Drake was full of sausage, grapes, and a couple of goblets of delicious apple mead before he finally decided how he was going to spend the rest of his afternoon. He needed to discover his rarity, if he had one. He needed to talk with Zuri again.
Emily hadn’t left his room since she arrived, and she had eaten more of the meat and fruit on the platter than he had. Had Lydia ordered Emily to stick to him like a leech today? Lydia did have a whole manor to run, while Emily... apparently had a lot less to do.
Yet she wasn’t bad company. Not really. Her constant cheeriness was a bit grating, but he decided to treat her like a good friend. A mentally unbalanced good friend.
He slid his sock-clad feet out of bed. “Going to see Zuri. See those red shoes?”
Emily hopped out of bed like she was spring-powered.
“Toss those over?”
She trotted over with his sneakers instead of tossing them, but Drake waved her off when she attempted to help him. She likely had no idea how laces or sneakers worked. Her shoes were black slippers, gleaming as if polished around her white lace socks.
As Drake reached the doors with Emily practically bouncing on his heels, he realized she’d left the silver platter and the remaining food right in the middle of his bed. “Shouldn’t you get that?” He’d get the platter himself, but he had no idea where to take it.
“Oh, one of the other maids will take care of that little nuisance! You just focus on your lordly duties. I’ve got the whole day set aside for you.”
Emily probably meant that. It seemed his manor also had housekeeping. It was still strange to see these domestic servants juxtaposed with an army of lizardmen, but he supposed it had been this way in medieval castles. Kings had knights and soldiers, and then the servants... but how many of them had servants that could also rend souls and flutterstep?
Had he slept in what Lydia had referred to as the “second parlor” he would have been able to retrace his steps to Zuri’s library/fire hazard, but from his master bedroom, given how late it had been when he stumbled up here last night, he had no idea.
“Where’s Zuri’s room?”
Emily hurried past him and pranced off. “Follow me, lord!”
The manor seemed more lively this morning than it had been last night. Several times he passed women in less flashy maid outfits than those worn by his battle maids, all entering or leaving rooms with bundles of sheets or laundry. He also saw two different men, one of whom was carrying a whole armful of silver platters. Everyone quickly and silently made way for him.
The manor lord might be dead—long live the manor lord!—but the lives of these people hadn’t changed much. They still had their mundane jobs to do, and now, hopefully, they wouldn’t do them without fearing for their lives. Once Lydia cleared him to free everyone.
As he mentally ran back over the roster he’d browsed last night, he decided he’d have Zuri answer more questions about rarities today. He was also going to free her the moment he entered her library. Lydia hadn’t warned him not to do that, after all.
Drake mentally celebrated when he recognized the second parlor and then mentally located Zuri’s room at the end of the hall. However, Emily was moving far too quickly for him to pass her up and take the lead. She reached the doors before he did and knocked loudly.
“Zuuuuri! Lord Gloomwood is here to speak to you!”
Emily opened the doors without waiting for a response, but when Drake tentatively entered, he found Zuri waiting in the center of the room with her hands clasped at her waist. She wore a slinky low-cut dress this morning, green and rather risqué, and heels.
Had she been waiting for him? Who dressed up for a party to read some old books? Or maybe Zuri dressed this way every day, because she was an elegant kind of person?
Drake reminded himself he didn’t care. Today, he was going to learn all he could about rarities, magic, and magic weapons. To survive he needed weapons, and fast.
Zuri beamed at him and visibly fluffed her short dark hair with slender fingers. “How wonderful to see you this afternoon, lord! How can I serve you today?”
Emily entered the room and closed the doors behind them.
Zuri smiled benignly in her direction. “My dear, don’t you have somewhere to be?”
“Nope!” Emily declared proudly.
Zuri’s smile barely faded. She visibly smoothed down her dress—which was completely unnecessary—and then turned her attention back to Drake. “Well, I am completely at your disposal.”
