30. Naming (Patreon)

Aloe blinked several times in pure bewilderment. Perplexity took over her mind and body. Stupefaction was the name of the game. She opened her mouth, yet no words came from it and she closed it again. To say that she was confused was the understatement of the century.

"M-may… may you repeat your question again?" The scribe stuttered and her dark skin gained a pink hue as she violently blushed. "I think I heard wrongly."

"I have asked if you – by any chance – are pregnant, venerable scribe." The soldier responded calmly, even diplomatically, though his eyes pointing at her stomach was a coarse and uncomfortable gesture.

"May I ask you why you think so…?" Aloe trembled on the spot, nervousness and shame wrecking her body.

"I have talked it out with my men, you seemed quite feeble during the trek today," Jamal explained.

"You do not think am I pregnant just because of a lapsus in health, do you?"

"Of course not, venerable scribe." He bowed in submission. "It is the symptoms that led me to this trail of thought. You have vomited quite a few times during the journey. Thrice in total."

Aloe led her hands to her face to hide it. Oh heavens, oh heavens! Her face burned. She almost curled into a ball if it wasn't because that would have taken a toll on her waist area. It's just a misunderstanding, clarify it, Aloe. Just clarify it. She took a deep breath to calm herself. And how do I do that? The scribe pulled her cheeks. I can't tell them about vitality and Evolution, can I? Excuses, I need excuses.

"Oh well, that…" Aloe chuckled nervously. "I am not exactly at my apex in what health relates, and the lacking road could not be compared to those of cities. 'Tis just movement sickness and nothing else."

"What about lunch?" Jamal persisted. "You ate multiple rations."

OH, HEAVENS! Aloe resisted the urge to pull her hair. I had used up a lot of vitality so I was very hungry! I was puking and eating like crazy! What's wrong with me?

"I-I assure you my hunger is not related to pregnancy." The scribe smiled, though her lips trembled significantly, unable to maintain the gesture. "I skipped breakfast today, and puking from the nausea certainly did not do me any favors. I can confirm with absolute and total certainty that I am not pregnant. It is not the case."

Even though Aloe hadn't raised her voice nor spoken for a prolonged period of time, she was panting by the time she finished talking.

"There is nothing wrong or to be worried about in what pregnancy relates." Jamal looked her in the eyes, his irises lackluster brown. "I understand your worry after spending that long with sultanzade, but my words bear no hidden meaning. As part of your escort, I pray for your safety and will do anything in my capabilities to guarantee it. I also understand that a pregnant woman has different necessities."

The scribe shuddered at the words, at the misunderstanding. "I appreciate your worry, Jamal. I truly do. But my words hid no deception when I said I was not pregnant. My health is lacking, and the journey is taking its toll, nothing else, nothing more."

Aloe would have changed into charm if it was possible to convince the man, but staying still for nine minutes would only raise more suspicion. She opted for a switch to acuity to read his expressions and hopefully control hers better.

Jamal finally let that matter slide and they got dinner after that. She didn't expect anything good from the meal, especially after having eaten top-class food prepared by grandmaster chefs, so Aloe removed her acuity and changed her for regeneration.

Hmm, I need an 'Infusion' name for them. I'd like to avoid calling them by their stances names if possible. The girl pondered over a bowl of soup. The desert could get quite chilly at night. I have learned regeneration only, maybe I could count charm too, so these names have to change. As for the remaining three… I'll wait to give them names until I have experimented with them. Her departure from the palace had been too sudden, and she had yet to learn the agility, stealth, and flowing stances.

Regeneration is fine, the name doesn't need to change too much. How about… recovery? She ate slowly, even as some guards disposed to go to sleep already. She didn't give much thought to them, it was common knowledge that soldiers slept in rotation and awkward cycles. If not for duty, then for training. Yeah, recovery sounds good. Not that much 'Infusion-like' but I am the one who has given most of those names. I make the rules. Aloe nodded at that last statement, it brought warmth to her cold body and heart. A frost that no campfire could soothe.

What should I do with charm? Her thoughts turned thorny as she meditated on that stance. They were neutral abilities – magic negated out of human morality – yet if there was one stance Aloe hated, it was charm. She had… been on the receiving end for far too long. I need something more insipid, more scholarly, and less… passionate. Her body shuddered even if she suppressed her mind far before a memory coalesced into existence. Attraction? No, too direct. Appeal? Hmm, that doesn't feel right. Charisma? Better, less sensual, but still not Infusion-like.

