The Heart is a Void: Ashes to Ashes

Chapter 132: Revel in Earth and Fire (The Feast)

The group were firmly divided on the bear meat, with half grimacing in disgust and the other half eating it contentedly.

"Honestly, I preferred the grasshoppers," Gastlem sighed.

"It's alright," DicingDevil replied, "there'll be some beef on the way, I'll have the bear if it's too much for you."

"Beef, huh?" Akshel said. "Fancy."

"Yeah, OudNasser managed to find a spot in Kruxol where you could kill cattle without the guards noticing. Sort of a blind spot. It's only possible by sneaking through a few walls, to find an exact spot where the guards won't notice you, but he's mapped out the co-ordinates. So we've been able to fetch a few of them, and Darys is using them to test out a few basic local herbs from the game."

"Really, he managed to filch the cows? Heck, I'm going to have to try a bit of that now. Way cool. But this bear is great, honestly, some of y'all are just soft."

"Excuse me, I am used to ze French cuisine, it is very refined, you are just savages," Gastlem replied, playing up his French accent for laughs. "Anyway, I'll take the beef, wonder what these herbs will be like."

"I'm told that the first one turned out a bit like oregano, but a lot stronger," DicingDevil said. "Quite earthy, though, should be good."

"What did you do with that grasshopper, by the way?" Akshel asked. "Thing was really hot, I spaced out for a bit after eating it."

DicingDevil laughed. "That's the capsaicin crystals I mentioned. I placed them in -"

"Oh, yeah, obviously."

"I placed them into glycerine briefly, then diluted them slightly with that thick, transparent sauce which is common here, the one that tastes like mayonnaise or brie or something. I used a few local [Calcifari Herb] to remove the sauce's taste, which basically just leaves the spice."

"There's herbs which remove the taste of food? Maybe give some to Gastlem, since he can't stand the bear not being mild," Crucis quipped.

"Excuse me, as I said, I am just a pure connoisseur, I only feed on escargot and caviar," Gastlem replied, shrugging.

"Nah, Crucis is right," Akshel said. "Sadly, Calci probably won't work on meat, so I guess our pet frog Gastlem's stuck. Anyway, can I try out some of the spice, Dicing? The bear is pretty interesting, but maybe kinda dry."

DicingDevil gave him a few small drops of a transparent, whitely misted liquid, and told him to try it before asking for more. After taking a bite, Akshel briefly recoiled, and seemed to be gasping for air.

"Now that was something," he said, playing down his reaction slightly. "Really like it, though, ta."

The bear meat was stubborn, and had a slightly metallic flavour around the edges that made eating it an ordeal at first. However, it quickly mellowed to reveal an earthy, pronounced flavour, with an occasionally grassy texture. While it was occasionally stringy and had a strange mixture of flavours, which sometimes contrasted awkwardly, Crucis found it a fairly filling meal after a long day. He added a couple of drops of spice, and the intense spice stood out firmly in contrast to the earthy meat, making up for the slightly uneven flavour.

"Whew, this stuff's awful. I love it," Danemy said enigmatically.

"You've barely eaten since before the war, right?" asked Grisier, who was switching back and forth between this group and the central table. "Long day, I'm sure you'd eat anything. I wish the game let you take frog meat, I would have some to loan you, you'd probably like it."

"Sounds swampy, but could be a decent snack," Akshel said.

"Even better, we could see if we get anything edible from the giant frog in the Northern Swamps," Crucis said. "Reckon you're up for it, Akshel?"

"Bro, you daring me to eat a Froglord? The heck do you think I am, He-Man? I mean, yes, obviously."

"Great, we'll hold you to that. Or you could just eat Gastlem, I guess. So, what are the plans for tomorrow? Dicing?"

After taking a couple of seconds to recall, DicingDevil replied, "We'll meet up with you and Starfighter just after noon, same place as last time. Come with Akshel, you guys will be safer in a group. The smaller group who were accompanying us have a few people out with injuries after the war, and one or two careless ones dead, so we'll see if they turn up. We'll be doing the same dungeons, I think, also looking up North for the Froglord and stuff. Probably not as intense as today, but should still put us through our paces. Should be good growth. I'll be helping Danemy through his dungeons later, but you don't have to come if you don't want to. Vladimir and Konstantin could help us out with that, though, I think Dan's normal group are out of action."

"I don't mind coming as well. We can figure it out later."

"Sure. We'll finalise things tomorrow - well, it's just about past midnight, but still - based on how many of our guys turn up."

"By the way, where did you get the capsaicin?"

"Oh, yeah, that. I did say I'd tell you guys. Alright, listen up." As DicingDevil spoke, Akshel and Danemy turned attentively towards him. "There's a temporary shop which appeared just earlier today, it's this small-ish stall to the North-West of Kruxol. I think it lasts for about three days. It offers a bunch of raw flavourful stuff, like capsaicin crystals or MSG, even some powdered citric acid which the stall owner says is very sour. Since the food in Kruxol is pretty dry, it's really useful. I can show you guys the position on a map, alright?"

