Eight Intertwined

148 - Revello

When Primrose turned back to the rest of the travelers, she was immediately met with the smirking face of Tressa. The merchant dashed up to her, eyes sparkling, before she nudged the dancer in the side. "So... Who was that?" Tressa asked teasingly. "The man of your dreams?"

Primrose's cheeks went pink on the spot. She shouldn't have expected to be able to get away with all of this without at least a bit of teasing being cast in her direction. "Simeon is..." Her eyes drifted briefly over to H'aanit, who thankfully didn't seem jealous of what she had seen from Simeon. Primrose couldn't decide if she was happy for that or not. She knew she definitively was not happy with the darkened glare Therion was casting in her direction, though she couldn't tell if it was because of Simeon or because she still hadn't told H'aanit how she felt. For all he knew, it could have been too late, and he wasn't going to let her get away with that. 

"Very important to you," Tressa finished for Primrose, and the dancer only felt her face go hotter. "The two of you look at each other like I've never seen anyone look at anybody else before! You're so in love!" She clapped her hands together excitedly. "Who would have guessed our sweet Primrose was hiding a knight in shining armor in her past?"

"I wasn't hiding anything," Primrose tried to object, but she could already tell it would be a fruitless effort. She hadn't breathed a word about Simeon to the rest of the travelers leading up to this point. Thinking about him had been just a bit too painful for her, and beyond that, she had been certain she had moved on. She wouldn't have fallen for H'aanit if she hadn't moved on. 

"In some other life, I bet the two of you would have made for a lovely couple," Tressa went on as she took Primrose's hands in her own excitedly. "I can tell how much he means to you even if you don't want to admit it out loud."

Primrose let out a measured breath, knowing there would be no way to escape Tressa's teasing without a fight. She clenched the merchant's hands just a bit tighter before forcing herself to continue speaking carefully and slowly. "What can I say?" she murmured. "When something about a person resonates deep within you, it's the most wonderful feeling. Your heart is freed, your mind is opened... And you realize there's more to the world than you ever knew." Against her better judgement, Primrose's gaze drifted in H'aanit's direction, and she wondered what it would take for her to finally admit to her feelings. She and Therion hadn't followed up on their wager after the Miguel incident sent the thief into a hasty retreat, but Primrose wasn't the type to give up on her deals once she made them. She was still pursuing this revenge mission after ten years, after all. She had made her choice, and she had to live with it. 

Tressa glanced back and forth between Primrose and H'aanit as the pieces finally came together in her mind. She was sharper than she seemed, and it was just a matter of time before she figured out what Primrose and Therion had been dancing around discussing back in Saintsbridge. Recognition dawned on Tressa's face, and she took another step toward Primrose. "You like--"

Ophilia cut in with a nervous laugh when she saw the mounting dread on Primrose's face. "This is the city where you were born and raised, yes?" Ophilia interrupted even though she already knew the answer. The group wouldn't have been back there at all if the answer had been negative, after all. 

Primrose was beyond relieved for Ophilia's intervention, and she nodded. "It is," she confirmed. "Though much has changed in the last ten years. The people, the town..." Even that felt like an understatement. The city barely felt like the same place anymore even though Primrose knew it was. She wished she had investigated a bit more when she was there during Therion's mission to retrieve the ruby dragonstone. Maybe she could have saved her people some extra strife through early intervention. 

"It seems like this lord we've been told about has a lot to do with that," Ophilia remarked. "But since your family is no longer in charge around here, I suppose someone else took over once they realized there was a power vacuum..."