Xander made his way back to the inn on foot. The streets were quiet, and it was only occasionally that he would pass anyone on the street. He simply meandered his way to his destination, taking time to take in the city through the lens of night. The lights and fireplaces still lit in a few buildings bled out onto the street through windows, providing small patches of cozy, warm light here and there as he walked. Nothing exciting happened, no one tried to kill him, and he wasn’t required to fight anything. It was quite relaxing to be able to just walk and think.
The thing that was on his mind at the moment were his feelings toward Valteria. He was uncomfortable with the fact that he was feeling something at all. He mulled over the thought of whether it was moral for him to feel that way. Was it? He hadn’t acted on it at all. So there was that. But was it wrong to even feel that way? He was a theoretically married man. Which brought up another question. Was he still married? He still thought of himself as married. But in reality, he wasn’t. He’d lost his wedding ring, and he’d been gone from Earth, assuming that time flowed the same way here as it did in Earth, for over three years. He wouldn’t blame Helen for moving on, if he found out that she had. He wasn’t sure he was over it yet, though. He’d only been aware for less than half his total time in Tillania. He’d settled well enough to many aspects of this new world, but he still caught himself thinking of Earth as “back home,” like he was ever going to get to go back. Like he’d get to go back to Helen. He knew that there was a slim to zero chance of that ever happening, though. That, in all likelihood, life as he knew it here would become his normal. That one day, maybe, he might find someone else. But would it be wrong to date, or perhaps court would be a better word in this world, with the unresolved hangups he had right now? He wasn’t sure. So, he decided on the easiest answer: to do nothing about his attraction, leave his own thought line unresolved, and wait to cross that bridge when someone actually expressed interest in him. Besides, he was approaching the inn now, anyway.
Shelving his thoughts for now, Xander stepped into the inn. The inside of the first floor was dimly lit by a sputtering fire on one end and only a few patrons sat at any tables, huddled together having quiet conversations. The bartender had long since retired, and Xander barely earned a glance from the preoccupied patrons as he softly walked to the stairs and began to climb them.
Xander quietly opened the door to his shared room and slipped inside, managing not to wake Gabrelle. Instead of carefully lying down on the bed, he opted to sit down on a chair. He didn’t feel like just laying there with nothing but his thoughts. Instead, he’d rather occupy himself with a project, deciding to try a pass at his idea for the adaptive camouflage cloak. He’d start with just a small square, and he expected that it would end up more as practice with applying runes to cloth than anything.
Creating a square of white cloth, he began using his abilities to weave threads of silver into the fabric. Gathering arrays and intelligence runes for power and to sense the color what was nearby, tied to another array to of intelligence runes to exclude the wearer, were followed by more intelligence runes connected inverse light runes. The weaving took him several hours, the process being quite tedious. Xander didn’t mind, though. The detailed work kept his mind occupied and away from the lurking thoughts of how he should handle personal relationships. Once the sequences of runes and arrays were complete, he took a closer look at the fabric, on which the runes had begun to take effect. He placed the cloth on the floor to observe the effects of the runes. It was only a partial success. While the rune work did recognize the area around it, Xander could clearly see the continuation of the wooden boards and even some of the darker sections of the wood grain, the color was completely off. Instead of blending in with the wood, the square of cloth ended up highlighting itself in a bright purple.
Xander shrugged to himself, allowing himself a quiet sigh. It was a start. Perhaps he should divide the sensing runes into sets of three, one for each color of light, to match the sets of three that the inverse light runes were set into. It might simplify the process. Deciding to try it out, he slowly began unraveling the runes woven into the square of fabric so that he could start over. He wasn’t sure why he was unraveling them. He could have just set the whole thing aside, to dissolve in a day, and created a new blank square. But it felt wrong for some reason, like a waste. Maybe a holdover from the days when he couldn’t just create things at will, he supposed.
When Gabrelle awoke, she found Xander still sitting in the same chair, and still fiddling with the runes he’d woven into the piece of cloth.
“Xander?” She asked, mildly startled to see a figure outside the bed. “What are you doing over there?”
“Mm?” Xander said, broken from his focus on the cloth. “Oh, I was working on a project to keep myself occupied. I was, uh, feeling a little restless when I came back last night.”
“Oh. Okay. That’s fine,” Gabrelle said, nodding understandingly. “Sooo… how’d your date go?”
“It was not a date!” Xander exclaimed. “But, yeah, it went well. She wanted my input on her suit, and we ended up hammering out a little business agreement where she’s going to teach me some of the more arcane fields of machinery here on this world and I’ll do some rune work for her.”
“Mmmf,” Gabrelle grunted as she sat up and stretched. “Well, that’s good, I suppose. Not much else to do while we wait for those eggs… ugh what am I gonna do for another whole month,” she lamented.
