Xangô POV: Day 52

Current Wealth: 1 silver 47 copper

Solitaire was hiding something, and it was eating him up inside. The fact that I’d even noticed the former fact was proof of the latter, most of the time if he wanted something kept to himself, it’d stay tucked away in his head. Not when we’d spoken last. He was off, disconcerted, unbalanced. That concerned me. In the normal way, of course, I didn’t like my friends being upset any more than the next guy, but also in a more…Pragmatic way.

If Solitaire cracked, I had no doubt he’d kill a lot of people. It was a curious thing to know about one of your best friends, but I suppose I’d never really had a chance at normal relationships given who I was. Still, it was all a matter for later. I was approaching the major mass of the villagers now, Tucker, a few of the other leaders, and a dozen or so seniors from among them. All awaiting my declaration.

Perhaps I’d have been nervous, if addressing similarly sized crowds of people a million times more influential hadn’t been drilled into me since puberty. No, that wasn’t all. Something about Redaclans in general kept them from reaching me with their eyes. It felt almost like giving an assembly to….Children.

Not a pleasant thought, but I stifled it.

“You’ve all probably guessed this already, but my brothers and I are going to depart soon.” I declared, keeping my voice strong rather than loud. They’d all hear me from this distance anyway, I knew, and the illusion of courage and confidence was more important than anything else. Now more than ever.

The revelation had numerous eyes falling with disappointment, but all the assembled people remained quiet. Good. That meant rage probably wasn’t likely at all, nor many other troublesome emotions.

I continued promptly, just in case.

“I wish we could stay to help more, honestly I do. This village needs rebuilding, it needs…A lot. But I know that you can all do it yourselves. I’ve fought shoulder to shoulder with you, seen the quality of you all first-hand, and I’m completely certain that you don’t need us any more. The vampire’s forces are in tatters, the vampire itself is wounded, you’re all…Perhaps not safe, but under your own power now.”

That seemed to strike a positive chord with them all, and I caught a few approving glances flit between the men and women watching me. I figured flattery was the best way to go here. People always took what their superiors said to heart, show them faith and confidence and they considered it more reflective of you than them. People remembered kindness.

“We remember what you showed us.” One of the people called out, confident in the way men got when it was only half-forced.

The agreement he received from those around him bolstered my nerves a bit. I hadn’t been lying per say about much of anything I’d told them, I really did want to stay and help. Just not enough to actually do it. It was a comfort to know they at least thought they had things handled.

“Thank you for everything, my Lord.” Another cut in, before I could think of any suitably heroic deflection. While I was still staring, surprised, another spoke up.

“You saved my daughter.”

“You tell your brother Beam that he took the ‘ead off a rotter twas about to have my throat out.”

One after another, they all cut in, heaping praise and thanks on top of me, all speaking with a look in their eyes that I’d seen before. In religious zealots trying to convince me the apocalypse was nigh.

Good god, I hadn’t expected this. We’d come here to be heroes, not bloody…Whatever this was. I was forming a damned personality cult!

It was…Not…A problem, I realised, and not least because we’d be leaving soon. I supposed it should’ve been expected, too. Save a bunch of people who’ve been taught that they’re worth less than the dirt growing up, and you’ll tend to get quite a lot of disproportional gratitude. Still, I was glad to be shifting on from it.

With a suitable stoic grimace and a suitable dashing nod, I quietened them all down and said my piece.

“Yes, well, most of what happened here was because of all of you, remember that. All of you saved yourselves, my family just gave you the tools you needed to do so. We’d have all died together if your village hadn’t had so much steel in its spine.”

More beaming smiles, which made then the absolute perfect moment to break the news.

“...However, we do require our payment. As I said, my family is moving on, and if we’re to help more people…Well, we’ll need to finance our future work.”

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It didn’t go over nearly as badly as I might’ve feared, which was to say I didn’t prove all of Solitaire’s paranoid worries right and have my head jabbed onto a dirty spike. Still, it definitely knocked the wind out of the villagers’ sails.

Their fault, really, I’d never pretended to be some heaven-sent saviour. I just…Wasn’t going to starve again.

We all negotiated with the uneasy manner of people that had grown fond of one another and weren’t all too eager of how the introduction of money might jeopardise that. Fortunately none of us really pushed things too hard in search of an advantage, least of all me.

I knew that the village would mostly be holding back from necessity, which meant there would only be so much that insistence could even do anyway. We’d come here all too aware that the rewards wouldn’t be anything to crow home about. That was fine. Money was still money. In the end, I moved away with pockets that were heavier by two gold and thirty silver. It could’ve been better, could’ve been worse, but if nothing else we’d be able to survive on this for an appreciable fraction of a year, even staying in a city. I headed off to bring my friends- brothers- the news.

