"It's not docked," the young guard stammered and nearly tripped over his spear shaft as he took two hurried steps back.

Chess opened her mouth but Amber glared back at her, prompting her to close it before she said anything.

“Lentin she’s fine,” Amber assured the guard.

“Do I know you?” The older guard, Lentin, asked, eyeing her closely.

Amber only paused a moment before saying, “I heard the boy use your name when I walked up.”

Thankfully the guard seemed to accept this and turned back to study Stace with a deepening frown.

"She's a very rare and valuable breed," Gramps said, dismounting and approaching with his hands up. Showing they were empty. "I assure you she was raised amongst humans and has never shown undue aggression. But if you require, I can store her in my bond storage."

Flemming moved smoothly to take charge of the string of horses.

Chess grimaced as Gramps enacted one of their many contingency plans if a guard recognized Stace as a pureblood. As such threat assessment abilities were common.

Not docking the ear of prime breeding stock was common enough and an easy explanation. Free purebloods were usually docked as a child to indicate their background.

The younger guard only relaxed a fraction and took another step back to meet the eye of his companion.

Lentin nodded after eyeing the group a second longer.

The young man sighed and lowered the spear back to his shoulder. "Sorry, you know how it is.” He plastered a hesitant smile on his face.

“If I could have your word? That won't be necessary," Lentin told Gramps.

Gramps nodded. "By Muror's Depths, I swear she will cause you or yours no harm unless in defense of herself, me, or my companions. This I swear on my word as a dwarf and my skill as a breeder," he recited.

The pair relaxed a hair more before sharing a look and nodding in near unison.

"Keep her close until I can spread the word," Lentin cautioned.

"Fair enough, she can stay up there until we get settled," Gramps agreed, then turned back to the horses.

"Does that mean we can come in?" Kan asked.

"Need to see your faces first but then you can find a spot with the others on the green. I'm afraid every bed is spoken for at the moment," Lentin agreed.

"I'm not sure you want me to do that," Kan said wryly.

“Your voice is familiar but I must insist you remove it. I’ve seen my share of wounds over the years. Spent a decade with the Red Lions. Nothing I ain't seen,” the guard reassured.

“Red Lions?” Chess asked, dismounting next to Amber.

“Mercs,” Amber whispered into her ear, making the hair at the nape of her neck rise.

Chess turned to meet her captivating eyes for a moment before Kan broke the spell.

“It’s not that—I’m…” Kan started. "Can I put my back to the village?"

The two switched places and Kan removed his helm. With an audible swallow, Lentin said, "I see… yeah it's best you keep that on. Are you… is that some sort of class ability? You're not undead, are you?"

"I'm a golem," Kan said.

"Oh."

"Never heard of an intelligent golem before," the younger guard mumbled.

"Sergeant Hilkan?" The reedy voice drew everyone's attention away from the growing tension.

Steven!

"I'm coming kid," Kan said in a steady voice before turning to disappear into the back of the tinker wagon. He slammed his full helm back on as he moved.

"Sergeant Hilkan? Why is that familiar?" the young guard mumbled.

"Are those the Count's horses?" Lentin asked after studying Chess's mare more closely before looking at the others.

“We met him in the woods," Amber explained.

"It might be best if we spoke to the Baron on that matter,” Chess interrupted, removing her helm in the process. She made her voice pleasant but with a hint of command as Amber had been coaching her.

The guards both turned to her, and both did a double-take as though noticing her for the first time.

“My lady, I apologize,” the younger one stammered and gave a short bow followed by his elder.

Chess smiled and shook her head. “I’m just a tinker and trader but I feel your lord would appreciate hearing the news we bear before it can spread."

"If you say so, ma'am," Lentin agreed.

"And I fear it falls to me to introduce everyone," Chess began, "I'm Chess, this is our protector, Amber." She laid a hand on Amber's armored shoulder. "The dwarf is Ken but we often call him Gramps, and the young girl on the bench is my adopted daughter Ashley."

