I woke up with the mighty eagle knocking on my shutters. I went to see what Dime wanted and fortunately, it wasn't a gift of shared food. He just wanted me to scratch his crown. he ruffled his feathers just like a cockatiel and cooed. I heard Penny neigh 'good morning' from the stables. To the east, the sun was cresting over the horizon.

"Good morning, Sandra!" Belle-Sunu shouted from the courtyard.

I waved at her. "Did you even sleep, girl?"

She blushed, apologetical. "I'm sorry, I overslept. Breakfast is not ready!"

Ah. Let her be. She is young. I left the window behind and sat at the table.

First I worked a bit on my journal. I decided that skipping a hundred something days in the count would be too much so this would be day seventeen. Yesterday would be sixteen but I left the two question marks. They seemed nice.

Next issue, wages.

I had four months of wages to pay. That was two hundred and forty copper mina for Belle, Arwia and the guards, three hundred and sixty for Aristunn, one hundred and twenty to the four elders. I did the proper conversions and found one minor issue. I didn't have enough lower denomination currency. So I gave everyone an eighty percent emergency bonus. That rounded everyone's wages to the gold shekel. Twenty-nine gold shekels, I had that many coins.

I used Decompose to make an aluminum coin carrier with a swiveling lid and clip. With the Dremel, I drilled the hinges and wrote everyone's names on each piece. A pin through the hinge and that's one ready. It could only fit shekels, up to six, and would easily be stolen if worn out in the open but it was a nice decorative piece. With the right application of my power and a lot of concentration, I could give the surfaces a nice mirror-like polish. Then I inserted the coins inside and filled the remaining slots with copper shekels. It took me more than an hour to finish all the sixteen pieces.

I wanted to show them how important they were to me. Not with the money, with my hard work and something unique.

I was admiring them when someone knocked on the door.

"Enter!" I shouted.

It was Nanna. The old witch walked inside and took a good look at the pieces. "There's not one for me," She stated.

I faced her and poked my tongue out. "You don't work for me, witch."

She snorted, "Only fools would take orders from a suicidal idiot like you, girl."

I giggled. "I wanted to see you, Nanna. How was your trip to the mountains? Did you find a lot of ingredients?"

"Yeah, if you can call some shriveled bushes ingredients!" The witch scoffed. "A waste of time. I'd rather be here to see you jumping down that hole," She cackled.

I narrowed my eyes, "Maybe I can do it again to show you. But you'd come with me!" I said, half-joking.

"Pass," she waved a hand.

"What brings you here?" I asked, changing the subject. Enough teasing.

She made a serious face, "Did you destroy the robes? Do it now if not."

I nodded, said "Okay", and sat on the floor. I summoned the bag with the robes. To me, it was just a piece of well-preserved ancient clothes. To the witch, it was something terribly evil as she made a truly disgusted face and shied away.

I used Decompose to remove all the carbon into a single chunk of graphite. Some water droplets and dust fell down on the floor and the gold thread remained unaffected. It seemed to be real gold. I Decomposed it into a round lump of gold and then gathered the wet dust to put away with the other unidentified powders.

"There. Are you feeling better?"

It felt like the mere presence of the robes stole her vigor. Like Christopher Reeve when facing Gene Hackman.

"Much. Thank you, Sandra. That artifact was as evil as it was powerful. Your power... you purified it," She spoke between big lungfuls of air.

I summoned my canteen and offered it to her. She drained it in large swigs.

"Your water is the best," She quipped.

I stood up and hugged the old witch. Then I put a big wet kiss on her cheek.

"You are really touchy with those smoochers of yours after you got out of that hole, aren't you, girl?" She pushed me away without much strength.

"Marry me, Nanna."

"In your dreams, girl," She snickered. "Anyway, thank you, Sandra. I won't bother you again today."

She made to leave but I held her by the wrist. "Nanna, I have something here, I need your expertise to see if there's any use for them. Did you see the monsters I took pictures of?"

