It made sense, in a weird way. Not being a belligerent asshole was one of the fundamental tenets of his upbringing. Civility, openness, and nonaggression, these were baked into his life in the Before. Ironically, these traits, while great for interaction with powerful individuals like Bald'rt, or Idra, or Taipan's mothers, who had no need to project their strength to assert themselves, failed to leave an impression of anything but vulnerability to the occupants of the frontier. What he viewed as basic civility and social lubricant could be construed as an opportunity.
Like a poisonous frog, bearing its vibrant colors, he needed warning mechanisms to make every low-life thug take heed and leave him the hell alone. Especially if he was hauling a catch like his Shadow around. Which did beg a somewhat important question.
"Alright, I see what you're saying, and I'm not disagreeing with you. Clearly, playing nice is not getting us the intended results. Before we get to finding a correction for that though, I do have to ask you why you didn't just kill guys attacking us? I know you could, I've seen you. You're easily the scarier fighter between the two of us, especially if I'm not using my core's abilities." He inquired.
"Oh, that?" She answered, a bit taken aback, as if it was obvious, " At first, I just wanted to see how you would respond to various forms of insult. When that [Heckler monkey] laid hands on me I was readying to end the drought beneath his feet but you threw him out of mine reach. For the rest? I judged it a good opportunity for you to gain useful experience without much risk."
"You are like a fresh warrior on their first rotation abroad. If I shelter you too much you will never learn the way of things and it will cause only more problems down the road, Ulric. You are growing up now and that means letting you make your own mistakes, where I judge that they will not greatly harm you." She explained.
Ulric frowned a little at that. That made it sound way, way, too much like parenting. Or, no, maybe it was closer to a senior NCO, a crusty old sergeant letting a green officer learn the ropes without holding their hand. Yeah, he could live with that a little better.
"Fine. I can accept that Taipan." He conceded.
Bald'rt had once described him as being "as a child of these lands" and, in many ways, that remained true.
"But try not to have too much confidence in me alright? Yesterday, that mook turned my Lord Instinct to eleven and broke off the knob. I don't really want to have to go around killing a guy every time we visit a new place, so maybe we ought to figure out a way to avoid similar happenings. I know you can take care of yourself just fine without me, but I'm probably physically incapable of not trying to MDK sonsabitches like that one. If that guardsman hadn't stopped the mob from getting close I'd have killed, like, everybody. Or tried to. And if you'd been free and clear from the room I'd probably have used lightning and it's hard to say how that would have turned out, but I'm guessing not well." He told her, seeing her eyes widen.
"Really? You were so angry for me?" She said, her ear tips reddening.
"That is one of the most flattering things you have ever said to me. I cannot wait to lord it over Hal'et, that randy she-goat. She might have got you first but she did not have you Raging over her." Taipan exclaimed, with a cheerful light laugh, so rare from her.
Before he could get over how pleased she was that he’d almost started a riot, just because some fuckwit grabbed her arm, she threw another wrench at him.
"Jealousy is not something I am prepared to endure, but I will be making sure you know your affections are returned later. Tonight. Perhaps this afternoon, too." She whispered, her voice taking on that husky tone that was entirely designed to put his libido in charge.
Ulric looked around briefly and had to clear his throat. If he kept meeting that emerald gaze, he was going to be too hot under the collar to think about much else. Yikes, she'd turned on some serious come hither. Even his busted social barometer could pick this up.
"Mmm…it would be best if we get started dealing with that beast outside or I do not think we will get much done today at all that doesn't involve ruining sheets." Taipan declared as she stood, a little loudly to Ulric's hearing.
Yep, there were a couple of definitely jealous hate beams coming in from a few sources, not all of them male, as Ulric rose to join her. He wondered how many would have remained interested if they knew the precondition for grabbing her attention was to avoid being murdered by her and maybe kill a bunch of people on behalf of her family.
Honestly, the longer they were together the better the trade that seemed, fuck those people.
It was slightly unfair that she'd employed her feminine weapons only to put the festivities on hold but she was both right and, he strongly suspected, letting the tension lead to greater payoff later. She could be devious like that. It was a consolation to know that she was switched on as well, though he'd not have put a murderous fury as high on her list of turn-ons. Which, he had to think now, should have been a little more obvious. Taipan was Taipan.
