The Caravan was half a league out of Va'Veltan before Cerise felt safe reactivating her Triage Aura and beginning her rounds. She heard from a few of the [Wagoneers] that they had picked up some Honorables also making their way to the Sea Crest Dungeon for training up a Young Miss [Mage]. It was safer to travel in larger groups, so picking up travelers along the way was quite common.

Cerise didn't want to get involved with nobles, but she was fascinated by [Mages]. Perhaps this [Mage] was of low enough strata, the right level range, and, if she had a [Shieldman] already, they might group up together. Cerise wanted to run the idea by Mykhal first, but she also wanted to see the travelers for herself before she formed an opinion.

Like Miss Sanyel, Mister Aldo preferred for travelers to be near the front, but Cerise's family had a spot nearer the middle, by the Quartermaster. It made it easier for the Quartermaster to find them for odd jobs. Like Miss Sanyel, Mr. Aldo eagerly took advantage of the benefits of having a skilled [Carpenter] willing to fill travel time with traditionally novice work.

Cerise nodded to the guards as she passed them, getting smiling nods back. Mykhal was already off hunting.

The prices the Free Lancers Guild paid for commissions -- standard monster hunts -- was less than a lot of merchants paid in coin, but also involved no haggling and earned credits with the Free Lancers Consortium, which made up a large chunk of the difference. True, coin could be spent anywhere and credits only with the Free Lancers Consortium, but the Free Lancers Consortium had formed to supply the Guild, and they were well known for putting out quality goods and honest trading.

Completing commissions also advanced a team's rank. Mykhal was hoping to get them to Bronze Rank before they reached Sea Crest Dungeon Village. Sorkha and Brower both warned that they would need to take on a proving commission for rank advancement, and there were enough among the the guild officers that believed the Age of Responsibility should be twenty that their youth, despite their emancipation, would be a stumbling block for getting approved for that proving commission.

A grass tick carrying Sleeping Sickness caught Cerise's attention. It had latched onto one of the oxen. "Bad tick," she told the [Wagoneer] before soaking a bit of bandage gauze with water. She laid it over the tick and used a careful application of Greater Cleanse to break the tick's latch and flush the would site. Sleeping Sickness, her Diagnose skill warned, burrowed into mammalian nervous systems and fed off the natural mana each being carried in them. In larger creatures, they just got tired, but smaller ones uncommonly went through mana warping in an overreaction to the disease. For that reason, Cerise applied her Heal Diseases skill and Heal Wounds to close the bite. She wrapped the infected tick up in the gauze and made sure it drowned. She hated the parasites to a mildly irrational degree.

"That was a bit more than you do," the [Wagoneer] told her.

She held up the gauze ball encompassing the tick corpse. "Sleeping Sickness. It has an onset of between two weeks and a month. I think I got out the diseased bits, but I'll be checking up at least daily."

"Whassat onset?" the [Wagoneer] asked.

"When a non-[Healer] sees the signs of a disease or toxin. Triage skills may take a few days from infection to see the disease. It's a colony-type, and the disease colony has to grow to a size that it throws off the balance of the body before it's considered a problem by our skills." That was probably more explanation than was needed, to go by the [Wagoneer's] disturbed expression. Cerise smiled a confident, reassuring smile and added, "Healthy bodies handle this stuff on their own without us ever having to even think about it, for the most part. I'm just following my father's example and neatening up the details. He says that's why his products are so consistently Uncommon grade."

The [Wagoneer] chuckled, agreeably saying, "There are worse examples to follow after, aren't there?"

With a nod and a cheerful wave, Cerise moved on with her rounds, almost forgetting about the dungeon-bound [Mage] until she came to the lead Ma'deron wagon. She said her greetings, found the oxen in good health, and glanced to the travelers. And tripped, caught her balance, and stood still for several heartbeats. Absently, Cerise waved off the jocular inquiries from the two [Wagoneers] who passed her.

She was wrong. She had to be wrong. It wasn't that snooty squire boy riding with two women close to Cerise's age. He was up in the Treborant Hirsellands. They were south of Va'Velton. No, it wasn't him with his growly name that matched his growly personality. It was someone who looked like him from the back, and sat his horse with the same stiff posture. They were Honorables -- that could be seen at a glance. The snooty squire had been upper strata. The similarity probably meant the young man was upper strata, too. Cerise didn't have to deal with travelers, only the Ma'deron Consortium, so she would avoid them.

That settled, she gave a determinedly pleasant smile to the next [Wagoneer] to comment on her standing around and turned to walk back to her parents. She would mention the sameness and her parents would reassure her that it couldn't be him. Right?

