shame. But I can get them, I have a friend in the southeastern fields."
Alaster opened his eyes. The girl was staring at him in a way he couldn't quite identify. It was an intense look, her eyes tender and large; the light gray of her irises and the copper of her hair, alongside her tan skin, gave her an appearance as exotic as the very fruit he had just eaten.
"Now the firewood, right?" Alaster said to fill the silence.
"Firewood?" the girl said, tilting her head. "Ah, yes! The firewood for the bread!" she said, turning to look in another direction.
"Yeees..." Alaster said, exaggerating the gesture.
Alaster was about to roll up his sleeves when the girl placed a hand on his arm.
"Maybe you should take it off, unless you want to get it full of splinters and kitchen soot."
Alaster paralyzed for a moment, but then he realized he had no other choices. Seems obvious, he thought. Good thing the girl isn't as scatterbrained as I am.
Jinneth leaned against the counter, feeling her black, high-heeled ankle boots slip a little, and settled in to watch with total comfort.
He lifted his shirt, exposing his entire abdomen and firm chest; the musculature had perfectly symmetrical shapes. His abs descended along with Jinneth's sanity down to the lowest area, where the last lower abs formed a near-perfect 'V' that pointed sinfully toward the elf's masculinity, covered by those tight, low-rise trousers that gave him a daring look.
"Where is the firewood?"
The girl, looking at his abdomen with a smile, said without missing a beat:
"In the storehouse, outside to the right at the end of this hallway. It looks like a barn."
She watched him leave, taking in every single detail, and when he was out of sight, she ducked behind the counter, silently screaming with excitement. Finally, when she calmed down, she stood up and decided it would be weird if she didn't move forward with the bread.
This is like a date, she thought, but with firewood... focus Jinneth, now is not the time to lose your head, coincidences don't happen on their own... you are already mentally prepared! she told herself as she kneaded the bread with effort.
Alaster returned in a minute carrying a few logs of firewood and placing them on the rack. After a few trips and a few discreet glances from Jinneth, Alaster finished.
"That's it," he said, looking at the overflowing rack and enough firewood outside for the oven.
"Good," she said, wiping dough off her hands. "Now let's put some wood inside and then light it."
Both worked side by side until Alaster noticed that the girl's ponytail, which she had put on to keep her hair away from the fire and soot, was coming loose.
"You're going to ruin your hair," Alaster said. "Let me fix it up a bit for you."
She nodded, until she realized some strands were stuck to her forehead with sweat.
"Wait, I'm sweating, let me do it."
"It's just a little water," he said.
While the elf was fixing her hair, Marly entered the kitchen with a tray of cups. When she saw her daughter with the elf fixing her hair, she first looked at her with wide eyes; then she simply smiled with complicity, set the tray down, and left the way she came without making a sound.
You are the best mom in the world, Jinneth thought.
"Done," Alaster said. "You look beautiful, like a professional baker."
She was stunned by the flattering words.
"Th... thank you," she said.
The elf just smiled at her and continued, while she took a deep breath. Alaster's words gave her courage; it was now or never. She stood up straight.
"A... Alaster, I want to... tell you that... I-I like you."
She waited a second with her eyes closed, and she had kept them that way almost the entire time. Six seconds later, her heart was beating a thousand miles an hour. She opened her eyes and Alaster was somewhat far away, holding a larger pile of firewood that was collapsing.
"Ah? Did you say something? It's just that this whole pile came down on me..."
Jinneth's face fell for a second. "No," she said, resigned.
She approached the wood inside the oven and said, "[Ignite]."
A tiny flame sparked on her finger. Alaster looked at her with wide eyes.
"Is that magic?" he asked with a trembling voice.
"Yes," she said with a dull face.
"Can you tell me how you did it?"
She looked at him curiously. "It's easy," she said. "Just say [Ignite]."
Whoosh! The flame burst from her finger just like that. Alaster looked at her with a crooked smile.
"[Ignite]," he said, but nothing. His right index finger showed nothing. Alaster looked at the girl. "It's not working."
Then she placed two fingers on her cheek, thoughtful. Her appearance was adorable to Alaster.
"Maybe you aren't channeling mana?"
"Channeling?" Alaster asked.
"Yes," she said. "When you channel mana to the tip of your finger, it naturally creates the flame when you visualize it and say the chant. To channel it, you first have to feel it... you're an elf, so it should be easy," she said with a bit of a moody tone.
