She drove hard for that, actually, I still don’t know why, but if Maddie and Alaris herself think it is important, who am I to argue?
I kiss Maddie on the cheek, thanking her for fighting for me, and then make my way home to log over to what I am slowly feeling as my true self. Weird as it may seem, the blue skin seems natural to me now. The toe on my heel is still fucking weird though.
I waggle my two front toes and marvel at how sturdy trolls are built. I’m a skinny girl, but my bones are thick and I am strong. I tongue my baby tusks and sigh in the comfort that this body brings.
I make my way to the bathroom and take care of my bio needs and my teeth, then take a shower that had been weeks coming. Yawning and half naked, I patter out to the kitchen and make breakfast and the root coffee I’ve come to appreciate.
/Hey hon, back in. I’ll be in town in a few hours for clothes and supplies. Oh, and to see you maybe?/
\Zhan! There is so much! Lunch with me?\
/I would love to./
Goddess. Is it wrong that both Melody and Lucy make my heart feel full? Is it weird that I feel like I have two different hearts that need filled? Maybe my dissonance has something to do with a personality disorder.
I dress in my fine tunic and breeches because I want to feel fancy and head to the farmhouse. When I get there, nothing looks the same. Where once a dilapidated farm house and barn were located, a bunkhouse and a small estate exists. I see that some of my forest has been pruned in a way that I dislike, but I will calmly ask why instead of barking as they are classing up my property with their improvements.
“’Lo the Farm house!” I say into the open back door.
“Lady Frost!” small feet thunder for mere moments before a girl in a cute dress launches herself at me.
“Hey Hester. Tanner around?”
“Nope! He’s in Marcrest. Darren and Isabelle are at the Ranch, want me to fetch them?”
“No thanks. Is the ranch area finished?” I ask.
“Not yet. They put another bunk house in, and a stable, but the stock yard is still being worked on. You don’t have fencing on most of your property, so the team is worried about the stock wandering or getting mauled.”
“You sure know a lot about what’s going on, young lady. You trying to get a job?”
“Yep! I want to do numbers and manage stuff, like that pretty Elf that visits you.”
“A worthy cause. How are the green houses managing?”
“You only finished glass for one. But that one is doing very well. Out of season fruit plants are already blooming. Want me to show you?”
“Only if anything as fruited.” Hester pouts and shakes her head. “I have to head to town, see you later, lady.”
“You’re the Lady! Oh, I was told to give you rent.” The little cutie puts ten silver in my hand. I don’t remember putting a price on rent. Or even asking for it. Ten silver for two months on the land they are living on is a pittance, but if that’s what they can pay, I’ll accept it. I get the feeling from the little girl’s pride that they want to pay, and outright refusing would be . . . rude? I don’t understand the feeling entirely, but it’s there.
“Now I’m giving this right back, so that you can hire your family to deliver firewood to my shop by the river. Can you do that for me?” Her eyes light up like I gave her a present.
“I surely can Lady Frost!” She scampers back to put on shoes and then rushes off into the field.
“I need to be careful how I say things to them. This could have waited weeks. So many trees will suffer,” I say to absolutely no one.
While I walk to town, I marvel at the durability of my feet. I literally don’t need shoes in my day to day because my feet are their own slippers. I need boots for court, because I have been told that it would be uncouth to arrive with no shoes at all. If the trolls I am meeting with at Rivayne have no shoes on, I will abandon my own in a heartbeat. I could just wear dresses that cover my feet. Now there’s an idea.
My trip to town is dull as normal. The Watch doesn’t ask to see my teeth this time, but I smile at them just the same. That sends me a warm and fuzzy sense of welcome.
My first stop is Leeda’s place to see if Maude is in, and hopefully the Halvyr has cooled down a bit since last time. When I open the door to her shop, I see the shortie looking taciturn and poking at something that looks suspiciously like the miniature arbalest I dropped off last time.
“Morning, Leeda. Is Maude in?”
She grumbles something before looking up and assessing who is interrupting her. “Oh, Zhantsa. Good morning. Maude is upstairs”
I want to offer my help, but after the reception I got last time, I’m reluctant. At least she’s not just being an ass, if a bit disinterested in my arrival. I shrug and open up the pass-through head up the familiar set of stairs to my former apartment. I hope we can reach a point where we can be friends again.
