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His flirtation had the opposite effect than intended. Calix scowled. “I’m so sorry about that. I should have controlled myself.”
“Well, I’m glad you didn’t. My only regret is that we didn’t finish what we started.”
Calix remained still for the longest time, running the rich soil slowly through his fingertips. “Why aren’t you scared of me, Aurelius?” he whispered. “Now that you know what I am.”
“I’m not sure,” he admitted. “Maybe because you don’t seem like some evil beast?”
“You don’t know me very well.”
“No, but I’d like to.”
After another long pause, the prince returned to his work. “Fine.”
Aurelius wiped his brow. “So, you really are a satyr?”
“You know the answer to that.”
“Yes, but I want to hear you say it.”
Calix gave a surreptitious glance around the otherwise empty vineyard before giving a single, curt nod.
“Cursed by the goddess of fertility for some grave offense of your parents?”
“So the legends say.”
“And do you know what they did to earn such ire?”
The prince continued as though he hadn’t heard the question, and Aurelius didn’t push. “Well, you don’t look like a satyr. So you are the middle form. A metamorph?”
“According to books.”
“You don’t know?”
“We don’t get a tutor on the subject.”
Another accurate barb. “So the divine chrysalis you encountered was not the eternal rose of Ardor? Otherwise, you would be in the final form. An imago. You’d permanently be a satyr.”
“Not the rose, no.”
“Which one was it then?”
Calix stared long into the black earth. “Rina.”
Aurelius’s stomach turned at the memories of teenage tutelage. “You consumed black brave? A soup made of a war priest’s hear—”
“Yes.”
“When fighting at Sama?”
Another pause, then another, tiny nod.
“Was it—”
“I have no intention of talking about my time in battle!”
Aurelius raised his hands. “All right. I was just asking.”
They worked in silence for a while, with Aurelius doing his best to hide how puffed the digging was making him. After some consideration, he thought it best to ask about a different topic before returning to the one that really mattered.
