Hikaru and Sio look up at us with some alarm, but I'm able to quell their worried questions by raising my hand. I walk over to our table and pull up a chair for Master Jatu, who nods her head as she takes it; she holds up her other hand for service as she does.
"Should we get you something, priestess?" Hikaru asks, the slightest waver in his voice. "We can absolutely pay our own way -"
"Nonsense," Jatu says, raising a dismissive hand. "No one fighting for my town and lord will pay for drinks I'm sharing, Adventurer."
"Nice to hear 'Adventurer' as something other than an insult for once," Ace mutters as she pulls up a chair next to me. As Jatu laughs, Ace looks up at my eyes, lips pursed so she wouldn't grimace.
I lay my hand over hers. She closes her eyes, and nods, and finally exhales.
"You must admit, the situation must be dire before someone is glad of armored strangers with oversized bottle openers in their peaceful little village," Jatu says.
Hikaru and Sio nod at the same time, Sio muttering something about how true that was, and I shake my head.
"Then you've seen the problem firsthand," Alesha says to her, less a question and more of a comment.
"Set wards, and trapped wards at that," she says. "Carefully, so as not to burn out the crops in the dry seasons - not that grapes burn easily. Caught more than one charred Seedling when they've gone off, and weeded enough Seedling sprouts."
"Creatures who should not be here," Hikaru says. "Creatures of the deep forest."
"There's plenty of forest nearby for the colliers to keep the ovens and forges hot, and one or two of these things wandering in when desperate is not unheard of," Jatu clarifies. "But to be
this much of a problem
this often, they need to defeat the usual wards. And most of the failed wards were placed by those who revere the Allmother."
"We've tangled with a - call her a renegade Erandan priestess before," Sekhmet says. "Blonde asshole who likes poison spells. I'm not saying it's her, but I hope so because I owe her a dagger."
"Get in line," I snarl.
"Someone like that could teach any Breathworker how to dispel our protections," Jatu says. "You'd need an Enthused to disable the other wards without knowing the trick, and so far those haven't been brute-forced, but perhaps they think themselves subtle?"
"They have been subtle," Alesha points out. "We spent yesterday and this morning convincing the lord Orlando that this was a problem that required our presence."
"Mostly by saying the Contessa sent us," Ace muttered.
"Any port in a storm will do," Sio replied.
I turn to Alesha. "So... trip report. What were you able to find out from Tayeb's family?"
She pauses - tucking a tight curl of hair from out of her eyes and behind her ear - then sighs. "That their situation is a lot more complicated than any of us would like," she says.
Sekhmet twirls their hand, their usual gesture of impatience. Frowning. Which is interesting, because they were also there - but they're deferring to the social worker to describe things.
"Tayeb's relationship with his family is remarkably strained," she says. "His cousins in particular are... impatient with him to the point of
shocking disrespect for a family patriarch?"
Ace nods. "Yeah. There wasn't the kind of banter I was expecting, you know? It's not open warfare but there's passive aggression there, even a bit of malicious compliance. Papa Mike asked them to get him tea, they brought the pot but no cups."
I grimace. "Yikes."
Alesha nods. "Tayeb loves his brother and their parents, and there's a healthy relationship there, but it's still pretty clear to me that they're doing so
despite some perceived fault in him. He's the black sheep of the family and I'm not sure
why."
"You know they tried to blame him for it when they heard Shadi needed a rescue from us?" Sekhmet murmurs, trying to keep this news to us and us alone.
"Who was
really upset with how that went down," Ace added, her nose curling up and her ears flattening.
"Said she had no business being where she was when she got snatched, running a stall for him in a market on the coast. Can you believe that shit?"
"You'll probably have more luck getting details out of them as the Adventurer who personally rescued Shadi," Alesha says. "But it's surprising, and I wish I
could tell you where that resentment is coming from. Certainly he busts his ass providing for the family, including his family here."
The barmaid from earlier plops down a refreshed snack tray to go with the wine Jatu ordered for us, and curtseys, and Jatu pours us all fresh cups of the white.
And I look at mine, and the tray, and Jatu, before blinking and looking up at Alesha.
