The Fateful Heart

Evaline nodded, keeping her face forward as James leaned in and whispered in her ear.

"So Tiberius," she began in a louder (but still generally soft enough to keep it between the two of them) voice. "How's your camp experience so far? Everyone here is so welcoming, and the food is delicious. It's nice to talk to other mages for once."

James smiled a little bit, and looked down into his bowl, though he could feel someone's eyes on him again.

"It's nice," he lied, not because he wanted to lie to Evaline, but because he caught Odeta in the corner of his eyes, leaning in with curiosity.

"What are you guys whispering about?" Odeta whispered, looking up at Evaline and grabbing onto Evaline's arm.

James let his smile grow a little.

"Just how nice all of you are," he said.

Odeta nodded like she was pretending to understand, but he could tell from the look on her face that she didn't.

"So, Tiberius," Odeta said. "How old are you?"

James was almost relieved that it was such a simple question, but he couldn't help but feel the danger of entertaining what he knew would be a string of questions.

"21," he answered.

Odeta looked up at Evaline again. "How old are you?"

Evaline had to stop herself from looking over at James when he answered the question. So, both Brooks and Jeremy got his age wrong, after all.

"I'm also 21," Evaline said, spooning another mouthful of the soup despite Odeta holding on to her arm.

Odeta seemed to be digesting this information with a mischievous smile, and she nodded.

“Oh wow, so you’re the same age,” she said, stating the obvious for who knew what reason.

“Tiberius,” she said again, then paused. “Um. Do you have a nickname?”

James was caught in the middle of eating again, so he waited to swallow before answering.

“No,” he answered.

Odeta pursed her lips. “Hmm... okay. We’ll have to come up with one. What’s a good short version of Tiberius—“

Oh, gods, no. Not again.

“Tiberi? Rius? Tib... Tibby?”

”Never call me that,” James said.

“Rius?” Odeta asked, looking at James with the same mischievous look in her eye.

James narrowed his eyes.

“You know which one,” James said.

Evaline couldn't help but smirk at the evolving conversation between James and Odeta. She bounced glances between both sides, fully entertained that Odeta decided to unleash her silly mischievous side out on James.

"Come on, Tibs," Evaline teased along. "Let the girl call you Tibby."

"Oh, she can call me that all she wants," James said. "I just won't respond to it. I won't if you call me Tibs either."

Odeta pouted, and looked at Evaline.

"Tibby is a good nickname. I worked really hard on it," she said in what was clearly fake sadness.

"For a whole three seconds," James muttered.

Odeta looked offended at that, but it was obvious she was still acting, for humor's sake, presumedly. She even gasped, for good measure, and then shook her head.

"No one appreciates me," she said with a sigh.

Evaline let out a laugh, half-rolling her eyes at James.

"Tell you what," she said over to Odeta. "I'll call him Tibby if you call him Tibby. Eventually the whole camp will think that's his name, so he'll have to answer us eventually."

"Watch me ignore all of you," James said, closing his eyes and taking a sip of soup.

"I can make that very hard for you," Odeta said, her voice laced with something James couldn't quite pinpoint.

He opened his eyes and side-eyed her.

Odeta was practically grinning ear to ear. She leaned forward so she could look at James directly, instead of over Evaline's bowl.

There was a brief silence and James made eye contact with the teenaged girl, trying to read her face. Her intentions. Her mind.

It was impossible with how little he knew about her, but he decided that no matter how innocent or harmless Odeta's idea was, he didn't need more attention or for anything to be more difficult than it already was while he was here. None of the adults liked him. He didn't know how much Odeta had influence over their opinions.

He decided to bite the bullet.

With a sigh, he looked away.

"Do whatever you want," he muttered.

Evaline took a bite of the soup, carefully assessing what was going on between Odeta and James. It seemed harmless enough, but something about her words made her skin crawl.

She cleared her throat, not liking what she knew she had to do. "Odeta, we never got to finish our conversation," she said, turning towards her to break the eerie eye contact she held on to James. "Did you have more questions for me?"

Odeta looked up at Evaline with an expression that was unreadable.

"Questions? Oh, I don't think I have any more questions," she said, eyes flicking back to James. "Unless you want me to?"

At that point, Jared, who was on the log right next to them, leaned in.

"Odeta, are you bothering Evaline?" he asked.

Odeta let go of Evaline's arm finally. "What? No. I was only bothering Tibby."

Jared's eyebrows drew together in confusion.

"You mean Tiberius," Jared said.

"No. Tibby. That's his nickname," Odeta said.

Jared looked skeptical, and James did his best to look indifferent.

"Didn't know you were already on a nickname basis with the newcomers, Deta," Jared said with a smirk.

Odeta stuck out her tongue.

"Evaline," Jared started. "'R you alright? You can tell Odeta if she's bothering you too much, you know."

Well, Jared was right. As entertaining as it was in the beginning, Odeta was becoming fussy.

"I'm alright," Evaline said quietly over to Jared, but she still shot him an appreciative smile. And then she looked down at Odeta, who had turned to look at her with her pleading eyes as if saying, 'I'm not actually bothering you, right? Right?'

"Well..." she began nervously. "I guess... I could use some more space."

Odeta frowned, and scooted to the very edge of the log.

“Like this?”

Jared stepped in.

“Why don’t you sit with me for a bit? I think Evaline’s been through a lot today,” he said. He patted the edge of the log near him.

Odeta sent one more pleading look to Evaline before sureending and sitting with Jared. Jared smiled at Evaline before inviting Odeta into conversation with Masil and Bethany, who were sitting around him too.

James, though he didn’t say anything, looked to Evaline and waited to see if she would glance at him, and make eye contact.

He was glad Evaline said something, even if she seemed hesitant. She’d said it in kindness, even if she didn’t sound confident. He didn’t feel lile he was in a position where he could tell Odeta to leave then alone without becoming even more unpopular, or just turning into the bad guy. So he was relieved.

Evaline nodded to Jared, glad that he seemed to understand and call Odeta over. She shot him one last appreciative smile before looking back down at the stew, then hesitantly over at James, meeting his eyes. He looked relieved.

Ordinarily she would be amused over the thought that he was relieved that a young teenage girl left him alone, but somehow, Evaline was also relieved.

She lingered her eyes on him for more time than necessary, trying to once again ask with her eyes if he was okay, even though they were close enough to talk quietly to each other. But then she looked back down at her bowl, spooning more of the stew in her mouth with thoughts running through her mind.

She was sure they'd have lots of questions for each other. For now, they just had to wait until they were alone to talk... whenever that would be.

As everyone finished up eating lunch and they all worked together as a group to clean up - the kids went to wash dishes and Maisy went in to put the baby down for a nap. Meanwhile, James and Jared helped haul the big pot off of the fire pit and cleaned it out after Raya and Evaline stored away what was left of the stew for later. Nathan and Elrick went did another round of recon to sweep the area and make sure no one was nearby.

It looked like the kids were still preoccupied with washing dishes around their bucket of water. They were talking and laughing while they worked, along with some whining, likely due to teasing. Jared and Raya seemed to disperse into their tents and James and Evaline finally found a moment alone.

Wanting to be out of earshot, James drifted back over to the horses and made eye contact with Evaline, who seemed to eagerly follow.

He waited by Elliot, petting his snout.

Evaline followed James and approached him as he was petting Elliot. The few others horses seemed to give her a curious sniff as she got closer.

"So," she said, still in a hushed voice, lightly leaning along the wooden post. "I guess I'm a time mage now."