Flannel

Yeah, this weekdaily 2000+ word chapter schedule is unsustainable. It's crushing me and now I feel the quality is slipping along with the editing. I'll be switching to a M-W-F schedule next week. I hope that doesn't disappoint my wonderful followers and readers too much, but I have to do it. I don't think it will be a big decrease in actual content because I was hitting about 6.5K to 7.5K previously with shorter chapters daily.

On the plus side, though, at That Other Site:

Spoiler

2 more very positive but also fair reviews, a big jump in ratings, followers and favorites have hit 190 and 24 respectively, and we made it to #37 on Rising Stars this morning! Boom goes the dynamite! Thank you all so much!

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Chapter 21! Fun with Fountains! Well, fun near Fountains. Er, a Fountain.

Speaking of which, this is the Fontana di Trevi referenced below.

Today's meme headline:

Spoiler

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The ‘Magic Fountain’.

As The Plan had formed and solidified, Justin had given serious consideration to swapping that out for the Crystal Ball. Despite his initial, reflexive privacy-wonk distaste for it, the scrying – and as he planned further, the potentially far more valuable grossly unspecified illusion broadcasting aspect – had a synergistic appeal all its own. One that he couldn’t trivially discount.

He’d gone back and forth on that choice over and over again, exerting every measure of the case preparation, branching tactical decision skills he’d built up over the years to their maximum. He’d had the time, but not the second chance, he’d figured. There would be no chain of appeals. He had one shot, so he needed to be as precisely on target with it as he could get.

In the end, it had come down to the broader applicability and the longer term. As with the yield of the Magic Fountain, he could make money not only scrying for customers as a service - the description said nothing about removing the Crystal Ball from the Shop, only that it was limited to nearby public areas - but also as a potentially planetwide, one-way communications broadcast hub. And that was before adding any possible reply channels using the local magics, physics, whatever, to create a network.

But the first required travel and expenses and adjusting each job to the client’s needs, among other drawbacks, and the second required his personal concentration to function. Oh, it could be massively useful, no argument, but it was a single point of failure, and a gigantic time sink, and again he was betting that there were substitutes he could buy or trade for. With, among other assets, the yield from Magic Fountain, which also synergized better with The Plan overall. And which also, since there was no mention of concentration or control or focus in its description, likely didn’t need his attention to function. Money and power almost literally on tap.

So he’d stayed with the Magic Fountain.

Going by the minimal aesthetic he’d seen aboard the Chloe so far, he hadn’t been expecting a fanciful, overdesigned, thoroughly impractical fantasy-novel-cover gallery containing some kind of multi-level Fontana di Trevi knock-off.

But he also hadn’t been expecting a bare, empty room containing a hand-carved-looking stone livestock trough against one wall, with a faint bubbling noise like a cheap and ill-positioned aquarium pump coming from it.

“Underwhelming,” he said. The Ship’s Security area they’d passed through to reach it, though smaller than those of the Here’s hull, had been more impressive. So had the Lab Stores to the sides of the corridor leading to the Fountain. They’d been stocked, and Justin’s fingers and mind still itched to get in there and find a manifest and start charting an experimental schedule and not now Justin!

“Subtle,” Taiko said. “Unobtrusive. Inconspicuous. Unnotic -”

“Yes, thank you, Primary Test Subject Taiko; point made!”

Lead Norodo came back from lighting the Sunlamps in the Lab proper with a basket of vials, her other task. She offered Taiko the container, and he selected one.

“Thank you, Lead,” Taiko said, moving forward. They all followed him to crowd around the Fountain as he dipped it in for the first tasting.

He took a sip and swished it around in his mouth like some sorcerous sommelier before swallowing. “Fresh and sweet, like a good spring,” he said, his eyes closed and his body motionless. “It is. . .yes, useful to my cultivation. It contains mana, rather than chi, but does not transfer or transform it. Rather, it consumes it - somehow - in assisting my practice of my Mystery. Fascinating. I can hardly wait for it to be fully expended so that I may try another mouthful with a Sutra.”

“Prominence?” Ougo said. Norodo inhaled.

“My duty, Lead,” Ougo said, crisply. Norodo stared over his head in the way obedient but disagreeing subordinates apparently shared between universes, and after Justin’s “At your discretion, Captain,” she thrust out the basket of vials.

Ougo took one, filled it, and drank, also closing his eyes and going motionless. Justin’s awareness of his presence intensified in an inexplicable way. It was as though the man had become more solid, more ineluctably real. Undismissable; unignorable.

Some kind of command presence magic? Justin wondered. Good. That'll do for a first test.

