The light in Kestra's realm had shifted to lunar radiance from the day-time solar, but was still in a phase of the month that meant there was decent light by which to navigate. Kestra had set this side of her gate near to the master anchor. She could feel about where everyone was inside her realm, and she took a moment to focus on that so she could better figure out where to start everyone off toward.
Eilith and Ambrose were still off cultivating, and Yorgin and Vostler were up on the roof, involved in their own breath-sharing cultivation. Ralouf had finished tinkering with the farmers' and herders' cottages for the present and had begun on framing up a barn. At least, Kestra thought it was a barn. Su'ami was coming out of the forge, and Pierce and his new aide were in the apothecary next to Kestra's alchemy lab.
"Su'ami!" Kestra called out and waved the vulpine over.
The xyline woman's ears were held stiffly upright, but her tails twitched with her nerves as she approached.
Kestra turned to her new servants. "Su'ami is a xyline of the fox path, an Ascended with a Awakened bloodline, and a Journeyman rank smith. She is one of several welcomed to guest with me for so long as it pleases them to stay." The sense Kestra got from her retainers was maybe a touch fearful, but nothing that felt like a problem brewing, so Kestra added, "She's also been trading off with me when it comes to preparing meals, and probably has a better understanding of how the formations on the cook surfaces work. Su'ami, would you have time to show the cooks around the cook room? Master Mong Lol will be taking charge there when we finish purchasing the needful supplies, with the aid of his juniors Kesh Belar and Wun Cai."
Su'ami's smile was forced, her gaze wary, but she did smile and agreeably said, "Yes, it'll be a great relief to turn over the cooking to someone more competent than my poor efforts. This way, please."
Mong Lol cupped a hand over his other fist and bowed. "We would be honored, Esteemed Daughter of the Hulijing."
Kestra breathed in with just a little more gusto than usual. Before she decided to poke at that name, Graemire murmured through his vines, "It's a close enough title."
So she smiled and nodded encouragingly to Su'ami. The vulpine led the three cooks over to the cook room, located just behind the tower: close enough to run food back and forth into the tower, distant enough that if it caught on fire there should be time to prevent the fire from spreading to the tower.
It was a traditional arrangement, and honestly more important when the cook room and the mansion or tower it supplied were made from flammable wood. Ralouf had added an enclosed hall that joined the cook room to the tower proper when Kestra pointed out that if stone was burning, a few steps of distance weren't going to prevent problems. The hall, on the other hand, meant that no one got chilled during the evening fogs Mistspri spread out to water the plants.
Kestra wasn't sure where the Sage of Stone planned to set up the guard's training facilities, so she showed Nan Odelia the building set aside for Tailoring related works, on the tower-side of the entrepot, and left her to empty out the materials she had already purchased and sketch out the furnishings she would want added. Kestra expected things like racks on which to place the bolts of cloth and work tables for cutting the fabrics and piecing them together before it came time to sew them up. One of the spinster farmers, Lan Vula (not related to Joeb), stayed as well to help figure out where and how spinning and weaving work areas should be set up.
Kestra's new Farm Master Gyer Olea was another spinster, and her interested look promised that she would be back to spend time here, too, but she went on with the rest to inspect the fields where the farmers and herders would spend most of their time, and by which cottage houses had already been built for them.
Natspri showed up, his twig-like form arranged more vertically today than he had appeared when Kestra first met him. The vague shape of a humanoid might be implied, in certain poses, but for the most part Natspri looked like a bare, mobile bush, only a few leaves decorating places where his slender branches and twigs formed joints.
"Kestra! Farmers?" he asked.
Her new retainers, to a one on spotting Natspri, dropped to their knees and put their heads down to the ground. They seemed more reverent than fearful, though fear was in there, too.
"Some are, yes," she said, answering Natspri. "It will be another two, three bright cycles before they move here permanently, and now they are learning the shape of the land they will be living on and farming. I know you have questions; now is not the best of times for them."
