Chapter 77: Back and Forth
Coming home was always an enjoyable event for Marcus. Because of the time differences of the different planets, he came home the same time he had left Azaa, in the morning hours. It was a beautiful sunny day and Achara, Kou and Candis were practicing yoga in the courtyard of the villa. Marcus watched them with a smile and waved as they welcomed him home. Shouting and moaning from the obstacle course drew Marcus’ attention and he found Janette and Grace training. They were both in full armor and right now Grace was running after Janette, who tried to dodge and avoid her by all means. The two women ran, jumped, rolled and fought with each other and Marcus was about to give up figuring out what they were actually doing, when Grace finally hit Janette on the torso.
They stopped and Marcus called out to them. The women gave him a hello and then they were at it again. Now Grace was running away and Janette followed her. In contrast to before Janette had picked up small stones and was throwing them at Grace. It took her only ten seconds to hit her on the chest. Then the whole thing repeated. They are playing tag, Marcus thought. High speed, power tag. He watched them for some time longer before he decided to get his stuff into his room.
In the next days he started to learn Go. Not exactly the correct priority for a class holder and leader of a clan but he wanted to show some improvements once he met Azaa again, and starting early was a good plan. He entered an online Go site and started playing AI and other players. Over the next weeks he worked his way up to a medium level skill. Not too bad for a complete novice, Marcus thought.
On the matter of far more serious topics, Kou had already started to search for a new job for the clan. Problem was, with the new rules in place, nobody really knew what the rules were and the uncertainty caused a large amount of jobs being held back or canceled. “Monster hunts have been heavily cut back, expeditions need to gain new approval and evaluation, and jobs on Earth are over-saturated with class holders, that are looking for work.” Kou said at dinner and looked drained. “Even the big clans are going after jobs they would not even have looked at a few weeks ago. A small clan like ours has currently no chance of getting any work. Well, legal work.” Kou pocked the greens on his plate and Achara gave him a look. The greens wandered into Kou’s mouth which Marcus found very funny. “I could see if I can find us a job. I have some contacts and people owe me a favor or two.” Grace said, who had no greens on her plate in the first place. “That would be great.” Marcus said and the female carnivore gave him a smile.
What that smile meant, learned Marcus the next day. Grace demanded Marcus would train with her, no holding back. Thus began a week of pain and humiliation for Marcus. Grace pierced, cut, smashed and burned him while he barely managed to get a hit in. Of course she was not only enjoying beating Marcus up, but the training really helped Marcus finding his own limits. Without this drastic training he would never have learned how far he can go and how fast he can expect his body to heal. He also had gained a rough idea how much healing he had before his endurance ran dry, something that happened eventually every single day as long as the training continued.
Grace on the other hand put her Judgment ability to good use. Rarely enemies did stick around long enough that this ability got to shine but Marcus was tough enough. Like any other ability Judgment needed training too, and so the week of suffering had a meaning after all. At least Marcus really tried to believe that.
“Good news and bad news.” Grace declared shortly after breakfast ten days after their first discussion. “I have found us some work. An acquaintance of mine Alistair Cromwell is currently preparing a ten man raid team to go after some ruins. He was more than happy to get me on the job but, and now comes the not so great part, he is not too thrilled about you guys. I told him I’m only coming as a package and we compromised that you have to show off your skill. With the exception of Candis, he was more than happy to get a Priest on the team, even a low level one.” After Grace had finished the clan members did not look too happy. “Is he not just going to reject us and take you?” Janette said. “Alistair is a stern man with a lot of principles. If he says he gives you a fair chance, than that is exactly what he is going to do.” Grace answered.
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Marcus had the feeling he had heard the name Cromwell before and asked Grace about it. “You have most likely heard of his son Arthur Cromwell, he was one of the top class holder in the UK until a few years ago. Something happened to him and since then the old man has become a class holder. I think he is a level 60 Blood Mage after just 5 years.” Grace explained and Marcus was impressed. “Do we have a time line?” Achara asked and Grace said the tests would be in a month from now and the raid would follow directly afterwards. “Don’t expect to get rich with this one. We will most likely not gain any looting rights. Still, the EXP and general experience is well worth it. Not to talk about creating good relations with Alistair.”
At this point the clan started to prepare for the raid with the exception of Marcus who was, again, working on very important other projects. His Go training was going well, mid to high opponents were standard for him now. The search for another gift turned out to be much harder until Janette had a good idea and Marcus bought a high quality wind chime. It had metal pipes, rare wood parts, a beautiful crystal and overall a satisfying artistic look.
This time around, Marcus planed to arrive in the morning in Mihr Jhel to avoid the debacle of the last visit. Marcus left the HQ in the middle of the night together with Janette. She used the opportunity to get to the UK and spend some time with Cherry before the raid. Because of that, Marcus had good company on the first part of his journey. “Don’t worry too much about Azaa not showing much interest in the gifts Marcus. As long as she does not dislike them they fulfill their purpose.” Janette reminded him before they parted.
As planed Marcus reached the city of the ginghi shortly before dawn. Instead of going right into the city, he looked for a nice place to sit down and watched the sunrise over the nearby fields and forests. Only then he made his way to the embassy and informed them that he was in the city. After a small breakfast Marcus walked through the city to Azaa’s study. A lot of people were already on the streets and the market he passed by had fresh fruits and vegetables. He thought about buying some fruit for Azaa but realized he had neither ginghi money nor any idea what she liked.
Marcus knocked and stepped into her study, expecting her to stand at the table waiting for him like always. Instead she was at her desk together with three other ginghi. They wore the uniform of the Preserver and Azaa (in a plain gray dress) was talking to them. Marcus realized he should have waited but was already in the room, and decided to wait in silence until Azaa was done. Azaa talked quickly in their language and Marcus could see that the other ginghi had to concentrate to keep up with her. It looked like Azaa was detailing work for the three as they made notes and nodded a lot. After a few minutes the three left the room with fast steps and Azaa turned to Marcus. “Good Morning. I have still duties to attend to. You will have to wait for some time.” she said and Marcus greeted her too. She seemed colder than usual, even for her, but Marcus did not complain. Of course she was busy with many tasks and he could not expect she would drop everything the moment he showed up.
Marcus sat down at his usual place and watched Azaa work. A large document with tightly written text was stretched out on a special mount next to her desk and Azaa was drawing something based on the text. He watched her work and admired the speed and precision of her hands. Minutes passed by and he watched her create an intrinsic blueprint of a device he did not know. She only used basic tools but the precision and cleanness of the drawing was machine level. Marcus did not notice the time as he was fully concentrated on her working.
The blueprint grew in size and complexity and Marcus had trouble keeping up with all the details Azaa put on the paper. She was just amazing, this was not something crests allowed you to do. You had to be brilliant in the first place to pull this off. Like my father, Marcus thought and remembered the many times he had watched him work as a child. And it finally clicked in his head. Azaa was brilliant like his father. Why had it taken Marcus so long to see that! Azaa was a genius like his father. The signs were all there but Marcus had not really thought about it. Not only her intelligence but also her lack of social skills, her often great mental leaps and hard to follow arguments. “You are an incredible woman.” Marcus mouth said in all the excitement of figuring it out. The few words broke the long lasting silence like a cannon shot.
