Chess coughed again, thumping her chest, as she choked back the last glass of cilantro flavored water. Caldur had been gracious enough to discretely check if anyone had a suppository kit available but had come up empty-handed, and she’d been unable to stop Caldur’s search diplomatically. One of the men had mentioned that he liked to dissolve Pyth he disliked in water and drink it as fast as he could, and she’d decided it was worth a shot. The idea of using someone else’s suppository setup grossed her out anyway.
Once she'd finished downing the vile brew, she took the handful of berries Ashley offered her and stuffed her face to clear the taste as fast as possible.
When finished, she sat back with a sigh and opened the info on her inventory Pyth.
Inventory Pyth: Rank 2:
Allows access to storage of (Rank x Mind(mod) feet) cubed [Current: 4ft high by, 4ft wide, by 4ft deep space]. Takes 1 minute-Mind to retrieve two items or containers, and 1 minute-Mind seconds to store two items or containers. [Current 45 seconds]
“I’m not sure that was worth it,” she told Ashley with a grimace.
“Sure...it was. Stop being a baby, it was only 8 mugs of water, some people would kill for two full bags of that stuff,” she admonished, mirth filling her golden eyes.
“You’re not the one drinking dirty laundry water,” Chess grumbled drinking some plain water from her flask then eating more berries. Her belly protested all the liquid sloshing around in it.
Ashley laughed and shook her head, her mane of two-toned hair whipping about wild and unrulily. A couple of the nearby men laughed with her; having listened in on their conversation.
“How do all these people have Inventory Pyth anyways? It's labeled as uncommon, you’d think it would be, well, uncommon,” Chess asked, flopping her head back to look at the clear sky overhead with her hands behind her head. She kept a particular eye on the branch that overhung the camp.
“Farms,” Ashley said with a shrug.
“Wait people farm Pyth? No, of course they do, but how?” Chess asked looking sidelong at the girl.
“I think Inventory is some sort of rodent." Ashley said, before raising her voice for the man busy setting up at the cookfire nearby to hear. "Adit didn’t you say your family are Inventory farmers?"
“Aye girl, they’re squirrel farmers,” he said proudly, and Chess felt a momentary pang of jealousy as she realized how much Ashley had fit into the group.
“You mean walnut farmers with a squirrel problem,” Jalp said dismissively from where he was busy setting up Chess’ tent. “Nothing like an honest hamster farmer.”
“You’re referring to your uncle’s disgusting caged operation again? Barbarians,” Adit spat, his all to handsome features bunched up in disgust.
“At least they succeeded in their operation and weren’t forced to take up squirrel-chasing to make ends meet,” Jalp shot back with venom.
Chess looked from one man to the next. “Shit, I think we hit on a sensitive subject; though turning a fail into a win is more impressive in my opinion,” she whispered to Ashley who nodded her agreement.
“Why are you a soldier?” Chess asked Adit, trying to divert the argument.
“I grew too tall. You need to be quick and small to be a squirrel farmer. My Pyth and size lent themselves to a soldier’s path once I outgrew the family business. If I can get a good subclass, I’ll have a good career here,” he said, brought up short by the need to be polite to Chess.
“What’s your class?” she asked curiously.
“Scout, milady. Most of my family are scouts or foresters. The class abilities are good for maintaining the stock,” Adit explained while rubbing at the back of his dirty blond head.
“Hamsters are easier to Pyth-raise than squirrels,” Jalp interrupted dropping what he was doing and taking a step towards Adit.
“Seriously? Your family only gets a quarter the Pyth per animal come harvest, that’s pathetic,” Adit said reengaging and taking a step forward himself.
“You have predation and less than half the animals, to begin with,” Jalp said waving off his argument.
“Our three-tailed lynxes keep that to a minimum. Besides, squirrels give freefall, jump, climb, balance, and the rare plant Pyth as alternatives. Much better than Hamsters,” Adit said thrusting out his chest.
“Freefall? You’re including rare breeds?” Jalp shook his head. “Still burrow, dig, and the rare earth sense Pyth demand a considerable market share, and we don’t have to worry about all the overhead of your family's bullshit operation,” he said.
