Firenze spread his arms wide and bowed in a mocking fashion as Teddy slowed and stopped in front of him.
“Permission to come aboard young adventurers?!” He called up, not making the same mistake again.
“Come up Firenze, nice to see you again.”
The gold ranker leapt onto the top deck, it appeared in slow motion and they guessed it was a combination of golf rank strength and the ability all essence users got at silver to be able to levitate. His clothes artfully flapped in the wind and he smiled as he alighted onto the decking right in front of Kyra, he grasped her hand and bent to kiss it.
“In the totality of my long vigil I find that in the briefest of moments of you being here I have missed you Mitchells. It’s astounding in the short time since I have met you and the shorter time that we have been away.” He said without looking away from Kyra’s face.
Teddy coughed and walked up to Kyra’s side. James walked up beside Firenze and slapped him on the back as hard as he could which was substantial. …but he might as well have slapped a stone building as the man was gold rank.
“And we missed you too genie, what wishes have you come to grant this time?”
Firenze looked surprised at both the back pat and the mention of wishes. He let go of Kyra’s hand which she placed around Teddy’s waist. Firenze snapped out of his little daze and looked up at James.
“I still have little idea of this genie you speak of but I do come with something approximating a gift! I have spoken of you to my peers and we understand your need to move swiftly, my peer to the north is due his replacement any day and has offered to spirit you away further north. Furthermore to that he knows of a friend of his to the wasteland who will take you through some truly inhospitable terrain that will shake any but the most committed pursuer.”
“Firenze, that’s excellent, thankyou!” Lucy said, coming forward.
“Not at all, not at all. You have all been a breathe of fresh air, a welcome distraction to the monotony of duty.” He was back to staring at Kyra. “You will have to continue north into Yaraballah’s territory, he receives far more wandering monsters to the north and cannot come and get you himself.”
“Does he know of the restriction of the cargo? It cannot be placed in dimensional storage of any rank and therefore neither can the Serenity.” Lucy enquired.
“He is aware and having worked with him over the years on many occasions I have seen his long distance travel ability and can confirm that this will not be an issue. Hopefully you will not have seen its like before.”
The team had been frustrated at the delay at the lake, they had carefully thought about their route and how they had lost time and ground by hitting the trans-continental road north to the lake in the knowledge they were going to shake most pursuers by going directly over the water.
Of the team members James was probably the least concerned, he knew there was fighting to be had and went with the flow, he rarely thought much further than the next meal ahead, not out of laziness or stupidity but the group he was in made good decisions and he trusted them and it led to a stress free life.
On the other end of the spectrum the delay and the failed plan irritated Teddy the most. He took more of a team leader role than the rest of them which was admittedly by everyone’s rational necessary, even in a team of equals. The attention Firenze was paying to Kyra was also playing a part in his irritation, he was very secure that he held no competition to his wife but it was understandably annoying.
Kyra was mostly happy to go along with whatever plan was afoot but liked to subtly influence it in ways that would benefit the group or not so subtly when she wanted to try new places for shopping. Her healing talents were welcome wherever they went and she loved meeting new people from different cultures and sampling what they had to offer either culinary, culturally or decorative. She and James spent a lot of time together as their fighting styles were so similar, she sparred with swords with Teddy who was undoubtably the best even at normal speed but his actual fighting style was so rapid and dynamic she found it better to practice with James.
Lucy was probably who spent the most amount of time with Teddy cracking plans. She spent a lot of time with him either in the wheelhouse working on the map table thinking of routes or dummy routes and different ideas. If they weren’t together in the workshop on the bottom deck then they were always leaving ideas for each other on the whiteboard in there, a lot of their own crafts ideas were not possible without both of them conducting the work. The Deathstick she had made for example was made of different layers of materials that all heated or cooled down at different rates meaning that they had to be combined in an incredibly precise way at exactly the right moment, not so much a challenge for bronze rank reflexes and a lot of practice to do one combination but there were half a dozen different materials that had to be combined near instantly. Teddy was needed with his limited experience, agility and speed to put them together correctly, he had been part of the planning process from the beginning, she knew the magical effects she wanted and how to put them together while his knowledge of the materials and the process was essential.
The fact that they had been offered an alternative transport that took them through a gold rank power excited Teddy and Lucy. It was the edge that they were after by going over the lake in the first place. The wasteland was a black circle on their map that Vincent had given them back in Greenstone. It had notes on it that detailed the threat, it was a silver rank area, heavily infested with monsters and the desert itself was magically harmful, sapping the strength of bronze rank and below.
“Firenze thats perfect, thankyou.” Teddy said, holding on to Kyra.
Firenze looked between them and frowned. They could see he was working something out.
“I have missed something here, something cultural. When you introduced yourselves you said that this wonderful woman was your wife? Am I to understand that you come from a monogamous culture?”
There was a short moment of disbelief as the Mitchells looked at each other.
