Listening to Jovis was an education. Once the old man realized that Caius was paying real attention, the words spilled out like a dam burst. First the story of how things had changed, then details about decades of work with herbs.

  Caius strongly suspected Jovis was a genius. A genius who had the misfortune to be born in an era without safe travel or reliable communication, cut off from others that could have fed his keen mind. Over the years, Jovis had apparently developed some primordial form of the scientific method.

  Eventually they both got tired and hungry, it was midafternoon by that point, and they parted. Instead of the basic lesson Caius had originally planned to ask for, he was walking away with a copy of Jovis' notes on the tea and relevant herbs.

  Apparently, Jovis believed strongly that clay tablets were the only reliable way to store information long-term. Clay tablets were surprisingly easy to make copies of. Press one into some wax, let the wax cool and now you had a wax stamp you could press onto something.

  The process wasn't perfect, you needed to touch up the final product to make sure all the characters were legible. But Jovis already had a set lying around, and Caius was more than happy to take it off the old man's hands.

  Reading the language was apparently a package deal with speaking it, since Caius could decipher it with an acceptable amount of squinting and tilting the leather back and forth. There wasn't as much contrast between the thin, scraped leather's brown and the almost-black ink as he would have preferred.

  Idunnir, bless the woman, had saved him some of the communal lunch. "From the way you and old Jovis were talking, I thought you might need it." was her only explanation.

  Come to think of it, this was the second time she had directly assisted his plans that day. His plans that revolved around making her an offer to continue traveling together. Ideally, that would be her giving tacit approval. But he'd given up assuming important things based on his guesswork about others, so he carried on.

  After asking her permission, he inventoried the contents of... the bundle that now belonged to her alone. It was a bit of a pain, whatever he had done to the thing to lighten it had worn off like the formerly magic blanket.

  When crossed the room to check the basket he kept his own things in, its enchantment seemed to be holding strong. Another data point for figuring out what was going on with his power.

  Back to doing the inventory.

  Marcus had clearly been good at his job. All his wares were packed thoroughly and labeled clearly. The supplies for Idunnir's tea were packed separately. Surveying the amounts, the news was both better and worse than Caius had hoped. Two of the ingredients were starting to run short, but not critically so.

  Caius estimated, very crudely, that they had between two and three weeks to find more of those ingredients. He really had to look up which ones they were in Jovis' notes later. Speaking of notes, he was delighted to find some of Marcus'.

  Written on thick paper and carefully protected by a special leather case that Caius guessed had been waxed or something to keep water out, the notes detailed some of the people Marcus did business with. And a few notes on the deals they had struck.

  Feeling that he had enough data, all that was left was to really, really think about what he was planning to do. He made Idunnir's tea, not including any Request this time, and delivered half to her. The other half he saved for later, like he had seen Marcus do.

  Over the years, Caius had developed a fear of commitment. Very specifically, committing to do things. Circumstance had done some of the work, and the rest was depression. All the most miserable experiences in his life were times he had promised to do things, then lost all motivation.

  That fear was present now. So was the depression, even if it was being held at bay by the excitement and wonder of a new world and new people.

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  What he needed was a walk. Those always helped him think. And his feet were feeling mostly better after the trials of the day before.

  Indeed, after walking a few laps around the town he felt like everything was in perspective. Dinnertime was still an hour or two away, and when he went to find Idunnir she wasn't too busy. In fact she seemed to be expecting him.

  Well, he had been making no attempt to hide what he was up to. Not that he was very good at subtlety even when he put his mind to it.

  "Idunnir, can we talk?"

  She looked him up and down, considered for a moment and then rose to follow him as he led the way.

  He'd borrowed two sturdy wooden chairs and set them up against a wall where the sun would shine on them, but not directly into their faces. Perfect for having a talk, in his opinion. Sure, sitting across the table from Jovis had been fine, but micromanaging how much eye contact to make got really exhausting after a while.

  He also remembered to give her the other half of her tea, which she sipped at slowly.

  Since he had asked for this conversation, he started talking first once they got settled. "Frida seems like a smart woman. I assume she's made an offer for you to stay here?"

  Idunnir nodded. "I haven't said yes, I was waiting to see what you have planned."

  Caius chuckled. "Calling it a plan is generous. But I feel like I know enough to make an informed decision."

  She waited patiently for him to continue, so he did. "I'd like to hear more about your condition some other time. For now its enough to know more or less what to do about it." Realizing that he was stalling, he steeled himself and got to the point. "I don't want to stay in this town for very long. There's a whole world out there, not to mention whatever is going on with those zombies."

  Actually he had to use the English word for "zombies" since whatever the language here was called didn't have a word for them.

  "I want you to come with me."

  There was a bit of a silence, but a comfortable one, as she considered his words. She must have had some idea of what he planned to say, but she gave it thorough consideration. "Why would you want me to come with you? Yes I'm decent in a fight but I'm expensive to keep alive and don't have many other skills."

  Caius strongly suspected she was better than decent in combat, but that wasn't the real question. "Because of how kind you've been to me all day. You didn't need to be, but you were." He turned and made unflinching eye contact, trying to project what he was feeling. Come to think of it, this was the first time he had really looked at her in proper lighting.

  Her lips were tinted dark blue, and in retrospect he felt like an idiot for not noticing it earlier. Actually her teeth were also tinted blue, as were her sclera. Obviously something to do with the MAGICAL BLUE TEA. He really was a dumbass for not putting that together, especially with that embarrassing bath he'd given her.

  She was actually the one to look away first. "I'm dying, and the only thing keeping me alive makes me die faster." Pulling off a glove, she showed him her fingernails and how it was tinted blue under those as well. "Once it gets your lips, you're never the same. When it reaches your fingernails, you can't live without it. As far as I know, nobody has managed to survive this long."

  Well, since they were apparently talking about their fatal flaws... he decided to open up as well.

  "I'm broken in the head." Realizing that, obviously, the language had no words for neurodivergence or neurodevelopmental disorders, he had to improvise. "The way I think is different and some things just don't work right. It can't be fixed and, without help, I can't really function."

  That got her attention. "You seem fine so far, if a bit different."

  "This is the best I've been in eight years. It's not going to last, I can feel it. And it... it terrifies me..." His voice cracked embarrassingly there at the end.

  Idunnir let out a black little chuckle and bent over as far as her breastplate allowed, clutching her stomach like it had cramped. "Well, you clearly like to lay everything out before you start. Want to know how Marcus and I joined up?"

  Something about that laugh made Caius feel... understood. "Sure."

  "I was desperately needing tea that day, but couldn't afford any more. Marcus stumbled into town, he'd been kicked out of a merchant caravan for doing his own trading on the side. He took one look at me, paid for a room at the inn, then used the fireplace in the common room to make me some tea and gave it to me."

  "I drank it down. It was still hot, I burned my mouth pretty badly. Then I dragged him up to his room and..." She was clearly about to use some crass language but caught herself with a glance at Caius. "Spent the night with him. We didn't even introduce ourselves until the next morning."

  Caius shuddered at the thought. People really did act in ways he couldn't comprehend, though he didn't judge them for it. He was usually the strange one. "I would really prefer to lay things out first."

  That earned him a much more lighthearted chuckle. Idunnir listened as he provided some more details about what they had available and what he suggested they do about it.

  "I'm with you." was all she said as she clapped him on the shoulder.

  With that, the future seemed a bit more certain. Caius returned the chairs and they made it back just in time for dinner with the rest of the fort.