As they left the room Ulric's brain jumped a connection, something said almost in passing a long, time ago by the other Elf he'd shared a bed with, who Taipan had just mentioned with more than a suggestion of familiarity.
"Hey, Taipan, just how exactly do you know Hal'et anyway? She acted like she knew you, spoke of your habits and offered me a small piece of advice with regards to avoiding being weak around you, all of which ended up being pretty on point." Ulric asked, not knowing if this was dangerous territory or not.
Taipan's grimace said, maybe?
"That fat busybody should keep to her own affairs, it is rude to discuss a Shadow like that. I will go have words with her when next we meet." his partner said, her voice not quite angry.
He was betting there would be fewer words than her statement led on.
She didn't stop talking though, being content to answer his question.
"Hal'et and I are of a similar age. She and her sister Sinna, who you trained with alongside the royal guard, are of a notable house in Iriel. We all grew up together in the same class of children and competed against one another in all things. She grows thicker and fatter than most of the Iriel'en women and so draws the attention of many suiters who lean towards that preference, though she refuses to tie herself down. I suppose, if cornered by fire, I would admit that we are friends, sharing an inner ring, but that does not mean I approve of her in all things. Such as that donkey's bray she calls a laugh or her wanton flirting." Taipan continued.
He wasn't an expert, but that was either the sort of unflattering dragging that accompanied very close friends or jealousy. Since his Shadow was, for better or worse, one of the most confident women he'd ever encountered, he was forced to assume that jealousy was completely impossible and that Hal'et and the woman next to him were, contrary to the surface-level hostility, tight.
Ulric exercised all the self-preservation he had to avoid correcting his lover's descriptions of the prior as being fat with a 'ph' and thick with a 'cc'. Taipan was the prettier of the two, but Hal'et was definitely a bomb. He praised himself for this restraint, and for finally understanding that there was a difference between one woman saying another was attractive and you saying it. He did not understand why this difference existed, only that it did. Especially when you were discussing one of their friends. He’d made that mistake once. Once.
"Oh, I see." Ulric said mildly, keeping his tone completely neutral, "It is good to know that you had friends growing up. For some reason, I had some suspicions that you sprang full grown and hateful as a tiger with a bellyache."
She tossed her hair at that description, not taking it as anything other than a statement of fact.
"That did not come until I had reached my coming of age and grew tired of the attentions of such as you used to paint the floorboards yesterday." the woman said, sarcasm heavy.
Okay, yeah, that was fair.
"That was slightly impressive, by the way, Ulric." She complimented, from out of the blue, "I did not think you strong enough to kill a warrior, even a low-level, immaturely classed one in such manner. A blow to break his consciousness and two sharp slams to smash the back of his skull, it was well done, completely bypassing his armor."
He couldn't take credit for that. He couldn't remember it.
"Yeah, uhm…well…I wasn't really what you might call all there for that." He confessed.
She nodded like that wasn't news.
"If you were in a [Blood Rage] you would almost certainly not recall the incident. Some classes, such as berserkirs are able to concentrate their Rage and hold to thought but absent similar skills or traits, it would be unlikely for you to do so."
Hmm, Classes eh?
His had not changed significantly in some time. He supposed it was a matter of experience. He'd only really had a couple of actual nontraining life or death experiences since coming into those classes. It sort of indicated the lifestyle his Shadow had kept, and her age difference, that hers were so advanced.
They came to the sled, parked where it had been yesterday, tucked away in an out-of-the-way stall. He noticed that the other stalls were empty, apparently, no travelers were passing through the village. The two of them had come into the village at an extremely unseasonable timing.
The oversized wolverine, not quite as large as a horse itself, had been mostly disassembled when the town guardsman who had nominated himself to keep a watch on them, Joldir, wondered over casually. Ulric had noted him hanging out at a discrete distance, him or his partner, they apparently took turns, but he'd come over now, for some reason.
"Good morning travelers. I see you've been busy with the spoils of your battle with this monster." He said, as if he hadn't watched the entire time.
Everybody knew the subterfuge for what it was but it would have been rude to point it out.
"And yourself Guardsman, aye we've been busy." Ulric answered putting the sky blue and silver ribboned core of the beast next to the rows of teeth and claws they'd pulled free of the skull.
"How does the morning find you?" He returned, knowing exactly how the morning had found the guard. Still, the game needed to be played.
Joldir spread his hands, indicating a balance of ups and downs.
