The schoolhouse was cold, bellow freezing in fact, judging from the ice on the windows. His woolen jacket and mittens helped to keep him warm while he started the fire in the stove. The outside world was still bathed in darkness, the sun taking extra-long to wake up today. As was expected for being so close to the solstice. A shiver and yawn crept through Reese as he thought about curling into a ball next to the glowing embers and taking a nap, but that wasn't a good idea. Fense would be in soon, probably not the best idea to be seen asleep by his new boss.
It was only the second day of his new employment, but he was already getting used to it. Fense was leaving some of the more menial tasks to him to start with, he was sure of it. One of those duties was preparing the school house before he arrived. Lighting the stove was one such duty, at least for the months of Deciamon thru Elemiwi. Books, paper scraps, and very cheap charcoal was set out on the instructor's desk, per Fense's instructions. Other minor preparations, straighten up desks, pulling a few books from the library in back. Eventually, there wasn't much left to do, but wait.
His stomach rumbled in the dark cold. He had only grabbed a very quick bit of food. Some preserves on a bit of day-old bread. It wasn't bad for this world, just not particularly filling. He'd have to make a note to prepare something ahead of time, or get up even earlier. A common problem in this world, at least in regards to cooking was how long it could take to heat up a stove. Without gas or electricity most were powered by wooden logs, which had to be lite and allowed to burn for a bit before you could cook on them, it could also be a bit wasteful of the fire wood to just cook something small. Supposedly, there were some very high-end stoves that made use of flame mana and enchantments, but he hadn't seen one yet. Regardless, they would likely require mana, which he didn’t have in the first place.
A small notebook inside the instructor's desk caught his eye while he sat in the slowly warming space. It was Fense's grading book. The one book Reese hadn't seen yet. Fense hadn't said it was off limits, but he clearly hadn't given it to him for a reason. The temptation tapped at his mind as he considered the time. Outside was just starting to get light. He'd be here in a few minutes, at most a half hour. That would be enough for a quick peak. Reese would have given anything for an actual clock right there, but of course it wasn't that simple.
The first few pages were notes for names he had never seen before. Most of them sounded Anthro, then he noticed the dates, it was almost five years ago. A note at the bottom confirmed,
'My son, I know you will do well in Tanoo. You have the makings of a great teacher. I know because you were taught by the best. Remember we all love you.'
It seemed like the book was some kind of parting gift from his mother or family. It was sweet and Reese actually found his eyes watering a bit at the gesture. He turned the pages, that was the only note he could see from his family. The rest were all Fense’s, he paused on one in particular.
'Taking Jah off the roster. His mother was sold to a different village. I can't keep doing this, it's too hard.'
The next page was the first for Wollseeth.
As he read the names, a few caused him to smile again.
'Gezal – Good reading skills, writing is weak. Math, about average. Seems to like history. Need to focus on written skills first. Student might be going to an academy soon, maybe give the class some assignments on military history to help him?'
He skipped over his own name for a moment to read the one under him.
'Emilie – Exceptional reading skills, Exceptional writing for her age. Exceptional Math. This child seems like a genius too. I know I shouldn't compare students, but she might even be smarter than Reese.'
That didn’t seem unreasonable he thought with a laugh. Unlike himself, who had a lifetime of memories to draw from, Emilie was born in this world knowing nothing. Her growth, was all her own. With a deep breath he jumped back to his name, unsure if he wanted to read it or not.
'Reese – Exceptional reading skills, very good writing but likes to make up words and phrases. Math, beyond exceptional. This student seems like a genius, it's like he's already read a library worth of information. Likes to help the other students learn, but frequently gets in the way of my lesson. This one is going to be a challenge to teach, and I'm not sure what I can even teach him.'
"Interesting notes, aren't they?" A voice behind him spoke, startling Reese into quickly shutting the grade book.
Fense could only laugh, and sigh. "It's fine Reese. I was planning to share that with you, later though."
A sudden warmth rose to his face, and it was not from the stove he lit. “Sorry.” He whispered.
“Ha ha. It’s alright. Like I was going to show it to you. Tell me, what do you think of my grading?”
