From: hutch@ibeam.intel.com (Steve Hutchison)
Subject: [P8] Pieces of Eight, part 8: Aftermath
Organization: Intel Corp., Hillsboro, Oregon
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 22:55:53 GMT

'Raelf sat at a table in the Dragon's Inn.  All the dark corners were
full, as usual, so he sat in the light by the smaller fireplace, where
he and the Dragon Questors had planned their sortie into the depths of
the Realm of Shadows.  The afternoon crowd was just beginning to come
in, but nobody else sat at the table with him.

"Rafe!"  She stepped in, the woman with hair the color of burnished
redwood, and crossed to where he waited.  Her hands were jammed down
in the pockets of her spidersilk duster, and she seemed kind of happy
 yet still a little apprehensive.

"Raye.  Have a good trip?"

"I guess so.  That WorldGate makes my locatus itch."  She slumped down
bonelessly nest to him.  Serene brought 'Raelf the meal he had ordered
earlier.  ar'Elya began picking at the salad parts.

"Me too.  I can't take them any more, last time left me planebound for
almost a month."  He sighed and toyed with the food, not really hungry
for a change.

"So what did you do while we were apart?"

"Oh, not lots, I boogied on back to Arkham, cleared up a few bits of old
business there.  Got in a month of practice, went in and made no particular
showing in the contest there."

"Contest?"

"Yeah, when I met ...sage and gave him a lift back here, I was in the
middle of a martial arts contest.  Was testing for dan in a third art,
qualified but I'm kind of bored with that now."  He pushed the plate to
in front of her, and grinned.  "How did your big meeting go?"

"Well enough.  The folks are DISpleased, but they always were, and the
judges confirmed our case.  We're legal again."

"Great.  So now we can go back there to live.  Ugh."  He sipped at the
Catamount Porter, savoring the mellow depth with only a hint of bitters.

"Would you really rather not?  Go back there, I mean."

She leaned forward, taking his hand in hers.

"No, not particularly.  I've kind of lost my interest in family politics.
I spent a few hours on the talky with Maribel and Jarmund, they're doing
well enough.  They're handling the videogame imports that I started.
Parental Unit is all peeved, Grandfather loves it, he's helping them with
backgrounds.  Your third-most ancestress is doing the marketing.  Oh, and
there's another batch of offspring coming.  Grandmother."

ar'Elya smiled smugly.  "I think we should spoil them rotten."

They spent a few minutes quietly listening to the music.

"You know, Rafe, we need to decide about what we're going to do.  Your
folks won't let you into the family barterpool unless you're putting
in, and I've given most of my family shares to third-granny.  How
we going to make our livings?"

'Raelf sighed.  "The Jammer sold for quite a bit, even though it was
obsolete mystech.  House Dravek collects those kind of thing, paid for
relocating all the slaves, a share-stake for each of 'em, and we still
came out with half at about 200 kilobart.  After taxes.  Whose idea was
it to bring taxes into Home law, anyway?"

"Autocthon Eldrean.  Besides they're not that bad, they only apply to
transactions done at home."

"Huh.  Should have let you do that part."

"Well, you wanted to get enough to fix your big board.  I thought you were
going to get the parts locally."

"I know.  But I did get most of it local.  Actually, I got more than that
 fix done - I've been here working on projects for about a month local."

"So how much does that leave us?"  She snuck a sip from his Porter, scowled.
"How can you drink that stuff, ick."

'Raelf grinned.  "It's an acquired taste.  You drink enough of it when
you take the Warrior Maid role."

"Well, of course.  Warrior maids HAVE to drink something unpleasant.
It's that or prune juice.  I despise and loathe prune juice."

'Raelf laughed, and waved to Serene.  She nodded acknowledgement and
continued waiting on her customer, Mista curled against her hip in the
babysling.

"You still want to stay around home, keep your business as a bigshot
wheeler-dealer trader?"  'Raelf looked very somber.

"I can do that anywhere, Rafe."  She took his hand again.  "Even here."
She took a bite of the steamed vegetable he had given her.
"I can let the folks handle their business, you know.  I have my own
small import/export platform.  I can run that from here, or from wherever
you want us to go, if there's a World Gate nearby."

"Really?  You wanna be my agent?  I've got five more big boards done,
and a set of fourteen boogie-boards cooling, at least ten of those will
turn out right."

"So what about the surfer-modes to go with them?  I thought your donor
soul wasn't willing to share out."

"Well, when Dave bought it in that fight at ShadowMount, and then when
we got back through sheer luck, he changed his mind about being shared
out.  Before we remerged, he told me to share out, he doesn't want his
skills to be lost.  So I can clone the memes for surfer skills."

"Good.  I'll do it.  I'll set up the export shop this afternoon."
She shook hands, closing the deal.  'Raelf grinned, even in neutral his
Raye was a trader at heart.

"So have you decided if you're going to keep him?"

"Who?"

"That thief.  Kachin."

"Oh, the acolyte.  Yeah, he wants to stay with me.  He'll make a good
'kan some day."

"I suppose that's a proposition?"

"We have a long time to discuss that."

Serene stopped at the table again, and spoke.

"'Raelf, who's your friend here?"

"Oh.  Raye, this is Serene, for some reason she likes to wait tables
and such, even though that skinflint LittleFair doesn't pays her enough
for all she does here.  Serene, meet ar'Elya.  My mate."