Macha's Journey

He nuzzled his nose against her cheek and kissed the corner of her mouth. He loved the way she smelled. It was a fragrance that was uniquely hers and he would never forget it. "I know. I wish you could come too, but you still have a long way to go."

He gave her a tight hug and the sweat from their bodies made his skin stick to her. "Miss me," he ordered tenderly before getting out of bed.

"I will, but you better be safe," she warned.

She hopped out of bed and reached over to pick up a black silk robe off the floor. It was embroidered with ivy vines and sparrows. She wrapped it around herself and followed him around the room.

Her warning caused him to grin, "Always." He tossed a black tunic over his head and grabbed a pair of pants. "What time is it?" he asked, trying to hurry.

Macha ran down the hall; the pitter-patter of her bare feet hitting the wooden floor bounced off the hallway walls. She looked at the clock in the living room. They both agreed to only keep one clock in the apartment, and that it would be in the living room. Tyr did not like feeling rushed while they were in the bedroom.

"Half past!" she called while running to meet him in the armory.

Aži waited in the kitchen, flicking his tail impatiently. He tapped his claws against the white marble countertops. Tyr reminded him last night to be ready by noon, yet he was late.

"d.a.m.nit!" he swore under his breath, annoyed that he lost track of time. As he helped Macha put his armor on, he asked, "Didn"t we start around ten?" He could have sworn he checked the clock to make sure they had enough time.

"Mmmhmm," she replied. She raised an eyebrow and reminded him, "But you were the one who said you wanted to take your time. I wanted to be quick so we could eat an early lunch, remember?"

He looked in the mirror and ran his fingers through his hair. She had messed it up earlier and did not want the reason for his tardiness to be too obvious. He gave a sigh and his eyes traveled down to admire her reflection that stood next to his in the mirror.

"Really?" He could not let her comment slide. "If I remember correctly, you were the greedy succubus who asked to come again."

His comment elicited a guilty smile from her. "I only said that because it was probably too late to get lunch anyway!"

CLICK

The last strap was set, and she spanked his bottom. "Done!" she announced.

Tyr grabbed his bags and rushed towards the door. "Aži, let"s go," he called, but his wyvern was already gone. He grimaced because even his old friend did not wait for him.

He opened the door and ran down the hall, but remembered that he forgot to kiss Macha goodbye. Turning around, he ran back into the apartment. She was still in the armory, straightening up the room.

He quickly drew her into his arms and gave her a light kiss on the lips. His green eyes then scanned her face to cherish the sight one last time before he left. "Love you. Be safe and see you when I get back." He then looked at the clock. It was almost one.

"c.r.a.p."

Instead of going down the stairs, he slid open the doors to the balcony. He ran out and hopped over the railing. The wind whipped around him as he fell, and he shook his head at himself. Not once in the hundreds of years that he had been Captain, had he ever been late when meeting his group below.

****

The next day Macha met her teammates at the docks. As Tyr requested, they had been hired to protect her and ensure that she would be safe. This mission felt awkward to her because they were all her friends and she did not like that they were being paid to hang out with her.

Minh looked around the airship and whistled. "Wow, Macha. You own this?" Her grey eyes widened with surprise. She understood her rival had it good, but she had never seen a ship this nice before.

Sheepishly, Macha replied, "Yeah, sorta. I own half and Tyr owns the other half. I can"t afford the upkeep on it with just my salary."

Everyone turned when they heard that she received a salary. None of them were on a payroll and they all did various jobs within the guild when they did not take on missions. They always got paid hourly instead.

This news caused Minh to become jealous. "Must be good to date a n.o.ble, usually people like us, you know, commoners, wouldn"t even think about owning a regular ship. But then again, you ARE dating the Captain, so of course, he would give you a salary."

The remark paired with the stares of everyone else made, caused Macha to cringe inside. Despite how easy her life seemed on the outside, she knew she was a lot busier than most of them. Tyr worked late hours whenever he was home, they rarely went out on dates, and days would pa.s.s without either of them leaving headquarters.

The part about "commoners" drove her to feel extra guilty because she never told them that the Swat family adopted her yet. It had been public knowledge, but not something most people would even care about. She doubted the group knew she was a n.o.ble now.

She forced a smile on her face. Her teammate"s ornery att.i.tude made it difficult to get along with her. "I"m just fortunate. Come, let"s relax. We probably won"t run into any trouble on the trip there. I have tons of medicine if any of you suffer from motion sickness."

She wanted to move the conversation away from anything that dealt with money. She was not oblivious to the fact that she had been extremely lucky in life. She was thankful for the opportunities that presented itself to her and she always tried to help others. As often as she could, she worked to "pay it forward."

As everyone moved, she heard Minh mutter under her breath, "Wish I could just lie on my back."

Minh"s comment felt hurtful and aggravating at the same time, but Macha chose to let it go. She did not want to seem like an ent.i.tled sn.o.b. She just wished her friend could understand how much effort she put into improving her life. Luck was a factor, but she also worked hard to improve her life.

During the war, she ran both the guild and the Valois businesses, which was not an easy task, despite all the help she received. She was only able to go on a few short missions with her friends because the amount of reading and paperwork she needed to sign and approve was endless.

Aierim could see that Minh"s comments bothered Macha. In an attempt to smooth things over, she discreetly nudged Ziam in the ribs.

He grunted and his eyes shot down at her, unsure why he had been abused. She lifted her brows and jerked her head towards the two. He stared at her, unsure what she was expecting from him. A few awkward moments pa.s.sed, but he still did not catch on.

Unwilling to escalade the situation, Macha left to talk with the Captain about dinner and some other things.

Aierim pulled Zian"s hand and took him to the side by a railing. "Why didn"t you defend Macha?" she grumbled.

"Why would I? I feel for what Minh said. Look at me. I"m related to Krystof, but you don"t see me running around with a salary job or an airship," he shot back. He scratched the back of his head and added, "Besides. You could"ve said something."

This elicited a delicate snort from her. "You know I"m much closer with Macha than with Minh. Anything I say would just sound like I"m defending her."

His brows shot up and he shook his head with confusion. He placed his hands on his hips, "But that"s what you want me to do!"

"Because Minh respects you," she pointed out.

It frustrated her that Zian could be so bitter about his situation that he refused to see the effort Macha put into her work.

Aierim remembered that during the war she had visited her friend a few times in the office. She constantly worked late into the evening and had looked so tired. Having a salary job sounded nice, but she understood it also required the person to work more than what would be comfortable. Her brother used to be salaried before he died, and he consistently complained about the hours.

"Nevermind! Next time I"ll just say something, but you know I hate getting in conflicts with Minh. She"s so aggressive."

The last time she sided with Macha instead of Minh, she was forced to take the late night watch for the entire mission. That was the shift everyone hated because it threw off their sleep schedule.

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NOTICE: Yesterday I found out that my work is being pirated on a different site. It really upsets me and I asked Sunny on the Webnovel forum for help, but it looks like I shall not receive a reply. I decided to move my work to my Patreon. This book and its new chapters will still be free to the public on Patreon, but I feel that I"ll have a better chance of not being pirated there. If we get to rank 100 this week, I"ll post the extra chapter there. I"m sorry if this inconveniences you, but it was really upsetting that the site didn"t ask me OR give me credit. I shall edit and leave a good amount of chapters of this book on Webnovel as a preview. I plan to take down the others.

TLTR/TLDR: Macha"s Journey will still be FREE to read on my Patreon. I cried out of frustration last night because I am having my work pirated on another site, hence the move. The last published chapter here will be on Sunday, Hawaii Time.