Mind Your Step, Draft 1, CH 10

“For this exercise,” Tibs said, unsheathing his sword, “you need to focus on sensing how Force changes around my sword while we fight.”

Heather grumbled something, unsheathing hers.

“I can’t answer your questions if I can’t understand them.”

“I didn’t say anything,” she snapped.

“She said she doesn’t like how you’re torturing her,” Ruppert said. He was on a branch, eating a nut. His hearing was either much better than Tibs, or he was using essence in a way Tibs didn’t sense to enhance it.

“This isn’t torture,” Tibs said, and Heather glared at the squirrel. “It’s part of getting better with essence. You need to be able to focus on multiple aspects of it, and that comes with practice. This is actually not all that different from using your essence while pulling more within your reserve.”

She lunged at him, and he parried. “I still don’t see the point of bothering with that.”

He struck, and she sidestepped his attack. “You’ll find yourself in a situation where you’ve drained most of your essence, it’s only a matter of time. Knowing how to replenish it while defending yourself will mean you survive those trying to kill you.”

“Do you have any idea how much essence I seem to have?” She attacked quickly, and Tibs defended before replying.

“The answer is you won’t have enough that time. Even with amulets as backup, there will always be a point when you have to push yourself to near empty.” He attacked, fighting the urge to use metal to make his strikes more accurate. In part because this wasn’t about winning, but more because he didn’t know if she’d be able to tell he was making his blade move against what Force indicated it should do.

It meant he was on the defensive more than the offensive, but that didn’t matter. They weren’t trying to win.

Or at least, he wasn’t. With her aggressive attacks, Tibs thought she might be trying to prove something.

They exchanged blows, and he had to rely on sensing Fever move within her to anticipate her attacks.

At some point, Ruppert disappeared from his branch, but Tibs didn’t worry. He’d shown he could be trusted to go explore and return over the weeks of traveling. He was back by the time Heather did something.

Tibs’s feint had worked, and she was moving to parry where she thought his sword would strike while he’d shifted his aim to the other side, ready to pull the strike before he touched her armor, but the point off his aim moved as if Tibs had struck an angled surface.

Her smirk said she was the cause, and he shifted his attack to take advantage of her overconfidence, landing a hand on her chest and pushing her off her feet.

He smiled, stepping out of her reach. “That was good, but never let your opponent see you did something, or think what you did means you’ve already won.”

“I would have, if you didn’t know everything you did about my element.” She pushed to her feet.

“I only know what I’ve read, and there isn’t much.”

She snorted. “You have an element. That’s the same thing.” She attacked.

He parried and stepped aside. “It isn’t. Water isn’t Force. What I know about my element doesn’t translate to yours.” They exchanged blows. “I can make guesses and see what happens, but as you saw while trying the ‘x’ attack, yours didn’t do the same thing as mine. How you think also changes how your element behaves.”

She attacked harder, but also more carelessly. “That’s bullshit. The elements just are. They don’t care what I think about them.”

He easily stepped around, but didn’t take advantage of the openings. “True. They don’t. But once you have one, it becomes part of you, and you shape the essence, not the element.” He pressed her, and this time, when his blade deflected off her essence, she immediately stepped back, and smirked.

To prove his point, Tibs channeled water and, before she reacted, he iced the ground under her feet. Her sword went flying as she cartwheeled in a futile attempt to keep her footing.

She glared at him from the ground. “You cheated!”

“I’m a thief. You should have expected it.” He crouched well out of her reach. Out of her physical reach. He paid attention to the essence moving around her. “You are a fighter. It’s guild—”

“Title, I know. My dad’s an adventurer, remember?”

Tibs nodded. “To be impolite about it, you, like most fighters, are blunt. You see a problem, and you throw yourself at it. I’m a thief. I see a problem, and I look for ways around it.”

“I don’t see how that’s got to do with my element.” She threw essence at him, and it was diffuse enough he let it hit. It unbalanced him, and he fell on his ass.

“You just made my point for me.”

She narrowed her eyes.

“Look at everything you did with your essence. You use it like a blunt tool. You pushed me, you deflected my attacks.”

“It’s Force. What else do you expect me to do with it?”

“I don’t know. I don’t think like you. I know what I’d do with it, or try to do.”

“Like what?”

He smiled. “Subtle things. Like changing what you stand on.”

“That’s not subtle.”

“Not once you fell, but you didn’t know what I was doing even when you saw my eyes change. You were expecting a blast of water, or for me to make a second sword.”

“You can do that?”

“It’s my essence. I can make it do whatever I can think of. With a sword, it’s as simple as maintaining my will over its shape, although I’ve made an etching for it that makes it easier. But my point is that I didn’t go for that, I made you trip.”

“And I shoved you on your ass.”

“You shoved, I tripped you. You’re a fighter. I’m a thief. You went for something direct, I chose an indirect method. We don’t think the same way.”

“So I should just try thinking like you?” she asked defiantly.

“Everyone can benefit from being sneakier. But my point is that you need to stop thinking everyone else thinks like you. Especially if your opponent had an element. Pushing me away doesn’t mean I can’t strike back.”

