The next afternoon, the boy Dumuzi found me to give me my adjusted suit of armor. It took him about three trips to complete the delivery of my pte harness. As it was my first time equipping a full set of pte mail, I had no idea how to put the thing on. Smiling beatifically, Cordelia volunteered to show me how to put on various pieces.

  I could see why a squire would have been useful for the medieval knight. It was awkward to put on a full set of armor by myself, but with a little fiddling around with the leather straps, quite possible. The trick was remembering the correct order, and leaving some parts semi-attached, and some knots at half-done to facilitate the whole process. She had Larynda watch, expining to the girl as if the child was her squire, the differences between her armor and mine. I found being dressed by two girls a tad embarrassing.

  Walking around in my steel pte gave me a certain feeling of invulnerability. Yes, it was a little cumbersome to move about in, but not quite as much as I had imagined it would be. My range of movement was more limited, but this was a fair price to pay for the extra protection that the armor provided. Also, truth be told, I felt rather dashing in the thing.

  Feeling rather motivated by my new equipment, I practiced running in my suit of steel after the evening meal. My companions thought I was insane. God-touched, they said. And God-touched I am, but not quite in the way that you mean, I thought to myself.

  They expected me to soon tire, but they would be proven wrong. After my tenth p around the big camp, weapon and shield in hand, I was barely out of breath. Admittedly, I was not wearing my helm, which allowed me to shed a bit more heat and draw in a bit more air, but I believed it was impressive nonetheless. This was the benefit of putting the majority of my bonus points into my Constitution attribute. My Health and Stamina had basically grown through the roof. I kept running, occasionally taking a swig from the water fsk at my side. Still, I ran on, and this continued until people stopped their business for the evening to watch the loon who was running ps around the camp in full armor.

  You have learned Endure (lvl.4)

  Drenched in sweat, I smiled as I took in the notice, savoring my success. I guess I finally had an answer for what the Endure skill did. It helped me endure. So I kept on running, picking up my pace as some of the children joined me, thinking it was some sort of event. Ten minutes ter, as I jumped over a waist-high barrel for sport, much to the delight of the children in my wake, I was given yet another notice.

  You have gained 1 Constitution.

  You have learned Heavy Armor (lvl.5)

  Oh well. There went the nice round number of forty for my Constitution - not that I was really compining. It was perhaps a good time to stop, anyway. My Stamina was around twenty percent and I could do with a quick break. As fate would have it, a few minutes ter I was pulled aside by Kham.

  "Best save a little for ter, d. You're on the middle watch," Kham half-ordered in a gruff voice, with a little more respect in his eyes. "I've heard stories of the legions of the Old Empire running for miles all day in full gear, and your little performance gives some truth to those tales. But it's best if you don't draw more attention to yourself."

  Without any words to refute him, I had no choice but to comply and save my energy for ter. I took a pce next to the fire where my companions and friends sat. Larynda looked at me in rapt awe, Kidu looked proud, Cordelia murmured a prayer, and even Elwin gave me a respectful nod free of his usual cynicism.

  As the evening continued, stories and tales were exchanged. Kidu’s tales of the icy North were, as always, as grim as the nd they came from, and very short. For the most part they were usually about this somebody killing this somebody over some sort of perceived slight. There was little drama and excitement that could fit into a ‘story’ only a few sentences long, and no amount of prompting could get him to expand upon them or give more detail.

  Cordelia’s stories were a little more in line with a bible recitation of the old testament. She went on about how Avaria judged so and so, and how so and so got his or her just desserts. Despite her questionable material, her delivery was near-perfect as she could truly draw you in. It was more than simple recitation. Her belief and faith in her words were hypnotic and infectious, the mark of a great proselytizer.

  Elwin’s tales consisted mainly of well-known ribald stories, sometimes mixed in with accounts of his own life. “And could not wait to taste the sweetness of her creamy pte,” was one of his more-memorable moments from his recitation of the ‘Milkmaid and the Lord’. This caused Cordelia to stiffen and blush, and cover Larynda’s ears with her hands. Dumuzi asked his mother what exactly the line meant, causing her to stutter, but Elwin promised to tell him when he was a bit older.

  For the first time in a long while, I felt content.