Inducing ripples and tides of change

It was difficult to wake up, his whole body felt numb, his eyelids felt heavy, his thoughts felt slow and difficult and he generally wanted just a bit more sleep.

"Oh, you woke up! Finally! Come on Thirteen! The princess is waiting!"

He was used to that sensation, it was similar to when he took his pills to sleep and was woken forcefully, like now.

He recognized the voice, rising slowly and sitting on one side of the bed as he rubbed his eyes and yawned widely without a care in the world.

His right hand sought his deck of cards on his body in wild big pats, finding the familiar bulge near his own right hip, making him relax a little.

It wasn't just its fits now, he fully learned that here it was his literal lifeline, and he started to care more, justifying a part of his obsessions.

-why the hell is Selie pestering me? Oh, wait, right... the meeting with the craftsmen is today -

"Thirteen I was tasked to ask if you realize Etgas is not your personal purse coin. He said you would understand. "

Thirteen grumbled, his eyes slowly opening, a still sleepy stare.

-Seems I was about right to put up that ending to the show, the girl is surely reporting back to her original owner like a dog. Geez, who would've thought this was gonna be such a pain in the ass?-

He growled moving his head from left to right and back, with a slow circular motion as to stretch his neck; he still felt quite groggy.

"Be a dear, go and ask him if I was given a house and a wage while I was sleeping. "

He settled finally looking at her, with a quite annoying expression, they were alone in his room, Selie stomped on the floor with a metallic sound for her hooves.

"You know that Etgas is a working person, right? I only accepted to relay the message for that notion, but you? If you have something to tell him, do it yourself!"

Protested Selie with a firm tone, making him laugh a little.

"Girl, he was your fucking owner 'till yesterday so I …"

His brain was slower but came to a sudden worrying realization.

"Wait a minute… That message... I hope he got the things I made deliver here and paid for them.

Selie I absolutely need those objects they are of paramount importance if you don't know what they are go ask Etgas, I need them to go with the princess, and I need to change. I suppose she doesn't want to see me in dirty clothes again. "

He yawned again as Selie went out of the room grumbling.

-geez they don't really have a sense of privacy 'round here. -

He caressed his face and long beard in a slow, calm motion with his left hand.

-So after all I was able to use magic, which is good, but I wasn't able to die, which is bad since I have to live through this damn ordeal. I will fail, I'm sure of it. So I have to plan how to win while failing. Well at least I slept, I needed that right? Weak… can I still call myself like that? What the heck was that yesterday!? I saw things in third person like in a frigging video game for a moment! Damn, why am I going blind at this, they made it look so damn easy in the books-

He puffed his cheeks and slapped himself with both hands a couple of times while snorting.

-Calm the fuck down me! One damn thing at a time. I got a grasp at my magic cheat and managed to pull out a stunt for the girl to give the impression that rather than going blind I am held back by the gods or whatever. The problem is, that didn't seem a cheat, like at all! Well yes, I admit that seeing from that place from the top for a moment as the troops drew nearer felt terribly wrong. And who is the fucking idiot sends like his top fucking general with a fucking army to deal with five idiots, ok let's assume he didn't know the numbers but geez what the… -

He puffed again his cheeks and slapped himself with both hands a couple more times this time snorting at the end.

-Focus! The main problem is they seem to fear me using magic, did my charade actually took root?

It is good, fear can be a powerful motivator but I don't wanna push it too far, for now.

Anyway, the baddies managed to outspeed me, well no wonder I still am fat, if I didn't choose illusion I wonder if I would've managed at all. So I need companions, strong ones at that.

There are bandits and adventurers from what I confirmed yesterday, I guessed I could convince bandits to be useful underground units, but well… meh it might end like yesterday, let's go with adventurers for now.

The problem is how I manage to convince Etgas to hire them if there was a problem spending five hundred caps for five pieces of important prototypes. Well, who I am kidding, he's fucking right, it is just scraps, in the end, they had no value.-

He sighed, no matter how much he'd tried he didn't have all the pictures to draw conclusions, he understood how a slice of the economy worked and it was below the average value of a slave, more or less.

He wanted to freshen out, but the point was he was somehow late and lateness seemed a serious issue, he was changing when the door slammed open and a familiar armor came inside the room.

"you… you foul beast! How do you dare expose your foul body in broad daylight! I will kill you! "

It was the voice of Xindi, the knight that gave him a lot of trouble as soon as he saw him, and she was drawing the sword at him again.

"I take it that your princess is not the fond of waiting kind, and you are less than patient one, well you are a fun girl; that's a redeeming trait.

Unless you start to get some manners thou we are gonna have a problem you and me, I don't wanna kill ya, but… girl ever heard about knocking?"

Thirteen sighed and made a gesture, closing his right hand and then raising an eyebrow as he realized that it did not have the expected effect, he sighed.

-still, figuring out the rules huh? -

"oh come on girl what kind of a guard are ye!? Close the door "

He started dressing covering his nether regions, leaving the door open as Xindi dumbfound closed the door behind her.

"Come on now, you surely are a hell of a pervert to close yourself with me changing "

he smiled as she answered like he predicted "you… you prick! I will have your head!"

-now the day is getting better and better-

"well, not that I mind being watched, but girl, you should make peace with yourself."

He took his deck of cards smiling at Xindi as he was armed, once again, shuffling his deck back and forth.

"Girl, you have earned my interest now. Why go through the trouble ?"

"You will be alone in the carriage with the princess today, that's why I was ready to cut you down for real if you had touched me with even one finger. I am stronger than those four you killed."

Thirteen laughed shaking his head " You are funny, you know? You will come with us, there's no way on hell I am gonna be alone with your princess."

Thirteen moved but Xindi stopped him "her highness ordered it, you and I will obey."

He raised an eyebrow that started twitching, he was the one truly irritated for a change.

"Listen, I am gonna need way more than an order from a kid to be left alone with her in a carriage, she might tell I touched her in weird ways, and that I have then to marry her."

Xindi normally would've pointed her blade at his throat at this point but she sighed.

"I thought that you'd be more the type to actually do it and force her to marry you, but I can't refute your answer. The princess gave an order, and I will follow, that's all I can give you"

Thirteen puffed rolling his eyes and shaking his head as he waded through the corridors, trying his best to be as fast as possible.

- For Pete's sake I am gonna bitch-slap that princess so hard they are gonna find her in the next kingdom.-

Etgas had paid for the items so the matter was only to bring them into the carriage and it was done in swift order, making Sinalta wonder what those things were about.

Thirteen and Xindi arrived a bit later, the former had made his anger fight his weight, and his anger lost, he was more tired than angry now.

He had to slow down the way, to avoid sweating through his clean clothes, but nothing impeded him from snorting at the princess as he arrived, looking at her in the eyes.

"I do… NOT … think it's … a good… idea to … travel alone… take this… knight"

He pointed out at Xindi, and even if Sinalta probably didn't catch his reference since he was puffing and wheezing loudly she still understood the sentence and shook her head in the negative.

