CH384

“Alright, since I’m here let me handle dinner,” He told Fontesh as they got back to her home. “Since Delair was showing off that she got the crafting skill does she have any practice with it?”

“A little,” Fontesh said with a smile, rubbing her daughter’s head as she did. “When you left she was so insistent on trying to get it so we got her to balance out learning a bit of cooking, sewing, and art with a few of the villagers that could help her with that.”

“Awesome, well while I’m around why don’t I try and help her brush up a bit on that aspect too if that sounds good?”

The young girl was nodding enthusiastically while her mother only laughed. “If she wants to learn then I’m not going to stop her. Teach her well enough that she can cover the meals and that will leave me some time for some other things too.”

“Ha, sounds good. And you don’t mind her using a knife, do you? I’ll teach her the basic bits of safety while I’m here, but if you’re cool with it that would mean I could also teach her a bit of wood carving too. It’s another aspect of crafting so it would be good practice, especially since you have so many trees around to take advantage of. Plus, if we can get her enchanting before I leave it would give her something to practice making enchantments on too.”

“That’s fine,” She agreed easily enough before focusing on her daughter. “But Delair, if Ben is going to take some of the time he’s here to teach you then you need to put your all into learning, understood? He’s already trying something plenty hard on his own so you can’t be distracting him when he needs to put as much effort into his goal as he can.”

“Yes mom.”

Fontesh gave her a smile. She appreciated just how extremely difficult it was to awaken a skill and she didn’t want to get in the way of Ben’s original goal going out there, but since he seemed happy enough to indulge her daughter then she was happy to let him.

“Alright,” He said confidently, rustling the girl’s hair. “Let’s get started. First things first is proper knife safety. I’ll show you how to cut the vegetables for dinner and while we’re cooking I’ll try and guide you. Maybe we can talk about how flavours can be chosen to complement each other too. Hope you’re ready for this kiddo ‘cause now that I’ve decided to, I’ll be making you learn as much as you can in the weeks I’m here.”

He said it with a smile and in response, Delair’s eyes lit up with excitement, ready to use the time to learn all she could.

After the meal, Ben spent a couple hours talking to the girl as Fontesh and Thera stood by, near enough to listen but less enthralled by the finer points of crafting and enchanting to want to get involved in the talk, instead chatting about what had gone on in the time since they’d seen one another, right up until it was time to head to bed.

They said their good nights as Ben and Thera moved to the same room they’d stayed in during their last visit as they looked at the shared bed before Ben focused on his girlfriend’s face.

“You’re blushing.”

“I am not,” She firmly told him, slapping his arm as she looked away. “Just step outside and let me change.”

He did exactly as he was asked, giving her a few minutes before coming back and finding her already tucked in, a golden glow still spread across her cheeks.

It was a sight that had shown up more and more recently as they would part for the night and he could only wonder what was going on through her head, paying her the courtesy of not just checking without her permission, no matter how curious it might have left him.

“Want me to sleep on the ground?”

“Just get in here already you idiot.”

It was all the invitation he needed as he went to lie down, wrapping an arm around her as he did.

“Thanks again for coming all the way out here with me.”

“Pfff, if I didn’t then who knows what would happen to you? Just don’t get yourself attacked while I’m out visiting the surrounding towns.”

Thera still wanted to offer her services as a healer after all. The month he planned on being there to train was no short stretch of time by any means and she fully intended on doing her best to get as many levels to her job as she could before things went downhill.

“I’ll do my best. Also, would you mind picking up a few things for me while you’re going around? I’m going to need a lot more paper for notes and getting a few tools for Delair to use would be handy for her to practice with after I leave.”

It was as he was saying it that a small laugh couldn’t help but escape Thera as she leaned in closer. “You’re like a father who wants to spoil his daughter.”

“Hey, I’m not that old. At least say a brother spoiling his little sister.”

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Mmh, no. The feeling you’re giving is definitely that of a dad who’s excited his daughter is showing an interest in what he does. You seem more interested in helping her right now than you are trying to push your connect over the edge.”

“Thinking of how to train someone is just more stimulating,” He said in his defense. “For connect I just need to link up with the forest and hope it doesn’t make my brain explode. For training, I need to consider the best way to help her grow based on my own experiences while also taking the resources she has available into account. It is a perfectly normal level of interest.”

“Ha, sure, sure, if you say so,” She told him, not believing him for a second. It didn’t take knowing him personally to see how much he’d enjoyed the bit of time he’d already spent on teaching her, and Delair seemed like she was determined to live up to her promise with her mother to be an attentive student. If they survived up to the third wave and that really managed to be the end of things like so many people desperately wanted to hope, there was a very possible chance that Ben would be ending up with an apprentice of his own.

She couldn’t help but imagine that future. If Delair was going to become Ben’s apprentice then that would mean the girl would have to move to Stonewall, but that seemed like it could be hard on her in its own way. Sure, she’d have family in the form of Sachel present, but Thera knew that she would take more distant quests, as well as have to go out to preach as the oracle of Myriad.

Given that, it really would make more sense for Delair to be staying with her and Ben instead as she let herself imagine it. There wouldn’t be enough room in her aunt’s home to take someone in, but Ben did own an entire other house in town, its only issue being the number of deathtraps he’d built into it. If he took them out then it would be the perfect place for a family-

“What am I even thinking?” She muttered, shaking her head of the thought as Ben looked at her curiously.