“I wonder if you could raise seafood in it,” Tzo said.

Ougo’s eyes flew open. Everyone else in the room turned to stare at the Advocate.

“What?” Tzo said, staring back. Not even challengingly; more puzzled, as though they were the strange ones. “I missed lunch. I’m hungry. And never mind the cultivation benefits; imagine the taste!”

“Ougo, your assesment?” Justin said, ignoring Tzo’s interjections. Where Taiko would have made some crack about Tzo and his priorities in response, the no-nonsense Captain stayed on topic.

“I agree with Inlightened Taiko. The energy is mana, but extraordinarily purified. I perceive no inherent risk of deviation or corruption that is not already present. It may not even exacerbate such existing deviations.”

“Then before we discuss pricing, Lady and Gentlemen, it’s time for me to trust you.”

Taiko pressed his fists up under his chin like a little child overplaying their cuteness card, his eyes round with anticipation, practically vibrating in place. “Your Blessing, Brother? You will reveal it?”

“Yes, Taiko, and stop that,” Justin said. “It’s creepy, you’re a grown man, not a little girl, knock it off!”

“Yes, Brother,” Taiko said, settling down again.

“One of the powers the Dawn has given me is an instinctive knowledge of my customer’s desires. As far as I can tell, that hasn’t activated yet, so I suspect that the status of ‘customer’ is dependent on a completed sale -”

“Me first!” Taiko jumped in. Justin resisted the urge to facepalm. Ever since the Kokyu had been given the opportunity to repeatedly tell the nearby clerical and secular authorities not only to step right the hell off, but where and how as well, backed by the Right Here Chloe’s very definite personal boundaries, he’d turned almost manically playful.

“As I was saying,” Justin continued, “I haven’t tested it yet, and one of the possibilities I’ve considered is that customer status could be dependent on some kind of established pricing standard.”

“So you want to explore your Blessing’s limits, benefits, ramifications, and so on before you unintentionally set some kind of. . .contractually official price?” Tzo mused, back on professional task again.

“Well, there’s one thing particular prospect I absolutely must confirm as soon as possible,” Justin said, “and the Captain’s display a moment ago presents a fortunately good opportunity. So what I actually need you to volunteer for, Taiko, is a brief period of employment.”

“So you can. . .make yourself a customer?” Taiko deduced. “Brilliant, Brother! Let’s try it!”

Even Ougo was nodding in appreciation. Only Norodo, who was turning out to be the most stone-faced of them all, did not react appreciably.

“Yes, but first I want to sell you some Mana Water, just in case there’s some kind of initiatory registration of some kind involved,” Justin clarified, taking a vial out of Norodo’s basket, and filling it.

Tzo was giving him that look of impressed professional respect again.

“Please sell me some Mana Water, Brother!” Taiko said, pulling his black fabric money pouch out of his robes.

“Certainly, Inlightened Kokyu Taiko. Let’s see,” Justin said, counting with his fingers, “Inlightened discount, monastic discount, Kokyu discount, first customer discount, first Inlightened customer discount, first monastic customer discount, first Kokyu discount, first day of business discount, first sale discount, first Mana Water sale discount, first Right hull sale discount. . .uh. . .first name Taiko discount. . .baldness discount, barefoot discount. . .standing on one foot discount. . .”

Taiko raised his right leg.

Justin stared at him for a long, silent moment.

Fine, he thought. Feeling playful? I’ll play with you. Let’s see how far we can push this.

“. . .little finger up one nostril discount. . . .”

Taiko stuffed his left pinky up his nose.

“. . .making a stupid face discount. . . .”

Taiko rounded his eyes and stuck out his tongue to one side as if he were a congenital idiot.

“. . .being a cocky annoying know-it-all discount. . . .”

“Dat’z ‘ine’-’een, ‘uther!” Taiko slurred.

All right, enough, Justin thought. Congratulations; you win.

“. . .and the disturbingly masochistic submission display discount,” Justin said, giving up, “for a total of ten ri, plea – no, wait, I forgot the most important one.” Or maybe you don’t?

He let his nastiest, evilest No; screw you, Mr. Prosecutor smile crawl across his face.

“Only one ri, please, after including. . .the best friend in the world discount.”

Taiko's face changed from Oh try me to a softer, more affectionate My compliments; you got me, and then you got me twice. Your win.