Drake was now glad he had Emily as his chaperone. The boss didn't date the employees, and he was the boss now. It was possible Zuri was just being really friendly, or that there was another belief disparity causing misunderstandings... but he wasn't taking any chances.
There wasn’t a single chair in the room that wasn’t piled with books, so he walked over to one of the four big columns that held up the middle of the room, leaned against it, and tucked his hands into the pocket of his comfortable hoodie. “First, Zuri, I have a new decree I need you to honor.”
“Of course, lord! I serve at your pleasure.”
When he finished, the woman looked visibly shaken. He hadn’t expected her to look visibly shaken. Actual tears glistened at the edges of her eyes.
“Aww, Zuri!” Emily approached with her arms out.
Zuri held a hand out in warning. “No hugs.”
“Are you all right?” Drake asked in concern.
She sniffled, then wiped her eyes. “I apologize, lord. I’m being foolish.”
“No, you’re not. You’ve been stuck here longer than anyone. I can’t imagine the sort of shit you’ve had to deal with. So never again, understand? If you choose to stay, I could really use your help, but if you’ve had enough, I completely understand if you want to retire.”
“This is my home.” She smiled bravely. “I could never leave my home. And... you intend to pass these decrees onto the manor at large?”
“I do. I would have already, but Lydia cautioned me that just dropping this on everyone at the same time could leave our defenses disorganized. So we’re going to do it in the next few days, after we figure out how not to compromise our security.”
“That is wise,” Zuri said. “And she is quite right. This will change everything.”
“So how do you feel about the way we’ve decided to run things now?”
“Terrified,” Zuri said. “And relieved. It is an odd combination.”
“I’m sure it is.”
“But lord, you came to me today with questions. Please, ask me anything.”
Drake nodded. Best to move on before she could consider all the changes he was going to implement too deeply. “Let’s start with rarities today.”
“Of course, lord.”
Lydia had told him a lot already, but he didn’t want to tell Zuri that. It would be better to see what Zuri told him and see if she left anything out... or if Lydia had. “Who gets rarities?”
“Humans with divine blood, though it is so faint in most humans as to be undetectable. Those unfortunates never develop a rarity or, perhaps, their rarity is too subtle to detect.”
“And humans who get rarities are always born with them? They aren’t acquired?”
“There is some debate on that topic, lord.” As Zuri spoke, she seemed to recover her normal confidence and poise. “There are always rumors of people learning new rarities or being taught them by powerful mages. I know of no verifiable case.”
Lydia had been right. He couldn’t just find someone to teach him a rarity. “Okay, let’s back up a step. How many races are there in this world?”
“Are you referring to geographic location, lord, or something else?”
“Let’s start with types. We have humans, demihumans, and zarovians. What else?”
“If you refer to species, lord, then yes, there are a few others, though the three you have named are the most common. Demihuman also encompasses a large variety of peoples.”
“So what peoples didn’t I mention?”
“Kromians are a sea-dwelling people who occasionally interact with the surface world, but their culture is relatively unknown to us. They mostly keep to themselves.”
“Do they get rarities?”
“It is certainly possible, lord, but I cannot say for certain.”
“Any others?”
“None numerous enough to be of note. There are also species who once lived but live no longer. Which would you like me to list first?”
Zuri could certainly list every last obscure species from memory. “That’s all I need to know about now. Next... how random are the rarities people get? Is there a list of rarities?”
“Many have attempted to create a list, but rarities are named so because they are rare. Simple rarities have some commonalities, but more powerful ones are often unique.”
“Define simple rarities. What do you mean?”
“Simple rarities are those that aid in mundane tasks. For instance, a person may gain the ability to conjure light, but that light could be from their hand, their eyes, or simply a glow that surrounds their head. Even so, all these rarities allow them to generate light in the dark.”
“And powerful rarities?”
“Far more unique. And even when powerful rarities appear in different people, they are often generations apart. There are some reports of the same rarity appearing in the descendent of one who once possessed that rarity, but these are unverified.”
