Chapter 339 - A Fishy Deal

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Kai triple checked the plaque on the door, making certain he was in the right place. His patience with bureaucracy was already thin when his time wasn’t counted, and he had been pinballed between the department for Uniform and Distribution and the office for Robe Enchantments and Alterations. 

Why does the Admin building even need three different places for uniforms and tailoring? 

At last, he had found the Fitting and Companion Tailoring Office. The door was left ajar. Slowing his heaving breaths, he knocked and entered a cramped room, watching that Hobbes sauntered inside after him. 

A woman with graying hair sat behind the desk. She was too intent on her embroidery to notice his arrival, wearing an intricate shawl with a fringe of beads. Her hands threaded the needle so quickly a colorful hummingbird seemed to come to life under his eyes. 

It was one of the smallest offices. Rolls of silk, brocade and other shiny fabrics lined the walls, covering any shades of burgundy, burnt orange, yellow and green from the students’ uniform, and more in the room behind her desk. 

Approaching, Kai gave Hobbes an encouraging pet and cleared his throat. “Uhm… Excuse me.”

“Blessed Moons! You gave me a fright.” The clerk jolted in her seat with a gasp. “I didn’t see you enter. Why didn’t you knock?”

I did…

“I’m sorry.” Kai put forth his most polite smile to move things along. “I saw the door open and entered without thinking.” 

“Well, no matter now…” She dipped her head to look at him over a pair of thick, enchanted glasses. “What can I do for you, my dear?”

Her eyes moved to give him a once-over, lingering with disapproval at the creases on his uniform and his ruffled appearance. He was sweaty, his clothes crumpled and his hair spiked since he woke up this morning. What else was he supposed to do when he had to literally run to keep pace with his schedule? 

“I’m here for my familiar. I was told he needs to wear a collar.” Kai took out the note he had demanded from the last office. This was the right place—he had it on paper.

The seamstress squinted at the scribbles. “Mhmm… Yes. You came to the right office. It’s good to see that not every youth waits until the deadline to take care of their companion. We wouldn’t want a repeat of last year…” Her wrinkles deepened with a wince. “A student mistook a bonded viper for a wild beast. You can imagine how that went…” She prattled for a few minutes about a series of accidents ranging from the comical to the conspiratorial and tragic. “Forgive me, my dear. What did you say your name was…?” 

“Matthew Vernon.” Kai gestured down at Hobbes. “Here to get a collar for my cat familiar.” 

“A cat familiar? But that’s wonderful!” Her voice cheered. She slowly went to peruse a drawer filled with documents. “Teenagers your age always want to bond the flashiest and deadliest companions. If more people picked a friendly pet, we’d be all better off. Gods know, there is enough bloodshed on Elydes.” She sighed with a rueful look. “It reminds me of my old Midge. You know, she was the prettiest little thing. Always chirping and preening…” 

Failing to find his name, she moved to a different drawer without ever halting the flow of words. 

Spirits have mercy on me. 

Kai drummed his fingers below the tailor’s desk; his nails left shallow half moons onto the lacquered wood. This was the first break in his schedule in three days, and an hour was already gone. 

“Oh, here!” The woman triumphantly raised a folder from the third drawer, and he nearly cheered aloud. “Matthew Reece Vernon… A cat familiar… yes. Have you brought your pet? It’s much better to take proper measurements than to have to come back.”

“He’s…” Kai looked down, noticing the distinct absence of a silver feline. 

Hobbes! Get your fluffy ass here, this moment! We’ve made a deal. You know promises must be kept. 

A deluge of indignant grumpiness flooded his mind, and a silver blink appeared at his feet. Kai bent to pick up the ball of grumpy fur before it could think to slip away. The cat slumped into his hand as he lifted him onto the desk. “This one here is my familiar, Hobbes.” 

“Mroooow,” Hobbes growled, blinking his large violet eyes. 

Stop whining. You weren’t reluctant when I bought you thirteen different plates of fish. You ate the fish, now’s your turn to fulfill the deal. 

