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Keme was indeed fine, as he repeatedly assured and thanked Gage for. Over the course of the next few weeks, the dwarf stopped in at the healer’s hut every shade day, as the settlement had begun to call it. Shade day was the day payment for the tents was due, every three days. The day to keep the shade for a little bit longer.
It was not uncommon for multiple families or individuals to share a tent to keep costs down. Others had unique or specialized talents that earned them enough tally they could have an entire tent to themselves. For better or worse the routine was firmly set for everyone. The maintenance jobs were the most common and paid the least, but it was steady enough income. As long as you were in line early enough to get a job that day.
By now most tasks knew how many people they needed to function smoothly. The last time someone new had made their way into the settlement was a week before the incident with Keme’s injury. None of those who had left the settlement in an attempt to find their way out of the desert had returned. Since the founding of the settlement only four children had been born. A skryftling who had arrived on her own now raised her baby with her community. A sahra’zar couple had scrimped and saved to hold a small party for their row when their child was born. Finally, there was Nakia, who had become an uncle, his sister having had given birth to twins.
Just as life had come to the settlement, so had death. There had been a few accidents and unfortunate moments among the hunters. Most were simply injuries, but at least five of them had resulted in deaths. Three were inexperienced and two had been more so, but still made a mistake. Then there was the bat-person. He had been discovered on a shade day, passed away in his sleep. Hye-jun had been called and Gage had been left to man the healer’s hut on his own.
The sickness had been something akin to cancer, as Hye-jun had put it. The fact that he had lived so long with how advanced it had been without any medical care boggled her mind. She had been certain he had been in the end stages when he was brought over. Yet he had lived to find the settlement and to even thrive. Only good things had been said about him by his neighbors.
The entire settlement had breathed a collective sigh of relief after Hye-jun had made her announcement about his death. Cancer, while sad, was far less of a concern than a potential disease in an isolated community.
Gage had learned a lot in the last few weeks as well. The sickness scare had put Hye-jun into a frenzy of lessons of dealing with disease, contagion, and quarantine measures. Primarily, she all but beat into him that under no circumstances should he use his all his power to save one person from sickness. To always to keep back some of his power to fight off the infections in himself. He was no good to the living if he let the sickness claim him. It had been the scariest and most worried he had ever seen his teacher.
Hye-jun had, however, begun to allow Gage to work with his Breath more. Specifically, she had wanted to see him wield his Breath and his Nimbus separately as well as together. He learned a lot about the two of them and what he could do with each. His Breath more fine-tuned and allowed him greater control but tended to run out quickly. Nimbus was more powerful and more versatile; he could do more with less. Unlike his Breath it was entirely dependent on the worship of others. As Hye-jun put it, the more worshipers a god had, the more powerful they were and the more devotees they could empower. Clerics, priests, paladins, and more.
Gage kept most of his experiments on himself, only using his Breath on others to check their wounds and learn the anatomies more personally. He had learned quite a bit. A lot of the generic makeup of each species was fairly similar. The bones, blood, and relative organs. There were a few major differences here and there. Some being organs that were species unique, some being wildly varying blood types.
His favorite so far had been Taan. The friendly talasqar had come in for a cracked scale. From what Gage could gather, it was somewhat akin to a chipped tooth. With Hye-jun’s permission, he was easily able to heal it and, in the process, he got a very good understanding of its structure. It was fairly different then the chitin he was familiar with.
This time he used both his Breath and Nimbus as he made the changes to himself. The chitin on his arms, he changed the chitin plates around his forearms to scales of a talasqar. They were heavier, but far more flexible and breathable. After a few days, Gage had decided he liked it so he replaced the plates on his torso with scales as well. The plates on his lower back, shins, and calves he kept. It was not the same as touching his own flesh, but the scales offered far more sensitivity than the chitin plates ever had.
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He learned a lot from this process. By using his Breath to guide his Nimbus, he had managed to complete the changes much faster than before. It had taken less out of him as well. Gage also was able to confirm through all of this that the green flecks that had been in the pink light of his Breath, were in fact the representation of his Nimbus. Now, when Gage meditated, he found both pink and green light inside himself.