"We… I have questions for you and you alone Thirteen. Having another sit with me in the carriage might affect the way you'd answer me."

Thirteen raised an eyebrow "Personal questions? I won't answer them you know?"

The princess shook her head in the negative, then she pointed out the cards Thirteen was still shuffling, thirteen understood the nature of the question but still had questions.

"You want me to read your fate in a carriage on the way to a meeting I am assuming we are late to attend? "

The princess thought about Thirteen objections and sighed acknowledging it was not the best of times, but obtained that he did it on the way back.

They rode to the meeting, in a similar fashion to Etgas' one the guild base was a big building occupying a whole block of the town by itself.

The main difference was that it actually held a huge empty space inside its court rather than a personal housing space and a jail.

It was akin to an exchange place or a storage space for building materials since the roof covered it too, and there were big pillars and planks visible.

There was a lot of security here too, but going with the princess herself helped with the formalities.

The artisans had waited for the princess but were not really happy about having to do so more than they expected.

They weren't upfront about that in the presence of the princess, but it was clear they resented having been made to leave their business unattended and made to wait on top of that for so long.

-why so many people-

Sighed Thirteen looking around the room where they were bought, it was the size of the room in which Etgas made clients wait before entering his office, maybe half the size.

It might have looked smaller since there was a lot of furniture in it, and a lot of people that made Thirteen's vision spiral a little shrinking a bit the perspective.

There was a round table of desks, men and women were seated in desks, pretty much in a semblance of a classroom if the teacher was to present the lessons from the middle of it.

The desks were larger and came with a quill and an inkwell and many were using to take notes on what appeared to be low-quality paper at first sight.

Thirteen hated to be in such situations, he hated crowds, his mind started going in loops and he desired nothing more than to be back in his dark room with his monitor to brighten it.

He had no computer here but making calculations kept him occupied and distracted enough, they gave him purpose and more than anything gave him precise irrefutable results.

People? They were a moody, vague, rowdy bunch and unless he was able to single somebody out he had better be talking to a wall, that yielded more results, it was that simple and clear for him and it gave less of a headache.

The main point of talking was financial reports and explanations concerning where and how the royal family had to intervene with financial support.

He closed his eyes to listen, it was easier to ignore them that way, and avoid confusion in his brain as he envisioned ways to carry out his soon-to-come presentation.

"Oi, are you seriously sleeping?"

It was the voice of Xindi that whispered to him shaking him a little to wake him up without getting noticed probably.

"I am awake, even if listening to pleasantries and fake numbers is as exciting as watching grass grow. I don't deal well with crowds I am not supposed to kill. Like you saw yesterday."

He muttered annoyed as he snarled out of contempt, clearly, he wasn't as quiet as he thought to be, because silence fell and one voice rose.

"Are you seriously implying we are giving a false report to the envoy of his majesty? What kind of proof do you have to make such blatantly false accusations?! State your name for I will make you "

It was an angry and flustered voice, he opened his left eye, speaking there was a man, half as chubby as him and as tall as the princess dressed in clothes adorned with gold.

He had clearly passed his prime, he had short blue hair and blue thin whiskers under his bulbous nose.

He had a big gold ring on his ring finger, adorned with some sparkling gems, probably diamonds if he had to take a guess.

"The envoy is a kid, I'd wager it's the third or fourth time she comes in her father's stead, I firmly believe she has no idea of what businesses are represented here and to whom they belong.

She probably doesn't read taxes or she's fully formed on how economics works, otherwise, she'd be calling your bullshit right here herself.

Well, I guess you'd be an idiot to not try to pay fewer taxes, especially in times of war when the levy is more severe. "

The man reacted as Thirteen had predicted, slamming his feet on the wooden floor in rage and contempt.

"Who are you to make such baseless accusations! You are giving us no proof of your lies and insult me, Deghir, the voice of the artisans' guild. I ask you, your highness please have this one arrested for challenging my honor! "

Sinalta sighed, looking at Thirteen.

"The man speaking is from a world far away from our own, a world from which heroes of old came forth. While it is true he might not know our customs, I believe he wouldn't talk this way without cause. So, care to share with us how you base your claims?"

Thirteen sighed and got up, making sure to keep his gaze fixed on Deghir and Sinalta as to not spin out of control.

"Easy. The ability to read, write and make calculations are coveted and rare. Slaves with both such skills are sold from around ten thousand up to twenty thousand gold pieces.

This guild has brought a couple of those slaves, for roughly thirty thousand gold pieces to have a figure of speech, yet you declared a total profit of thirty thousand gold pieces this month alone. That is beyond absurd.

You have a monopoly of trades, yet have either gained nothing this month, not putting even a dime into your pockets and in your reserves or you want to pay three thousand gold of taxes less."

Deghir's face paled as he looked at the princess and understood the trust she talked about was a real thing.

"Well there's surely the possibility there's a small mistake on this parchment, I will have the one that redacted it punished severely!"

Thirteen laughed shaking his head as he took out his deck of cards and shuffled it.

"A small mistake? Yeah maybe for someone like you that has a lot of money three thousand gold pieces is a small number, but taxes are a nation's pocket money, they can use it to buy merchandise rather than requisition it outright. And with a war raging requisitions will be in order very soon, if they are not already underway. It might be a small difference, but it's a big one in the long run. One that might lead to rebellions and desertions leading to the fall of this kingdom. "

A murmur arose in the crowd and Thirteen sighed as he walked to the princess and the fat merchant.

"I am here to avoid that, so I hope we are on the same page. Now we'll fix the issue of the damage your little mistake might have done. We need new weapons and tools for warfare, and I am gonna impart you the knowledge on how to realize just that.

First things first I am gonna need potters and stonemason to unite ."

Thirteen smiled evilly stopping as he reached the princess he raised both hands to the ceiling opening them up keeping his deck of cards in the right.

"Scale-up what you people already built into your forge.

You are gonna need lots of work and space, and magic stones with fire propriety to fuel the thing, so you'd better start now. This is gonna give the kingdom the ability to process massive amounts of metal as you can imagine. You are going to need just that to even begin having a chance at not being wiped out. The current output of the one in the forge is enough to realize a full suit of armor, using a casting process they can realize about four or five a day. You are gonna need to be able to build a whole neighborhood out of steel to meet with what I will require."

Deghir raised an eyebrow and looked at the princess and then at the man, he noticed there was a clear mark on his right hand, one he couldn't ignore.

He had to be a hero, even if he was asking something totally outlandish; he knew very well that to oppose a hero was to oppose the kingdom itself.

"Do you realize what amount of money and work this will require?"

Asked Deghir more to the princess than to Thirteen, but it was the man that answered.

"Your actions have generated an increasing stream of new slaves in the past months, you are gonna employ them and clear them of their debts in the process. You will also need to employ the people in the slums, those that are worse off and don't actually have a proper job."

