It was early and I felt a wave of cold hit me before the covers returned. Soft light in the room pushed back the dark and let me see Gloria in a wonderful, naked profile. The weak, flickering candle played its yellow light over her and made me want to pounce out of bed, grab her, and pull her back. "Leaving early?" I asked.

"Sorry, Dusky, but I'm on the clock today. I'm allowed a night of rest before a journey, but I can't delay." Real sorrow touched her voice.

She picked up her clothes, which had been cleaned and folded on a chair for her, and started with her socks.

I watched and waited until she had her underwear and pants on before I asked, "What about just a kiss?"

Looking back at me, Gloria's lips pulled into a smile and her eyes danced. "A kiss will be fine. You waited until I got my pants on so we wouldn't—?" At my nod, she walked over to the bed and leaned over me.

On my back, with a strong woman leaning over me, I let myself melt into the kiss. Our tongues danced and we both made happy, hungry noises and didn't break apart until we were both satisfied. My hands were still on her cheeks as she drew back from me. She probably had as much trouble seeing my face as I did hers, but it didn't stop us from gazing into each other's eyes for almost as long as the kiss had lasted. "You need to go," I said.

"I'll make a note of your standing, Dusky." She straightened up, her chest showing off the chill in the air. She pulled her shirt on and started fastening the buttons.

For a moment I pondered just watching her keep going, but then I sighed. "I might as well start the day too." Slipping my legs out first, I felt the cold tingle along my flesh before my natural resistance to the elements kicked in. Gloria, however, had completely stopped getting dressed to watch me.

A thrill ran up my spine as I realized I'd completely distracted her from getting dressed. Turning around, trying to not feel self-conscious, I bent over the bed and pulled the covers back up to neaten them. It was an excuse to show off my butt to her, really, and nothing more.

When I turned back around, Gloria quickly tried to look away, but then glanced back to me and sighed. "Damn but you're making this hard."

"Would it help if I put some clothes on?" I asked, grabbing a robe and wrapping it around myself.

She actually gulped, but a moment later she resumed getting dressed. "You're a worse tease than I am. If you're ever in the Shining City, ask around for me." With the buttons of her shirt fastened, Gloria lifted her tight, corset-like leather armor and pulled it around her waist. I had to bite my lower lip at what it did for her chest—the tightness of the garment lifted and supported her, giving her the illusion of much bigger breasts. "You should try one. Nothing says a healer can't wear a little tougher stuff under their robes, right?"

That sparked so many thoughts in my head I must have been standing like an idiot staring at her. Would the game world stop me putting armor on? Would it make it so I couldn't do anything with it on? How hot would I look in a corset like that?

"And you tuned out. What I want to know is, are you imagining what you'd look like in a corset or how the armor might help?" Gloria's insight was annoying, but earned her a groan from me. "You're off to have a bath?"

"Yeah."

"Tempting, but I'm on the clock." Gloria picked up her saddlebags and hefted them over one shoulder. "I hope I see you again, Dusky. It's been a lot of fun." And with that she left my bedroom and my life.

I sighed at the door. I could have probably gotten her to stay for a little more fun, but I couldn't do that to her. None of these people were NPCs anymore. They were living and—and alive. They had things to do that didn't revolve around a player character.

The world was changing and being less game-like. How long until levels and skills and everything was gone and I was just a healer struggling to learn spells I had no idea how to work?

Well, I'd at least be able to punch. Okay, so I had more things to do. Learn how to take hits, get more levels, prepare in case leveling starts to go away, and keep praying to Molly. She had been nothing like I expected. The gold armor and everything had been cool, but seeing the real her was better.

Taking a deep breath and letting it out, I got myself squared away, left my room and—after relieving myself in the appropriate room, headed for the bathroom. Opening the bathroom door revealed the room already filled with hot steam. I dumped my bathrobe at the door and climbed up the steps before slipping down into the hot water.

"Up a bit early, lass?" It was the Dwarf from last night. He was sitting in the water across from me up to his neck in it thanks to his size. "Sorry if I startled ya."

So I'd just flashed him everything. Well, everything except my butt. Did I feel violated? Not particularly—also, it was my own damn fault. "Just getting an early start on the day. Also, it's fine."

"Mosta the Elves down yonder are a mite more prudish. Some wouldn't even be in the same tavern as a Dwarf. I guess you don't mix much with them, aye?" He pulled a pipe out of the water, flicked a little cover off the end of it, and pressed the thin end into his mouth. It was probably the most Dwarf thing I'd seen in my life.

"I'm only half, but yeah. I've never been outside of Northwind." Kinda a lie, but the truth too. Just like saying I was Espy Death in a former life. "Trying to get some more combat experience for now, though, so not thinking about meeting whatever kin I might have down south."

When he gestured to the bowl of his pipe, a little spark jumped from his finger into it and a little trail of blue smoke curled out of it. "Not a bad idea. Hardening yourself up is another part of that. This world ain't a kind one to those who ain't ready for it."

Was he trying to act all mysterious and wise for a reason? I mean, of course I was trying to get stronger, I'd practically told him that last night. I was about to ask him what he thought of healers when the door opened. Turning my head, I spotted a small and green shape in the steam. "Good morning, Caprice."

"Dusky! Caprice wondered where you were." She hadn't been wearing a bathrobe but a simple dress that she kicked her way out of and climbed into the bath. "Oh, hello. Caprice didn't see you, Mr. Farithson. Are you having a good morning?"

The Dwarf nodded his head with a simple dip. "I am indeed, Miss Caprice. I was just conversing with your friend here." He gestured to me with his pipe. She said she was trying to become an adventurer."

I hadn't actually said that, but I guess he could kind of assume it. Well, why not go all-in? "Not just me, right Caprice?"

Giggling, Caprice nodded. "Caprice is a Beastmaster. You saw Mr. Cuddles?" She looked at the Dwarf.

"Aye. Big tiger, yeah? Right friendly little thing, too." He looked back at me. "So then, lass, you want to learn some fighting outside your Healer skills, right?" When I nodded, he smirked. "Well, I can teach you some knife work if you'd like?"

It was an odd offer. A really odd offer. On one hand it would be good to learn that and learn what it's like to get cut by knives and daggers so I can heal my way through them, but what was his angle? There was always some he—Oh. Now I think I kinda get it. Alone time with a half-Elf who he knows was sleeping with another guest. Fuck, did he think I was…

"Oh! Dusky! That would be good, right? Caprice could come too and learn to use a knife." Her reply made me look at Caprice, only to catch her looking back—and she winked with the eye turned away from the Dwarf.

We both turned to look at the Dwarf, though he seemed completely unfazed by the extra student idea. "You could, at that. If you two ladies would be so kind as to give me about, oh, an hour of the clock, I'll get some things ready. I don't have any meetings planned until the afternoon."

When he stood up, I turned back to Caprice to give him some modesty—and to make sure I didn't see anything I truly didn't want to see. "So I guess I'll help you get your work done early then?"

Caprice's eyes lit up and she squealed in excitement. When she inevitably hugged me, I squeezed back for all I was worth. Was it odd to hug her while we were both naked? I mean, kinda, but not really, not anymore? Who knows. We scrubbed each other clean—with Caprice giving me instructions on how to work sand over Kobold scales—and left the bathroom to get ready to face the day.

So I got my cleaning dress on and, with Caprice, set about to clean and tidy the tavern as quickly as we could. The work seemed easier today. Knowing what Caprice wanted me to do meant I could clean one room while she did the next. All too soon we had all the empty rooms cleaned and were heading down to the taproom together for some breakfast.

With half the occupants of the rooms having gotten up, had breakfast, and left already, it was reasonably quiet as Caprice and I sat at a table eating porridge together. Stuffing the food in as quick as we could, we didn't get so much as a word out before we were done and standing up.

"I'll wash them if you want?" I asked.

"Dusky is feeling good today? Had a nice night with Gloria?" Far from leaving me with all the dishes, Caprice carried her own to the kitchen with me.

As we walked into the kitchen, I realized I hadn't actually been in here before. Scanning the room, I spotted a large tub with water in it and soap bubbles around the rim. "Y-Yeah. She had to go real early, though. She's a courier." I followed Caprice's lead and scraped off my plate with a small wooden spatula thing.

