Chapter 39 – Leg Work

  “As far as we can tell there is no real pattern to determine if or when a halfbreed will come from a couple. Typically, the offspring will breed true to one parent or the other, unless one had abnormally dominant genes or other factors come into py.” Fertility consultant in the city of Prospirus, Verdant.

  Kristi was sitting at the counter of Kurt’s kitchen. She was currently writing in a stack of papers that Penny had so kindly given to her. It was an astronomical amount of paper in her opinion, since she was already part of the order. She had barely had to sign anything when Jay had recruited her for his project but after that, it seemed to be a constant annoyance.

  “Detachment from Interdictions, done. Attachment to Field Operations, done. Asset removal from quarters, done.” She sighed at the sight of the next paper. “Voluntary housing and schedule forfeiture.” She read aloud while beginning to work through the three-page form.

  After pausing to shake a cramp out of her hand, Kristi reached for her coffee cup and found it empty. She then looked up at the microwave clock and saw that she had already spent an hour working on this and decided to hustle through this st set of forms. She figured if something was wrong, Penny would let her know.

  Penny had told her that she would like them back by the end of the week, but Kristi didn’t have much else to do beside those. After breakfast, she had found herself all alone. Val was off trying to help sort and organize the workshop while Kurt was scheming with Penny and Jay.

  Just as she finished signing the st page of the form, the new side door to the breezeway opened, and Kurt stepped through. Nobody was with him which seemed odd, since he had made it sound like Penny always hung around during working hours.

  “Hey, Kristi.” He said while walking over to the fridge to grab a bottle of water.

  “Oh, um, hi.” She looked down and tried to hide the blush on her face. She had gotten up that morning and somewhat stumbled upon the two of them in the shower. She could feel them up and moving around but was still a little too groggy to connect the dots. She hadn’t seen anything, but the implications were obvious given the sounds and smells.

  Kurt cleared his throat and scratched at his chin. “Ahem, uh, how’s it going with the paperwork?”

  She noticed his wince at the complete failure to break the awkwardness. “Oh, it’s going. Only a half dozen more to finish up ter. I was going to take a break and see what Val was up to.” Not knowing how to finish her end of the conversational volley, she said the first thing that came to mind. “How did the meeting go?”

  “Oh, it went ok.” Kurt began, still standing across from her. “Jay let me know that there is another team in our region so rifts should die down. Then we talked about our schedule and to-do list.”

  “We have a to-do list?”

  “Yeah, mostly he wants us gently pushing the enchantment angle and thought our pn to upset the status quo was, I quote, ‘inspired’. But he also wants us to follow up with the lead we got from John a while back about strange movements in the mana.”

  “What is the pn he liked? I don’t think you guys actually told me.” Kristi thought she knew but wasn’t completely sure.

  Kurt leaned on the counter. “Remember that gargoyle we got the ammo through? Yeah, I am going to make a bunch of simple enchants for her to sell.”

  Kristi wrinkled her nose. “Is that it?” she didn’t quite understand how that would make any progress in their goal of dealing with the enchanter’s guild.

  “Well, not exactly. She will sell them for cheap, under market value and in quantities that she shouldn’t be able to if it was a single enchanter.” Kurt expined. “Really I want the guild to come sniffing so we can get an in before I read through the contract.”

  “That’s a surprisingly simple pn but seems like a lot of work just to read a contract.”

  Kurt ughed. “Ha, yeah but I have a feeling that the contract is what’s causing problems. Jay and I spent some time trying to brainstorm what is causing the guild and its members to act the way they are.”

  Nodding, Kristi was about to weigh in on the issue when Val came up, wiping her hands on a towel. “Oh, your back.” She said and walked over to give him a kiss. “Good meeting?”

  “Eh, progress was made but I can’t say for sure how it will go.” Kurt responded off hand. The meeting hadn’t really been any new info as much as it had been them affirming the pns and direction they were going.

  He filled them in on a few other items, like how Penny would be the go between for him and Renee until they got a bite on the enchanted items. He also went over their pn to go on a little adventure to see the dryad John had mentioned. Seeing no better time, he pulled out his phone and called the dryad on the number John had provided.