“Well yes? You assumed we weren’t?” Teddy asked in surprise.
“Eurgh.” Firenze moaned, rubbing a hand down his face. “My apologies young adventurers, a mistake I have come across in the past. My homeland believes that there is an infinite amount of… affection that we may show for one another. It is ill-becoming to not show that attraction and affection for one another. Having a wife or a husband is something more of a relationship of convenience on top of that and by no means permanent or binding.”
“So your whole culture shows… affection for whoever they want whenever they want? Then goes back to their husbands and wives in the evenings?” James asked.
“Just so, as long as the affection is reciprocated then it is acceptable.”
“And what if there was a group of women a man was feeling affectionate towards at one time and they all felt affectionate back…”
Lucy elbowed James in the hip, hard.
“I don’t think you need to be so interested in the details honey.”
Firenze turned back to Teddy and Kyra and bowed deeply.
“My apologies again if I have caused offence, my position and power over you cannot have made that an easy interest to bare. A weregild is customary to honour against any bad feelings you may have against me.”
He dramatically swept his cloak aside and pulled a pouch of coins from is waist and tossed it to the floor between them, he then took an ornate jewelled dagger from his waist. It was curved like a talon and thrummed with power. He took the end of his beard in his left hand an cut straight through, close to the chin with his other hand. The dagger and the severed beard complete with the ribbons and beads tied in got thrown down with the pouch of coins. He then prostrated himself on the deck in front of the couple.
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“Please accept these tokens of my regret.” He then stayed that way.
Teddy looked at Kyra then moved forward to pick up the items. The pouch was full of what looked like two dozen gold rank coins, enough to make them rich in a place like Greenstone, even for adventurers. The dagger popped up with a description as soon as he touched it.
Item: Ceremonial Dagger. (Gold rank, Rare)
An ornate dagger used in certain cultures to perform significant actions. Typically gifted at the end of adolescence to mark a shift to adulthood. The symbology acting as a reminder for the individual to take account for their behaviours.
“Firenze please stand up, this is a fortune you’ve put in front of us, this could buy almost any house we could want in Greenstone and thats without selling this dagger. You’re going to need to explain why a gold ranker cares so much, especially the beard.”
Firenze got back up to his feet, his voluminous trousers and cape mercifully clean as the Serenity deck was self-cleaning with little ripples of crystal taking dirt and dust overboard at regular intervals.
“Rank has no part of this, a persons affection is as strong with no essences as it is with a diamond ranker. The price we pay is what changes with the responsibility that rank holds to be careful with our actions. The weregild is an immediate gift to the offended, the beard is a show of humility to any that would look upon me to show my contrition. The dagger once used is to be given to the offended, I may not be without one and must send for another from home, I cannot do this without an explanation to my family as to why I need one, thereby letting my actions be known that I may be held to account.”
“Sounds like you have strict parents back home.” Lucy commented.
Firenze gave a grin, startlingly white teeth showing. “We follow a thought that it takes a village to raise a child, affection is not necessarily sexual and we take great pride in our community that everyone feels great affection towards every child, I would say that I had dozens of parents, some of which are diamond rank.”
“Well damn. Kyra?” She nodded at Teddy. “Theres no way we can’t forgive you after you’ve already chopped your beard off. Any offence is forgiven Firenze.”
Kyra took the dagger from Teddy and turned it over looking at it. “You say this is to remember your responsibility? I think this would make a handsome addition to the inside of the Serenity, mounted above the dining table on the middle deck, a good reminder of the responsibilities we all have.”
Firenze’s smile got even wider and he bowed at Kyra.
“A sentiment well appreciated, I will add this news back to my people as I request another and they will be well pleased. Now, you have my repentance and I your forgiveness, I will not intrude a moment longer. Please lets part as friends and when we see each other again this will all be long behind us. From the quality I see of you all I imagine it will be as peers at gold rank without too much time passing. Continue following the lake road to the north and you will eventually meet my friend, he will recognise you entering his influence and he will come to you when he is free.”
They all shook hands with the diamond ranker, his shake with Kyra holding none of the lingering flirtatiousness that it once did, a firm grip of respect and done. He patted the wall of the Serenity fondly and jumped high off the back headed south.
[What the hell are we going to do with the beard?] James said on the interface.
Lucy looked at Teddy holding the long black beard, walked over and opened a random storage compartment.
[The joys of near infinite storage capability.] she said as Teddy dropped it in.
He then strode over and flumped into the captains chair and started the Serenity moving again, he set the controls so it was trundling along at a good pace, using the wheels again to lower the magical signature. He pulled his over-robe to one side revealing a leather strap full of knives, they were the size of crocodile Dundee bowie knives but flat, with a simple leather strap wrap handle for ease of throwing. He had made them himself and practiced non-stop with them, the fourth stage crystal forming a cork-board style section on command where the knives were caught by flat planes of crystal. He started flipping one in his hand while he thought.
James sauntered over to chill with his brother for a bit and saw him playing with the wide blade.