"Yeah, go ahead," Akshel said. "I've eaten so many rabbits now that it's a habit I can't stop, but this would liven it up at least."

DicingDevil sighed, while drawing out his map. "I swear, you guys would go to a restaurant in Italy or France and complain because they don't have grasshopper on the menu. But yeah, sure. It's right here, hidden in a small niche between the backs of two buildings."

He marked a spot to the South-West of Kruxol, just North of the storage cabinets, and Crucis saw that it could only be reached by walking around Kruxol through the Southern woods and then turning back to weave around some large buildings on the border until the stall appeared. The group of buildings blocked it off from the rest of Kruxol.

"Alright, I'll be checking that out," Akshel said. "What times is it open?"

"Um, not entirely sure," DicingDevil said. "Maybe something like the Mount store? It's available quite late, but I think it closes during the morning until around 9am. I guess you could check in the late morning, then?"

"Sounds great," Danemy added.

"Yeah, definitely. Plus Gastlem's probably going to get people planting a few decent herbs and vegetables around here, since DeathGang territory will probably have more than enough space post-expansion, right?" Crucis said, turning to Gastlem.

"Of course. As if Darys would give me a choice," Gastlem grinned. "Anyway, the beef is coming around, so I'll give you guys most of the bear."

He took a small cut of the bear for himself, causing Akshel to raise an eyebrow, but passed the rest to DicingDevil, who split off some for Crucis, Danemy and Akshel as well.

Crucis guessed that Gastlem did find the bear's taste off-putting and unfamiliar, but enjoyed the novelty of its taste enough to have some more of it.

Soon, the herb-enhanced beef came around, glimmering with a grassy, green-grey sheen from the phalanx of herbs drizzled across its surface. This time, the whole group enjoyed it quite, and Crucis found that its earthy, intense flavour melded well with the bear as he alternated between them.

"Well, these herbs definitely worked," DicingDevil said to nods.

"Yep. It also complements the bear meat well, I'm sure it would work well with the wild, grassy meat you guys are used to," Crucis said.

"Oh, yeah, that makes sense," DicingDevil said. He had been saving the rest of his bear meat for later, but now tried having both at once. "Good call, yep. Hey, Gastlem, you want some of your bear meat back? Worth trying them together."

"You know what... OK," Gastlem replied. After trying it, he said, "Huh, the bear meat tastes more reasonable with something stable beside it. Tell you what I'd like, though, why not deer meat with this? Now that would be great."

"Sadly, not much deer meat around here," DicingDevil said. "I hear there's some elk to the North, maybe you could tempt some of those here? Also a few of those in the forests above Mokra, I saw one run away while we were there."

"Good idea, actually. It'll be an effort, though, we'd need their population to stabilise without over-hunting. If we can get them close enough, then they'll be a great resource, and maybe we'll find other uses for them as well."

"Hopefully you can get your members to toe the line," Crucis said. "There's plenty of reasons to over-hunt people, since they can actively be stupid and then oppose you on an ideological level, but elk are just animals and will do whatever elk would do. No need to hunt them out of spite. Hopefully, after the war, people will calm down on your territory a bit and start to focus on sensible expansion."

"Wish we had you in our Guild. But I guess we don't know when that will even be a choice. Darys agrees that we need to hold people back a bit, he says that a few of them are getting too enthusiastic about skirmishes with the Hashin and are trying to provoke more fights with those guys. The last thing we need is the Hashin on our back."

"I'm sure the Hashin don't feel like any extensive operations here, they'd rather go West for rewards. So hopefully you can come to an agreement for the moment."

"We've tried, but the Hashin's leadership situation makes that complicated," DicingDevil said.

"Ah, yeah, Darys had touched on that in the speech earlier. I thought he handled it really well."

"Come to think of it, yeah, he did. He's a cunning one. Still, at least the official Hashin leader isn't combative towards us. Guy's mysterious, though, not many people seem to know him well. But he's still keeping up with the top players, so he must know what he's doing."

"Really? Is it even possible to be that high without being a whale?" Akshel said.

"I don't think Drifter is a whale? But you're right, that's probably not physically possible at this point. I don't know, maybe they are hackers after all," DicingDevil smiled.

"Everyone thinks he is... so that's probably not it. But I don't know that he's a whale, either, I'm pretty sure that a whale who put in as much effort and knew the game as well would be even larger. It's weird."

"Who, Drifter? Yeah, I hear that most players to the West think of him as this shadowy, utterly malign Evil Emperor, though whales view him as an upstart trying to disrupt the game." Grisier said. "Nobody really seems to know what to make of him."

"So the rank-and-file view him differently from their leaders? Interesting," Crucis said. "That might lead to some sort of populism sprouting up there, because most people are alienated from their leaders' view of the situation. It will feel like their struggles are being overlooked by the leaders. They'll become radical, but not really out of opposition to their leaders, more out of disaffection."

"Many such cases," DicingDevil said. "Yeah, it does sound like it would be ripe for populism. But won't that divide the Guilds? Even the ordinary members will be trying to stand out and pick fights, but that won't go well for them."

