Chapter 89 Tell The Next Guard You See

Lenna took off her helmet slowly and put it under her arm. “Now what?” She asked.

“Just act like nothing is different. Pretend that everyone has always known and if anyone questions it act like you had no idea they didn’t know.” Isaac explained his brilliant plan with a smile and barely contained amusement. He knew that this was either going to go really poorly or kind of well. His bar was not set very high. He did know one thing for certain, hoodwinking people would be entertaining at the very least.

Lenna sighed. “I’ll try.” She promised.

Isaac slung the clothes he had picked out under his arm and guided her towards the woman’s clothes. She took one step and stopped. All of the women’s clothes were dresses or shirts and skirts. “What?” Isaac asked.

“I prefer pants.” She replied.

Isaac looked at the pants folded on a shelf next to them. He glanced down at Lenna’s butt. “I think…” His eyes moved up to meet hers and her very unamused look. “The proportions might be slightly off.”

“My butt isn’t that big.” Lenna replied evenly. Her stoney look not having left her face.

“That’s not what I meant.” Isaac attempted to dig himself out of the hole he had quickly found himself in. “It’s more of a waist to butt and thighs ratio problem.” Lenna remained silent and continued to stare at him. “What?” Isaac asked. The silence was unnerving. He felt like he was playing with a delayed blast fireball.

Lenna finally sighed. “They’ll have to fit them.” She said with resignation in her voice. She decided to let Isaac off the hook, this time, and she searched for a pair that looked like she would fit properly in them. Well, like Isaac had said, except for the waist.

“Still, a pretty blouse would look good on you even if you want to wear pants.” Isaac argued and took a step towards the women’s clothes.

It was Lenna’s turn to glance down. Unlike Isaac she did not look at another’s rear but at her own chest. Her breastplate was shaped opposite to most men’s. Usually the breastplate bulged out relatively low on the torso. The bulge helped to deflect incoming stabs aimed at center mass. In Lenna’s case, as well as with many other female knights, the bulge was positioned up a few inches to allow for more chest room.

Lenna sighed and followed Isaac towards the women’s clothes. She much preferred the simple pull over design that apparently Safeharbor’s women didn’t wear. That style was mostly reserved for working men as it was not very fabric intensive and thus tended to cost less. After picking out some clothes Isaac stopped.

“Lenna?” He said and turned to face her.

“Yes?” She answered.

“When we got clothes last time, where did you get them from?” He questioned. Lenna averted her gaze. She looked like a child who had just gotten caught stealing a cookie before dinner or a puppy who had just gotten busted chewing on boot. It was adorable but Isaac didn’t let that distract him. “Were they all men’s clothes?” He pressed. “Do the pant’s even fit?” He thought back on the last few weeks. “Have you even worn them?”

“No.” She replied sheepishly and turned to browse more clothes that she had no intention of buying.

Isaac sighed. “Next time we’ll bring those pants with us and they can size them too.”

After finding everything they were looking for Isaac led Lenna up to the clerk, who was reading a book via glowing stone light. He looked up from his book. “Is that all…” His voice trailed off. He blinked a few times then rubbed his eyes and tried again.

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“Mostly.” Isaac interjected into the man’s state of shock. “She’ll need some of her clothes fitted and I’d like to make sure mine fit right.”

“Uh…” The clerk’s eyes went from Isaac to Lenna a few more times. “Al-alright.” He turned his head towards the back, barely taking his eyes off the two in front of him. “Ma!” He yelled.

“What?!” A woman yelled from deep within the back of the shop.

“A!” He stopped for a moment and glanced at Lenna again. “A lady needs a fitting!”

“Thanks.” Isaac said with a smile.

Lenna gave the clerk a nod. “Yes. Thank you.” She told him.

He still was in too much shock to respond to her consciously and simply nodded back and whispered: “Your welcome.”

An older woman arrived from the back and did a double, then a triple take at Lenna. “By all that is holy and just.” She swore. “How?” Was all she could ask.

“Am I allowed in the city?” Lenna asked. She glanced sidelong at Isaac. “I thought everyone knew by now.”

Isaac couldn’t keep his grin off his face. “Sera even sent over the bracelet and stuff as proof. Why would she have sent over a necklace if you weren’t supposed to wear it without your armor?” Isaac asked Lenna, further pushing the idea that maybe the tailors were simply out of the loop.

