Frank was feeling a little better, the next day. He’d only recovered another two points, as predicted, but the recovery blessing from the priest helped.

Health = 26/42

Mana = 0

With fourteen points from that, he was back up to a respectable Health level. He’d lost a point to a Bones on this morning’s watch, when one lobbed a stone at his head while he was distracted. He’d curse himself over it, but everyone had moments of inattention. Maybe people with Will 8 could stay on perfect alert all night, but he wasn’t one of them. Being on guard was more a matter of sweeping his assigned watch area, not scanning it all the time. That was a great way to exhaust his eyes.

It was market day, so he set up shop in the trader’s common room barracks, as other traders did as well. He set out his stones, and watched arrivals, hawking them.

They were doing alright on coin. Still a bit in debt, but the silver spoon was not just silvered, but full silver, so that had helped. Silvers were worth more than their base weight in silver, though not by much. They got two for the spoon.

While Deli was still paying off her weapon, and he’d started saving for fixing and adjusting the breastplate for him.

They should be able to afford buying more meat for their stews, after the hare ran out.

Frank had started rationing the meat, since the stew already had mushrooms for protein. If protein was a thing here. It’s not like he had a way to check. Since the Academy and the Empire believed that eating a lot of meat helped one bulk up for the Strength achievement, it probably was, but that wasn’t definitive evidence. Frank hadn’t gone after that one. He didn’t want to look like a body builder, and it had other downsides.

Deli was here too. She felt that practicing a trade was unbefitting a warrior in her condition. That she should be out, drinking, playing games, and roughhousing with the others. Working on her resilience, improve her Body. Or training Skills at least. Her shaky feet said otherwise.

He may not be able to train outside with this damn cold, but Frank could make sure she did hers. They’d also cleared the kitchen table so he could practice his staff work inside.

No, Frank was teaching Deli about the wonders of trading services.

It may have been slightly cruel to make her advertise herself, “Agility four, Sewing three here! Quick and precise repairs for any torn cloth!” but that was payback.

For the kiss, and winding him up. He was still considering that whole thing.

They’d spent last night in a small tavern, to the side of the Reclaimers main barracks. Scouting a couple of possible recruits and keeping an eye out for Deadbeat. He knew that she was busy, keeping monsters away from town. All the hunters were. But it would be nice to catch up.

Frank was starting to like one of the possible recruits. Brar the Stout was a Shield Guard of some Skill. He was loud, proud, and a man of simple appetites. He liked a good brawl, a good drink, and a good fuck. He was like a living stereotype. But he was also considerate of others, and aware of his shortcomings. Slow to anger, and quick to forgive.

Or at least, so rumour claimed, and it seemed like the rumours were true. At least after a quick look.

But one night drinking together wasn’t enough to fully know someone, no matter what some might think. For the start of a friendship? Sure. But it was like falling in love at first sight. He’d never understood that one either.

Now lust, he’d felt that. Wanting someone after just seeing her? Happened plenty of times. That was normal.

“Warmth and Light Stones, get your Warmth and Light stones here! Guaranteed to last you at least a month! Light Stones here!”

What Frank had found out, was that the merchants hadn’t gotten a sufficient supply of light stones, not for a city under Reclamation. They needed a lot more of those, with how much time their people spent underground. They weren’t selling out, but he found a home for a few. And in the meantime, he could practice his carving. It’s not like anything was stopping him from doing that.

Frank was trying different rune combinations without empowering them. Attempting to guess what the effect would be, or how different runes might interact, both with each other, and with where they were placed. How far apart, in what shape, order. Was it better to carve sideways alongside the stick? In a circle around the base, tip?

Frank didn’t know, but he planned to find out.

“Agility four, Sewing three here! Quick and precise repairs for any torn cloth!”

Frank didn’t have to look to feel her glare. “I even have entertainment.”

Confederation culture was that a warrior should dedicate themselves to fighting. Deli was. Not offering her services as seamstress as well was just pride getting in the way.

“It’s only until Body two kicks in. You should be fine then.” He comforted her.

