Vol.6 Ch.7.2 – Finishing Touches II

“Everybody happy with what they picked?” I asked as we walked out of the treasury. Except for the one piece of mythic gear we'd picked everything we'd been allowed to.

“We still need to split up those tattoos,” Alisha said, “but other than that, yes.”

“And we need to ask my mother about using the duplicator,” Anna added.

“Right,” I said. “About that.”

“Yeah?”

“Would it be possible for your mother to call for a messenger from Sparta?” I asked. “I would really prefer to avoid traveling down there.”

“How long would it be?” Selene asked.

“If we go by caravan, maybe three weeks,” I said. “But just like with the Cult's city, the caravans only brave that trip rarely.”

“Is it that dangerous?” Alisha asked.

“No,” I said. “The Spartans keep the roads safe. But it's a very long trip and it gets pretty hot down there. Not that great for transporting perishables and not very lucrative. There's about a week's stretch with close to no towns on the way so they can't earn money or buy supplies along the way.”

“You've been down there before, then?” Selene asked.

“Very rarely,” I said. “The Spartans are very diligent about killing Dark Lords but that means the ones that do show up down there tend to be much stronger than normal. Twice now the Adventurer's Guild contacted me and told me that they could use my help down there.”

“And did they need you?” Selene asked.

“Yeah,” I said. “The Spartans are very strong but they have some... narrow-minded ideas of how fighting should work.”

“For example?”

“They believe mental magic is cowardly and refuse to stoop to it,” I said.

“I can't really disagree,” Yume said. And as an illusionist, she should know best.

“Maybe,” I said, “but they also expect the same code of honor from their enemies. And so Dark Lords capable of mental magic really mess them up.”

“Wouldn't some mind magic talismans be an easy solution to that?”

I gave her the most obnoxiously aloof smirk I could muster. “Do you honestly expect the proud warriors of Sparta to debase themselves by wearing such cowardly trinkets?”

“They don't actually talk like that, do they?”

I snorted. “No, but they absolutely think that way.” I turned to Anna. “I think we got off track though.”

“I'll ask mother,” Anna said. “I'm sure she'll agree but it might take a few days for the messenger to arrive.”

I already had a pretty good idea of what to do in the meantime.

“Should we go talk to her right now then?” I asked.

**

After a bit of back and forth we decided that Anna should go brief her mother alone, only taking Selene along as a bodyguard. And I'm sure that decision had nothing to do with the fact that the two had clearly spent last night together and were already planning to do the same tonight. And while Anna and Selene were gone the rest of us would prepare a hearty meal for tonight.

It had been a surprisingly exhausting day. Talking about Travelers and other worlds with Hermes, talking to Prometheus, the confrontation with Zeus that had been as much negotiation as it had been playing to the crowd, talking to Hephaestus and searching for magical items for hours, it had taken its toll. It wasn't as bad as fighting our way through Olympus had been, of course, but we still hadn't quite recovered from that exertion. At least we wouldn't have to spend weeks in the hold of a caravan wagon if Anna's mom came through for us.

And so Alisha, Yume and Athena busied themselves with chopping up some vegetables while Meli and I went to bother the local butcher for a decently sized piece of meat.

We walked through the streets for a while when I noticed something strange about Melinoe's behavior. She seemed unwell. Subdued and a good bit slower than me. It wasn't as severe as the fear of crowds Yume suffered from but it was noticeable enough that, even though Melinoe and I had only known each other for about a week I could tell something was wrong. And once I realized what it was I wanted to smack my forehead for not realizing it sooner.

It had been early evening by the time we'd gone out but it was early Summer and still quite bright outside. And so I grabbed Meli's hand and pulled her along with me into an alley. The moment we stepped into the shadows she let out a sigh of relief.

“Sorry,” I said once she'd begun to relax.

“What's wrong?” she asked.

“I should have realized it sooner,” I said. “You're not good with sunlight, are you?”

She blushed. “What gave you that impression?” she asked. She didn't sound condescending, just surprised.

“The way you squint against the sun,” I said. “The way you lag behind me. I'm not sure if you're trying to hide in my shadow or if you're afraid of bumping into other people because you can't see but I can tell it's too bright for you.”

She looked away in embarrassment. “Sorry.”

“Don't apologize,” I said gently, stepping forward to wrap an arm around her.

“I was slowing you down,” she said quietly.

“So?” I said. “I should be more considerate of you.”

“You're already plenty considerate,” she said.

“Don't make me flick your forehead again,” I said. “I didn't notice that you were struggling with the sun.”

“None of you are struggling with the sun,” she said. “So if I want to be part of your group...”

“Then we still take care of you,” I finished for her. “I can accommodate Yume being bad with crowds. You're all very accommodating of me being an annoying know-it-all. And we can accommodate your aversion to sunlight.”

She didn't say anything.

“Is it an Underworldler thing?” I asked gently.

