Beyond the Roundels

(Since you were saying the other day, there wasn't enough Silver/Steel out there...)

***

Silver kept well back while Steel tracked the dark shape as it moved through the dark green wallpaper (like a forest). He was busy, anyway, working on prying apart the fine copper strands of the wiring and shaping them together into something new.

Steel got just ahead of the shadow and pressed his hand against the wall, frost spreading outwards. “You said it was a wolf.”

“It is,” said Silver. “But not a real one; it’s a tale. Don’t talk to strangers you meet in dark places, or possibly that it’s never a good idea to visit old ladies. It's very hard to tell. They have kinder versions these days, but once upon a time, everyone got eaten at the end.”

Steel didn’t turn round, but Silver was fairly sure he was scowling. “Silver.”

“The wolf,” said Silver, finally finishing his cat’s cradle of wires, “is metaphorical. It comes in all sorts of shapes and guises. But there’s always a fascination with it, isn’t there? That’s part of the trouble.”

“If something’s dangerous, they should keep away from it,” said Steel.

Half the wall seemed frozen now. No more trouble from the wolf in the wall, then. Though somebody should really do something about that wallpaper, Silver thought. Better not to have something that suggested woods and leaves and the patterns of old stories.

Silver smiled to himself, watching again Steel at his most perilous, and then said, “Well, talking of danger, I’d stand well back, if I were you. About… oh, three feet, I think?”

Steel did so, and Silver flung his net at the wall. It glowed and then burned its way through the wallpaper, entangling itself around the trapped shadow until there was nothing left.

Silver glanced across at Steel, who was clenching and unclenching his fist, which was no longer icy. Silver beamed. “Ah,” he said. “I thought that might be a handy little side-effect.”

“Silver!”

Wolves were everywhere, thought Silver, metaphorically speaking. Lots of things were dangerous, lots of things could bite. But even for a not very brave technician, plenty of them still held a powerful fascination. Silver was a little careless with his thoughts, rather hoping Steel would catch them. Do you understand? he added.

Steel brushed away a few last glowing strands of wire from the wall, and looked at Silver, long and hard. He might almost have smiled. It was sometimes very hard to tell. Then, wolf in Silver’s head, he gave back a grudging, Perhaps.

***