It’s about two weeks ago the evening after the flood of Aleppo.
Aeschyli is afraid of the original magic that Slo possesses. After confirming the facts through Chel, she decides to attempt subterfuge in low energy mode with the “I saved you” excuse that Chel had given her. She didn’t even consider that a possibility, so Chel’s misunderstanding smoothed the way for Aeschyli and Slo to have an easier talk when she woke up.
Aeschyli had taken her to an inn. The higher levels of the building were livable for now. Chel was out. Even if things went sour, there was ‘Carpe Scaenam’, she kept reminding herself.
Aeschyli stood there with a small baked bread on a plate with a glass of water and a Glande summon on the side. She would not hesitate to share. She had planned this to be her opening move against Slo. She’d wait for her to wake up, and act like she was just waking in bearing food. It was flawless.
“Hmm… Chel is that you?”
Slo was barely awake. It was night.
“Don’t be startled, there was a flood. I saved you. Arge and Cosimo are fine. Chel told me to bring you and Arge back here to watch over you.” Aeschyli was unsure if she was able to comprehend her in her state. Cosimo was in another room sprawled on a bed senseless.
“Chel, can I have some water?”
Aeschyli was confirming her doubts and gave Slo the food. She summoned a Glande for herself as well.
Slo didn’t react to the light show of stage magic.
“Thanks Chel, I’ll go back to sleep.”
Aeschyli couldn’t let go of this chance. If she was to secure a buffer and her pilosa to vastly improve her living conditions on the run, it would be this time to go all in. She mostly made this decision based on ‘Slo is weak right now’.
“Don’t you want to take a bath?”
Slo blinked as energy seemed to gather within her and her eyes fully opened.
“Ah, it’s the red girl! Did you knock me out and plan to use me for ransom!”
“Listen,” she gestured as Slo jumped back. “There was a flood, I saved Arge, you, and Cosimo after I defeated you all. I won’t do anything to the pilosa that it doesn’t want done to it. I’ll return it to Cosimo.” Aeschyli was making a convincing act. Her information from Chel was good.
“Ahh, well Arge is over there looking completely fine. Where’s the pilosa?”
“It's in sloth form right now. My smell led me to it.”
“What, do you have some smell detection magic?”
“Just good sense.”
Slo sighed. “Hah, that’s unbelievable. You just smelled out the pilosa and found and sloth and took it with you? Aren’t they huge?”
“This one’s small,” she gestured to the lump of fur in the corner.
“Ah!”
Slo ran towards Timothy and hugged him to her.
“It’s great~ I’ve never seen one!”
She began to fawn over the sloth and tell Aeschyli about her.
Aeschyli was waiting for the perfect time.
“Do you want to go to the bath? We should probably clean him off. I could use one too.”
“Ah, I guess we could. So there was a flood you say?”
=====
“Ahh~ I feel alive relaxing in a bath after sleeping. The warm water reminds me of a Aptery, with their huge ball of warm fur, upright on two legs and that long pointed beak. Arge wouldn’t let me buy one. He said there was no where to keep it at all, I had to sneak out and jump into the stables when I saw one while we were hunting monster hunters. Arge almost killed the farmer in the morning who found me and chased me out with a pitchfork. I was trying to ride it away after all. It’s a good thing Arge has that skill that lets him protect someone from one hit if they are an ally though. Oh, it wasn’t good to tell you that so easily. Ah, Arge will scold me again. ‘You’re the only one who can’t keep their mouth shut here, if rumors get out on the street someday that might be the reason we end up dying!’ I don’t believe it’s a big deal though. Everyone can keep their secrets quite easily with the identification crystals.” Slo was leaning back against a layer of stones of varying sizes setup for atmosphere in the abandoned bathhouse.
She was quite chatty like Chel, so Aeschyli was pleased. She maintained a five meter distance as security protocol though. Slo started up again.
“You know, I’m really sorry about going all out there back in the sewer, I lose it when animals are involved. They don’t backstab you like people do. Like Arge does. He tolerates it for some reason, probably because I’m a really good mage. He’s got issues though. Oh, is that a one point identification crystal, I’ve never seen one! Why are you so far away?”
Slo was holding the sloth and petting it in the bath.
