[This rp icly takes place on July 23rd 2023]

"Athene coat."

"You know, I’m really not sixteen anymore" Athene said, his quiet voice amused as he glanced up at his cousin from the park bench where the two of them had agreed to meet.

He fished out the thermal socks, gloves and winter coat from the carrier bag that he’d brought along readily enough though and removed his boats so as to slip the socks on "I just wanted to wait until last minute" he admitted "It’s a bit warm to be traipsing around dressed for mid Winter, even if it’s evening."

"Welcome to my life" Iðavöllr huffed back, although her brown eyes were amused. "I bought take out by the way." It sat in the fold-flat insulated bag that she had picked up in the hopes that it would keep it mostly warm because her cousin had mentioned that he was in the middle of working on a custom order for the shop when she (or rather Saffron) had floated the idea of the two them meeting up for another trip to her Wonder and she was pretty sure that he’d opted for picking on some of the baked goods that generally tended to be around rather than having an actual meal–

Truthfully she was a little surprised that he had even picked up the phone, because she knew how her cousin could get when he was caught up in a project, but she’d wanted him to come along so she certainly wasn’t going to question it.

And she may have deliberately arrived a little later than the agreed on time just in case and used the time to go and pick up the aforementioned take out, although she wasn’t about to admit to it and Athene was nice enough that he probably wouldn’t call her on it.

As it happened Athene had been a little late, so he’d been a bit surprised to have gotten there first, but it made sense given that his cousin had taken it upon herself to pick up take out.

"I bought some cookies from a batch that I baked yesterday and some tea, although it may be a bit lukewarm," he said quietly as he donned the gloves and winter coat. He paused for a moment and then admitted "I bought some hot chocolate, but it’s probably about as warm as the tea."

Iðavöllr nodded as she took in his gear "Did you pack a scarf?"

Athene gave her a look "No. I didn’t bring a hat either - but I’m sure that I’ll live and…"

Iðavöllr lips curved up in a wry smile "I’m nagging I know" her smile turned teasing "But you’re still my cute little cousin so I’m allowed big cousin privileges." She waited until Athene disappeared the empty carrier bag, presumably to his subspace, and picked up a rucksack before holding out a hand "Shall we?"

She waited for him to take it before taking the two of them to Iðavöllr, glad for the gloves that she had taken the opportunity to slip on herself as the warmth of the Destiny City summer evening was replaced with the familiar cold of her Wonder.

She seemed to find herself in the outer gardens these days and this time was no different, even if it was a far cry from the snow covered trees that lay further out, that she and Liryn had trudged through on that first visit–

Well at least she had trudged, it had seemed better to carry to small mauvian despite his protestations of being able to walk.

Liryn.

It had been a while since the small mauvian had come along on a visit to her Wonder and Iðavöllr made a note to extend an invite to her furry friend soon–

Well mostly furry, because for all that he was mostly a cat, Liryn did have another form as she had found out when the two of them had helped on Erytheia - well okay make that Liryn had helped and Iðavöllr had done her best to help.

Her eyes fell on the maristela flower gardens as she ushered Athene towards the entrance to the Hall, and despite best intentions Iðavöllr found her feet lingering somewhat, because she found working on the flowers relaxing–

And because the flowers were looking good.

Perhaps not amazingly good, well okay she had been to the Chelsea flower show in the UK and her gardening efforts were nowhere near on that level - so most definitely not amazingly good - but the gardens at least looked a little tidier.

At least to her most definitely unexpert eye.

"The gardens are looking good" Athene said quietly as he amicably followed his cousin towards the entrance to the Hall.

He wasn’t saying it just to make words either, because whilst (admittedly) he wasn’t a gardener, the flowers really did look like they were being looked after.

He smiled at Iðavöllr as he walked, because this.. This was nice–

And whilst he’d never wanted his cousin to be caught up in powered life the way he was, Athene had to admit that a part of him was glad that he didn’t have to lie to her anymore.

In truth he hated the lying that came with powered life, hated the fact that he’d had to come up with reasons for injuries that he’d managed to rack up over the years, but he’d done it, because he hadn’t wanted those close to him dragged into it either–

And whilst he understood the need for it, and the reasons why he had to be so very careful, it had led to him damaging the relationship between him and his cousin and had likely been the final nail in the coffin in the relationship that he (or rather Arian) had had with Anxo.

