Corvayne rode into camp with Spears on the back of his bike, setting down near the shrine. It had been only two days on the exterior, so very little had changed with the shrine, camp, and truck. He did see a few more tools laying about, and what looked like the start of an obstacle course developing in the shadows of the huge black crystal.

“You going to say goodbye?” Spears asked.

“I do at least owe Hari a goodbye.” Corvayne said.

Lady Blood Claw unstrapped Mr. Squidgglesworth from his felt bed on the back of her bike. “Don't take too long. I'm going to go take the last hot shower I'll have in a while.” While she said that, Corvayne saw Brines was sneaking over to the back of the truck as well. Perhaps she had better hurry before the hot water was gone.

Corvayne's short list was to talk to Mosh for whatever he had been 'working on', Hari to say goodbye, and Mister I to see if there was a way to start applying mend. Spears followed him, giving his hand a little squeeze as he slowed before the main tent. She had said he should try to move forward, which meant settling how he felt. His internal compass seemed to know where he was headed, but it took him muttering 'a spear moves forward' silently to himself to keep him moving.

Hari was the main tent using [Investigate] on piles of red metal weapons and moving things into bins. Undine was helping as well, but dropped what she was doing to storm over to Corvayne.

“You! You damned fool, you ran off with my Pilgrim!”

Corvayne gently deflected the surprisingly strong finger jabbing at him. “That's her business.” he said, a little sharper then he had meant to. Undine settled down but folded her arms.

“You can't just walk away from everyone and expect it to not be messy. You also dragged my poor pupil through the wringer!” While she said that, Corvayne got a sense that she was far more upset that he hadn't taken Undine herself along with them.

Hari, on the other hand, was wincing and looked like she was ready to bolt. Corvayne quashed a little malicious joy and walked over to her. “Hari...”

She looked up, then took a deep breath and forced herself to square up with him, her body suddenly stiff. She bowed, nearly hitting Corvayne with her head.

“I'm sorry!” She squeaked out.

He put his hands under her shoulders, and gently pushed her back to standing. For a moment he felt like he could feel her regret and inner warmth, and it helped him push some of his bitterness away. He looked her in the eyes. “Don't be sorry. Focus on keeping Wick safe, getting stronger, and building something here.”

She blinked and rubbed her face. “So we're-”

Corvayne ruffled her hair. “Young and will bounce back. See if we laugh about it next time.” It wasn't a hundred percent what he felt, but instead what he was trying to feel.

She started to fume and push his hands away from her now messed up hair, which was better than her looking hurt. Corvayne jerked his thumb back to the two princesses moping around their bike. “I'm going to be going on to the capital. I don't know how long I'll be gone, I have my own past to work on.”

It was odd... there was a tug in his heart, his own desire to try to be better having hints of something else mingling with it. He felt a little bit of regret and frustration in the air... and it felt like it was radiating from her, with an undercurrent of warm affection. He took a deep breath, and as he calmed his own thoughts until he felt like a bit of a bubble formed, Hari's feelings still present but no longer influencing him.

Still, when she opened her arms he hugged her back, then let her go and felt a faint tug of sadness when he pushed away, like a little string being pulled from a shirt by a cactus thorn but internal. Perhaps it was the new pact, [[Unity]]?

Spears gave Corvayne a look then walked over to Hari. “We've got some girl talk to do...”

Corvayne felt Spears emotions wash over him for a moment, and got the sense she was tackling a task she'd rather not handle mingling with a general sense of warmth.

As he was turning around he saw Undine. The woman was stalking towards him, no doubt with some sharp complaint, but when she got inside of three feet she nearly leapt back, arms before her. “Whatever you're doing, you need to put a bucket over it! You're radiating metal magic like plutonium!”

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Corvayne noted that the word for plutonium was viper-steel, then frowned a little. “I have an oddball set of abilities... so you can get something out of me? What feeling is it?”

“Impatience, boredom, and a whole lot of odd things mingling in. It's like trying to use [Investigate] on a celestial body.” Undine folded her arms.

“One more thing to practice shutting down. Sorry.” He took a step away from her, but Undine took a step with him.

“Don't be so hasty... it's one more tool in your hands.” She raised a finger. “One that any ruler would kill for.”

“I think it's based on connections... I got Hari's feelings more than yours.”

Bearer set down the weapon she was looking at, and waved. “What do you got from me?”

“Endless trolling.” Corvayne said, though with the thought he got something like a taste of... depression? It felt like the same dread he used to have waking up, with a sort of dull irreverence built around it. He tried to shield himself again, focusing on his feelings and building a wall.

“I have to speak with Mister I.” He excused himself and made his way down to the fishing pond. As expected, the monk was waiting there. For fish, not for him.