  The phone call Kurt had with the dryad had been interesting to say the least. She had taken a while to answer the call, letting it ring. When she finally picked up, it was like she hardly cared about the conversation and was actively being difficult.

  After several frustrating minutes of one-sided conversation, Kurt had finally had enough and just invited himself over. She had naturally agreed with the same ckadaisical attitude. When he had hung up, it was with the feeling that he had just tried to install a door in a brick wall by asking nicely if the wall would open up.

  “And what’s the pn for the rest of the day?” Val asked.

  “I am going to do some enchanting. I want to get a few things taken care of that have been piling up recently.” He pointed at Kristi. “Did you get all your things moved over or do you need help?”

  “Val helped me this morning before she started her project. Do you mind if I watch you enchant something? I kinda missed it st time.” She looked a little embarrassed for some reason that Kurt couldn’t quite pce.

  “Umm, fine with me?” He looked to Val, and she shrugged. “I can make your ring today if you want. Then I can focus on the lower tier enchants for Renee. What are you doing, Val?”

  “Penny is going to stop by and help me with a little online shopping.” She said and gave a little cryptic smile. “I think I might take the opportunity to buy a toy or two.” The not-so-subtle wink made Kurt’s mind jump to a certain conclusion. They hadn’t talked about anything like that, and he was beginning to wonder if he needed to set boundaries or perhaps a safe word.

  “Well, let’s meet back here for lunch, I guess. Come on Kristi.”

  “Any idea what she is shopping for?” he asked as they reached the basement.

  Kristi shook her head. “Not a clue. I have known Val for a few years now and she hasn’t ever really impulse purchased anything or even shown much interest in shopping.”

  “How did she spend her free time before?”

  “Oh, she read a lot. Her tablet has a ton of extra storage and it’s loaded with books.”

  That caught his interest. “What kind of books?” He flicked on the light in the workshop and was momentarily stunned at the sight of the neatly stacked crates and boxes. Val had really gone all out in unpacking and breaking down the waste.

  “All sorts. She liked comics or manga, not sure what it is called. Then she read a lot of novels, mystery, romance, action. Really, if it was printed, she would read it.” Kristi had dragged over a spare stool and plopped down out of the way.

  “What about you?” He asked, stopping to look at her. “What do you like to do?”

  Opening her mouth to answer, Kristi suddenly stopped and closed it again. She considered for a few moments while Kurt went back to getting out his supplies. He would give her as much time as she needed.

  “I think I might like to pick up a hobby of some sort.” She finally answered. “I always liked to py video games. Nothing in particur but you know, just doing something to occupy the time.”

  Kurt had just finished mounting his first work piece to start engraving another spatial ring when she answered. “Oh, that’s cool. I didn’t see much in your room before, what stopped you?”

  She expined that the options for gaming were rather limited in the order, and she only got into it by accidentally clicking a YouTube video. After that, she managed to find a couple emuted games to put on her ptop but nothing from a major company or that needed a lot of computing power.

  “Oh, that reminds me. Can we get my kit squared away at some point? I had my armor transferred over but not my weapon since Val said you would have it covered.” She waved her hand at the lockers and cabinets.

  “Yeah, we can do that tonight. Maybe even arrange a visit to Alec this week if needed.” Kurt gnced over as he swapped out the sections of ring in his vice. “Did you get the same stupid fucking revolver that Val and Penny were issued?”

  “I don’t know how I should answer that.” She ughed. “On one hand I feel I should be honest, but it sounds like you have a thing against revolvers.”

  “Nothing against them, but a five shot snub nose is not exactly ideal unless you work hard at using it.” Kurt would not admit to disliking revolvers, especially since he had a few but they were in magnum calibers or, in one case, a super light, seven shot twenty-two mag.

  They chatted quietly as Kurt finished the ring. He briefly considered using the new crystal he had but decided to stick with a known formu and make a sixth copy of the storage ring. Kristi seemed fascinated as he did the casting and activated the enchantments. She admitted that she hadn’t seen this type of enchanting before, only having seen an alchemical enchanter that once visited the horde.

  “I have been meaning to ask you something.” Kurt said while inspecting the ring with his other tools. “What type of magic do you have?”