Aeschyli hadn’t removed her bangle either, but even she had to take off her gloves in the bath she thought. It would just be rude to the crafter in Grunnkirk who custom made them for her. On her left hand a silvery red metal chain was crisscrossing the back of her hand and tied at the identification crystal in the center of her palm. It continued in a loop around her wrist for decorative reasons. Slo made a small comment of ‘That chain’s so pretty~’ under her breath.
“Ah, I’m sorry. It’s hard to get near people. Feel vulnerable. Battle thing.”
“No, no, no need to apologize. After all you just stole a pilosa. People die for a lot less here you know? It’s great that you saved me and Arge and Cosimo too I guess, although I just met him. Is there anything I can do to repay you? Actually, why didn’t you just leave us with Chel?”
An opening. Aeschyli was glad that Slo had her guard down completely. Her plan was a success. She showed off her left palm to Slo.
“I was intrigued by your magic and questioned Chel as I was worried. As you said earlier I’m a one point. I was worried when she said you made it yourself. In my travels, I hear of people doing that who end up exploding or worse.”
“Ah, don’t worry about that. Hey, weren’t you even using much more amazing spells anyways? Some kind of mental magic that was strong enough to get a beast under control in one hit, I could tame beasts with that! Maybe I’ll try to make it…I wish we could have just tried to talk it out, you’re really nice. I feel really bad remembering that Arge was about to stab you to death in your sleep.”
“Well, I was a thief. I fully intend to stay near the pilosa though. Since it is interesting. I want to be it’s friend.”
Aeschyli was surprised when the word friend came out of her mouth. She didn’t expect the calming effect of the bath to affect her too! Wait, isn’t Slo calming her as well! It’s dangerous. As Aeschyli began to ramp up into danger mode with light pooling into her eyes. Unleash bangle?
“Hey, hey, that was unexpected too. When you told me about how this one her could turn into a dragon I couldn’t believe it. Lots of things happen when I’m sleeping though, but never this much!”
Slo’s calming voice and sheer mass of speech broke through Aeschyli’s oncoming guard. Parry Arts isn’t effective if she isn’t wielding a weapon. Due to that and the buildup of stress over the day she couldn’t take any more. However, she had to press on. Original magic was at hand here. Even if it’s this girl? Aeschyli denied that in her mind. Original magic is bad.
“I’m sorry but I’d like to clear up the matter concerning your magic. After all, I’ve made friends with Chel,” which Aeschyli thought that unfortunately it wasn’t a lie this time, “and still have to apologize to Arge.”
“Are you serious? Why bother apologizing to him! Knowing him, he probably did something bad anyways. Anyways, my magic isn’t a big deal. I just think about feelings that I have when I’m around animals, and just put energy into it. For some reason, I was able to master spells like that. I’m sure all sorts of people have figured it out. Oh! Don’t tell Arge I told you, he’ll get mad.”
“Thats..”
Aeschyli would usually not speak until her mind had worked over the intention of the statement thoroughly. This didn’t seem like original magic at all. At least the kind she was familar with. She scowled, breaking her act.
“That’s a lie.”
“Huh? No, it’s not. You saw me cast it earlier right? I suppose someone could combine spells or use ‘Arts’ to create the effect, but I’m just telling the truth here,” Slo looked over after opening her eyes sensing some sort of change in the flow of energy and saw Aeschyli’s scowling face.
“Hey, are you okay? I’m not belittling you. I’ve just been doing this for a long time, no one’s ever asked about it before.”
Aeschyli was surprised she let that go. Usually, if she broke the act-
Wait, she hadn’t broken her act in a long time anyways. It was back then though. Before she had the act, it was painful.
“I didn’t mean anything by it. I’ve seen people die because of this. I was angry that you might kill yourself over a misunderstanding. It seems I was wrong. I apologize.”
“You apologize a lot. You must a be a knight lady or something. Strong and pretty, she wanders the land protecting her honor and fighting for what’s right! Oh wait, you stole the pilosa, so aren’t you a thief? That makes you like Arge. Like an Arge that was actually enjoyable to be around. Is that Arge anymore?”
Aeschyli was still bothered by it. Along with that, the magic reaction, and having to take off her bangle today it was a mess. One last try, if this didn’t work she’d give up and let it slide for now, it was getting dangerous. ‘Carpe Scaenam’ was too risky now, Slo would realize she blacked out.
“How about we show each other our magic? I want to see some more of yours too, it was really pretty. I want to make sure it’s not the magic I was worried about. I’ll be able to tell if I see a few more spells.”
