Several weeks went by and Gaius was still alive. Much as he would've liked to attribute this to his survival skills, the biggest contributor to his continued breathing was a complete lack of subsequent attacks.

  That didn't stop Esven from putting the town on high alert Especially after his men confirmed the knife-thrower's story. One of the pylons securing Siembra's perimeter was completely inoperable, with a few others damaged. The palisade around the town had well-hidden holes. And one of the mountains was rigged to explode and open a new way inside.

  Those discoveries made Esven simultaneously the most derided and busy man in Siembra. It didn't help that the knife-thrower had his throat slit by an unknown assailant before he even regained consciousness in Siembra's dungeon.

  And with that final act, Shadow and anyone who had any dealings with him disappeared without a trace. Even their supposed hideout was wiped clean and cursed with a misdirection spell.

  No matter how deep the captain dug or how physical he got, he couldn't catch a break. Everyone seemed to know of Shadow, but no one actually had a way of getting in touch with him.

  Those who claimed to have met Shadow, described a different person every time. Despite that, Esven kept dismissing Gaius' subtle suggestions that perhaps that Shadow thing wasn't just a cool name.

  All in all, things weren't going too hot for Esven. Whatever spare time he had, the captain spent around Vasily's Emporium discussing strategy with Isabella and talking nonsense with Gaius. They were the only two people in the whole of Siembra who weren't oscillating between mocking him and demanding results.

  Gaius was surprised to find he didn't mind that one bit. He's seen the captain in action, knew what the boastful Caladonian was capable of. Having him around had a calming effect on Gaius whenever his mind wandered towards Shadow and his assassins.

  And he needed as much of that as he could get since Isabella wasn't content with idly waiting around. After that night with the shitbirds, she all but forgot about her initial task. She would spend a few hours monitoring the border pass, only to then dedicate the rest of her time to looking for Shadow.

  If things had been even slightly different, Gaius would have been ecstatic about this. But Isabella insisted that he helped her, and he could use his duties at the store as an excuse only for so long.

  He envied Shadow. In particular, he envied the freedom he had to up and disappear. What Gaius wouldn't give for the luxury of not being shackled to Siembra. Cut his losses, change his appearance, and leave. Start a new chapter somewhere else. He was feeling Slavia at the moment. A new place populated with interesting people with a great understanding of magic was exactly what he needed after Siembra.

  That wasn't really an option for him. He couldn't skip town, and in a way, their fates were intertwined. If Siembra's branch of Vasily's Emporium was to go under, Gaius would no longer be able to fulfill his obligation. And the curse Vasily placed on him wasn't the kind of thing that understood nuance or listened to excuses.

  In the end, following a great deal of impassioned arguing, Gaius agreed to help Isabella out. It was a smart play in the long run, even if at the moment it felt like unnecessary risk coupled with a pointless waste of time.

  On the plus side, if Esven was a good shield against whatever Shadow had in store for them, Isabella was even better. Her general vicinity was about the safest place in Siembra. After a while, Gaius grew to enjoy their little excursions into the town's underbelly.

  Isabella was happy enough to accept his explanations for why he knew how all the gambling dens, seedy taverns, and other borderline criminal enterprises operated. This idea of a traveling merchant who knew so much about the world must have had a certain degree of allure for someone like her, who spent most of her life stuck in Caladonia's many temples.

  That inherent knightly naivety didn't make Isabella any less effective or reasonable when it came to actually getting things done. She knew when to get out of the way and let Gaius do his thing, just like she knew when his schemes required her complementary divine backing.

  The thief and the knight worked as one in their pursuit of answers. But despite their combined efforts, the only thing they managed to achieve was getting closer to each other.

  Following a long and fruitless day of beating their heads against an impenetrable wall of ignorance, feigned or otherwise, Gaius accompanied Isabella to her room before retiring to his own. There, in the quiet stillness of the night, a lingering thought brought itself to his attention. After mulling it over, he decided to share that thought with the knight.

  He entered together with the sound of knocking, rewarded by the sight of Isabella's back as the knight kneeled by the window. The moon outside was getting ready to go past gibbous and bloom into full.