Xander shrugged. “I dunno. Isn’t there anything you want to work on? Some kind of skill you’d like to pick up, or a goal you want to achieve?”
“Well, I’d like to have a little garden of herbs I commonly use… but that’s not exactly conducive to the life of a traveling mercenary. Hmm… You know, I’m not really sure. I’ve been living the life of a mercenary, and enjoying it, ever since we met, and it’s occupied most of my time. I really just don’t know what to do with myself with all this free time.”
“Well, you could always learn to cook so that Graffus isn’t the one that’s preparing whatever we catch out on the road,” Xander said with a chuckle. “Hmm, or you could read up on anatomy at the library? It could help you understand what your healing is doing more deeply – of course, that’s assuming you don’t already, maybe you do. Reading up on the anatomy of monsters, or creatures, or whatever the hell could help you fight them better, too?”
“That’s true. I’ve always wondered if I could use my healing abilities in any way during a fight… maybe that’s something I could research. If nothing else, you’re right that reading up on the anatomy of things I might fight would help me know where to hit. Blugh, it beats sitting around here all day.”
“That’s the spirit! I’ll leave you to get dressed. I’ve finally managed to get brown to actually look brown, so now I need to start testing with other colors!” Xander gestured proudly at the small square of cloth he was holding in one hand as it shifted colors slightly from being waved about.
“Umm, that’s good, I assume,” Gabrelle said, a little unsure as to what Xander was talking about. “Ah, but yes, I should get dressed.”
“I’ll see you later! I’ll be visiting Valteria’s shop again today to do some work and hopefully learn some magic…machine…stuff. Yeah. That.”
Valteria had asked him to stop by late morning at the earliest, so he had a couple of hours before he needed to head that direction. In the meantime, he wanted to see how well his little square of cloth managed to duplicate colors other than the floor of his room at the inn. He spent the next two hours wandering about the common area of the inn, and then the outside of the inn, placing the fabric over various objects to test the color. It performed well with darker colors, but as he found brighter colors outdoors, he found that the runic arrays still struggled – they were too bright, enhancing the vibrancy of the object they were supposed to be mimicking. Xander scribbled down some notes on a pad he pulled from his inventory, jotting down the objects and colors that the arrays were still struggling with. Checking his watch, he sighed. He wouldn’t have time to sit down and adjust the arrays until later, because he needed to head over to Valteria’s. As it was, he needed to begin heading there if he didn’t want to miss his target time of late morning, which he’d guestimated to be approximately ten thirty.
As he walked from behind the inn, he spied the stable and a thought sparked in his mind. He hadn’t spent as much time with Freyja as he should have, lately. He was sure the cat would enjoy a jaunt out through the city, and to meet a new person. He made a stop by the stable and let Freyja out of her stall, the big cat happily galivanting out of her stall, excited to see Xander.
“Hey Freyja,” Xander said. “Sorry I haven’t been spending much time with you,” he told the cat a little guiltily. “Guess I’ve been a little distracted, what with the tournament and making a body.”
Freyja grumbled at him, but didn’t stop rubbing her head against Xander’s chest.
“How about you come out with me today? I’ve got to go out, and I think you could use a walk. You can meet Valteria, she’s supposed to be teaching me about arcane machinery. Just make sure you behave yourself in her shop and don’t break anything, okay?”
Freyja huffed at Xander like she’d never once broken anything in her life and was not capable of exerting extreme force or of extreme violence.
Xander and Freyja began their journey from the inn to Valteria’s shop. Xander took the thoroughfare that led past the guild, Freyja happily following along, content to absorb the sights, sounds, and scents of the road as they strolled. Now that Xander wasn’t confined to a suit of black plate armor, Freyja was the one who drew strangers’ eyes the most, though the cat had grown used to being stared at by this point.
Soon enough, they were at the door of Valteria’s Mechanics and Sundries. Xander opened the door, letting himself and Freyja into the shop. As he entered, he spied Jarrett and Valteria both at work on the shop floor. Jarrett seemed to fitting a trigger to a crossbow, while Valteria’s work was obscured by her body from Xander’s vision. They both looked up as the door opened and then closed.
“Xander! Hello ther- why do you have a giant cat?” Valteria asked in shock.
“That is a very large cat…” Jarrett said, sounding very unsure of the situation.
“Hi!” Xander said with a wave. “Ah, this is Freyja. She’s my bonded companion. Don’t worry, she’s very well behaved, I promise she won’t break anything. And, if she does, I’ll pay for it, I suppose. You promise to be good, don’t you Freyja?”
