“I’m pretty sure I’m supposed to be dead”
Evalyn pulled her arm free of the giantess’ grasp and tried to calm her mind enough to take stock of the situation.
The strange woman, though well above average build, was not a giant in the true sense of the word. She looked stunning- St-stunning? Get a grip, Evalyn! -ly normal. The white hue of her hair was obviously not natural up close, and her tanned skin appeared supple, not rough and taught over thick wires of muscle like a true giant. Judging by the surge of divine power Evalyn felt when the totem broke, she assumed the woman’s sudden surge of strength to be related to a Gift. Giant’s possessed a natural magical strength rather than a divine gift. Half-giant seemed possible.
“A human of such size and strange possessions isn’t something I’m familiar with in this country-” Evalyn’s mumbling turned to a sudden gasp of surprise as the woman stooped down and slipped her heavy blue outwear around Evalyn’s waist. Her muddy breeches were hidden before Evalyn could protest.
“Are you okay? That guy shoved you pretty hard,” she gave the sleeves of the blazer looking outerwear a satisfactory tug and gazed into Evalyn’s eyes. A jolt of lightning raced from her head to her toes, stealing her thoughts, her feeling, her heartbeat, her breath.
Divinity.
“You’re…a god?”
The words fell out of her mouth before she had even returned to her body. The stranger’s eyebrows crept up in amusement, revealing more of the endless wheat plains in her eyes.
“Funny. I was going to ask you the same thing, but I don’t think I’m in Heaven,” she said. A groan escaped her as she stood back up. “Everything hurts too much.”
“This is Root Hollow in the country of Rothnia,” Evalyn offered, as the tingle of her body subsided. Where is Heaven?”
“Supposedly, somewhere you go when you die,” the woman muttered. “Oh! Speaking of-” Evalyn followed the woman’s worried gaze as she turned back into the alley at the man still limp on the ground. “He’s…not dead, right?”
Oh. Right. Him.
Panic. Again. Evalyn pushed past the woman and dropped next to the thief. She touched his neck, feeling for the flutter of a pulse. Once she felt it, Evalyn nodded and the woman looked strangely relieved. Only to gasp in horror mere seconds later when Evalyn shoved her hands inside his clothes.
“Woah woah woah! What are you doing?”
“Checking something…”
Since the man laid face down in the dirt, Evalyn lifted the back of his vest and ripped the lining free. She shoved her hand all the way inside and felt nothing. She ran her hands along the length of his legs, feeling only the holster for a hidden blade. She set it next to her to use on the front and looked at the woman.
“Help me turn him over,” She said.
“Wh- no!” The strange woman, who had just minutes ago launched this man fifteen feet into the air, paled at the thought of touching him. Evalyn sighed as that same sinister aura from before rolled over her skin. She motioned quickly with her hand, a flippant gesture of dismissal, and the man’s body jerked and flipped over unnaturally. He groaned, but remained limp and Evalyn suspected several broken bones. She destroyed the front panels of his vest, patted down his shirt and the front of his trousers. She then removed and inspected his shoes for good measure.
Nothing. No signet, no papers, no hidden messages.
“His friend could have it, but I think it’s unlikely,” she muttered.
“Have what?”
“But he saw and got away.” She bit the tip of her thumb.
“Saw what?”
Evalyn’s eyes drifted down to the thief and his knife in her hand.
Realistically I have to kill them. And- She looked back at the woman who, despite her size, looked absolutely terrified.
Her grip on the knife loosened.
“I’m sorry,” she tossed the blade away. “That was disgraceful behavior. You won’t understand why I needed to look, but-” She drooped her head.
“Ah. Um.”
Evalyn heard the shuffling of heavy boots.
That’s right. Run from me. Run from the m-
The shiny boots stopped before her worn leather ones and Evalyn looked up into the face towering over her.
“I’m not gonna pretend that wasn’t hella sketchy or hella scary,” she said. “But-” She gripped Evalyn’s wrist with the heart mark, comparing them side by side. “I just woke up in this place two days ago. I…could really use your help.”
Reality continued creeping in each time Evalyn got swept away by the stranger’s beauty. Her head pounded hard behind her eyes as the stress of her situation settled in. Everything teetered so close to falling apart.
It’s a bad idea.
Her thumb rubbed against the woman’s mark, and Evalyn nearly jumped out of her skin when she felt her own nails rubbing her skin. Even the woman jumped.
