Fading Suns: A New World

by David Silver

70 - Friendly Meetings

Maar let out a soft grunt, too tired to make it a proper belch. "Are we done yet?"

"I'm afraid not." Laud looked up from the book he had been reading. "To administer medical aid is no simple task."

"A boring task, yes. Simple, no." She crossed her arms and leaned back on her chair. "Why would anyone bother with this?"

"Because you want to help your leige, Dragon Lord Ember."

"Oh yeah..." She sat back up with a little nod. "Alright, for her, I guess... Speaking of that, what are things friends do? She threatened me with doing friend things when she was feeling better." Before Laud could answer, she kept on talking, "I meant to ask Spike, but I forgot, and then he was gone."

Spike had made good his escape, rather than assist in the medical lessons. Laud inclined his head. "It means doing things that both people find fun or engaging to do. Sometimes this interest may veer more towards one or the other, but the best times are when the activity interests both friends."

"Oh, huh." She stroked her chin a little. "So if we enjoyed some lava skies together, that's friend stuff, or we compared our best gems?"

Laud was uncertain he wanted to know about lava skies. "Yes, precisely. Shall we continue?" He resumed the next lesson, dedicating to making the world's first draconic medical professional.

---

"Good Morning," greeted a strange male voice.

Ember was awake instantly, sitting up with a grunt to see one of those strange creatures. "You!" She glanced beyond Gregor, seeing no others. "Just one of you? You must be pretty confident."

Gregor brought his hands together, fingertips meeting first. "I come bearing no ill-will, of this I assure. My deepest of apologies for the harm that befell you. By the grace of the pancreator, I would like to sooth that pain."

Ember hiked a brow at that, throwing her legs over the side of the bed to sit more properly. "Who are you, let's start there."

"I am Father Gregor, a man of faith, here to correct a mistake. My people dealt you an unjust blow." He dipped his head towards her. "I would like to undo some of that damage."

Ember smirked a little viciously. "Yeah, sure, we dealt you a few blows too." As tragic as the loss of four dragons was, she was certain they had gotten more than that in that intense little battle. "Not planning revenge?"

"It is we who intruded on your land, though not intentionally. We should have approached in peace, but they did not, and the price was paid. I pray for their souls, but would not recommend vengeance."

She slowly stood up, not wanting to be any more below the strange male than she had to be. "You talk a little strangely. Well, fine, Gregor was it? What do you want to do?"

"I will tend to your wounds, if you allow it. I am also to speak of reparations. We were in the wrong, and we will not be known to leave such things standing." Of course, were it a more secured world, the church could attack someone and get away with it entirely, but this was far from a major world, where such things could be cleanly swept away. "I would wish to see to your wounds first. Every moment of pain is a sin of our doing."

"More funny words." She hiked a brow. "We can start with 'sin'? After that, I'm already bandaged up. I'll get better, just takes, you know, time and stuff." She shrugged emphatically. "Appreciate the thought, but there isn't much more to it."

"A simple matter." He sank, sitting on a wide-bottomed chair that ponies preferred. He perched on the edge rather than fall into it. "A sin is wrongful act. If I were to steal that." He nodded towards her scepter. "That would be a sin. To have hurt your people, also a sin. They injure the soul."

"Yeah, alright..." She figured she understood it well enough. "So you done messed up and you want to make nice, sure, I can... get that." She quietly pushed the humans closer to ponies on the scale of badassitude. "So how do you plan to do that?"

He drew a small book from his loose clothing. "I will say a prayer and, god willing, I will lay my hands on you, bidding the injuries to depart your undeserving body to trouble you no further."

"You have healing magic? Get out!" Her suspicion turned to interest. "Even ponies don't have that, and they claim to be the masters of magic around here. Hit me up with some of that so I can get back to work and ditch this place." She felt quite ready to not laze around in a bed a moment longer if she could avoid it.

Gregor rose to his feet with a jovial expression. "Fantastic." He had expected more resistance, but saw no reason to question the good turn of fortune. "Now, either lie down or stand still as I read the prayer. It's usually easier to lie down."

"I'm not that hurt," she huffed, crossing her arms and remaining standing. "Besides, soon I won't be hurt at all."

