Growing Lilies

Lily found herself walking with Avea after asking for a more private place to talk. He’d gotten another guard to take over for him, and gone on ‘break’. Lily wondered if he intended to go back and relieve the poor fellow after they were done. Avea didn’t seem to be in a hurry.

“So, you found your dog?”

Avea led Lily to a small courtyard with a bench that was in fact, unoccupied.

“Well, yes and no.”

A voice came from Bay.

“It is nice to meet you. I am Star. Master no longer needs you to find me.”

Avea stared at the stuffed seal with wide eyes. Lily squeezed Bay a little harder, even though she knew Star couldn’t feel it.

“Hey you! Shush or you’ll freak people out.”

“You were talking about me. Why should I be quiet. I am right here.”

Avea finally found his words.

“What the hells!? Is that your dog? That’s not a dog! Did you turn him into a doll? What kinda magic is that?”

Lily couldn’t help but laugh.

“No no! He’s not a doll. He’s far away, the magic just lets me talk to him.”

“You didn’t say he was a talking dog!”

“Well, I– I just wasn’t sure he’d talk to a stranger. You know, to keep a low profile.”

Star tried again to get a word in edgewise in this conversation.

“Hello. Mister Avea, right?”

“Y-yeah. That’s me.”

“I understand my Master owes you her gratitude for your protection. Thank you.”

“No problem? It’s my job.”

“Are you a Knight?”

Avea laughed, hard. Lily was content to let them talk. She was sweating. Being around a stranger was hard. Avea had a very loud voice, and some boisterous body language, and it constantly made her want to flinch. But, he was kind, so she pushed those feelings down.

“Nah man, I’m just a [Guard] in a tiny town.”

“Oh, okay. Is that like a Hero?”

Avea actually seemed a little flustered. His tail flicked around, and Lily could see a little red around the white scales on his face.

“What? No. Just a [Guard]. I uh, make sure no one breaks any laws.”

“What are laws?”

At this point Lily broke in before things got too off topic.

“Av– er, Mister Avea’s job is to make sure no one breaks the rules of the town, more or less. And speaking of, I’m sincerely sorry for the trouble I caused last time I was here. You did your best to help me, and I appreciate that. I wanted to explain myself and offer something small in return.”

“Hey, don’t worry about it. Was confusing as hell, but no one got hurt or anything.”

“Still. I– I am just scared of strangers. Sunica was still newer to me too, and I panicked.”

Avea looked like he didn’t know what to say, so Lily just continued.

“Um, I’m actually an [Enchanter]. Well, a [Student] of… of enchanting. I’ve only got a few things I can do right now, but I wanted to offer my services. I had an idea for something nice I could do if you’d accept.”

“How much?”

“Huh?”

“How much will it cost? Enchanted gear is cool and all, but aren’t the materials costly as hell? There’s a common scam that works like this you know. But I don’t peg you as the sort that would be ballsy enough to try that on a [Guard], besides, I have skills for that sort of thing, and they aren’t telling me a damn thing.”

“Oh, um. Free. I don’t need anything. I wanted to do this in return for your help the other day, and treating me kindly. I couldn’t charge you…”

Avea pinched the bridge of his nose and an annoyed expression crossed his face. He huffed, and gave her a look.

“Did you run this by Sunica?”

“Huh? Why would I need to do that? I mean, I told her that I was coming to Veni, and that I’d probably see you at the gate.”

“The gift, or repayment or whatever?”

“Uh… no?”

He grimaced.

“You know, it’s probably a good idea to learn about a place’s culture before you visit. You’re committing a pretty big faux pas.”

“I am? Oh. I’m sorry. What did I do?”

Lily’s heart sank. She had thought this was such a good idea too! If she made his canteen or waterskin or whatever auto fill, it would repay him and other guards would see how cool it was and maybe wanna buy one! And if not, at least she’d have done something good for someone who was kind to her.

“Sunica’s your contact here. Friendship works a bit different here than it does in a lot of other places. Honestly, ‘causes a lot of disputes around foreigners specifically. See, she’s got a claim on you. So, if you’re gonna be doin’ favors, you should be doin’ them for her. See?”

“What? Really? I can’t just be friends with anyone I want?”

