BT - Book 1 - Chapter 53 (Patreon)

“Why are we shoe shopping?” Trevor grumbled.  He was trying his best to look inconspicuous in the upscale armor boutique, but despite his efforts, Trevor looked nervous and out of place.  

“I need something that matches the new bracers we bought you,” Micah replied absently as he tested the leather on a knee high boot.  Metal plates were stitched into the soft calfskin that extended up past the ankle, turning it more a piece of armor than just simple footwear.

“Now hush Trevor,” Micah flipped the boot over to confirm that the boot’s soles were studded with metal to improve its grip on uneven terrain.  “Haarvash’s Emporium is one of the preeminent suppliers of adventurers.  Everyone here is a peer or contemporary and you’re embarrassing me in front of them.”

Trevor glanced around the crowded display racks at the mismatched collection of blessed browsing the wares.  Each section of the store seemed to have its own clique.  Those near them wore light armor and carried themselves with the fluid grace of a jungle cat that spoke of high agility. 

Closer to the entrance, the store boasted its heavy weapons and armor.  Almost every adventurer over there stood half again as tall as Micah and bulged with muscles as they tested the weight and balance on the polearms, mauls, and large swords designed for front line fighters.

Near the front desk, and the attractive saleswomen that manned it, were the real valuables.  Enchanted cloth to protect spellcasters as well as rings, staves, and weapons that could be used by other classes. 

By and large, Micah looked down at the basic enchantments the Emporium had out for public display.  Maybe Brendan had a point when he’d looked down his nose at the entire store, but Micah suspected that it was more a matter of the canny shopkeeper trying to keep the more powerful equipment out of the public eye.  After all, there was no point in tempting the less reputable blessed.  With moderate blessing in stealth, and even an unscrupulous low level adventurer could disappear into the night with dozens of attunement worth of enchanted items.

“Is there some facet of your blessing that requires you to keep me in the dark,” Trevor crossed his arms as he stared down at Micah, “or are you just doing that for fun?  Seriously, Micah.  The wise and mysterious master act is getting old.”

Micah grabbed the boot’s sibling from the display case and began walking to the front of the store.  He maintained his silence as the wove through the aisles past a pair of robed men whispering and inspecting a minor durability enchantment stitched in silver into a cloak.

“Sorry about that,” Micah smiled apologetically at Trevor.  “I’ve spent so long on my own without anyone knowing who I really am or what I can do that I usually don’t articulate myself.  Even when I do it’s had a nasty tendency to come out a bit… melodramatic.  I’ve been trying to work on the issue.”

He stopped a couple of paces shy of the line to purchase equipment, and turned back to Trevor.

“Give me the bracers you’re carrying,” Micah extended his hand and took the steel arm guards from his brother.  “The plan has always been to enchant your gear.  Right now you have the spear that you gained as part of your blessing.  It’s as good or better than anything I can do.  That said, you have an agility build.  Your class gives you just enough points in body to stab a spear into an opponent, but most of your fighting style is based around dodging enemy attacks until you find an opening to exploit.”

“Right,” Trevor nodded slowly.  “I’m an agility-body hybrid with an emphasis on agility.  I still don’t see why we’re shopping for gear that we can’t afford.  I’ve only gotten like one point of night attunement from you dragging me along to kill monsters above my level.  Other than the point of moon attunement I earned from the spell you had me learn, well.  I’m not quite dead broke, but I don’t have attunement to waste.”

“Relax,” Micah shifted his grip on the boots to make room for the bracers Trevor had just handed him.  “I’m covering the expenditures today.  Plus, I have the perfect set of enchantments in mind for you.  My plan is to enchant both the greaves and the bracers to increase your speed and reaction time.  Of course, I’ll do what I can for their durability as well.  We both know it’s hard to block a sword with a spear.  Being able to deflect enemy attacks with your bracers will help you defend yourself against anything that slips under your guard.”

“Like the nightwasps,” Trevor agreed.  A flash of realization went off behind his eyes and he pursed his lips at Micah.  “Say, brother dearest.  You didn’t have us fight the nightwasps because you knew I wasn’t ready to fight a swarm of opponents, did you?”

“You’d either follow my instructions or you’d learn you weren’t invulnerable,” Micah shrugged back at his brother.  “A little pain to learn the lesson now beats you running ahead of a party and getting seriously injured in a more dangerous situation.”