Athene shook his head slightly, because whilst his choices meant that the split with Anxo was inevitable, the split itself had been amicable enough.

"So where is it that we’re actually headed?" he asked, and whilst it was more to distract himself from the way that his thoughts had been heading, he was also genuinely curious.

"I thought that I could show you the library this time around" Iðavöllr said, as she led her cousin down the same corridor as the one that they’d walked along last time around "Hence me wanting you to make sure to wrap up warmly."

In truth she’d dithered about maybe seeing if she (or rather they) could try and see if the key that she had gotten in trade from Almadel unlocked anywhere, but she had been considering showing Athene the archive library last time she’d been here and there was no time like present–

And it was true that she could also do with an extra set of hands to help her sort through books, but Iðavöllr figured that she could wait to share that particular ulterior motive until after her cousin had seen the library.

She stopped in the room where the two of them had stopped to share tea last time around so as to set down the insulated bag and waited for Athene to set down his stuff in turn before leading them down the branch of the corridor that led to the library.

It wasn’t a long walk, the library in truth not that far from the room where they had set down their stuff, and Iðavöllr paused by the doors leading in for a moment before pushing them open "And here we are."

Athene was not sure what he’d been expecting from the archive library–

But this..? This was not it.

His cousin hadn’t been joking when she said that the library was something that would probably be in one of those big houses - like the ones that were part of the National Trust back in the UK.

There were a lot of books, stretching over what appeared to be three levels and a couple of places that looked like they may have once been seating areas.

The real gem was the ceiling however and the stained glass ceiling–

Or to be more accurate the remnants of it, since it turned out that Iðavöllr hadn’t been joking when she said that there was a hole in the ceiling.

It was similar in style to one that had been in the meditation chamber that the two of them had uncovered and there was enough of it for Athene to be pretty sure that in its heyday it was something that was likely pretty striking given that what was there was plenty pretty.

Iðavöllr couldn’t help but laugh at the stunned expression on her cousin’s face "It’s really something, isn’t it" she said quietly as she stepped past him and into the library proper. "I would have liked to see the stained glass back when it’s whole," she added as he nodded in agreement.

She hesitated for a moment. "Although now’s the point where I probably confess that I had an ulterior motive for inviting you to the library."

Athene raised an eyebrow, his quiet voice amused "Oh?"

Iðavöllr nodded "I’ve been trying to sort through the books" she admitted "I’ve been stacking the salvageable ones in that room where we had tea" she gestured to a pile of books in a corner "And I’ve putting the ones that are too ruined to salvage over there."

Her lips quirked up in a wry smile "But I could do with another pair of hands to help." Her smile turned teasing "And I did bring along a bribe" she pulled out a small bag of cookies from her subspace as she admitted "I did a bit of baking yesterday too."

And she hadn’t thought that her cousin would mind being roped into helping her, it had still been something of a relief when he had laughed quietly and then agreed.

Whilst Athene hadn’t expected that his evening would be taken up with sorting through books, it wasn’t something that he had truly minded.

Iðavöllr had suggested picking a section at random and so he had opted for picking a section on the first floor and started sorting through the books–

Most of the books in the section that he’d picked had turned out to be ones for the unsalvageable pile, at least of the ones that he’d sorted through so far - but there were a lot of books and it felt like he had barely made a dent by the time that his cousin had messaged to suggest that they take a break.

He brought with him a couple of the books that he’d found himself leafing through, and whilst as with the others they had been in written in a language that he could not understand, there had been some pretty illustrations of flowers that had looked similar to the ones in the outer gardens that Athene thought that Iðavöllr might like.

One cup of lukewarm hot chocolate on his part and a couple of cups of tea on Iðavöllr’s part and then they were back at it in their respective sections.

It had made for long work, and he had quickly seen why his cousin had wanted another set of hands.

From time to time, he found himself pausing to carefully leaf through some of the books, although none of them had been written in any language that he could understand.

