Bodyguard Chapter 6 (Patreon)

Pre-note: So, this is going to be a little weird. I'll be posting chapter 6 of Bodyguard and Guardian Angel at the same time, so if you're so inclined you can read both and compare. I had chapter 6 and half of chapter 7 of Bodyguard pretty much finished when I began to adapt it into Guardian Angel, so I want to at least post what I have. I'm currently finishing up chapter 7 of Guardian Angel, though at a rate of a couple hundred words a week at the moment.

Interestingly the Guardian Angel chapter felt like a real hatchet job, and it still ended up almost 200 words longer. Pretty sure that's not how editing is supposed to go. Oh well!

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Touanne looked at the strange young woman in front of her for a long time, until she felt Ana starting to become uncomfortable, which prompted her to fill the silence.

“Ana,” she said gently. “You’re level 3. How can you not know what a Growth Crystal is?”

“So you do get the messages?” Ana demanded.

“Well, yes,” Touanne said. “Of course! How else would we… but Ana, again, you’re level 3. I understand that you may have been sheltered, and level 3 is indeed very low at your age. So low that the only way I can see for that to happen is if you’ve given most of your Crystals away, even the ones you’ve generated naturally. But then how can you not know what they are?”

She saw her mistake instantly. Ana closed down, dropping even the facade of emotion that she’d been presenting and becoming flat and calculating.

For a fleeting moment Touanne wondered if she was in danger. Even with their great difference in levels, she had no doubt that the woman in front of her could harm her before Captain Falk or Torden could hear and intervene. But she forced herself to relax and let go of such uncharitable thoughts. She could sense no violent intent from Ana, only a desire to turn this conversation away from things she’d rather not answer.

“I’m sorry,” Touanne said. “I did it again. I pried. I let my curiosity get the better of me when I should have just answered your question. So, yes, Ana, everybody sees the messages. It’s not just you. It’s how we interact with God, or the System, or whatever you want to call it. The Growth Crystals, well… I don’t think that anyone knows what they are, really. They exist, and they don’t. They are in our world, and in some ethereal other place. They are experience made manifest. Here, let me show you.”

She held out the palm of her hand, and retrieved a Shard from her storage. It was a piece of some strange material, smaller than her little finger, vaguely crystalline and colourless with an ethereal quality to it, a transparency which was very different from glass. It didn’t bend light at all, it was just not completely there. “This is a Shard. It is worth ten experience points. You should have received one every full moon since you… became a young woman.”

“You mean puberty?” Ana asked.

“Oh, good,” Tuanne said. “You’re educated, to some degree at least. Puberty, yes. The Shards usually start appearing the month before a girl begins bleeding, two or three months before at most. Quite a useful warning, in that way,” she laughed. “They come at a similar age for boys. And then you would have received a few more every so often for accomplishing things, like learning a skill, or winning a contest or some kind, even an argument. So, you see, that’s why I was so surprised. You really should be level 4 or 5, even if you did nothing at all except float through life.”

“The messages say that my Crystals are ‘set to auto-consume’,” Ana said. “I’ve never seen one.”

“Oh, I can’t recommend that at all!” Touanne said, “What if you need some quick money, or if a friend needs just that little bit to gain a level? You should change it to manual immediately!”

“And how do I do that?” Ana asked.

“Just… tell it to,” Touanne said. Interacting with the System was such a basic skill that it wasn’t even taught. Children just picked it up. She desperately wanted to ask so many questions of this strange woman, with her inexplicable gaps in her knowledge, but she just knew that Ana would run away if she did.

Ana got that faraway look in her eye that indicated that she had brought up her Summary, then said, out loud, no less, “System! Set my crystals to consume manually!”

She talked to the system out loud! Touanne could barely sit still. She wanted to ask so very much, but she just couldn’t bring herself to make Ana more uncomfortable. Ah, the perils of overbalancing towards Healing.

“It worked,” Ana declared. “So you can just take these things out and sell them?”

“Yes,” Touanne said, a little more excitedly than she’d intended. “In fact, take this.” She held out the shard she’d brought out to show Ana. “I got it for Healing you, so it’s no loss to me.”

Ana looked at her sceptically, but then reached out and took the shard. “It doesn’t weigh anything,” Ana said curiously. “And it’s like I’m not really touching it, either. Like… I don’t know. My fingers stop, but there’s nothing there.”

The shard vanished as though it had never been, and Ana visibly flinched. “I wasn’t sure if that would work,” she said, a little flustered.

This was so fascinating. Touanne had never seen or heard of an adult learning to interact with the system before. When the shard reappeared in Ana's upturned hand and the serious young woman actually jumped slightly in her chair, Touanne nearly giggled with delight!

"Ana," she said, "I cannot tell you how much I appreciate you putting your trust in me like this. I think that we should rejoin the gentlemen now, but if you have any more questions, any at all, just come find me. I will extend the same promise of confidentiality whenever you ask for it."

