A deal worth making

I find Hildegard teaching Zewrepa how to season fish stew she is stirring. Branislava is sitting on the bench with a cushion behind her lower back, making her lean back. Melo is sitting next to her looking her over. I lay a hand on her forehead. She flinches a little, but she does no longer tense up. „You are healthy, just exhausted. You were inadequately fed as a child. Twins put quite a strain on a pregnant woman’s body, which in your case is a bit weak. You just need more rest.“ I inform her, while I ponder the consequences. We cannot leave this place if that means having to walk within the next four months or so. I need to investigate my teleportation and figure out a way to boost my range. And I need to talk to Leuma about our security. Even if Marental would not return, could he sell the location of this base? I ask my companions about her.

Zewrepa answers „She is digesting her catch. That is necessary for her kind after such a feast. And before you ask, Anjali showed up, claim some fruit and then returned to her room.“ Gesturing with a lower hand to Branislava she goes on „I am glad not to be a placental. Your own reproduction disables you for a long time. That is ludicrous.“ Branislava looks at her with a silent question. It is answered „We lay eggs. And yes, that egg takes the same amount of resources as one of your hatchlings for the same size. But it takes only five days to assemble. After that it is well protected in its nest and we are ready to fight and hunt again.“

I give her a smile intended to reassure her. It seems like her fear of me is gone. That is nice but those who know most about magic are not here. I am quite hungry. I suppose a sensitive man would find it impossible to eat after slaughtering half a village. No. The gods of this world have triggered Fimbulwinter. Though while I savor the potatoes I cannot escape the inevitable conclusion. I would have done it anyway. I will do what it takes.

Hildegard smiles and mentions „Enjoy the potatoes. We’ll soon run out of them.“ That raises a point. Potatoes come from South America. We are in Europe. I know next to nothing about the history of this world. You learn stuff by asking; so I take my own advice „By the way, when were potatoes introduced to Europe?“. Branislava looks at me oddly. Hildegard answers „About a thousand years ago, when the Saxons still held the lands between the Franks and the Varmlanders, who sailed across the Western Ocean and traded for them. It took a few hundred years for them to become popular. So after the Hungarians invaded but before the Great Glorious War.“. My confusion must be painted on my face. She continues „I am sorry, but this will take some explanations.“ I hastily waive her off „That would be interesting, but history will have to wait until I get answers to questions about magic. I fear that if I have to find answers to my general questions by myself, it will be too late.“ Melo looks at me and asks „Are you making observations on magic?“. I reply „More experiments rather than observations. For example today I tried to make better fire balls, but I hit a range limit.“ Melo makes a flittering gesture with her left hand „I have little training in the foundations of wizardry, but that is probably an elementary issue. You tried to do magic beyond your aura without an anchor.“ I am afraid the perplexed facial expression will become permanent. Melo tries to save my face from my ignorance. „Mages have an aura. As you are human as opposed to a dryad or a demon, you have no inherent way of expanding or controlling yours. So if you want to do magic to objects outside your aura range, you’ll have to create an anchor or use an existing anchor.“. I reply „So you do not have that issue?“. She imitates the gesture Zewrepa sometimes makes with her shoulders when she answers in the negative „In principle I do. Everybody does. But in the right environments - those that I can claim or that are good for my alignment - I can extend my aura a lot. So it does not matter nearly as much.“ „You can claim environments?“ I respond with little understanding. She replies „So can you. Again, everybody can, though for you, being human, it is harder and much less useful. I am afraid I cannot tell you much more. Marental would not teach his servants how he overcomes limitations, lest they gain a means to resist or interfere with those methods.“

That was wise of him. Quite inconvinient for me, but his reasoning looks sound to me. One of the things I like about my companions is that they know when I prefer to be left to my thoughts. I can create material objects. I have conjured the cucumbers in the soup we are just eating. Do I need to do that at all? Should I just throw a stone or a snow ball at my enemies? Then it hits me. We have crossbows. Though one thing pricks my mind. „Why then did he tell you about anchors?“

Zewrepa’s sigh sounds like the discordant noise you get when you just punch the keyboard of a piano. „Even I know that. It is so basic. Suppose you are retreating inside a buiding. You use a locking spell on a door behind you. The point is retreating. Letting the spell unravel when you leave would make it useless. So you anchor it to the lock. This is so basic that many mages do it instictively or develop the method on their own as novices.“

Anjali bids me enter after I’ve knocked. She sits on the floor in a meditative pose. I am ready to apeace her with exotic fruit. Her face is neither angry nor happy as I enter and put the fruit on the table she indicates. „Are you well?“ I ask. Her voice is carefully neutral. „Yes, I am. As is the child.“ „The child. That is a cool way to refer to our daughter.“ „You can tell that? I want to stay emotionally detached.“ she reads my face like a book and continues „I am not angry at her or you. I am angry because I have lost my voice.“ She unfolds herself with admirable limberness, proceeding to stand up not using her arms.

I use the opportunity to get a hard remark in. No use sugarcoating anything with her „Nobody has a voice among us. At best we choose through which swamp we trudge forward. Usually we just react.“. I leave out the worst case as it would mean our death.

She tilts her head. „I have to agree. We owe our lives to unborn twins. You kept us alive after that.“. She pauses. „I was a slave. A whore.“ Again she reads my face. „Yes, I did come to you out of calculation. Don’t be sad. I didn’t have to overcome a deep reluctance. I came to you by choice. That is the difference. Even if I would never have taken the alternate options. I felt like I had escaped. I was no longer property.“ I cannot let that stand „You are hardly property now.“. She raises an eyebrow „Then what am I? A mother and a concubine? Don’t answer that.“ Her outstretched hand keeps me silent. She continues „I understand that my position is partially born out of unwarranted hopes. But they were my hopes. I cannot just let that slide.“

What do you respond to that? I try „What are we to do now?“ Her gaze goes down to the floor „I don’t know“.

I don’t need light to see after a fashion. So I track through the gloom of sunset to get out of the teleport wards so that I return to the cheese place for weapons testing, a crossbow slung across my back.