“So,” Will said, clearing his throat. “If you’re going Toughness, there are a few higher tier options. There’s Iron Wall at 10 Toughness, which disperses the kinetic energy of impacts throughout your body, allowing you to absorb hits more easily. It pretty much does what it sounds like it does, there’s not much more to it.
“Then there’s Kinesthetics at 10 Toughness and 3 Awareness. It allows you to pinpoint and control specific parts of your body, including ones you wouldn’t normally be able to affect consciously, like your heart or your intestines, even the brain to some extent. You can use it to, say, make your body prioritize healing a certain injury over another, or to constrict blood vessels in a specific area to stem bleeding, that kind of thing.
“There’s also, let’s see… Extra Arms, I guess? For that you need 10 Toughness and either 10 Dexterity or 10 Strength.”
“Let me guess,” Bee said, “it makes me grow extra arms?”
“Astutely observed, Beatrice. You’re quite correct.”
“It sounds scary.”
“You can fold them back into your body when you’re not using them. They’re more useful for a skill-heavy build, since you can weave hand signs with two hands and use your other two for something else.”
“No thanks on that. The Kinesthetics thing seems all right, but it sounds like there’s a lot of thinking involved with it.”
“Not really your style, is it?”
“Not so much. I like the sound of Iron Wall, though. What do you think is more worth it, taking that or upgrading Stoneskin?”
“Iron Wall. It’d work well in tandem with Stoneskin. You’d be a tough nut to crack with that.”
“As tough as Trashman?”
“Tougher, I reckon. He might have had Stoneskin, but I don’t think he had Iron Wall.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, really.”
“Shit, I’ll take that.”
And so it was decided.
When Will went to leave for the night, Bee mustered enough strength to catch his sleeve between two fingers.
“Stay,” she said.
Will frowned down at her, looking up and down the bed. “I mean, it’s not exactly like I can jump in with you.”
“Will you read to me?”
He gave her a look that said ‘What are you, five?’, but after a brief consideration he nodded and left the room. Coming back a minute later, he was holding a thick tome under his arm. He sat down and cracked it open, clearing his throat as he leafed to the first page.
“What book is it?” Bee asked.
“The most boring book I could find,” Will replied absently. “The Book of Deeds.”
“What’s it about?”
“It’s about the goddess, and all the things she said to the humans who met her. It’s the main religious text of the revivalists.”
“Sounds like a riot.”
Bee liked hearing Will talk, so she really had intended to stay up and listen for a while, but she was fairly certain that she fell asleep before he finished the first page.
*****
When Bee woke up, she had locked in 4 extra points in Toughness—bringing her up to 11—along with Iron Wall.
She probably wasn’t well enough to be up and about, but she had already decided that she would do it, so she would. It would just take a bit of elbow grease.
Buck came in to see her while she was still in bed, cloak over his shoulders and saber strapped to his hip.
“One hell of a show you put on,” he said, grinning. “You were paying attention to my lessons after all.”
“Sure,” Bee said with a chuckle. She wrestled herself into a half-sitting position, teeth gritted at creaking bones and torn muscle fibers. “You look like you’re about to hit the road.”
“I am. My star pupil has already flown the nest, it seems, and I’ve got to make scarce before the lord finds out what I’ve been doing to his wife.”
She smiled at that. “You’re joking about that, right?”
He just winked. “Freddie won’t rat me out, but the lord has nosy little squirrels all over. So I’ll get gone before I wear out my welcome.”
“Where will you go?”
“Who knows? I might go free some slaves. I need another crew after your lovely boyfriend killed my last one.”
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“He did?”
“I mean, yeah. You didn’t think we were friends, did you?”
“You’re not?”
“Nooo. We’re… amicable enemies, I guess you could call us.”
“Friends who argue, then.”
Buck threw a dismissive wave at her. “Feh! Tell your boyfriend we’re even now.” He spun and headed for the door. Over his shoulder, he added: “See you around some time, kid. Maybe then, it’ll be my turn to clean house.”
Once Buck left, Bee dragged herself out of bed. After cleaning herself, she began the long, laborious process of getting dressed.
*****
“Dash of Love.”
The cauldron briefly lit up with a soft green glow, then went dark again.
Will slumped forward over the workbench, all the strength drained from him. He retched with a feeling like he was vomiting up his soul. He sat there for several minutes, head in his hands, breathing heavily, until he no longer felt like his heart was suddenly going to stop.
He reached for a rejuvenation potion on the shelf to his left, ended up knocking one down to smash against the floor, and swore at himself. He took another, uncorked it with his thumb, and slammed the whole thing back.
He’d been taking three a day for a while now.
The potion slowly trickled through his system. It eased the worst of the symptoms and brought some warmth back to his face. But it didn’t stop the tremor in his hand. It wouldn’t do anything about the fact that he was pissing blood, either.
