Chapter 152: Court in the Square

The square still smelled faintly of sugar and smoke, a leftover perfume from the night’s revelry. Lanterns hung limp from their hooks, their runes dimmed for daylight, and a few straggling stalls had already begun to fold away their wares. The pack moved around the edges like workers clearing a stage after a play, soft-footed, efficient, and a little bleary-eyed.

Orion had not wanted to come. He had told himself as much twice on the walk from the gate, and Tobias had laughed at both refusals.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Orion asked at one point as they continued their walk towrds the festival grounds.

"You smell... odd. Sweet. Like grapes and..." Tobias waved a hand. "Like cake. You don’t have a sweet tooth like Lysander does so, I’m trying to understand why you smell like that."

Orion sniffed the air around Tobias. "And you smell like someone who has issues with his mate. What went on with you and Sam?"

"Apart from the fact that I thought we had something good going on when we were together at the festival grounds?" Tobias asked him. "Nothing. I don’t know why she’s so adamant on making me suffer."

"Perhaps the issue lies with her." Orion told him.

Tobias laughed. "She told me the same and told me to be patient with her yesterday. And I thought that was a good upgrade from the other days right? But then when we bid goodbye, I tried to kiss her and she turned and gave me her cheek."

"So that’s why you didn’t see her off this morning." Orion told him.

Tobias folded his arms like a kid and at that point Orion remembered that Tobias was the youngest in their group and everyone spoiled him a lot even though he was already an adult.

"I was just annoyed. I did watch her though from a corner." Tobias admitted.

"Just give her time. I know I’m not one to give advice on relationships seeing as how my past relationship was..."

"Hideous? Annoying? Stupid?" Tobias supplied.

Orion chuckled. "Yes, all that and more. But like I was saying, just give her some time. At least she’s no longer rejecting you."

"True." Tobias said with a sigh. "Now, are you going to tell me why you smell sweet?"

Orion gave him a smug smile. "No."

"I just told you my story." Tobias called out.

"Because you’re my brother."

"I’m not so sure you consider me your brother." Tobias told him.

Orion laughed at that. "I’ll tell you why but not now. Not until I get to have some conversations."

"Whatever." Tobias said with an eyeroll as they got to the square.

Orion paused when he saw what was happening. The dias he had used the precise night during the festival was still there but there was a table and a chair on it. On the t table, parchments and scrolls were stacked neatly at one end; someone had even placed a small inkwell within reach.

Garret...Ronan’s stand-in assistant...hovered nearby with Daniel, who had already come to the platform and was arranging the list of petitions with the one remaining, careful hand he had.

Daniel’s other sleeve hung empty, the missing limb a memory and a caution both; he moved with patient competence and the sort of authority that came from years of doing the necessary things no one else wanted to do.

Orion’s chest tightened when he saw the row of scrolls. He groaned loudly under his breath. Tobias chuckled at the sound.

Daniel had been the one to assist Orion when he had first become alpha and when he was younger, showing Orion the ropes and Orion groaned at what he saw now. Why couldn’t they just let him be?

He turned immediately, trying to escape but Daniel’s loud voice stopped him and Orion remembered the man using that same voice in him when he was younger and tried to escape work.

"Don’t you dare step out of the square," Daniel called without looking up, his voice more amused than stern.

Orion turned to the man and offered his best puppy dog look. Daniel did not flinch. "That look does not work on me," he said dryly. "You’ve used it on me too many times. Sit, Orion."

Orion sighed deeply as he climbed up the dias, sitting in the chair. He moved like someone who had lost all hope in life but it didn’t work on Daniel who turned to Garrett.

"You, Garfield..."

"It’s Garrett, sir." Garrett corrected.

"Yes. Garfield." Daniel said and Orion knew Daniel was doing this on purpose. Garrett tried to correct Daniel again but Tobias placed a hand on his shoulder and shook his head telling him it was a wrong idea.

"Pay attention." Daniel told Garrett.

From this height Orion could see a good portion of the square, the little knots of people, the children clutching pastry crumbs, the people at the edges. It was the sort of vantage that told a leader more than any scroll; faces told you truth in a way ink never could.

Daniel passed the first bundle of petitions to Garret and leaned close. "You’ll read the summary, and I’ll hand you the details if you need them. Speak plainly."

Garret nodded so hard his jaw clenched. He had Ronan’s practical shoulders and a boyish eagerness tempered by Daniel’s patience. Orion liked him.

Garret nodded again and Daniel gave him a look before speaking. "One more thing, Garfield, I’ll tell you this now, the hardest part of this job isn’t the work itself."

"What is it then?" Garrett asked him.

"It’s the person you will be working with." Daniel said pointedly at Orion.

Orion just stared innocently like he had no idea what Daniel was talking aboout.

Daniel turned to the crowd. "We’ll hear one issue at a time. Respect the order." He tapped the scrolls with his good hand. "Start."

The first three were exactly as Daniel had predicted: a pair of neighbors bickering about where one man’s fence stopped and the other’s root bed began; a woman claiming her apprentice had been paid late; a boy demanding that a dog stolen in the night be returned. Each petitioner came forward, the summary read aloud by Garret: two lines, a short explanation, the proposed remedy. Orion listened and pronounced small, practical resolutions a shared digging day for the roots, a warning for the careless apprentice, a brokered fine and promise for the youth whose dog had been taken. The crowd muttered, nodded, and dispersed with surprising good humor. The square kept breathing.

It was light work and for all the performance Orion put up about running away, he fit in immediately, paying attention to his people’s complaints and even joking with them.

But even so, throughout those first petitions, he felt a gentle tug at the edge of his awareness, the soft, impossible tug that had become his new compass. He kept glancing toward the back of the square and finding it filled with silhouettes: women’s shawls, a child on a mother’s shoulders, an old man leaning on a cane. He searched for her shape and caught, a flash that might be her the curve of a shoulder, the flip of dark hair.

When his eyes landed and lingered, the form stepped back into shadow as if pulled by a thread. Sophia’s presence had a way of being both obvious and impossible to hold onto. It was like she was avoiding him but he wasn’t sure. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

Orion didn’t say anything though, he was quiet as he observed her moving through the crowds. He would know later if she was really avoiding him and if she was, then it wouldn’t be for long.