Shiftless

Chapter 17 - Talee (Part 1)

Today is supposed to be an off day for me, so I made sure Daltin and Naysa also had it off to "train" with me. For good measure I had told Varus to make sure Tiffy saw her at least a dozen times today, but to not try to get close to her or Onel. She'll still be paranoid but it'll be harder for her to convince others because they'll simply see Varus doing her job. And Tiffy will know that. The more I can drive Tiffy into a corner the more likely she'll bring down Onel with her, and hopefully others.

Daltin groans next to me as he touches his toes. If I wasn't doing that action myself I would shove him, as it is I roll my eyes at him. I smirk then as I tease him, "Your nose should be digging into the ground and looking for truffles while you do that stretch."

Naysa snickers and Daltin scoffs, "I'm flexible enough, Talee. It's not like I'm so stiff that I'll snap into two parts the moment I even try to bend."

Naysa hums a somewhat jaunty tune, adding onto the slight ribbing of Daltin. Unlike Daltin and I, she is standing and doing light stretches as she is keeping an eye on the path Krim should be taking. They know that we are here to provoke Krim. All three of us are shiftless, he hasn't been quiet about disrespecting individuals like us, and those two listen to me, a thing that apparently causes him to be even stupider around me. As far as I know it has to do with the fact that he has to answer to my mother. Not that he has said one way another, but the few times a year he has been forced to interact with Seline on top of his usual behavior strongly suggests that is what his biggest hang up is, females in power over him. If we can make him be really stupid I can follow him during my "training" and eavesdrop on more.

There is no chance that he will suddenly wise up and be wary of others following him. If we're lucky I might even be able to see him leave something as a way to converse with his point of contact to the other territories. I stretch over my other leg, frowning at the ground, it is strange that there has been no evidence of such a contact. I would wonder if he had decided to break away and do his own thing but as much as he tends to think that he should be top dog, he doesn't have the courage to do this on his own. Onel... maybe, but there is no way he would convince Krim to do so and follow him. Onel is probably hoping that Krim continues acting like the little shit he is so that nothing actually gets done here. That would be the best way to continue keeping Tiffy safe, assuming that the rest of us had no idea of what is going on. Which is the case, as far as he knows.

Onel probably thinks they'll fail here, for good reason. Ovia is generally happy and as long as nobody is implicated here he and Tiffy can get away with their treasonous thoughts and actions, especially as ineffective as they are currently coming across. Ersyu doesn't care what people think as long as they don't do abusive shit or expose themselves needlessly to the Spelled.

I stand and slowly stretch my thighs, going around in a slow circle to get the blood moving. Daltin follows my lead with a further groan. I grin, I know his muscles are sore. I've been having him holding certain positions and trying to creep through the forest litter everyday for at least an hour since I got here. He didn't even have a break two days ago when I had spent my day with Byron, Welon observed him in my stead.

My thigh steps stop, thinking of Byron has me fretting over him. It was hard to leave the bed this morning. When we aren't being physical with each other he tends to be moping around my home. My father did his best to keep him company yesterday but he told me that there would be times Byron would lash out at the vegetation around them when they went for a run. Nobody else knows why he is having this sudden mood change, not even Reum, because Ersyu had later asked that we not share this bad news. Just as Byron has stated he would ask when I had asked him if he had wanted to talk to Reum about it. As it is, only my parents know because that became unavoidable when he started crying. I wish there was more I could do to help him get through this while Aizel remains missing.