“Ehh~ I’m tired. I’ll do it for you though, after all for some reason I’m feeling like it makes you really uncomfortable. You don’t have to show me yours, I saw one earlier. Hey, I just blacked out back then. Was that a spell of yours? Now that I think about it…”
Aeschyli figured at least one open couldn’t hurt. Arge and Cosimo already saw it anyways.
“I’ll show you. Make sure to stand back a bit, I’ll aim for the wall over there.”
The bathhouse was ruined from the flood but it didn’t bother either of them that they were destroying it further.
Light pooled into her eyes and a smile graced her lips as she called out, “Dazzling the stage! Flutter! Gobo Contract, 1st Open, Dancing Lily!”
A bunch of shadow marks in the shape of lilies bombarded the ground until it was black.
“Ooh! What does that do?”
“Makes people think they are burnt. The injury isn’t real though. It also can confuse people. That’s what happened to you. Confused people just do whatever seems like a good idea at the time. You went to sleep.”
“Ah~ That’s definitely me. Definitely. Ok, my turn.”
Slo’s full armament of spells was ‘~Brenna’, ‘Haagen Jofurr’, ‘Hoarfrost Bubbler’, ‘Dyrr Dovendyr’, ‘En Don’, and ‘Animal Detection’.
She figured she should blow a hole in the roof to get look at the stars. She figured it would be nice.
She activated ‘~Brenna’, which could modify her next spell to change it’s size, output, and area of effect. Slo didn’t know it was abnormal to be able to do that.
She cast out loud, saying ‘Haggen Jofurr’ in a small voice.
A bunch of red yellow lights like fireflies appeared surrounding her and then shot off into the ceiling burrowing in like bullets. Each one cast an explosion of air from their center at once, shattering the entire ceiling and sending it upwards without a single shard of alabaster falling down. It looked like it was slowing in midair as it shot upwards. The lights framed the alablaster in the sky like stars.
“A-amazing,” Aeschyli was caught up in the moment. Someone else was seizing the stage.
‘I know right?’ was what the smug look on Slo’s face was saying.
The lights then shot toward each shard of alabaster floating in the sky and exploded it into dust. The night sky was shining through to the bath.
“What was that, it seemed like you could control the lights for a second there after they went into the ceiling,” Aeschyli was stunned in several different ways at once.
“Yeah, of course. Doesn’t everyone control their magic? Can’t anyone do that?”
“You-”, Aeschyli was about to cry. She didn’t expect it at all, but she was breaking down.
“Hey, are you okay?”
Aeschyli was losing it. The bangle wasn’t working, her anger was peaking as light filled her eyes and they turned gimlet. Her mind went into overdrive as the bangle snapped off.
If it was like this, then at home-
What would Grunkirk look like today? What horrifying original magic could they have built? This was a monstrosity beyond what she knew at home. If her dad got a hold of whatever Slo’s secret was-
Wait, it could be ‘Arts’. Couldn’t it be magic based ‘Arts’? She had never heard of that but the world was wide. Moreover, she felt that she couldn’t kill Slo at this point. There was something wrong in her mind about killing her, but she couldn’t find the answer. In her rage, she tried to think of a story this was like and calm herself but it was no good. Did she ‘trust’ Slo now? It was only one evening. From earlier today, she thought about Chel. No danger. She thought about Cosimo. No danger. She thought about Timothy. No danger, probably. He helped many people. There was the chance his good deeds could lead to him hunting her down.
She thought about Slo, who was looking concerned.
This was why she knew avoiding contact and just being polite, correct, and entertaining was always the correct move.
No one can touch you then
She had failed her decision earlier when she decided to just snap on the bangle and give in.
She was not okay with trusting people. She needed to control this situation. Slo was not a target for elimination. Slo was the opposite of her. Her insight told her that much. Rather that wanting to keep everyone away, she was knowingly involved with a monster who would protect her one second and would ignore her the next. Chel talked a lot about him earlier. Aeschyli needed to confirm that he was safe, and the result was obvious.
The question in her mind turned to leaving or not. At this point, she had to make the decision again.
There was a bigger problem that she managed to finally see in her mind at overclock.
Slo’s power needed to be confirmed right away. If it was ‘Arts’ then Aeschyli just could pass this off as the end of a bad day and ask for Slo to forgive her.