"It is more peaceful than yesterday evening, but still abnormally boisterous. The Village Council met and issued an edict for the caravaneers to pay the damages to Minna's business, which they grudgingly did. As well they had too, or there'd have been blood in the streets and none of mine." The guardsman said without humor.
"You and your comrade were declared innocent of any wrongdoing in the matter, as I knew that you would be, it was as clear-cut a case of defending one's self as could be asked. Barsol sealed his own fate by touching your comrade and his friends had no call to attack you to defend a criminal. The man you kicked lived, by the by. A friendly warning, that one has a reputation for violence, though we've never caught him or his comrades in the act, and has the backing of a minor house in Trachn’ir." Joldir said.
Ulric had to credit this Elf, he might actually be a pretty straight shooter, for all that he was a little too keen on trying to figure out what Ulric and Taipan were up to.
"That is good news, Joldir, and thank you for the heads up. Since you're here and probably the man to ask, I have some goods for sale, cores, mostly, from some of the particularly nasty varieties of beasts we encountered, would I be allowed to set up my travel shelter here as a stall?" Ulric asked, still keeping to their cover as a trader and his permanent guard.
Joldir didn’t need to think about the question, it was, actually, mostly up to him to regulate the actions of traders within the village.
"This is permitted, though many of the homesteads around the village will not stray far from their hearths, not for a few more weeks." Answered the guard.
Ulric nodded his acceptance of that. "No blame can I find for them for that. The season is far from over though I feel some warm currents that promise the worst of the Winter to be bygone."
Spurred by the conversation with Taipan earlier regarding the movements of beasts and the guard's fair treatment he felt compelled to give the Elf a warning of his own.
"Ware the forests this upcoming year Joldir, you and the villagers here. My travel has not been peaceful, though it has been far less eventful than if I did not have so skilled a guide. There is something afoot out there, the wilds are crawling in a way that I have never seen. It has my guide's back up and if she is nervous, then everyone else should be as well. Ware the forests." Ulric repeated, hoping he'd given enough warning without being able to say too much.
Joldir considered that. This was not the first he'd heard of something being strange out in the wilderness. Some of their better foragers had reported odd sightings. A couple of hunters had disappeared towards the end of the fall, experienced men who had run these woods their entire lives. The appearance of this [Shrieking Ravager] did not bode well for their fates. He'd put out a general call for caution, just in case.
"Thank you for the alarm, Traveler Ulric. You and your partner may have confirmed for me a rumor that the forests are unsettled. I am afraid I must pass this message along to the Village Council. My fellow guard, Seralin, will be here to see things remain peaceful, feel free to ask questions of her if you need." Joldir offered a short, sharp bow, more an inclination of the shoulders than anything else before he departed.
Ulric turned to Taipan catching her eye.
"What do you think? Was that good enough to let them know to keep an eye out?" He checked.
"It is." She confirmed. "If they do not take heed of an Iriel'en trained scout, even one who has severed ties with the homeland, then they are too stupid to help."
He probably wouldn't have said it that way, but if the shoe fits, wear it.
"Alright then. Let's set up the shelter here and put this stuff on display. What do you think we ought to charge for the cores?" He asked, realizing that he actually had no idea their value.
For all that he was supposed to be a merchant, Taipan had to explain money to him, again.
"Listen more carefully this time Ulric. You do recall the base metals used in coinage valuation?" She asked, slightly miffed.
"Yeah, Taipan, that part made sense to me. Four metals, each with a different base value and rated One thousand to one to each other, weight for weight. Bronze called Elds, Argentum, called Sils, Electrum called Aurs, and Orichalcum, called Tuns." He recited.
Of course, the metal part of that discussion had stuck with him. It was the weights that he had trouble hanging onto.
"I forget how the weights are supposed to operate." He said, drawing a click of her tongue.
"Each weight refers to the multiplier of the base value of the metal. The Servant is the single denomination coin, represented by a hand. From there, is a Squire denoting ten Servants, represented by a runed dagger. And ten Squires make up the Knight, whose representation is a blazoned shield. Then there is the Drake which is worth ten Knights and represented by a dragon's visage. Finally, is the Crown, composed of ten Drakes and represented by a royal circlet." Taipan said slowly and drawn out.
"Alright, alright, calm down Lady, I got a lot of balls in the air right now." He scolded lightly.
