Eva slept like the dead that morning. After having to fight bandits the night before, Eva couldn’t care less that she was throwing her perfect sleeping schedule into the furnace. Cuddling into the white fluffy pillows, another day of running around was the last thing in Eva’s mind. The black hooded robe laid forgotten on the white tiled floor somewhere with her white shirt. She had come back to her room very late at night, earning a glare from the inn owner that had specifically warned her not to stay out too long. From there, all she remembered was opening the door to her room, stripping, and falling onto the white fluffy bed. She wasn’t sure if she even locked the door and at eleven in the morning, she was still nor ready to care.

*knock* Eva groaned *knock* *knock* Eva screamed into the pillow *knock* *knock* *knock* Eva threw the white sheets off her and sat up straight, directing an infuriated glare at the door. Who? Who dared disturb her during her sleep…again! She stared lamely at the door when the knockings stopped for a moment. The half sleepy girl vaguely registered two familiar voices outside her room before the knocking resumed again. “Ugh,” she groaned, dropping her face to her palms as she tried to get herself to move.

“Please wait,” she managed to say, her voice slightly raspy from just having woken up. Slowly, she stumbled out of bed, dragging the white blanket all over to the edge of the bed as she placed one foot down and then followed with the other. Standing in the middle of her half messy room, Eva threw her hands back between a yawn and stretched. Her eyes scavenged the room for her white shirt, finally landing on the heap of black and white at a corner. Eva grabbed it with a shrug, smelled it, and then put it on without another thought.

She opened the door half way, spotted something red and resisted the urge to groan as she figured out who it was. Why wasn’t this guy leaving her alone? First it was farmer Jim who came barging into the inn for her one day and now this guy. Though, her eyes landed on the excited inn owner, last time she was glaring daggers at the man who decided to come up without her permission. “Good morning,” Lord Syllas greeted, not at all bothering to hide it when his eyes rolled over her less than elegant appearance.

“Good morning,” she smiled with whatever fake sincerity she could muster. “To what do I owe my Lordship’s presence this morning?” she asked, bowing slightly at the taller man. “I have something I would like you to do for me, Eva san,” he said, a smirk playing on his lips as he gave her the same knowing look as last time. “If it won’t be too much to ask, will you go fix yourself and come down for a moment?” the man asked and turned with a single fluid motion to walk down the half failing stairs, the wood creaking under his weight every now and then.

Eva sighed.

527/2000

Déjà vu, she thought sitting across the red haired lord of the beautiful Marigold town. Sipping green tea from the same glass he had drank from yesterday, in front of her sat the very man that was the reason she was so tired and groggy that morning. Gently placing the glass down on the table between them, Syllas turned his attention to her.

“I really appreciated your work last night, Eva san,” he started, staring unwaveringly at her. She nodded in return. That was all fine coming from him but if he truly wanted to thank her, he should have left her and the sweet God of slumber alone. “It was my great honor, sir,” she replied, a sparkling smile on her lips. After a quick bath and time to organize herself, Eva had managed to bring back her perfect façade in full swing. She even wore a skirt to boost her ladylike features in front of the man that she had a slight suspicion was already on to her act.

“Today, I would like to request one more help from Eva san if you don’t mind,” he said in a voice that meant he was not going to take no for an answer, throwing inner Eva into a fit of rage. “Yes, of course,” she caught herself before she voiced any of her real opinion on him and agreed to whatever request he was going to ask without hearing it.

“Maybe you didn’t notice but there was a huge storm last night,” he began, looking out the window. She followed him, finding the backyard of the inn in a very messy state. There was leaves and twigs scattered all over the grass covered yard. To a corner, she even caught sight of the ends of a broken branch, leaning over a half broken fence. Eva had a feeling where this ‘request’ was going and she didn’t like it one bit.