“What about marriage? If two people with rarities have a kid, does their kid get one?”
“By most accounts the likelihood seems unchanged, lord.”
So rarities likely weren’t genetic... if genetics even meant anything in this world. It really might be random magical bullshit, or some heavenly lottery run by the Eidolons. Maybe there were hanging out in the heavens chugging Mountain Dew and rolling D20s.
That left Drake with no idea how to discover his own rarity. “So when someone gets a rarity, how do they know? Like, how do they activate it for the first time?”
“Accounts vary, lord, but rarities tend to manifest between four and eight years of age. As to how... most report simply that something feels ‘right’.”
“Right?”
“In the situation where they can create light, they encounter a situation where they need light. They feel as if they can create it. Then, their rarity for creating light manifests.”
So it sounded like Drake just had to find the proper situation to trigger his rarity. Without knowing what his rarity was. Which would involve a lot of trial and error.
Still, it was something. At least he had somewhere to start now. He’d just try a bunch of random things until he found whatever triggered his rarity.
“Let’s move on to demihumans. In your roster, you listed a rarity for every blood thrall here save Sachi. Yet so far as I can tell she has night vision, super smell, and speed that outpaces anyone I’ve seen. None of those are rarities?”
“It depends on how you define the word, lord. They could technically be labeled as rarities, but society tends to discount them because they are common.”
“Common? You just said demihumans didn’t get rarities.”
“Again, it depends on how you define the term. Rarities are called such because they are rare. Rarely repeated. By comparison, all demihumans have the same common abilities.”
“Do we know why that is?”
“Indeed, lord. Demihumans are called such because they are no longer fully human. They were humans when the world began, but long ago, the first peoples altered their servants with powerful magic to have powerful abilities.”
That sounded like... genetic engineering? Magic engineering? “The first peoples?”
“The first children of the Eidolons. All humans now living are descended from the first peoples, and all demihumans now living are descended from their servants. All demihumans of Sachi’s type share her abilities. The first peoples used them as scouts and assassins.”
So all catgirls got super smell, super speed, and night vision. Maybe, as silly as it was to think about it, he should see if Sachi could recruit some more catgirls.
“You say her type. So there’s additional ways to sub-classify demihumans?”
“Indeed, lord. In Sachi’s case, she would be sub-classified as a feral.”
He wasn’t about to call Sachi that to her face. “One other question. Raylan’s rarity is listed on your roster, but he’s a demihuman.”
“He is not, lord. He is a human.”
“Then...” Drake waved one hand by his cheek, then above his head. “All that?”
“Some rarities present physical transformation. As you read, Raylan’s rarity is empathic regeneration. It may be similar to the ability of some lizard species to regenerate parts they lose. Raylan can pass on his regenerative abilities to a subject with whom he has contact, and in his case, his rarity manifested by actually changing his physical appearance.”
“Are there any limits to his ability to regenerate people?”
“Yes. All rarities exhaust the user when used extensively. Raylan is no different. He is a skilled healer, but he cannot heal an army. Only a few people at a time, over days.”
While rarities seemed complicated, it wasn’t rocket science. Drake could easily wrap his head around the basics. Zarovians probably had battle rarities—he’d just call them that, terminology be damned—so it made perfect sense to take them as soldiers.
Similarly, ferals like Sachi made the best scouts. As Zuri had pointed out, demihumans had been engineered for specific purposes. They were very good at those purposes.
Humans with rarities were the specialists. Their abilities were far more varied and possibly more powerful than the abilities demihumans got, but if that person died, their rarity might never occur again.
So if rarities were so rare, why did his battle maids share abilities? “So far as I can tell, both Lydia and Emily can heal people with their hand magic. That’s not a rarity?”
Emily giggled from behind him. “Oh lord, you’re funny!”
Zuri cocked an eyebrow at her. “Would you like to answer that, Emily?”
“Sure!” Emily pranced over and waved her gloved fingers. “It’s just magic, lord.”