She didn’t want her to see her cry, and that caused a huge mental load that was already on Aeschyli to get heavier.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
If Slo’s power was original magic, then there was a great chance that due to the war that was one hundred percent coming according to her knowledge of politics and geography-
She could not leave her alone.
If she could not kill her, then there was a small but viable chance that the Dunkirk army could collect Slo in the incoming war. They already had control of the city, and since Slo had loose lips-
The percentage of Slo being discovered as having a completely new form of original magic was probably around zero point zero zero five percent. In Aeschyli’s mind, that figure was as high as twenty percent due to knowing how her father worked. Were she in a normal state, that would be the percentage.
As of now it was one hundred percent.
“Slo. Listen to me carefully,” she activated stage magic and silently summoned Rosa Lingua as the wind blew her unbangled hair under the stars.
“Tell me your entire Status this instant. I will take you out of this city by force if necessary. I cannot detect lies but-”
“Aeschyli, what’s going on? You’re scaring me,” Slo was holding ‘Form of Sloth’ Timothy close to her body and he wouldn’t be awake for two weeks.
Aeschyli’s brain was overlocking again to figure out how to put this in a proper way to get her to understand. This could get difficult later if she messed up here. In the end, she gave in again.
No lie would do here.
“I cannot see your status. That is the common law of this world. No one can know the extent of someone’s abilities or their full list without them openly sharing it or using it. Pay attention closely. I will not hurt you. This is why I am doing this. I am Aeschyli Grun, daughter of Grunnir of Grunkirk. He is not a madman. However, he uses original magic to the ends of his country. I grew up seeing the horrors that brought. I need to confirm one hundred percent that you are not using a extremely rare ‘Arts’ user. The other alternative is that you have inadvertently discovered a new form of original magic that could easily be discovered in the oncoming war.”
“There’s going to be another war? You just said they had one!”
“It’s very complex. Dun has already claimed this town and it will be filled with spies in a few weeks. In order for you to stay in this city and stop me from abducting you to prevent my father from gaining yet another tool. You must prove to me without a doubt that you are not using original magic. In order for me to believe you, I want you to use every single ability you have on me. In order for me to believe you, I need to believe that you are truly pressed into a corner. We will fight, and I will press you into a corner yet not hurt you too much. Do you understand?”
Slo did not have the insane processing speed that Aeschyli had. Even then she was tormented by how many words and concepts she was throwing at her in the first place. In the first place, what’s original magic? She had original magic? Aeschyli didn’t believe her? She wanted to determine if she had ‘Arts’ or not? She was going to fight her to a point just so she could believe that Slo wasn’t faking? Abduct her?
Slo didn’t know what was going on.
Slo was in danger.
Slo knew how to deal with danger.
“I-I’m very sorry! I’b sowwry!” Slo was crying vigorously and shaking as she was scared out of her mind. She was just having fun with Aeschyli just a moment ago. She hugged Timothy tightly.
“Do you understand?”
“A- abul - uwwaah!”
Slo lost it and ducked under the water.
Arge usually handled this stuff. She got into trouble, he rescued her. Doru would inevitably take the worst hits and Chel would restore Arge from the brink of death like always. If she needed to cast magic everything that needed to die would die. If she could help not killing, especially animals, she would just wound them with ‘Dyrr Dovendyr’.
Aeschyli’s extremely logical part of her mind was on full show right now. The Aeschyli who would be able to understand this in a story form was just gone.
Slo is not attacking.
Slo must attack.
I must attack Slo.
Slo does not understand.
Slo is emotionally distraught
Slo will not reveal her status.
Slo does not comprehend.
If I attack Slo, then will Slo be able to respond properly?
In the end, the answer was no. Her personality was not like that.
Slo is trustworthy in her stupidity.
Slo is trustworthy in her glibness.
Slo is trustworthy in her magic, she showed it off without a care in the world.
Especially when most would conceal it at any cost.
“I’m taking you out of the city. Get up.”
A miracle occurred.
Slo deep within her heart felt betrayed. She had always sought people who she could trust no matter what, animals she could trust no matter what, so that unlike with her mother in Marscione-
“No! Just who are you huh? That’s it! I’m beating you up okay! You can go stuff your crazy words up your ass! This is my home!”
This was the first time Slo swore in her life.
At this point, Aeschyli said the exact wrong thing.
“Come to Marscione with me, I’ll make you a home there.”
Away from Arge? Away from Chel and Doru?
