Dao Divinity 2 Chapter 28 (Patreon)

“Boss!” A kid’s high-pitched voice broke into the meeting.

Dar looked down to see the miniature version of Glump, the only exception being his bright red hair.

“Kro. This is an adult conversation. Please go back to your mother.” Glump said steadily, and Dar could see the little kid deflate.

“I think we were about done, anyway.” Dar suggested, not wanting to get too in between a parent and their parenting.

The group nodded, and Bart stood, slapping his knees. “My old bones need some rest. But we are almost ready for winter.”

There were murmurs of accent as the leader group broke up, and Kro looked up at Glump hopefully, taking a big step even closer to Dar.

“You can spend time with him as long as you are back in our hut before dark, and you come home if he tells you to.” Glump croaked looking, looking between them. “Really now, you are becoming such a handful.”

Kro completely ignored the last part, instead turning to Dar with his first of likely many questions that night. “Is it true that you beat up hundreds of people?”

Dar chuckled. “I don’t see everyone walking around with lumps on their heads.”

“No! Not here. People say you saved the big guy and his spirit lady-friend from Bellhaven. Beat up all the baddies.” Kro jabbed in the air to show what he meant. “You took them all on and were so powerful! And...” Kro was nearly jumping up and down as he recounted all that he’d heard.

Dar herded Kro along with him as they headed back to where Dar’s family was sitting.

“Yes, I did beat up some people. But only the bad ones.”

“Waaah. So cool.” Kro did a few air punches, making noises to compensate for the lack of enemies present. He couldn’t help but be cheered by Kro’s enthusiasm. Life was so simple in his eyes.

As they approached, the girls looked curiously at the little Kro trailing behind, fists still swinging as he talked and babbled about his imaginary battle.

“So what did you learn today, Kro?” Dar asked.

“Hi Cherry.” Kro froze seeing Dar’s dao companion before remembering the question and answering, although his attention still seemed focused on Cherry. “We learned lots of things, like types of good and bad bugs around the field. Sam taught us about fertilizer and why poop isn’t just gross but useful too.”

Cherry seemed amused at Kro. “Hello little troublemaker. Why don’t you tell Dar about how you brought mud into the field today.”

Kro blushed bright crimson and muttered something under his breath.

“What was that?”

“I like mud! Mud is great. I thought the plants would like it too.” Kro hid his face after he said it.

“Plants like soil and water, but mud is just a bit too wet of soil for them most of the time.” Dar reached down, ruffling the kid’s hair.

“I know.” Kro said defensively, drawing out the word. “Cherry already told me. I won’t bring mud into the field again.”

The dryad smirked. “You should have seen him, carrying it by the armload into the field and making a mess of himself.”

Dar knew that Glump had the dao of mud and that he likely came from some sort of frog. Dar wouldn’t be surprised if it was a frog that had his home in the mud, but he found it curious that Kro would also be so drawn to it.

“Do you have a dao?” Dar asked.

Kro looked shocked at the question. “Of course not. But one day, I’ll have dao like dad or mom.”

There was a gathering of some of the other kids not far from their circle chattering and looking at Kro, who had noticed them by now. They were all motioning for Kro to come join them.

“Thanks boss. Gotta report back.” Before Dar could say anything, Kro was off, running towards the kids and yelling. “He really did beat up hundreds! Even thousands!”

Dar couldn’t help rolling his eyes. Kids. Chuckling, he turned back to the circle to see all the women looking at him with big smiles.

“I didn’t peg you for someone who’d like kids.” Amelia blurted out, the others seeming to have variations of agreement.

Dar paused, considering it. He’s always figured they would be a part of his life at some point. He just hadn’t been at that point. “Kids can be fun. I’ve never had any, but I’m not necessarily against them with the right person at the right time.”

Mika licked her lips and looked around at everyone else before speaking. “When is the right time?”

Dar started to speak, but then paused, reconsidering. “I guess it’s probably impossible to time it right, but I’d like some stability before bringing a kid into the mix.”

