Twelve

OREL POV

As soon as I got to Elison tent, he spoke to me. “Did she even know what she did?”

“My guess is no. she didn’t know that she just saved us months of haggling back and forth with people who weren’t going to help us.” I replied quietly. I had made sure that Themis was asleep before I left her in our bed to come to Elison tent to discuss what she unknowingly did earlier that day.

“We have to know the extent of her gift.” Elison voiced

“And how do you suggest we do that, she hasn’t given us a reason to question her about what she knows and do I need to remind you that it hasn’t been long since the Dar Empire left the archaic way of killing people with gifts less than hers. She will be suspicious and will clam up and that will make it harder for us to see her slip.” I explained.

“Cannot we do something, anything about this? We could show her what this is and explain what she has done for us.” Elison suggested but I was already shaking my head. That would be a wrong thing to do. Very wrong.

“She will just say that all she did was to play around with the map that she was not even aware of what she was doing. I don’t even think she was really aware of what she was doing.” I added as an afterthought as Elison asked me.

“Why do you think so?”

“Because if she was aware she would not have left the piece of paper so carelessly around for anybody to see especially her husband who was already suspicious of how she knew about the snake in the box.” I said as Elison eyes lights up.

“We could always question her about the snake.” Elison suggested.

“She would chalk it up to bad dream, we need something concrete to hold on to, something she could not explain anyway possible without the truth.”

“Fine, what do you suggest we do?” Elison asked getting frustrated with everything but knew that I was right deep within himself.

“We wait for something big she cannot escape with a lie.” I said with a shrug.

“You of all people know that time is not on our side.” Elison said pinning me with a stare that told me I should have a better option but I didn’t. That was the best option there is.

“We need to make that time available because if it isn’t and we force her, we will have to waste a bigger amount of time. I say we just focus on dispatching warriors to protect our borders while waiting for Themis to get out of her shell.”

Elison grumbled under his breathe but his words were still clear enough that I could hear what he was saying. “If you were not taking it so slow and had her by now, this talk about her gift will be pillow talk.”

I glared at Elison but it didn’t take the truth out of his words. “I need to build something solid with her so that we can stay together for long and the bond between us will still be as strong as ever. If I had done things the way you are suggesting, with time she would begin to doubt what we have and that is not something I want in my future with her.”

Elison nodded to show he understood but he could not fault me for wanting future happiness, most time when warrior no longer fight, they need all the help they can get to keep the Darkness at bay. And he wanted that for me.

“What are we going to do now about Gwenn and Themis gift?” He asked running his hand through his hair.

“We wait for Themis to slip which will happen when she gets comfortable and she already is comfortable with me. As for Gwenn, she has learnt her lesson, when she can see through her hurt pride she will realize why Themis is so important and what a wonderful soul she has, they will be best friends before I have to leave to meet allies.

Right now, what we need to do is end this meeting and return to our beds, me especially since my wife will be curious.” I replied as Elison nodded not countering what I said about Gwenn and Themis, although I could tell that he very much wanted to. This conversation or debate about why Gwenn and Themis will not be best friends in the not so distant future will continue the next morning during daylight.