Pairing: Polly/Mal
Characters: Mal
Rating: B

Disclaimer: The author makes no claim to owning the rights of anything to do with Terry Pratchett or Discworld.

Dying for a Fix of Light
by Amazon Syren

     The inn’s windows are beacons in the foggy spring night. Lost moths fling themselves at the rippling glass, aching for the light within.
     An unseen watcher might circle The Duchess, past the scenes of men in their cups, of the blazing hearth and the lamp-light, of patrons tucking into late dinners. Circle the inn and find the kitchen, just beyond the stables, the light streaming from the window.
     Someone inside, someone golden as sunlight, is chopping potatoes with a wicked-edged blade, and talking to someone the watcher can’t see. The one with the knife, the one the watcher can see, makes a few practiced strokes with the blade, holding it as though it were much longer. Bright laughter escapes the walls, the seal around the window. Both voices are familiar, but the watcher is only concerned with one. In the morning, Polly will find delicate footprints in the mud outside the window, as though someone melted out of the fog and stood watching her in the dark.