Freyja nodded her head enthusiastically, to Valteria and Jarrett’s surprise.
“So,” Xander said, tactfully ignoring the unsurety of Valteria and Jarrett around a large predator, “what’s on the schedule for today?”
Valteria shook her head slightly, clearing her distracted thoughts from her mind. “Ahh… Well, I suppose first off we should sit down and talk about some of the ideas I have for your rune work, you can tell me what is and isn’t feasible, and then we can talk about what areas you want to focus on learning some of my tinkering knowledge.”
Xander nodded. “That sounds good. Where do you want to sit down and have this talk?”
“Pull up a chair to my bench here, I’ve got a couple of things that I’m prototyping for these ideas.”
Xander moved over to an unused work table and carried the stool back over to Valteria’s current work area and sat down. On the workbench in front of her were multiple miscellaneous cogs, gears, and other metal pieces that Xander was unable to identify. Valteria picked up a small cog and held it up.
“Something simple first. Could you make a cog that turns on its own at a constant rate?”
Xander cocked his head at such an easy request. “Uhm, sure. That’s not a problem at all. But what for?”
Valteria’s face lit up with the excitement that comes with getting to explain one’s relatively niche interest to someone. “I could make a clock that never needs to be wound! With a runed cog providing power to the winding mechanism, I could make a clock that, with proper care and maintenance, would last centuries without once needing to be wound! That kind of thing can bring in quite the amount of coin from nobles and other luxury goods buyers.”
“Huh. I never really thought about that,” Xander said.
“Also,” Valteria continued, “it has an application on just about any other clockwork device you could think of. I haven’t done much with constructing clockwork automatons – I don’t much care for things that need to be wound up before being set to a short, simple task – but with this, I could make something that would last even longer.”
Xander perked up a bit more when Valteria mentioned clockwork automatons. He thought back to the small, clockwork spider he’d created as the first test of his [Automaton] ability. “Interesting… What kind of automatons would you create?”
Valteria answered immediately, clearly having thought on the matter already. “First, I think I’d like to make something that could assist me in combat. Something that I could deploy from my armor that would help me deal with anything that gets in past my guard. Maybe also something to fold my laundry,” she added with a small laugh. “But for something that could deal with the intricacies of combat, I’ll need to get my hands on some kind of motive force,” she added. “I’ll need to get with a ritualist at some point and price something like a bound spirit that I can emplace to control the whole apparatus.”
Xander nodded in agreement. “That sounds like a smart idea. I had no idea that bound spirits were a thing, let alone that you could bind them to a clockwork body to make an automaton. So I’m learning already!” Looking at the violet woman in front of him, he remembered something. “Hey, uh, I really I hope that I don’t come across as rude at all, but… where are you from? I’ve never met someone that’s, well, any shade of purple, and I’m curious about it.”
Valteria’s smile from the excitement of thinking about clockwork fell slightly. Xander wasn’t sure if he had come across as rude or if the question had reminded her of something unpleasant, but he felt a bit guilty either way.
“No, I don’t find it rude,” she started off. “The curiosity is natural, of course. I’m from the other continent across the sea, Vardenne. I’m a pix. We’re… distantly? Distantly-ish? Related to elves, though I’ll admit, I’m not sure how. Just that that’s what I grew up being told.”
Xander nodded along. Atrax had been right after all. “Well, I’m going to get too nosey and start asking you why you came all this way to the other side of Tillania. I’m sure you had your reasons… unless you like, killed someone and fled to escape the law. Then I’d like to know.”
Valteria’s smile returned as she chuckled at Xander’s postulation. “Nothing so dramatic,” she said. “I just… didn’t get along with my family, and wanted a new start is all.”
“Ah, I see. I hope I didn’t bring back any unpleasant memories for you…” Xander said, trailing off and feeling a little bit lame that he didn’t have anything better to say in response.
“Oh no, don’t worry. I’ve had decades to brood over it, and I’ll have centuries to continue doing so on and off whenever I’m feeling pensive. No harm done. But, since I’ve indulged you, I hope you’ll indulge me as well. You mentioned that you’re a [Godsmarked], if I remember correctly. I might be far from home, but you are from a whole different plane of existence! What was your life like? How was that completely different world?”
Xander smiled wanly, and it was Valteria’s turn to feel a twinge of guilt from their curiosity. “What was life like? Well, it was different, but in all the ways that matter, kind of the same. The average person would get up and go to work to get paid and then go home. That’s what I did, for years. Wake up, go to work, come home to my wife - really I’d get home before her because she worked later than me most days – have dinner, hang out at home or run any errands we needed to, and then repeat. The biggest difference was that there was no magic, no monsters. No elves, or dwarves, or pix. Just us humans, and technology. Compared to here, there were incredibly advanced things. And yet, at the same time, there are things here that would be impossible back on Earth. I can show you some photos – it’s like a painting – if you’d like.”
