The Laws of Hospitality vary from culture to culture, nation to nation, and even sometimes between small groups of individualized people.

But one of the greater rules of hospitality, valued across almost ninety-seven percent of civilized and uncivilized people alike is this;

No Violence.

Once someone has been granted your hospitality you are not simply ‘showing off’ your mate, your hut, or your possessions, you are granting them insight to you.

Your lifestyle, your choices, how happy the ones around you are. You are showing them ‘this is what it means to be me, or to be one of us’. A man from a neighboring country may hate your king, your master, or what you believe in wholeheartedly, believing you to be lying, thieving, murderous sons of Avan. But if you grant him hospitality in his time of need, feed him, clothe him, give him a place to rest and recuperate, he will look back upon you, your people, and your country, and he will know that he was wrong. He will know “They are civilized. They are good people. They are trustworthy.”

They will always remember you as the best version of you and your people, they will look up to you as the pinnacle of your people. From lowly dirt farmer, to Prince, they will remember you as the greatest of them all.

But if you attack someone unnecessarily, while granting them hospitality or while it is being granted, you show that you have nothing of value, aside from your brutish violence.

And the universe has had enough brutes who only know violence.

-Amacri The Stone Phoenix, Seer of Pocyphon

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I figured they lived in the city itself, but I guess with cannibals running around you have to be a bit more creative with where you sleep at night.

Long after the two had led him away from where they met, and even longer after that when they’d left the city itself he was brought to the edge of a rather small ravine. Looking down he could only see a few dozen feet down before the bottom became entirely shrouded by roots and other foliage that had grown down the sides.

The girls seemed to be moving along the ravine edge and rolling rocks the size of a person's head onto their backsides, but only specifically shaped ones. After they finished examining the bottom of the rocks for something they rolled them exactly back to where they were, before rearranging the leaves and sticks to cover the pressed grass they’d created. After a minute or two of following them they eventually tipped over a rock that had a small piece of shale rock hidden underneath it. In any other situation he’d assumed it was just a couple of rocks, if he ever had a reason to roll the larger one over off the smaller one he would have even assumed it had just broken off of the bigger one at some point.

Which seemed to be the point, as the girls began immediately covering the rock back up and digging around the sides of the ravines for something. As he watched them the smaller woman waved him over.

Standing close to the edge he peered down to see what they were rooting for, until he saw that they were attempting to get their hands on a large vine that led further down into loose branches and cut roots.

It’s a way down to the bottom, I would have never noticed this if not for the girls pointing it out. I can only see the cut branches a few feet down because I am looking for them.

Kneeling down he lowered his body down to the vine as he reached down and gave it a small tug towards his chest. It was heavy, but he was more than capable of lifting it without feeling anything tear or snap.

Vine ladder all the way to the bottom. Guess the older sister is the one that usually pulls it up for her younger sister, and getting down requires the puller to let themselves fall a few feet to catch it. Dangerous, but practical as a secret hideout.

Once he lifted it to his chest far enough for the young woman to lift it she latched onto it and began to climb down the vine. Once she had gotten far down enough to get out of sight the older sister grabbed the vine from him and nodded towards the hole.

“Me next?”

Shaking his head as the woman nodded towards the vine again he sighed before grabbing the vine with one hand and angling himself to go down the hole before simply letting himself slide down. He didn’t need to worry about hurting himself by falling and if it weren’t for the younger girl possibly still being below him he’d simply jump, but he didn’t want to risk pulverizing the younger woman. After a few moments he felt the vine begin to lower himself as he slowly slid down, before it came to a stop. After a moment or two he felt the vine shake as something heavy pulled down at it, either from the younger girl pulling it or the older sister grabbing it to stop herself from falling all the way to the bottom.

Guess my earlier guess about her jumping down to the vine instead of anything fancy was right.

It took him another ten or fifteen seconds to slide down the roughly forty foot vine, chipping small parts of it off with friction and heat. Although he had to admit it was rather comfortable, like scratching an itch he didn’t know he had. It had helped distract him as he began to lose the ability to see in the darkness, his eyes switching from relying on sunlight to whatever magic or evolution had made his eyes work in the dark.

