NOVEL NEXT Book 4 chapter 20
Hecatolite let out an annoyed huff as she all but slammed the door to the blacksmith. This was not going as planned at all! She had assumed that finding rings in the city would be as easy as it was back home; this was the capital of Felnnor, wasn’t it?
Well… she wasn’t too sure about that, after all they didn’t even have a castle. How could they have a capital city with no castle in it? then again, a castle is kind of pointless isn’t it? Hecatolite was certain that a castle wouldn’t even slow down most people she knew, and those it did it would be nothing more than a minor inconvenience…
Thinking of everyone she knew, she stopped on the first person who might struggle with a castle wall. Maybe Plague would struggle… he was the only person she could think of that couldn’t fly or simply smash the walls. But he is a necromancer, can’t he just… toss a zombie over the wall and let it… Hecatolite’s eyes went wide for a moment as she thought about it. He gave Saris a zombie! What if it infects her?
Wait, he’s a necromancer, he would obviously have an anti-zombie spell, duh. She let out a sigh of relief, she would be very upset with Plague if he started an apocalypse... Thinking about it she should ask Eryl about an anti-zombie spell; just to be safe. She doubted he would destroy the world on purpose, but that’s the thing with world ending events, they just sort of happen.
Her stomach growled causing her to look up at the sun that was hidden behind the branches of the world tree. She shrugged, it has been… hours since breakfast so now was as good a time as any for lunch she supposed… Could I eat a zombie? I mean they can’t talk… maybe a very fresh one, something tells me they would taste bad after a few days; before they started to spoil. She shuddered involuntarily thinking of the last time she ate spoiled meat. It had been an accident of course, how was she supposed to know that meat kept in her bag wouldn’t stay fresh! And in her defense, it still smelled… ok, before she ate it. Amethyst had been very mad when we got sick… so maybe no eating zombies, even fresh ones just to be safe.
Hecatolite was surprised later when she learned that zombies, in fact, do not “infect” people in this world and ones raised by a necromancer tend to have preservation spells cast on them to keep them from rotting! Amazingly it’s technically the same spell that’s used to keep food from rotting, though most people don’t know that and think only nature mages can preserve food.
As for the castle question… that was a lot harder for Eryl to explain as Hecatolite struggled with differentiating “everyone in the world” and “everyone she knew”. It is true that no one Hecatolite personally knew would really struggle with a castle, but they were outliers in the world as a whole; most people in the world didn’t even have enough mana to cast magic, much less call upon enough power to break through a solid stone wall.
It didn’t help that Hecatolite didn’t remember anyone she deemed unimportant leaving her with a very small pool of people to consider when she thought of “everyone”; a group consisting of powerful mages, high ranking adventurers, royalty, and several gods. Amethyst was delighted to find that Hecatolite did consider a few people from her guild as people… despite only knowing them as the “cult of cookies”; but at least she remembers them, so it was a win.
Having decided to not eat any zombies, Hecatolite couldn’t help but sigh, “I got distracted again.” She grumbled, causing the two Elven women to stare at her as she crossed her arms. “ok, new plan.” She turned to face them causing them to give her quizzical looks. “food first, then we will continue our search. There is no way a city this big doesn’t have a single blacksmith that makes rings.” She nodded to herself.
This city, that may or may not be the capital of Felnnor, was easily the size of the capital city back home so it had to have tons of crafters and blacksmiths!
The two women exchanged glances before finally Fae answered. “Well, little one,” she said slowly as Hecatolite narrowed her eyes. She had a feeling she was not going to like what the tall red-haired woman was going to say next. “you do know that elves don’t really wear jewelry, right?”
Hecatolite froze, “what?” Her entire body sagging with the question as she looked up at the taller woman who just gave her a sympathetic smile.
The two of them led her to a small spot to sit down, Remi going to get them some food while Fae explained what she meant to Hecatolite who for once gave the woman her full attention… kind of, she did get distracted a few times, but she got the gist of it.
As it turns out, Elves don’t just not wear jewelry; the idea of decorating their body with trinkets of metal or wood was completely alien to them until they started trading with other nations. And even once they had learned of the practice it just never caught on with the elven people.