She made sure to leave out Kan, Stace, and Flemming as they were considered property, and one didn't introduce their animals. The custom made her want to gnash her teeth but she kept to the script.

Gramps stepped forward and clasped wrists with Lentin who introduced himself and his companion as Havey.

Lentin nodded and obviously reading Gramps’ professions said, "We could use your expertise for a time and of course welcome your custom. I dare say you've come at the right time."

A blur of blue-black fur interrupted further talk as it skidded to a stop inches from Gramps.

"Clive said that April said that Tom said that Second-Step Lake got attacked by a family of gophers! Is that true?... is it, is it!? Momma and Kate won't let me talk to the new kids at the green because they're all sad!" The little bear boy bounced on his toes with morbid curiosity.

An older sibling jogged up carrying a human baby in her arm and tugged at his shoulder trying to make him stop. "Come on Kliny, leave the strangers alone."

"I'm sorry son, but we just came from the forest," Gramps said with a patient smile, indicating the trees on the bluff behind them.

"I'm sorry master dwarf," the girl apologized, giving the arm a firmer pull. "Come on Kliny, or I'll tell mom you talked to strangers," she added in a loud whisper to her brother.

"Buuut guardsman Lentin is right there!" the animated teddy bear whined and pointed at Lentin two steps to his right.

Chess snorted a laugh.

"There's no harm, dear," Gramps told the girl before turning back to the boy and kneeling to match his gaze. "What else did... Clive was it? ...say about this attack? What do you know about gophers?"

"Gophers are big…" The boy's eyes widened further as they caught sight of Ashley's pets. "Are those flying cats?" He dashed past Gramps and skidded to a stop beside Ashley. His sister, close to Ashley's age, sighed and followed in his wake.

"Careful, they aren't fully tame," Gramps called after the boy with a laugh. "He's excitable," he observed.

"Be gentle with her wings," Ashley cautioned as she held one of her pets closer for the boy to see. The pair and the boy's sister quickly fell into a hushed conversation.

"Been like that since he could walk," Lentin agreed. "Come I'll show you a space you can set up and introduce you to Grant to see about pasture space for the horses. Do you intend to wait for the Count to return to retrieve your horses?"

"What about the Baron?" Chess asked after an elbow from Amber.

"The Baron and his lady are at Second-step. Havey, would you introduce the young elf to Jake and the young lady and lord if they're about?" Lentin called back.

"My… ma'am if you would follow me?"

Chess hesitated and looked at Amber. Amber pointed at the crossbow and mace on Chess's belt and shrugged before mouthing, 'you'll be fine.' "I need to check on Steven. I'll make sure Ashley doesn't run off," Amber assured her.

Chess sighed and nodded before tucking her helm under her arm and turning to follow. What the hell did I agree to? She wondered, shifting Sprig on her back.

"So, you're a bard?" Havey asked when they'd moved out of earshot of the others.

"Among other things," Chess said, giving him a half-smile while switching her other two professions to show.

"You really are a tinker? And a carpenter?" He laughed and shook his head. "Let me guess. You build instruments?"

Chess only gave him a Cheshire grin.

Havey matched her grin. "Will you be playing later?"

"Maybe. Depends on if I can get some things together first, a nap first and foremost," Chess hedged then suppressed a yawn.

"Well, let's get this over with then," Havey said and picked up the pace.

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Chess chuckled and followed.

When they approached the palisade, Havey made her wait and had a quick conversation with the pair of guards on gate duty before returning to wait with her.

Chess spent the time studying the impressively big old timbers used to encircle the hill. The joinery used to connect them was impressive. No light shone through despite the lack of any sort of filler. They look like ironwood. I wonder how long they've been here. The weather had turned them almost black with time.

The large gate swung open soundlessly on a central pivot when a small group of men came out, and Chess whistled at the work that must have been required to get it right.

