The crowd became louder, despite the fact that many of them must have realized they were outside the King's home. Gabriel tried to keep the man subdued without resorting to physically restraining him.
His ability to relate to people was not the best in the world, and he was relieved when Victoria returned with Roland. It looked like more than one guard had come to accompany the man into the center of the crowing group of people, and they were displeased over the unexpected situation.
Gabriel could relate to that. It was hard to be prepared for something unexpected, and lack of preparation could set a person on edge. It was one of a medical apprentice's earliest lessons to try to expect everything.
Roland smiled at the strange man talking to the crowd. The people who recognized him shushed the others, elbowing each other and motioning to the King.
"Good evening, Sir, I understand you have some sort of message you want to spread?" He asked kindly.
"The message of Beast!" The man nodded eagerly. "Beast has sent myself and others to spread word that all should follow him!"
"Oh, and why would they want to do that, when just a few years ago, the Void, under various names, deceived and killed its followers?" The King's brow furrowed in genuine confusion as the crowd murmured.
Gabriel marveled at how, with a friendly question, Roland had reinforced the loyalty of his people. He seemed to have been made for leadership and politics, or maybe just molded into it over the years.
"Beast is benevolent. He offers food, can clean the water, heal the sick, the lame, the blind!" The man declared euphorically. "All who follow Beast will be rewarded!"
"The sick, the hungry, the thirsty, and the infirmed," Roland mused. "That is kind of him, indeed. There would be many in the worlds who would choose to take advantage of those who are most vulnerable and desperate among us."
Again, the crowd reacted subtly to their leader's words, their eyes flickering back to the new man, now more assessing and critical.
"Why don't you come inside and tell me more about it." Roland invited, gesturing. "I'm sure these people all have meals to eat and chores to finish before sundown."
The man eyed the guards warily, but as the gathered people obeyed the veiled command and began to disperse, he nodded.
"I suppose I could come in and talk awhile. I am weary from having come so far." He conceded.
"You're in luck, for I have a very comfortable chair that I'm sure we can make available to you. I will ask that you keep your voice down as I have houseguests, currently…" Roland led the man away with a final nod to Gabriel and Victoria, who by then were one of the few people left standing on the street.
"I suppose that's our cue to leave?" Gabe glanced at her. "Roland seems to have things well in hand."
"He's very good at what he does," Victoria smiled. "We're free to go home now."
Home sounded perfectly wonderful right now. They each gathered their packs from the wagons that were stowed in Roland's barn for the night and began walking to the Shermans' house, side by side.
Victoria was quiet and contemplative, and Gabriel wondered at her thoughts. She had become much harder to read in recent days, not that he'd ever been particularly good at it.
"You keep looking at me," She said after a while. "Do I have something on my face?" She raised a hand, as if to check, but kept her eyes forward on the road ahead.
"No, I was just wondering what you were thinking," He said honestly. "You're quiet."
Victoria hesitated before speaking. "I was thinking about our conversation earlier, and how you mentioned not wanting to be seen."
"It was a joke, and not a terribly good one," He tried to backpedal his comments. "I'm known well enough."
She eyed him momentarily, and he could see she wasn't fooled. Not desiring to have the hidden parts of himself on display, he turned the focus towards another.
"Now, Kyler, there's someone who's well known. I bet he and Shayn know each other better than any other two men alive. Years of surviving together in the great unknown!" He declared.
"I think he misses Shayn far more than he lets on," Victoria frowned. "We should check on him tomorrow, kindly, to make sure he's all right."
"That's very almost-sisterly of you," He grimaced, wishing he could take the words back as soon as they were out of his mouth. She cut him a look.
"Kyler and Shayn both treat me like a sister, that's correct." She said carefully.
"I realize I'm the only one who's been weird about this, and I'm sorry," Gabriel's face contorted with the painfully awkward admission. "Can we go back to the way things were if I admit I was entirely wrong and that you are like a sister after all?"
He missed Victoria's casual displays of sisterly affection, her breezy way of interacting easily with him, her gentle laughter. It had all been strange and stilted since that day he'd let his mouth get ahead of him. Not even the offer of being friends was enough to fix the rift between them, and Gabriel needed Victoria back. Some future suitor could deal with whatever pseudo-familial connections Victoria had in her life, or he didn't deserve her.
"No," she replied.
"No?" He was surprised. She was normally so forgiving, it caught him off guard to be denied so quickly and entirely.
"No." She repeated, continuing to walk forward while he paused in the street.
"But… why? I thought that would be best? Isn't that what you wanted?" He jogged to catch up as he scrambled through his mind, trying to find some hint in previous conversations of what he was doing wrong now. It was a fruitless search, with seemingly conflicting signals coming from the woman.
"I… thought it was. But it's not." She frowned and squinted, not looking at him.
"I'm confused," He sighed. "I'm trying, Victoria, just tell me what to say, what to do, to fix it, and I will."
"I can't do that." She shrugged.
"Why not? Please, treat me like an adult and just tell me what's going on. What have I done wrong this time, and why can't I fix it? You claim to see me, why can't you just tell me?"
"Because you haven't really seen me," Victoria stopped.
"I'm looking at you now," He tried to smile at the lame joke, but a tear fell from her eye, and his smile faltered. "And now I've made you cry, and I have no idea how or why."
He reached up to brush the tear from her cheek. An intimate gesture that she leaned into for a split second before turning her face away. Or had he imagined it?
"I don't expect you to understand," She said sadly.
"Then help me understand! Make me understand!" He threw his hands up in understated frustration. "How do I fix it all? How do I make you like my sister again?"
"I don't want to be your sister, that's the whole point." She snapped her mouth shut, and her jaw clenched.
"Then what do you want, Victoria?" Gabriel caught hold of her wrist, afraid she would pull away again. "How did I mess us up this badly? I've said so many stupid things in all the years we've known each other, and it never hurt you like this. One out of place comment, one thoughtless conversation, and you want nothing to do with me anymore?"
His voice took on a strangled quality. She'd been cordial to him in the presence of others since they'd reunited at the halflings' camp. In their few moments of private conversation, she'd vacillated between friendly and distant, even mildly hostile. As if she couldn't make up her mind whether she could tolerate him or not.
His older step brothers mentioned often that women were indecisive and opaque, had Victoria grown into one of the creatures that were so mysterious to the male gender?
"That's not what I said," She stared down at his hand, still holding onto her wrist. He didn't intend to let her go until he had some sort of resolution to this conversation, to this problem between them.
"Please, Victoria. You said you don't want to be my sister, so tell me what you do want."
Gabriel squeezed her wrist slightly and ducked his head, trying to gain eye contact. It was something he'd seen Dr. Sherman do with patients reluctant to share their symptoms or stories.
Victoria's jaw jutted forward, and he wondered if she would refuse to answer him at all.
"Please," He repeated more softly. What would he do if she didn't tell him how to fix it?
"I don't want to be your sister," She said after a moment, dropping her eyes to the ground, "because I want to be more than that."