A Bright and Shiny Life

Sarah leaves around midday to get some food. She offers to grab me some, but I still have bread from breakfast, so I eat that with magic berries. About an hour of study later seven of the twelve rods fall at once in a random pattern with no clear intersection.

Weal, woe, north, south, east, blood and rain. I stare at it a few moments but can only come up with one interpretation.

Feeling panicked I rush out the door to find the captain but see a crowd forming a circle when I get on deck.

In the middle of the ring are Sarah and Kalen, swords drawn and wearing chainmail. Coin is being handed to a crew member with a pot and chalkboard on which they’re taking down names.

I look around for the captain and find him at the helm, so I scurry up to him.

“You should stop this.” I say.

“Why? A little sport is good for morale”

“We just got read.”

His head snaps questioningly.

“I mean our route is being divined. We’re being tracked.”

“You can tell?”

“Benefit of my technique. It divines reactively so it’s more sensitive to distortions. Downside is it’ll take an hour to set it back up.”

“Just tell me, are we about to be attacked?”

“…No. They’re tracking us from a distance. I haven’t had time to make counter divinations yet but… is there something I should know about our cargo that they know to track us from this far?”

“Mind your damn business. Why should I stop this if we’re not about to be attacked? They won’t kill each other, and both of them have healing boons. They’ll be back up before trouble, especially if you’re doctoring them properly.”

“… I suppose.” I say, still uneasy about two of our best fighters coming to blows before a potential battle.

“You suppose. Well, suppose you get back to work if you’re going to complain.”

“Fine… I’ll stay just in case they need me though.” I climb back down and go to the bet taker. “What’s the rate?” If we’re doing this then we’re doing this.

“Right now? About 3 to 2, in favour of Kalen.”

I scoff. “People are betting against a squire?”

“You haven’t seen Kalen fight. Besides, she’s just a squire.”

No such thing as just a squire, but there’s no reason to discourage the notion. “On the mere squire then.” I say, handing them the medium gold Edward paid me.

They look at it stunned, making a brief calculation before putting it in the pot. “Make that 10 to 3 in favour of the squire.”

Seeing gold tossed in the pot others start frantically changing their bet to Kalen just on the chance of winning it. Smug at the commotion I caused, I walk around the ring until I find Martin.

“Who did you bet on?” I say, causing him to jolt out of a thought.

“I don’t know about this type of stuff.”

“Hmm, you should bet on Kalen.”

“Didn’t you bet on Sarah?”

“Which is why you should bet on Kalen and give me money. But that isn’t why. You’re scared of Kalen. Showing her support might lead to resolving that.”

He looks at me askance. “I think you have weird notions on how people interact.”

I glare at him, causing him to wince. “…As your teacher I’m instructing you to bet on Kalen. A silver should do, medium would be better.”

“That… is probably an abuse of the student/teacher relationship, but fine. I guess I’ll trust you.” He laughs as he walks to put a large silver in the pot on Kalen.

I watch Kalen watch him and see a short-lived smile on her face as the name goes on the chalkboard under her.

“All right!” The bets taker shouts, causing the crowd to quiet. “Bets are now final! We have here with us a disagreement, and we are going to settle it the sea way! Rules are simple, there are none! Just make the other person give up, or unable to fight, any means necessary! Bets will be distributed the normal way, with ten percent of the pot going to the winner, and two percent going to me for counting everything. The rest goes to those who placed coin on the winner based on their bets.”

Wait what?! He didn’t say that! If twelve percent is taken out before distribution does that mean I could lose coin even when Sarah wins? … No wait, that math doesn’t work. Given the changed ratio and the coin pouring into Kalen’s pot I probably would have had to put in at least two or three times as much. Good thing I held back. I probably would have ended my Anar fast if that happened.

“All right! Everything’s settled! If you two have anything to say before, say it, then fight!”

Sarah sighs. “Did you really have to push things to this? I keep saying you have things all wrong.”

“Do I? We’ll see. But how about we place a bet of our own?”

Sarah shrugs. “What do you have in mind?”

“If I win, we switch our pay, and you have to follow my orders.”

Sarah nods. “Okay, and if I win you follow my orders and… oh I don’t know… you’ll give me that bottle of Hyclian brandy you have stashed away.”

“Agreed.”

“Great! Oh, by the way I should tell you I also have an intermediate boon from the Blood Mariner.”

Kalen's eyes widen at the realization of just how outmatched she is. A squire’s power typically starts around halfway between basic and intermediate boons, and they become knights around at major boon level. So maybe Kalen thought she might have a chance depending on how advanced Sarah is in her training, assuming she had no more than a basic boon on top of it.

I knew that wasn’t the case given what Sarah said about being close to advancing to knighthood. Regardless of that, Sarah has just revealed she has the same divine boon as Kalen and so would outmatch her even if she had only just advanced from being a page.

In essence, this fight will be as if a squire without a boon fought a completely normal person. The result will be even more uneven than when I fought the five fools.

Some of the crowd realize the significance of this and start shouting for a refund, but the bets taker shouts them down.

The two stand still in the circle as things die down, Sarah smiling calmly while Kalen shifts around nervously. She glances at the crowd and feels the gazes of those she worked with and who feared her over the last six months and suddenly charges with a thrust.

I don’t know swords, but it seems like a very good form. Smooth and quick, but Sarah is quicker.