Maude is sitting at a central table sipping tea and reading menus.
“Room for one more?” I say to alert her before I sit across from her.
“Of course dear. Though I am surprised grumpy let you up here.”
“Me too, but a lot can happen in a month and a half.” I pour myself a cup of tea and sit next to her instead of across. “I missed you, you know. You’re the comforting mentor type and I have been needing some sage advice of late.”
She smirks, “My old associates would get a laugh at the idea of me being a ‘mentor’ with ‘sage advice’. Though, I should say that there is a well of wisdom in your new paramour. Melody was one of the few people in the guild I could stand to deal with until Gunther arrived a few years ago.”
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“You have a sore spot with the Guild as well?”
“Many Marcrestians do, dear. Their presence was required for establishing a town this deep in the Southern March, so we had a tense co-habitation at first, but now that this branch understands our situation, we’ve become more of a community.” I have a dozen questions, which apparently she can see and staves off my query with a raised hand. “We will have plenty of time on our trip to chat, but our day is packed with collecting your supplies and clothes for the journey. A carriage will be arriving day after tomorrow.”
“I appreciate the help Maude, and I apologize for not being around to help.”
She waves my apology off. “The Duke and your Skyreach patron have been generous in this pursuit. If I had left Melody or the Duke’s seneschal to plan this, money would have been wasted at every corner.”
“You seem oddly comfortable with navigating nobility, Maude.”
“Another tale for the trail, I’m afraid. We have business with James, Bart, and Giuseppe today.”
I strangle a groan before it escapes. We will be at the tailor’s shop all day. Luckily that’s our afternoon stop, and the blacksmith and leatherworker are first.
Everyone in town has a pleasant smile and a waive for the former medic and caregiver, and apparently the ‘former’ is less apt than I thought as people come up to thank her for some treatment or remedy.
“Seems like everyone is happy to have you back.”
“We’ll have some time in Rivayne to work on your alchemy, people will come to thank you soon enough. Though with rumors of you starting your own village, there may be some curses thrown in as well.” She snickers, but I’ve not had anyone curse at me for that yet.
Once we reach Bart’s place the man comes out looking cleaner than usual.
“When I heard these weapons were for you, I thought Melody was having a laugh—as close as you are with the Halvyr. You’re lucky that the only work I have right now is nails and brackets for that ranch project at your place. Apprentice work, that, good thing I have two!” He chuckles.
“You’re certainly in a good mood. Looks like you cleaned up for us too.” I smirk at the large, thick blacksmith.
“I bathe regularly, I’ll have you know. Detail work isn’t as dirty.” He huffs and turns, “Are you here to yap or are you going to pay for your weapons?”
Maude leans next to me for a whisper, “Go easy on him. He’s prideful, but a good man. And terribly nervous around women.” She pats me on the shoulder.
“Let’s go see what fine work you’ve done, sir,” I say. He only nods, but I can see some tension in his shoulders relax.
Walking toward the back of his shop, he grabs a bundle wrapped in heavy leather and rolls out his recent projects. Two brutal, crescent-shaped hand axes with light leather strapping sit next to one of the finest swords I’ve ever seen. Sure, I haven’t seen a ton, but the internet and games exist, but the splendor of a finely crafted weapon with intricate engravings can not be overstated.
“Bart . . . that sword is beautiful.”
“That she is, and a right pleasure to make. If I was still in my adventuring days, I’d be tempted to run away with her. Not many in town can afford a blade forged with aether dust. The axes were forged with it too, per Melody’s insistence. But they weren’t required to be as pretty. ‘Two axes for killing, and a functional sword for ceremony,’ is what she told me. I did right fine work with that direction, I think.”
I walk forward with reverence and inspect the weapons.
Enchanted?! Holy smokes. “Bart, this. Wow.”
“People will see that on the road and want to take it, so I have this plain scabbard and belt with two looped hooks for the axes. Hopefully you two have a guard coming with you.”
“We have a carriage coming with a driver and two guards,” Maude adds, smiling softly at his worry for them. He blushes from her eye contact, the big goober.
He hands me the belt to put on. “While you figure that out, I’ll go get the transfer orb.”
