The five n outside of the gate looked at Bee with blank looks of confusion after her declaration. She couldn't tell if they thought she was joking or sothing, but she was starting to get a little insulted. A light cough brought them out of their apparent shock.
She t their thoroughly confused stares with a bland smile. Internally, she was quite frustrated. There were much better ways to go about preaching than simply pointing at sothing and declaring it a god. How could she call herself the high priestess if she couldn't even properly introduce Void to new people?
If there had been a preaching-related skill offered, she would have chosen it in an instant. She almost regretted turning down Prayer Leader at this point. Her combat abilities had been adequate for quite so ti, and she really needed to work with people a lot more than she had ever really planned for. At least she had so practice with public speaking now. Between teaching classes and telling the people her stories of Void, she had learned a lot. Without that practice, she could only shudder at what she would be capable of now.
Finally, she saw that their attention was actually coming back as they processed her declaration. Still, they didn't say anything, making her slightly uncomfortable. "We'll let you in, but I just wanted to make sure we go over so of the ground rules first."
As if broken from a trance, the leader shook himself and nodded at her, half turning it into a bow. "Of course, your… holiness? We are more than happy to comply with anything that makes you and yours more comfortable."
As she explained the rules, Bee couldn't help but notice their behavior. Not only did they ignore Void, but they thoroughly avoided so much as glancing in its direction at all. As affronted as she wanted to be, though, it was hard to bla them. If she was told sothing was a god, she would probably be terrified of it, not wanting to give offense. That, or she would be convinced the person speaking was crazy and unstable. Both were good reasons for the n to be on her good side. Sadly, she figured this was probably the latter case.
She supposed that things could be worse. If they thought she was insane for now, it wasn't the end of the world. Hopefully, they understood Void's power after watching their weapons being devoured and kept themselves out of trouble. She was slightly worried about the large number of won and children. There were only a handful of combat-capable mbers in the castle, really. Susan and Tony ca chiefly to mind, all the others being farrs or very low-level.
If these n worked out and proved themselves trustworthy, they could be quite the asset, provided they stayed. As it was, she wasn't sure if they wanted more than a night of shelter and food. She finished speaking, telling them to keep to themselves and follow Tony to so rooms.
As the gate was opening, she pulled her fellow disciple aside and asked him to keep a watch over the n and take them to Trent after they got settled in. Trent always needed more hands in the fields. She wasn't exactly sure what he was doing with those hands all the ti, though. Farming stuff, she supposed. One of the great benefits of having him in charge of that sort of stuff was that she could keep out of the details.
Once the gate was all the way up and the n were inside, they followed Tony. Still, she could tell they were looking at everything curiously. With a sigh, she could only hope there wouldn't be any issues.
---
While I was glad that Beatrice had asked Tony to keep an eye on the dirty newcors, I wasn't nearly as confident in his combat ability. While it had greatly improved since he had co to the castle, I still hadn't had the sa dedicated ti to privately tutor him as I had with Beatrice. The man still tended to fight with a heavy stick rather than a proper weapon like Beatrice's broom. Even sothing like my sword would be better than that.
So I stayed close, ready to trundle in once there was trouble. After Tony showed them to a small block of rooms that were far away from any of the other inhabitants of the castle, the oldest man slightly redeed himself in my eyes by asking about a bath. "After we put in so work, of course."
Even if Tony wasn't inclined to agree to their request, I would insist they bathe before they use any of the furniture. The beds are included. One of the younger boys arrived shortly after, lugging a large basket behind him. He handed it to Tony while the newcors were still settling in. Once they were ready to head out again, Tony doled out the contents of the basket to the n as they made their way back outside. They graciously accepted the bread and cheese, spraying crumbs everywhere in their desire to express their gratitude.
As they walked, I cleaned up the crumbs as we went. Truthfully, I didn't mind this kind of ss. It was the thing I was made for, after all. Of course, I would have minded even less if they were slightly more considerate, but it wasn't like they were making a ss for absolutely no reason.
I followed the group outside and watched as they joined Trent and his helpers in the fields. Under his supervision, they got to work removing rocks and digging holes for so purpose. I saw a few of them looking a little longer than expected at so of the other helpers. Whenever it happened, though, a glare from their leader or Trent soon brought them back on task.