“You… had a wife? And the gods just took you from her? And your family, too, now that I think of it. That just seems, well, cruel is one way to put it.”
“I… yeah, I was married. No kids, but we’d planned on having some before,” Xander waved generally to the area around him, “all this happened. I’ll admit, I was bitter about it. Am bitter about it? I’m still working through a lot of things and feelings, I know that much. But, all things considered, I’m learning to accept what happened. My life is certainly a lot more exciting, filled with travel and exotic places and people, than it ever was before. So it’s not all bad.”
“I see. You know, I think I know someone, a couple someones, actually, that you’d like to meet. There’s a tavern in town I’d like to take you after we’re done for the day here. It’s called The Other Side. The owner is a [Godsmarked], too. I haven’t been in a while, but last I was there, there was also another ‘marked who was working there. The owner has a standing policy to hire any ‘marked that needs a job,” she added as explanation. “I found that, as someone who is also an ‘outsider’ of sorts to the area, there’s a bit of a shared plight and kinship to be shared.”
Xander was shocked and elated to hear about the existence of other [Godsmarked] nearby. “I had no idea there were any [Godsmarked] in the city at all!”
“Well, it’s a big city,” Valteria said. “There’s usually at least a few in any large city, you just have to look hard enough.”
“Huh. I suppose that makes sense, I just never thought about it.”
“Now, I believe you mentioned something called ‘photos’? How exactly is something ‘like’ a painting without being a painting?”
Xander scooted his stool closer to Valteria and pulled his phone into his hand from his inventory. He spent the next few hours with Valteria shouldered up to him peering at his phone as he went through pictures in his gallery. As they went through the photos, he absentmindedly scratched Freyja’s head, as the cat had come back over to them. Valteria, for her part, bombarded him with questions about anything that caught her eye. He found himself trying to roughly explain how a car worked – which led into a rabbit hole about internal combustion engines and how they’d started as steam engines – before trying to explain how to explain how skyscrapers could be so tall without falling over, along with a great many other things that he was only vaguely able to explain. The time flew by for Xander, as he found himself enjoying talking with the woman next to him, who kept constantly going off onto new tangents of her own when he would explain something, trying to relate it to her own work and fitting new ideas into things. Jarrett handled the customers that came in, indulging Valteria in his own way as she poured over Xander’s photos.
The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
Xander and Valteria’s conversational trance was finally broken as Valteria paused to stretch her neck out, causing a few pops to crackle out as she did so. Xander stared at her jealously.
“What?” She asked, confused.
“You have no idea how jealous I am that you can still pop your joints. I had no idea how much I missed being able to do that until this exact moment.”
Valteria laughed and brought her fingers up and began to pop those joints as well. “That is a tragedy. I suppose I’ll just have to make up for your lack of…” she stopped, struggling to find a word. “…pop-ability?”
“You are literally torturing me right now,” Xander lamented.
“Mmf, well, if you’d held that ‘phone’ thing of yours at an easier angle, I wouldn’t be so stiff!” She said in a mockingly haughty voice. Looking around, her eyes alighted on one of the clocks in the room. “Oh, damnation, we really did talk the day away, didn’t we? It’s about time to close up shop.” She turned to Jarrett and said, “Thank you for handling all the customers today, Jarrett, I hope it didn’t interrupt your own work too much.”
“Oh no Miss Valteria, it’s all fine,” the man replied. “I just couldn’t bring myself to interrupt you two, you were so excited about… whatever it was that you were looking at.”
“It is greatly appreciated all the same,” she said. “And, don’t worry about cleaning up today, I’ll handle it. Perhaps I’ll press Xander into service and have him sweep for me since he so graciously kept me from doing any work. It certainly was not any of own doing!”
Xander looked between the two of them and shrugged his shoulders helplessly. “I can bring Freyja to this tavern, right?” He asked Valteria, choosing to ignore the threat of sweeping. Jarrett made his way out of the shop as the two were speaking, leaving them to their own devices.
“Mm, I don’t see why not. Charles – that’s the owner’s name, by the way – always says he’s ‘a big animal lover,’ so I say we put it to the test. Besides, Freyja is quite well behaved.” Valteria cautiously reached out to stroke the top of the large cat’s head, pleased that one, her hand wasn’t bitten off, and two, Freyja rubbed her head against the hand petting her.
“Alrighty, if you think it won’t be a problem. I can always tell him she’s my emotional support animal,” he joked.
“Emotional support animal?” Valteria asked quizzically.
