Chapter 22 - Luka-round

Kiava used the tele crystal to call Archeus Volen. It was answered by Luka, who was excited to get the call. 

"Miss Kiava you sound so much better!" 

"Thank you, I feel less like death now too," Kiava agreed, "I was hoping to speak with the Archmage, is he available?" 

"Meh, probably. Is your shop all set up? Where is it?" 

Kiava laughed. "Yes, I'm pretty much all set, that is actually why I am calling your brother. He loaned me a book and we were to discuss it when I had finished and I have. I also have a favor to ask of him." 

"Great, when is good for you?" 

"Well, I am much more free than your brother at this interval in my business, so I was going to find out when would be a convenient time for him." 

"See you this afternoon, we'll bring snacks," and the call disconnected. 

That was one way to answer when he was available, she supposed. Kiava suspected that poor Luka was going to be bored to tears by what the favor was. 

Luka was leaning against Arheus' study door with a smirk he felt was wise to not see. Especially when he was, in fact, very busy. He was studying the notebook provided by Miss Kiava as well as the books that her notes had directed him to. 

"So, I just got a call," she began after a few minutes of him ignoring her. "It was from someone I met at the Temple." 

Archeus sighed and continued to work. 

"She's opening a workshop, you see, and she was wondering if my great and powerful brother could do her a favor," she wheedled in a voice of high cheer. 

The mage's eyebrows went up at his sister's words and he spun to her, putting his chin in his hand. "What happened, Luka?" 

"Your savior just called asking for your help. I said we'd be there this afternoon, and bring snacks." 

He grinned at his younger sibling - look at her, even giving him an excuse to leave. He could say his sister accepted the invitation before he could intervene. Would Perrin accept it? Of course not, but he would unconsciously be a bit more lenient in his following rebuke. 

"Wonderful! Tell the cook to get some food ready to take with us. Order the cakes and tea you think are best!" He wouldn't even let himself be annoyed that Luka had invited herself. 

Luka gave him a thumbs up before leaving the room and Archeus organized some of the questions he had that the Artificer might have answers to in regards to subjugation magic, all the time excited to finally be able to have his shop talk with his savior. 

Luka studied the building from the street. "She doesn't have any signage." 

"Maybe she is waiting to be all set before she buys it?"  her brother offered with a shrug. "Or maybe they are making it?" 

"Hmm." Luka hummed and walked through the doors, looking up at the bell that tingled cheerily above her. There was an imbuement on it but she couldn't see it well enough to know what it did. She turned to the rest of the shop and gasped. 

All the shelves were full of items that were so varied that someone could almost mistake it for a clutter shop. The only thing that differentiated it was glistening spells that shone out of every single thing in the shop. 

Every item had a placard in front of it that stated the item's effect and the shop seemed to be separated by the complexity of the imbuement. In the back corner was a literal arsenal of mundane and magnificent items that had been imbued with Kiava's Full Wards. The section practically glowed with magic to her sensitive eyes, but she could not clearly see the spells in use. 

"What kind of magics are imbued in these?' she asked her brother who had been very quiet since they entered. 

He was looking around with an expression similar to what Luka herself wore when she found a particularly good dessert shop - delighted enthusiasm. He had obviously not heard her at all. 

"My Full Wards are geared mostly against theft and physical harm, but they also guard against all types of magic that I know defenses for, except entropy. Those will have to be Single Wards as they need a fair amount of power," a gentle lilting voice answered as Kiava walked into the room from the back. "Sorry, I was in the garden and didn't hear the bell. I'll have to fix that." 

Luka smiled at the older woman, happy to see her looking healthy after the perilous condition she had been in before. She was extremely pretty and Luka decided that even if her brother botched it Kiava would be her friend. 

On the subject of botching it, Archeus was looking a bit steamrolled. Her brother had confided that he found Kiava rather pretty and Luka had been a bit worried. Did her brother's tastes lean towards the necrophilic? 

