First thing in the morning, as soon as the light hit the sky, I was out of bed and dressed. I kissed Olivia and told her I would be back in a bit, then I placed wards and barriers around the room. I was sure that she would be fine against any of the cultists, but it wasn't them I was worried about.
I hadn't seen or heard from Xena since I almost killed her, but I wouldn't put it past her or one of the others trying something. As far as I knew, only Xena had access to this island, but the other worlds I had been on didn't have goddess-controlled barriers. That left a lot of unknowns, so I didn't take any chances with my magic and then summoned Tallia.
The golden portal opened, and Tallia was sitting at her table, so I walked in and joined her. The portal closed, and Tallia poured me a cup of tea, but when she was done, I leaned in for a kiss. Tallia backed up with her chair from me and then scrunched up her face at me.
"You need to change that face, or you are not coming near me!" Tallia scowled, and I grinned as my body changed back. I had just automatically put it on as soon as I got up without really thinking about it, but it would be better just to stay in it for most of the time I was in this village.
Now that I looked like me, I took a chair, pulled it closer to Tallia, and sat down before leaning into her and pulling her into a kiss. The two of us just sat there and kissed for a long time until she finally pulled back from me.
"I was surprised that you stayed in town last night. I thought that you were going back to Northwall?" Tallia said, and I shrugged.
"I was planning on it, but I ran into some women who were hunting and offered to help them. Then someone tried to sneak into my room in the middle of the night, so I had to put up some wards."
"Oh? Who was it?" Tallia asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Don't know, but they won't be trying that again anytime soon," I said with a grin. "So, what did you want to talk about?"
Tallia leaned forward and kissed me again before she began speaking. "I wanted to talk about this town's defenses."
"You mean the lack there of them? I agree; we need to do something about it," I said, and Tallia nodded.
"Yes, I was thinking that we could work on that together," Tallia said, and I raised an eyebrow.
"You want to help me fortify this town?" I asked with a puzzled look on my face since that didn't seem like something Tallia would be interested in.
"Well, yes and no," Tallia said with a smile. "I want to help you fortify the town so that it can better defend itself against future attacks." Tallia reached out and squeezed my hand gently before continuing. "But also because Xena is planning another attack soon."
"What? How do you know that?" I asked, suddenly getting up, but Tallia pulled me back down.
"Sit, drink your tea, and I will tell you what I know," Tallia said, and though I wanted to go find Xena and put a stop to her plans right away, I knew that Tallia was right. If we went off half-cocked, then we would just get ourselves killed.
I picked up my cup of tea and took a sip before setting it back down while Tallia began speaking again. "Xena came to me in Brama to give me a warning that she would be making a move on you. I tried to talk to her for a bit to see if I could reason with her, but there is something that keeps pushing for her to act like this."
"Really, she was civil enough to have a conversation with you?" I asked, and Tallia nodded.
"Even though it wasn't in this life, there was a point where we were really good friends. I know that she killed me, but I think that it could have been prevented if you had spent more time with her. I am not saying it is your fault because I should have said something about it. Regardless, I really don't think this is her fault, and if you can, I want you to try and save her," Tallia explained, and I leaned back in my chair and let out a long sigh.
I still felt anger when I thought about what Xena did, but Tallia wasn't wrong, considering how I was acting now and sleeping with everything that moved. Maybe my best route with her was to bring her back over to my side. If I could do that, then I might be able to learn what I didn't know about the rest of her kind, and that would outweigh any previous anger I was holding on to. After all, Tallia was alive and in front of me, and fixing things with Xena was one of the ways I could keep her that way.
"Alright, I will try to reason with her," I said, and Tallia nodded. She always seemed to get me to see reason, but that was a good thing, mostly. There were times when I did need to throw reason away, but this time I hoped I could fix what had broken so long ago.
"That is all that I ask. Now let's get back to fortifying this town before she makes her move," Tallia said, but I shook my head.
"I will take care of that when I get back. Take me to see the girls for a bit, and then I will come back and get started on that, but I am going to have to do it in a way that doesn't give Olivia and me away. Having you come around is just going to make all the cultists flighty," I explained, and Tallia nodded.
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