The Unmaker

… He graduated from the Alshifa General School today. It was a momentous occasion—the youngest student to ever graduate as a fully-fledged doctor at the age of nineteen. The council wanted to throw him a special celebration and give him a house near the Bazaar, in the center of the undertown, but he refused quite quickly and simply rushed on home. He had things to do. Well, it was more accurate to say he had things to do every single day, but today was more special than any other day. His graduation ceremony was not particularly important to him.

By the time he returned home at the northernmost edge of the undertown, she was already waiting for him, swinging on the chair they’d built together on his front porch. Her feet were bare, she was wearing the sundress he’d painstakingly stitched for her a year ago. There was a small pout on her face, and he wondered if she was going to chew him out for being ten minutes late.

The fear didn’t stop him from brushing his hair with his fingers as he walked up to her, extending a courteous hand.

She crossed her arms and scowled up at him.

“You’re lateeeee.”

“I don’t ever complain about you being late when it’s your turn to wash the dishes and I have to do them for you the next morning.”

“This and that are two different things.”

She took his hand, still bickering, and the two of them threw on their hoods as they traveled down the hill.

They went through every street, every store, every tavern and restaurant that'd accept customers after evening hours. Half the firefly posts in the undertown were extinguished during this time so the children could get a good night's rest, but that was of no course to him; he'd come prepared with a single firefly cage just for the two of them.

They stopped by an accessory stall that was about to close.

“Hey, what's this?” she asks, as she picks up a necklace and hovers it before her neck. “I've never seen this shape before! It kinda looks like a bunch of flowers shaped into a closed fist!”

He dips his head in apology to the stall owner, whispering, “She doesn't go out often. This is her first time.”

“Hey! What are you telling them? This isn't my first time out in town! It's like, my… uh, my third!”

They squabble for a bit before the stall owner decides to just give her the necklace, saying it's one that nobody wants to buy anyways. He dips his head once more before dragging her away, over to the only tavern that is still serving sweets at this time.

She picked the window seat. He asked for the corner seat. The tavernkeep gets irritated and puts them in the middle, and they get neither the view nor the walls to lean against.

“If you'd just picked the window, we could've–”

“Just pick whatever you want,” he mumbled, sighing with his head in his hands. “Day’s not going so well,” he mumbles again. “Can it be salvaged at this point? Maybe I should just try again tomorrow night?”

She peeks over the menu she is holding up, squinting. “What'd you just say?”

“Nothing. Just make your pick.”

“... Alright, then! I want two pieces of the honey-glazed soft bread, five copramint biscuit sticks, one hard cake with mushy strawberry paste layers, seven cold sour candy bars, a bowl of black starch balls in sweet bean paste, two hard-crusted sap-filled pies, two glasses of dark minute tea, and the weekly special undertown jelly–”

“Wait, stop, stop, stop. I don't actually have that many coins on me. Can you get rid of one or two or five of those items?”

“You can eat them, too.”

“Of course I'll be eating too, but that's just too much food for one person.”

She laughed and reached into her pocket, taking out a raw mantis leg. “It's never enough food for me, you know? I'm so hungry I'm even going to eat this now–”

“Please don't.”

Before he knew it, he'd grabbed her hand.

A blunder.

She stared at him for a few seconds, silent.

“... You don't have to eat that tonight, do you?” he whispered, letting go of her hand as he averted his eyes. “Just… not tonight. Please. Just endure and hold it off until tomorrow. I'll buy you everything you want to eat if you don't eat that tonight.”

Her eyes lit up. “Really?”

“Really.”

“... Okay," she mumbled. "Sorry.”

The mood was a bit spoiled, but by the time the tavernkeep came out with their sweets she'd already stuck her mantis leg back into her pocket, so nobody saw. They'd surely be frightened if they saw her chowing down on raw insect flesh in the middle of the night. They might even call the entire night off if they found out… and he was already asking a lot from the rest of the undertown. No reason to give them an extra excuse to turn his request down.

After that, they traveled to the rest of the places on his itinerary. The Sarowan Garden. The Southwestern Racha Street. The Eastern Dangling, the Hanging Mansion, the Perch of Fifty-One; all places he’d never brought her to before. If she felt tired, she didn’t show any of it—all good signs for the main event to follow.

On the way back up to their house five hours later, they held hands and took turns pulling each other up the flight of stairs.

