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Lili did not make a run for it on their shopping trip. Part of that was because the man didn’t let her out of his sight the entire time. Not even to try things on (“you can try it on when we get home,” he said). That was after he’d asked again if she wanted him to teach (and feed and house) her, and she hadn’t seen any reason not to say no.
Apparently, to him, “I’ll teach you” meant “my responsibility,” which meant “not allowed out of my sight for two seconds.
Despite all that though, Basch (and she had finally gotten a name out of him) wasn’t creepy, not the way men could be to girls like Lili, just paranoidly protective.
Which given that Lili had been attacked three times (not counting Basch) by strangers with swords, paranoia might be justified.
Basch explained The Game, that is, he told her that most Immortals spent their time running around dueling each other to the death, and that they could die, but only if their heads were cut off. It all sounded a bit silly to Lili, but she got the impression that that was because Basch thought it all was very silly. He told her that The Game had rules, but he didn’t pay any attention to them. “One rule does matter,” he said, “Don’t ever kill someone in a church or a graveyard or someplace like that.”
“I wasn’t planning to,” Lili said.
The shopping trip itself was tedious. Basch as it turned out, was not one to spend money frivolously. They went to what seemed like every store in town searching for the best quality at the lowest price. But she did buy her clothes and shoes. Very good clothes and very good shoes, even if they were inexpensive, and Lili thought, to hell with it. She really would take him up on his offer. Because she knew it was stupid to trust people, and it was probably even more stupid to trust people as strange as Basch, but she hadn’t been making it very well on her own even before the Immortality business (in fact she’d died in under a year), what choice did she really have?
The first thing that Basch taught her was how to shoot. Lili was disappointed, sword fighting sounded much more fun.
“You’re not getting close enough to fight anyone with a sword,” Basch said, “You shoot and then you run like your life depends on it, because it does, understood?”
She nodded. She’d understood running almost all her life.
Basch was not a gentle teacher but, Lili thought, he was a kind one. He did not give out compliments, a stiff nod of his head his only acknowledgement of a job well done, but he was patient, and he never grew angry with her. Lili stayed in his house for days which turned to weeks, and he taught her and he fed her and he never lifted a finger on her and he never once broke his word, and slowly she felt herself relax.
“Were you in the war?” Lili asked him over dinner one night.
“I’m Swiss,” Basch said, sounding offendeed.
Lili shrugged, “It’s just that you’re very… martial.”
“Well, I wasn’t in the war, but I have been in many wars,” Basch said. Lili hadn’t considered that. She knew, of course, that he was older than he looked, but she hadn’t considered how much older. He could be centuries old.
“Will you tell me about them?” Lili asked.
“No,” Basch said.
“Fair enough,” Lili said. It wasn’t as though she was going to tell him her whole life story either.
Basch Zwingli, Lili decided, definitely a strange man, whatever else he was. He had taken her in as if she was his own family, but she got the feeling that he never quite trusted her. She had no idea what sort of threat she could possibly pose to him, but then again she realized that just as she had no idea how old he was, he couldn’t know for certain that she was as young as she claimed. For all he knew, she could be some conniving, thousand-year-old villain, who used her apparent youth and innocence to live off the kindness of well-meaning Immortals and then kill them when their guard was down. Basch certainly never let his guard down around her. She had never actually seen him sleep, and he seemed to keep at least one eye on her at all times. Still, he acted as though everything she said about herself was true. He was, Lili concluded, both extremely paranoid and extremely kind. Of all the people who had ever been charged with looking out for her, she thought that he was already her favorite.
“Always keep two handguns on you,” Basch said, “With one within easy reach and one hidden as back-up.”
“Do I get a hidden dagger too?” Lili asked. Basch had a very nice one with a red leather handle that Lili had been eyeing longingly. A dagger wasn’t quite as exciting as a longsword, but the idea of carrying a hidden dagger at all times was almost cooler.
“No,” Basch said, “A weapon you don’t know how to use is a weapon in your enemy’s hands.”
Lili thought of the sleaze who’d murdered her, and her stomach twisted as if it remembered too. She refused to be deterred, though.
“Will you teach me to use a dagger?” she asked with pleading eyes. Basch was weak to pleading.
“Fine,” he said, “We’ll begin with hand-to-hand.”
“School begins next week,” Basch said one morning out of nowhere.
“Does it?” Lili said, wondering what that had to do with anything.
“You’ll be attending. Bring both guns and your dagger and remember to be on your guard at all times.”
“Basch, it’s a school, there are children! Do I get any say in this?” Lili said.
“No. If you live in my house you’ll receive an education,” Basch said very firmly, as if he had come to the decision after much deliberation.
“I meant about bringing weapons with me,” Lili said, “To a place with children. How many Immortals do you expect me to meet at school?”
“You know you can’t take risks. Who knows who you might meet or where. You understand how to use your weapons and how to respect them. I am trusting you to be responsible and keep yourself and others safe.”
It was a very good speech, very sensible, especially given that what he wanted her to do wasn’t sensible at all. Except that she had, again, run into Immortals on four separate occasions in less than a month when she was on her own. So it wasn’t outside the realm of possibility that she might meet one, if not at school then walking to and from. Was this what being Parented felt like? It was annoying. She’d keep the three full meals a day and the gruff, almost-emotional-support, and leave out the doing as she was told and being wrong bits, please and thank.
“Ugh, fine,” Lili said.
About six months after Basch Zwingli had shot her through a bush, Lili was sitting in a pool of sunlight doing her homework.
School was going well, surprisingly well, actually. Her teacher was understanding, and it felt less embarrassing to be learning in a class full of children who were all much younger than her than she might have expected. She supposed that dying gave you a new perspective on life.
She hadn’t run into any Immortals either. She had a feeling that most of them knew to stay clear of Basch. She still went everywhere with her weapons, though. It was second nature, now, to always have them on hand, and she didn’t even think about it.
Basch was cleaning one of his guns, and Lili took a break from working on a hard math problem to watch him work when realization dawned.
“You finally trust me!” she said, grinning. It was a poetic sort of moment, with golden afternoon sun and flowers in the windowsills.
Basch looked up, “What?” he said, and then he actually blushed when he realized what she meant.
Never once since Lili had met him had Basch been unarmed, but now the closest weapon that wasn’t in pieces was his sword, which was propped up against the table in its sheath, as close to Lili as it was to Basch.
“You trust me, that’s so sweet!” Lili said, walking over to him and resting her chin on his head. This was the sort of moment that warranted casual affection.
“Yes,” Basch said, and she could hear in his voice that he was smiling, “But don’t follow my bad example. You should never be unarmed, who knows what could happen?”
“Don’t worry,” Lili said, “I’ll watch your back.” It was a warm feeling, this. Because she knew he had trusted her to to begin with. They felt safe here, in this snug little house, both of them, because of trust.
“Thank you,” Basch said, “Now go finish your homework. Don’t get distracted.”
This, Lili thought with something like awe, as she returned to attacking her math problem, was what home felt like.