She chuckled tonelessly. “You know, before I met you all I barely ever left the Underworld. I didn't even know that sunlight would mess with me so badly. I just need to get acclimated to it, that's all.”

“Sure,” I said, “but I still want to help you until you do.”

“It's my problem to deal with,” she insisted. “I shouldn't bother you with it.”

“You picked the wrong group of people to take up with then,” I told her, patting her head. “I know I can be pretty thick sometimes. But don't shut me out, yeah?”

“Alright,” she said. She considered for a moment whether to say more, opened her mouth to speak, then closed it again and shook her head.

Women. I sighed, pretty sure I'd at least interpreted that one correctly.

“Would it help if we walked hand in hand?” I asked gently.

“Yeah,” she said with a smile.

I was about to turn around and offer her a hand when she asked: “Hey Felix?”

“Yeah?”

“Would it be alright if...” She started, then stopped and tried again. “If I'm going to stay with you all I'd like to pick up a few things from my place.”

I'd already expected that. “I was going to suggest that later,” I told her. “If the queen comes through for us we can make a quick trip to the Underworld while we wait for the messenger to arrive.” I paused, then added: “And if Alisha is a good girl she can come along, too.”

Melinoe bit her lip, her eyes going distant, a thousand filthy scenarios no doubt flashing through her mind. She'd told Alisha what she'd have to do to earn her forgiveness, after all. “That sounds great,” she finally said.

I smiled and held out a hand for her.

She blinked down at it for a moment, then placed her hand in mine.

**

I'd been worried that the butcher would be all out of good meat by the time we made it there but to my surprise the man was busy handling the perfect piece as we entered the store.

“How much for that?” I asked as he wrangled it under the counter.

“This?” he asked, pointing down at it.

I nodded. This was the tail of a basilisk. Incredible meat, perfect for a roast. If properly skinned and seasoned it would turn into something very similar to spare ribs, with a generous amount of tasty, tender meat to gnaw off individual pieces of bone.

“You sure?” he asked. “Nobody wanted it so far.”

“Philistines,” I said. This happened from time to time. Our villa was in the noble district and while the butcher wasn't quite located in the noble district – the nobles made sure to keep their parts of the city purely residential – he was still close enough to it that he got a lot of his business from nobles. And they didn't appreciate the same cuts of meat as us commoners. A lot of the stuff the nobles ate I wouldn't touch and they thought the same of fatty cuts like this tail.

He smiled. “Sixty?” he asked.

“Deal,” I said. I could have haggled him down. I was sure I could have brought him down to fifty if I had really wanted to but I didn't even bother. We had the mun. We didn't need to be stingy bastards. And haggling about a piece he was struggling to get rid of struck me as bad form.

**

We rushed home and got busy preparing the food. Melinoe skinned the basilisk tail while I busied myself making a glaze out of honey, salt and spices to slather all over it. Then we placed the whole thing on a bed of veggies Alisha, Yume and Athena had chopped up while we'd been gone and tossed it in the oven.

We let it roast for a while, occasionally adding more of the honey glaze, and by the time Anna and Selene returned the food was ready to eat.

The basilisk, as I had expected, was fantastic, the meat tender, juicy, almost but not quite falling off the bone and both sweet and spicy thanks to the glaze. The veggies were the perfect compliment, as was the salad Alisha had whipped up to go with it.

Once everyone had dug in and we were no longer starving Anna began:

“Mother agreed to call a messenger from Sparta. Or rather from the closest city the crown has a presence in.”

“They're even more isolated than the Atalanta cult?” I asked. I hadn't known that. The Adventurer's Guild seemed well connected with the branch in Sparta and so I had assumed the crown's messenger system would be similar.

“About the same,” Anna said. “If mother had been willing to admit just how urgent this trip was we might have gotten someone from Sparta itself but...”

“Yeah,” I said, “probably best not to tempt fate.”

“Are you worried about Zeus?” Melinoe asked.

“Not really,” I said. “Spreading this around might piss off Zeus but I don't actually care. However, we don't know who in Sparta is and isn't still in contact with Ares. After the crown outlawed worship of Ares throughout the kingdom I could see some of them doubling down on their worship simply out of spite. And I'd rather Ares didn't catch wind of what we're trying to do until he's too late to stop it.”

“Yeah,” Meli said. “Probably best not to.”

I nodded, then looked back at Anna.

“As for the other thing,” Anna said, sounding a bit more uncomfortable. “Mother was willing to let us use the duplicator. She gave us five days, even.”

“In exchange for...?” I let it hang in the air.

“An open favor,” Anna said. I winced and she rushed to clarify: “She will likely send me on another diplomatic mission once we're done in Sparta.”

“That's fine then,” I said. “We can handle another one of those trips, especially if it's in aid of defending the kingdom from the Black Goat.” I had very deliberately used the plural, telling her that of course we'd be accompanying her on that trip.

“Thank you,” she said, understanding my meaning.