"Yup. Grand Kingdom if Caprice's guess on the picture on her pack was right. Nice people from there. A little strict sometimes, but nice." She reached one arm into the water and pulled out a scrubbing brush she used on her bowl and mug. When she was done, I did the same with mine.

"She seemed pretty free-spirited." I couldn't help but smirk a little at that. The moment I finished with my own mug and set it on the big drying rack, a message popped up.

> Congratulations on reaching level 3 Barmaid!

I stared at the backwards writing for a second before it clicked. "Huh, I just leveled up Barmaid again."

On reflection I should have been ready for the hug from Caprice. She caught me up in her strong arms and squeezed me tightly until I hugged back. "Yay! What level is Dusky now?"

"Level 3." There was no good in fighting a Caprice hug, you just had to hug back and hope your spine would survive. "I'll have to check what it gives me later."

"Wha? Why not check now?" Caprice let go and stepped back from her, her hands balled into fists and planted on hips that Kobolds just didn't have.

"Because we're going to go learn knife fighting from a Dwarf who might have been trying to come onto me," I said.

Grinning, Caprice giggled. "Caprice wasn't sure if Dusky figured that out. He was, you know."

"My own fault—kinda. I didn't see him in the bath when I walked in. There was a lot of steam and I just stripped off. First moment I knew he was there I made sure to keep my shoulders at the waterline." Being punched in the arm, even by a Kobold, wasn't as much of a shock anymore. "What?"

"It's not Dusky's fault. He looked at Dusky and made his own mind up. Dusky doesn't have to do anything Dusky doesn't want to. Caprice will punch him if he tries." She stacked her cutlery and plate with the other clean one. "Unless Dusky wants a little company?"

I froze. The question hit me harder than her fist had. Looking at her, it was obvious by her expression she was joking. "Caprice, if I catch you I'm going to…"

"Going to what? Dusky wouldn't hurt Caprice." She shuffled out of the way as I closed with her position and put my own things away.

She was right. Instead of anything else I could think of, I grabbed Caprice up in a hug and squeezed her. "No, but I would hug you until even you grew tired of it."

"That, Dusky, is not possible. Caprice always wants all the hugs." As if to demonstrate, she put an arm around me and with her strength alone guided us both out of the kitchen and into the taproom again.

We both paused as the Dwarf from earlier was standing by the doorway. "Ah, there's the two lasses I hoped to see. Do you want to practice in your dresses or are you going to find something a little more appropriate?"

Was that him trying to poke fun at our clothes? Ugh, now I was thinking I might just tell him where he can put his knives. Caprice, however, laughed as if it was the funniest thing she'd ever heard. "Caprice and Dusky be right back."

Still with our arms around each other, we headed upstairs and Caprice turned to me. "Dusky is going to owe Caprice after this."

"Maybe we should go down and tell him no?" I asked.

"Dusky wants to learn this?" When I nodded, Caprice reached up to pat my shoulder. "Then Caprice put up with Fagin. Go in and put on a normal shirt and trousers. Caprice put them on Dusky's bed while she was in the bath."

Reaching for my door, I opened it and went inside. Sure enough, there was an old-looking shirt and trousers on my bed. I guess Caprice chose them because they were old and didn't matter if they got ruined.

Slipping out of the dress still wasn't easy, but I was getting practice at it. I set it down on the bed and then went to my drawers and pulled out the one bra-thing I owned. "I guess I need to buy more clothes. I can't exactly keep having Caprice wash my things every day."

Lifting out the top, I worked myself into it and tied up the laces that made it surprisingly comfortable to wear. Next I pulled the shirt on and pulled on the pants. The only thing that kept the pants up was a cord around the waist, so I got them over my hips and then tied them up.

The trousers were a little scratchy and the shirt felt really thin in places, but I guess it was going to get sliced up pretty good today. Deciding that my good boots I wore as part of my fighting gear would do, I slipped out of the work shoes and into those.

I jumped up, feeling a lot better in more normal clothes (for a guy at least). That reminded me of Gloria and what she wore. Biting my lower lip, I wondered how some tailor made pants and a corset would fit and feel. Would it make me feel more or less womanly? Do I even know the difference anymore?

Opening the door, I stepped out and saw Caprice coming down the hall. She wore much the same as me, though the fabric around her ankles was tied up and her sleeves were rolled just to reveal her hands. Somehow, in some twist of magic, she looked even cuter like this. "Looking good, Caprice."

Her eyes widened and she blinked a few times before breaking into a huge smile. "Dusky! No coming on to Caprice!" A giggle from her tipped me off she was only joking.

"Silly Kobold, it was just a compliment. Come on and let's see if we can learn something or if we'd be better off practicing with our fists."

The Dwarf, Fagin (at least that's what Caprice had called him), was waiting still and his eyes seemed to fixate on me. Because of course they did. "There ya are. Come on and let me show ya how to hold a knife."

That was a surprise. We didn't go outside to swing knives at each other—we just sat at a table and he showed us how to hold a knife so that the most amount of blade and point were always pointed at the enemy.

Well, that was easy. Him teaching me how to hold my arm and move the knife so I could use it to stop things coming at me was harder. "So if I get this right, I should be able to stop anyone else with a knife?" I asked.

Fagin laughed. "Lass, if someone's at least as good as you are with a knife, you'll both get cut pretty bad. What you need to do is make sure they get cut worse and more. You do that by being better and faster.

"Now, the best thing about this is we can practice it indoors. Take your knife and stand wherever you want and then try to stop me hitting you with a stick."

Well, a stick wouldn't hurt more than a fist. I stood up, picked up the knife I'd been practicing with, and found a nice open spot between four tables. Positioning my feet like I had when fist-fighting, I held the knife out before me as Fagin had shown me.

"Good stance, nice pose. Now, I'll come at you in all the ways you should expect first. Be ready." The first round of swings he made were slow. I brought my knife up as he'd shown and stopped each one. I had to admit, for all his sleeziness he'd shown, he knew his stuff. "Now let's go faster."

He didn't lie. Each set of swings—attacks he'd shown me how to make at the table—came faster and faster until the branch hit my knuckles, then my forearm, then all over the place as he sped up to a point where I could only block half of his swings.

"Alright, halt there. Little miss Kobold, why don't you try?"

Walking back to the table, I focused on myself and cast, "Weak Heal." The warm rush of my own magic eased the pain in my arm and made it much easier to focus on watching Caprice fight the Dwarf.

At first, like with me, he made slow swings that she quickly got her blade against. Then he started going faster and faster. Eventually the branch hit her forearm and there was a dull crack as it broke over her thickened arm.

"Ha! Caprice win!" She lowered her weapon. "Does Mr. Farithson have more sticks?"

"Nah. Figured by the time one o' you broke it we could move to the real thing. How about it?" As he spoke, Fagin drew a long-bladed knife from his belt.

Raising her blade, Caprice took a combat stance. "Caprice is okay with this. With Dusky here, no one will be hurt for long."

I gave her thumbs up for that.

"Okay, lass, come at me if you want. We'll see how far we go until things get serious." Fagin took his own stance, one that looked more balanced on his front foot. Then he lunged at Caprice.

The clash of steel on steel reminded me of the kind of fighting Taffy and Chloe did when they parried and knocked aside strikes. The only difference here was things happened way faster. There was a quick back-and-forth where they struck and blocked each shot, then Caprice managed to nick Fagin's arm.

"Nice touch. Now let's see if we can speed up a bit before we test out yon Elf again." Fagin picked up speed now. The blades of both of them flashed and struck, and though Caprice was still making a few attacks, it was Fagin that was on the offensive. Eventually he struck home against Caprice's arm—only for her scales to deflect the blade. "Ha! And that's a good reminder that sometimes—even if yer faster and better than the other guy—you're not going to win a knife fight. Are all yer scales that thick?"

"Caprice is a digger-caste Kobold. Arms strongest part. Come on, Dusky's turn now." She looked over at me and nodded.

Walking over, I first stopped Caprice and looked at her arm. There was a slight scratch on the thick forearm scales. "Can't have you getting scars just from this. Weak Heal." Without my staff, I could feel that my spells were weaker and took more effort to cast, probably just more mana—not that I could see my mana bar.

