Omen: 1, 10

“Hey, Jurot,” Adam called during breakfast. “Could I ask you to make me some dice?”

“Yes,” Jurot replied.

“I need five dice which are six sided.”

“Cubes or gems?” Jurot asked.

“Gem dice?” Adam asked. “Is that a shape?”

Jurot nodded. “I will show you after breakfast.”

Once they were done eating, with Adam forcing Jurot to feet Lanarot something from his fingers once, the pair returned back to the house. Jurot pulled out some small wooden blocks which were slightly longer than they were tall. He began to work away at the wood, creating six sides from the long block, with an alternating pattern of an extremely long triangle, which formed the six sides.

“Oh,” Adam said. “Gems, but they need to be quite thick.”

“How thick?” Jurot asked.

Adam tried to remember how big something needed to be in order to not be a choking hazard for a child. “Never mind. Could you make fairly large cubes? That way Lanarot could play with them too.”

“Large cubes?” Jurot asked, slightly less interested, but he nodded his head. “I have some large cubes for woodcarving.”

“Great,” Adam said. “I can introduce Warriors and Wanderers to this world then.” Adam smiled.

“What is that?” Jurot asked.

“You’ll see,” Adam replied, smirking at him.

“You would like five dice total?” Jurot asked.

“Yeah,” Adam said. “Wait.” Adam fell into through for a short while. “Actually, four. Four six sided dice should be plenty. You don’t need to mark the faces, I’ll try and figure out what I’d like in that regard. Also, can you make the edges smooth? I don’t want our adorable little Lanarot to get hurt.”

Jurot nodded, going off to find some cubes he could smooth out for his brother. “Adam,” Jurot said from the door way. “Thank you.”

“For what?” Adam asked. “Making dice?”

“For allowing me to work with Red Oak,” Jurot replied.

Adam smiled. “Any time.”

Adam made his way out, only to find Sonarot throw him an accusatory look. “I’m not going to work,” he reassured, heading out.

“Working again?” Elder Zijin asked, drinking some tea as he took a break.

“Why does everyone ask that?” Adam asked. “I’m not working.”

“Then why are you here?” Zijin motioned to the warehouse. “You aren not planning on taking the food you asked for, which you have overpaid for.”

“I didn’t overpay for anything,” Adam replied. “I created a tab.”

“Fifty gold is quite the tab for some peppers.”

“I also need a book, two books, actually.”

“Two books?”

“I need them for… playing, and education. One for rules, one for play.”

Zijin furrowed his brows. “Education? Lanarot is still a baby.”

“An adorable baby,” Adam corrected. “It’s not for her. It’s for a bunch of people, including adult Iyrmen, and me.”

“You are educating yourself?”

“I’ll explain stuff later,” Adam said. “Either it’ll get me into trouble with the Iyr, in which case you’ll have fun, or, the Iyr will love it, and you can come and play too.”

“Play?”

Adam smiled. “Are you going to give me two books or not?”

Zijin motioned with an arm to allow him inside, where he found a pair of books, each at least a hundred pages. He also grabbed some ink, a quill, and a stylus with lead made of some foreign material.

“If you are going to be writing a lot, you should take one of these,” Zijin said, reaching into a pocket, before tossing Adam some lead for his stylus.

Adam caught it, before noting how heavy it was for something so small. “What is this?”

“It is for your stylus,” Zijin said. “It is made of softgem.”

“Softgem?”

“It lasts for a while,” Zijin said. “At least ten times longer.”

“That’s quite the pitch,” Adam said, replacing the lead in his stylus. “Thanks. How much does it cost?”

“You can have it,” Zijin said. “Is that all you have taken?” He noted everything Adam had brought with him.

“Yeah.”

“That fifty gold is going to take a while to spend,” Zijin said, sighing. “You used to spend hundreds of gold a day, and now you have become so cheap.”

“I’ve become cheap and you’re giving me softgems,” Adam said. “I’ll be sure to tell people you were very happy to assist me in my endeavour.”

Elder Zijin chuckled.

Adam waved at the Elder, heading back to the Rot family house, where he began to write down all kinds of rules, trying to remember all the spells.

“Oh, wait,” Adam said, before checking the system to see all the spells within it. “Seriously, sometimes I act like I have a negative Intelligence.”

Sonarot noted how much Adam was concentrating. ‘I thought you were not going to work today?’

“Izboo?” Lanarot asked, tossing a block around before crawling over to Adam. She looked up at him and crawled onto his lap.

“Yes, Lanababy?” Adam asked, picking her up so she stood on his lap. He helped her squat. “Are you missing me?”

Lanarot started to bounce as she laughed and giggled, playing with him. Adam spent a few minutes playing with her, taking a break from his definitely not work. He lifted her up and made the noises for a rocket, which made no sense to Sonarot, but she left him to play with his sister.

“You know, Lanarot,” Adam whispered into her ear. “I know your aunt Mirot said you can’t learn magic, but if you want to learn, just let me know, okay?”

