Wallace

Early morning sunlight streamed through high windows, bathing us in gold light. Val lay nestled against me. Her voluminous hair spread across my chest and pooling in the sheets.

Her breathing was beginning to slow after the effort she'd put into waking me up, and she was slowly tracing her fingers across my chest as we talked strategy.

"Is this not what we attempted last time?" Valentine inquired, "Those fey are still out there somewhere, watching the city. They'll be after us again if we venture out."

"Sort of. If we leave on Dark Even' they're not going to be able to keep up the same pace. The Father won't be in the sky, and they'll need to bring their light with them. That'll make it easy for us to spot them, and they'll have to tread carefully if they don't want one of their horses to break a leg. Besides," I added, "Even when circumstances were as favourable to them as they could ever be, they only outpaced us slightly. If the distance hadn't been so long, they'd never have caught us in time."

"Ah, you believe the gnomes will refuse their entry to the tunnel."

"Assuming they even make it that far, yeah," I agreed, idly stroking her hair, "I'll check in with Foreman Sanders as soon as you let me out of bed. I'll need to let him know we'll be using the tunnel anyway."

"Mmmm, Dark Even', you promise me three more days here at The Maiden?" Val grinned, "Wally, you're spoiling me."

Irony told me where to find Aldith's quarters, though only after blackmailing me for a morsel about stellar life cycles, and I tapped lightly on her door. I stepped back so as not to loom over the threshold.

I heard a chair creak and then her footsteps as she approached the door. The knob rattled, and it swung inward to reveal Aldith, clad in riding clothes.

Actual riding clothes, that is, not the sexy riding costume some of the girls wore.

Aldith's eyebrows rose, "Lord Wallace, I wasn't expecting you back so soon."

I shrugged, "Neither did I, but here I am. I just wanted to check in with you as I promised. Mind if we talk inside?"

"Sure, sure," she agreed.

Aldith stepped back and pulled the door wide. I ducked under the doorway and stepped in after her.

She held out a hand as if to offer me a chair, but hesitated.

I grinned, "It's fine," I assured her, "I can stand."

There was enough room for that, at least, if only just. I could feel my hair brushing against the ceiling, but at least I could keep my back straight.

"Well, I just wanted to say thank you, and I'm sorry," Aldith conceded. She lifted her arms, indicating the room around us, "I've never had anything so nice, and the girls have been taking care of me, helping me learn how to take care of the horses. I've even been learning to ride," she beamed, "Once I get better they'll have me running messages for them."

"To the other cities?"

"Mmm-hmm," she nodded, "I'll get to see the whole world, so thank you, milord."

I couldn't help but smile. I sometimes felt constrained by how small this world was. Only three cities and a handful of other rest stops left the world feeling tiny. But I could only imagine how vast this new world must seem to Aldith.

"I take it you don't want to go back then?"

Aldith shook her head, "I wouldn't mind seeing some of them again, but I'm not going back," she fell into her comfy armchair, "So much is better here. Everything's more comfortable, my sheets are so soft, the food is better, and there's just so much to do! I had no idea how bored I was until I got here and the girls started dragging me along when they went down into the gnomish part of the city," Aldith blushed slightly, "And there are some very cute boys."

"I'm sure there are."

Aldith nodded, "Some of the girls have been giving me advice. But sometimes, I'm not sure if they're making fun."

"Do I want to know?"

Aldith coloured once again and bowed her head, "Grace and Joy said I should just try all of them and choose whichever I like the best."

It was a good thing she was staring at the floor. Otherwise she might have seen me turning bright red, "Well, your coworkers have a different way of seeing the world. They're a little more... relaxed, about this sort of thing."

"I just don't know. They're telling me all sorts of things, and it seems so wrong. Grace offered to- um- she said she'd do it with me if I were nervous about the first time. And when Joy said I should choose whichever I like best, I don't think she meant just one."

"Aldith, I am really not the guy to ask about this sort of thing," I admitted, "But if I had to give you my advice, it would be to do whatever makes you happy and not to do anything that makes you uncomfortable. You don't have a whole village full of people who will take whatever you do as fodder for gossip or who will shame you for being a little more... adventurous. You can probably get away with just about anything, but that doesn't mean you need to go crazy."