“Ah damnit, Charles would get it. An emotional support animal is an animal that someone keeps around them because it helps them deal with potential emotional outbursts, I guess is the easiest explanation. Anyways, a lot of people on Earth would lie and say that their dog or cat or other animal was an emotional support animal so that it would be allowed in stores and other places where animals traditionally weren’t allowed.”
“Well, I’m sure it was funny before you had to explain it,” Valteria said.
“So am I really helping you sweep up? Can we maybe just make a golem to sweep up instead?”
“Well I don’t see any golems laying around here and I think – and this is just a hypothesis, you understand – but, I think it might take us longer to make a golem than it would to just sweep the floor,” Valteria retorted. “Unless you have a golem that just happens to be hiding somewhere.”
“Wellllll,” Xander started off, smirking. “I do have a few here and there, though I suppose it’s not much help since they’re not here.”
“Wait, wait,” Valteria, seriousness returning to her voice. “You have golems?”
“Uhh, yeah. I made a couple of very simple ones in… in Ilbek. During the war. I was lucky enough to get a title that gave me a skill for making better golems from that. It lets me give them, ah shit, what did you call it? Lets me give them a ‘motive force.’ Seeing Valteria’s eyes light up at the words “motive force,” Xander quickly added, “But only to golems that I create. Though, I guess if I helped in making one, it might work.”
“Wow… That’s certainly a stroke of luck. I can only hope that I get something on my status sheet like that once I wrangle out how to make a golem. Speaking of, would you mind bringing a golem tomorrow when you come by so that I could study it for my own research?” Suddenly looking a little sheepish, Valteria added, “Uhm, that is, if you don’t mind. I know some [Artificers], [Tinkers], well, really any trade class, can be very protective of their research and innovations.”
“Don’t worry about it. I don’t mind. Though I’m not sure how helpful it will be. Mine are all runic based, no clockwork or mechanisms involved,” Xander explained.
“Hell, they’re enough of a rarity that even just seeing how one moves and balances would be a help.”
“Are they really that rare?” Xander asked. “I’ve had people comment on them before, too.”
Valteria shook her head in disbelief. “[Godsmarked]… I swear. Always doing something insane and then not realizing that it’s completely abnormal. A true golem, something with a motive force, is an incredibly complex creation melded with, as you’ve heard me put it, a ‘motive force.’ This can be something from a skill like the one you have – speaking of which, what is the skill you got from your title? I’d like to see it if you don’t mind.”
“Oh, sure.” Xander answered. He pulled up his status sheet and flipped it around for Valteria to read, point to his [Golemancer] title and skill.
Valteria leaned in slightly to read the portion of his sheet that Xander was indicating. “Damn, you ‘marked really do get the luckiest things on your statuses… though I suppose maybe it’s recompense for being pulled here in the first place. Thank you for showing me.” She shook her head to clear her thoughts before saying, “Now, where was I? Right, motive force. They can be from a skill, like yours, which commonly only apply to golems that the holder creates – again, like yours. This makes the golem a little less sellable, for a simple reason: the primary holder of authority over the golem will always be the creator of the golem. Sure, you can tell the golem, ‘follow the orders of the person I’m selling you to as if they were my own orders,’ but you can also rescind that order whenever you want. People don’t like the idea that something they spent a lot of money on, and is potentially very deadly, could be taken back away from them or used against them on the whim of the person they bought it from. It requires a higher level of trust than is usually found between people involved in a relatively straightforward sales transaction. The real sellers are golems that are created through a melding of crafting classes and a driving force created through a [Ritualist] or, in rare cases, the repurposing of monster parts, usually from a naturally occurring golem. When these are created, the person who is applying the motive force to the shell of the golem is generally the one designated as the ultimate authority over the golem. That means that you can sell the shell of a golem by itself – which on its own will cost a goodly amount, and the buyer can acquire their own motive force however they desire, or you can sell a golem in two parts, that is, the shell and the motive force, at the same time and allow the buyer to apply it there and then and walk out with their golem. There’s also the measure of complexity of the motive force,” she continued. “A simple golem is more suited to simple repetitive tasks like housework, and of course, would be cheaper than a combat rated golem that would be required to make actual decisions in the heat of a fight.”
Xander listened to the impromptu lecture with interest, nodding along at Valteria’s points. “That all makes sense. I hadn’t really thought about mine being less desirable for selling, since I don’t really intend to start selling them. But I had been wondering how they were created by other people. So you’re saying that there are, essentially, ‘cheap’ motive forces that would give the golem a much simpler intelligence than a higher grade one?”
“Exactly,” Valteria answered. “Your skill is particularly good in that it allows you to progressively increase the complexity of your golems’ motive force. Many skills only provide access to a singular level of intelligence.”
