[https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/512595944613740556/1202561960726499371/SOLITAIRE_3.png?ex=65e99799&is=65d72299&hm=9fd70592d50bc9569db1b829f20c0403bb7f4b24d054092bc00eda0f34aa2138&]
----------------------------------------
Solitaire POV: Day 45
Current Wealth: 2 silver 12 copper
All in all, it didn’t take Xangô that long to smooth things over, and once he was finished we were down a few- well, many- silver. And up one giant, glass-proof bodybuilder. I was leaning against the wall in our room, nursing my ribs after they played up again in the fight, desperately trying to decide whether it’d been a good idea.
“You should see a physician.” Beam told me, sitting opposite and wearing his concern openly as he eyed me. I sighed, then resisted the urge to curse as the exhalation sent a painful stab into my side.
“I don’t need a physician, none of them are broken- I can feel broken bones- and I’ll heal on my own eventually. I’d be healing already if Grognard the Barbarian hadn’t decided to equip me as a weapon and attack a fucking table.”
I coughed, and the coughing made me hurt more, which almost led to more coughing. Xangô laughed from across the room, watching it with a grin on his face. Prick.
“How well do you think you can fight?” Beam asked, and I felt a flicker of irritation. “I’ll be better in the morning.” I told him. “I just need to avoid getting punched in the ribs. Just leave me in the back as a support role and I’ll recover slowly, we’ll be fighting shitty undead for a while anyway, right?”
They both nodded, and I sighed. Leaning back, closing my eyes. Waiting for Xangô to voice whatever thought I’d seen rattling around unspoken in his head.
“...What if we leave you behind in the city tomorrow? Just for the day.” He added, quickly. “Let you go and try to find a teacher to learn magic from. Then you can get back to helping us, or even sit and pick up a few extra tricks while you heal, then come back better.”
I weighed his words. It would’ve been convenient- game changing, even, if they’d been true. But we didn’t have the money for serious magic tutelage just yet. I told him as much, and he shrugged.
“So spend the day working your way through the city’s magi until you’ve got one willing to test you, bargain hunt. You working class men do love that don’t you?”
“Eat a cock.” I replied, succinctly.
He did have a point though, and I reluctantly swallowed it, nodding.
“Fine, I’ll spend the day asking around for deals. I suppose…I guess you’re not going after anything that tough anyway, and as I am right now…”
As I was right then, I’d not help that much. At worst I might even slow them- have my ribs play up unexpectedly, get a friend killed. I didn’t want to say any of that outloud, didn’t even want to think it, but I couldn’t exactly ignore the fact either. Bollocks.
“We have Argar now, anyway.” Beam noted, clearly trying to cheer me up. “He’s tough enough to keep us safe at least for a day, and we’re going after zombies of all things.”
“And you’ll be essentially protecting us anyway by saving the money.” Xangô added. “Every five copper we don’t spend is one fight we don’t need to pick with a rotter, eh?”
Somehow having them try to molify me just made things worse. Like I was being babied, comforted as you might a screaming child. But I didn’t lash out. That would just be cruel, and even I wasn’t a big enough prick to make that my answer to kindness from my friends. I forced a deceptive smile and nodded.
“Fine. And if I come back with the ability to blow up cities with my mind, all the better, right?”
We shared a chuckle that each and every one of us was feigning for the others’ sake, then got settled and ready for sleep.
Morning came, and it was actually surprising to not wake up sticking to my makeshift bed on the floor. There were benefits to higher class dwellings, apparently.
Still, I was quickly reminded of my fight the previous night when my ribs started trying to free themselves from the rest of me, protesting their position with thick waves of agony. Those lasted a while, and it was hard even for me to keep the pain to myself.
Fortunately Xangô and Beam were up soon enough, groaning and yawning, both of them wincing a bit too. We’d all gotten our share of scrapes and bruises over the last week, apparently.
“When are we setting off?” Beam asked, eager as always to be doing something. Xangô thought about it.
“Rotters are undead, and in our world they’re slowed by daylight. The more intense, the worse they move. So ideally we’d be setting off later, catching them at high noon for the easiest fight possible.”
“But that leaves us less time to be hunting them.” Beam countered. I was barely listening to the pair, focused instead on climbing to my feet without violently shitting down my leg at the pain. I grunted with relief, both for having successfully conquered my gravitic task, and because my friends were finally approaching something resembling a conclusion to their argument.
The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
“Early then.” Xangô sighed. “Hopefully the new guy makes up the difference.”
My side throbbed again. Somehow I got the feeling he would, but that was none of my concern for the time being. Now I had my own task to attend.
I said my goodbyes to the other two, stepping from the tavern and making my way through the street. It felt odd to be moving through it alone. Really odd, disconcerting and all sort of itchy at the back of my spine, like being watched. I figured out why by the time I’d crossed my second road.
Now was the first time since coming to Redacle that I’d been genuinely alone, no friends to watch me, no allies to fight alongside me. If I got attacked, right now, by the sort of group I’d come to regard as a nothing-threat, it would end badly.