“Aww! Isn’t he beautiful!” The woman raised her jeweled hands, already smitten. Her voice climbed an octave. “May I pet him?” She asked and didn’t wait for an answer before reaching out. 

“Meew.” Hobbes sprawled onto the desk like a wounded soldier, maintaining his grumpy facade while reluctantly conceding to have his belly rubbed. 

Always so dramatic. 

After a minute of scratches, Kai cleared his throat. He couldn’t help thinking of the pages of notes, homework and essential books he had to read in his dorm. “For the collar…”

“Oh, forgive me, my dear.” The old seamstress cooed, unsure if to him or to the purring cat. “We better get him a proper collar before someone thinks of kidnapping this handsome deary. I must absolutely learn the name of the breeder.” She booped Hobbes before pulling back and regaining some decorum. “Now, about the collar. Right… Let’s see what we can do for you. We must find the best fit…”

The beads of her shawl tinkled as she moved to pick up a long wooden case. Her springy movements made Kai suspect her old-lady-act was just a way to fuck with him. 

“Excuse me, deary.” She gently nudged Hobbes aside to set down the box. Unlocking the lid with a theatrical tap, she revealed rows of ribbons and bands in every color and material, going deeper than the size of the container.

“Let’s see, let’s see… For a cat this size, I’d suggest something classic. Here we have one of the standard collars offered to the students.” She picked a thin burgundy collar with a steel buckle and an empty tag; both the leather and the metal enchanted for durability. “We can modify every part to your specifications. Naturally, changes over the base model aren’t covered by the academy. But how can you not splurge a little when you’ve bonded with such a handsome boy?”

Right…

Kai sighed. People at Raelion had a dangerous conception of cost, but concessions had been made to get Hobbes here. “What are the choices for a custom job?” 

“First, we should select the base color. With his lustrous silver fur, a powder blue or moonstone white would go well. An amethyst purple to match his pretty eyes could also work…” She nimbly displayed a selection of colors in order of gradient.

Pick whatever you want. Remember, the sooner you choose, the sooner we can leave.

Hobbes watched the display from his lounging position. 

For a second, Kai hoped his familiar would be too lazy to move without Space Magic. Alas, the gods had no mercy. Stretching his paws with no hurry, Hobbes nimbly stood to check the materials. 

“You’re going to choose yourself? What a smart boy.” The seamstress seemed delighted to indulge the cat, taking out five variations for each band Hobbes sniffed or pawed. 

His Royal Fluffiness sauntered the length of the table, happy to have a new servant added to his retinue. Leather bands and silk ribbons covered every inch of space before he tired of the game and selected a deep purple band, almost identical to one of the initial options. 

“Wyvern wing leather. An excellent choice.” The seamstress nodded approvingly at the winner. 

“Mrow.” Hobbes swished his tail as if that were only natural. 

Great, now we can—

“Now, for the buckle and tags.” With a single wave, every other band flew back in the case. “Purple leaves open many options…” She took out another box. Every piece inside glowed like a low-yellow metal or bone—several spanning higher into the grade. 

Kai suppressed a curse. 

I should have known…

The shiny bits immediately got Hobbes’ attention. Only a few were real contenders; nothing but silver would work with his fur. He took a little longer to select the shape of the tag, settling on a thin strip that would be sewn onto his collar. 

“Of course, Moonlight Silver! I couldn’t have chosen better myself.” The seamstress petted the smug bastard, matching the buckle and tag with the purple leather. 

The polished metal looked almost white—of course, it had to be a peak-yellow material. 

“How much is it?” Kai asked to get it over with. 

“Well, they are exquisite material treated by the best craftsmen at Raelion. Then, adding the fabrication process for the collar itself… Uhm, I can round it down to ten mesars. Gold, naturally.” 

Ten—

Kai wanted to curse and splutter. Pressing his lips together, he managed to maintain a dignified silence. Sure, he could afford the price. But ten fucking mesars for a strip of leather and a couple grams of silver was a robbery. 

I hope you like it. 

“Do I need to pay now—”

“First, we should complete the collar. We have to choose a pretty charm.” The woman shook her head at the purple and silver bits on display. “A collar like this would look a bit plain, wouldn’t it?”

