Always Blame a God

The Offer

Erin and Derrick sat watching the fire and drinking rose hip tea after a dinner of potato and stringy-wolf stew. Not the most pleasant of dinners but food, nonetheless. The woman held her cup in her lap with both hands. "So," she began slowly, "if you're real, then what else in the stories is real too? There's been talk around town that seekers have been walking around terrorizing the countryside, though I just ignored them as rumors. They say you're cold-hearted and kill for fun. That you don't feel anything." She studied his eyes. "But I saw how hurt you looked when I called you a murderer."

"We do indeed feel emotions," he said somberly. Though sometimes I wish that we didn't. "And it's true that we live a long time." Some of us. He took a sip of tea and held it in his mouth as he pondered. There are things that those stories conveniently skip over. "Of course, what they neglect to say is that we also can die. Even of something as simple as an infected wound, though not usually." And I can skip over a lot of it right now as well.

Erin pointed to her scarred face. "What about healing?" She refilled her cup from the pot over the fire and offered some to him as well. He gladly held out his cup for more.

Derrick took a sip and ran his finger along the deep jagged scar on his forehead. "Yes, as you can see, that one is most definitely true. We heal injuries very quickly, though larger wounds often leave scars behind. This one took about two weeks after being laid open with a cracked skull. And we have been instructed well in the use of healing herbs."

"Just healing?" she asked suspiciously, eyebrow raised.

"No," he responded frankly. My, she caught on to that quickly. He stretched his legs out toward the fire from where he sat. "Not just healing. But as I said before, I am no assassin."

Her eyes looked around the room at anything other than him. "Derrick, are you...human?"

He clenched his jaw and held the cup tightly. I was wondering how long it would take for that question to come up. "That depends on your definition of human." He sighed and forcibly relaxed his body. "And that's a question that has been asked many times. A question I ask my myself as well." His fingers pinched the bridge of his nose to fight back memories of days long past. "Did I start out as a human like you? Yes. Have I been magicked to within an inch of my very long life? Also yes. I'm stronger, faster, harder to kill, and harder to avoid than regular people. As to whether I'm still human?" He paused and shut his eyes. "I don't know."

Erin took a drink then told him matter-of-factly, "Well, I think if you have to ask yourself that question, then you're probably just a really special human."

"Damn," he sighed. "When you put it that way, it makes it seem so much easier." He drained his cup and grin snuck back on his face. "What about you? Husband? Kids?"

"What?" She choked on her tea with her laughter. "Hell no! If you must know, part of why the town hates me is because I don't fancy their manly offerings. To top that all off, I can't think of a man around here that would take me, and there aren't any that I would take. So, no. Just me and Seer."

Unattached. And I have a hunch. But I'll let her confirm it. Make no difference to me. "And your trade?"

She pointed to the mantle where the small shrine sat. "We keep busy trapping in the snow and forging in the heat."

"You're a smith?" She definitely knows what hard physical work is between that and the trapping. He laughed and shook his head. "That explains a few things."

"Such as?" she said testily as she set her cup on the table and crossed her arms.

Derrick stood and warmed his backside against the fire. "Well first off, it explains the workshop that could fit two of your cabins inside and still have room. Second, you aren't exactly built like a waif." She stared at the floor instead of at him. Wrong thing to say, idiot, she's self-conscious. Should have known that from her last comment. He followed up his statement quickly and kindly, "I mean that in a good way. You can obviously take care of yourself—which is more than I can say for most people I've met."