"Yes. It could make it difficult for the leaders to co-ordinate everything. One part of the Guild will drop away from the rest. Some level of anarchy will leave people even more vulnerable to the Hashin."

"Indeed. Most Guilds are only held together by custom, so they're not that stable. Upset the established order, and everything becomes chaos."

A few more courses were carried around the room, mostly smaller, including a meatball made with rabbit head meat and containing a rabbit eye embedded in the centre, and some local seeds coated in a leaf. DicingDevil insisted on adding spice to the last of these, which hence seemed to explode with spice and flavour on eating. Finally, small pots filled with pieces of bread that were baked in sugar, milk, and cinnamon were passed around as a cursory dessert.

"Honestly, that rabbit eye back then took me by surprise," Danemy said, as he finished the dessert. "Quite watery."

"Yeah, but it's nutritious," DicingDevil replied circumspectly.

"You guys weren't already eating rabbit eye?" Akshel said. "Come on, you shouldn't let precious rabbits go to waste. Their eyes are so cute, would be a shame to waste them."

"Good point," Danemy replied.

"We should all try working on our Fishing skills," Gastlem said, taking a note on a piece of paper. "We didn't have much fish here, only the small cod dish with cheese in it, I hear that there's a few perch and pike spots to the North. Once we've got a hang of it, we should be able to get some decent catches."

"Sure, but I think most of those fish are on NPC property," DicingDevil said. "So it would count as poaching, we'd have to figure out how to do it quickly enough not to be caught."

"It should be possible," Crucis said, "I heard that some groups of Keydons and Hashin were practically pescatarian."

The Keydons were members of [Keyd], another nomadic ganking Guild like the Hashin, but were more prominent towards the Northern starting towns. They weren't as large or aggressive as the Hashin, but still had a fairly dubious reputation. It was unlikely to encounter them here, since they were concentrated towards the North.

"That's true. I'm sure there'll be some poachers towards the swamps, apparently a few of them hide there because it's quite sparse." DicingDevil turned towards Darys' central table. "Anyway, Darys summoned me over for a chat, so I'll leave you guys now. You can have a look around the festivities outside."

The group waved as he left, then each unhurriedly left the building.

Exiting the hall, Crucis saw a few DeathGang members crowded around watching an energetic re-enactment of the war. The play fighters used the low verandah of a nearby building as their stage, and exchanged elaborate, telegraphed sword and spear strikes, with every loud clash of weapons played up theatrically. Each short sequence of fighting was followed by a pause, with the players posing in place to dramatise the result of the previous exchange of blows. There were currently six players fighting: three wearing white to signify the opposition, and three wearing black to signify DeathGang.

Although the DeathGang side was initially pegged back, they soon began to press forwards until the opponents were nearly on the edge of the verandah. Soon, their swords began to hover forward in a series of harsh strikes towards their enemies, who leaned backwards in an attempt to fend them off. After about fifteen seconds of this, the DeathGang side managed to work their way past the opponents' defence, and gave a series of thrusts and cuts which downed their enemies. While these stopped short of doing actual damage, the other side played them up by freezing for a few moments and then falling to the ground.

One player in white even vaulted dramatically off the verandah, landing cleanly on the ground.

There was applause, and the players gathered together to discuss the next scene they were performing.

"Quite some showboating there," Danemy said light-heartedly.

"Yeah, but it's good theatre," Grisier replied.

"Sure. Honestly, the fighting isn't really true-to-life, but I guess they're at least slowing it down to make that obvious. Fair does."

"Hey, they're showing our fights on that stage!" Akshel said, turning to Crucis. "I think we just missed the one with Byron. Let's go!"

Looking over towards the stage where Darys had given his speech, Crucis saw another re-enactment, this time of the death of Arkyle. He walked over to watch, following Akshel. A dramatic fight was playing out, with this 'Arkyle' roving around the stage like a giant, his firm strikes sending his combatants flying back. Although several of his opponents fell to the ground, one managed to get a final stab in.

The figure playing Arkyle collapsed to the ground as if dead, so convincingly that the crowd worried that the player might have actually fainted or worse. Once the scene was completed, some of his fellow actors had to check to make sure he was alright.

The crowd, bemused, began applauding for the convincing death scene after confirming that all of the actors were alright.

Akshel turned to Crucis, and shouted, "Good show!" while giving a firm high-five.

"You must have really done a number on that Arkyle, based on that fall," Akshel joked. "Ugh, I'm feeling really tired, I should probably get some sleep. See ya soon."

"See ya," Crucis replied.

While the DeathGang performers and their audience seemed to be enjoying themselves, most had probably had more rest than Crucis today. He felt his eyes closing slightly, and some of the wounds from the war had begun aching again.

Making his way slowly back to the inn, he saw a lively array of DeathGang members performing, giving speeches, and fire-dancing to celebrate the occasion. While it would be nice to stick around, he needed to get some rest before tomorrow.

He checked into his room in the inn, and dropped to the bed, falling asleep quickly.