30: We share with those whom we want to prosper
It was too late when Cerise rejoined her family for her and Mykhal to go to the Free Lancers Compound. They dined in their suite of rooms together and planned their next day.
Mykah had tried to ask why she stayed, and Cerise gave himthe answer she and the Hirsel had agreed on. "All I can say is that I had a gift from the Silverwood to share, and we discussed some things about skills for which he and I signed a mutual confidentiality contract. I don't want to be a contract breaker."
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Before sunset that evening, Cerise stopped by the stables and got out apples from their cart to give to all the horses. She talked to each of them and reminded them to be good for the stable hands.
A mister of about her father's age came by to see what she was doing, and paused as he heard her talking in Beast Speech. She felt the wave of his Identify skill, one of many from teh stable hands. In a respectful tone, he asked, "Lady ban Silverwood, is there aught we can do for you?"
She looked up and used her Appraise for his name. "Oh, I just made a promise to Daisy here, Mister Davi, and I hate not keeping promises. I've also promised her and our other horses that if they're good they can have sweets, but if the dire horses especially are ill mannered, they're to only get bitter forage. And it's each horse on their own merits."
"We don't have a lot of bitters, Lady," Mister Davi said.
"Oh, I'm sorry! It's Miss, not Lady. And, give me a moment." Cerise finished seeing to Daisy's scritches, then headed back to their cart. She pulled out a pannier style basket of sorted forage and found her bag of unsorted gather, along with a gather basket she had only finished making before their first visit to Va'Velton, and so still empty. She made short work of sorting out all the gather and soon had a basket of bitter mana herbs safe for the dire horses.
Mister Davi looked a bit surprised when he inspected the herbs she had set aside as punishment feed. "You ... feed these ... to horses?"
Cerise shrugged. "Dire beasts need mana, and these are safe for them to eat and only take a bit of searching out."
"Theses have to be worth at least a gold!" he protested.
Cerise chuckled. "I wish, but nope! We traveled with a Nykimopia Consortium caravan and also with a Ma'deron caravan. Both of their trade masters already said these herbs are of limited use to alchemists, and they're at best good for some weak, minor healing salves. The best I've gotten from a pannier of that size is a hand jar's worth of Uncommon quality minor healing salve."
"That's--. You made the salve? How?"
"Potion Brewing is a specific skill under the broad Alchemy skill, and happens to be a [Healer] class skill. Anyhow, that's maybe a day's gather and will suppliment all four of the dire horses for a few days. Even though they're bitter, the dire's will eat it for the mana, which is why I use it while telling them why they're eating bitters." Of course, before getting Beast Speech, Cerise had only been doing that with Daisy and she rarely had cause to withhold sweets.
"But, you're a novice tier [Healer]? And still a youth? How did you have time to learn it all?" the stable hand seemed confused.
Cerise shrugged. "Put in the work. Be curious. Try things. Think about what you see. Skills depend as much on what you know as on what you can do. As my father says, the path to Mastery is laid one stone at a time. Also, 'appreciate the challenges the gods send your way as they are opportunities to learn. Granted, some are about learning how to run from things beyond you.' That's Dad's favorite saying."
Mister Davi laughed. "Well, should you be interested in selling some healing salve, we can always use more."
"Got a jar to store some in?" Cerise asked. "Your hirsel is a generous man. The least I can do is return that generosity to his people."
In moments, Cerise had pulled out a good sized wooden canister and divided off half of the contents to a ceramic jar Mister Davi produced. "Oh, miss! That's more generous than my budget affords!"
She waved him off. "This isn't a sale. As I said, this is merely a return of generosity. We share with those whom we want to prosper."
"Thank you!" he said.
Cerise smiled, feeling good to be able to give.
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Cerise and Mykhal rose with the false dawn and got ready for the day. They wanted to get to the Free Lancers Guild early so they could be back to go with Cerise's parents to the Temple of the Gods and seek out Fortuna's priests for guidance on how to best show their gratitude for her smiles. They went by the stables to pick up their packs and found two stable boys poking at their cart.
Cerise was ready to charge in, feeling like this was a poor repayment of her kindness the night before, but Mykhal stopped her with a hand on her shoulder, and signed for stealth. She pulled on her Stealth skill while Mykhal did his disappearing into the background thing. They approached close enough to hear the boys whisper-arguing.
"Stop this! That belongs to the hirsel's guests!" one of the boys said, poking at the other.
The other boy waved him off. "You're such a worry wort! We've got at least an hour before anyone shows up! I just want to see!"
"Marl, you stop now or I'm telling Stable Master Davi!" the first boy warned.
"Hey! I thought you were my friend! You do that and I lose my job, and then how will I feed Masha?" The boy called Marled scowled at the other boy. "It's just a look!"
"I am your friend! That's why I'm giving you the chance to stop before you earn a slave brand! Or worse!"
"You know, if you had just gone along with me, we'd've already looked and been done! You're the one wasting time here, Karl."
