Two months had passed since the episode with the bandits and Billy and Brutus’s private war. Edna understood most of it because she knew how to ask good open questions and Billy didn’t seem to know how to lie to her.

It wasn’t as shocking to her as she would have thought it’d be. Perhaps because she already knew what big families were like. Or perhaps it was because besides being generally optimistic her expectations for human nature had become degraded.

Her view of humanity steadily lowering the more things she saw while working for her uncle. Watching how he and his family and his friends and partners carried on. Engaging in predations,and exploitations and brutal murders that were quickly covered up in time for tea.

Or perhaps her lack of surprise came from being a Mondian. As a people there was a certain dreary, read that; cherry,  lassitude in their outlook on life. Any day that you made it through in one piece was a good day.

If Raiders and Demonbeasts weren’t at your door and the heavens weren’t raining fire down on your city, it had been a good day. In short, prolonged survival of any real length was a success in and of itself.

One risked death just getting out of bed. At any moment a high layered demonbeast could flatten your home, or a powerful practitioner could erase your homestead from the map.

Some sorcerer could unleash a blood plague. The dark things whose names gave people nosebleeds could suddenly decide to show up at your house for dinner. Your mother in law could suddenly decide that she wants to conquer the world.

Life on Monde was a frighteningly unpredictable affair. Worrying about what almost happened and what could happen was far too stressful for the typical Mondian to manage. Or rather than merely being stressful, it was far too debilitating.

It was the choice between callousness and paralyzing, ever present, all consuming, fear and for the sake of civilization and the unrealized future most Mondians were generally quite callous and laissez-faire about it all.

*****

Edna-Rae emerged from her bedroom, ecstatic, her skin was covered in an acrimonious filth that looked and smelled like he’d she fallen in a dump heap and then promptly died.

Rotting soon after. Her eyes on the other hand looked like they were filled with the pilot flames of a million stars. Endlessly bright, brilliantly, desperately, alive.

She’d just broken through to the ruler layer.

She wasn’t sure if her progress was slow or fast. If she knew that the rule of thumb was a minimum of five to ten years per rank and twice that much for breaking through the layers it wouldn’t have been unreasonable if she lost her head and hailed herself a genius.

In truth part of this was indeed all due to her own hard work and steady comprehension. Part of it was also due to the comprehensive and easily understandable notes.

Then there was no forgetting the parts that were due to luck and the fact that a certain someone who need not be named tended to expel a very beneficial type of excess aether as part of their normal respiration.

Filling the lodge with an energy that was comparable to living aether in its effects on core aether growth. All the same, the fact remained that Edna was now Jack-Ranked.

Endowed with a strength that was seventy times her base strength and officially empowered with a true supernatural power. Although she’d yet to figure out what that power would be or how to use it, it was still a cause for celebration.

She decided that after taking a shower to get rid of greasy foulness that currently covered her from head to toe, she’d cook something special to celebrate. Either that or she’d go into town and treat herself to something there.

The shower was pleasurable as usual, even a little better than the norm actually. Her newly refined bones, organs and muscles craved heat. It seemed that Billy had finally been able to finetune the spells that supplied water to the lodge because she stayed there for hours and the water stayed hot for hours.

When she finally left the bathroom, dressed and headed downstairs her hair was still steaming. She was flush and happy and just generally feeling good. She’d decided she’d cook somethin after all. She entered the kitchen and saw Billy standing there.

“Oh...Um, I forgot that today was your day to cook. Well that’s okay. If you don’t mind I don’t mind taking over for today. I feel like cooking something special.” said Edna.

Billy looked at her, blinked twice and smiled. He could see the change in the flow of her aether. It was much thicker and much more defined now.

“Actually, how about I cook something special today and you go relax. Congratulations by the way.”

“Thanks,. I think we both know I had a little help...Are you sure?”

“Yeah I’m sure...Um, how do you feel about chocolate cake for dessert?”

“En...how about Red Velvet instead?” said Edna.

“Brat.” said Billy, chuckling.

“Yeah, but you know you love it.” said Edna.

“Fair enough...Red velvet it is.” said Billy.

She was shooed out of the kitchen and he got to work.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Billy seemed to be in a good mood today. She was glad. He’d been hanging out around the house for weeks and had stopped going out for runs. Instead he’d just loom, restlessly drifting from room to room.

The fact that his footsteps didn’t seem to make noise and that he seemed to just suddenly show up in random intervals, appearing from one direction when she could have sworn that she’d seen him go in another, made it a bit like having a ghost in the house.

When she did finally get him to sit still it would be like there was an edge to him. She tried to ask him what was wrong but got nothing for her efforts.

That was one of the things that annoyed her about him. Though he was completely honest when you could get him to talk when he didn’t want to talk he just shut down.

The closest she got to some kind of explanation was one day when he looked up and asked her if she still wanted to stay with him.

She’d say yes without a moment’s thought. He then apologized for putting her in danger and then locked himself in his room. Leaving her more confused than ever and a little pissed off.

He sat in random corners of the house, stone silent either looking like he was ready to murder someone or like he was about to burst into tears. Sometimes he’d sit in front of the lodge just stroking the edge of that sword he’d bought.

Or he’d sit in the front room. Sharpening the kitchen knives, staring at the front door with this scary look in his eyes. Then suddenly it stopped.

It was shortly after a courier came to the house with a set of checks guaranteed by the EITC. The biggest merchant’s guild in all of Monde. One for her and One for Billy. A hundred thousand denarii each.

He saw the checks and then he seemed to loosen up. A month went by and then a second check came and suddenly he started going on his jogs again. The thing is, that she was pretty sure it wasn’t about the money.

