Chapter 5: Sewing Trust

The river village, named Rhine's Cradle after the Rhine river it was situated next to, was in fact very pretty. It was located next to a bend in the river, giving natural protection to the place and also making it look very scenic between all the flowers they had enough water to grow, the big mills the river helped turn and the cloth strung up between the houses to dry. We were informed they had a great dyer's workshop that required a lot of water and also a lot of space to dry their wares. As the dyed clothes were Rhine's Cradle's main export – aside from grain – the whole village helped provide clotheslines to dry them on. It looked like the kind of place a retired adventurer could settle down in and I made a mental note of the place for that very reason. I was still years away from retiring, but it never hurt to be prepared.

The village also had a surprisingly large market and the butcher was only too happy to take the cockatrice and boar meat off our hands, thanking us specifically for washing the blood out of the meat, and another merchant gave us a good price for the feathers. Not as much as we'd get if we sold them directly to the Atalanta cults but good enough to be worth selling. In the end, we each walked out of the market with seven hundred extra mun in our pockets.

After a while Alisha took Selene by the hand and dragged her off through the market, excited about something. Later I would learn that she'd found pears and strawberries, both of which were apparently considered rare delicacies where she was from. It made me wonder about Alisha's home. She'd said her kind lived in sacred forests but despite all my experience as an adventurer I didn't know which forests in the kingdom were considered sacred. Then again, I'd grown up in a village of mostly followers of the Olympians and by the time I'd moved to the capital I'd sworn off all the gods, so it wasn't too surprising that I didn't know which forests the Tuatha Dé Danann considered sacred.

Either way, if pears and strawberries were rare where she was from I wondered what foods she would consider commonplace. She wasn't a picky eater by any stretch of the imagination but that also made it hard to tell what was new to her and what wasn't. Although, now that I thought about it, I'd never seen her this excited about food. Maybe the little elf had a thing for fruit? I needed to keep that in mind.

I paused as I thought that. Wow, I really had it bad, didn't I? I couldn't remember ever being this obsessed with any woman. Even my first... Was it really fair to call Maggie Farmer my first love when the feelings I'd had for her paled in comparison to what I was already feeling for Alisha? The very thought was scary. I'd known the woman for a bit more than a week and half of that time I'd seen her as nothing more than a Chosen One's companion. But somehow, in just a few days, she'd managed to batter down all my defenses.

I took a deep breath and went to find a little something for the lovely elf.

**

A bit later I met back up with Alisha, but Selene wasn't anywhere in sight. Alisha told me that Selene had been wanting to go look for some gear in the market and she herself was going to look for a few cooking ingredients in the market to supplement what we had with us so I left her to it. Oh, I wanted to spend more time with her but after what I'd just bought for her I felt a little embarrassed and so I decided to walk the streets alone, wondering where Selene had run off to. Eventually I found her on a rock next to the river, inspecting her tunic which had a big, obvious tear in it.

“Hey," I said as I approached.

“Hey," she said back. “Sorry, just having trouble with my tunic."

“I can see that," I said. "Here, let me have a look."

She looked a bit surprised but let me inspect it.

“It's not that bad, a simple fix," I told her.

She huffed: “Maybe, but nobody ever taught me how to do it."

I shrugged and told her: “You can let me do it if you want."

She leaned her head to the side and asked, confusion in her voice. “You can sew?"

“My parents were tailors and I learned quite a bit before I became a mercenary," I explained. “I'm not a master tailor or anything but fixing a tear in a tunic or adjusting the length of something? I can do that."

“I didn't expect that," she said. “Sorry."

“It's the same for you, isn't it?" I asked. "You're a Chosen One right now, but that doesn't change the fact that you're a farmer's daughter."

“How do you know that?" she asked. "You said something like that when we were fighting the cockatrice but I don't think I mentioned it before then. Is it that obvious?"

“It's your looks," I explained. “You're used to physical labor and your skin is tanned from working outside. Also you're clearly not used to having money. I know it's conjecture but you learn to trust your gut when you make your living trusting people with your life."

“You trust me already?" she asked.

I shrugged. “It goes both ways. You've extended a lot of trust to me and you've given me enough reasons to trust you in return. And believe me when I say those aren't words I say to a lot of Chosen Ones," I said.

She blushed and we stayed quiet for a while until she asked: “Can I ask you something?"

“Sure," I said.

“What's the deal with you and Alisha? You're partners, you fight so well together, you do..." she blushed, “those kinds of things, but you seem so awkward around each other. It makes no sense to me."

I debated how much to tell her and in the end I went with honesty: “Well, thing is, we barely know each other."

“Huh?"