It clicked. Oh, okay, he saw how that was supposed to work.
"Okay, so you take your Servants to be one and then each weight is ten times the one before it, so it's a simple base ten with exponents for weights. Servant is power zero, Squire is power one, Knight power two, Drake power three, and Crown power four. But the metals are graded by thousands so it takes a thousand Eld Servants to make a Sil Servant, a thousand Sil Servants to make an Aur Servant, and so on." He summarized.
Taipan looked confused. Uh oh.
"What do you mean 'expulnant' Ulric? I have not heard this before. And powers? What are you saying?" She asked, genuinely befuddled.
Oh shit. He was using mathematics. He'd just assumed that was common knowledge. Damn it, that was a slight wrinkle. He mulled it over. How to explain this? His fingers snapped against his leg while he worked it out.
"Alright, this is worth laying out, Taipan, come over here and sit down." Ulric ordered.
The woman didn't argue at all, just came over and sat cross legged next to him in his blanket-toga. They looked like a couple of crazies in a homeless camp or something.
"Okay, so the way the number systems I grew up using work is that they operate on repeating cycles of tens, we call that the base ten system. Essentially you start by counting single values, starting with zero as the default, until you reach nine single values, at the tenth value you reset the numbers, using a value for how many times you have reached ten and the same nine numbers for each digit as you count, with me so far?" He checked.
She nodded, "Yes this is how we do counts in Iriel as well." She said, surprising him slightly.
What are the odds that base ten systems would be shared? There were plenty of other options. Maybe it ended up being a matter of efficiency or something. Selective pressure towards base ten? That's ridiculous Einar, stop it, he told himself.
As he chastised himself Taipan used her belt knife to inscribe each symbol for zero through nine. At ten she inscribed a unique symbol. Oh, okay, that was different. Apparently, the Elves used an expanded symbology for each place value and then used a base ten multiplicative in front of it to keep track of how many there were, sort of a factoring system. Interesting.
"Alright, yeah, so you've got the jist of it then. So, the way this works to keep track of really big numbers really fast we're going to just say that we have one of something and we're going to say that is ten to the zero power, just like you were counting okay? Think of it like this," he said drawing a one.
"There's a one and there aren't any zeros next to it right? But if we write ten, that's this," and he wrote a one zero.
"So one hundred is one and two zeros and one thousand is one and three zeros and so on, you got it?" He checked.
His Shadow was smiling, her eyes widened with excitement, "I do! So when you say power you mean to say times ten, yes?"
Holy shit. She actually caught on fast.
"Yeah! Yeah, that's exactly it. Wow, you didn't take long to figure that out." He praised, genuinely impressed.
She preened. "Mine Mother Vedyr always says that I wasted my mind chasing squirrels. Perhaps she was right, but I would like to rub her nose in this, she would eat her words." His Shadow exclaimed.
"Well, alright, since that didn't take long, then what I was saying was that the metal values are all power three, each Servant being ten to the third power of the Servant before it. Each weight though is a smaller difference, being only ten to the one of the weight before it. So, a Servant is one, a Squire is ten, a Knight is one hundred, a Drake is one thousand and a Crown is-" Ulric was cut off when the lovely lady sitting by his shoulder shouted
"Ten of one thousand!" in excitement, right into his ear.
"Right!" He said, still impressed.
He considered the soft bribe of Joldir yesterday. The silver drake then had been a pretty hefty sum, compared to the bronze crowns. He hadn't known the difference was so large, he hoped he hadn't blundered.
Quickly, Ulric inspected the coin purse that Taipan had insisted he be the one to carry, as a merchant or trader wouldn't let any other but themselves carry that.
Inside, he saw a healthy domination of Elds, mostly Crowns, a scattering of Sils, mostly middle weights though he spotted at least one Crown. There was a mere three or four Aurs, though each was a drake, representing more than the rest combined easily. Lastly was though, standing out for its almost iridescent silvery hue, a single Tun, a Knight, worth the rest of the bag together by far.
Gods blood. He wasn't certain but he was pretty sure they were loaded.
He looked up at Taipan.
"Taipan, correct me if I'm wrong, but are we rich?" He asked.
She ruffled his hair playfully before answering.
"Of course! What did you think my dowry was worth?"
The coin pouch fell from his nerveless hands, striking the dirt with a muffled chink!
