“And Xeph is truly willing to gift us one of these ‘tide towers’?” the farmer asked incredulously. He glanced between Callan and Kivi, then back again.

The priestess nodded. “That is correct, Restaro.”

“Forgive me if I don’t quite believe it’s from the goodness of his heart.”

I don’t have a heart, Xeph grumbled. A smile twitched at the corners of Callan’s mouth, but he kept it under control, lest the farmer and his wife notice. He leaned back and let Kivi argue her case.

“It is not just for your benefit. There are also other families here on the lower end of the plateau, are there not? I happen to know that a lilish community lives not a half-hour walk from your farm. You are not the only family that might seek shelter during a particularly bad moonrise.”

“Hmm.” Restaro eyed Callan for a moment. Honestly, what was this guy’s deal? Callan understood if he didn’t want to offer his faith, but what was he so afraid of otherwise? He had been giving them all the stink-eye since they first sat down to eat.

Speaking of which. He turned back to the plate in front of him and helped himself to another spoonful.

When they’d first been invited to eat, Callan had worried it might be more spirebeans, but apparently such fare wasn’t known to those who didn’t live under a pythian tray. Their meal had included a variety of vegetables that Callan dimly recognized, along with golden loaves of bread made from a grain the farmer referred to as adle. Callan didn’t know enough about heirloom varieties from Earth to be certain if he should recognize this one or not.

Across from him, Sadie gave a demure smile and offered the plate of rolls. Callan took one with a whispered thanks. At least the wife seemed amenable to them.

Of course, she’d already sworn an oath. Was that usual in this world, for couples not to share religions? He’d have to ask Kivi later.

“How long do you expect the work to take?” Restaro was asking, still grilling Kivi about her proposed plan. “If you intend to be the rest of the season about it...”

“I assure you, the work will not be nearly so long. A day, no more.”

“Is that so?” The man sounded incredulous. Probably hadn’t seen an avatar work their magic before. Or a priest, for that matter, since Kivi would have been without her powers last time she passed this way. “In that case, you’re welcome to use my barn while you’re at it and join my wife and I at table for supper. I know it’ll please her to have someone new to show off our son to.”

Sadie let out a little laugh at that. “You assume I’ll let anyone but the high priestess near him! Men’s hands aren’t meant for the handling of delicate things like babes.”

“Hey, I’ve held a baby before,” Callan said, swallowing down the rest of his role. To be fair, it was only once, for about thirty seconds at a family reunions while some second cousin hunted in her diaper bag for a fresh packet of wipes. But he hadn’t panicked or accidentally dropped it, so he was willing to count that as a win.

The rutain woman gave him another demure smile but said nothing. Kivi scooted closer so she could coo over the babe that was swaddled and resting in a nearby crib. Turning back, she said, “I’m quite happy to monopolize all of this one’s time, if I’m able. Have you picked a name since I was last here?”

“Not yet. We’re waiting until after the harvest, as is proper.”

Kivi nodded sagely, as if this made perfect sense. Maybe it did, by this world’s standards. Callan wasn’t going to judge.

“Avatar, why don’t you take the other priests to get settled in the barn. I’ll stay here and help Sadie clean up,” Kivi said after a few minutes. That sounded like a far better plan than sitting in awkward silence with Restaro staring at him, so Callan nodded and climbed to his feet. Bidding the farmer and his wife good night, he led Paeral and Sworv out into the dark.

“Okay, I hope one of you two knows which of these buildings is the barn, because I’m completely stumped,” he said once they were outside.

Sworv pointed toward a squat building near the far side of the stone wall. “I believe that is it, Avatar, over there. The only other building?”

“Ah, yep. That makes sense.”

Are you trying to appear dull-witted to endear yourself to our priests, mortal? Xeph asked. Because I can think of several better ways to go about it.

“Geez, Xeph, give a guy a break. It was just a little joke.” Rolling his eyes, Callan followed after the two lud.

They found the inside of the barn reasonably dry, though the floor had a layer of straw on it that Callan guessed was freshly applied after the last moonrise. On that note, he glanced towards the back of the barn, and was pleased to see a loft, accessible by a rope ladder, leading up to more bales of straw.

“At least we won’t have to worry about getting swept away tonight,” he said half-jokingly. At least, he hoped it was joking. If there had really been risk of another tide, likely Restaro and his family would have fled to high ground already.

“There is little worry of that tonight, Avatar,” Sworv said, helping to further chase away his worries. “Already the Cavalier moon is retreating. See?”

Callan glanced behind him and saw the moon rising again in the distance. Even half-hidden behind the hill, he could tell it was significantly smaller than it had been last night. Did that mean it was further away now? What sort of orbit did these moons have, anyway?

