She was about to protest the idea of a flower shop ā after all, wouldnāt it be difficult to acquire them while they resided here? In Ingary, theyād had the advantage of Howlās portal to the fields of flowers bordering the Waste. Here, they were practically confined to the city limits. But before she could, Howl jumped into his own trail of ideas.
And while Sophie could usually find something to complain about when it came to Howlās plans, this time she was swept up in his train of thoughts. He had that tendency, the ability to catch her up in whatever he was planning until she found herself nodding in agreement despite her own misgivings.
The flower shop had been her desire, and it had gone well enough. Howl had had little need to remain there over the course of the day, unless there was some particularly magical upkeep which needed performing, and it had been largely Sophieās project. But this idea of a book store, which Howl had proposed, maybe it would serve to give him purpose once more in a world where he reallyā¦well, he had none save her wellbeing.
āAnd you fail to mention your skill in finding them,ā she added. āAfter all, didnāt you have a whole collection of oddities and magical books at your sisterās home in Wales? I canāt imagine you had an easy time acquiring them in your world, largely devoid of magic as it was. Is.ā She refused to think about their home as though it were gone forever. Because it wasnāt.
If she had been sitting right beside him, this would have been a moment of pure contentment. She probably would have put her head on his shoulder, perhaps closed her eyes as she begun to plan just how they would go about obtaining such a dream. As it was, she reached out and placed her thin hand over Howlās ring-encrusted one. āI think that would be nice. A lovely little book store, where wizards and witches of other times and places could come and continue to learn and share their craft.ā
Well that was a lot more pure-intentioned than what Howl had in mind, never mind actually helpful. Somehow he'd imagined a place spilled with books...one that was somehow only theirs, and yet, at once, a shop.
Indeed, shopĀ implied selling thingsĀ which meantĀ letting them go. Howl reevaluated his plans a bit and then nodded. "Yes, a place where everyone could go. A meeting of the minds..."
Well he wasn't so much concerned with minds meeting so much as he was with keeping tabs on all things magical happening in Utopia. Howl didn't want to be involved in the war necessarily - it put himself and Sophie in too much danger - but he didn't not want to know what was going on in the world.
This would be convenient in all ways.
Howl beamed, that end to end smile that would always give girls weak knees and charm his way into even the coldest hearts. (Though, against Sophie it was just a normal smile, he supposed.)
He downed the rest of the cooling coffee from his cup and stood, sweeping over to Sophie's side of the table in a swirl of shimmery fabric glittering finery. "Well then, my dear, we need to go searching for these fragments, don't we? I don't suppose I could cast a location spell high enough over the city...it'll illuminate for us where the nearest shards would be."
Heedless of the other patrons and what they may be thinking, Howl tugged Sophie to her feet and spun her around. He bit back a comment about proper attire for shard-hunting and just dipped her in a neat dance, allowing her space (and decorum) once he'd taken a step back. "Shall we, then? There's no reason to waste time."
