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The Truthless Recluse stepped onto the train and walked right to his usual seat, about to settle for staring out the window like usual till he saw the strange newcomer staring at him from a few seats down. Mismatched eyes like his, fanciful waistcoat and bell sleeves, hair made of starlight and milk foam. He sat stuck on the sight for a long moment. He had to tear his eyes away to ensure the stranger not find him unsettling.
Still, he found his eyes drifting back to the stranger over and over, watching him sip his tea and read the newspaper he’d found stuck to his chair. He smiled as his eyes drifted over a certain passage and Recluse’s heart dropped. Like magic, his senses were possessed with the sight. The stranger’s eyes returned to him and recluse felt his face heat.
Not too much longer and the train stopped. Recluse looked up at the message board. This was his stop. Relief and disappointment battled as he got up and approached the doors to step off the train. He looked one last time and caught the stranger staring. His stomach exploded. He couldn’t bear to look back as he stepped onto the platform, frozen to the spot as the doors shut behind him and the train continued on its course.
As he started walking, the thoughts flooded his mind, adoring and reprimanding him for not asking the stranger’s name.
It was like he’d returned to his past of dreamy eyed optimism and fairy tale fantasies. He spent much of that walk picturing scenes of their first meeting, the stranger smiling at him like that, making him smile too. He felt his heart flutter so many times he stopped on his way to get a black coffee and hoped it would dulled his heart’s exploding energy. The cashier gave him a small chocolate heart wrapped in foil as a complimentary gift for the valentines season. He dropped it into the coffee to stop himself from imagining giving it to the stranger.
To fill the empty space of travelling by train, Sage had a tendency to look at the fellow passengers and point out their quirks to himself. Asymmetrical faces, unique hair, fashion that stood out amongst the crowds. So when he met someone who held all of those qualities simultaneously, he could never be more awestruck. Sage had been reading a newspaper he found on his seat, previously engrossed in its contents, when in his peripheral he saw the dark cloak sweeping past him, and the scent of vanilla completely engulfed his senses causing him to look up. The stranger took a seat further down the carriage, giving Sage a perfect view of their face. Soft, gentle features, mismatching eyes, dark clothes as if to disappear when the night fell.
The stranger looked up and returned his gaze for only a moment. Sage couldn’t stop staring, least not until the train began to move again and he recalled his newspaper.
He tried his best to read the words, but his mind returned to the beauty of that stranger again and again. He read a column about Valentine’s Day special events to attend with one’s own valentine. He pictured the beautiful stranger sitting across from him and couldn’t contain his smile.
The train stopped and he raised his head only to watch the dark clothed stranger get up. They caught eyes one last time before he stepped off the train and stood there until the door closed. Sage watched him as the train kept moving and eventually passed him by. Although his back was turned, Sage still waved his fingers playfully.
He’d see him again tomorrow, surely enough.
*
Tomorrow came like a dream passing on the clouds surrounding the City of Wizards.
He sat down again, same spot, which he realized he’d gotten on one carriage down from his usual yesterday, hence seeing the beautiful stranger.
Perhaps it was fate that they’d met at all. Right there, that day, written in the stars. Sage smiled up at the rising sun. It came out to smile back at him, still too early to be properly warm.
He had brought a second teacup today, as foolish as it was. The departing winter had left everyone weathered, and at the first sight of spring he’d made a promise to fill his life with more joy and spontaneity to ensure he would not end up the same. This was simply a first step in the road.
Sure enough he saw the stranger get on the train at the same stop as last time, and waited for him to sit down and their eyes to catch to set himself in motion.
For a moment he wondered if the stranger felt the same nerves he did, and whether that would make this next moment any easier. Pushing past all his “what if’s”, he took his teacup and newspaper and moved to sit across from the stranger.
“I like your cloak.” He said, “It must have kept you warm this winter.”
Recluse was stuck for words. The alluring stranger was in front of him right now, baring his teeth in a smile so radiant it was hard to look at. He looked out of the window to cope as he stuttered out an answer. “Yes, it did. Sometimes too warm. Your eyes are… um… they match.”
“Match?”
“I mean, me. We have… the same condition.” He wanted to sink into the floor. “I’m not a conversationalist, you must forgive me.”
The stranger’s smile dimmed to one smaller, somehow more powerful despite all. “On the contrary, I think you’ve just become tenfold more interesting to me.”
And this, said so simply, as if it were the weather they were discussing, made recluse’s heart start racing like he was the one powering the train.