Reese paused for a moment, before reopening the book and considered a random page. “Well, I’m not sure. I kind of expected to see, grades. Like maybe letters or numbers?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, you write exceptional, good, weak, poor, ectara. I just, don’t know I kind of expected that to ‘binned’ somehow? Like exceptional might be ‘A’ or 10, good would be ‘B’ or 9, something like that. Maybe that’s just how I think.”
“No, I get what you’re saying. There was a school of thought like that back in the Auslang days when they did industrialized schooling, it doesn’t work well for small schools like this. Tell me, would it make sense to ‘bin’ a first-year student the same as someone who’s on their last year?”
“Well no, I mean. You’d only compare them to students about the same age. I guess?” As Reese considered it more, maybe his idea wasn’t the best. As Fense would point out.
Fense smiled at his now protégée. “This is where I thought you might have some trouble, and maybe I might be able to actually teach you something for a change. Your mind always seems to be working with numbers. I see the way you solve problems, you like to make things into numerical problems. Even my literature lectures and assignments you like to twist into math problems. But these grades aren't numbers, it’s more abstract, to use your phrase. You’re no longer a traditional student of mine, but I want you to do an assignment for me. I want you to mark out a few pages in one of your notebooks and start using it as your grade book. Keep track of the student’s progress as you tutor them, and we’ll start discussing next week before we break.”
Reese nodded and took out his notebook, causing Fense to laugh. He didn’t mean right then, but didn’t stop his diligent assistant.
After Reese marked off a few pages, he glanced back to Fense, “I do have one question. Do you, report this back to the parents and what would I be expected to do in that regards.”
“I do, and that’s an important part of being a teacher. You need to make sure you’re communicating with the parents and ensuring they’re involved. For me, every month I send a short letter with how each student is doing. Pretty much verbatim what you see in my gradebook plus an example of something I saw that backs it up.”
Light from outside had finally begun streaming in. Given the height it was about 6:45AM, give or take a few minutes. Class would be starting in a little over an hour and the two still had a bit of setup to do before that. Fense didn’t say it aloud yet, but he was glad to have an assistant now to help with this. It meant he could sleep in just a bit.
Through out the week, the two would have several sit downs like earlier. Fense would explain his teaching style and reasons for doing things, and Reese, would attempt to explain how things should be done. At least in his mind, only to be shoot down most times.
The wolf remained tolerant of his seemingly young ideas, in truth, he enjoyed being challenged a bit. It wasn’t since he was last with his mother that Fense had his teaching methods questioned, even gently. Despite Reese seeming arrogance at first, he was willing to learn how teaching was done in this world. Though, he was insistent that at least some of his ideas held merit. Something he would be able to test later on.
Setnesdeg would arrive quicker then it should have. Almost by instinct now, Reese found him self up just before dawn. He sighed as his eyes opened to the twilight darkness. Blinking a few times his hands went to rub the tiredness away. He still wasn’t going to bed at a reasonable hour, but in time he hoped that would change. Being chronically sleep deprived was not a good thing. It took a second to process, but today was the 19th of the month. Mable’s birthday had passed four days ago, with nary a whisper by anyone but him. His birthday on the otherhand was coming up, very soon. No doubt his parents were just going to combine the both of them.
It would make things simpler, but seemed deeply unfair to the young child. To make it up, was to offer the child a wish, anything he could grant for her, he would. Not that there was much he had to give, it at least seemed somewhat fair, somehow.
But that was a problem for later when she made up her mind, for now, Reese had another more immediate issue he’d have to deal with, Charston. The bookstore was still closed, by far the longest stint he had seen yet. There were signs of life in the store so at least it wasn't the worst-case scenario. Today, Reese would formally be tendering his resignation, unless Charston truly wanted his help. At which point, he would have to find a way to juggle the two jobs. A fate he had not had to do since his undergraduate degree, nearly 30 years ago now.
That would happen later in the day though. For now, his work bench held two projects he had been working on, his calculator which was close to done, and another project that was more, immediately useful but also in a much more precarious state. His research into enchantments had hit a wall awhile ago. This project in particular would hopefully push him out of that slump. If he designed it right, it would inject variable amounts of sound mana into his body via his hand. A lot of it was based more on guess work than theory, and he was hesitant to attach his rather expensive, and otherwise useless low quality sound stone to it.
