Spirit and the Arts surrounding it are alluring by nature. This leads many to spend their lives in pursuit of mastering the Arts. Fewer are the ones who pursue the truth of Spirit. It is my belief, however, that the most ambitious and dangerous pursuit is not one in search of power or for the truth of Spirit, but the pursuit to discover the truth of our history.
While many scholars and historians have studied and theorized about the Diamond Age and the Severance Wars, not so many have broached the topic of the Star Burst War. The academic community frowns upon those who explore this topic, dismissing any work they publish as pseudoscientific conjecture. It seems to me that the only accepted theory is the theocratic doctrine of the Empress Guild, which, in its clamber to show deference, conveniently is absent of any substantive insight.
Here, over six hundred years later, the end of the Severance Wars and the formation of the Serrated Empire mark the beginning of recorded history and, should our doctrines guide us, the beginning of the only history that holds value. The study of the Lost Age of Epochs is, of course, forbidden.
Naturally, it is those lost histories that call to me the loudest through their silence of discourse, as it should be for any true scholar. It is fortunate, then, that my father should have been one of the foremost pioneers in excavating forbidden artifacts. And so, it is equally unfortunate that we should differ greatly in our motivations. Still, I work with him because, ultimately, our contrasting views are two parts of one as-yet-unseen whole. I must never forget this.
- From the notes of Ahzra Zholii
Arc 3:
[Disinterment]
“Huh, it really is way lower, see? It was over by that rock when we got here; now it’s all the way down there. What do you think that is, fifty feet in one day?
Kate peered over the edge of the copper-turned-green railing. Simon looked back down. The cliffside was covered in barnacles and seaweed. Nearly two hundred feet below, the ocean waves crashed against the rocks.
“Maybe sixty,” she said. “It is hard to believe it gets this high…”
“For real,” he lowered his voice and leaned closer to her. “You think this means there are no beaches here? That would suck ass.”
Kate took a step away. “Maybe, yeah. I didn’t think about that.”
Simon huffed, then turned his back to the rail and leaned against it. The wind blew through his hair, and he ran a hand through it. The difference between this weather and the swamp was night and day. Living in a coastal city his whole life had made him grow accustomed to an ocean breeze and mild weather.
He and Kate were hanging around the ornate docks of Teshustoq, which was situated at the base of the town and suspended over the ocean. It was right near the inn Justus had asked them to stay at while he took care of some business. They were supposed to stay inside, but Simon didn’t think going to the nearby docks would do any harm. She followed him when he left, ostensibly only to make sure he “didn’t get into any trouble.”
Simon didn’t feel guilty. Justus couldn’t actually expect him to stay indoors. When Justus had said they’d be arriving at a small town, Simon had imagined something like the swamp village in the mountains, but Sho’s village was nothing compared to Teshustoq. The town was far larger than he’d expected, more of a small city than a town.
Teshustoq was built into the side of a narrow mountain, with structures built of wood and stone sprouting from carved-out rock. The city was taller than it was wide, a single road winding through the densely packed buildings connecting the bottom and top. The town was very vertical, and it reminded him a bit of Minas Tirith, but with a more cozy, coastal charm.
The palace at the top of the city, barely visible from where he stood, stood in stark contrast to all that was below it. While the town was homey and quaint, the palace was regal and imposing. The opulent building looked as if it had been a single chunk of marble carved into it, with the white stone flowing seamlessly between its many floors and spires. Diamonds embedded in the rock refracted the dim sunlight into rays that shone across the city.
The temple-like structure had been the first thing they’d seen on their approach, and it had been the first thing Simon had asked about. Justus had told him it was a government building and wouldn’t say more than that, insisting it wasn’t relevant.
As awesome as the palace was, Simon knew trying to get a look inside would probably cause more trouble than it was worth. Besides, it wasn’t like there was nothing else to see in the town. There were markets, restaurants, and all kinds of shops that Simon wanted to check out.
“Wanna go find some place to train for a bit?” Simon asked. “I’m sick of standing around.”
Kate frowned. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”
“Come on. I can leave my clone here to watch Belle and let us know if Justus comes back.”
“I guess so… He can’t really complain, since he’s the one who told us not to slack off on our training.”
