Ludere had begun testing. If he didn't touch the spear then it would never speak to him. If he touched it, then it would yell insults at him. He got the vague feeling that it was trying to hurt his feelings, but he had no feelings. He buried those a long time ago.

  What he had was a spear that decided that it did not like him.

  "You're nothing. You'll never amount to anything. Just give up."

  The voice felt vaguely demonic, and he was pretty sure that he'd heard it before. He couldn't place where, but he had a suspicion. Unfortunately, the succubus that he dealt with had not been so forthcoming in the speaking department, so he only had vague threats in his memory. His memory wasn't even that great. He'd been forced to recreate some of it afterwards.

  What he did know, was that his skill had advanced at the same time that he'd used his Spirit Magic on the succubus in front of him. It ended up killing the succubus, and now he had a spear that hated him.

  "Could you at least tell me why I need to die? Because I don't think that's necessary. I feel like I'm doing great things, and you should just let me be me. Is that too much to ask? It clearly is."

  "You are just dirt. We will use your body to nurture our crops. You will rue the day that you ever did this." The voice devolved into what could only be charitably called muttering.

  "And you saying it's been like this ever since the incident? That is incredible. May I touch it?" The Oracle looked like she was ready for the exact kind of vision that would help her understand what was going on. "There's something going on here."

  She paused to feel it out. He didn't know how it helped if she touched his spear but she was okay. She ran her fingers along the shaft, and even took a few pretend movements with it, trying to take it through a spear form that she'd seen him do.

  "What happens when you do spear forms?"

  "I haven't actually tried that since… The incident."

  Not only did he not want to try, Ludere felt like he was being blocked from doing it. Every fiber of his being was fully interested in not doing that.

  Just holding it was enough. He found out that if he didn't directly contact it with his skin, that was enough. That made the voices return.

  The view from the temple's apartment was scenic enough. He'd been asked to stop by Senator Celisar's, but he was on his own timeline.

  "You saved all of those students. They were all children, and you saved them."

  "You're not much older," he said. He performed the footwork part of the spear form. There wasn't enough room in her chambers to do the full form, and beyond that he didn't want to put pants on.

  "This looks great. You should train like this more often."

  He stopped cold. "You really think so?"

  "Oh, absolutely. I wish I could let the faithful know about this; I feel like I'm having a spiritual experience just watching you jump around."

  "Hey!"

  "What? It's not like I have anything else to do with my time. Nobody comes to the Oracle, asking for their fate to be read when they're having a good fate. They only come when it's bad."

  Ludere gave her a blank look. He felt strong. He could keep going all day at this rate. But touching the spear felt like it was going to affect his mood. Still, she dove into what was happening with the spear, trying to explain something to him, and she started speaking several times, but his mind couldn't focus on it.

  "I'm sorry… I just think that I'm really tired. I've been going and going and going. I can't really rest anywhere else, without feeling like the government or the military is trying to turn me into one of their paid assassins or something."

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  She placed the spear down on the side of their bed. When, how, do he begin to think of it as their bed? But still, where else would he stay?

  "Come over here."

  Ludere wasn't going to say no to a beautiful woman. She placed his head on top of her breast. It was a tender touch.

  "Thanks. You know, I feel like I can trust you."

  "I should hope so. After all, you were just inside of me. No one's had to go through what you're going through. I'm saddened that you've had to go through this so many times, and you are having to withhold trust from anybody. But I don't know… Look, if there's one thing that being an Oracle has taught me. We don't have time. We just spend it. So, if you live your life thinking like you're going to have time in the future, and you don't enjoy what you have now, then it's going to be tough."

  It took him a minute to compose himself. She hadn't really been so affectionate before, but he could see how she had always been at some sort of emotional distance from him. Was she afraid of losing him?

  "Thank you, again. You don't have to be so wonderful to me."