  Isabella turned around and upon acknowledging Gaius' arrival with a slight smile, flowed to the bed where she proceeded to sit with her back propping up the wall and her eyes wandering across Gaius.

  "You're here," she stated the obvious. "And I was beginning to think you forgot all about that reward I promised."

  Gaius was a lot of things and pretended to be even more. A romantic was not one of them.

  With everything that's been going on, it completely slipped his mind he was all but invited to spend some quality alone time with Isabella.

  "Well, this is quite awkward, but I did," Gaius admitted. "I was actually thinking about tomorrow. I have this idea. There must be scumbags left in this town who don't work for this Shadow guy." He was thinking about Alejo's former crew. "Perhaps they can shed some light on their mystery-shrouded rival."

  As he was saying all of this, he watched Isabella's face go from lustful curiosity to confused disappointment. That painful sight made him question a lot of things about himself.

  The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  "Consider your memory jogged." Instead of a playful invitation, this came out more like a question that forced Gaius to explain himself.

  "A lot's been happening lately." The knight's sour expression demanded more. "And I'm not sure something is actually going on between us."

  Isabella whistled and leaned back, interlocking her hands behind her head.

  "I thought I made that perfectly obvious."

  "That you did," Gaius agreed. "But I keep thinking that maybe that's just how you are. Open, flirty, volatile, and way too Caladonian."

  "Sure, make this all about cultural differences, why don't you." Isabella's cheeks lit up with a red tint. "How about we invite scholars and diplomats from both sides of the border and ask them to sort this out. No? Maybe there is something between us, maybe there's not. But there's only one way to find out and it's up to you to make that big plunge." Isabella's eyes shifted to the door by Gaius' side.

  Gaius rubbed the bridge of his nose. He said, his voice low and tired, "You realize you're not at all like any woman I've met before? And don't even get me started on how far you are from a usual knight. Back in Mystlund, a lady wouldn't allow you to so much as peek at her cleavage before a formal declaration of romantic intent."

  "No wonder you ran off, then. But you should've picked up a few things along the way."

  "I did. And yet there's nothing in my travels that even remotely compares to the puzzle that is you, Isabella."

  Gaius let the room breathe and when the silence got unbearable, he finally expressed what's been bothering him for a good while.

  "Why me? You're you. A high-ranking knight with powers rivaling those of a master wizard. What can you possibly see in me?"

  Now, Isabella's deep green eyes were aimed straight at his. And for a change, Gaius didn't look away, his cover and the possibility of blowing it, a faint echo in the distant reaches of his mind.

  "Is this really such a puzzle to you?" Isabella asked. "You're a merchant without the prerequisite paunch. You can scale a vertical wall and hold your own against a trained killer. You've traveled the world and have a thousand stories to share. This alone makes you more exciting than most of the men I know. Our very first meeting? You weren't afraid to talk back to me. Do you realize how rare and refreshing that is? And you want to talk volatile? Well, that makes two of us. How you can go from the reckless heroism of attacking a knight in her own domain to doing all you can to avoid anything dangerous, fun, and exciting? Ugh, it's infuriating. And it's exactly what draws me to you. So why does my fickle nature throw you off so much then? It's who I am, it's how I was raised. It's what the Order of the Moon is all about. And you would honestly fit right in."

  There wasn't a lot one could reply to that. Almost against his will, Gaius' mouth twisted into a grin.

  "So, you're saying my lack of enthusiasm for getting chopped to pieces reminds you of your fine order? Are you sure it's that and not my shaved dome that reminds you of your Sister Moon?"

  That one got to Isabella. She buried her face in her hands and laughed for a while. When she was done, she looked up at Gaius with tears gathered in the corners of her eyes.

  "How about you leave her out of this and shut that door already?"

  He did.

  A single motion of Isabella's wrist unfastened her toga, revealing everything underneath.

  ***

  The night was long and restless for both of them. But, in the morning, Isabella had the benefit of divine vigor on her side. She headed off towards the border pass fresh and cheerful.