It made sense, in a weird way. Not being a belligerent asshole was one of the fundamental tenets of his upbringing. Civility, openness, and nonaggression, these were baked into his life in the Before. Ironically, these traits, while great for interaction with powerful individuals like Bald'rt, or Idra, or Taipan's mothers, who had no need to project their strength to assert themselves, failed to leave an impression of anything but vulnerability to the occupants of the frontier. What he viewed as basic civility and social lubricant could be construed as an opportunity.
Like a poisonous frog, bearing its vibrant colors, he needed warning mechanisms to make every low-life thug take heed and leave him the hell alone. Especially if he was hauling a catch like his Shadow around. Which did beg a somewhat important question.
"Alright, I see what you're saying, and I'm not disagreeing with you. Clearly, playing nice is not getting us the intended results. Before we get to finding a correction for that though, I do have to ask you why you didn't just kill guys attacking us? I know you could, I've seen you. You're easily the scarier fighter between the two of us, especially if I'm not using my core's abilities." He inquired.
"Oh, that?" She answered, a bit taken aback, as if it was obvious, " At first, I just wanted to see how you would respond to various forms of insult. When that [Heckler monkey] laid hands on me I was readying to end the drought beneath his feet but you threw him out of mine reach. For the rest? I judged it a good opportunity for you to gain useful experience without much risk."
"You are like a fresh warrior on their first rotation abroad. If I shelter you too much you will never learn the way of things and it will cause only more problems down the road, Ulric. You are growing up now and that means letting you make your own mistakes, where I judge that they will not greatly harm you." She explained.
Ulric frowned a little at that. That made it sound way, way, too much like parenting. Or, no, maybe it was closer to a senior NCO, a crusty old sergeant letting a green officer learn the ropes without holding their hand. Yeah, he could live with that a little better.
"Fine. I can accept that Taipan." He conceded.
Bald'rt had once described him as being "as a child of these lands" and, in many ways, that remained true.
"But try not to have too much confidence in me alright? Yesterday, that mook turned my Lord Instinct to eleven and broke off the knob. I don't really want to have to go around killing a guy every time we visit a new place, so maybe we ought to figure out a way to avoid similar happenings. I know you can take care of yourself just fine without me, but I'm probably physically incapable of not trying to MDK sonsabitches like that one. If that guardsman hadn't stopped the mob from getting close I'd have killed, like, everybody. Or tried to. And if you'd been free and clear from the room I'd probably have used lightning and it's hard to say how that would have turned out, but I'm guessing not well." He told her, seeing her eyes widen.
"Really? You were so angry for me?" She said, her ear tips reddening.
"That is one of the most flattering things you have ever said to me. I cannot wait to lord it over Hal'et, that randy she-goat. She might have got you first but she did not have you Raging over her." Taipan exclaimed, with a cheerful light laugh, so rare from her.
Before he could get over how pleased she was that he’d almost started a riot, just because some fuckwit grabbed her arm, she threw another wrench at him.
"Jealousy is not something I am prepared to endure, but I will be making sure you know your affections are returned later. Tonight. Perhaps this afternoon, too." She whispered, her voice taking on that husky tone that was entirely designed to put his libido in charge.
Ulric looked around briefly and had to clear his throat. If he kept meeting that emerald gaze, he was going to be too hot under the collar to think about much else. Yikes, she'd turned on some serious come hither. Even his busted social barometer could pick this up.
"Mmm…it would be best if we get started dealing with that beast outside or I do not think we will get much done today at all that doesn't involve ruining sheets." Taipan declared as she stood, a little loudly to Ulric's hearing.
Yep, there were a couple of definitely jealous hate beams coming in from a few sources, not all of them male, as Ulric rose to join her. He wondered how many would have remained interested if they knew the precondition for grabbing her attention was to avoid being murdered by her and maybe kill a bunch of people on behalf of her family.
Honestly, the longer they were together the better the trade that seemed, fuck those people.
It was slightly unfair that she'd employed her feminine weapons only to put the festivities on hold but she was both right and, he strongly suspected, letting the tension lead to greater payoff later. She could be devious like that. It was a consolation to know that she was switched on as well, though he'd not have put a murderous fury as high on her list of turn-ons. Which, he had to think now, should have been a little more obvious. Taipan was Taipan.
