Born From A Divine Gamble

After helping some more the boys who would go on their first hunt this year, he walked to the Champom house to speak with Calla. (1)

He knew that Calla would cook something fantastic again this year for the festivities but he came to think that he may be able to help by bringing her some ingredients she didn"t have access to here in Dark-glint. He could just buy them in Bêtéclair and bring them here easily using the bag.

While he was here, he also wanted to ask her for a few additional portions. If possible, he wanted Harriett and Celtine to feast with them as well and try out her food.

It had been a while since he last came here but he noticed that something was different. There was a large tub outside with the opening covered with planks. There was no indication nearby of what it was for which made him very curious to know what was inside.

He stopped at its side and walked around it looking for a clue on what it was for. There really wasn"t a lot to work with, it looked just like a normal tub. Why was it outside though?

"Emp, hi! Are you here to see Calla?"

Fiona Champom suddenly showing up from the window almost made him jump. He turned his back to the tub in order to look her way.

"Hi ma"am Champom. Yes, I came to see Calla but got distracted by that tub. I was wondering what it was for."

"It"s something Calla"s been working on, although it"s empty for now because she couldn"t get the right ingredients." Calla"s mother answered with a warm smile.

"I see, in that case, I might be able to help."

"Mhm... I wonder. Come in then, I"ll tell Calla you"re here."

"Thanks."

He went to the door and let himself inside. Soon after, Calla joined up with him and he asked her about is idea.

"I guessed you would do a new year meal this time too and I wanted to know if you wanted anything special for it. I could get it in Bêtéclair and you"d have some fresh ingredients for it."

Calla seemed very interested and thought about it seriously with a hand against her cheek.

"Don"t worry about the cost." Emp precised. "I don"t care paying if it"s to enjoy something you cooked, you can ask for anything at all."

"How about you ask him for that thing you were looking for?" Her mother intervened.

Calla blushed a bit at her mother"s suggestion but still seemed very excited about it. She had not thought about it before but now that the idea was here, there was no way she could forget to ask him.

"I don"t know yet for the new year recipe but... I would really need you to get me something else..."

"What is it? If I can help, I"ll be glad to do it for you."

Like usual, it was hard for her to speak up so he had to be patient and lean forward a little bit to make sure he would hear her clearly.

"Flowers..." She confessed. "I need royal lilacs and deep lavenders. As much as possible, as soon as possible."

"Flowers? This shouldn"t be too hard. I"ll find a flower shop and buy all the royal lilacs and deep lavender they have for you. I"ll fill your house with them if you want. You"ll have them tomorrow night."

She gave him a sweet yet embarra.s.sed smile and her mother stopped him from going overboard with a few words.

"Don"t fill our house with flowers, I"d be troubled. Just enough to fill the tub outside should be much more than enough."

"The tub? I got it, no problem."

Calla"s mother didn"t seem to agree to his worry-free face and showed him a reproachful frown.

"I"m still not convinced. Please, do not spend all your money on flowers."

"Don"t worry, that won"t happen."

He only spent a third of it on flowers up to now and those were extremely rare flowers too. He couldn"t see how he could possibly spend two crystal plates on ordinary flowers and still not be able to fill a few houses with them. Just a tub of them was nothing at all to him.

After that, he explained to Calla how he wanted to have a few of his friends taste her food and asked her to make some more for them once the new year came. She agreed with a cute nod and he told them goodbye for now.

The next day, he was ready to finally give a visit to the temple of Love. He would go in the company of Mable and all four of their servants. On the way back, he would pick up all the flowers Calla requested and the other him would then be able to deliver them.

He dressed himself with his armor with the help of Harriett and walked up to Mable"s room with the two girls.

They were still acting strange around him. They still had not told him what was on their mind so he was at a loss on what to do. Neither talked again about what he had told them that night. He tried to ask Celtine what was wrong many times but she refused to give him any answer at all. She just kept turning away, not daring look at him in the eye.

Today however, he hoped he would get answers to all of his questions, including what to do about those two.

He knocked on Mable"s newly repaired door and waited for the servant to open him. Inside, Mable was ready to leave, she was only waiting for him.

"Hi Emp."

"Hi Mable, I"m here, are you ready to go?"

"Yes, what do you think of my new dress?"

