A Fool's Goddess - Chapter Twenty-Four
I spent the next few days on a similar schedule; organize the day’s affairs, handle any necessary upkeep, then work on the cliff. However, since Niv typically managed most of our affairs and I would assign most errands to my other two apprentices, really all I did was chat a bit before going to the mountain. Honestly, if it wasn’t for Libi’s lessons and the occasional order I fulfilled, I would almost feel like I was just pretending to be the master at this point.
Thank the Gods my apprentices seemed to like me. Otherwise I’d have to worry about them throwing me out.
Unfortunately, I would end up having to put aside my grand project for a time while a storm passed over. Though I felt assured in my Goddess’ protection, I also didn’t see the need to test it by trying to work on a slippery mountainside. Moreover, I already had a reputation as an eccentric, so I would prefer to avoid being relabelled as a legitimate madman.
Waking up to the sound of rain pattering on the roof was pleasant, even as it was accompanied by Niv’s morning debriefing. I got dressed and ate, then sat down to start chiseling a statue of the God of Day. Hed was thankfully sober this morning and busied himself on a sculpture of his own while Libi practiced her detail work.
Per usual, Niv was at his pottery wheel, being the only one willing to use the outside kilns in this weather. On days like this, everyone else tended to focus on work that didn’t require a furnace. Niv, however, was far too dedicated to let a little ice-cold rain stop him. Instead, he would just put on a coat, drop his pottery off in the kiln, and come back dripping. He wouldn’t even use the interior furnace, citing that that one was meant for everyone else and that he didn’t mind going outside.
Frankly, I was beginning to fear that he was actively seeking out adversity.
“No one’s even using the oven,” I said. “Hed and I won’t need it today, and Libi can just put her work in alongside yours. There’s really no need for you to keep running outside.”
Niv shook his head. “I understand, but it would hurt my pride to see myself inconveniencing others in pursuit of my own comfort. I do not mind the rain or the cold.”
“Maybe, but you’re gonna get sick like that. Then what am I gonna do? Rely on Hed?”
“Like you don’t already,” apprentice number one said snidely.
“Truly, I do appreciate your concern, Master Lior,” replied Niv. “However, I do not believe I am exposing myself to the elements long enough to risk contracting any form of illness. I am taking all necessary precautions to protect myself as well.”
“Fine, fine. You’ve just gotta tell me how you became such a masochist.”
“I cannot claim there is any one cause behind my behavior. I have always strived to be of use to those who are kind to me, and I greatly dislike the thought of betraying another’s trust. I merely seek to be the best person I can to those who are important to me.”
“… Well, shit. How am I supposed to argue against that?”
“I do not believe there is any need to argue. However, if my behavior begins to negatively impact the studio, I will endeavor to rectify the situation”
“Just… take care of yourself, alright? I’m not lying when I say you’re important to our continued operations.”
“Thank you, Master Lior,” Niv bowed. “As always, I will continue to work to ensure the best interests of your studio are met and surpassed.”
“Gods, could you kiss his ass a little more?” Hed sneered. “I’m worried Master’s ego hasn’t been sufficiently stroked yet.”
Niv turned to his fellow apprentice. “While I understand you intend your words to be humorous, Hed, I believe you are failing to show Master Lior the proper respect he deserves. He is largely responsible for the life you and I are able to enjoy.”
“Nah, it’s that you don’t know what he’s really like. You only met Master after he became a hotshot, while I still remember when they dragged him into the village all starved, bloody, and unconscious. He was a completely different guy back then.”
“Then you should be even more deferential to him. You were there to bear witness to the struggles our master has endured and thus can fully understand his character.”
“Are you sure we’re seeing the same guy? Master Lior’s a good fellow and all, but he ain’t the type to look for praise and recognition. If anything, you probably creep him out with all your brown-nosing.”
“Hed,” I reprimanded. I couldn’t care less about his snotty remarks towards me, but nipping at his colleagues during shop hours was unacceptable.
“I am confident that Master Lior would have informed me if my behavior was problematic to him, based on how I hear him lecture you at least every other day,” Niv said, a hint of condescension in his normally stoic voice.
“Feh, that’s because I’m not some four-eyed tight-ass. People aren’t afraid to talk to me when there’s a problem.”
“That is a rather liberal way to perceive things, but I suppose underachievers like you must do so in order to sleep peacefully at night.”