Aldith nodded vigorously, "Okay, okay. I'll remember. Thank you again, milord."

"So anyway, they missed the appointment," Chastity was saying when I returned to the common room, "But Irony forgot to tell me they'd rescheduled-"

"I was busy with a client," Irony insisted with a dismissive wave.

Chastity rolled her eyes and continued her tale, "So there I was, covered head to toe in molten chocolate, waiting for a client that wouldn't come. And honestly, I fell asleep."

"You? Say it isn't so," Irony tittered.

Chastity threw a pillow at the 'governess', who batted it aside with a smirk.

"By the time I'd woken up, it had all solidified, and I could hardly move an inch," Chastity giggled, "Anyway, Obedience finally came looking when dinner time arrived, and I hadn't returned."

"And she found you just like that?" Valentine laughed.

"Yes, and you know what she did instead of helping me out?"

"Called everyone else over to giggle at your predicament?" Val guessed.

"We told the cook to cancel our meal, gods, I don't think I've ever eaten so much chocolate," Irony said with a sly smile.

I'd made it as far as the door to our room without them noticing either myself or my bright red face, but the loose door handle betrayed me when I set my hand on it.

Val hopped up from the couch, "Wally!" she cheered, "There you are. I just finished mixing all the ingredients for your enchantment."

"Aw, looks like Wally's been eavesdropping," Irony teased.

"I wasn't eavesdropping. I was standing right here. It's not my fault you didn't notice the eight-foot-tall guy enter the room," I flustered.

"You know," Chastity suggested, "You might not go in for multiple partners, but we could always cover Val in chocolate for you."

"I think I'm-"

"Later, later," Val insisted, "Here," she offered me a tin, much like those used to contain the ubiquitous healing ointment, "This has got everything you said we needed for the tattoos. This way, we can test it."

I took the tin and popped it open. The contents smelled of honey and appeared golden with little flecks of diamond.

"You want me to enchant this now?"

"Yes!" Val exclaimed, "Please?"

I shrugged. It wasn't like I had much else to do, and I was willing to do anything to escape the conversation Chastity and Val were having, "Sure, just give me a bit."

The enchantment Val wanted was simple. At least in theory. She wanted to be stronger, and that was a simple matter of Strengthen Body. But that could disrupt the body's natural healing process. Which meant I either needed to correct that issue with a Heal Body enchantment or construct my Strengthen Body enchantment in such a way that it didn't screw up healing in the first place.

So while I had honey to provide Heal mana with my first test, I would try getting away without it.

I honestly had no idea how Val's amulet had worked, but I suspected that it had been doing exactly what it sounded like. The Strengthen Body enchantment was strengthening the body. Specifically, the muscle cells. Though, at least in Val's case, the enchanter tuned it mostly to increase her endurance.

From, uh, wrestling sessions with Val, I knew that she wasn't any stronger than a human her size, even when wearing the amulet, so the actual increase in physical strength was negligible.

My first test wouldn't be anything special. I suspected it wouldn't solve the underlying problem, but isn't that precisely what a pre-alpha build is?

"Endurance" can mean a lot of things, and I didn't know where fey biology was letting Val down. But I figured giving her more muscle power to work with would be a good start. In theory, amplifying her strength would mean that she wouldn't need to work as hard to do all the things a person does in a day, and that would allow her to keep going for longer. In short, increasing strength would make what endurance she did have last much longer.

In theory.

It would be a straightforward enchantment designed to multiply the force exerted by the body, rather than directly strengthening muscle cells. Not force exerted on the body, I didn't want her to tear something, but the force exerted by the body.

A ten percent increase seemed to be a good start. Enough to notice, but not enough to cause problems if something went wrong. I wasn't sure how long enchanted ointment would last, but if it came to it, I suppose we could wash the ointment off.

Once I was sure, really sure, I let the structure I'd built in my mind flow out into the material in the tin.

As soon as my fingertips touched the 'ointment', I realized I'd been had.

