A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor

"Shut up. Let me enjoy the fire for a second without your poor attempts at bullying," Nila said.

Oliver settled on the other side of the fire, keeping his distance. He watched Nila's expression carefully from wherever he stood. Though he smiled, and he had to say that he was enjoying himself, in truth he was wary, for he didn't understand at all the coldness that she'd shown him, nor the fear and he did all he could to dance away from it.

"Is there nothing that you have to attend to today?" Nila said.

"I suppose I could find something…" Oliver said. "But it seems a fruitless bit of searching. I'd only be getting in everyone else's way. What about you?"

"Hah, you're already the kind of boss that leaves everything to his employees. Greeves joked to me year ago, that if you ever ran a business, that was exactly what you would be."

"Well, it doesn't help that Greeves, as slimy as he is, knows what he's doing," Oliver said. "He's cunning beyond what I'd given him credit for."

"I heard what you did with Ferdinand," Nila said. "I would be lying if I said I didn't wish to see it… But do you suppose it's alright to stir up the nest like that? Are they not our allies?"

"The Guild is not," Oliver said. "The Guild seeks to crush us. Ferdinand, perhaps we could have avoided making enemies out of. But I don't know if it's worth avoiding enemies… It seems to me that a well-placed enemy is just as good as a well-placed ally."

"Whatever do you mean by that?" Nila said. "That doesn't make the slightest bit of sense to me…"

"A man can't escape opposition. But if he chooses opposition, in a foe of a certain degree of honour… perhaps that limits what can sneak up, and thrust a dagger in his back… A man needs a degree of battle, I think," Oliver said.

"You sound like you don't exactly know yourself," Nila said. It was not a criticism, but more an observation.

"I suppose I don't. Perhaps it's something I should think about more thoroughly," Oliver said.

"In truth," Nila said, looking away. "I don't mind listening to you think aloud. You're far more thoughtful than others would give you credit for. Reckless seems to be the term they have for you… But you're both reckless, and thoughtful. I don't know how that makes any sense."

"A man is full of contradictions," Oliver agreed.

"There you go – another line like you've spent the past hundred years sitting on a mountain top," Nila snorted.

"But you don't hate it?" Oliver pressed.

"I don't," Nila sighed. "If only because I find you to be so often right. And sometimes I remember what you've said… I find myself in situations, and I'll hear a comment that you've passed, and I find myself thinking 'oh, actually, that seems to be true.'"

Oliver snorted. "You give me too much credit. As you said, I'm just thinking aloud. It doesn't mean that what I say is right."

"It surprises me to realize that you are one of the few that do," Nila said. "I thought that more people were like you, with their different ideas, and I thought that perhaps one day I'd see a war between Oliver Patrick's ideas, and someone else's, but few people try and… think things through… Argh, this is too taxing to think about," she said clutching her head.

"I thought I had some grand conclusion that I'd reached and I'd be able to say a line like you've taken to, but it's swam away like a fish."

"A thought swimming away like a fish is a pretty good line," Oliver said.

She pouted. "Now that's your line, not mine, because I didn't recognize it."

"You really ought not to give me the leeway that you are," Oliver said. "You're only going to encourage me to say the same sort of thing to other people, and they won't have the patience for it. Only really Verdant and you seem to tolerate it. I see other people's eyes glass over, as if I've drained their energy."

"Aha, I've seen that," Nila said. "You've done it to Greeves a couple of times."

"Greeves could do with centuries more thought. He's been trying to give me advice lately. Somehow everything feels a million times worse when you realize it's Greeves of all people trying to give you guidance," Oliver said.

"He's not so bad… Well, at least in matters of business. I suppose if I had him lecturing me on other stuff, I would want to hit him," Nila said. "What was he lecturing you on, of all people?"

"Something to do with a girl," Oliver said, his grin wasn't a very certain one. He knew by the quiet that followed that Nila understood. She fiddled with the straps on her boots, as if trying to decide whether to attempt to dry them. In the end, she decided against it, and wrapped her hands around her knees instead.

"I didn't mean to, you know…" Nila said quietly. Oliver said nothing, hoping that she would continue. He was left waiting a good while in that – long enough that he needed to put more wood on their small fire before she said something again, her voice a whisper.

"I'm not frightened of you, you know…" She said, just barely managing to force the words out. She seemed to believe that Oliver could hear her, with how softly she said it under her breath. Perhaps that was the only reason that she could say it at all. "I am frightened by the lack of you."

Those words fell on Oliver with a weight mightier than any General could muster. They swept in through his right shoulder, and went straight in towards his chest. It was suffocating enough that it was hard to breathe. He didn't know if anyone could make him feel such an intensity of emotion with just a single line.

"Nila…" Oliver tried, thinking that he had to at least attempt to say something, to express what it was he wanted to convey. But it was like trying to map a vast territory that was as of yet wholly unexplored. It wasn't something that he could do with a single stroke of the brush. His own sentence was clumsy. "I am fine with just this, you know…"