The little mark on her scales was gone.

"Dusky is too nice." She walked over to where I'd been sitting and turned so she could watch us.

Walking past the Dwarf, I felt more than a little nervous. If he got me in the same way he got Caprice, I would have a long cut down my arm. Well, I can heal that, so it didn't matter. Adjusting my stance, I brought my knife up in a defensive position and let out a held breath. "I'm ready."

He came at me fast. At least, it seemed fast. I brought my knife into position to block his slice and followed up with one of my own that he had to block.

We went back and forth a few times before he started the same speedup he'd done with Caprice. His knife flashed in fast, again and again, and soon I realized I had no chance to get my own counter-swings. In a moment he'd actually cut me if I didn't think of something.

He came in again, faster than before, and while I managed to block the first two flashes of his knife, I knew I wouldn't get out of this run unscathed. Rather than just passively let him stab me in the arm, I parried his knife out a bit to the side—leaving me open but also making him take longer to get back into position—and swung my off-hand in and against his ribs.

If I'd thought his knife had moved fast before, it must have moved a hundred times faster now. The pain that blossomed in my arm was similar to the arrow that'd hit me. I looked at where his knife was—and the blossoming red stain on my shirt, and struggled through the pain to keep from losing it.

"Shit, shit, shit. Sorry, lass, are you alright?" Fagin let go of his knife and stepped back from me, hands raised to show they were empty.

I wasn't alright—I had a dagger jammed through my forearm so far the blade tip was coming out the other side. Looking at it, the arm almost seemed to belong to someone else. "Yeah, just a little surprised." There had been a fair bit of blood at first, but it seemed like less and less was coming out. "Uh, if I pull this out to heal, it's going to go everywhere, isn't it?"

Caprice started coming over, but I waved her back. "Dusky?"

"I got this. Let's see, the best way to do this is…" Setting the knife I still had down, I reached over with my right hand and took a steady grip on the dagger. Little white flickers of light accompanied the pain that grabbing the weapon caused. "Channel Life."

The blood faded from around the wound, but I only had a little bit of time to get the blade out. I clenched every muscle in my body and, trying to ignore it, pulled the knife out.

Smooth, like drawing a knife from a sheath, only the agony was left behind. Agony that quickly faded as my spell pulsed once—closing the wound—then a second time to wipe out all trace of pain. The spell continued to tick, little bubbling bursts of healing magic that continued while I held the bloody knife in my right hand.

Turning the blade around, I offered it to Fagin handle first.

"Are you alright?" he asked again, taking the knife back and pulling out an old and dirty rag to wipe it on.

"Yeah. Yeah, I am. So what next?" I reached over to the table and retrieved the knife I'd been using. One thing I'd noticed was that the sleeve of the shirt hadn't repaired itself with my heal spell. Maybe that only worked on adventuring gear?

Laughing, Fagin took up an offensive stance again. "I gotta apologize, lass. Figured you were just looking fer a reason to raise yer skirt. That's my bad. You really wanna learn this."

I mean, it kinda made sense. He thought I was looking for an excuse to fuck him? Despite my disgust at that, I got my knife up and held ready. "Yeah I wanna learn. Besides—and I don't mean this personally—but I like women."

His laughter only got louder, but then was drowned out by the sound of our blades clashing. This time he seemed to move faster than before—though not as fast as when he stabbed me. "Then I really need to apologize. Sometimes you get a bit lonely on the road—even with all your brothers around you. Nice work blocking. Feel free to try more punches, but I can't promise I won't take a swing at yer arm again."

I reached forward with a slice and forced him to back up, then I swapped hands with the blade. His look of surprise made me feel good about doing it. "Maybe I'll hit you with the other arm?"

After a few minutes I realized I wasn't quite as good with my left arm as I was with the right. I had a few little cuts and slices, but I'd also managed to punch him in the ribs once—though that had been like punching steel-reinforced-concrete.

Time seemed to get away from me. I kept sparring with Fagin until finally a voice shouted my name.

"Hey! Dusky! You gonna help with lunch?" It was Jules calling.

I backed away from Fagin and realized I felt pooped. It had been a lot of work to try to keep up with him. I turned to look at Jules. "You want me on the bar?" Her nod was all the answer I needed. "Sorry, Fagin, I'll have to go do some work now." I held out the knife to Fagin—handle first.

"Nah, lass. Consider it my way of sayin' sorry for the misconception." Fagin slid his own knife back into a sheath at his side. "I best be headin' off, anyway. Got some goods to move. If yer ever in the Underkingdom, ask around for Fagin Farithson. Assuming you just want a drink an not anything more." He gave me a wink and walked out of the bar—leaving me to watch him go.

"Dusky!"

"Coming, Jules. You want me to get changed into my work things?" When I looked over to her, the bar was two rows of people deep needing drinks. Okay, so not enough time. I rushed over and slipped behind the bar beside her and started taking orders.

Only when we got everyone their drinks and everything had calmed down did I finally turn to Jules. "Now want me to get changed?"

"You were doing fine as you were, but it would be a good idea. You're such a great help, Dusky." She slipped to the side to let me get past her and leave the bar area.

"I'll be right back," I said.

My run through the taproom and up the stairs reminded me how good pants were. But pants weren't what barmaids wore. I got changed as quickly as I could and stared at my shirt. It was bloodstained and had slices and stab holes in it all over the place. Had I been showing off too much at the bar before? Had that old Dwarf tried to strip me out of it during practice?

And what if he had. I realized the bra-thing under it had seemed to fix itself. Was that the game's modesty system trying to assert itself, or was it just that was considered part of my adventuring gear?

These thoughts weren't helping run the bar. I finished buttoning up the back of my dress and made my way out of my room and down the stairs. Jules was still behind the bar, so I rushed over there to help. It was odd, but I think I could move almost as fast in a dress as in pants. "Your rescuer is here, boss."

"Keep on top of this lot. Shout if you get too swamped." Jules darted toward the kitchen almost at a run.

"Alright, does anyone need a drink? What about a heal spell?" The second occurred to me to ask. I'm not sure why I did, but it seemed right. Besides, in my head I could already work out how much it should cost to get healing spells cast—crazy amounts, honestly.

My trained (well, with a few levels in it now I like to think it's trained) skill as a Barmaid twitched and I turned my head just as a woman at the bar put a few coins down. "Hey, uh, how much for a beer and fixing this burn I got earlier?"

Walking over to her, I could see the angry red mark up her otherwise pale arm. I poured her an ale and looked at the wound. It looked like a nasty burn of some kind. "Uh, how about a couple of coppers?"

She stared at me like I was crazy. "It's not much, really. Here"—unsure which spell to use, I figured a bigger one might be a good idea—"Major Heal." The burn mark faded quickly, even without my Healer gear my magic was still pretty powerful. "So, uh, two coppers?"

Okay, I might have sold that a bit cheap, but it was hardly something that took work. I could stand here and cast heals all day long. She reached out a shaking hand and dropped two coppers on the bar that I slipped into the cash jar.

While I served someone else, a murmuring started going around the bar, and next thing I knew everyone who came for a refill on their order had an extra two coppers for me. As I cast a Major Heal for each of them, I started to feel how the drain on my mana affected me. At first it was just a slight tingling in the back of my neck, but then each cast started to result in that tingling growing stronger and eventually I could really get some feel for it.

Then it happened. I tried to cast a heal on a guy with a bad knee, only for my spell to fizzle.

"Somethin' wrong, miss?" he asked.

"I just need some more mana. Gimme a second. Focus." I could feel the rush of magic, but more importantly I could feel its effect. The weakness and tingling faded over a few minutes and eventually I felt restored. I hadn't realized I'd closed my eyes, but when I opened them the guy was standing back patiently. "Okay, let's try that again. Major Heal."

As soon as my hand touched his knee, I could see muscles twisting a little and the joint straighten out. I leaned back and stood up straight only to get grabbed in a hug.

"That damn knee's been causing me hell for over a year. Thank ya." There was nothing creepy about this hug. The old guy was actually crying. What else could I do but hug him back.

"Hey, any other problems, you come on down to the tavern and I'll do what I can, okay?" Alright, so I hugged him back and then made a point of letting go. He dropped some coins on the bar, grabbed his drink, and headed back off to whatever table he'd been sitting at.