“It’s not like I’ll know what you’re going to do.”

“Exactly. So remain vigilant. Think of it as taking on more than one opponent.”

She stood. “I can see where they’ll be.”

Tibs did the same. “Not if they are sneaky.”

“Thieves,” she grumbled as a curse, then attacked him.

*

“Aren’t you worried about turning into wood?” he asked Ruppert. Heather had gone to her tent after a more grueling training session. She’d surprised him with a battering ram attack that sent him flying back, but it had come at the cost of nearly all her essence, so she’d only had her skills to fall back on when he returned. She was good, but without essence to supplement her defense, he had exhausted her.

“No.”

“Your body contains more of that element, with all the nuts and flowers, and everything else you eat.”

“Then give me more Fever stuff.”

“You don’t need me to feed you now that I let you roam.”

“There aren’t a lot of animals I can catch like this.”

Tibs stopped himself from asking if Ruppert could use his essences to change what he looked like. He didn’t want to give the core ideas. “I’m sure there are plenty of insects you can catch, those are mostly Fever.”

Ruppert stared at him, nut halfway in his mouth, then around. He bolted off, leaving the partially eaten nut behind.

*

“Finally!” Heather exclaimed as the city walls came into view. “I can have a real bath. Actual food. Oh, I would kill for good ale right now.”

Tibs chuckled. “Ruppert, while in the city, you need to stay with me. People aren’t going to be nice to a roaming squirrel.”

“You should tell him to stay hidden.”

“Yes, but he won’t, so I want him to stay with me.”

Ruppert climbed onto Tibs’s head and leaned forward. “Will there be things to eat there?”

“Yes, and I’ll make sure you get to eat some, so stay with me.”

“Okay.”

*

Paths from the surrounding farms joined the road, and carts carrying foodstuffs filled it. More than once, Tibs had to catch Ruppert jumped off to each a cart. When the squirrel managed to stay, he was a bundle of energy, running from one shoulder to the other, on his head, sniffing left and right. He attracted gazes, but most were amused at his antics. A few even gave him small pieces of vegetables or fruit.

At the gate, guards and city accountants focused on the cart with a bored efficiency that almost let Tibs and Heather enter unchallenged.

The order to stop came in the tone more than Tibs understanding the word, and he grabbed Heather to keep her from continuing.

She kept talking in a tone of inquiry.

“I don’t understand your language,” Tibs said in Latiranian, since the village folks had spoken it.

“Foreigner,” she said with some disdain, in accented Latiranian. “Why do you come to Esterskarest?”

“A bath,” Heather said, and earned herself a hard stare.

“We don’t have work for Adventurers.”

“I’m not—”

“We aren’t settling here,” Tibs said, cutting her off. “We just want to rest from the road for a while, then we’ll move on.”

“Keep animal from causing trouble,” she said.

“He won’t,” Tibs replied, and she waved them in.

“Why did she say we’re adventurers?” Heather asked.

“That you’re one. Your eyes. Silver isn’t a natural color, so you have an element, and only adventurers have elements. Her attitude means there’s no guild building here.”

“Why say there’s no work for adventurers? There’s always someone willing to hire one of them.”

He shrugged, noticing what she hadn’t. “Maybe she thought it would keep us from entering.”

“Why are they looking at us?” she asked, looking around at the people staring and pointing as they walked by.

“The same reason the guard said what she did. Your eyes.” How much trouble would it be to be associated with her? He had no plans to settle, so no need for a visible character. But if they had a library, he might change his plans. He could convince her it was so he could research her element. He’d have to find out if the guard’s dislike is because the guild did something here to make adventurers unwelcome. If the entire city felt animosity toward them, their stay would be filled with trouble.

“There’s an inn,” Heather said, and was already headed toward it.

The place was lively, with a pair of musicians playing in a corner. The man behind the bar eyed her warily, but let her have a room. By the silver exchanged for the key, Tibs thought she’d been overcharged, until he followed her to a room with two beds.

“How long do you want to stay?” he asked.

“Long enough to forget I’ve been in the wild for so long.”

“It’s better to get a room from a house then.”

She snorted. “I’m not bothering with that. I’m going home to….” She touched her neck. The cursing was colorful. “I can’t go home with the stone.”

He shrugged. “Then, a room in a house will be cheaper than staying at the inn. Training will also be difficult in the city. The training grounds will charge, and I doubt the guards will let us fight outside them.”

“Then I don’t train for a while. All I’ll do is keep my eyes on you so you don’t cause trouble. But after a bath. I paid extra for one. Stay in the room. You can take yours after I’m done.”

He nodded, and she left.

He coated himself with water, causing Ruppert to jump off and glare, then pulled it off, along with the grime of the road. It wasn’t the same as a bath, but it removed the evidence of his travels. He absorbed the water and used Air to send the remains out the open window.

Ruppert was on his shoulder by the time he reached the door. Heather was on the floor below, in a section on the opposite side of the dining room, so he stepped out and left the inn.

“You aren’t doing what she said.”

“I don’t have to do what she wants.”

“You don’t like it when I don’t do what you want.”

