Meager Power

I was warm and comfortable. My bed was welcoming in a way it hadn't been in a long time. I wondered what time it was, though. Normally I'd just keep sleeping until my alarm went off, but something must have gone wrong. I slowly opened my eyes, wondering both why I was sleeping at such a weird angle and how it wasn't fucking up my back as I did.

There was a woman in my bed.

She was sitting quietly, doing some sort of needlework. I had to blink a couple times as my memory returned.

A woman was my bed.

Now, with proper context in my brain, I could tell that I was completely cuddled up to her tail. I looked around, spying Rachel and Basrith working together to clean clothes over by the fountain. Rachel met my eyes and gave me a small smile, which I returned. Continuing my investigation, I spied Thenishale gently snoozing against Kelessta as well, though on the outside of her tail. It seemed she was curled around me, and honestly, I wasn't really complaining. Now that I was moving, though, it was obvious to her that I was awake.

"Are you okay?" She asked quietly, not whispering but also not speaking normally. I glanced over at the elf at her side, and she chuckled. "He'll sleep through a little conversation."

"I..." I cleared my throat. "As I can be, I think. Sorry to break down like that."

"No need to worry. It happens to the best of us, and you are far from home." She smiled sadly. "I know somewhat what that's like."

"Is that common? Here on Avare?"

She shook her head, setting aside her sewing. "Not terribly, at least amongst most people. All too often for adventurers, though. We tend to flock to this life because something forced us from home."

"That makes sense, I guess," I responded, still waking up. That was the excuse I used, at least, when I realized I was still snuggled up to her. I could feel the heat rise through my neck as I shuffled myself to set up. "Sorry, again."

"Seriously, Allison, it's alright. Stop apologizing for being hurt."

"No, actually, I'm super aware I'm hurt, I was more apologizing for using you as a hug pillow. It's not really appropriate, especially since we met literally yesterday."

Kelessta just raised an eyebrow while waving a hand dismissively. "I haven't slept alone in months. If it weren't you, I'd have been wrapped around the boss, or Basrith. It's just our little crew's way. If anything, I should apologize to you, most humans would be mortified to be in your position. Sekiss are not well trusted. It's honestly a little strange that you're comfortable."

The heat did not stop rising, and I know for a fact that I had to be burning red. "I, ah, well, we only had humans on Earth, so I guess I'm missing all sorts of prejudice that you're used to." Lying through omission wasn't that bad, right?

"Well, I'll take that, then. We're slow to get moving this morning, but breakfast should get started once Thenny's up."

I perked up at at that. "Ah, we dried all our meat, but I can get some veggies thawing. If not this morning, we can start using it soon." I used that as my excuse to get up out of the warm, nice, comfy pile of snake-tail. If I stayed any longer, my head might cook instead of breakfast. I have no idea if she noticed, but Kelessta said nothing about it as I padded away to the freezer to acquire said foods. With a fuller look, I saw the professor studying the broken chair up at the front of the Sanctuary, completely oblivious to the world around him. Evelyn was just reading a book off in the corner, though I did spy her eyes flick up to look at me. I could tell she was tracking every movement everyone made, but was very good at seeming like she paid no attention at all. I made a mental note not to cross her for any reason.

Arla was staring out from the entrance to the Sanctuary, but she did take a moment to nod at me once I was up and moving. Best I could tell, given the word 'boss' being thrown around, Arla led the adventurers. I didn't know if it was a matter of expertise, seniority, or some other reason, but it was important to keep track of the relationships of the group. My next mental note was to suck up to her. She would be easier to deal with than the noblewoman or the professor, and her connections would be more immediately useful to me.

I stepped into the freezer, immediately shivering as the temperature difference hit me. I had failed to account for it, but damn, it certainly woke me up. I quickly retrieved the vegetables to help with future meals and grabbed some of my torn-up clothing to switch on where I couldn't be seen in the stairwell. If we were gonna be stuck here for a bit longer, I'd take advantage of the storm's end to get back to my exercise routine. My tattered 'exercise clothes' would have to do the job, and I tried to ignore the looks I got while I headed outside.

