Page 47 of Do You Ship It

‘Téiglin!’ she cries, and laughs, the sound lighter this time as she tilts her head to see the vague shape of an antlered man blended into the trees, her eyes tracking across the canvas and picking out the subtle, half-hidden shapes of fauns, a minotaur, gnomes … You wouldn’t know unless you were looking for them, and it’s unrecognisable as OWAR fanart except to those who know.

And Anissa, unquestionably, knows.

‘I didn’t realize you were a fan, too,’ she tells me as I wash my paintbrush at the sink. Splodges of dried paint are caked on to my fingers, but I’ll have to deal with that later – I need to get to class. ‘How long have you been into it?’

‘Er, not long. How about you?’

‘Since always. I think I found the first book in the library when I was about ten, and I never looked back.’

‘Ten?’ I echo, jaw dropping, and I blurt, ‘I can’t even make it through more than a few pages of the book now; I can’t imagine reading them as a ten-year-old.’

She shrugs, looking a bit abashed, though I didn’t mean it badly at all.

‘So are you into all the other stuff too?’ I ask. I wonder if I’ve exchanged messages with her in Discord without even realizing it, or if she was wandering around Comic Con or the Worlds Beyond convention last month and we missed each other.

Anissa cocks her head, frowning at me. ‘Other stuff? What, like …Game of Thrones,Lord of the Rings, you mean?’

‘No, like the fandom stuff. Like Comic Con. You know, OWAR cosplays and fanfiction and Discords and that kind of thing.’

‘I …’ Her frown deepens, and she searches myface, almost like she’s looking for the lie in my words, some kind of trick. ‘I’ve read a couple of fanfictions, but …’

I have the sudden urge to ask if she’s a Silversmith shipper too, what she thinks about the theory that Devon will die protecting Lady di Silver, to say how excited I am for Lady di Silver and Roach to cross paths (which I’m sure they inevitably will in later episodes) because I’ve become convinced they’ll end up having a really strong platonic bond, like siblings.

The thoughts pour in so thick and fast I can’t pick which one to ask first, and they’re followed swiftly by the realization that Icareabout her answers. About this fandom.

And not even for Jake’s sake, but … justbecause.

I end up swallowing all my questions, and Anissa is still staring at me funny. She looks almost distrustful, as if whatever tentative bridge we just formed is going to shatter if she tries to step across it.

People are starting to pour into the classroom now, and I’m going to be late for my next class. Iamlate, probably. Anissa will be too, because she stayed to help me.

‘We should get going,’ I say.

She nods, and I wait for her to grab her own things, though we leave in silence. I can’t quite pinpoint whatI said that shifted the conversation for the worse, and understand much less why it bothers me so much.

Do I even want to be mates with Anissa? The quiet, loner girl I was so keen to avoid, worried I’d be tarnished by association? Orcursed, like Evie suggested she was capable of?

At the end of the corridor, we part ways, and I mutter a goodbye. Anissa hums, not quite saying anything, and we move in opposite directions to our next classes, other stragglers cluttering up the hallways.

I only get a few steps before I spin on my heel and run after her.

‘Wait! Anissa!’

I catch up to her and she looks at me with that frown still in place.

‘There’s a Discord – a chatroom forum thing – for some local OWAR fans, they’re all really nice. There’s, like, channels within it for discussing theories or sharing links to fanart, and they organize meet-ups sometimes, although I haven’t gone to any of those. Mostly they just talk about the show. The books, whatever. I could send you a link, if … if you wanted?’

The crease in her forehead and the pinch between her eyebrows eases away, and she blinks at me, owlish, before nodding.

‘Cool, okay. Yeah. I’ll, um …’ I don’t know whyI’m so flustered. It’s just – it’s weird, sharing the fandom with someone in real life, someone who’s not Jake. It’s also weird to think that a long-established fan like Anissa, who’s been into the books for six or seven years, isn’t already invested in every facet of this bonkers little community. ‘I’ll send you the link.’

‘That’d be really nice. I never get to chat aboutOf Wrath and Runewith anybody.’

‘Well, now you can.’

She smiles, showing that gap in her teeth again, and there’s something almost Jake-like in her grin that makes me smile back.

OWAR Discord #324

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