“I mean, you can have good relations, but there are friends and there are ‘friends’ ya know? If you’re doing something nice for somebody, it’s gotta benefit her in some token way at the least. Or else she’ll get jealous. Of me. And then it’s my problem, see? Well, I mean, not from her exactly. Because I outrank her. But it becomes a mess.”

“So, I can talk to and be friendly with whoever I want, but it’s a faux pas to do anything nice for anybody other than her?”

“Nah, nah. You’re getting this all mixed up.”

Avea took a deep breath and let out an annoyed sigh. Lily shivered. She could swear it got a little colder when he did. He rested his head in his hands for a moment, and then continued.

“Look, you seem like a nice human. I’ll try to walk you through this, but you have to be careful around here without me or her to explain, got it? I don’t wanna be breaking up fights because you don’t understand how things work.”

“I’m all ears! I promise!”

“See, it’s all about rank. You’re below her, but connected see? Right above her are members of the Nor family, all the way to the matriarch at the top, okay? Any good things you bring to our area, they all got dibs on.”

“I thought she was below almost everyone in Veni.”

Avea rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, but she’s not connected to anyone else, see? It’s about family and group dynamics. She belongs to the Nor family, you belong to her. She’s defacto lower in rank than everyone else, but if you move up the chain from her there’s only one group you get to.”

“Oh shit!”

Lily yelped and stood up. She got it! She thought. Avea nearly jumped out of his skin too.

“W-what? You alright Miss?”

“It’s a social MLM! A pyramid scheme! For reputation!”

“The hells are you talking about?”

“I– I get it now. I think. Or at least the basic structure. I’m sorry. I got excited. I like learning new things.”

Now she felt sheepish. But that was… Amazing and terrible. She had a lot of questions about why the people on top were on top of a system like that, but she was pretty sure Avea wouldn’t be the best person to ask. He was just staring at her and shaking his head a little.

“Well, whatever. I’m glad you get it.”

“But, that doesn’t answer all my questions. Does that mean I can’t be friends with other people, or do nice things for them ever?”

“I was gettin’ to it. Of course it doesn’t mean that. A society could never function if you could only do good for a person directly above you.”

“Yeah, that’s what I was thinking. So, how?”

“You just gotta make it benefit her in some token way too. Give her dibs. Ask her before doing big gestures for other people. Or at the very least, when you do a good deed for a stranger say somethin’ like ‘On behalf of Miss Sunica’. That way you’re improving her reputation, see?”

“Huh. That’s… complicated. Wait, wouldn’t it be ‘On behalf of Miss Sunica Nor’? You said she was a part of that family…”

“No.”

“Why not?”

He gave her a look and hesitated.

“You might wanna ask her that. But she doesn’t have that family name, or any for that matter. ‘Miss Sunica’ is how you talk about her.”

“Oh. Okay. Sooo. If I wanted to offer what I tried before, I should say something like… On behalf of Miss Sunica, I wanted to thank you for your help the other day. I’d like to offer my services in enchanting your canteen or a water skin.”

“Uh, yeah. Or you can charge for your services. People will assume you’re giving a small portion of the profits to her. And if you’re out here giving gifts on her behalf, it’s usually polite for the other person to give you some small thing to bring back to her too. Even as small as a piece of fruit or somethin’.”

Lily smiled. She was starting to feel more at ease around Avea, having talked to him a bit. He really did seem like a nice guy. She couldn’t believe she had thought he had sinister intentions when he grabbed her and they were talking the first time. 

“I think I’ve got it. Well, your answer?”

“Uh, for what?”

“The enchantment, duh! I really mean it. I’ve got something I think would be useful for you, and I need practice anyway. It’ll make it slowly refill with clean drinking water, and it’ll glow just a little when it’s full of water and energy so you know you can drink it or pour it into a bucket or something.”

Avea stared at her for a minute, suspiciously.

“You know you shouldn’t drink conjured water, right?”

Lily gave him a confused look. That was interesting. There were spells that just made water? Was it dangerous somehow?

“What? Why?”

“It disappears after a while. If your body absorbs that stuff like water, and then it vanishes, it can cause big problems.”

“Oh. That makes sense. But, this is normal water. Not conjured.”

It was his turn to look confused.

“What do you mean it’s not conjured? You said it slowly refills whatever.”

“Yeah! But, it’s regular water. Promise. I can explain how it works if you want.”

“Uh, sure.”