"Yes. Water goblins. Really nasties," She mumbled but then caught on and looked at me, "You have some bodies there, don't you? Yes, you were smart. Their eyes are very valuable and so are their teeth. the rest is just trash so we only need the heads."

"I have three bodies. We can get the heads."

She pointed at the window, "Outside. It will be messy, let's go somewhere easier to clean up."

I changed into some work clothes and followed her.

We went to the former slave pens. She converted one of the rooms into her own witch laboratory. The smell of drying herbs was a dead giveaway. I used silicon to make a raised tub where I summoned the bodies. Decompose made it easy to cut off the heads, drain the brains and other fluids. The witch took the heads with her and I Decomposed everything else. A pool of water and salts along with a big chunk of graphite resting on the ground by the tub was what I had to show for my efforts.

I had Tiwatura bring a barrel and I used the Decompose still trick to separate the clear water. I scooped the leftovers into the bag of whatever else. Tiwatura took the barrel away with instructions to give it to Hesha-Doka so he could use it to water the gardens. To me, that water was still a dissolved water troll. I felt like Kyle MacLachlan did. These water trolls held ninety liters of the tribe's water.

I should go through my leftover chemicals now. I dumped the bags in the now dry tub and started to Decompose the elements out. It used to hold only the slag leftovers but I contaminated it with everything I picked along the way.

I took care of the very reactive or pyrophoric ones like fluorine, phosphates, sulfates, sodium, potassium, and chlorine first. They came out as salts. Then everything else could withstand air as pure element chunks. I took all the common metals next and the size of the mass of dust and chunks sharply diminished. Then I removed other elements. Like the recently rediscovered tungsten. The slag contained quite a bit of tungsten, probably from failed attempts at smelting wolframite. Tungsten melts at a temperature where iron is in a gaseous state, it's absurd. I bet it remained stuck to the bottom of their crucibles as scrap metal. Then they scraped it off and dumped in the slag pit.

I wondered if tungsten could withstand a dragon's breath. I wouldn't find out because I doubted there were dragons here.

The next suspect would be mercury. It would dissolve most metals and form amalgams. But cinnabar wouldn't be taken to the forge. I still got a bit of mercury, but just a few drops. Mercury would become vapor at very low temperatures so I wasn't expecting to find much of it. The next one was undefined. I needed methods of separation or maybe just sense. I removed all the oxygen from these metallic oxides, obtaining a chunk of alloyed metals. From it, I tried to feel the resonances. It had a lot of unknown signals. I tried singling one, anyone. I locked on an element that was light. I extracted it. Not too heavy but also not too light, it was a transition metal, probably from the fourth period. I was missing only vanadium and chromium. Since it was a dark grey silver, it was vanadium. Then the next less dense metal would be chromium and I focused on it. Soon I had a blob of the silvery-white metal.

I kept trying them and separating them by resonance. I split them by period. It was easier as elements with similar atomic weights had similar resonances. They could still be told apart like you can tell a C is not a B but they were still almost the same frequency. But if heard only one, you'd have trouble telling which one it was. That gave me a chunk of the fifth-period metals, a chunk of sixth-period metals and the others. I could also tell the transition metals apart from the lanthanides and actinides. How can I put it into words, the electron configuration gave their particular resonances a different timbre. Like the difference between a recorder, a flute, a pan flute, or an ocarina.

I was about to separate them more when Tiwatura ran to find me.

"Sandra!" He called as he tried to catch his breath. He seemed flustered. "Sandra, someone from the Enshi is here to see you!"

I took a deep breath. Can I have just a day of quiet? No? I scowled. "I'll go there to meet them. Lead on."

I stored my stuff and double-checked to see if I left anything dangerous behind. All clear. Before I left, I took the LED headband and swapped the lamp for the GoPro.

I went to the sitting room by the entrance to the villa. A man with fine traces, well-groomed hair and beard and wearing the poshest toga I'd seen so far was there, sipping wine and being waited on by Arwia.