They were connected.
Evalyn let out an enormous sigh and cast her eyes around the alley where everything changed. The man on the ground began to moan more as he stirred. Evalyn shoved her filthy stack of books into her bag and adjusted it on her shoulder.
“Come with me, miss-”
“I’m Alice! Alice Irving, but you can just call me Alice if you want.”
“Nice to meet you, Miss Irving. I’m Eve.”
“No last name?” The woman, Alice, glanced around the alley one last time for anything she might have dropped.
“None worth remembering,” Evalyn said, as she shrugged off her cloak and draped it over Alice’s white head. “Come.”
Root Hollow’s Guild Hall, as a headquarters close to a very busy border, easily stood out as the largest complex of buildings in the moderately sized town. The main hall alone boasted an impressive six stories: four floors of rooms for its members and guests similar to an inn or barracks, a large reception on the main floor, and a half story above that where one could see common area amenities from the entrance. In addition to the main hall, the city block that belonged to the Guild included an impressive stable, training grounds, a small forge and ferrier, a very modest clinic and apothecary, and a tavern called the Dove Tail.
They had taken a rather round about way to get there and the sun had already passed well over into the evening sky when Evalyn swung open the reception floor door and pulled Alice inside.
Behind her desk, staring as the lights on the Hunter’s board flickered, a woman in a uniform peeled a segment of a strange berry apart from the rest and popped it into her mouth.
“All done with errands already?” She turned to the front door and froze at the ragged, foul smelling sight standing in the door. Her eyes drifted from the books in Evalyn’s arms to the giant woman towering over Evalyn’s head. Her eyes raised and she looked a bit like she struggled not to laugh.
“I see you… had an unexpected day,” she managed.
Be calm. Be rational. Evalyn took a deep breath and let it out slowly.
“Where is everyone?”
“No one’s back to turn in Commissions yet, but the easier ones should be back tonight most likely. The hunter’s board has lit up like crazy too so we’ll have a lot of those to process tomorrow and the day after.”
Evalyn nodded and started to untie the strange garment Alice tied around her waist.
“Patty and Daryl. Are they around?”
The other two guild workers alongside Evalyn and Branch Captain Lineah were plucky teens that handled errands, couriering messages, inventory and the like. They were orphans too old to go to the orphanage but too young and inexperienced to really become Adventurers.
“Daryl is off delivering the last of the items from yesterday’s fetch quests. Patty went to the market to pick up some ingredients for the Dove Tail,” Lineah crossed her arms. “Why? Gonna tell me what’s going on?”
“Later,” Evalyn replied, crossing the floor with Alice in tow. She grabbed her cloak, which she had draped over Alice’s head as they navigated the city and folded it over her arms with the gross books and Alice’s garment. Lineah gasped at the shock of long white hair that appeared from under the cloak and understood why Evalyn, who never left the Guild Hall without it on, had temporarily given up her own anonymity. “I’m putting the privacy sign on the baths so if anyone does show up, keep them out.”
“...Sure.”
After a quick stop in her own room, where she dropped off the books and retrieved herself some clothes, Evalyn led Alice to the back of the first floor where a door led to a series of public baths used by the members of the Guild. She watched as Evalyn slid what must have been the privacy sign onto a hook on the door and followed her when she gestured that they go inside. The rooms were humid. Wet residue from the early morning baths and showers of many people clung to their skin as soon as they entered.
Evalyn, avoiding looking at Alice directly, motioned to a wooden bench along the wall where water pails leaned drying and a hand crank water pump dripped idly.
“Take off your clothes and leave them over there. Use the water pump to rinse off. I’ll prepare warm water for a bath.”
Alice did as she was told with difficulty. As each layer of clothing slid away, she felt more and more the intensity of Evalyn’s stare. She turned her head, intent on asking the woman watching to turn away, but Evalyn turned suddenly on her own as if she hadn't been aware she was staring until that moment. If she felt embarrassed, Alice couldn’t see it on her face, but Evalyn’s fingers burned a bright red. Alice smirked as Evalyn hurried around the corner. She heard a rush of water and steam began to rise. Her clothes slid free and the ice cold water from the pump refreshed her senses as the bulk of the mud and refuse slid away with each pour.
After she rinsed, Evalyn called around a partition that the bath was ready. At her approach Evalyn’s entire head dropped its attention to the floor. Alice chuckled quietly.