"Oh-kay," he said, his disappointment clear in his voice and the way he broke the one word into two long syllables. He climbed up Graemire, which just so happened to mean climbing up Kestra, too. The Nature Sprite and the Elemental of Wood had quickly come to a fraternal relationship, with Natspri acting like a not-quite toddler to Graemire's adult. While the sprite was happy to run around doing his spritely business, he also liked being nestled up with Graemire, and was beginning to seek out the same closeness with Kestra even when Graemire wasn't present.
Kestra looked to her retainers and said, "Please, rise. This Nature Sprite has not yet chosen a name, though he permits us to call him Natspri. He is the Senior Sprite of this land, and he's been interested in learning about how and why Ascended farm. He has authority over the other sprites of the land, and the creatures of the woods, none of whom have yet learned Sapient Speech."
They turned their heads, or lifted them just enough to peek at Natspri, who had compressed himself a little to better settle over Kestra's shoulder.
"Up, up!" Kestra encouraged them. "We still have your cottages to look at!"
It took a bit of cheerful cajoling, with Graemire very softly explaining to Natspri that Kestra's new retainers were showing Natspri respect. He wasn't going to be the farmers or the herders Senior the way he was for the other sprites, but he would still be a Respected Senior. The retainers didn't have to do what Natspri said, but that didn't mean they could just ignore him, either.
The quiet conversation between the two helped Kestra keep a relaxed smile on her face. The fact that Natspri seemed to be acting more like a pet than whatever awesome being the retainers expected also got them to calm enough to get back to touring the place that would be their new home.
Until they met Ralouf and Stonspri.
The farmers had had a chance to check out the fields, and then they and the herders looked through the cottages. Ralouf hadn't gone terribly fancy with them, giving each a bowed front entrance, plenty of slatted windows, a walled off sleeping room in a rear corner. The main area of the cottage formed an L of open space, and he put in a fireplace facing the entry doors and along the long wall of the bedroom. The only structural variance was which corner the bedroom occupied, though each cottage had been decorated with subtle carvings. On one house, the carvings were of equines, and on another boars. Fish, birds, trees, wolves, snub-faced beasts that looked to be a blend of wolf and bear, and cats.
From there, they moved on to looking over the pastures Natspri had prepared for the herds. Some of the grasses the herders saw brought smiles to their faces, and some of the flowers and thistles concerned puckers. Kestra prompted them to explain.
Joeb said, "Cattle ain't always smart enough not to eat sweet smelling poison. If they survive, well enough; they get a bit of body tempering, but it can change the milk they give, or spoil their meat. Or the goats especially, they'll get a hankering for something that cuts up their lips, and then they get sick."
Natspri listened enough to learn which plants needed to be moved, and then jumped down and began doing just that. His happy chirpy imitation of Kestra's humming made her smile, and just confused her new retainers.
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They moved on to the barn. Ralouf and Stonspri had built up one wall and were working on another. The sprite of stone had more in common with a rolling mass of gravel than any actual form. The Sage of Stone was rumbling conversationally to the Stone Sprite as they approached. Kestra's new hires exchanged a few nervous glances, but the sight of stone slowly rising up to form walls didn't phase them.
Then Ralouf turned to look at them, his eyes brilliant against his dark form, even if the moon brightness of the night was enough to keep him from being merely glowing yellow eyes in the dark.
All of the retainers froze. One of her new junior guards managed to get a shaking hand to his sword. Kestra, her voice relaxed, called out, "Honored Divine Ralouf! How are you enjoying the crafting?"
He stretched, his eyes closing to narrow slits, and said, "I forgot how much I like teaching the young ones. Stonspri here's not that interested in artful sculpture yet, but the concepts of architecture are interesting the little one."
Turning so that he ignored her retainers, he added, "I don't expect you'll need to house the whole of your herds inside. If you want the interior sectioned off, I'll leave that to your new Herd Master to decide. My plan is to put inside more arch supports than actual walls, and a covered walk to a farrier's smithy beside the barn. The smithy forge will share a stone wall with the barn so there'll be warmth for any cattle needing it without risk of fire in the barn itself. The smaller smithy should also be of use so that any of your people wanting to turn out nails or other Novitiate work don't have to compete for space with Su'ami or myself at the tower forge."