When I looked at the bar, I noticed he'd dropped one copper and one silver coin. Scooping it up, I carried it over to the jar and dropped it inside.

"What was that for?" Jules' voice surprised me.

"Oh, I was just giving out some heals. I didn't know how much to charge so I only charged 2 copper." I turned my attention from Jules to another patron who was asking for another drink. I poured it off and took their coins and provided change.

Jules' sigh made me turn my head and full attention to her. She looked a little upset, but at the same time amused. "Dusky, I wish you'd asked first. The city has licenses for what established buildings can sell, and ours doesn't cover healing. How many did you heal?"

Looking around the room didn't help. Some people had left and more replaced them. "I think about twenty."

"That's not too bad. We can't keep it. Without a license to offer spellcasting, we just shouldn't be selling it." With a wink, Jules lifted out two silver coins. "So if you do anymore healing that's your own doing, and we're not charging for it, got it?"

I'll admit it took a moment for it to sink in. She was okay with me healing people, I just couldn't charge for it, and if asked, it wasn't the tavern doing it. "Y-Yeah. Sorry."

"It's okay, Dusky, you didn't know. Besides, I get to go and report this to the merchant's guild. They'll demand I pay either for a healing permit or surrender all the money." Tossing the two silver into the air, Jules grinned at me. "And you better believe I love thumbing my nose at them."

She walked around the bar and toward the door. "If anyone asks for me, get Chloe."

I stared in surprise as she left. What was I to think about all this? I'd kinda screwed up, but at the same time Jules seemed kinda happy. With people wanting drinks, I had to leave off thinking about Jules. It must have been five minutes before Caprice came out of the back room and looked around.

"Jules had to go and see some merchant guild thing. I screwed up," I said.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

Caprice jumped up on a stool on the customer side of the bar and leaned on the polished wood. "What did Dusky do?"

One of the men at the bar cleared his throat and nodded toward me. "She helped us is what she did. Healers wanted a whole year's wages to fix my arm." He held his arm out. "Two copper? Well worth it."

Looking up at me, Caprice's big hands flew up to her face and I heard her giggle behind them.

"So Jules has gone to give them all the money I made," I said, only now I couldn't stop from giggling too.

"The best of it," the guy said, "was that yer boss told 'er to do any more healing for free."

When our laughter died down, Caprice reached an arm out to me and rubbed my shoulder. "Dusky just trying to help people. Don't worry, Jules won't be angry."

It was getting closer toward dinner when Jules pushed the door in, walked soberly up to the bar and sat down on a stool on the other side of it. She just sat there, head tilted down, not saying a word.

Up until the moment she lifted her head with a big grin plastered across it, I'd been too worried to say anything. "Dusky, that was the most fun I've ever had. It might have eaten up a bit of my day, but when I told the bursar you'd healed ten people as my employee, he looked like it was payday. The ratty bastard's eyes danced as he told me I could either apply for an extension to my current contract to cover healing services or forfeit all the money taken.

"The cost of a healing license is crazy. The church controls the price and they don't want any competition. Their problem, though, is that there is no restriction on random people giving away healing." Jules shook her head. "I wish there was some way to record his look forever. The moment I reached into my purse and pulled out two silver, he jumped to his feet. He began babbling about the going price for basic healing and tried shouting that I owed him hundreds of gold. The head of the guild came out at the commotion.

"That little rat tried to claim I was stealing from the guild coffers. Ol' Sable—that's the guildmaster—he looked at me and asked for the full account. He might have winced when I explained that you didn't know the price of your healing and you'd been doing it for two coppers. He took those two silver and the last I heard he'd started chewing out his bursar."

Jules leaned back on her stool and looked me directly in the eyes. "Heal whoever you want, Dusky. Don't let this put you off helping people." She turned to the side, jumped to her feet, and headed for the kitchen.

"Did I make her angry or not? I still can't tell," I said, feeling a little shell-shocked.

"Jules is happy, Dusky. It might have been an accident, but Jules is smiling anyway." Caprice slipped off her own stool. "Caprice better go bring in washing."

It was another normal evening. I worked behind the bar and served drinks while Caprice and Chloe served people their meals. Without Gloria the place seemed a little less happening, but that was bound to happen.

Ugh, Gloria was so nice. She looked amazing and—Wait, I wanted to get some new things to wear, didn't I? Where was Google calendar when I needed it? Well, no weapons practice tomorrow morning, so I guess I could go out and do some shopping.

The work wasn't rewarding or hard, which gave me time to think about things. I barely even noticed when Jules came out of the kitchen and slipped in behind the bar.

"Hey," I said. "Any chance I could take the morning off tomorrow?"

That's when it hit me. When had I wound up in stable employment that I needed to ask permission to take a day off?

"Dusky, your mornings are yours to do with. I figured you'd be doing more training, anyway. It's a quiet day, so you don't need to rush back for the afternoon shift." Jules picked up her small mallet and started inserting bungs in all the kegs behind us.

"Actually I wanted to do some shopping. I mean, Caprice got me stuff to wear while working in here, and I have my adventurer kit, but I'd like—I want something casual to wear. Maybe even something to wear under my robes." I couldn't stop the sigh that came out. I wanted to go on adventures and maybe work out how to get back home—settling down and shopping, holding a steady job wasn't adventuring.

Jules paused and looked over her shoulder at me. "That sounds like a good idea. If I give you a list, could you pick up a few things for me while you're out?"

I didn't even need to think about that. "Sure I can."

That set the following day in stone. I helped clean up the bar and taproom, then helped out Caprice clean upstairs before collapsing into my bed. I was about to close my eyes and surrender to the day when I remembered.

"Goddess Molly, thank you for another day, and I hope you have a good—"

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

"… night."

I was sitting there, somewhere in a white expanse of nothing, with Molly looking back from only inches in front. She had a huge grin on her face that made me ache not to smile back at her.

She was wearing the whole holy armor bit again, with a huge pair of white wings. Her eyes also had a slightly gold glow to them. "Hey Molls. What's up?"

"You called again! Thank you!" Molly, apparently channeling Caprice, dove at me and wrapped her arms and wings around me. Trapped, I couldn't even get my own arms around her thanks to her wings. "Is something wrong?" She let go and I took a few deep gasps of air—mostly to poke fun at her.

"Yeah something is wrong. Caprice has a new goddess, I think. I'll have to tell her about the god of overwhelming hugs." Okay, so with the appropriate amount of sarcasm deployed, I reached out and hugged her. "It's good to see you again."

She hugged me back, minus crushing my spine. "Sorry. I'm just so excited, Dusky. There's all this craziness going on in the world now. The gods here seem pretty sure I'm a god too now. How the hell do I respond to that?!"

"You respond to it by picking your friends carefully and making sure you keep an eye on all of them. You have a worshiper now, so you officially count as a god." I let go of her and poked myself in the middle of my chest. "See? Worshiper."

"Yeah, that's exactly what they said. Apparently if it looks like a god and has a worshiper like a god—it's a god. Kinda inflexible. Like, what if a god was hiding? What if they didn't have any worshipers?" She sounded kinda annoyed, but I couldn't exactly blame her.

"Hey." When I had her attention, I reached out a finger and poked her nose. "You're alive, you have some kind of freaky god powers, and you have a friend."

"And I have wings."

"Yeah. Still rocking the wings and armor thing, huh? It kinda suits you." I don't know when exactly I stood up, but since I was standing now I walked to Molly's side and reached out to one of the wings—only to have a single feather come loose. "Whoops."

"Keep it, I got more." Molly let out a laugh. "You should probably go back before anything else freaky happens. Keep calling on me!"

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

I woke up under the covers of my bed, feeling about as good about the day as I ever have since arriving. Taking a deep breath, I jerked upright when a white feather the size of my forearm hit my nose. I couldn't help it—I laughed.

Good as it was to just let loose, I had things I needed to do today. Slipping out of bed, I pulled on my underthings and darted from my bedroom to the bathroom. What had Caprice called it? The gong.

With that dealt with, I left the gong and saw Caprice sneaking into my room. Sneaking down the hall toward my door, I looked inside to see her staring at the feather. "Hey."