"I remember your voice," Said a man, it was a burly bald man with a long red beard, he dressed simply and had both his hands wrapped in thick bandages.

There were many burn marks on his exposed skin, and his irises had been long clouded by a foggy coat, making him blind.

"You came to my forge, out of the royal carriage, and started poking around with question, making my people cast trinkets. Those were little things, if you want those we can provide them with ease."

Thirteen laughed shaking his head.

"Trinkets huh? I will make you cast many bigger trinkets indeed, the biggest you actually can do. Because in the meantime I am gonna make you realize a tool that can make carriages run without horses and a ship sail upstream."

"You seemed to know exactly what was needed when you came to my forge, why don't you do it and we help you out?"

Thirteen shook his head to the words of the smith shuffling his deck of cards.

"Yeah I could." – in my dreams- "The only problem is the name one of my predecessors left your place. Cesio. Do you know what that is? Poison."

There was a big uproar among the audience, Sinalta and Deghir had trouble calming the people attending the meeting, Thirteen chuckled all the time, caressing his long beard but in the end, he intervened clapping loudly causing the whole room to become silent.

"Done whining?" He asked smiling broadly "I say poison, but it's a particular type of poison. You eat or drink it and nothing happens, it's not good tasting nor bad tasting. It fills your belly and you forget about it soon enough. It doesn't give warnings of sorts. You alchemists, potion makers, or whatever should be asking by now why I would call it a poison then. It's because it makes you weaker in the long run. You see it takes the place of something that might be more useful and make you stronger. In nature, those that eat lots of cesio are smaller and weaker than those that do not, even if they are of the same kind. What I mean to say is that your reliance on heroes is cesio. Whether god-sent or summoned, you rely on them to fix problems you might be able to challenge yourself, and this makes you people weaker than you should. So rather than giving you the answer, I will make you people come to it, like my people came to it. So you will realize you don't need a hero coming to fix your underwear and change your diapers. I will talk only to those that have the needed knowledge already, so those that don't make clocks, ships, carriages, and work metal can go. It will make discussion smoother"

When she met with Thirteen at Etgas' shop, Sinalta dreaded the day was about to turn for the worst in the first moments.

Guren had taken upon himself to take the magic item Thirteen was using from him, seal that in the treasury behind layer upon layer of magic seals.

She couldn't blame him after the reports on just how Thirteen magic had left the bodies of its victims and the sheer power manifested by magic able to reshape an entire building twice.

Heroes' magic defied common sense, or so the tales told, but Thirteen's one was a dreadful menace rather than a positive reassurance.

Removing his outlet for unleashing magic was a necessary measure, and one she had to explain.

She was dumbfounded when she found out that Thirteen was keeping the same deck of cards in his hands.

Rushed as they were the measures taken were top-notch and yet the man was playing with that death tool as nothing happened at all.

She couldn't help to point out the thing, and all she was answered was that they were a little late for the meeting to be told her fate with those on the way.

Her fate appeared sealed from the very beginning, the meeting was swayed by Thirteen and his ways, it was a major disaster in a sense, for her as a future queen.

There was shock, there was a sense of betrayal in knowing the meaning of that world, Cesio, for the ones coming from that other world.

The mere notion that heroes may have deemed their presence and actions as akin to poison was devastating, to say the least.

It dwarfed even the thought that the artisans' guild leader wasn't being honest in his report to her.

Sinalta, like her father, did not leave her room without the magic that let her know if a person was lying to her, and so she knew that Thirteen didn't lie nor did Deghir.

The problem was that even if he did lie, she couldn't deny the notion; everyone prayed for the coming of a new hero, even before the attack of the demons at the border.

Heroes solved problems, righted wrongs, and in the general tense warded from danger, being born rulers and leaders.

Thirteen was no exception in that sense, even if it was clear as day he didn't care for others and reveled in causing shock and discomfort.

He was able to lead, to the point even she understood the principles he was trying to explain about the inner workings of the thing he wanted to build.

A clockwork in a sense, propelled by a force generated by boiling water, a revolutionary concept in itself for her and all the people present here, but far from being something they couldn't make work even if Thirteen skipped some details.

Fire magic stones of low quality were abundant, it wasn't a problem to get to operate them to boil water.

Most of the people in Sesti cooked their meals that way, and for those few who couldn't some taverns or places offered free meals, especially near churches.

So generating the exhalation itself from water was not the hard part, the problem came as to how better to convey it to the system that generated motion.

There was also the problem to keep the whole thing from burning everything around it, that was maybe why Thirteen suggested using so much metal.

The second problem was how to generate the alternating motion described by Thirteen, if he was clear about the notion that the pressure generated by the exhalation was enough, there was the problem on how to relieve it once the duty was done.

Thirteen was questioned about it of course but said that all he could tell was that the key lied in clocks and in how one could translate a linear motion into a rotating one with a metallic implement he crafted.

It was a weird couple of items, one was called an eccentric mechanism, the other an endless screw by the one artisan in charge of making clocks.

Thirteen also talked about waterwheels used as means of propulsion for the ship rather than being simply moved by the water flow.

Sinalta had faith that the best artisans could figure out how to work with those, but now that she was alone with Thirteen on the carriage she couldn't resist the urge to slap him with all her strength.

Thirteen didn't seem surprised, he took the slap and simply chuckled, caressing his beard over the place he was slapped.

"To what I owe the pleasure?" He asked smiling

"Because you are a damn headache!" She puffed putting her head between her hands "I don't understand how it came to your mind to put both me and Deghir in such a situation! I am sure the thought came across your mind that the artisans' association pride would be a stake. Mine as a princess as well! The whole work of the kingdom official is in jeopardy now!"

Thirteen laughed softly " Because there are those that would have the kingdom destroyed from within!?"

Sinalta angrily looked at him "How can you be so sure of that !?"

Thirteen sighed looking up to the ceiling of the carriage. "You're asking that seriously!? Don't you know what happened yesterday!?"

Sinalta was not so pissed to lose focus so easily, she recollected herself making sure to strike a royal pose.

"For whom do you take us for? We are the princess of Cesio, after all. The matter was officially relayed to us and our father this very morning. That you killed five cultists upstarts in the west part of town."

Thirteen brought his eyes back to look her in the eyes, a serious expression on his face.

"You said they told you I killed five people?"

Sinalta nodded "Officially, yes. We of course know you killed only four and got a nobleman in custody. The man was killed by the same magic used to kill the first assassin that came to claim your life."

Thirteen sighed and scratched his right temple "Then you have bigger problems than me trashing a selfish pig. Still, I didn't kill them, they killed themselves."

It was Sinalta's turn to watch him closely in the eyes, her serious gaze caught a glimpse of his eyes turning a deep dark green as they were hit by the light coming from the carriage windows.

"It is hard to believe, but you are at least convinced this is the truth. Their bones had been broken in various places, their blood drained along with their mana. "

Thirteen raised an eyebrow "You can tell if somebody's mana has been drained?"

