In the next moment Arthur found himself inside his Personal Space.
Penn and Echo stood like living dolls in the middle of the room. Arthur turned away from them and instead went to the pile where he kept his tools.
Though he shoved everything into the Personal Space, the items collected more or less according to a category. He had not been thrifty during the impromptu shopping trip and he'd gathered everything he could think of from extra utensils to basic tools he thought would be useful for roughing it out in the wilderness.
New skill gained: Fork proficiency. (General class)
Due to your cards bonus traits, you automatically start this skill at level 13. (+3 Master of Skills, +10 Tool Competence)
New skill gained: Spoon proficiency. (General class)
Due to your cards bonus traits, you automatically start this skill at level 13. (+3 Master of Skills, +10 Tool Competence)
He had no idea what a fork and spoon competency would grant him, why he hadn’t gained these before, or even if any of these skills would stay with him once he gave up the card. He hoped his Master of Skills card would take over from there.
Plates offered no competency, neither did the bowls or glassware. Apparently, those items didn't count as tools.
He moved onto more traditional items.New skill gained: Garden Sheer proficiency. (Herbalist/Alchemy class)
Due to your cards bonus traits, you automatically start this skill at level 13. (+3 Master of Skills, +10 Tool Competence)
New skill gained: Shovel proficiency. (General/Miner class)
Due to your cards bonus traits, you automatically start this skill at level 13. (+3 Master of Skills, +10 Tool Competence)
New skill gained: Trowel proficiency. (Herbalist/Alchemy class)
Due to your cards bonus traits, you automatically start this skill at level 13. (+3 Master of Skills, +10 Tool Competence)
New skill gained: Letter Opener proficiency. (Scholar class)
Due to your cards bonus traits, you automatically start this skill at level 13. (+3 Master of Skills, +10 Tool Competence)
New skill gained: Rope proficiency. (General/Sailor class)
Due to your cards bonus traits, you automatically start this skill at level 13. (+3 Master of Skills, +10 Tool Competence)
New skill gained: Needle and Thread proficiency. (Tailor class)
Due to your cards bonus traits, you automatically start this skill at level 13. (+3 Master of Skills, +10 Tool Competence)
New skill gained: Quill proficiency. (Scholar class)
Due to your cards bonus traits, you automatically start this skill at level 13. (+3 Master of Skills, +10 Tool Competence)
Sadly when picking up items stuffed into a traditional first aid kit yielded nothing. He'd hoped to get some alchemy skills out of the salves, but again, that didn't count as a tool.
Hopefully, these skills had a chance of sticking. The sword and dagger skills had gone gray and inaccessible once he dropped those items. But Penn had the Combat card. Arthur was the one with the general skills card.
Lastly, he turned to the still and silent visitors in his space.
They were utterly frozen in time. Penn was in the middle of blinking, which gave him a strange sleepy-eyed look. Echo was even more disheveled and worn out than Arthur remembered.
Arthur was severely tempted to go through their pockets. He wouldn't take any cards -- the one he truly wanted was in Penn's heart anyway -- but what if they had some money, some tools or surprises up their sleeves to help them?
Arthur wavered, shame, greed, and cold calculation warring through him.
He turned away.
No. He'd promised to keep them safe. He wasn't going to steal from them when they were at his mercy.
Even if they were fabulously wealthy by his standards.
In a blink of time he stood back in front of Marion. And, with great reluctance he reached to his card anchor to give back the card.
"Of course, Marion. It was a huge help--"
Marion held up his hand. "Stop."
Arthur froze with his fingers a half inch from the card anchor.
Marion sighed and tucked the small book he'd found in a vest pocket. Apparently, he had no qualms about simply taking something he wanted to read.
"I want to know how you did it. Do you have a thief card?"
"A thief card?" he repeated with a half-laugh. "Do they exist?"
Marion didn't laugh with him. "Almost everything you can imagine exists. It's just a matter of finding it." He studied Arthur for a moment. "That's another thing -- you don't add up."
Arthur did not like where this was going. He reached in and withdrew the card, holding it out to Marion. "Here. I'm sorry I took it, but I needed to do something to save our lives."
An emotion crossed Marion's face that Arthur couldn't quite catch. He didn't reach for the card. Instead, he looked away. "I'm aware, and I know I ought to owe you my thanks, but... it's vexing."
Slowly, Arthur lowered his arm. "What is?"
"People! Me! Everything!" He huffed in frustration and rubbed at his temple. "I'm not an idiot. One second we're in dire straights and the next I'm back in luxury. This was your doing, and you saved my sister's life -- our whole team. You're a baron's son and I'm a prince with the power over time. Yes, only five seconds of time -- don't say it --. and I'm sorry this is brash of me to ask considering how much I owe but I need another favor."
"First of all, saving your life wasn't a favor. We all saved each other out there. You warned us that the king was coming."
"So he came after all?"
"Well, no," Arthur grimaced. The emotion was still separated from the memories but it didn't make them all pleasant. "Let's wait for Penn and Echo. I don't want to tell the story twice."
"That's fair. You know," Marion said, "most people would leap at the chance to be in good graces with a Prince. Even me."
"I'm a backwoods baron's son," Arthur said dryly. "I don't have the usual manners. What's your favor?"
Marion, knowing the question was coming, was already grimacing before Arthur was done. He reflexively grabbed another candied plum and bit into it.