After a few more instances of this, the leader talked to Trent about the "issue." He even threatened to beat a lesson into his n if he had to. It seed a bit harsh for a little bit of slacking to , but Trent only nodded. "See that ye do."
Trent spoke in a voice much gruffer than he usually used. I wondered why? Was he also getting sick? Maybe I'd ask Bee to check him over as well to make sure.
***
The rest of the day in the fields passed uneventfully. Sotis I did catch so of the children watching the new n from not-so-discreet hiding spots. Each ti it was always a pair that carried their sticks with them, always held at the ready. What were they on about? Did they also not trust the newcors? If so, that was quite adorable. Little humans were so entertaining.
Tony escorted them back to their rooms for the night and brought them so more food. While they were away, a bathtub was moved to a nearby room with drains. I think it was one of the rooms where so of the wet ss makers had been kept before Beatrice disposed of them. They took turns getting reasonably back into presentable condition. Their clothes still needed so work, but it was significantly better than before.
With the sun barely down, they were already all in their beds and making a very loud rhythmic noise. I wasn't sure what that was all about, but it couldn't be a very effective thod to charge. Neither Beatrice nor Tony had ever used that thod before, and I had observed that most of the humans found noise to be counterproductive to charging. Sothing about running their auditory detection sensors took a large amount of energy at night.
As the castle quilted down, I watched a pair of children sneak out of their beds and stand on either side of the hallways leading to the n's rooms. They gripped their sticks tightly, still dressed in their sleeping clothes. They touched their little fists together and whispered, "Nighty Knights."
Then each stood around the corner on either side of the entryway for that wing of the castle. What were they doing? It didn't seem harmful or anything, so I didn't fetch the woman imdiately. Instead, I watched. Best to make sure they're not up to sothing mischievous.
I watched as the little ones fought against sleep for several hours before a few more ca and replaced them. The little one of this pair was less successful in her fight to stay awake, and her partner had to poke her with his stick a few tis to prod her into alertness again.
This pattern repeated itself several more tis until almost all of the older kids had taken a turn watching over the hall for a while. I respected their dedication, but they were laughably bad at it. After the first couple of hours, they were already falling asleep as they showed up. In order to make their shift, they must have stayed up late. Or maybe they were just too excited to sleep.
Also, they were really bad at telling ti. One pair spent the whole ti arguing that their two-hour shift was already up. This argunt started nineteen minutes and eight seconds in and just kept going. Eventually, one of them left, and fifteen minutes later, they reappeared with their bleary-eyed replacents. The other one, who was arguing that they had overstayed their shift, took that as vindication that they were right. The two left, completely convinced they had stayed at their post for four hours at least.
Despite their complete confidence that their replacents had failed to wake up in ti, that pair was the closest to actually staying for two hours as they seed to be aiming for.
Throughout the whole night, I didn't interrupt their operation, wanting to see where it went. One pair saw both kids fall asleep on the watch. Their replacents didn't show up when they should have, and a second shift passed. Eventually, Felix showed up a few hours before dawn and found them sleeping against the wall and was perplexed that they were not the kids he was expecting. Roughly waking them, he berated them for a bit before sending them to fetch his partner and sleep.
I judged their whole operation to be a hilarious source of entertainnt for my own watch, but I couldn't expect more from them on their first attempt. Tomorrow I would see what I could do to improve their organizational skills. They should learn to be ready at all tis. Perhaps I could make so sort of device to help them tell ti?
Eventually, morning ca with not so much as a stir from any of the new people. Long after the sun rose, I was still watching. The kids were not in any shape for morning exercise, most still stumbling around from too little sleep last night, so I gave them a day off. Truthfully the combination of sleepiness and long-term training ant I didn't need to burn off so of their excess energy anymore. Plus, I wanted to keep an eye on the newcors as well.
My attention had wandered slightly as I was preparing a lesson plan to help teach the kids how to keep a properly organized watch schedule. That's why I missed the sound of the first door opening. The one with a lot of knives stood at the door, blinking, looking right at sitting in the hallway.
We stared at each other for a few monts before he broke eye contact and rubbed his eyes. Then he looked at again. I wished him a good morning and asked him to wait for the rest of the group to wake up so we could keep them all together for now. Tony or Beatrice should show up soon to take care of them.
Unsurprisingly, he didn't seem to understand. The man cocked his head at , then walked across the hall, sliding down back against the wall to sit next to . "So. You're a god, huh? What's that like?"
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