“Rick, I have to thay I really admire your patience. Mmph! Mmph! When the thaid our queth wath cantheled I wath—mmph!—cruthed. But you were the very picture of calm.”

“Fen and I spent the night together when we were drunk,” Rick said.

Pern choked, and Rick thumped her a couple times on the back. She spat cherries up on the gray, brick road.

***

“Master Adventurer,” said Fen. “Please follow me.”

The Kitsune Village seemed a space between worlds in the soft moonlight. The crystal lamps were dim, and stars shone on its statues and cobblestone paths. Fen’s auburn tail swished back and forth as Rick followed the lithe little fox.

“Forgive me for holding many secrets. The temple’s secret passage is something I might show to one in one hundred outsiders. This reward I might show to one in a hundred thousand. ”

She stopped, and Rick bumped into a bundle of fluff. Her tail had the same kind of softness as he imagined the clouds to have far above them, the wisps that drifted over the cave opening and gently smeared the celestial lights in the sky above.

“Most Adventurers have good working relationships. They trust one another on whatever task they’re assigned and no more than that,” Fen said. “You and your partner are special. You and S-Rank share not just a quest, but a mission, a drive to leave the world a better place than you found it. I see it in your words and your eyes.”

“I do what I want, when I want,” Rick replied, shifting. “No need to make that seem deeper than it is”

“The strong recognize strength in others, and I know tonight I am strong. Or drunk, perhaps,” said Fen. “I’d like you to have all of these.”

They arrived at the temple with the altar, the trees, the stream and the familiar species iconettes. Fen picked up one of the decorative rocks near the stream, and underneath this rock were more rocks. Precious ones.

“Skill stones,” Rick said, and Fen nodded.

“Stored in these stones are rare skills from old Adventurers. Ill portents have come to Andrestia, and if they must be possessed by anyone, I wish these to be in the hands of my friends.”

Rick relaxed on the altar steps, and listened to the water’s hushed tones. The open cave collected heat as if it were a cauldron, so his grime and soot rested heavy on him. But this dirt cloak was nothing compared to the haze around his heart, and when Fen joined him she saw through both of these things.

“‘What I speak of is rooted in pragmatism, not prophecy,” Fen said. “The Fox Matriarch has been sending mail to all corners of the continent deep into the night. Of all Andrestia’s leaders she is the best connected, and so if diplomacy’s confounding her that means we slide towards war. ”

Fen’s eyes, meanwhile, had been consumed by the moon. She gazed at Rick, and he looked away.

“The thing is, I don’t care about Andrestia at all,” the Adventurer said. “So if you want me to do good things with those stones…”

Fen tilted her head: her foxy, beseeching, almond-shaped eyes were hard to reject.

“Maybe I care about a little piece of it,” Rick admitted, alcohol allowing a few precious words to slip out. “A little town all the way up north. But if I told you more than that I’d have to kill you, because I know for a fact that town doesn’t love me back.”

Rick was nervous, because a peculiar look had crossed Fen’s face. It was the look of a Goddess who had just witnessed her people take their steps, make fire, and build towns and churches across the plains.

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She smiled. Her face flushed red; a breeze came and she swayed with it.

“Whether you protect a piece, a whole, or naught at all is of little concern to me. As long as you take care of yourself and S-Rank, I’m content. But come hither, Master Adventurer…”

Fen approached the basin by the altar steps—it was filled to the brim with clear, fresh water. She tightened a white robe around herself, and patted the stone vessel’s rim.

“Allow me to wash away your wounds and filth…”

***

“She showed me some gifts, and some other stuff too,” said Rick.

“Other stuff!?”

Fen may have been part fox, but she was just like a human woman except for her ears and her tail, which was attached at the base of her back. Those two sections had been cut out of the robe she was wearing, and Rick witnessed these gaps as she’d scrubbed and rinsed away the mud that covered him. It was a good study of foxgirl anatomy, Rick thought.

Afterwards, he’d immediately drifted off to sleep in the warm bath until the next morning. So, that meant he had spent the night with Fen….

“Gifts. Stuff. That’s pretty vague Rick. Hey, I don’t really get it, but I’m starting to feel pretty mad,” Pern said, furrowing her brow.

Rick took out the gifts.

“Trying to bribe me with candy… my stomach kinda hurts, so, I don’t think that’ll work.”

“These are A-Rank skill stones.”

“A—” she took one off her tongue and put it back into his hands. “A-Rank skill stones? Rick, that’s amazing! I’ve only seen one skill stone that was higher, and that was what I used for Thunder S.

Five glowing crystals lay on his palm. These were the Skill stones, glowing orbs that contained great power.

The first was a turquoise emerald—a Thunder A. The second was a sapphire blue, for Water Resistance A. The third was a vivid green that granted Green Thumb A, and the fourth and fifth were both a pitch black Null.

“Which do you want, Pern?”

“Nil?”

“Nothing?”

“No, what’s nil—what’s Null?”

“That stone’s already been used, but we can store our own skills inside it if we want,” Rick explained. “To give to someone else. When I retired, I handed over some of my offensive skills to the Guild by setting them inside Null stones.”

Pern pondered before she picked. Rick could practically see her blathering thoughts cross her face. They’d be something like this:

“Green Thumb A sounds like a cool ability. Some time after I become the indisputable, invincible, S-Rank Adventurer Number one I could retire and while away the rest of my life on a farm!”

But then a hint of vexation crossed her: King Slimes and slung mud, cauldrons and giant goblin-tongues.

“I’ll pick Water Resistance A,” Pern muttered. Rick picked out Green Thumb A and used it on the spot.

[Green Thumb A] learned.

Allows growth and control of plants as if they were another limb.

Summoner’s body must be still when used.

“You take the last one,” said Rick. “If you have Thunder S and Thunder A, you could cast more bolts at a time.”

“You take it.”

“Thunder doesn’t suit me.”

“I know you know how to channel it, from the cave. So take it!”

“Nah.”

“Take it, take it, take it! I won’t reason with you because you won’t explain why you won’t!”

THUNDER RESISTANCE S: [ACTIVE]

A flurry of sparks tickled Rick’s brain. A vague vision floated away from him, a tall figure of days gone by—and though he was convulsed with a light burning, this shock felt like home. His companion only attacked him like that because Pern knew he had the skills to counter it, and while she was stomping her feet and frowning, there was still affection in her eyes.

And this new happiness wouldn’t leave him, would it?

It wouldn’t go away?

Would it really?

Never?

No…