I also tried my best to ignore Arla, who was sitting in the Sanctuary entrance and watching me do my jog and stretches. I was a little upset that I couldn't use my spear to practice, but I made do with a long stick that I'd found the other day. It was less than ideal, but it was something. I looped in various kicks and pretend spells as I tried to use my form. I was a bit disappointed that I wasn't doing much better, but I would only get better slowly over time. I had to keep it up.

"Heads up, crybaby."

"Huh?" I turned toward the voice and flinched back as something flew at my head at a low speed. I stuck my hand out and managed to catch it, and realized that it was a long pole, suspiciously sized the same as Arla's spear, who was walking toward me with an identical implement.

"I said heads up. I can't stand seeing you do your shit like that. God, I still can't believe you're level 15 and cleared a labyrinth like that." Arla shook her head. She wasn't wearing her armor, just some simple travel clothing, but her eyes were bright and attentive. "Let's head over to that clearing, it'll be nice and soft right now, perfect for training your form in shitty terrain."

"What, right here isn't good?" I plunked the staff on the ground. To be honest, I was secretly thrilled to get some actual instruction instead of depending on my nebulous 'skill.' It could only help.

She just smirked at me, and made a ready stance. I flinched backward again and got into a fighting stance, but in just a quick moment, she'd swept her weapon under my feet and I was sideways. I didn't thunk my head on the hard stone, though, as she was already moving forward to catch my fall.

"Holy shit," I said, still processing the quick moment.

"Yeah. You're slow as can be and I'm going to be knocking you on your ass a lot." She turned her head back. "Hey, we're gonna head for that clearing with the dead bear. Let us know when breakfast is good to go, yeah?" Without waiting for an answer, she grabbed me by the arm and dragged me off into the forest. It didn't take long, and it was extremely unpleasant to see the corpses of the wolves as we traveled along. They were decomposing far faster than they should have been, and the smell was incredible in a truly awful way.

"What the fuck are these tainted things anyway? That is disgusting."

Arla's nose wrinkled momentarily as she glanced at a corpse we passed. "The tainted are parasites that infest non-sapient creatures and make them ultra violent. They are, to a worm, disgusting messes that barely keep the hosts alive, and they should be exterminated with all due prejudice." She spit on the ground next to another grimy corpse. "Enough of them get together and they all meld together into this disgusting thing called a 'node' and it takes a ridiculous amount of manpower to bring them down. They'll ruin entire regions if allowed to do their thing."

"Shit. Should we be worried here?"

"Oh, for sure, there's definitely a node somewhere in these mountains, and these things are proof. We're not going to be able to stay at this temple long."

"Should we be out here then?"

She looked back at me as we neared the treeline. "Not today. They roam out in big groups like this when the nodes are mature. We've probably got a week before we need to be gone." She smirked. "So today, we're gonna take advantage of the fact that there are no tainted, and no natural predators around while these things decompose. It'll smell like shit but you're probably going to have too much mud up your nose to care."

"Great," I responded sarcastically as we stepped away from each other. The big bear corpse was still dominating the clearing, and neither of us seemed inclined to stay too close to it. She motioned to me to get ready, so I lowered myself into my stance. Her face contorted when I did.

"What the fuck is that?"

I huffed. "I don't know. I'm self-trained, alright? I combine a spear, kicks, and magic."

"Hm. I'm definitely a lot more typical with a spear, so I can't help a ton with those, but what I can do, is get you in a position to use your weapon properly and defend yourself against others of the like." She approached me, holding her hands forward. "So, how would you respond if I came at you like this?"

I wasn't sure how long we kept up our sparring, but eventually, we progressed from simple stances and scenarios to mock battles, and the adventurer leader mopped the floor with me. I learned she was level 31, more than twice mine, but she didn't bother to use a single skill against me, whereas I was allowed to use mine without restriction. The only times I was ever able to get any sort of upper hand was with an application of Spark, but even then, my 'upper hand' really only consisted of preventing her from knocking me on my ass for another few seconds. It was honestly humiliating, humbling, and painful as all hell. My savior finally arrived as the sun was a decent distance above the peaks of the mountains, as Thenishale arrived to bring us to our meal. Arla helped me up, and the three of us returned to the Sanctuary to get some food.