The princess nodded "Not me personally, of course, there are people in the temple of the goddess that make their duty to analyze the body of those who die in battle. They search for the cause of death, they will have many questions for you of course. They said it was like the bodies were torn to pieces and then put back together. You wouldn't know why they would also do it to their own best buddies right?"

She tapped on her right knee with her fingers, above her rich gown with an I know what you did you sick bastard kind of expression.

Thirteen laughed a little shaking his head.

"Eh, well I figured I could at least put up a little show with their sad remains. I went out of my way to pull them back for you so we're good no? "

He smiled like it was a natural thing to do.

All bodies showed expressions frozen in fear and suffering, all of them were played with wit ease, one was drowned, one was stabbed multiple times, one had every bone in his body crushed, and it seemed his neck was cut from the torso.

The last and scariest of the remains was eaten from the inside out and several of his internal organs were missing when it was found.

The skin was reported to be filled full of unknown grass, branches of unknown trees, and live snakes, knowing this, chills ran down her spine to see his endeavor.

She needed to remain on his good side no matter what, it was not the act of killing in itself the problem, it was the way it was carried out.

Problems, they said, came in couples so there was the other problem that prompted worries of all kinds.

For what was reported to her, Thirteen seemed aware of the guards coming, the whole building he was in changed shape before the scared guards.

The only silver lining was that the gods held some control over him and stopped him from going any further, sealing his magic for the time being.

Sinalta sighed and spoke, she had to deny Thirteen's claims somehow or to bring him to a semblance of reason.

"No, we are not good, Thirteen. The gods didn't judge you so you might be right by their standards, but using such force on mere cadavers brings questions and unease.

We want you to leave the bodies, however mauled and upsetting as they might be, alone in the future; so that we don't have to fear them rising as undead."

Thirteen laughed apparently finding the thing funny, then showed the back of his right hand tapped on the mark he had on it with his left, then shook his head in resignation.

"I doubt you'll trust my word on it, so I'll try to make it in a sentence you can figure out. Does your goddess approves undead?"

She replied immediately without the need to think about "No"

Thirteen smiled pointing at himself with his right hand.

"I was brought in this world by magic, so if Gods exist and indeed supervise the thing you call magic they wouldn't allow me to pass through if I had a power to raise the dead.

Even if Gods do not exists, you are the caster of the magic that brought me here, magic has to respond to your requests and belief, you believe that raising the dead is not a thing that will save the world.

Magic in itself wouldn't select me if I were to have such power."

Sinalta frowned, the argument made, as frustrating it was to admit, made sense.

"You'd better fix your ways of speaking, Gods exist here, saying otherwise is blasphemy"

Thirteen snorted loudly rolling his eyes back like a child whose toy was just taken away. Then he took his cards and shuffled them and offered them to her.

"Rules are simple, shuffle the cards, think of a question, don't tell the question aloud.

I'll make you choose ten cards and we'll see how it goes ."

He smiled, she couldn't back away

even if she desired it, there was enough space on the carriage's chairs to put the cards if needed; the carriage could ride smoothly enough to not mess them.

She feared that had she refused to comply, she would've to explain why she pointed at the deck earlier, and then she would've been in deeper troubles than before.

She did as instructed thinking about the relationship between her and Xindi, or her dream of having one.

The surprising part was that Thirteen simply laid the cards in the air between them, where they stood as if there was something solid there.

His smile only grew creepier and more pronounced as he went along the process of laying a cross with a pile of cards on her left.

"I hope I gave a good show of my magic princess, but now it's where the real deal comes on."

He turned the central cards, the crossed ones, on the central lower one there was a couple, naked, overseen by an angelic figure in the sky above where a vertex of a triangle pointing down followed by a single segment reigned in the middle of the card.

The crossing card depicted a king on his throne, his sword in hand.

"A question of heart huh? Papa ain't happy about your choices on the bridegroom department. Let me guess he sees you still as his little girl or he arranged someone else already. It's tiring to be a royal huh?"

Cold sweat ran on her spine, how could he be so spot on, she didn't say a thing at all, only randomly thought about her loved one and not asking a question, yet those cards managed somehow to perfectly portray the issue.

Thirteen's right hand moved on the card below the cross and revealed what appeared to be a high priest, in his chair as he held the major symbols of the religion of the goddess.

He was apparently upside down, the vertex of the triangle above his head pointed to her as to imply something about her.

"I can see why you conflict with your father by now, he's a keeper of traditions for lack of a better term. And you want to break free of his confine. You fight to be free from the shackles of an imposed role, one you find yourself within. If only you weren't born a princess you'd be able to live your life as you'd wish right?"

Thirteen smiled and revealed a woman, on a throne, a big stick or branch in one hand, a sunflower in the other.

"Oh so in your past you had a figure that taught you, love. Whoever it was she left a mark on you, on how you conceive love, and freedom to love."

Thirteen caressed his long beard with his left hand, his thumb playing with his thick mustache as he revealed the card atop the cross, the skeletal reaper with the tilted cross, and the three segments following.

A similar pattern with a small cross and segment was reported to her to be present on Thirteen's left shoulder.

But she didn't care, without giving an explanation Thirteen flipped the rightmost card of the inner cross revealing another woman, with her sword in hand, sitting on a throne.

He busted into laughter holding at his round belly shaking his head; apparently, he just saw in those cards of his the funniest thing.

"Care to share with me? It is my question after all."

She asked quite irked by his demeanor, crossing her arms in front of her breasts tucking them below her arms rather than empathize them by putting her arms below.

It was an unpleasant sensation, but she usually found it better than the thought of being evaluated for her bosom by a man like Thirteen.

"Please, forgive me, princess. It didn't make sense to see death as a guide here, but now it all matches.

One question before I reveal the answer, the meaning behind those cards will be personal and close to home, are you sure you want others to hear it?"

Sinalta bit the inside of her lips in frustration, so he knew she wasn't alone, Talis was with her with his magic and Thirteen was spot on, up to this point.

She controlled air, fire, and metal, her raw destructive power was second to none in the kingdom of Cesio and if it wasn't for the restriction placed upon her she could've easily destroyed Sesti in a fit of rage.

She was still learning how to fully control her raw potential under Talis' guidance and teaching but she still felt held at bay.

She sighed "Talis we guess you've seen enough right?"

The shadows in the carriage twisted and took a humanoid shape to her right, there was no feature on that shape one could recognize besides the race.

"Are you sure my princess? I still can't comprehend how this item works, all that I see ..."

Thirteen laughed again, interrupting him, apparently unfazed by Talis' magic performance, he caressed his face with his right hand hiding his right eye and part of his face.

The mark on his right hand began giving an eerie glow as the left eye's sclera became pitch black.

