We ate lunch, once again Wandi’s treat… sausage sandwiches that somewhat resembled Italian but with almost-basil instead of oregano, laced with sauerkraut and surprisingly tasty little orange pickled peppers on what tasted like a sourdough rye roll. That slightly alcoholic cider made our repast, and I guess my recycler was still working, because I was quite satisfied with the meal, despite it being sized more for someone Wandi’s size rather than mine.


    I surprised her when I insisted on working out before we tried shooting again. I did pull-ups on a tree limb, a thousand push-ups, and nine-point squats until I was ready to fall over. “Hey,” I said, “I lost my body while I was sick… I am not going to take that risk again.”


    She nodded slowly, “There are training rooms at the Hunter’s lodge. When you join, you can work it out with their help. Lots of delvers do, since a lot of traits, especially physical ones, are multiplied by your current fitness.”


    “Is that what we are going to do?” I asked her with a wink, “Become delvers and work together closely at the hunter’s lodge?”


    She smiled slightly, but she looked a little embarrassed. I wondered if that empathy thing I had on the ship was working again because ever since I’d started pulling in energy, I felt like I had a much better handle on her moods. It didn’t feel like some kind of a magic power, though, more like I could just sort of… notice things about her posture, facial expressions, and the words she used and pauses that I hadn’t noticed before.


    That, and I did almost a thousand push-ups without pause. I’d never been able to pull that off without breaking a sweat. It took hundreds of the worst kind of burpees to finally wear me out, and I sat recovering and watching the young woman with interest.


    “if you want to do that. I mean, we still need to see if you can use a gun, and find out what kind of melee strength you have. We would have to go into a tin delve, even with you being wood. The difference isn’t huge yet, and you should gain advancement quickly, but you don’t want to try and wrestle a tin-ranked Grapple Ape at wood tier. You are very strong, but they crush coconuts with their bare hands.”


    “But it’s still the fastest way to advance. If you want to become the lawkeeper, you don’t want to even start until you are at least high copper, maybe bronze. Like I said, you will almost instantly make enemies.”


    I nodded, I’d been thinking about it since the lab. “I think I do. I mean, this is MY choice, not something I want to do just because I can, or because it will piss the right people off. Protecting the innocent is always what I was imagining I was doing, my secret dream. I know it sounds stupid, but every time I went into action, I told myself it was my actions that helped protect the people back home. It was one of the few things I liked about my job, other than how good I was at it, but that faded as I got older.”


    I chuckled, “I always imagined myself like Batman… the dark knight, the masked crusader that flew into action to deal with the things that public protectors and guardians couldn’t handle. Unrestrained by protocol, policy, or politics, I would just swing in, beat the bullies down and teach them not to hurt innocent people anymore, kill the irredeemable monsters, possibly earn a kiss from a beautiful woman for being her hero, and then swing out again to find the next villains to deal with.”


    “So becoming a lawkeeper is what you really want to do?”


    I nodded, “Yep. I feel like for the first time in my life I am making my own choice, guiding my own path, instead of having it made for me by my parents, my superior officers, or my poor health. It kind of makes me feel like I can do anything, for once. It’s weird, it’s like I have total freedom for once, but I am happy to give that freedom to other people. Yes, I want to become a cop… a lawkeeper, and I am glad you are helping me, for whatever reasons you are doing it.”


    She sighed hugely, flopping down cross-legged. “Oh, thank whatever gods or goddesses are listening!”


    “Huh?”


    She sighed. “I was worried I was pushing you… I mean, I pushed you to see Kamli, and then pushed you right over to Raspail… I thought maybe my desire to see a new Lawkeeper, a good one, was rushing you into it. I mean, now I am pushing you to shoot, and I even decided on lunch.”


    I shrugged, “Lunch was delicious. I pretty much know nothing. If I could afford it, I’d probably be dragging you around. You are the first friend I have made here, but hopefully not the last. But yeah… I agree with your pushing, but eventually, I might have to do a little pushing of my own, or maybe a lot of pushing if you decide you are interested.”Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    Now I was convinced she was embarrassed. “I’m not… I mean, you are very attractive. It took a bit to get used to the whole unaspected thing, but now I am realizing that it’s not a bad thing, just different, and in some ways it is very exciting. I mean, even Kamli was interested, even though she’s mated and would never act on it. But I was mated…”


    I nodded and held up my hands, “Say no more. I would never intentionally step on another woman’s grief, or take advantage of it.”


    She shook her head, “Oh, it’s not that. Kamli and I mated the same male. It’s pretty normal for sisters to do that and raise their children as siblings. But he was… I wasn’t happy, so he let me out.”