With no small amount of effort, I buried the concern. The one benefit to being a paranoid of course is that you get used to doing such things, and being realistic I wasn’t exactly in any great danger of attack in such light hours. The knowledge did little to keep my edges blunt while I marched through the city, but it helped at least.
The first magus I reached wouldn’t even see me, the prick. The second, thankfully, was not that far. About half a mile away. I’d expected as much, the magically gifted tended to congregate in larger cities with wealthier patrons available. Except that this fucker kicked me out the moment I asked to be tested.
Apparently Corvan’s personality was very much trade-standard. Well, that didn’t exactly surprise me, my book hadn’t given much in the way of depictions for average magi, but in my and Xangô’s head they’d always been double-decker twats. Nothing to do but persevere.
I made progress on the third attempt, finding a man who offered me a test for the low, low price of three silver. More than I had on me, of course, but easier to work around than being ordered out of the place on threat of incineration. I put a pin in that appointment and moved on for others
Another kicked me out, one more offered four silver, then a third actually let me negotiate her down to two. That was still a bit high for my liking, but I kept her position in mind and moved on.
I had to do a lot of walking , and a lot of talking. God, I hate people. I hate these people more than anything, but just in the general sense I hate people. Slow, plodding ape things, dragging me down with them. Dancing on the edge of a knife. You know that experiment where they gave rats access to water on one side of their cage and a button that makes them feel good on the other? Where the rats invariably died of thirst because they just kept pressing the button? That’s humans.
Still, there’s always a time to cut cards with the devil, and I’m not stupid enough that I can’t grin and bear a bit of displeasure for the greater good. If we were going to impart any sort of change at all in this world we’d need strength to do it, and that would likely come with magic. I kept trying.
By the time noon was well past, and the sun coming precipitously close to painting a horizon orange, I’d ended up back with the woman who offered two silver, and managed to negotiate her down to one silver and forty copper. It was still bloody highway robbery, but I’d come to expect things like that. Beam’s healthcare system had required more adjustment in any case.
“One silver and thirty.” I tried, patience wearing thin. Beam and Xangô would be back soon, and if Xangô found out I’d not managed to find any price below a full silver he’d never let me hear the end of it.
The magus I was dealing with was younger than the others, and that might’ve been why her asking price was so low. Nonetheless, she wasn’t stupid. A tall woman, brown haired and eyed, with fair features and a mean look to her eye, she’d surprised me with how fiercely she’d caught on to every word I tried to blindside her with.
At the risk of sounding slightly misogynistic, she wasn’t nearly as air-headed as I’d expected an attractive woman to be. Inconvenient.
“What you’re asking is ridiculous.” She told me, her own impatience growing to match mine. “It costs almost one silver just to administer the test, the materials involved are expensive and finite.”
I took her words in, considered them with all due care, then nodded. And completely ignored them.
“And on the other hand, if you can’t go that low, you’ll not make a profit period because you won’t be selling your services to me. One silver thirty is still getting you more than you had before.”
She glared, but I could see she was considering it. That was the first step to changing a mind, leave a crack in their convictions, then drive the chisel in.
“Besides, what if the test comes back positive?” I noted. “We both know I can’t afford to get tutelage from any magus other than you, in this city. That’s why I came back here, and that’s why I’m still haggling. If I am magic, that’s money in the bank for you. You’ve got a new apprentice to draw coin out of as payment for teaching him.”
The suggestion worked wonders, and I saw her face creasing with thought, doubt. Then, finally, reluctant acquiescence.
“One silver thirty five.” She said at last. I forced myself to pause a moment before nodding, extending a hand for her to shake.
“Ah…You’re not from around here?” She asked, eying the hand like it was a big, flaccid cock left dangling from the end of my wrist. I withdrew it.
“No, sorry about that.” I managed.
It wasn’t done for men to shake women’s hands, in this part of Redacle. Stupid of me to forget, however excited I’d been. The magus was quick in breezing past, in any case.
“Alright then.” She sighed, “I’ll administer the test, wait here, I need to get the mana crystals.”
I waited, and she was back quickly, bringing a pair of cyan-coloured gemstones through that looked as if they were a mix between glass and plastic in texture. She held them out, opened her mouth to speak, then paused as I gripped each one without needing to be told.
I grinned.
“I’m aware of how the test is done, I just needed a magus to do it.”
She nodded, quickly moving on and reaching into another drawer, withdrawing a length of copper wire now and wrapping it around both the crystals. She placed her hands on top of them, careful not to touch mine, and focused.
After a few moments, it happened. A hum of light running into one crystal, then fading from it just as it looped into the other. Then a buzzing assailed my body. Not quite a sensation, more an…Urge. To run, to hide. The very sort you might feel upon suddenly hearing hornets buzzing around you.
I resisted it, of course, and waited for the test to proceed. The lights returned, stronger, then moved from one crystal to another and sent another buzz through me. Then again, then again. Soon I was sweating with the irritation of it, but I held still for minutes more until the test was finally complete.
The woman took the crystals from me, sighing as one of them split rather noticeably along its centre, and placed everything to one side. Then eyed me.
“Congratulations.” She said, “You have the talent.”