“I see. That actually reminds me of something. I have another skill, [Automaton], that lets me create something like a golem that lasts for twenty-four hours. I’ve used it once to create something that was clockwork before. I could make a clockwork golem and tell it to sweep up, and then you could take a look at it tonight when you get back and all of tomorrow before it dissipates? I’ll still bring one of the other golems, of course,” Xander said.
“I – yes. I’d like that, if you don’t mind. I think it would be really helpful.” Valteria paused for a moment. “Xander?” She asked.
“Mm?” He replied, distracted by thinking of what kind of construct he should create with [Automaton].
“Why are you being so nice to me?” Valteria blurted out.
Xander cocked his head questioningly. “What do you mean?”
“You agreed to help me with my armor and compare notes, you’ve agreed to help me with runework at the cost of some basic training on some of my knowledge – which is a deal that is firmly in my favor, by the way – and now you’re completely happy to let me study your golems. The few people I’ve met who owned golems, all two of them before you, would have forbidden me to even look at their golems on the street if they could, let alone actually examine them!”
Xander shrugged in confusion. “I dunno. It just… none of it seems like a big deal to me. I fucked up your armor and I felt bad about it, since it obviously took a lot of work on your part to make. And I have the skills to help you fix it fairly easily. The runework is something I can do at any time, so it has less value to me than learning new things. The golems are part of that, since it’s my own rune work, and hell, I hardly even use [Automaton] anyways.” Xander rubbed the back of his head as he thought out his justifications. “Plus, I like you. You seem like a good person. I’d like to be friends with you, and I really like being helpful to my friends. I don’t charge friends for things.”
Valteria looked at him, with what seemed to be no small amount of awe in her eyes. “You just… like to help? You could be rich! Powerful! Instead, you’re doing mercenary work! Because… because you like your friends and you like helping?”
Xander softly put both of his hands on Valteria’s shoulders, as she was growing emotional. “Valteria. I don’t need money. I don’t eat. I can make just about anything I’d ever need with my skills and my own two hands. What does that leave? People. I don’t have a lot of people in my life, now. My family, my wife, all my previous friends, they’re all on Earth. They probably either think I’m dead or that I abandoned them and disappeared. All I’ve got is my team, Atrax, Frazay, Gabrelle, and Graffus. And you, Freyja,” he added with a small chuckle as the cat rumbled out her disapproval of being excluded. “And now you, Valteria, since I already feel like you’re a friend. Besides, uhh, I think I might actually be rich. Or rich enough. I invested a decent amount of money before the war kicked off and I’ve been told my money has done well. And I am powerful. Maybe not the institutional power you’re thinking of, the power over other people. But I don’t want that. I don’t want to be in charge of a bunch of other people, God, that sounds so tedious. I’m perfectly content having enough power to take care of myself, my friends, and anyone else I decide to and the power to control my own life how I see fit. Is that really so hard to believe? What’s got you so upset?”
Valteria looked almost like she was going to cry. “I – sorry.” She sniffled slightly. “I’m just… well, I’ve had several businesses fail in smaller towns because I was so different from everyone else. They weren’t… mean to me, but they weren’t nice either. I was just always on the outskirts. Even now I get less business than the other [Tinker]s in town because they’re humans or dwarves, and I’m… not. Most people don’t even know what a Pix is, let alone have ever seen one. I’m not used to people treating me like a friend, I suppose. I mean, that’s why I ran away from home and…” Valteria seemed to finally realize what she was saying and clamped her mouth shut.
Xander looked at the small woman in front of him sadly. Then he wrapped her in a hug. “I am so sorry,” he said. “It’s wrong of people to treat you like that. I know there’s not much I can do about it, but I think you still need to hear someone say it.”
Valteria faltered for a moment before returning the hug. “Thanks,” she said softly.
Xander released her from his hug and straightened back up. “I get where you’re coming from though,” he admitted. “I’m always scared that it’s going to come out that I’m not actually human anymore. God, when the announcer started yelling about how he did some research on me at the guild, I thought he was going to tell everyone what I was. I don’t want people to treat me differently, and I know they would, even if they don’t mean to or think about it.” He let out a small, bitter laugh. “Gabrelle’s parents, hell they couldn’t even look at me after they found out. It was like they were scared of me all of a sudden. Though… I looked less human at the time.”
“Less human?” Valteria asked, confused.
“Yeah, at the time, the construct that I was ‘piloting’ like I am this one, well it was a little simpler. Really just a metal stick figure. I didn’t even have a face. Just a blank ovular head. So that might have been part of it. I kept my armor on all the time back then so no one would see. I’ve put in a lot of work since then to look more human, because I’m scared that people will shun me otherwise. So I understand a little bit of what you’re experiencing. Nowhere near the same amount, but a little. It’s stressful. Anxiety inducing. And just depressing sometimes, too.”