He eyed her cautiously. “I understand that. But it’s not your rarity?”
“Nope! Just magic gloves.” She wiggled her white-gloved fingers.
“So your gloves have healing magic.” Finally, something he could use! “So can I use them to heal myself and others?”
Emily giggled again. She giggled more than he was comfortable with
Zuri elegantly cleared her throat. “I’m afraid that won’t be possible.”
“Not unless you’re hiding something from me, lord,” Emily managed through her giggles. “And I’ve seen you in the bath, so I know you’re not.”
“I’m...” He glared at her. “Now hold on!”
“Those particular gloves can only be used by women, lord,” Zuri clarified diplomatically. “So while you could wear them, you cannot use them to heal.”
“Oh c’mon!” Drake protested. “How is that even fair?”
Emily was still doing her level best to suppress her giggles when Drake gave up and turned his attention back to Zuri. “Why are healing gloves only usable by women?”
“That is not the case with all healing gloves, lord. I can only say that those gloves have been in Gloomwood Manor’s possession for generations. So it is certainly possible that gloves that allow men to heal exist. We simply do not have any.”
Drake was getting more and more frustrated by his manor’s inability to provide him with anything useful. Was Zuri holding out on him? She could do that, now.
Still... maybe Dickcheese had just been lazy about collecting new magic items. The man had certainly seemed lazy enough in many other respects. Drake had no reason to doubt Zuri wanted to help him, and she deserved the benefit of the doubt.
“What about magic weapons? Do we have any? Specifically, any that aren’t gender-locked to women?”
Zuri smiled at him. “That’s an interesting term.”
“Thanks. I just invented it.”
“We, like manors across the land and even some commoners, do have magic items with various abilities. However, few are what I would describe as a magical weapon.”
This sucked! He’d been hoping the manor would have a whole armory full of magical weapons because the prior lords had filled it with gold, servants, and resources. Yet the armory was empty.
Dickcheese had definitely been slacking off.
Drake was full of sausage, grapes, and a couple of goblets of delicious apple mead before he finally decided how he was going to spend the rest of his afternoon. He needed to discover his rarity, if he had one. He needed to talk with Zuri again.
Emily hadn’t left his room since she arrived, and she had eaten more of the meat and fruit on the platter than he had. Had Lydia ordered Emily to stick to him like a leech today? Lydia did have a whole manor to run, while Emily... apparently had a lot less to do.
Yet she wasn’t bad company. Not really. Her constant cheeriness was a bit grating, but he decided to treat her like a good friend. A mentally unbalanced good friend.
He slid his sock-clad feet out of bed. “Going to see Zuri. See those red shoes?”
Emily hopped out of bed like she was spring-powered.
“Toss those over?”
She trotted over with his sneakers instead of tossing them, but Drake waved her off when she attempted to help him. She likely had no idea how laces or sneakers worked. Her shoes were black slippers, gleaming as if polished around her white lace socks.
As Drake reached the doors with Emily practically bouncing on his heels, he realized she’d left the silver platter and the remaining food right in the middle of his bed. “Shouldn’t you get that?” He’d get the platter himself, but he had no idea where to take it.
“Oh, one of the other maids will take care of that little nuisance! You just focus on your lordly duties. I’ve got the whole day set aside for you.”
Emily probably meant that. It seemed his manor also had housekeeping. It was still strange to see these domestic servants juxtaposed with an army of lizardmen, but he supposed it had been this way in medieval castles. Kings had knights and soldiers, and then the servants... but how many of them had servants that could also rend souls and flutterstep?
Had he slept in what Lydia had referred to as the “second parlor” he would have been able to retrace his steps to Zuri’s library/fire hazard, but from his master bedroom, given how late it had been when he stumbled up here last night, he had no idea.
“Where’s Zuri’s room?”
Emily hurried past him and pranced off. “Follow me, lord!”