She was confident now that he had just been inclined to find her pretty and so had not seen how ill she was, a healthy girl is much prettier than one that was terrified and near death. He thought she looked better now too. Luka was honestly relieved, her brother was unpredictable after all. 

"You look much better Miss Kiava! Thanks for letting me tag along!" Luka was aware that she was erratic as well, and hoped that the Artificer was the type that wouldn't point out that she had not, in fact, asked Luka to come. 

"Of course, it's great to see you again, Miss Volen," Kiava welcomed her warmly. "What do you think of my shop?" 

"It's nice, but where are all your prices?" 

"Ah, as I am new to the city I was uncertain where I should set them, so I contacted the Artificery Office and they will send an Assessor tomorrow to help me meet market standards for what I am offering." 

"Makes sense, you're going to be popular - the jewelry warding against being drugged and attacked will sell the best, I think." 

"Kleid said the same thing about my cleaning charm handkerchiefs," Kiava agreed easily. "I hope you both are right." 

"Ah, thank you for inviting me over, Miss Kiava," Archeus said, finally collecting himself. 

Luka was beginning to wonder if her brother had ever had a crush before. 

"Of course, thank you for being able to come so quickly. I wanted to ask you to test some imbuements if it isn't too much trouble. I have the garden all set up for the tests and afternoon tea." 

"Can I look around while you guys work?" Luka asked hopefully, seeing that her brother was primed for some dense expert talk. 

"Of course, feel free to look around the downstairs," Kiava allowed with a nod. 

"Thanks a bunch! Have fun working!" she encouraged as they left the front of the store. 

She started off by looking at some of the merchandise more closely. She had briefly studied Alchemy before, but decided that if she needed to learn one more formula she would set the entire Library on fire.

She knew enough to see that most of the reagents had not been made by a high achieving Alchemist. If any of the Artificers she knew in the capital could do half of what Kiava had managed, Luka would be surprised and doubtful. 

Pretty and talented, it was really very lucky the older woman had saved her idiot brother's life. Humming, she went through the back door and into a kitchen/dining area. 

Luka began to snoop through everything cheerfully. Miss Kiava was well supplied with fresh and dry goods, but not too much for a single person. There was barely any cutlery or tableware in the house though, and it seemed like she had just enough to host a party of three. Actually, now that she looked around, it did not seem like Miss Kiava had enough space in the shop at all. 

Luka tried to imagine Silas, Archeus, Perrin, and Theon all sitting at the dining room table with the pretty gray-haired woman and winced at how cramped the image made her feel. She glanced out into the garden where Archeus and Kiava were deeply enmeshed in conversation as they knelt over a long garden table. 

So that was where the other woman meant to host visitors - not in the building at all. Suddenly a spell burst from her brother before slamming into something in front of him that Luka couldn't see.

"It worked!" his voice reverberated through the glass. He continued talking, but she couldn't hear it.

It was good that the reason for calling them over wasn't in vain, it would put a real damper on teatime if they were trying to figure out why it hadn't worked. Luka turned away and opened the other doorway downstairs, pouting when it led to a staircase. 

Thus thwarted from further snooping she went back to the front to shop for items she wanted to buy when the store officially opened. It was thrilling to do it right now because she knew enough about Artificery to understand that Miss Kiava was very good, but not familiar enough to understand what that would mean monetarily. 

Was she spending an imaginary fortune right now? Only time would tell. 

She was just coming back to the Full Ward corner when Miss Kiava poked her head into the room again with an apologetic smile. 

"Sorry about making you wait so long, your brother and I finished talking shop. He's setting up the desserts now if you would like to go join him while I get the tea things," she suggested.

"Great, that didn't take nearly as long as I thought it would," Luka confided with a laugh and a shrug as she followed Kiava into the kitchen and went out the back doors. 