As they left the room Ulric's brain jumped a connection, something said almost in passing a long, time ago by the other Elf he'd shared a bed with, who Taipan had just mentioned with more than a suggestion of familiarity.
"Hey, Taipan, just how exactly do you know Hal'et anyway? She acted like she knew you, spoke of your habits and offered me a small piece of advice with regards to avoiding being weak around you, all of which ended up being pretty on point." Ulric asked, not knowing if this was dangerous territory or not.
Taipan's grimace said, maybe?
"That fat busybody should keep to her own affairs, it is rude to discuss a Shadow like that. I will go have words with her when next we meet." his partner said, her voice not quite angry.
He was betting there would be fewer words than her statement led on.
She didn't stop talking though, being content to answer his question.
"Hal'et and I are of a similar age. She and her sister Sinna, who you trained with alongside the royal guard, are of a notable house in Iriel. We all grew up together in the same class of children and competed against one another in all things. She grows thicker and fatter than most of the Iriel'en women and so draws the attention of many suiters who lean towards that preference, though she refuses to tie herself down. I suppose, if cornered by fire, I would admit that we are friends, sharing an inner ring, but that does not mean I approve of her in all things. Such as that donkey's bray she calls a laugh or her wanton flirting." Taipan continued.
He wasn't an expert, but that was either the sort of unflattering dragging that accompanied very close friends or jealousy. Since his Shadow was, for better or worse, one of the most confident women he'd ever encountered, he was forced to assume that jealousy was completely impossible and that Hal'et and the woman next to him were, contrary to the surface-level hostility, tight.
Ulric exercised all the self-preservation he had to avoid correcting his lover's descriptions of the prior as being fat with a 'ph' and thick with a 'cc'. Taipan was the prettier of the two, but Hal'et was definitely a bomb. He praised himself for this restraint, and for finally understanding that there was a difference between one woman saying another was attractive and you saying it. He did not understand why this difference existed, only that it did. Especially when you were discussing one of their friends. He’d made that mistake once. Once.
"Oh, I see." Ulric said mildly, keeping his tone completely neutral, "It is good to know that you had friends growing up. For some reason, I had some suspicions that you sprang full grown and hateful as a tiger with a bellyache."
She tossed her hair at that description, not taking it as anything other than a statement of fact.
"That did not come until I had reached my coming of age and grew tired of the attentions of such as you used to paint the floorboards yesterday." the woman said, sarcasm heavy.
Okay, yeah, that was fair.
"That was slightly impressive, by the way, Ulric." She complimented, from out of the blue, "I did not think you strong enough to kill a warrior, even a low-level, immaturely classed one in such manner. A blow to break his consciousness and two sharp slams to smash the back of his skull, it was well done, completely bypassing his armor."
He couldn't take credit for that. He couldn't remember it.
"Yeah, uhm…well…I wasn't really what you might call all there for that." He confessed.
She nodded like that wasn't news.
"If you were in a [Blood Rage] you would almost certainly not recall the incident. Some classes, such as berserkirs are able to concentrate their Rage and hold to thought but absent similar skills or traits, it would be unlikely for you to do so."
Hmm, Classes eh?
His had not changed significantly in some time. He supposed it was a matter of experience. He'd only really had a couple of actual nontraining life or death experiences since coming into those classes. It sort of indicated the lifestyle his Shadow had kept, and her age difference, that hers were so advanced.
They came to the sled, parked where it had been yesterday, tucked away in an out-of-the-way stall. He noticed that the other stalls were empty, apparently, no travelers were passing through the village. The two of them had come into the village at an extremely unseasonable timing.
The oversized wolverine, not quite as large as a horse itself, had been mostly disassembled when the town guardsman who had nominated himself to keep a watch on them, Joldir, wondered over casually. Ulric had noted him hanging out at a discrete distance, him or his partner, they apparently took turns, but he'd come over now, for some reason.
"Good morning travelers. I see you've been busy with the spoils of your battle with this monster." He said, as if he hadn't watched the entire time.
Everybody knew the subterfuge for what it was but it would have been rude to point it out.
"And yourself Guardsman, aye we've been busy." Ulric answered putting the sky blue and silver ribboned core of the beast next to the rows of teeth and claws they'd pulled free of the skull.
"How does the morning find you?" He returned, knowing exactly how the morning had found the guard. Still, the game needed to be played.
Joldir spread his hands, indicating a balance of ups and downs.