    “Was he mean? Abusive?” I asked, weirdly ready to do battle with some kind of asshole that hurt her… in a way she didn’t want to be hurt, anyway.


    She laughed and shook her head, “No, not at all. He’s got a very good job with the guild as an assessor. He’s a very nice man. Very stable, very reliable, very… unambitious. Very predictable. He likes everything to stay the same. He liked all three of his wives to behave the same way. Kamli is in heaven, she loves predictability, but I wanted more, I guess. I know it makes me a bad person, but after a year, I wanted out, and because I wasn’t taking Kamli with me, he was fine with it. Reina was fine with it too, because it meant more scheduled nights.”


    “Scheduled nights?”


    She nodded, “Yes. I mean, some women enjoy being with each other as much as their husbands, but Kamli and I are sisters, and Reina is… elite, with elite tastes. He liked to be intimate with his mates every Friday and Saturday night, and Reina, as first wife, was the one who slept in his bed. When I left, there was enough room for three to sleep in his bed most nights, and they get alone time intimacy every single week.”


    I laughed, and she looked at me oddly, “What?”


    “Sorry. I am looking at you and wondering what kind of… no offense, nutball could keep his hands to himself for a week, and then miss a week. I mean, yeah, your sister is amazingly gorgeous, staggeringly so, but ugh. Did he have a dozen girls on the side or something?”


    She was fidgeting a little, “I am not going to ask you to compare me to others, but there are LOTS of women here, many of whom are much more attractive than me.”


    I shrugged, “Can they outshoot you?”


    She shook her head.


    “Can they run faster, farther, or skin a kill better than you?”


    “Not many.”


    I chuckled, “Appearance is only one aspect of what a person is. Are you absolutely stunning? Yep. Are some of them more eye-catching? Probably. But you know… there’s only one measure of attractiveness. Good enough or not good enough, and lady, you are definitely good enough. Putting gems on your sword or custom scrimshaw on your pistol isn’t going to make it shoot better or hit harder.”


    She looked at me carefully, “Well, actually, if the gem is power-linked or the scrimshaw is a rune…”


    I laughed, “Shut up, woman, I am trying to compliment you. Anyway. Does your sister have a more lush butt than yours or bigger boobs? Sure. Would that make someone any happier? Not likely. Very beautiful women that are well aware of their value tend to be… hard to keep happy.”


    She nodded, “Reina is like that. She’s also a lepan, but is a well-known beauty.”


    I nodded slowly, “Like I said, I don’t get it. How can a guy be surrounded by beauty and then just… set aside one or two days a week?”


    She shrugged, “He was a tarsien.”


    “A tarsien?”


    She nodded, “Nocturnal, giant eyes, a long tail. Not very high energy, they are drawn to mental occupations and are very smart and perceptive, but they are seldom hunters or delvers, mostly vegetarian. They don’t tend to have big appetites of any sort. As I said, very stable and predictable. He always liked to do things the same way.”


    She shrugged, “It didn’t help that tarsien and mephan aspects can’t breed, and I wasn’t attracted much, so I usually just let the two of them split their nights. I think after a few months, he was happy to let me go since there was no real future.”


    I sighed, “See, now you got me thinking about sexual habits between the different aspects. What about weasel types?”


    “Lutrans? Oh yes, they are well-known for their appetites. One young man is well-known for running through the dance hall’s entire female population in one night when he got an ultra loot in a rift. People are different and aspect doesn’t mean everything, but lutrans are known for giving you the best three and a half minutes of romance in your life. They often have REALLY big families, but those families don’t tend to be particularly… devoted. The law of family tends to get a little flexible when it comes to lutrans, because lutrans are rarely faithful, and it’s well-known and expected.”


    She laughed, “If you wanted to bring a couple of lutrans into your harem, it would probably be fine because while they might already be married if you got one pregnant, it would just be one more baby in her husband’s house. Not that Lutrans are wealthy, but they all tend to work hard and play hard and combine their income… one of them might be the designated stay-at-home mother for the horde of babies, but with enough people, any family can keep themselves well, and with aspect diversity, it’s not like anyone would notice or care that it might not be her husband’s child.”


    “Seriously, can we stop doing the harem joke?”


    She shook her head, “No, I can see a wonderful amount of ribbing about it in the future. Of course, if a lutran’s child was born without an aspect at all, I imagine that might raise some questions, so you might want to look elsewhere for your slave girls.”


    I nodded, “On that note… do you want to see if I can fight?”


    She smiled a little, “Are you rested from showing off your muscles?”


    I nodded, “Yeah, but next time I might have to peel off my shirt to make the point.”


    She winked saucily at me, “Maybe I will look forward to it.”