  She slapped the back of his head. "I swear you are just trying to rile me up for no reason, when you could instead be making me happy for any reason. But no, I understand. It's tough to trust people outside of your family. It's tough to trust the government. I don't even trust religion, and you see where I am."

  Despite being in the most interesting apartment she could have ever had, her bed was beyond compare. The Oracle had everything delivered to her regularly; her only duty to the temple that of a religious nature. It was true that she talked to many people, but it was also just as true that she had never been in a relationship before this. It was new to both of them.

  It was especially meaningful that she had known he was coming. He spent an hour telling her what had happened. Then she had spent two hours making him forget everything. That had been sufficient to calm his nerves, though when he introduced the idea of her examining the spear with her superior Soul Magic, he hadn't expected her to be so willing to do it. He was happy; he didn't want to ask her. He didn't want it to feel like a burden.

  "Far be it for me to understand relationships or life or anything, but I think you're doing all right. For someone who's been through all this? I think that the cat chose the right person. Unfortunate that it had to be you, but we deal with what we have to deal with, in our own time."

  "I'm pretty sure that understanding relationships is part of your job, right?"

  "As for the priests, that is their job. My job is you. At least, as far as they're concerned."

  They snuggled for a little bit. All of the fight went out of him, and he didn't want to deal with anything for a while.

  She was okay with that, and that turned out to be just what he needed.

  "Your mother is a whore!" The voice from the spear said as he attempted to move through the first form. "And your form is terrible. How did you kill my people?"

  It turned out that the voice was the succubus that he had killed. She had gotten trapped in his spear, and she was not happy about it. He wasn't happy that he had to deal with her, but that was beside the point. She was yelling at him and telling him his form was terrible, while at the same time being actively unhelpful.

  He finished the first form. This time, she let him use the courtyard, and he was granted the ability to wear pants. The Oracle still watched, as was customary. He wouldn't have it any other way

  "You should never have even been there! How are you so terrible at that?!"

  "Ouch! Right in my feelings."

  "What do they call you? Ludo? Ludo! Ludo! Is that a curse? It sounds like a curse. Ludo!"

  Ludere moved through the second form. It wasn't enough to work up a sweat. A lot of things that would have floored him before now were just a weird part of his daily existence.

  He moved through it again, this time trying his best to tap into his Skill. If he focused on just the rhythm, he was going to be able to do it flawlessly.

  "Wrong! Wrong! All of this is wrong! Why are you even using this? You're terrible at this. Just give up."

  "I don't think that I'm terrible. Why would you say that?"

  "You're terrible! Give up!"

  "Absolutely not. I have too much life in me, and plus, my friends would be mad at me if I did."

  "You infuriating man! Just die already!"

  Ludere completed the final thrust of the second form and moved to stand. "I already did, like fifty times."

  "What?"

  "Okay, so it's the worst thing possible. My spear has been inhabited by the spirit of the succubus that I have slain."

  "Truly, things happen around you that make no sense whatsoever," Gia said. "Can I touch it?"

  "Go ahead."

  He held out the spear for her. She shoved one of her meat pies into her mouth and took it.

  "All right, let's see what you have to say."

  She held the spear for over a minute, closing her eyes. He waited, taking another meat pie to his mouth. He didn't know why they made it so delicious, but it always was. He could eat them all day. He would, if he got the chance. The Oracle wasn't letting him out of her sight.

  Gia had half a mind to do the same thing.

  "I can't hear anything. I don't know what's going on here. Oracle?"

  "I don't know if it's because he used the one that killed it, or because of some other reason, but it doesn't talk to me. Or it hasn't yet. I don't have any Skill with the spear."

  "Ah, you haven't…" Gia said.

  "No, I haven't, and I don't think that's the right line of inquiry," Ludere said.

  "What haven't you done?"

  Ludere accepted the spear, winced when he was called a Ludo, and then put it down. Cursed or not, he would not be caught without a spear.

  "I haven't given her all of the menu available."

  "Explain. This had better be good, you lot. I don't like surprises," the Oracle said.