The meeting with the brightly dressed Baron's clerk, Jake, was anticlimactic. He assured her he'd send word to the Baron as soon as possible and agreed to send the quickly written letter she composed, outlining the very basics of what had transpired in the woods. Though giving no indication of the fate of the Count or the existence of the rift as Amber had suggested.

Neither of the lord's children was available, so Chess quickly found herself following Havey back to the others just in time to unhitch the horses and lead them to a distant pasture with Gramps.

By the time they returned, the others, with more than enough experience on the road, had set up their camp and strung a sheet of silk as an awning between the two wagons, with their hammocks hung below.

A small group of people were already making their way out from a large cluster of tents on the opposite side of the green and trickled in from the surrounding stone homes and were accosting Amber with a string of questions.

“We don’t have much but we may be willing to trade for like; what we do have is getting old,” Amber said to an old woman. "We also have a Plant-caller with us if you have the coin and the fertilizer required to replenish the soil," she added, giving Chess an evil smirk.

"I hate you," Chess called over the crowd's heads. Prompting them to part for her and Gramps.

This announcement caused a hush to fall over the crowd before they gave her a good look than the crowd noise went up a few octaves. Many of the gathered people gave her a respectful nod or bow and many whispered the word mage or elf.

Chess sighed. She preferred the plan where the only thing she was known for was music. But with the apparent troubles in the nearby town, she understood Amber's decision.

When she came alongside her friend, she leaned in and whispered in her ear, "You're going to pay for this." Then Chess smacked her ass hard on the way by promoting her to jump.

A nearby young man laughed.

"I'll hold you to that," Amber agreed loudly, gathering more laughter.

"Now we have a few barrels of sour berries available and if you have the coin, Greenwood Lion meat, along with a wide array of wooden implements," Amber told the crowd.

"If there is a tanner or cobbler here, we're interested in doing a bit of trading," Gramps added.

"And of course, we'll accept pyth instead of currency," Amber said, which gained a round of scattered chuckles.

Chess felt her cheeks heat as she climbed into the back of the tinker wagon and crawled into the hammock and buried her head in the silk pillow. She just knew it was going to be a long day and she was already tired from the descent.

Chess looked around and noted Kan and Steven were missing and hadn't been outside. "Hmm probably at the healers already," she mumbled into the pillow.

Surprisingly, Chess found sleep only to be woken up what felt like minutes later by Ashley.

"Oh hey," she mumbled, giving her daughter a sleepy smile. "Where have you been?"

"Finding my way around town like Amber asked. I found an old dwarven cobbler, and Gramps is talking to him already about proper boots for everyone. He needs you to make some dryad wood needles of all sizes and to come to get measured."

"Dryad wood? I thought we were hiding that?"

Ashley rolled her eyes. "He knew as soon as he saw my new bracers and then Gramps' armor. It's hard to sneak that kind of thing past a craftsman over three hundred years old." Ashley ran her hand over the now purple vambraces Chess had recreated from the old.

I should have covered them in ironwood or redwood like the wagon and our armor.

Chess held her eyes closed for a moment before saying, "fine," and rolling out of her hammock to dig in a bottom drawer for some likely pieces of wood. "Tell him I'll be a few minutes."

"Thanks, mom!" Ashley gave her a quick hug and a peck on the cheek, then dashed out the door leaving a baffled Chess behind.

"Huh, that just happened."

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

“Is that Chess?” Stace asked, looking out to the group of people diving from a rickety raft in the middle of the small lake. “How is that thing not sinking?”

Amber laughed, “I was thinking about joining them, to keep her out of trouble, but she seems to be fitting in fine on her own. She had a few of the refugee women make her bathing suits for most of the night then had the Baron’s son and daughter and a gaggle of village boys out fishing when the sun came up. Ken thinks she’s just doing what she can to avoid working the stall or growing more food.”