“Oh, I sleep just fine. Unlike you, I actually have talent. I don’t get into everyone’s good graces just by doing the jobs nobody else wants.”
“Is that so? I was under the impression your presence was only tolerated because of Master Lior’s debts to the mayor.”
“Alright, that’s enough! Calm down, you two!” I shouted over their escalating tones.
Hed threw his tools down and stood up. “The fuck are you trying to say, asshole?! You think you’re somehow better than me?!”
“I am not “trying” to say it. I am stating what should be a rather obvious fact.”
“What’s obvious is that you think being a tool magically makes you worth something. A one-trick piece of shit like you could be replaced in a week!”
“Then let us find such a man. I would be overjoyed to swap him into your role and finally lose the deadweight in our operations.”
“M-master…”
I barely heard Libi’s tiny voice behind me, but I could clearly feel her pulling tensely on the hem of my tunic. I didn’t turn around, and instead grit my teeth before taking a single, slow breath. Just as Hed’s mouth snarled for another remark, my voice boomed out into the studio.
“Both of you, shut the hell up!”
Instantly, the two of them turned their stares from one another to me, their eyes filled with equal amounts of anger and surprise. I focused on Hed first.
“Hed, you need to cut that shit out. I don’t give a rat’s ass how you talk to me, but Niv is your fellow apprentice. If you can’t think of anything half-decent to say, don’t say anything at all. I shouldn’t have to deal with you picking fights with him in the studio.”
He looked elsewhere with an ill-tempered scowl. “… Where do you get off still treating me like a kid…”
“I’ll talk to you like you’re an adult when you start acting like one.” I then turned to my other apprentice. “And you, Niv, need to not take what he says so personally. Hed and I have our own way of doing things, just like you and I do. If you want him to act more respectful, lead by example, not by giving into his remarks.”
“My apologies, Master Lior. I did not intend to let our disagreement grow so inflamed.”
“And one more thing; neither of you are ‘better’ or ‘more valuable’ than the other, no matter what kind of jokes we may toss around. Hed’s our most popular sculptor, and considering how you monitor our finances, you ought to be more aware of that than anyone, Niv. Likewise, everyone here knows Niv’s pottery sells like hotcakes. Both of you are equally vital to our success, so I don’t want to hear you dumbasses argue about who’s ‘the best apprentice’ or such again. Do I make myself clear?”
“Yes, Master Lior,” Niv said with a bow.
Hed just grunted petulantly. That was probably the best I’d get out of him.
“Good. Now, I don’t expect you two to kiss and makeup, but how about you at least apologize to one another so we can get things rolling again?”
“Of course.” Niv then turned to his fellow apprentice. “My apologies, Hed. I let my anger get the best of me and said things I did not truly mean.” He extended a hand to shake.
Hed, however, merely looked at the open palm with disgust.
With an irritated “tch”, he whipped around and stomped out of the building, choosing to deal with the storm over his peer. A cacophony of rainfall roared into the room, only to be silenced just as quickly by the slam of the studio’s door.
In that sudden, uncomfortable quiet, I let out a tired groan.
“I’m sure he’ll be fine, but come find me if he’s not home tonight.”
“Understood.” Niv’s hand finally dropped to his side.
“How you two live together is beyond me. Days like this leave me wondering why you haven’t just beat the shit out of each other.”
“I am not a violent man, and I do not believe Hed is either. Despite our conflicts, I would still say we are more alike than not.”
“I hope so.” I then turned around to face Libi. She was clearly upset, but hadn’t broken into tears. I kneeled down and placed a hand on her shoulder, putting my best impression of an honest smile on my face. “Hey, you okay?”
Libi looked at me distressingly. “… Uh huh.”
“Alright then. But just to let you know, it’s okay to be a little sad. It’s never nice when we see our friends fight.”
“… Hed and Niv are still friends too, right?”
“Of course they are. Guys just sometimes seem to get mad at each other for no real reason. We’re all a bunch of dummies who get a little too prideful at times, that’s all. By tomorrow, they’ll have made up and everything will be back to normal.”
I turned towards Niv and stared at him. He thankfully got the message.
“Master Lior is right, Libi,” he said. “Hed and I would never let an argument ruin our bond. I am sure he and I will be laughing about this soon enough.”
“Okay then…” She didn’t sound convinced, but it seemed to be enough to bandage the situation for now.