Caprice jumped and spun around. She stared at me in shock for half a second before she gestured back at the feather on my bed with one hand. "Where Dusky get that?"

I walked in and closed the door behind me. "You remember how I said a friend was stuck here too?" When she nodded, I continued. "Well, it turns out she's kinda stuck in—uh—Well, she's hanging out with the gods, and they seem to think she's a god too. She grew wings at some point, and she gave me a feather."

"Dusky's friend is a god?!" Caprice's eyes were wide and she stared at me. "H-How?"

"It just kinda happened. She was trying to work out how to do things, and asked if I'd try—uh—worshiping her I guess. I just say a little prayer and she can pull me into this dream world and—Caprice?"

She was staring at me as if I'd been the one to grow wings. "What is Dusky's friend's name?"

"Molly. Her name is just Molly. Why?"

Bouncing a little, she looked really excited. "Caprice is going to try praying to her too. Dusky said do it just before bed?"

"Uh, yeah." Like I'd break her heart by telling her that Molly might not respond? Wait, I could send Molly a message about it. "I'll let her know you're coming."

"Kobolds normally worship dragons, but Caprice not have a dragon."

Reaching out, I put an arm around her. "I don't know if Molly can handle others, but I'm sure she'll try. I'm going to do some shopping today. It's just not fair to expect you to clean all my things every day."

"Caprice wash things every day anyway. What is Dusky getting?" She let me guide us both to the bed so I could sit down and get ready for my morning bath.

Giving her shoulders one last squeeze, I slipped out of my underwear and pulled the bathrobe around my shoulders. "More underwear, some pants, shirts, maybe a dress or two, a corset…" Dresses. Corset. Had I really given up on masculinity?

Maybe a little.

"Oooh. Dusky should ask Taffy to go with them."

I tied the belt up, but couldn't work out why she'd mentioned Taffy in particular. "Why Taffy?"

"Did Dusky see how excited she was to have that new armor? If you buy her something, I bet Dusky would get the biggest hug ever, and maybe even a kiss, from Taffy." She stood up with me, setting the feather on the chest of drawers.

Not resisting in the slightest, I let her guide me out into the hall. "I don't know, Caprice, there's this Kobold I know who gives the best hugs ever."

"Dusky gives pretty good hugs too." Caprice opened the door to the bath and we went inside.

The steam in the room had my muscles relaxing almost immediately. I slipped out of the bathrobe and climbed into the water with not an ounce of hesitation. It had become normal—just like waking up in my shitty apartment and playing video games all day had been normal.

"Jules said she has a few things she needs picked up." My thoughts swirled in the steam-filled room. "Caprice?" I couldn't see her anywhere.

A moment later she surfaced in the water like a crocodile, right beside me. Straightening up with a big grin, she said, "Turn around, Dusky."

Turning, I let Caprice start work on my back and hair. "Oh, I could ask Molls about you praying to her."

"Oh, oh! Do that! Caprice want to know if Dusky's friend will be her dragon!"

Relaxing was easy with Caprice washing my hair. It had always been relaxing, even when I didn't have much, but now it was almost mind-numbingly good. Focusing my attention on Molly, I pushed my thoughts toward opening a private message.

It wasn't anywhere near as easy as last time. I had to focus hard on it and several times felt like there was just no link there, but finally the window popped up.

Goddess-Molly:-

Dusky? Oh! The messaging system is working still?

Dusky Rose:-

Sure is, though it took a few tries to get it to work. Hey, uh, Molls?

That's when I realized it said Goddess and not GM before her name. Well, it kinda fits.

Goddess-Molly:-

What's the matter?

Dusky Rose:-

I have a friend that wanted to know about the huge freakin feather you left me with. When I told her you had become a goddess here, and I was praying to you, she wanted to try praying too. Are you cool with that?

Goddess-Molly:-

That one's right out of left field. You keep surprising me. If she prays to me… It would mean I get a little more power, I guess. Dusky, are you trying to start a church?

Dusky Rose:-

I wouldn't know how to start. You know, I almost got in trouble for healing people? Turns out the mistake I'd made was charging them a few coppers.

Goddess-Molly:-

Well, if you were to start a church, I think getting your friends to start worshiping me would be how it would start. /s

Dusky Rose:-

Ha ha. Anyway, prepare to be hugged to death and called a dragon.

Goddess-Molly:-

What?!

I closed the chat. "She said she's okay with it, but only if you give her your biggest hug."

"Dusky knows Caprice was going to do that anyway, right?" She was still working on my hair, but not for much longer. "Okay, Caprice's turn."

Turning, I obliged her by getting a good handful of the fine sand and started scrubbing at her back. I'm not sure how it compared to having my hair washed, but Caprice was silent only for little whistling sounds as I worked the sand around on her back and got her scales back to a bright shine. "You, uh, want me to do your tail too?"

Turning her head required Caprice tilting her body, which made her tail flick to the side. She looked back at me from one eye with a grin on what of her snout I could see. "Only if Dusky is comfortable doing that."

"Caprice, you're like—You're the adorable, scaly sister I never knew I needed." It was true. I felt like I could talk to her about things I would never tell anyone else.

She flicked her tail back into place and then leaned forward so that her head was barely above the water. When I grabbed up more sand and started working on the top of her tail, I heard her blowing bubbles in the water.

It was a little weird. When I got to the underside of her tail, I had no idea where any naughty bits might be and had to trust her to—well, sit on them.

When I was done, Caprice straightened up slowly and looked a little wobbly as she turned to face me. She didn't say a word, just let out a soft little chirp sound and giggled.

"I need to get you to show me how to wash and work my hair into something useful." With both our backs done, I set about scrubbing the parts of myself I could easily reach.

"There is no one in the rooms now, so it would be best if we do it today before things get busy. Caprice will give Dusky a list of things to get from market to help." Caprice had to stand up in the bath to scrub her belly and legs down with the sand.

Standing up to let the water drain off me, I climbed from the tub. "Get me a list. This is going to be a busy day."

"Dusky might even have some fun." Climbing from the tub as well, Caprice grabbed at a towel and started drying herself.

Starting to dry myself off as well, I scoffed at her comment. "As if. I'm not that far gone." But I was. I'd planned to buy a dress!

Caprice shimmied and shook in the towel, which I managed to completely ignore in my own efforts to get dry. When I finally felt I was dry enough, I pulled on my bathrobe and walked to the door, only to have Caprice walk up beside me. She was looking up at me with a big grin.

"What?" I asked.

"Caprice think Dusky is the best little sister she's had, too!" She heaved open the door and took off down the hall at a run.

"What? Hey!" Running after her, I couldn't hold back a mad laugh. She ducked into her own room, but I rushed into mine and looked around for my healer robes and underwear. Shucking out of the bathrobe, I got dressed and poked my head out of my door. My hair wasn't done, and it was something Caprice said she'd show me.

Looking down the hall toward her room, I called, "Caprice?"

"Yes, Dusky?" She was, of course, right beside my door on the other side.

I jumped. "What are—?" Pulling the door open, I stepped back. "Can you show me what to do with my hair?"

"Nope! Not until Dusky is back from shopping. Dusky has it too easy, doesn't know how bad it can be when hair goes everywhere." She crossed her arms over her chest and nodded at me.

"Caprice?"

"What?"

"When did you have hair?" Reaching out, I booped her on the nose before she could try to block me.

"Dusky! I—" She tried to grab me, but I dodged past her and ran down the stairs. "Come back here!"

I reached the bottom of the stairs only a few steps before Caprice, and made it another five steps before a tiger stepped in front of me. Cuddles didn't look aggressive, she was just hundreds of pounds of muscle that didn't want me to get past.

"Gotcha!" Caprice caught me around the waist and started laughing as she dragged me aside. "Now, Dusky's turn!" One of her huge fingers came down and poked my nose. "There!"

"Ahh! Help, Cuddles!" I shouted. "Save me from this vicious attack!"

Leaning in, Cuddles pressed her head between the two of us and licked my face, then turned and licked Caprice's.

"Gah." Caprice let go of me and tried to wipe her face clean. "Now Caprice smell like kitty." All her complaints managed to do was encourage Cuddles to lick her more.