The manor seemed more lively this morning than it had been last night. Several times he passed women in less flashy maid outfits than those worn by his battle maids, all entering or leaving rooms with bundles of sheets or laundry. He also saw two different men, one of whom was carrying a whole armful of silver platters. Everyone quickly and silently made way for him.
The manor lord might be dead—long live the manor lord!—but the lives of these people hadn’t changed much. They still had their mundane jobs to do, and now, hopefully, they wouldn’t do them without fearing for their lives. Once Lydia cleared him to free everyone.
As he mentally ran back over the roster he’d browsed last night, he decided he’d have Zuri answer more questions about rarities today. He was also going to free her the moment he entered her library. Lydia hadn’t warned him not to do that, after all.
Drake mentally celebrated when he recognized the second parlor and then mentally located Zuri’s room at the end of the hall. However, Emily was moving far too quickly for him to pass her up and take the lead. She reached the doors before he did and knocked loudly.
“Zuuuuri! Lord Gloomwood is here to speak to you!”
Emily opened the doors without waiting for a response, but when Drake tentatively entered, he found Zuri waiting in the center of the room with her hands clasped at her waist. She wore a slinky low-cut dress this morning, green and rather risqué, and heels.
Had she been waiting for him? Who dressed up for a party to read some old books? Or maybe Zuri dressed this way every day, because she was an elegant kind of person?
Drake reminded himself he didn’t care. Today, he was going to learn all he could about rarities, magic, and magic weapons. To survive he needed weapons, and fast.
Zuri beamed at him and visibly fluffed her short dark hair with slender fingers. “How wonderful to see you this afternoon, lord! How can I serve you today?”
Emily entered the room and closed the doors behind them.
Zuri smiled benignly in her direction. “My dear, don’t you have somewhere to be?”
“Nope!” Emily declared proudly.
Zuri’s smile barely faded. She visibly smoothed down her dress—which was completely unnecessary—and then turned her attention back to Drake. “Well, I am completely at your disposal.”
Drake was now glad he had Emily as his chaperone. The boss didn't date the employees, and he was the boss now. It was possible Zuri was just being really friendly, or that there was another belief disparity causing misunderstandings... but he wasn't taking any chances.
There wasn’t a single chair in the room that wasn’t piled with books, so he walked over to one of the four big columns that held up the middle of the room, leaned against it, and tucked his hands into the pocket of his comfortable hoodie. “First, Zuri, I have a new decree I need you to honor.”
“Of course, lord! I serve at your pleasure.”
When he finished, the woman looked visibly shaken. He hadn’t expected her to look visibly shaken. Actual tears glistened at the edges of her eyes.
“Aww, Zuri!” Emily approached with her arms out.
Zuri held a hand out in warning. “No hugs.”
“Are you all right?” Drake asked in concern.
She sniffled, then wiped her eyes. “I apologize, lord. I’m being foolish.”
“No, you’re not. You’ve been stuck here longer than anyone. I can’t imagine the sort of shit you’ve had to deal with. So never again, understand? If you choose to stay, I could really use your help, but if you’ve had enough, I completely understand if you want to retire.”
“This is my home.” She smiled bravely. “I could never leave my home. And... you intend to pass these decrees onto the manor at large?”
“I do. I would have already, but Lydia cautioned me that just dropping this on everyone at the same time could leave our defenses disorganized. So we’re going to do it in the next few days, after we figure out how not to compromise our security.”
“That is wise,” Zuri said. “And she is quite right. This will change everything.”
“So how do you feel about the way we’ve decided to run things now?”
“Terrified,” Zuri said. “And relieved. It is an odd combination.”
“I’m sure it is.”
“But lord, you came to me today with questions. Please, ask me anything.”
Drake nodded. Best to move on before she could consider all the changes he was going to implement too deeply. “Let’s start with rarities today.”
“Of course, lord.”
Lydia had told him a lot already, but he didn’t want to tell Zuri that. It would be better to see what Zuri told him and see if she left anything out... or if Lydia had. “Who gets rarities?”
