Chapter Text
Jade was tired. Her back ached like the bones of a woman twice her age, but she still felt strong. The stables were stuffed full of old and musty hay, containing the moons’ knew what. She had no idea what she was breathing in, but it couldn’t have been good for her. The work was hard, but it was better than what Jade had been doing before, by far.
With one stall cleared and night beginning to fall, Jade lay out her bedroll and lit the lantern she carried, hanging it from the hook at the top of the hall, so the small space was dimly lit, enough for sleep to take her.
Jade dreamed of bitter and creamy smells, combining into a soothing scent that would bring her to alert senses that she hadn’t known since the time she had first been introduced to the delicious drink that now haunted her dreams. This was the first good dream that the young woman had in a long time. Her first good dream in her entire memory, to be completely honest. Even asleep, Jade was thinking of her newest adventure.
Jade woke before the morning had dawned, and she packed her stall bedroom up and opened the small door, only slightly worried that she might smell of horse. Immediately, she began digging out the neighboring stalls, repairing the other stalls as she went. The tack room had its own future purpose, and Jade used a piece of loose chalk in her pocket to draw out on those walls the arrangements she would set up when they had gotten to that stage.
Her hands ached, her back ached, but the end was in sight. Now, Jade just needed to do some shopping.
Horses weren’t common in this town, so Jade approached a neighboring shop and asked permission to borrow their wheelbarrow if they had one.
“Did you sleep in that stable last night?” the young woman asked, her tone almost accusatory as her brother ran around back to fetch the wheelbarrow in question. Jade grinned at the young woman who looked as though she had never slept anywhere besides a proper four-poster down mattress.
“I did, yes.” Jade answered with a smile, not wanting to give this girl the opportunity to shame her. “It was better than some places I have slept before.”
“Well, you smell like horse and mildew.”
“It’s better than some other things I’ve smelled like.” Jade countered and felt her smile grow genuinely. The young woman looked on at her in surprise.
“Well, I’m glad you bought the place. It’s been stinking up the street for much too long, and this small town never had much use for horses. Where would we be going?”
“Kit! Leave her alone! She’s just trying to make a living like us.” The brother dropped off the wheelbarrow and leaned against the wall, giving his sister what was easily identifiable as A Look.
“I was just asking questions, gods you’re a grump. I said I was glad she brought the place.” the girl, Kit, corrected him.
“Did you say that in a manner that was… complimentary? At all?” the brother asked suspiciously, and Jade watched Kit’s blue eyes cast down to the floor in guilt.
“She said she was impressed with my work ethic, and how my work will likely raise property value around here,” The lie was a white one, but Jade thought maybe there was some appreciation mixed in with the surprise in Kit’s big, pretty eyes. “Thank you for the use of this. I’ll comp you some free samples when I get the shop up and running. I will return it as soon as I’m able.”
Jade turned and pushed the wheelbarrow onward. She knew she wouldn’t stop thinking about those twins for a long while.
Jade acquired another lamp, a pile of burlap sacks, and stacks of brittle stone called tile. Clay, in one of the sacks, could be combined with water and used to stick the tiles together to form a new floor for the former stables. With clay and dirt as supports, the tile would be an easy-to-clean floor that would no longer be brittle, unless something solid or heavy dropped on it. She was excited to try out the practice that she had only read about in books. These tiles were plain grey, but Jade dreamed of finding or making prettier ones with designs one day. That idea would live on the back burner for now, as the local stonemason had been confused enough by this idea alone.
In a small town like this, the ideas that Jade brought from around the world were often considered unnecessary and even scary. The stonemason had required a decent amount of convincing. Jade had no proof of what she had seen on the other side of the barrier, but she had told the story well… or at least believably enough. Jade had seen the moment he noticed her calloused and scarred hands when he had recognized her as a fellow layperson. That was the moment he had decided to give her a chance.
Now, Jade dropped off her acquisitions at the stable… a stable that was becoming a shop. Jade dropped off her acquisitions at the shop, then pushed the wheelbarrow back across the street to the home of Kit and her brother.
“Airk, get the damn DOOR. I’m working on a REALLY DELICATE…” Kit’s voice trailed off, and she smiled when she realized it was Jade poking her head into the open door. “Oh, hey you, uh… you can leave it there. Airk can put it away when he gets home.”
Jade basked in the smell of their home when Kit eased the glasses down from the top of her head again and returned to her work. Kit was working on the binding of an old book. That was when she recognized the smell. Books were everywhere inside this little home. Paper bags, labeled with names and books inside, waited for their owners to come and retrieve them. Glue dried on the backs of Kit’s hands and the tips of her fingers. Drops of the stuff solidified into globs on the table where she worked.
Jade was a bit surprised. She wouldn’t have believed that the gruff Kit worked at such a delicate, soft job.