She explained that though it is rare to find jewelry for sale it is not impossible if one checks the larger trading houses that import and export goods as they may have some from Ecrein laying around; if it hadn’t been sold to a blacksmith for scrap that is.
But if Hecatolite was looking for a piece of Elven made jewelry she would need to commission a piece as most, if not all, blacksmiths in the city don’t bother making it; instead focusing on more practical items like knives, nails, and arrow heads.
It was at that point that Hecatolite gave up on the ring idea; despite Fae’s encouragement that they may find some if they go to one of the trading houses. She didn’t explain why, and Fae probably wouldn’t have known if she did but one thing she had said stuck out to Hecatolite.
Melted down for scrap metal.
Hecatolite recalled back when she was in the void she had studied a bit about the world when she had learned that she was going to be born in Crown; a nation that is built on trade and commerce. And though Hecatolite didn’t care much for world study she had tried to learn at least some, just in case her family had been traders, and she would need to do… well, that for a living; she was secretly very thankful that had not been the case.
What she did remember though was a few important things, like a hint from a book that raw metal will always sell in Felnnor. That little tidbit of information along with knowing they would waste their time melting down jewelry for scrap means they likely don’t produce metal themselves, or if they do it would be a very limited amount. All of that mixed with the fact that they have been fortifying their borders for ages and are currently at war means that even if by some chance she did find the single blacksmith in the nation that made rings he’s probably currently turning out arrowheads instead of jewels.
Her entire plan had been doomed from the start; she had just assumed that rings were universal! Was that… racist? Culturalist? She wasn’t even sure if that was a word, but if it was it was very bad, and she definitely did not want to be that! After all, she was married to Succubus… and an Elf now! She needed to be better about learning and respecting the other cultures!
She gnawed on the kabab that Remi had brought back for her as she sat in silence and thought. she can admit she had been wrong to just assume that everyone would do the rings; but that left her with a whole new set of problems. The biggest one in her mind is what to do now about Saffron!
Saffron was a demon, did they do ring exchanges like humans did? it would be super rude to just give her a ring and think that would be ok without considering her own culture! Did Succubus even get married? That’s dumb, of course they do, she’s “your” wife after all. Hecatolite chastised herself. But if that’s the case then what to do? She can’t just ask Saffron… Could she? Maybe Eryl would know something?
Wait, that would also be really mean wouldn’t it! oh, hey, I need to ask you, my wife, how to propose to my other wife. that would be a dick move. Not that she thought Eryl would get jealous or anything, she didn’t seem like the type, but that didn’t mean Hecatolite wanted to test her luck. Besides, she will need to ask Eryl properly as well now so it wouldn’t feel right to ask her how to do it with Saffron only to tell her to wait for herself.
Hecatolite just had a gut feeling she needed to do it right and in order. Not that she cared for one of the women more than the other or anything like that, but she couldn’t help but feel that it would be… wrong for her to not ask Saffron first, she deserved that much at the very least… and Hecatolite should really talk to her about Eryl now too… She has been a very bad wife.
Maybe she can surprise her! That's it, she will find out how demons purpose to one another and then surprise Saffron with it! Now she just needed to find a demon… Demons aren’t native to this world though, Saffron was summoned just like the Heroes… maybe if she asked Eryl really nicely she would let Hecatolite summon a demon to ask it?
Hecatolite nodded as she summoned a terminal to make a list. Ignoring all the other lists she had that she would definitely get to… eventually… “maybe I’ll add an alarm to this list so I don’t forget.” She muttered as the two women watched her with curious gazes, Remi’s eyes locked on the world terminal while Fae… Fae stared at the wooden kebab stick hanging from Hecatolite mouth as it slowly but surely became shorter and shorter; the woman looking alarmed as Hecatolite ate the hard piece of wood.
It was decidedly… woody. Not bad, as it had soaked up a lot of the juices from the meat and other vegetables that made up the treat, but it was kind of bland. Definitely the worst part of the meal by far, weird that they would save it for last.