"Thanks, Cuddles." I gave the huge cat a good petting while Caprice spluttered and made a big deal about getting licked.

"Cuddles is"—Caprice paused while Cuddles licked her again—"meant to listen to"—another big lick—"Caprice. Why don't you lick Dusky more?"

When Cuddles turned her big head to look at me, I knew that I had to think fast. My options were limited. Trying to run would result in me getting pounced and licked to within an inch of my life, so instead I tilted my head and turned to offer a cheek to hundreds of pounds of tiger.

Cuddles took up the offer and pranced around to me and nuzzled my cheek before giving it a lick.

"You're the best, Cuddles." I gave her a hug and leaned against her. The look Caprice gave the pair of us made me giggle louder than Cuddles' purring.

"Dusky, here's the list of things I need." Jules—apparently appearing by magic, but probably not—passed me a note. "I've written the maximum price for each. Don't pay more than that and try not to gouge the merchants too much."

Taking the list, I was surprised it was fairly simple things. Salt, pepper, various spices I'd kinda heard about, several boxes of soap, some meats and piles of vegetables. I looked up at her. "I don't know if I can carry all this."

"Get a chit from them and tell them to deliver it here. You don't need to carry all that." Jules reached up to Cuddles' head and gave the cat a good ear rub. "Who's a good girl? You are." The big cat just let out a tiny mrow.

"Alright, I'll head off and see what I can do." I stood up and stretched, only to find Caprice in my way. "Oh, right, your list. Why does everyone have lists for me?"

"Because you're not working means you're having fun." Holding up her hand, Jules surprised me by booping my nose. "Which means you need to be punished." Her smirk looked so self-satisfied.

Caprice took the list from my hand and used her claws to scratch two extra lines at the bottom of it: combs, leather hair thongs. "Here. Dusky has amazing hair and should take care of it properly."

Feeling more secure in my relationship with Caprice than ever, I reached my arm around her, gave her a squeeze, and a peck on the cheek. "I'll be back soonish, then."

Saying my goodbyes, I headed outside and was firmly reminded how cold it was, though it wasn't as cold as it looked. Being a half-Elf had its advantages, after all. Following the wide path that'd been shoveled free of snow, I headed into the center of town and went looking for a specific shop. It wasn't long until I found it.

> Sugarborne Sweets

The building looked moderately new and had a sign with its name outside. I walked over and looked through the glass at the shelves and shelves of treats inside. Taffy was standing behind the counter looking bored. She wasn't wearing any of her armor, but it looked like she was almost constantly daydreaming of it.

I realized how much she'd gotten into adventuring with us, and how it might be when she goes home and isn't adventuring. I guess my break to learn how to get hit wasn't too much fun for her.

Stepping to the door, I opened it and heard the doorbell tinkle.

"Sugarborne Sweets, can I—" Taffy sounded bored. Well, bored beyond bored. Her tone was dry and low and had none of the excitement I'd heard from her even when we were beating each other up with our fists. "Dusky! Why are you—? I mean, can I get you anything?"

That's when it hit me that I'd missed breakfast. Okay, so it wouldn't be healthy, but that just meant I needed to do some work to make sure whatever I got didn't go to my ass.

Did I really just think that? Okay, I did.

"You know, I managed to skip breakfast in all the excitement of coming out, so if you could find me something tasty I'll have some of that, but I also wanted to ask for your help." It was a struggle not to drool on the display cases.

"Ah, you'll want one of our baked treats then. Here, try this." She reached under the counter and lifted out a tray that looked like caramel and chocolate on some kind of green cookie base. "Grab two. What did you need help with?"

I picked up one of the slices and brought it to my mouth. One bite told me the green in the base was in fact mint flavoring, and the caramel was caramel and the chocolate was amazing. Chewing slowly, I got through the mouthful and stopped myself taking another bite to reply, "Well, I need to do a bunch of shopping, and was hoping someone would want to, uh, help?"

Taffy's eyes widened and she looked back toward the door that led into the back of the shop. "Hey, Dad, can I go shopping with Dusky?"

"Ah! The famous Dusky, I—" A man, presumably Taffy's father, stepped out of the back room and looked at me with more than a little surprise. He recovered fast, though. "I wanted to thank you for helping my little angel follow her heart."

He wasn't a tall man, about half a foot short of Taffy's height. He looked middle-aged with his hair falling back from his brow. His clothes looked pretty new and he was wearing an apron over them.

"Hey, no need to thank me. I just asked if she wanted to go on adventures, and she seemed enthusiastic. Sorry if I haven't been able to go out the last two days, though. Dealing with some personal training." I took another small bite of the slice and was reminded how good it was. "These are so good."

"Dad makes them. You wait here, I'll go get my armor on." Taffy rushed past her dad and into the back of the shop.

It left me standing there looking at her dad, trying to not hide behind the slice. That's when I remembered. "Oh, how much is this? I need to pay for it."

"Three coppers."

I could see that it was three coppers, but that meant that he wasn't taking anything for himself. Focusing on getting out five coppers, I passed them over to him while nibbling on the slice some more.

When I put the five copper in his hand, he narrowed his eyes at me and sighed. "You don't have to do that."

"Three copper is how much they're worth, but not what you sell them for. I'm not hurting for a few extra copper." I took a bigger bite of the slice so I had an excuse why I couldn't talk anymore, and before I managed to finish it Taffy walked back out. Or I should say clanked back out.

"So, what are we shopping for? Swords? Axes? Shields?!" She carefully leaned in and kissed her dad on the cheek.

With my mouth empty I could drop the best bombshell ever on her. "I was actually looking for a couple of nice dresses." Taffy's shocked stare was absolutely worth it. "I mean, we could look at swords if you want, I guess."

Taffy grabbed the second slice and bit off a quarter of it with one bite. She turned back to her dad and waved—her armor clanking while she did—then gestured to the door. "Come on!" she said, or at least I think that's what she said.

Grabbed by her free hand, I was pulled after her and out the door—which reminded me of the sword and shield she was carrying (the former at her side and the latter on her back). "Hey, I want to finish my breakfast."

Outside and with the door closed behind us, Taffy grabbed me up in a hug that let me learn what it was like for anything to be caught in a vice. "I was just about to die of boredom. Thanks."

When she let go of me enough that I could breathe again, I asked, "Oh come on, it's not that bad, surely?"

"Yesterday was the worst day of my life. Just putting my armor on feels good. Oh, can you tighten up a few straps for me? I Would have done it myself, but it would have taken me forever to do myself." Taffy turned and presented various spots (all on her back) for me to tighten.

"In a bit of a rush to go and buy dresses?" I asked, tugging the straps tight and buckling them up.

She let out a sigh. "Yes, even to buy dresses. Is that really what you're out here for?"

"Not entirely. I want to get some other things for myself, too, and Jules gave me a list of stuff to buy for the tavern. Even Caprice had a list of things for me to get—though that was just two things. Combs and something to tie my hair with, I think." The marks her claws had made on paper was odd, almost like pencil.

"Is that why your hair is all out today?" When I patted her back, Taffy rolled her shoulders and swung about a little. "Thanks for that."

"No probs, and yeah, she told me I had to get used to how bad hair could be in order to teach me to take care of it, or something. How does a Kobold know so much about hair?" I reached my hand back and felt my hair. It was soft and blowing to my right a little in the breeze.

"She's probably been around non-Kobolds all her life. Okay, let's deal with your boss' stuff first. What do we have?" Taffy held out her mailed hand for the list, and without a better idea I passed it over. "Ah, spices first. I know the merchant she probably gets them off already."

I ate as much of my slice-thing as I could while Taffy trudged up to a wagon that had a few sacks but was otherwise bare. A guy about twenty or so stood behind it and looked at her as we marched up. "Can I interest you in—? Wait, Taffy?!"

"Duh, Salfar. Who else did you think'd come stomping up in armor?" Taffy's grin was as intense as Salfar's confusion seemed to be. "I've got a job now—I'm an adventurer." She banged the sword at her side for emphasis.

Salfar's eyes flicked to me. "One thing at a time, and business always comes first—da says. You have a list?"

"This is for lots of stuff, and figures besides. Get yer chalk and slate, Salfar." Holding up the paper, Taffy cleared her throat. "Salt, thirty pounds. Peppercorns, twenty pounds. ——" She read through all the spices Jules had written down and the quantities while Salfar scribbled on a little blackboard he had produced. "Okay, how much for those?"

