Chapter 132: Pressures

The only exceptions to the rule were Karra and Lily, both of whom could benefit from having an almost unlimited amount of majicka. Karra refused, flat out, to take any of the town’s resources.

“I could use it, but I don’t need to,” she said. “Working is fun for me. It’s a way of life, not a thing to get over with.”

And for Lily, her explanation was, “I could flare a bigger aura, but then I’d get tired. If I do extra today, I pay for it tomorrow. Unless it’s an emergency, it’s a wash for me.”

“Well.” Arthur looked around and saw smiling faces around him. “I want to thank you.”

Onna looked pleased. “So that’s it? Mizu gets the help?”

“Not quite. That’s just us, We have a whole town of people who should have a say here,” Arthur said. “These are resources for the whole town. There are a lot of people doing good work. Stampers who’ve been building our road, that mason we got the other day who’s working on the wall that’ll come in handy if we get another monster scare, everyone in the town. Honestly, we could push the progress of the town forward.”

“Maybe. But it doesn’t look like you needed it,” Talca said. “Trust me on that. I’ve been to most new settlements on this side of the expansion, and you’re farther ahead of the game than you think. There’s at least one place that might not make it on their own governance. If they don’t do better soon, the adults will step in and organize it for them.”

“That’s a thing?” Arthur was mildly alarmed to hear that option put out so plainly even though he had known that some settlements were going to fail at some point. “I didn’t know that.”

“No reason you should,” Talca said quickly. “And you’re in no danger of it, anyway. Point is, you are past the beginnings of a settlement here. It’s a real town already. It just isn’t hooked up to the others by a good road yet.”

“But the point still stands,” Arthur said. “The fairest thing to do would be to divide the pills among everyone in town. But if Mizu’s water has some kind of special utility, that might outweigh it.”

“I mean, it’s tasty,” Milo said. “That’s not nothing. And it cleans dishes well. I’ve noticed that.”

“When did you clean a dish?” Rhodia asked. “Was it a special occasion?”

“I clean!” Milo protested hard. “You just come by at inopportune times to notice it.”

“I mean, it’s nice water. And everyone appreciates it. But is it as important as a road? Especially when we already have a clean river pumping clean water through the town?” Rhodia mused. “I like Mizu a lot. And I like what she does. I just honestly don’t know if her work is more important than the other work.”

The group sat and pondered that for a bit.

“They don’t know, Skal,” Talca broke the silence.

“Nope, they sure don’t, Talca,” Skal said.

Although no one in the group knew what Talca and Skal were referring to, they all knew the sound of friendly mockery. As a team, they turned to face the two older demons.

“Care to cut us in on the forbidden knowledge?” Spiky asked.

“I’m surprised you don’t know. Spiky, what do wellers do?” Talca asked.

“Ensure water quality and delivery,” Spiky answered. “Ensure it’s available and healthy. They also maximize supply in areas that don’t have much water, although that’s not so much of an issue here.”

“Leena, you agree?” Talca said.

“Pretty much?” Leena said, unsure what she was missing. “Those are the main functions.”

“That’s the main thing they do, but any low-level weller can handle that. Why have high-level ones in the first place?” Talca asked. “Arthur, that tea you just made yourself. Did it have an effect?”

“Yeah, I made it calm my nerves a bit. It’s been a long day,” Arthur said.

“And how big was that effect?” Talca said.

Arthur glanced down at the tea. The effect was probably a little weaker than usual. Most of his teas had more mild effects the last few days, though he had attributed that to fatigue and his mind being in other places.

“See, now, that’s interesting. The water gets worse, and your tea gets worse. Who would have imagined that?” Skal laughed. “Almost like a weller’s job is more than just changing how the water tastes.”

“Skal, knowing you, you’re as paranoid as you are old,” Talca said as he smiled to show that he wasn’t being serious. “You kept a big barrel of enhanced water, didn’t you?”

“Of course. I’ve had a lot of water from a lot of places and this is some good water. Maybe not the best, but still very good. You can tell the difference if you pay attention,” Skal said.