Stace followed her gaze back to where Ken was dickering with an old greying Fox-kin with a pair of sheep on a short line from behind a table at the foot of the tinker wagon. Business had slowed to a steady trickle.

Ashley and a group of kids threw frisbees for her Heliwr in the open space between the tents and their wagons. Their cries and cheers were loud over the growing crowd of busy refugees.

“She even had them make me a suit,” Amber held up a pair of pink bikini bottoms and a top made from spider silk.

Stace snorted and shook her head. “She just wants to see you in your underwear.”

Amber turned a faint pink and grew quiet.

"Weren't you recently furry like me? How is that embarrassing? Every Kin I've seen wears no more than a loincloth if they can get away with it." She pointed at a foxkin woman in nothing but a thong and belt bathing at the edge of the lake for emphasis.

Amber just shrugged.

Stace flopped down beside her with a sigh and leaned back to watch Chess and her crew’s antics. “It’s… strange having everyone fear me.”

“There are reasons for that fear.”

“I know. I’m getting the picture of how the feral tribes behave, but it still sucks. It took Jake a half hour to calm down enough to take me seriously. If Ashley hadn’t been there...”

“Give them a few days.” Amber patted her knee twice. “Did you find everything you were looking for?”

Stace shook her head. “All I could find was black, blue, and red ink. That and a zinc-based white. Well, that I think will be safe for tattoos. Everything else Jake suggested is toxic in some way. Though, truth be told, I never looked into how the ink was created back home. Still, I know injecting mercury can’t be healthy, and it's in most of his inks,” she grumbled. “I bought what he could spare and a few bottles of high-test alcohol for a carrier. I guess I can always start with the three. Still seems limiting. There is nothing remotely like a tattoo machine. If I don't take the ability, I'll be stuck with whatever I can convince Chess to make."

Amber frowned. “Was it expensive?”

Stace smiled and shook her head. “I traded a few of the more detailed ironwood hair clips for it. The ones I’ve been designing for Chess to make. I think Jake’s sweet on one of the baron's cooks. He was happy to get first dibs on them. Though now that you mention it, I should’ve asked what it’s worth, or the clips for that matter.”

Amber mulled that over for a bit before speaking. “Can I make a suggestion?”

Stace smiled. “That's why I’m here. You're the guru.”

“Guru? Never mind I can get it from context." Amber took a second to wrangle her thoughts before starting. "I know you have your heart set on the body art from your homeworld. Despite your now furry exterior. But have you considered taking the machine and Empower Rune? Or even Empower Rune and Animate Sculpture? It would give you more versatility and nothing is saying you can’t imprint runes on people if you can find those willing."

Stace frowned. “You said it yourself: there is a limit to the number of characters I get to choose. The runesmiths keep their choices close to their breast. Hiding the true runes in intricate designs and nonsense characters. Besides, there are thousands of characters in Brastian alone and I’ve barely…” she cut herself off “...I don’t have to use Brastian. How many characters will I get?”

“It will be a multiple of rank and a stat. Likely willpower or mind, though charisma is possible,” Amber said, matching her smile. “Empower Rune has the benefit that you can use it on any surface, not just skin.”

"Fuck it, if it sucks, I'm taking Empower Tattoo and hoping the machine comes up at level five."

"I choose Empower Rune," Stace said.

Empower Rune: Rank 3

Choose Rank x Will(mod) symbols to empower with meaning. Once chosen they cannot be changed. [Current 6 symbols]

The more people that accept their meaning the more potential power your chosen runes can retain.

Enchantment results will vary depending on strength of meaning, intent, detail, accuracy, materials used, mana imbued, and surface area covered.

"Fiddlesticks, only six. If I put a point into willpower, I'll have nine though," Stace mused.

"Don't," Amber forestalled her. "What's your willpower at?"

"Fifteen, why?"