There was still quite a bit missing from the circuitry anyway. He had the logic setup, effectively a mana resistive setup that could be scaled either up or down to allow more or less mana though. His thought, was that he could slowly ramp up the amount of mana flowing though him and hopefully prevent any kind of backlash, which a few of his text seemed to warn against. Though there was so little written on this specific topic it was hard to tell what they were referring to, exactly.
So which would he work on? A smug smile crossed his lips, both seemed like a good answer.
Sunrise came, then breakfast, then noon and lunch. The projects were both in pieces still, but at least there were less pieces. He'd probably have a working version of his new calculator soon enough.
This other one on the other hand, quite literally, was a plate of metal with intricate mana circuits carved into it. It could actually be useful, if he was able to get it working. Using some leather scraps, he’d be able to attach it around his hand, like a half glove. In theory, it would be able to inject small amounts of stored mana from the stone into him allowing for very simple use of it all. The experiments he had run with other enchantments showed he could force mana into a different item, but those were always non-organic. Those same circuits didn’t seem to work when something living was on the other end.
He had no idea if it would work in the end, there was still too much missing from it. Even if it did, it wouldn’t be a prefect replacement for a gate. All it could do, is inject the raw mana, it couldn’t be shaped into any complex spells. Though, perhaps a second device could? More questions to answer later. He had to build it first.
Being winter, the shadows outside never disappeared at noon, but they did grow shorter. Their lengthening told Reese it was getting late. If he wanted to talk to Charston today, now would be the time to do it.
Setnesdeg, much like a Saturday on earth, was slower here. People wandered about with more of a plod then a walk, lazily doing errands that didn’t need to be rushed. Perhaps it was because of the cold air, but there were fewer people about too. Of course, as he made his way down the tiny market street, one elf woman in particular caught his eye, and he couldn’t help but smile at her as she arranged an assortment of winter flowers. Her smile and wave back told Reese what he would be doing at the end of the day, buying more flowers. It was a hopeless case, he knew that, but even an unwinnable game can be fun sometimes.
The bookstore had the same closed sign that had been up for weeks now, but the door was unlocked. Reese knocked to be polite about it, but entered regardless. “Hello? Charston, just want to make sure you’re ok.”
From around the desk, an unusually plump, and seemingly fluid filled Charston greeted him from behind the front desk, “Reese! Good to see you!” The old man’s breath sounded deeply ragged, like breathing was unusually difficult for him. Not that it ever seemed easy but this was clearly worse.
As he got a better look at him, Reese immediately became aware of what the problem was. It was the same concern he had when he first started working here. The rounded face, swelling in the legs, the sound of fluid in the lungs and the raspy breathing. He had seen this before in his father. His old father. It was all the signs of congestive heart failure.
It was obvious when Reese started working here three years ago that Charston wasn’t doing well. The cane wasn’t for his joints, it was because moving was hard on his circulatory system. It was all just a guess, but he suspected Charston must have had some kind of attack last month. There was one day where he seemed to grab at his chest a few times and Reese feared the worse for his old boss.
“You’re starting at me like I’m one of your damn experiments boy.” He seemed flustered and mildly annoyed at his inspection.
‘Old Boss.’ Those words rang in his head as he remembered why he was here. But still, he held some concern for the old man. He was kind of like a crotchety older uncle to him, more than an actual boss.
“It’s your heart isn’t it.” It was a rhetorical question, Reese knew well enough the signs. It was a way of showing concern and empathy for a friend he thought might not be long for this world.
Instead of being despondent, downcast, or otherwise annoyed Charston turned and smiled to someone hidden behind some shelves. “Ha! See what’d I tell you. That boy is smarter than you and you went to that… damn… college.” Charston began a coughing fit that lasted for a few seconds.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
A robed figure Reese had had seen only in passing dropped a few books before rushing from behind those shelves. He tried to help the older man but was pushed away. “Anyway. Yes, it’s my heart. I’ve had problems with it since I was a boy. Younger than you in fact.” He paused to breathe a bit before continuing.
