End of day report: Tomas came back with a fair amount of kain fruit. I let him know you were a bit overjoyed at the news. Also, you might want to let Aoife know that the FSA officer recognized Tomas or at least reacted like he did. Tomas said the guy was only vaguely familiar but couldn’t place where he saw him aside from either a tavern or the mercenary guild. Don’t know if that’s going to be a problem or not. Looking forward to getting out of here in the morning.

  ***

  Sam, you won’t see this until morning as late as it is. You’re right. Kain fruit is coffee as far as I can tell. Had a bit of an argument with Fiachra, but starting tomorrow I’m going to spend some time figuring out the roasting process. Never thought I’d be happy that one of my coworkers at the lab was a coffee snob who insisted on roasting his own beans. Guy went on and on about his set-up like a damn crossfitter. Who knows, maybe I’ll figure it out fast and you can have a cup of joe when you get back.

  Also, I forgot to mention we’ll be here at the Green for the foreseeable future unless something breaks back at the Glade. Aoife wants boundary stones around the Green and that’ll take a while. I already have blisters on my fingers from chiseling. At this point, all I want is a goddamn cup of coffee.

  ***

  End of day report: Covered about fifteen miles today. Nothing significant to report. We’re both a little beat, but otherwise okay.

  Swapped to walking the bottom of the Fingers just in time. It’s mostly vertical now. Also, tried washing some clothes with that ultrasonic widget. It works, but that thing is annoying as fuck. Have had a mild headache all day. Punch Fiachra for me. Hope the roasting process works out. Coffee would be fucking nice right now.

  ***

  Sam, you’ll never guess what I spent all day doing. Yep. Chiseling stone. Much fun. Very wow. Also, very ow. Gloves only help so much. Cailleach helped me take care of my hands. She’s actually not nearly as creepy as I first thought. Her hands are stronger than they look, too. Don’t worry, not stealing your girl. Might borrow her though, she got the knots out of my neck and loosened my hands up a bit.

  On the roasting front, when I brought up the idea of making something out of the kain fruit, Cailleach jumped at the chance to help. She evidently knows a number of uses for the fruit and was curious to hear about a potential new one. With luck, she’ll have the basics we’ll need together by lunch tomorrow and we’ll start our first test batch. Back home, we’d have to dry them for days, but per Cailleach we can use magic for that, so the initial drying can be done in a matter of minutes. We’ll see.

  ***

  End of day report: Another day, another twenty or so miles down. Will be heading north in the morning. Still in relatively good shape. Tomas’s leg is still bothering him after he slipped a few days ago. Definitely pulled something, but it’s not like we have a healer. Tree cover is sparse here, but I think that’s more due to the rocky soil.

  Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

  On a side note, found out today that the flask I got from Wyk while we were at the Green is actually enchanted. Nothing major, it just cools whatever liquid is kept inside. Definitely using that going forward. Stands to reason there’d be an opposing enchantment to keep things warm. Would be good for coffee. Also, I’m not keeping a harem, Jenna, so you wouldn’t be stealing her.

  ***

  Sam, good news. We shaped the last set of stones for the boundary wards early today and got the rest of the day off. Can you imagine my enthusiasm when I found out I’m trading a large chisel tomorrow for a smaller one? I’d push Fiachra down a well, but I’m pretty sure he’s just teleport out or some shit.

  Got bored. Spent part of the day with Millwall. He’s working with the mayor, laying out plans for a smelting facility, a foundry, and a large smithy. The locals are absolutely happy to do whatever he wants, something about him being a Disciple from Cadecon. Kinda stepped on some toes though by asking some questions. How was I supposed to know they already basically knew the Bessemer process, and it was one of his sect’s secrets? When I let slip that I knew a better way to make steel, he nearly flipped shit. We’re now having a meeting with Fiachra tomorrow about this. Kinda wondering if I shouldn’t have kept my mouth shut, honestly. There’s already not enough hours in the day.

  Concerning our roasting experiments, I learned a lot today. Magical drying is definitely a thing. Also, you have to be very careful roasting kain fruit. Scared the shit out of me when the pot exploded, but nobody got hurt. Per Cailleach, it’s a known hazard if you dry them with magic and immediately start futzing with them. Will have to look into that later. Pot’s beat up, but still serviceable. Will be getting at least one spare. Either way, first batch was a dud. It was a tiny batch, so no big loss. There’s always tomorrow.

  ***

  End of day report: Not sure how far we made it today. Somewhere around thirty miles, maybe. Terrain out here is kinda spooky. Tree cover is up a bit, but animals are few and far between. We can’t be far from the fog. While we were stopped for lunch, I had Tomas practice flying the drone some more. He’s actually pretty good at it. Kinda wishing I had the headset for the system. Flying off the tablet alone is a bit ass.

  Try not to murder our allies, even if they have it coming. Hope the smaller chisel works out in your favor. I’m guessing that’s for detail work like carving runes or something. No clue. As for keeping your mouth shut, I can understand already having too much to do. Honestly, I’m not sure how good an idea it is to hand out modern industrial techniques, but that’s more a big picture, future problem I guess. As it stands, “Team Us” is already pretty behind the ball so we might not have a choice if we don’t want to lose.

  Happy to hear you didn’t blow yourself up trying to make coffee. Somehow I’m not surprised you found a way to turn coffee beans into a frag hazard. You can thank my Trivial Pursuit perk for this, but past a certain point in the roasting process things go from endo to exothermic. Might be some interaction where residual magic makes that swap-over extra spicy. Crossing my fingers for working coffee.

  ***

  I leaned back against the tree while digging out the message book. Nothing. Odd, she’s never skipped a day.

  “Gods, this is horrible,” Tomas muttered from the next tree over.

  Chuckling the whole time, I shifted how I sat to get my ass off an offending root and picked up the MRE next to me. “Now you know why MREs are also called meals rejected by everyone. Still, some are actually good.”

  “Oh, I know. I actually liked that spicy one I had this morning, but this one? Hamburger you said it’s called? How can anyone eat this? What hell did they retrieve this horrid meat from? Based on texture, I have to ask was it undead? Is this even meat? ”

  I kept my eyes northward, downslope where the sea of mist waited for us somewhere in the distance. “The whole point is that it’s a complete meal that can sit on a shelf for literal decades and still be eaten. Tasting good is largely not a consideration.”

  “Having seen what happens when droughts happen and harvests fail, I can appreciate having food set aside, Sam. I’m just not sure this qualifies as food.”