For a few minutes longer, Ben and Cheele spoke. It seemed like no more guests were showing up from there, giving him a bit of leeway to think and plan his next moves that were only interrupted with the arrival of two more, Thera and Saph joining them.
“Ah, it’s you,” Cheele said, not to his half-sister but to Thera by her side. “I never did thank you enough for your help in Allfaith. Should you ever require a favour that may be, let’s say, less than ethical, get the apostle to contact me. I’ll be sure to pay you back.”
It was something he’d meant to say the last time they were in the same room together, but at that time, he’d both been given a quest from his god while he’d also been in the presence of two soul mages. Through it all, he’d never found the chance to properly convey the level of thanks deserved for how she’d helped change his life.
“Oh, thanks,” Thera said, caught off guard and needing a moment to realize that she was before the one who’d once kidnapped Ben and Greed, before they’d been tossed into the dead god’s trial, and allowed Ben to take over.
“Ahem, Cheele, I don’t think you were ever formally introduced, but that’s my partner, Thera, as well as your half-sister by her side, Saph. Saph, this would be Cheele, your half-brother.”
“I can see that,” the girl said, anyone with a hint of ruby there practically certain to be a half-sibling she’d never met, leaving her plenty of options to choose from, even if she tried to be polite. “Nice to meet you.”
“Likewise, I would say it’s a pleasure,” Cheele told her, offering his claw to shake, which she hesitantly took. “The few times I’ve met up with him, father has spoken highly of you. It sounds like he owes you his attempt to be a better man.”
“Ah, no,” she tried to stop him, not having been prepared for the praise. “That’s Gennet. She’s honestly too good for him.”
“I suspect most people are,” Cheele chuckled, leaving Ben and Thera to listen in on the bit of badmouthing that was sure to be taking place across the field, with nothing like a common enemy to unite people. “Still, I hope his first attempt at proper parenting isn’t treating you too poorly.”
“He could be doing worse, I suppose.”
Not the best evaluation, but anything better might have been too much to hope for, with Thera breaking in to spare Greed, even without him there to hear it.
“I guess Gennet is all finished up so things should be starting in just a few minutes, in case you all wanted to find a place to watch.”
“Ah, then I suppose I’d best find my spot,” Cheele told them, one of the shortest ones there. “I’m sure this will make for an entertaining viewing experience at the very least.”
“Alright, good catching up with you, Cheele,” Ben told him. “Good luck with taking over the family business.”
Stolen story; please report.
Goodbyes said, he felt two sets of eyes on him after the crab left, Thera speaking first.
“You really are willing to get way too chummy with people who’ve tried to kill you.”
“Actually, he only tried to kill Greed, I was just mistakenly brought along for the ride. Now, if there’s nothing else from you guys-”
“Did you really save my father’s life?” Saph cut him off, asking the question that had been on her mind. “Like he sings about in his song?”
“Me and him saved each other’s lives, it’s not a big deal.”
“It is to him. He speaks very fondly of you.”
“Well, we spent months surviving hell together, it built up a bond. I think well of him too. I know he was a worse man in the past, but I hope that the fact that he’s trying to improve is worth something.”
He wasn’t sure if her feelings were directed at the amount of time he and Greed had spent together or the bond they shared, but if that was what was making the girl awkward with him then he could understand it. Having a closer relationship with someone close to her own age than he did his own daughter was sure to leave certain complicated feelings behind, but there wasn’t much helping that. He could only hope that their relationship might improve as time went on, even if what she said next lowered his expectations of how much more they still had to go.
“He’s an idiot,” she told him definitively.
“Well-”
“But Gennet probably should have clarified a couple of things for him too. She grew up in the culture, so it doesn’t seem as strange to her.”
“Um, I’m sorry?”
“You’ve saved his life before, right? He makes you sound clever, maybe you’ll be able to do something once the ceremony starts, seeing as he was too dumb to properly look into it.”
“What?”
With what she was saying just worrying enough to bother him, he looked directly in her mind for answers, feeling sick with what he’d found.
Like all but the original elves, dark elves as a race had a complicated history, having been taken from their homeworld by its evil god and sold to one of the other habitable planets in their system, letting the gods of those worlds have a species they could make smaller modifications to in order to create worshipers, with the gods they’d been given to each having their own quirks. What he and Greed both had been unprepared for was exactly what that meant for the coming groom.
AUGH! Fucking hell, why! Greed, you horrible bastard, you ask me to save your life and you couldn’t even bother getting your fiancée to warn you about any danger there might be involved in this?
He wanted to curse more, but he didn’t have the chance. In front of everyone else, the master of ceremonies stood to make an announcement while other dark elves moved some of the setup walls and tarps, revealing the gauntlet underneath as he announced himself to the crowd.
“One and all, stop and bear witness as the musician, Greed, faces the challenge of Anqual, proving before all in attendance today both his will and his love!”
At one end, Gennet, dressed up and looking like a prize with decorative feathers and frills lining her wedding outfit, a beautiful headpiece of giant, ornate quills resting on her hair while at the other end stood Greed, still under enough of the effect of deep calming to keep the crab from outright panicking as he faced everything that stood between them. Most of the crab’s vision was blocked off by a wall placed in front of him but he could still see enough around it, pits of spikes and some with oil, nearby dark elves going to light them, other walls to be overcome and other traps along the way too. Ben, like everyone else there, got to see the wedding trial of the war god Anqual, needing to be both challenged and survived if his friend was going to get his happily ever after.