He took a few more minutes and smiled again, “Honestly, I’ll live. It’s been worse, much worse in fact… and my nephew here, for all the berating I do of him, is a very skilled healer. A few more deep healing sessions, and… I’ll be around for a few more years anyway. Probably won’t see 70 but damn the gods I’m going to fucking try.”
“You won’t live another year if you don’t take care of yourself and eat that medicine I prescribed.” Charston’s nephew berated his seemingly difficult patient.
“Bah! What do you care, I’m just denying you your inheritance by living long aren’t I?” The venom in his voice was subtle, but nonetheless still present. The man behind the robe looked embarrassed and little hurt.
Charston turned to face Reese. It was hard to tell if Charston’s expression was one of exacerbation or subtle happiness. “I heard Fense made you his teaching apprentice?”
“He did.”
“So, you’re coming over to quit then… That’s fine. Appreciate you saying so.” With a wave of his hand, Charston turned away and went back to tend the book parts behind his desk.
Standing in the doorway still, Reese moved further into the book store, chasing the still siting man. “Well, I was thinking about it. I could still work for you, I don’t want to leave you if you still need my help. I could always do something every few days. Certainly, on the weekends.”
“Nah I don’t need you anymore. My niece is coming up, and my nephew is here for now. I don’t need your help boy. In fact, you don't quit, you’re fired!”
Reese had to laugh. It was just the old man's way. To the point, direct, abrasive, and always hiding his true feelings, but the subtle laugh and smile behind the words showed his true feelings. It was a bittersweet emotion, like a mentor watching their protégé leave for the last time.
“Arvvest! Go head to the tavern or something.” Charston tossed a coin to his nephew who glared at the silver coin. His mouth opened like he was about to say something but shook his head and wandered out the door, pushing it harder than necessary when he did so.
“Sorry about that.” Charston turned back around on his seat. “This isn’t easy for me son. Despite being an annoying little shit, I like you, and I thank you for the offer. But, I’m fine.”
This was hard for Reese too, he wasn’t good with the thought of losing someone. “I just… I don’t like the thought of losing people I’m close to. It, hurts.”
Charston nodded and smiled, “You're probably the only one who feels that way. Honestly son, for what it's worth. Despite being a grouch, I’m happy. I’ve lived a very full life, even if is shorter than I wanted… When I was your age, and even younger in fact, I wanted to be an adventurer. Join the hunter’s guild or the Freelancers I thought...” He paused to cough again, “Then when those other kids made me eat that damn plant, things changed. Couldn’t go fighting dragons and goblins like you and your friend did. But I could still explore. I used to be engrossed in books, so I knew their value, how to buy them, how to sell them, and how to make them. Lot of money in book, not high volume but high margin. I figured I was earning a gold a day on average. Not only that, I saw all six kingdoms, some of the surrounding countries, and even Uginshim. Selling books the whole way like I was being paid to enjoy myself. Uginshim…"
Charston paused and smiled, "Ahh, that's a set of stories there. Only two real regrets I have, I wasn’t able to travel to the demon's home countries on the hidden continent, and that I didn’t chase Rebba down there.”
That caused Reese to now smile. He had never seen Charston chase after or even mention women before. “Who was Rebba?”
“The most beautiful red skin demonis you could imagine. But that’s a different story. The point is, for grouchy old man who’s dying, I am happy. Maybe I’ll write my own book before I go. Always sold everyone else’s.”
Charston drop his hand on his table in sudden frustration as he remembered something. “Ah, bugger all. There is something you can do for me.” He began fishing under his desk for something.
“Yeah, anything.”
Charston dropped a rather modest book on the table, “I should have asked my nephew to do this. Take this to the Inn. The keeper’s been waiting a while for a copy to show up. I’ll even pay you a full day’s wages for it.”
“Consider it done!” Reese smiled and grabbed the modest sized tome. It was a little heavier than he was expecting, and the pages seemed fairly hardy. Like it was designed to be abused a bit. Glancing at the title, it looked like it was a cookbook.