"What else did you expect, pal? You surely have questions of your own, don't you? You have desires, expectations, hopes, and fears. Do you really believe my cards can't see right through you even if you're not here? I can see the past, the present, and the future, as well as I can see you, Talis. "

Thirteen chuckled eerily pausing to give off half a big smile showing his teeth, before going on.

"Rather than using the princess, wouldn't it be better to come to me yourself? I promise I won't bite, but I can't truly speak for those who give guidance through me. They tend to be a little short-tempered when people start to mess into their business. "

There was no magic other than the one employed by Talis yet the royal mage decided to retreat without so much as a second thought about her safety, the feeling of his magic dissolved.

After the ordeal he would be getting an earful, to say the least; still, she sighed, looking as Thirteen moved his hand, his left eye returning to normal.

"Thirteen, this is the second time you do this in my presence, what was that?"

The man smiled giggling "More importantly than that, your love interest is a woman right?"

Sinalta panicked trying to disperse the cards from before Thirteen to no avail, her hands hit an invisible wall and she wasn't able to come anywhere closer to the cards.

"You, how do you… more importantly than that, you can't tell a soul! We will have you executed if you even think about rattling us out!"

Thirteen laughed shaking his head "Girl who do you take me for? I wouldn't chase away your little shadow only to go around to spread the thing myself. There are rules even I am bound to uphold. That's why I told you not to speak the question aloud, that's why I chased away Talis and that's why I won't speak of what those cards revealed to me to anyone but you. Remember, your future is yours alone, you are free to shape as you will"

Sinalta sighed " You… You probably find us loathsome for liking another woman"

Thirteen laughed "Why should I? I mean, it's none of my business whom you like. You don't need my approval and for that matter, you don't need your father's approval. It would make things easier for sure but well the cards would not be the ones I see."

Sinalta was surprised, for a foul-mouthed commoner and a dreadful man Thirteen showed a rather unexpected side when he was reading those cards.

"So, what do those cards of yours tell us?"

Thirteen sighed and tapped at the top card "It will be difficult, to say the least, but it seems it is linked to what I want to bring about, after all, you're one of my assets here. Whether we like it or not, it seems we're bound to be involved in the change I will bring about as I bring an end to your world."

Sinalta frowned " Again with this nonsense, I summoned you to save the world, you're not supposed to destroy it!"

Thirteen smiled "Princess Sinalta, the world is the land you walk upon. Your world is this kingdom that puts you at the very top, there's a difference."

Sinalta gulped "You… you're trying to say that for the kingdom of Cesio there's no salvation?"

Thirteen nodded "In a sense, yes. I am still waiting to see the financial records of the kingdom, by the way, it would help to patch things together. We're getting sidetracked here let's wrap this up first? You desire love in defiance of what tradition allows, even if your father opposes you. In the past you felt that you broke traditions already, maybe they hindered or troubled you bringing this question before the cards. You know love to be easygoing, not asking a thing in return, but you will have to go through a radical change to be allowed to go to your loved one, and even if you come to her, she views duty before all else. A true and tried paragon if you will, but she's still able to love in her own way. Your feelings will reach her, in a sense, but let's see how it goes."

Thirteen proceeded to read the remaining cards up to revealing her future and explaining it to her.

Sinalta made him descend by Etgas establishment before returning to the palace darting to the treasury first.

Excluding Thirteen's deck of cards, everything else was in its place, including the seals that were still in place holding an empty space.

She sighed, and looked at a scroll rack, she took some heavy rolls of parchment and left the room, ordering Xindi to deliver them to Thirteen, before going to meet with Talis to give him a piece of his mind.

Thirteen sighed as he returned to his room, took his pipe, and went to the garden to smoke, of course, there was a servant at the ready to light what he was smoking.

He held his head with his left hand, tapping on his temple rhythmically with his finger, and was in deep thoughts.

-Why the fuck mangas and books make things seem so darn easy?-

He laid back on the chair, dragging his arm along, always tapping on his forehead, he missed the recliner he was about to change for overwear.

-Shadows should've been my domain, kinda, but well Limner told me they might as well still be. The problem is the limitations, and how it's used. It seems that with sufficient imagination anything is possible, given power-

With hard-earned practice he exhaled a halo of smoke, watching it disperse in the air as he looked at the sky and the light arc that crossed it.

It was a known voice that shook him from his contemplation, it was Selie, she was wearing her usual simple attire of commoner's clothes.

"We need to talk"

Thirteen sighed, stopped tapping on his forehead inspiring some other smoke from the pipe before blowing it into her face, it wasn't a playful thing and he knew this.

"On behalf of who do you come this time?"

Selie coughed as he expected, and reacted angrily "Mine. You, you promised things to me! Yet you still treat me a slave! Explain, is this what my people are to expect once they start interacting with yours?"

He almost rolled back his eyes and sighed "this and worse my dear."

Selie tapped angrily with her hoof on the ground pointing at him with her clawed fingers.

"What merit would there be for my people to join yours?"

It was a stopping point, a rotatory in which people felt themselves in and he knew it.

"To explain that I will need to go step by step. Care to follow?"

Selie nodded and Thirteen took a more proper sitting position on the chair, he took out his cards and shuffled them as he bit slightly to secure the lip of the mouthpiece of his pipe, he then offered them to Selie.

The girl frowned as she took them, the cards grew to size to be handled correctly by her clawed hand.

He smiled simply snapping the fingers of his right hand, but nothing happened, apparently at the least.

"Deadly fingertips."

He simply stated tapping her hand with his, to no effect at all.

Then he offered the palm of his right hand asking her to give back the cards, Selie didn't of course.

"You mock me!" She stated irritated "What am I supposed to understand from this charade?"

Thirteen sighed puffing smoke as he removed his pipe holding it with his left hand.

– it was too much to ask for the sudden death effect right?-

"Ye begun a slave, right? Ye could hardly eat if not ordered to right? I offered you freedom, but it's not like all things will adapt to you as easily or magically as you might wish them to do. Some things will, some others won't exactly go as planned. It's not something you can change on a snap of the finger, magic won't help nor will simply asking."

Selie frowned "can't you be a little more grounded? I can't follow you."

Thirteen slowly aspired smoke from his pipe, and then made another ring of smoke.

"Girl I can't be more clear than this. You should understand, right? Hatred is a circle, a snake biting its tail. You hate me, 'cause I'm human right? And I don't even belong to this damn world! The very fact that one day a group of humans you knew nothing about messed up your life angers you. Mind you, I am not trying to say that it's wrong. What I am saying is that others may be in your same situation."

Selie looked at the cards, then moved one of her hands to scratch one of her horns with her long nails.

"Yeah, I more or less understood that part. But still, the matter is you still treat me a slave. "

Thirteen laughed "Because I asked you to deliver my message to Etgas?"

Selie nodded then added "not only that, for what you made me do. "

Thirteen shrugged a little, taking the pipe sideways and tapping below it slightly making the ashes fall from it to the ground.

"You were free to choose in both instances. I am curious as to why you didn't prompt the same question to Etgas"

Selie scratched her horn again apparently unable to find an answer.