Lanarot clapped her hands and kicked out her legs, squealing and screaming with joy as she stared up at him.

“Someone’s gotten some more teeth since last time I saw her,” Adam said. “One day you’re going to be eating carrots without needing to soften them up and I’m going to cry. What did I say about growing up too fast?” Adam frowned at her.

She looked at him frown and stopped giggling. “Oh bo boo?” she asked, before looking to her mother, and then back to Adam. She coughed, making to cry, but Adam lifted her up high, making more rocket sounds so she wouldn’t cry.

“Do you see how she bullies me?” Adam asked. “She grows up so fast and then cries when she gets called out. I think Jaygak has been teaching her all sorts of terrible things.”

Sonarot let out a sigh, shaking her head. “Perhaps she has.”

“I should make her dad something which’ll let him beat her up easier,” Adam said. “Something which lets him slap from a mile away.”

Sonarot continued to shake her head, wondering how Adam managed to think of all his terrible thoughts. “You truly are terrifying, Adam.”

“You can’t regret your decision to adopt me now,” Adam began to cackle as he stared at Lanarot, who laughed and squealed, clapping her hands.

Adam returned back to his definitely not work, concentrating on the rules he was trying to create. “Why did I ask him to make all those six sided dice? I have to remember how bell curves work?” Adam groaned. “This isn’t going to work.”

“What is the matter?” Sonarot asked.

“I need to find Jurot,” Adam said.

“I think he is outside with your Guests.”

“Guests?” Adam asked, before sitting up. ‘Wait. I could have asked Filliam to make me some really cool dice. No, no. Jurot’s my brother, I can’t betray him like that.’

“Adam?” Jurot asked, rubbing the die’s edge, having just finished with the task Adam had asked of him. He sat beside the two groups of Guests, who mirrored each other.

“Sup,” Adam said, before nodding his head to the others. “Jonn, Brittany. Training well?”

“I am,” Brittany assured him.

Jonn nodded his head.

“We need to talk later, Jonn,” Adam said. “You’ve got some work for you for the Twilight Month, or Dawnval, or both.”

Jonn furrowed his brows, but slowly nodded his head.

“Since you’re being taken care of in the Iyr, you better not decline,” Adam threatened. “Nobby, we’ll start your training soon, but take it easy for now, okay?”

“Okay,” the boy replied.

“Sir Vonda, any thoughts about that thing?” Adam asked.

“Not yet,” Sir Vonda replied.

“Dunes, you cool?” Adam asked.

“I’m cool,” Dunes replied. “If that means I’m okay.”

“Yeah,” Adam said, chuckling. “Now that I’ve pretended to be a good host, Jurot, I need a twenty sided die. Could we add that too, please?”

“A twenty sided die?” Jurot asked, unsure of how he could make a die with so many sides.

“Yeah, you can make it a gem style if that’s easier. I know there’s a way to make it not a gem, but I’m too stupid for that sort of thing,” Adam said.

“A polyhedral die?” Filliam asked.

“Bless you,” Adam replied, chuckling to himself.

Filliam furrowed his brows in confusion.

“Nothing,” Adam replied, clearing his throat. “Yes, a polyhedral die is exactly what I need.”

Jurot glanced betwene the pair of them. ‘Polywhat?’

“Don’t look at me,” Adam said. “I’m no Tinkerer.”

“I can help you with the design,” Filliam offered the Iyrman. He had been working to create what Adam had asked of him, having set up in a small cabin the Iyr had offered him, but he could assist with something so simple without it derailing his operation.

“Thanks, Filliam,” Adam said. “I’m trying to make a thing for the Iyr.”

“What thing?” Filliam asked, his curiosity piqued.

“It’s a… thing.” Adam smiled. “You might like it, you might not, but I need to figure out some stuff before I show it to people.”

“Prototyping?” Filliam asked, nodding his head knowingly. He, as a Tinkerer, understood the process which these things happened.

“Something like that,” Adam said. “It’s not a thing like you’re thinking, though your trinkets may be quite useful in it.” Adam wondered if he should commission Filliam to make him all sorts of creatures, but then looked to Jurot. ‘I should ask Jurot for some wooden stuff.”

“You shouldn’t try to think about what Adam is doing,” Dunes said. “You just need to trust that his vision is right, and follow him through it.”

“I didn’t think you trusted me so much, Dunes,” Adam said.

“After all I’ve seen from you?” Dunes asked. “How can I not have faith in you?”

Adam smiled. “I feel like you have a request for me.”

“One day,” Dunes replied with a chuckle. “I’m still figuring it out.”

“I’m always open to hearing it.” Adam nodded his head to Dunes. “You’ve earned that much, Dunes.”

“If anyone would have told me they had spent three hundred gold on saving a random child they met only for them to find out that they were related to the previous King’s Sword, I’d have though they were you in disguise,” Dunes said, still unable to believe it.

Adam smiled.