“The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry.”
Robert Burns
Tick . . . tock . . . tick . . . tock
6 . . . 5 . . . 4 . . . 3 . . . 2 . . . 1!
Happy Birthday to me! I lay in sullen silence as the time hour finally turned. I was never going to have a public birthday what with me being officially declared dead by family. Still, the last 12 days had dragged on in a new and disappointing way each day. My life had become utterly boring as I waited to be carried between activities. It hadn’t been easy within the womb but I always had the delivery day to look forward to. Trapped as I was once more, I was finding it harder the second time around. There was only so much introspection an individual can accomplish before you start going round in circles, repeating your thoughts, locked in a loop without end.
I was only allowed a drop of the elixir before training. So I was limited in my movements and intensely disliked the limits of my agency. Nighttime was the worst. While my family were asleep I was left with nothing but my thoughts for company. I knew that this too would pass in time, mainly because I would pass out from lack of stamina, as my brain sped through it, but I found myself feeling a little bit down about it all. It was childish I knew and completely unproductive but that was how I was feeling. Not that there was a trait I would give up when I reflected on my progress. But, had I known the consequences of unbalanced growth I would have attempted to grow a little slower or at least worked a little harder at building a more balanced set of attributes. I would have worked as hard at my body as I had at my mind, even though those had always been the harder attributes to level with my infantile body. After all, all things are good in moderation and too much of a good thing can quickly become a poison or at least in this case detrimental.
My family was working extra hard at balancing my body with my mind and the elixir is being rationed out, drop by drop. A single drop a day to eat my meals and practice whatever they have planned for me. No exceptions! I am unsure how much precisely they have of the stuff but it is a limited resource and they are concerned it will run out before we can rebalance my world. The least I can do is try to avoid making the imbalance worse. So while I’m inside my head I am careful to try not to trigger any increases in mind or skill levels unsure how to avoid making my imbalance any worse than it already is when so many of my skills and abilities continue to push me towards further imbalance.
To my great disappointment, I was unable to leverage my new trait quick-witted into a higher dexterity stat before my first birthday. So no dexterity trait for me, unfortunately. Thinking about what it could have been and based on my previous experience with stats it would probably have been some form of super speed. This in itself would have been awesome! But on the other hand, I could easily see that this would probably have been switching one disability, of being unable to move, for another disability, of being able to move incredibly quickly but probably for only a few minutes at a time. If I was going to create a permanent solution I would have to level my endurance alongside my dexterity. Although that could then lead me to not having enough strength to move a more durable body. At least that is what I was taking from our earlier conversations around imbalances. So not only do I need to continue to level my dexterity to be able to move my body, I needed to level my endurance to ensure I can do it for more than a minute at a time and my strength to ensure that I would be strong enough to move a body that would be increasingly, superhumanly, even more, quick and durable. I had not quite given up hope yet though and will have to keep aiming for a triple set of quirks if only to remove my cursed crippled status.
One wondered how normal people avoided such mistakes but it appeared that most people would be unable to grow their stats to such an extent with skills and practice and the only way they could do this to themselves was by assigning their free points drastically incorrectly.
I was hoping that there might be some other unknown modifier somewhere between traits, that were achieved before age 1, and quirks, achieved before age 10. Ultimately, I optimistically hoped I would be able to get the quirks for strength, endurance, and dexterity before age 10 but if I managed to do so before age 5 I was hoping they will be nearly as strong as the traits achieved by age 1. I thought that if the traits are race traits and therefore in theory inheritable, then, if I’m admittedly not just clutching at straws, perhaps the only difference between those achieved at age 1 and age 5 will be that they are not inheritable. Maybe trait, attribute quirk, or something along those lines. But then again, I have no idea. Discussing this with the family has not revealed anything more. We are all in uncharted waters as I am so far ahead of the learning curve as to be a completely separate species. Still, they have been understanding if completely stingy with the dexterity elixir.
However, the last two weeks haven’t been a complete failure though. I might not have been able to unlock the traits of strength, endurance, or dexterity but life moves on and our plans for creating enough wealth for a new noble house move along with it.
Salt production continued within the mountain, while my family was continuing to mould the island along the lines of my (and Aleera’s) ideas creating new salterns each night. A steadily growing salt plain that was spreading its way around the edge of the island. A white road if you will stands out in stark contrast to the basalt they were building them on. They decided to work around the island before moving any further inland. The areas were closer to the water, lower and flatter areas of the island which were more easily filled with the water from the lagoon afore it evaporated once more leaving our white road of wealth, white gold indeed.
Des and Sinis were still raking up the salt outdoors and indoors before storing it away. We were waiting on a boat and merchant to sell it to the nearby islands as our local market and town were already saturated. We were only going to lower the price if we continued to sell it to our town. That wasn’t all that they had been doing for us though. Des and Sinis had also been carrying up bags of soil to the top of the mountain to start forming the sheltered and terraced farmland I had mentioned creating to my family previously. A place to grow the seeds I had gathered, planted, and raised so far. With my time focused on grinding up dexterity skills I hadn’t been allowed up there again or to replant the seeds that had sprouted but apparently, it is going well and I looked forward to one day being able to walk up there on my own.
