51

Michael bit into the meat of the King of the Forest carefully at first, not sure if the meat would prove as tough as its hide had, but he was pleased to find it perfectly tender. Even without spices, the meat itself had a rich, savory quality to it. It was so good that he found himself quickly finishing his plate and asking for another. The entire village was gathered in the square, where they’d built a massive fire and were slowly roasting pieces of stag flesh for everyone to enjoy. One older woman was playing light music on what looked like a lute, and in general there was a jovial air around the camp. Even Tain was enjoying an ale as he exaggerated his role in the fight with the great stag to the entertainment of a few of the village girls whose parents were keeping a close eye on them. Michael noticed a few of them looking his way every once in a while, but they quickly turned around when they saw him look toward them. It made sense, he was objectively handsome in his new body. With the silver armor on top of his looks, he looked like a prince out of a storybook. He wasn’t particularly interested in sixteen-year-old girls, though. He’d raised one, and that had been enough trouble for a lifetime.

He sipped his ale and frowned a bit.

“What’s wrong?” asked Ollie.

“I never really liked warm beer.”

Ollie smiled and tapped Michael’s mug. “Have a cold one on me, mate.”

Michael looked down and noticed fine cool vapor drifting off the top and took a sip. It was perfectly cold, like a beer taken out of an icy fridge and poured into a chilled glass. He took a longer sip, letting out an involuntary “ah” at the end.

“There’s one thing I think all of our countries can appreciate,” he said, taking a sip of his own. “A nice drink.”

Michael smiled and took another sip, looking around at the gathered villagers enjoying their own food and drink. “I think that might just be a universal thing for humans.”

“Cheers to that,” he said, holding out his mug.

Michael tapped it with his own, and they shared another sip.

He saw the headman talking to another woman nearby.

“She should be out of her house. She can’t stay cooped up all day, especially with a celebration going on,” said the woman.

“I know, but when I spoke to Rhea, she seemed exhausted. Her legs were even wobbling a bit as she stood in the doorway. I think the healing of her hand took a lot out of her.”

Michael coughed a bit on his ale and felt a hand slap him on the back a few times trying to help him clear out the liquid from his chest. When he managed to catch his breath, he saw Marcus looking at him with a wide mischievous grin.

“You, uh, have a good time ‘washing your clothes’ earlier?”

Michael looked both ways, seeing Jakub and Tain far from them and the others a short way away, letting Ollie chill their drinks again.

“How would you know that I had a good time?”

Marcus shrugged. “I pay a bit closer attention than the others, pick up on things others miss. I’ve always been smart like that. Also, I may have left behind a belt that I needed to retrieve when you thought you were alone.”

“Ah… well, I can tell you I definitely had a good time.”

Marcus smiled and held up a hand. “My man!”

Michael met the gesture a little awkwardly, unfamiliar with how to perform a good dap as an old white man in a young white man’s body, but he appreciated the bonding moment nonetheless, and Marcus was amused.

“Hope the rest of us get some too at some point.”

Michael smiled at him. “I’ll pray for it.”

They left Rundling early the next morning, with Durn, the headman, nice enough to take them back to the main road by cart. They were two days behind the rest of the group, and their packs were all loaded with the hide, horns, and other parts of the King of the Forest, but in spite of that, both Jakub and Tain were confident they’d be able to quickly reach the others.

“We marked one of the supply carts so we could easily find it again. We’re almost out of range of it, which means that we should be able to catch up fairly easily as long as we keep a good pace,” said Jakub as they started their walk up the road.

The next two days consisted primarily of walking, the occasional wave to a passing trader, and a lot of smalltalk. Tain was a sour bastard the entire time, and Jakub was quiet by nature, so most of the conversation occurred between the Penitents.

Michael looked at Marcus as they walked. It had been some time since he’d tried to divine his friends, and he thought that now would be a good time to see if he could divine them beyond the surface level again. In Marcus’s case, he couldn’t see beyond the surface level, but he was able to see that he had a new Deed, “Slayer of the King of the Forest,” and he was very curious as to what benefits it conferred. Marcus and the others didn’t seem to have much interest in divining themselves, but Michael was curious enough to keep trying. He tried to divine the rest of them, but with Davi and Pyotr, he still couldn’t seem to get past the surface, when he reached Ollie, though, he was finally able to break through to the next level of divining on him.

Titles:

Oliver Mason

Two-Lifed

Soldier of Stent

Ollie was the only one of them with no Deeds, being unable to earn any in the events of the training exercise or the Festival of Blades. Michael already knew what the Soldier of Stent Title granted, so he focused on Two-Lifed, the Title he had for being a Taker.

Two-Lifed

Grants:

Middling Magicka

Dual thoughts

Michael frowned. Middling Magicka was self-explanatory—Oliver was a strong mage and seemed to have a larger pool of magicka than even the other mage students, but dual thoughts made no sense. He assumed that together the two things granted a benefit equal to the Major Recovery Michael was given by his own Title. He brought it up to Ollie.

“Oh, is that what that is?” he asked no one in particular.

“Is that what what is?” asked Michael.

“Oh, I can think two spells at once. Cast them at the same time.”

“I’ve never seen you do that. Have the rest of you?’

Davi, Pyotr, and Marcus shook their heads.

“Well, I did it once when I was training with Teft, and he freaked out. Told me that doing that even with simple spells was incredibly dangerous. I figured I’d leave well enough alone at that point.”

“So you haven’t experimented at all with it since then?”

“Didn’t really seem worth the bother. Nothing we’ve run into so far has really needed me to try it.”

“Wait, what does yours do?” Ollie asked.

Michael was still shaking his head over Ollie’s lack of care about what, to him, seemed like an incredibly powerful ability.

“It grants me major recovery. I heal and recover faster from exertion.”

Marcus barked a laugh. “Oh, that poor woman.”

Michael shot him a look, and he held up his hands as if to say he’d leave it alone.

“Huh… that seems kind of shit compared to mine,” said Ollie.

Michael frowned. It was a bit more basic than Ollie’s, though he was still quite happy to have it. He didn’t think he would’ve survived without having that quick recovery at his disposal.

“Do all of us have abilities like that?” asked Davi.

Michael nodded. “Presumably, but so far I’ve only been able to divine the details for myself and Ollie. It usually has to do with how well I know a person.”

Pyotr suddenly moved closer to him and wrapped an armored arm around him, causing a clank. “I was born in a town south of Saint Petersburg. My mother was a tailor, my father a drunk.”

“I don’t know if that will work.”

“Eh, indulge me either way, friend,” replied Pyotr.

Michael shrugged. “Fair enough.”

“—so I joined the ballet for the same reason men do anything.”

“To test yourself?” asked Michael.

“No, to meet beautiful women,” Pyotr said as he shook his head sadly. “I fear we have some ways to go before you know me as well as you need to.”

Michael chuckled. “Guess we’ll just have to keep talking until we’ve figured it out, then.”

“This is true.”

Tain held up a hand for all of them to stop. He moved forward a few steps and held his hand up to the sky to measure how much daylight was left. He looked at Jakub.

“I say we keep pushing. I think we can reach them before nightfall. They won’t be moving at this hour—I’d bet they’re setting up camp.”

Jakub sighed. “Are you so eager to be cramped together with everyone in camp again?”

“Yes.”

“Fine. I agree, then.” He turned around. “Let’s move fast, everyone. I want to have time to get a decent sleep and meal tonight.”