"Mistress Sandra Rinaldi!" Tiwatura shouted behind me in a very solemn way. I glanced behind me, he was standing at attention. I winked at him but he didn't flinch.

"GoPro, start recording."

The man stood up. "Ah. Milady Rinaldi! It is such a pleasure to finally meet you. I'm honored by your hospitality so far." He bowed and spoke softly. This man was one to be wary of. He had a way of speaking that was almost trance-inducing. I had no doubt he was a skilled diplomat and a dangerous person.

I picked my linen skirt and curtsied. "Mister, you are welcome. To what do I owe the visit?"

"I come as a friend and not an antagonist, milady," He said after probably picking up the wariness in my voice. "It came to the Enshi's attention that you were unjustly wronged, and he wishes to make amends."

Translation, the Enshi is upset that I survived the hole his nephew threw me in and now wants to make sure I won't be a problem again in the future. Since I proved to be almost unkillable, assassination is off the table so let's try to mollify her. If this guy pops a chest of jewelry next, I'm going to kick him out. Literally.

I noticed that people won't give you their names if they are representing someone else. It is like they were lowering themselves to a mere tool. Of a tool. I didn't even press for his name.

I take my time to answer him. I don't know even if I have to answer. I can see his eyes reading my facial expression and body language like an open book. It is really annoying. And just because I thought that he looks away. Yeah, smooth guy. Danger level nine. I'd take another lich any day of the week.

"You really don't need to be wary, milady," He spoke out of turn. "The Enshi means you no harm. He just wants to meet you for a talk. Maybe drink tea in the gardens. They are quite beautiful in the afternoon."

I could only feel disgusted. And fear that the Enshi would do something to harm me or my people. I wanted to kick that man out so bad. He was a sore thorn in my thumb. I had to use all my willpower to not pick him up and toss him over the wall.

"I understand. You are too wounded. I was rude to come here so soon, after all, you spent four months in the depths," He said, sounding really apologetical.

But I had enough of being manipulated. There was no way I would ever trust that man's boss. I knew very well how men in power behaved and to them, they had no equals. Everyone was either a pawn or an enemy.

Oh, well.

The truth was, I refused to willingly be a pawn for anyone. Not anymore. If the choices were to either be a pawn or an enemy, it wasn't a choice at all.

"The Enshi is a very generous--"

"Shut your gilded trap," I growled at him. "Look at me. Do you know who I am? Speak."

I had enough. In front of me, that man was everything I hated. He was Andrews. He was Tarhun, the magistrate, Sun-Goro. Prince what'shispants. Hama-Tula. The lich. A forty-eyed blue goblin water troll.

"You a-are Sandra Rinaldi... holy maiden of Tarhu--"

"Wrong!"

For a moment I felt pity at him. Was I bullying him or was he just goading me into thinking that I was bullying him by feigning weakness, maybe even his stutter was planned. I had no idea how skilled that man was, but it was quite possible he was still playing his game. Goading me. Reading me. I was disgusted and absolutely on the defensive. His mere presence was an insult.

"And even though you are very skilled at navigating the social context and reading people, you utterly failed on winning my trust. Do you know why?"

I was practically squinting at him and fuming. I caught my hands opening and closing on their own. Part of me told me that I was being unfair, going on the defensive from the start and failing to even listen to him.

"I have no idea. Would you tell me?" He asked with sincerity.

See? I couldn't even tell if he was feigning it or not. It was impossible to establish a common ground for negotiations.

"Go meditate under a waterfall until you find the answer to my question. Who am I? You don't know. You have no idea to whom you are talking to and that is why you failed. And until you do, don't come back. Tell your boss that I'm not his enemy. But if he sends another snake to my house, I'll cut off its neck before it can sink its fangs on my people."

Given my track record, I was probably screwing up things. I cared for him not a single bit. Whatever that guy or the Enshi or the whole army came up with, I'd take it head-on. No more meek girl. I was expecting him to open up the envelope with the threats or ultimatum but nothing like that happened.