  Kristi tore her gaze away from the ring that was sitting on the bench and looked at him. “Oh, I have both internal and external, just like you and Val.” She noted his look of surprise and eborated. “Mom had internal since, you know, dragon newt. My father had external since, well, he was an angel.”

  “Huh, did not expect that.”

  “Yeah, my primary affinity, if you can call it that, is actually a type of force projection.” She held out her hand, palm up and Kurt saw a slight distortion in the air over her spyed fingers. “Oh, here’s a good example, try to throw something at me.”

  With a shrug, Kurt picked up a block of wood that he used as soft jaws in his rge vice and lobbed it at Kristi after she took a few steps back. The dragoness waved her hand, and a sort of sheet was projected outward. The disturbance intercepted and deflected the block of wood, knocking it to the side.

  “It also kinda works as a projected bde but it takes a lot of energy to do, and I can’t really stop much in the way of projectiles.” She seemed to reconsider. “Well, modern projectiles. I can stop an arrow dead in its tracks but can only really deflect low velocity bullets.”

  Kurt was suitably impressed with the dispy especially because he had pns already popping into his mind. He would wait until the next day before pushing anything else on her, out of an abundance of caution. Besides, he still had to finish this ring before he started any other items.

  “Well, here you go.” Kurt said after a couple hours and picked up the ring. “It’s pretty intuitive and holds tons of stuff. Oh, literally tons. Like thirty-seven hundred kilo’s”

  Taking the ring very carefully, Kristi held it in her hand like it was a viper about to strike. The expression on her face was one of distaste as far as Kurt could tell. After a brief pause, she slid the ring on her finger. Her initial disappointment to the terribly shaped and oversized nature of the ring vanished as it reformed, shrank and blended into her skin.

  “Wow…” Was all Kristi could say for several moments. Kurt just let her have her space as he began pulling out things for his next project.

  After setting up the bench, he was suddenly hugged from behind. Kristi squeezed him, babbled several variations of thank you and eventually let go. She was still looking at it as they went up the stairs and Kurt began setting out lunch. He was just about to pull food out of the fridge when Penny and Val walked through the door.

  “… So it can be delivered or how does that work?” Val asked.

  “I can arrange someone to deliver it and all the paperwork associated with it.” Penny answered while tapping on a tablet. “Slight fee for that.”

  “Just pay it, I have the cash.” She then noticed Kurt and Kristi staring at her. “Hey guys!”

  “What are you having delivered?” Kurt asked with a raised eyebrow.

  Val waved a hand at him. “Don’t worry about it. Hey, how about we go out and get lunch somewhere?”

  Kurt looked to the clock and decided it was early enough to beat the majority of the rush. “Sure, anywhere in particur?”

  “Yeah, I want a rematch with a meatball sub.” Val scowled and grabbed a dish towel out of the drawer in the kitchen. “This time I am coming to win.”

  *****

  An hour and a half ter, Kurt was backing into the garage with a very satisfied Kristi in the passenger seat and a very smug Val in the back. Penny looked like she didn’t know if she should feel, intrigued or horrified.

  “You’re pretty proud of yourself, aren’t you?” Kurt said after they piled out of the car.

  “It didn’t even have a chance.” Val said with a stupid smirk.

  When Val had gotten her meatball sub, she had immediately addressed the issue she had st time, the sauce. In front of God and everyone in that restaurant, she had licked the excess sauce off the sub before taking a bite. The lick wasn’t just a quick action, not even a sensible action in retrospect.

  Val had held the sub at eye level, like she was about to read it the riot act, staring for several seconds until everyone else was looking at her. She then turned it length wise and stuck out her rather long tongue. She then put it right on the slit in the bun and licked from one end to the other in a slow, methodical and needlessly sensual fashion. The trip around the meatballs was also… disturbingly erotic.

  “I don’t know what’s worse, the initial lick or the absolute carnage of how you pretty much ate the damn thing in ten bites.” Penny said in a tone that made Kurt side on the horrified half of his earlier assessment of her emotions.

  “Well, we didn’t get asked to never come back so that’s… uh… something.” Kurt wasn’t sure if he would ever be able to go back there. Not because the owners but because of the two construction crews, four police officers and the nurse that had all openly gaped at the dispy.