She turned to ask for opinions from her retainers, only to discover they were all back on the ground, and this time their limbs held in tight and trembling. Kestra wondered in the shock of surprise if they earned some Stealth ranks just now.
Even her Senior Guards, or perhaps more appropriately, especially her Senior Guards, the highest leveled of her retainers, where hugging the ground with desperate determination to not draw the attention of the Divine presence before them.
Kestra sighed internally, and went up to Ralouf. She gave him a side hug, dropping her head onto his shoulder as they were close enough in height. "Thank you. I know you enjoy stone shaping and all, but I appreciate that you're turning your hand to helping out here."
Ralouf let out a full bellied laugh. "You really have no sense of decorum, Tra-La-La!"
The nickname had started with Vostler. A lot of names in this Realm where short syllables, the family or clan name first and a personal name second. If the sounds of the names had some special meanings, Kestra hadn't figured them out. With the way Kestra introduced herself, with a single name of two syllables, Vostler had joked she was really Kes Tra, and then he discovered the human joy in noise when his tongue had kept on, adding La-La to the end. The surprise on Vostler's face at the flubbing of his tongue had turned into some kind of minor epiphany for him, and he spent a few days singing afterward.
It was a fun short name, and Kestra didn't mind it, but she also didn't encourage it. Short names were more for the young, or those like the sprites that had yet to choose or be given their true names.
"Eh, public faces are for people I don't know or don't like." Softer, she added, "And I don't need to give you any greater sense of gravity for their sakes. It's my hope they'll calm enough to be unobtrusive at worst, if they can't get up to respectfully sassy."
In a louder voice, when Ralouf sighed after his laughter, he said, "Miss Kestra, for so long as your people are true to you, they need not fear me. You are too true a friend to this old Stone Wyrm."
"I'd visit with you a bit longer, oh venerable one," she fondly mocked him, "but it's probably time to return to the inn. We're going to need to add some furnishings to the shopping list, bed filling and blankets among them."
Ralouf nodded sagely, sobering from his mirth. "Come back after that. Yorgin wanted to talk with you about the problems with the mercury mine, and I may want to actually head in to see what beastie is so happy around vapor mercury."
Kestra nodded, gathered up her people, and led them back to the Pig in a Poke.
A part of her wondered if any of them would be scared off now.
Back in their own inn, with Odelia ensconced in the maid's side room, Kestra set out her stele again. Graemire slid off her shoulders, took humanoid shape, and settled in to guard it and Odelia. She leaned into the caress he stroked over her cheek, kissed him, and then pulled herself back into her private realm.
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Yorgin and Ralouf were both waiting for her in the cook room. Su'ami was there because she was enjoying some sweets the cooks had put together while testing out the cook room.
Because everyone's cultivation was different, and cultivation levels along with total Stamina affected when and how much people got hungry, Ralouf had added a rack of shelves with stasis formations to the cook room. That way, whoever felt like cooking would cook as much or as little as they liked. Surplus was plated and set on the stasis shelves. There, the meals stayed as hot or as cool as when they were set down.
There were a lot more plates on the shelves, and some jars and teapots, too.
Another teapot sat at the informal table, empty cups meant to fit into one's palm set nearby, with palm cups filled with gently steaming tea in front of the two Divine Creatures.
"Kestra!" Su'ami squeaked out in greeting, putting a hand over her mouth to keep from spraying out the glazed strawberry she was eating. "They're angels of eating! I love Master Mong!"
Yorgin slyly stole one of the glazed berries from Su'ami's plate, prompting the woman to hunch over the rest of her food and issue a hissing growl of warning, much to Yorgin's amusement.