"My Legendary card was chosen for me at my birth -- though obviously I didn't receive it until much later."
Arthur nodded. He supposed he was supposed to feel sympathy for Marion -- and perhaps a tiny part of him did -- but he wondered what it would be like growing up in luxury, being prepared for the powerful card you would one day receive.
His own had been through pure, dumb luck.
"Not only was my Legendary pre-chosen, my entire heart deck and the cards I carry in my secondary anchor tattoo have been carefully curated for me by the king's advisers. The Instant Tool and Weapon Competence card is meant to cover for my lack of martial or offensive cards. That way I can pick up any tool and make it a weapon." Again, Marion made a face. "It's the only card like it I will ever have."
"Wait, you can't add to your heart deck?"
"Not without express approval from the King. Or more realistically, his advisers. I doubt he troubles himself. As such, I..." Marion paused, swallowed and got the rest out in a rush, "I was hoping for your Wind Release card. I know I have nothing but coins to trade and I do need the Instant Tool and Weapon Competence card as well. My minders -- my babysitters -- will grow suspicious if I don't have it."
Arthur reached for his card anchor.
"I know it doesn't fit with my current deck at all," Marion continued, still in that rush. "Which is perfect. My minders won't know, which means enemies won't either--"
He stopped and stared at Arthur who held out the card to him.
He could see five seconds in the future, but he still had to pay attention outside his own angst to look.
"You got a big sack of coins, right?" Arthur said. "That'll do."
It almost physically hurt to give up the Instant Tool and Weapon Competence card as it synergized so well with his own deck, but if Marion couldn't give it up without raising suspicion, it wouldn't be right to keep it.
The Wind Release was useful but not vital to his current decks. Besides, with the coins he could pay Horatio for the mana card and possibly buy himself something better.
He already had one in mind.
Marion carefully took the cards as if he expected a trick. Then reaching into his jacket, he withdrew the coins. "That was easier than I expected."
"People aren't that hard, really," Arthur said. "And how's this for another trade: You don't worry about how I got my hands on your card, and I won't tell your minders about the Wind Release."
Marion smiled shakily. "Are you sure you're not the one who sees the future? That's what I was going to suggest."
"People really aren't that hard to figure out," Arthur said. "Now, I think it's time Penn and Echo joined us. I gotta tell you what happened -- and figure out what we're going to do next."
"Fortunately," Marion said as he tucked both cards away in his anchor, "I'm rather good at predicting the future."
Penn and Echo had much less dramatic arrivals than Marion.
Once they were assured they were out of danger and were, in fact, in Buck Moon hive Penn immediately went for the feast. Echo headed for the closets which were stocked in generic clothing in different sizes for men and women. Arthur's room was luxurious, but meant for guests of all types.
She joined them a few minutes later with hair brushed and in a pretty green dress.
No one asked how Arthur came by so much food. All seemed to accept it as natural they'd be presented with a table groaning with plates.
Nobles.
Arthur was hungry too. Between bites of perfectly seared beef, greens so fresh they had to have been picked from the gardens hours ago, and a delicate fish hand-pie, Arthur told them the broad strokes of what happened. He left out the details of his skills, of course.
Luckily, Echo and Penn were much more interested in the mega-scourge eruption, and the aftermath.
"Harvest Moon got the new Legendary card?" Penn asked. "That will annoy the other hives. They've got, what, the last three of those?" He looked around the table for confirmation.
"Four, I believe. Of course they gave the cards directly to the King," Marion said. He smiled sarcastically at Echo. "More future heirs for us to worry about."
She rolled her eyes. "Who cares? Future babies have to wait twelve years to receive them anyway."
"I doubt the King has any plans to abdicate within twelve years," Marion shot back.
Arthur listened to the two of them, interested to get this glimpse of upper noble politics. He idly twined the fork he held through his fingers.
New skill level: Fork proficiency. (General class)
Level: 14
Arthur hurriedly swallowed the bite and reached for a thin glass of bubbling fruit juice to cover the moment. He checked his skill list.
Every skill he added -- with the exception of the combat-based tools such as the dagger -- was still there.
It really was a shame he had to give back the Took Competency card, but he'd certainly received a boost while he had it.
Eventually the bickering wound down and Arthur told them the news he dreaded the most: The interview with the King's Men.
"That's not good," Penn said, echoing Sams's earlier statement.
Echo's face had taken on a pale cast. "You don't think they'll blame us, will they?" she asked Marion, "For not stopping that terrible mind-mage? I know we're royalty, but we don't even have a dragon yet..."
"I believe it depends on the King's mood," Marion said. "Also, as he currently thinks two of his possible heirs are dead, his mood won't be good."
Penn rose from the table. "I need to send a message to my father, in case news has reached his estate." He headed for the pole near the balcony to change the flags.
Echo rose as well. "We should do the same."
Marion sighed, "The moment we do they'll send our minders to watch over us."
"So?" Echo asked. "You want to hide forever?"
"No, but I would like one night where I'm not being watched like a toddler around breakable glassware." Marion said, gaze flicking to Arthur. "But go on, this will be good."
"You can't say things like that!" Echo said, "You can't even think it. The King's men will likely have thought-sensors--"
"Actually," Arthur said, "I... had a plan for them, too."
Echo and Penn turned to look at him. Marion just raised his glass in a silent solute. "Arthur, you are full of surprises."
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