"You already have a positive answer from him, am I wrong?"

Selie almost stood to attention, tensing from head to hoof. "No, I mean I don't think..."

Thirteen sighed, he tilted his head, letting it almost touch his left shoulder, smiling. Simply smiling was nowhere near enough, he had to try and strike a villain's pose and that was one of his favorites.

"Look at ye, Selie of the Pictoro, didn't you tell me that Pictoro do not lie?."

Selie lowered her head, her face flustered red in shame.

"oh don't be ashamed."

Said Thirteen returning to a more humane natural position, as he brought back the pipe to his mouth.

"I can understand why you'd lie to me, I chose both Etgas and you as my tools, so you assumed I'd get angry if you two bickered too much. Fact is unless it involves me directly, ye are free to bicker to your heart's content.

Look at Etgas as an example, he's an old human, you can start to see wrinkles on his face much like on Guren's face.

Those kinds of people have a lifetime of experience doing something, in the case of Etgas that something is treating people as tools, in the case of Guren is fighting to the death anything that ain't human, to begin with.

So yeah they are harder to come to terms with, for Etgas you'll be merchandise, plain and simple.

It's not bad, I mean he seems to care for his stuff, and he doesn't want it needlessly broken, but you are stuff, there's no place for Selie the Pictoro.

If there is it's because he fears my wrath, but why should I get angry at him in the first place?

By the time a substantial number of humans, and I mean humans in this town of Sesti, will view Pictoro as Pictoro and not as demons, Etgas and you will be both long dead."

Selie frowned interrupting him

"Wait, wait you mean that there are more humans than in this town!? I mean there is an awful lot! Way more than a tribe's worth. And how come you assume they won't see us as demons?"

Thirteen laughed tapping on his right temple with his right hand.

"Knowledge my goaty friend, I had access to knowledge, and I mean Limner. Before Cesio there were many kingdoms, with different names. You see, there was a point a long time ago where the demon king managed to push humans to a corner, and there was no hero to be seen. Bla Bla, hero summoning, yadda yadda, there was an actual legit hero and they defeat demon king, yap yap, there's no happy ever after."

Selie frowned interrupting him.

"First, I am no goat, second yes I am familiar with how it went last time, humans can't seem to go a sun without reminding me. So, what's the point?"

Thirteen smiled slightly, slowly making the smoke go into his mouth, then exhaling it before continuing.

"Well you see the point being there was a legit hero and a summoned hero, and they barely won. There was no point in dragging the war, and they split the pot made of the lands they could reasonably use, and lives that were left after the war; like pals. Summoned hero gets this country that's like demon kingdom's border, the legit hero gets another country over the mountains to the north called Vakolade, they get to have to share borders with dwarves and elves and other friendly non-humans allies. So yeah that's how I know there are other humans. "

He smiled and emptied his pipe, and called one of Etgas servants to have the tools to clean it before continuing.

"Ok where were we, oh yeah, why do I know that humans from other countries may have a different stand with your people, that's what you'd wish to know right? "

Selie nodded, it was after all a legitimate question in her eyes if she could or not trust humans after all.

"You have friends here, I mean slaves that treat you as a friend I mean. Am I wrong?"

Selie shook her head sighing.

"Yeah there is some, but how can I know that Etgas simply gave them an order and they have to comply?"

Thirteen laughed heartily

"Well, you got your problems, don't you? But I am sure that if Etgas could he would've simply ordered you to like humans, right? Yet the first time we met you insulted me to your heart content. Having a product that insults its buyer is troublesome, to say the least, no?"

Selie had to begrudgingly agree "Maybe he has fun punishing people, what do you know?" She added to his reasoning, making him giggle

-well what do you know, she has a head on her shoulders after all.-

"I don't think so, he's more the practical kind. I mean if you have that kind of fetish you don't bring up this kind of neat ambient. Look around ye, people are in chains yet they retain hope. They are not utterly broken. "

Selie sighed "I still lack the terms to understand you"

Thirteen shrugged it off smiling "I will make you see a broken person, then you will understand what I mean."

Selie backed away almost immediately, and he laughed again, a forced one to seem evil more than a sincere one.

"Well anyway, I won't, for now at least. Anyway for this argument's sake can we agree for a moment that people that interact positively with you here are doing so of their own volition?"

Selie nodded "Ok if you say so, I will trust you."

Thirteen smiled "Ye are free to verify if your trust is well placed. I did that first, so I expect you will do the same. You see no two humans are the same, I mean we generally work in the same direction, but individually? Some would risk their lives for the cub of a Pictoro, and there are those like me that would see the world destroyed and laugh about it. " He exaggerated his smiling to the end of the sentence to drive the point home, he was a bad guy and he knew it.

"Problem being humans as rulers are at their core a greedy forgetful bunch,

I mean they would easily see the chance for improving their riches, forgetting the cost in human lives it takes to get them. No one talks anymore after heroes die. Each subsequent new ruler sees why he should have more, waves his flags, shouts louder and louder. Each says his hero is the true god-sent hero and as such, all humanity should follow him and him alone. Cesio makes war on Vakolade, Vakolade makes war on Cesio, rinse and repeat 'till both break apart."

Selie frowned "If I didn't see it yesterday I wouldn't have believed humans so foolish to kill other humans"

Thirteen shrugged "Well let's say we have a Pictoro Tribe for a sec ok? Another Pictoro wants what he can't have, it's not rightfully his or hers to claim. But he or she believes otherwise, there's no convincing possible. What then?"

Selie answered, sure of her words, speaking with pride.

"He or she would be cast away from the pack, not the tribe as a whole. He would need to find others with whom to roam the plains. "

Thirteen nodded "I had a hint it was something like this. But out of the walls are monsters right? Humans can become monsters themselves, so at times death becomes a needed measure. That or to accept death on oneself. "

Selie sighed "Well I can understand, I mean the fight for one's life part. I am not that naive, only it felt wrong the way you made me do it."

- well figures, who would feel good to kill for something he didn't believe in? -

"Let's focus on the problem at hand shall we?"

He asked as he finally received the things needed to clean the pipe, dismissing the reminder that there was magic for that too with you want to take away all the fun.

It wasn't fun cleaning a pipe it was something he needed to do, like shuffling his cards, if it was taken away from him it was akin to invite disaster.

He then continued as he cleaned the pipe " So ok Cesio remains southmost at the border with demons, Vakolade remains northmost at the border with elves. In between, there's the federation of Susrati that faces the sea to the east and the Akaran conclave to the west that both took a part of the border with the demon folk. I know that some will continue to see you, people, as a threat, because well to avoid an endless loop of bickering, and avoid the mistakes of the past they make a human alliance with the idea in mind to wipe the floor with your blood. But also I know that some call you beast folk, the people from Akaran Conclave especially, from that and the name I speculate they had contact with someone from my world in the meantime."