Simon grinned, and his clone stepped out of his body, threads of light solidifying into its form as soon as they appeared. The pale white silhouette leaned on the railing and folded its arms, its Spirit-robe billowing in the wind.
“Alright, Clone, stay here and watch Belle until Justus comes back. Let him know we went to train if he shows up.”
The clone looked back and forth and lifted its hands in a hopeless gesture.
“How will you tell him?” Simon asked for it. He reached into one of the pockets on his robe. “Well, I had Justus buy you a little something before he left.” He revealed the item, a small notebook and pencil.
The clone pushed off the railing and grabbed the notebook and pencil from Simon’s hands. It scribbled something down and then lifted the paper up to Simon. He read the words, which were in a sloppy but very familiar handwriting.
Why can’t I go train and you stay here?
Simon looked at the clone in disbelief. “Really, dude? I give you the gift of communication, and the first thing you do is complain? Not even a thank you?”
The clone rolled its head. It scribbled more words on the page.
Many thanks, oh gracious divine creator.
“Whatever, man. Just stay here, okay?”
The clone nodded and put the notebook in a pocket of its robes.
“Thanks.”
The clone gave him a thumbs up, then knelt down to pet Belle. Simon could sense her joy. She knew the clone wasn’t him, but also knew it was like him, so she was fine staying by its side as long as it meant she got attention. Simon turned back to Kate, who was looking from him to the clone with a confused look. As the two began to leave the clone behind, she spoke.
“Can you make your clone forget things you know?”
Simon returned her confused expression. “Huh?”
“When you made the clone, why didn’t it know about the notebook? Isn’t it a copy of you?”
“Oh yeah. That is weird, isn’t it?”
“You should try to explore that. It might end up being useful.”
“Forgetting something?”
“Having your clone forget something. If you can do that, what else could you do if you try? How different from you can you make it?”
“I’ll find out some other day. For now, let’s find out where we’re going first.”
Before she could object, Simon waved at a passing man.
“Excuse me, do you know a good place the two of us could train in Spirit Arts? We’re new here.”
The man paused, his lips drawn tight together. He wore a large, thin shirt with a deep v-neck and a cloth belt. His pants were also loose, and the legs joined low, near the knees. It was a common style here, from what Simon had seen. He definitely hadn’t seen anyone wearing robes. Justus had said he’d buy some clothes while he was gone, but for now they were stuck with the robes that were fashionable a thousand miles from here.
“From Solidusk, I take it. Strange time to visit, old boy, but that’s none of my business. If you’re looking to train, might wanta try the outskirts. There’s a park to the right if you follow on down this road, near the city gate. The main path leads into the woods, and there’s plenty empty space off the path. Not even a visitor could get lost. You can see the Delegate’s Keep clear as crystal from there. Just make sure you don’t lose sight of it, and you can find your way back no matter how far out you go.”
The man’s voice was rough, and the language Simon could hear under the translation by the stone was odd. There were a lot of “sh” sounds and very sharp “t’s” and odd noises that sounded a bit like a dramatic scoff. The translation had a noticeably different accent than whatever language the swamp people had spoken.
“Thanks. How come it’s a strange time to visit?”
The man looked at Simon as if he’d been asked why the sky was blue. Maybe that expression didn’t work on this planet, now that he thought about it. He gave Simon a look that called Simon stupid while being polite enough not to say it.
“Low tides, of course. Always this time of year. You must be an inlander. Suppose most are around Solidusk. You’ll learn soon enough. Go with the flow, old boy.”
The man touched his hat and nodded. Simon, not having a hat, only nodded. The man continued on, and he only looked back with a curious expression once. Simon considered it a win.
“Go with the flow,” he repeated to Kate. “That’s a weird goodbye.”
“Maybe because of the tides? This kingdom is called Greatide, after all. They must be pretty important here. Maybe low tides are a bad omen in this culture.”
“Hmm, makes sense. But why low tides? Aren’t high tides more dangerous?”
They began the walk down the road, Simon theorizing about the culture and city while Kate occasionally chimed in. He didn’t mind doing most of the talking. That was how most of his conversations with people went. It was probably the reason most people found him annoying. Kate either wasn’t one of those people, or she was just too polite to ask him to shut up. Either way, she didn’t stop the one-sided conversation.
