"I feel sick Eve, can we leave this place. I fear the guilt may kill me, I don't care what she says, I'll return every ounce of strength I stole from them."
"I will be right there with you Adam, I will help you right every wrong you feel you committed."
"Not righting, atoning, there is no righting those wrongs. Even I'm not self-destructive of moronic to think I can actually right them."
"Papa, you earned a chocolate truffle."
"Why?" I chuckled at the abrupt decleration.
"Auntie Astra said if I give you a treat every time you do something good, you will do it more."
"I am going to pretend you were learning rudimentary psychology and she wasn't teaching you manipulative techniques."
I shook my head and then we continued to the welcoming hall where Rigli and our supplies were waiting.
It was still early, only a couple of hours passed dawn, but as we got to the welcoming hall we were greeted by all those who had been there the night before. "'Ello dear kin. Mother made sure t' tell us t' bid ya a proper farewell, so we came to see you out the mountain."
"...And my name's Felgorn, I volunteered to go ahead to this home of yours with my brother Tuglorn. He'll get the smiths up to snuff and I'll be designing your castle and kingdom and wanted to see and feel the land a bit."
"I welcome it, but you won't need the travel supplies. I will send you to my home with the girls tonight, Astrael can take responsibility for you, The Black knows she needs to take some for something."
"Portal?"
"I actually have my own dimension I call home, you will like it. It is how this world we walk on now was millions of years before even I remember walking it. Tell her to build you your home in the mountains, I warn you though. Do not try to expand, those mountains are filled with far more dangers than your mother."
The girls and Eve looked at me suddenly. "Dear, when were you going to tell us our home was dangerous?"
"I did... I told you, it was how the world looked millions of years before I was born, when the world had yet to settle. Did you think an infant world was a stable?"
"Yes, don't you take that tone. I'm not the one being dense here."
"Actually Mum, I have to side with Dad. I'm sorry, but it was fair for him to assume you knew that a world couldn't change so much in a peaceful way."
Eve flushed a bit, especially when the dwarves made a kind of "I mean yeah it kind of is" way. "Well I'm sorry, I guess I just didn't think of it."
"Eve, I'm scared, what do I do to not get hit?" That was when she hit me.
After my daily dose of domestic violence, I began collecting the supplies, secretly trying to get the tea hidden away before Eve saw it but failing miserably. "Err, that is for the lady, Eve, the women and I thought you'd want this book as well. Best read in private." She finished with a whisper.
"What is it?"
"A book, on some methods to put that tea to good use."
I don't know whether they just weren't genuinely trying to be subtle, or whether they just severely underestimated the senses of divine beings but it was enough to put a quizzical look on Quatal's face, a blush on Cosmael's and a look of pretending not to hear on mine.
Then the party and our farewell committee headed out.
After a stout-folk farewell, we were on our way.
"So when are we going to use this portal of yours?" Felgorn asked, clearly excited at the supposed grandeur of his upcoming project.
"Yes and about the tall-folk I'll be educating. How much do they know?" Tuglorn asked, more exasperated and weary than excited.
The two brothers looked nothing alike, it was common for dwarves. Since they tended to have few children to stop the population surpassing what the mountain could support. These two were like chalk and cheese in every way.
Felgorn was tall and slender by dwarf standards, still smaller and far more physically strong than any human, but compared to most stout-folk, he would be considered a bit of a runt. He was also joyous and lacked the edge that his people usually carried, not to mention his almost human-noble level of well-spokenness .
Tuglorn on the other hand made even a cliched dwarf seem smooth, cheerful and level-headed, though the one fact he shared with his brother was the accent that made for a most amusing contrast.
"To answer your question Felgorn, I thought you could travel with us until the girls depart for the night. I wish for my kin's company a while, I had no time to tell my tales before I felt need to leave.
To answer yours, Tuglorn, I am almost positive they know how to start a fire and hold a hammer, but you will have your work cut out for you. I will make sure you both have enough booze to make it worth the effort though." My answer received a curt nod from the latter and a poetic thanks from the former.
As we walked I gave my recounts and they even made Tuglorn weep, then as promised we sent them back with the girls, then I laid my head down to rest, whilst Eve sat beside me reading her new tome, her gluttonous reading and occasional murmurs and self-directed questions making me decide that sleep was the right decision.
Before suceeded however Eve reminded me of her plan to become properly deflowered and whilst we kept it simple it was still intesne, clearly the reduced regeneration was making the act a far heftier drain on her stamina than she expected.
Not that it stopped her from going straight back to her book when she had recovered.
When I awoke, I found Eve had fallen asleep reading, curled around it as though protecting some sacred text. I placed a bookmark at the page, it seemed she was on, then kissed her head and got to work on breakfast.
Just as I was about to wake her, so that she could hide the smut before I summoned our daughters back, she stirred by herself. "Oh no... I wanted that one to be a surprise..."
"Woman, I did not look at that book... Your surprise is safe, but if you don't hide it the only ones surprised will be our daughters."
"Yay... Can't wait til we have a place to make that..." She muttered to herself as she slipped her book into her own storage.
I tried to ignore it, but I would be lying if I said I wasn't thinking 'What the hell was she reading?...' whilst growing a little excited at the new venture for a while before I thought again. 'Wait a minute... Build?... What the hell was she reading?" That was when excitement turned to a little bit of concern.
"What is the next job anyway? I don't think I asked."
"It was for a large group of bandits, this one actually has the highest payout and it also has an uncapped bonus attached that will depend on recovered goods. They have built quite the fortress on the south-western mountain range where the largest mine on the continent used to be before it was depleted."
"Mine? Depleted? Doubtful, let's stake our claim and sell it back to the kingdom who owned it."
"Why is it when you do almost anything, you do it ridiculously, but then when you are told that someone else has done or discovered something you assume they're wrong?"
"Because I earned the right, most recently when I received permission from you. Besides, human knowledge on mining is so painfully simplistic I can scarcely comprehend where some get the confidence to call themselves miners."
"Okay, Adam, no insulting people for arrogance. The kingdom we are heading to is going to be a cesspit of people you don't like, I won't say "Don't do anything no matter what" because if you see true scum I will be right next to you. All I am saying is that arrogance and annoying attitudes can be ignored and we do not need to start a war before we even officially rule the kingdom."
"Should we even do this job? It sounds like one that can wait, I get the feeling that Byurik and Halsan set this up to make us some quick money but we don't want to be killing humans right now and I doubt anyone else will complete it anytime soon."
"Your call, I would rather leave it too, I have a bad feeling about it. I think it is best we go while we are on our coronation tour."
"Sounds like we're agreed then. So what's next?"
"Okay, don't get too excited. We are going to take down a crystal dragon elemental." My eyes lit-up. "Adam, noooo. We have to kill it, it has to be broken down as material."
"Shush, it's a golem right? don't care about it. What I do care about is I know what would make a dwarven artisan's life worth living and if my girls and wife have to wear crowns, they will have the most gorgeous ones that can be made."
"So, you're just done working?"
"Absolutely not. I need to make the humans behave and this is how I will do it."
"You already no what it's used for."
"Yes I do and I can tell by your action that no one of these era does."
"What do you mean, it makes a potion that grants extra life. What could be more valuable for most human royals?"
"Extra life? No it doesn't, it grants eternal youth, not immortality, but everlasting life. A good king could rule forever and a bad one would die just from drinking it."