Body paint. Val just tricked me into making magic golden body paint.

"Goddammit, Val," I sighed, though I couldn't keep the smile from my face.

Now I know why you were so excited about this.

I'd hardly stepped through the door before Val was on me. She snatched the tin of bodypaint from my hand, holding it aloft like a trophy.

"How's your back?" she grinned.

"Excuse me?" I frowned.

The others were looking at me now, they had cast aside whatever topic of conversation they'd been on before I'd entered, and their vulpine expressions gave me reason to be wary.

"Your back, are you sore?" Irony piped up. Her arms were folded over the back of the couch, where she knelt, ready to spring.

"I'm always sore," I admitted.

I'd hardly finished speaking the words before I found myself being swept out of the common room by Val's friends. Only Val and Purity remained behind, and I found myself once again on the massage table.

I could guess what Val was up to, but I didn't mind the way she'd selected to keep me busy. My muscles and bones might be stronger than those of a normal human, but that was not the case for the rest of me. The disks in my spine and the lining of my joints were all those of a standard human. To say they were overtaxed is an understatement, leaving me constantly sore.

Val was crafty and passionate enough to make me forget for a while, and in a fight with the adrenaline going, I didn't even notice the pain. But it hadn't been until Val's friends had revealed their skills as world-class masseuses that the pain had gone. At least for a little while.

If I were more responsible, I might have leapt up from the table to check on Val the moment they finished with me. But this was a rare treat, and I wanted to savour it. So I did nothing to fight the lethargy. I think I slept for an hour or so afterwards, and in that hour, matters may have gotten out of hand.

I returned to the common room to find both Val and Purity covered head to toe in paint. The pair of fey were wrestling with Irony, who much of the paint had rubbed off on, and seemed to be trying to get her into a pair of leather cuffs. Despite their superior numbers, they were having only moderate success, as Irony only had to struggle with one at a time. She'd tire one out, who would faint- or nearly so -and turn to contend with the other while they recovered. By the time she had the second worn out, the first would have her energy back, and the process would repeat.

Chastity sidled up beside me. She'd left off her robe and wore only a few patches of cloth to cover her most intimate areas. It did nothing to hide the gold handprints and streaks of paint across her abdomen, back, and face.

She gave me a knowing look, and offered me a glass of wine and a plate of hors d'oeuvres.

I took them, and found I wasn't the only one with refreshments. I took a seat among the others, each of whom had hand or fingerprints here and there, and watched the show with interest.

Was Val putting on a show for me? Was she just fooling around with her friends because it made her happy? Knowing Val, probably both.

It was quite the spectacle, but all the same, I couldn't shake the worry.

Maybe I'd tuned the spell for too little enhancement, but it didn't seem like there was an improvement in endurance. I suppose it might be they were pushing themselves to the limit, and I'd improved that limit. In that case, they'd tire in the same amount of time, though they would be able to do more with that time.

Should I see how the enchantment fared when they weren't pushing themselves to a hundred percent? Was the next test to have Val prance around in body paint for a day and see if there was an improvement?

Hell, Val'll probably do it even if I don't ask her.

No. I'd obviously come up with a solid enchantment, but it wasn't what Val needed. I'd known that going in, of course, but I'd hoped I might be wrong.

I may have figured out a way around the need for outside healing when it came to strength enchantments- and even that was theoretical -but I didn't see a way to pull a similar trick with endurance.

I ate one of the mini-quiche whole and took a sip of my wine.

If I were honest, I didn't see a way to increase endurance at all. It had been done, that much was evident from Val's now-ruined amulet, but I didn't know how. Neither did I understand why fey were so prone to fainting.

The healing I was pretty sure I could do. If the body's natural healing went all screwy with body enchantments, then I'd turn it off entirely and replace it with an additional enchantment.

The very idea made me sick at the thought of all the ways it could go wrong, but I did think it would work.

I leaned back against the couch and tried to set my worries aside. The trio on the floor pawing at each other were distracting, but not distracting enough. My thoughts continued to drift back to my puzzle and the many ways I couldn't solve it.