It was, all in all, not an ideal situation. But the goods had to be made, and he was already short on time. Richard was a decent guy and all, but he had people to answer to and promises to keep, just like everyone else, with a lot of money on the line. If gentle coaxing didn’t get Will to deliver, he’d have to start playing hardball.
That would be a very bad outcome. Richard was tight with Brimstone and several private trading ventures. They’d be able to muster some properly nasty toughs—ones Will would be a fool to try and fight.
If that were to happen, he’d need to pick up and move. He couldn’t just move cities, either—he’d need to leave the Frontier entirely, if he wanted any decent chance of dodging Richard’s friends.
It was not a conversation he ever wanted to have with the rest of the gang.
He used Identify on the soupy liquid inside the cauldron.
Potion of minor cure disease
Purity grade: 92%
Quality: Fine
A good batch. That brought him some relief.
Once he’d bottled the potions and boxed them up, he removed his work gear and stood heavily. He supported himself against the wall, trying to put on a face that he imagined looked normal.
Bee was hurting worse than him, and she deserved a nice day out. She had outperformed all his expectations.
Returning to the house, he found Nix standing on the porch, hands clasped behind her back. She was in her human form, like she had several times since returning from Sheerhome. That, and the fact that she was both cooking and wearing clothes, left him dumbfounded in trying to figure out what she was actually up to. If it was some sort of attempt at manipulation, it was childishly obvious. Nix came with a lot of negative labels attached, but he had never considered ‘stupid’ to be one of them.
Following her gaze, Will found that she was watching Mongrel out in the yard. He was having a nap in the grass while the boys played all around him, a trail of saliva slowly making its way through his beard, his tunic hiked halfway up his round belly.
Will frowned at the Builder, then back at the demon. When she noticed him standing there, she turned on her heel and walked back inside the house.
I guess she’s really dialing in on the weak link.
I’ve got to keep an eye on him. The last thing I need is a stump shaker for a friend.
Following the demon inside, his mind was immediately taken off the whole thing once he stepped into the hall.
There she was. Skin blotchy with bruises, a cut on her lip, one eye still swollen almost completely shut. She was wearing the dress, its white contrasted against black-blue bruising, light fabric tracing a faint outline of her abdominal muscles. His eyes followed the curve of her slim waist, her thick thighs, and down to the cute sandals white she had on.
The sight of Bee in a dress was one he’d wanted to see for a long time. It didn’t disappoint.
He’d need to get her some accessories. Maybe a necklace, or something for her hair.
“You’re killing me,” Will said. “Give a guy some warning next time you’re gonna start dropping bombs on me.”
Bee hugged herself, as though to somehow conceal her from view.
“Do you like it?” she asked. She was blushing.
The shyness replacing her normally frank demeanor hit him in all the right places.
“You look how I always imagined you would,” Will said. “You’re perfect.” He looked down at his dirty clothes. “I’m slightly less so. Will you give me a minute to get all the grime off?”
She came up and kissed him, then cracked a sunny smile as she backed away that lit up her battered face.
“Okay!” she said. “But hurry up, or I’ll kick your kneecaps in.”
It was good while it lasted.
“Yes, ma’am.”
Nix had them fixed with a yellow-eyed glare, leaned over the table in the living area.
What’s your fucking problem? You should be loving this.
But he had no time to spend worrying about that odious creature. Whatever she was mad about, it was no problem of his.
*****
That day, Will got a taste of what dating as a pensioner would be like. By the time they even got to Sheerhome, they were both run ragged. The first thing they did was get a room at the Rosy Drake, drink copious amounts of water, then go for a two-hour nap.
Will didn’t feel much better after waking up, his legs stiff and achy. Bee looked like she was in a similar boat, but they still dragged themselves out of the room to at least fulfill the bare minimum requirements of a date.
They ate at the inn, with Bee finishing most of Will’s portion. Then they shuffled along, hand in hand, to see a theater performance just two streets town. He figured she would get a kick out of it, since Nifalan plays were often just bastardized versions of half-remembered popular movies and literature from Earth. That, and it was a nice excuse to sit down for a while.
That night they were putting on a performance of Star Walkers, a crowd favorite. The acting was dubious at best, and one of the performers broke his leg midway through on account of a failed backflip, but other than that it was a perfectly passable way to spend an hour and a half.
Since her memory of Earth would still be fresher than his faded jumble, he asked her once the play was over if she knew what it was based on. She said that it seemed very familiar, especially the main character of Duke Lightbeam and the antagonist Arthur Vander, but she couldn’t quite recall where it was from.
They briefly entertained the idea of going for some shopping, but quickly gave up on that and returned to the inn.
They slept for the rest of the day.