“She was following around a Chosen One," I said. “Pompous little twat, everything I mean when I bitch about Chosen Ones, hired me and made it sound like he was doing me a favor. Then the twerp tried to stiff me after I fulfilled my contract with him and Alisha... well, she slapped him and paid me with the engagement ring he'd given her. And then she decided to partner up with me. And the day after that, we met you."

She took a moment to digest that, then she said: “Now I'm even more confused."

“Trust me, so was I, but we seem to work well together," I said. "And in that I include you, by the way."

She blushed again and averted her gaze as I continued:

“If you give me the tunic I can fix it while you take a bath in your room in the inn. I'll probably be done with it before you're out of the bath."

She got a smug look at that. “Trying to get me out of my clothes already, are you?"

My mouth hung open in shock and she chuckled, then said:

“Alisha was right, you are way too easy to tease."

I growled: “Do you want the damn tunic fixed or not?"

She chuckled again, but with more warmth and less mirth than before, before she said: “Yes, I do. Thank you Felix, that would be very nice of you. I'll leave the tunic on my bed and call you in when I start my bath."

**

I ended up following her to her room and waiting until I heard her call me in. Her tunic was sitting on her bed and I could hear the splashing of water as she entered the tub. The proximity to the river allowed the innkeeper to have water piped directly into the bathtubs in the rooms. Highly convenient and yet another reason to choose a village like Rhine's Cradle to retire to.

I settled down on Selene's bed and examined the tunic again. She'd really done a number on it. The tear wasn't very ragged but it was long. Thankfully it was also a pretty clean tear and almost exactly off to one side, which allowed me some freedom.

I started by stitching the torn cloth back together. The material was high quality but mundane. Typical of the gods, giving their vassal enchanted armor but mundane cloth underneath. The tunic itself was a dark blue like the cape on her armor and it had her scent on it, roses and sage and iron. It was making my head swim just a little but I squashed it down and kept on sewing.

When I was done I examined my handiwork. Serviceable but you could clearly tell it had been fixed up, which would be a shame for such a pretty piece of clothing so I pulled a ribbon of silver cloth out of my bag and stitched it over the fixed spot and on the opposite side as well, making it look like two strips of ornamental trim instead of a quick fix, a blue tunic with silver trim that complemented her shiny armor.

I had been so engrossed in my work that it took a while for the pitter-patter of wet feet on the hardwood to register and I looked up to see Selene leaning over me, dressed in nothing but a bath towel.

“Wow," she said, staring at the tunic. “It's beautiful."

Without thinking I replied: “So are you."

She blushed and swallowed, then she asked: “May I?"

I held it out to her and said: “Of course, I just finished."

When she reached out to take it from me the knot in the towel loosened and the towel dropped to the ground, giving me a perfect view of her incredible body. She had a perfect hourglass figure and her abs had just the tiniest bit of definition, giving her a fit look that did nothing to overshadow her femininity. I swallowed and she blushed bright red.

I averted my eyes and was awaiting a slap to the face but instead she asked in the meekest voice I'd ever heard from her: “Am I that repulsive to look at?"

I almost flinched at that. I looked back at her, making sure to look her in the eyes, and said: “No, of course not! But if I get to see you naked I want it to be because you decided to show me, not because of an accident. Trust me Selene, you're gorgeous."

No sooner had I said that than I felt her hands on my shoulders before she shoved me back onto the bed with surprising force and I was once again blessed with the sight of her naked body as she leaned over me. I could tell it was an invitation and so I let my eyes roam over her body, her breasts swinging in front of my face. She was still blushing bright red and my scrutiny didn't make it any better. Despite being a tall warrior she looked damn cute like that, all blushing and vulnerable.

Eventually I looked back up at her face and she leaned down to kiss me. She was clumsy and awkward but her lips were so full and soft it felt amazing regardless. I let my hands stroke her sides and felt her shiver under my touch.

Finally we broke the kiss, coming up for air, and she gave me a gentle smile.

I took the opportunity to ask: “Why?"

She shrugged. “Alisha doesn't seem to mind."

“I don't think Alisha expects me to do this behind her back," I said.

Her lips turned up into a sly smile and she said: “Then maybe we should tell her."

“She will probably insist on you joining us, you know?" I replied.

“Oh, I wouldn't have a problem doing it with her, either," she said. "You two make a hot couple."

I opened my mouth and nothing came out.

She chuckled and continued: “But that's something for another day. For today she's been giving you bedroom eyes ever since we reached the village and I won't butt in. But next time Alisha invites me along I won't refuse. Trust me."

“Good," I told her, then wrapped my arm around the back of her neck and pulled her into a final kiss before flipping us around so that she was on her back and I leaned over her. I pressed a knee between her legs and a second later pulled away from her completely. “See you at dinner."

She pressed her legs together and I could feel the wet spot above my knee that had nothing to do with her recent bath. Then I walked out of her room.

“Bastard," she said but she was chuckling when she said it.