CH528

Okay, I wasn’t expecting to have to deal with anything like this in my last couple days here.

Dinner with everyone had ended smoother than he’d been expecting. It had been nice enough to see his friends and in the end, Yuzu had managed the conversation with his students enough that he didn’t really have to talk to them and make nice outside of one or two questions, but in the following day, he was being forced to deal with the small change in all of them.

Zallith was adapting well to his life as a footstool, considering it penance for his poor behaviour when Ben had first arrived while Xilly was just quietly doing the assigned work, too beaten down by Yuzu’s reveals to keep up her confrontational attitude, nor could she keep holding his species against him. As far as he was concerned, it had created a far nicer environment overall, but that did leave just one last person on his mind.

He could see Nati’s thoughts and knew that there was almost something picking at her mind, yet something she hadn’t managed to put into full words herself. It wouldn’t have been too bad if that was all, but it left her constantly taking glances at him, opening her mouth to say something and stopping partway through. It was exhausting.

It was only when he heard the notification going off in both of the girls' heads at another connect level that he released them from his mind, giving them a break.

“Okay guys, take five and then we’ll change things up a bit. Instead of practicing more connect, you’ll both be trying to apply the lessons I’ve been giving you. Decide amongst yourselves what you want to enchant and I’ll look it over after.”

And decide where I’m going to change things. Let’s see, I’ve been making them both deal with the same configurations of my thoughts but Xilly’s the one falling behind. If I want them to match a little more so they both end things at the same level then I should make the minds she deals with a bit more complicated. It’s not exactly going to be pleasant for her but this is just using hard work to make up for a lack of talent. She’ll just have to deal with a bit of a migraine when we go back to this tomorrow, it will be fine.

With that casual choice sealing the girl’s fate in Ben’s effort to raise up her connect level as fast as possible, Ben was content to sit back and relax just a little while watching them work.

If he was being honest with himself, he was a little tired. He chalked it up to teaching taking a bit of a toll and promised himself he would let himself sleep in just a little for his first day back to Stonewall, but it was clear he wouldn’t be getting any real rest soon with that fact becoming more and more apparent as he watched his students. Each time they tried to lay down an enchantment together, they failed, with only one of them being the issue.

“Nati, if you have something to say then just say it already,” He told her, not really wanting to play the role of therapist but not seeing any chance of her ending up productive unless he did, but despite putting that offer out, she denied herself.

“Um, I don’t. I’m just a bit distracted, sorry.”

When she wasn’t even able to get a firm grasp on what was bothering her, how could she get help from another? The issue was that she was suddenly thinking about Ben a lot more and she couldn’t say why, nor could she ask anyone for advice. If she tried to ask Xilly, she knew what the girl was going to say, and Zallith was just a little too useless outside of the work he did for her or the faith to bother with his opinion.

“I’ll give you a hint,” Ben sighed. “You have not accidentally fallen in love with me so it doesn’t matter what Xilly would say, don’t even consider that as an option.”

“...I understand you’re reading my mind, but could you at least pretend not to, please?”

“That depends entirely on what you’re going to think.”

She didn’t see much solution for that, so instead she tried not to think at all, switching to humming a popular tune to drown out the thoughts rattling around in her head, only to get a far more pained reaction from Ben in exchange.

“I change my mind. If it means you’re not going to hum that then sit there and think about me for however long you need to till you get what the actual problem is.”

“My humming isn't that bad,” She said in her defense, a little offended by the reaction until Ben shook his head.

“It’s not a problem with the humming, it’s the song of choice I’m objecting to.”

“The song of choice?” She trailed off, trying to imagine what could possibly be the problem until she remembered both the lyrics, along with the circumstances of the songwriter who’d created them,  feeling her eyes go wide. “You’re kidding me.”

“Unfortunately, I am not.”

“Haven’t you only been on this planet for like, four years?”

“Yeah, and it feels infinitely longer than that so no trying to inflict mental damage on me by making me remember just how popular that song is.”

Ben could only count his blessings that he hadn’t heard anyone in Stonewall singing Greed’s famous piece yet, but it was beginning to feel more and more like just a matter of time. One he was going to end up facing one day that would leave him without the smallest of ideas on how to handle it, but he at least got the mercy of Nati quieting down, though that only returned her to her original issue.

It was clear she was too distracted to actually make the progress she needed, so he stopped getting her to try.

“Xilly, keep practicing on your own for a bit. Nati, over here already. Take a seat.”

It wasn’t a request and she moved to do as she was told, seeing Ben wouldn’t let the matter drop.

“I’m really fine, I’m just a bit distracted is all.”

“Yeah, and we’re clearing that up right now so you can get back to work. Let me spell things out for you. You keep thinking about how I talk with Myriad. Why do you think that is?”

The brief back and forth he’d had with his god just the day prior, along with a few other times they’d exchanged words in Nati’s presence were echoing around her head, distracting her from the work she needed to do.

Ben would have preferred to ignore it if he could have, but it was at the point that it was distracting her from her ability to learn, the one thing he was there to make her do, so whether she liked it or not, she’d be confronting her feelings about the topic head-on.

“I don’t know, it’s just, isn’t it weird?” She asked him. “You’re talking to someone so high above you, how can you just have a casual back and forth? It seems more like you’re talking to a friend than anything else.”

