Engrossed in work and drink, the mood Adrian in was sour when Veleria arrived at Mason’s bar. Most of the guild communications had been routed to Ashvale after Meredith had confirmation from Cromwell that her employer had arrived several weeks back. As such, he was stamping, paying, and ripping up proposals. Earlier in the day he had finally received the proposal he dreaded most, the one that inevitably came from Cromwell following their earlier escapade.
Veleria pushed the door open just as Adrian polished off his third mead of the day. She waved towards him, garnering a look from Melissa as she slipped around a corner. Knowing what she knew about Adrian’s state of mind, she figured it best to keep an eye on Veleria for the time being. The man had been short with even her lately.
Adrian dropped everything. The stamp in one hand and the quill in the other clattered onto the table, and he immediately stood up to embrace Veleria despite her surprise. Rather sheepishly, she wrapped her arms around Adrian in return. She smelled different. Lovely, even, somewhat floral. He pulled away from her to give her a once over.
She was dressed in a loose blouse that was a flattering shade of dark green. Her hair, brushed and glossy, was still held back with the red ribbon he had let her take nearly half a year prior.
She was beautiful.
He nearly choked on his words as he said, “I have missed you so much. This is…” His hands pulled lightly on her sleeves. “This looks so good on you. Did…” Swallowing, he cleared his throat and managed as genuine a smile as he could. “Did Wren get this for you?”
Veleria blinked. With a half-smile and roll of her eyes, she grinned at Adrian while digging around in her pack.
“He did, which reminds me that I still have those clothes Melissa let me borrow. Is she here?”
“She was, but I’m not sure if she stepped out or not. You can just leave them here.” He patted the table he was working on. Veleria placed two folded shirts and a pair of pants on the spot. “How have you been? Facing down Raker can’t have been easy on your mind.”
Veleria sat down, as did Adrian opposite her. She eyed the papers, seals, and pens with some interest.
“It would have gone better if he hadn’t caught on so quick, but I wasn’t all that scared.”
Adrian knit his brows.
This is beyond both of us, Auros De’Tarsons had said. He had watched the giant shapeshifter pick her up, squeeze her, lick her, and Velera hadn’t been scared. Three arrows had merely tickled the fucker. Cromwell had even torn a hole through his chest, but Raker had shrugged the damage off. Despite all that, Veleria had not felt any fear?
Adrian wanted another drink.
Veleria watched him maneuver behind the bar with a small frown.
“It sounds like the weather will improve for a spell. We agreed to travel to Mt. Yelugh before it worsens. Week after next.” Veleria told him, then flinched when Adrian dropped a glass and it shattered. In her hiding spot, Melissa prepared to intervene should she need to.
“Who’s we?” He asked, his breath suddenly labored.
“Uhm,” Veleria placed her hands in her lap. She looked away from Adrian while she spoke. “Me and Caed, uhm, b-because Lord Cromwell wanted to see us both personally…”
She thought he muttered something along the lines of a curse. Filling a tankard after sweeping up the glass on the floor, Adrian firmly set it down on the table and then stood in front of her.
“Are you still talking to that asshole?” He asked her. Rather, he demanded her to answer.
Veleria was uncomfortable. She had been avoiding him since the last time they spoke as he had been less than enthused by Caed living through the ordeal. Had she not stayed beside him, she was certain Adrian would have knifed the sorcerer.
“That is…Yes, I am. He is not what you—“
She gasped in alarm when Adrian grabbed her shoulders.
“Are you joking? That fucker took me out for two weeks! He turned both my horses into paste, damn it, and that doesn’t even touch the tip of the iceberg that was him kidnapping you.” He was holding her tightly enough to bruise her. “What, did he show you his cock and you decided you liked it or—“
“That’s enough, Adrian!” Melissa interrupted him by pulling on his arm. Letting go of Veleria, he whipped around to face the woman beside him, hand out, before Melissa caught his wrist. “Don’t you even dare.” She roughly threw his arm aside. “Not even your deadbeat father would have said shit like that, and he certainly wouldn’t have entertained the idea of hitting a woman. Get a hold of yourself.”
She looked down at Veleria who was avoiding both of them by sitting and staring at her hands. It was subtle, but Melissa could see that the girl was shaking. After a moment, Adrian walked out of the room. Once he was gone, Melissa got down on one knee and placed her palms gently over Veleria’s paling knuckles.
“Are you okay?” She asked her.
“I should have visited earlier…” Veleria trailed off.
“No, honey, this is not your fault. You came here for a good reason, and that reason is not for Adrian to decide.” She took Veleria’s hands in her own. “I have some things I gotta take care of in town. How do you feel about walking with me back to the shop?”
Veleria finally looked up at her with a wavering smile, “that sounds good.”
