Saul went straight to the reception hall, and up the stairs in the entrance hall to the smaller family dining area. It turned out Michah and one of their cousins had just arrived, the steward having coordinated their mealtimes.

“Good evening, ladies,” he said, joining them at the table.

Both nodded acknowledgment without interrupting their conversation.

“…with only two days' notice apparently,” the cousin was saying.

“Uncle Nathanial will definitely want to meet him at this point,” Michah observed, “you should go tell him if you can, he’d probably appreciate it.”

Saul figured out that they were talking about some drama at the theater, beyond the dramas they put on from time to time. After a couple minutes, a waiter came up and opened the dumbwaiter.

“Pardon me, lord and ladies,” he said politely, placing large plates before each of them, “braised duck and asparagus.”

He poured a small amount of wine over a warm loaf, cut the bread, and placed it between them, then left the wine in a pitcher on the table. Michah gave Saul an exaggerated scowl.

“We’re going to be eating duck for a week,” she complained to his grin, “and it’s your fault.”

“I specifically said I was having a smaller banquet for my birthday,” he replied, “any extra ducks they may have stocked in case of a larger turnout can hardly be blamed on me. Also, duck is the best.”

She rolled her eyes and turned to their cousin, “he’s being a pain because I wouldn’t let him talk about his latest book this morning.”

Saul ignored her, and cut into the tender duck.

What’s-her-name leaned forward, “was one of the gifts from yesterday up to your standards? What was it about?”

“Well, I actually found something interesting at the library today—” Saul started, but was interrupted by his sister snorting into her wine, “oh, shut up. I had a nice chat with Mom about my very interesting gift, so you don’t get to hear about it now.”

“I don’t know why he even bothers going to the library,” Michah quipped, “he must have read the whole thing by now. If it isn’t in a book though, good luck getting it through his thick skull. In fact, Saul, what’s her name?”

He looked from her to the cousin she was pointing at then took a bite of asparagus. Too much garlic.

“Now tell him the icons you have,” Michah instructed.

“Ok? Death, acid, and blood,” she said. Shelby, he now recalled.

Saul quickly swallowed and tried to change the topic.

“Speaking of blood, I was reading about vampires earlier.”

“Oh?” Michah said, “I thought you said they were unrealistic.”

“Well, I said the ones in those books you kept reading were, but I was kind of wrong,” he admitted, “there is a sort of vampiric soul curse that isn’t completely dissimilar.”

“Fun! I wonder if there are any in the city. Does it really make them immortal?”

“Well, the curse isn’t really found in the nobility,” Saul explained, “because of some of the details of how it’s spread. It’s more well-off commoners that it preys on. If they don’t have the money for proper icons, the curse can alter a simple one if they’re foolish enough to let it in instead of just signing a contract with a noble house.”

“Oh, that’s just mean,” Shelby commented, “I mean, yeah it's a curse, but still. So it only does something to simple icons?”

“The curse is apparently related to the hunger and blood icons, so it can affect them as well. It twists the forming soul and body that houses it with a bloody hunger though. They have to eat people with awakened abilities to awaken their own.”

“Hear that Shelby?” Michah said, “you could still become a real vampire.”

“As if, I only drink monster blood. And if one of them thinks I look tasty, it’s in for a nasty surprise.”

“Anyway, so how was your day, Michah?” Saul asked.

“Well, I had a duty with Cherith, so you tell me,” she replied, “you need to hurry up and use those icons so you can come with us.”

“Well, I may be able to use them as soon as tomorrow,” he said, “but I’ll be going on that trip before I can start going with you two.”

“You three are so lucky,” Shelby said between bites, “most of us only get to fight something every two or three weeks.”

“You’re the one who chose to be a damn stalker specialist,” Michah said dryly, “if it isn’t big, slow, and mammal-like, you’re in trouble.”

“That new peon will be getting his icon tomorrow,” Saul added, “I interviewed him today and figured out what he’s getting.”

“What did you land on?” Michah asked, “I assume some icon you haven’t seen someone use before.”

“Well…yes, the sturgeon icon.”

“Sturgeon?! The fish?” she said, taken aback, “what idol does death and fish even make?”

“Ehm,” Saul took a sip of wine before muttering, “Death Fish.”

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Shelby and Michah stared at him for a moment.

“You’re giving one of the family servants a dead-fish-shaped soul?” Shelby asked incredulously.

“No, no, it’s better than that,” Michah said, “this will be his personal servant and bodyguard. I think he’s trying to get assassinated.”

“Look, that's just what you get with an animal icon and only one proper icon,” Saul said, “an attuned version of the animal. In this case, that’s death-attuned sturgeon. It’s a very sturdy fish, and the death icon should only make it tougher.”

He quickly finished his duck and got up. Lingering at the door for a moment, he instructed the waiter to tell the steward he needed to meet with him again tomorrow. Looking at his schedule, tomorrow was shaping up to be very similar to today.

Saul went to his room to get a book, then joined his father in the private sitting room.

“Do you know where you’ll need to go for that trip yet?” Joel asked as Saul sat down.

“No, but I should by tomorrow.”

They both read in silence for a while. The dwarven theory about cantrip associations suggested that Saul might need to revisit one or two he had failed to learn in the past. After a while, he lowered his book.

“Hey, Dad?”

His father looked up from his own book.

“How do you know for sure that a servant is loyal?” Saul asked, “Or that they like working for you?”