Like the man said, there was a park near the entrance. People were gathered about. One large group was having a barbeque with a spit roast grill, and the smells coming from it made Simon wish he was with their group. It reminded him of that shawarma place he sometimes went to with his friends after school. The only meat he’d had for a week now was gator, and while that was novel and cool the first few times, he was craving some real meat.
“We’ll get food later. Come on,” Kate said, turning back to look at him a few feet ahead. Simon must have paused without meaning to. He caught back up to her. He looked back one last time and inhaled the fading scent of the barbeque wistfully.
“Damn, that smells good. What do you think it is? Pork or beef? Do they have that here? They have birds and alligators, and even dogs, apparently. Oh man, you don’t think that’s a dog, do you?”
Kate sighed. “I don’t know. Probably not. So what did you want to focus on with training?”
“Can’t really use my clone or familiar skills right now. Mind doing some hand-to-hand? No skills. And I’ll stay away from going after your bad shoulder.”
Kate didn’t seem excited about the idea, but she nodded. Simon wasn’t sure what to make of that. Maybe it was because hand-to-hand combat was the only thing he was actually better than her at.
The path wound past the park and across a reddish-brown hill of grass, which gently sloped downward. Simon looked up, making sure the white castle at the top of the mountain was still visible. What had the person called it? The Delegate’s Keep. He wondered who that was and why they had such a nice place.
After finding a good spot, the two began their training for the day. They started with some cardio, then started the real training. Kate still had a slight advantage. She didn’t have to hold back as much, since Simon could heal himself if she accidentally hurt him. He didn’t have that cushion, so he had to make sure he was pulling his punches. Mostly he went for grapples.
After struggling to get a good hold, Kate was still a bit faster than he was, but Simon finally got the opening he needed. Her leg drew a little too close, and he was able to hook his foot around her ankle and knock her off balance. She had the reaction and balance of a Spirit Artist, so there was very little time between her surprise and her recovery.
Simon didn’t hesitate to act in that window. He went for a tackle, ducking to the side as Kate turned her recovery into a desperate high kick for his shoulder. Ending up behind the sloppy attack, he grabbed her by the waist and brought them both towards the ground. He followed up by getting a leg under her uninjured arm and around her chest mid-fall. When they landed, she was already trying to twist out of the grip. He kicked away her attempt to pull herself out with his free leg before locking the hold and grabbing the arm he had pinned. He squeezed the hold even as she fought to escape, her face red from strain and pressure between his legs.
Kate lifted an arm and slapped at his forearm with her unpinned hand. For a split second he thought she was tapping out, but then it felt like someone brought down a sledgehammer onto him. Simon screamed in pain, releasing Kate as he reached for his arm, which was now broken so violently that the bone was bulging from under the skin.
He cursed, adjusting his position to take pressure off the injury. Taking a deep breath, he forced himself to stay calm and activated his healing skill.
[Restoration]
Accelerate your body’s physical healing using Spirit as a blueprint. Speed and amount healed affects Spirit cost.
Variable Cooldown Skill
As he activated the skill, the world slowed to a crawl and the pain faded. He saw a holographic shadow of himself, a creation of his guidestone’s system. The shadow glowed faintly, the replica mimicking the injury he’d just received. He saw his shadow-self tense, then scramble to his knees to land where he currently was. Dozens of vertical lines of rapidly changing symbols floated around the simulation, probably math he couldn’t hope to comprehend. One by one, the formulas flashed before fading. When all were gone, the shadow was perfectly overlaid onto him, having caught up to reality.
The system prompted his confirmation, and Simon gave it. The shadow melted into him, leaving a faint wispy glow that danced across his skin, almost like steam. The Spirit flowed around his arm, seeping underneath the skin, and Simon gritted his teeth as the skill took effect.