I stood up again and let out a heavy sigh. It was hard to believe I was just musing about how wonderful things were a few days ago. But I suppose that was life. I couldn’t expect every day to be perfect.
Peaks and valleys, highs and lows, pick your battles, not your nose.
We spent the rest of the day working in relative silence, with only the striking of chisels and drumming of rain to break up the tense atmosphere. The storm eventually lightened up by dinner time, prompting Niv to head home. Similarly, I walked Libi back to Tzofiya’s, then returned to my now-dreary studio.
Without a sign of my first apprentice, I would have to hope Hed hadn’t gone off to do something particularly stupid. With any luck, he was just getting drunk again. For his own good, he had better be. If I ended up receiving a visit from Niv because he never came home, a hangover would be the least of his worries.
I’d be forced to let Tzofiya deal with him then, and considering how I had just assured her I had things under control, that was a situation Hed and I should both like to avoid.
Fortunately, my night went undisturbed, meaning that the boys had either made up or finally killed each other. And considering how Niv greeted me the next morning, I was left to assume the former. Upon leaving my bedroom, I was then granted the sight of something truly unbelievable, almost disturbing in its incongruity.
Hed was already in the studio, working, and without any sign of a hangover.
I rubbed my eyes in disbelief. Like a skeptic witnessing a miracle, I slowly approached him, taking care to not risk disrupting this highly convincing illusion.
Hed gave my shenanigans only a momentary glance. “Morning, Master.”
“Nice try. I’m clearly still dreaming.”
“Very funny. How long have you been waiting to use this bit?”
“Since you stopped waking me up in the morning. Or maybe when you started showing up closer to lunchtime.”
“Well, unlike you, some of us have other places to be.”
“Blacked out on the floor doesn’t sound like a place I’d want to be,” I smirked as I pulled up a stool next to him. I then leaned in close. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah,” he said without interrupting his sculpting. “We talked things out. I’m not planning to start something again.”
“Thank you. And even if you’re still angry, I do appreciate you keeping things civil in here.”
“I’m fine. And just so you know, I made sure to apologize. Niv said his piece as well, so you won’t have to worry about us.”
“Good. What’d you guys talk about?”
“… Do I really gotta?”
“No, but your lovable master would feel better knowing.”
“Feh. Fine,” he grumbled. “I told him it pissed me off to see him always sidling up to you and making me look bad. Makes me feel like I really might be the bottom rung around here.”
“C’mon, you know that’s not true.”
“Yeah, but that ain’t the point. Having some stick-in-his-ass tin man talk down to me like that made me realize I wasn’t trying my hardest anymore. Even if the numbers say I’m the best sculptor here, I sure as shit don’t feel like it. I remember back when everything I did impressed that asshole, but now it’s like I’m beneath him.”
“That’s because Niv has finally hit his own stride. Now that he’s got some skills of his own, what mystified him before is in the realm of comprehension.”
“But then that just means I haven’t been improving as much in comparison. Sure, it’s easier to get better when you don’t know shit, but at this rate, Libi’s gonna surpass me within a year. I feel like I need to prove that I haven’t just been messing around all this time.”
I let out a low whistle. “Damn, that’s quite the epiphany you’ve had. Where the hell did you storm off to yesterday?”
“My house.”
“Wait, you just went next door?”
“It was raining like hell, where was I supposed to go?”
“Fair enough,” I conceded. “Regardless, I’m proud of you for settling things. It’s never easy to admit you might have been wrong.”
“Well, it’s hard to stay mad when Niv is so keen on burying the hatchet. It also didn’t hurt when he agreed that I was a better sculptor than him, even if that’s because he’s basically just a potter.”
“Take what you can get, right? And for what it’s worth, I’m sorry I called you a kid yesterday. I can see you’re a lot more mature than I give you credit for.”
“Nah, I understand where you were coming from. If I let the words of an asshat bug me that much, I probably still have some growing up to do.”
I sarcastically sniffled. “Gods, feels like it was only yesterday we were discussing on how to sculpt with a vision in mind…”
“Shut up. Don’t you have other apprentices to bother?”
“Maybe, but I always have time for my number one apprentice.”
“You only call me that because you think of us in chronological order.”
“Sure, keep telling yourself that.”
With that, I pushed away from the workbench. I could feel Hed’s eyes on my back as I sauntered away. Of course, he had no idea know that he wasn’t actually my “number one apprentice”.
They all were.