Before they could nudge him more on a timeline, Dar pivoted the conversation slightly. “How do kids work with spirits and demons?”

Sasha chuckled and covered her mouth. “Dear Lug, I thought you were already an expert at that.”

Rolling his eyes, Dar watched as Sasha smiled, pleased with her joke. “Oh hush. Not that. I meant with dao and interspecies sort of deal.”

They looked confused. “Interspecies?”

“Can a spirit have a child with a demon, or a human?”

“Of course,” Cherry said, sounding confused that it was even a question. They probably hadn’t put all the research into genetics that he was used to and just relied on if it worked or not.

“What about Dao? How does that work with kids?” He asked.

That one clearly had a more complicated answer, because the girls chewed on it for a minute before Sasha explained. “Children among the ancient races are extraordinarily rare. In several hundred years, a pair of dao companions might not even have one child. It seems even worse for those further on the dao path. But when they do happen, the kids don’t instantly have dao. As they grow, they always seem to form a dao close to either of their parents very easily. It’s a strange state, where it almost seems like they’ve started their dao path, but just haven’t taken a step yet.”

Dar nodded and tried to simplify. “They are predispositioned for dao, but they don’t have it yet?”

“That works.” Cherry agreed. “They’re almost similar to monsters like the hellhounds. They might not have had a true dao, but they are the blood of something that did. A dao runs in their blood so to speak.”

“That makes some sense. If we’ve all used the dao to modify our bodies, then there might be something we can pass along.”

The girls all nodded at that, but it prompted more questions for Dar. “Then why isn’t there a group of The Whites, or any other celestial demon’s children, running around becoming a force to be reckoned with?”

“I’ve never heard of a Celestial Demon having a kid.” Sasha said sadly.

“Never?” Dar was shocked. They’d been around for thousands of years.

“Cherry said it was rare for those further on the dao path, but that might be an understatement. Most of the children among ancients had parents that only had a lesser dao when they had the child. That Glump is a greater demon with a kid is… special.”

“What about a second generation?” Dar was starting to see how humans had taken over if the ancient races struggled so much to propagate.

Cherry shrugged. “I don’t know of any.”

Dar leaned back and let out a small whistle. “None?” He asked, looking at the rest of the girls.

They all shook their heads. “This seems to shock you.” Amelia commented, tilting her head in confusion. Dar remembered that she didn’t know all about his past.

Sasha started to try to explain it away, but Dar raised his hand to stop her. “It is shocking. Then again, with your longevity, it does make a sort of sense. I just suddenly feel like we took the option of having kids away. I just didn’t know.”

“We can always try. Trying can be fun.” Sasha patted his leg. “You never know.”

Dar looked up at the sky, wondering what it meant to be immortal and try with her. Would it help or make it even harder?

“Yes, we can certainly try. If you want kids, I’m open to it.” He kissed Sasha, which made her blush and pull back, grabbing his hand.

“Well then, this has been a fun night everybody, but I think I have work for Dar.” With that, Sasha got up and dragged Dar away from the campfire quickly.

Cherry and Mika were up in a flash to join them.

“No, we don’t get to go with, Pussy Cat.” He heard Amelia mutter behind him as Neko let out a growl of protest.

***

The next week flew by in a blur of work. Dar busied himself forming larger store rooms in one of the caves. He’d needed to remove more stone there, and in the house he was building in the back of the large cave.

He used all of the extra stone he removed to lay a foundation for the palisade. If he kept at it, he’d end up building a stone wall around the palisade, eventually.

When that got tedious, he took a break and started to bring stone out for a foundation around the central hearth. They’d need some better gathering areas as well. 

Periodically, Kro would show up at Dar’s side, asking all sorts of questions that the kids had come up with, only to run away and report Dar’s answers. It appeared he had become the official messenger of the group.