She was the one kept their books and kept track of their funds. Even before the checks came they’d been pretty solidly in the black and even if they weren’t she just couldn’t see Billy getting “that” upset about money.

Hell, when they’d first moved in he’d put all the cash that they’d had in her lap along with an account book and kowtowed. Apologizing as he spoke  in that ridiculous flat manner of his.

“I leave it to you, oh fiscally conscious one.”

Money just wasn’t a thing that concerned him and she suspected that if they ever really needed more he could find a way to make more. In fact she was sure of it, just by looking at the knowledge in the tutorials he’d written for her.

Even if he didn’t have means he had the means to find means which was just as good.

Which still left the mystery of what made him so stormy. She wished he’d told her what was up, but for now she was just fine with him being his usual self again.

*****

Dinner that night really was something special. Billy ended up cooking a stomach bursting seven course banquet the likes of which would leave them eating left-overs for a least a week. Maybe less since her jack-ranked body seemed to eat more.

The first course was a light desert fowl tarter. The second course was some kind of seafood stew. The third course was some kind of citrus sorbet. The fourth course ended up being roast demonbeast.  

Demonbeast flesh was molded and affected by aether in a very curious way. The more vicious and terrifying they were the more tender and sumptuous their flesh was. One pound of medium grade demonbeast meat could cost up to five thousand denarii. Higher grades could cost ten or even a hundred times that much.

She didn’t see any big expenditures on their accounts which meant Billy must have hunted it. The steaks he made out of the beast were enormous but she surprised herself by eating the whole thing.

The steaks were especially tasty and her sense of how strong her cousin apparently was went up a notch. The flavor was of a sort that you could get just by being good at cooking. Which meant that whatever demonbeast he’d slain had definitely been formidable.

The fifth course was a salad that tasted tingly and made her feel cool and refreshed inside. The sixth course was the red velvet cake. They ate it in thick fat slices. The texture moist and spongy.

The cake covered in a tart but sweet, cream cheese frosting. Edna made sure to eat multiple slices. Feeling no need to excuse her greed because everyone knew dessert went into a different stomach.

The evening passed peacefully. In the morning she woke up, cultivated a bit to shore up her aether and strengthen her foundations. She did the exercises that the booklets told her to do. Going through a few martial stances and then doing the usual set of push ups and sit ups while under the effect of a gravity boosting spell.

Billy made breakfast, it wasn’t anything too elaborate, just oatmeal and honey. Then he went for his run. She went to the library and picked out a book to read like she generally did when she didn’t have anything pressing to do.

Then she did a little more cultivation and then she decided that if she stayed in that big quiet lodge all by herself for one second longer, she was going to scream. So she figured that it was time to head into the kingdom and see if there was anything that they could use for the house.

She was headed out the door when she saw someone standing on the stair stoop. A messenger, the same one who usually brought the checks. Since they were now apparently on the family payroll again.

“Er...hi.”

“Hello, Miss.” said the Messenger, tugging on the brim of his cap.

“Mail for you, Miss.” said the Messenger.

He handed over the biggest bundle of envelopes that they’d ever gotten while living at the lodge.

More Mail than Edna ever got in all the years that had come after her parents died. Mail from names that she hadn’t heard of since her parents died. She put it aside after skimming through it and she went out on her errands.

*****

Everyone was back home by lunch. It was her turn to cook but it was pretty much just her reheating their left-overs from yesterday. For variety’s sake they also had pan grilled sandwiches made from the demonbeast steaks.

Whatever he’d killed to get that meat was fairly massive, so she imagined they’d either have to get creative or risk getting sick of it. Though honestly the meat was so good that she figured it’d be gone before it got to that point.

“What’s that?” said Billy.

“What’s what? Said Edna, speaking around a mouthful of bread, cheese and meat.

“That…” said Billy, nodding at the stack of envelopes that lay on the table by the door.

“Oh that...Those are just some letters from the family apparently they just found out that you came back and are excited to see you again.” said Edna.

“Nh…”

Those letters stank of family politics, like cow patties under the hot desert. He could practically see their chain of thought hanging in front of him.

Everyone knew that gossip could spread faster than wildfire and Billy had been a bit dramatic about his triumphant return to Garland. The Maddocs knew that he’d come back, all along. Just like they knew his Uncle’s hand in sending him away.

They’d likely just kept silent because they hadn’t thought he’d last. Now that he was on the family payroll again he looked permanent and a permanent fixture was a useable fixture like a cliff for dumping bodies and dropping heavy stones, and a sturdy branch for hanging people from.

Billy was aware of who he was and his standing in family. He was last air of the of the now mostly defunct but still symbologically significant main family, he knew how that could be useful for all sorts of plots and honestly he didn’t want to get wrapped in any of that.

He made up his mind to send polite declinations to any invitations and thank you’s for their ‘well wishes’ but that was as far as he was willing to go. In his head he and the Maddocs were as good as through.

Though he didn’t really care about the money he was sure that Brutus would keep paying them regardless of what he did, because that was the ransom that kept his family breathing. Knowing that Brutus knew that was all that Billy was concerned about for the time being.

“They’re even thinking about throwing a ball in your honor.”

“Nh…”

Billy made a complicated face and then looked up to see Edna staring at him.

“Hey…” he said.

“Yeah?”

“If I said I wanted to move, would you want to go with me?”

Edna considered it, and found that there wasn’t much to consider. She had no employment. No ongoing education besides the booklets. Her family was dead.

Her only real friend was seated across from her and ultimately even she had been finding herself thinking that perhaps it was time for her to look at a different skyline.

“....Sure.”