And the prayer began, reading of the words of Amalthea, the patron saint of healing and bidding just a small fraction of their divine power could be seen once again. He drew a small bottle clearly labeled in Urthish to be holy water and gently dabbed it onto his fingers to then apply with feather touches to where the injuries were worst.

"I can feel it," reported Ember with a grin, casually ignoring the religious facets of the ritual. "You're good at this." She suddenly snatched her scepter from where it had been resting. "I'm ready to get out of here, but first." She swung the scepter around to point at Gregor. "You promised to make up for being a bunch of jerks."

He had not been able to fully complete the ritual, but she was clearly feeling good enough with what had been done, so he didn't press the matter. "We are prepared to deliver reparations. A modest sum of coins, to show our sincerity, and I will continue administering to any of your people still present." He tucked away the book and the bottle, to instead draw a jingling pouch.

Ember snatched the bag and pulled the top open to peer inside. "Huh, phoenix?" She pulled one coin out and flipped it over. "And one of you. Cheeky... What's it good for? Pretty sure none of the ponies want it."

He gestured towards the bag she held. "Those coins are accepted across the universe. Wherever you would find us, you can purchase things. Perhaps things beyond even your imagination."

"Yeah..." She hiked a brow, looking thoughtful. "Yeah... I'll keep it then. You do that magic thing." She waved a hand around vaguely. "Get all the other dragons out of here and we'll chalk the whole thing up to a damn lesson on both sides."

"An appropriate statement... It was perhaps a damning lesson." He dipped his head and turned for the exit. "Shall we leave together?"

"That sounds like a great idea." She marched with him out of the room, her aches down to a mild soreness that she could ignore safely. "Hey, where do we spend these coins of yours?"

"There is a landing pad close by. I can show it to you. That is where my people and others will land, ready to trade for those coins."

"Get out." Ember frowned a little. "Figures the ponies got that hook up before anyone else even had a clue about it..."

---

"Hey!" shouted Ember into the castle. "Where are all of you hiding?"

"Ember!" Maar came rushing into the area on rapid wings. "You're walking?!"

"Blame the humans." She hiked a thumb. "What have you been up to? Did those idiots get started on the hospital?"

"They flew off to do that," reported Maar, gesturing back at Laud who was just arriving. "He was showing me how to be a nurse. Did you know nurses have to read, a lot?"

"You've been reading?" asked Ember with a doubtful expression. "Oh, hey, you're... the one that's hitched to Twilight, right?"

"Princess Twilight Sparkle, yes." He looked over the small form of Ember, lord of dragons. "A pleasure to make your proper acquaintance. Feeling better?"

"Night and day," she easily agreed, stomping a foot. "Hey, you know what this is?" she produced a coin from the bag that was dangling from her hips.

"A firebird." He reached for it, but Ember wasn't allowing that, snatching it away. Laud continued without making a fuss, "It's the most common currency, and most easily spent."

"Well I got a bunch of them." She jiggled her hips, making the bag jostle around with a load of clinking. "What's the best way to spend 'em? Gregor showed me where the landing pad was, but the people there right now aren't really up for trading."

Laud tensed. What had he missed while tutoring Maar? "How did you come to have that?"

"Gregor gave 'em as a 'Sorry we were stupid jerks' gift. He also patched up all the dragons left in the hospital, so they're heading home, which is what we should do, after you answer my question." She pointed at him with her scepter. "How's it work?"

Laud gestured to her bag. "Hold onto that for now. I'll have word sent when proper traders arrive. Come back when they are here and they will gladly exchange your coins for their goods. I advise you allow me to accompany you. You don't know the proper value of things, and they may try to take advantage of that."

"Hmmm, sure... so I can't do anything with them right now?"

"Ember!" Spike flew down the stairs with a big smile. "You're alright!"

"As if I'd be taken down by a bunch of hairless fops." She hiked a thumb at Laud as she smirked at Spike. "I'm all better now."

"Great! Wow, you look way better." Spike landed in front of her, his eyes falling to her bag. "What's that?"

"Their money." She wiggled her thumb at Laud. "Which I can't use, 'cause their traders aren't here. Lame."

Spike rubbed behind his head. "Bet you could trade it with Twilight. She'd love to have some human money."

Ember's eyes lit with possibility. "Would she now...? Well, maybe I can delay returning for just a little bit. Maar, you're free to go home."

Maar shook her head. "I'm not done learning."

