"Haha! Relax, I was just teasing you! I have no intention of playing matchmaker."

Stillwater says "Whew! That's a relief! If you got involved I couldn't really argue against you!"

"Why would that be? I'm not even an elf!"

Stillwater says "No, you're not. You are just the hero that has saved us all! My people will listen to pretty much anything you say!"

"Do you think Silverstream would do as I say?"

Stillwater says "I don't know and I don't want to find out! So, don't even think about it!"

At that I just start laughing and walk away, leaving a fuming Stillwater to take the helm. Although I don't want to play matchmaker, it would be really fun to stir things up. Then I could just sit back and watch the chaos and drama that follows.

It would be good payback for Silverstream, since she tried to play matchmaker with me and Brightfire. However, it being entertaining is not a good enough reason for me to get involved. Although, if at some point the elves' morale gets really low, this would be a good distraction.

Right now though, the morale on the ship is higher than I have ever seen it. Unless something catastrophic happens, I don't see there being any morale problems in the near future. If anything, morale will just keep getting better as we raid more cities.

Well, as long as we keep winning on our raids morale will keep improving. If a raid fails, or worse has heavy casualties, then that might cause the morale to crash. However, all I need to do is be careful in my scouting and planning to prevent that.

Now that the elven warriors have levels, as long as we avoid any traps they should be fine. The humans can also gain levels, but I would think only their elites would be a match for the elves. Not because the elves are high level, they aren't, but because of the gear the elves have.

Thinking of gear, I grab a sailor and leave a message for Silverstream to come see me. Once she is awake and moving someone will pass the message to her. In the meantime I head back to my cabin to spend some time with Nala and Albion.

After cuddling with them for a while, I start teaching them how to work on their cores. This involves teaching them how to meditate, which is hard when they won't sit still. Just after I decide to try again after feeding them, Silverstream and Silverleaf arrive.

Silverleaf says "Nice to see you again, Ash. Hope you don't mind me tagging along."

"No, not at all."

Silverstream says "What did you want to see me about, Ash?"

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

"I wanted to ask if during the looting we managed to get some high quality cloth?"

Silverstream says "Well, we did, but I doubt it will work."

"Why is that?"

Silverstream says "Because it is very brightly colored."

"Do we have black dye? Or even black ink?"

Silverstream says "We have some, but not a great quantity."

"Hm, that won't work then. Do we have anything in quantity that is black? Or even just dark?"

Silverstream says "No, not that I can think of."

Silverleaf says "What about charcoal? The crafters have tons of that."

Silverstream says "That can't be turned into dye though, can it?"

"Even if it can, I don't know how to make dye. But bring me the cloth and some charcoal, I will see if I can figure something out."

Silverstream says "Alright, I will be right back."

As soon as Silverstream leaves I turn to look at Silverleaf who hasn't moved. The entire time I was talking with her sister, she just sat there petting Nala and Albion. Other than a few comments it didn't even look like she was paying attention.

"Is there something you wanted to ask me?"

Silverleaf says "No. I just wanted to thank you for saving my sister and leading her to save me. This is the kind of debt we can never repay, but if you need anything at all, just say it."

"There is no debt. You don't need to speak like that. I just have a hatred for slavery and those who keep slaves. If I had found the elves keeping slaves I would have wiped them out."

Silverleaf says "Even if those are your reasons it doesn't remove the debt the elves owe you. Besides, that doesn't explain why you built this ship and are taking us all somewhere safe."

Realizing she hasn't heard the full story I start telling her about Core and the origin of elves. Since she was only rescued yesterday, there is still a lot she doesn't know about. So while we are waiting for her sister I tell her about my origin as well.

When Silverstream returns she has a huge pile of bright pink silk and a bucket of charcoal. The color of the silk is intense, it must have been extremely expensive just to dye it. When Silverstream hands it to me I find it also very high quality, the kind of thing I would expect royalty to wear.

Silverstream says "What do you think? Will this silk work?"

"It's high enough quality. The problem will be hiding the color. But is it okay for me to use this? Will the elven women come after me for ruining something so pretty?"

Silverstream says "Saving our people is far more important than a few pretty dresses!"

Silverleaf says "Sister, can you really still not tell when you are being teased?"

Silverstream looks at her sister and then turns to give me a dirty look, but I just laugh. Then I take the silk and spread it out on the floor, it looks like enough to make twenty cloaks or so. Next I take the charcoal and crush it into powder before spreading it around on the silk.

Despite what they said, both girls have a pained expression when they watch me ruin the silk. Once that is done I use my mana to cover the silk and start trying to merge the charcoal into it. I am pretty sure this is something I shouldn't be able to do, but magic is great for breaking rules.

Charcoal is pretty much pure carbon and making it bond with the silk fibers would be easy. However, that would probably make the fabric too stiff, instead I am trying to merge them. Not only should that darken the color, but it should also keep its flexibility.

At least that is what I am hoping to achieve, and since magic acts by intent it should work. Even if my memory of how carbon acts, the magic can still make it work. Having magic is the biggest cheat of all, and I couldn't be happier to have it back.