“That’s because when I do it I am talking to a friend.”

The answer seemed to have caught her off guard and left Ben to sigh as he went on.

“Alright, Nati, what are gods to you?”

“What, what’s that even supposed to mean? Gods are gods. They raise up and guide us. They look after us and they make sure our needs are met while giving us the protection they can.”

“Propaganda.”

“What?”

“Nothing,” Ben told her, pinching his brow. He wasn’t in the mood to get into whether or not the gods of the world actually did all of that, or if they were worthy of worship. There was a different point he was trying to make. “In that case, what’s Nare to you?”

“Obviously he’s both my grandfather and my god.”

“Fine, which is he first?”

It was another question met with silence, leaving Ben to try a different angle.

“In that case, what are you to him? Granddaughter first or believer first?”

“Does it matter? I know my place in the faith and what’s expected of me. Anything more than that is irrelevant.”

“Quite right,” Zallith chimed in from beneath Ben’s feet. “And she fills her role expertly too. She shows the proper respect for Nare and-”

“Footstools don’t talk!” Ben yelled at him, bringing his foot down on the priest and making him collapse to the ground from the force behind the blow. “And that’s exactly the problem here. Of course, what you are to him matters. He’s your family. Are you going to let others decide what that means?”

“Um, I think I heard the sounds of bones breaking when you did that.”

“So very not important right now. You thought he tried to pair you off with me because he was looking at you as a tool for his faith because you’re looking at him as a god before he’s your grandfather. You should at least try and figure out if he feels the same.”

“I don’t think Zallith is even conscious right now. Wait, is he breathing?”

“Okay, I can see we’re getting nowhere while there’s distractions around so we’re changing venues a bit. Just one second.”

He pulled her into his mind so she’d stop worrying about meaningless things like the state of the priest beneath his feet and instead focus on the question at hand, or at least that was the intent.

“Can you at least get Xilly to look at him while we’re doing this?”

“She’s busy practicing, so no. Now focus, your opinion of Nare is obviously pretty messed up because you see him as a god before he’s your grandfather. Why do you see him like that?”

“How else am I supposed to see him?” She asked, unable to keep the annoyance from her voice at the line of questioning he kept pushing. “I exist because he and my other grandparents tried to make a decent weapon for a war and they just got lucky that the traits passed down to me as well. When I’m always told to be a good member of the faith too, why should I believe he sees me any other way?”

“Is he one of the ones saying it to you?”

“He doesn’t have to be.”

“Well, his own thoughts kind of matter instead of letting anyone else speak for him. Okay, you know what, we’re trying something else. Not sure if it will work but there’s no need to say if it hurts. I’m in your head so I’ll already know.”

“What?”

Without an answer though, Nati found herself subjected to what could only be called a force. Something that pulled and squeezed at her for just a minute until she found herself somewhere different again but at the same time familiar. She was in Nare’s realm, with the god looking at both of them in shock.

“Okay, looks like that worked. Hey Nare, glad to see you’re here this time buddy!”

“...How did you get here?”

“I was brought here not too long ago, it taught me the way,” Ben said innocently, even if that statement was immediately denied.

“I didn’t bring you to my realm specifically to keep this from happening, we went to a common space instead.”

“Wait, you tried to keep me out? Hurtful.”

“You can like someone and still not want them crawling in through your window. Now how did you manage this already?”

“Okay, okay, don’t spread it around but it looks like I can feel how faith is directed in a church and use that to find the way so I popped up here the other day but you were out at the time.”

“...Well, that’s a little horrifying to know but fine, I won’t mention this to others since the reaction is bound to be a little too extreme. Do I even want to ask how you somehow dragged Nati up with you?”

“I tried pulling her up while I was connected with her. If nothing else, this trip has proven itself pretty good for testing aspects of my sacrilege.”

“Also horrifying but very well. Should I take this meeting as an indication of some other bit of poor behaviour I’ve missed down there, I- wait, why is my priest bleeding internally?”

“Is that happening? Oops, maybe send a quick message to Xilly to fix that, I guess she can have a small break from her practice. And Nati hasn’t done anything wrong, I just came up here to have you talk to her and hopefully clear up some worries of hers so she can actually focus on her work. Nare, do you consider her your granddaughter or believer first?”

“What a ridiculous question.”

“I agree but still answer it.”

Nati didn’t have many expectations of what he’d say, she wasn’t even sure what the point of being up there was, but Nare putting things in order changed that.

“Ben, no matter how unhappy I am with her for her treatment of you, she is clearly my granddaughter first and foremost,” The god sighed. “I don’t know what you’re trying to do by… Ah.”

It was mostly the reaction Ben had expected from the god after having known him for long enough, but what he hadn’t been expecting was the emotional reaction from Nati. She was crying and Nare could see in her head exactly why, how firm he was in his statement having been completely unexpected to her as she’d subconsciously let her relationship with him be defined by others.

“Alright, I’ve done my part so why don’t you guys actually talk things out for a while and I’m going to head back down. Just remember what a great teacher and friend I am, Nare! I definitely deserve a bonus!”

He wasn't showing much tact but left the two immediately after to talk, feeling pretty good about himself by the time he was done.

Author's note

Happy new year! And it looks like we have three mystery patrons at the highest tier this time, getting you all some extra chapters to kick this year off so give them some thanks in the comments and hope you all enjoy!