"I might take you up on that, Touanne," Ana said, her eyes locked on the shard in her palm. With a sudden flourish she closed her hand, then opened it again to show an empty hand. "Magic," she whispered, as if to herself, and this time Touanne did let a small giggle escape.

~~~~~~~

Nic sat on the bench. Tor was looking at him sympathetically, while Falk's hand lay on Nic's shoulder in a silent show of support. When the door to Falk's office opened all three men looked up, and Touanne beckoned them inside.

"We're all done and decent in here," she said, then disappeared inside.

When Nic entered the office he immediately looked at Ana. She looked better. She sat straighter, and her face looked less pained, though the bruise was still there, of course. Still, it was a relief. Ana wasn't the most… personable companion imaginable, but he'd hated seeing her so obviously in pain.

The Captain took his own seat behind the desk while Nic and Tor remained standing. "Thank you, Touanne," he began. "Your invaluable help is, as always, appreciated. Miss Anastasia, I trust you are at least somewhat better now?"

"Much better, thank you," she said demurely.

"Yes, well. You should know that Bardo and myself have had a very interesting conversation with Mister Nicola, here."

Ana's head didn't quite snap around, but the look she gave Nic unsettled him. She looked about to speak, so he did his best to salvage the situation.

"I'm sorry, Ana," he said quickly, before she had a chance to open her mouth. "I had to tell them. They deserved to know, didn't they? About the cultists we fought?" He tried to emphasise the 'we' with a look. "The bandits we killed?"

"Always had a bad feeling about those two," Tor muttered. "Didn't think they'd go that far, though. Did us all a favour there."

"So, yeah," Nic continued. "They know that you can take care of yourself. Is that so bad?"

"In fairness to young Nicola here," Falk said, "Bardo had you figured before he said a word. You are not the first lady companion to be taught how to defend their charge, either. But have no worries, we shall not be spreading any gossip, shall we, Bardo?"

"No, sir," the younger man confirmed, sincerely but with a smile.

"The important thing here is that Nicola has us quite satisfied that, while you two have killed three unknown men who were certainly up to no good and two members of our small community, you are not to blame. You acted in defence of yourselves and each other, and I do not intend to take any action but to congratulate you on your fortune in surviving. Any of their possessions that you have you may keep as damages and compensation for your trouble. That said…" He took a long pause. "Since you're new here with no way to leave, I assume that you will want to join our community. And because you have not come here through approved channels, that being the Waystone, for the sake of that community I will be placing you both on probation. I will expect you both to behave, and I am asking To– Bardo here to keep an eye on you and show you around. Since young Nicola has already extracted a promise of some lessons in swordsmanship from him, I am sure that this will not be a problem. Now, Miss Ana, Mister Nicola, I am very pleased to have met you, yes indeed, but I do regrettably have work to do. You may go."

Tor brought Nic and Ana out of the office. “Put your things down by the wall,” he told them. “I want to talk some more with you before we leave.”

Touanne went to leave, but first she turned to Ana. “Remember,” she said. “If you need to talk, you can always come to my shop. I’ll make time if at all possible. It’s on Main Street, but you can just ask anyone, really, and they can point you my way.”

Ana nodded, and Touanne turned to Nic. “And that goes for you as well, young man. If you need to talk about something with complete confidentiality, you can come to Touanne, alright?”

“Alright,” he said. “Thanks.”

“Good. I’ll be going back to my shop now. I’m so pleased to have met you both.”

With that, she went down the stairs. Nic could hear some people in the common room greet her and wish her well. A well-liked woman, clearly.

“Well,” Tor said, gesturing to the bench. “Please sit.”

Once they were seated he continued, still standing. “The first thing I want to tell you is, and I cannot stress how important this is, that you need money. Everybody here is hoping to get rich, and charity is difficult to find on the regular. So, I need to ask you some uncomfortable questions. I promise that I have your best interest in mind, right? So I want you to answer me honestly, and to not get angry.”

“Right,” Nic said. “Ask away.”

Ana already looked unhappy, but didn’t protest.

“First, how much money do you currently have?” Tor said. Nic and Ana looked at each other, and Ana produced the two purses in which they’d collected the money of the three cultists and the two bandits, respectively.

“We’re not exactly familiar with the currency here,” Ana said. “And the money in these two bags is different.”

“Well, let’s have a look,” Tor said. Ana carefully emptied each purse into two separate piles on the table.

“Well, these are regular Bluesky coins,” Tor said, pointing to the smaller pile on the right. “Looks like… five silver, sixteen copper. There’s twelve copper to a silver and twelve silver to a gold. One room at an inn,” he looked between the two, “will usually run you a silver per night, and another six copper per head if you want meals. And you’re unlikely to find cheaper food elsewhere, unless you want to live on bread and water. So you’re good for three days, if you don’t spend more than a copper or two.”

