The group around me turns and begins walking through the door that the council people came in from.
Realizing that most the pretties aren’t here or coming, I pat at Violet’s chest and point at the ceiling, “Magic. Puwweies!” Ugh, that wasn’t how to say it. “Pwetties!” Better.
Merrygold gets it because she stops and clears her throat - which I now know that sound to be because that I’ve had to do it trying to babble after eating, “Perhaps we should go somewhere that can seat all the Sisters of the Broken Hearth. After all, we have each claimed him.”
Everyone pauses and looks at the … bah, bah, bah… all the fingers and none of the thumbs amount of people - not counting me because I’m counting them, hehe - before considering for a moment.
The goblin-orc woman with stubby metal legs looks at Violet and Merrygold, “How many people do we need to accommodate?”
Merrygold immediately replies, “Thirty seven by my count. Thirty eight if you count Ratel.” Oh, I should count myself… got it.
The dwarven woman - I will never be able to get past that scar! Did her head get split open and just, what? I don’t even know what I’m looking at! - taps her chin in thought, but before she or any of the others can think of a good place Violet blurts out, “Why don’t we host you as guests in our tower? I know it isn’t standard, but I think it will be more relaxing and conducive to the conversation. I know it is a bit of a walk, but there’s a good chance it will run into the evening and we would love to have the Council, Cleric, and Lady over as guests. If that’s not a problem for your schedules.”
Burn scar face man - it does look really cool, painful, but fierce - gives a sigh. “We could probably clear our schedules and be there. How about we meet you at the tower after lunch. That should give the four of us time to ensure everything is in order before we leave. Sisters, Cleric, Lady.”
The four council members incline their heads, turn around, and exit through the doors they came in from.
Violet nods at the other people in the room and carries me through the door she came in. It’s like the one Cleric Strongjaw brought me down, but not all dark and weird.
Oh, it’s also much longer. I know Violet is short and all, but I’m sure we’ve walked up far more stairs than we did down.
After a bit, we reach an open doorway that I can see the pretties through.
Right, the pretties. They can wait. What am I looking at here? The room isn’t very large, but there is a small wall or railing thing with chairs attached that looks out over a white flat smooth rock? The rock is twinkling. Yep, magic! It’s gotta be the same magic as the pillar things.
Looking around the room I notice that the chairs, the railing, the pillars, and the walls in this room all have a very subtle but intricate pattern to them that connects everything together. That’s probably how I saw them all in my not-dream dream. Neat!
“...-at the tower.” Violet finishes.
Whoops, probably should’ve been paying attention. Oh well, this room is too cool.
I continue ignoring the conversations around me as I’m passed to different pretties who all keep trying to get my attention and make sure I’m fine.
“Bwah! Narrr! Magic!” I yell and point around the room before going back to studying everything around me instead of the people. I can hear them laughing at my antics.
Alright, so we have the altar that connects to the person, wraps light, and then that light comes up here and connects to the people and weaves through those patterns. Hmmm… So, given that it is tied to thoughts and a different place it must have some connection to the part of me I know dreams. But in my dream I had a big body that felt familiar.
I know I’m close to understanding something, but I just don’t have any freaking idea what I’m looking at.
“YAAAWWWWWNNN” I give up. That’s too hard. Who has me? Delphine? Oooo, that would explain why it feels so soft. “Wa waaa woooo.” I mutter to her.
She coos at me and tucks me into her robes, using her belt to create a hammock out of the front so I can lay, eat, and nap in one place - without letting anyone else see her food squishes.
I absently notice as I eat, that the pretties are filing out of the temple and walking through the city. I’m fed, warm, cozy, and the air feels nice. I snuggle deeper into her robes and fall asleep.
– – –
WHAM! “Absolutely not!”
Huh? What’s going on? Is someone angry about something? I rub my eyes. I’m laying in my nap box, in the middle of a ring of the pretties, the council, Cleric Strongjaw, Lady Wisemore, and Janice - who is rocking my box with her foot and making funny faces at me.
“Allowing the child to choose his own direction is one thing. Fuck, even allowing each of you to give him instruction could be acceptable. Apprenticeship would be preferable. But if you think he’s going to become an adventurer you’re out of your fucking minds.”
Cleric Strongjaw seems to be very angry about something.