I made everyone turn away and asked Rachel to help hide me behind a cloak as I used my scrubstone to get the mud and gunk and sweat off of me before I ate. No damn way was I going to put these hands anywhere near my mouth after that mess. After I took the moment to clean up and get changed, I was aghast to find that Arla had just taken her gloves off and was just nomming on breakfast without a care, some kind of porridge.

"Holy shit, you have to wash your hands. That's disgusting," I called out, unable to hold myself back. She just gave me a weird look.

"What? What difference does it make?"

"Ah shit," I hissed, remembering my conversation with Caretaker. "You guys don't have germ theory, do you?"

All of them looked at me confused, but Rachel was looking at me with a chagrined look and the professor's eyes were wide.

"Germ theory?" He asked, excited.

I ended up spending the next half hour or so explaining what I knew of how to explain germ theory to these people, and was rewarded with a whole lot of hand-washing and nauseous looks.

"And these... bacteria and viruses, they're just inside of us?" Evelyn asked me as she rinsed off.

"Inside, on top of, around. They're everywhere, but your body can handle them pretty well. Just better to not tempt fate by shoving a bunch of foreign cultures in your stomach."

"On top of...?"

"Oh, yeah. All over. There's a bunch in your gut biome that help you digest stuff, there's a lot on your skin that helps break down a lot of the gunk that gets on you."

"And these things are just too tiny to see." I could have missed the look on her face, but I stayed stoic, because it was a little too fun. I know some people got freaked out by the knowledge that your face is covered in mites and other tiny living things, but I wasn't really bothered by it.

"Oh, yeah, unless we can get you to build a microscope. No idea how to do that, unfortunately." I glanced over at Rachel, who gave me a sour look and shook her head.

"Stop torturing the poor people, Allison. Their ignorance is not their fault and you should not use that against them."

"Ugh." I threw my hands up and marched over to get my own bit of breakfast. "Fine. Sorry, everyone. I like spreading weird, gross knowledge."

"It may be gross and weird, but quite honestly, it could save an enormous amount of people," Daniel said excitedly. "If what you're saying is true, we need only spread the importance of hygiene past the basics and disease could be reduced by a great amount."

"Pretty sure that's how Europe survived the plague, at least," I said as I tried the porridge. It wasn't bad, a little like thinner, less tasty oatmeal. "Oh, Europe is a continent, smallest one I think? Lotsa people though. It had a plague, I think around 700 years before our time? Killed a third of the population. Pretty bad shit, but we learned a lot. Yersinia pestis, the black death."

"Your world has a great deal of tragedy, it seems," Basrith said in response.

I shrugged, too tired from morning exercise and too refreshed from the overnight catharsis to really get bummed out like I had before. "We try to learn. Lots of good, too. Wonderful art, beautiful music, riveting stories. Damn, that really sucks," I stopped. "I'm never gonna get to listen to my playlists again. Y'all do music regularly?"

"It's not uncommon to hear music regularly in centers of civilization, but you usually gotta seek it out," Arla responded.

"Are you doing okay? You're bouncing around to different topics like crazy," Thenishale noted.

"Oh, yeah, that's the ADHD." I blinked. "Ah, fuck, I was gonna ask if you have magic to cure, like, mental diseases, but it's not technically a disease, so probably not."

They simply stared at me while trying to get their bearings. I was definitely rambling, and should probably pull it back. I sighed. "ADHD is a condition where it makes it difficult for me to focus on things sometimes. A lot of the time, actually, but I can lock in if I really need to. Just sucks. A lot." Daniel looked at me like he wanted to ask about it, but I held up a hand. "Prof, you've apparently gotta focus on temple stuff. Write down your questions and you can ask them once we're getting out of dodge."

He just narrowed his eyes, reached over for a notebook, and began scribbling.

"What do you mean, he has to focus?" Rachel asked. I just looked over at Arla, who relayed to her what she'd told me about the tainted. The rest of the group had disgusted looks on their faces, but didn't seem surprised by it. This must be common knowledge, or at least something they'd already discussed.