“If you conjure and throw literal blades of shadow, why do you need a belt full of knives? And didn’t you work out how to pull throwables from your inventory so fast you don’t need to carry them on you?”
Teddy stopped flipping the knife and passed it hilt first to James.
“Well the answer to your first question is that the shadow blades don’t do a huge amount of damage, especially to certain types of enemies resistant to magical damage or if we ever came across a light-based enemy whatever that might be. I can fabricate these myself and I keep making them better, the more I improve my skill the amount of damage they do rises dramatically. Your second answer is intimidation.”
He stood and opened his over robe, he had a cross belt over his shoulder to his hip full of the bowie-esc throwing knives, there has a traditional belt across his waist, in the middle he could see the handles of two punch daggers tucked in, his right hip held two long thin black scabbards, the blades inside must have been toothpick in shape but still a two inches wide and almost as long as Teddy’s forearm. On his left hip was a small fanny pack that looked stuffed full of throwing stars, the tops just covered by a flap of leather that would stop Teddy accidentally performing acupuncture on his stomach if he bent to the left too far. Next to the pack was a short sword, curved like a kukri but longer, not long enough to be a sword but offered significant advantage over a dagger.
“Jeesh dude, thats some hobby you’ve picked up.”
“Oh these are just my favourites. There’s lots more in storage and some that Lucy and I are working on to give them some tricks.”
Kyra came in as they were talking and saw Teddy with his over robe open showing the small arsenal. She crossed her arms, cocked a hip and raised an eyebrow looking at the large throwing knives held across his chest.
“That looks so practical and comfortable to wear Teds. What’s to stop you cutting your belly?”
Teddy closed his robe a little bashfully at the criticism from his wife.
“Lucy made the cross belt, she said she copied her holster from Hero. Said something about open design architecture that looked like the creator had left unlocked purposefully…”
Just then Lucy joined them as well. Her head buried in a book that had one of her signature notebooks resting on the other page to the one she was reading.
“Uh huh? I said what now?”
“You said something about open architecture on the gift you were given by Hero?”
“Oh that, well most magical items are somewhat difficult to replicate the effects, the holster though almost comes with instructions, I wanted to take a look at everyone else’s at some point if thats ok.” Seeing the look on Teddy’s face she quickly clarified. “Strictly non-destructive testing only of course.”
“So the belt kind of holds the knives in a stasis field, same way that Lucy’s wands don’t fall out of her holster my knives can’t fall out of the belt.” Teddy explained.
“Uh huh.” Kyra said, still looking unimpressed. “We need to talk about your fashion Teddy, thats a brown leather belt with black armour, silver vambraces and a blue and black cloak. The boots we cant do anything about as you like them so much but we have the money, lets get you some matching armour.”
She walked off arm in arm with Lucy, talking fast and low conspiratorially about armour ideas for the boys. The boys looked at each other in mild worry.
“Well there goes all those gold coins we just got given I suppose.” James said. “And in terms of intimidation,” He transformed his right hand into a huge bear paw, the magical soul-bound Vambrace of Menagerie blending smoothly into the claw, giving it a metallic sheen and a faint crackle of electricity. The paw was probably about the size of Teddy’s chest and he had no doubt it could probably stove in his ribs. “I find I don’t need to carry much to be effective.” And he dismissed the paw.
“Ah but remember back home, you used to have two kinds of bouncers, you had the big trolls who you aren’t going to mess with because they’ll flatten you, then you had the small guys or girls, they all wore smart clothes so you didn’t know what was underneath but they were all lean wiry muscle. They were the ones to watch for because people weren’t as intimidated of them at first but they’re the vicious ones that knew how to bend you arm until your shoulders about to pop.”
“You’re saying you need to be a clever fighter because people aren’t as naturally inclined to be intimidated of you?”
“Yeh I guess, but the advantage of being an essence user is that you aren’t just a big lug, you can also shift so you can be big and vicious!”
“Well maybe you’ll have to make me some ridiculous bastard sword or something to go with my size, any fight you can stop before it starts because they don’t want to fight you is worth the effort.”
“Looking for a Conan the barbarian look over the warrior monk thing you have going on at the moment with the staff?”
“The staff is great don’t get me wrong, and the advantage that it lets me use my unarmed strength bonus which I would obviously lose with anything else, but there’s something satisfying about hitting things with a sword.”
“I get you, I even feel that way about the dimension blade, it feels amazing and is so OP, but it’s a lightsaber rather than a sword, less tactile when you hit things.”
The boy’s continued to chat about toys while the Serenity trundled over the road, Teddy explaining the construction of what he had made while showing the methods in the books they had bought. The lake was off to one side stretching into the distance without being able to see the far side and the countryside as far as the eye could see to the other, apart from the odd junction off the ring road out to the distance and one or two more diving villages they didn’t stop at they didn’t see anyone else on their peaceful journey through the sunshine.