by Zack Finley
Argon blamed herself, she knew the acolytes were tired. She allowed her eagerness to get the place cleansed to push the timing. I knew it didn’t help the acolytes were willing participants. That it was their duty. She was in command, and her group was gravely wounded. Sharing my own anguish in similar circumstances would not help.
All I could do was be there for her. To chide her when she blamed herself for things, not within her control. To understand her pain and take it as my own.
“There is nothing more you can do,” Alba said entering the room and moving toward us. “We have healed their bodies, it is up to their patron to help them heal their spirits.”
Argon started to argue, but Alba insisted. “Your presence could be a distraction for them. They need quiet and serenity to help them find their way. You are too filled with guilt and anger and more. Trust in Avia to lead them to where they belong, whether here with us or on another plane.”
The other four acolytes were sound asleep, their wounds healed. Alba had nudged them into a mild coma to help them heal.
I ‘ported Argon to our HQ apartment for the night. Fortunately, not all our under-armor or bed-clothes were now at the Keep.
I stripped off our armor, and we slid into bed, my arms and my love wrapped tightly around her. When she relaxed and slipped into sleep, I was very grateful.
Unfortunately, I reeked. My under-armor reeked. In no time at all, that is all I could think about. Or smell. I hated to leave her, but she was asleep. When she woke up, she might not appreciate my pungency.
I began a strategic withdrawal, using a pillow to cradle her head while I shifted her off my shoulder. Once I’d disentangled, and she was still sound asleep, I crept out of the room and into the shower.
Apparently, my strategic withdrawal was detected.
The first indication of this was a warm hand rubbing soap on my back. I’d have to find out how she sneaked up on me. A few soft kisses along my back, and I didn’t care how she did it.
The slow sensual feel of warm water, suds, and her tender touch sent me to a whole new experience. We both were bloody, sweaty and gritty from the day’s battle. It felt good to be clean. It felt even better to be cleaned. The experience wasn’t really erotic so much as it was nurturing. Oh, there was a playful sexual aspect, but mostly cleaning one another just felt wonderful. A way to connect, to bond, to share.
By the time we returned to bed, Argon was still feeling guilty, but she realized the burden wasn’t hers alone to bear.
I was willing to crawl back into the dirty bed we’d left behind, but Argon insisted on clean bedding. By the time we were back in bed, no one but me, Happy, and the Boys were in the mood. Argon was sound asleep. It had been a long, rough day.
Argon barely woke me up when she left. Alba sent good news. The acolytes were awake and ready to go home.
I snoozed on until hydraulic pressure forced me up. I stashed our dirty clothes in the laundry and found a clean set of under armor to wear.
“Gera, meet me at the Klee market,” I sent, heading to the market for breakfast.
I had just started eating when Gera arrived. I sent him to get breakfast.
“Do you know when the Duchy Guard does its daily workout?” I asked.
“No, sir,” Gera answered mid-bite.
“Find out and schedule yourself to take part,” I said. “Put it on your assignment log, so we don’t schedule you to be in several places at once.”
I recognized the puzzled look and relented, showing him where the com hub maintained the schedules. Currently, Gera was fully scheduled with me. I had no scheduled assignments today. I noticed Clive’s crew was hard at work on the new armorer’s building. It was located near the port entrance.
“Clive, I have an untrained earth mage with me. Can you put him to work?” I sent. “We need to get him capped.”
“How old is your mage?” asked Clive.
“Too old not to be capped,” I replied.
“Send him to us we’ll have him in shape in no time.”
I turned to Gera. “Report to Clive after you finish breakfast. I’ll contact you if I need something else.”
After a few moments, I asked. “What is the news you are picking up in the market?”
Gera acted puzzled.
“Aren’t you using your mind monitoring app?” I asked.
His silence answered that question as he focused inwardly on launching it.
“I expect you to run the app all the time, at least until your mind magic gets capped. As it happens much of the market news is about Toffad’s Keep this morning. So far all I sense is good stuff, but we all need to be alert for potential threats. You have the tools, so use them,” I chastised.
“Yes, sir. I’ll report to Clive, now.” With that, he teleported out.
When I checked the assignment sheet, I was pleased to see Gera had updated it to reflect his new assignment.
Argon was at the Keep helping get the younglings offloaded and settled.
The hospital and communications hub were the only fully staffed areas of Klee HQ now. We had someone assigned to the front desk and three people in the HQ warehouse area. For protection we still had one retired battlemage staying at HQ and six members of the Duchy Guard on rotating duty.
Jord remained at the Klee warehouses at the docks. He had a handful of staff with him. They were accepting shipments and preparing the next day’s exports for the Keep. The other retired battlemage was now staying there with six other members of the Duchy Guard.
I wasn’t too worried about security as we had mutual aid agreements with the Klee King’s Guard. Cleon had arranged for the guard to come if we needed them.
I was happy to see the first batch of Argon’s recruits from rural Klee were due to arrive by barge sometime today. Jord arranged for them to walk off the river barge and directly onto a ship.
