Page 36 of Stitches
“You’re also an alchemist?” Levi asked, nodding at items he must have been used to from Braxton’s workshop.
“Of course.”
“Why don’t you and Braxton work together?”
“We both work better alone,” Luccite said, at last descending the steps of her stool. “Besides, I focus more on maintenance and occasional procreation. People might not get sick here, but they can still get injured. Brax is the inventor, interested in technology over biology—other than you, I suppose. He spent centuries trying to perfect you. Well,youare solely unique. The other constructs didn’t come close.”
“What were they like?” Levi asked as though he’d often wondered but never had the nerve to ask.
“You know the horses that draw the Emerald carriages?”
“Yes.”
“The horses have more personality. Come on now.” She motionedfor them to join her in the back behind a curtain she parted. “We’ll want to keep this private in case anyone else comes in this morning.”
Levi’s awe turned to apprehension, palpably felt through Ashmedai’s maintained grip on his elbow. Ashmedai switched his grip to his other hand so he could smooth the first up and down the small of Levi’s back.
“You have nothing to fear,” he said. “Luccite simply wants a look at you. Perhaps what we discover can explain your… daydreams.” Ashmedai felt Levi sag into his touch. It would have been so easy to loop his arm around Levi’s waist and embrace him properly, but now wasn’t the time.
Behind the curtain was where Luccite treated and examined patients, where the walls were covered in bookshelves with even more tomes, jars, and tools than in the main shop. A table was in the center, padded for comfort and adjusted low to accommodate for Luccite’s short height.
“Sit, please.” She gestured Levi toward it. “I won’t ask you to fully undress, but I do need you to remove your tunic.”
Levi had started to move forward, completely out of Ashmedai’s grasp, but he froze and looked back nervously.
“Would you like me to leave?” Ashmedai asked.
“No.” Levi’s eyes sprang wider than when Daedlys had mentioned the tunic. “I-I-I….” He let himself trail off and took a long, cleansing breath. “I… would prefer you stayed. I’ve just… never been undressed in front of anyone but Braxton before.”
“It’s an exam,” Luccite assured him, and then smirked in a way only a cat could, “not a courtship.”
Once the tunic was removed, the deep indigo Levi had turned, a common enough sight by now, proved to travel farther down his neck and chest than Ashmedai might have guessed.
Levi placed it and the music box beside him on the table as he sat, his eyes staying fixed on his hands clutched in front of him. It wasn’t only the blush making Levi indigo, as some of his patches of skin weredeeper blue than others, just as some were lighter, proving how he had been made from different parts.
Each piece was affixed to another with stitches, the sizing and shape complementing one another to make a cohesive whole. The stitches weren’t any unsightlier to Ashmedai on Levi’s arms and chest than they were on his face—or had been on his wrists. They were simply part of him.
Levi’s form was slender but well-muscled, and despite the stitches and azure color, he looked very human—or half-elven, Ashmedai supposed, since Levi’s ears had a slight point. He was hairless and smooth, and Ashmedai had to resist the urge to move forward and touch Levi in a way that definitely wouldn’t be seen asexaminingover courtship.
Luccite got straight to work, letting Levi know everything she was about to do before she did it, though otherwise not making comments. For the most part, she checked physical things, like Levi’s breathing, his reflexes, his heart—which caused Levi to squirm, since she listened to it with one of her sharp feline ears pressed to his chest, and the fur must have tickled. All Levi’s reactions were normal for anyone living.
Eventually Luccite tried several colored powders on Levi’s skin, rubbing streak after streak on the back of his hand, gauging his reactions, but Levi had none.
“You eat and drink normally?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“You have a sense of taste? Of flavors?”
“Yes.”
“Do you sleep?”
“I do, but I don’t dream.”
“Yet you have daydreams?”
“I… I think that’s what they are.”