The Inn wasn't that far from the bookstore, just under a quarter mile, if he was being generous. But for Charston, that would have been quite a walk.
As he came upon the large building, Reese realized he hadn't ever been inside it before. There was never a reason for a child to enter the Inn, Bar and apparently Freelancer and hunter guild hall. From the
outside, It looked much like you might expect and older Inn too look, two maybe three floors, A large, angled roof with the same wooden shingles as most other buildings here, and several chimneys all billowing smoke into the cold early winter air. A deserted large open area held benches, tables but no stools, likely having been taken in for the winter.
There was also a large billboard set up under an awning of the Inn with many flyers attached. The town newspaper more or less. Without the ability to mass produce printed materials, people had to create copies by hand. Which meant at best, each village and town might get a handful of publications to be placed for all the citizens to collectively read. For a moment he read the papers, some faded with time and moisture, but a few seemed fresh. In particular, one very fresh page made mention of a tax collection this new year. It looked like it was covering over at least several other defaced versions of itself.
Pushing the twin doors open, he could feel his muscles relax in the strangely nostalgic air.
The inside was warm, and it sunk into his young bones, and it had this smell to it. The deep musty aroma of yeast, spilled beer, and food cooked over a fire. It was a deeply familiar smell that reminded Reese of another time and place. He could almost hear his Mother and Grandfather arguing in the kitchen about what to serve, while his Father talked about non-sense with a regular.
"Hey, kid what are you doing here?" The words of the bartender snaping him out of his pleasant dream of a past life, long gone. She was a very curvy woman, and her voice was bold and deep. Reese had seen her in passing, even said hi once or twice but never really talked with her. She was a dwarf, or at least half dwarf. Her tan skin spoke to her tropical human half heritage.
This bartender was also the keeper of this Inn. She didn't exactly own the place, or at least, he didn't think she did. Supposedly there was an agreement with the Freelancer guild who were the true owners, but that was only based on hearsay. Regardless of the Inn, she did own the book he was carrying. "Ethanina? Charston wanted me to give you this book."
"Book? Oh, right! I ordered a cookbook from overseas. Let me see." As she came to grab the book, Reese found himself nearly meeting her eye to eye, as she was as tall as he was. However, judging from how large and solid her arms looked, she was many times stronger. Chances where, those curves were also hiding far more muscle than fat.
She flipped though the pages and smiled. "Thanks kid. I already paid Charston, but want a drink for the trouble?" Unlike earth, the laws of the Six Kingdoms and Thrus were different. While giving a child booze was frowned upon in this world, it was not strictly illegal or really illegal at all.
Still, "No thank you. I think I'm too young to drink."
Ethanina put the book down and held up a finger, "I got something a kid might like. Haven't been able to sell much of it anyway." She tapped at a keg behind the bar and poured out a thick and bubble brown mixture into a wooden tankard. As it was dropped in front of him, he could smell it. "Sarsaparilla?"
"Sarpa-what? No it's Ceepra root, made into a beer. But it's got almost no alcohol, couldn't get drunk on it if you tried, and some have."
He took a sniff, he could sense a hint of yeast and the carbon dioxide it made, but not anything like alcohol. He took a sip, it was like root beer, but with this peppermint aftertaste, "Birchbeer!" He spoke and couldn't help but laugh.
"Ok, if you're done making up words, I'm going back to tending the bar. Thanks again for the book."
Reese tried to savor it as he took small sips. He never thought he'd get a chance to drink anything like soda again. True, it was warm but that didn't matter. Another sip, and he thought to himself 'I could get addicted to it.'
"She should know better then to serve a kid." Arvvest sat at the bar drinking something that was significantly more potent than Reese's drink.
He took a seat next to the magical doctor.
"She said it didn't have much alcohol in it."
"Ha! I meant the serving part; kids shouldn't be in bars. Small amounts of alcohol are good for everyone!" He took a large swig and finished off what was likely his first. Arvvest dropped three coppers on the bar top and held the rest in his hand. Reese decided to not to argue with the man.
Instead, Reese brought up what had been bothering him for a while now, “I know deep healing isn’t good for long term support. Is he going to be, ok?”
