Four Horsemen: Chapter 24 Part 1 of 2

Chapter 24:

They left the market, already attracting its first customers, all but the last finishing touches done. The tavern wasn’t far.

The tavern keeper’s boy was talking to Mesurial and brushing her down.

“Good work lad,” Petor said.

He nearly jumped out of his skin, absorbed in the work.

“Take the day off and check out the market,” Petor flipped him a copper with a grin.

“Thank you sirs, misses!” He tucked the silver away with  grin and hurried off towards the market, calling out to some other boys nearby.

Petor took out Limos’ card and flipped it over. He’d been interested ever since he saw the line on Desari’s card.

The rune expanded and moved to the side, the card seemed to roll up.

[Balance]

[Credit: 1,250GP]

“Looks like the card has updated with our earnings.”

“Twelve hundred gold, not a little, not the amount we need for information. Do any of you need anything from him?” Mya asked.

Valter, Desari and Petor shook their heads.

“Then we’ve got a free summon for him that we can bank while we do the Aetheria job.”

“Could be useful if we find out we need something we can’t find in the city,” Petor said.

“Or we need more information from him,” Desari said.

“Then we hold off summoning him,” Valter said. “Do we head for Aetheria ourseslves or go with Jaxus and his trading group?”

“We can get more information from Jaxus on the city and it’ll make it easier to enter,” Desari said.

“Good to have some company on the roads and locals,” Petor said.

“I’m fine with the caravan, and Valter you’ll need more time to complete your projects right?” Desari asked.

“Just a few days and I’ll be ready,” Valter said.

“I’ll find out what ingredients are to be found, if they’re eager to learn alchemy then we can figure out some sort of trade,” Desari said.

“I need to grow some more ingredients myself for ammunition,” Petor said.

“I can trade the cores to the traders as well, what about the dust?” Mya asked.

“The dust can make potions to increase night sight and make someone fade into the shadows. I’m thinking the stealth potion will be more helpful,” Desari said.

“You’ll get no disagreement here,” Valter said.

“Okay, then a week of doing what we need to do and then off to Aetheria,” Mya said.

“Well, then I’m going to look for a place to set up my forge away from prying eyes, and see what the merchants have to sell. Ignus, don’t burn the barn down.”

The big horse snorted and went back to chewing on coal.

***

Valter retraced his steps to the circular market, each cart held different items, there were several empty and still covered with prices for different items on the side. People came up with bundles that were checked, weighed and coin traded back.

Others had cooking implements, spices, bolts of cloth and tools.

A merchant was crouched down looking at a plow with a nervous farmer standing beside him.

“Don’t think there’s anything to be done with this one Rolf,” the merchant said.

Valter looked over, the merchant was rubbing his hand over the crack in the plough and checking the back of it.

“Seams have cracked in a few places. This would take a smithy and a big one at that to fix up. Probably be cheaper to melt it down again and re-cast.”

Rolf rubbed his head.

“Mind if I take a look?” Valter asked.

Rolf frowned, looking wary. The trader studied him but gave him a smile and waved at the plow. “Please sir.”

The plough was two handles with ropes hanging to make a simple seat between them. The handles were connected to a frame on lopsided wooden wheels. The foreshare had hit something or several somethings and cracked.

“Buckled it good,” Valter flicked mud from the cracks to get a better look.

“The joints here are broken up. I’d say it be easier to break them fully, replace the blocks holding it to the beam with wood, they can break in the future, but better them than your blade. I could hammer out the share to be smooth then shape out a new fore and put that on, last you at least the season and you can get a new plough later.”

Rolf looked at the damage. “We need this to break things up this month. Don’t have the time to send away for a new one. How much?”

“Need,” Valter sucked in a breath. “Probably about two ingots worth of iron, then lets call it two meals? And I need a place to work away from people for the week.”

Rolf opened his mouth, the merchant elbowed him and jerked his head at Valter.

Rolf held out his hand. Valter took it.

“When can you start?”

“As soon as I have a spot to work.”

Rolf leaned on the handles, kicking the plough into the air. “Follow me.”

“Let me know if you need anything,” The merchant said.

Rolf took him through the village to one of the homes with a small weaved fence around it. Several chickens moved around the area, picking at bugs.

A barn on one side showed oxes and horses. Another barn created a right angle to it, holding all kinds of farming equipment. It was away from the road, the room in between away from the road. The side of the house butted up against the barns, blocking it in on three sides.

“Does this work?” Rolf waved at the area.

“Perfect.” Valter took out his mobile forge and tossed it out on a patch showing little traffic.

Valter grinned at Rolf’s stunned expression as his forge grew to size.

“Well damn,” Rolf recovered, coughing to cover his shock.

“All kinds of things to be seen out there, now lets see about getting that plough fixed.

Rolf moved to the side and waved at it as if to say ‘have at it’.