I noticed Jord had several high priority shipments that needed to be teleported from the warehouse to the Keep. I assigned myself to them and spent an hour acting like a pack mule. I decided to check on Maude once I finished the last delivery.
Perga welcomed my arrival but advised they had everything under control. Jestn was fitting in and was being very helpful.
I was startled to see the fields planted only days before now had plants nearly a foot-high growing in them. Several of the orchards which were dormant only yesterday had started to bloom. I asked Perga if that was normal.
“Oh no sir, that is her grace. She is a plant whisperer,” Perga was enraptured.
“Do you need any more help?” I asked.
“Her grace has been talking with Ellte about seeds and seedlings. All seems going well,” Perga said, adding. “Her grace is even sharing some of her private stash of seeds with us. We have already prepared a special planting area for them. We are so blessed.”
This time I noticed Maude was flitting from area to area, with only a small entourage. She had the rest of the crews hard at work. Even the assigned Duchy Guards had assignments. The entourage was in flux, with some dashing off on new assignments while others ran to join the clutch.
The basas were also hard at work tilling the fields. Yet no farmer accompanied them. Apparently, Maude was also a basas whisperer.
I asked Perga if he would prefer to have lunch delivered to the fields and he thanked me. His group was much too enraptured to stop for a meal.
I was still astounded at the change Maude had made to the farmers. I’d have to ask Argon more about these whisperers. I arranged for meals to be delivered to the farm area. I suggested sandwiches because it seemed likely they would be eating on the go.
Argon was in the quarters where most of the younglings were staying. She and Allo were helping get them settled. They had been up much of the night and were being fractious.
With the arrival of the younglings, most of our people were now at the Keep. It was time to move forward.
◆◆◆
Chapter 9
Argon and I deb
ated our next move at length. She favored doing something in Kavil or Ylee first. I wanted to see the rest of Jaloa first.
Argon eventually agreed the two of us could do little by ourselves in either Ylee or Kavil. We could reconnoiter the rest of Jaloa by ourselves.
Tobron wasn’t pleased, but he couldn’t fault the need for gathering broader intel. Cleon provided nondescript clothing he felt would allow us to move around without calling attention to ourselves. We’d need to leave our oso gear behind. Loma provided each of us with a belt battery pack, topped off with all seven magics, just in case.
Argon raided Shala’s treasury and brought sufficient funds to set us up in all five new countries if needed. Our group knew very little about the area across the spine. Capt. Malek visited one of the countries in his youth. He reported it was similar to this side of the spine and hadn’t seemed worth the effort to get there. Wind and currents prevented ships from making the journey routinely. Some adventurers crossed the spine seeking fame and fortune. Most were never heard from again. The consensus was that they found neither fame nor fortune.
It was one of the differences I noticed between Jaloa and Earth. I could not imagine a Jaloan saying I want to climb a mountain because it is there. Their connection to the plants and animals in their surroundings provided a substantial anchor. Leaving the place of their birth was a major trauma. Flocking to some new fad was not a Jaloan trait.
Youngest sons and all daughters had societal norms pushing them to leave home. For them, it was not only allowed it was encouraged. That didn’t mean they were encouraged to venture out into the unknown. The daughters were encouraged to find a mate nearby and move to his home. The youngest sons were encouraged to move to the next village or city to ply their trade.
It was likely that many who flouted societal norms became pirates and outlaws. Larcenous villagers were ostracized by other villagers. Who would do business with someone known to lie and cheat? They had to move to a bigger city or more lawless location. My thoughts immediately went to Omba, the larcenous town in Augun.
We geared up and I ‘ported us to Zoas, the mirror city of Augun. Once again, we had arrived in a quiet area in a temple. Argon had wrapped us in her invisibility swirl, and our combat spells were keyed up and on a hair trigger. Our mind-reading apps were working overtime trying to make sense of the chaos around us. It took a while, but we sorted through the chaff. Zoas was a vibrant city with more people nearby than in a similar spot, even in Klee.
The temple had active wards in its walls welcoming us to stay. Argon peeked into the street and determined we could slip out of the temple unnoticed. We joined the street traffic walking towards the market. Argon located the mage guild, but we’d decided on a different strategy, market trolling. We ate lunch at a table in the market while we monitored the situation. Argon identified several mages going about their business. The Zoas King’s Guard walked their beat without attracting attention.
There were no hidden themes. It was actually refreshing not to sense some underlying evil. Argon went shopping in several booksellers while I continued sipping my chee. She brought several of the books she purchased to share with me. One had a lovely map of Zoas and the two kingdoms next to it. Bara to the north and Xter to the south.
Zoas had more development inland than we typically saw on the west coast. There were several cities and large towns, all along the river system. The Zoas docks were close enough to see from the market. I was amazed at how many ships were coming and going. All signs of a vibrant trading center.
Several market stalls featured seeds and seedlings. Argon drifted over to look at them and in no time had a large bundle, which she handed to me to carry. After chatting with the vendors for several minutes, we ported back to the Keep. I handed off my burdens to Perga and his team. Perga was thrilled with the seeds but was very disappointed I wasn’t carrying more seedlings.