As he walked back into the cave, Dar once again scoped out their food reserves. There had been shock at the camp the night before when they’d announced the final counts for grain. Cherry had been busy and blown away everybody’s expectations. He knew it had taken a lot out of her to do so much, but she’d given their town a really great chance at surviving the winter. They also had a lot of bison and fish thanks to Russ, Mika, and Amelia’s efforts.

Sasha had been busy as well over the week, working with the women preparing thatching. The tradesmen had put down all their other work and were laying it on the houses as fast as it was made. They’d get the roofs and walls filled in for winter.

Dar had hoped they’d be able to have clay tiles, but they were running out of time. It was getting too cold to dry them, and they just didn’t have enough. Next spring, they would have to work to replace some of the thatching with the longer lasting clay tiles.

Focusing on his current task, Dar worked on his latest granite project. He was trying to make large containers out of stone, with spouts at the bottom.

“Heya Hunk.” Amelia said, walking in, pushing one of the village’s carts, which was filled with salt.

“I got this one ready. Do me a favor and send the salt up there, so I don’t have to carry it?” He asked.

“On it.” Amelia bent back over the cart, her tight rear outlined in one of Sasha’s black dresses. Then she straightened up, and with her came a large mound of salt flowing around her.

She brought it up and over to the vessel. She had to shift up onto her tiptoes to reach the top of the vessel. The salt she’d moved flowed over her, into the vessel. When that batch had completed, she leaned back over and repeated the motion.

Dar just watched as all the salt filled the container. Hearthway wasn’t going to run out of salt anytime soon at the rate she’d been gathering it. Dar had built this just to store her salt, so they wouldn’t keep wasting barrels that were better for storing grain, anyway.

“Like what you see?” Amelia asked, arching an eyebrow as she looked over her shoulder with a blush when she was done.

Clearing his throat, Dar coughed away the awkwardness. Realizing he’d been staring at her butt while she was leaning over. “So, tell me more about you Amelia.”

“Well, what do you want to know?” She watched him, seeming pleased at his interest. “I’m not quite as old as Mika; I’m only about a hundred and fifty years old.”

“But you are further along than Mika in your dao?” Dar asked, surprised.

Amelia shrugged. “I’ve spent quite a bit of time on it. Not that Mika hasn’t. But I think she spent a lot of time doing other things across the sea.”

“She told me about some of those times, lots of war.”

“Lots of drinking too.” Amelia laughed. “When I first met her, she just liked to laze on the beach and drink. I can’t imagine it was that different before she came to Kindrake.”

“What about you, then? What do you do for pleasure?” As Amelia went onto her tiptoes again, Dar shifted the granite under the tank to make a few steps. Taking them, she gave him a big smile.

“Thanks.” She moved and deposited another load of salt. “Lots of pushing my dao, plenty of fun with men. But a good game of cards or dice really gets my blood going.”

Dar snorted. “Gambling? Ever play strip poker?” It seemed right up her alley.

“Never heard of it. Tell me about it.”

“Oh, well, you play cards, or I guess you could gamble with dice. But you bet articles of clothing you are wearing, and lose them accordingly.”

Amelia’s eyes shone and her smile grew a little too wide. “That sounds fabulous. Strip poker.” She repeated the name. “I’ll remember that one.”

Dar had no doubt that she’d find a way to involve him in a future game of strip poker.

“I talked to Mika about the salt you used to sell. She said you had trouble in the past? When we see more riverboats come, do you want us to sell some of your salt?”

“Doesn’t matter much to me.” Amelia said, grabbing another load of salt. “Gathering salt like this is easy. I’ve never really focused on accumulating a bunch of wealth. Anytime I have in the past, I’ve lost it gambling, or someone took it from me.”

Amelia paused, looking Dar in the eyes. “Personal strength is the best source of wealth. Getting my grand dao will be worth more than all the salt I could ever pull from the ocean.”

“I’d had no idea.” Dar was a bit surprised by the serious tone that she had taken.

“Can’t a girl want to be powerful? That, and want the pleasure of a man. The two aren’t mutually exclusive.” She gave him a wink before going back to her work.

