I'm not entirely sure how long I stood there, entranced by the mere idea of money, beginning to understand the true meaning of capitalism. 

I thought of a million things during my brief moment of eternity.

The potential. Limitless potential. Outfits, food, furniture, land, services, weapons, armor... All the vices I could imagine. I could feel human lives in my fingertips, I needed only part them and they would sift through into the void like the sands of time, oh so temporary, so terribly finite... And intoxicating even more so...

I probably would've started cackling like a maniac, but I remembered that I didn't actually do a darn thing to earn this money. Well, that's not entirely true. I basically chauffeured the person who actually did the work. That's gotta count for something, doesn't it? 

No it doesn't...

Yeah, for all intents and purposes, this is Sis's money. 

I also realized that I am probably not well suited to ever be in a position of power.

. . .

It's fine. I already have superpowers, after all. I don't need money. 

I mean, I do gotta pay Heremays back, but... I can just beat up a would-be mugger and take their crap, or something. I'm sure I'll run into one if I just walk around for a while. 

Anyways, I don't really remember how, but we ended up outside the guild hall, (Given my mental state at the time, I would imagine the process involved a lot of incoherent babbling and maybe a little foaming at the mouth, who knows.), and I was carrying a massive sack of cold, hard cash. 

I blinked myself back into reality, and did my best to conceal the thing. I figure carrying it out would be the same as putting a post-it note with 'mug me!' written on it on my back.

"H-here." I said, trying to discreetly hand the bag over to Sis as we walked through town. Though, because of the sheer heft of the thing, that was far easier said than done. I won't lie, I could feel the little devil on my shoulder urging me to pocket the cash for myself.

"Hmm? Oh. Don't want it." She said, not even turning her head, even slightly. 

"B-but you did all the work though-"

"Money's less than useless to me. I got everything I'll ever need." 

Part of me wants to rejoice, but another, far more influential part of me wouldn't be able to withstand the guilty conscious. 

"You don't even want... I dunno... Fishing gear? Or something?" 

"I already have better fishing gear than anything this world can provide. Believe me, I'd know." 

"B-but, what about, like, uh... I dunno, lures, or something? I cant imagine you can get live bait 'Up There', right?" Those are fishing words, right? I've seen movies.

Sis paused, seemingly thought about it, for a moment. Though, it was a little hard to tell, given the angle her head seemed to be stuck at, I couldn't see her face all that well.

"I'll admit... It's intriguing, but I don't have anywhere to store it." She said. 

Dangit. 

"Though..." She continued, "I suppose it wouldn't hurt to peek..." She said, clearly at least a little bit excited about the idea. Which was, honestly, rather refreshing.

Alright!

"Wanna go now?" I asked.

"... Yeah." 

. . .

We spent quite some time on our little shopping trip. 

First, we hit up the shop with all the fishing stuff. Sis knew exactly where it was, which I somehow entirely expected. 

As we got there, I almost thought that Sis was just gonna keep staring at my leg the whole time, despite all the crap surrounding us. Fortunately, that wasn't the case, as she did, after a brief moments hesitation, look up at all the fishing stuff. Though, she did grab my sleeve, in exchange. Not really sure why, I mean, it's not like either of us are gonna get lost in this, what, 800 square foot store, or anything. That being said, it was a little bit adorable. Gave me some ideas for things I should do with S. 

She briefly looked over, well, everything in the shop, but she was especially captivated by the live bait. Personally, I found those things disgusting, all crawly and slimy and... Ew. Don't like 'em. 

Regardless, Sis stared at them for quite some time. She had this excited, shaky grin on her face, and her eyes just lit up the whole time she was staring at them. Looking at that was reassuring beyond words, especially today. Almost made me forget that what she was looking at was a mass of wriggling, still very much alive worms, leeches, and... Magic leeches. 

I'm not sure if she just got tired of looking at them, or if she just suddenly remembered that the universe existed, but, regardless, she eventually did stop looking at them. 

And went right back to the leg...

We ended up leaving the shop without buying anything. I can't imagine the owner was too happy about that, given the amount of time we spent loitering there, but... Well, yeah, don't have an excuse for that. They'd be pretty right to be pissed. Ya can't please everybody.

Anyways, we hit up a few more shops after that, since we were out and about, and Sis insisted I keep the money. 

First and foremost, we made sure to pay Heremays back, of course. Didn't want to leave him hanging for too long, after all.

Next, we went to guy buy some sleeping bags or bedrolls or whatever. Ended up at some sorta 'adventuring shop', of all things. Initially, I thought that was a bit of a silly gimmick, but, turns out, in a world where it's an entirely viable career choice to get together with a group of other hobos and just aimlessly wander the world, killing stuff other people don't want to have exist any more, it's actually a relatively lucrative business. Lucrative enough to start a franchise, even. 

Well, I talk as if I'm better than those adventure-y types, but, at the end of the day, I mostly just do the same thing.

