Dance of the Gods

In the Miles Inn, Suze was currently taking a break since most of the customers had already left. Currently she was reading a novel, from her favorite author.

Suddenly there was some noise in the main room, and the sound of hurried footsteps towards the basement. A bit confused she looked at her watch to see if anyone in particular had arrived, but it was only 5 pm.

'So it's not Alex, he won't be back before dinner... I wonder what the ruckus was...'

With interest she stood up and walked towards the door, but before she could've opened it, James came through with an excited smile.

"What is it?" Asked Suze, at this point she was nearly jumping out of her skin from curiosity. There weren't many things that could excite her husband, so this was definitely something big.

"I think you should go down to the basement and talk with Veronica." That was all he said before moving back to the counter while chuckling.

*Sigh* 'Why did I even expect to get a straight answer...'

With a bit of exasperation Suze went down to the basement. There she looked around the mostly empty room until her eyes landed on one particular table. Veronica was sitting there alone drinking a glass of whiskey, all the while her hands were following a very unique box's patterns.

Immediately she recognized the type of box Veronica was holding, and with hurried steps Suze approached her. Slowly Veronica's eyes met hers and then she proudly smiled.

"I bought an ethereal item... At least I think that's what this is..." She said it so calmly and without worry, like it was normal to go out for a few hours and come back with a mythical item.

With a sigh Suze grabbed herself a drink and sat down into the other seat. She had to gulp down a mouthful before regaining the ability to speak.

"Okay, let me get this straight... We sent you away to have some free time for yourself and gave you 10 gelt, so you could buy a few things you wanted... Just how did you end up buying an item of this rarity?"

Her mind just couldn't fathom how could something like this happen. Unlike Suze, Veronica had no actual sense of uniqueness to these kinds of items yet. What was even more mindboggling is the fact that she bought it with only 10 gelt, which meant she probably bought it for at least ten percent of its market value!

*Chuckle* "Don't look so surprised..." *sigh* "I just got lucky. I went into a watch store to buy a pocket watch, and the store owner happened to have this with the box. He said someone gave it to him for free. Anyway he had no clue of its worth, and I bought it from him for 2 gelt..."

Suze's mouth was hanging open while listening to this tale. Giving away a rare item like this for free raised some red flags in her mind. As a seller of these kinds of items, she knew that even the most dangerous ones had uses. So getting it for two percent of its market value was something truly unheard of!...

She was just speechless, but also curious and motioned Veronica to open the box. Without question she done it and Suze's breath got caught in her throat again. The small pink pocket watch was truly special.

How the rose design ran through it, and how the light hit it from different angles, it was simply magnificent. Cautiously she reached out her hand and looked at it from closer, but when she opened it Suze was a bit disappointed.

"Uh, Veronica? Why isn't it working?" Her question was serious, but Veronica just laughed at it. She reached out with an open palm, in which Suze placed the watch.

As her eyes stared at the watch face, it began moving. What was even more surprising is that it realigned itself to the current time!

"It only does it when I hold it..." *chuckle* "The shopkeeper was terrified when he saw it move because of me. Anyway, I just want to know if it's safe for me to use it or not... I really need a watch..."

Suze raised an eyebrow and nearly burst out laughing. 'Of course she just happens to find an ethereal item and the only thing she wants to use it for is telling the time! Why do I even bother...'

"Yes, but we will have to wait for Alex to get back. And that will be only after dinner, so I suggest putting it away until we know what it actually does... I highly doubt that it's only purpose is telling the time..."

They both laughed a bit, then put the boxed watch into the safe. Since Veronica still had some free time until dinner she decided to spend it by learning more ancient rener.

She was about one fifth of the way through the book, and she felt her knowledge increase the more she read. In the back of her mind the words connected perfectly, and without her noticing she was slowly learning the grammar of the mysterious language as well.

The time went by quickly, and soon she found herself at the dining table eating a very tasty shepherd's pie... Or at least that's what it resembled. After eating her full she helped with the clean up process.

When she was done, Alex still hadn't arrived yet, so she just sat back down to the dining table where little Jamie was doing his math homework. He was currently trying to learn division.

'Strange, they place less importance to sciences in the Free Cities. Their education is more focused on humans, and most importantly their laws... Hmm, he seems to be struggling with it, I could try and help him...'

Veronica plastered her kindest and warmest smile on her face, then turned to Jamie and asked.

"Would you like my help with your homework? I'm quite good at math!" As he looked up his eyes brightened a bit, but he was also a bit embarrassed. With a bit of blush on his face he answered in a small voice.

"O-only if you want to..."

She just smiled and sat down next to him. The first question was forty-eight divided by six.

'Okay, how do these people learn division again?... Weird I can't seem to remember... Whatever I just use how I learnt it back on Earth!'

"Okay, so you take the first number of 48, which is 40 and see how many times 6 is the closest number to 40. This is easy to determine if you know the time table. So, what is the closest number that's still below it?"

Jamie thought for a bit, and Veronica let him. Eventually he said in a very quiet voice. "Thirty-six?"

"Correct! Great job! So what we do next is substract the 36 from the 40. Which gives us?" It took much less time for Jamie to came up with the answer. "Four!"

"Yes! Amazing! So next you write down 4 below the 40 and write 6 next to it. We are already halfway done! We just have to do the same with the 8. So, how many 6's can you fit in 8 and what's left when you subtract it?"

Veronica asked two questions to see if he understood it or not, but he just had to look at the pervious method once and immediately came up with an answer. "The 8 can only fit one 6 and 2 is what's left."

"Exactly! Now we only have to put these numbers together to find the actual answer. First these leftovers make another six, which is divided by itself gives us another 1. And if you add 1 plus 1 plus 6 together what do you get?"

He slowly wrote down the numbers, then said the answer near instantly. "We get 8!"

"Perfect! And that is the answer! It might seem like a lot of writing at first, but as you learn to use it, most of the steps will be done inside that big mind of yours!" As she finished Veronica poke his head playfully, which brought a cute little laugh out of Jamie.

"Okay, let's see if you can do the next one alone!" His smile disappeared and pure determination took it's place. Veronica had to cover her face not to burst out laughing, because of how serious he took this task.

While Veronica was trying to teach Jamie. From the doorway Suze and James watched the two of them with small proud smiles. They didn't know when it happened, but at this point Veronica was like an adopted daughter to them.

It was a bit strange since she had arrived only a week ago, but her whole personality and kindness made them like her near instantly. They moved back out of the kitchen and sat down at one of the tables. The main room was currently fully empty, so they could be alone.

Neither of them said anything, they just held each other's hand, and enjoyed their presence. After Jamie was born they decided that three children was enough, but that didn't mean they wouldn't accept Veronica as their own.

While they were sitting in the comfortable silence the main entrance opened and Alex walked inside. When he saw to two of them and their weird behavior, he raised an eyebrow.

"What did I miss?" He asked, and the pair burst out laughing. It took them a minute to calm down and answer his question.

"Ah, it's nothing. Just our good friend Veronica, happened to go out on her free time, and came back with an ethereal item, which she bought for 2 gelt."

Alex just stood there for a good while, trying to process what she said. Then he went towards the bar while murmuring, "I need a drink..."