The pearl seeding initiative was also going well, at my request, I was carried to the water cave where we have placed them every day to see them gradually growing. I watched with fascination as the pearls we had seeded absorbed the ambient mana and grew. Father continued to bring back a few each day alongside his catch of fish. I felt that he could focus on the oysters alone, but he was adamant about maintaining his fishing trade and enjoyed sailing and fishing far more than diving for oysters. He took care to keep them alive while mother and Aleera became particularly proficient in seeding them before they were replaced in our growing seed pearl farm. As the number of oysters and our underwater farm has grown I pointed out that they probably needed to be spread out further afield or it would slow the growth of the pearls. My parents took me at my word based on my ability to see the pearls growing within their shells. But actually, I was more worried about overpopulating a single area thus decreasing the amount of mana and natural food for them as well as increasing the chance of a disease spreading among them. They were currently looking for some sites further afield to place them as their numbers had grown beyond what our cave could support. Ideally, locations were placed on the far side of the island away from the town.
The islanders were unlikely to pull up our markers or floats as they have their nets and traps out on the water but still, we were hoping to keep our method and market for our family alone rather than encourage others to copy our current method. A secret source of income if you will. However, even if they did copy our method it would be doubtful that they would be able to achieve similar results of their own without a mage or two to support them. As Aleera, Mother, and I all took time to handle the oysters and impart a little of our mana to the oysters each day. I say handle but without the ability to pick them up, or rather the ability to pick them up having been deemed unnecessary to the task of supplying them with mana, the netting filled with carefully spaced oysters was draped over me as I gave them a boost each day. This was the reason we believed our pearls were growing so quickly and well.
That just left the progress I had made on my dexterity. only 5 points. It did not feel like a lot to me at all compared to the growth of my other stats over the first year of my life but I had been reassured by my family that 5 points of growth in a single stat over a single fortnight was still monstrous growth. It just hadn’t felt like it as I had achieved so much more in a shorter time with my mental stats and skills. Plus, if it continued to take me this long then the remaining 61 points were going to take another 24 weeks! Only 6 months or half a year of my old life and even less than that on this world seeing as years were measured by 16 months. Still, my physical skills were increasing. It was just going to take some time. My body was still limited by a more normal growth more in line with nature rather than the unnatural nature of my mind, a mind advanced far beyond the years that I had spent alive in this world. Far more in line with the years that I had lived in my last.
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Father had taught me knots and I have managed to gain 2 levels in the skill. The bowline, reef, and clove hitch I had been quick to pick up having had some knowledge of knots even if not their names just from daily life and living. I had greater trouble with what my mother taught me, stitching. Having never stitched before other than to sew on the odd button that had fallen off this was harder for me to pick up. I had a long way to go before I would call myself a professional and perhaps the dexterity elixir was helping me out but I now had a decent variety of stitches I could follow, the running stitch, backstitch, whipstitch, and slipstitch. Great for my fine motor skills, I had also managed to gain another 2 levels in the skill.
Grandfather was still banned from teaching me or rather subjecting me to any resistance training. But if I didn’t see some tangible results from the training the temptation to take him up on his offer to improve my endurance through resistance training was growing by the day despite how painful it would probably be. Aleera had suddenly been freed up from chasing after me all the time. So had been delving deeply into the Silverwood family legacy reading through it nearly every day and finding new ideas to try out. Thankfully she was happy to hold it up for me to read. Although it was quite the challenge to wait patiently for her to read the page and catch up to where I had reached already. Still focusing only on her words and slowing my perception of time to just focus on her words allowed me to listen for a second time as she read it out loud. Which gave me plenty of time to digest and internalise the ideas and teaching of my maternal family's line, the Silverwoods.
That reminded me of the fact that we had never decided on a new family name for our new noble house. I was thinking that it should both reference the past and the present so I was hoping to convince the family that Lord Silversea had a nice ring to it. Referencing both the past and our present where our currently growing fortune was based on what we could draw from the sea. I was unsure that I had convinced them of it yet. But then they had failed to come up with a better name or a more convincing argument themselves so I was hopeful that it would stick.
That was all that happened recently and I had few hopes for anything new happening anytime soon, regaining the use of my body looked like it would be a long slow grind ahead of me.
Time to appreciate life a little more and stop spinning so many plates at the same time. Besides we all need a little break now and then. If only I didn't find the enforced break so boring. Maybe I would get some form of surprise for my birthday. I could live in hope.
. . .
Meanwhile, elsewhere in the world . . .
. . .
Prince of Ponente's point of view.
