Page 36 of The Lost Art of Seducing a Mage Warrior

And then Perian caught sight of the last book that Molun had signed out.

“‘Unnecessarily long and extremely boring book that Brannal made me take out,’” he read. In the spot that was reserved for date of return, he’d scrawled in tiny script, “I’ll be keeping this sucker forever because it’s so boring I’ll never get through it but that shouldn’t matter because I can’t imagine anyone else ever wanting to read it”.

Brannal sighed. “Molun’s is the examplenotto follow.”

“Uh huh.”

“You said you were well-behaved in the library,” Brannal reminded him.

“I absolutely am,” Perian agreed, moving over to the window embrasure and jumping up to see if his books were still there. “Yes! Nobody found them.”

Brannal sounded long-suffering. “I don’t know why I even bother.”

With his armful of books, Perian turned back to Brannal with his most engaging smile. “I am going to sign out these books just like I’m supposed to.”

Brannal rolled his eyes. “I am daily delighted that you and Molun can’t set things on fire.”

Perian raised an eyebrow. “You know, your amazing ability to ‘poof’ fire into existence with no more than a thought notwithstanding, the rest of humanity is actually able to produce flame as well.”

Brannal made a face. “That came out wrong.”

Perian gave in and grinned as he set the books down by the catalog. “No, I know exactly what you mean. I should definitely not be someone who can manifest fireballs with a thought.”

Shaking his head but still looking amused, Brannal said, “Try not to get into too much trouble today.”

“Hey,” Perian protested, “I was totally not in trouble yesterday!”

“I’m not making any assumptions about your current behavior based on your past behavior. This is a pure wish that you not get into any trouble today.”

Perian laughed, tugged the man closer by his sword belt, and kissed him. It was meant to be entirely chaste but got a bit too involved. Reluctantly, he pulled back before he could find out if there was more they could do in the library.

“Have a wonderful day.”

Brannal looked a little bit dazed as he said, “You too,” and headed on his way, leaving Perian feeling rather proud of himself. Before he could get distracted, he carefully signed out the handful of books. He wouldn’t put it past Brannal to come and check if Perian had done it, solely with the intention of being able to tease him if he’d failed. Once that was done, Perian triumphantly carried the books back to Brannal’s rooms.

The rooms were very nice, but they weren’t nearly as enjoyable when Brannal wasn’t in them. After Perian had carefully tucked the books on a corner of the bookshelf where they would probably be consumed by the rest of Brannal’s books and then never be heard from again—and then Perian would have to go tear the page out of the lending catalog and pretend it had never happened—he stared around the room and tried to figure out what to do. After the mostly successful day yesterday, he thought he probably shouldn’t bother the Mage Warriors in training this early. Then he caught sight of the bed, and that was when he remembered his promise to Renny to bring her a blanket.

Thatwas when Perian realized this was actually a harder promise to deliver on than he’d anticipated. He had no problem carrying a blanket through the entire castle, but he couldn’t very well take the blanket off Brannal’s bed, plan to sit on the ground, and then just bring it back and return it to the bed.

Perian hadn’t brought any of his own blankets because he’d known the inn would provide them. He couldsendfor one of his blankets, but that would certainly not produce a blanket for him to give to Renny today. He could gobuya blanket, but that wouldn’t be quick, either. Of course, hewasa guest of the castle. He could probably ask for a blanket… somehow.

Perian weighed his options and then decided to start with trying to find the person he knew was good with clothes and could probably get him a blanket as well. Perian was entirely confident that Nisal had skills. This led him back to the Mage Warrior training after all, where Perian found that they were in seated lessons. He would totally have sneaked away again when he saw they were busy, but Molun spotted him first. So then Perian interrupted the entire class after all, because it would have taken him longer and surely been more annoying to explain that he’d interrupted them but wasn’t going to say why.

“So sorry to bother you. I was really hoping to talk to Nisal, if they’re available.”

It turned out Nisal was working with the doctor, and before Perian could protest that it really wasn’t that important, and he could definitely wait, one of the novices had been dispatched to retrieve them. Molun seemed like the sort who would welcome random interruptions, actually, so it wasn’t all that surprising he was aiding and abetting Perian.

A few minutes later, the novice was slipping back into the lecture, Perian was waving goodbye to the class, and Nisal was looking at him curiously.

“I’m so sorry,” Perian told them. “I was just wondering where you were, and before I knew it, Molun was retrieving you. I didn’t mean to interrupt.”

“It’s no problem,” they told him, looking at him curiously. “How can I help?”

“Well, it sounds totally ridiculous now, especially when weighed against you helping a doctor, but I, uh, need a blanket.”

They just kept staring at him for a long, blank moment, and then their face split into a wide smile.

“You need ablanket?”

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