Alaster closed his eyes and tried to feel the mana. More than fifteen minutes and a batch of bread later, he hadn't felt anything. Then Jinneth sighed.
"I can help you feel it like Mom did with me, but..." She blushed. "I need to touch you directly."
"YES!" he said. "Where?"
The girl felt better hearing the elf's quick and excited response, thinking that maybe the rejection wasn't so strong after all and that he truly hadn't heard her previous confession. In deed, he hadn't heard anything, and she only believed he had ignored her on purpose.
Alaster, who was shirtless, stepped close to her and took her hands.
"Thank you," he said with a wide smile, looking into her eyes.
She blushed deeply. "Where? On the abdomen," she said.
She placed her hands, feeling the elf's perfect muscles. She channeled her own mana to move Alaster's, feeling every smooth part of him as her fingers slid lower looking for his meridian, stopping right at the base of his manhood, where she finally found it.
Alaster felt the contact close to that area, but even though the sensation was becoming pleasant and strong, he ignored it, focused. Suddenly he felt something: a vibrating heat in a low place that spread through his pelvis.
"I feel something!" he said. "Now what?"
She said, "Now try it."
She withdrew her hands and Alaster, with his finger extended, said, "[Ignite]."
From his finger, to which a vibrating current rushed from below his belly button, a torrent of fire erupted. But this wasn't a tiny flame; it was a deluge.
"Interrupt the flow!" Jinneth shouted.
Alaster cut off the fire by stopping the mana supply. "What happened?"
"You put too much mana into it. Even if you create a small flame by visualizing it, a large amount of mana can make it grow massively."
Alaster smiled excitedly. "Show me more!"
She smiled. "First, let's go somewhere more comfortable," she said, pulling bread out of the oven.
They spent the rest of the morning talking about spells and practicing. She would lean close and tell him about her life; Alaster quickly grew accustomed to her touch and her jokes.
When Arya arrived around 1:04 PM, she found both of them settled on a large couch in the common room. Jinneth was sitting upright, while Alaster was completely lying down along the length of the sofa, comfortably stretching his legs out and using her soft lap as a pillow for his head.
They had connected; Alaster's need to be heard blended perfectly with hers, as she was usually ignored by her parents who dismissed her as a chatterbox. Arya approached, thinking that three of the things she hated most had come together: a talkative girl, a foolish elf, and mushy couples. She overheard a fragment of the conversation.
The girl's face was covered in tears.
"And she did that to you... waaa! And then your job... waaa, waaa! How could that happen to you... where is that glyph tower you used to work at?"
Alaster looked up from her lap, staring into the girl's gray eyes, which were filled with falling tears. She had told him about her first boyfriend and how he left the city when he thought she was pregnant, and how she thought she would die; he told her about his own misfortune, though editing out the details of Earth. But the girl had cried more over his misfortunes than he had himself.
"It's in the past now, but if it were me... I... I would die of grief and never trust anyone again."
Alaster looked away, resting his head back down against her thighs.
"Yeah, well, it takes time to heal, but in the end, it's just understanding that you can't blame the world for a few people you chose poorly."
The girl froze upon hearing those words. He sounded like her... like her after Visius.
"Not everyone is like that."
"I know," he said.
Alaster closed his eyes, entirely focused on thinking about how magic would become his greatest power.
Seeing him so relaxed beneath her, Jinneth began to lean down over his face, her heart hammering against her ribs as she closed the distance, fully intending to press her lips against his. But just as she hovered inches away from a kiss, Arya's voice interrupted the moment.
Alaster opened his eyes and looked at her with estrangement, as if he didn't recognize the elf, and Jinneth looked up at her with pure anger for the interruption. Though a second later, the human girl felt a wave of relief, thinking she had been dangerously close to doing something incredibly impulsive. He didn't know and was completely off guard; that could have gone very wrong.
"Ready to see the Guildmaster?"
Alaster sat up from her lap, lifting his upper body off the couch. "Yes," he said with a serious face.
"Alright, let's go."
When Alaster was about to step out, Jinneth called out, "Al!"
"Yes?" he shouted from the door.
"Bring something sweet!" she shouted, adding in a low voice, "Like your mouth..." She blushed as she pulled her legs up onto the couch where he had just been resting.
"Will do!" he said, laughing.