Hed, Niv, and Libi, each of them were special to me in their own ways. And I was damn glad I got to keep dealing with their nonsense.
True to his word, Hed didn’t antagonize Niv the entire day. In fact, they even had a few pleasant exchanges over work practices, something that brought a smile to Libi’s face. I kept myself ready in case the dumbasses got heated again, but it never came to that. My apprentices carried out their work harmoniously.
After dealing with the obnoxious event of a client showing up to place an order just before closing time, we all went our separate ways. This time, Hed offered to take Libi home, hopefully so he could also give his mother the visit she had requested. Waving goodbye to my students for the evening, I took a moment to appreciate the post-storm air. The scent of rain was always pleasant, and considering how clear the sky had become, it meant I would soon be able to work on Tornara’s cliffside again.
A perfect segue after the melancholy of the storm.
I wasted no time in returning to my tremendous project. When I woke up and saw the sun was shining, I didn’t even wait for Niv to finish his routine before I started my preparations. After stating my plans to work on the mountain, I then asked if anyone wanted to come along to help dig up some clay while we were there.
Surprisingly, or perhaps expectedly, Hed volunteered. With a nod, the two of us set out on that terribly familiar errand.
There hadn’t been much progress on the highway over the past few days, but if sculptors didn’t want to go beyond their porch in the rain, why would road workers? Yet aside from the mud and puddles, the journey to the base of the mountain was the same as always.
As Hed and I shoveled clay into the cart, I could feel that his newfound motivation wasn’t just a passing fancy. It was both nice and somewhat unnerving. Seeing Hed work hard at the tasks given to him was inspiring, but the fervor he put into this menial job was almost scary.
If anything, it made me wonder if I didn’t have to worry about being left in the dust. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt if I also put in some time to sharpen my skills…
Once the cart was full, Hed gave a dry salute before dragging it back to the studio. Taking my specialized tools in hand, I likewise made my way up to the cliff. The trek was a little more difficult on account of the wet soil and stones, but not enough to warrant cancelling my plans. I checked the ropes and pulleys to ensure the rain hadn’t affected them in any real way, and once I was assured they were as good as ever, I hooked myself in and descended down the front of the cliff.
I spent most of the day better defining the edges of the massive sculpture. In a way, it was like carving out a frame for my pseudo-portrait. I didn’t really put any designs around the work, mind you, but I did feel a need to make sure the area surrounding Tornara looked clean and aesthetically pleasing. The last thing I would want was for any part of the project to detract from her beauty.
I quickly lost track of time. Since I only took one break for lunch and a distanced inspection, I didn’t even notice it was evening until the sunlight started fading. I pulled myself back to the summit and took a swig of water, my reward for another day of hard work.
Then again, sharing the splendor of Tornara was a reward in and of itself.
Sitting atop the cliff, I let my legs dangle over the edge. With my harness still on, I didn’t need to worry about slipping and falling. I was free to simply appreciate the moment, this sense of accomplishment and eagerness for the coming future. Basking in my contentment, I looked over at the forest and the fledgling roadway winding through it.
I could see a couple wagons rolling up and down the path, along with a few travelers moving on foot. One of them was at the bend closest to my mountain, the one my apprentices and I would step off of on our trips to the base. The traveler stopped walking and looked up at my cliffside.
I nearly waved to them, but I stopped myself after I saw their defining traits.
A man.
With long, red hair.
And an eyepatch over his right eye.
Instantly, my blood began to boil. Four years weren’t enough for me to forget, four lifetimes wouldn’t have been enough. My earlier satisfaction instantly evaporated as an old hatred began to stir within me, demanding to be sated. My pulse quickened and I could feel my eyes dilate.
My hands began to itch for the chisel.
Asa, one of the so-called “Heralds of the Divine”.
The bastard who had killed Master Malka and Chen, who had destroyed Master’s studio and chased me out of Dostyn, who should have died with the other zealots back at the Temple of the Five.
He was staring at my mountain, the image of Tornara, a momentary stop before he entered Tresety. Staring at my beloved Goddess with his abhorrent eye.
I wanted to pluck that one from his skull too.
He resumed his travels, heading into the village. I rose to my feet again, quickly untying my harness and gathering my tools. I needed to get back home. I needed to warn Tzofiya and my apprentices. Before he hurt anyone, I needed him gone.
If not dead.
I rushed my way down the mountain, holding the stake in my hand as if I had found a new project that demanded my attention.
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