“... So,” she began, voice unusually squeaky, unusually taciturn. “Why’d you take me outside for so long today?”

He didn’t hesitate with his answer. “I wanted you to meet and talk with some people for once. All you usually do is sit around the house dismantling Swarmsteel I bring home for you to fiddle with. It’s no way to live at all.”

“It’s the only way I can live,” she said, a wistful smile taking her face. “If you tell anyone I’m not from Alshifa and that you’ve been keeping me a secret for the past five years, they’re going to send me away.”

“...”

“Besides, I like being in the house! You bring lots of cool things back for me to take apart! You make things, I break things—we’ll never run out of things to do!”

He closed his eyes slowly as they reached the top of the hill.

“... That may be true," he said. “But I don’t believe, even for a second, that I can’t make our social lives come true as well.

“I’m the youngest doctor Alshifa has ever seen, after all.”

She glanced back to ask him what he meant by that, but just then—a dozen braziers flared to life before their house, and two hundred townsfolk jumped out from the bushes to cheer for the duo.

The first thing she did, of course, was leap into the air and land in his arms—like a stray—so his knees buckled for a second as he struggled to hold her up. But he’d been training diligently for this night. He gritted his teeth and straightened his back like a real man before trudging forward, straight into the crowd of elders and instructors and students and children alike; they were all people who’d known him for years, who he’d helped while shadowing his retired master on her medicinal visits. They’d done their job perfectly, setting up a massive feast and banquet on the hill, but he was more sweaty and tired than he thought he’d be after walking around the undertown for the past five hours.

He wanted a quick change of clothes first, so he carried her back into their house, the crowd cheering and laughing and throwing coloured paper strands at them as he did.

“... What?” she whispered, shrinking slightly in his arms. “When did you… How did you–”

“In light of my achievement being the youngest doctor Alshifa has ever seen, the council has granted me permission to take an outsider as my wife,” he mumbled, unable to meet her gaze as he smiled nervously at the crowd left and right. “They won’t look into your past. They won’t try to send you away. All they are asking for is my continued excellency as a doctor, and you will be considered a proper part of the undertown. Any descendants we leave behind will also be extended the same grace.”

“...”

It was sudden. He knew. He’d not mentioned a single word of this to her the entire past year he’d been setting this up, but this was the only way she, too, could walk in broad firefly light with him.

He wanted to hold hands out in the town without being afraid of getting caught.

He wanted to buy accessories for her without her having to keep her hood on.

He wanted to eat sweets with her without her having to scarf down everything as quickly as possible.

He wanted… a party, like this, where all his friends could show up and congratulate him for all his hard work.

Hadn’t he done enough the past five years?

Could he truly make the future he wanted with his own two hands this time?

“... And now that I’m a doctor, I’ll also find it,” he said, as he kicked the front door open and stopped by the doorway; somehow he found the strength to look her in the eye and smile like a proper man. “A cure for your illness. I swear I’ll find it. I’ll make it so you never have to eat insect flesh again.

“So, uh…

“...

“... We’re already sleeping in the same bed anyways?”

Maybe not the best line to end on.

But instead of appearing disappointed, she looked unabashedly thrilled; eyes watering with amusement as her smile turned brighter than ever.

“You’ll ‘cure’ me, huh?” she teased, tracing her finger across his face. “You’re welcome to try, but I’m telling you, I’d much rather we spend our time doing fun stuff together! Oh! Or when we have a kid, we can focus all our time on teaching them how to make and unmake things! They’ll be the best of both of us, how about that?”

He smirked. “Well, you have to get a job first.”

“What? Why?”

“The entire town knows you exist now, so you have to get a job. I know you’re frail, so I’ve gotten you a recommendation at a repair shop fifteen minutes away from the house. You’ll be speed dismantling everything that needs fixing.”

“But I don’t wanna workkkkkk.”

“Great Makers, just go and have a try. Maybe you’ll end up liking your work. If not, you can always just work for the Bug-Slaying School as a Swarmsteel Instructor, and our child will have an easier time getting into the school because you already know the syllabus.”

She paused for a bit.

And then she leaned past his shoulders, straining to stare outside at the impatient crowd.

“... Change out of sweaty clothes first.” She nodded.

“Party first.” He nodded.

- Scene from Sina Household past