Total pages in book: 142
Estimated words: 134898 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 674(@200wpm)___ 540(@250wpm)___ 450(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 134898 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 674(@200wpm)___ 540(@250wpm)___ 450(@300wpm)
It’s always going to be an uphill battle to get respect, but I’m lucky that I have a big, protective, growly Taurian at my side who demands that everyone treat me equally.
“It sounds to me like dinner is on Master Jay’s coin,” Raptor declares, pulling me from my musing.
“Absolutely,” Jay says, beaming at us. “My treat. I know just the place.”
Arrod groans. “I bet it involves onions.”
“It does,” Jay replies. “Let’s get you lot in the Book of Names so we can properly celebrate.”
My stomach quivers with excitement. There’s a crowd by the guild chronicler and the Book of Names, and a priestess of Asteria, who’s blessing each artificer as they record their new moniker. Rooster stands nearby, puffed up with importance and in his finest clothing, but it doesn’t bother me today. It seems appropriate, in a strange way, that he should bluster and shake hands as if he’s a king passing out knighthoods. It feels like we’ve earned it.
Raptor notices my nervousness and nuzzles my neck again, and then gives me a not-so-subtle nudge toward the line of people. I step in behind Arrod, waiting for my turn, my nerves fluttering. By the time the feather pen is handed to me, I’m so nervous I want to vomit, and my forehead is beading with sweat.
The guild chronicler gives me that gentle smile, the same one he did last night when I’d first lobbed my name out there. “Will you sign the book, Artificer?”
Artificer. Me.
Satisfaction surges through me, chasing away my nerves. I lift my chin, nod, and take the feather quill from him. Painstakingly, I cross out my old name and write my new one in the Book of Names. It’s symbolic, of course, of the end of our old lives and the beginning of our new ones. I’m in a daze as I set the quill down. The priestess blesses me. Rooster shakes my hand. Someone else does, too, but I don’t know who they are. Then I turn and my mate is there. My big, pale Taurian with a look of such intense pride on his face as he gazes down at me.
Gods, I love him so much.
“Artificer,” he greets me formally as I move back toward him. “It’s done now.”
“I can’t believe it. Two years, and now I really am an artificer.” I press my hand to my belly, as if clutching the corset under my clothing will somehow shore up my suddenly weak knees. “What…what happens now?”
“Well, now we go and have dinner and drinks with Jay,” Raptor tells me, putting his familiar, heavy arm over my shoulders. He tucks me in against his side, and it’s like I’ve always belonged there. “Tomorrow we put in for housing. We meet with our Five and decide if we want to stay together as a Five or hire out as artificers-on-standby until we can get a permanent Five.”
Right. I know that. “We’ll stick together. We all work well as a team.”
“Aye, I don’t think anyone’s in a hurry to peel off. Not when you’ve got such a skill with dowsing.” He says the word in a low voice, his dry tone full of amusement. We’ve been covering up my mancing as me being “skilled” with dowsing if anyone asks.
“So that’s it?” I ask.
“That’s it,” my Taurian agrees, gazing down at me as if he could devour me whole. “Now we get to work, my pretty little Starling.”
I like my name quite a bit when he says it like that.