The Difference

Valentina stuttered out before Omni could act further, "P-please stop!"

Valentina rushed forward and laid the wolfman down before beginning to treat his leg, "You can't just kill people like that!" She exclaims towards Omni.

Omni's lips twitched before their face regained its rigidity, "And why not? They're lucky they got away with simply dying," they shudder a little, remembering how their old 'boss' ran things.

Valentina shakes her head as she rather forcefully stuffs the bone back into place, causing the wolfman to seethe in pain, "That may have been how things were before, but that's not how things are now, and can you please let the cat lady go?" The sheep woman was firm in her tone.

"... You're right." The golem went quiet as they moved back to the portion of the ground they sunk the cat woman into, re-injecting energy and searching around a little before pulling up the sizeable warm lump. As her head popped out from the quicksand-like controlled ground, she gasped for breath, coughing and splurting to try and clear the dust from their lungs. She didn't try to run; she just curled up into a ball next to the wall glaring at the golem with both hatred and fear.

The alley is relatively quiet for a few minutes, the only noise the grunting of the wolfman as their leg is set in place while Valentina was using debris around the alley and gauze from her inner pockets to make a splint. Once done, she stands and sighs, then looks towards the cat woman with sad eyes, then towards Omni, "Do you mind staying here and watching them while I go get the guards? You should also get the... bodies out of the ground; they need to be sent to the proper place."

The golem nodded and began to undo its work, then lined up the bodies next to the wall under the gaze of the wolfman and cat woman. It pretended not to notice Valentina's shaky voice and hands and was left to think about its actions.

'𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘶𝘨𝘴 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘤𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘺 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘨, 𝘴𝘰 𝘸𝘩𝘺? 𝘚𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘨𝘵𝘩 𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮. 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘸𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘶𝘯𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘯 𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘯. 𝘐 𝘥𝘪𝘥𝘯'𝘵 𝘥𝘰 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘨.'

Omni looked back to the wolfman; he had sat back up and pulled himself to the wall next to the cat woman and was soothing her. It didn't make any sense to Omni, it reminded it of when people tried to take pity and brought a feeling of... well, it couldn't tell what the feeling was, but it didn't like it. The more it tried to rationalize its actions, the stronger the feeling got, and it eventually decided to ignore both what happened and the feeling.

It didn't take long for Valentina to return with a small entourage of guards. They grimaced at the scene and murmured to each other while glancing at Omni before setting about putting rudimentary handcuffs on the two living and putting sheets over the dead. Valentina urged Omni to leave, and once out of ear-shot of the guards, it asked, "They didn't want to question me?"

Valentina shook her head, "I'm known among the guards; I help treat their wounds whenever I'm not on a quest. They trust my word that you were only acting in self-defence," she says, walking swiftly through the alley to get away from the area. After two turns, they reached the exit out into the bustling marketplace, stalls of all kinds lined the streets, and people walked to and fro buying all manner of things; jewelry, clothing, trinkets, weapons and armour, food, spices, and ingredients. The market spanned the length of several streets, and some stalls were random while others had the backing of a store that they usually sat in front of, advertising wares and giving samples to attract people inside.

Seeing the cheery faces around gave another strange feeling to the solemn golem, but before it could fall into another fit of self-reflection and inner monologue, Valentina tugged its hand and pointed excitedly towards a large stand with a variety of colourful foodstuffs. The raw fruits and vegetables were relatively similar to those it was used to. Most of the meat was in more significant portions meant to catch the interest for bulk purchases, and there was a substantial quantity of root-based dishes in the market. Omni decided to give up on complex thoughts for the day and do what it wanted to do, following Valentina around the market as she sampled food and asked Omni for advice on recipes and ingredients.

The golem began mentally marking recipes that would go along well with the trend in the market and picking a few of the more 'outlandish' items that could be served as dessert and appetizers. After some taste-testing, to the surprise and amusement of those around them, Omni also picked out ingredients suitable for fermentation for making alcohol.

The pair spent about an hour going through the market streets ending up with a sizeable amount of stuff to bring back to the restaurant, all carried by Omni, of course. Valentina led the way back through the proper paths while the golem memorized in case it needed to make more trips to the market for ingredients and whatnot. The return trip ended without incident save for standing off the road while a convoy of lizard riders passed.

Walking through the doors of the Quiet Respite caused the retired drunken dwarf to stir, mainly noticed by loud sniffing sounds, "Whazzat? Food?" he slurred as he looked around for the source of the smell. Valentina quickly went to his side, "Food's not ready yet, Ghorm, give us a bit, and we can get you some dinner," she quickly stated, causing the dwarf to shrug and slump back over onto the table, snoring swiftly follows.

Omni took the plethora of ingredients into the kitchen while Valentina explained what happened on the trip to Christoph, to which he hugged her, "I'm just glad you're okay," he said softly. The pair went into the kitchen only to see that Omni had already begun food preparations and had the clay golem sorting ingredients into the pantry.

"Non-perishables into the pantry, dairy into the icebox magic tool, empty those barrels and toss the fermentable stuff in, I'll finish the rest later," Omni began relaying commands vocally, turning to Christoph and making a hand motion, clearly telling him to help before beginning to work. "Christoph, please tell me you have a basic menu," It said while sorting fruits and vegetables.

The elf nodded and proudly took out a flimsy paper page in a sizeable questionable font. The golem sighed after reading it, "The medicinal foodstuffs are fine, but why are there only two meat dishes? You also only have three types of alcohol, but I counted over twenty at the market, and what is this scratched-out item? Unbelievable, get me something to write with and new paper," it commanded.

Christoph looked almost offended and was about to try and defend himself when Valentina nudged him along, causing the elf to sigh and find what the golem wanted. In the meantime, Omni focused on the clay golem and took its three-fingered hands into its own. Thanks to Harmonize being in effect, Omni could reshape the clay with minor issue, Omni wanted to do a complete make-over, but that would take too long. For now, it reshaped the hands, siphoning bits of clay from other places on the body to give it human-like hands for dexterity. "Show me how you prepare meat," it asked while turning to Valentina.

"Oh! Um," Valentina was slightly surprised but got a look of determination on her face. Omni handed her a smaller slab of meat. "Prepare it as you would for the first item on the menu," it added.