“There’s soap flower gel in the dish by the edge of the tub,” she said. She gestured, intending for Alice’s eyes to follow where she pointed, but Alice stared at the blushing fingers doing the pointing instead. “Take your time. I need to find you something to wear while I wash and dry your clothes.”
“Aren’t you going to bathe too? The bath is huge-” Alice began, but she realized as she was asking that Evalyn appeared clean already. Her shaggy, badly cut hair was slick from being washed and she wore the clean clothes she grabbed from her room. Alice never saw her change. “Never mind, I guess.”
She slipped past Evalyn and stepped into the steaming bath water. Instant relief to pains she hadn’t been aware of until that moment flooded in as she sank into the water with a satisfied groan.
Evalyn lingered feeling awkward, unsure, and confused. Her desire to stare warred with her rationality. After one quick glance at the giantess reclining in the bath, she turned and hurried to gather up their filthy clothes for washing. She thought she heard Alice chuckling as she fled.
____
Evalyn dumped their collection of filthy clothes into a wash basin outside as she crossed the training grounds to the equipment sheds. Inside, amid armor and weapons, repair equipment and more she found an assortment of hand-me-down clothes left by Guild Members. Rummaging around inside, she picked out the largest of the men' s clothes. Nothing obviously cut for women would be large enough.
Her hands slowed in their sorting as a dark shadow passed over her face.
What am I doing?
She stared down at the rough-spun tunic in her hands. Fiddled with the ivory stone buttons near the collar. She sighed.
I have to move again.
In the back of her mind she always expected her time in Root Hollow would end. As a fugitive, staying in one place was never guaranteed for long. But at the cusp of ten years, without so much as a peep of a rumor from him, she had finally started allowing herself to feel safe.
The shattering of her delusions stung her eyes.
A gentle caress of ghostly fingers warmed the heart mark on her wrist, drawing her eyes. Alice appeared to be stroking the same area on her own wrist gently. Probably washing.
Alice…
Evalyn tried to recall the voice she heard in the alley when divine magic surged through the two of them, but the words no longer came to her ears. All that remained was the feeling that Alice was sent to help her somehow. Yet it was Alice who certainly seemed to need more help. She was strong physically, but in a lot of ways she was helpless. Like Evalyn…
With her own situation being what it was, Evalyn wasn’t sure how she could help at all. Other than bringing her some clothes perhaps.
With another sigh, she scooped up the largest of the clothes and headed back to the baths.
Inside the baths, as the humidity climbed and steam curled along the slatted wood floors, Evalyn placed the folded clothes on the side of the bath Alice was using and gestured to her waist.
“That cloak like thing you tied around me-”
“You mean my denim jacket?” Alice asked as she dumped water over her head to wash the suds from her hair.
“If that’s what you call it. I will wash it well, but the fabric feels heavy so it will take time to dry.” Evalyn could not control her eyes from wandering. The curves of Alice’s toned and tanned skin practically forced Evalyn’s gaze to follow the line of her body from her head to her waist. On the side of her stomach was a tattoo more vibrant and colorful than Evalyn thought possible: some kind of ornate carp breaking free of churning water. Alice wiped the water from her face and Evalyn quickly looked away again before getting caught.
“That’s okay,” She said. “It’s not really cold here from what I gathered. What’s the season?”
“Spring,” Evalyn replied.
“So it’s the same as…back home. Interesting.”
Evalyn covered her face with her hands, rubbing her cheeks. “Your clothes will be on the laundry lines in the yard so-”
“Wait. Don’t do that.”
The sudden plea from Alice caused Evalyn to look at her face, which flushed from more than the warm water of the bath.
“Um. It’s just. I saved up for quite awhile to buy that jacket. It’s designer. I don’t want anyone to steal it.”
“No one would dare-” Evalyn’s eyes narrowed with a serious expression but Alice shook her head.
“Please.”
Evalyn’s attempts at being stern and reassuring seemed to backfire each time they made eye contact so she sighed and nodded.
“I’ll dry it in my room.”
“Thank you,” Alice smiled as she climbed out of the tub and grabbed the towel to dry off. “And thank you for the extra clothes.”
“Thank me after we know they fit,” Evalyn replied. Alice laughed.
Crisp. Clear. Like bells. A pleasant sound that soothed Evalyn’s ears. She wanted to hear Alice laugh more and silently cursed her serious personality.
A knock sounded on the door.