“Well, let’s get you sized then…” The clerk’s mother’s voice trailed off as she motioned towards a back room that had a thick curtain as a door. Lenna nodded and followed.

“Can I try these on?” Isaac asked. “Some of them might need to be fitted as well.”

The clerk tore his eyes off of Lenna to nod to Isaac. “It’s a silver a piece to fit clothing.” He told Isaac. It was a little late for Isaac and Lenna to back out now but a few extra silvers wasn’t going to break their bank.

“No worries. I set aside a few gold for this.” Isaac told the clerk and followed him into another back room.

—

An hour later Isaac and Lenna left the tailor’s with a stack of neatly folded clothes. “That was fun.” Isaac said and started walking towards the Celestial Dawn so he could change out of his armor and into his freshly fitted clothes.

Lenna shook her head. She still had her helmet tucked under her arm. “Those poor people.” She told him.

“Oh it’s not that bad.” Isaac defended. “Honestly it probably made the whole thing go smoother. If they realized that most people didn’t know, especially if they realized most of the guards didn’t know, I doubt it would have been as pleasant.” Isaac voiced the reasoning he used to justify his fun.

“Perhaps.” Lenna conceded.

“Social pressure is an incredible tool.” He commented.

The pair had walked past a few people already and every one of them seemed to have a different reaction. One woman took her child to the other side of the street. One man dropped his drink and the bottle broke on the stone ground. Another man looked as if his jaw was going to hit the floor. A guard had to stop a man who looked ready to come to blows with Lenna from across the street. Thankfully that guard seemed to realize who they were and remembered the warning he had gotten.

“We are causing trouble.” Lenna commented.

Isaac shrugged. “It was bound to happen eventually.”

“This may be bad timing.” She replied.

Isaac nodded. “Probably.”

“Was that the plan?” Lenna asked.

He shook his head. “No.” He let silence hang for a moment before expanding. “If this wasn’t a future Izen saw coming then he isn’t very good at predicting it. He is a leader, a ruler, he needs to be able to see what will happen before it does.”

“You’re testing him?” Lenna questioned and turned her head to get a good look at Isaac’s face.

“Partly.” He acknowledged. “Also hiding your pretty face all the time was getting annoying.”

Lenna blinked at him. “Your reasoning…”

“Isn’t as complex as you thought?” Isaac finished for her.

Lenna shook her head. “The duke must hate you my Lord.”

Isaac laughed. “Probably. I can’t imagine I have ever made anything easier for him.”

—

“Izen you had one job.” Isaac complained in front of the third guard to lower his weapon at Lenna before realizing who Isaac was. The surprise was entertaining, the rest of the reactions had been much less so. So far there had been no violence but it had come close on a few occasions. Thankfully most of those occasions were with normal people and not guards.

“Apologies my Lord.” The guard replied. The pair could hear the sweat coming down his brow in his voice. He, and every other guard they had talked to, seemed to be very aware of the danger he was in. Whatever Izen had told them had worked.

Isaac waved him off. “It’s not your fault no one told you.” Isaac replied off handedly. The guard had immediately raised his spear back to its vertical position as soon as he realized his mistake. “I really wish he would have given you all more than ‘don’t piss him off’ as orders. Like how hard was it really to say ‘there is a foreign noble in town with a drow bodyguard, be nice’?” He grumbled.

“Again, apologies my Lord.” The guard repeated and gave Isaac and Lenna a short bow.

Isaac just waved him off again. “Just,” He sighed. “Tell the next guard you see so this stops happening.”

“As you say.” The guard replied and Isaac heard him swallow.

A few steps away from the guard Lenna turned to the now plainclothes Isaac. “My Lord,” Lenna spoke then paused for a moment. The moment was long enough for Isaac to turn to look at her but not long enough for him to say anything in return. “thank you.”

Isaac raised an eyebrow. “For what?”

Lenna just shook her head and continued in silence. ‘For not killing any of them. For making it possible for me to walk the streets without feeling like a criminal hiding my face. For taking me for a walk around town like a normal person.’ She answered him in her head. The words sounded right as thoughts but she wasn’t sure if she should say them aloud. For now, all Isaac needed to know was that she was thankful.