Cal waited for Tavia to absorb everything he had said. He had told her everything… well, everything relevant in this life.
He was free in airing his doubts of the guild and the path it might take, his indecision to leave it behind, Benan and the gems, the source of the boost she got on the farm, and reiterated her knowledge of how easy it was to upgrade his farming tools.
The only thing that Cal left out was his past life and anything related to the higher powers.
The former was not information he intended to allow anyone to know, and that included Tavia. It simply wasn’t necessary. If he had somehow used information to make her fall for him, then he might have felt guild about hiding it, but he didn’t. If anything, Tavia was the one who chased after him. Thɪs chapter is updatᴇd by novelꞁire.net
As for the higher powers, the less they were thought of, the better. Let alone spoken for others to hear.
Cal might bring disaster to Tavia if what he revealed brought their attention on her.
“I would never have imagined you thought about leaving so often. The effort you put into the farm says the opposite.”
Those were the first words Tavia had said since he started speaking—rambling, really. Understandable, since it was a lot to absorb. He could have broken up his concerns into more manageable pieces, but an hours-long rant would have to do.
“That was unintentional… at the start. Turns out I enjoy farming quite a bit,” Cal said with a shrug. He regretted that when his shoulder protested the movement.
Tavia gave a slow nod as she stared, though it was clear she wasn’t actually looking at him. Cal didn’t break her out of her trance since she was given a lot to think about.
That patience lasted only several seconds. When Tavia continued to be lost in thought, he felt a sense of unease.
Does she want to leave? Maybe I said too much… but she mentioned she wanted to know more, for me to share more. Cal rubbed his chest with a grimace. This was a hurt he had never felt before.
He watched Tavia’s expression closely, intent on catching any minute changes that would hint at where she was leaning. He wanted to break her thought process to influence her his way, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it.
Even if I convince her, how long will it last? If she stays, good. If she wants to leave… I have to be fine with it. It’s alright, I’ve been without a partner before. Most of my life… lives. Yes, it’ll be—
Tavia clapped her hands with bright eyes. “It’ll be hard, but we can be ready to leave within a few months. It’s a shame about the farm, but we can rebuild elsewhere, right?”
Cal hadn’t taken a breath as he looked at Tavia as if she hung the moon.
“Cal?” Tavia shifted closer to place a hand on his cheek.
He snapped out of it as a smile formed on his lips. “I really thought you were reconsidering this.”
“Reconsidering… this. What do you mean?”
Cal couldn’t stop himself. She had never even thought of leaving and was instead coming up with a plan to allow ‘them’ to leave. Leave together.
He dove—ignoring his protesting body—and pulled Tavia into a deep kiss. She froze in surprise before meeting his eagerness.
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Tavia held a dazed smile when Cal pulled back with a barely hidden grimace of pain. His body continued to be defective at the most inopportune times. At least it was getting better by the minute, and he’ll be normal physically in days at most.
“Reconsidering all of this,” Cal said, motioning to everything.
Tavia’s dopey smile vanished in record time. Shock flashed, then a glare that didn’t quite hold. She sighed and said, “We rushed into this, didn’t we?”
Cal didn’t spiral this time. He took her words at face value, and she was correct. He wasn’t ashamed to admit that her appearance caught his eye at first—it’s not like her unknown personality could have—but learning how diligent and ambitious she was only made her more attractive to him.
That was when they were both Trainees.
He had thought of little when Tavia practically barged into his life on the farm—beyond curiosity and a little interest—but their following interactions involved learning of each other through their actions rather than words. Neither shared their past. He had considered that mostly irrelevant, at least on his part.
Cal was the cliché case of how one found themselves in the Celestial Order’s clutches: brought in young that he barely remembered blood family, so loyalty would be toward the guild.
He assumed Tavia was the same, but her words made him recall she hadn’t been around when he was a child. As vague as his earliest memories were, Tavia’s appearance in the Trainee pool when he was a younger teen stood out… for obvious reasons.
“We might have rushed, but I have no regrets. Do you?” Cal already knew the answer.
“Of course not!” She caught his smirk, rolled her eyes, and flicked his arm. “Be serious!”
Cal raised his hands in surrender.
“There’s a reason I clung to my little group of friends as a Trainee and didn’t reach out to the others.”
I wouldn’t call over ten people a little group, but I get her point.
“I never thought about joining a guild when I was younger… I didn’t even really know they existed. All I wanted was to be a tailor like my father, and I imagine I would be—if the town hadn’t burned while I was away.” Tavia’s eyes glassed over. “As far as I know, I’m the sole survivor of my town, though back then I wished I hadn’t survived. The nearby towns shunned me when they learned that everyone but me had died. That fire wasn’t natural, not with how fast it must have burned to take everyone who lived there. I’m sure they thought I caused it, no matter how impossible.”
The tears threatened to fall alarmed Cal. He pulled her into his arms.
“You don’t have to make yourself talk about it.”
“No, this is something you should know.” Tavia eased back, fingers still touching his sleeves. “I learned to survive on my own in the woods. The nearby townspeople called me a bad omen, and I wasn’t in any shape to travel far enough to be anonymous. I managed to survive by wandering the edges of the forests close by, but I should have known it wouldn’t last.”
Her eyes narrowed as she recalled an unpleasant memory.
“Hunters from a nearby town chased me off their claimed grounds and drove me far deeper into the woods than I had ever been. I caught sight of a bear, which sent me into a panic. I lost all sense of direction and ended where I should have lost my life.”
“This is where your friends came in,” Cal said, bridging the silence when her gaze went far away.
She nodded. “Not all of them. Most of the group hadn’t joined at that point, but everyone had experience fighting off the predators. We were all abandoned girls, wither orphaned or driven out for some reason or another.”
She must have lived in a far-off, remote area. Belief in omens and the common abandonment of girls are hallmarks of primitive lands.
“It wasn’t until later, when our group numbered nearly fifty, that we heard of the Celestial Order willing to take in outsiders. Most didn’t want to travel so far, and most… didn’t. Of the eleven that came with me, I’m still close to them all.”
Cal wanted to ask about the ones that stayed behind, but the way her face pinched as she mentioned them held him off. Glassed eyes were already more than he wanted from her.
“I consider them family,” Tavia said, leaning closer. “And now, so are you. I don’t abandon family.”
Cal mirrored her, meeting her halfway for a brief kiss. He let out a disappointed sigh when she pulled back and drew him up from the couch with a smooth tug.
“It’ll be nice to have a bed after so long.”
Cal frowned. “I’m fine, though. And I should at least speak to everyone before I sleep the day away. Besides, I can feel myself recovering the more I move around.”
“Good to hear moving helps… and I said nothing about sleep.”
Cal’s eyes widened as his protest died a quick death. He had already spoken to who mattered. The rest could wait.