Chapter 10
View for Two
Vigau, Arielle, Bonaventure
It was going on two weeks since Gally was awakened and her life was settling into routine. It was a little strange when she thought about it, given the sort of life she was now leading. For some reason, magic seemed like more of an obscure thing back when it was known as Arcana, not that she had anything more than vague inklings of her past memories.
She was at the greengrocer's picking up some fresh vegetables for supper. She had some idea of a recipe she liked, but she was not having much luck finding the ingredients she needed. The nearest approximation would have to suffice.
She was looking over the cabbages, trying to decide on which one to pick. As she reached out to pick one up, her hand crossed with someone else's.
"Oh, sorry," Gally said. "Go ahead."
"Oh, no," a woman's voice said. "After you."
Gally turned to see a woman dressed in grey and black, pretty but sad. Her shawl did not entirely conceal the turquoise hair that marked her as someone with magic potential. Given her age, she was probably a member of one of the mages' guilds, maybe even the same one as Giger. Not that she could say anything about it. Instead, she simply took a cabbage, nodded to the woman and continued her shopping.
For some reason, the woman stuck in Gally's head and once her shopping was done and she and Giger were heading back to the house, she noticed the woman again, or at least someone so close that they seemed almost identical.
"Déjà vu," she said idly.
Giger, who had been looking away, turned to her and asked, "What?"
"I just saw the same woman," Gally explained, "but she was going the opposite direction before."
"It's just your imagination," Giger said, but the way he said it made her suspicion, like he was trying to force her to drop the issue.
For better or for worse, she did not leave it at that.
"No, I don't think so," she said. "I'm sure it's the same person, but she was dressed differently. How does that work? Do you think they're twins or something?"
Gally sorely underestimated the seriousness of the subject because Giger suddenly grabbed her by the collar and yanked her into a nearby alleyway. It was a wonder she was able the keep ahold of the grocery bags. It would have been a fine mess if he made her spill the groceries everywhere.
Though Giger had never been particularly gentle with her, he seemed unusually severe as he told her, "Gally, I want you to listen to me. You never saw that woman and you definitely never saw her twice. Are we clear?"
"What's your problem?" she demanded.
"I said, 'Are we clear?'"
"Okay, fine," she said. "Whatever."
Giger let her go and stalked off. Gally would have wondered what came over him, but he was always so moody and she was too annoyed to care for the time being. Maybe she would switch the salt with sugar for supper. He had no faith in her cooking skills anyway, so he would never think it was deliberate.
Still, it did not take long for her curiosity to overrule her vindictiveness. Who was the woman she met? No, it was not just one. There were two of them. What was their connection to Giger? The more she wanted to know, the less likely she was to get an answer. Such was the joy of living with a person like Giger.
Switching the salt for sugar was too good for him.