I worked on a new piece of clothing for a while. I went about things much slower and put a lot more thought into it this time around. I made sure to change some measurements according to Cellestra’s feedback. I still left it sleeveless as I felt those could be added later on.

As I worked, one merchant on a horse laden with goods on and in saddlebags passed us by. I stepped off the road and into the grass without paying him much heed. I hoped that would make it clear to him that I was no threat. I did notice that he had several fabrics among the goods he was transporting, which made me smile at the irony.

As he passed, it became all the more clear that the man was frozen in his saddle. His eyes were large and his body didn’t move an inch. His horse didn’t seem affected as much, but his reaction made mixed emotions swirl through me. I didn’t want to be seen as a monster.

He never even noticed Cellestra throwing my first experimental shirt on top of his cargo.

That was one way to get rid of it. I reckoned it could even open trading options.

That was, after he’d recovered from the shock and discovered the item. There was no way he wasn’t going to link that back to me.

I sighed deeply as I suddenly lost my flow of work. I kept the shirt suspended before me and just kept walking for a bit. Edhil was nearing. It wouldn’t be much longer than half an hour before we reached the city.

“Are you okay?” Cellestra asked, noticing my change in behavior.

“I’m okay. I’m just getting a bit… tired of people’s reactions I guess. Problem is, I can’t blame them, either.”

“I wished I could say something to cheer you up,” Cellestra said.

“Thank you, but I think this will pass… eventually. I plan on settling down some time down the line. It’s probably going to take a while with all we still have to do regarding your curse as well. Once all is said and done, I think I can build up some reputation, wherever I end up, you know?”

“I get what you mean. It’s hard to do that when wandering.”

I nodded. “Though, to be fair, I don’t know how I would settle down in the first place. I reckon I’d need a house specifically tailored to my needs.”

I purposefully omitted the part where I wouldn’t mind settling down with Cellestra. Where that would be, I didn’t care. If it was just the two of us, I felt like anywhere would do. Perhaps I would even prefer the peace and quiet that a cabin, like hers, somewhere in the middle of the woods would bring.

This brought up the issue of my love for her once more. I still didn’t know when would be a good time to let her know about it. My thoughts brought me to the piece of clothing before me. I’d been very meticulous about this specific piece as I wanted it to be a perfect fit for the elf on my back.

Would she like this as a gift?

“I can see that being an issue,” Cellestra answered me. “Chances are, you’ll need to have a completely new house built. I can already see the price tag that’s attached to that, and it ain’t cheap.”

“By that time, I think I’ll have found a way to earn some money,” I said. “Between this… weaving business and the fact that I am seemingly able to do certain dungeons on my own… I think I’ll be fine, no?”

The elf nodded. “I think you may be right. The fact that you can do it on your own will probably be a large factor to your wealth, as you don’t have to share. Besides, I still have that spell scroll you got me. If you want, you could sell that for a fair amount too.”

I shook my head. “That one is yours. I gave it as a gift. It’s up for you to decide what to do with it.”

“I mean…” Cellestra trailed off and then seemingly didn’t know what to say anymore.

I smiled as I continued on the shirt I was making for her. I wouldn’t have enough time to do the sleeves, but I would be able to finish the rest before reaching the city.

“By the way, where is the temple?” I asked while I worked. I had yet to see anything that resembled a temple. As I had learned it was outside the city, and I couldn’t see it yet, it had to be on one of the sides.

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I hadn’t paid too much attention to the city before me, but I could see that it was quite a bit larger than Arhil. Its walls were at least twenty feet high. Not only that, it had stone towers and battlements as well. Those were missing on the previous settlement’s walls. A portcullis easily fifteen feet in width made up the main entrance. Even from this distance, I could see it was well guarded. I had decided I would stay as far away as possible, lest I’d run into trouble.

“I have no idea,” Cellestra admitted. “I don’t think I ever specifically asked about that, but it doesn’t matter too much, does it?”

“So, do we flip a coin or what?” I asked, half-jokingly.

“I’m feeling lucky,” Cellestra said with a smile. “Let’s take left.”

“Alright,” I said.

The climate here seemed to be excellent for corn as we had to travel a bit with more of the crop on either side of the road. When the fields changed to grass again a few hundred yards from the city, I immediately took a turn and walked through it, circling around the city. I also put down the shirt I was working on my spider head, behind my elven back.

The few small figures I could see on the walls didn’t seem to be able to make out what exactly I was. Either that or they just couldn’t be bothered with something that was still so far away from the city, with no intention to get closer than necessary.

I found out that the city itself was perfectly circle-shaped… and quite big too. It took me a while to get around it, especially with the range I kept to the walls. Eventually what looked like a large stone building attached to the city’s wall came into view.

I had no trouble recognizing it as a temple. If the people walking around and into the building in long white garments didn’t give away enough, the intricate stained glass windows and two lit braziers a few yards forward from a stone staircase leading up to the building did.

There were no doors. Rather, on top of the stone steps was a large open doorway that served as the entrance to the temple. Next to said opening stood four guards that seemed to be bound to the temple. In that regard, it seemed fairly similar to my old world where temples would usually have their own dedicated regiments.

Their armor was adorned with all kinds of decoration, but that didn’t take away from their quality. At least, not as far as I knew. Unless things were different here, they were among the more deadly soldiers. Not only did they have high-quality gear, but they usually also possessed unshakeable faith and devotion to the god or goddess who they represented.

All of those combined made for a force to be reckoned with.

I took a deep breath and started walking in the direction of the stairs. All I had to do was get close to the braziers and I’d be fine.

I could see some of the priests cast looks in my direction, but it didn’t seem they were afraid of me. Even from this distance, I could see that they simply didn’t care… or was that disdain in their eyes? I couldn’t be sure. Perhaps they thought that the guards would be able to dispatch me quite easily if I were to do anything funny. I didn’t know if that was necessarily true, but I wasn’t going to try my luck, either.

Fortunately for me, the men assigned with protecting this temple didn’t react to my presence at all. This allowed me to walk up to the braziers unhindered.

“And now I pray that Elysa keeps her word,” I spoke my mind.

“I never took Elysa for a liar,” Cellestra replied. “Come. Let’s get some of your questions answered.”

I nodded as I recited a prayer in my mind.

I neared the two braziers at the bottom of the stairs and felt my heart race. What would I do if they didn’t react to me at all? I got closer and closer, but they didn’t change in color. When I was about ten feet from the bottom of the stairs, my worries were finally dispelled as the flames turned bright blue and roared to life. They danced a yard high and sounded a bit like bonfires to me.

I heaved a sigh of relief. “At least so far, so good.”