She’d kill her. Slo would definitely kill her. What was waiting in Marscione was scarier than anything else. Who was going to Marscione? Just who?
Slo threw Timothy away with her full force as tears streamed down her face and she yelled:
“‘~Brenna’ Singularity Bombardment - Excelsus Maximus - ‘En Don’”
Countless spikes shot up out of the water at a diagonal angle. They were coming from all over the bath. Some even shot in straight from the walls. Each one was gleaming in the moonlight.
Aeschyli immediately silently cast ‘Act 3 Curtain Calling~!’. It was too late to use ‘Carpe Scaenam’, she was already overburdened with her ‘Parry Arts’ activating and cutting each of the incoming spikes. They were taking all of her energy and focus even with her advanced status. Every single one was heading for a kill shot, and she couldn’t just knock them away either. If she only went up to Act 2, or didn’t activate Act 3 in time she would have died instantly.
Each one of them needed to be cut off before they hit her.
The only way to do that was one hundred percent offense gained from Act 3.
She couldn’t move at all, and time slowed down as the alabaster spikes kept pouring in from the ground like rain.
From the spikes that were cut, another spike came.
From the spikes that fell, they were absorbed into the earth and became another spike.
Aeschily couldn’t even breathe at all.
When she fought off the dragon, it had no attack like this.
It was too much.
‘Parry Arts’ failed for the first time. A hundred percent chance turned to a zero.
“Gwah!”
She was pierced hundreds of times and the piercing kept happening.
Rosa Lingua got knocked away. At first, even though she was getting pierced from every side in her body there was no blood at all. A testament to her fulfilled potential, her level of sixty nine.
It didn’t matter though. At a certain point the mass of ‘En Don’ spikes with an ever higher ‘~Brenna’ was just crushing her.
Slo’s only chance of winning this fight was this exact combination. The only reason she used this spell was because Aeschyli mentioned Marscione. This spell was a remnant of Slo’s only happy memories there.
Slo had no idea about Aeschyli strength at all. She was just mad.
As Slo was watching blood flow out of Aeschyli’s mouth and the horrific scene in front of her she cut the spell off by reflex.
Aeschyli was trapped in a circle of countless spikes pressing into her body. A few were actually piercing her. The damage from the crushing was worse though.
Her mind went white. This wasn’t the first time something like this happened to her, but it was more painful than usual. She couldn’t breathe, but that wasn’t enough to kill her.
She started choking and thrashing violently and Slo screamed.
Slo ran in a panic to escape, when Chel showed up in a towel.
“I saw you blow off the roof of the bathhouse and it sounded like it would really ni- oh my.”
Chel saw the most beautiful sight in her life. Slo was blubbering and crying and pulling on Chel’s towel.
“Geez, what are you doing playing around like this without me around. You know this is my favorite thing. I’ll forgive you though. She looks amazing.”
Chel enjoyed her job very much.
She enjoyed the smile on people’s faced when they were healed, and thanked her.
She enjoyed the wounds and the feeling of vulnerability she saw in people. It made her feel alive, you could say. She fell in love with the sight of Aeschyli. This was going to be the best healing of her life.
Chel ran forward excitedly taking it in before rapidly casting ‘Excelsus Maximus Medico’, her strongest healing spell.
Slo when traveling with Chel had taken the name ‘Excelsus Maximus’ and used it to specify a certain setting of her ‘~Brenna’ , which would combine all available energy of Slo’s body to the point to right befor she would lose the ability to travel normally. She didn’t want Arge dragging her tied up with wire like always after all. Her identification crystal however was crimson.
In her sudden rage, she had hit magical overload and was now running around blubbering on the last traces of her energy before she face planted into the ground.
Chel took a brief second away from ministering to Aeschyli to notice Slo was out.
“My, looks like a double. I can’t wait to take a bath after this one.”
======
Aeschyli’s bangle was in her eyesight as she awoke. Slo was sitting on a bed next to her looking over her as the sunlight streamed in from the window. Aeschyli had all sorts of casts and bandages on her.
Aeschyli couldn’t move. She tried to speak gathering her thoughts over and over as even her overclock wasn’t functioning.
I lost. When was the last time she lost? The last time she could lose? She just wanted to save Slo and stop her father’s whims.
Was that the case? Or did she just want to run away? She tried to process that but failed. Slo needed protection. End of line, she thought and sighed.
