always and forever is forever young
your shadow on the pavement, the dark side of the sun

Mallos' quarters were almost unnaturally neat and tidy. They didn't stay that way for long. Grimbaud and her menagerie traipsed mud across the plain, cream-coloured rugs, leaving a trail of dirty paw- and foot-prints. The furnishings in the apartment were simple but elegant, and displayed high quality craftsmanship. The decoration was minimal to non-existent: the walls were bare, the mantelpiece was unadorned, and the coffee table was devoid of any ornaments. The only part of the room which showed any sign that anyone lived here, in fact, was the desk. Two pens were positioned in perfect parallel next to a piece of paper, which had a few notes in Spanish jotted down on it in beautiful handwriting. The bathroom was equally neutral, and looked like a display room in a furniture shop. It was a sizeable, clean room composed primarily of the bathtub, which was large enough for Gisli to bathe in if she so cared to.

“Nymphs are nature spirits,” he explained as he plugged in the bath and turned the taps, causing water to gush through the pipes. “There are nymphs for everything in nature – fire nymphs and tree nymphs and flower nymphs and water nymphs...” as he said each type of nymph, he poked Grim lightly in the stomach. “Then one day fairies came to Shaman, and they started to harness nature. The water nymphs were especially confused by the fairies' habit of taking water into their homes.

“One day a curious water nymph called Aeira got too close to the fairies who came to take the water from her lake, and they dragged her out by accident. The fairies didn't know what to do. They went to throw her into the lake, but Aeira cried out, 'no, stop! I cannot return to the water I have left. You must find me a new body of water'...”

The story, which Mallos was making up on the spot, continued thus. Incapable of telling a tale without acting it out, he swept Grim off her feet and mimed carrying her the long distance back to the castle, where the fairies rushed Aeira inside and threw her into the bathtub. He chose to set Grim back on the ground rather than chuck her into his bath, which was still filling up with water. The story ended with Aeria becoming a bath nymph and dedicating her life to watching over fairy children. Aeria used her magic to make sure that all fairy children who bathed before going to bed would be blessed with good dreams, and other water nymphs, seeing how happy Aeria was, left their ponds and lakes to become bath nymphs too.

By the time the tale was told, the bath was full and Mallos had tested it with his elbow to make sure the temperature was right.

“Alright,” he moved the soap down onto a lower shelf so it was accessible to the young girl. “You jump in and get cleaned up. I'll be right back with some new clothes for you.”

He checked she was alright – rather unnecessarily, since she had a giant cat-thing to help her – before leaving, closing the door to the apartment quietly behind him. Clothes to fit a young, undersized girl... Mallos thought about it for a moment before turning left towards Lord Haig's quarters. Hopefully the old sod and his spoilt daughter were still at dinner.

They were. Haig's daughter had so many glittery outfits that Mallos didn't think she'd miss a few, but he made sure to take the simpler clothes anyway. Even so, they were quality items – made from the finest fabrics and hand-stitched, probably within these very walls. He picked out a couple of dresses on the merits that they were adjustable, so he could shrink them a little to fit Grim, and a pair of soft, pastel blue pyjamas. Mallos still didn't quite get the point of pyjamas, but the rest of the world seemed to like them. Mission accomplished, he headed back to his rooms. The dresses he left to one side, but the pyjamas he paired together with a couple of towels and slung over his left arm. Since nudity never bothered him, he didn't think twice before knocking on the bathroom door and pushing it open.

“Here,” he placed the towels and pyjamas down on the toilet seat. “I'll be out here,” he jerked his head back to indicate the living-study room, “shout if you need me.”


i can feel you in the silence saying, “let forever be,
love, and only love, will set you free.”