"It is more peaceful than yesterday evening, but still abnormally boisterous. The Village Council met and issued an edict for the caravaneers to pay the damages to Minna's business, which they grudgingly did. As well they had too, or there'd have been blood in the streets and none of mine." The guardsman said without humor.
"You and your comrade were declared innocent of any wrongdoing in the matter, as I knew that you would be, it was as clear-cut a case of defending one's self as could be asked. Barsol sealed his own fate by touching your comrade and his friends had no call to attack you to defend a criminal. The man you kicked lived, by the by. A friendly warning, that one has a reputation for violence, though we've never caught him or his comrades in the act, and has the backing of a minor house in Trachn’ir." Joldir said.
Ulric had to credit this Elf, he might actually be a pretty straight shooter, for all that he was a little too keen on trying to figure out what Ulric and Taipan were up to.
"That is good news, Joldir, and thank you for the heads up. Since you're here and probably the man to ask, I have some goods for sale, cores, mostly, from some of the particularly nasty varieties of beasts we encountered, would I be allowed to set up my travel shelter here as a stall?" Ulric asked, still keeping to their cover as a trader and his permanent guard.
Joldir didn’t need to think about the question, it was, actually, mostly up to him to regulate the actions of traders within the village.
"This is permitted, though many of the homesteads around the village will not stray far from their hearths, not for a few more weeks." Answered the guard.
Ulric nodded his acceptance of that. "No blame can I find for them for that. The season is far from over though I feel some warm currents that promise the worst of the Winter to be bygone."
Spurred by the conversation with Taipan earlier regarding the movements of beasts and the guard's fair treatment he felt compelled to give the Elf a warning of his own.
"Ware the forests this upcoming year Joldir, you and the villagers here. My travel has not been peaceful, though it has been far less eventful than if I did not have so skilled a guide. There is something afoot out there, the wilds are crawling in a way that I have never seen. It has my guide's back up and if she is nervous, then everyone else should be as well. Ware the forests." Ulric repeated, hoping he'd given enough warning without being able to say too much.
Joldir considered that. This was not the first he'd heard of something being strange out in the wilderness. Some of their better foragers had reported odd sightings. A couple of hunters had disappeared towards the end of the fall, experienced men who had run these woods their entire lives. The appearance of this [Shrieking Ravager] did not bode well for their fates. He'd put out a general call for caution, just in case.
"Thank you for the alarm, Traveler Ulric. You and your partner may have confirmed for me a rumor that the forests are unsettled. I am afraid I must pass this message along to the Village Council. My fellow guard, Seralin, will be here to see things remain peaceful, feel free to ask questions of her if you need." Joldir offered a short, sharp bow, more an inclination of the shoulders than anything else before he departed.
Ulric turned to Taipan catching her eye.
"What do you think? Was that good enough to let them know to keep an eye out?" He checked.
"It is." She confirmed. "If they do not take heed of an Iriel'en trained scout, even one who has severed ties with the homeland, then they are too stupid to help."
He probably wouldn't have said it that way, but if the shoe fits, wear it.
"Alright then. Let's set up the shelter here and put this stuff on display. What do you think we ought to charge for the cores?" He asked, realizing that he actually had no idea their value.
For all that he was supposed to be a merchant, Taipan had to explain money to him, again.
"Listen more carefully this time Ulric. You do recall the base metals used in coinage valuation?" She asked, slightly miffed.
"Yeah, Taipan, that part made sense to me. Four metals, each with a different base value and rated One thousand to one to each other, weight for weight. Bronze called Elds, Argentum, called Sils, Electrum called Aurs, and Orichalcum, called Tuns." He recited.
Of course, the metal part of that discussion had stuck with him. It was the weights that he had trouble hanging onto.
"I forget how the weights are supposed to operate." He said, drawing a click of her tongue.
"Each weight refers to the multiplier of the base value of the metal. The Servant is the single denomination coin, represented by a hand. From there, is a Squire denoting ten Servants, represented by a runed dagger. And ten Squires make up the Knight, whose representation is a blazoned shield. Then there is the Drake which is worth ten Knights and represented by a dragon's visage. Finally, is the Crown, composed of ten Drakes and represented by a royal circlet." Taipan said slowly and drawn out.
"Alright, alright, calm down Lady, I got a lot of balls in the air right now." He scolded lightly.
