The kitchen, illuminated by flickering flames, fell silent as Lin finished singing her praises of the portrait.
Blushing, Thames grins nervously while rubbing the back of his head. He goes to speak, but is cut off my footsteps approaching the kitchen.
"Lindel, Thames! Nice to see y'all gettin along!"
Ode's voice carries through the house as he entered the kitchen, looking back and forth between Lin and Thames. Thames spins around to look at the brown headed mage.
"Ode! We just got back from the market..!"
Thames says quickly, but then recalls that they had gotten back about an hour ago. He seemed to have lost track of time as he painted Lin.
"Mhmmm!"
Lin quickly butts in to agree.
"Didja get everything we needed?"
"Obviously, Ode."
Lin rolls her eyes.
"Good! Well I was just comin down to get some bread!"
He says exaggeratingly as he tears off the butt end of the loaf.
"Don't lemme interrupt you twoooo!"
He drags his final words as he vanishes back into the house, leaving Lin and Thames in the kitchen.
"It's late.."
Thames grumbles while turning to Lin, her knees still pressed against his own.
"Yeah..! We should be gettin some sleep! It was a busy day and all!"
She vomits words as she realizes that her legs were incredibly close to him, and she stands up abruptly.
"I'll clean the kitchen, Thames! You can go 'head to bed!"
"Oh okay.."
He gets up slowly and pushes in both their chairs, leaving Lin to the kitchen.
Should I have helped her..? Ah it wasn't that messy. I'm sure it's fine.
He thinks to himself while bringing the paint back to the workroom. He turns on the oil lamp and pushes a stool closer to the easel which held an empty canvas.
He thought deeply, remembering the recent fantastical things he saw, but recalls his most recent dream vividly.
Ire…
He quickly filled the white canvas with a nearly pitch black backdrop, filling his palette with the remaining colors he needed. Black and red are added to the white, grey, twilight purple, black, gold, and midnight blue globs.
He quickly, but precisely, draws swirls of purple at the top of the canvas, each swirl getting smaller until about a fourth of the canvas was covered. He then repeated the process, but with dark grey, which he created with black and white.
The dark grey caused the purple swirls to pop. He then combined a small amount of midnight blue with an even smaller amount of black.
This'll work.
Using the darker blue, he painted about a one inch line of this at the bottom. Then, just above this line, he used the original blue and painted a thin line.
Seeing that the sky of the canvas was dry, he dabbed a thin brush with the gold paint and dotted the sky to form the cross constellation, Ire.
He added five small, white strokes going out of the dots too.
Between the sky and the water he made at the bottom, he painted a grey area going from below the constellation to the bottom of the canvas.
In this, he drew a figure laid down in the pool, dotted gold above it in a water drop shape.
Then, around the figure, he surrounded it with white mixed with gold, then outlined it gold.
Setting the palette down, Thames rises from the stool and steps back, looking at the painting from a distance.
He continues to step back until he hits something soft like a person in the doorway.
Lin..?
He looks back, expecting the demon, but sees Ode instead.
"You look disappointed! Where ya expectin Lindel..?"
Ode asks in a teasing tone, and Thames quickly blushes. He goes to protest, but Ode walks into the room and up to the new painting.
"You draw like you've seen it before!"
He leans down to look closely at the figure then glances at the constellation.
"Ire?"
"You know it?"
"Pretty famous constellation.. Pretty random to put there too!"
Thames just stares at Ode's back as he continues to examine the painting.
"I dreamt of it. Last night."
"Oh… Ya like Ire? I neva liked the tale. I mean! It's nice a goddess thinks we're art, right?"
Ode backs up, but continues to stare at the painting.
"But why would she punish Osir! Too lame for me!"
Ode hides his true tone behind a laugh as he glances back at Thames, making eye contact with him.
"Not bad for your first art here, eh? What didja name it?"
Thames sighs and stares back at the complete painting.
"Osir's Ire"
Ode glances back as the names told to him, then leaves the room.
"'Night Thames! Try to sleep in!"
Thames watches as Ode disappears up the stairs, then goes up the stairs as well.
Walking down the upstairs hallway, he opens the door carefully so he isn't too loud, and enters, closing the door as equally careful.
He begins to empty his pockets then reaches his back pocket, pulling out the folded letter.
Shit! I forgot to go to the mail office..
He grumbles as he sets the letter back on the desk. He then unbuttons his trousers and dress shirt.
Hanging both inside the closet, he pulls back his sheets and climbs into bed.
His eyelids fall slowly as his mind drifts off.
A sweet, feminine and harmonic voice echoed in his mind.
Sweet dreams O' Painter.