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Chapter 23

Silver Pumas

It would take ten days for me to be fully healed; it would take four days for the courts to know how much damage had been done to the pirate vessel.

“We need at least three of those statues.” Madonna insisted.

“Is there no other way to gain the funds?” Gamilla asked.

“Up to fifteen thousand coins?” Narces asked. “Just write home and ask for an army to conquer this colony. I mean, that’s much cheaper.”

.....

“And how would they transport that army?” I asked. “On Furdian ships?”

“Husband, I think you should remain behind and keep your friend safe.”

“How so?”

“Meaning no disrespect, we have to go before you are in fighting trim. We need to leave today or tomorrow, or we will be late.”

“You can trust us, boss. If we fail, it probably means we’re already eaten.”

I grumbled, but: “Yes, that makes sense. I won’t pretend to like it, but it seems to be the only way.”

“Rhishi, no... They don’t know about...”

I changed the towel on Kismet’s head, and told them what she had long ago told me about pumas.

“Yeah, boss. Everyone knows that.”

“Shall we depart?” Madonna asked.

They did, and the room seemed larger, harder to defend, for their absence.

“Rhishi?”

“Hm?”

“Will you read to me?”

“From what book?”

“It’s in my pack. A guide to the Isles.”

It was a half-folio book, poorly bound, worth perhaps a silver or two. It was filled with lies and half-truths and exaggerations.

But it passed the time, and we filled much of the rest with idle chatter.

When she was unconscious, I looked over the taint, and my sin wheel. Somehow, Vanity was leading Gluttony, although the difference was a matter of less than a point. There were Sin Abilities, but none of them seemed to reduce taint once it was already acquired.

The most promising required sin ratings of 4, and they expanded the capacity of the soul to contain taint before it began causing negative effects.

Maybe the Occult or Eldritch magics offered something? There was a class called Sin Eater, but it looked like a good way to gather, rather than remove, taint.

And why was I being so obsessive about it? It was locked away in little compartments in my soul, right? Squirming, pushing, pulling, trying to absorb the sins surrounding them. Yeah... I needed to find a way to get rid of that stuff.

Okay... okay... breathe... No sense in expending sanity or serenity running in circles.

I had most of a month to wait for Unlock Third Eye. No clue how that would affect my partially earned Telepath and Esper classes. The former dealt with logic and communication; the latter with emotions.

They had some potentially nasty abilities, like altering or erasing memories. Esper could change your outlook, slowly changing your personality. I flagged all kinds of abilities that normal classes had available to defend against them.

Yeah, three development points; I wasn’t getting anything like that any time soon.

#

Three days can pass quickly when you’re doing stuff. We weren’t doing stuff, it seemed to take forever. By the time the court police showed up to tell us to be in court the next day, Kismet had started walking... with assistance.

I was able to remain upright in my chair; when she proved unable to remain upright, they got a couch for Kismet to lay down on, which reduced the amount of blood she was coughing up.

The justice system of Vernice was very considerate, given the limitations upon it by law.

And we were there, listening to the line item of charges for about half an hour. “All told, your honor, the defendants are liable for four thousand seven hundred and seven silver lucras (the silver coin of Furdia) in damages to crown property.”

“Young sir, do you have the coins to pay for these damages?”

“Not until our remaining companions return from their voyage, your honor.”

“Which vessel, again?”

“The Dancing Osprey, your honor.”

“House arrest, until these missing companions return.”

“Your honor, the prosecution wishes it noted that the reptilian defendant is a class-holding Truthspeaker.”

“So noted.”

“If he is literate in Furdian, the court should employ him as an assistant scribe.”

“Defendant?”

“Provided someone can look after my seriously injured companion, I have no objections, your honor.”

“Over-ruled. Medical exception is granted. House arrest in their hospital room.”

Forty-seven hundred silver! I had once tried to de-throne someone using heroes with a budget of half that much!

I admit that effort failed. Badly.

What else could I do? Carve bedpans out of spare wood? Too noisy, it would upset the rest Kismet needed to heal properly.

Actually, I did need a new shield... but no, I’d never forgive myself if something did happen to Kismet and I wasn’t there to render immediate treatment.

My sleep was troubled that night, until it wasn’t.

“Kid, you look terrible.” Manajuwejet said.

“I feel terrible.”

“Uhm... look, if you can pay, Pongo found something for you.”

It took two tries, but I was able to form a Celestial Heavens faith point for him.

I examined it. “It seems to be without taint.” I said.

“By your honor as a Truthspeaker?”

“Upon my honor as a Truthspeaker.” I handed it over to him.

“Hm... looks okay.” He admitted, slurping it down.

“What the seven hells happened to you?” Pongo demanded upon seeing me.

“Hell-Wife.” I said.

“Yup, that’ll do it. Look, you got some companions promising you’ll do a quest for Black Panther.”

Quest? For...

“I’m guessing the quest is paid for in silver puma statues, with blue stones set for the eyes?”

“Yeah, and quest points. So that’s genuine?”

“It is.” I said.

[You have accepted a quest to find the remaining folk of Always Brooding, and to migrate the remainder of his people to their kindred.]

Blah, blah, words, numbers, words, numbers. I’d look at it later.

“Anything else?” I asked.

“Nope. Do the small quests, first, and build up to the larger ones.”

“Awesome. Anyone know how to remove taint from an aura once it’s required?”

“Not that I know of. I’ll ask around, but for now just get it AWAY from me.”

#

Well, the quest was easy to read. Find his people, move 62 members there. One quest point per six members moved. The quest indicated we had no clue where the destination was.

Was there a limit on number of active quests? It’d be a pain if his people had been moved to some undiscovered continent south of Daur.

But that was something to worry about later. Heal up, protect Kismet. And that meant getting sleep.

.....

“Can we get a new book?” Kismet asked.

“All of our funds are currently on reserve at the courthouse.”

“Stupid laws. Charge the pirates, not us.”

“The pirates are already dead, and thus not able to pay anything.”

“So, the law targets us, because we can pay?”

“In theory. On another hand, did Madonna actually burn away a third of the ship?”

“Ha! Not even close. But yeah, watching her at work is something, until she runs out of mana. I think she only has fire.”

“It may be that fire is her only combat spell.”

“Well, if she ever uses something that’s not fire, let me know. Hey, you should work on some combat elemental spells of your own. Isn’t Aqua Arrow or something a simple Water spell?”

“My Lore statistic is still just one. I mean, I can get some skill with Water Magic through Water Adept, but I think I max out at Aqua Blast, only three or four damage. I’m better off with a spear of other weapon.”

“Huh. Magic seems to really suck for you, Rhishi.”

I waved a hand. “I’m sure, if I focused on it, I could learn to do it better. But just now... no, I don’t have the time.”

“Ugh. Well, I’m gonna roll over and get some sleep, and give you time, okay?”

“Okay.”

So I was trying to practice calling the Ocean to my eyes when the guards came. Still difficult while tainted, and it seemed the backlash was sharper.

They escorted us to the court, where our three silver puma statues were taken into custody to be evaluated and auctioned off.

“I have concerns.” I said, when we were back in our rooms. “Those statues look... smaller than described.”

Madonna waved a hand. “They weren’t going to give us their larger statues. Besides, unless they’re given to a complete fool, we should be able to buy the damned vessel from the crown.”

“Let us hope not.” I said. “We already have a month of downtime, without having to worry about repairing a vessel.

“Gives you time to mail letters.”

“Right. My original packet should be arriving in Lewardsport, if it hasn’t already.”

“And then we get orders from home that mess everything up?” Narces asked.

“I see you’re familiar with diplomacy.”

His response does not merit recording in this document.

#