Selie was genuinely surprised, asking "Wait, you mean that this conclave you speak of has the same origin as you?

He sighed and massaged his temple and beard with his left hand – God, I hate this translation magic, please provide a standard federation technology universal translator.-

"No, not really. What I mean is that someone with influence high enough to chose his name was from my world. To chose a name for a whole nation you have to be something akin to a king, or an emperor. Do Pictoro have laws?"

Selie appeared deep in thoughts before answering "Of course we do, why?"

Thirteen smiled and continued " Do Pictoro laws change amongst tribes?"

Selie frowned "I never changed tribe so I don't know, but why should they change? We are all Pictoro, we follow the same law."

Thirteen chuckled " I am pretty certain that if I were to bring you to a Pictoro tribe you'd find out that the major laws are the same, but how they are applied is different, and some minor ones are different. "

Selie appeared shocked "How can you be so sure!?"

- geez girl do I have to spell out everything? -

Thirteen narrowed his eyes as he gazed at her.

"You told me about the law of your people remember? You have a law that forbids killing more than necessary. But what is necessary? Let's say there's a tribe of Pictoro that is used to settle nearer to other kinds of settlements, they can trade for produce. I am willing to bet that you would find that they kill more than what your wandering tribe ever did. It's necessary for them? Certainly not, but they can trade in food and pelts for something else entirely. So it is necessary to keep the welfare of the tribe to hunt more than a self-reliant tribe right? "

Selie had to begrudgingly agree to his reasoning.

"The second part is the fact that the expression beast-man referred to your kind comes from Akaran and Susrati. I mean it can be rated below human sure, but it is better than being called a demon right? "

Thirteen blew in the smoking pipe as the last act of cleaning it, making the last soot fly to the ground.

"can I have my cards back now, Selie? Please?"

The noise made from a full armor made Selie turn, it was Xindi coming to them as Selie gave him back his cards and they returned to the right size.

- What does the princess wants now? -

Xindi came forth offering a set of parchments to him, without a word. He rose an eyebrow and unrolled them.

There were various symbols on the parchment, the numbers he could recognize, they were easy enough, the late hero had introduced the Arabic numeral form, it wasn't only something done by Etgas that traded with other countries.

- so after all there are different time-lapses here, Cesio was discovered in the eighteen sixty of the Gregorian calendar, but for all those involved the last hero came here half a millennia ago. -

He sighed, he still couldn't be fully sure, but even if he had managed to return to his world there was the possibility that hundreds of years had passed since the moment he left.

He focused on the words that came with the numbers, of course, he didn't know the alphabet but he had learned that if he squinted a little and concentrated, he would see some kind of overlay, a translation of the word used.

"oh, I see, so the princess finally found the time to give me last year worth taxes report, huh"

Xindi nodded "This is a very important piece of paper for the kingdom of Cesio, until it will be in your possession you will be under supervision from a knight such as myself."

He rose an eyebrow.

"Don't tell me this is the original data"

Xindi nodded simply, again.

"Remind me I have to show you how to build a printing machine. "

He sighed looking through the numbers giving it a quick read.

" Well, girl you've been conned big time. This is one of the fakest economic reports I've ever read. ."

Xindi sprung to attention, she extracted her sword pointing it at him.

"This is a really serious accusation Thirteen, such an accusation can be met with death"

Thirteen puffed looking at her.

"Listen, girl, kill me. Please. I am fucking serious. Do you want to keep this? Be my guest, but if this was the truth, what then?"

Xindi planted the sword on the ground and removed her helmet she was a young girl, the same age as the princess, with navy blue hair and amber eyes.

She took him by the scruff and looked at him directly in his eyes.

"Listen, this is an official document, it comes directly from the castle, the top officials of this kingdom gave it a throughout examination. This has been presented to the king and princess, and the coffers of the castle are still full of gold. You come here, glance at it, and tell me it is fake. Give me a reason I should believe you rather than behead you."

Thirteen slapped her gloved hand making her lose her grip and freeing himself "You are not a knight, you are a barbarian. But yeah I have proof. You see when forging something people rely on their brains to fill in for the gaps occurring, and they even end up relying on superstition. That's to say that a particular number or a sequence of numbers is considered lucky. I can't tell you exactly what's wrong with it at a glance, but I know this is faked data at a glance. There are too many sequences of sevens and eights. There are almost no nines nor fourths. "

Xindi raised an eyebrow "Wait you are telling me you believe it's fake just for a number sequence? That's insane! It happens naturally…" "yeah it happens, naturally, on all the rows of numbers of all the pages, in all instances? Really?"

Xindi frowned and took the parchment from his unresisting hand and looked at it herself, she wasn't an expert of finance but once Thirteen had pointed out what to look for it was all too striking.

"Wait what does it means?" She asked confused looking at Thirteen "There's still gold in the coffers I … I don't understand."

Thirteen shrugged "I don't know. I mean there are several possibilities. One, this sheet of paper is worthless, and we, and I mean you have to find the real tax data. Another is that this data is real, and people pay the taxes this way, which means that the whole system tampered to the point I don't believe it is redeemable. The final and worse possibility is a combination of both and well… it's a steaming pile of crap either way my unlucky knight."

While Thirteen and Xindi were discussing what to do, Etgas showed himself.

It wasn't a chance, of course, he only wanted to know what brought a knight of high standing, such as Xindi, back to his door twice in a day.

After a brief explanation by the knight, Etgas too burst into laughter causing even Thirteen to raise an eyebrow.

"Well yeah that's fake, anyone who does a little of countability would've known even before picking that up."

"I guess it's something related to the size, I was tempted by the option too, the fake numbers were more… funny."

Xindi stared at him daggers donning her helmet once again, as she took back her sword.

Thirteen smiled, he could have pointed it out early, as he said, but he choose not to.

The reality behind his choice was more grounded; but for all he knew they could have had something akin to stenography or a way to shorten things, so he had to take a peek.

"Yeah, there's that, obviously, look at the back of the parchment that's the emblem of the goddess. You are supposed to offer that to the temple at the beginning of winter, where it's burned. Merchants are invited to burn their own of course. The princess may have thought that was an actual spare of the kingdom's taxes, that's how it's presented anyway. "

- now that's a first.- Thirteen chuckled "Ain't that a nice and cool tradition, but what purpose would there be of burning the freaking taxes in front of the citizens?"

Etgas cleared his throat as he gave himself a better stance, even if he was clearly still amused by the situation.

" It's a ceremony of appreciation in a sense. The taxes are brought to the gods, as a sign they were received and as a vow that the money will be used to bring the results that are shown on the parchment. "

Thirteen rose an eyebrow, shuffling his deck of cards as he put them away, taking his pipe now he started loading it again.

"I have a question now" he calmly stated as he continued the operation " Is there a particular pattern? I mean to get a better blessing from the goddess. Or to focus them maybe."

