Talyn: Rebirth Ch. 15

Alright, here's another chapter of Talyn: Rebirth!

In slightly different but related news, I've been in a bit of a writing slump lately. I've been having a number of issues due to insomnia, but this has been an ongoing issue since I finished Adept of Chaos. I'm very much Not Happy about it, but there isn't much to be done. I'm trying to deal with the issues, but it may take some time.

Due to those issues, I was pretty concerned with where this story was going. I'm confident that the first half of the story is solid, but the second half is... less so. I asked someone to review it, and they agreed with me. If things like the Timmy's were a 10, the rest was more of 7 and 8s. Not good, not bad. But, unless I want to put in the Cliffhanger From Hell, I think I have a good stopping point between book volumes.

So, what I'm likely going to be doing next is pausing and focusing on improving the second half of the story, while I have an artist work on cover art. There isn't much of a direct conflict in this story, but I think I have a few ideas to spice things up, and to maybe make things more interesting. We'll see what I can do!

Anyway, here's the next chapter!

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Chapter 15

“Good morning, Talyn! Did you sleep…” Melody began cheerfully, then paused, looking at Talyn more closely. Her expression grew more concerned as she corrected herself. “I think I’ll take that as a ‘no,’ you didn’t sleep well.”

“No, not particularly.” Talyn admitted, picking up her backpack. Not that she was going to say the main reason she hadn’t slept well. One thing was a ready excuse, though, and she seized on it. “I think a good part of it was the bed. I remember the beds where I came from being significantly nicer. This one was… well, it’s stuffed with straw, I think. Soft straw, but straw.”

“Mm, true. I don’t rightly recall what you used in your old world, but I do seem to remember it being better than that.” Melody said, some of her concern easing as she smiled. “Hopefully we can find something better as we travel, though. I doubt at inns, but maybe there’s something enchanted that will be better.”

“Agreed. Anyway, I intend to get some breakfast, then see if there’s someone who can figure out what the robes and cloak pin I found are for.” Talyn said, smiling at Melody as she added. “Hopefully they aren’t worthless.”

“I sincerely doubt that. Now, whether they’ll be too valuable… there’s no way to know.” Melody said, fishing the key off the nightstand and unlocking the door.

It wasn’t quite light out yet, but Talyn wasn’t surprised about that. She really hadn’t slept well. Maybe a couple of hours in various pieces, until anxiety jolted her awake again. It hadn’t been pleasant, and when the horizon began to grow brighter she’d decided to get up.

Which was why she was slightly surprised to see that she wasn’t the first one downstairs, even excluding other patrons and staff. She saw Gordon was at a table, digging into a plate of what looked like eggs and pancakes to her. He saw her and swallowed his food before waving her over without a word. At least until she was closer.

“Mornin’, Melody, Talyn! Doesn’t look like you slept the best, but you had a gnarly day.” Gordon said cheerfully, keeping his voice down. Belatedly, Talyn realized he must be trying to avoid waking anyone early. He gestured at the plate in front of him, adding. “If you want potato pancakes and eggs, go ahead and order some. I’ll cover the cost, since it isn’t much. You’ll need some time to get your bearings, where costs are concerned.”

“Thank you, Gordon. I appreciate it.” Talyn said, relaxing slightly as she settled down next to him, taking the time to settle her tail properly. “I did have a rough night. I kept jolting awake, seemingly at random.”

“Mm, that’s never fun.” Gordon said, tilting his head as he chewed a bite of eggs, then nodded to Melody. “What about you? I’ve never heard what it’s like for guardian spirits.”

“I’m a bit more aware when not summoned than others of my type, probably because of my previous existence. Think of it as an odd, fuzzy room where I can rest in a half-doze until I’m needed. I have a vague idea of what’s been happening immediately before my summoning, but nothing more than that.” Melody replied, taking another chair comfortably. “I’d hoped I’d know more than that, but it seems not. I suppose I can’t break the rules, even if I wish I could.”

Talyn thought that was an excellent thing to know, a tiny knot relaxing in her stomach. It wasn’t pleasant to think about someone spying on her, even if she liked Melody. A waitress came over at that moment, which kept them from talking too much.

“What’ll it be, loves?” the human woman asked, smiling more at Gordon than either of them, though she was looking at Talyn curiously.

