No Need For A Core?

As the caravan slowly moved along the road leading up into the foothills, and ever closer to the Azeria Nexus, anticipation filled Gemeti, forcing her to make sure that her tension didn’t cause her to pull on the reins of the wagon she was driving, under supervision of a more experienced wagon driver. She was looking forward to seeing Amrydor, though part of the reason for her anticipation was also slightly annoying to her.

Amrydor and his friends were the only people Gemeti knew in their age group who had that sort of personal power and strength. She’d felt the intensity of his spiritual pressure and had loved it, which was part of what had inspired her to attempt joining their training expedition. Her swift defeat in physical combat at the hands of Shizuko showed that she was not close to ready for that.

The problem this presented her was that she found the sensation to be an incredible aphrodisiac. She liked the feeling of being helpless against carefully contained power, and she loved it when she had control over that restrained power. It was not quite addictive, but it was certainly something hard to match.

She had a fair idea where she might find people close to her age that would have at least some of that type of strength, but aside from not being interested in the rougher sort of company that would probably be involved, Gemeti wanted to be a successful merchant in her own right, and a good reputation was one of a merchant’s most valuable commodities.

Her other option was not appealing either; Gemeti had no interest in people more than two or so years older than herself. Or that physically appeared to be too much younger than herself; on the trip here, she’d found that the elves her own age or even a little older looked too young to pique her interest.

Once the caravan had reached Riverbridge, there had been a few options that could have satisfied that intensity she wanted, but now it felt like she was too close to what she was really craving, and it left her not in the mood to experiment, especially since she already knew many of them, past associations would just remind her even more of what she was missing.

Besides, there was a certain thrill to whetting one's anticipation as well. Or was that appetite? Perhaps both. That was a thought that entertained her as the caravan continued to trundle along painfully slowly, because she was certainly looking forward to seeing Amrydor again. She just hoped that he didn’t have any other company — while she’d never had the need to consider rules like the ones he'd described to her in what was starting to feel like an eternity ago, they made sense, and she had decided to adopt them for herself as she intended to travel a lot.

Movement caught her eye as Derek and Galan abandoned the caravan with haste, and Gemeti smirked. Just because she hadn’t bedded anyone in Riverbridge didn’t mean that she hadn’t found toys to play with. The half-elf Galan was too young and looked even younger; Derek was just as young and truly ensnared by Shizuko. So there had been no true intent on her part when she’d flirted outrageously with the boys, and she didn’t think they believed she meant it. However, watching them turn beet-red had been very entertaining.

Still, those two knew the area well, so if they were abandoning the caravan now… Gemeti focused on the path ahead, leaning out from the side of the wagon. Those buildings had to be the trading post, and there were a lot of people moving about, but one figure wasn’t moving. Her eyes widened with delight as she took in the tall boy waiting by the side of the road; not only did he seem to be unattached, it looked like he was anticipating seeing her too!

“I’ll be back shortly,” she said with a smile as she handed the reins over to the senior driver. “And with a bit of luck, I’ll be returning with another pair of very strong hands to help with settling in the wagon and unloading.”

The older man made an amused snort. “Off with you then; I know that look.”

Gemeti hopped off the slowly moving wagon and restrained herself from running. But a bold stride would do quite nicely to bring her to Amrydor much more swiftly than the unhurried wagon would have. The expression on his face as he looked her over was nice.

“Hello, Gemeti,” he said as she got close, and he stepped forward to meet her.

“Hello Amry,” she replied as she pulled him out of the main thoroughfare and into some cover, then stepped inside of his embrace and pulled herself up to kiss him. He helped, his arm wrapping around her waist to press her close as her feet left the ground during their kiss. His height was inconvenient at times, but his strength did make up for it in some situations.

He tasted wonderful, and she could feel the difference in their power had grown, which was unfair given how much she had been practicing her magic and even training with some of the younger guards back in Artgoi. However, it was also exciting.