“Do… you want another one?” Fea broke her train of thought as she carefully held out her own kabab that Hecatolite happily took. Fae looked to Remi who guarded her own food with a free hand.
“Oh, no, she can’t have mine too.” Remi said flatly as Fae huffed.
“Remi, the poor girl is clearly starving.” Fae whispered as if to keep Hecatolite from hearing, not that it helped. “can you at least go buy us some more? if she’s hungry enough to eat the stick I doubt two kebabs will fill her.” she pleaded and the shorter woman sighed, clearly annoyed but she gave in and stood, handing Hecatolite her own kabab before heading off to the vendor to buy some more.
She thanked the nice lady as she decided to eat these all in one go instead of picking the meat and other bits off like last time. crunching through the wooden stick she realized she must have eaten the first one wrong! Clearly, you’re supposed to eat it all at once like this so the bland stick can add some much-needed texture to the other parts while the meat and vegetables mask the woody flavor!
Fae’s face went white as Hecatolite opened her mouth and bit the two kebabs clear in half, her teeth snapping shut with a loud crunching sound as the sticks splintered and she started to chew. “thank you for the food.” Hecatolite said through a mouthful of wood and meat much to Fae’s horror, “Oops. Sorry, I know I shouldn’t talk with my mouth full.” She quickly swallowed her food before going back to her list making.
Ok, she had a plan for Saffron. first, message her tonight and apologize for being a shitty wife (talk to her about Eryl and ask if she is still ok. be sure to ask her about how she is doing first! Do not just message her and say “we need to talk” that’s never good.). then find/summon a demon and integrate it (maybe eat it if its mean); then get home and marry Saffron properly.
Nodding to herself she labeled the list “happy wife plan”, and told the box to remind her about it before bed so she would remember to message Saffron.
Satisfied with that list she moved on the second list that contained two points, talk to Eryl and ask Eryl to marry her properly. The second point had a footnote to learn how to properly ask an elf for their hand in marriage and then only ask after she asked Saffron, (though she did decide she could tell Eryl that as Hecatolite was sure she would understand, Eryl wasn’t exactly the jealous type and open communication was key for a good relationship after all!).
Happy with her plans for both Saffron and Eryl, Hecatolite sighed. That still left her what to do about the situation now. She had planned on buying rings to turn them into artifacts and give them to All-goose to solve… well everything going on right now, but without rings then she was back to square one.
Did she need it to be a ring though? The rings would have tied everything up in a nice little bow and given All-goose and Cemi a reason to get close to one another; after all the two of them clearly needed help on that front. But in reality, she just needed an item to turn into an artifact and give it to them so they can use a terminal themselves. Plus, it would help with that whole mess from yesterday that was definitely not her fault, if anything it’s Eryl’s fault!
Maybe if she was lucky elven relationships still had something like rings? Thinking about it, every society she can think of had some kind of ceremonial gesture kind of like a ring… hopefully it’s not like a dowry, I don’t know if I can enchant a cow. She furrowed her brow as she thought about it. Maybe it's hide? It would be like enchanting leather… or its bones? If I took them out and enchanted them super-fast and put them back in while Fish-eggs healed it… that might work…
“Intuil, make a note to look into how to enchant a cow.” She muttered before turning to the two elven women with her. She will deal with her cow enchantment later, right now she needs to find out how elven courtship worked; and whether or not her great plan could be salvaged somehow or if she was just going to enchant a random item and throw it at All-goose and Cemi. Thankfully she had two people right here who had been very open and kind to her so far, and even answered all her questions!
Some time far in the future she learned that enchanting something's bones… was not a great idea as ripping bones out of something and then shoving them back in typically kills things. even if it does survive and Fish-eggs, who did not want to be part of this at all because she is a party pooper, heals them; they die of shock. And the one that actually survived had the enchantment healed right out when Fish-eggs healed it. Who would have guessed that carving something into a still living bone wouldn’t be permanent? Well, apparently Fish-eggs did and so did Eryl… and Saffron… pretty much everyone but Hecatolite; but if she had asked before she did it they would have told her not to do it… which, as it turns out, is the exact wrong thing to say to an angry Eryl.