He knelt and lowered his head. He exposed his hands, palms up in front of him. Arwia swallowed nervously.

"Milady Rinaldi, we are a people held together by our laws. Even the Enshi cannot go against the code. His intent with the invitation was to ask you to spare his nephew's life. The laws are clear, he is to be subjected to the same trial you survived. If you don't raise an accusation of mistrial against Sun-Goro before the courthouse, that will be his fate. The Enshi has a special love for his nephew as he reminds him of his beloved sister. It is in the name of that family bond that I ask.

"I am humbled by your lesson today, mistress. You could've told your guard to kill me for offending you, yet you offer me learning. You showed me a path and my own shortcomings. In my twenty-five years as a diplomat, I negotiated wars, treaties, trade deals, spoke to foreign queens, princesses, kings, knights, nobles and peasants alike. But the lady before me has more nobility than all of them together."

I wanted to tell him to stand up but if he wants to grovel, at least do a proper dogeza. I was hating how angry I was. It wasn't a wave of burning anger, a rage that demanded the target of the emotion to be destroyed, it was... if I had to compare, the normal anger was a hand grenade. The anger I was feeling was a neutron bomb, something that would only be sated by the utter annihilation of the source of the emotion. And the self-loathing for knowing I was able to feel that added even more to that. It was a wave of cold anger. Born from the bowels of the ninth circle of hell.

"Flattery will get you nowhere. Trust is like a small bird's wings. Once tarnished, they won't heal so easily. You should've gone to the point already. Why do I need to raise a mistrial accusation against Sun-Goro? It would just put me to another trial. And I had enough of your trials. Where would you throw me next? A volcano?"

"Sun-Goro is a great magistrate. Only the Enshi or the Great Lugal and judge a great magistrate."

As the uncredited voice of Erik Bauersfeld would say, 'It is a Trap!' Their plan seemed clear now. I go, get convinced into raising a mistrial accusation against Sun-Goro, save his nephew from being thrown to the depths, the Enshi judges however he wants, and probably use the opportunity to either draw me into his service in whatever capacity he wants or to get rid of me. Since Sun-Goro is effectively retired, neutered and may be at death's doors.

"Do you think I am stupid? The moment I raise the accusation I am in Enshi's hands, he can do whatever he wants with me. I would throw away all my supporters, everything."

"That's why the Enshi wanted to talk to you first. To make you understand he wouldn't betray you."

"There's a saying in my land, you can trust people as far as you can toss them. Enshi's words mean nothing. His promises are empty. If he is so powerful, he can call the mistrial by himself."

"The great god Enki would be angered at such abuses. He is the steward of our lore and laws."

"Tell the Enshi that trust is a two-way road. I invite him to my house for dinner tonight, where I will give him a way to save his nephew. He should bring priest Bero-Mabii and the priest of Enki with him. You must come as well. No guards from his side are allowed. Tell him that if he comes, I'll show him a wonder that nobody else in this world has ever seen."

He stood up. His act faded, his mask fell. He stared at me. "The Enshi is not a fool. If he comes without guards, you can just assassinate him."

I nodded. "Likewise he can have me killed in his gardens. You see, you face a negotiation as if it was a battle. Someone has to win, someone has to lose. Does it have to be that way? Go. I gave you enough free counsel. My terms are clear. And I won't stand to have my house surrounded by the army."

"Allow him to bring just one soldier."

Now I was the one that could read him like an open book. If I made a Venn diagram of soldiers and people I wouldn't dare to hurt in bubbles, the intersection would have exactly one person.

"The offer is withdrawn. Tell the Enshi that you failed to negotiate, angered me, and doomed his nephew. All because you were blind. And deaf."

The envoy became clearly irritated. The man went for his toga pocket and moved toward me.

"Dagger!" Tiwatura shouted. I felt him moving behind to shield me and I raised my left hand to stop him at the same time I moved my right hand to defend myself.

"Don't get behind me, Tiwatura! Move, I need room!"

Too late, he bumped into me. I lost my footing and stumbled forward. The envoy's eyes shifted to Arwia, still holding the wine bottle like a statue.