"Because it's not going to be just looking! I've listened to you all night going on and on about how valuable the herbs we're supposed to fee their dires are and how rich they must be and how they're just 'peasants like us' -- except they aren't! They are guests of our lord! You're talking yourself up to stealing from them! I know you! And what you haven't thought about is what our lord will do when he finds out someone in his House stole from his guests! A slave brand will be his generosity! And you know what? You have dragged me down too many times. I'm done." Karl ended his impassioned speech by turning his back on Marl and heading for the stable doors.
Marl's eyes rounded with panic. He looked around and grabbed a bucket, swinging for the back of Karl's head.
Mykhal threw something, maybe a brush? Cerise only saw that it knocked aside the bucket.
Karl glanced back over his shoulder, saw Marl's stance with the bucket and his expression caught between panic and rage, and bolted. Marl leapt after him, passing by Cerise.
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She broke her Stealth and closelined the sticky-fingered boy, laying him out flat with a bruised windpipe and minor external bruising on the back of his head from bouncing off their cart on his way to the ground.
A loud ringing gong sound out from beside the stable door. Karl was banging on a brass plat as if his life depended on it.
Stable Master Davi, the man to whom Cerise had given the healing salve, was the first to arrive, quickly followed by two half awake stable hand and five guards in Velton's colors of brown and gold.
Cerise held her hands up to show her lack of hostility, backing away from the boy gasping on the ground at her feet. Mykhal took down his camouflage, leaning on the other side of the stall holding their cart, his arms casually crossed over his chest.
It took a moment for everyone to calm down, and even longer for Karl. He kept repeating, "He was going to bash my head in! He wanted to steal from the lord's guests and I wasn't going to stand by, and he was going to bash my head in!"
They were still trying to calm Karl down when Marl recovered enough to start lying, coughing and croaking to drown out his former friend.
And then Aide Perth arrived. He demanded silence and got it. Then he spotted Cerise and Mykahl. He bowed. "Miss ban Silverwood, you are early to rise. May I ask what you know of this matter?"
"Mykhal and I needed to retrieve an item from our cart. We spotted these two boys beside it, the cart cover partly removed. I wanted to run in, but Mykhal wanted to watch a bit first. I am glad for my team leader's wisdom because when we Stealthed and got close enough to hear their whispered fight, Mister Karl was arguing for Mister Marl to respect their liege and leave his guests' belongings alone. When he saw that wasn't going to work, Mister Karl headed to get someone in authority and Mister Marl picked up a bucket and swung it for the back of Mister Karl's head. Mykhal and I stepped in at that point, and you were summoned."
Aide Perth looked nauseated by the implications. "I see," he said. "My deepest apologies, Miss ban Silverwood. Do you want the thief hanged?"
Cerise blinked. "I am not inclined to hasty decisions. Lord Jedais Hirsel Velton has impressed me as a compassionate, generous, and just man. I see no need for me to interfere in how he chooses to administer justice in his lands and among his household. My only commentary is that I find the assault to be a more grevious matter.
"We will look over our things and let you know if there has been any theft. We had planned to go to the Free Lancers Guild this morning. Do you need us to put that off?"
Aide Perth bowed again. "No, and speaking for myself, I can only say how much I appreciate your grace in this matter, Miss ban Silverwood."
Cerise dipped her head, not really sure how to respond to that. She and Mykhal moved over to the cart and finished removing the cart cover. They examined their goods, finding nothing out of place. Nothing had been taken.
After informing Aide Perth of that, they gathered the lesser holding pack and the few commissions Mykhal had so far collected, and walked to the Free Lancers compound.
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Cerise and Mykhal managed to be among the first teams through the door. The clerk eyed their packs dubiously. "If you're dropping off commissions, you need to do that at the Consortium door and bring your receipt here for credit."
"We'll do that after this," Mykhal said. "Please Inspect my teammate."
The clerk raise an eyebrow, but did as Mykhal asked, the roll of her Identify skill not too shabby. Her jaw dropped, then she swallowed and regained a semblance of composure. "Please meet me at the door, and I will bring you to a private room."
Mykhal and Cerise looked at one another, shrugged, and followed directions, ending up in a nicely appointed sitting room. A few minutes after being shown in, two men joined them. One was Colin Ironfist, the officer that approved their admission. The other was a burly man with blond hair and green eyes.
Cerise and Mykhal rose. She smiled and said, "Mister Ironfist, it's a pleasure to see you again." Her smile dimmed, and she added, "Though I could wish for more pleasant circumstances."
"Becoming an authority bearer is not pleasant?" he asked, looking ... odd.
Cerise reached down to the pack at her feet and flipped open the top, revealing the guild tokens. "Returning these is a somber occassion."
Both men turned grim. "How did you come by these?"