Arvvest nodded, “Well, the old man is right. He’ll probably live another 3-5 years. When he was a kid, he ate something called ‘sheep’s folly’, it’s a sweet tasting vine but it masks a very dangerous poison. It damaged his heart, and probably his other organs. He’s been doing deep healing treatments all his life, but each time-”
“But each time it takes some his life span away too.”
“Indeed. If not for his heart, he’d probably live to be 90 with his quarter elf’s blood. Instead, he’ll be lucky to see 68. Although it’s still really impressive, people like him, usually die before their 30s. Even with deep healing and the right herbs. I’m pretty sure he’s developing a wasting disease from it all. There are nodules around his chest that… I’m amazed he’s tolerated it as much as he has.”
“Are you planning to stick around?”
The hooded doctor looked around the bar then out the windows into the village as if considering for a moment. “No. This village already has too many healers for its size. There’d be nothing for me to do. But, I also can’t just leave him. I’ve sent word to my cousin, his niece, to come out and assist him. She knows healing magics, so she can support him, but no deep healing. I’m going to set up shop in that small city I passed through. Seemed like they need an extra healer, and I’d only be half a day’s journey.”
Sighing, he took a moment to drink in the village in again, as if still considering. “This place is lovely though. I wouldn’t mind staying, even if there wasn’t much work but…” The nephew just couldn’t finish the sentence.
“But Charston’ difficult.” Reese finished for him with a knowing smirk.
Avvest let out a single quick and loud laugh, “Ha! That’s one word for him. Honestly, he's not wrong. We all know he has money somewhere, and I’m not going to lie and say I don’t want some of it. But he is my uncle, and I do admire the man. I’d help him even if he wasn’t holding an inheritance over my head. When he's not being a grouch, he's got some amazing stories.”
Silence took the two of them as they each savored their respective drinks. As Avvest was lost in thought, Reese decided to take the opportunity to wander to the back of the inn and see what the Freelancer branch here truly looked like.
The Freelancers were an organization set up to handle minor agreements and contracts between various parties and entities. They would take on jobs for various parties and attempt to match them up with prospective and skilled individuals. People paid to be part of the guild and paid to use their services as well. The size, age, funds and ultimately reach of the organization gave them unprecedented power in not just the six kingdoms but even the surrounding countries. Even the merchant's guild was small by comparison. The only competing organization, the Hunter's guild, had been more or less strong armed into being taken over by the Freelancers almost sixty years ago.
Wandering about, he found all along the backs walls that papers had been placed wherever there was space. Each one was a job of some type, a contract. Most seemed like they were simple, short-term contracts for deliveries, some requests for new supplies at a deep premium. It was like the classified ads back on earth, only more physical. A handful seemed much more complex though, Okenek were mentioned in the title for a few a few, maybe Trolls in another. All had payments listed at the bottom of the page. Without anything to base it upon, Reese had no way of knowing if 15 silvers was a fair price to take out a pair of Dire wolves.
The pages seemed to be organized, or at least grouped. The more expensive seemed to be higher, while the cheaper seemed lower. On the opposite wall were portraits, and faces, to one side most had a word that meant 'Reward' at the top. All of those seemed to be adults of various races, humans, elf, even a dwarf, with rewards ranging from a handful of silvers to five gold. Nearly a year's salary for many! Most said ‘Alive’ but a handful of the more expensive ones said something closer to ‘Alive or Dead’. Wanted posters for the bounty hunters within the guild, it seemed.
Next to all those there was also a smattering of younger portraits, children by the looks of it. Instead of just ‘Reward’ there was also 'Lost, seeking information'. This world's version of a picture on a milk box he supposed. There were so many faces, some humans, a few elves, anthros galore: horses kin boys, a feline of some kind, a very old and faded poster of a very young mouse girl, another of a high goblin child. There were just so many, a few he might have expected but not the twenty-three he counted. To make things worse, he suspected that was only the parents that could afford to pay and care enough.
"Sad isn't it?" Avvest had snuck up on him and said what Reese had been thinking. "Many of them were probably stolen and sold to slavers or worse. See how old a lot of the posters are? The guild will eventually take them down unless you pay to keep them up. Some parents never lose hope though."
