Throughout my work I noticed a shift in her demeanor. It started after the first week, when I stopped a bookcase from falling on her. The second week we exchanged a bout of insults back and forth; both impressed by each other’s wit. The third week it became playful insults. And by the fourth we were staring at each other from across our stations.

The fifth week, she approached me the same as she always does. A clipboard in hand and the same holier than thou attitude; but now all that had become endearing in a sense. My young self was attracted to those who walked with confidence. She certainly did just that, her heels clicking across the tiled floor towards me.

“This is your last carriage for today, make sure you don’t strain yourself.”

I bit back my tongue as I shifted the carriage onto my shoulders. Once it was positioned on my back, I responded. “You as well, those heels look awfully hard to walk in.”

“Well, it’s a good thing I have my wings then.”

“Certainly.”

After an unnaturally long pause, she continued. “…This might bleed into after hours.”

“Alright.” I shifted the weight of the carriage; eager to leave. Luo Yu and Nimkii would be waiting after all. “See you, then.”

But when I returned, she was still there holding a woven basket with a towel and jarred water.

“Why’re you here? Still, I mean?” I grabbed the towel and reached for the water.

She stopped my hand before I touched the jar. “Because of this.”

And then she leant forward and kissed me.

When I returned to our house, my hair tossed into a messy braid with wisping strays, my brothers were unamused. I had always come to retrieve them, no matter how late it had gotten. It was entirely irresponsible and some of the most fun I had in a while. There was something about the roguish nature of this whirlwind romance that provided a semblance of feeling in me.

In truth it could have been anyone, it just so happened it was that woman. She and I found a childish delight from slipping into broom closets together on breaks or brushing fingers when giving each other papers. Simple things such as haircuts became an experiment in reception. Luo Yu - who'd taken it upon himself to be the resident haircutter - joked about shaving my entire head instead of just my sides to see what she'd say. I'd insisted that it wouldn't influence our relationship, but that insistence was built more on hope rather than fact. 

Nevertheless, it was less of a relationship than it was a game. For me, anyways.

After seven weeks of this buffoonery, I realized we had saved just enough to supply a trip to the village next to Breiðr, often used as an escape route according to whispers of conversation I’d heard at work. That was when I ended it with her. She was entirely professional about it. I suppose we had both realized very little of our relationship was based on love.

She still cried. I did not. Best save tears for a death.

---

I was not the only one experiencing romance. Nimkii and Luo Yu had become even closer as the years progressed, especially with their joint occupation. Sometimes I'd return home to the sound of howling laughter as the boys dressed in some of the samples, they'd been sent that were far too big for them and made them look like elongated toddlers.

One evening I returned and neither of them were there. Not wanting to make a fuss I quietly added to the makeshift map of nesting inns we could stay in while making our way to the temple.

As the sky darkened my trust in their return began to lessen. It was something I'd never wanted to admit, but I'd never liked waiting for them to come home ever since my father passed away. Such behavior still plagues me now. If only I could capture the struggle it took to put that sentence to paper, that would far trump any attempts for me to put invoke that fear through prose.

They returned, much to my relief. I'd initially promised myself to lecture them incessantly, but their faces were equally flushed. Luo Yu held in his hand a bunch of flowers and an envelope.

"What's this then?" I smugly leant against the doorway.

"None of your business," Luo Yu grumbled. He was eager to dash into his room so I let him pass.

"Well, are you going to tell me?" I turned to Nimkii.

He put two hands on his face. "I shouldn't."

"Very well," I chuckled. "Just promise me I'll be your ring-bearer?"

"A--what? For what?"

"For the wedding of course!"

Nimkii dipped his head and swatted me playfully. Out of respect for their relationship I didn't pry. Even now I'm unsure if that letter contained an explicit confession or was simply a sappy poem about Nimkii's love. They certainly didn't behave differently the next day, but then again even their previous behavior was remarkably close. Perhaps they chose to live in that ambiguity on purpose. It was impossible to think of love when the fear of God Hunters clung to our skins.

---

When we had saved enough money, we had to create a plan. During my trips as a carriage carrier, I noted down the several routes I traveled. And one just so happened to reach the area near that village with a returning client. The client was a well-off woman. A cardinal, evident from the way her hair’s roots were black and then faded into red. She was quiet and hardly spoke apart from a quiet ‘thank you’ when we dropped her off or offered her some water. She would be borrowing that carriage again on her way home from work; where we would intercept it and take it over.

We had a brief discussion about whether just leaving one night would be enough, but without flight passes for all three of us, the border patrol would turn us away. I could just bluff that Luo Yu and Nimkii were my passengers on an elongated carriage carrier trip. This particular carriage only involved one, but two thin boys would be enough justification to not need supporting carriers.

It was to be a simple task, devoid of any real challenge for my brothers. I remembered they insisted on helping more but I denied them. I'd wanted them to stay out of it in case we were caught. Assuming the neighboring village had little contact with the God Hunters, I would just be detained for improper use of my license, and they could plead innocent. This was foolish. I'd seen them so long as children under my care that I forgot that they were divine, just as I.

Perhaps that is why we got captured so easily.