Except I own real estate.

Master of Darkness 1, Murder hobos 0. 

Anyways, ended up buying some fancy friggin' sleeping bags. Bedrolls? I really don't know the difference. I don't know what exactly they were made of, but they were quite comfortable. Pretty big, too. And a little heavy, actually. Though, I only had to carry them as far as one of the convenient alleys. There was a delivery option, but I imagine the fee of travelling halfway across the country would be a bit steep.

Sis insisted she didn't need one, but we bought 3 just in case. I mean, whether or not you need to sleep, surely everyone wants to curl up and get all cozy under some covers at least sometimes, right? 

Later, I was able to convince Sis to carry at least some of the cash she earned. I reasoned that, while she might not have use for goods, there might be, like, a ferry or a fishing cruise or something. Y'know, services.

I don't know if my argument was actually convincing, or if she just wanted me to shut the hell up, but, regardless, she did end up pocketing 50 gold. I still kinda felt dirty about carrying and using all this, but, at least I felt roughly 50 coin less dirty. Still, I ended up swearing that I'd only spend the rest of the money on important things, nothing frivolous. Sis just shrugged in response to that.

And I started internally debating whether or not cola counted as frivolous something frivolous. Unfortunately, my better judgement got the best of me, and decided that, yeah, of course that's frivolous.

Though we didn't buy all that much else, we still ended up walking around the shopping district for quite some time, mostly just people watching (well, I guess it was mostly us getting people watched, actually) and window shopping.

Anyways, eventually, once it was getting kinda late-ish, we headed back to Basenholm by means of convenient alley, to set up the bedrolls in the house. Which mostly just amounted to me just lying them down in places I was pretty sure the floor wasn't gonna cave in. I just ended up putting them all in the living area by the kitchen, for convenience.  

After that, I figured, since I get mugged, like, every other day, it probably wouldn't be wise to carry around too much cash, so I decided to put 600 of the coins in the bank. And by 'bank', I of course mean a spoon drawer in the kitchen, which I secured with a cheap lock I bought earlier. I put the key in the box with the sickles. I know it's not exactly the most secure place in the world, but... C'mon, who's gonna raid the spoon drawer? I was left with about 65 coin in my pocket after that. The bedrolls were quite expensive. 

Before I knew it, it was already dark outside. Looking out through the windows, I stared at the stars for a while. They really are beautiful, way out here...

The stars seemed to tell me that the day was over. Normally, the passage of time on a scale this small doesn't mean all that much, but, here... 

It meant more than anything.

If I'm lucky... Or unlucky, I guess... It's all relative, at any rate...

S...

"What're you lookin' at?" Sis asked.

Embarrassingly, I jumped a bit in surprise as she said that. "Oh, uh, I was just looking up at the sky, 'n stuff. Thinkin'." I said. "I thought you left for the river?" I mean, I guess I never saw her leave, but it got so quiet in here for a while, I just kinda figured.

 "... Nah. I'm gonna wait a bit before that." She said, a little distant. Not sure what she meant by that. "What're you thinking about?" 

"Oh, uh... I was thinkin' about S, mostly. If what DYN2 said is true, I'll get to see him tomorrow." I said, just a little bit giddy. "And I couldn't help but wonder if he's lookin' up at the same starry night sky that I am..."

"... Seems likely. That's how the sky works, isn't it? Not like he's gonna be able to see any other ones." 

"Well, yeah, but..." Oi, just let me have the poetic moment, dangit! "The point is, I'm looking forward to seeing him. I can't wait, really. I mean, it's only been a few days, but... Y'know..." I chuckled to myself, as I didn't really know how to finish that sentence. "And I still haven't properly thanked him for... Well, anything, really.."

. . .

. . .

"Sis?"

"Huh? Wha?" 

"Oh, uh, sorry, you stopped talking, so I thought you might've fallen asleep, or something." I joked.

"... Yeah." Sis said.

What? That didn't make sense.

I turned around, and looked back at Sis. She was still looking at my leg, despite everything, though the look in her eyes was different. Tired, almost.

"Uh, Sis... I know I asked this before, but, uh... Are you alright?"

There was silence, for a moment. 

"Bro, ..." She began. Her mouth began to move again, and, to my surprise, she looked away from my leg.

Though, she didn't say anything.

Her mouth was still moving by the time her eyes met mine, but what noise that was coming out of it seemed to fizzle out.

This time, strangely, though I had no idea what she was going to say, and I had no idea what she meant... I did gleam some meaning, in that moment.

. . .

"I'm fine." She said. "I'm an... Immortal, after all."

I just nodded.

. . .

After a while, I lay down under the bedroll, ready to actually sleep. I realized we forgot to buy pillows, so I just balled up the robe I was wearing a while ago, and placed that under my head. It wasn't super comfortable, admittedly.

I'm not sure when Sis left to go fishing. I fell asleep before she left.

Though, it wasn't super comfortable.