Look! More pointless romanctic fluff between Ana and Gavin!
Okay, this scene is random and will likely never make it into any of the novels, but it does portray Gavin's character fairly well.
This little bit makes me giggle like a manic school girl! It's ridiculously ridiculous! Yay!
Yeah, I know. I'm still sick and drugged up. I can finally get away with being silly and girly. Sssssshhh! You never read that!
***
A good portion of magic was mathematics. Especially alchemy. Being more science than magic it certainly required above average mathematical abilities.
But Gavin had never really considered that. He’d always liked numbers. They were simple, easy to use, and required only fact, not feeling. Alchemical theories and laws were really the only truths he could count on. Keleo had no reason to tamper with the scholastic facts in his mind so his only true memories were long lists of numbers and signs. And of course, because it was the only thing he could know for certain, he translated these facts into situations that would otherwise require emotion.
Which was why he was currently reciting all one hundred and fifteen alchemical signs used in spells pertaining to distress to an obvious upset Ana.
He’d discovered her curled in a corner of the library, his library actually, sniffling softly. Upon asking her what the problem was and finding she couldn’t speak due to her distress, he sat down beside her and waited for her sobs to abate.
There was a very uncomfortable silence during which Gavin came to a new fact: Ana’s distress was not a good thing and something must be done about it. After all, she was the future queen and history made it awfully clear that angry or distressed queens were not capable of properly ruling their kingdoms.
So he dredged up the random bits of “emotion lessons” Elwood had been imparting to him and came to the conclusion that whenever a woman cried, she was to be comforted—the word had been suitably referenced in the dictionary for further enlightenment—by having someone’s arms around her as that someone whispered something to cease her tears.
In theory it worked fairly easily. Step by step like an spell or a formula. In real life however, it wasn’t so simple. He had started out correctly. He moved a bit closer and placed his arms around her trembling shoulders, pulling her nearer to him until her head hit his chest and her tears began to soak his shirt. But the only thing Gavin knew that could cease distress was a list of Alchemic potions that pertained to distress. So he began softly reciting them. And unfortunately, it wasn’t working. She was still making his shirt damp.
“Queen Ana,” he finally said a bit louder. “I have recited all the potions concerning distress that I know of. Why are you still crying?”
Ana wiggled in his grasp to look up at him. “Why did it take you so long to ask?”
Gavin blinked. “I was supposed to ask?”
“Yes, you dolt!”
“I was informed that imparting comforting words was one of the steps to lessen your distress.”
She blinked up at him and simply stared for a very long moment and then, suddenly, she laughed as she wiped the tears from her cheeks. “Thank you for trying, Gavin.”
“Would you still like me to ask you why you were crying?”
“No, it’s alright. I feel a lot better now. Thank you.”
So he let her go and watched her smile up at him. And people said the numbers he studied were complex. He was inclined to begin telling them that women and emotions were far more complicated than any four page discourse concerning an advanced theoretical potion could ever be.
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