Rise of the Living Forge

Chapter 118: Reya's challenge

The room that they’d come from was, unsurprisingly, empty. Arwin hadn’t really expected anyone to be there. That hadn’t stopped him from coming prepared for a fight if need be.

He let himself relax slightly and turned to Reya as he stepped in behind him.

“Looks pretty empty,” Reya said. “Should we head back? Or are we going to stand guard?”

“I actually called you here as an excuse to speak privately. I don’t really think that we’re going to get someone walking up behind us. It looks like the guards at the entrance were pretty good at regulating who went into what path.”

Reya grinned. “Ah. You want to see my new ability, huh?”

“Well, yes,” Arwin admitted. “But that isn’t it either.”

Confusion replaced the smile on Reya’s face and she sent him a blank stare. “Oh. What is it, then?”

“Olive,” Arwin said, nodding over his shoulder. “It seems like something’s going on. You’ve been pretty hostile to her in general, and I was wondering if it was because you knew something. Are you familiar with her?”

“What?” Reya blinked, then shook her head. “No. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“This is serious.” Arwin crossed his arms and held Reya’s gaze. “I got you not really liking it when it looked like Olive might have been freeloading off us, but she’s paid her debts back and is carrying her weight in the dungeon pretty well. You’re definitely trying to antagonize her. If she’s someone from your past–”

“She isn’t,” Reya insisted, running a hand through her hair and groaning. “Don’t worry about it, Arwin. I’d never met her before you did. I don’t know anything that you don’t.”

That only served to confuse him even further. His brow furrowed and he scratched at the stubble that was starting to grow on the underside of his chin. “I don’t get it. If that’s true, what’s going on? Did she do something when I wasn’t watching?”

“No.”

“You’re sure?” Arwin pressed. “She’s not bullying you, is she?”

“No!” Reya caught her voice before it could get too loud and carry down the tunnel to the others. She coughed into a fist and looked over her shoulder at the way back to the others, her feet edging toward it as if hoping to escape her body.

Arwin caught her by the shoulders and looked into her eyes. “If something is wrong, you can tell me.”

“Would you please just let it drop?” Reya begged. “I’m telling you, there’s nothing.”

“The way you’re acting really seems to imply that it isn’t just nothing. I don’t mean to be pushy–”

“You’re being pushy.”

“–then I apologize, but I need to put all of our safety above that. I can’t just decide that I’m strong enough to handle the threats as they come anymore, Reya. We need to handle them together. That’s the conclusion I came to. The very one that I shared with you. You know my viewpoint.”

Reya bit her tongue and blew up her cheeks, letting it out with a slow groan. “What if I just promised you that nothing was wrong and there really wasn’t any reason for you to bother with this? Would that be enough?”

“I told you my real identity,” Arwin pointed out. He let go of Reya’s shoulders so he could cross his arms and give her the most fatherly look he could muster. “Can this possibly be any more problematic to share than that?”

“Goddamn it,” Reya muttered. She matched his stance, her cheeks flushing, and glared at him. “Fine. I think she’s pretty.”

Arwin blinked. Of all the answers that he’d been preparing for, that wasn’t one of them. He stared at Reya in mute shock. It took him a few seconds to process what she’d said.

“I thought you hated her?” Arwin asked, squinting in confusion. “When we first met?”

“I did.” Reya’s cheeks had turned the same hue as some of the tomatoes Arwin had seen in the market, but he didn’t suspect that pointing that particular fact out would be good for his continued health. “I thought she was just some girl who was gonna use her looks to get what she wanted, you know? I got over that once she brought the money back.”

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“Oh,” Arwin said lamely. “Why are you acting like this, then? It doesn’t add up.”

“What do you mean? I’m not acting weird.”

“Yes you are. It seemed like you were mad at–”

Arwin trailed off as he finally caught on. Reya hadn’t been mad. She’d been trying to show off while acting standoffish in hopes that Olive would try to approach her. It took every ounce of self-restraint he had to keep himself from busting out into laughter. That would have completely crushed Reya, which was the last thing he wanted to do.

“You were trying to flirt?” Arwin chose his words carefully.

“Can’t we please change the subject or something?” Reya asked.

“Not if it’s going to affect the group dynamic. Besides, do you really think Olive is going to want to keep adventuring with us if she thinks you hate her?”

Reya blinked. “Why would she think that?”