“Part of why is because the water’s from a small well,” Talca explained. “Most towns, as they grow bigger, they have to make their wells larger and the water begins to lose a bit of its special qualities.”

“These, on the other hand, are juiced to the gills with majicka,” Skal said.

“And that helps with drinks?” Arthur asked.

“And with washing,” Talca answered. “And with general health, and a dozen other things none of you are thinking about.”

“Huh.” Rhodia looked towards her brick ovens. “Mizu told me to use water from the well for some of the brick-making and ceramics. And I did, early on, just thinking she wanted to be a part of it. The last couple of days when I used water from the river, I’ve had a lot of failures. Well, a lot for me.”

“Point is, without asking Mizu, it’s hard to be sure what her water is doing,” Talca said. “She’s not the kind to bring it up, or the kind to mind if people don’t know how she’s been helping. But there’s a good chance that almost every person in this town is a little worse off right now. Not a lot, but enough that you’d notice if you were looking for it.”

“Ah. So we’ve been jerks,” Onna said. “You aren’t saying it, but…”

“Oh, I don’t know about all that,” Skal laughed. “That girl doesn’t look for credit. Might not even want it, outside just seeing everyone happy. She coulda told you, but didn’t. Says something about her.”

“Still,” Arthur said. “Does it change that much?”

“It does.” Lily mouthed her way through some mental math. “Think about your tea. It doesn’t help much, but it’s cheap and people can get it when they want it. The whole town has a small buff from it, all the time. It matters.”

“But I haven’t used Medicinal Brewer yet,” Arthur said.

“It would matter even if it wasn’t medicinal,” Tasca said. “Pep is a big part of the economy. Ask Spiky.”

“It’s true,” Spiky said. “They do studies on it.”

“If it’s like that, then it’s a big deal,” Lily said. “For the plants, too. They irrigate the fields with Mizu’s wells when there’s not going to be rain for a while. I bet it helps with those.”

“Yeah.” Arthur was suddenly thoughtful. “So what do we think? Everyone gets a vote here. I don’t think there’s any way to know for sure, but…”

“Oh, definitely,” Karra said. “Trust me on this. The workers are more worried about running out of work before people start getting here. They won’t mind. I say we do it.”

Everyone else seemed to go along with that sentiment. Lily and Mizu would get all the pills that would be useful to them, for as long as there wasn’t anything that was more urgent or important.

“So it’s all agreed?” Arthur asked to confirm.

“Yes, Arthur, for the tenth time. We would have told you if it was a bad idea.” Milo yawned. “I’m going home. Lily, you want to look at the plans for the railcarts before bed? Maybe you can think about them for the next few days while you help Mizu.”

“Deal.”

Everyone else filed out towards bed, each of them genuinely tired. Arthur’s still-on Empathetic Host was calling for soothing, sleepy-time teas all around but he stayed seated. He was still wound up from the day, and especially so from the meeting he had just finished. He sat for a while, trying to catch his breath after a couple sneezes and still ignoring the growing pain from his headache.

I wonder if Mizu’s water was keeping this at bay. Stress is a hell of a thing.

It would be pointless to try to sleep right then, and sitting was no help. Strolling, it seemed, was Arthur’s last option. He walked around the town, watching the last few people filtering towards their homes and beds. Before too long, it was just him. He took a long loop on the main road down towards Skal’s place, walking down the beach a bit and listening to the waves crash against the rocks as his headache continued pounding in his skull.

After a while, Arthur went back towards the town, taking one of the few side streets this time, past a growing number of homes they had erected in the last few months. At the end of this row was the house Mizu’s mother lived in, for the moment, a house she hadn’t come out of since she had left Mizu an emotional mess after inspecting her well.

Arthur knew better than to try to talk to the woman, and well enough to keep his opinions to himself and his nose out of other people’s business, especially when that person was the most terrifying woman he had ever had the pleasure of meeting. He went on knowing that right up to the point that he saw that Mizu’s mother was still awake, sitting on the porch of the house in a chair she had dragged out from the kitchen table.

“We left our enemies without security, without safety, and without the means to stop the waves of death from crashing through their homes, flooding them with the waves of war.”