Valteria nodded slightly at his words, thoughtful, but silent.
Xander cleared his throat. “But enough of all that. Let’s get to that tavern. We both need a drink, I think, and the only way I’m getting one is vicariously through you right now.”
“I think you’re right. I could definitely use a drink.”
Xander and Valteria both gathered themselves, followed by Freyja, who gave a grumbling groan at having to stand up.
Xander looked around the now empty shop and said, “Oh yeah. The sweeping. Do you have a request for what construct my [Automaton] skill should make?”
Valteria shook her head. “I think something simple and humanoid would be best. No need to complicate things.”
“Sure, I can do that.” Xander activated [Automaton], keeping the image of a humanoid figure made of clockwork in his mind. As the skill activated, the air next to him began to shimmer, starting from the floor. In the shimmering, cogs, plates of metal, brass rods, and various other pieces of metal took form, starting with the feet of the construct. More and more of it took form, until a fully formed figure made of an intricate array of brass gears, cogs, and pistons took form. Once it was complete, the clockwork figure stood stock still, save for the portions of it that were ticking and rotating as part of its functioning.
“Woah…” Valteria said absently as she circled the figure. “I wasn’t expecting something so… intricate.”
Xander stopped Valteria as she pulled out a notebook from one of the pockets of the leather work apron she was wearing. “Ah, ah, ah! You have time for notes later tonight and all of tomorrow. It’s tavern time now!”
Valteria huffed and stuffed the notebook back into the pocket. “Fiiine. I do still need some drinks… You have a way of creating an emotional scenario out of a conversation, Xander.”
“What can I say?” Xander answered with a shrug. “I’m in touch with my feelings.”
Handing his automaton a broom that he found leaned up against the wall in one of the corners of Valteria’s shop, Xander commanded the construct to sweep up the floor and then wait by the workstation they had been at previously. The skill created golem began to sweep up the floor with clicks and whirrs of its mechanical body. “Shall we?” Xander asked, looking back to Valteria, who was watching the golem go about its task with interest.
Stepping outside, Valteria closed the door behind Xander and Freyja and locked it.
“Lead the way,” Xander said. “I’ve got no idea where we’re going.”
“Right, I never mentioned where The Other Side is, did I?” Valteria said. “It’s over near the water on the far side of the bay.”
“That’s the nice part of town, right? Like, the really nice part? I haven’t really been there yet.”
Valteria nodded. “Mmhm. Charles has done well with his business and moved the tavern into a building he bought in that area, oh, about five years ago. He was closer, so I would visit more back then. It’s still not too long of a walk, though. Just about a half hour.”
“No worries on that end. Nothing like strolling the city in the evening time with a lovely lady and a giant cat,” Xander replied. “I’ve got nowhere I need to be.”
“Oh stop it, you,” Valteria shoved him slightly, just enough to disrupt his step as they began walking. “You’ll make me blush.”
“What color do you blush, anyway?” Xander asked, turning to look at Valteria.
“Uhm, a slightly lighter shade of purple. Why do you ask?” Valteria answered.
“Well, I’ve got to know when my flattery is and isn’t working!” Xander laughed out. He turned to look at her again and noticed a slight flush of lighter color around Valteria’s cheeks. “Awh, it looks cute on you!”
“Stop it!” Valteria whined, looking about, flustered. Fortunately for her, the street was empty, so there was no one other than Xander to see her embarrassment. “You’re embarrassing me!”
“Sorry, sorry,” Xander said, putting his hand up in surrender. “I can’t help but give a ribbing every now and then.”
The two of them walked in a companionable silence for the rest of the trip, Valteria leading the way, Xander and Freyja following her. Xander let his mind wander as he followed his newfound friend.
Xander wondered what Valteria was thinking, first of all. She didn’t seem upset with him with the hint of flirting he’d let slip out, so there was that. What was he thinking anyways? He’d just had a very emotional conversation with Valteria, and he’d known her for all of one night and a day. What was he doing letting himself call her a lovely lady and calling her blush cute? He sighed mentally. He was right back where he started with his line of thinking last night. Damnit. Did she appreciate his compliment? Did he want her to have appreciated the comment? Did he want to think of this outing as a date of some sorts or just a friendly outing? What did Valteria think of it? He knew he wanted to be wanted. Everyone does, right? That wasn’t the hangup. The hangup was whether he should allow himself to be wanted, or encourage it in any way. Whether or not it was coming from Valteria, he felt like it was disrespectful, in a way, to Helen to even entertain the idea of moving on. They’d had the conversation themselves before, mostly in jest, of ‘Oh, if I die, I want you to happy and move on after a while.’ But the reality felt harder. And neither of them had actually died. He hadn’t noticed, but he’d begun to frown as he was thinking, his mind being so comfortable with his constructed body that he subconsciously fed mana to the arrays that were causing him to frown. He didn’t even notice that Valteria had stopped and was looking at him until he almost bumped into her.