Solitaire met me halfway to Beam, and it was damned good to see him up and moving again, even after knowing he’d recovered. His eyes were clear of the foggy concussion he’d woken up with, his face and mouth moved as deftly as ever.

“How powerful am I?” He asked, abruptly. I suppressed a smile. Despite all the horror and fear, pain and guilt, this world had introduced us to a form of progression more satisfying than perhaps any we’d ever encountered before. Watching stats go up was a lot more gratifying when they directly infused your own body.

[Appraisal]

* Class: Revolutionary

* Level: 11

* Condition: Fine

* Modifiers: +4 Speed, +2 Alertness, +3 Strength, +3 Toughness

* Statistics: Strength 10, Speed 10, Dexterity 8, Stamina 6, Toughness 9, Alertness 10, Charisma 3, Intelligence 10

* Inventory: Jeans, T-shirt, flick knife, cudgel

* Class abilities: Detect Element III

* Current Experience Points: 12/380

* Unspent Skillpoints: 0

I read it out for him, and he grinned.

“9 Toughness, 10 Strength.” Solitaire echoed, flexing his arms absently as if doing so might show him his new limitations. “If my hypothesis that we doubled in strength every 3 points is true, that might make me as physically powerful as a proper weightlifter, now.”

“Yeah, well, we’ll have to wait until another time to test that out.” I noted.

[Appraisal]

* Class: Emperor

* Level: 11

* Condition: Fine

* Modifiers: +5 Toughness, +2 Strength, +3 Speed, +1 Alertness

* Statistics: Strength 8, Speed 8, Dexterity 6, Stamina 5, Toughness 9, Alertness 9, Charisma 9, Intelligence 8

* Inventory: Jeans, shirt, jacket, hatchet

* Class abilities: Appraisal III

* Current Experience Points: 13/380

* Unspent Skillpoints: 0

My own expenditure had been in Speed of course, more to round my stats off than anything, and I’d noticed a difference in the brief tests since. I’d had two Skillpoints to spend, too, not just one. It seemed that that was the benefit of our new, higher levels. Could we expect to get 3 per level once we hit 20?

That was a thought for later, for now I just enjoyed the progress. And frowned.

“People might notice how rapidly we’re growing in power soon.” I warned Solitaire, and he nodded as instantaneously as he always did when I brought up a thought he’d already been playing with.

“Here’s why we have a bit of wiggle room.” He replied. “Most people haven’t seen much actual fighting of us, those that did were typically fighting themselves, and so far none have even been a credible source anyway. Not actively-criminal villagers is about the strongest testament someone can find in regards to our previous strength.”

He was right, but that didn’t make me wrong.

“It’ll become a problem over time no matter what.” I noted. “Even if people are just hearing stories, they’ll be getting more impressive over time. Eventually it’ll come out that we can…You know, strengthen this fast.”

My friend sighed, and nodded.

“It will, which is why we need to keep from being our main fighters soon. We have money, we have two recruits, I say we get more mercenaries. And magic. Magic above all else, we can afford tuition now.”

That lit a bonfire of excitement in my gut. Magic. Actual, genuine magic. The idea of using it myself was like seeing Corvan perform his own the first time, multiplied by a hundred. Would I be any good at it? I could only hope so, but even if I wasn’t, a few years of training would let me make myself the closest thing this world was likely to get to proper artillery.

“And I want a lab.” Solitaire finished, clearly picking his moment quite carefully and speaking only as my excitement started to reach a critical mass. I eyed him.

“A lab?”

He looked rather embarrassed, suddenly, feet shifting while he answered.

“Yes, lots of people have labs, I want one. To mix chemicals and stuff.”

“It’d be good to have more gunpowder…” I thought aloud, and Solitaire grinned.

“Oh, that was just the start. Give me a bit, and plenty of funding, and we’ll have the raw ingredients for nitroglycerin, maybe even set up a forge to make some proper…” He trailed off, and laughed.

“What is it?” I pressed, but Solitaire only laughed harder, taking his sweet time in answering.

“Oh, nothing, I just remembered the Bessemer Process. What do you think about us getting into the metal industry? It’ll take a bit of start-up cash, but if the mercenary outfit makes us enough…I think we might just be selling steel to entire kingdoms.”

I joined him in his grin, gold suddenly feeling heavier in my pocket, heart suddenly lighter in my chest.

Maybe we could fix this world, after all. And maybe, if we couldn’t, we could at the very least make ourselves comfortable in it.