After handing Nera a couple of mana potions, and overriding her protests about accepting them, Elmerin changed his clothes and went to put Kres to bed. After spending some time updating the records of their exploration and writing in a journal, he went to bed as well.
"So what was up that you squeaked when you saw the labels on the potion vials?" Sky asked.
Nera pulled a vial back out of her pouch and shoved it in Sky's face. "See the seal here, next to the name?" she said pointing.
Sky squinted, then their eyes widened. "That's the seal of-"
"The alchemical society in the capital, Trei Mare Gens." Nera shook the vial at them. "Do you know what this likely cost?"
"Enough that you need to put it away before you drop it."
Nera did so, then flopped on the ground. "I guess he's trying to make up for getting injured like that."
Sky made a noncommittal noise.
"I thought he was smarter than that. After seeing him during this request, I wouldn't think he'd take on something like that twisted goblin alone."
"Speaking of this request, we have another two days until we reach the outside entrance." Sky squatted down next to her. "Could you please stop with trying to get Kres and those two to be one happy family? It's not going to happen."
Nera blushed furiously. "I just want to help them. That kind of division is painful -there must be some way to heal it."
"Not in this case." Sky leaned back and sighed. "Look… Maybe some backstory will help.
"Drysia was born in some back of beyond village that was apparently as poor as anything. The kind of place that's like a corrupted monster that somehow keeps living even as bits of it are rotting off. She left to become an adventurer."
*******
(Flashback)
Drysia was just fifteen when she signed up with the adventurer's guild in Bexley, the nearest city to Tow, the village where she'd been born. She'd been thwacking wolves and other predators with a staff since she'd become old enough to use one in the field, and had even taken down a few low-rank monsters.
In the city, she'd quickly learned how to use other weapons, being the most skilled at using a sword and shield. Rapidly ranking up from the Zircon beginner rank to the next level of Topaz, thanks to her skill in monster killing Drysia had begun to be hailed as one of the brightest stars of the local guild.
She'd met Falchan when he came to attend the local test to rank up from Topaz to Ruby. His father's cousin Anol had just become guildmaster in the county's capital of Cothmore, and guild regulations prevented him from overseeing Falchan's ranking test.
To say it was "love at first sight" might be an exaggeration, but it definitely was "infatuation at first sight" on the young lord's part. Falchan, in just one of many cases of him making a poor decision, had asked her to marry him immediately after the rank tests. But in trying to apparently keep the news from getting back to his father, he went to less than reputable areas of the city to look for a priest. The priest's Ekiya of Light certification to perform marriages turned out to be expired, and the certification of Jasmel of Dark was questionable in its authenticity. Falchan -loudly and continuously- insisted on the marriage's validity, however.
Another of Falchan's poor decisions was when he opted to buy non-magical herbal concoctions for preventing pregnancy from a back alley dealer, rather than magic or non-magical herbal preventatives, potions, or spells from the crafting or merchant guilds. Whatever his reasons, whether trying to keep word from getting to his father or just being cheap, the end result was Drysia got pregnant.
Drysia went back to her village to give birth and left the child with her own mother; one of the stories that circulated later claimed she hadn't even bothered to feed Kres once, and he was fed by a wet nurse and on the milk of goats. When he came to collect Drysia, Falchan gave Drysia's mother a lot of money, and arranged with the headman of the village to send a certain amount of gold falcons every year to her. Then both left, allegedly with neither looking back.
It was a definite fact that Kres' name had been given to him by the elderly priest in Tow, in honor of one of the Summoned.
A priest from the temple in Cothmore, Falchan's hometown, brought the gold every year, under the order of Doscel, the count's second cousin and Cothmore's head priest. The delivery priest was lazy and didn't really care for the task, so every year he simply asked the headman if Kres was alive and healthy, then dropped off the money with the headman and quickly turned back to Bexley so he wouldn't have to spend the night in Tow.
But in the year Kres turned five, that priest had died. Firnen Cothmore had been appointed to the task, and on reaching Tow had insisted on actually meeting Kres and his grandmother. The headman, under threat of beating by the guards accompanying Firnen, had confessed the grandmother had died over two years before in a plague that had also killed half the adult inhabitants and all the children except Kres and one infant.
The grandmother had given the money to the headman to manage, and it had been paying the village's taxes as well as providing a better standard of living. So when the previous priest hadn't insisted on actually checking on Kres or his grandmother, the headman had lied in order to keep getting the money every year.
The end result was the village was flattened, the remaining villagers relocated, and the headman, priest, and herb woman allegedly locked up for conspiring and stealing the count's money. Since the priest and herb woman were old, they probably died shortly; no one knew what became of the headman. Firnen took Kres to live with him, judging his nephew wouldn't complain.