“You do realize you’ve done nothing but glare or look away from her this whole time, right?”

Reya scratched the back of her neck. “Well, yeah. I guess. I don’t really have much experience with this. I’m not sure what else I’m meant to do. We didn’t really have the opportunity to do that kind of thing where I grew up.”

I don’t think living on the streets gives you much room to do much of anything, but there’s no way they flirted by glaring at each other. How would you know if someone liked you or wanted to put a dagger between your ribs? Then again, maybe that was the fun part.

“I think you could probably start by speaking to her,” Arwin suggested. “I might not be the best person to give advice for this, but I’m sure that’s a good spot to start.”

“Wouldn’t it be weird now though?” Reya asked. “I haven’t even said anything until now! It would be even odder for me to just randomly start talking to her.”

“Better to fix a mistake halfway through than carry it to completion and live with the full results.”

Reya scrunched her nose in annoyance. “I – okay, that’s a good point I guess.”

Arwin nodded in satisfaction. This definitely hadn’t been anywhere near the problem that he’d been worried it would be. It kind of felt like he’d stuck his nose somewhere where it didn’t belong. Granted, now that he had, he couldn’t exactly pull it back without making Reya feel like he was leaving her to hang.

“Good. Besides, having a better relationship will be good for the health of the team. We don’t want to be wondering if we don’t like each other while we’re in the dungeon.”

“Whoa, who said anything about a relationship?” Reya protested quickly, holding her hands up. “I just said she was pretty! I wasn’t thinking about anything else. I really don’t care all that much either way.”

Arwin resisted the urge to look at her out of the corners of his eyes. She was certainly protesting an awful lot for someone who didn’t care too much.

“I meant your relationship as fellow adventurers on the same team,” Arwin said. “Not a romantic one.”

Reya blinked. She cleared her throat. “Uh. Right. Yeah.”

Arwin nodded sagely. They stood in awkward silence for a second. Reya hadn’t tried to actually escape yet, but he couldn’t tell if that was because she was so embarrassed that she couldn’t move or if it was because she wanted advice.

He couldn’t be bothered figuring out which, so he chose the direct route.

“Did you want advice?” Arwin asked.

“What? No,” Reya said. “Definitely not.”

“Fair enough. I’ll drop it then,” Arwin said. “Let’s head back to the others.”

Reya started to nod but paused and caught his eye as he turned to leave. She cleared her throat again. “Uh… if you were going to give advice, what would it be?”

“Oh. I was mostly asking if you wanted it,” Arwin said with a sheepish laugh. “I haven’t the faintest idea. Maybe give her a gift? Or just try to get to know her? I mean, what if you can’t stand her personality?”

“She’s a badass,” Reya muttered. “Have you ever seen someone fight like that with just one arm? And she cut the Mimipede like it was nothing. I’m sure you and Lillia could probably do something like that, but who else?”

I think there might be more to personality than how good you are at killing things, but who am I to point that out?

“Then maybe tell her how cool it was,” Arwin suggested, thinking back to when he’d taught some techniques to warriors that had been part of his personal guard. “Or ask her for advice on fighting since you like her style so much. Most people like teaching small things. It makes them feel appreciated.”

Reya tilted her head to the side in thought, then slowly nodded. “I – huh. I think that makes sense. I guess it could work.”

“It’s a way to at least try to talk to her,” Arwin said with a shrug. “You can both figure things out from there as they come. Who knows what you’ll think of each other, but it’s better than just glaring from a distance. I probably still wouldn’t tell her about your new ability though. Not until we decide if she’s going to stick around or not.”

“Yeah, that’s true,” Reya said. She shook her head and drew in a short breath, letting it out through her mouth. “Okay. Godspit, I can’t realize I was this obvious. I’m really embarrassed. Do you think the others noticed?”

“I mean, I didn’t really notice. I just thought you hated her.”

Reya immediately reddened again and buried her face in her hands. “Damn it.”

“Hey, you’ll get there eventually,” Arwin said. “What matters is that you’re trying to improve. Now, shall we head back to the others so they don’t start wondering if something went wrong and come looking for us?”

“Yeah,” Reya said meekly. “That might be a good idea.”

Arwin nodded and clapped her on the shoulder. They strode back down the tunnel. Something told Arwin that, whatever the monster waiting for them in the next room of the dungeon was, it couldn’t possibly be as much of a challenge as trying to help navigate Reya’s love life.