Page 5 of Icy Heart, Empty Chest
“To what do I owe this visit, little nymph?” She took the coffee warily, turning it to see the ingredients on the side.
“I remember what you like,” I answered. She took a sip and nodded, focusing her startlingly light blue eyes on me. To say that Filla didn’t suffer fools easily was an understatement. Despite the gift of time, her patience waxed and waned like the moon cycles.
“You didn’t answer my question, young one.”
“No. It can’t be enough to want to visit?” Flattery works with most people. I’ll see how far I get. With my track record with her, likely not far. Too glacial.
“I tend not to have many social visitors. People usually want something.”
“That’s a shame. This place is fascinating.” Corrus, who was still perched on my head, abruptly took off, taking several dark hairs with him. I glared at his retreating feathers.
She raised an eyebrow at me, now rubbing my head.
“I won’t ask again, young one.” There was an air of lethality that I would be an idiot to ignore.
“Alright, alright! I had a few questions and possibly a business deal to broker.” Corrus landed back beside my hand, preening. “I will get to those as long as you keep him off my hair.”
She chuckled slightly.
“He hasn’t seen nymph hair since your mother. I’m sure you’re told often how similar you look.”
I nodded. It had come up but not for years, since her death.
“So, to start, I’d love to see if I could dispel a rumor floating around.”
Her unamused face turned toward me and Corrus took flight again.
“What rumor?”
I winced internally. Bad choice of words. Rumor had the wrong connotation.
“I’ve been told that you have a kelpie heart around here. A live, fresh-out-of-body one.”
I pushed my cup away from me slightly and set my arms on the table, fingers enfolded. I was aiming for an air of being nonplussed.
“And who told you that?” she asked in a similar frosty tone.
“Doesn’t really matter now, does it? It got to me somehow. We don’t have a large town, Filla. You’ve got a leak somewhere.” I kept neutral. Let’s see what I can extract from this. I looked at my chipping nail polish, frowning.
“Hmm. You have a point and I thank you for bringing it to my attention.”
“You’re quite welcome. I tend not to sit on information for long, which made this particular rumor so tantalizing,” I said. “So, Filla, is there a heart?”
She shrugged. “Even if there is, what of it to you? What good would it be to a low-level thief?”
I brushed off the insult and tried to keep my face calm. “This low-level thief has a potential buyer.”
Filla put down the coffee cup, staring, and cocked her head to the side. “I’m sure you won’t be dissuaded by the fact that this heart, which does exist, by the way, doesn’t belong to me. It belongs to the original owner.”
“Filla, can we stop dancing around? If you have it and performed the dekartios spell on the owner, that’s a list of rules longer than my arm that you tossed to the side. I doubt you would have done it without sufficient...collateral, shall we say.”
Many things in the magical world were highly regulated.
“It would be quite nasty indeed to be in violation of magical law concerning healing, organs, protected species, and such,” she scoffed, with a glimmer in her eye. “No one could pin it on me.”
I smiled and sat back in my chair. “With respect, you’re the only one in the county they could pin it on.”
Her cold eyes narrowed. “In what way?”