“Plus,” he flashed Trevor an impish grin.  “Think of this as revenge for the entire ‘pepper’ thing with Becky.”

“Are you kidding me?” Trevor stared at him incredulously.  “That must have been over a decade ago for you.”

Micah didn’t respond.  The warrior in front of them had finished his purchase, a large steel shield with padded leather straps.  He walked up to the counter, trying to project an aura of innocence.

“Hi!” He said cheerfully, piling the boots and bracers onto the table in front of the shop assistant.  It wasn’t the one he’d worked with on his last visit to Haarvash’s, but she wore the same low cut uniform and pretty smile.  Clearly Haarvash wanted his customers dazzled and distracted while they made their purchases.

“Hello to you too,” the woman working the counter looked dubiously down at Micah.  “I can call Haarvash over if you want, but I’m pretty sure none of this equipment qualifies for youth pay.  Luxos isn’t likely to reimburse us for adventuring gear so I probably won’t be able just give it to you.”

“Oh that’s fine!” Micah tried to put as much excitement and cheer as possible into his expression.  The clerk would expect an excitable youth, and that’s exactly what he was going to give her.  “My brother just got his blessing and he’s going to be an adventurer.  Mom and Dad transferred some attunement to me so I could buy him gear as a birthday gift.”

“Well isn’t that nice,” her expression morphed back into a candy-sweet smile as professionalism took over.  “Is the handsome young man over there your brother?”  

She nodded at Trevor which the young man took as an excuse to saunter over.  Micah bit his tongue as her eyes flicked up and down Trevor’s well muscled body.  The two of them locked eyes, and he stood, more or less forgotten with his half completed transaction.

“I saw you were talking about me,” Trevor’s voice was about an octave lower than Micah remembered.  It took everything in Micah to not roll his eyes when Trevor ran his fingers through his thick chestnut hair.  “My kid brother isn’t bothering you is he?  The least I can do is make it up to you by buying you lunch.”

“I’m on duty for the next two hours but after that,” the woman trailed off, blushing slightly as Trevor leaned across the counter.

“That sounds almost as great as you,” Trevo winked at her.  “I’m Trevor Silver, what should I call you?”

Micah snorted, unable to help himself.  Ultimately, it didn’t matter.  Trevor and the clerk were too wrapped up in each other to notice anything around them.

“Claire Attin,” she smiled at him, flashing her clear blue eyes.  “Why don’t we go somewhere near the docks?  I love seafood and I know a place that has the best dire sea snapper on the Horn Coast.”

“But Trevor,” Micah interjected, trying his hardest to sound like a child mid-tantrum.  “Didn’t you remember that you were going to come with me to see my friend?  You promised!”

“Your friend wouldn’t happen to be a girl, would it?” Claire looked at Micah for the first time since their initial exchange, a hint of suspicion in her voice.

“No,” Micah pointedly ignored the way Trevor’s muscles locked and his jaw clenched.  “They’re just out in the forest outside town and Trevor’s been promising to take me out there for a week or two.  The plan was to head out right after I bought his new birthday gear.”

Claire’s expression softened.  Her deft fingers quickly checked the tags on the gear and she made a note on a ledger chained to the front counter.

“We wouldn’t want to make you late for meeting your friend,” she practically crooned.  “That will be a half attunement for the both of them.”

Micah touched her extended hand and willed the attunement to transfer.  His hand grew warm for a second.  The woman retracted her hand, and her eyes went blank for a second as she checked her status.  Finally she nodded and passed the gear back to Micah.

“And as for you Mr. Silver,” she winked at Trevor.  “I have tomorrow off of work.  Meet me at the corner of Flower and Schooner street at noon.”

“A lovely plan for a lovely woman,” he replied smoothly before turning to follow Micah out of the store.

As soon as they were outside, Micah roughly handed the gear over to Trevor.  Briefly he flexed his hands to return feeling to them after clutching the arm and shin coverings tightly.  Micah might have the points in body that he needed to carry the gear, but his tiny arms and hands still made the process uncomfortable and awkward.

“Put this in your backpack,” Micah said.  “You’re going to need to have it on hand.  If you’re actually wearing it, you won’t be able to have it ready in time.

“I thought you were going to try and screw me over in there,” Trevor chuckled briefly before frowning.  “Wait, why do I need to have the greaves and bracers easily accessible?  From what you said, enchanting takes hours of work.  You’re making it sound like I’ll need to have them ready at a moment’s notice.”