“Can I help you with something else?” Kit asked without looking up when she realized Jade was still there. “Do you need blankets or anything, if you’re still going to be sleeping in that barn?”
“I’m okay sleeping on the floor of the shop. As I said, I’ve had worse,” Jade continued, “Sorry, I was just watching you work.”
“The staring is distracting,” Kit grumbled, a pink tinge highlighting her cheekbones. Jade wondered if it was a good kind of distracting or a bad kind of distracting. “You aren’t worried about getting jumped or robbed or something worse? Doesn’t your back hurt?”
Jade now had to wonder about Kit’s priorities. Why did she make it sound like back pain was worse than getting mugged?
“I’m pretty handy in a tight spot, Kit,” Jade patted her hip where her sword was safely ensconced in its scabbard, easy to draw, like an extension of her arm. Her back did hurt if she was being honest, but the ground helped with that, she thought. The idea of sleeping on something soft after so long seemed kind of like torture.
Kit finally looked up, likely having to, since Jade didn’t reference what it was she was patting aloud.
“Oh, uhm, yeah. I guess.” Kit replied, her eyes widening, likely noticing the weapon for the first time.
“I am. I promise. I wasn’t always a shopkeep; this is a new venture for me,” Jade smirked, feeling bold. Her skill with a sword was something she could be confident in, and the only proof she needed was that she was still alive after all this time. “Thank you for checking on me, though. It’s very kind. I’d better get back across the road before the light leaves me, goodbye, Ms. Kit.”
Jade didn’t know what to think of the little woman. She chuckled to herself as she walked away. Strange. Strange but beautiful.
Jade’s knees ached to the point it felt like fire. She didn’t know a body could feel that way. If she’d thought her back hurt before, this was something totally different.
The tile didn’t work at first. When she laid them out to see where she wanted them, Jade realized that the ground had to be completely evened out beneath them. She also found out that they wouldn’t fit perfectly. Some of the tiles would have to be cut, and that thought was daunting. Should she try it herself or go and ask the stonemason? He’d already thought she was stupid for this idea. What would he think after this second request?
Jade had pulled out a shovel from the former tack room. She had painstakingly leveled the floor of her shop, including the stall where she slept, carrying her belongings up to the hayloft and recreating her sleeping area there. Climbing up and down would be a pain in the ass, but that pain would be better than sleeping in a mud puddle.
Now, Jade finished the third stall area by lantern-light, using the last of the hard-setting clay mixture that would bind the tiles together into a floor. It already looked really nice, she thought, the soft grey color contrasting with the wood of the walls. She certainly still couldn’t sleep on it, though. She couldn’t risk them moving, and she got the feeling her back really wouldn’t have appreciated that.
Buckets of collected rainwater provided her with a semblance of a bath, and Jade carefully brought the lantern up the ladder to her new hayloft bed, snuffing it before she fell into a deep, dark sleep.
Her hands ached the next morning. They were raw from the burlap sacks she had been tearing to place between the tile and the ground, and from the rough clay mixture she had been using between the pieces of stone. She hadn’t known that they could hurt like this from simple manual labor. The closest comparison Jade could make had been the backsplash of acid that had once burned her arm after a skirmish with a jelly-cube during her younger adventuring days.
She grumbled as she woke the rest of the way up, really wishing she had brought at least a small order of coffee beans with her to make a small cup for herself in the mornings. She could almost smell it already; she craved the stuff so badly. The tea that was more common in these parts simply wouldn’t do for her any longer.
Jade rubbed a cream into her hands and decided to add gloves to her shopping list. Sometimes they could truly be lifesavers. Her digits protested even more as they wrapped around the rungs of the ladder to descend into the shop.
Her stomach growled, smelling food, and Jade realized she was desperately needing to fill her belly before the work she had ahead of her. Even her stubborn ass knew she couldn’t do manual labor without fuel. She’d seen a sweet-looking Elvish bakery in town and wondered if that’s where the smells were coming from. When her boots hit the new floor, she realized that they had narrowly avoided a brown paper bag at the base of the ladder. She smiled with pride at the tile that hadn’t shifted even a bit. Jade loved a job well done more than just about anything.
Delicate pastries filled the bag, smelling of butter and banana in a way that made Jade more aware of her stomach than she had ever been before. Self-control was a strict necessity as she bit into the first one to keep herself from shoveling the food into her stomach.
As an adventurer, Jade had better sense than this. She would have figured out where the food had come from before eating it… or even sniffing it. The small-town life was already softening her up. Jade wasn’t sure if she minded or not. She was also pretty sure she would be paranoid at every single twinge her stomach made for the rest of the day.
The bag was completely nondescript, without a single chalk or ink mark on it, and Jade folded it carefully to stow amongst her items… just in case.
Jade hadn’t met many people since her move into town, and her former party members weren’t the thoughtful types in that way - especially given the manner in which they had parted ways. Kit didn’t seem like the type, and the stonemason certainly hadn’t been the type, given his initial derision. Maybe Airk? Maybe someone she didn’t yet know? Jade was curious to say the least.