"It's because they don't trust money or people who pay with it," I realize out loud. "Almost no one does outside of the city. They aren't - that's not how you pay for things in villages, is it, Sio?"
I've turned to her as I say this, and for a moment she's as confused as I am. Then she pinches the bridge of her nose and groans.
"Spent too long in castles and cities," Sio says. "Spent too long with people with money to remember how people without it live. Stupid. Should have thought of that."
"Go on," Alesha says, leaning in, supporting her head with one hand.
"Okay so - so you've seen the Pastel Horse Show with me," I say.
"This is going to be
magical," Ace says, grinning, and now
she's leaning in to listen.
Alesha allows herself a smile. "Together with Jasmine and Keenan, yes."
"They don't go down to the store and buy a bottle of soda in
All The Pretty Little Horses," I say. "They go to - to a horse with a brand of a peach soda on her butt and ask for a bottle, and then when she's throwing a party she goes to pegasus with a biscuit on his hips, and he goes to a unicorn with three cloves on
her ass, and somehow everything works out to where there's cake and soda and games and balloons at the party and everyone calls it even," I say.
"I'm deeply curious what pre-writing rituals your playwrights have," Sio says.
"And what substances they partake of before them?" Hikaru says, fighting to keep a straight face.
"Laurel fumes, at a guess," Sio mutters.
I frown and nod. "That's not - that's not
only an abstraction for the sake of kids who don't know how money works. That's how the economy actually
works here. This isn't a cash economy - it's a Guy Economy," I say, my hands adding punctuation. "You don't go down to the store for a pint of milk, you go to the Cow Guy and get a jar - and maybe fix his door while you're there. You don't pay in cash unless you have
nothing better to offer."
"Or you're a merchant from out of town," Alesha adds, nodding.
"And want to get
everyone else paying you in cash too," Sekhmet says - then, laughing, adds: "Wait, wait - are you telling me this village is full of fuckin' communists and they resent Tayeb for being bourgeois?"
"Yes," I say, voice flat.
Sekhmet stops laughing, and everyone lets that statement linger - save for Sio, calmly sipping water, for whom this wasn't (or at least shouldn't be) news.
"Son of a bitch," Sekhmet says, ears at the top of their head, eyes wide.
"Worked all that out from me running up my tab?" Jatu asks, eyes twinkling as her glass meets her lips.
"I'm not dumb, Priestess," I say. "Just most of what I've learned is useless here, that's all."
"And still you sell yourself too dearly," she says. "You did just correlate - what did you call it? - 'All The Pretty Little Horses' to the particulars of your problems."
"Also to be fair to her, that may have been the first time in her life that pastel horses have been on the test," Ace says, grinning from ear to ear.
Jatu concedes the point by offering her glass, which Ace touches hers to and salutes with before drinking.
"I think you're right," Alesha says. "I think they're
ashamed of having a - presumed nonproductive - merchant in the family. And now I'm doubly sure you need to talk with them, and figure out a way to... convey that we're not his disreputable layabout friends."
"I will
not come up with a persuasive argument today, not in this heat," I say. "We sleep on it, and deal with what we can this afternoon?"
Alesha nods, smiling openly, now, and I take a deep breath. "That probably means seeing the damaged vineyards," Alesha says. "The Seedlings have broken into the Almez and Cabello vineyards, I presume?"
"Among others," Jatu says, eyebrows raised. "Then that's your next destination?"
"I know your time is valuable," Hikaru says, raising his own wineglass to Jatu, "but if you would be good enough to escort us and to describe the wards to a fellow arcanist, it will help me know what to look for."
"When this bottle is empty and these plates clean," Jatu commands. "We wouldn't want the wheat-empress to strike us down for our arrogance, would we?"
"I knew that working in 90 degree weather was literal hubris, but it's nice to have it confirmed," Ace says, curling her fingers in mine.
I return the gesture, take a deep breath, and reach for the bread. We'd need the energy for the investigation.
Avery Alder coined the phrase "Guy Economy" to describe this kind of country communism, and also wrote Monsterhearts, which is pretty neat.
Special thanks to my roommate Luni and to @bii for prereading.