“First of all,” Micah smiled as he began leading Trevor toward the city gate.  “I’d never get in between you and a girl.  I mean, I’ll let you get stung by wasps for being dumb in a second, but no matter how gross it is watching my own brother hit on someone, I’m not stepping into that.”

“Thanks,” Trevor laughed as he shouldered his travel pack, weaving through the crowd after Micah.  “Say, I don’t suppose you have anything about Claire in that little book of yours.  Maybe what her favorite color is, gift ideas, or anything like that?”

“While that might be what you’d use time travel for,” Micah shook his head, the smile still on his face, “alas it is not what I used the Folio for.  As for the enchanting?  I found a new way to do it that doesn’t require a sacrifice.  The tradeoff is that we need the energy source to be alive.”

“Wait,” Trevor’s expression clouded.  “Does that mean you expect me to restrain and pin down a wild animal while you perform some sort of ritual on it?”

“If you’re going to get a day off,” Micah replied with a chuckle.  “I’m going to make you work for it.”

Trevor cheered up noticeably once Micah confirmed that they’d have a rest day.  Personally, Micah would probably need a day or so to recover from the rigors of enchanting Trevor’s armor and his spear. 

Three hours later, Trevor’s cheer was completely gone as the two of them chased an aging stag through the forest.  A grin split Micah’s face as he chased after the deer that would become Telivern while Trevor, shrouded in sweat and constant mumbled curses tried his best to keep up with him.

Micah turned his body sideways as he slipped past an oak tree, the branches of a nearby bush scratching at the back of his tunic as he tore after the stag.  He reached outward with a hand, using plant weave to grip at the deer with nearby foliage, slowing it for a second.

It broke free before he could make it within twenty paces, but Micah’s smile only grew wider.  The last time he tried the trick, it escaped before he could make it within fifty.  After an hour of chasing the animal, it was finally beginning to tire.

Behind him, Micah heard the sound of a branch snapping and some more swearing.  An hour of chasing the stag tired more than just their quarry out.  Trevor’s breaths were ragged and erratic as he ducked under yet another branch trying to keep up with him.

The deer pulled ahead, crashing through a bush it no longer had the energy to go around.  Micah activated plant weave once again, infusing his mana into roots and boughs of the bush to wrap them around the fleeing animal.  

It tripped as a branch slapped into a hoof mid leap.  Startled, the stag stumbled and fell to the forest floor.  Quickly, Micah repeated the spell, wrapping tree roots around the downed animal.

It struggled against the bonds, trying to free itself before collapsing once more to the dirt.  Its eyes darted to Micah as it trembled with panic.  He winced at the uncomprehending terror reflected in his friend’s gaze.

“Sshhh,” he whispered as he approached it, putting its fur gently.  “I’m not gonna hurt you.  In fact, this should help you out quite a lot.”

It shuddered under his hand, heart beating in quick stutters as it looked for an escape route.

“Don’t worry,”  Micah kept talking, his voice quiet as Trevor caught up.  “Pretty soon all of those aches and pains are going to be a thing of the past.  Just hold still for a little bit and you’ll be as healthy as a yearling in no time at all.”

Trevor stumbled into the clearing behind him.  With a wheeze he dropped his backpack to the forest floor and put his hands on his knees as he tried to steady his heavy breathing with huge gasps of the earthy summer air.

“Once you’re ready, bring the armor over here, I’ll start prepping the enchanting circle in just a minute,” Micah raised his voice so that Trevor could hear him, his hand petting the heaving fur of the stag’s sides uninterrupted by his split focus.”

“So is this deer the sacrifice?” Trevor asked casually as he opened up his backpack and set it down next to Micah.  “Are we going to get some venison out of this debacle.  I’m hungry enough to eat an entire boar.”

The stag trembled beneath Micah, drawing a disapproving hiss from him as he shot an angry glance back at Trevor.

“No,” he bit out, a hint of anger flaring.  “The deer is a friend, not food.  Now get over here.  I’ll need you to hold it down if it breaks free from the spell while I set up the enchanting.”

Trevor grumbled as Micah began to spread the quartz dust in a circle around the trapped animal.  His ire dissipated as he noticed the deer calming under Trevor’s grasp.  Maybe everything wasn’t going as planned, but things were certainly moving in the right direction.