“One less thing to worry about. Hey, I call top bunk!” He made for the ladder. The two older lud glanced at each other before following.

The loft ran most of the length of the barn and was filled with all manner of farming implements, in addition to bundles of straw. Which made sense to Callan, given what he’d learned. You wouldn’t want anything you couldn’t live without getting carried away by the next tide.

Still, the way the floor creaked ominously as the others climbed up did worry him a bit.

“You think we’ll be okay up here? Seems like this place is bursting at the seams as it is already.”

Sworv glanced about nervously at this, but Paeral merely shook his head and patted a beam overhead. “You need not worry, Avatar. This Restaro knows his business. The quality of his woodworking here could rival any of my own.”

“You’re a woodworker?” Callan asked, blinking in surprise.

In hindsight, he shouldn’t have been so surprised by that. After all, Paeral had until recently been a member of the Biiran caste, and Kivi had just gotten done telling him that those were the craftsmen of lud society. So the man must have possessed one skill or another.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

Mostly, he just felt bad that it had never occurred to him to ask. They’d been on this journey for several days, and he hadn’t bothered to learn anything about either of the men.

Well, no time like the present to make up for it.

Paeral nodded at the question. “That is correct, Avatar. As my father was before me, and my son Ignus will be one day.”

“Oh. I didn’t know you had a son as well. You’ll have to introduce me when we return.”

Immediately, Callan realized he’d said something he shouldn’t have. Paeral’s face crumpled inward.

“Would that I could, Avatar. Unfortunately, he was one of the first taken by Zavastu. I hope to see him returned to us, but until then...”

He trailed off, and an awkward silence settled over the barn. Callan glanced between both lud, then cleared his throat. “Sworv, what about you? Any children I should know about?”

“Not I, avatar. I considered it during my youth, but given that any wife I took would only be able to bear a single child, I never saw the point.”

Callan winced. Right. Stupid baby-murdering caste rules. Somehow he’d managed to stumble right from one embarrassing subject to another without hardly stopping for breath. He grasped for any subject to try and lighten up the mood.

He needn’t have bothered. The two brothers managed it for him.

“Certainly wasn’t from a lack of trying,” Paeral said with a soft snort, glancing at Sworv. “There was a time when it was difficult to find an unmarried woman in the village you hadn’t bedded. A few of the married ones, besides.”

Sworv glowered. “Not this again. Just because Revak fancied me before she did you isn’t my fault. That one has too much of her mother in her.”

“You only went after her because you knew I wanted to court her!”

“After her? She climbed through my window, brother, not the other way around.”

“Yet now she warms my bed—”

“Whoa, hold on a minute.” Callan stepped between the two men. He was half afraid they were about to come to blows, and half chagrined he’d just heard a grown-ass man use the word ‘fancied’ with a straight face. “What’s all this about?”

“Revak. My wife.” Paeral said, ignoring Callan to stare daggers at his brother. “He never forgave me for winning her heart. Not that he had any chance. Revak wasn’t about to descend to Daisa caste for a mere dalliance."

“And I already told you, it was always her that did the pursuing,” Sworv spat back. “You’re just afraid she’s going to go looking the moment you turn your back. Wouldn’t surprise me if she did. Like mother, like daughter, that one.”

“YOU INSOLENT—” Paeral froze as Callan’s hand clamped down on his shoulder. More than the seventeen Brawn flowing through him, his expression drew the other man up short. “Apologies, Avatar. You should not be forced to listen to the bickering of two old men.”

“Yeah, not exactly disagreeing with you there.” He released Paeral, and the two lud retreated to opposite corners where they sat in silence.

Hmm. That could certainly have gone better, Xeph noted as Callan’s gaze flicked back and forth.

Callan nodded in silent agreement but refrained from saying so out loud. Instead, he tried again to switch to a more neutral topic.

“So hey, do either of you two know why Kivi—ah, the high priestess—was lying to Restaro back there?”

“Avatar?” Sworv glanced up from picking idly at a hay bale with a look of confusion. “What do you mean?”

“Just all that nonsense she spewed about building a tower to aid the other families in the area.”

“You think that was ‘nonsense’?” Paeral asked. He’d also quickly traded in his expression of smoldering rage for a more inquisitive one.

“I mean, yeah? If we were really doing this for any of his neighbors, why not pick a more central location? But she wants me to build a tower right here next to this farm. She’s doing this specifically for Restaro, if I had to guess.”

Paeral shook his head. “The high priestess would not engage in such subterfuge. You must be misunderstanding the situation.”