"We can get you set up with Dent's aura to work on the point so you don't have to spend the free ones. Don't spend them on stats below 18 if you can help it. There are many ways to improve them naturally until 18," Amber explained.

"Dent?" Stace asked.

"A skeleton Ashley dominated in the rift, Chess has him in a box somewhere. He's a very old skeleton and has a powerful aura as a result. I thought we mentioned him to you."

"Alright," Stace dragged the word out. "Either way I'll have to seriously consider which letters to take until I can find the pyth for my core or increase my willpower. I wonder if acronyms will work."

Stace sighed and watched Chess flip a man nearly twice her size over her shoulders and into the lake before diving in beside him when the raft tilted ominously, dumping all its occupants. Laughter floated in off the lake. "Damn she's strong for her size," Stace murmured.

"Elves can be deceptively strong, but I think she's only around 14 or 15. Which is on par with a strong human male. Size often limits the leverage they can bring to bear. It's that willowy build they all have," Amber explained.

"I could see that. I choose Summon Tattoo Machine," Stace whispered to the sky.

Summon Tattoo Machine Rank 3

Summon a magical tattoo machine that lasts for up to Rank hours. Perception(mod) x Rank times a day. [Current 3 hours 9 times a day]

All known tips, needles, and other adjustments are available upon summoning or resummon. One setup is created with each cast.

"How do I use Summon Tattoo Machine?" There was no pain this time, only the information on its use. Though the similarities to Calligraphy tools might account for the change.

Stace thought for a moment before casting the spell and summoning a very modern ruby-red machine with a shading tip already in place and ready. There was no power supply. However, when she willed it, the machine came to life with a very familiar sound.

"No ink, but I was expecting that. Otherwise, it's exactly what I expected. If I can find enough pyth for another rank, it can last longer than I'm likely to use in a day," Stace mused. "I just realized I won't have to worry about sterilizing it. I can just summon a new one. Though I should figure out gloves. I hope you're right about Empower Tattoo coming up again at level five."

"With you taking the machine it's almost guaranteed. Unless something better takes its place," Amber reassured her.

"And the final one. Are you sure about this? Life Imitates Body Art sounds good," Stace asked.

"I'm sure. Ashley already found you a few doses of Steady hands Pyth and Life imitates body art is very limited by its associated anima.

"Artistic Focus sounds like a general class skill for you, and you should never pass them up. They often don't reappear. Nothing else is worth considering."

"Fine," Stace breathed. "I choose Artistic Focus."

Artistic Focus: Rank 3

Artistic Focus: Every 10-Mind(mod) minutes [Current 9 minutes] of artistic activity increases the chance you fall into a productive flow state by perception(mod) x Rank percent [Current 9%] Flow state provides a Perception(mod) x Rank percent perception boost to artistic activities and outcomes above the natural benefits of being in the flow state. [Current 9%]

"Holy cow, that's…" Stace began only to be politely interrupted by someone clearing their throat behind them.

"You give succinct advice for a guard. Rumor has it I need to speak to Grandmaster Ken or you two if I want a new shaft for my spear. And the dwarven master looks quite busy at the moment," a strong cultured voice said.

Amber looked back then scrambled to her feet, dipping a quick curtsey, which Stace did her best to emulate. "Lord Baron, you're back? Are the pests dealt with then?"

His clerk Jake hovered behind him and gave Stace a tentative wave and smile. Maybe he warmed up to me more than I thought.

"I'm afraid Second-Step will have to wait. We've evacuated the stragglers and holdouts, then sent word to The Heel for help. It's a terrible business but one we've fought before. The Count will sort it out when he returns."

"Yeah, about that," Amber started, only for the baron to hold up his hand to stall her. His gaze had been drawn out to the cavorting group on the water.

"Is that my son and daughter? What in the thirteen hells are they wearing?"

Stace coughed to suppress her laugh while Amber rubbed the back of her head in a very Chess-like manner.

"About that," Amber repeated.