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"Cerise! There you are!" Her mother greeted her with a happy smile.

Did you hear about the Honorables traveling with us?"

"Yes," Cerise got out before her mother kept on speaking.

"They're heading to Sea Crest, too, and looking for a [Healer] and a [Scout] so they can train in the dungeon! And one of them was with the patrol we helped out! The polite young man who acted as your aide! What was his name? Hiram? No, Heral! Well, Sir Fenrick was so impressed it turns out he told the young man to look for you specifically to be his team's [Healer]! Isn't that great?" Then her mother actually looked at Cerise's expression. "Cerise, sweetie, what's wrong?"

"Um, well, he's noble, Mama. We're not, and he struck me as very aware of that. I'm sure that if I spend any time around him that I'll offend him."

Her mother opened her mouth to deny the possibility, then looked at her daughter and changed that to, "Offend him, how?"

"He was there when I told Sir Fenrick we left our cyr for breaking Covenant with us, and he said we were wrong for leaving, and not trusting that our cyr was doing what he could to keep us safe. He got upset when I reminded him that the Covenant is about results and not actions or maneuverings or whatever nobles do with other nobles."

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"You said that to a noble?" her mother asked, eyes rounding, her steps faltering.

Cerise nodded. "I was needing to recover stamina after seeing to Honorable Mister Ethrick, and lacking the Focus to choose my words well. Sir Fenrick understood and empathized with us. His squire, Heral, he's ... well, he seemed very taken with the forms and less concerned with the functions or the substances. Until I learn how to master my skills and not be mastered by them, I think I'll be offensive to someone with those values. Especially when I'm healing."

"That's no excuse," her mother said. "You don't get to blame bad manners on your skills."

"You're right, Mama. It is not an excuse. It is a reality that I'm working to change. That change won't happen over night, and I think it would be foolish to think that it can. Knowing that, it would be irresponsible of me to put myself in a position where my failures hurt the people I love. So I need to stay away from this guy."

Her mother frowned, looking ill at ease. "I already told Mister Aldo I'd cook for us all. We'll be guests at his campfire with the Honorables, seeing as they wanted to see you and Mykhal particularly."

Cerise let her shoulders sag in dismay for just a moment. Then she pasted on a determined smile. "I'll go see if Mister Brower has pointers on how not to offend noble types. At the least, he'll know if I should offer a prayer to Am-Lanike for a gilded tongue, Maroth for guidance through the strange ways of nobles, or Fortuna, Lady of Commerce. I'm not sure if it wouldn't be thought ungrateful to ask for her luck after all the kindness she has already shown our family, and I'm sure Mister Brower will have an opinion on that."

"Well, my opinion is please don't. Fortuna's gifts sour when you cease to appreciate them, and instead rely upon them," her mother reminded Cerise.

Cerise's steps slowed a bit as a thought sparked to life from that comment. "Fortuna really has smiled upon us on this journey, hasn't she? By happenstance, we were not in Trall as we would have been, and that for a lucky gifting of the Grotto. We set out with water bags for each of us, a pot to cook in, blades to cut, and after the berries began to mature. We met up with Miss Sanyel's caravan, and they were, are good people, who introduced us to Mister Aldo and the good people of this caravan. I know we've put in the work to make the most of the opportunities she's presented to us, but perhaps we ought to seek out one of her priests at the next town to hold a temple to the gods and ask how we might best demonstrate our gratitude?"

Her mother gave that thought a moment of solemn silence. "You know, we really ought to."

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Mykhal returned with a trio of monster eggs and two almiraj carcasses between the first and second road break. Cerise blinked at the eggs, sighed, and went to get her sling. She settled the almiraj eggs in next to her body.

Mykhal smiled brilliantly when he saw that. "So they're still good?"

She nodded. "Yes, and we should make you an egg sling, too, if you're going to be finding spawn points like that."

"I'll get with Mama about that." He spoke more somberly as he took in her posture. "Are the eggs such a bother? Or did something else happen?"

Cerise shrugged. "Daisy's going to be weird about them, and any of the draft beasts going dire, too. Now that I know it'll happen, and why, it's just a thing to be dealt with. No, it's not the eggs. We'll be eating dinner with Mister Aldo and some Honorables traveling with the caravan." Then she explained about Sir Fenrick's squire, a conversation they hadn't had time for then, and that she hadn't thought to speak of afterward, until now.

