Chapter 159

Chapter 159

When he awoke he didn’t immediately get up. Thera was using him as a pillow again, and since he didn’t know how she’d be feeling he wanted to be there for her in the morning if she needed to talk, so he wordlessly rubbed her head while staring up at the ceiling.

His mood was better at least after having talked it over with both Sachel and Myriad, what mattered though was how she felt. Now that he’d accepted a gift from Jagal, he felt obligated to see through her statue, but he wouldn’t force Thera to stay if she wasn’t comfortable. If she wanted to leave and Sachel couldn’t change her mind, then so be it.

It only ended up taking an hour, but eventually she slowly came to consciousness. With the way they were situated, as soon as she opened her eyes she was staring directly into Bens.

“Morning,” He said, trying to sound cheerful for her. “Are you feeling a bit better?”

She jumped with a start, not expecting to find herself in the same position as when they went to sleep and broke into an embarrassed blush. “Sorry about that. I, um, must have forgotten to move before I went to sleep.”

“Don’t worry about it,” He told her, neglecting to mention that it was how he’d found her the first morning there as well. “Are you maybe ready to talk about what happened?”

“They just managed to piss me off more than I expected. I feel better after getting a bit of rest.”The original appearance of this chapter can be found at Ñøv€lß1n.

He stared at her, waiting for more, but it seemed that was all she had to say on the matter. “You know, if working with them is too much there’s no shame in going home. I don’t want you making yourself miserable for my sake.”

“Really, I’m fine. Things may be a bit more awkward while we deal with this, I’m pretty certain I broke Skoe’s knee, but I can’t just run away from working with people I don’t like. Thanks for worrying though.”

“Of course,” He told her, giving her hand a squeeze before getting up for the day. There was still a mountain of stuff to do and not nearly enough time to do it.

They left their room as he was still trying to plan things out, only to find both Sachel and Ralia prostrated at their door, as Delair watched from the side, quietly trying to understand what was going on.

It wasn’t just her though, despite being cloaked, he got the distinct impression that Thera was put off by the display and wanted to return to their room immediately, the only thing that stopped her was Sachel speaking up before she could.

It was sweet and it made the time go by faster to have the company, not to mention the work as well. Adding to the fact that Sachel seemed to have requested that Skoe stick to helping him out to keep the hunts calm for Thera, he now had someone on permanent oil and tar duty and expected that he’d be able to finish much faster than he thought.

After he completed his work at that house he was more than prepared to immediately move onto the next, but he could see a cart coming in the distance and Delair cheered with excitement. “Miss merchant is here!” Tugging his arm and dragging him with her.

For a village not too fond of outsiders, they still needed resources and a trusted merchant seemed welcome enough, with the whole of the village making its way out to see what she’d brought.

Delair rushed to the front with a few of the other more excited children as Ben stood to the back, letting the others complete any shopping or trade they had first. As much as he wanted to see if there was anything useful for him, he was still in the middle of developing his relationship with the lot of them, he didn’t want to jeopardize the little he’d built up by buying something someone else wanted so he patiently waited as one by one, everyone bought what they needed and eventually left, giving him the chance to walk up and see what was left for himself.

The moment he walked to the back of the cart to see what was available his heart pounded with excitement. He locked his eyes on an item he wanted so desperately he thought tears of joy were about to stream down his face.

“I’ll take the saw,” He told her, not caring in the slightest about the price. A properly made metal tool, to think it would give him so much joy after a few days of working with nothing but stone.

The merchant handed it over and he paid what he needed to as she made conversation.

“I’m surprised to see someone other than a dryad in the village, don’t think I have since I started working the route.”

“I’m an acquaintance of one of the women here, just came to help out with some repairs.”

He didn’t want to get too into details since it sounded bothersome, and the merchant seemed to pick up on that.

“I can’t imagine it’s been too easy, but good luck to you. I’m back this day every week, so if you’ll still be here by the next one let me know if you need any special orders. Of course, it can be a little more expensive having them delivered out here, but it’s a lot easier than going to the city to buy them yourself.”

He thought for a minute. He absolutely needed things, it was just a matter of what and how much. He held up his hand, asking her to wait a while as he put his thoughts together and made a list. If he could make things even a little easier on himself then it would be worth whatever price.