"So there I was at this silent meditation retreat trying to get my head on right because I wanted to get better bartering. My old gran had worked with me for years on getting good talking with people," Finley said. "I mean she wasn't my old gran but like she was also, it was a weird thing. Tinker family relationships are complicated. Part of me feels like we were related and the other part feels like the only thing between us was that we were both elves."

It was the after lunch crowd. With only the people that were doing the watch easily able to watch from the tower above, most people could get an extended break. He was talking to Bob and Anthony candidly. Most notably, he was trying to clear the air. What they were trying to get at was how he was able to regenerate as his hand was almost fully returned. All the flesh was there but it wasn't respond to his commands the way that it used to. The ligaments and tendons weren't done.

"I'm sure you all know by now that I wasn't born an elf. In fact, I don't even remember my parents. There was a time before I was how you you see me where I couldn't even speak common. I don't know why I'm telling you this. But I started life as well... What the word that is most often used is one of the green. I don't know that I have the best description of what we are, but some of the elves tried to explain that to me. In terms that you can understand. We are a symbiotic organism who generally work with the host. And don't worry, I'm not going to try to take over any of you guys. I'm too far bonded with Finn. We are one now. But my species was supposed to be wiped out as so many would assimilate themselves into the mass culture and there is no easy way to say this, but there was a purge."

The barracks dining table was not as eloquent of a place as he would have wanted. But revealing that he was part monster didn't really mean much in the long end.

"I was born with a soul card that I eventually evolved into the Spore druid card. Why spores? That is how we reproduce. By spores. And again I'm not going to do that. But when I'm not in this form I look a little bit like a little green slime and I made my way into a Tinker camp. Old gran took me in and she cared for me. You have to understand the Tinkers don't want to harm any living thing. They avoid monsters and they want to stay in safe areas. They're always moving around and looking for others in the family. There was a legend that long ago there was a card that they were all seeking to find, a legendary card that no one had since found, but it's apocryphal."

He paused to drink water.

"One day, old gran 's son got a nasty head wound that nothing was able to heal. He spent all day catatonic and when he was finally back up he didn't respond anything after weeks of taking care of his needs. He just didn't get any better. The Tinkers didn't know what they could do about it. But there I was and I knew that there was a way for me to integrated into him. I could always regenerate parts of my body. Why couldn't it work for both of us? You cannot imagine that's not what happened. Together? There was nothing left of his consciousness when I tried to wake him. Every now and then I'll get a feeling of something that he likes. He really likes stew by the way," Finley said. "It's one of the reasons that I like Stella so much. It's why I have two Soul cards. I told you about how everyone but humans are born with a soul card?"

They nodded.

"Something happened when we combined and his soul card and my soul card coexisted and now I have the two classes because of that it's it's a pretty well-known fact that only humans can have three active classes at once. Everyone else is limited to two classes. It's just that their soul can't take that much pressure. There's a limit to how many cards everyone can have in their deck. With time you can expand your limits but usually you can't get around that. I wasn't prepared for it. And it took me awhile."

"So you were trying to get better at selling and dealing with other people? Sounds like a bit of social anxiety," Anthony said.

"Anxiety?" Finley said. "Not familiar with the word."

"Do you feel like you want to be anywhere else? Rather than around people?" Bob said. "I had to figure out that having the press come to interview me was a trigger. I just sweat profusely now when I see a microphone. I'm grateful that there are none here."

Finley hadn't considered those exact words before, especially in such a configuration.

"You speak funny, human. I guess you could say that it took a lot to pull me out of my shell."

Bob grabbed their mugs and went to refill them. On the way he passed by Valerie who was still writing notes on a cadets journal that had been blank that morning. She was trying to make some battle plans and escape routes in equal measure. She had been at it long enough for Finley to be worried about her sanity.

"You don't need to check on her. She will be alright," Anthony said. "Doing this is therapeutic for her, though she wouldn't say that. She's a dyed in the wool perfectionist."

"You make me wish that the Tinkers sold more dictionaries, Anthony."

The man chuckled, his beard moving with it. Finley admired Anthony's attention to detail in how her got himself ready every morning. It was something that he never had time for. In the morning, he just got out of bed and did his thing. With a mop of hair like his? He didn't need much or at least he hadn't wanted to expend the effort.

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He had been meaning to do something about it before the world ended, but these things don't just go announcing themselves. If they did, it would be pretty bad for business. Finley couldn't imagine a worse scenario for his business than the economy fully collapsed due to society zombifying. It's just one of those things that isn't covered in Tinker training.

"Are there dictionaries here?" Anthony said. "All the books I have seen so far have to deal with cards or are dwarven romances."

"You found some dwarven romance novels?" Bob said, returning with three full mugs of beer.

"I did, but they are for me," Anthony said, accepting his beer and taking a long drink.

"I wasn't asking to read it while wrapped in your manly arms, there guy," Bob said.

"But if I'm offering?" Anthony replied.