“What’s the matter?” She asked. “You were scowling something fierce just then.”
“Oh, uh, sorry,” Xander said, rubbing the back of his head again nervously. “I was just thinking. Brooding, really. Kind of let my thoughts get to me.”
“I understand how that is,” Valteria replied. “Do you want to talk about it? I find that always helps, having someone to let it out to. Jarrett has heard more than his fair share of my complaints about the world.”
“I, uh… ah fuck.” He’d never been a good liar, honesty had been his preferred policy. He steeled himself with a mental breath. “Fuck it. Is… this a date?”
Valteria’s eyes widened a little, and Xander noticed the color in her face lighten a little in that same shade of purple as before. “Do… you want it to be a date?” She asked carefully.
“Yes? No? God that sounds terrible. Uhm. I do. It’s just, I’m also not over everything. Being taken away, you know? So, like, I want it to be a date, but at the same time it feels wrong of me to want it to be a date at the same time. Does that make sense?” Xander anxiously ran a hand through his hair.
Valteria was still staring at him, and she started a little bit when she realized that he was waiting on her for an answer. “I – sorry. I was listening. I just… I’m just still getting over the fact that someone wants to go on a date with me.” She laughed nervously, and Xander joined in, anxiety overcoming him. Valteria recomposed herself with a deep breath. “Sorry. Sorry, I wasn’t laughing at you, I swear. I’m just nervous. But, ah, I think I do understand. It’s a… difficult situation. But uhm, if you’d like it to be a date… I think I’d like that, too. Oh, gods, I hate to admit it, but I’ve never been on a date before.”
“Really?” Xander asked, slowly recovering himself. It was easier when one didn’t have a heart that could try to escape from its ribcage and organs that would have dumped half their entire supply of adrenaline into his body in this situation. “I can hardly believe that.”
“You are a flatterer, aren’t you?” Valteria said. “But, no, it’s true. My family was… protective of me, and that meant ‘protecting’ me from potential suitors as well. And after I crossed the sea… well, I told you about the failed businesses. No one was exactly lining up to court ‘the weird little purple woman.’”
Xander’s jaw practically dropped. “They did not call you that!” He exclaimed in horror.
“Well, they didn’t know I was listening at the time, but yes, I have, in fact, been referred to as a weird little purple woman before. I think I cried a little bit after I heard it. I don’t know why it hurt so much, but it did. You… really find me attractive? We’re so different.”
“Of course I do!” Xander proclaimed to the empty side street they were on, throwing caution to the wind. He was in this now, and he wasn’t about to fuck it up on purpose. “I happen to quite like the shade of purple that you are, for starters. And you have this passion about you when you talk about something you’re interested in or when you see something new that you want to study. It lights up your eyes, your whole face. And who cares if we’re different? I’m a spirit experiencing the world through a construct who was taken from another plane of existence. You’re a ‘weird little purple woman,’” Xander air quoted the insult Valteria had relayed to him, “from a different continent who I happen to think it quite beautiful. We can be different and weird together if you’d like.”
Valteria, for her part, was blushing furiously. “You really mean it, don’t you?” She finally asked.
Xander nodded. “I really do. Freyja, back me up here. Valteria is an attractive woman, isn’t she?”
Freyja, who had been lazily licking her shoulder through the emotional conversation between the two beings in front of her rumbled out a small yowl.
“See? She thinks so, too.” Xander said with a smile.
Valteria seemed to be struggling with the compliments she’d just received. Which made sense, as Xander thought back to their previous conversation about her feeling like she was always on the outskirts of things. She likely hadn’t been receiving much in the way of compliments for... a long time. But his inclusion of Freyja finally drew a small laugh from her.
“Well... if Freyja says so, I guess it must be true,” she finally relented.
“Now, if the lady doth still desire,” Xander said with an air of mock formality, “I shall escort her to The Other Side.” He offered his arm to Valteria, who, after a slight hesitation, took it, and the two of them continued their walk to the tavern side by side, Freyja following behind.
Once they reached The Other Side, Xander and Valteria disengaged from each other, Xander opening the door for Valteria to enter, followed by Freyja. “Ladies first,” he told the cat.
Xander entered behind Valteria and Freyja just in time to hear, “Valteria! Why is there a giant cat in my tavern?!”