CALLI AND GALE: FOOLISH PRIDE

Taking place during Adventure Log XXIX: Trials and Tribulations

The Flowers had been helping the Shoanti recover from the late night attack of the previous evening. Though they’d have expected the mood to be solemn due to the lives lost, it was won of triumph and resilience. Calli knew it all should have put her anger in perspective. There were more important things going on. But Nightingale’s crude intervention the night before had wounded her, and she wouldn’t be able to move on until she could talk to him about it. Without an audience.

She finally got her chance while Krojan nattered away with Bryon and Travis near the panther, and Taylan had been enlisted to help entertain the smaller children of the tribe while the others worked. Nightingale had been using his mage hands to help lift and hold portions of yurt roofing material while the Shoanti repaired it, but had stepped away for a short break. Calli, who had been magically mending leather door flaps the gargoyles had ripped open to snatch the unwary, excused herself and intercepted him upon his return.

“Join me in the hut for a moment, please?” She said without looking at him as she walked past and into their yurt.

He heaved a sigh, and followed. It had been some time since he’d felt the brunt of one of her outbursts and wasn’t looking forward to it.

He stepped inside and saw her stood, hands on hips, eyes narrowed. As soon as the door flap fell behind him, Calli cast her zone of silence, ensuring they’d be able to argue in peace, and she opened with, “How DARE you?”

“Me? All the time I’ve spent looking after your well being, and you didn’t feel the need to let me know about such a significant development?” Nightingale hadn’t meant to lower himself to her bickering, but her tossing him aside hadn’t been easy to deal with.

“I DID! First when we ferreted Trinia out of Korvosa to that inn, and then again on the road! You told me to go for it!! So I did!” She pointed towards the back of the yurt as if it was just on the other side of the wall, but wasn’t actually positive what direction they had traveled from.

In his frustration, and the chaos of their missions, he’d forgotten that entirely. He wasn’t going to admit it. “I thought you were interested in courting, I didn’t know you’d skip that step entirely.” He regretted that immediately.

Her eyebrows raised and she stood straighter. She’d never taken Nightingale for a prude, and knew this must be a result of his years of watching over her. She had as little interest in talking to him about her bedroom activities as he had in knowing about them, but she wasn’t going to let the insult stand unchallenged. “Oh? Is that so? Well I didn’t know I needed your permission to take a lover. You know, on account of me being an adult, you not being my father, and the fact that on the night in question you were so hammered you forgot you witnessed us finally kissing in full view of the party and a full tavern of Kaer Maga’s rowdiest!”

Nightingale held his hands up, “Now, hang on.” He wasn’t sure which had hurt worst, the father comment or the fact that he’d been too drunk to remember that happened.

She wasn’t done. “And we continued to kiss, repeatedly, all the way back to the hotel. At which point we left you three- absolutely smashed- in one room together. So really, mister bodyguard, who’s fault was it that I was left alone in a state of heightened emotions? At which point should I have asked you for the talk?” It was her turn to regret what she had said. She’d never seen him let go like that before, and had been glad at the evidence that he was still a man under all his responsibility. The last thing she wanted was for him to feel any guilt over it. She crossed her arms and pouted. “You know how important this was to me- all of this. The Flowers business. Don’t you remember why I needed to leave home in the first place? Doing something for myself, making my own name. Being treated like a capable woman, and not some foolish child for once. I finally got out of my cage, I made friends that had nothing to do with who my connections were, I felt like an equal member of a real team! And then you dashed it all by scolding me in front of them like that. I am mortified!”

He removed his bowler hat and ran a hand over his head. He hadn’t thought of it like that, and his heart ached to know how much he’d actually upset her. He softened his tone slightly. “Fine. Point made. But you misunderstand. My teasing was supposed to indicate I was treating you like an adult! A way to break tension and let you know you didn’t have to sneak around. A bit of banter, like I used to have with the other guards. It didn’t occur to me how it would come across. I’m sorry for that. But it would have also been nice for you to have had a bit more consideration to the people around you while playing grab-ass. My job is to know what you’re up to. You thinking you’ve snuck off doesn’t work any better now than it did years ago. You, as an adult, should have spoken to me like one so I knew I didn’t have to worry when you went missing. I do not enjoy following your tracks to find you in flagrante!”

It was a fair point. It also reminded her why he confronted her in the first place. She focused her gaze elsewhere in the room, unable to look at him. “Sure, let’s work out a signal for when I’d like some alone time with my paramour. Forgive me for hoping you’d worked it out on your own, you being a clever vigilante and all. Do you really expect me to believe not one of you could think of a way to let us know you could see our shadows on the tent? Or, failing that, you couldn’t think to create a light on your side so no one could see us anymore?”

Nightingale rubbed the bridge of his nose. “As soon as I realized what was happening I admit, I left quite hastily. I don’t know if the others took steps to rectify the scene for themselves.” His shoulders slumped. “I’ve failed you more than once on this journey. I see that now. I had been feeling for some time like you didn’t actually need me anymore, and I suppose it’s true. I’m glad you’re in good hands. I meant it when I said I supported the union- I know if anything happened to me, you have someone strong at your side. If you’d like me to leave, I will. I’ll return to Korvosa and work with the resistance.” He replaced his hat, and stood to attention.

She turned back to him then, eyes round and wet with tears beginning to form. “Absolutely not. Why are you saying that?”

“You deserve somewhere you can shine on your own, without a surrogate father-figure hanging over you.”

Calli surged forward and hugged him. She didn’t quite have the words to express her panic at the idea of losing him. How much he’d meant to her, at her side, at her back, more than her own parents ever were. She squeezed, and hoped he understood. He returned the embrace, and patted her gently on the back. Her voice came out muffled from his lapel where she was smushed against him, “I haven’t fired you, yet, old man.”

“I’m not old.” He chuckled, anyway.

She stepped back and wiped her eyes. “Maybe we’ve both been bad at communicating.”

“Maybe?”

“And maybe I have been a bit negligent of a friend, since I became closer with Byron.”

“Oh, definitely.”

“And maybe you’re overdue updating your protocols, to account for my expanded autonomy?”

“Guilty as charged.”

“Well, then. Complaints have been noted, steps for improvement have been acknowledged, all in favour of putting this behind us and moving on?”

Together they voiced, “Aye.”

It felt as if a weight had been lifted, and they left the yurt smiling.