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In the halls of the temple, having Nari on my arm made me puff up a little. Outside, on the streets of Calseth, it made me appreciate Talin even more. This woman made heads turn. All of them. I was pretty sure that Nari didn't even notice, but Irila did. With Shalsa on her arm, she was scoping out the men passing us by as intently as I was.
Thankfully, the walk was a short one. Three blocks down and two blocks over, Shalsa pointed to a large store that announced its business as simply "Quality Furniture." Two carts were parked in front, with a group of men working a pair of overstuffed chairs into the first. Shalsa, however, guided us to a smaller door at the side.
And inside was nothing but color. Women's seating was on one side of the massive store. More masculine stuff was on the other. Wood options were in the middle, separating them. Nari paused at a table, her head swiveling from side to side.
"I think," I told her, "that the sitting room should be feminine. The rest of our suite is in nothing but masculine colors, so make the sitting room into something you want. You know the guys won't care."
"Yeah, but..." she tried.
"You get one room," I told her. "They made the bedroom grey. Pick the color and style you want, Nari. They'll love it even more for that."
"Jamik doesn't care about our colors," Shalsa pointed out.
Nari laughed at that. "And he's outnumbered. In this case, I am. We decided to do more sedate colors. The main living area needs to be in black, and we want a rug with purple in it, since that's where everyone seems to come."
"And the sitting room is yours," I said again. "It's not the spare room. It's not the lounge or study. It's a sitting room, and they have been waiting for you to put a few girly things in the place so we can brag - or pretend to complain - about how we live with an amazing woman."
"Ok," she said, making it sound like that was enough to convince her.
Then she pulled away from my arm, caught Shalsa's wrist, and headed to the more feminine side of the store. I moved to follow, but Irila hooked my elbow, holding me back. We waited just long enough for the pair to get out of earshot.
"Don't let her look at the prices, ok?" she asked. "We've all chipped in for this, so I don't want her to change her mind because she can't afford it."
I nodded. "We've been saving too. The entire suite needs to be redone. Well, except the bedroom."
"Then we'll make sure of it," Irila assured me. "And you're good with her. Softer than Talin, but I think she needs that. You allow her to relax, Anver. Never think that is a bad thing. Our desires need it. Every so often, they deserve to just be real, and their Path makes that very, very hard."
"I just want to keep her safe," I explained.
Irila placed her hand on my chest, right over my heart. "There's more to a woman than her body. A lot more, and most of it rests right here. The rest is between her ears. Her body will always recover. It's not the part we need to worry about breaking."
"It's her soul," I realized.
"Yeah," she said, nodding her head. "That's the perfect way to put it. Zeal made us to be a soft place for them to land. Be soft, Anver. The only other one of her guys that tries is Wraythe. I know you thought you weren't enough to keep up with her, but you were wrong. I wanted to tell you back then, but couldn't, so I'm telling you now."
"Zeal says I just have to stop trying to be what others want andbecome," I told her. "The problem is that I don't know what I want to become."
She moved her hand to my back, and we started following our desires, still keeping our distance. "What don't you want to become?" she asked.
"Hard, cruel, or weak," I said. "I want to be her protector. When I was a boy, I used to think of the stronger kids in our year, usually the older or bigger ones, and wish I was like them. I thought I wanted to be strong so I could defend her like that."
"And now?" she pressed.
I ducked my head and smiled at my feet. "Now I look at Wraythe and see something else. He protects her by wrapping her up in his arms and holding her. He protects Ela - Ela, of all people - by doing the same. He will listen, not judge, and still love in a way that's so fucking honest. And Talin? He lets her protect herself, always ready to back her up. Ela? He reminds her to be proud, and that keeps another part of her safe."
"So what do you do?" she asked.
I just shrugged. "I listen. I try to help do the stuff they don't have time for."
"What do you do for Zeal?" Irila tried next.
That made my feet pause. "I listen. I try to lighten his burden. I'm his friend."
She just pressed me forward again. "Mhm. And you're here because Wraythe said the boys were getting romantic. That means you're doing the same for them. All of them, Anver. You protect them; you just haven't yet figured out that they don't need only your sword. They need your heart and mind more." She glanced over at me to make sure I heard her.
But I did. I heard her louder than she could've imagined. "They don't need my body," I realized. "They need me. They need the man who knows what it's like to be alone. He needed me to become!" But the last was a breath as I struggled not to say it too loud.
"Then do that," she told me. "Become Anver, the first friend of Zeal's Chosen. The guy who taught that woman how to love so hard, even a god can't resist her. That is what you should become, and nevereverbe ashamed of it, because that will mean more to all of them than how well you can use a sword."
