Chapter 335: Chapter 301 – Trading Arms for Crafts

“Just because one had once been a butcher of men before, does not mean they cannot be something else later on.” - Saying attributed to Aideen deVreys, the Silver Maiden.

“We meet yet again, o favored daughter of the Void,” said the old merfolk as he turned to greet the three women. His common was accented, and he used older, archaic terms rarely used nowadays, which lent his voice a certain… aged feeling to it. “I see you had brought the new favored of Ash with you… and this one is… the to-be favored of Blood?”

 

“Hello and well met to you too, Andy,” replied Kino with a smirk on her face. If the masked merfolk showed any annoyance at her far more casual tone, they couldn’t see it through his mask. “And yeah, taking Cal here for the rounds like Kyara back then. How’s business of late?”

 

“It goes as usual. It still baffles me that people were willing to pay so much for mere fired clay pots, but I will not complain,” replied the masked merfolk with a shrug of his muscled shoulders. “I have to say that the craft did well in helping me rein in more… destructive impulses.”

 

“But I dither, we should not be talking outside, please, do come in to my humble abode,” he added with a slight polite bow to Cal, as he walked to and pushed the door to the simple hut - one built of mud and straws - open.

 

The inside of the hut was as simple as its exterior suggested, with the only furniture present being a low table set over a large circular mat of woven straw, as well as a collection of jars, jugs, and pots of clay, all of which were richly decorated with carvings. The masked merfolk went into a separate room in the back and returned shortly after with a clay jug and several mugs. The outside of the jug quickly became wet with condensation in the warm, humid air.

 

He poured a murky, yellowish liquid from the jug to the glasses, one that instantly gave a strong whiff of alcohol and acids, likely kept icy cold by some enchantments before he poured it to the jug since Cal felt the cold even through the cup. Then the old Champion of Mud removed his mask, revealing a heavily scarred visage, and raised his cup to a toast.

 

All three women reciprocated the gesture as they each raised their cups, and they all took a drink from the cup together. The old merfolk and Kino finished their drinks in one go, while Kyara only took a symbolic sip of it before she placed the cup down with a slight shudder. Cal took a larger sip of the beverage only for the sourness to make her flinch and purse her lips in surprise.

 

“How is it? Refreshing, eh?” asked Kino with an all-too-wide grin on her face. She had clearly known of the beverage’s taste beforehand, and had simply not warned Cal to have some amusement at her expense. By her side the old, scarred merfolk also smiled as he hid a chuckle - though from the way his shoulders shook he barely managed it - which brought the scars on his face into an alignment that made his mouth look as if it was much wider at the left.

 

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“Like getting face-fucked by a lime,” replied Cal with a shake of her head. That reply got the old merfolk to laugh out loud instead, while Kino herself also broke out to a fit of giggles that escalated. “Seriously, I don’t know how the hell you drink this with a straight face.”

 

“It’s an acquired taste,” replied the old, scarred merfolk champion, now looking much friendlier compared to his previously dour look. “I reacted even worse than you the first time I had some, spat the mouthful right into the face of my host even. Got pretty used to it though. It tastes nostalgic by now, though yeah, still makes you feel as if a giant lime just fucked you right in the face.”

 

“Explains a lot,” Cal said with a nod. “Actually, now that you mention it… She looked the most comfortable drinking that swill.”

 

“Oh yeah, forgot to tell you. She was the one who brought it with her back then,” said the old merfolk as he looked with some fondness to Kino, who was still laughing her ass off loudly. “It was a tense meeting between me and some of the other locals back then, just after a feud went wrong. She brought a bottle out and made all of us drink that swill together. Sure broke the tension to pieces, I tell you. I was a much brasher, more violent person back then.”

 

“I had guessed you used to be a warrior, even if you had cleaned those scars up your posture spoke just as loudly,” said Cal with a nod. As a veteran of the battlefield herself it was easy for her to recognize a fellow veteran just from the way they moved. “Also, you used that blade with skill that I’ve only seen in people who spent their life to master their weapons.”

 

“Just putting the skill to a less violent use, indeed. I’ve mostly left the life of violence behind me, arts and crafts being my current battlefield,” admitted the old merfolk with a smile. “I still feel that the people here overpriced my craftsmanship, though, even if it did make my current life more than comfortable.”

 

“Overpriced my ass,” interjected Kino as she finally managed to rein in her laughter. “What ol’ Andy here forgot to mention is that to pretty much everyone on this island, he’s a legend, one right out of the folk tales the parents told their children, who later told their own children, and so on. Who wouldn’t spare some coins to own some masterwork pots hand-made by one like him?”

 

“After all, outside this island, the knowledge that Anduinus of the Strangling Hands worked at being a potter in his old, immortal years is mostly kept a closely guarded secret,” said Kino. Cal had heard of that name before, the name of an infamous Merfolk warlord of the western isles many centuries ago. She had thought that Anduinus had merely shared a name with the infamous warlord, not being one and the same person. “Heck, you should totally get a couple of his works to gift that godson of yours! Other royals would envy him for having such handicraft!”

 

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