Tapping the little blackboard with his chalk, Salfar looked like he was figuring things out. "Five silvers per ten-weight of salt—"

Taffy shook her head and made a disgusted sound. "Come on, we're not paying retail plus a bonus. This is for the Lame Hog."

"Oh? Julia?" Salfar reached up to his dark hair and slicked it back with a hand. He also seemed to stand a little taller. "For Jules I can do it for four silver and five copper per ten-weight."

"Make it four silver."

"Four and two, and I'll deliver it."

"Perfect. Now, the pepper?"

Taffy was brutal. Every single price Salfar told her was too much. She would argue him down by at least a sixth each time. Though I noticed Salfar didn't look all that upset. It was business as usual, or so it seemed to me. Their back-and-forth on prices gave me a chance to enjoy the treat fully and finish my breakfast.

I might have drifted away from the conversation a little. I was just swallowing the last of the slice when I realized Taffy was standing in front of me. "Uh, all done?"

"All except the produce she wanted. Salfar only sells spices." Rocking from side to side, Taffy's armor creaked as she flexed her muscles beneath it. "So, next we can tackle the butcher, or we can go look at armor."

The excitement that flashed in her eyes when she mentioned armor made my mind up. I liked seeing Taffy happy. "I guess we could go and buy the meat—but I think we should go look at shiny stuff." The look of joy on her face told me I'd made the right choice.

Hooking her arm around mine, Taffy laughed. "Come on, then, I want to see all their armor!"

I had no idea what most of the stuff she looked at was. There were so many pieces—all for different parts of the body—that I couldn't hope to follow along. In the game there was armor slots and armor came as sets of parts for those slots. It also didn't help that this was heavy armor. Everything I'd had on Espy Death had been medium armor.

With her selections of additional pieces of armor made, I caught Taffy staring at a big breastplate. "What's that?" I asked.

"This is some enchanted plate that has bonuses for Valkyries. I spent all the gold I made from partying with you on the other stuff." As she brushed a hand over the breastplate, flickering runes cascaded just behind her touch.

"Haggle for it."

"What?!"

"I said, haggle for it. Go on, whatever you get it down to, I'll pay. You've saved my ass enough times that I owe you more than the cost of that." I reached an arm around her—around her clanking armor—and gave her a hug.

She wrapped one arm around my shoulders and squeezed me back. "You mean when I'm not punching you? Alright, but on one condition."

"What is it?" I asked.

"We get something cool for everyone. I've actually done some research on simple magical items that will help the others a lot." She was absolutely serious and I had no counter for it—not that I wanted one. Buying them all something cool would make me feel better about the whole wimping out thing when I got shot.

Taffy got her armor, we got a bracelet for Caprice, a pair of bracers for Chloe, and a circlet for Yaff. I knew they were using item slots, or should be. Taffy walked over to where we'd gotten the bracelet for Caprice and nodded to the rack. "You'll want this." She reached out and picked up a necklace.

If I had the full interface, I'd know what it does already. "So what's it do?"

"Reduced energy used for all your heal spells." While she started haggling with the merchant selling the necklace, I mentally kicked myself for not having loaded up on more magic items. My original plan had been to find a guild to take Dusky in, which meant trying to look like a newbie as much as I could. The basic gear I got was fine and all, but if I decked out in magic it would have been obvious I was a twink.

The real question was, should I just deck us all out with magic gear? It would make us powerhouses, but there was the issue of getting used to our classes. I still didn't have healing completely on lockdown, so I don't really want to take us somewhere that will be a hard fight.

Besides, that meant we could find loot and not have it be all crap, I already have better. I paid the merchant what Taffy talked them down to and we moved away with our little presents in a bag while Taffy had her armor bits tied to a loop of light rope and hanging off her back.

So now she was wearing a pile of armor, her sword, a shield, and carrying more armor—and Taffy didn't even look to be straining. "Okay, let's head to the tavern and grab something to eat, then we can come back to finish things off in the afternoon."

"Seems like an idea, although we should probably order the produce first." Taffy looked off toward a specific side of the market and I watched a big grin spread over her face. "Come on, I see someone we need to give a present."

"Huh? Oh! Yaff!" I followed Taffy over to the fresh fruit stall that Yaff was standing behind. She looked embarrassed. "Hi!"

When she focused on us, Yaff seemed to relax a lot. "Oh thank goodness. I never realized how on-edge all this tracking skill would make me in a crowded area, let alone knowing how to rob everyone as they walk past."

"Dusky has a present for you," Taffy said, then elbowed me.

I reached into the bag and pulled out the circlet. "Right! Uh, we got you this. To say thanks for helping us all."

She looked at the circlet and raised an eyebrow. "That's not cheap. What's it do?"

"It boosts the damage your attack-from-stealth deals. Like, by a lot." Taffy looked proud of herself. "It was boring yesterday, so I walked around town and talked to some people who I knew were similar classes to us."

"Wait, so this balances out some of the damage I lost by not going Assassin?" Quicker than I could see, Yaff had the circlet around the top of her head and tucked mostly out of sight under her hair.

I held up my hand and wobbled it side to side. "Yes and no. I mean, an Assassin could wear that as well. It just means you will be doing more damage than you were."

Yaff drew a dagger and juggled it around in her hand. "Well, you're welcome, both of you. When will we be going out again?"

"Maybe another few days. I want to go out and see how different it feels fighting actual monsters and getting hit by them. You know, get used to getting wailed on, so I can just stand there and heal myself until a cute vixen comes over and removes their spleen." My compliment worked, Yaff was grinning like a fool. "There's some business we have too."

"Business? At my little stall?" Yaff's foxy smile turned entirely predatory. She gestured to the fruits she had on sale. "Let's talk business."

Taffy made a deal with Yaff that they were both smiling about, before she walked around the produce area and put in orders for all the rest of the things on Jules' list. The moment we turned back toward the tavern, however, the wind caught my hair and blew it in front of me.

"Here, let me." Taffy put one hand on my shoulder and reached around in front of my face to grab up all my hair. "With my dad raising me, I had to learn how to deal with my hair myself. He wouldn't let me cut it short, so I'd just tie it in a loose bow-knot behind my head, like this."

She twirled my hair around behind my head and then looped the end up and through it but doubled back. Somehow it just worked and all my hair just stayed up.

"You're a wizard," I said.

"What?!"

"With hair. Admit it, you used a wand." I couldn't stop giggling at this point, but I realized Taffy wasn't walking toward the tavern. "What's up?"

"We forgot Jules." I realized what she meant when she said it. We were literally going back to the tavern with gifts for everyone but her. "Come on, Dusky, let's find the most important gift."

Following after Taffy, I just had to ask her, "How do you know it's the most important?"

"Pfft! With how much you connected with everyone else there, and with you working there, it doesn't take a hair wizard to recognize that she's helping you." When Taffy put her arm over my shoulders, I couldn't help but lean-in a little. "So, when do you want to go out and see how you can handle a few monsters?"

The question seemed out of the blue. "Huh?"

"There is no chance I'm letting you go out alone. I can pull agro off you and I can heal you, so I'm the best one to be your bodyguard in case things turn bad. So, when are we going?"

She didn't seem like she wanted to budge on this, but it did make sense. Truthfully, I think she just wanted to get out of her father's shop and give her new armor a good workout. "Tomorrow I guess."

"Oh no! I won't be able to stand around all day in my dad's shop. How terrible." Her deadpan was pretty bad, mostly because she kept giggling throughout it. "Hey, it'll be fun. We can even punch the crap out of each other as a warm-up."

I laughed. A month ago I wouldn't have even thought of punching someone, and couldn't have conceived of being punched as something that a friend would do—for that matter I didn't really have any real-life friends—but now it was just another concept.

At the end of the stalls of merchants, I spotted three people who were dressed a little like I was. They had a stall with a large bowl in the middle of it that was filled with gold coins. It wasn't a lot to put together that they were the healers who payed the crazy-high fees to sell their spellcasting.

"We're supposed to be looking for something for Jules," Taffy said. "Why don't we look at something pretty for her? I don't know what she does apart from run the tavern."