“Humans with divine blood, though it is so faint in most humans as to be undetectable. Those unfortunates never develop a rarity or, perhaps, their rarity is too subtle to detect.”
“And humans who get rarities are always born with them? They aren’t acquired?”
“There is some debate on that topic, lord.” As Zuri spoke, she seemed to recover her normal confidence and poise. “There are always rumors of people learning new rarities or being taught them by powerful mages. I know of no verifiable case.”
Lydia had been right. He couldn’t just find someone to teach him a rarity. “Okay, let’s back up a step. How many races are there in this world?”
“Are you referring to geographic location, lord, or something else?”
“Let’s start with types. We have humans, demihumans, and zarovians. What else?”
“If you refer to species, lord, then yes, there are a few others, though the three you have named are the most common. Demihuman also encompasses a large variety of peoples.”
“So what peoples didn’t I mention?”
“Kromians are a sea-dwelling people who occasionally interact with the surface world, but their culture is relatively unknown to us. They mostly keep to themselves.”
“Do they get rarities?”
“It is certainly possible, lord, but I cannot say for certain.”
“Any others?”
“None numerous enough to be of note. There are also species who once lived but live no longer. Which would you like me to list first?”
Zuri could certainly list every last obscure species from memory. “That’s all I need to know about now. Next... how random are the rarities people get? Is there a list of rarities?”
“Many have attempted to create a list, but rarities are named so because they are rare. Simple rarities have some commonalities, but more powerful ones are often unique.”
“Define simple rarities. What do you mean?”
“Simple rarities are those that aid in mundane tasks. For instance, a person may gain the ability to conjure light, but that light could be from their hand, their eyes, or simply a glow that surrounds their head. Even so, all these rarities allow them to generate light in the dark.”
“And powerful rarities?”
“Far more unique. And even when powerful rarities appear in different people, they are often generations apart. There are some reports of the same rarity appearing in the descendent of one who once possessed that rarity, but these are unverified.”
“What about marriage? If two people with rarities have a kid, does their kid get one?”
“By most accounts the likelihood seems unchanged, lord.”
So rarities likely weren’t genetic... if genetics even meant anything in this world. It really might be random magical bullshit, or some heavenly lottery run by the Eidolons. Maybe there were hanging out in the heavens chugging Mountain Dew and rolling D20s.
That left Drake with no idea how to discover his own rarity. “So when someone gets a rarity, how do they know? Like, how do they activate it for the first time?”
“Accounts vary, lord, but rarities tend to manifest between four and eight years of age. As to how... most report simply that something feels ‘right’.”
“Right?”
“In the situation where they can create light, they encounter a situation where they need light. They feel as if they can create it. Then, their rarity for creating light manifests.”
So it sounded like Drake just had to find the proper situation to trigger his rarity. Without knowing what his rarity was. Which would involve a lot of trial and error.
Still, it was something. At least he had somewhere to start now. He’d just try a bunch of random things until he found whatever triggered his rarity.
“Let’s move on to demihumans. In your roster, you listed a rarity for every blood thrall here save Sachi. Yet so far as I can tell she has night vision, super smell, and speed that outpaces anyone I’ve seen. None of those are rarities?”
“It depends on how you define the word, lord. They could technically be labeled as rarities, but society tends to discount them because they are common.”
“Common? You just said demihumans didn’t get rarities.”
“Again, it depends on how you define the term. Rarities are called such because they are rare. Rarely repeated. By comparison, all demihumans have the same common abilities.”
“Do we know why that is?”
“Indeed, lord. Demihumans are called such because they are no longer fully human. They were humans when the world began, but long ago, the first peoples altered their servants with powerful magic to have powerful abilities.”
That sounded like... genetic engineering? Magic engineering? “The first peoples?”
“The first children of the Eidolons. All humans now living are descended from the first peoples, and all demihumans now living are descended from their servants. All demihumans of Sachi’s type share her abilities. The first peoples used them as scouts and assassins.”