Valter drew a cutting knife, feeding the runes mana he separated the blocks holding the beam and the share. He took out a hand drill creating two plugs and attaching wooden blocks.

He picked up the freed share and took it into his forge.

With his hammer and the anvil he smoothed out the damage and took out a sheet of iron. He started a fire in the hearth and marked up the metal.

It went into the hearth, warming till it was malleable. He drew it out and started humming, using anvil and hammer to work it into shape.

Quickly it started to take on the shape of the plough, he checked one against the other multiple times as he worked, heating it back up several times and bringing it closer to the plough’s shape.

Movement brought him out of his work. He looked up to see a woman, built in the way of someone that worked hard.

She held a board with bits of cheese, crackers, preserves and two large round balls, the other hand held a tankard of beer.

“Izzy said you were working on the plough. Said you only asked for food and a place to work in peace. This good to put here?” She waved to a table.

“That’ll be great, thank you,” Valter smiled.

“Impressive set up you have here,” she studied the forge and nodded, taking out several silvers “Thirty silver for the iron.”

“Thank you,” Valter ducked his head and accepted the coins, putting them into a pouch under his apron.

“Let us know if you need anything else,” She smiled and headed off towards the house.

“Thank you.”

He wiped his hands clean on a rag and grabbed one of the brown balls, there was something crunchy on the exterior, then herbed meat around a solid egg.

Delicious. He took a drink of the beer, it went well with the cooked egg and meat balls. Have to ask her what these are called.

He went through the cheese and the preserves the flavours sweet, sour salty and all kinds of different textures.

A last drag of the beer, more oats than alcohol he put it to the side and set to the last curves of the plough.

Still got a lot of armor and gear to work on yet.

***

“Well, that’s different,” Petor studied the plant in his pot. “Guess there was a different seed among the ember blooms.”

The bramble like plant spilled over the sides for the pot, it smoldered, giving off a faint heat. Its thorns were curved and vicious.

He’d set to replenishing his ammunition and building up a greater stock as soon as possible.

He moved to the Stormvines and Emberblooms in his newly bought troughs. The dirt was drying out and the rich black color was turning lighter. The loamy smell was almost sandy, catching in the back of his throat.

His understanding of the plants and soils had only grown.

With his first batch of stormvines he’d broken through to orange mixed to yellow and with this new plant he’d cracked yellow.

He was finally the same level of strength he’d been before he died.

The path forward was going to be harder, fighting beasts well above what he’d faced before. Or growing more odd plants.

“Looks like it’s burning, like the Emberbloom. Maybe it’s a cousin plant?” He scratched at his stubble.

“Smells like death, fire and blood,” Mya said.

He looked at her and then it.

“Do you know what it is?”

“No clue, best to ask Desari and not let anyone touch that.”

Petor clicked his tongue, he’d put what he’d thought were five emberbloom seeds into the pot. Hopefully this one is worth something.

Petor stored it away, and stretched, cracking his back. He meant to talk to Desari anyway, he had plenty of questions on magic and spells.

“Have to replace it again if I wanted to use it.” He turned his head to the side. “Maybe I should see about putting mana into the soil and see if that helps it to recover nutrients?”

He penned another note with the several he’d created on spells mana, and plants, storing it he took out a blade.

He needed to but touch the plant to understand what was happening with it.

Ripe, some more water, soil doesn’t have enough nutrients. Wants more heat.

He drew his knife, harvesting the plant, leaving but the roots in the trough. Some fresh dirt and water and he could regrow it.

He moved along the other five and repeated the process. He did the same with the storm vines and stored it all away.

Though it had been profitable in terms of harvested materials. He’d grown several emberblooms and stormvines, recovering all the pieces that he’d used up and increasing it by ten.

Now he knew how to deal with the plants they were much easier to grow, using the nutrients in the soil than just his own mana.

His core had become red, the stage where one could go from using their mana on just their body to casting spells. That was what Desari had said.

Spells were miracles created by the gods, not things that people could do, that was what he had been taught and everything he had seen since then flew in that face of such ‘truths’.

With each attack and kill he gained back a portion of mana, it filled him to the brim. He used it to empower his body, but what if there were more efficient ways to use it? What if there was a spell that he could use instead?

It felt like he was wasting his newly-natural abilities.

Mya was working at a table away from all of the fire, she’d cleaned and maintained her weapons, reloaded them, then started to create pre-made charges.

“You know where Desari headed off?” Petor asked.

“Saw her heading to a barn over there,” She squinted and pointed.

“Alright, thanks.”

“No problem. I’m nearly done here, going to head out to the market in a bit.”

“Hope your bartering goes well.”

Mya chuckled. “Thanks.”

Petor checked the skies, they were greying and they carried the last of the chill, but they hadn’t decided if they wanted to rain or hold it back yet.