… 

Deep. Calming. Breaths. Kleid had told her he was worried about her lack of experience with men and Kiava was starting to understand where he was coming from. Lord Volen had been nothing but polite and interesting for the duration of the visit after he briefly apologized about the end of their last meeting. 

He was very intelligent and learned and they had ended up talking very close to one another. The mage smelled like cedar and cinnamon. She noticed how his red eyes had glimmered with enthusiasm during their conversation and that since she had greeted him he had not looked away from her. 

That seemed abnormal and she suspected that she was committing some enormous faux pas for people in the capital and he was horrified at her behavior. Why else would he be staring? It was all proving to be very distracting so she had forced herself to focus on what they were talking about and her favor. 

She had hoped that tea with Luka present would help her feel less self-conscious. Her hopes had been utterly dashed. Luka gushed about her work, which was gratifying but it felt like too much. 

Lord Volen had joined in his sister's enthusiasm. He had asked a lot of questions about her purse and luggage before; Kiava had never had someone so quickly understand her explanations before and suspected that was another reason she was suddenly feeling overwhelmed by the company. 

They were good company though - outside the staring nothing about their behavior had been off. Kiava made plans to invite Luka over for tea again as they seemed to have similar tastes in desserts.

She did not think she would invite Lord Archeus Volen for a while though. Hopefully next time they met he wouldn't stare at her. 

"Was I staring?" he asked several minutes after they had left the workshop. His sister just turned to him with such a look of frustration that he found himself avoiding her gaze. "I was surprised." 

"What surprised you, brother?" She threw up her hands. "Honestly, she looked like she wanted to run away!" 

"She looked so much better," he muttered, fully aware of how idiotic his argument was. "Right, I'll do better next time." 

"If there is one. If I were her I'd avoid you," his sister snorted without an ounce of sympathy. 

Archeus winced and clutched his chest in marginally exaggerated pain. "I'll have to apologize to my savior, again," he sighed deeply and looked up at the sky. "I promise Geroit to be more self-reflective." 

"Ha! You should give that oath to Feron if you want a chance," Luka snapped back jeeringly. 

Archeus winced again and grabbed her hand before teleporting them both home to his mansion near Perrin's estate in the capital. "Do you really think I botched it that badly?" 

"Not irredeemably, and honestly I didn't help as much as I could have. She seemed overwhelmed by our undivided attention, but my interest was much less… intense, than yours. You have to remember how good looking you are, you idiot," Luka explained her perspective with a remorseful grin. "She's just so much more clever than the women you tend to be interested in - you usually go for the frivolous type." 

Arches opened his mouth to argue and then closed it when he remembered that all of his flings had ended for some ridiculous reason. His last one ended when she sent him a letter from the docks explaining that she had been offered a dancer's job with a troupe and was leaving. 

It came as a shock to Archeus because she had been introduced as a journeyman Alchemist and he had no idea that she danced - she always said she didn't like the exercise. She had wished him well, at least. 

"Right," he sighed, "I'll cool my heels a bit and then we can invite her for tea here. I expect Silas will be pursuing lunch with her soon, so it will be better if I step back for a bit." 

Luka was smiling. "So, do all of you like her?" 

"I don't know. Silas and I do for sure, Theon finds her interesting but he's always been harder to read when it comes to romance, and Perrin is… well, Perrin." Archeus knew that Perrin had romances, but his friend had never introduced the ladies or even talked about them to a degree that the other three suspected he had arrangements with the women, and that it was not about affection at all. He was not about to tell his teenage sister that. 

"Ah, yeah, I heard he was having a thing with Madam Usweiya last," his sister said lightly and he winced - she already knew Perrin's habits. "Well, if he has any taste," Luka shrugged, "it would be best if you all ended up with the same wife, otherwise there will be conflict of interest." 

Archeus just shook his head. He didn't disagree, but so far they hadn't met someone they felt right in pursuing ardently. Speculating now would just raise expectations. "Maybe we should both cool our heels."