Corvayne took a spot next to him and sat. It was an unusually warm day for the High Plains, and the sun was glimmering off the water. As a thought, he let [[Unity]] off it's leash a little, but whereas other people had a glow of feelings, Mister I was calmer than the water he was fishing from. A bit of [[Understanding]] circled his thoughts to the phrase 'Still waters run deep'.

Mister I set his rod down, and looked over. “Ah, so, you seem determined. What happened on your break?”

He smiled. “Me and Spears started dating.”

Mister I laughed a little. “You were engaged weren't you? That's the wrong order!”

“So it seems.” Corvayne said. “Sorry to be a bad friend, but I was really hoping you could give one of us a crash course on Mend before we go. I know Mosh would be the better person to ask but-”

Mister I lifted his chin up. “He is a grease monkey! I am a healer of bodies and minds. How do you think I learned it so fast? It's fundamentally easier for someone who thinks holistically of the body! Let me tell you about ki...”

Corvayne had been very much told about ki. He held hands up. “He is, in fact, working on a dozen other projects, while I'm going to be walking away with two to three mentally unwell people.”

Mister I rubbed his chin. “Ah, I bet it's... Bearer-Of-Burdens? Hari and her got sort of close, perhaps she's acting out because of that? Though, Hari also said she was annoying. So maybe it's just her.”

“It's definitely just her.” Corvayne agreed.

Mister I turned and rummaged in his bag, then pulled out what looked like a 1 credit spiral notebook. “I inscribed a manual describing incantations for Lythandies. Performing a quest, even if it was to pay a debt, may mark you as interesting enough to start healing. But, you need to do acts of creation to establish more of a connection.”

Corvayne nodded. It was sort of hard to wrap his head around the idea of quarrelsome gods watching everything he did and throwing him help based on what they liked or disliked but it fit with what he had read in numerous books.

“Thank you.” He took it and bowed a little to Mister I.

The monk smiled. “I hope you go out and find some truths about yourself, and we will strive to make this place into a home.”

Corvayne looked around. “I know we probably have a while, but sooner or later won't someone investigating Argyle stumble onto the portal?”

Mister I nodded. “Yes, but after they reach this world they have to find us, and then, they have to catch us. Before then, we're going to be gone.”

“We've already spent two months... I'd feel better if after the whole shrine finished everyone hit the road.”

“Then, find us a good road to hit young Corvayne!” Mister I said, joyful but somehow still not leaking emotion like everyone else was. Corvayne nodded, but was somewhat distracted at the earth works starting to rise further out on the plains, and the growing city of tents.

In the end he didn't see Wick again before he got back to Mosh loading things onto his bike.

“I got you some real tools and some raw materials to help ya Boss, a better tent, and some threads!”

Corvayne looked at the very plain brown pants and black shirts, then picked them up. They felt finer than they looked. “What's it made of?”

“Strawberry Dragon Tendons woven into a threads by June, mixed with Growl-Whine donated silk by me, with dyes mixed from Kirae's trading.”

Corvayne smiled. “They look very normal even with all that put into them.”

Mosh rubbed his head. “Hah, I knew you'd like em!”

He did. For as much as he liked the strawberry pants when fighting, he much preferred blending in. He watched as Mosh went over what all the tools and materials he had packed were, the goblin radiating pride and excitement. “The red metal here is packed with electric magic, so I used to make portable power tools. I wanted you to be able to fix your bike, or whatever else you find!”

Corvayne looked over and pulled out a wrench. “You think I'm going to run into a lot of leaky pipes?”

Mosh shrugged. “If you want to make Lythandies happy, build and fix useful things. A wrench is a good medium for basic mending, and you need to keep your bikes together. I know you'll put it through it's paces.”

He accepted the gifts and slot them into places mosh had added onto his bike.

“Hopefully there will not too much banging around before I find the Watcher's village.” Not likely, but he could hope.

Mosh shook his head, on the same wavelength. “It's never going to be easy, buddy. I also think you are going to want more practice weapons, hence the woodworking stuff.”

Corvayne pulled the lid up on one of his storage cases and saw a set of wood chisels and a simple saw made of ominous dark metal. “I might not get to it until I'm done dropping the princesses off, going on a few nice dates with Spears, and maybe get stronger.”

Mosh smiled. “Yeah, yeah, I'm sure you are going to drop em off, and when I'm gone I'm just going to craft coffee table toppers. You can't go back boss. You gotta move forward.”

Corvayne happened to see at that moment Wick up on the top of the truck, glancing over at him. He waved, and she waved back, but there was no movement to go see him, and Corvayne felt something like fear and regret. He wondered if Mosh and Wick had timed the goblin saying that and her showing up. He looked around at their truck, and The Source, and the lines of tents, strangers who were slowly becoming part of a city, or army, or something else beyond his group of friends.

He closed the storage on his bike. “Your right Mosh. It's time to move forward.”