Naturally, the old monk was able to slip a coin clip out of his pouch and a 1-ri coin off it with one hand and make it look easy. They traded vial and money, and the moment they did, Justin knew that Taiko desired to

• serve the Dawn

  • by helping Justin

    • with local guidance

    • and emotional support;

• atone for his failures, and

• serve the people of

  • Ribe

  • Eternia

  • and the world

• a^an_nd^d o^rv_ee^jr_orⁱr_no^w t^Kh_ae^sH_ti^hg_aC^l_ol^ua_rt^th_e^cB_ar^ru_ts^eh_l

The least comprehensible desire was a jangled mix of two much lesser ones, and Justin could sense even more chaotic wants roiling and tumbling beneath those. Occasional hints and shadow and outlines of basic drives like food, sleep, lust, evacuation, recognition and other emerged from that subconscious soup only to fall back again into indeterminacy.

Justin pushed – flexed – his will, and the uncanny knowledge faded away.

“It worked,” he said.

“Norodo,” Ougo said. The Lead stepped forward, folding her belt over and spreading open the flaps of a slit on its inner side to reveal folded sheets of Riben scrip.

“Excuse me, Captain?” Tzo barked, sounding shocked and nearly outraged. “That is not how the Ling Fei do things! Lead Norodo, you will not obey that clearly illegal order -”

He stopped as Norodo pulled out a few hundred ri then held up a hand. “Respectfully, Advocate, I have my own reasons, and there was no order. The rest of the troops will make their own decisions; mine is to do this. Prominence, please sell me some Mana Water.”

Just puffed out an uncertain breath. “Advocate?” he asked.

“I – if the Lead – Ougo, you had better have a damn good reason for this!”

“Is that a no objection, Tzo?”

Tzo looked at Justin, his jaw working. “Yes,” he eventually said. “Do as you will.”

Justin filled a vial, said “Ship’s Security discount, 10 ri,” and exchanged it for a Riben sawbuck.

“Ah,” he said in understanding. “Norodo. . .I’ll see what I can do.”

Norodo nodded and stepped back, her face a mask of professional neutrality again.

Justin tried concentrating on the experience of know-ing Taiko’s desires. The old monk’s information appeared again, replacing his awareness of Norodo’s single overpowering wish. This time, Taiko’s least discernible desire was something along the lines of help Justin help Norodo jumbled up with find out what Norodo and Ougo are up to.

Justin flexed again and Taiko’s desires disappeared from his mind. He concentrated on Norodo and hers reappeared.

Check every so often to find out what the effective duration and range are, he reminded himself.

He took a deep breath. He wanted to know; he needed to do this, if only for his own peace of mind, but it also frightened him more than anything else he’d faced in recent memory. He deliberately thought about other things than memetic hazard recursion errors and his brains dripping out his ears and said “Taiko, I’ll pay you 10 ri to handle a sale for me.”

“Deal, Brother!”

Justin handed Taiko the 10 ri bill he’d just received from Norodo. “Sell me a vial of Mana Water, please,” he said. Taiko handed him the vial he’d bought several minutes ago; Justin handed him back the 1-ri coin Taiko had give him in exchange.

• CHLOE

• CHLOE

• CHLOE

• BEAN

• love, security, and the respect of those who know me

and a jumble of basic drives below those. Nothing hurt and his brains stayed where they were.

“Taiko, you’re fired,” Justin said. His own information remained the same. He checked Taiko's; it replaced his own. Almost done, he thought, pushing Taiko's desires away and mentally crossing his fingers.

“Ougo, would you please exert that technique you used when testing the Mana Water again?” he asked.

“Yes, Prominence,” Ougo said. That same sense of presence pushed at Justin’s attention. He tried to focus on his Customer Sense instead.

The others saw his head roll back in relief and the crisp, almost jittery energy he’d been displaying since they met him melt away into relaxation.

Thank you, Sol, he thought. I can't tell you how much this means to me.

You’re welcome, the god’s voice breezed through his ears. And you don't have to; I know. It will take us more of your hours to finish arranging things over here. We might not be done until I rise again tomorrow.

And thanks for that as well, and for the notice, Justin thought.

You’re triply welcome. Keep up the good work.

You too.

The god's presence left him again.

Note to self: check with Sol at next opportunity, and categorically before selling anything to gods or Demons and then examining their desires.

Flannel

Yep. I was editing this all the way up to after publication. I'll post another chapter tomorrow, but it's gotta be M-W-F going forward. If that's a no-sell for you, thank you very much for reading this far! The gift of your irreplaceable time in this world up until now remains one of the best things in my life, and I am humbly grateful for it.

I think we all know what my favorite line in this chapter is -

Spoiler

“Only one ri, please, after including. . .the best friend in the world discount.”

Spoiler

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