35 Waiting (1/2)

The rest of the day went by like clockwork.

Li and Old Thane worked the fields and gardens while the builders made progress on the stall. What did change was that there was a certain somebody standing around at the edge of the main road, in front of the cottage, not budging.

Iona stood there as still as a statue, her eyes downcast.

Li sighed and paid no mind. The less attention he gave her, the sooner it was that she was going to leave.

But by nightfall, when the builders had packed up and Charles's children had given their last goodbye hugs to Zagan, Iona still stood there. Li waved the builders goodbye, thanking them for a day of honest hard work, but he ignored Iona, not making any eye contact with her.

The builders, as they rode on their horses past Iona, took a quizzical look at her, but when they looked back to Li, he shook his head, and they moved on without question.

Li went back to the cottage where Old Thane was readying the dinner table, getting out their staple diet of bread, berries, and leftover meats that Triple Threat had gifted. Two wooden plates on the table accompanied by a pitcher of cold water. The fresh smell of wild berry jam wafted through the air, far more intense and less sweet than the artificially produced gunk of Li's home world.

Li got the fireplace started, taking out their firebrand, a circular little piece of silver inscribed with a rune that he recognized as the lowest variant of Ignis. In Elden World, weapons and armor had runeslots where runes could be placed to grant various buffs or even store spell effects, and here, this firebrand acted as a lighter, allowing it to cast one small weak fire spell that recharged every day.

Apparently, back in the day, the people of this world had to use firesteels and flint to get their fires started, but as they learned to live with Elden World magic and became more used to it, they found they could shape it to their needs much better.

Li knelt by the fireplace where piles of charred logs stood piled up. He flashed the firebrand towards it and tapped the silver twice. The rune sparked and a tiny stream of flame, much like a blowtorch, sputtered out, igniting the wood.

”Fire's up,” said Li as he came around to the dinner table.

Old Thane sat down, the wooden chair creaking under his weight as he looked expectantly at Li. ”Say, lad, do you think the lass by the road would appreciate the fire?”

Li shrugged. ”I have my doubts that a little cold would really do anything to her.” He sat down at the table and took in the smell of natural berries. He might not have enjoyed any of the food, but the scent of nature's gifts completely unaffected by pesticides or engineering he would never get tired of. ”Besides, old man, what does it matter to you?”

”Nothing much to me, lad, but the lass has been out all day and now night.” Old Thane cracked a slight smile. ”Say, you haven't been out breaking hearts, have you? The only times I know that young maidens will let their dresses wrinkle in the wind is when their hearts are played with.”

Li straightened his back and craned his neck to see out the window. As expected, Iona still stood at the main road. ”Okay, this isn't that, I guarantee you. If I had to put a word on this, it would be more like…obsession. She'll run along sometime.”

”But you know, lad, obsession is quite the force. I should know, when my muscles were spry and my bones sturdy as iron, I was quite a strapping man myself. It was a terrible ordeal having to pry off doe-eyed lassies here and there from village to city.”

Li rolled his eyes. ”I wonder what Aine would say if she heard this.”

Old Thane chuckled. ”She would respect my iron will! For I have never betrayed her. She was my first and only flame, and no others have ever strayed me from her.” He sighed and shook his head to clear his memories away. ”But to my point, lad, obsession or not, it would be unlike a proper lad to leave her out like this.”

Li shifted in his seat a little. He had to acknowledge that he was treating her a little harshly here, not

even really hearing her out. He had lashed out at her mostly because she had dared to suggest his farm was a front, something fake, something not real. But it wasn't as if he could have expected her to know that.

At the same time, he really didn't have much of a use for her and explaining who she was and what she would do to Old Thane would require quite a bit of imaginative storytelling.

”I'll give her another hour or two. I'm sure she'll see reason and leave by then.”

After an hour, rain started to fall. By this time, Li and Old Thane had finished their meal. As Li cleared the plates and put back the foodstuffs, he glanced out the window. Iona was still there in the exact same spot, showers of rain crashing upon her. Her hair hung low, matted together with water dribbling down its length. Her robes, drenched with water, became even darker than usual, drooping heavily towards the ground.

Her figure, normally hidden under the loose robes, became more visible, and she really did seem to be wasting away. Just like her arms, the rest of her body was gauntly thin.