“There's so many, I don’t understand how that happens?”
“The slavery? It just does. You’re still a kid so you may not know, but it happens all the time. It’s illegal, but that requires catching them and proof. Both are hard. Legally, there are only three types of slaves, debt slave, criminal slaves, and captured soldier slaves from wars. A citizen of the six kingdoms can only become a slave through unpayable debt or crimes. Most of the time, only the person who holds the debt is enslaved, but occasionally, that can be expanded to other family if they’re complicit or found to have benefited I do think that’s rare.”
“That all sounds like bullshit, there shouldn't even be slaves.” As Reese spoke and handful of eyes turned in his direction. It was not a pleasant gaze, even from the distance the bartender overheard and coughed as if signaling to change the topic.
“Look, you’re a kid so it can be excused, but don’t let other people hear you say that. Abolitionists, have a hard time in the world.”
“How do kids even get sold if they’re stolen. It's illegal? Does no one care.”
“Gods, I should have just let you talk to your parents about this. Slavers lie. It’s easy and cheap to create fake paperwork. Was a kid born in Thrus or out in one of the unallied city states? Who knows for sure, most times the kids don’t, and at best there's a record is a town who's name may not even exist. Bring them in through Fresall which is very lax with their slave laws, means no one will search. All the slaver has to do it pay a tax and suddenly, the child is a legal slave. Unless you can prove they weren’t. Good luck with that. Hell, even an adult would have a hard time. Or, just sell them in some unallied city state.”
“I still don’t think it’s right.”
“Well, it’s not up to you. Or me for that matter. For what it’s worth, I do think the abolitionists will get their way, eventually. But it might take a civil war with Fresall first.” Avvest took one last long swig of his drink, finishing it off. "I think it's time for us to leave. Come along little abolitionist."
Reese didn't know how to feel. They never really talked about this stuff in school, aside from passing mentions. It was like waking up from a dream to see a nightmare. This world wasn't perfect but, this just seemed so much worse than he ever expected it to be.
Perhaps sensing the contention in the young boy's mind, the doctor asked a different question to change topics. "You interested in being a Freelancer when you get older?"
Reese thought about it, more than once. It be hard to say he wasn't interested, but without magic, what hope did he really have? Even hunters tended to use techniques on larger prey. "I don't know. I'd like to, but without a gate, I don't think I'd be much use."
"You're gateless? Damn, I've never met someone who was actually gateless. Well, there are still things you can probably do. Only about a third of their contracts are combat related."
That seemed true, but most of those were also low value. A 10 silver contract isn't worth all the much if you're only doing one or two a week.
The bookstore was the same as they left it, and Charston was still sitting behind that desk, working on fixing a few books.
Without saying much, Charston handed Reese the 12 promised mossies, but also told him to wait while and wandered off in back to fetch something else.
As he came back, he had a large and seemingly heavy book in his free hand. “Reese. Before you go, I wanted to give you something.”
Avvest's eyes went wide. “Uncle that book… You told me that book-“
“Is mine to give! You gold digging little twerp.”
Reese tried not to laugh, as he took the book from him. The title was hard to read, it looked like Auslang, which he didn’t really know. “It looks like Auslang, I guess I need to learn Auslang.”
“Yes. You do, but that’s not Auslang. That’s a book on enchanting. I picked it up 20 years ago, when I thought I’d try my hands at it. But it’s just far too advance for me and I couldn’t read it anyway. I’ve never seen another copy anywhere. It’s old and it might be the only one. Thought you might get more use out of it then some collector.”
He looked over the lettering on the front, it was certainly odd. But as he touched some of the first few pages something felt off. The paper seemed, different then what he had come to expect. He’d have to give it a better look over later. Regardless, it was an amazing gift.
A small and subtle tear grew in his eye as he quickly wiped it away. “Thank you. If you ever want help, I can always come back. For double the pay of course.” His voice was colored by the half smile at the end.
“HA! You weren’t worth half what I paid you before. But if you want to thank me, give those damn kids an appreciation for books, make me some new customers!”