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.”

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.

“Thera, we owe you an apology. We’d seen Roan’s harassment just as much as any other woman in the guild, we should have taken your side at the time. I know this isn’t enough, but I want to work to make up for it in the future.”

“Likewise. While I still think hobbling Skoe was a bit much, I didn’t consider how it must have felt for him to mess up like that after everything you’ve dealt with,” Ralia said as well.

Thera stared down at them, not sure what to do as she sighed. “Very heartwarming. I’m sure it would be even more so if you didn’t actively need my help.”

“We do need your help, but I’m apologizing because it’s the right thing to do and we’ve put it off too long. As much as I hope you’ll keep working with us, I understand if you don’t want to, but we needed to say this eventually to try and make a better relationship with you, right?”

“We spent the last while trying to figure out the best way to go about it and figured this was the best way to show our sincerity.”

“Gods, enough get up,” Thera told them, not able to handle it anymore. “I already told Ben I’m going to stay and help so let’s just focus on getting this done as fast as possible.”

The two women knew they weren’t forgiven, but it was a start and they thanked her before going down for breakfast. Thera didn’t know how to deal with all of that, but already seemed worn out despite the day just starting as Ben chuckled to the side.

Looks like Sachel came to a decent choice.

“Can I offer you a drink mister apostle?” A dryad offered as he worked on replacing her fence, after finishing up her house earlier in the day.

“That would be great, thanks!” he told her cheerfully as he took a cup of fruit juice from plants she’d presumably grown herself as Delair called over as she painted.

“One for me too please!”

“Yes yes little flower, I have one for you too.”

They both took a break to enjoy the drink as the sun beat down on them. After the last couple days of working on enchantments for the village and seeing him repair Fontesh’s home, many of the dryads around were beginning to grow more open to him. At the very least, they were letting him help and being a bit friendlier than when he first arrived, but he suspected a part of it stemmed from having the sociable ball of energy that was Delair there to help him break the ice. She seemed to joyfully take the role of his little helper as he worked, more than happy to do the odd jobs that were safe for a child, and she’d been getting the hang of it rather well herself.

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.

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