“Potato pancakes, eggs, and water for me, please.” Talyn said, looking at Melody curiously. “You?”

“The same. No need for a large portion, though. I eat mostly for the taste.” Melody added quickly, smiling at the waitress.

“I’ll get them right out for you.” The maidservant said, smiling warmly, then turned to leave.

“So you know, someplace like this the water’s safe to drink, but you might run into issues in more remote areas. Could get yourself sick.” Gordon said quietly, glancing toward the kitchen warily. “Most mercs save up for a charm to cleanse water early on. Costs around ten silver for one that you can recharge with coppers, or fifty silver for an eternal one.”

“Um… how do you mean, recharge?” Talyn asked, frowning.

“You just take the charm and press the coin against it. If it absorbs the copper, it needed to be recharged.” Gordon said, shrugging. “Most of the charms can be used ten to twenty times per charge, depending on quality.”

Talyn paused, running the numbers in her head, then her eyebrows rose. “So you’re saying that assuming ten uses per charge, it would take forty thousand uses of a permanent charm to make up the difference in cost between it and one you have to charge?”

Gordon paused, blinking at her. Then he spoke slowly. “I… suppose? I don’t know, I’m not that good at sums. Did you figure that out in your head, that fast?”

Talyn nodded, and the man whistled, shaking his head as he muttered. “Damn. I couldn’t have done that, not even close.”

“Addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division was considered a basic skill in my old world.” Talyn said, feeling a little embarrassed. “This wasn’t a complicated one… it was just multiplying forty by ten, then by one hundred.”

“Which is still impressive. You could be an Accountant, Computer, or Merchant easy. I bet you’d gain a ton of experience really fast, just due to your knowledge.” Gordon said, brandishing his fork at her. “Might be worth thinking about, if you don’t want to be a merc. I’ve heard of jumpers being merchants before. I think the Southwest Company was founded by a jumper a century or so ago, though the founder’s dead now.”

“Ah… I don’t think I want to do that, no.” Talyn said, blanching slightly at the thought of coming to a world like this and just doing math. That didn’t sound appealing at all. “Anyway, speaking of money, I have a couple of items that I grabbed before rescuing you and the others. One of them is the robes that the cult leader was wearing, and the other is a cloak pin. The first one I think is really tough, since none of the arrows or my sword penetrated when we hit her, but blunt force seemed to work. Plus, blood and dirt flowed right off it without a mark. I was wondering, where could we get them identified or appraised?”

“Um, the Guild has some appraisers we could visit, but I’m not sure that we’d want to go there. Like I said, the Guildmaster doesn’t seem to like you, plus you aren’t a member. I guess we could take them in for appraisal instead… that’d cost you likely about eight coppers, I’d guess?” Gordon said, rubbing his chin a couple of times, then shrugged “Likely worth it, if I’m being honest. I don’t know about the pin, but the robes are likely worth silver or gold, depending on their enchantments. They have to be enchanted, based on what you said.”

“What about other places to identify them?” Talyn asked, her thoughts racing. She was reluctant to hand over the items to other people, but she doubted that the group would run off with them. She was so weak in comparison that they could likely rob her easily.

“I wouldn’t trust any of them in a town like this.” Gordon said bluntly. “Even if the Guildmaster isn’t the highest level person here, he’s going to be one of the most influential people in town. And I’ll be damned sure that word about his attitude has made its way through town by this point, and people would bilk you given half the opportunity.”

“He’s probably right, Talyn.” Melody chimed in, looking between them as she smiled sadly. “I mean, I can’t be sure, but I know that people can be… people.”

“True enough.” Talyn admitted, letting out a sigh. The waitress returned at that moment, sliding a couple of plates in front of her and Melody, then a couple of mugs of water. She smiled at the waitress as she added. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome!” the waitress replied, but she still only had eyes for Gordon, and Talyn rolled her eyes. She should have known the first time, but she had to try.

Talyn dug into her food as the woman swept away, heading toward some of the other guests who were starting to filter their way downstairs. Elda was among them, and the animus made a beeline in their direction, a determined look on her face. This should be interesting.

“No growling before breakfast, Elda.” Gordon said promptly, and what came next caused Talyn to smile involuntarily.

The animus hissed at him, then sat down unhappily. Melody chuckled, which was about how Talyn felt about the interaction.