“Well, it’s nearly impossible to be truly certain,” Joel said, marking his place and rolling up his scroll, “but thinking about how you might feel in their place can help. Common people don’t have the education and responsibility that we do, but that doesn’t mean they’re simple. Are you not confident about your new peon? Jon told me you accepted his application.”

“I did, but Michah made a joke at dinner that stuck with me. She said I was practically asking for him to betray me.”

“Why?”

“Well, I offered him the sturgeon icon, and explained why I think it would be a good choice…but it will mean that his soul idol is Death Fish.”

“I see,” Joel replied neutrally, “and is there another icon that the man wanted instead?”

“He was keen on the water icon. I did offer to give him a water fragment, but he ended up not choosing it.”

“Hmm, even if he was disappointed about the icon itself, giving him choice for the fragments was good. As long as you didn’t make a strongly negative first impression, I would say the way you treat him in the first few days of his employment will matter more. A degree of accommodation for his interests if possible.”

“Like going to the Temple of Water with him or something?” Saul said, “The steward said he worships there regularly. I did have one other idea for encouraging loyalty; I thought that maybe I could give him an icon fragment or two from my vault?”

“That is your choice, and if it would make you feel more secure then go ahead. They are yours. But remember that you won’t be getting that many icons and fragments to do with as you please again. If you go that route, make sure that the man knows the value of what you’re giving him.”

The door to the sitting room opened and Junia walked in with wet hair. Joel moved his scroll from the cushion beside him to an end table, and she joined him on the loveseat. When she leaned down to kiss her husband on the ear, Saul decided to read some more of his book. Instead of his parents whispering to each other and settling in, his father made a gagging sound and he looked up again.

“Eugh, what is that smell in your hair?” Joel said, wiping his nose on his free sleeve and leaning away a bit.

Junia let out a long sigh and leaned her head back.

“The giant had some sort of hardening ability that failed just before I finished it off,” she explained, “I ended up obliterating its head with a Mighty Blow. I washed off what I could in a river and just came from a proper bath, but I suppose it wasn’t enough.”

That was unfortunate, large portions of the body missing would reduce the already small chance of distilling an icon from it. Giants were one of the most consistent sources of the blood, flesh, bone, skin, and assorted organ icons. Not too long after, Cherith arrived, joining her mother in complaining about her duty for the day.

“It could swim through the ground almost as well as the water, and we couldn’t kill it through attrition, it was undead!”

When that conversation wound down, she turned to Saul, who had resumed reading.

“That’s that dwarf book, right? Anything useful?”

“There’s a part of the foundational cantrip theory that you might could think about,” he said, trying to keep his explanation concise, “the range of what cantrips an icon can or can’t do isn’t always well known, and this digs into some of the ‘why’ more than most of the Oriawin theories I know. The names that we use for icons can limit our impressions of what they really represent. Some metaphorical interpretations will work, others won’t, because using a single word is fairly limiting. The dwarves do the same thing, which the author complains about.

“The really interesting, or annoying, part is that if you think that your icon can’t use a given cantrip, then the chances of getting it to work are essentially nil. The opposite isn’t true though, just because you’ve convinced yourself that water can wash away lies and use a truth-telling cantrip or something doesn’t mean it will work. Water isn’t too bad in that area, icons that represent something distinctly physical can usually produce cantrips that are somehow related to their physical properties. Mirror is a pain by comparison. A better name for it might be the light, darkish, reflection, imitation icon because it does have some more metaphorical tendencies. I’ll need to go back and try some light cantrips again.”

“Perhaps we should encourage everyone to look for new cantrips they can use,” his father mused, “they’re good for honing focus and mental stamina for regular power use, but are less effective training once mastered. A new cantrip or two to work on could help sharpen the family for the difficult next few years.”

Cherith scowled at Saul, who just shrugged. While cantrips were all he’d been able to work on for over a year, he wasn’t planning on getting lazy once he had completed and awakened his soul. He was pretty used to the headaches anyway.

“Speaking of cantrips,” Saul added, looking at his mother, “you could see if Michah can get the smell out of your hair. I’ve been getting her to practice Clean and Water on me for a while.”

“I’ll go look for her,” Julia said, rising, “are you excited about being able to use them yourself soon?”

“It’s probably what I’m looking forward to the most,” he agreed.

“I don’t know why you would bother with that,” Cherith said flippantly, “just take a bath. You get clean and relaxed.”

“Do you even know Clean?” Saul asked.

Cherith paused and glanced at their father, who was looking at her with a raised eyebrow.

“I’ve practiced it a few times,” she said evasively.

It was decided by most involved that clean would be the first new cantrip Cherith learned. Not long after, Saul headed to his room for the night. He had scheduled an inventory of the icons in his vault before he went to bed and he was already a bit tired.

The final tally came to two death icons, two knowledge icons, two point icons, an element icon, a hunger icon, a mirror icon, and a water icon. No simple icons, they were too cheap and had a risk of carrying political implications. For fragments he had three acid and two cloud, all from House Mulward, five death, two water, and one each of dark, dance, element, fire, flesh, life, light, point, sound, speed, and strength. He hadn’t received any round fragments of course, they had to be carefully chosen once you knew what the rest of your abilities were. Ten icons and twenty three fragments was practically enough to start his own minor house. Still, the only way he would get more would be when monsters he killed as part of noble duties produced icons, giving him contribution to the house’s finances.

The records of the Thief helped him wind down for the night, and he soon went to bed.