"I take it, then, that you plan on coming with us?" Evelyn asked me. I glanced at Rachel, who just shrugged at me. I guess I had already taken the lead, and we were working together.

"Yeah, don't see why not. I don't wanna drown in worms any more than you."

"And what can you do to pay for this protection?"

I laughed. "You are a politician. Damn. Well, then, I'm calling in the favor you guys owe us for bailing you out. You show us to civilization safely. We go together."

A small smile graced her face. "Interesting. You are so outspoken and free, yet you recognize politicking?"

"I can do politics," I said, thinking back to my dad's teachings, "but I just don't have a lot of interest, I guess. Too much backstabbing."

"Ah, then you can't do politics," she responded smugly. "There's no backstabbing when everyone has eyes in the back of their heads."

"Oh, and also, too much of that," I said, pointing at her, "the whole sly 'I know that you know that I know that you know' type thing. Just call me out and let's talk things through, huh?"

She shook her head. "If the whole world were as open as you were to dialogue, it would be far simpler. But as nice as that would be, we live in the world, and I must go to dinner with my cousin occasionally and pretend that she's not the dumbest idiot in our family."

"Fair enough," I relented. Not like I was planning on going into politics, anyway. It'd take something utterly ridiculous for that. Closest I'd get was this damn godsgame, and once I was out, I was staying out.

The rest of the day went without much happening. We were all still a little exhausted and talked out after breakfast, so mostly kept to ourselves. That night was interesting, though. I ended up going for first watch again, paired once again with Kelessta, to both my delight and embarrassment.

"Am I going to have to carry you to sleep again?" She asked me, amused, once we'd settled in.

I shook my head, cheeks heating. "No worries. I'm way too mortified to ever have that happen again."

She huffed. "Hm."

"So, I guess I've been pestered a lot by y'all, but what's your story? The professor and the countess I can kinda infer, but your adventuring group. How long have you worked together?"

She cocked her head to the side and thought. "I think it's been about two years now? It started out as just Arla and Thenny. I joined them on their second job, and we picked up Basrith a couple months after that."

"Job. How do you find work?"

"Well, there's generally postings in big enough cities for mercenaries. We call ourselves adventurers, but that's really just a fancy word for unaffiliated mercs. We haven't signed on with any kind of company, mostly because everyone operating out here sucks."

"How do you mean?"

"Well, take the Silverclaws. They're slaving bastards, so absolutely not gonna work with them. Curhounds is full of rat bastards, all the chaff of society, so we wouldn't really fit in with that crowd. There's other big ones, but really, we've been pretty well-off doing what we have been." Kelessta refocused her eyes on me. "...What?"

Sure, it was cliché. Maybe it would be fruitless. But, boy oh boy, by the goddess, as soon as my responsibilities were over with, I would be on a fucking crusade.

"Slavery," I growled out, "is an abomination." Kelessta seemed taken aback by the sudden heat in my voice. "What era is this?"

"The fifth," she said softly.

"I've got a game to win. And after I do, I'm going to make sure slavery gets left behind with the fifth era."

I looked the sekiss woman in the eyes, forgetting myself in the moment. Nothing else stuck in my head. Nothing but the ideal, the crux of my being, that a person's will and freedom remain inviolable. "I don't give a shit how much blood I'm going to have to spill to do it." Would I murder for this ideal? Without a shadow of a doubt.

She looked at me, concerned. "I'm not going to fight you on that, but that's a large fight you're picking." But, after a moment, her eyes hardened. "Make sure you get some money, because I'd be delighted if you hired the boss for help. You're not the only one with a bone to pick with slavers."

I nodded at her and turned away, glowering. I wasn't really feeling much more conversation after that. Of course. Of course this backwards-ass world has fucking slavery. Even earth had slavery under much nicer names. But here, I was going to have power. And what is power for, if not for making the world a better place? Power without ideal is empty. Ideals without power are useless. I thought about my weapon practice with Arla, and resolved to work to put my money where my mouth was. I'd had motivation, sure, explore the world, but now, I was simmering with determination.