She blew out a long breath. “Just twenty one more.”

A customer approached. Deli, of course. She had more of those than he did.

They were holding on to the Heavy fur Armour and shield for now. In case Brar or whoever they picked up wanted them. Deli preferred her Medium. She wouldn’t be a Stamina power house when she got Body two either.

***

“I hear someone’s been looking for wands!” One of the merchants greeted, as he approached. He was carrying two wooden boxes, of some weight. They thumped as he set them down on Frank’s table.

“I am.” Frank confirmed, slipping into Bargaining mode. Cool, calm, disinterested, but not disdainful. If the man saw how much he wanted them, he’d get skinned alive.

“Well my good man, I have the perfect thing for you.” He turned one of the boxes to him, and threw it open.

“I happen to have here a full pack of wand blanks, fit for a journeyman, right here. Well mostly full. A number of parents will buy a blank or two, for their kids, you know.” The merchant gave him a wide, innocent smile.

“What’s the quality? Price?” Frank asked politely.

“Practice!” He boasted. “Perfect for a Mageling just starting out. And only two silvers and four coppers for the whole lot! Why that’s a steal!”

“I’ve been carving stone for months you old swindler, I’m hardly a beginner.”

“Haha,ha! Got a bite to him, doesn’t he?” The man asked Deli in an aside.

“Well, I’m sure you can afford to buy these at a premium then!” He beamed back.

“It means I know good blanks from bad, and these are barely adequate. Kids did you say?”

Now, he was bullshiting. He didn’t know what made for a good wand, but he had held a number of them. He could compare. Frowning and taking one out, he examined it. Picking up one of his coppers he brought it to the base of the wand. The width was good, the same. He measured the length with it as well. Eight coins, thereabout. About a quarter of a spellmark. The dimensions were right at least, not that he said as much.

Next, he picked several wands and tried to balance them at the middle. Most did. Some didn’t, and when they plunked to the table, and merchant started sweating. Frank gave him a significant look.

“How many?”

Throwing open the other box, the merchant told him “A full box, as I’ve said, at 60. The other one has 42.”

The biggest problem of this whole thing? He didn’t know how much starting out blank wands, or boxes of them, were actually worth. They weren’t lacquered, only smooth to the touch. He considered the opening bid.

“One silver, and five coppers.”

The merchant gasped, yelling out “Why that’s robbery!”

For a moment, several people in the room looked at him. He waved them away with one hand, pushing on:

“I couldn’t possibly let them go for anything less than two silver and two copper!”

The rest was Bargaining.

*

Frank paid two silvers in the end. Maybe he got robbed, maybe he didn’t. But he got what he needed. It included also buying a small, flexible carving blade, made for carving the wood.

***

It was the evening of the second day of the last quarter of Presence Falling. Or as Frank sometimes still thought of it, Tuesday of week four in month fourteen, of his third year in this world. Sure, the first one wasn’t full, but that was still a while. He dwelled on it more often, as Day of Trials came closer.

The last day of the year.

Brar was interested. He was playing third shield in his current party, and the idea of being first was attractive. He did have an agreement with the Reclaimers. He seemed willing to switch, for a signing bonus of the armour and shield. In turn, he'd swear an Oath he’d stick around through winter and spring and give up his old shield in trade. That, and a cut of the prize money, or spoils for pay, whichever came. They were still talking about it.

They were settling in. Patrols and watch shifts were starting to get routine. The Reclaimers had closed down the underground again, members only. Which wasn’t nice, but was their right. If he really wanted excitement, they could go out and hunt a monster.

“Just need to see about finding a hunter too.”

The storms were back, so they took the tunnels to Quel’s private tavern. His cough was finally getting better. They came up the hatch in the back, and walked into the lunch room. Inside, a woman and three men were waiting, and they weren’t alone.

Once before, Frank had seen one of the other firekeepers apprentice for a day. Wear skimpy clothing, and serve drinks and food. While near the table the customers waiting were allowed to touch while he was delivering their orders. They made lewd suggestions every time he retreated behind the bar.