“You aren’t a person the way I am. When you run off, you can get in trouble I can’t help you with if I don’t know where you are. And I’ve let you roam now that you’ve shown you can be trusted to come back.”

“You don’t want me to leave you now that we’re here.”

“That’s for your protection. A squirrel running around can fall victim to the dogs and cats, or the children. If they break your body, you won’t have a way to escape them. And if someone finds your core….” Even with as little information about them as scholars had written, there were truths that applied here. “Your core will look different from anything people have seen before. That means they’ll consider you valuable. They’ll sell you. Someone might break you, thinking they can get more money selling smaller parts.”

“They can do that? Break me?” Ruppert asked, worried. “Kill me?”

“People have tools to break stones and cut gems. Some gems are as hard as you. Someone determined will find a way to make it happen. So you have to stay with me so you can be safe.”

Ruppert pressed against his neck. “I will.”

“As for why I’m not staying in the room like Heather wants, I need to find out what the city has to offer, and I have to walk around to find that out.”

His first stop was a market, where he found a stall selling candies. The handful of coppers he acquired on the way let him have a variety of them, although Ruppert almost cost him the opportunity when Tibs barely caught him before he jumped into a box of them. The squirrel kept sniffing and edging along Tibs’s arm, making the stall-keeper nervous.

Once Tibs stepped away he handed Ruppert one, and the squirrel moaned as he licked and bit into it, cracking it into pieces, then hurrying to pick them out of Tibs’s vest.

The walk through the market showed him the city had a strong thief population, but lacked the unity that came from someone forcing them to work together. Two groups clashed at the edge of the market. Common enough, the guards watched it happen, intervening only when the fight threatened to spill close to the stalls.

Latiranian was common enough he was able to inquire about places of learning, and found Esteskarest was a craftspeople city. No university or library. He didn’t find anything about adventurers causing trouble. As best as he could work out, Heather would mostly be an oddity, except for those who had heard too many songs about the trouble they brought.

He shared pieces of spiced dried meat with Ruppert as he returned to the inn.

“I told you to stay in the room!” Heather snapped as he entered it.

Tibs smirked. “I don’t have to do what you say, Heather.”

Ruppert jumped off and climbed to the rafters.

“What did you do? Who did you rob?”

“I took in the city, and I didn’t rob anyone. You’ll be happy to know people here don’t hate adventurers. You’ll be stared at, but no one should try to kill you just because of your eyes.”

“Do you expect me to believe you? You’re a thief.”

“I don’t expect anything from you, Heather,” he replied, not masking his annoyance. “And if I decide to rob some noble’s home, that’s my business, not yours.”

“I’m not letting you do anything like that.”

“Like you could stop me.”

“I can set the guards on you.”

“That letter you keep showing them?”

Horrified, Heather searched her vest until she pulled it out. Then opened it, looking at him suspiciously, until she read it.

“You do that,” Tibs said, “and all that happens is that I disappear. You continue on your way, and we never cross paths again.”

“I’ll find you again.”

He shrugged. “And I’ll escape you again. You need to let go of this obsession with catching me.”

“You’re a criminal.”

“One who’s helping you.”

“So I won’t turn you in.”

“And who’s hoping you’ll realize the world’s more complex than you believe. You know some laws aren’t right. If you hadn’t, you’d have handed over my money to the guards instead of taking it to another city and helping the people there with it.”

“You expect me to believe you do everything you do to help people? That you’re a good criminal?”

He snorted. “I do what I do to help me and others when I can. I steal from those who deserve it, or who won’t miss it. If they deserve to be robbed, I try to help those they wronged in the process.”

“You’re so good, bards should be singing about you,” she said with derision, then her expression changed.

“They do,” he said. “And they’re always changing what I did, no matter how bard-worthy I make the character I play. Extravagant, colorful, throwing coins over markets. You’d think that’s enough for them, but they keep having to make me some hero taking on whole cities, or—”

“You did that.”

“I wasn’t taking on a whole city. I was just undermining their authority. They were using it to make the city folk miserable. They deserved it. And that was after The Jumping Robber they twisted into that hero. If they aren’t making me a hero, they’re making me a villain.” He glared at her. “Which you seem to be happy to believe.”

“You steal.”

“So, every thief out there’s a villain? How about those of the Street? What do you expect them to do when cities make sure they have nothing? That they are nothing?”

“That’s not you.”

He snorted. “Where do you think I’m from?”

“You said you and your mother—”

“You shouldn’t believe everything I say, Heather. I’m a thief. We lie as well as steal.”

“Why?” she asked, sounding baffled.

“Because it keeps people from asking more questions.”

“But how can anyone get to know you if all you tell them are lies?”

“I’m fine with no one knowing me.”

“That’s bullshit.” She looked at him. “It’s got to be. No one wants to be alone all the time.”

Tibs swallowed the memory of Jackal’s laughter. Kroseph ruffling his hair as he placed a plate of food before Tibs. Don, exasperated as Tibs sidetracked him again. Carina as she patiently taught him his numbers and letters.

“Some of us aren’t given a choice.”