"Three tailed lynxes? Think that's why Adit slept with a death-fox?" a nearby soldier snickered to his mate.
Both men shot the interloper a death stare in a display of unity that made Chess snort to hold back laughter.
“Dear gods, not this again. I swear if this argument comes to blows, you’re both digging latrines with wooden spoons for the rest of the week. Now, don’t you both have jobs to complete?” Caldur said in a clipped voice. He’d materialized out of nowhere behind the two arguing men. They both turned to look at him guiltily and Chess decided to ask something the conversation had made her wonder. She made sure the word existed in Brastian first.
“What about gophers?” Chess asked.
“Gophers,” Adit muttered shaking his head and turning away for the fire.
“Gophers,” Jalp mirrored with a laugh going back to working on her tent.
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“What?” Chess asked confused, looking between Caldur and Ashley. “Don’t gophers have similar habits?”
Ashley laughed, “Maybe gophers are different where you’re from. I hope we never run into them,” she said with an exaggerated shiver.
“May your Freya grant it so,” Caldur agreed fervently.
“Did you finish your rank up?” he asked Chess.
“Yes, thankfully,” she said, still confused about the gophers.
He smiled indulgently and waved a hand at the nearby folded hides. “If you wouldn’t mind, the sooner they get stored, the more useful the tanner will find them,” he explained.
Chess got up and did what he’d asked, having to move her boxes around a bit but managing to get them both in with a small space to spare. When she turned back around Caldur had turned to where Lynn tended the wounded man, so she plopped back down beside Ashley.
“How are you?” Caldur asked the injured man.
“Fine sir I will be up in a jiffy,” he said with a smile.
“A little longer, the bone wasn’t broken,” Lynn agreed perkily. “I'm worried about you, Lord Caldur, you’re seeping,” she said, nodding at his bandaged leg.
“Find me when you’re done with Yoseph,” Caldur said while limping past the pair.
Well, that was informative, Chess relaxed on her bench sitting quietly with Ashley as the men worked to set up the camp around them. Once Lynn had finished with Yoseph and left to find Caldur she turned to the quiet girl beside her.
“How you holding up, kid? We haven’t talked much since I got sick, other than you teaching me to ride. Thanks for that by the way,” Chess asked.
“I’m fine,” Ashley grunted, kicking dirt with her heels.
“What do you want to do once we get to Portheel?” Chess asked, ignoring the girl's discontent.
“Stay with you, if I can,” Ash said after staring at the sky for a long pause. “At least life will be interesting then,” she muttered.
“You know that’s a curse back home? ‘may you live in interesting times.’” Chess said.
Ashley ignored her question, instead, she lay her hand over Chess’s. Chess felt a hard-round object between their palms.
“Are you sure?” Chess asked turning to look her in the eye, pulling her hand away and slipping the core into a pocket on her dress.
Ashley nodded. “You saved me. The way I see it if you back out and take it,” she shrugged, “I owe you. Besides, my breasts are tender, and ma said that was a sign my time is near. We should do this tonight,” she said kneading her chest with the heels of her hands.
“Alright. Lynn is gonna be pissed when she finds out. Any idea how we do the adoption thing?” she asked.
“It usually involves an offering to one of the gods but I figured, Freya since you are her…” Ashley said trailing off.
“Right, an offering. We can do this. How do we do this? Burn some candles and speak to the sky?” Chess asked.
“We could ask for a heart? She is a death Goddess, right?” Ashley asked nodding to the pile of organ meat waiting for the cooks.
“She's more the fallen soldiers who die in battle type, but I guess the cats did die in battle and she does like cats. Though I'm not sure it'll be taken that way. Love, beauty, and fertility are her main aspects,” she explained.
“Ok, this is a significant request. So, the better the offerings, the better the result. Make the shrine from your cloak for fertility,” Ashley mused. “Love and beauty,” she added thoughtfully.
“What about this?” Chess asked, reluctantly removing her silk scarf.
“Perfect, now love,” Ashley said.
“Would a love song do?” Chess wondered.
“Yes!” Ashley clapped her hands.
“So, the heart, then we just wing the ceremony? Or do you have any ideas?” Chess asked.