Thank Vira for the night-vision at least, albeit it’s still rather difficult to see with no moonlight or anything.

At first he’d had a bit of a difficult time seeing, especially once he was deep enough that he couldn’t see the sky anymore, but by the time he was at the bottom there was almost no light, save for a small red light that had reflected off of several of the plants leading to the very bottom.

Not a laser, or a light per-se… fire?

When he’d finally hit the bottom of the ravine he was met with what he could only explain as the home of a druid. The walls, floor, even portions of the ceiling were made of thick, hard roots. There was even evidence of where they had chiseled away at the walls or ceiling to make certain areas easier to move around in, or simply to make it more comfortable. The furniture, if you could even call it that, was entirely made out of roots that had grown in odd ways, either shaped purposefully or simply found as it was and brought back. There were two ‘chairs’ that more resembled a lumpy barstool on either side of a small oval table that had apparently been stolen from a nearby house as it was made entirely of metal, and three beds that were carved into the walls around them.

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Two chairs but three beds? Must be one more, or there USED to be one more. Either way, a pretty decent place for two random people living out in the woods.

All in all, it was a very cozy place. The small candle that the woman had apparently lit when she’d gotten to the bottom lit up most of the room, allowing him to see pretty much everything, including the younger woman currently sitting at the table and eating something small and pointy. It was the same color as the roots around them, and seemed rather similar to some of the smaller roots growing out above them.

Is that a root? Are these things edible? That can’t be good for your teeth.

As he watched her bite down on the root he could feel a small amount of mana wisp out of the root, before it faded away into the ambient air. This proved that at the very least, the roots were edible and had enough mana in them that he could feel when it dissipated instead of being digested. Most likely because she was a baseline who couldn’t absorb it for one reason or another, that or you had to digest the root whole in order to actually get any mana. But that was followed by other questions, like why wasn’t the mana dissipating after being cut.

Questions for Lilliha, just add them to the list and move on I guess. They would help in a pinch though. The mana that dissipated alone would be enough to get me out of Mana-Starvation, and any food is good food when it’s filled with mana.

It took no more than a few seconds after he got down for Juli to land behind him, causing no small amount of rattling of various objects around the hut. Her younger sister shot her a glare, before focusing back onto her root/meal.

She’s even worse at landing than I am. Although her sister doesn’t seem as shocked by it, rather she seems more used to and annoyed by it instead.

Living in such close quarters meant that having to deal with the other making noise while they were trying to sleep or work was an obvious issue, but the safety the little hideout gave was amazing. It was almost perfectly hidden, and even if someone wanted to get down they wouldn't know where or how to without digging, or burning, the roots above them completely away. And while he didn’t know how long that would take he did know that the girls would be far from defenseless with the older sister ‘Juli’ around.

The ‘hide’ part of ‘hideout’ was most likely for the younger sisters benefit, after all even if the older sister could kill a dozen baselines in less than a minute, how many could she stop or fight before they targeted the weaker and easier target? An Altered alone was a threat, but if that Altered had a baseline family member, all it took was getting close enough to kidnap them and you had most people’s weakness, family. Unless of course that Altered was an outright psychopath, and just cleaved through you and their family member in a fit of deranged madness.

It was a coin flip really.

He was still a little wary of Juli, if not because she was a powerful Altered, but because she was powerful enough to threaten him while having the life experience and training with the new body that he didn’t have. He could fight better than her any day of the week when it came to pit-fighting or boxing, but when it came to a full on Altered smackdown all he had was the magic he knew, and the silent prayer that he was still stronger than he thought.

Magic was out, she was fast and strong, all it would take is a second of him standing still, gathering his magic or casting the spell and she’d punch through him like a piece of paper. And while he might know technique better than she did, raw strength and experience could make all the difference with her.being born and raised in the wilds, while most of his fights were simply performance based off of dealing with a baseline and unarmed opponent. She was neither, she was the strongest Bruiser he’d ever personally met and quite frankly armed far more than she should be.