Mykhal listened, and was silent as he considered the situation. "Maybe I should have taught you some of the Etiquette I learned from my mother before she left us. I lost a few divisions without her to remind me, but a little knowing is better than none, right?"

Cerise listened with her Profile open and her intent to learn at the forefront of her mind, letting Mykhal guide her when she might have stumbled into a rut or their cart.

Brower found them at second break still at their cart, and added his own quibbles and comments to the lessons. With about a rushmark left of the break, the Voice of the World rewarded their efforts.

[Basic Etiquette] learned! Comprehension assessed at Beginner-2.

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Cerise went over her parents and Mykhal with Greater Cleanse, deliberately not paying attention to where the water went as it took off road dirt from body and clothes. She was getting good enough with her Greater Cleanse skill to leave a bit of scent behind if she perfumed the water she used for a reagent, or some astringent to help prevent infections if she added that.

Mykhal and her father preferred to smell of woods like cedar and logmal. Cedar had been a rare luxury in the North, but was common as an oil in Va'Treborant. From all accounts, it grew close to the coast, and her father was eager to work with the fragrant wood. Logmal, on the other hand, was a widespread type of tree that grew alongside pines and oaks.

Cerise's mother loved the smell of pines, and Mykhal gathered enough of the needles for her to extract the scent. Cerise didn't much care for perfuming herself and just used plain water for her own cleansing.

Her father and Mykhal brought over the boxes with her mother's cookware. Cerise and her mother carried the burners and a small barrel with water gathering runes they had purchased in Va'Velton from the Ma'deron Consortium. They also brought along the meat from one of the almiraj caught that day. The other's meat had been sliced thin and put into drying frames her father had made. The Quartermaster was watching the meat smoke over his fire as an excuse for them to share the bounty.

Mister Aldo greeted them with a smile. "The Honorables are still seeing to their camp, and should join us shortly. I have ingredients for a fast cook stew right here, and you are free to use my spices as you deem best, Miss Bergin. Direct me and I shall aid you."

"Why, thank you, Mister Aldo! Mykhal caught a pair of those horned rabbits, so we brought one for the meal. Would you mind if, instead of a stew, I made a pan roast? Unlike most rabbits, these horned ones have some fatty marbling. " Cerise's mother asked, even though experience told them Mister Also would leap for a meal that wasn't stew.

His smile turned blissful. "I have some criss seed oil if you'd like to use that. Oh! And I added an amphora of the wine and another of the small beer you used with our last meal together to the ingredients I prepared!"

Cerise set to cleansing and Mykhal to chopping up the vegetables her mother selected. Soon enough, they had helped as much as her mother would allow, and had just settled back to relax around the fire when the Honorables arrived.

Cerise

Race: Human

Age: 13, Emancipated Youth

Total Level: 12

Class(es): [Arcane Healer Novice]

Social Strata: Commoner, Freeman

Pools:

Health: Moderate

Stamina: Good

Mana: Good

Attributes:

Focus: High

[Arcane Healer Novice] (12)

Arcane Healing: P-5

Heal Wounds: P-7

Heal Toxins: B-9

Heal Diseases: P-6

Triage: P-9

Stabilize: P-6

Diagnose: P-5

Pain Block: P-6

Slumber: B-6

Paralyze: B-3

General Skills

Slots: 2, Used: 2

Acting: P-9 (I-9)

Animal Handling: P-3

Appraise: P-2

Blades: P-1

Clear Mind: B-4

Cleanse, Greater *†: P-2

Cooking: P-9 (I-3)

Cyphers: P-1

Dispel *: B-6

Drawing: P-4

Etiquette, Basic: B-2

General Anatomy *: P-2

General Craft *: P-8

Herbalism *: P-3

Hunting: B-6

Lend Potency *: B-0

Logic: P-9 (I-3)

Mana Proprioception *: P-4

Mana Sensing *: P-7

Natural Weapon Combat: P-4

Oration: P-8

Potion Brewing *: P-9

Quick Stepping: B-8

Research: P-9 (A-4)

Scribing: P-9 (A-8)

Staves: B-3

Stealth: P-0

Surgery *: P-3

Tame Monster †: B-1

Teaching: B-3

Skill Unlocks

Mana Sight

Mana Scent

Mana Hearing

Dull Pain *

Lend Vitality *

Sense Life *

Heavy Blow (Staves)

Quick Thrust (Staves)

Sweeping Blow (Staves)

Counter Strike (Staves)

Achievements:

[Blessed by Noq-el] Perk: Death Resistance ♦

Hidden Perk: Divine aura permeates the god's name when you speak it.