  “Yeah, phone order only, under a false name.” Kristi said in a tone that made him question if she was joking.

  “Probably need a fake mustache and ballcap too.” Kurt muttered while walking to get a water before headed back to the workshop. Kristi and Val followed after him while Penny went out to her office in the hub.

  After walking into the room, he began opening lockers and cabinets. Val had cleared out one of the mostly empty cabinets for Kristi to put her soft gear in and it was now filled with the same clothing as Val’s just in a taller size.

  “I would just say to pick what you want out of the lockers.” Kurt said, gesturing to the grey painted steel lockers. “That st one on the left is more experimental than anything else but the rest is fairly common. Lots of NATO standard stuff.”

  “I remember you saying that when we looked the other day.” Kristi was eyeballing the cabinet with his SCAR and other seven six-two guns. “Do you have pouches and stu… Right. We have the rings.”

  Val grinned at her. “Kurt even keeps his carry piece in there now. I do the same with the handgun he got me.”

  “Just take what you think is best and let me know.” Kurt said while the girls began looting through his things. Val was showing where all the extra stuff was, like magazines, ammunition and accessories. Kristi was trying her hardest to keep track of where everything was.

  Kurt went and pulled out the bag of copper jewelry that he had gotten a few days earlier and began sorting it all onto the bench. He stacked the several rings, bracelets and even a few arm bands. It was all of pretty decent purity, unlike the copper that would be in a hardware store which was actually an alloy.

  While the various shops all had a wide variety, there were several copied designs and he bought ones that all matched. He found it easier to create identical copies rather than having to adjust for things being slightly different sizes. While he would prefer a different material, this met the requirements of cheap, plentiful and easy to work on. The enchants would at least keep the things from tarnishing or reacting and turning a person’s skin blue.

  After opening his enchanting book, he picked out a few designs that he thought would be perfect. They were just enough to catch attention and be practical but not so complex that they needed multiple steps like his usual creations.

  On the rings, he would carve a strength enhancing enchant which would give a noticeable increase to physical might. For the bracelets, he picked out a stamina enhancement that would not only prevent fatigue but reduce recovery times. The stamina spell was a common part of enchanting a focus, like the one he gave Val.

  For the arm bands, Kurt had decided to do a little extra, since he had more material to work with. He picked out an enchantment that would enhance reflexes and coordination. These were harder to do since its effects were more on the mind than the body. In his experience, making a muscle more efficient was easy compared to making the mind process information better.

  Still, he sat and carved his inscriptions, doing one of each to make sure the enchant would be stable and actually work before committing to a design. He did have to adjust the stamina one on the bracelet since it had a side effect of causing muscle tics. It ended up being an easy fix in the rune order, just needing a feedback preventor.

  Val had been a more than willing test subject, despite Kurt assuring her that he didn’t need it. Still, after he inspected each item, she would try it on and report the findings. She did say the reflex enhancement made everything look and feel like slow motion, but she couldn’t actually move faster, just react faster.

  Kristi had busied herself with sorting her equipment. Kurt also wanted to handle that at some point but didn’t have the time or energy after a few hours of creating enchantments. By the time he was ready to make dinner, he had finished all the items he bought.

  On the bench were twenty strength rings that somehow all came out to about a ten percent increase. Then nineteen of the stamina bracelets, the one that didn’t work would have to be scrapped. Finally, the six armbands that had been a little more difficult do their shape.

  He inspected his handywork once more, thinking they would do nicely for his little joint business venture mixed with corporate espionage. He turned around to find Val standing there, waiting for him.

  “Hey, what’s up?”

  She came over and gave him a hug, closing her eyes and burying her face in his chest. “Hmm, nothing. Just came to see if you needed a break. Kristi was starting to worry about if we should make dinner since it was a little te.”

  “I was just wrapping up and coming to do that.” Kurt said, hugging her back. “You don’t have to worry about missing a meal when I’m around.” He went to break the hug and pull away, but she just held on. “Umm, Val?”

  “Just a little longer.” She said it in a tone that led Kurt to believe she wasn’t only talking about the hug.

  He squeezed her a little more in return. “As long as you need.”