Yae's Journey 5

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AN: Got some editing suggestions? Suggest it on the Google docs here:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XI06wr9V5lt_N3fTEAPjrd8Mj5BF8IzUdnOwPQk_0-s/edit?usp=sharing

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Yae walks down the dirt street, her thick winter clothes keeping the chill away. All kinds of people, from Gnolls to Orcs and anyone else unable to hold a job. Some loiter around with ragged clothes eyeing Yae, while a multiracial group sits huddled together, their skin paled to an unnatural white with veins showing as they inhale and blow out purple smoke from a shared pipe. It seems all races are represented in poverty.

“When one suffers hardship, they learn what is insignificant in their life. When hardship is shared, they learn that their differences are insignificant.”

Yae remembers a lesson the monks taught her during the time she spent with them.

While she partially agrees with that, she thinks there’s more to it. It’s not that one learns those things; it’s that they are faced with a choice, a choice to accept one’s own responsibility or ignore it and continue on the path they are on.

It is clear that Papuyo chose the latter while she chose the former, but what about these people? Are they just in an unfortunate situation? Are they ignoring the choices that lead them into this life? Is it a mix of both? It would not be fair to simply say that they can just work hard and change the circumstances; she and her people would probably be among them right now if she hadn’t received the kind help of the Monks, if Talva hadn’t given her the recommendations and chances to do better.

Luck plays a part in success. Yae happened to get lucky, but that’s not always going to happen; she needs to prepare so that when it does run out, she can rely on the resources she has to not end up here. Maybe if she does become successful, then perhaps she can help these people.

No one bothers her as she walks, probably because wearing winter clothes right now is suspicious, but she can’t help that; the cold, dry air is uncomfortable, although covering her ears goes a long way in conserving her body heat.

She stops in front of Beark’s Tavern, and as a Loprae leaves in a drunken stupor, the door creaks loudly, and it looks like one of the hinges is about to fall off. The flooring visibly depresses under the Loprae’s weight.

This place is about to fall apart.

Yae hesitates but goes in anyway, the carpenter in her warning that this place might just collapse. Inside is uncomfortably loud with drunken laughter of the customers. A Fylox is on stage dancing in what would be considered skimpy clothes, although it would not entirely be out of place in the Nexus. Her long cyan hair flutters around as men cheer, egging the girl on, but Yae quickly turns her attention to the rest of the people, looking for someone in particular.

She sees her, a black-haired Fylox sitting with her back facing the corner, sipping her drink. Her body is well trained, with toned muscles showing on her bare arms. An arming sword is at her waist, ready to be drawn at any moment as her eyes scan the tavern. She wears a carapace breastplate with an insignia of a bow and dagger engraved on it.

“Are you Faela?” Yae asks as she approaches.

“I’ve never seen you before; what are you hiding under there?” Faela motions to her thick clothes.

“I’m Runalymo; we live in a very hot place, so I am not used to cold,” Yae answers. “Anyways, that doesn’t matter, G’Orn recommended that I seek you out”

“Did he, now? So what do you want from me?” Faela flicks her tail.

“I need money, a lot of it. I am willing to sell my services.”

“And? What can you do?”

“Me personally? I’m a carpenter, but I know smiths, jewelers, mana weavers, tailors, alchemists, and many more. We are a group that recently arrived in this city”

“Alright, I’ll bite; we need good crafters; I just need to know how good you are. We won’t have a deal if you aren’t good enough.” Faela flicks her tail again.

“How do we prove to you?” Yae asks. “Do you want to visit us, or should I bring some of our products here?”

“Bring them here, preferably weapons or armor, but jewelry that can be enchanted is acceptable too.”

“We don’t have access to forges; we need money to buy a shop and to practice our trade, we need to be in a guild, but they are exploitative” Yae grits her teeth.

“Sounds like you are lost in shit creek” Faela twirls her tail in amusement.

“Lost in shit creek?” Yae gives her a puzzled look.

“Rivers around cities turn brown with shit,” Faela explains, flicking her tail. “It means you’re relying too much on the city. Rivers should be pure, the lands fertile, and the mountains beautiful. But with cities like this, they defile the rivers, drain the lands of their bounty and carve deep into mountains for wealth; I can only hope Sarafae will bless this land and let nature take its rightful vengeance.”

Faela leans forward after taking a sip of her drink.

“I can tell that you are not used to the city; this loud tavern hurts your ears, and the crowded, cramped room full of people you don’t know makes you uncomfortable. I’ve seen it many times with young Fylox who haven’t been to the city before, that is why I’ll trust you this time. If you need a forge, then come to our village, and if you can prove yourself useful, then we can make a deal; although most of our weapons and armor come from monster materials”

Carpentry and monster work are similar in that both crafts are limited with the materials. It’s not like metalworking or pottery, where she reshapes the material; instead, it’s about cutting off excess material into the shape you need, and if you need more, then she needs to bind multiple materials together. Other than Domr shells, her people don’t have much experience working with monster materials, so perhaps she can expand her craft to work with monster materials since her carpentry skillset is the most transferable.

