Drip-Fed

Aclysia looked at the tear in her robes with disdain.

It was about a handspan wide. No enemy attack had created it, at least not directly. During one fight, Aclysia had flown past an enemy she had thought dead. The grip of its mandibles had caught the fluttering skirt, she had been stopped mid-flight, and somehow that strain had caused the robe to rip where it was stretched taut over her wide hips.

A dark impulse urged Aclysia to give the fabric another pull, to test if she had been duped on its quality. She did not do it, of course. The seller had been a sanctified priest, his holiness had been clear by the aura around him. It was simply the case that there was a tiny, accidental imperfection in the clothing that had allowed it to tear in that specific spot in those specific circumstances. Such things were the unfortunate side effect of most hand-crafted items. Only the divines, who turned will into matter, could claim perfection and even they chose to make their provided armaments flawed in one way or another.

Aclysia sighed and got out the Blessed Yarn. She was decent at sewing. When they had stayed on Tacuitos, she had first picked it up and over the months they had spent focusing on Questing, she had gotten better at it. She was not good enough to stitch this tear up in a way that stuck – at least not when she had only been given some time every evening to do so.

Apexus was similarly tending to Reysha’s bodysuit. He still loathed the work. The oil sticking to his fingers was annoying. Reysha was still terrible at it though and she had her own work to do that day.

“I love this thing,” the redhead purred and poured a little bit of extra water on the whetstone. Her arsenal of weapons was scattered out around her. There were the ones awaiting resharpening and the ones that had been finished. Just a few more repetitions of the motion and Reysha was satisfied with the ease with which the sharpened blade cut a groove into a testing block of wood.

An oil-soaked rag was gently moved over the blade, coating the metal in a sheen that would protect it from air. Even magical materials were not safe from rust. Enchanted gold was an exception, but even it would bleed out magic into the air without proper care. Best to insulate the items with enchanted salves.

“You ever think about how weird materials are?” Reysha asked.

“Yes,” answered Aclysia, inspecting the progress on her seams.

“Yes,” answered Apexus, testing the texture of the leather.

“No?” asked Korith, confused on where this was going now. “What’s there to be confused about.”

“Not confused just… ‘huh, that is how it is’ kinda feeling.” Reysha pinched the handle of one of her throwing knives between index finger and thumb. When she shook her wrist, the solid piece of metal looked like it was wobbling.

“Please don’t tell me you think it’s actually bouncy right now?” Korith groaned.

“Huh? No, obviously not, I’m just doing idle motion stuff.” She stopped, to inspect the edge of the weapon. “I’m more thinking about how weird it is that I rub metal against a wet rock so I can cut stuff better.”

“…I mean… yeah?” Korith was confused why that was even worth mentioning. “Am I the weird one again?”

“You never consider the oddity of the material reality in this world created by the Progenitor and the gods that came after him?” Aclysia posed a question.

“I mean… not really? Uhm… what would it accomplish if I did?”

“Nothing.” Apexus frowned about all the sticky stuff on his fingers. “Even though we can influence reality, it always bounces back to the base state. Thus, contemplating how matter would be if it was not as it was means nothing. There is no power any of us have over it. We can as little change that iron is iron as we can that two and two is four. All we can do is take what is given and work within it.”

“But what if I stab reality really hard though?” Reysha joked.

“The answer to that is your left hand.” Apexus did not know what way he had wanted that to come out. It was a snappy comment, made in poor judgement, and he took that lesson to heart. That Reysha’s smile died on her lips was certainly not the intended consequence. “That was harsh. I apologize.”

“Don’t.” Reysha raised her hand towards the window and inspected it against the semi-natural light fell on through. “I did have to learn not to put my problems outside myself.” She put her hand down and recovered a gentle echo of her smile. “Guess ya can get snappy too if you have to do my dirty work.”

“It is dirty work.” Apexus attempted to wipe his hands clean. He already knew that it would take minutes and that, by the end, the rag he was using would have to be boiled twice. The oil used to mend the Lanaan leather was a seriously sticky affair.

“Anyway, so sharpening metal is weird, right?” Reysha drove the conversation in the room, as she usually did. “But you know what’s even weirder? Wood!”

“What’s weird about wood?” Korith asked.

“It’s super sturdy one way and easy to cut the other.”

“…Yeah, I mean… that’s how fibres work? It’s the same with meat and stuff?”

“Yeah, isn’t that weird?”

“What’s weird is that you said you weren’t confused at the start of this conversation and now… uhm… yeah, you’re just continuously using words like ‘odd’ and ‘weird’ – so imma call you confused.”

“And I’ll call you cutie.”

“Wha- that’s got nothing to do with anything.”

“It true though.”

“It is true though,” Apexus corrected and agreed in equal measure, “or is that one of those acceptable corruptions of language?”

“This is entirely dependant at whom the question is directed, darling. Personally, I find it out of bounds for polite conversation. However, with Reysha, ‘polite conversation’ is rarely the goal. In order, the goals are: noise, innuendo, and other puns.”

“I do plenty of normal jokes too,” Reysha threw in, “oh, and don’t forget the sassing.”

Aclysia needed a second to take that set-up. “I wish I could forget the sassing.”

A double knock on the door distracted Apexus and Reysha from the conversation. Korith and Aclysia did not pick it up until it happened a second time, this time with the Monk already on the way to the door.

On the other side waited a set of very tired looking adventurers. “It would be your shift…?” The leader of the party, a Hunter, suggested with tired hope.