We decided to visit Bara next. It was nearly a repeat of Zoas, except the market had already shifted to night hours. I had failed to account for sun time. One of the booksellers was still open, and I suspect Argon made his entire week with her purchases. She also learned that vendors supplying farmers opened early and were usually closed by noon local time.
I monitored my mind-reading app while Argon shopped. Another quiet, low-key locale. Most everyone still in the market was picking up last minute items before heading home. Some were on their way to downtown bars and restaurants. Some were meeting friends, and some hoped to meet new ones.
Not a lot of difference between Klee and Bara. Except for the basas and chrrts traffic. Bara had few traffic restrictions except to exclude carts from the center of the market. Otherwise, it was a free-for-all.
Resolving to read through the information in the books we now had for the east coast, we left for the Keep.
Returning to full sunshine was odd.
We ‘ported to our rooms and put on our armor and livery. I reluctantly left Loma’s belt in the room. Argon wanted to check on Allo. I decided to take one of the books Argon had presented me with and go to see Virn about a brew. I basically had the tavern to myself. Virn brought me a brew, and I looked through the book about eastern Jaloa.
The book dismissed western Jaloa by suggesting only the foolhardy attempted to visit there due to extreme hardships. It made me appreciate the primitive map we had obtained early on which showed both sides of the continent. As far as the eastern region was concerned anything in the west was considered inconsequential.
As we had noted in Zoas, the east had a significantly larger population. They also enjoyed a higher standard of living although they still relied upon animal-powered transportation. I decided we could learn a lot from what was for sale at the market. For that, we’d need to obtain local currency.
Their mapmaking skills were better, too. My direction sense concurred with the locations of Bara and Zoas. I’d talk with Argon to make sure we were on the same page, but I was in favor of visiting the three remaining cities and opening mage bank accounts. I didn’t see much benefit in joining the guilds but having a place to exchange treasure for currency was beneficial.
When we had discussed visiting the east coast, Tobron told me he had never heard of anyone going there and coming back by land. While he felt this might be one of those deep secrets each family kept from others he was reasonably sure we possessed some of the only teleport locations on the other coast. At his urging, we kept the information about the east coast under partners-only seal.
I had had a secret fear that the dark sect had already attacked the east coast. Clearly, that hadn’t reached the two countries we visited. I wasn’t sure if that meant the dark sect couldn’t get to them or just hadn’t gotten around to them. I hoped I hadn’t already screwed up by bringing back the seeds and saplings. I decided we should discuss operational security with the partners before bringing back any more purchases. I hated keeping secrets, but they just couldn’t be avoided.
I put the book away, to avoid a breach in security if someone caught a glimpse of the map as the tavern began filling with workers. Clive sat down beside me and introduced some of his crew. I thought it odd Gera wasn’t with them.
“Well, we worked your boy hard today,” Clive said, calling for a brew. “He actually has some skill, he just hasn’t bothered with his training. Leave him with my crew for a year, and he’ll be tuned up.”
“I’ll assign him to your squad for an hour a day, see if you can get him capped soon,” I countered. “Work with him on the best time.”
“I guess you have some other plans for the lad,” Clive said, sighing as he guzzled half of his first brew.
“He really came through under fire,” I said.
“Ah, that is good. I wondered at your interest. Normally someone his age that hasn’t capped doesn’t have the drive,” said Clive.
“Sometimes you just don’t know what you have until someone’s life depends on you,” I said.
“I’ll still push the hell out of him,”
said Clive.
“As I would expect,” I answered.
Clive’s apprentices were a boisterous bunch. They were also having a great time building the forge for Jorvik. One of the apprentices had also spent the day removing the stuck doors in the guard houses. The Duchy Guard who accompanied him were also gathered around our table.
I liked to see members of different groups socializing together.
“I thought you were studying?” Argon said as she slid in beside me.
“I was until a party broke out.”
She intercepted my brew and took a swig, before handing it back. “Not what I want right now, I think I want some graal.”
One of the guardsmen jumped up and offered to get it. Argon graciously accepted.
Clive’s group and their guardsmen asked if she had recovered from her injuries.
She waved off their concerns, saying everyone but the undead spirit was fine.
That caused another round of brew. We soon had a standing room only entourage. Until the dinner bell rang. That had become the signal for everyone to rush out and get cleaned up for dinner.
It wasn’t long before it was just Argon, Clive, and me at the table, finishing our drinks. Virn was using the hiatus to wipe down tables and prep for the after-dinner crowd.
“Are we starving those guys?” I asked.
Clive said, “No, they are just growing boys. And, there is a new crop of ladies to impress over dinner.”
That explained the sudden urge to clean up.
We went into dinner. The vibe of the place had changed with the arrival of the younglings. It was still loud and boisterous, but it was more settled. Homier.
The younglings were still looking worried, but I could tell the presence of Allo had helped them with the transition. Most had napped after arrival, but they were still tired and unsettled.
Everyone acted happy the younglings finally arrived, with some of the toughest looking in the crowd pausing to hand a youngster a welcoming gift of a toy or fruit. It was good to see.