Maude helps me with placing and moving everything until I have the sword on my left hip and the two axes slightly behind my right. A little fiddling with drawing the weapons tells me that I should go with the sword in an emergency until I practice taking the axes out of those hooks more.
“Alright, payment. For the lot it will be nine gold, and thirty.” My eyes widen at the cost, mostly because this is with Melody providing my aether dust to the man. Maude doesn’t seem so surprised, so I zap the orb and say nothing else.
“Thanks for doing this Bart.”
“Rare to get fulfilling work, so I enjoyed it. Don’t forget to tell your man Tanner about the delivery next week.”
“Gotcha. A good reminder to stop by the bank today too.” We say our good-byes and head back toward the square where Jameth and Giuseppe have their shops.
“So if this is the kind of thing expected to appear before the Duke, how can any normal person afford it?”
“They don’t dear. You’re being treated like a foreign dignitary, and those are usually sponsored by their state. I would be surprised if your sponsor hadn’t sent some money for all of this. Are you low on funds?”
“I’m not sure? Which is why I want to visit the bank. After footing the bill for the ranch construction, and the Guild not wanting to buy my resources anymore, I would tend towards getting low.”
Maude starts laughing at me. “It’s amusing how little you know when weighed against the waves you are making. Every time you access one of those remote payment devices, your bank total synchs with your interface.
I pull up my inventory and see two numbers:
Physical currency: 1 Drachma, 114 Obol 40 bits
Imperial Bank currency: 1 Minae, 322 Drachma, 84 Obol, 12 bits.
Uh, wow. My patron sent like 300 gold. It makes me wonder what I’m going to owe them for the privilege. I’m probably going to put it into my property and trades.
“By your face, it was a significant sum. Good, then you won’t be so alarmed at what you’ll spend at the Tailor.”
“Do you know who I’ll be meeting?”
“Not exactly, but the Duke felt obliged to have Dinner and a Party a few days after you arrive to honor the Sky Troll. I have also learned that since you survived your first rage alone, and are capable of magic, you are quite important yourself.”
“I have so much to learn about the world. Does it ever feel as though you are close to handling things?”
“There was a brief period in my life where I could say so, but then you arrived.” She smiles at me when she says that.
Gods, is that how people see me? Some blue calamity? Leeda and the Guild would probably say so. Maude lets me stew in my thoughts on the walk to James’ shop.
“Ah, good. The Troll is finally here to pay for that ridiculous scabbard I was asked to make.”
The ‘ridiculous’ part is probably the braided, polished wrapping in three different colors, with the intersecting seams gilded with paint. The soft pink, blue and orange come together in something of a sunset, with the gold shimmering like the last rays of light. The effect seems perfect for not just me specifically, but sky trolls in general. I might also like it because it’s a pastel rainbow.
“Scabbard, boots, and sandals with calf strapping. Anything else?” The man seems to need to chew that vitriol on the way out.
“Uh, a care and shine kit, please?” He grumbles and turns around, coming back with a sack full of things and a payment orb.
“Three gold and forty three.” I zap and send everything but the sack into storage before quickly leaving the shop.
“Did I do something?” I ask Maude.
“Not you specifically. He doesn’t like Melody or nobles, and she ordered things nobility adjacent for you. He would have refused outright had he a problem with you. In fact, I think he’s angry because he likes you but has issues with you getting involved in politics.
“Giuseppe, on the other hand, is more happy than I’ve seen him in a while, dealing the designs for your finery. He was so excited when I messaged him this morning, that he closed so he could set up a display for you and blocked out the afternoon for appointments only to make sure that he could do any alterations that are needed before we leave.”
“That sounds . . . expensive.” Maude laughs at me.
“If he doubles what you spent already, would that come close to what your patron sent?” She asks.
“Well, no. But . . .”
“Then think of it as you spending their money, not your own.” She smiles as though hers was a final move in a victorious match.
She’s right, but there is so much I could add to the property with that money! Like put a hut up in that cave-in grotto I found, or making a resting spot in my cave, or finally installing a garden and greenhouse.
Time is going be more than an issue now than money apparently. Not that I didn’t already know that for the ATC, now I’m realizing that I might have to focus on one world or another if this swapping thing doesn’t work.