On her way back to the clinic later that night, Veleria wondered if Adrian would be alright. When she first met him he had displayed some hints towards problematic behaviors, such as when he punched a cabinet. Then, during their journey he had mostly ignored her, choosing instead to peruse prostitutes or alcohol. Until he was forced to step up, anyway.
She did feel terrible about what Caed had done to him in his misguided attempt to use her. While she had moved on, it was obvious that Adrian was still trapped in that moment. She was on his mind constantly now, according to Melissa. It was not a comforting thought.
The doctor was not at the front as she usually was. Veleria went past the front counter along to Caed’s room where she suddenly heard his voice.
“Damn lady, do ya really gotta pull it like that?”
Veleria peered into the room, stifling a giggle. At the edge of his bed, she found Caed sitting with his assigned clinician poking and prodding at his previously broken arm.
“So, it still hurts?” She asked.
“Guh, yeah, it still hurts. Damn.” As he said this, the woman rolled her eyes and tapped his elbow with her instrument, producing another pained sound from Caed.
She scribbled something on a piece of rolled parchment she kept in her other hand. Her fingers deftly held both her instrument and quill.
“Alright, well, there are no fractures or anything. Residual pains will dissipate with time so long as you continue the stretches I assigned.” With her quill she stabbed in the direction of a mostly untouched plate of food on his nightstand. “You, idiot sorcerer, also need to eat. Do you think this,” she gestured widely at his concave torso, “is a normal weight for someone as tall as you?”
“I mean, no, but I ain’t exactly rich. I eat what I can afford—“
“Lord Cromwell himself pays for the facilities here. That includes all services. Eat, and then get the hell out of my clinic. I’m signing off on your recovery.” She rolled the scroll back up, smiling her warmest as she passed Veleria by.
Sighing, Caed welcomed Veleria to his side.
“Missed this idiot sorcerer?” Caed smirked.
“Ha, you know, I think I might have to agree with her.” She sat down, not paying attention to Istvar’s eye complicating itself. Normally he would have said something, but Caed could feel the sudden pull that Istvar held over him. He disguised his touch by simply wrapping his arm around her waist.
He saw everything that had transpired earlier in the day. What got him reeling was Adrian nearly backhanding one of his members. Once the vision subsided, he cursed his goddess for her curiosity. Rubbing his eyes, he found Veleria staring at him with concern in her golden gaze.
“Apologies, the ol’ goddess wanted to know what happened to you. Are you…Are you okay?”
“What do you…Oh, she showed you what happened with Adrian earlier.” Veleria looked down. “I guess I’m doing alright. What if he gets worse, though?”
Caed lowered his brows, “that is a real possibility. Invoking his daddy apparently gets him real riled up. What she said likely pissed him right the hell off.”
“Do you know what their beef is?” She asked.
Lying down, he pulled Veleria halfway on top of him. She rested her head on his chest and started to absentmindedly trace his visible ribs. Caed pet her shoulder.
“Do you know who Reaver Giarmund was?”
“No,” said Veleria plainly.
“Well, that was his father. Kind of a womanizer. Supposedly had a ton of illegitimate children and eventually wound up with Adrian when he tried to settle down.” He moved his stiff arm into a more serviceable position. “Guy was famous. Stole heaps of artifacts, enough to gain great renown after he formed his guild. Turns out he was the God of Many Faces’s chosen. That landed him with the mask you’ve seen Adrian using…Which eventually led to his unfortunate demise. He disappeared from the public eye, and Adrian took over after his death. Rumor says he basically rotted from the inside out.”
“Does he just feel like he has something to prove, or…”
“Maybe, but I heard Adrian’s mum died from some disease while Reaver was sticking his dick in other women. Mind you, this is the woman he married and tried to make an actual family with.” Caed shrugged. “Not that our man is doing much better. He does a lot of good for the markets and the empire as a whole, strangely enough, but as a human he’s a mess. Doesn’t help he got shackled with the mask. Shit deal.”
Veleria looked up towards Caed who glanced down at her in response.
“Adrian skirted around what the mask actually does. Why is getting it a shit deal?”
“Uh, well,” Caed rolled his eyes in one cycle while he tried to think of an explanation. “Cromwell might be able to explain it better, but when he wears it I can barely see him. It hides his presence perfectly from regular folk, and diminishes it for sorcerers like me and Raker. It may be able to use one of the deity’s faces to make him look like someone else? Not sure. All I know is that when the wearer dies the deity adds their face to their collection.”
Veleria considered his words carefully. Not knowing what else to say, she smiled at Caed.
“You should eat before that doctor beats you up,” she said. “Then we can go back to Wren’s shop. He made up a room for you.”
Caed beamed, “if I gotta.”