The spears might only pierce his skin, as of now he was still uncertain whether or not it would break through bones considering the materials they were made of, but the danger he’d felt when she tried to ambush him was far more frightening than whatever she was actually wielding. Whether or not the spear was the reason he felt that fear, or it was simply due to Juli herself he knew that she was a threat, and regardless of whatever weapon she brought out he’d be concerned about. It could be a sandal for all he cared, and he’d still treat it like a loaded firearm.

If she was pretty much anyone else I wouldn’t care if she drew a rifle on me, but that fear… I have never felt such a pure sense of ‘danger’ before, almost like a premonition of death. If the spear was just a warning shot, and the feeling was coming from her specifically, I’d rather not find out just how strong she is.

After landing behind him Juli had begun to place her supplies and weapons next to the vine they had climbed down. Watching her he could see as she put several spears, a patchwork pack that more resembled a tenth grader’s first art project, and several small tools such as knives and a small chisel down.

Where the hell did she hide half that shit? I didn’t even notice the pack until now.

The spears were entirely made of wood and stone, while the knives were made out of old metal. It looked like she had used an old sign as a knife blade, while the chisel was just a thick iron chisel you’d find at a hardware store.

I get the spears, knives, and pack, but why a chisel? It must be what she uses to expand the living space they have, the walls aren’t exactly smooth where they dug out the roots, and if the roots are strong enough in certain places it would probably be more efficient than simply tearing at them with a rock or something.

Why did she bring it with her though? It seems rather odd to bring something so useful from your home, especially when it is only used inside your home.

He couldn’t think of a reason why she’d bring the chisel with her. She might have panicked when her sister left without her and grabbed her pack without thinking, she might use it to gather something from the city, or there might be fish or other beasts around with armor of some kind that you require a chisel to break through. The possibilities were all over the place, and the more he thought about it the less odd it felt to carry it around.

If you catch any crab in that river, or somewhere else nearby you may very well need a chisel to crack its shell, especially if it’s mutated in some way that makes its shell harder.

Goddess I hope crabs aren’t the size of cars now, the thought alone gives me the creeps.

He’d become so engrossed in the ‘riveting’ ways chisels could be used that he hadn’t noticed the younger woman trying to get his attention, until her sister slapped him in the back of the head hard enough to nearly give him a concussion.

“Ow! What?!”

Turning around to see Juli walking away as if she hadn’t just slapped him with enough force to cause ringing in his ears he looked down towards the younger woman as she held out a small root.

Oh, they are trying to feed me.

Immediately his anger towards the assault disappeared as he sat on the small make-shift chair and took the small root from her hand. Looking at it for a moment it was exactly as he first assumed it to be, a root. It was clean thankfully, having apparently been washed and prepared for consumption before being fed to him, but it didn’t look all that appetizing… Afterall it was a literal root.

Placing it into his mouth as he watched her eat her own piece he slowly bit down. The root definitely had some mana in it still, albeit it was far weaker than anything he’d get from even the worst part of an Altered beast, but it wasn’t enough to make him want to eat it. It was tough, but chewable, and tasted exactly like you’d expect; a fucking piece of soft wood. He could tell that at the very least she had removed the outer parts of the root, where the bark was, but it only made it slightly more bearable to eat.

He focused on absorbing the small amount of mana it contained, trying his best to ignore the fact that he was eating wood next to another girl doing the same with a happy expression on her face. He didn’t know what there was to be happy about, but at least she could find a way to enjoy what was probably one of her more commonly eaten meals.

I know for a fact that Juli has eaten mana-rich foods before, and I highly doubt these roots contain enough mana to keep her from starving to death, let alone growing up healthily like she has. She HAS to be eating Altered meat, so does she never give her sister any? Or maybe her sister is a vegetar- that question was stupid before I even finished thinking it, she lives out in the wilderness hiding in a bunker, she eats what she can get her hands on to avoid going hungry.

So the REAL question is, is she cracked? Spend so long eating these she has tricked herself into enjoying it?

Why am I pondering this, when I can just ask?

It took him a full minute to finish the root, chewing it until it was a thick mush, doing his best to avoid swallowing any intact slivers of wood.

God I hope I don’t have to eat another one of those.

“So do you guys eat a lot of these?”

Looking towards him for a moment the young woman shook her head.

“No, only for… Hospitality.”