Apexus glanced at the sun, scarcely visible between the clouds, yet visible still. It barely even tilted towards the orange. “It is early,” he remarked.

“Eh, we’ll manage,” Reysha said, poking her head out under Apexus’ arm. He put it around her, treating himself to resting his hand on the curve of her butt. “We’ll just get equipped real quick.”

The men in the party before them were too tired to even appreciate the tiger woman in front of them. The tiny linen top and pants she wore were barely more than underwear. One of the many leisure clothes she had bought over time. At the time, she had also seen lingerie made of silk and such, but those items had been firmly outside her budget.

For now.

The party leader nodded, then turned on his heels. Apexus closed the door and gave Reysha’s ass another squeeze, before the laughing redhead made her way to her mostly mended bodysuit.

Everyone wrapped up their repair works and put on the new maintained equipment. Korith clicked her tongue at one of the new belt buckles. It was better than any improvised solutions, but she could already see that it would loosen in due time.

That put aside, they were as battle ready as they could ask to be. Their equipment was no longer the pristine condition they had bought it in, but neither were the items so ruined to be more patches than original item. Once they put the winter clothes on top, they were looked just well-outfitted.

They met the party outside. They hadn’t stepped away, betraying a lack of discipline. Although short, the time between their knocking and the Inevitable party stepping out could have allowed a monster to attack.

Apexus did not voice his criticism on the matter. He was not invested in these people, nor were they in a state to hear it. To begin with, he assumed they knew what their mistake was and that they were simply too tired to care.

Reysha raised her hand as they walked past. She got no reciprocating gesture. “I hate these people,” she meowed, sarcasm showing in her voice. “My hand goes un-high-fived!”

“L-low five?” Korith asked, offering her own palm.

“…You really are way too cute!” Reysha exclaimed. The two of them put their hands together, while Korith blushed, and then they made their way to the top of the walls.

The settlement was a concentrated affair. 150 people needed very little space, when wood, stone, and thus homes were in short supply. Wood and stone that had been primarily invested in the defences that wrapped around the entirety of the village.

It was not a tall or proud wall. It was only about one and a half metres up, not even covering the roofs of the houses, and it was too narrow that more than one of them could stand or walk on any one spot. That, however, was enough to break a potential charge on the ground by insects much shorter than the average person.

It was the fliers they had to worry about.

The weather that night was mild. Usually that was good news, in winter. Near these Lanaan Hives, it meant that the more frost-resistant members had an easy time to get around. Unlike their floor-bound kin, these insects were also known for good eyesight. Certainly, good enough to spot the soft light that made it through curtained windows, of fireplaces heating winter homes.

Too bad for them that Apexus’ eyes were sharper.

Night had fallen over the village, when Apexus suddenly leapt. His wings beat, reinforcing the upward momentum, until he had ascended enough to soar as he continued to gain altitude. The rhythmic beating of his wings was starkly different from the rapid buzz of the three insects and the magical vibration of his melody following behind.

The insects were each about the size of a small horse. Huge creatures by Lanaan standards, that moved through the air at a slow but constant speed. They had the ability to stop mid-air, Apexus did not. He did have every other advantage besides that.

The creatures attempted to gain altitude in response to his approach – way too slow. The Monk took a sharp dive and crashed into the back of one of the monsters. Its size was its undoing, making it all too easy for the humanoid chimera to rip its wings out. He leapt, Feather Step turning the falling insect into a suitable springboard.

Apexus’ wings remained unopened. He soared dozens of metres up in the air between two insects, fuelled only by the power of his legs. Then, he crashed into the second insect. His tail wrapped around the neck of the monster, giving him a quick anchor to steady himself, before the tiling of its body could throw him off. Then, he did as with the first and tore the wings off an opponent he outclassed by a solid 10 levels.

As the second monster fell to the floor, he leapt once more. This time, he did open his wings, keeping his altitude steady. The third monster had already been taken care of, its wings burned away by quick spells of Aclysia.

On the ground, Korith made the quick trip to the fallen monsters to make sure they were finished off, then returned to the walls herself. The party of four gathered again.

“Easy enough,” Reysha said, “or looked easy enough at least.”

“Just going to be a bother to keep eyes up all night,” Korith muttered.

“You sound distracted by something?” Aclysia asked.

“Something is rubbing me the wrong way…” the kobold confessed. “I feel like some pieces do not line up properly…”

“Want me to do a sniff around?” Reysha asked.

“That would be highly immoral,” Aclysia criticized. “We have already been obliging our worse nature enough, being as greedy as we have been in bartering for our aid. Do you suggest we now spy on the people that rely on us?”

“No… kinda… yes, actually,” Korith answered. “It’s just dawning on me… for a place that she claims has a connection to the capital, this place is remarkably poorly defended? Also, the locals aren’t approaching us at all? I’m used to at least some thanks coming in, in situations like this.”

“Not the worst points,” Reysha agreed.

Apexus looked back at the village, slumbering behind them. “You believe we are being tricked?”

“I believe it wouldn’t hurt to know if we aren’t,” Reysha said. “They could just be that tired. It is an option.”

“I consider this a paranoid course of action… but it has been proven that paranoia is sometimes justified.” Aclysia let out a heavy sigh. “My vote shall be against this. I will not protest the result.”

Apexus was the deciding vote. Two party members for and one against and as the leader his vote was the tiebreaker. “I wish for certainty,” he decided. Breaking into people’s homes was not a monkly thing to do. Neither was letting himself get tricked though. “Only do what you must.”

“I’ll be back in a bit then,” Reysha promised and Stealthed away.