“Meww.” Hobbes licked his paw in agreement. From his side glance, the cat couldn’t believe he had to be told such obvious facts.

Do you even want to wear the collar—

“Mrooow.”

Yes. I know promises must be kept. You little smug brat!

Bracing himself, Kai forced through his teeth the words, knowing he’d soon regret them. “Show me the options.”

The seamstress smiled fondly at Hobbes. She disappeared into the back room, coming back with a metal case covered in enchantments that looked a lot like a safe. “Right here.” 

A myriad threads of mana maneuvered around the box. One lock after another clicked open, both the physical and magically engraved. When she finally lifted the lid, the shiny baubles, gems and bells blinded his senses. 

Fuck me… 

Most of that stuff had no place being on a damn collar. 

Hobbes sprang to his feet, gaze transfixed to one corner of the case. Pure desire rang through their bond. He wanted something, enough to stop exuding smug revenge, enough that Kai patted his back, worried he might blink inside to attempt a heist. 

Calm down, buddy. 

“Seems your companion has set his eye on something,” the seamstress said. “Let’s see what we have…” 

This selection was the briefest. Hobbes showed no interest in any shiny trinkets besides the crystal he had his eye on. 

Huh, is that a Space-attuned gem?

“Quite a beauty, isn’t it?” The woman lifted the gem under her glasses, nodding appreciatively. As the light hit, the crystal shone with a myriad of iridescent blue, violet and green. “An Ethereal Glimmershard. Your companion has an eye for quality.”

“Yes…” Kai’s eyes widened and narrowed. He had seen right.

Spatially attuned treasures were rare; the only one he had ever given to Reishi was single-handedly responsible for his biggest chunk of money. While the Astral Dust had seemed to warp space around it, this gem looked almost inert till he peered inside, noting a core of the densest Space mana. 

One question remained. 

“How much is it?”

“Hmm… it’s an Ethereal Glimmershard. I even didn’t remember we had one in stock. Even if they're too inert for practical use, they’re quite a rarity. Are you sure you want this?” 

“I am… how much?” 

“Mhmm, since it’s for this adorable cat… Two hundred gold mesars,” the seamstress said. “We also accept orange chromium.”

***

Kai strolled between the shelves of the library. The faint smell of old paper and waxed wood greeted him. Rows of books filled every space from floor to ceiling, dusty tomes with worn spines leaning against titles with brightly inked covers.

Rumors said people could get lost among the shelves, and that it took a student a day and a night to traverse every path. He didn’t believe either claim, but one truth remained: The Astares Domus Arcanum was big, spanning four floors packed with books, tomes, scrolls, and every other method of preserving knowledge.

When was the last time he’d gotten a moment to breathe and think?

After nearly a week of rushing from lecture to lecture without pause, the tension in his chest eased. Worries dulled to a distant hum, lulled by the stillness of the library. 

He’d gladly wander the shelves for hours more, but he had a lot to get done and people to meet. 

Alright. Where are the reading rooms…

Softly glowing crystals hung at every intersection. Below them, a metal plaque interrupted the wood paneling, indicating the library’s row and section—another proof that the rumor about getting lost was nonsense. 

AH-BF3-145

He took a moment to decipher the code of numbers and letters, orienting himself toward the more frequented sections of the library, in the southern quadrant. Hushed murmurs warmed the silence as the shelves gave way for long tables between them, and students began to appear. Mostly first-years in burgundy uniforms, chatting and poring over piles of books. 

Where did he say— 

“Hey!” a voice called behind him. 

Kai jolted, spinning toward the attacker and ready to swing. 

Flynn had already retreated, wisened by past experiences. “I finally got you!” He raised his arms with a smug smile. “I’m glad you made it. I was beginning to think you had gotten swallowed by the library. ”

How’s he always so energetic? 

“Nice to see you too,” Kai said, too tired to plot revenge. “Lower your tone. We're in a library.” 

“Every table is covered with sound wards.” Flynn pointed to a line of script beneath the flooring and shrugged, “I think the murmurs are for ambience. You know, it’d be a little creepy if the library were completely silent.”