Jade ate the treats and returned to her work. The tiles seemed to have all set, and Jade was pleased beyond words with them. She still had the booth's materials to pick up and the wood for the counters, tables, and office areas. It would be a lot of hauling, but what were her shoulders for, if not for carrying heavy things?
Bundles of wood were placed on her shoulder, and she carried them from town to the shop, and repeated the process as many times as were necessary. Jade’s muscles were exhausted, and her shoulders were scraped. She worked and worked. When she arrived back at the shop, she found three waterskins carefully balanced on the last rung of the ladder, giving access to the hayloft where Jade slept. This time, there was a note left on top.
Don’t forget to take care of yourself
-K&A
P.S. Glad you’re sleeping somewhere comfy - Kit
So, it had been the Tanthalos twins. Jade didn’t know why she had been so surprised, or so very pleased by it.
At this point, the work was pushing on into the night again. Jade lit a couple more lanterns and hung them from the rafters, lighting the shop well enough to hold out for a couple more hours at least. Jade at least wanted the wood cut and laid out where it needed to be before she tucked in for the night. She took another rainwater bath before she headed toward her ladder once more, knees still protesting.
“Jade! Come over, have some dinner! Airk will help you make up the work tomorrow. You need your rest.” Kit was absolutely bellowing across the street, probably alerting everyone who lived within a mile in each direction.
Jade didn’t have a choice, and frankly, she didn’t want one. She blew out her lanterns and crossed the street to the Tanthalos home. For the first time in over a decade, Jade wished she had something nicer to wear. She patted down her clothes, as clean as they could be when she lived the way she did at the moment. Jade felt herself blush as she walked in after Kit to the comforting smell of books and food.
Airk was in their small kitchenette, stirring something on the stove as Kit gestured for Jade to sit at the table, which, at least for the moment, was cleared of books. Jade kind of wished it wasn’t.
She would have liked to watch Kit at work again. Jade loved the look of focus Kit had in her eyes. She loved watching those delicate little fingers at work. It had only been a few moments that they had shared this room, but they had followed Jade ever since.
Kit’s eyes glittered in the light cast off by the beeswax candles, and Jade took her seat gratefully, her eyes already feeling heavier. She couldn’t imagine how she might feel once she had whatever was smelling so good in her stomach. Airk seemed happy at his post in the kitchen, and Kit was teasing him gently in the way only siblings could. Jade felt a pang in her heart as she suddenly missed Scorpia deeply. She wouldn’t have been able to guess she would this much.
It was loud in this house, Jade couldn’t help thinking, and a little bit claustrophobic. She had spent so much of her life outdoors. Books lined the walls, candles dotted every surface, and shelves held more books still.
“So what is it you’re building over there?” Kit asked as they settled in, Airk very gently laying the table in front of them both. An odd man, but a sweet one, anyhow.
“Have you ever heard of coffee?” Jade asked, “Or of a cafe? I learned about them while travelling through Gnommish country. They take a bean called coffee, they roast it, and grind it to make a drink. It’s a drink that adds energy to the start of your day, and it’s so… so different from anything I’ve had before. I fell in love with it, saved up the money to do everything I needed. I found the perfect place, and retired on the spot… well, kind of. It was a little more complicated than that. But I am here now, and I am planning to do right by this place.”
“I haven’t, though you make it sound delightful,” Airk said as he portioned out the meal and bread to go with it. “I’ll be one of your very first patrons upon opening, if you’ll allow me.”
“I have no idea how you intend to turn that place into a… coffee shop? Cafe, you said? But I believe that if anyone can, it would be you.” Kit scoffed, “I thought I had gone crazy when I saw you carrying all of those big beams through town, all on your own.”
“One of the best parts of being an adventurer is the muscles and the work ethic you come out of it with,” Jade shrugged the compliment on her strengths off. She didn’t know what to do with the kind words. They weren’t something she had much experience in. She knew she was blushing, but there was nothing she could do about it at this point. Jade was just going to have to give in.
“I’m really grateful to the two of you for looking out for me, I’ve never experienced that before, but don’t worry about me. I got this,” Jade tried to smile with all of the confidence she could muster. She didn’t know what to do with herself. “The coffee should be coming in tomorrow if you’d like to try it. I can make personal sizes but… obviously not enough to open yet.”
Jade really wanted them to take her up on the offer. She would put up the boards for the small office desk in the morning as the beans and kitchenette came in, then show them how she roasted the beans, ground them in her little handgrinder and add the milk. She would need to run out for milk in the morning… and maybe place a standing order. The ice chest was due tomorrow. Everything was coming together. Just the thought made Jade excited to sleep, wake up, and get everything going.
She was smiling as she went to sleep that night.