Ashley shrugged pulling her tail around into her lap to hug it. “With our offerings, we can state our agreement and you can play the song. The heart and scarf should be plenty of power to get her attention.”
“Right, let’s ask Caldur for the heart and maybe some candles,” Chess said standing up. She gave the girl a hand up before pulling her along.
They found Lynn attending to Caldur's leg and silently agreed to wait until after the Sister had finished before asking.
As they waited Chess watched what Lynn was doing. She’d angled herself so the sun was behind her making her black and white fur gleam in the evening light. Chess wondered idly how she managed to stay so clean before focusing on the Sister’s actions. Lynn made complex hand movements casting shadows onto Caldur’s exposed pale skin, and Chess could feel the same vibrant mana that fueled her growth magic coalescing into a repetitive matrix that formed then sunk into Caldur only to start again. Each matrix seemed to improve the gash in his leg by a small but significant degree. Perhaps a day of healing for each matrix; each one taking about a minute. When the wound had closed leaving a puckered red scar, Lynn sat back on her heels letting out a weary sigh.
“Thank you, Sister,” Caldur said, standing up to test his leg: stamping his foot then jumping up and down.
“You’re very welcome, I'm afraid I need to find some food and rest if you’d excuse me,” she said looking back at where Chess and Ash waited.
“Of course,” he said with a nod, turning to Chess once she’d gotten further away. “Lady Stewart, Ashley,” he said with a smile. “How can I help you two?”
“Well... you see, I want to adopt Ashley here so she can have the benefit of the core the Dryad left her. We're wondering if we can get one of the lion’s hearts for the ritual. Two of her aspects are cats and battle deaths. We thought it would be fitting,” Chess explained.
“An admirable plan but have you taken into consideration the responsibilities that come as a result? Or the fact she’s a commoner?” he asked with a stern look.
“First off, my family has already taken me for dead: so, I’m alone. Second, that core of hers is a great boon for a noble house. Third, she’s a good kid, and I feel I owe her for taking my time in attacking those murderers. If I'd not waited until dark, I could have saved her mother. Fourth, because, because I want to,” Chess said folding her arms under her breasts.
“Alright,” he responded rubbing his face. “I want to be sure you consider all the implications. First, your strongest Pyth will go to your first child adopted or otherwise if you should die. So, Ashley here will have the preference over any naturally born children, it will make any future unions considerably less valuable,” he explained.
“That would be less a problem than it appears unless I'm mistaken in believing Cat-kin and humans live shorter lives than even half-elves like me? If I don’t die to violence, I should outlive her, and so would any potential children I had. And it's not first come first serve? What about the actual harvesting? That’s what I don’t understand if someone claims the inheritance are people still able to loot that Pyth from the body and are cores different?” She asked.
“There are some serious holes in your education, some noble families and their practices, you weren’t the eldest were you?” he shook his head with a sigh. “Yes, half-elves can be significantly longer lived but keep in mind her children would inherit before her siblings. Part of any Pyth will always be inheritable even if someone with harvest Pyth class ability over the fifth rank; most of whom belong to the churches does the harvesting since it's never exact. They keep extensive records of people with these valuable resources and generally make sure the family has access to the body if approached to perform such a harvest. Inheritance is the best form of harvesting, it has the least amount of loss."
"The guilds and many noble families have open bounties on their heads or their dead bodies so pyths can be returned so that members can claim their inheritances. So there is plenty of time to return a body or a head. There is a story that a king once extracted a Gem from his great great great grandsire’s undead skull. You also have to consider the more mundane issues. For instance, if she doesn’t manage to get a decent class it will reflect badly on you, though the core should help with that. Then there is training and education; both of which she needs significant work on,” he said.
“What do you say, up for some training and tutors?” Chess asked Ashley. “The rest I can live with, what happens if you have two cores, does the second most powerful go to the second child?”
“Yes,” Ashley nodded excited by the idea.
“Yes, second goes to second and so on,” Caldur confirmed.
“Well, you haven’t said anything that’s changed my mind. So, can we have the heart, or buy it from you?” Chess asked.
“If you’re sure, you can have it. I’ve meant to give Freya an offering anyway. Let me partake as a witness?” he compromised.
“Great! let's get this set up.” Chess clapped.