She felt strangely good though, like she just took a bath.
Slo noticed she woke up. She was watching over her and waiting for this. Chel had misunderstood completely and Slo was in no state to correct her. Aeschyli had just went insane and looked like she was going to stab her. Slo’s head hurt a whole lot from thinking it over. Don’t call her dumb, in the first place Aeschyli is the one with the ridiculous intelligence status.
However, in the end Slo felt she went overboard. That Aeschyli had survived was amazing. In fact, she was wondering all night why Aeschyli suddenly turned into a blur right before her eyes cutting down every single ground spike with unbelievable speed.
She had heard later that night of a great hero, named Aeschyli Grun, who had defended the city with a stick.
Slo had fought a hero and won.
With one attack.
Slo thought she was amazing now.
She had been alternating with being torn about going overboard on Aeschyli and thinking she was the most amazing person in the city. Arge asked her that morning, “What’s that smug smile about, and why does Chel look so happy.” She wasn’t going to tell him the truth about what happened either. Normal people would probably want to get as far away from someone who just snapped and said they were going to take them away after one evening together.
Slo however, was guilty and proud of her power at the same time and in a rare mood.
She was holding Timothy in her arms and addressed Aeschyli.
“Hey, how ya doing?”
“Ugh…”
“Uh, I’m sorry about last night.”
“What?”
Aeschyli was as lost as Slo. Shouldn’t she be the one apologizing?
“Chel was there because she saw my explosion, you were really scary while you were dying from my amazing spell. She saved you and me, I went into overload and passed out too.”
“O-original magic?”
Aeschyli was trying to form some semblance of an understanding.
Slo just decided there was something a little off about Aeschyli, and she could accept that. After all, didn’t Arge accept her?
“It’s original magic I developed myself!”
She said it proudly. She actually had no idea what original magic was.
“Heh… I knew you were hiding something… let’s go to Marscione… escape from father…”
“I’ll never go to Marscione again,” Slo began to talk about it, “Last night when you told me you were taking me there, I couldn’t take it. I can’t go back.”
“Okay… I’ll protect you.”
“From you father?”
Slo was doing her best to follow along with her setting. She would become great friends with Aeschyli. Aeschyli needed someone after all.
“...yeah.”
Aeschyli in her hazed mind began to understand something very simple. It was because of her state that she was able to process it in this way. Slo was, one adventurer, in a city of people, which was just flooded and was going to be the setting for another war. There was a zero point zero zero five percent chance of her dad finding Slo.
However, her abnormal focus on Slo had completely robbed her of the fact that her actions at the wall and openly declaring herself made her a perfect target.
That Slo just happened to be with her now and that that could up the chances considerably slipped her mind until Arge told her to cover up later.
However, that still didn’t impact her paranoia one bit. Slo needed protection, for the rest of her life if need be. Maybe she could trust her? Suddenly, it didn’t sound so hard.
“...Slo, put on the bangle…”
Slo put the bangle on her wrist.
“...on me…”
“Oh. Okay.”
She put it on her chest.
Aeschyli stayed silent a moment.
She was seeing a whole new world at this moment that she had never experienced before.
“...my hair... bundle the hair up...and open the bangle..and snap it on my hair…”
“Uh, I’ve never used one of these before. I can’t seem to open it. It’s really heavy too. How do you wear this all the time?”
Aeschyli never thought she would say this.
“...forget it…”
=====
Later that day, Aeschyli was fully recovered thanks to Chel who kept coming by to look at her.
Chel, for some reason, gave her the creeps. This was a first for Aeschyli. She had dealt with abominations and all sorts of terrifying things growing up but this was the first one with a beautiful smile on their face. It drained her of energy. She clasped on the bangle and sighed as she looked at Slo who was sleeping with Cosimo on her recommendation.
There was a perfectly understandable reason for this. Slo could heal her mental damage, she observed in the bath last night. So she figured it might work on Cosimo too. It was also an excuse to upset Arge, who was on her case about something.
She had eventually convinced him to buy her clothes but there was something incredibly strange about the way he was talking. He kept saying things like “I’ll buy your clothes for 1 rukh” and salivating. It was extremely confusing. Had she not known better now that she was recovered, she would think that he was trying to ogle her. However, having regained her stage side of herself and her mental clarity, she just assumed he was trying to sell off her expensive clothing.
Why else would he say 1 rukh? Did he think she was poor?