What he felt wasn’t pain. The skill numbed the pain so that even as he saw his broken arm snap straight, the blinding pain that one would expect was absent. But he could still feel it. He felt the bone being jerked back into place, the splinters knitting together. It was an incredibly uncomfortable and disturbing sensation, even without pain.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
He let out a sigh of relief as the sensation faded away, and a cooldown of eleven and a half minutes flashed in the corner of his vision. The cooldown wasn’t as long as he expected. Fractures were usually thirteen or fourteen minutes, and this had been the worst one he’d ever healed. He tested the arm, moving it about. Good as new.
Kate, who he’d heard repeating apologies and concerns ever since he’d screamed, was kneeling down next to him. There were tears in her eyes, which made him feel bad. That was a little unfair, he thought. How was he supposed to be angry when she was looking at him like that?
“Are you okay?” She asked. “I’m sorry. I’ve been practicing holding in my kinetic, and I panicked and lost control.”
“I’m fine. Just surprised me, is all. Maybe don’t hold onto the unstable energy when we’re sparring, though.”
“You’re right. God, I’m such an idiot.”
“Kate, you’re not an idiot. It was a mistake. Luckily I can heal, so no harm done. Just be more…”
Simon lost his words as a warmth spread throughout his body. All the shaky tension from the incident faded away like a puddle on a hot summer sidewalk, and a text box with a blinking trim appeared in front of him.
Spirit Threshold Achieved
New Rank Progression: Peak
Skill Evolution(s):
[Spirit] Skill(s):
[Familiar]
No Evolution
[Artifice] Skill(s):
[Simulacrum]
Two Evolutions Available, Awaiting Selection
[Charity] Skill(s):
[Restoration]
Evolved
You are now eligible to advance to rank: Jade.
To see more info on evolved skills, see skill menu.
Simon shook his head, blinking hard. As he did, he experienced something incredibly strange. It was subtle but unmistakable. His body responded instantly. It was even more of a leap than it had been when he first advanced to Opal. He lifted a hand, moving his fingers about.
“Simon?” Kate asked. Her forehead was creased with concern. “Are you alright?”
“Uh, yeah. Better than ever, actually. I just hit peak Opal.”
“Really? What happened?”
Simon read the notification to her.
“You get to choose an evolution for your clone? That’s weird. The way Justus described it made it seem like it was an automatic thing.”
“That’s what I thought. Maybe it’s because of how much I’ve used it? I’ve been using my clone almost constantly for a while.”
“Really?”
Simon nodded. “I had him jogging with us to carry Belle on and off, and I’ve had him keeping watch every night since you went all Donnie Darko on us. He doesn’t need to sleep, and as long as he’s not doing anything physically demanding, he can stay out for a long time. The only real limit then is the headaches. The longer he’s awake, the worse they are when he comes back.”
“Check the skill. What kind of options are there?” Kate asked as she stood up. She wiped the grass off her robes. “And there are no nights here. I know we’re alone, but Justus said we should avoid using words like that.”
She seemed to have forgotten about how upset she’d been just minutes ago. That was good, although Simon wished she wouldn’t default to nagging him about a word. He didn’t see what was so dangerous about it. It’s not like anyone here spoke English. It would just be a weird word that wouldn’t get translated. No one would know what it meant, and their first thought definitely wouldn’t be that he and Kate were aliens.
In his opinion, Justus and Kate were a bit paranoid about the whole alien thing. Simon could probably shout to everyone that he was from another planet, and they’d just assume he was a nutjob and go about their day.
Simon winced. “Speaking of headaches, Justus just got back to the inn. I’ll have to show off my new skills later.”
_____
“Hold still. This will feel weird and uncomfortable, probably.”
Kate nodded, and Simon could feel her tense. He had his hand on her shoulder, and his skill was calculated and ready to go. He mentally confirmed the activation, and her body started to glow. Faint wisps of light rose from her, fading to nothing within moments.
The light traveled like ripples across her skin, focusing where Simon held his hand. The wounds on her shoulder, roughly stitched, were rough and larger than he’d imagined. When she had first revealed the injury, he was surprised she’d been quiet about it. He knew she’d gotten hurt, but Justus hadn’t said how bad, and she hadn’t mentioned it at all.
Simon had noticed her rubbing at the arm and wincing when she moved it too much, but he had expected bruising and some cuts, not dozens of stitches and what looked like stab wounds. He was almost angry at her for sparing him with an injury that severe.