"The Whisper in the Leaves, Lady of the Silverwood Grove, told me the pack contained 'things of men' that had been left in her woods. It was given to me as an act of friendship before she rewarded me with a name and a token of her authority. We did not look beyond the identity tokens. Honestly, we don't even know how to identify what equipment when with which tokens or how to get the belongings to their heirs."
Colin raised an eyebrow. "You haven't finished reading the rules of conduct, have you?"
Both Mykhal and Cerise shook their heads. "We barely got ten, maybe eleven leagues with the caravan before the Guardian of the Silverwood Grove snatched Cerise to heal him of Sleeping Sickness," Mykhal explained.
"Is that tale why you asked for a private room?" the blond man asked.
Cerise belatedly remembered that Free Lancers didn't introduce each other; they Identified each other. She used Appraise.
Name: Duonal Two Strikes
Race: High Human
Strata: Compound Master, Free Lancer, Freeman
Class: [Warrior] Rare, Adept; [Laborer] Uncommon, Initiate; [Laborer] Common, Novice
Health: High, Full
Stamina: High, Full
Mana: Good, Full
"No, Mister Two Strikes. We didn't ask for the room. Mykhal just asked the clerk to Identify me and she brought us here. Everyone's been saying I'm now some kind of diplomat, and I don't really know what to expect at this point, so we just followed along."
Duonal nodded, looking a touch more relaxed. "Why don't you start at the beginning, give us a straight run through, and we'll ask questions to clarify after?"
Colin cleared his throat. "We are required to notify the hirsel about anyone we cone across bearing an authority."
Cerise nodded. "That makes sense. We're staying at Lord Jedais's estate."
Duonal held up a finger. "Start at the beginning."
Cerise looked to Mykhal, and he shrugged. "Well, if I'm starting from the beginning, there is something I think it's worth the Guild knowing about that isn't related to the Lady of the Silverwood. We were getting our classes at the start of this hot season when the miners of our village found drakeblood ore in a mine that Cyr Wendynhelm claimed. They revolted, and were cleaning up after killing our neighbors when we came back from classing." She hit the highlights of their journey, including healing the patrollers and meeting Heral el-Treborant, transferring to Mister Aldo's caravan, mentioned joining the Guild, and Heral catching up with them, having been sent to go train in the Sea Crest dungeon. The almirajs that hatched for Heral's cousins came up in passing as the reason for the hunt that attracted the Silverwood's Guardian's attention, and from there she gave more details about the abduction, healing, and gifts of the Lady of the Silverwood, though she very specifically did not mention the seed she could not Identify, nor that the lady had an interest in the dungeon they were heading toward.
Then she went over collecting her parents and Heral insisting that he had to take her to Va'Velton to introduce her to the hirsel. It took a couple rush marks for her to get through the whole telling, ensuring she had hit the salient points.
Duonal said, "That was both more detailed and more concise than I expected."
"We did go through it all with the Hirsel last night. I'm not clear about what was significant in the drakeblood ore find, but the hirsel knew what it meant, and found it politically significant, hence why I thought the Free Lancers could benefit from the knowing."
Colin snorted. "It means that the [Profaner] encroached on draycon lands. The treaty between Druerjan and Ethekastria recognizes any mines bearing drakesblood ore as digging into the burial sites of the draycons, which are higher into the mountains than most humans care to live. The metal from the ore is drakesteel, only a touch better than regular steel, but sacred to the draycons."
"Ah. That would explain the panic," Cerise said. Draycons were quick to kill over the things they called sacred.
Duonal asked, "What is Hirsel Velton's response to learning all this?"
Cerise and Mykhal explained what they knew.
Duonal asked, "Do you want to delve with the el-Treborant?"
"Not if he's dragging his cousins along," Mykhal said.
Cerise nodded. "He's competent and we could learn a lot from him. Mahayan am-Affel is the [Mage], and she probably should stay out of combat. At least for now. She was expecting to be a [Scribe] and hasn't made the mental adjustment yet, I don't think."
"And Izrai Affel is undisciplined and impulsive and will get someone killed if she can't get her head out of her ass." Mykhal's rudely blunt statement had Cerise wondering what more to their interactions she had missed while occupied with healing the Guardian of the Silverwood.
Still, she nodded as she winced at the rudeness.
"So you're still looking for a [Warrior] to complete your party?" Duonal asked.
They nodded.
Mykhal added, "We're hoping for patience, competence, and experience, but we'll take the first two if we can't get all three."
"Patience?" Duonal asked with a skeptical look at the pair of them.
"'You gotta live to spend the gold'," Mykhal said.
"'Fools rush in where Masters fear to tread'," Cerise quoted.
"'Only fools bask in Fortuna's smile.'"
"'When you're paving the path to Mastery, each stone matters.'"
Mykhal opened his mouth, then pivoted his attention from Cerise back to Duonal. "Yes, patience and competence. Basic respect for team mates is one our, um, basic requriements, I guess. Enemies are hostile enough so we don't need it on the team. Did you have someone in mind?"
Duonal smiled.