In a blur Sarah sidesteps away, knocks Kalen’s sword aside and then taps her throat with the flat of her blade– all while keeping her calm smile. The crowd goes completely silent, most of them not even following the movement, and they all seem a bit disappointed.

Kalen however is far from disappointing as she snarls in rage, swinging her sword heedless of the blade to her throat. The cheering resumes.

Sarah nods her head, and instead of cutting Kalen’s throat she back steps to block the sword then steps forward and spins around Kalen in a blur and places her sword on her throat again– this time from behind her over the shoulder.

“Will you just yield already? I have full respect for your ability, but you can’t beat me. Give up now and I’ll let you keep your position of directing the crew in battle.” Sarah says, still smiling.

“Don’t pity me!” Kalen shouts as she twists around to swing, once again calling Sarah’s bluff about killing her.

Sarah casually parries a series of blows without losing composure. “It’s not pity, I truly thought you probably could lead them better. But sadly, that opinion is changing if you’re going to be so irrational.” Saying this, she parries suddenly harder, knocking Kalen’s blade away then lunges forward to stab her through the chest before quickly stepping back from striking distance.

Kalen collapses and the crowd cheers at the blood, though most boo at losing money.

“Out of the way! Out of the way!” I shout, pushing people aside as I rush to perform my healing role. I kneel down and put pressure on Kalen’s wound with my sleeves rolled up, cursing that I didn’t decide to change to my cheap clothes today. “Was that necessary?” I shout at Sarah, more annoyed at the imminent stains than the violence.

She shrugs. “She wasn’t going to stop, and flesh wounds heal better than a cracked skull. Besides, the blood mariner needs their due.”

I sigh. I can hardly fault her for following a god that requires blood. I stand up, shouting orders to the crew. “All right, she won’t die right this second. I’ll get my tools. Carry her to the galley and apply pressure until I get there.”

The crew obeys, and I go to my room to grab my stuff. With the array already collapsed I don’t bother to be careful entering and end up knocking over another rod. I quickly change into my cheap clothes, then grab my pack with the medical herbs, my tools, the berry staff and my light mirror.

There’s a crowd gathered around her in the galley, so I shout at them to scatter. I keep the cook since they’re strong, familiar with blood, and I don’t think I’ll have luck kicking them out of their area anyways.

I also keep the two biggest sailors, a tall skinny sailor who I have hold the lit mirror over us, a medium sailor who keeps pressure on the wound, a short sailor who I have hold my tools on the tray, and then grab Sarah from the distant wall she was cooly leaning on.

I have Sarah, the cook, and the two big ones hold Kalen still while I undo her tunic and look at the wound.

I breathe out in relief before looking at Sarah coldly. “She’d probably die even with the Blood Mariner’s boon, but I should be able to keep her alive. Hopefully she’ll recover in time.”

“In time for what?” Sarah asks.

“Pirates are tracking us. Let’s hope you didn’t just eliminate our third best fighter for them.”

The aides mutter around us but go silent with a withering glance.

“You could have said something.” Says Sarah.

“I did, to the captain. He probably didn’t expect you to go this hard.” I say, as I grab the mortar and pestle that came with the doctor tools, which I put a third of the berries in, a topical coagulant and a mundane herb that should also help healing, all of which I grind into a paste.

“I need alcohol, stronger the better.” I say to the cook, who rushes off to the stores. I’m done grinding by the time he gets back so I pour the alcohol on my hands then the wound. Kalen screams, so I have her drink some as well, then hand Sarah some of the berries and make her feed them to her while holding her down.

While they’re doing that, I smear some paste into the wound, sew it shut, and apply linen bandages. Then I have the strong people turn her over and repeat the process on the other side. Finally, we sit her up and wrap her with bandages.

“All right.” I say, leaning back against the wall in exhaustion, looking at Sarah. “She won’t bleed to death now, and her boon will take care of the rest. Take her to your room and feed her more berries when she wakes up. How long would you take to fully heal a wound like that?”

“Fully heal? About a day. Though it would close in an hour.”

“Fine, let’s assume three days base time for her then. With the berries that might make it a day. I’ll be by tonight to check on her. Take care of her until then.”

“You really think it’s the best idea for me to be the one to take care of her?” She asks.

“No, I’m just spiteful. Now don’t bother me. I have some serious divinations to do.”

I grab my winnings on the way back to my room. I get the medium gold back plus 371 raem. Unfortunately, almost all of it is copper.

A few of the crew gives me a side eye at having such a big payout. The people who lost are upset for having lost, while the winners are sour because most of the winnings went to me. My door has a lock and I’m a light sleeper, so I pay them no mind. Though I guess I should cast my personal shield whenever I go out, just in case.

It takes nearly two hours just to set the array back up. By the time I’ve divined what I need to know it’s about two hours before dark.

With what I learned in mind, I go to have a look at Kalen. “Doesn’t look like you’ll keel over. Can you walk?”

“Yeah, those berries are really great. You have more?” Kalen says, her face pleasant and seemingly much less tense with Sarah after spending the day with her tending her. I wasn’t expecting that, but it probably has something to do with the empty bottle of Hyclian brandy I smell on their breaths. Strong drink is normally discouraged for patients, but I’ll let it slide if it stops them fighting.

“A handful, you’ll have to wait until tomorrow for more. But that’s not important. Both of you come with me. We need to talk with Sraw.”