Ember went still a moment before shaking her head. "That was not a statement I expected out of your mouth, basically ever... yeah, keep on learning." She shrugged her shoulders and holstered her scepter. "Now where's that pony princess?"

---

Yona stomped from one hoof to the next, a big smile on her face. "Tomorrow!"

Ocellus nodded in much more subdued agreement. "Have you ever been inside of one of those things?"

Gallus hiked a brow. "If she had, she would have been rambling about it, on top of everything else she's been gushing about."

"We will be first!" Yona cried joyfully. "We see inside, nocreature else does. Not excited? How not excited?!"

Smolder shrugged softly. "I got to see Ember." Her tone did not carry much assurance that it was positive.

Gallus looked over to the dragon. "Yeah? You don't sound too happy about it."

"You should know. A meeting with your 'caretaker' isn't always all flowers and smiles." Smolder threw up a hand, the other holding the elbow of that arm. "She wants me to basically be a spy for her, keep track of everything I see in there. Every. Thing." She huffed softly, a little smoke escaping.

Sandbar shrugged his shoulders. "Hey, we're supposed to write a report anyway. Yours is just more likely to get an A now, right?"

Author's Note:

Ember accepts the offers of humble apologies. Was that wise on her part?

Comments

[Booster Spice]

Gregor has just added insult by pittance to the list.

Ember is not going to be a happy Angel.

I mean, somehow I dont think thats a Beverly Hillbilly money bag.

[Anachronon]

Was that wise on her part?

Considering it came from the church.... HELL NO!

[Xanderfox]

9397915
Gregor like I said before seems like a honest decent guy, but yea honest decent guys work for all kinds of organizations that are less so...

[tsaukpaetra]

Well, common currency or not, Church has suddenly kicked off an intent to market.
First it's money. Then it's people. Then ideas. Then society.
Keep going! ;)

[lordelliott]

9397912
I figured she'd ask for more, but I guess that wouldn't line up with her dragon pride. Accepting small compensation is akin to saying the incident was only a minor nuisance to the power of dragons. To ask for more would be admitting they were really badly hurt. Then again, if she knew just how much she could have gotten out of the deal, dragon greed might have taken over.

[Glenn]

I'm not sure why Gregor's holy water would be labeled in an ancient, dead language like "English". The modern human language spoken by most humans who aren't foreign barbarians is, of course, Urthish, named after the humanity's world of origin, Old Urth. Gregor, as a cleric, would certainly be familiar with Latin, because it is the language of the modern Church. If Gregor were very well trained in matters technological, it's possible he might also speak some Urthtech, (a language originally derived from Urthish, which is so filled with specialized terminology and jargon as to be virtually incomprehensible to anyone who just speaks Urthish).
There are of course numerous other languages spoken in the Fading Suns universe, (which is why Gregor knows that prayer to understand other languages he used earlier in this story). All of the different alien races still retain at least one of their native languages, and the human barbarians in the Kurga Caliphate, and the Vuldrok Star Nation normally don't speak Urthish, either.

[David Silver]

9398712
English? Where? Must be a bug in the translator.

[Reese]

"seeing none others"
"seeing no others"?

"a wide-bottom chair"
"a wide-bottomed chair"?

"either lay down or stand still as I read the prayer. It's usually easier to lay down"
"either lie down or stand still as I read the prayer. It's usually easier to lie down"?

[David Silver]

9399013
Fixity fix.

[ushio]

9397912
If it was an insultingly small amount Laud would have said something.

[ayh]

I'm actually more disappointed in Spike. He dropped off the education of the female dragon to Laud and bailed. Spike is an ambassador as well. He may be young but with all he's been through I hope Lauderdale can provide him with a positive example of what an ambassador should really be like.

Just as Twilight became a princess and took on more duties but is still a good friend and still respects Celestia, Spike is still an assistant but now an ambassador himself.

He should have gotten in touch with real ponies who know about medicine, talk to them about classes and training courses for dragons. Looked into helping set up trips for students to go into the dragon lands to see what sort of specialized care dragons need. Did what was actually asked of him when asked to help Ember and her dragons set up a hospital. Instead we have Laud reading from a book to the female dragon I forgot the name of. Sorry!

I'd really like to see Spike get his act together as Twilight will need all the help she can get as multiple fronts get involved.

[son_of_heaven176]

Because you want to help your leige,

Liege