Tenebrae

(Please return to Sylaise, when the nest rental is done!)

Advesperum’s warm icy eyes looked over her beautiful, ridiculous husband for a moment as she hovered near the door; those eyes blinking once and then twice before she took a slow, measured breath.

“Promise me that you will not burn down the lair again, Tenny. Promise!”

The magician Nocturne shuffled his claws on the stone floor once or twice, peeking coyly up at his beautiful bride before huffing out a smoky breath, “I promise, Vesper, I promise. Go visit your friends, the lair will be here when you get back.”

Husband and wife gave each other long, measured looks before the intricately patterned imp sighed and turned out of their lair and the moment she was clear of the door her butterfly wings beat against the air and she was off, tentatively leaving her clumsy husband on his own.

He did well for a long time!

He read a book. He had a snack. He went for a little fly out in the starlight, but inevitably he found himself shuffling through their cosy den to a bookshelf stacked full of his magic tomes! Well, he really should practice if it meant becoming good enough that Vesper wouldn’t get so worried, right?

Shuffle. Scoot. Sneak.

And suddenly, accidentally, he had a guide open in his claws and his earthy eyes slid over the intricate spells within.

He could summon a shadow to help Vesper carry supplies back to the den!

Or he could learn how to make the rain heavy clouds disperse so that she could always see the stars!

He could dim the moon when they were trying to find glow mushrooms!

The possibilities were endless, but he found a spell that called to him and so he pressed his snout to the pages and read: Summon dark smoke to shield you in times of great need.

Yes, that was perfect for when he was doing top secret magician stuff and it was just smoke, right? So he likely wouldn’t start the lair on fire and thus he’d keep his promise and he’d get to learn a few things before Vesp got back from her girl’s night.

Done.

And so, the foolish Nocturne began to chant with a wizard staff curled in his tail and his booming voice echoing the room and out of nowhere a huge cloud of black smoke appeared and it grew and it grew until the fire in the fireplace was no longer visible and the entire room was so cloaked by smoke that he could no longer see anything at all!

“Oh, shoot!”

He began stumbling around trying to find his way out so that he might reverse the spell, but he heard vases smashing against the stone floor and books flying off the shelves and bookcases crashing into the wall!

He stumbled here and he stumbled there and eventually the tome was knocked out of his claws, “BLAST!”

The smoke wasn’t disappearing at all and it almost seemed thicker as he broke the kitchen table and all the chairs and by the time he finally stumbled out into the cool night air he had destroyed the entirety of their den.

“Oh, she’s gonna be so mad!” He’d whisper, eyes closed as he pressed a claw to his face.

“Why will I be mad, Tenebrae?” Cooed the sweet, soothing voice of his wife behind him; he’d clearly been stumbling around for longer than he thought because she was already home!

“Uhhh, well, I didn’t start it on fire?”

Advesperum’s sigh was suffering, but she kissed the top of his head and shuffled into the smoky den, “Come on, let’s see if we can’t reverse this and salvage what’s left.”

Tenebrae smiled as he watched his wife slither into the black smoke and he thanked the heavens for granting him such a patient and understanding wife. Someday he’d repay her for such sweetness, but first he should probably learn how to do his spells outside.