I stand up in my box to take a look at what’s going on. Something fun seems to be afoot if people are hitting things.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
Ingrid leans menacingly towards Cleric Strongjaw. Ya know, I used to have a nickname for him. Face Man! “Cleric. If you think for one moment that the platoon of women in this room are going to let this child grow up to be anything other than a real man, with a literal war on your hands if you try and stop them, then you’re dumber than the way you shave your beard.”
~Snort~ *hack hack* Lady Wisemore is almost falling backwards off the couch, the back of one hand pressed firmly to her mouth while the other one is waving like mad as if to say ‘nothing to see here.’
The elf dude with the burn scars makes the ‘ahem’ sound into his fist, “While it is nice to see that everyone seems to have an opinion on what young Ratel here-” he waves at me and everyone turns to notice I’m standing. I wave back. “-is or is not going to become. I believe we’re to talk about just the next year of his training.”
The dwarf woman with the face scar - She needs a nickname, because that’s a lot to think about… hmmm… Splitsy. So we have Splitsy, and Stubby is a given, but burned dude could be Belf! Burned elf - Belf! He he. That just leaves the woman missing an arm. Her eyes do this thing when she smiles so she can be Crinkle. Yeah, Splitsy, Stubby, Belf, and Crinkle. Ok, so what was Splitsy saying?
“...but since we have already determined the trial to be useless going forward it makes more sense to determine a more comprehensive training program.”
Maddy cuts in abruptly and with a bit of a shrill voice, the one she uses to force everyone to look at her because people tend to forget she’s in the room sometimes. “This is a ridiculous conversation. Now that Ratel is awake we can quite literally just ask him what he wants to focus on when training.” Oh that smile that gets her what she wants but in a sneaky way.
Strongjaw groans, “Fuck. Why do I even care? We all know what he’s going to say.”
Ariebella, who is sitting next to Janice, turns me to her. “Ratel? What do you want to learn?”
“MAGIC!” I shout. I know those words. She’s asking me what I wanna do with the pretties. Learn means to do fun things with them.
Stubby sighs, “Just because his first word is magic doesn’t mean that he has any idea what magic is.” She leans towards me a bit from across the circle. “Do you know what magic is?”
“Mmmm hmmm.” I point at Priscilla, then at my chest. “Magic!”
Stubby turns back to the group at large. “This is what I think the Cleric here is taking issue with. The only way to teach him magic is to send him to the College. Who knows what those godless maniacs would do to a child like him. Moreover, the only ways to join the College are to pledge to it as a permanent member, pay a ridiculous sum in ‘research grants’, or complete quests for them. We know the fatality rate of their quests, and how impossible and nonsensical most of them are. But! The more important thing is that if he is genuinely capable of getting into the College and excelling there, we need him here to stabilize the frontier even more.”
It doesn’t feel like they understood me. How do I explain it?
I start making gestures and noises. Nope. Nuh uh. What was it that Priscilla was doing?
Humming the tune I remember, I wave my arms like Priscilla did. Nah. This feels wrong somehow. Oh! I bet it was the feeling of being connected. It was the way the music connected everyone together.
Tatiana stands up, “The key point here is to find a purpose for Ratel that serves The Fist and the city. He’s not just a normal child. He’s a child of the Sisters of the Broken Hearth. Even normally there is a responsibility with that beyond any other citizen of Bastion. For Ratel that’s amplified by each and every Sister that claims him that many fold. It is our duty to do everything we can do to make him the greatest asset to the city. We all know this. We all agree on this. What the hell are we even arguing about?”
Got it! I remember the feeling that I had when I was connected to everyone, the rhythm, and the colors. I climb onto one of my stuffies like a stage.
Hand wave like this. Foot and hip move this way. Connect them like this moves everything here. If I repeat the pattern it becomes like this, then I dance… *click*
My stuffie slips out from under my feet and I whack my face on the side of my nap box.
Ow! That hurts. I look up at the room full of people looking at me. “Waaaaah.” I say to them as I pick myself back up.
In sync Patricia, Peach, Greyward, Cleric Strongjaw, and Ruth explode with laughter. They’re guffawing and pointing and spilling their drinks.
Oh, the drinks smell like the ones that make the pretties be funny. But Patricia and Peach have clothes on. Oh! It’s because Cleric Strongjaw, Stubbies, Crinkle, Splitsies, and Belf are here.