"She cooks, does all the business stuff, and I think she'd be working the bar too if I wasn't around so much. Maybe I could find something to help her cook better?" Pulling my attention away from the healers, I started looking among the nearest stalls.

"Is any of this enchanted?" Taffy asked the vendor.

"This? It's all mundane. Try two stalls up."

We filed along without any words until we reached the stall they'd described. It was obvious just by looking at the stuff that it was enchanted—the cost of everything was so much higher. "Do you have anything for cooks?"

The old man behind the stall blinked at me a few times before he looked down at his wares. "A cook. Ah, these three would benefit a preparer of food. A bracelet of storage. More commonly used as a quiver for small blades, I've heard of some chefs using it to hold the ingredients for a meal."

Looking at the bracelet, I couldn't help but feel that it would have been a better gift for Yaff. "What else?"

"This rod detects poisons, which includes food that has turned. This is a stone that you can use to light a fire. Tap it and it gets hot for an hour." He gestured to the two other items. "80 gold for the bracelet, ten gold for either of the other two."

I knew why the others were so cheap, anyone with the Appraise skill could immediately tell if some food had turned because the value of it would have dropped sharply. Lighting a fire seemed to be a natural skill everyone could do.

The bracelet was worth 65 gold. "I mean, the bracelet would be nice, but what I'm really after is that stone—so if you could do 70 gold for both it'd be great."

"Lass, you can't go that low, I—"

I cleared my throat. "78, that's all I'm doing."

"80."

I let out a sigh and started to turn. I didn't get halfway when the vendor's arm reached out and touched my sleeve. "78 is fine."

Reaching behind my back, I willed 7 mithral and 8 gold to land in my hand and felt the little shower of coins. "Here you go, sir."

The old man's face had a grin despite the deal being less than I thought he wanted. He passed over the two items. "I hope I don't see you again," he said.

"Thanks! This'll be perfect for my friend." I turned away and looked up at a grinning Taffy. "Let's go back and drop all this at the tavern. Then I need to get a few more things at the market. Maybe we could spend the rest of the afternoon sparring?"

"Hell yes. Okay, and it's just a few dresses you want?"

"Well…" I huffed and kicked some snow off the path as we turned toward the tavern. "You saw Gloria, right?"

"Who?" That's when I realized that Taffy was in a different part of my life to the tavern.

"Gloria Windsong. She was a bard who was passing through. We—" When Taffy squeezed my shoulders, I paused to let her tug me a little tighter against her. "I guess I just needed someone to remind me that I'm not all that different. I still like women."

"And?"

"Well, what she wore kinda got me to thinking. I'd like to try getting some stuff that doesn't hang so much. Dresses are—Dresses are nice." The words would have been impossible to say just days before. "I want some pants too. Shirts. More, uh, firm underwear. M-Maybe a corset." When she didn't say anything immediately, I looked up into her face to see a smug grin. "What?"

"How many times have you seen me in a skirt, Dusky?" Her words made me think, and when I didn't answer because I couldn't think of a time, she laughed. "Exactly. It's not me mom's fault, or me dad's, I just don't run that way. Also, I kinda look like a boy in a dress. In a shirt and pants, I look like a girl."

We were at the door to the tavern, but I had something else to mention. "Do you think I could wear some leather armor under my robes?"

"That'd be a good way to deal with some of the weaker bad guys, but if you really want to be sneaky, get a padded vest. They're more resistant to blades and some arrows." She reached out and opened the door to the tavern and we stepped in.

Jules was standing behind the bar with a book in front of her. She was writing things down in it while talking to a man sitting at the bar. When she glanced up at us, she smiled and nodded. "How'd the shopping go?"

"Taffy helped me get good prices on everything." I slipped out from under Taffy's arm and sat at the bar —then I hauled up all the gifts I'd gotten. "We're mostly done with shopping. Need to get the actual things I wanted to get, but first I have something for you."

"Me?" Jules looked surprised. "Dusky, you didn't need to—"

"Yeah I did. You're all amazing, and you've helped me so much. Here." I held out the bracelet to her. "You can use it to hold things. Seasoning, utensils, that kind of thing. Just hold something and think about storing it." I figured it worked the same as my inventory.

Fastening the bracelet around her wrist, Jules picked up the pencil she'd been using to write with and then it just disappeared from her hand only to reappear a moment later. "This might just be the best thing ever. Where'd you even get this?"

"Nope, not telling. This is a gift," I said.

Jules narrowed her eyes. "That just means you spent way too much on me. Thanks, Dusky."

"Hey, you didn't just sell me a place to live, you gave me a home. I just—" This kind of mushy stuff was probably why I'd never had a girlfriend for longer than about a year. Taking a deep breath, I struggled with what I wanted to say and then distilled it down. "Thanks."

"Dusky!" Caprice came down the stairs at a run. She ducked under some of the tables while vaulting over others, only to freeze a few feet from me. "What did Dusky do to her hair?"

Turning on my stool, I looked at Caprice and smiled. "It turns out you can do things with hair that don't need combs and pins and things." Reaching into the bag of goodies, I grabbed out her bracelet and offered it to her. "But I did get this for you."

"It doesn't really change much," Taffy said, "but you'll be able to charm any creature with your new spell way easier."

To prevent rushed Kobold-pouncing, I hopped off the stool and pulled Caprice into a hug with me while she was still looking at the bracelet. "Thank you, Caprice, for everything."

She seemed stiff for a moment before hugging me back. "Dusky is so silly. Caprice is happy to help—doesn't need gifts." I could feel her sliding the bracelet on her wrist behind my back. "Who did Dusky's hair?"

Now I was trapped. Being in arms reach of an upset Kobold, even a mage, was usually not safe. "Taffy showed me how to tie it up like this to keep it from blowing everywhere."

Letting go and stepping back a little, Caprice tapped her chin. "Turn around." When I did, until I was facing her again, she gave a nod. "It's a good way to tie hair up. I can't see any sharp kinks that would break it."

"Where's Chloe?" I asked.

"Chloe!" Jules shouted, before turning her attention back to the man she'd been chatting with.

Stepping out of the kitchen, Chloe looked around and spotted us at the bar. Walking over, she raised an eyebrow. "What's all the noise about?"

"I did some shopping. Got all the stuff for the tavern ordered, and got some gifts for my friends." Pulling out the last items, I passed Chloe the two bracers. "These are bracers of strength. They should make you hit a bit harder and stuff."

"Huh? You don't say. Well, c'mere." If Caprice was good at hugging, Chloe seemed like the biggest hug monster ever. She was wearing an apron, but it didn't stop her from pulling me against her excessively fluffy coat and squeezing me there.

It was the first time ever I had confirmation that there was a person under all the fluff. Up until now, Chloe could have been three kids wearing a cat-fur-coat. I hugged her back, feeling more relaxed with her than ever. "Thank you for helping me recover from—from what brought me here."

"We talked to Yaff, too. She's eager to go out hunting again, which means I'm going to help push Dusky through some training as fast as we can." Taffy was in the process of unbuckling her breastplate.

Chloe relaxed her arms a little and lifted one big hand-paw-thing up and poked my nose with one finger. "Taffy's a tough girl. You'll get this under wraps in no time." It was then I realized I'd just been booped by a cat. Billions and billions of videos and memes rushed through my head, but none compared to how silly this was.

I laughed, but only a little. "I just don't want to let you all down. We're going back to the market now to get the things I needed, but we could always do some more boxing if you want, Taffy?"

Turning to look at Taffy, I was just in time to see her fasten the last strap on her new armor. A brilliant flash of white light almost blinded me. Having shielded my eyes against it, I lowered my arm from my face to see that she had glowing sigils on the new piece.

"So what does it do, apart from blind us?" Chloe asked.

"Okay, so if I ever, uh, die—I'll actually be mostly okay again. It only works once a day, though." Taffy punched herself on the chest with her fist. "And it looks really cool."

Bracing my shoulder, I gave her chest a good punch. All it achieved was hurting my hand and making her smile—totally worth it. "Yeah, it looks great. Can we get some lunch and then go back to the market to get what I originally planned to?" As an afterthought I said, "Weak Heal," and fixed any lingering hurt in my hand.