He was surprised when Drysia's only response was to "keep that brat out of sight and away from me." Aside from an admonishment for her to pray to Idalin of Light, mother of all, Firnen didn't pursue the matter. He also agreed to go along with Falchan's idea of telling Count Lisko Kres was somewhat 'touched in the head' and would be unsuitable as any kind of representative of the count's house. Whether it was to protect Kres or serve Firnen's own future was anyone's guess.
After two years, though, Firnen wanted further promotion in the priesthood of Mandala of Dark. This meant going to one of the larger cities to get the education and testing required. Since Falchan and Drysia hadn't actually forfeited custody of Kres, this also meant leaving the child behind.
The story was that when Firnen asked for that custody, Falchan completely ignored the question and prevented Firnen from asking Drysia directly.
Firnen was certain that if Kres was left in the couple's care for any length of time, he'd be dead of neglect very shortly. As long as it wasn't an obvious murder, Falchan would likely feel no repercussions from it, and would probably protect Drysia as well.
The priest approached Elmerin, whose number of connections across several kingdoms and guilds made him nearly untouchable by Count Cothmore and his people. A year after Kres was brought to Cothmore, Falchan had tried to steal an Emerald-level monster-kill from Elmerin with the connivance of Guildmaster Anol, but Elmerin's connection with personnel in the guild headquarters in the capital city Korech had not only stopped that, it had gotten Anol put on probation via a vote of adventurer guildmasters from Korrum kingdom's guilds, and Falchan had been handed a sentence of having to wait six more months to level up to Sapphire. Only kills he made after the six months would count toward ranking up.
Since Elmerin wanted to stay at Emerald, he was fine with the unspoken fact that, after all that, Anol legally could not oversee a rank increase for him. He'd have to do something spectacular for anyone to really pressure him to go through the bother of traveling to another city to test out.
While Drysia and Falchan were completely fine with Elmerin being regularly paid off to watch Kres, they were pissed that Elmerin wouldn't be able to act as a guide or leader on quests, especially the lucrative labyrinth quests, unless he found a babysitter. Adventurers needed to be at least a Zircon to take on adult-level quests, and a Topaz to venture into the labyrinth or go on more dangerous above ground quests. At his age, Kres was only eligible for a Wood ranking, with Stone being the only available promotion until he reached fourteen.
No one knew how Anol did it -the guild's registration and communication system should have made it impossible- but after receiving a hefty bribe, he'd issued Kres a real Topaz card. While there could be argument whether Falchan was legally Kres' father -Falchan had never acknowledged him, Kres was not in the Cothmore family registry, and Falchan's marriage to Drysia was legally questionable- Drysia was Kres' mother in all ways that legally mattered, and Elmerin had no legal right to tell Drysia what she could do with Kres. Count Cothmore would not interfere with what Drysia did with Kres unless she sold him into slavery or blatantly murdered him. Korrum's laws explicitly forbade slave trafficking involving anyone thirteen or younger: Violation meant death of the ringleaders and any nobles who had turned a blind eye or been involved, and the sale of the rest of the gang into the worst kinds of slavery. Killing someone of noble blood, or reasonably suspected of having noble blood, meant the death penalty for the killer, as long as it was clearly a deliberate death.
*******
Characters in this chapter:
Elmerin
Kres
Drysia
Nera Faunford
Sky
Falchan Cothmore
Spells in chapter:
Birth control spell: A spell that shuts down all fertility for a given period of time. Length depends on the level of the spell and skill of the caster. A caster cannot use the spell for anyone but themselves until they can make it last at least a week, which takes at least birth control spell level 3. Prevents menstruation in women at level 4 and higher.
Potions, magical:
Birth control potion: A potion that shuts down all fertility for a given period of time. Length depends on the level of the potion and its quality. Potions that do not shut down fertility for at least a week cannot be sold and should not be gifted. Menstruation prevention potions are sold separately.
Mana potion: Restores mana to the drinker. Amount of mana restored depends on the level of potion and its quality. Trei Mare Gens is one of the greatest manufacturers of that and other potions.
Potions, non-magical:
Birth control potion: non-magic potions made from specific herbs to prevent pregnancy. Often made by herb wives, midwives, and lower-level alchemists. Have a given margin of failure no matter how skillfully made. Often the only birth control resource in more remote or poorer areas.
Organizations:
Trei Mare Gens: A prestigious alchemical and potion-crafting association that was founded over five hundred years ago. Its potions are high quality and extremely effective. Secured its position by hiring several Summoned who held rare and high-level Crafting skills. Often works closely with the Crafting Guild.