Gage’s Haven had also undergone changes. The canyon that had housed his waterfall and pool had expanded. It was more like a small, very small, jungle valley. More like a canyon should look, rather than the grotto it had been before. There was much more plant life and the canyon extended even further downstream. What was strange about it was that on occasion, Gage felt like he could hear voices in the wind. This was his own, personal Haven, so he chalked them up to incoming prayers.
The family had been doing quite well with their endeavors. In fact, the little alajin family had grown. The alajin that Gage had bought his food box from so soon after moving into the settlement had moved in with them. The, now six, alajin were the only ones in the entire settlement. Together Eiravela and Zyme, as the newcomer was named, were able to produce a fair amount of silk. They cornered the market and nearly all cloth was produced through them.
Rashani and Sarnai still ran the day to day of the tent, holding the finances and ordering everything that was needed. From water and food to the furniture and daily comforts. The tent was rearranged slightly, giving the alajin family some more room. Aeliana was pretty much in charge of the tent itself. Everyone went to the family elder, even Elfric, before finalizing anything that wasn’t strictly personal. From the small amount of rumors Gage listened to, it seemed Aeliana was providing something of a tarot service to the desperate. When asked, the elder had simply stated it gave people hope, something to cling to or to blame.
Elfric was still a hunter for the settlement and his party was one of the more successful. Over time, while he still had to be careful with the sun, he had tanned and looked more windswept. He was doing well out in the desert. Sadly, while he had found other vantar in the settlement, their numbers were few, and none were from his village or any of the three clans that had been its primary members. Most of the vantar that was in the settlement were distantly related, which was obvious from the varying shades of grey hair they all sported. Elfric still scoured the desert for any clues of his family whenever he had free time.
Eshu was spending his time being the best dog. The only actual pet in the settlement and to the cleric of Kin, no less, made the dog quite popular. Gage was certain the dog was being spoiled by just about everyone he came across. Eshu was still quite fit and trim, his coat had thinned out in the heat as well, but everyone that passed the dog by gave him a pat. Even the most stubborn of kumdahari guards that they came across enjoyed the dog’s company.
Faelenor made Gage worried. The littlest alajin had been going around and speaking on Kin’s behalf. Not quite to the point of preaching, but the child was eerily good at answering questions to those who asked. The answers Faelenor gave were fairly close to his actual thoughts on things. That Kin was not just a healer, but a god of the body. Faelenor was even able to expound upon what could be considered tenants. It was eerie how spot on the child was with his own mind. So much so that it had gotten to the point Gage had inquired with Ma’tuk out of worry that he was somehow ‘leaking’ and turning Faelenor into a devoted.
The archon reassured him that that was not the case. Faelenor was an alajin and the child of a powerful diviner and one who was attuned with the spirits. It was more likely, as far as Ma’tuk could tell, that Faelenor was something similar to the two. That the child was attuned to the ebb and flow of Kin from being, unknowingly, in such close proximity. That they were simply divining the truths. The archon had said that maybe, later on in life, Faelenor might seek to become a devoted if they kept on this path.
It had made Gage uncomfortable for a little while, until he started to see the effect it had on people. There was still a lot of tension in the settlement, primarily between the kumdahari and everyone else. It put a lot of people on edge. After speaking with Faelenor, many of them went away from the conversation more relaxed and at ease. It got Gage thinking that perhaps, at some point, clergy would not be a bad idea. It would save him from needing to explain himself all the time.
In the last week some of the sahra’zar had set up a shrine in the merchants’ bazaar. It was unaffiliated with any god. Instead, one of the sand crafters would make a little effigy for loved ones who were missing. It would then be placed on the shrine with a small offering. There was not a single refugee, and even some kumdahari, who did not place at least one effigy on the memorial. Each time Gage passed it, he hoped that one day, they would find the edge of the desert and maybe some of these people could be reunited with their loved ones.