I wake up when the light streams in between the gap between the curtain and the window, groaning as I rise and rub my eyes - and then I realize, belatedly, that I'm topless and that matters now, after the sheet and quilt fall from your bosom.
I grab for the dress that I'd wadded up under my pillow and start pulling it on, just a second before Hikaru grunts and looks up at me.
"Morning?" I ask, trying for nonchalant.
"Unfortunately," he grumbles. "Should I leave?"
"Nah, you're a second too late for the free show," I say, then wonder why. Gods, what was that?
Hikaru considers that for a second.
"Shame," he says, finally, before shrugging on his cloak.
Great! Now I get to wonder what that meant all day! Amazing.
Grumbling, I focus on dressing. "Should... do my business, then grab a table for breakfast," I say.
"For a Raven or five," Hikaru mutters. "Sekhmet is quite right to say we will need work soon."
"Like a job will drop in our laps," I grumble as I put on my prayer beads.
I catch the scroll Tomas tossed at me, a second before it lands in my lap.
"If that dropped in her egg, I'd ask you to spring for her new breakfast," Sekhmet growls, as she spreads eggplant dip over her bread.
"If you read that - you can read, Cleric? - you will learn that my mistress is far more generous than that," Tomas said, shifting in place, stiffly.
I open the scroll, and squint - before realizing that I can read it, despite it not being in English, Korean or Hebrew.
I'm pretty sure it's most similar to Spanish, because of course it is.
"By the authority invested in me by the Gods and the gentry, I, The Most Honorable, Your Chosen Contessa, the Blessed and Radiant - gods she's an Auroran Cleric, Christ - Your Mayor of Viacruz, hereby call on you to honor your pact of aid and..."
I trail off and read the rest of it before repeating it to my party, blinking.
"...it's a monster hunt," I summarize, "in a village like a week northwest of here along the Juadipatos river, called Vinyedo. Seedlings and worse have been attacking the grapevines and sheep - more-so than usual; she thinks shenanigans are afoot - and we'll get paid to investigate and solve it, bring back an owlbear's head for her wall, etcetera etcetera."
"For how much?" Sekhmet asks.
I point at the payment, and then I reach for my orange juice; my throat suddenly feels dry.
Sekhmet leans over, her eyes bulge, and she whistles. "The advance is probably gonna get eaten by food, inns and travel, but holy shit. That's per person?"
"Aye. 200 Guilders to each of you as the prize," Ser Tomas says sotto voce - and a good thing, too; I see other faces, Adventurer and civilian, turning our way...
"It seems... rather generous, Sir," Alesha says.
"I will gladly lower it if you object," Tomas says, mustache quirking up in what's not quite a smile. "Consider this a reward for your honesty yesterday, and a test."
Hikaru raises his hand, calls for a huddle. We join him.
"This is north of a typical reward, if only barely - because Vinyedo provides a significant fraction of the wheat and the wine the Contessa serves at court, and if it falls with us barbarians at the gates Viacruz has a slight food problem," Hikaru says.
"Think we're just the tax collectors doing a very well-armed audit?" Ace mutters.
Alesha shakes her head. "She has knights, surveyors and censors for that. If the Contessa thinks something deserves a party of Adventurers to investigate, I'm inclined to believe her and take this seriously."
Sekhmet folds her arms. "Which is great, because I'm not a fan of doing tax work. But man. A thousand guilders plus expenses and the promise of more work is..."
Each Guilder spends like a Benjamin, Sekh said earlier. 20,000 for three weeks work. I turn over the sums and come up with 165 dollars an hour, 12 times what I was paid to drop chili dogs, Funyuns and a pint of cookie dough ice cream at people's front door. To get in a fight, sure, but still.
I hash out a few other things out with the party, then we each sign the scroll with a proffered quill.
"Tell the Contessa we accept, and gladly," I say, "but that we will need a day to prepare and gather supplies."
Ser Tomas salutes. "She will be most pleased to learn this. Vaya con dioses."
Soon after he leaves - with a cup of coffee, you note - you sigh. "Speaking of," I say, grabbing my ham and egg sandwich, "I think as our godbotherer I should make sure they will come with, this morning. Then we can catch up at lunch."
"I'll grab supplies with Heeks," Sekh says. "Leesh, you and Ace should head to the forge. Catch."
Ace snatches the purse from midair before you even register that Sekh tossed it. "Christ, this is heavy," she says.
"Should be," Sekh said. "There's a solid gold chicken worth of coin in there, plus change. Gimme back what's left."
We all fall on our meals, and plan.
I have never done this before.
My avatar has done this a million times.
I breathe in, and breathe out.
Temples to Sylphan have an open structure of stone columns instead of walls, so that the wind can blow through; the statue of the fox god placed just so. His flute and the tassels from his hat catch the wind and chime.
Prayer to the Wind God is in the form of movement, to emulate his freedom of action; incense, to carry smoke on the wind; and song, to fill the air. Dancing and gymnastics.
A kata.
I bellow, a warcry, a kiai, palms out and down to start the form. Slowed down, for ritual purposes - more like dancing, or the tai chi done slow for exercise. Dance steps, one after the other, fill my mind and push out everything else.
I could never sit still to meditate. I'd always feel an ache or a twitch, wonder what's for lunch.
But zoning out to music, while dancing? I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed it. I'd forgotten what it did and still does for my focus, for my mood.
I hum as I throw three punches, walking up from the crotch to the nose of an imagined opponent, and speed up. Increasing the song's tempo. Increasing the dance's tempo. Describing a circle around the statue of Sylphan, like the hands of a clock tolling the hours.
The thought Third Kata, but every time you kiai it gets faster intrudes - and I laugh, and kiai, and go faster. I'm a blur, now, not as fast as possible but as fast as precision allows.
I could never pull this off at home. Not as I was.
I sigh as I kick, and I jump and kick again, the wind blowing through my long hair, cooling, refreshing. I pivot and block, sweeping, upwards - then clear, breathing in deep, breathing out hard.
"Sylphan, I have honored thee by chasing thy tails," I say. "And I will continue to hone my art in thy name, and protect with my fists that which thou wouldst bid me protect. Children and strangers and travellers, and those who catch thy breath in their mills and sails; in thy name I will defend them, and turn the strength of the humorless and cruel against them, so they may taste the typhoons they have sown. Where they are strong I shall be cunning, and where they stand tall I shall bend where they would break. I shall do all this and more for thee, Sylphan, father of my kith and craftiest of the Fourteen; and all I ask in return for this, Sylphan, Trickster-Fox Of The Four Winds, is for thy protection when my reach exceeds my grasp, and to evade my hunters, as thou wouldst..."
The prayer was from Hikaru, not my memory, but it's a good vow, and I sigh.
I think, for a moment, that the wind will pick up and blow my sash somewhere I need to be. But the Trickster-Fox isn't interested in being so obvious, and there's only a mild breeze. It ruffles my hair and tails, though. I smell the incense. I hear the windchimes and the flute.
There is no dramatic revelation to be had, yet. Just some comfort, and the feeling of synchronicity at the wind blowing when my prayer ended. I need to come down the mountain now, though, and hit up the other temples.
It will have to be enough.