It wasn’t his place to lecture her, though. If she wanted to do something stupid, that was up to her. Simon was just glad he could do something if she got hurt now. And Justus too. Justus was more careful and skilled, though, so Simon didn’t imagine he’d need much healing.
The light sank into her as it gathered around the wound. The stitching fell away as it seemed to be pushed out of her skin by the flesh itself. The injuries smoothed over and connected, and within seconds the wounds were gone, leaving unblemished skin.
“Good as new,” he said, removing his hand.
Kate tentatively moved her arm, then rolled her shoulder. She let out a relieved sigh.
“Thank you.”
“My pleasure. We’re open Monday through Thursday, five to nine. Now that’ll be four hundred dollars. Cash or card, but we don’t accept Apple Pay.”
Kate chuckled, which caught Simon by surprise. It wasn’t a raucous laugh or even a hearty chuckle, but it was more than he could remember ever hearing from her. She must have been really downplaying how much the injury had been bothering her if she was in that much of a good mood. She pulled her robe back over her shoulder.
“You’ll have to deal with an I.O.U. this time.”
“Okay, we’ll call it a free sample, but next time it’s full price.”
"By the six, stop with the friendly banter. What’s the cooldown?”
Simon jumped at the voice behind him. He’d forgotten Justus had been standing over his shoulder. The three of them were in their room at the inn. It was a cozy, if small, room. Lots of wood, a window facing the coast, and a thick carpet. The thick carpet was especially appreciated, since there was only one bed in the room. Considering Justus was footing the bill, Simon didn’t complain about being made to sleep on the floor. He really wanted to, but he didn’t. From what Kate said about his inventory, Justus had to have the money to afford a better room.
After Justus had chewed the pair of them out, Simon told him about the skill evolutions. Unsurprisingly, Justus had dropped his anger and wanted to test the skill as soon as possible. The shift in mood was even more abrupt than usual for him. Simon suspected whatever he had wanted with the Adventurer’s Guild hadn’t gone the way he hoped.
The whole reason Simon had healed Kate—the whole reason for Justus, that is; Simon was just happy to help—had been to test out his restoration skill’s new evolution, which allowed him to heal other people. Finally.
Simon glanced at the cooldown that was now displayed. He did a mental double-take.
“What the fuck? Two hours? That’s bullshit; it wasn’t even that bad of an injury!”
Justus didn’t seem surprised. He only nodded, rubbing at his chin like he often did while thinking.
“That’s actually not too bad, from what I know about healing skills. Healing other people, affecting other people on that level in general, is much harder than affecting yourself. You’ll want to keep that in mind, especially if you use it on me. You’ll probably want to avoid that until you hit Jade.”
“How come?”
Justus sat down on the edge of the bed. He hunched over with his elbows on knees, hands folded to support his chin. In the dim room, it made him look a bit like a villain contemplating some scheme.
“Spirits are instinctually protective of the body, especially towards interference from other Spirits. You have to fight back against that protection, even for a beneficial change. The greater the disparity between your Spirit and the Spirit you’re trying to bypass, the more exhausting it will be for you. I’d bet healing a similar wound for me would end up with a cooldown closer to a full quarter. Not to mention, it would be far more exhausting and take a good chunk of your Spirit.”
“Then how did I hurt that persistent beast? It was Jade, but I did a lot of damage.” Kate asked.
“That wasn’t the same. Most skills don't care about Rank disparity. Not directly, I mean. Only skills that directly affect a body are relevant to what I’m talking about, and the more harmful the effect, the bigger the pushback. It’s why my decay skill isn’t useful as a direct weapon. Breaking down a body’s atomic structure like that is akin to declaring an open war against their Spirit. It’ll do anything it can to stop me. Even your Spirits, weak as they are, would prevent me from doing much damage no matter how much Spirit I pour into the skill.
“I’m pretty sure I’ve told this to you before,” Justus said, looking at Simon. “Remember when you almost killed yourself after advancing to Opal? I had to disrupt your Spirit.”
“You might have mentioned it, but I was probably too busy freaking out about the fact I was on another planet and just got superpowers,” Simon said with a shrug. “Enough with the lessons, I want to see what these clone evolutions are about.”