The server standing by the table with her back to them was different. She wore a pair of flimsy sandals, and a miniskirt that barely covered her ass cheeks. That was it.

Even Quel didn’t come down here that naked.

***

Deli didn’t want to talk about it.

Quel did.

Once she was sure Frank wouldn’t mind, and was instead actually interested? She complained at length that the Demonspawn was stealing her business.

“I’m not one against much, but I have limits. She doesn’t. Good riddance to those, I suppose, even if some are like to be Sin. But she’s making me work a lot more when my customers came up already emptied, and that’s the ones that came up at all!”

“I understand that. And I feel for you. But you’ve spoken a lot about what she’s doing, and little on why. Demonspawn were for Binders, for Demon parties, yes?”

She scoffed, but nodded.

“So what’s that have to do with this?”

“Lust’s in her blood Frank. When she took a Binding on top of that, it woke up. Wasn’t even here, she’s been one all along. Didn’t tell anyone but her Caravan Master at that.” She shook her hands, dismissing it.

“Wouldn’t have mattered, if you all didn’t come this way, or ran into a demon elsewhere. But you did.”

Katri was not like that. “Wait. She was like this all along? No, no she wasn’t.”

“Are you sure? She wasn’t sleeping in one of the carts? Sharing her bedroll with a different man every night?”

“No. She was sharing it with me, and she warned me she’d break my fingers if I tried anything. And I had to pay her for the privilege, to stay warm.”

“Perhaps not that then. I don’t know the woman. Rumour is, she kept to herself, but I didn’t believe it. If so, good on her and I can see why she became Windblown. At least she won’t be a permanent problem.”

“What do you mean?”

“Frank. No one here will see her the same, after this.”

He knew that. He waved her on.

“If she had her wits about her, enough to travel and not beg every man and woman around her to fuck her?”

He nodded.

“Then at some point after her Binding and being turned into a Demonspawn, she managed to beat back her cursed nature. That’s admirable.”

“It’s a curse?”

“Not like we get them. It’s in her nature now. There’s no removing it. She isn’t human anymore Frank.” Quel said, cutting the air with her hands.

“So what then?”

“It’s like… like snowmind. It makes one feel like they’re on top of the world, but it feels so great, you start to crave it. Or so I’ve been told by a friend who had both.”

“Addiction.”

“It was like that, but for fucking for him, ever since he was Bound. She’s lucky it’s Lust. Other Demonspawn don’t get the same mercy like them. One of Fury would feel the same way about battle. It’s safer for everyone to end them before they break, if they don’t join the demons after the first Binding.”

“If she’s lost her head again? It will take quarters, months, even seasons perhaps to find it again. At least it did for him. She might have greater Will. But if she’s done it once, she’ll do it again, mark my words.”

“But for that she’ll need to get away from people who know what she is. Men who will tempt her daily.”

“She can’t say no?” He asked, feeling unwell.

“She doesn’t want to.” Quel said with finality. “Now that her passions are riled? Any touch, gentle or harsh, is the mead of the gods.”

And to kick the addiction Katri would need to get away from people. For at least a week, if not more. In winter.

“Fuck.”

“Villages and towns don’t like those of them that embrace that way of life. They attract demons, and cause trouble in smaller places. But the whorehouses in big towns love them. They have the guards to keep demons out and fight back bigger ones, and enough customers to keep them satisfied.”

Her face grew mocking.

“Why would our good Captain deny his men such fun when she wants every touch and doesn’t need more than scraps in payment? Especially when he can use her as honey for the bees. Greedy fool.” She finished with dissatisfaction.

“Demons, not bees.”

All that in a culture that spread wild rumours everywhere, about everything. No wonder she travelled.

But those same rumours said not one word about any of this. Or the people happy to exploit her.

Frank knew how he felt about this.

“You can judge a culture by what they’re proud off. What they like to brag about and show off. You should on what they hide, conceal. What they do, but won’t speak off.”

To say he was not happy with all this… would be a gross understatement.