“Bwah.” I proclaim as I stand back up. Something warm is on my face. Reaching up and wiping the wetness from my nose I notice it’s all red. Well that’s not good.
I hold up my blood covered hand. “Wah wee?” What do I do with this?
Esmeralda quickly scoops me up, her breath smells like funny drink too, and mutters something while waggling her fingers and I feel all better.
Turning around I plop onto her lap to watch the event.
Janice, face flushed red, leans forward to interject. “Ishn’t we supposedlies gonna teach pretty witty Ratel to be a big ol man? *hic*”
The roaring laughter from Patricia, Peach, Greyward, Ruth, and Face Man turn to wheezing and banging on things.
Ariebella glares accusingly around the room, “Which one of you let the child drink our mead?”
Janice, in a very brave attempt to defend herself, turns to Ariebella and - pointing at Sakura - proclaims, “I’m a squire to a Paladin and part of some important business. I can *hic* drink too!”
Elodie reaches past two people and just plucks the mug from Janice’s hand. “I think that’s enough for you- it’s empty.”
That seems to be the breaking point for a few more of them because the laughter and howling carries over to Stubby, Maddy, Amy, Alice, Maeve, and Hilda. I don’t see Hilda laugh like this very often.
The laughter and jeering continue for a few more minutes. Meanwhile, Janice has turned red red and is trying really hard to look like she can claim to be an adult because she’s not the smallest person in the room.
Cosmia, in one breath, speaks up, “Alright alright. So we all agree that he needs a larger training program - but he’s also 1 yr old and we have no idea what his most optimum Path to Power would be. I propose that for his first year we split his training and learning into ten-days. Starting at the beginning of next ten-day we have him observe Clark’s classes. Then we have him observe the temple’s Acolyte’s training. Then we have him observe the Paladin’s training. Following that blacksmiths. We can figure out the details on our own - since things will change - but my proposal is really thus;”
Cosmia pauses, takes a deep breath, and much slower says, “Each ten-day for the next year we have him observe a different Path. Each ten-day we alternate between a craft and a combat-focused training. We go in the early afternoon, when tempos are at the highest, and observe for a few hours. That will let us all see what Ratel gravitates towards, while also getting him used to working and dealing with a lot of different people. Now, normally I wouldn’t advise so much overstimulation of a toddler, but Ratel is already so outgoing and curious that I’m afraid any less than this might stunt his growth.”
Greyward waves her hand in the air, “Oooo! Oooo! Let’s just start right away with Clark’s classes. The look on his face if he sees Ratel again will be priceless. Maybe we can just toss the baby into the spirit training too? Because I don’t know about all of you, but I wanna know how long he can last this time.”
Each person looks at everyone else to see if anyone has an objection. Finally Cleric Strongjaw - having finally stopped laughing - sighs and leans back, “You know what. That sounds great. If the Council is amenable to it I say we just pass the kid around the city for a year and see what happens. Maybe the little nuisance will even become an urban legend.”
Belf, after making quick eye conversation with the other Council members, “This is agreeable and will definitely make things easier. However, you must request and schedule this with each craftsman and trainer. We are not going to use the authority of the Church of The Fist to force him upon people. That will reduce morale and lower output efficiency.”
There are nods around the room.
“Also, Cleric, what do you mean nuisance?” Belf asks with a leading tone.
I’m getting a bit fidgety, so I climb down from Esmeralda’s lap without resistance and start crawling towards the curtains. I wonder if Wooshy is out hunting right now?
Lady Wisemore springs forward. “Oh, I got this one. So there was this incident that happened a couple months ago. It’s actually how I met Janice here and why she was invited to his trial.”
Lady Wisemore launches into her story, but I know this one so I tune her out. Let’s see… window open, curtains drawn, everyone’s distracted? I crawl behind the curtain and start climbing the inside.
I make it all the way to the top and out the window before I hear Ariebella interrupt the story, “Where’s Ratel?”
I give off my best impression of Wooshy’s shriek to let her know I’m here to play. “Screech!” echoes back. Yay! Wooshy!
“Mreow.” Looking over I see black kitty lazing in the sun nearby. My friends are here!
We spend the rest of the day playing on the wall. I think at some point the pretties came up to check on us. The look on Belf’s face when he saw Wooshy was funny. I know, right? She’s sooo pretty you just stare, right? Belf has good taste in birds.