“Evolutions?” Justus asked with a frown.
“Oh, yeah, I got two I can choose from. I meant to ask you about that. I kind of forgot while you were nagging at me for training instead of sitting on my ass.”
“I can make you sleep outside.”
“Unsupervised? Sure, go ahead. You wanna hear about the evolutions or not?”
“You’re the one who—” Justus waved his hand, sighing. “Whatever, read them off.”
Simon pulled up the skill tab and moved to his Simulacrum skill. The usual description appeared. He brought up the more detailed page, and at the bottom was a notification telling him two evolutions were available. It gave a description of each one. He read each description aloud, word for word.
Evolution, Branch 1
The Spirit clone mimics your neural patterns and links itself to your mind, allowing you to remotely view its actions and instruct it.
Using this evolution feature will have a slight continuous Spirit cost, increasing with distance.
Evolution, Branch 2
Your Spirit clone will be formed with a crystal lattice internal structure instead of a hollow interior. This allows for a much more durable form with higher strength and combat potential.
This evolution will increase the base Spirit cost of the skill by 50%, resulting in a [reserved] Spirit cost of 49.5%.
“Well, that’s an obvious choice,” Justus said.
“Yeah,” Kate agreed. “The second option is way better.”
Justus narrowed his eyes in Kate’s direction. “The second? The first is way more versatile, and Simon’s skill set leans towards utility.”
“Which is why he needs something offensive.”
“At the cost of making his clone take up half his Spirit? That’s not worth it.”
“He can reabsorb it if he needs to, and it lasts a long time. Besides, it already has its own mind, and he can get the memories whenever he needs them. What use would controlling it be?”
Justus laughed derisively. “Are you kidding? Real-time reconnaissance at a safe distance, for starters.”
“Which it can already do. Sure, he’d have to wait a bit to dismiss it, but that’s not that big a deal. It’d be better if the clone could defend itself if it got caught. It’s not exactly designed for stealth after all.”
“Any information it can get would be outdated if it got caught and alerted an enemy. With real-time data, there are no guesses or delays. That’s often life or death in the real world.”
Kate rolled her eyes. “I’m pretty sure power is more life or death than a small delay.”
“Power is overrated. There’s no point in power without the utility to use it properly. And that’s something told to me by someone with the power to blast a city like this off the map.”
Simon turned his attention away from his two bickering companions. Each of them had valid points, but he didn’t think either one would convince him. Not that they were trying to. There was someone Simon did want an opinion from, though.
He activated the skill, and the air in front of him shimmered. Threads of light appeared and quickly wrapped around each other until they formed a solid white silhouette. The light faded, and his clone stretched out in a silent yawn.
Justus and Katherine’s bickering died as they turned to look at the clone. The clone was already holding out its hand, knowing why it had been summoned. Simon reached into his robe and handed the clone the notebook and pencil for the second time that day.
The clone scribbled down an answer in less than a second, then held out the notebook to show Simon and the others.
“A line?” Justus asked.
“A one. The first option: branch one?” Simon asked the clone.
The clone nodded.
Simon would swear he could feel Justus’s smug glance at Kate behind him.
“Why option one?” He asked.
The clone took more time with its response.
Gut feeling. Strong is sick, maybe better, but think branch meaning. One path chosen, other lost. Strong is better short-term but branch one could be the clone later.
“The clone? Wait, you mean…?”
If the clone had a mouth, Simon knew it would have grinned. It settled with folding its arms and nodding.
“What does that mean? What is the clone?” Kate asked.
“It means badass,” Simon said. “Thanks for the wisdom, me.”
The clone faded, coiling back into Simon as it gave a thumbs up. Simon focused on the display and confirmed his choice.
“One step closer. Shadow clone, here I come.”
His body shined dimly for only a brief moment. Then it faded, and a pop-up telling him the skill had been successfully evolved appeared. He cleared his vision of the numerous screens.
"How did it do that?" Justus asked.
"What?"
"Your clone. Did it actually know which one would be better for you in the long term?"
