Chapter 45 I Believe In Unity— And A Larger Workforce!
At the men’s jurisdiction however…
“All women are difficult, I fear. Your woman is no different.”
She was, Amir and Adrian both knew that personally.
“She seems quite fiery. I feel that she would serve well as one of the fighters here,”
Fighter? Isabella? It almost made Adrian let out a chuckle.
“I believe she is quite an angel. That is what I get from her. A lovely angel that fell from the stars to show us our way home to our true world,”
Angel? Angel?!
“Your men seem to have very strange notion of what a woman is supposed to be,” They were now in a hot spring… in shorts, for some reason, though Amir had done Adrian the favour of sending the other men away who would not stop complimenting him and wondering if he was truly human with his fighting ability and beauty.
Amir let out a sigh. “Look around you. Elf women are not like the ones back at Aeltherra, are they?”
Adrian noticed that they were not. They were taller, and bore more muscle. Of course, they had a feminine gait but Isabella looked so little and weak in front of them. It was probably why they felt drawn to Maeve who Adrian knew was the evil being amongst each person. “What is her plan?”
“No idea.”
“It seems you barely have any idea of what she thinks and you claim to be her Vessel,”
“I do not claim to be,” Amir corrected, his eyes flashing gold for a second before he laid on his head on the rim of the hot spring, sighing softly, “I am her Vessel. The same way you are her guard for this trip, though it seems you are slowly tangling yourself with her even after the warning I gave you,”
“I am doing my job, since you are known for clearly running off to places without warnings.”
Amir turned to look at him there. “Like you did not abandon her as well?”
Adrian stared back at the elf. He looked… healthier, though all the beastly things about him were gone now, and he realized he would never like him. There was the way he stared at a person, like he saw their souls and knew the right way to turn them inside out.
Adrian did not like the idea of vulnerability or being seen by this man who he did not like. “You seem to trust her, no matter what schemes it might be, it seems. Going on your knees feeds her. And the possibility that she can fix this curse—”
“You do not know her but I do,” Amir cut in. He looked tired, almost like speaking to Adrian was a chore. “I have seen make the best out of every situation somehow, like the universe itself is drawn to her.”
“You believe in that sort of nonsense?”
“That she can help my people? Yes. The problem with you is your morality. You believe that you are more righteous than the person around you because what? You carry around the guilt of a million people and constantly punish yourself while doing nothing but wallowing in your self victimization? You have done nothing since Eldoria promised us safety. Nothing. She might be as terrible as you believe she is, but she is a better person than you would ever be, so stop complaining.”
Adrian watched as Amir closed his eyes now. “Or best, leave her with us here. Your kind never know what to do with yourselves anyway and she gains a greater chance of survival with us,”
“No one could feel her pulse here. On your lands,”
“Which happened on your watch. Same as the poisoning.”
Adrian was not much of a speaker. Instead, he knew what he truly wished to do was pull out his sword and rip Amir from his crotch right to his brain, take Isabella in his arms and return back to Aeltherra even if she returned screaming, and swearing at him.
He did not understand her plans. Or her. Or—
“BOYS. It seems you both are getting along. May the heavens be praised,”
Her voice did something to Adrian… like a dark cloud had suddenly parted ways for an angelic dove to come apart and give him a ray of sun warmth though the beautiful imagery vanished when he realized for some reason that she was taking off her clothes, leaving herself in some cloth that covered her breasts and a flimsy looking skirt. “No… no you may not—”
He didn’t finish the sentence, she had that same grin on her face that could make even a baby stop crying in fear as she took a few steps back before suddenly jumping and falling into the water.
The second she was in, she swam back towards, throwing her head back in a way that had Adrian’s face suddenly heat up, his breath catching somewhere between outrage and instinct as he watched her sigh, slowly leaning back so she could rest on the stone walls around the spring before saying with a sigh, “I can fall asleep here and all will be well with the world as we know it,”
Adrian turned his face away so sharply it was a surprise that he didn’t snap his neck. “Get out. Now.”
Amir, for his part, had gone very still. Not staring— deliberately not staring— but the tension in his shoulders betrayed him, gold flickering faintly beneath his lashes. He was realizing, as men often do at times, that a woman had more to her than just her face. And this woman in question… was Isabella.
Maeve, on the other hand, had already dozed off. And was apparently snoring.
It was the shame of it all that had Adrian turning to her and without wasting a breath, picking his sword and hitting her head with the handle of it. Naturally, she woke up— though he wasn’t certain that it did very much but had her looking around confused before dozing off again, murmuring something about food under her breath.
Amir moved, but it was only a second before Adrian had drawn out the scabbard of his sword and brandished it right next to the man’s throat as he hissed, “Do not dare,”
“She is not the kind to wake through such forceful methods. In her defense, she will need some coddling of sorts to get her away and out of her for my mental health, and I am sure yours,” Amir said, though the way his lips were pulled into a strange curled smile, Adrian did not like it.
Still, he slowly lowered his sword, watching as Amir swam towards her then ever so gently, he peeled away the hair that stuck itself to her face and said quietly, “The stones will not be comfortable in the long run. You will have sores and bruises from sleeping on it too long. How will you rest if you are in pain?”
“Pain?” Maeve’s eyes fluttered open briefly. “Here?”
Amir nodded. “Yes. You cannot fall asleep here. Plus, did you not come here with a message?”
“Oh. I did. Apparently,” Maeve did not want to wake… but she also did not want to be in pain. Her body felt heavy but light all at once as she sat upwards, her eyes blinking before she stretched and said ever so casually, “Your tribe women believe that we are not true husband and wife, and for us to do that, then I must do some sort of trial. Permanently . The whole hullaboo. If they ask, I knelt to propose. You were very shy and you blushed but you wanted it,”
The smile on Amir’s face disappeared. “What?”
“Wed?” Adrian could feel something burning up his chest, like a volcano seconds away from erupting. “Permanently? As in… marriage?”
“Yes,”
Marriage. Adrian had heard of that word in the academy before. It was a term used many years ago, in some other realm he learned. Where men used that term to imprison and subjugate people to pain— worse than what his father did to his mother. “No.”
“You seem to know about it,” Maeve looked slightly more awake. “I thought you did not know what it was?”
“It’s hell for women.”
Maeve scoffed. “Tell me about it.”
“You cannot,” Amir looked different now. More alarmed. More present. “I forbid it.”
Maeve sighed. “Are you worried because if I die you die? Look, I can assure you— wait, I cannot, but that is not the point. The point is, you will not die—”
“I do not care if I die,” Amir suddenly snapped. It had her jolting slightly, especially since she was realizing that all he had done was nod and do as she said. “I am… ill, as you know, and we have no clue on what might become of me. If you wed me, fully, I don’t think—”
Maeve looked angry, and hurt now, that they’d assume something so incredulous. “Do you think I’d willingly put myself in a situation where I’d be in pain?”
Adrian and Amir did not waste a breath. “Yes.”
“For good cause, gentlemen!” Maeve clasped her hands together, making a face that she believed was her looking cute but only caused distraught to the men watching her. “Now, what do you know about the Orc lands that surround your village?”