There had been a couple of books with pictures of flowers that reminded him a little of the maristela flowers in the outer gardens and a third book with pictures of various plants that had been in good enough condition to add on to the salvageable pile and then after another bunch of books for the unsalvageable pile there had been a book with an colourful cover that had also been added to the salvageable pile, but even with the two of them it seemed clear that this wasn’t a job that the two of them were going to get through in a single evening.

For her part Iðavöllr had continued working on the books that she’d been working on previously, although she’d messaged Athene earlier to suggest that they take a quick tea break, something of a necessity as her cousin had opted to work on a section on the first level up and Iðavöllr hadn’t particularly wanted to yell back and forth.

She had ended up having two cups of somewhat tepid tea to Athene’s one cup of hot chocolate and Athene had shown her some pictures from one of the books that he’d managed to salvage that she had agreed looked similar to the maristela flowers in the outer gardens.

Both of them had spent time after, adding to the stacks of salvaged books on the other side of the room, before trudging back by mutual consent to sort through books anew.

It was an easy task to get lost in, especially with Athene and herself working in different parts and Iðavöllr wasn’t sure how long she’d been at it when she found the scroll–

Or perhaps it was more accurate to say that said scroll bounced off the top of her head after she reached up to pull a couple of books down and ended up dislodging something that had been wedged on top.

She reached out absently to pick it up, only for Athene’s hand to reach down and touch it first.

Whilst Athene had returned to the section that he’d been working on, pretty much all of the books that he’d sorted through recently had ended up being destined for the unsalvageable pile.

Given that he still had a bunch from previously, it had seemed like a good time to break and drop them off, so he had gathered up as many as could be safely carried and hopped down a floor.

He had had to pass by his cousin to reach the unsalvageable pile, but she had been busy sorting through her own set of books and Athene hadn’t wanted to risk freeing up a hand (or perhaps more accurately trying to free up a hand) in order to wave - not when doing so might lead to him dropping all the books that he was currently carrying, so he had walked past her to drop them off and stack them as neatly as he could before walking back in her direction–

He’d been in time to see a scroll bounce off the top of her head, and fluttered downwards to settle between them.

Athene reached down absently to pick it up for her at the same time as Iðavöllr reached down, but he was just that little bit faster and it was his hand that landed on the parchment–

Only for his eyes to widen slightly and his hand to jerk in shock at the sensation of warmth that flooded through him.

And he wasn’t sure how long he crouched there, eyes wide and startled from beneath his glasses, but by the time that he came back to himself the scroll was gone and Iðavöllr was frowning down on him in concern.

They’d ended up back in the room where they’d stopped for a hot drink and to stack the books they had salvaged earlier and he’d ended up drinking more the lukewarm hot chocolate whilst Iðavöllr hovered in anxiety, even whilst Athene had tried to insist that he was fine.

Taken by surprise yes, but still nonetheless fine. Although he had realised that it was perhaps not the best time to mention that he’d had far worse in his time.

Whilst it didn’t seem like the scroll that Athene had touched had had an adverse effect - well at least not that she could see - Iðavöllr had still thought it best for the two of them to call it a night for the day–

Even if her cousin had tried to insist that he was fine.

But with no real idea of just what had happened Iðavöllr hadn’t wanted to take any chances - especially given that Athene had had to admit that he’d had no real idea of what had happened.

He hadn’t pushed too hard though and she’d been glad when he’d agreed to stay over - at least for tonight - and had even laughed when she’d told him that they could reheat the takeout since by now it was likely as cold as the hot drinks–

Even with the insulated bag.

For his part, Athene knew that whilst he felt just fine and that it was more that he had been taken by surprise by the scroll, he was also aware that there were things that he’d have to unpack at some point.

In addition to the sensation of warmth, he thought that he had felt.. Had felt his magic respond, almost as if something about the scroll had called to it.

However the sensation had been so brief that Athene wasn’t sure if he had just imagined the whole thing–

But as he and Iðavöllr disappeared from his cousin’s Wonder, he acknowledged that it was something that he was going to have to puzzle over later and something that he was perhaps going to have to ask Liryn about.

Preferably sooner rather than later.

-- 2880 words total --
Iðavöllr -- 1378 words
Athene -- 1502 words