Etgas shook his head declaring that there was none to his knowledge, Thirteen dismissed Xindi giving her back the scroll and asking her to deliver it back to the princess.

It would have been a problem if the kingdom didn't have the real sacrifice, right?

Before Etgas could leave Thirteen asked him to stay as he made one of the servants light his pipe.

"What do you want now Thirteen?" Asked a wary Etgas

"Nothing too difficult, a lesson in free will if you care."

Thirteen smiled evilly looking at Selie as both she and Etgas paled a little, there was no telling how the man could react, he slowly took a puff from the pipe.

"There are two ways of thinking, those that say that free will exist, and those who don't. Even if I lean heavily on the second option, I long realized that reality is not always black and white. There's freedom in the cage kind of thing, it's difficult to explain better but the point is that Selie, you can say no to both Etgas and me. It does only mean there will be consequences, and those can go from none to death. "

Thirteen smiled evilly taking another puff from the pipe, the two of them were silent so he continued his argument. "Don't worry, I don't plan to kill you just yet"

They both seemed relieved at his declaration, it meant that his little show bore some fruit, he closed his eyes as if he could taste the smoke, but after all, he couldn't, he just exhaled it.

"Selie if I were to order you to lower yourself as I see a blade or an arrow coming your way, what kind of fate would you have if you disobeyed?"

Selie lightened up "Oh, I see what you mean. If you were to give me such an order it would be to my benefit to obey"

Thirteen smiled "Yeah some orders will be like that, if I ask to please give a message, you can say no or relay to another servant, most of the people here can't say no to an order for crying out loud! That said..."

His smile faded, his face became serious as he planted his feet on the ground looking at them as he puffed smoke.

"I am pissed at you both. I am from another world ye remember right? I kind of wanted to see a genuine interaction between you two. There's no point if you tiptoe around me for fuck's sake! I mean seriously you thought I didn't expect you two to have a problem or a feud going? I am nowhere that naive!"

Etgas took a chance to cough and Thirteen stopped making him a gesture to speak.

"I can understand you, but that would still mean we would still interact in a forced manner, so to speak, would it not?"

Thirteen smiled clearly softening his previous expression "Yeah. You would. That's the point. Sooner or later beast-man and humans will coexist. In some places they already do, you told me right?"

Etgas nodded, he was clearly regretting his tongue slip at the moment.

"Yeah that's true, but by this country standard they are blasphemers."

Thirteen smiled even more showing his teeth as he pointed at Etgas with his smoking pipe.

"True, but is their gold blasphemous too? Are their soldiers or their weapons blasphemous? I know you told me you ain't the religious kind as I posed this question the first time around. But it lays there. The problem, the contrast. It will always be there, between what you believe and what it is."

Thirteen chuckled taking the pipe into his mouth and taking a puff.

"It is in strife you find the answer, by conflict you find the way. Sure a superimposed so-called true way will feel safer, it will feel that things go by design. But countless millions will suffer and die in the name of it."

Etgas and Selie both seemed utterly in disbelief.

"Wait." Asked Selie pointing at him with her claws "You actually want me to bicker with Etgas? You want him to bicker with me? Why? We make a group, right? I mean If I didn't misunderstand. There would be little point in arguing all the time."

She pointed out quite dumbfounded, Etgas nodding in agreement.

Thirteen sighed, he snorted as he slid his left hand on his face.

"Please tell me when this damned magic … oh for Pete's sake, I get it. I'll try to be clearer. In the time I was in this accursed town, I saw three beast-man and maybe a dwarf. Of course, I expect you Selie having a lot of beef on how people look at you, or how they treat you as a servant, it's the only frame they ever saw one of your kind. Well, that and a thing to kill, a beast ready to kill them at a moment's notice.

At the same time I do expect Etgas to have lots of trouble with Selie basically roaming around free, the volume of questions to answer and scared clients to calm down would be very high am I wrong?"

Etgas stared him daggers "Well not to talk a certain somebody's magic right?"

Thirteen giggled a little "Yes that's what I am talking about. For some reason, people feel threatened by my magic when I show it. It's not like I don't understand why they feel like that, but well, I know and for how little I can I at least I can try not to do it all the time. See conflict, information, solution. "

He opened both hands as he show his palms to them, his hands shaking slightly as they always did.

Etgas sighed "Well, good riddance to my plan then, but I expect it to happen when we aren't in the presence of his majesty, the princess, or any big name that we will eventually meet. Can we have at least that?"

Thirteen let the ashes from the pipe fall as he smiled and then he brought the pipe back to his mouth.

"Well, that would take away half the fun, but I can understand that. Fine."

They kept talking a little while before Etgas returned to his office, the day went by uneventful but from the following days, this or that artisan came to seek Thirteen, to have him look at their ideas.

Some actually sought his knowledge for other topics but Thirteen's lips were sealed on any and all technology he knew of.

He seemed familiar with the ones imparted by the late hero and sometimes he would correct some things, more by mistake than out of goodwill.

Thirteen was also granted access to the castle, to review the actual fiscal relevant data that the kingdom possessed.

His routine changed, in the morning he usually met with somebody from the artisans' group, either a smith, a carpenter or the clockmaker were the most common figures.

Then in the evening, he went to the castle, to watch the records, and he returned for supper.

The biggest change of them all was that he was assigned a knight, it was either a job taken by Guren, a spear-wielding young boy named Radol, or Xindi, much to the latter dismay when she was given the task.

Thirteen discovered that Guren was Xindi and Radol father and they held the higher ranking amongst generals and knights.

Guren was the personal attendant of Marud after all, so it was kind of expected in a sense, but aside from that Thirteen could at least have a chat from time to time with him on various topics that were of his interest.

In three days Thirteen could figure out something from the numbers of the country taxes, something he already suspected, but cross referencing with the data of Etgas and the report from Guren he could now pinpoint it better.

- Now, even adventurers pay taxes, or at least so does their guild. I have to see their taxes next, to confirm things since they are a third factor in the equation, but from what I can see there I get pretty much the gist of it. -

He had also another problem so to speak, he couldn't sleep again, it wasn't really news but back in his world, he could at least keep in check that side of his illness, here it was a lot more problematic.

He could have asked if there was something that made people sleep of course, but his warped sense of self didn't help in that matter.

He didn't know of course that the herbs Etgas chose for him to smoke were known to have a nerve-calming effect, or he would've despaired

more for his condition.

He had built a tolerance to those kinds of calming effects since he was prescribed all kinds of calming and sleep-inducing implements and the medicine he was exposed to had their side effects.

In the end, all he could do was try the way he found it to work: using his so-called magic.

It wasn't of course a thing he could simply ask to do since after two times only it earned him a watchful pair of eyes.

After long and hard arguments he managed to convince Sinalta he had to see for himself the life of an adventurer.

It was only a question to find the right lever, and luckily many heroes had a history of being adventurers for a time.

They did so to hide or to better help people but most if not all natural heroes if not found came from there, so it was natural that is next destination would be there.