It clicked. Oh, okay, he saw how that was supposed to work.
"Okay, so you take your Servants to be one and then each weight is ten times the one before it, so it's a simple base ten with exponents for weights. Servant is power zero, Squire is power one, Knight power two, Drake power three, and Crown power four. But the metals are graded by thousands so it takes a thousand Eld Servants to make a Sil Servant, a thousand Sil Servants to make an Aur Servant, and so on." He summarized.
Taipan looked confused. Uh oh.
"What do you mean 'expulnant' Ulric? I have not heard this before. And powers? What are you saying?" She asked, genuinely befuddled.
Oh shit. He was using mathematics. He'd just assumed that was common knowledge. Damn it, that was a slight wrinkle. He mulled it over. How to explain this? His fingers snapped against his leg while he worked it out.
"Alright, this is worth laying out, Taipan, come over here and sit down." Ulric ordered.
The woman didn't argue at all, just came over and sat cross legged next to him in his blanket-toga. They looked like a couple of crazies in a homeless camp or something.
"Okay, so the way the number systems I grew up using work is that they operate on repeating cycles of tens, we call that the base ten system. Essentially you start by counting single values, starting with zero as the default, until you reach nine single values, at the tenth value you reset the numbers, using a value for how many times you have reached ten and the same nine numbers for each digit as you count, with me so far?" He checked.
She nodded, "Yes this is how we do counts in Iriel as well." She said, surprising him slightly.
What are the odds that base ten systems would be shared? There were plenty of other options. Maybe it ended up being a matter of efficiency or something. Selective pressure towards base ten? That's ridiculous Einar, stop it, he told himself.
As he chastised himself Taipan used her belt knife to inscribe each symbol for zero through nine. At ten she inscribed a unique symbol. Oh, okay, that was different. Apparently, the Elves used an expanded symbology for each place value and then used a base ten multiplicative in front of it to keep track of how many there were, sort of a factoring system. Interesting.
"Alright, yeah, so you've got the jist of it then. So, the way this works to keep track of really big numbers really fast we're going to just say that we have one of something and we're going to say that is ten to the zero power, just like you were counting okay? Think of it like this," he said drawing a one.
"There's a one and there aren't any zeros next to it right? But if we write ten, that's this," and he wrote a one zero.
"So one hundred is one and two zeros and one thousand is one and three zeros and so on, you got it?" He checked.
His Shadow was smiling, her eyes widened with excitement, "I do! So when you say power you mean to say times ten, yes?"
Holy shit. She actually caught on fast.
"Yeah! Yeah, that's exactly it. Wow, you didn't take long to figure that out." He praised, genuinely impressed.
She preened. "Mine Mother Vedyr always says that I wasted my mind chasing squirrels. Perhaps she was right, but I would like to rub her nose in this, she would eat her words." His Shadow exclaimed.
"Well, alright, since that didn't take long, then what I was saying was that the metal values are all power three, each Servant being ten to the third power of the Servant before it. Each weight though is a smaller difference, being only ten to the one of the weight before it. So, a Servant is one, a Squire is ten, a Knight is one hundred, a Drake is one thousand and a Crown is-" Ulric was cut off when the lovely lady sitting by his shoulder shouted
"Ten of one thousand!" in excitement, right into his ear.
"Right!" He said, still impressed.
He considered the soft bribe of Joldir yesterday. The silver drake then had been a pretty hefty sum, compared to the bronze crowns. He hadn't known the difference was so large, he hoped he hadn't blundered.
Quickly, Ulric inspected the coin purse that Taipan had insisted he be the one to carry, as a merchant or trader wouldn't let any other but themselves carry that.
Inside, he saw a healthy domination of Elds, mostly Crowns, a scattering of Sils, mostly middle weights though he spotted at least one Crown. There was a mere three or four Aurs, though each was a drake, representing more than the rest combined easily. Lastly was though, standing out for its almost iridescent silvery hue, a single Tun, a Knight, worth the rest of the bag together by far.
Gods blood. He wasn't certain but he was pretty sure they were loaded.
He looked up at Taipan.
"Taipan, correct me if I'm wrong, but are we rich?" He asked.
She ruffled his hair playfully before answering.
"Of course! What did you think my dowry was worth?"
The coin pouch fell from his nerveless hands, striking the dirt with a muffled chink!