“Hey, I’m back, here’s your clothes for 10,000 rukh.”
“You want me to pay you for clothes you bought for me? 10,000?”
“Hey, I’ll trade you this 1 ruhk for your bangle.”
“No way, this thing is priceless to me.”
“Okay, you can have the bangle. But I want your clothes.”
“How greedy are you?”
“I won’t settle for less than your body. Not a ruhk more.”
“Wait, are you hitting on me?”
Arge’s innocent attempts to mess with Aeschyli ended in failure and he earned her ire.
If you had to ask why, that was obvious. From her small amount of time with him, she already had pegged him as being the most untrustworthy person in the group. She was also bitter about losing and angry over how she acted towards Slo, worrying about her father and the war, so Arge became a stress release for her.
=======
Doru was salvaging wood and stone with his magic, the result of Cosimo and Timothy’s magic reaction. He was a dwarf who was exiled for drinking too much and causing trouble. For most people, having another dwarf around wasn’t that big of a deal, but he was one of the few in Aleppo during the reconstruction after the flood.
He waved to Arge and some red-brown haired girl that was suddenly at the inn one day, her name was Aeschyli. She was dull eyed and low energy. He knew the type. Probably crazy.
“‘ey! What’re yew two doing out ‘ere?”
Arge’s face was stone. Arge’s face was always stone. That reminded Doru of home. He really wished that Arge would stop giving him drinks though.
However, he knew a ‘sad’ look that Arge had.
Years of dealing with stone magic and tunneling deep underground through the vast shining tunnels of the dwarven meritocracy were not useless in reading Arge’s soul.
Doru smiled. Just like home, that sadness.
“I’m going to the quarry. Gotta mine. Gotta mine for money. Money for the play,” said Arge.
Doru decided that he was whipped by his new girlfriend. He was just glad that the boy had moved on from Slo. That wasn’t going to end well he figured.
“Wel, have a gud time wit yer girlfraind deir!”
He laughed. It was a joyful laugh, full of the memories of his misery he left at home.
========
Aeschyli and Arge were mining in the quarry. It was the first day.
“Why are you getting tired. Slo might die if you’re this weak.”
“I’ve known her far longer than you ok? We fought together, I saved her life like a lot. A lot!”
He stabbed into the stone with the mining pick.
Incidentally the money from the trade of the quarry was much more necessary at this point than the actual materials, refugee heading to Avig-
“Damn it Aeschyli. You know, I’m not trying to be an asshole here. I’m not. I know you’re paying for the inn and everything for everyone but you don’t have to treat me like this. It tough. It’s really hard on me. Just drop the Slo stuff at least okay?”
“Chel told me quite a lot.”
She was naturally low energy mode with a emotionless voice.
Arge hated how she would just drop little comments like that. He grunted and got back to work.
“You’re really passive aggressive. You ever think about how that makes people feel?”
“No, you’re actually the first one I’ve been honest with besides Slo. You kind of make me happy, hanging out with you.”
Arge took this as sarcasm.
“Do you have to keep doing that? No, you know what, I’m getting back to work. I’ll just grind this out.”
“Usually, your character arc would be something like I save you, you fall in love with me, we get married, we have kids, haven’t you read any stories like that?”
Now, she was teasing him.
“Wait, you knew I was awake back then?”
“Not until now.”
Arge was talking about the time he fell off Timothy’s back pretending to be a corpse when the magic reaction happened.
“Ugh! You know what? Fine.”
He got down on his knees and picked up a small rock. Arge was pushed extremely far to be driven to this level. This was his final gambit. If anything was to be gained today, it would be this.
He was kneeling and proposed.
“I, Arge, the best haggler in the city of Aleppo, ask you, Aeschyli Grun,” he said that name very loud, “To be my lawful wife!” He said that with his stone face.
It is coincidence that the marriage customs of this world and earths were the same.
Arge couldn’t have possibly predicted that this was secretly a role that Aeschyli always wanted to play. It was like he had the ability to activate her stage magic.
“Arge, honey, I love you... I- I’ll do it!”
She held her finger out and did a full face blush. In all black.
Arge threw the rock down and stormed off to go sit on a bigger rock. He cast ‘Hard Headed’ to numb the embarrassment. He had lost.
One of two miners who was being responsible nearby observed this.
He pointed at them.
“What’s up with that?”
“Newlyweds?”
Answered the other miner.