So all catgirls got super smell, super speed, and night vision. Maybe, as silly as it was to think about it, he should see if Sachi could recruit some more catgirls.
“You say her type. So there’s additional ways to sub-classify demihumans?”
“Indeed, lord. In Sachi’s case, she would be sub-classified as a feral.”
He wasn’t about to call Sachi that to her face. “One other question. Raylan’s rarity is listed on your roster, but he’s a demihuman.”
“He is not, lord. He is a human.”
“Then...” Drake waved one hand by his cheek, then above his head. “All that?”
“Some rarities present physical transformation. As you read, Raylan’s rarity is empathic regeneration. It may be similar to the ability of some lizard species to regenerate parts they lose. Raylan can pass on his regenerative abilities to a subject with whom he has contact, and in his case, his rarity manifested by actually changing his physical appearance.”
“Are there any limits to his ability to regenerate people?”
“Yes. All rarities exhaust the user when used extensively. Raylan is no different. He is a skilled healer, but he cannot heal an army. Only a few people at a time, over days.”
While rarities seemed complicated, it wasn’t rocket science. Drake could easily wrap his head around the basics. Zarovians probably had battle rarities—he’d just call them that, terminology be damned—so it made perfect sense to take them as soldiers.
Similarly, ferals like Sachi made the best scouts. As Zuri had pointed out, demihumans had been engineered for specific purposes. They were very good at those purposes.
Humans with rarities were the specialists. Their abilities were far more varied and possibly more powerful than the abilities demihumans got, but if that person died, their rarity might never occur again.
So if rarities were so rare, why did his battle maids share abilities? “So far as I can tell, both Lydia and Emily can heal people with their hand magic. That’s not a rarity?”
Emily giggled from behind him. “Oh lord, you’re funny!”
Zuri cocked an eyebrow at her. “Would you like to answer that, Emily?”
“Sure!” Emily pranced over and waved her gloved fingers. “It’s just magic, lord.”
He eyed her cautiously. “I understand that. But it’s not your rarity?”
“Nope! Just magic gloves.” She wiggled her white-gloved fingers.
“So your gloves have healing magic.” Finally, something he could use! “So can I use them to heal myself and others?”
Emily giggled again. She giggled more than he was comfortable with
Zuri elegantly cleared her throat. “I’m afraid that won’t be possible.”
“Not unless you’re hiding something from me, lord,” Emily managed through her giggles. “And I’ve seen you in the bath, so I know you’re not.”
“I’m...” He glared at her. “Now hold on!”
“Those particular gloves can only be used by women, lord,” Zuri clarified diplomatically. “So while you could wear them, you cannot use them to heal.”
“Oh c’mon!” Drake protested. “How is that even fair?”
Emily was still doing her level best to suppress her giggles when Drake gave up and turned his attention back to Zuri. “Why are healing gloves only usable by women?”
“That is not the case with all healing gloves, lord. I can only say that those gloves have been in Gloomwood Manor’s possession for generations. So it is certainly possible that gloves that allow men to heal exist. We simply do not have any.”
Drake was getting more and more frustrated by his manor’s inability to provide him with anything useful. Was Zuri holding out on him? She could do that, now.
Still... maybe Dickcheese had just been lazy about collecting new magic items. The man had certainly seemed lazy enough in many other respects. Drake had no reason to doubt Zuri wanted to help him, and she deserved the benefit of the doubt.
“What about magic weapons? Do we have any? Specifically, any that aren’t gender-locked to women?”
Zuri smiled at him. “That’s an interesting term.”
“Thanks. I just invented it.”
“We, like manors across the land and even some commoners, do have magic items with various abilities. However, few are what I would describe as a magical weapon.”
This sucked! He’d been hoping the manor would have a whole armory full of magical weapons because the prior lords had filled it with gold, servants, and resources. Yet the armory was empty.
Dickcheese had definitely been slacking off.
