Page 10 of Triadic

"I'm mad at Wren!" he exclaimed, slinging a hand out to the side and pulling in front of me so we both stopped on the path. "He just left us! The gods called him, and he didn't even take a moment to talk it over with us, to see if there was some kind of future we could still have together. And now some 'Ulysses the Tall'"—his pronunciation of the name clearly indicating how fake he found it—"just swooped in, and Wren willingly allowed himself to be swept up by another man!"

I knew his anger wasn't directed at me, but still, his shouting made my heart race and threatened to send my consciousness out of my body to escape. I nodded because Iunderstood him and in fact agreed with him. Marit waited as I pushed through my body's reaction and calmed enough to find my words.

"I too have struggled with those letters," I conceded. "The fact that Wren is in another relationship now—with so fast a turnaround from our long relationship together—proves that his new path doesn't require him to be solitary or celibate."

Marit nodded, then turned on the path and tromped away. I followed, eventually coming up beside him. Indeed, we couldn't afford to stop for long, or we'd lose any heat we'd generated from moving.

"We'll need to talk to him," I suggested to Marit's confirming nod, "hear his side of things. One thing I suspect might have been going on in his thinking was that you and I wanted to stay at Diana—"

"I would have left the monastery in an instant to follow him," Marit protested.

"I know,mein Liebling," I told my beloved, "but Wren would not want that. Even if he wanted us to choose that path for him, he would never ask us to. He would think such a request would be pulling us off our life paths in order to follow him. He wouldn't want us to relinquish our endeavors in order to simply serve as assistants to his path, his tagalongs, like children."

Marit remained silent, clearly thinking over what I'd said. I continued, having just a little bit more I wanted toadd.

"In truth, while figuring out your vocation would be harder in terms of getting work as a scholar or tutor or librarian," I said, "I have long since completed training as a medic and can leave at any time, though I would hesitate if it meant we'd never be allowed to come back."

"The monastery's tendency to kick us all out is so stupid," Marit said forcefully. "While the local economy is doing all right, it makes sense to encourage young monks to reenter society and make their way in the world, but for people like us to not be allowed back is just absurd. At this rate, everyone in the younger generation will leave, and there will be no one to replace the old instructors."

Indeed, I had worked hard enough over the years that I could run the entire clinic by myself, should the oldest of us need to retire or otherwise step down. Marit had also trained under the elderly librarians for so long that he could run it himself, from the copying of each text to make sure nothing would go extinct, to managing the paid contracts that came in asking for research or that a precious text be duplicated.

"If you wanted to leave, I would go," I offered. "With our skills combined, we would be able to scrape together a living somehow. I just wouldn't want the door to close behind us. But even if it did, I would be with you, and we would find a new community and build a life together somewhere."

"Corbi…"

We paused and faced each other. My lover's cheeks were flushed, and I reached out and tugged his muffler up some more.

Marit grabbed my hand and held it, our mitts making it hard to stay connected since we couldn't lace our fingers together. Words of confession came to my lips, but I kept them at bay so we could have this important conversation. There would be time for us to kiss and whisper our love to each other later.

"I miss having him between us," Marit said, so softly I almost didn't hear, "but I'm also glad that this has brought us closer."

"Ich auch, Schatzi," I echoed.

"Ach!"

We gasped and whipped around.

"Did you hear that?" stammered Marit. "That sounded like a person out here!"

That was when I realized how far we had unknowingly wandered into the forest. All around us was pitch dark, my torch only throwing light out several paces or so. The cry came again, but it echoed such that we couldn't trace its origin. That didn't make sense with so much snow around us that it should have dampened the sound.

"Marit," I said as a chill ran down my spine, "we're too far into the forest. Any number of beings with malicious intent could mimic a human voice to lure us in further. Let's go back."

Instead, Marit grabbed the torch and held it aloft, casting me into shadows and threatening to pull me into a panic.

"Please," I begged. "Let's head back right now."

"Jemand!" the voice called. "Anyone, please!"

Marit met my eyes, and I knew if this were a monster impersonating a human, he was going to fall for it.

"There!" he shouted and pointed, then rushed away, forcing me to scamper after him in order to not lose the light.

Marit dashed down the path further into the forest as trepidation overwhelmed me, and I begged him to stop. But then he came to a halt at a large bundle that blocked our way, and I realized there really was a man there, lying in a crumpled heap.

"Please," he whimpered. "Help, please. I can repay you. I'm too weak, and I'm so cold—"

Suddenly the torch was shoved back into my hands. Finally catching up to what was happening, I held it aloft as Marit knelt and gathered the man into his arms and stood. I gasped at how easily Marit picked him up, indicating how light this adult man was. He must be skin and bones.