Eight Intertwined

163 - Daylight

The sun was steadily crawling its way across the sky as the afternoon wore on, and Tressa collapsed into a bench under the awning of a store. She hadn't realized just how hot it was until after the group stepped out of the lizardmen's cave. Tressa certainly appreciated being given the chance to hide from the worst of the midday heat by fighting against the lizardmen, but she was exhausted after it all too. She wanted to run around town and try to talk to the rest of the travelers, to help mend the bridges that had been burned at some point between Stonegard and Wellspring, but her energy was starting to fail her. Tressa liked to think she had experience with the heat since she had grown up on the beach, but the fact of the matter was that she only knew how to handle the specific type of sunshine found in the Coastlands. The instant she traded that for the unrelenting desert heat of the Sunlands, all of that experience slipped between her fingers like the sand that marked the ground. 

If nothing else, Tressa could say she had a fairly strong idea of where all of the travelers were. Olberic and Alfyn were with Erhardt in the inn as his wounds healed from the duel. Cyrus and Ophilia had opted to retreat to the inn too because of their lack of experience with heat and sunshine like this. Primrose was perusing the shops in town, no doubt interested in picking up a legitimate dancing outfit from the Sunlands. The Sunshade clothing was a bastardization of the culture, but the clothing crafted in Wellspring was made with love for the desert's history, and Primrose had taken an interest in it quickly whether she wanted to admit it openly or not. Therion and H'aanit were last spotted talking near the edge of town, though Tressa couldn't say how that had ended since she didn't want to approach them and risk setting Therion off again. If H'aanit was somehow making progress in talking to him, Tressa didn't want to shatter it. 

Tressa didn't need to worry much about breaking through their conversation though. Before she had the chance to think about what she would next say to Therion when they ran into each other, H'aanit appeared in her peripheral vision. Tressa sat up instinctively, waving one hand high above her head. "Hey, H'aanit!" she called out. 

The huntress turned to face Tressa as soon as she realize who was seeking her attention, and she walked over while rubbing one hand across her forehead. "Hello, Tressa," H'aanit greeted. She sat down beside the merchant, and Linde curled up at her feet, mewling for attention to soothe her eternal dissatisfaction with the environment. "How art thou doing?"

"I'm fine," Tressa replied. "I've been trying to figure out how to talk to everyone about... You know..." She tried to come up with a way to finish that thought, but the words just wouldn't come to her, so she instead resorted to gesturing vaguely with her hands. Much to her relief, H'aanit seemed to understand, and she nodded to prove it. Tressa pressed her hands against the bench again moments later, leaning forward like that would somehow answer her next question a bit sooner. "I saw you talking to Therion earlier. What happened there?"

H'aanit hesitated for a moment, and that was enough to tell Tressa that he had stormed off before they could make any real progress. "I believen we aren getting closer to the heart of the matter," H'aanit eventually said. "He wanteth to avoiden the rest of us. I asked him why he did not just leaven if he was that desperate to leave, and... He had no response to that. Instead, he simply walked away."

"Good to know he's just as evasive as ever," Tressa snorted. She couldn't keep the joke up for long, and she sighed heavily as she put more of her weight on her hands. "I wish I knew what to do to help him. We can't fix anything as long as he's pushing us out, but I don't know how to get through to him either."

H'aanit hummed as she stroked the top of Linde's head. "Thou art thinking about what Balogar said."

"Of course I am," Tressa sighed. "We can deny it all we want, but he's right. We haven't fought together well in ages. The last time we were really at the top of our game was when we fought the dragon. We were doing such an amazing job in Victors Hollow, but then... Cyrus got stabbed, and then we ran into Miguel while he and Therion were still recovering... And then there was Albus! And then Simeon right after that! I know we've been going through a lot, but... I want to get back to the way things were before. I really do."