“Yeah…” A sweep of his senses confirmed that Flynn was right. His brain must really be fried not to have noticed.

I need a nap. 

“You must tell me about your week.” Flynn led the way among the shelves. “C’mon, I’ve found a few books with interesting skills we could get.”
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A/N: There is gonna be a little shuffle in Kai's status. I'll be eager to hear what kinds of skills are you hoping Kai takes, and which ones you think he should he drop.

ORANGE TIER:

Greetings! How are y’all doing? It was a lot of fun reading your comments in the character poll. I had many more plans for polls and stuff I wanted to do, but life—or better work—had other ideas. I know it must be an absolute shocker, but I underestimated how much work it would be to edit book 3 XD. 

I’ll ramble about the editing below for those who are interested, but first the important news. I sent in the manuscript for book 3 to my publisher for the first round of line edits about half an hour ago! :) There are still a few things to do, but 80% of it is not my work. You can’t imagine how glad I am to be finally done. And how excited to show you the final version. There were so many great scenes I had forgotten about and/or rewrote. It’ll probably take a couple months for the book to be out. I’ll tell you as soon as I’ve got a date!

Okay, that’s the important news. Now, for the philosopher and general snoops who want to know more about what I’ve been up to, and what to expect when they’ll read the edited book 3. Buckle up! Here’s the brief summary of my past few weeks. 

So… It turned out book 3 was actually 96 chapters (89 after my edits). I don’t know why I was convinced it was 93; guess it had been a while since I scrolled all the way down the doc, but anyway… the process of editing it can be divided into thirds-ish of the book. 

• The first third of chapters was the roughest to get through. It goes from when Kai leaves Sylspring for Higharbor after the pirate raid to when he travels with Lou, Flynn, Ana and the twins to a Vastaire site and fights the sea serpent. The chapters here took about 4-7 hours to edit each on average. I had basically to rewrite them entirely and/or fuse them together to fix the pace. This is probably the third where you’ll see the biggest changes. Mostly, I’ve just rewritten what was already there, but there are also a couple of short new scenes, and much of the dialogue has been tweaked (cause it was cringe). Because yeah, third 1 was also the one where I thought the most times: ‘oh yeah, here I was really stretched thin and had no idea what I was doing.’ And ‘Sweet gods above! This line is so cringe. I want to dig myself a hole.’ 

Anyway, that was by far the longest and hardest section to edit. 

• The second third of chapters was… better. It goes from when Kai returns to Higharbor from the trip to when the Republic knocks on his door and ‘recruits’ him to investigate the beast accidents linked to the Vastaire. My writing definitely got better. This was also the slowest third of the book, where I’ve fused more chapters. They took about 2-4 hours to edit each. Again, there were a few paragraphs that had no place being there and much to rewrite, but the prose sequence was mostly solid. Book 3 in general had less fluff to cut than I thought (it went from 260k words to ~240k words in the end—counting the few thousand words that I’ve probably added).

• Finally, we reach the third-third of chapters, also known as the last third, the blessed third, and the ‘Oh, yeah. I’ve-finally-learned-to-write-half-decently-third. Like the name hints, this was the best and most solid section. It included all the actual investigation of the Vastaire after the Republic forcibly recruits Kai, till he gets trapped in the Hidden Realm with totally-not-a-megalomaniac, fairy god of high opinions, Zervathi. I liked this third quite a lot; chapters took ~2 hours each (probably because I was also half fried by this point). My edits were mostly rewriting awkward descriptions and tightening the action scenes. Not much else to say.  

Thus ends our journey through waaaay too many hours of editing (~180 just the last 3 weeks). After this, my publisher’s ‘editor’ will fix the typos I’ve surely added while rewriting scenes and my brother proofread the manuscript once. Aside from looking at the stuff they point out, my work is almost done, and I’m so glad for it. Can’t wait to show you the final version of book 3: Elydes - Whispers of the Isles

This is it, folk. I’ll see you on Friday with, hopefully, a fresh brain and a shiny new chapter Drew out