Simon searched his mind, scrunching up his face as he focused hard on the memories through the headache. It was always worse when he actively tried to recall the experiences of the clone.
"It definitely had a good feeling. It's hard to explain. It barely understood it, but there was a sense of direction. Like it had a map, but it was smudged and faded."
"But how did you know to ask it?"
"I dunno. My clone's pretty smart, and it would affect him the most. It just seemed right to ask him."
Simon could tell Justus didn't like that answer, and Simon wasn't surprised. Justus didn't like any explanation that wouldn't fit in a textbook.
"Well, I think you made the right choice either way. Utility is valuable, especially with a kit leaning towards support. You might have a chance to really test it out, too. I spoke with the Guild, and since this is a low saturation zone, you two are qualified to work as temporary assistants, even at Opal rank, so long as your recruiter is Jade rank."
Kate looked at him, eyes wide. "Seriously?"
"We're gonna do a quest?" Simon asked, feeling a rush of excitement.
Justus frowned. "Are you joking? Absolutely not. Quests are for Guild members with nearly a decade of experience. You two are going to help me take a job. Something quick, simple, and easy. Something not dangerous. We're going to need money."
"Money? For what?"
"The travel cost, of course. Is transportation free where you're from?"
"Well, no, but I thought you were rich or something."
"He is," Kate said. "Justus, there's no way you don't have money in your inventory. Even if you don't, can't you just trade some of the junk you have?"
Justus reeled back, as if Kate had grown a second head.
"The money I have stored is for necessities and emergencies only. As for—"
"Wait wait wait, you're stuck half the world away from your home after getting ping-ponged across planets, and that's not an emergency to you?" Simon asked.
"There's no immediate danger, so no, it's not an emergency," Justus said, voice firm without a trace of sarcasm. Simon found that incredible. "And as I was saying, the things I have in my inventory are not junk. Everything in there is useful."
"Even the seven different scented bars of soap?"
"That's self-evidently useful."
"I saw the price of that stuff. I don't know what a 'bit' is worth, but forty of them seems like a lot for fancy soap."
"Okay, first off, that isn't that much. I had my guidestone do the conversion rates to the currencies you used, and a bit is around the same value as the things you called quarters. Ten dollars is hardly a lot of money. A ticket for us to get from here to Greatide's capital will run us nearly four thousand bits each. That'd be... a thousand of your dollars, roughly. Each.
“Could I sell a bunch of my stuff to cover it? Maybe. But that's not worth it to me. I've spent a long time collecting those items. I'd rather spend a few orbits doing jobs to get money than sell a chunk of my possessions. Hell, I'd rather risk sneaking on board than sell anything."
Kate put her hands up. "Fine, we won't sell your soap collection. How much does a job pay?"
"It depends. The small jobs usually pay no more than a set—that's eight hundred bits. That'd be stuff like helping people with labor, finding lost animals, killing pests, or guarding something or someone relatively unimportant."
"So about two hundred dollars, if your math is right. We'd need to do at least fifteen small jobs just to pay for the tickets. Is food at least complimentary?"
"Yeah, it is."
"That's a lot of jobs. What about bigger jobs?"
"We'd have to see. You two have no experience, so we should play it safe. Messing up a small job isn't that bad, even as an assistant. More important jobs can affect the Guild's reputation, and you don't want to have to deal with angry Guild officials. At best they'll drown you in paperwork as punishment, and at worst they can permanently ban you from any Guild association."
"Damn," Simon said. "Sounds like the exact kind of people I don't wanna meet, ever. Reminds me of a couple of my teachers. I'm fine with sticking to easier stuff for now. Sounds a lot safer, and it might be nice. A little work for the community, and we get to meet the locals. Could even make a few friends. Doesn't sound so bad."
"I guess..." Kate said, looking down and examining her fingernails.
"Don't have much choice..." Justus agreed.
Simon sighed. "Come on, guys, it can't be worse than jogging in the rain all day and getting siren-called by deadly monsters."
Kate ran a finger through a strand of hair. Justus cleared his throat.
"Let's go see the job board," he said. "We might as well get it over with now."
Simon shook his head. He was starting to wonder if he had to try harder if he wanted to be the weird one in this group.
What job should the gang get first?
