I Can't Get the Vampire Rogue to Romance Me

Chapter 31 - The Statue of Kish

"So what would you like? I got swords, daggers, maces, a couple of hatchets, and one two-handed axe, that I can spare," Harrowheart said, as her fingers moved in the air, sliding the menus only she could see from her left to her right. "I also have a few bits of armor."

"Nothing with magic?" Valerian asked, "We did, in fact save your life."

"We saved her forge," Evangeline corrected, dryly.

"Which her life depends on, ergo..." Valerian gestured with an open palm to emphasize his point.

Harrowheart narrowed her eyes at him, but didn't let her smile falter. She had clearly dealt with customers like him before. "Nope, no magic imbued items for sale unfortunately," she said. Not that she didn't have any, but that they weren't for sale, and the condition of her offer had been anything in her stock. There were a few more branches of dialogue where one could haggle some of that secret stock out of her, but what she had didn't really interest Evangeline as they would all be replaceable soon enough anyway.

"What an ass," Evangeline said, passing the code phrase off like an inside joke on him to Harrowheart, before continuing. "There is only one weapon you have that I'm interested in," Evangeline crossed her arms, her own smug smile dancing on her lips. This was fun.

"And what would that be?" Harrowheart said, crossing her own arms back, rising to the implied challenge.

"You," Evangeline said.

Harrowheart's singed eyebrows bolted up. "Excuse me?"

"What?" Hagor asked, equally surprised while Valerian sneered, turning to Evangeline like she had gone mad.

"I'd like you to join us," the cheeky rogue repeated, clearer. Again this was all pre-determined dialogue. "Your skills would be a huge asset to us on our journey."

After a moment, Harrowheart laughed. "Absolutely not, but I'm flattered."

"You got something keeping you here?" Evangeline countered, knowing her attempts here were going to fail, but she knew the right path through the dialogue to get Harrowheart to join them eventually.

# # #

What Evangeline wasn't privy to, was the push back she would get from the others about setting them off on the Harrowheart's little quest.

"I don't understand why we are wasting our time with this!" Sigismund groused as they walked out of the grotto and deeper into the grove on the other side.

"You don't have to come with me, I can just run this errand and meet you all at the camp?" Evangeline offered, carrying the cloth wrapped box Harrowheart had presented her over her shoulder in a cloth sling.

"No, we can't." Sigismund folded her arms. "Collars. Remember?"

"Hey, if she wants to waste her time running errands, who are we to argue?" Valerian chimed in as he set his laced together hands on top of his head.

"People with feet who would very much like to sit down and take a long rest!" Sigismund sneered at his cavalier-ness.

"This is a beautiful place!" Artmond declared, staring around them with an open, grinning mouth. "It's like buildings are built into the trees."

"More like the trees grew the buildings," Hagor said, gesturing to around them. "A combination of Nature's magic and druidic will to create a perfect environment for its children to live. I was born in a grove like this."

Then Hagor's warm expression fell as his eyes landed a carved statue standing between two small trees with their boughs hovering over it like a natural arch. The statue was one of a beautiful woman, her hair long down her back with carved stone flowers throughout. She had a crown of larger flowers and fern fronds raising out of it like tines. Both her hands were open, the palms cupped upward. A small stone squirrel creature sat in one and a tiny cornucopia overflowing with tiny fruits and vegetables. Approaching the statue, Evangeline saw that the representation was the same height as herself.

"Now who is this?" she asked, trying to remember.

"The goddess of nature," Hagor as if in a dream.

"Well, one of them," Valerian sniffed. "There are, like, half a dozen of them."

"Not even!" Sigismund cried, affronted. "She is one of two true nature gods. The rest are only have nature aspects. Not at all the same thing."

"Yes, that is such an important distinction, after all," Valerian baited, but Evangeline ignored both of them as they continued their little tete-a-tete. Her focus kept on Hagor as he continued to look upon the effigy almost mournfully.

"Hagor?" she asked, gently setting a hand against his back.

He flinched at her touch, breaking his gaze to meet hers. She cocked her own with a silent question.

Brushing his forearm across his eyes, wiping away tears that were just starting to form, he cleared his throat. "Uh, let's get going. Finish your errand."

"What is it, Hagor?" Evangeline asked. "Who is she?"

"Uh. She is Kish. The goddess of nature, twin sister to Ashan, the god of nature," he said, but the way he said their names was far more personal than merely stating known facts. "Or rather, she is the goddess of nature in the night and he is the god of nature during the day. It's... it's very complicated."

Evangeline nodded, taking that information in, glad that she would know it now instead of having to burn a Meta point to remember. "That does sound very complicated," she agreed. Then another thought occurred to her. "And you followed her?"

Hagor blew out a breath. "Not exactly. I am a druid and we believe... well our powers come directly from nature. They are gods of nature, but Nature itself is an entity of sorts all onto itself. It is the very fabric of the world we live in. The gods are more like... custodians of Nature, like we are. Maybe the greatest custodians."

"Ah, hence why you're a druid and not a cleric," Evangeline said, then furrowed her brow. "Are their nature clerics?"

"Yes," Sigismund cut in, abandoning her argument with Valerian, who seemed to be doing it for the sake of an activity he enjoyed way too much, according to his grin. "Yes, there are nature clerics and that is the crux of the problem between them and druids."

"Druid!" a harsh voice barked, "What are you doing here?"

 To be continued...

To read the latest chapter join my newsletter at meganmackieauthor.com