Page 72 of Fated or Knot

He started asking questions rapidly. “Do you have trouble flying? Do they get cold quicker than you do when you’re outside? Do they soak through quickly in the rain?”

I nodded along.

“Were they once a different?—”

“Dad,” Kauz interrupted, giving him a little nudge.

“Right, right. I just don’t get to study pixies very often.” Thalas straightened. “Well, there’s got to be a speck of dust on you somewhere. If you would stand for a moment, please.”

I eased to my feet and left Kauz’s cloak behind on the chair, immediately shivering. The observatory wasn’t as cold as outside, but it was drafty. I was covered in chill bumps under my long-sleeved blouse.

The males stood behind me with magnifying glasses, inspecting my wings while I tried not to flutter them anxiously. They were deep in discussion over something they didn’t want me to understand while they looked. Thalas repeated “need one” more than once as they moved to my sides and looked at the front of my wings instead.

“Ah-ha,” Thalas said. “I see a scale. Get me the…” He made a pinching motion with his fingers.

“Where?” Kauz asked.

“Ach, boy. Over there.”

Kauz went over to the table to start looking. “When’s the last time you organized this part of the workshop?”

“I know where everything is. Organizing only ruins it,” Thalas answered.

Kauz rolled his eyes and returned with a pair of tweezers.

“This may sting, Lark. The scale is in a sensitive spot.” He pulled it free before he was even done explaining, catching me by surprise when the pinch came from the tender inner curve of my lower wing.

I whined, and Kauz growled, showing his teeth for a moment. Thalas glanced around me. “Did that come from you?” he laughed.

Kauz drew his brow in. “Is this the last test?”

“It should be before we view… Let’s call itthe item. And look how pretty this is.” He showed Kauz the scale and tilted it toward the overhead essence lamp. I lifted my head to look at it too, butall I saw was a faint shimmer of gray before he placed it on a metal disc.

I sat and bundled myself in the cloak again, watching them pour over the magical reading. Thalas wrote and wrote, soon setting aside a page to start fresh with the next. A magical formula covered the bottom half of the first page, full of unfamiliar symbols and mathematical equations. He spoke to himself all the while.

“It seems the item has ninety percent, while she has ten,” he was muttering to Kauz, who had his pointed ears perked. “Give or take a margin of error of less than point one percent. She’s holding this many units right now. To keep her stable, we want her at about fifty percent, and that’s an easy enough equation…”

“I’ll donate,” Kauz murmured back.

Thalas hummed and handed over the same leather strap and wooden stick he’d tested me with. Kauz noted down his own results on a separate sheet of paper.

“What in the stars required so much magic, boy?” Thalas grumbled. “You have just enough.”

“She can have it all, as far as I’m concerned…”

Thalas glanced over at me, lips twisted with worry. “Be right back,” he announced.

After he launched himself off the balcony to circle around to a different part of the workshop with a few flaps, Kauz came around the table to take my hand between both of his. I looked up at him, hopeful he’d give me some kind of answer for what was going on.

“We’re going to fix a problem you didn’t know you had,” he said, picking his words with care. “It’s related to your foot, and it’s going to hurt. But you will feel a lot better once it’s done.”

“My lame foot?” I asked, more confused than soothed by this explanation.

“You’re going to understand so much better once it’s done. And youhaveto do it.” He squeezed my hand between his for emphasis.

“I trust you.” Though my voice shook with nerves as I spoke.

His expression softened. “What’d I do to earn such a sweet mate?” He let go of my hand to cup my face. I leaned up to meet his lips, sighing happily even from a tender, controlled kiss. His father could be returning any moment, after all.

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