The trail of thought lingered for long enough for the scribe to make her way into her tent, or rather, be carried inside by Jamal's burly arms. The tent was small, much different from the one she had shared with Rani when she originally came to Asina that eternity ago. It was meant for a single person – a single adult person – which meant that for her diminutive stature, it was quite sizeable, gifting her some breathing room.

Three soldiers slept in the same tent, and whilst bigger than hers, it was bound to be crowded. Only one stayed out with the fire and the beasts of burden to watch out for the perils of the night.

What could it be? What could it be? This was a distraction, a remedy to her exhausted and bored mind, but it was better than anything. Aloe preferred wasting hours thinking about following naming conventions that she herself had invented before pondering about her mortality.

Infusion. What's Infusion? Images of the past – recent yet impossibly distant – flashed before her, when she first arrived at her grandfather's greenhouse and decided to read his 'cultivation technique'. There was one reason – a single one – why Aloe had believed the book and decided to walk the path of the vital arts.

Wonder.

Simple, primeval child-like wonder. The idea of magic appealed to her mind even if she had been nurtured to be a woman of logic. As much as her father had tried to make her into a banker and her mother had instructed her in basic diplomacy and courtship, their bedtime stories remained in her mind. The fae and wonder, the monsters and the djinn. Malice yet beauty.

That was what the vital arts were to her.

A single word blossomed in her mind like a budding flower. A word inspired by the many folkloric stories of Central Qiraji, the nomads, and the fairies.

Glamour.

Aloe went to sleep with a smile on her face as she finally had a word for that despicable stance.

{*}

The following morning was miserable. Perhaps it was the breeze of freedom that had pushed her forward yesterday, but as she woke up today her whole being was numb. Maybe I overdid a bit. Not only she was still healing and also ridding a rattletrap from the hells, but she had evolved THREE Blossomflames in a single day. Not that I can evolve many more. I'm almost out of vitality pills. The first thing to do when we reach Aramita is to buy different seeds.

The soldiers, specifically Jamal, noticed her lack of strength and enthusiasm and offered her to be carried in the palanquin, but Aloe refused under the pretense of being able to handle it better today. And it was no lie. Yesterday she had spent most of the day out of vitality, meaning her toughness had barely worked most of the time as her body had no vitality to reinforce itself.

Her reserves of Cure Grass pellets were too small to waste them to recover vitality once she was done evolving the cumin seeds, meaning she had to wait for the vitality to recover naturally. If she had access to regeneration, she would have reduced that time to a third, but even a severely weakened toughness was better than anything.

Their breakfast was swift and conservative, and in less than half an hour, the entourage had dismounted the tents and had already departed.

Military discipline was attractive to Aloe. For most of her life, thanks to what should have been her future job and her lowly status, she had dealt with ignorant and irascible customers. Being at the hands of people who knew what to do, how to speak, and when to speak was oddly comfortable.

The next two days were slow. Not only because there had been a mild sandstorm forward, nothing major and only thrashing before them, meaning they had to waste half a day waiting for the storm to vanish. If it had been other lands, Aloe would have suggested continuing during the night as they were rested, but the nights of the Qiraji were lethal and couldn't be underestimated.

In those two days, Aloe only managed to evolve two more Blossomflames, mostly because she had run out of Cure Grass pellets. I have thrice the vitality of an adult person, and each pellet recovers around a full person's worth of vitality, meaning each Blossomflame is worth eight people. Out of context, the number felt absurd. How could a seed have almost thrice as much vitality as her? But Aloe knew the evolved seeds didn't conserve the vitality they received. That vitality simply… disappeared.

Aloe had once assumed that it was consumed in the evolution process, but as she thought more about it, the more eerie it became. That's too much vitality to be used for small changes. Sure, a Blossomflame had no possible point of comparison to a grown cumin plant, but between the seeds themselves, the only change they possessed was the innate warmth. Blossomflame seeds weren't even that visibly different from cumin.

A seed worth eight people. Knowing what she knew of reaping, the thought was scary. Of course, temporal vitality wasn't the same as maximum vitality, but still. Who knew what other plants, what other Evolutions could exist out there? How big the amount of vitality needed could get? Was there an upper limit?

For better or worse, Aloe stopped asking herself questions she may never get answers to, for they had arrived at the most important stop of the journey.

Aramita, a coastal city of the emirate of Sadina, and one of the few usable ports on the rough coast of Ydaz. The endless sapphire sea captivated the scribe's emerald eyes.