My Royal Chancellor whispered in my ear as I watched the merchant bow low before me. I sat on my throne in the great hall a long line of petitioners stretched out in front of me. What had been a fairly mundane and normal morning was interrupted as I cursed him internally for a fool, even though I knew he was not. A frown marred my face before I wiped it away, while I wondered what he was hoping to achieve by having muttered the words out loud. Why had he whispered his message? It was a telling mark of some new play and some indication of the chaos he hoped to cause. It would have been nice to have been informed of his aim before he put his plan in motion.
Many here at court had high senses stats and or skills related to ferreting out truths and rumours whether they were spoken clearly or whispered as my message had just been. Already I could see a ripple of words whip their way around the nobles of the court and see their eyes focus on the poor merchant in front of me. I wondered what game the chancellor was playing with the two factions today and whether the merchant would make it back to his boat without becoming embroiled in their intrigue. Still, the message had been passed on I was now aware of his situation and could not pretend to be elsewhere when he asked for a decision.
Calm despite the stares focused on him. The merchant called Mercurio raised his head while he still maintained his bow on one knee. Either, ignorant unaware of the waters he was stepping into, or naively confident in his claim. I couldn’t imagine a mere merchant of his level having the stats, strength or connections to be asking for himself what the words whispered had implied.
“I bring wealth to finance your future troops.” He stated as he passed a small smooth grey purse to my page. It was checked before being handed to me. Relieved that it held no poison or other sinister trap I eagerly opened it to find the wealth staring back at me. This would go far in providing for our troops on our borders. Deep-Sea Pearls were worth, far more than, their weight in gold. The gemstones capable of holding mana and powering runes that were an essential part of our modern weaponry for the Kingdom of Ponente.
“A fine addition to our armoury and what have they cost our majesty?” I asked clearly. There was no need to hide the information that ‘my’ chancellor had already decided to reveal without my permission. I might as well level the playing field for the nobles who had not invested in their senses stats. At least this way they would not be further beholden, even if only for a minor favour, to whoever revealed the whispered words of my chancellor earlier, “Mercurio, Pearls for a patent . . . of nobility.” The words, that had sent words rippling through the nobles.
Everyone nearby both those who had already heard and those about to find out had focussed on the merchant Mercurio in front of me.
“A patent of nobility.” He smiled as he answered. The crooked smile implied he was not ignorant of the chaos he was about to create. I wondered whether he was truly this naïve or if he had a play of his own he was making. He handed a document to my page a patent for nobility although it would have to be ratified by an alderman for it to become officially recognised as such.
My father had created the patents in the hopes of raising wealth for the kingdom a long time ago. I was surprised any of the documents still existed. The nobles happy in their number had opposed the creation of the patents in the first place but had been unable to stop their release by the former king's fiat. Still, they had blocked them effectively enough by ensuring that those who acquired them rarely survived the experience.
They numbered and called the hundred, and were keen to keep the number and name the same. It didn’t matter which political faction a new noble joined the other would see that you perished soon enough. Neither side was willing to allow the other to gain another vote than the ones they already had. Balanced as they were they split the vote nearly equally with a few stronger, older families holding the middle swing votes empowered by their legacies rather than the parties that they nominally belonged to.
“How would you like your name and family to be recorded?” I asked interested to hear what name he had decided to choose for his demise and would likely be recorded on his epitaph.
“It is not for me, your majesty. I am merely their merchant.” There was a short gasp as he delivered his response, loud in the silence that had filled the hall, as everyone listened to the conversation between myself and the merchant. Someone here had just lost a merchant their house had been collecting the taxes from. He was a merchant making a profit and if there was anything more painful for the nobles of this court than a cut to their pride it was a cut to their purse and profits. He continued, “I merely request an alderman to accompany me on my next voyage to verify the house when I return your official seal on the document. I am sure that they will be able to ensure that their coat of arms and name do not clash with any in attendance here.” He turned his head as if to take in or refer to the eyes bearing down on him.
I paused on the verge of demanding the name of the family, to look up from the merchant at the court surrounding us. Nearly everyone was focused on the conversation we were having when usually there would be a disinterested murmur of conversation as they continued discussing issues they found of greater importance than the daily petitions of the court from the commoners. Usually, they would only pay attention when it was one of the two factions' turn to speak and mainly to argue with the opposition. Was this why my Chancellor had decided to reveal the petition's information so publicly?
I considered the results.
The two factions focussed on something other than bickering and blocking my reforms and motions. This might have been precisely the distraction they needed to allow me to get something done. I nodded my confirmation to the merchant and stamped the document with my Royal Seal. “See my chancellor about taking an alderman with you on your next journey. I look forward to welcoming a new baron to our august number of noble houses.” I smiled at the unexpected boon my chancellor had arranged for me. The surprise was worth the temporary frustration as he stepped beyond the bounds of his duty.
“If you will come with me I will see to processing your patent.” The chancellor motioned the merchant to exit at the rear right-hand side of the hall. This prevented a noble, who had stepped forward at the end of my conversation, from intercepting the merchant before he could depart. Live or die the new noble would be supporting the Royal Family in distracting the nobles until they had found out who they were wiping them from existence or weaving him into their webs of power. Either way, the royal family would benefit from their distraction.