All smiles, she spun on herself to let him have a good look at it. It was a long dress with a wide base like she preferred them. Most of it was white with some layers of pale green but there were many orange and golden ribbons, laces and details on it adding a great amount of complexity to the piece of clothing. Orange was Mable"s favorite color so it wasn"t surprising that there would be some touches of it on her clothes.

The details on the lacework were very impressive without giving the feel that there was too much of it while the many folds in the dress gave it the volume Mable liked to see.

The dress came with its own corset now adjusted to her new size and was tied in the back. Her fair shoulder blades and neck were left in the open but covered by her haircut. Her sleeves were delicate and thin enough to let one see the elbow gloves underneath with ease. Finally, the upper part of her dress covered her front elegantly and tied itself around her neck with two long string of pearls.

Finally her hair had been braided on each side of her head and brought up and down in layers while those in the back looked like many curtains in waves. Everything was held together by a pair of long golden hair-clips and what remained fell freely onto her shoulders and back.

He found her very charming.

"You"re very pretty in the dress."

Her cheeks took a red tinge and swiftly pointed at the dress again, shaking it in front of him.

"I asked about the dress not me!"

Why did she ask him if she didn"t want an honest answer?

"I think the dress is worthy of you but I don"t feel like I"m the one you should ask about that."

"But you"re the one I have to ask in order to know if I am pretty or not?"

That was a fair point. He didn"t know about the dress but Mable he knew for a fact was attractive. He couldn"t say that out loud though. Instead, he let Mable grin from her own comeback and he changed the subject.

"Isn"t that a ball dress? Is it really the right thing to wear to go out in town?"

"It is a ball dress, that"s the one I intend to wear at the new year party. I wanted to try it beforehand. I have the high heels to go with it but right now I"m just wearing sandals."

She raised the hem of her dress to show her slender feet.

"Should I have kept the dress a surprise for the new year? I was too excited, I had to try it now."

Emp started laughing because she was making the face of a child that had been caught doing a bad thing. While he was laughing, she gave him some more excuses as she pushed him out of her room.

"Anyway it"s not muddy at all outside so I"ll be fine. Stop laughing and let"s go already!"

"Fine, fine. Let"s go to the temple."

They greeted Wren at her desk on the way out and had a peaceful walk up to the temple.

The gigantic garden was just as well maintained as the last time he came and the gardening girls were still hard at work giving out flowers to people pa.s.sing by.

Last time he came, he had been curious about these flowers. They were said to bring luck to couples as long as they hadn"t withered. This time, he hoped none of the novice priestesses would decide to give him one of them, who would he give it to if he received one? Mable, Calla, Harriett or Celtine? He felt that however he decided to give that flower to, at least one would get upset.

He preferred not giving any flower at all until he knew what he was doing.

"Wow, the temple of Love is really impressive! There"s one in Thronewoods too but I never went to take a look before. I"ll definitely go sight-see when I go back home."

Mable was really impressed by the architecture and even more by the immense flower garden.

"It looks so peaceful and gentle."

"You never came to the temple before?"

"No, I never had a reason too before."

He felt that if he questioned her about her reasons, it would probably be about him and in that case, she would feel like he was teasing her and be upset about it. He decided to not say anything about it instead. He felt like he was getting so much better at this sort of thing it made him smile widely. Good thing he wore his helm or she would have seen and felt like he was teasing her.

"I know you"re smiling in there! Don"t pretend otherwise!"

Drats.

"Speaking of reasons," He escaped into another subject. "Why aren"t Aglaya and Nessa here too? You three always stick together usually." He had almost said four too! That was close. (2)

"I didn"t want to see their smug smiles and I didn"t want Aglaya to tease me the whole day long."

"Won"t she do it anyway when you come back?"

"Well at least she isn"t doing it right now. And don"t think I forgot about that smile, I"ll get you back for sure."

d.a.m.nation.

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(1) Did I tell everyone where Champom comes from already or did I forget? I always pick names for a reason, sometimes they are more obvious than others. Here, champ=field in French and pomme=apple in French as well. So Champom is in fact just apple field just shortened to Apfield. They were the ones to plant the first apple tree in Dark-glint long ago after all.

(2) Fun fact, "four" is the French word for oven. I always get a weird feeling when I have to write 4 in English. I always feel like it"s wrong.