When their kiss broke and he set her back down on the ground, she leaned back against his arm and looked up with a smile. “I take it you missed me? That’s nice for a girl to know.” Gemeti grimaced as she realized how that might sound. “Er, I mean, I would have been happy for you guys if things had changed between you and Fuyuko, just, if it hasn’t, then, well, it’s a bit selfish, but I am glad for me.”

She wasn’t sure what reaction she was expecting from him, but it certainly wasn’t simple amusement. “Don’t worry, I get it. Also, things have sort of changed between her and me, just not in a way you need to worry about. We’re closer, but it’s complicated, and she’s definitely happy to see you with me.” He grinned and added, “Just be glad you are someone she likes. I asked her to imagine someone she didn’t like cuddled against me, and she then broke off a bedpost without meaning to.”

That was… somewhat scary, but also rather nice to know that Fuyuko liked her. Wait, bedpost? No, she didn’t want to know. Or maybe she could explore that later... “I’ll keep that in mind,” she said. “Though I guess this means I still have no chance of seducing her either. Too bad that; I’ll just somehow have to make do with a tall, strong, handsome young paladin at my beck and call… eep!” He’d pinched her bottom just hard enough to make her jump.

Amry grinned at her. “Careful, or I might need to punish you later. And all I have to do to punish you is to not use a little trick I learned recently.” His hand had slid up to her lower back, and she could just barely feel the touch of his spiritual energy gathering there. It was something she couldn’t have done at all just a month ago, but she had been practicing a lot.

Gemeti narrowed her eyes. “Alright, this sounds interesting. Show me this little trick of yours.” Lowering her resistance, choosing to not resist the intrusion of someone else’s spirit, was relatively difficult because of how new she was to consciously controlling her spiritual energy this way, but it only took a few moments of concentration to find that mental state that let her relax properly.

She could feel him doing something that started around the lower section of her spine, but then the sensation spread down into her belly and hips, and rolled up her spine as her eyes widened in shock while her hands grasped onto his shirt tightly. “Amry— !” She cut herself off to bite her lower lip, keeping herself from making inappropriate, wanton noises as she shuddered. Her thoughts scattered as her hips bucked with induced pleasure, and only his arms kept her from sinking to the ground. Then a second wave rolled through her, clouding her mind even more. The third wave wiped away all ability to think for a few blissful seconds.

When she could think again, she was breathing hard and could taste blood from where she had bitten her lip. “What... what was that?” she asked in a daze. The bastard was smirking at her. Gemeti was very glad she’d pulled them out of the view of her caravan. She’d never live this down.

“Like I said, just a little trick I figured out recently. You’re the first person I tried that particular version on, and it’s the third time I’ve used it at all. I don’t think it’s something that can be used in combat at all. It’s sort of too close-ranged and too easily blocked by a person’s aura. It can’t be forced passed even a normal person’s aura if they don’t let it happen.”

Before she could ask another question, he bent down and kissed her briefly. Gemeti was surprised to find that her lip no longer hurt, and a quick test with her fingers showed that she wasn’t bleeding anymore. “Oh? You can heal now? Are you a proper champion and priest already?”

He shook his head. “No; something light and superficial like this is as much as I can do. I wouldn’t be able to even slow the bleeding of a more serious wound.”

Admittedly, she found that a little disappointing, but being able to heal at all was still a sign of how fast he was growing. “You’re going to have to show me what else you can do in greater detail later tonight. And we’re going to find out how long you can keep that going.” Gemeti shivered happily at the thought, then shook her head to clear it. “But I’ve taken long enough; I need to keep up with the caravan. There’s a lot of work to do… and surely, a big, strong man such as yourself would be willing to help me deal with all this heavy cargo?”

That made him laugh. “Alright, I can help. Just show me what you need me to do.”

“Don’t worry; I like telling you what to do, how to do it, and how long to keep doing it for.” She started to slip out of his arms to follow the caravan, but he caught her and pulled her to him, her back against his chest.

“Hold on just a moment; I have a gift for you. Don’t turn around, this is perfect.” He fastened something around her neck, and it tightened just enough for her to feel that it was a choker of some kind, but the fabric felt weird.

