SWNOVELXO Chapter 45: A Day Worth Keeping
The sanctuary exhaled.
For once, there were no suspicious footprints near the wards, no strange pressure at the edge of the forest, and no ancient names hanging in the air like unsaid curses. The sun rose gently, the sky painted with lazy clouds that looked like they were still waking up.
Rei stood barefoot in the garden.
His hands were muddy. His sleeves rolled. His expression neutral as he examined a stubborn patch of wild root that refused to obey natural law—or possibly just didn't like him.
"You're lucky I don't burn this entire section," he said to the root.
It didn't respond.
Zephyr, curled nearby like a giant, magical guardian lizard, cracked one glowing eye open.
"Don't judge me," Rei muttered.
Behind him, a loud thud followed by a crash signaled that Ferren was awake.
And tripping again.
"WHY does this broom keep attacking me!" Ferren's voice echoed from the supply shed.
Lynna answered flatly, "Because it's not a broom. That's a bound wind elemental."
A pause.
Another thud.
"WHY DO WE HAVE A POSSESSED BROOM?!"
Rei sighed.
Zephyr exhaled through his nose, sending a puff of steam over the herbs.
"Don't start," Rei said.
Zephyr closed his eye with a faint snort, his scales gleaming in the morning light.
—
Later that morning, Rei attempted a simple task: organizing the west storage crates.
Simple, of course, in theory.
He opened the first one and immediately found two grappling hooks, a horned beetle in a jar, a half-knitted scarf, and a sealed scroll labeled: "DO NOT OPEN (Ellyn's Experiment #7B - Mildly Volatile)."
He closed it.
"Maybe the east crates," he muttered.
—
Meanwhile, Ellyn had decided today was perfect for recalibrating the sanctuary's energy flow conduits.
Which meant, essentially, poking glowing stones and hoping none of them exploded.
Auron watched from a safe distance, which for him meant halfway up a tree.
"I think that one's humming," he said.
"I know," Ellyn replied.
"Should it be humming?"
"It's a happy hum."
"It's glowing red."
"It's fine."
Ten seconds later, a loud pop! echoed across the clearing, followed by a string of colorful sparks.
"Was that—?"
"Completely planned," Ellyn said, hair now full of ash. "Also, we might have to replant the garlic beds."
—
Inside the main house, Lynna was organizing the kitchen.
Specifically, she was reorganizing it away from Ferren's system of chaos.
"Why are the tea leaves next to the explosives?"
"It's efficient," Ferren said. "If someone tries to rob us, you just brew tea and boom!."
"That sentence makes me want to arrest you," Lynna muttered.
Rei passed by the window outside, paused when he heard boom, and simply kept walking.
"Not my problem," he said aloud to no one.
—
Around midday, the sanctuary felt lighter.
Children from the nearby village passed near the outer paths, giggling as a field of golden flowers bloomed suddenly in their wake.
Ferren tried to impress them with "ancient martial techniques," which involved spinning a staff and accidentally launching it into a tree.
Zephyr refused to retrieve it.
Fluff did, dragging the staff back proudly while also managing to steal a biscuit from one child's pocket.
No one noticed until later.
Fluff played innocent.
Badly.
—
Auron, ever the overachiever, announced during lunch that he was building a "defensive alert system" using vibration sigils and enchanted stones.
He activated it during their meal.
Which promptly caused half the dining table to launch two feet into the air the moment Lynna tapped her spoon.
She stared at him.
"I hate you," she said.
Ferren clapped. "Do it again!"
Rei sat silently, spoon paused mid-air.
Then quietly said, "If my tea spills, you are regrowing the entire east garden."
The tea did not spill.
Auron turned off the system.
—
In the afternoon, Ellyn tried to teach Fluff basic fetch commands using sigil-engraved sticks.
Fluff fetched.
Zephyr fetched.
Ferren fetched.
The sticks glowed randomly and occasionally turned into frogs.
No one knew why.
Eventually, Fluff fetched Lynna's dagger.
And refused to give it back.
Until Rei walked by and said, "Fluff."
The dagger dropped immediately.
Lynna blinked. "How did you—?"
"Authority," Rei said.
"…You're not the alpha."
Rei looked at her, then at Fluff.
Fluff was now pretending to be asleep, perfectly still.
Rei sipped his tea.
"I'm whatever works."
—
As evening settled in, the sanctuary shimmered with late light — warm and golden, stretching across the stones and leaves like a blanket being drawn up over the day.
Dinner was a joint effort.
Ellyn made soup.
Ferren ruined rice.
Auron tried to make dumplings and somehow set part of the counter on fire.
Lynna salvaged everything.
Rei chopped herbs and pretended not to care.
Fluff stole two dumplings.
Zephyr was fed a roasted yam, which he sniffed once, then buried under the floorboards.
"You know he's going to dig that up in a week," Lynna said.
"I know," Rei replied. "I just hope I don't find it under my bed again."
"Wait, again?"
"…Don't ask."
They ate under the stars.
No enemies.
No gods.
No old names.
Just friends, firelight, and food that was slightly burnt and weirdly spicy — but real.
Rei looked around.
At all of them.
At Zephyr dozing beside the stone hearth.
At Fluff curled beside Ferren's lap, snoring through his nose.
At Lynna laughing at something Ellyn said.
And at Auron carefully re-carving a protective sigil into the spoon he'd broken earlier.
This wasn't the life anyone had expected.
Least of all Rei.
But it was his.
Quiet.
Unstable.
Warm.
And real.
The sanctuary pulsed gently around them.
Content.
—
Later that night, when the others had gone to bed and only the forest remained awake, Rei walked through the moonlit orchard.
He paused by the old arch.
Touched the bark of the elder tree.
And for the first time in weeks, the sanctuary said nothing.
It didn't hum.
Didn't shift.
Didn't ask what he wanted.
It just was.
Present.
Still.
Enough.
Rei leaned back against the trunk, looking up at the stars.
He didn't smile.
Not exactly.
But something close passed through him — lighter than breath.
Not peace.
But maybe, finally, the start of rest.