I saw it happen in slow motion. Stupid eunuch.

The envoy drew his dagger. The polished steel was mostly coated in a black substance along the blade and the tip. His eyes darted between me and Arwia but he went for the girl.

He would stab Arwia before I could regain my balance.

All I could do was pray. "Tarhun!" I shouted.

Nothing happened.

I fell down on the ground. The envoy glared at Arwia. The girl threw the wine bottle at him and he slashed his own throat. He cried in pain. Tiwatura tackled the envoy, causing him to drop the dagger. He punched the man's face twice and drew his own dagger. The wine bottle broke as it struck the wall, showering me in wine.

"Stop! Don't kill him! Someone call Nanna."

One of the kids, probably Pidda, ran out to the lab building. Formerly the slave pens.

I can see what the idiot wanted to do. He would kill himself, make it seem like I killed him and give the Enshi due cause to crack down on me. He would get the same effect as if I had challenged the second magistrate.

The man was bleeding from the slashed throat. I took the dagger and cut myself. The poison stung and burned. I focused on it and tried to learn its resonance with Decompose. Too many compounds. Organic in nature.

I touched his throat and Decomposed everything organic on him Just punch the carbon out of the molecules. His clothes, the leather straps, the scabbard of the dagger, everything. My hope was that it would affect the poison. the wound didn't hit any major artery or vein. All he got was an improvised tracheotomy. I could hear the wheezing of his breathing coming through the flaps of the wound.

"Belle-Sunu! Heat a knife on the fire!" I shouted inside.

I applied pressure on the wound but I would either choke him or do nothing. So I held him sitting up. Arwia was sobbing. Aristunn came with a rope. He and Tiwatura tied up his feet and hands. Aristunn's technique involved several loops around each of the wrists. While they seemed tight, the circulation around the hands wasn't compromised.

Belle came with a red-hot knife. I took it and remembered my first-aid training. Cauterize in bursts of at most two seconds. More than that and you damage healthy tissue. I seared his flesh on both sides of the wound. Nanna came right afterward.

"Where is the poison?"

I gave her the knife. She sniffed, licked the thing.

"It is a sleep potion. You can smear on a weapon. It makes the wound bleed more and sends the target to a sleep that is indistinguishable from death for four days."

Ah. He wasn't suicidal. But...

"Can you make an antidote?"

She nodded. "Yes, but why waste time with this idiot?"

"Please, Nanna. It will save us a lot of trouble. He's the Enshi's envoy."

Nanna frowned. "Okay, Sandra. I'll do it. It will take a couple hours. I have to go to the market."

"Tiwatura, get another guard and escort Nanna."

Nanna went away to get her things. Tiwatura went to call a guard.

I summoned my first-aid kit and checked. I didn't have a suture kit. Oh. It was used up when we went hiking last spring. I didn't replace it.

I told Belle, "Needle and thread. Also, the strongest spirit we have."

Arwia touched my shoulder. I turned around to meet her eyes. "I'm sorry Sandra. I was scared, I thought he would slash me," She said between sobs. I reached over my shoulder and held her fingertips.

"Are you hurt?" She shook her head. "Then everything is fine. Bring the house down. I only care that you are okay. I'll clean up the wine, easy."

She was shocked. It was fine. After several minutes of wait, Belle returned with Kali-Maru.

"Mistress, I can stitch wounds!" The elder lady said.

"See that this fool survives, Kali-Maru, please."

She took a curved needle, some golden linen thread. Belle poured spirits on the needle and thread. "Pinch the wound shut," Kali-Maru told me.

I pinched it, Belle held his head and Kali-Maru did the sutures. Maybe I should ask Nanna about healing magic but she always gets evasive when I ask about magic and sorcery. I doubt there was any.

We took the naked man to a bed and I set Huzzy-Ya as a guard. The veteran gladiator spent some time as a slave pen warden so he was best at keeping watch over prisoners.

So much for a vacation.