  Gaius was forced to spend the day pretending very hard not to nap behind the counter and trying even harder not to strangle the imp over his constant snickering remarks about last night's happenings.

  When later that day the imp tried subjecting Isabella to his attempts at humor, she zapped him with a condensed bolt of light, instantly reminding the fiend why he preferred to clear out of the common areas by the time Isabella returned from her watch.

  "Can I trust you to remain professional while we're out in public?" was the first thing Isabella asked Gaius once she was certain the imp really left and the store was empty except for the two of them.

  "What, you mean like pulling on your toga as we walk down the street and presenting your impeccable bosom to the world?"

  To illustrate his point, Gaius did just that, and with his execution, it wouldn't be at all difficult to believe this was an accidental stumble on his part.

  He braced for a zap of holy energy, just like the one that sent the imp away, but it never came. Without even a hint of embarrassment, Isabella pressed her bared chest into Gaius and used that paralyzing leverage to push him up against the counter.

  Sliding her knee between his legs, she leaned in and asked, "Is that really something you'd do?"

  Since she was already there, Gaius gave her a quick kiss on the lips.

  "The important thing is that you don't think I'm above it, lady." Another kiss. This one on the neck. "But no, I already think the world sees too much of you as it is. They're not getting any extras."

  Isabella's expression changed. She moved away and fixed her toga.

  "My outfit doesn't bother you, does it?"

  "A little," Gaius admitted.

  "How little is a little?"

  "Not enough to go out and start picking fights over it, if that's what you're asking."

  "That's not what I'm asking." Isabella looked around until she found an empty space on one of the display tables. Placing herself on top of it, she continued, "I don't want there to be any unspoken resentment about it between us. Trust me, I know how this thing goes. It never ends pretty."

  Gaius abandoned the support of the counter and begun pacing before Isabella.

  "You know this outfit of yours is supposed to be a deterrent? A cruel joke that somehow lasted a few hundred years too long." His promise of silence to the bishop was about the last thing on Gaius' mind.

  "Oh, I know. It's not as big a secret as the priests think it is."

  Gaius stopped and looked at Isabella. "So why don't you zap some sense into them?"

  She got up and matched his gaze. "I'm a knight. We're big on rituals and following tradition. It's kind of our thing." A quick step put her once again in close proximity to Gaius. "And I need you to be fine with it."

  The plea in Isabella's voice tugged on all the right strings.

  "I don't think I'll ever be fine with it," Gaius said. "But the last thing I'll ever do is resent you for being who you are."

  Hesitant at first, Isabella embraced Gaius in a warm hug, melting in his arms.

  "It will have to do," she whispered.

  "We'll just take this thing one sleazy bastard who tries to hit on you at a time." A wink made it clear Gaius wasn't being serious.

  "Deal," Isabella winked back at him and let go.

  Once again, in front of him, Gaius saw a warrior, firm and tough. Isabella's ability to switch between that and the softest creature under the moon was nothing short of mesmerizing. It took every bit of Gaius' self-control to not insist they abandoned their pursuit of Shadow to pull another all-nighter upstairs.

  He pushed that particular train of thought away with a single short cough.

  "To go back to what started this all too pleasant exchange. You don't have to worry about me embarrassing you in public. As far as the world is concerned, I'm still the same disagreeable merchant who's being dragged against his will on a holy quest. Trust me, I'm really good at keeping up appearances."

  "I believe you. But maybe, for my sanity's sake, just the slightest bit less disagreeable?"

  "What's in it for me?"

  Isabella's index finger pressed to her temple.

  "Yeah, teasing you with the possibility of horizontal fun was amusing for a while, but now that we've actually done it, it feels more like exchanging favors for sex. We should really look for other in-jokes to entertain ourselves."

  "Say no more." Gaius stumbled in place and nearly fell. When he straightened himself out, his own shirt was unbuttoned, presenting his pale chest of a Mystlunder to the knight. "But we're still doing it later, right?"

  "Of course." Isabella's quick nod coincided with her tongue sliding across her lip.

  "Let's go find us a shadow, then."

  Story Facts - Chapter 24