“Well, there’s always small amounts of water around us in the air. It might gather it from the snow too if you put it down, but mostly it’ll be the air. It pulls the water out of the air, and concentrates it into droplets on the sides of the container. Eventually, that’ll fill it. It just takes a little while due to the low ambient mana in the area. But it’s not creating water at all, just moving it around.”

Avea looked thoughtful for a few seconds.

“You’ve had some, and been fine?”

“Yeah! Totally. Plus back home I had a whole system set up for it to feed into farm animals' water containers and they were all totally fine too.”

“Alright. I’ll take you up on it. Tell Sunica there’s no hard feelings after this. What do you need?”

Lily picked up on the subtext behind his message for Sunica, and decided not to comment. What did she need though? Well, she could actually cast the spell in almost no time at all if he’d hand over the container. But she wasn’t sure it was a good idea to do it in front of him, and it might be a good idea to not let on that it would only take a few seconds.

“Um, an hour to myself and privacy to work? Oh and the container you want enchanted.”

“That’s it, huh? What about uh… don’t you need materials?”

“Nope! I use a new method. It’s not strong at all, but for simple enchantments all it takes is concentration.”

He looked at her skeptically, so she went on.

“And uh, I got a skill last night that makes it way easier.”

His face brightened up at that.

“Hey, that’s great! Congratulations! Gonna celebrate your new level while you’re in town?”

“Um… Well. Like I said, I’m pretty scared of strangers. So I was actually thinking of escaping through the nearest gate when I was done enchanting.”

“What? No way! That’s ridiculous! You can’t just skip out on celebrating! C’mon you don’t level every day. Lemme at least buy you a drink or somethin’!”

Lily smiled as politely as she could, given the dread that sentiment put in her.

“Um. I don’t really like drinking unless I have to.”

“Fine, a meal then! C’mon, it’s on me.”

“I– I’m not sure I’d be okay sitting down in a um… Anywhere with a lot of people.”

“Huh. Alright. Tell you what; I’ll figure something out you’re comfy with while you’re working and if you’re still not you can turn me down then.”

“Y-you really don’t have to. I’m not– I’m not um.”

She was about to say ‘worth your time’, but that usually sounded like a demand for attention more than anything else.

“I don’t want to impose.”

“No imposition at all Miss. Really. I’ll get you set up with one of the private rooms at the guard house and go take care of it. Actually, mind if I borrow your friend?”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

He pointed at Bay with a grin.

“Your dog. He knows what you like and don’t like right? I’ll take him around while I look. He can talk without you right?”

Lily was reluctant to hand Bay over to a stranger. But it’s not like she couldn’t just re-cast the spell if something happened. Bay himself was irreplacable too, but if he wouldn't be safe with a guard, or [Guard] who would he be safe with?

“Promise to protect him?”

“Of course, Miss.”

Star spoke up again at that.

“Master, you will send me with him?”

“Only if you want to go, and only for an hour. I’ll miss you, but I’ll be working anyways. So I figured it’d be more fun for you.”

That was partially a lie. She wouldn’t have an hour’s worth of work to do. But it’s not like she couldn’t spend some time working on other spells, and Star might be able to win some hearts and learn more about this place because he wasn’t afraid like her.

“Mister Avea, you are in charge of keeping everyone here safe?”

“I mean, I’m one person who does that, yeah.”

“Then you and I have much to talk about.”

Avea stifled a chuckle.

“Is that so? Alright then. Sounds like it’s decided Miss. C’mon, let’s get you that room.

---

 

About fifteen minutes later, Lily found herself in a small room with a table, blessedly alone. Avea had told her no one would bother her there, and left her with a canteen to enchant. The spell would only take a minute to cast, so for now she was just staring at it. Maybe she should have said half an hour. She wasn’t sure how long enchanting usually took. Oh well, she’d lie and say it was her skill if people got suspicious. 

She took a moment to look over the canteen. She probably shouldn’t add any experimental features to someone else’s item, but what was she going to DO for a full hour in this room? She wished she had her phone. She could practice some spells while she waited, using her new skill?

Which spells though? Playing with fire in the guard house was a no-no. She didn’t have any devices like her phone or her laptop, so she couldn’t work on the spells to charge them. Actually, she had some ideas about that ambient mana tester. She decided to start there.

She really hoped Star was having a good time.