TBATE - Not Bound By Fate

Part 14

Doing one final check of my appearance in the mirror I nodded to myself. I was wearing a black button down shirt and midnight blue pants that resembled a pair of jeans from my old world but looked a bit more classy, all courtesy of Seele.

"Simple but sleek, not bad." Commented Regis from the bed.

"Thanks, I want the attention to be on the ring, not me. Just need to check with Sylvie now and I'll be good to go."

"Hey Sylv, is everything ready?"

"Yes, just waiting for you and mama so hurry up." She replied with excitement leaking through our bond.

"Alright, be there in a minute."

"Regis." I called. "You know what to do."

"Aye, aye captain. I'll make sure the sexy elf, the milf and the old man won't leave the castle."

"What!? No, you're supposed to, you know what, nevermind. You can do that, just don't call my mother-in-law a milf."

"You're no fun." He complained.

"And you're just a horny mutt." Sylvie interjected.

With the two of them bickering in my head I left my room and went to the garden to wait for Tess.

After a few minutes of waiting she arrived. She was wearing a light blue dress that went down to her ankles with a white shawl over her shoulders.

"How do I look?" She asked.

"You look great Tess. Ready to go?"

"Yeah, but where are we going, Art?"

"That's a surprise, just take my hand and close your eyes."

She nodded and grabbed my hand. Activating Godstep I searched for the marker I had created a few days ago, in a second we were at the destination.

I chose a lake north of Zestier that had the oldest tree in Elshire in its center for today. Near the shore I had conjured a small platform stone with ice embedded into it to make it glitter under the moonlight that I used to set up the table we would use for our dinner.

"You can open your eyes now."

"Woah, when did you prepare this?" Tess asked as she took in the scenery.

"Well, I don't need a lot of sleep now so I have plenty of time to get things done, plus I have Sylvie and Regis to help me."

"I guess that's true. So if I wake up in the middle of the night and don't see you on the bed, does that mean you're preparing something like this?" She asked with a smile that didn't reach her eyes.

"Not always, if I do this every time it loses its meaning. But do look forward to more dates like this." I answered and she nodded in approval. "How about we get started?" I offered.

"I would like that."

Leading Tess to the table, I pulled the chair for her so she could get seated, then went to my seat on the other side.

"So, we have a table but I don't see food and drinks." Tess commented.

"Look to your right." As she turned her head a box made of ice emerged from the lake and slid in our direction. Once it was close enough the top melted revealing a few bottles of different juices. I wish it was wine but no one was willing to sell me any and taking it from the palace felt wrong so I settled for juice.

"That takes care of drinks, but what about food?"

Taking that as her cue Sylvie came from behind her pushing a cart with our plates. On them was a small portion of vegetable risotto with steak from a frost bull Sylvie hunted earlier today.