“The avatar is not,” Kivi said. She pulled herself up into the loft and glanced between Callan and the two older men. “I do have a reason for trying to win Restaro’s favor.”

Callan frowned. “And why is that?”

“It is a personal reason, between his wife, Sadie, and myself. I ask you to respect their privacy, Avatar, and trust that I know what I am doing.”

“Sure, I guess I can do that.”

“Thank you.” Kivi’s expression softened. “Now, it is past time we slept. There is much work to be done tomorrow, and days yet to travel.”

----------------------------------------

Human.

Human.

CALLAN!

“Huh? Whazzit?” Callan sat up, bleary eyed, and glanced around. A bit of stray straw tumbled out of his hair and landed in his lap.

Oh, good, you’re awake. I was afraid you had nodded off and forgotten your promise.

“Promise?”

*Sigh*. You still need to practice your bounty manipulations. I allowed you to skip yesterday—

“Yeah, because were almost drowned by a literal flood,” hissed Callan. He glanced around, but none of his companions stirred.

—But missing two nights is simply unacceptable. There should be sufficient moonlight by now. And since you weren’t sleeping anyway...

Callan muttered something impolite under his breath, then crept over to the ladder. He descended silently and made his way out of the barn.

Outside, he found Xeph was right. The Cavalier moon was now overhead, and while much smaller than last night, it was still plenty of light to see by. A second moon glowed near the horizon, but it was miniscule, barely a crumb in comparison.

The Cairn, Xeph said to his unanswered question.

“Wait, is that what people mean when they refer to the Cairn? I just assumed it was like their version of heaven or something.”

It is. Or at least it was during the last age. The spirits of the dead gather upon the Cairn and await their time to be reborn. Foolish superstition, but it did not interfere with our worship, so my fellow gods and I allowed it.

“Don’t suppose you remember all of these moons, do you?” Callan asked. “I keep meaning to try to wheedle their names out of Kivi.”

Hmm, let me see... Brigand, Butcher, Cairn, Cavalier, Countess—

“Actually, never mind. No way I’m ever going to remember all of those.”

Just as well. You have work to do, and little remaining moonlight in which to do them.

Callan spread his feet and took a deep breath. “More practice with Mountainform?”

No. I feel you have made sufficient progress with that for the moment. More urgent is for you to master control over your Wurmchain. It will be important in the battles to come with this other avatar.

“We don’t even know if we’ll be fighting this other avatar. In fact, if everything goes according to plan, we won’t be fighting at all.” Still, Callan summoned his Wurmchain, dismissing the interface message about it before he could even read it. He glared at the weapon.

“I haven’t made any headway in moving the tip yet. Which, according to you, is the easier task.”

True.

Callan waited for some sort of follow-up to this statement. When none was forthcoming, he sighed and set to work trying to clear his mind and find the energy of the Wurmchain dwelling within him.

Yeah. No matter what Xeph said otherwise, this still felt like mystic mumbo-jumbo.

Despite that, he found the weapon’s source after a bit of soul searching. With some further mental straining, he successfully slid the spiked tip of the Wurmchain down, just a few notches. Not much, but it was something.

Alert: 1% Apotheosis used.

Total Apotheosis is now 1%

Opening his eyes, Callan noted that the Cavalier moon had almost reached the opposite horizon. The Cairn had slipped out of sight entirely. It seemed his training session for the night was over.

As he made his way back towards the barn, he paused by the wall running alongside it. His fingers ran over the surface, feeling the surface change from rough to smooth as they encountered first one stone and then another.

Something on your mind, mortal?

“Hmm? Oh, just mulling things over. Hey, I’ve got a question. How far down is it to the bedrock?”

Technically, quite deep. However, a layer of caprock lies directly beneath us, which I believe is closer to what you are asking about. Xeph went silent for a moment. Interesting. It is rather shallow here. No more than a foot beneath the surface regolith in places. Quite concerning.

Callan didn’t know nearly enough geology to be familiar with all of those terms, but he got the general idea. “I suspected as much. If this place gets hit regularly by high tides like we saw on the last plateau, it wouldn’t take much to wash all the dirt away.”

This is true. But how does it relate to our current task here?

“Dunno yet. Maybe it doesn’t.” He shrugged. “It’s too late to be thinking about it right now, anyway. We’ll talk about it more in the morning.”

Very well. I’ll assist with any further questions however I am able.

“Thanks, Xeph.” Callan stepped back inside the barn. “Oh, and one more thing.”

Yes?

“Please don’t even scream in my ear to wake me up again. You’re lucky I didn’t fall out of the loft.”

You and I both know that’s not a promise I can keep, human.