“What is this?” she asked as she ran her fingertips along the strange, almost slick material.

“It’s a special variation of living leather armor, similar to that which everyone who visited Artgoi had gotten. You should be able to focus on it, bond with it, and then command it to turn into a thin layer of protective clothing that slides under all your other clothing.”

It took her a couple of minutes to figure out how to bond with it and command it properly, then a sleek, shiny layer of fabric-like material flowed snugly over her skin. “Oh, that’s friendly!” she said in surprise before examining the sections of it that she could see. “This seems a lot thinner and tighter fitting than what you guys have been wearing.”

He nodded. “That’s probably because it’s a hybrid with living liquid crystal. This version won’t be as strong of a protection, but once you get used to it, Mordecai said that it should be very good at changing shape and absorbing other outfits for it to copy exactly. Oh, and it’s currently unique — Mordecai said that Azeria doesn’t intend to produce any more copies until they get some feedback from the only person who has one. Say, right before your caravan leaves the nexus for Artgoi? Which does mean that no one else in the caravan will have this version.”

So she’d be the only one wearing this temporarily unique version of the armor, and thus the only person in Artgoi with it too. And it sounded like, with some effort, she could use it in very visible ways that would draw attention to her connection to Azeria. That was something a junior merchant could use to her advantage.

And it sounded like Amrydor had gone out of his way to get this for her.

Gemeti turned to look up at him. “I think that this is the most perfect gift I have ever received. Thank you Amry.” She pulled him close for another lingering kiss, then stepped away. “Come on, I really do have a lot of work to do. But later, later I intend to show you how much I appreciate this gift.” Between his new trick, and experimenting with this fascinating living outfit, she did not expect either of them to get much sleep tonight.

The first thing that needed to be done was to find out where the wagons were going to be stored so that the horses and other animals could be unhitched and taken care of while the wagons were inventoried and unloaded.

During this process, Gemeti coordinated with one of the adorable flying rabbit people; a ‘rabkin’, Amry had called them. She had never worked with someone so distractingly cuddly before, but it was a good reminder that the world was more diverse than she was familiar with.

She first showed the rabkin all the items that Azeria had either previously purchased or had specifically requested. Once the previously purchased items were collected and verified as delivered, they were taken away, disappearing into thin air. The requested cargo varied; if there had been an agreed-upon price, it was annotated onto the bill of lading to add to the total owed to Gemeti on behalf of merchants back in Artgoi, and also taken away. If it had been requested but a price had not been agreed upon for whatever reason, it was set aside to be negotiated for later.

The next category of cargo was stuff that had not been requested. Gemeti intended to sell this stock to either the nexus or to delvers, though she would get very little profit for any of it. None of it was hers, and all of it had a minimum sell value. She was obliged to not sell for less than that unless she wanted to pay the difference herself, and she would only get to keep some of the profit if it sold for more than the minimum. Anything that didn’t sell needed to be brought back to Artgoi, which meant less space for goods to return home with, and once again a smaller profit, plus a smaller reputation. She couldn’t have that

She had a fairly small amount of cargo in that category; it was more of a test of trust and capability before anyone would entrust her directly with cargo of significant value. The caravan also had a lot of other merchants and representatives with their own wares to sell, but per the bargain that had been reached with the help of Seshadri, Gemeti was in charge of all the things that the nexus had requested or paid for.

Once everything had been sorted and stowed, Gemeti could take a break. There was still a lot of activity going on for the rest of the caravan, as they had more cargo to ensure was properly secured, but she could afford to let other merchants sell their wares to the nexus and to delvers first.

“Now,” she said to Amrydor, “I want to also see Fuyuko, then find out how this delving business works, and then have you show me around. I’m done for the day, and I don’t have a schedule.”

“Alright, well, Yuyu is that way; we can meet her over there… why is she by the Kuiccihan encampment? This might be interesting.”

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Early chapters, some excerpts and short stories, and more art!