Dar hesitated. He hadn’t meant it that way. “I just mean you seemed less serious, more like you’d enjoy a party before you’d train.”

Amelia snorted at that. “I just like a little D, okay? Well, I like a big one better, if I’m honest. I like the physicality.”

“Yet you stayed, even though I wanted something emotional?” Dar pushed her further.

“Mika.” Was her one-word answer. “She means a lot to me. We have stuck together for a while. If she’s in, then so am I.”

“Oh, if you are just here for Mika—”

But Amelia cut him off. “Oh, stop. If I had zero interest in you, I’d pull Mika away. I’m interested, trust me.” A bit of heat blazed in her eyes as they locked onto his. He ended up looking away first. She had such intense violet eyes that it was almost hard to keep her gaze.

Changing the subject, Dar asked, “So how close are you to your third greater dao?”

“Not far at all. I just need one more lesser dao. Something like hard would do just the trick.” She looked at him hungrily.

“Funny that. I’m hoping to form a greater dao of flame next. Something like bright would be perfect.”

Amelia blinked and then broke down into a laugh. “God, it makes both of us sound like absolute idiots. Picking a companion for their dao.”

“Yeah, I try not to think of it as a transaction or wanting a companion just for their dao. I feel like that’s a slippery slope into treating ancients like tools.”

Amelia nodded. “I’m sure after what you saw in Bellhaven you would be against that. Mika told me about how you saved her from Henry. Thanks for that; she was in that mess partially because of me.” A guilt look flashed across Amelia’s face.

“About that, she said you two were selling salt in the city before you ran into some hard times?”

He saw her wince, even though her back was turned. “Yeah, I got into a bit of trouble with gambling debts. Then they devalued my salt. It was a hard climb out of it, but they held the ropes the whole way, so I just had to play it as best I could.”

Dar had seen a number of those types of situations in the past, where debt was used to keep a person under control. “At least that is done.”

“I mean, the debt is still out there. But I don’t think they are going to be able to collect on that anymore. At least, not for a while. I’m hoping that debt gets forgotten.”

She paused after her latest deposit in the vessel. “All done.”

“Great, let me just seal this up.” Dar used his dao of granite to seal up the container. It would last better that way.

Amelia walked out of the cave with him and got in the cart to drive it away. They were near the southern palisade wall. And as he inspected it, he noticed something coming out of the forest.

Cursing as he realized his ax was back in his hut, he summoned one of the Black Knight’s axes.

“Woah.” Amelia looked at the ax. “Wicked.”

“Not now.” He said, eyes locked on the emerging ettercaps. “Get the guard.”

Sensing the urgency, Amelia jumped out of the cart, but as she turned, Rex and several of his women were already coming.

“They are out of the forest.” Dar pointed. Three ettercaps were milling about outside the forest. They didn’t seem to be heading towards the village yet, but their webs were expanding into the bushes outside of the territory they’d kept to.

“It’s just a few.” Rex offered.

Dar nodded, but it meant that they were going to become a bigger threat, and soon. Jumping, Dar caught the top of the palisade and threw himself over. “But we can’t allow them to feel comfortable expanding.”

Dar rushed into the first ettercap, swinging his ax to cleave its head off. The first one went down without a fight, but the second two had more time to prepare before he moved for them. They shifted into a fighting stance.

Dar read their body language and dodged to the side before they managed to tangle him with their webs, like they once had. The training with the girls had helped improve his ability to read his opponent, and it was already paying off.

Rex came down from the sky at that point with a rough spear, slamming it straight into another of the ettercaps, leaving just one.

Dar backhanded the last ettercap, tackling it to the ground and using a knife from his belt to stab into it and kill it quickly.

“You fought well.” Rex commented, seeing Dar get up off the ground.

“I feel a little more deadly if I’m honest.”

Rex just gave him a predatory smile. “Yes, there wasn’t any hesitation.”