He turned to the other, larger pile. “Now, these I don’t recognise, but you should be able to exchange them at the administrative office. If you do, tell the clerk that Captain Falk will be interested to know where they’re from. I assume that they’re from the cultists?”

Ana gave a curt nod.

“Might be useful if we ever need to figure out where they’re from. Anyway, you may be able to exchange these by weight, depending on what the clerk says about them. Looks like you’ve got two gold, a bit smaller than Bluesky coins, twelve silver coins, a bit larger than ours, and these eight look like bronze. No idea what they may be worth, but I’d wager you have something like… thirty, thirty five silver and change, here? That will keep you housed and fed for a while longer, but remember that it’s almost a hundred and fifty days until you can leave, and even then you’ll need money to get home. Which brings us to my next two questions. The first one is specifically to you, Ana, and again. Please take this in the spirit that it is asked.”

Nic could see Ana tense. She clearly had as good an idea about what the question might be as he did.

“Ana,” Tor said, embarrassment clear on his face. “Are you a Courtesan who’s hiding her class?”

“What, I girl can’t whore herself without the right class?” Ana aske, her voice so cold that it made Nic sit perfectly still, as though moving could make her direct her anger at him.

Tor winced. “She could –”

“The answer is no, and I am sure as hell not doing that,” Ana continued immediately.

“That’s fine. I’m just relieved to have the question asked and answered. In that case, do the two of you have any skills that could make you money?”

“I mean…” Nic said, relaxing somewhat. “What’s in demand?”

“Cooks, blacksmiths, tailors, leatherworkers, anyone who makes or repairs anything can make a living here. We’re a growing community based on adventurers, and adventurers need many things. We also like to spend our money on entertainment after a successful outing, so anything like that –”

Nic saw Tor flinch again as he looked at Ana, who was giving him one of her death-glares.

“I mean music, dancing, storytelling, things like that. My point is that any skilled job is in demand, but unskilled ones… not so much, unfortunately.”

“Well, um…” Nic said. “I can read and write and do maths. I’m quite good at that.”

“Maths?” Tor asked.

“Counting,” Nic said. “Sums, differences, multiplication, division, algebra, all that.”

Ana gave him a look. “You’re good at algebra?” she said.

“Took maths for one of my A-levels, yeah,” he replied.

"Is that like AP?"

"Yes and no, I guess? But close enough."

“I am not sure what quite all of that is,” Tor said, looking nonplussed. “You can ask at the administrative office, I guess. And Ana?”

“I got my GED,” she muttered, which obviously meant nothing to Tor. The man just looked at Ana patiently until she continued. “No,” she said bitterly. “No skills that would be of any use here.”

“Then, unless Nic can secure a position as a clerk of some kind, you’re really limited to going outside. Clearing camps and dungeons, that sort of thing. Me, I think you can do it. I know that you can fight, at least a little, and I’ve promised Nic to give him some lessons in swordsmanship. I’d happily teach you, too.”

Ana looked like she was about to snap out a reply, but to Nic’s relief she actually thought about the offer. “I don’t like blades,” she said finally. “I can use a knife but I hate it.”

“May I ask why?” Tor asked.

“Because a knife is really only any good if your opponent is unarmed, isn’t it?” Ana replied. “You never want to get in a fight where you both have knives. Even if your opponent has no idea what they’re doing you’re still going to get hurt. There’s a saying where we’re from: ‘In a knife fight the loser dies on the street, and the winner dies in the hospital.’ The only reason I learned was because… someone insisted. In case I was attacked by someone with a knife who didn’t know how to use it.”

“That’s some surprising insights for a Companion,” Tor said, giving Ana an appraising look. As though they didn’t all know that Ana could fight. “Still, a sword removes some of those issues. If you know how to use your sword, you have a good chance of getting out of a fight unharmed. And even if you don’t want to carry a sword, knowing how to use one would help both against enemies who do, and if you lose your weapon and have to grab something off the ground. Swords are common. Even if you find some other way of making money and don’t want to go out, I still recommend learning how to handle a sword.”

“I’ll think about it,” Ana said, and Nic actually believed that she would. He knew her brushing-off voice, and this wasn’t it.

Nic allowed himself a little bit of hope. As a treat, as it were. There were a few things Nic knew with absolute certainty. He knew that his father loved him, because despite being a pretty big, tough bloke, he’d never been shy about both telling and showing Nic how he felt. He knew that he desperately wanted to become an adventurer, seeking fame and fortune through daring deeds. And he knew that if Ana was not on board with that, she was both willing and capable of physically stopping him. She’d done it before, though, to be fair, he’s been quite drunk and stupid at most of those times.

The fact that Ana hadn’t yet opposed the idea of Nic learning to use a sword was encouraging. If Ana joined Tor and himself for swords-practice, she might see that Nic could handle himself. And then she might agree to trying out the whole adventuring thing.

Hope, he told himself. He could always hope.