Her lips drew to a thin line that she quickly turned into a smile as she turned to Syllas. “How may I help you, my Lord?” she asked, already knowing the answer. “I need you to help us in repairing many of our half destroyed buildings,” he said it as if he was asking Eva to play with the children’s building blocks. “The situation isn’t too bad. With your abilities, it should be finished within the day. Worry not for you will be rewarded handsomely for the effort you are undertaking,” he said. “You’ll have the town’s people assisting you as well. I have brought in all the materials you will be needing. Just go out and meet with the one in charge of the construction work and he will tell you the rest,” Syllas briefed the whole thing and stood up, walking out the door just as he did yesterday. He didn’t forget to give her the customary bow of head when he entered the carriage that day either and staring at the back of the carriage that was now halfway across the street, she rolled her eyes with a huff.
1039/2000

She switched out her skirt for a pair of baggy pants right after that and tied her hair up in a neat pony tail to keep it out of the way. The townsmen were all kind as she talked to them about the storm. “It was a disaster,” one of them reported, looking crestfallen at their half destroyed home. The roof was missing a whole lot of tiles and most of the windows were broken too. For a moment, Eva was surprised at herself for sleeping through all that ruckus. “It came out of nowhere,” another one said, “sure, it was a little windy last evening but it didn’t seem like we should have expected a storm”.

She heard almost the same story from several other people, nodding in understanding and sometimes offering words of comfort for the really devastated ones. With the help of other townsmen, she managed to bring in the wood and other necessary materials. For three hours, Eva ran around the whole town fixing roofs and broken windows. She even levitated the broken branch off the inn’s backyard and fixed the fence. A lot of people came to her, offering drinks and snacks, sometimes forcing Eva to get a bit of rest before she could resume the work again.

“Oh dear, you don’t have to do everything by yourself,” a kind old lady said, feeding her some dumplings she had made in her shop. “The men in this town are more than capable enough to do it, too. After all, when a mage isn’t around, they are the only ones that can do anything,” she said with a hand gesturing towards a group of men working at the broken glass panels of a shop. She chatted with the lady for a while longer before resuming work.

For another three hours, she again flew around the whole town trying to help others. They fixed the houses first, then the church and finally the other buildings. Eva was in the middle of nailing in a wooden plank when she heard someone call her from behind. It was the one in charge of the reconstruction work. He gave her a bottle of water before patting her on the back. “You’re a great help,” he praised as he took a mouthful of water from his own bottle. “We are almost done. There is just a couple of more shops left and we can call it a day,” he informed her much to Eva’s relief. She was ready to keel over from how exhausted she was. Not only had she not managed to get enough sleep, the sun was also merciless. One would expect the weather to be cloudy after a huge storm, but no, Eva was having no such luck.

“That’s great to hear,” she replied, half uninterested in the conversation. She just wanted to get it over with and go back to sleep. If her plans were going the way she wanted it to, she had plans to travel to Magnolia again the day after. From there, she was either going to Era or Crocus, but only after contacting her worried manager.
1565/2000

“Thank you so much, Eva sama,” she was greeted with a number of thankful faces as she got back for fixing the roof of the last building. Surprised, she stared at them for a moment before breaking out in a huge grin. “You don’t have to thank me, this was my duty,” she gave them the same old response. She wasn’t sure what the big idea was. These kinds of things were a mage’s duty and no one truly did it from the good of their heart. Mostly, it was for the money and half for the fame that came with it all. But they managed to shock Eva once more when one of them came up to hug Eva.

“No, you don’t understand. We were so worried when more than half of our homes were almost destroyed by the storm last night. Honestly, if you weren’t here, we would have never been able to finish the whole thing in time. Everyone will be able to sleep safely inside their homes tonight, too,” the woman said, giving Eva a warm smile. A few others nodded in approval, agreeing with the words while a few others started clapping and cheering her name.

“It was truly kind of you to help us poor folks,” the man in charge said, digging into his bag for something. He dropped it on Eva’s hands and smiled. “This is only very small compared to what you have done for us,” he said with a short bow. Some others followed as Eva just stood there flustered at the way everyone was thanking her. To be honest, she liked it and she knew that they were all genuine feelings. Eva dropped her guards for a moment to give them a real genuine smile before thanking them for supporting and helping her with all the renovation work.

By the time they were done with the celebrations and cheers, it was once again night time. Everyone dispersed, leaving Eva to herself and her thoughts. Surely, marigold was a wonderful place, too. Sadly, she wouldn’t be able to stay any longer. There were things that she had to do in other places and again, Magnolia was next on her list.

When Eva relayed to the inn owner that she would be leaving the next day, to her surprise, the often angry lady looked a little sad and even asked her if she really didn’t want to stay for a couple of days more. “No, I have a lot of things to do elsewhere. Besides, I better contact my manager before he really starts worrying about me. Thank you for the hospitality, though,” she had said before going back to her room. She cleaned it up and packed up her bags before pushing them below the bed. Next day, she would be out of Marigold town, heading to Magnolia.

2040/2000