“My people don’t have experience with monster materials,” Yae says. “But I am confident that I can make something you'll approve of if I am allowed already prepared materials. Once we learn the procedures to properly cure the materials—”

“I don’t care,” Faela interrupts her with another flick of her tail. “All I care about is whether or not we can get powerful items”

“Very well. Where can I find your village?” Yae asks.

“I’ll take you to it, It’s a few hours from the city, but it’s a nice place” Faela downs the rest of her drink and stands up, motioning for Yae to follow her.

They quickly make their way out of town after Faela flashes the guard a mercenary badge.

“The city folk doesn’t like us, and I doubt they care to know the differences between us.” Faela says, scanning the surroundings with her eyes as her ears twitch toward the wind rustling through the trees. “They are so absorbed in their ‘society’ they become blind to how the rest of the world works.”

“I hear they don’t like how you worship Sarafae, or something of that sort.” Yae says, wanting to know her side of things.

“Hmph! They focus too much on her destruction domain that they forget why she even has that domain in the first place. Nature isn’t kind; storms, volcanos, earthquakes, and other natural disasters are a way to cleanse a place of the old to let the young and new thrive. This is why age is a thing, to let life move past the stagnancy that people fall into.”

“What do you mean?” Yae asks.

“Take the orcs, for example. They impose regulations that favor the guilds that are already established, so new ones can’t replace them. By destroying the rotting foundation of society we allow a stronger foundation to take root. That is what Sarafae represents. Life is ever-changing, and she facilitates that.”

“So your faith is centered around the acceptance of change?” Yae asks.

“Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter, nature is always in a cycle. Trees grow, flower, and seed the ground, then wilt and die for the next generation. You live, then die, before your soul is reborn to live a fresh new life. All cycles. In order to keep the cycle going, the things that stand now must be destroyed”

So they don’t just wish destruction upon the city; they think it’s impeding the natural cycle of the world. Governments seek stability, because a stable rule means they stay in power, but change and the continuation of the cycle create instability, so they fight it, and that’s why they hate the city.

Yae finds it hard to disagree with Faela, but at the same time, she can’t support that ideal. Isn’t it natural to want stability in life? Isn’t it natural to want to keep living? Faela wants to support the natural order of things, but how does she not know that the things she seeks to destroy is not a part of that natural order?

“It’s not our place to rush fate,” Yae replies. “We are a part of the natural order of things, right? That means our actions are too. If there is a cycle for these things, then it’s best to let it be, and when it’s time, the cycle will continue.”

“Hmph! Took the words right out of G’Orn’s mouth. Try thinking for yourself!”

Yae would argue that she was thinking for herself, that she hadn’t heard G’Orn say something like that, but she can’t risk offending Faela, so she just let it go and continues walking in silence.

When they reach the village, the first thing Yae sees are several children playing in the field. Upon seeing Faela, they excitedly run up to her, asking for stories of her monster hunts.

“Not now; I have business to do,” Faela says, kindly shooing the children away before leading Yae into the village. “The guilds have no power in villages outside of the city. Sure it’s technically against the law to practice a trade without being employed by a business affiliated with a guild, or being directly hired by them, but who’s going to enforce those laws? The villages need carpenters, tailors, and blacksmiths, and the city needs the food produced by the villages. It’s common to start one’s trade outside of the city”

When Faela mentioned ‘village,’ Yae thought it would be something like her village in the Nexus, but this is nowhere close. The houses are small, probably only one or two rooms; they have thatched roofs and some kind of crude plaster covering the walls.

Runalymo is a lot more advanced in trades, which was a shock to her people initially, but after a few months, she found out why. Ninety percent of the population are farmers, not tradesmen, so the talented people who would have advanced crafting techniques were instead dedicated to growing and harvesting food.

The Runalymo, however, never had to deal with this issue with their mana sustenance and milk racial trait. Nexus Culture also helped with crafting advancement; everyone had to take up a trade or art, so the Nexus is reversed, with ninety percent crafters.

“You’ll be proving yourself to Bakan, our weaponsmith,”

Yae nods, following Faela to an open workshop, where monster leather and carapace lay on tables and other apparatus to treat, cure, or shape the material. A tall man with snow white hair and rough facial hair dressed in work clothes looks up from his work, smiling at Faela as she approaches, his green eyes glancing at her with curiosity.

“Bakan!” Faela calls to him. “I have someone I want you to test”

“Very well, let's see what she’s got then!” Bakan says with a jovial voice.