Then he bit into the berry. His face contorted into a grimace of perplexed pain as his entire body just stopped for a moment. Tear welled up in his eyes, his mouth opened, the bit of strawberry in his mouth rolled out and dropped into his tea cup. His jaw began to work, his lips and tongue smacking together as he processed what just happened.
Ralouf, for his part, grinned, silently laughing, hunching into himself to hold in the noise.
After a moment, Yorgin hoarsely breathed out, "Sweet! So. Sweet!"
That set Ralouf off, slapping his thigh and howling with laughter so hard he fell off his chair and rolled on his back. Kestra passed over a fresh cup of tea, taking a cup for herself. Then she went over to the shelves and selected a small plate with a sampling of the sweets arranged.
She carefully stepped around the guffawing Sage Wyrm of Stone and settled in to her own accustomed seat.
Yorgin, moving with the slowness of a geriatric sloth, picked up the cup, dipping his chin in gratitude Kestra's way, and lifted it to his still smacking lips. A few swirls of the tea, accompanied by some truly indescribable expressions of nauseated horror, preceded the Divine Serpent spitting out the tea into the cup with the strawberry chunk.
Su'ami, seeing her food was no longer in danger, reached over and plucked back the rest of the maligned glazed strawberry and finished it off, much to Yorgin's shuddering horror.
While the two Divines tried to compose themselves again, Su'ami launched into a gushing praise of Mong Lol's cooking, and how polite and respectful Belar and Cai had been.
Kestra listened attentively, happy to see more of the vulpine's spirit restored with this first successful interaction with humans -- other than Kestra -- since coming to Kestra's private realm.
When she started repeating herself for the third time, Yorgin cleared his throat. Ralouf still had a wickedly amused grin plastered over his face, but he had, with much flailing about due to his laughing so hard, managed to right himself. After that, he had only been set off on fresh chortling giggles or outright guffaws through the first half of the second repetition of the new cook staff's virtues.
"They're village born, I'd guess," Ralouf said. "And the Moral Realms birth more of the sapient spirit Creatures than the others, if you leave off the Elementals."
Su'ami asked, "Is that what a hulijing is? A spirit creature?"
"Hulijing?" Ralouf mused to himself, his gaze growing distant with the effort of recall. "Hujing are supposed to be tricksters that favor fox forms. Might be related, but there are enough creatures that I doubt anyone knows them all."
"I'll ask Graemire. He said it was close enough," Kestra said.
Ralouf's mood soured. "About you and him," he started to segue.
"What about us?" Kestra asked, her brows popping up at the disapproving tone.
"Are you in love with him?" Ralouf asked with the kind of painful neutrality that screams "I think you're being a fool" louder than the words themselves.
Yorgin leaned back, physically distancing himself from the conversation, and Su'ami slowed down on savoring the sweets in front of her to watch the new drama.
Kestra reclined into her seat back and considered, both why Ralouf was asking and the question itself. She quickly decided that while she didn't know enough to guess at the stout wyrm's motives. He had a [Healer's] need to fuss over the health and well being of those around him. Further, he had taken to acting paternally with both Kestra and Su'ami over the course of their acquaintance. Whatever his reasons, they weren't likely to be fueled by jealousy, at least in Kestra's impression.
As for whether she loved Graemire, that was more complicated. The sex wasn't just good; it was great. With his loss in cultivation and the power leveling he and the other Divines Creatures had treated her to, they weren't utterly imbalanced in strength. He was old enough to shame an elf, which would have bothered her a lot more if his conception of the world wasn't alien enough to her own that the expanse of the ages between them was a drop in the bucket of their different perspectives.
She enjoyed his company, and she admired the principles he lived by. Their mana was harmonious which meant that it very physically felt good to be around him, and not just in the aroused kind of good, but in the good friends, good food, good weather kind of good.
"'In love' would be a no," she decided after some moments of reflection. "Love him? Yes, but not, I think, as the kind of romance you seem to be asking about. He's my very good friend, with whom I happen to have really good sex. I doubt the sex bothers you, though. What's up?"
Ralouf frowned. "I'm concerned with how he's treating you, with your cultivation."