"Hey, twenty dollars is twenty dollars."

Both men laughed.

"Pardon me, but is there something going on here between you two because I thought that Sonya and Stella..." Finley began.

"I think we've passed to the next level of friendship. It's the one where you make constant passes at each other to build up each other," Anthony said. "It confuses the heck out of a lot of people, but we're just being friendly here."

"Ahh."

Finley squinted at the two of them. Humans were so eccentric that by comparison, Tinkers seemed quaint.

"So the thing that you asked Stella to do-"

"That's about enough of that," Bob said. "So thank you for being open and honest with us. I understand that you were a part of a family before. I'm certain that I speak for both of us when I say that with all that we have been through together, you are part of our family."

"See he gave me a family card, this means that we're more family," Anthony said.

----------------------------------------

"So you are really going to take your free day and spend it doing the same thing you do on days when you're not free free?" Sonya said. Zan had come to her a bit worried about the dwarf. Together they had returned to talk to him.

"Not much else for me to do, lass," he said. "I could try and make something. Or I could sit around and do nothing. And these dwarves? They have a forge here. I won't have many chances to use such equipment in the future if we keep moving. It's a big downside."

Though he was probably in his twenties before he had transmigrated, Sonya still couldn't get a read on him. She was thinking that this is one of those high versus low context things. There was probably a lot unsaid in dwarvish culture back while he was around that he didn't want to mention. There were a lot of times when he would notice something in comments on it as comments just drove people crazy. Trying to figure out where the source of those were. He was always surprised that there were equal numbers of men and women. Apparently that have been a problem for him before but no one had dug really deep.

Zan was his biggest friend, and he replied on her mana the most, but the casters regularly paid their dues. As he had the artificer class, he needed them to drop solid mana motes for him to use in his creations.

"There's no way to pick this thing up and move it? Can anyone take a card power that approximates what you need it for?" She said.

"I can bend some metal. This just makes it weaker over the long term. You saw how many uses I got of the flame flinger. The second version is on its way. Until I advance my artificer card, I won't be able to do everything that I know needs to happen. Of course if you guys don't want swords, then we can take some from Heirisburg."

"I think you guys got a little sidetracked here. What he needs to do is take away from this. She needs to go and circulate and basically get out of his area," Zan said, trying to bring them back on track.

Sonya saw her ruse and took it. Zan, like the matinee performance of a children's show, was laying it on thick and unfocused.

"Have you thought about talking to Valerie and exchanging some stories? I know you're not from here and maybe hearing about her culture would help you," Sonya said. "We have to look and see if there are any more books at the library here. I know it's a small small one but anything's better than nothing. Were you a reader back home?"

"I guess I did read a fair amount. Isn't it weird how we all speak the same language, though?" Andrew said. "That's strange isn't it? Like I remember my mother tongue and it isn't exactly this. I can't put a finger on how these two languages are different."

"I feel the same way but, my mother tongue is only one of the languages I spoke," Zan said. "But I spoke Mandarin, Cantonese and English I remember all three and this fourth one is like I woke up knowing it."

"Card powers," Sonya said, shrugging. "Hey I just had an idea. Why don't we go check on the horses? I'm sure that they're bored. And we all have animal handling now."

Sonya had never seen a bored horse before but she was willing to give it a shot. With three of them they could take a couple horses out for a little ride and return. It will be a fun thing to do. She had never thought about it but the simple act of choosing what to do with her afternoon just felt so rebellious. They had been pushing so hard for so long that it just felt so off.

Andrew and Zan followed her to the horse with Stables. First, they checked on the horses. The water was half full as was the hay. So when you looked around to see which of horses was most interested in going out for a little bit and then she let herself into the Stables. She patted a few manes and felt their necks.

Every horse that she touched felt like it had been enjoying its time. Until she touched the one that was a little bit restless and she passed it on to the Zan to ride. And then another two looked eager to interact so Andrew mounted one and she the other.

There was a marked marching path around the building so they followed it to warm up the horses. The trees around the area looked like they had been put into neat rows on purpose. Several of them were showing signs of fruit bearing. Seeing whether it looked like an apple tree, she motioned for the other two to follow her. As to get closer, it was clear that there was some sort of fruit there but she wasn't exactly sure what it was. They stopped underneath one and checked it out.

"You know what? Instead of eating one of these without examining, Let's go talk to our resident expert about this place," Sonya said. "Anyone knows if these things are edible, it would be Valerie."

And then, Valerie would feel like she was contributing something. Her heart was in the right place, but so I had expected that being in the military academy would have made her more likely to follow orders than her current situation indicated.

So one by one they grabbed a handful each before stuffing some into the glove pockets. And they carried on driving back towards the center where they hope to find Valerie. When they arrive, they passed one to one of the monks to run it in. I said turned out, they were good to eat and they tasted a bit like apples. There was a very salty tangy aftertaste that nobody had really any way to anticipate, but that's just another thing that they learned about this world.