“It might be good to start with names. I’m the Sage of Truth!” Sage extended his hand, “Before you ask, I do happen to have a flavor, but that’s for you to discover later. Can’t reveal all the answers too soon.”
Recluse hesitated to take his hand, but he noted the soft quality of his dough when he did. “Many might know me as the Truthless Recluse.”
“Ah, I’ve heard of you! The town’s gloomy hermit. Then I wonder what you must be up to, taking public transport with your reputation of hiding from the general public.”
“Most tend not to notice me.” He said. “You, Sage, are an outlier; I’ve heard of you too, and it seems to run in your history.” He cursed himself for coming off so standoffish, but Sage merely smiled with a curious glint in his eyes.
“Why would you say that, Cluse?”
Recluse watched him take out another tea cup, gold instead of blue, trace the rim with his finger and suddenly it was full of tea. He pushed the cup forward.
“Are you expecting me to drink with such a short amount of time left on my trip?”
“You don’t have to. I can make it disappear when you’re meant to go. I simply figured you might enjoy a refreshment before you speak of your opinions of me. It’s an exciting feeling, being known by so many strange and handsome individuals.”
Recluse couldn’t stop the blush creeping onto his face at being referred to as handsome. He lifted the cup and took a tentative sip. It was sweetened beyond recognition, and despite the steam rising off its surface, also ice cold. “Is this even tea?”
“You tell me, Recluse. It’s sweetened to your liking. If you’re expecting it to be warmer, just imagine it is. My magic does tend to work off perception, after all.”
Recluse looked into the tea cup and pretended to expect it be warmer, comfortably so. Sage wasn’t lying apparently, because his next sip was perfectly to his liking. “Fascinating.” He put the cup down as the train rode over a small bump, causing it to slosh over the edge. “You, Sage of Truth, are the only other cookie who has survived the trials of the Peak of Truth, and yet you continue to preach about the Truth as if it were a journey worth taking. All should have been revealed to be meaningless, and you should have already fallen into despair like me. And yet, you continue your cheerful ramblings to the town square every Saturday morning as if there weren’t anything more compelling in the world.”
Sage listened and pointed his finger to the ceiling with a new smile that made Recluse’s heart flutter. “It’s not impossible to imagine a world where Truth has hurt more than it has saved. Where harsh edges are all that exists to it, and the closer you get to the light, the more it burns. I, however, have never stopped my journey towards enlightenment, even if there’s no end to the story — until we crumble that is! I’m sure you’ve heard that I enjoy storytelling?” He took Recluse’s hand in brought it close, “You may consider me a madman, but in my view we all live in one large narrative that never ends, and when one thread ends, another takes its place. The world turns on a central narrative for all of us. The Truth is not ‘non-existent’, it’s simply a question of what we choose to live for; Tell me recluse, why do you persist?”
The train carriage was silent save for the rumbling of the engine. Recluse couldn’t articulate it anymore. He simply wasn’t good enough of a conversationalist for this.
Sage didn’t press him for his answer. They stopped talking for a while, letting the world roll by as Recluse sank into deep thought. He tried his best not to make a big deal out of how Sage was caressing his thumb over Recluse’s knuckles.
He looked around the train, seeing passengers staring out the window too, or reading books, or bouncing their children on their lap to keep them from crying. Heartbeats and heartbreaks. Simple moments of living.
When the train stopped again, Recluse felt ready to speak.
“To preserve the peace these cookies take for granted.” He said, “I suppose, the only reason I can think of that I continue is that I feel this internal sense that I’m still needed somewhere. Someone who needs healing, or to be told the right words. If it came down to it, I’d still give my life to protect everyone on this train.” He raised the hand still in Sage’s hold, “If we view it your way, my Truth is Compassion, or something to that effect.”
Sage stared up at him through his mismatched lashes in amazement. Recluse thought the look he was giving would be more suited to a groom seeing their bride walk down the aisle, rather than some reclusive cookie with hardly a reason to live beyond other’s needs.
“Clusie…” he brought Recluse’s hand closer, all the way to his mouth, pressing a kiss to the golden ring on Recluse’s middle finger attached to his fingerless gloves. “I think… I’m going to buy you a drink. Do you prefer tea or coffee?”
“…Tea.”
Sage huffed a little in amazement. “Well doesn’t this feel like a fairy tale? We’re due to stop any moment now at your destination. I’ll get off with you.”
“But what about where you’re going?”
Sage dropped his hand and threw the rest of his tea back in one sip. “I can walk, can’t I?”