Payton was at home in the mine. It was too close to the village for anything dangerous to sneak in without the guards noticing. She spent every day of the last month digging, rebuilding, and organizing the other miner professionals in the village. Once they found a vein of tin the village flooded with bronze. Bronze tools, bronze weapons, and for a few bronze armor. She was already a level ten miner and a level 1 militia according to the small labels on the left side of her vision.
The village was surrounded by a tall log wall and sections of the valley had been plowed and were already growing vegetables. Zahir didn’t miss an opportunity to tell her it was in large part due to her work. It felt good.
The icelings hadn’t left the manor and she was happy just to pretend they weren’t even there. She couldn’t see the ice wall through the trees and the manor was even further hidden in the pine trees. Glossy was a nice place to live and just wait out the ride to New Corsica, as far as Payton was concerned.
With her bronze shovel and pick over one shoulder, Payton came through the tall gates and went right home. The hut was well sealed now and the roof was patched where the rain had managed to leak through. It had a real door now and felt much more like home than ever before.
Sage was not inside when Payton got there. She wasn’t in the back with the dove cote they had built and she wasn’t at the well.
Payton’s chest tightened and she wasn’t blinking as much as she should have. She ran to the front gate, but wouldn’t cross through it to enter the forest.
“Becca! We need your help!” One of the guards shouted and faced Payton fully.
“Where is she? Where is my sister?” Payton’s breathing was coming shallowly.
“Your sister Sage went out with a party led by Zahir. They should be returning soon.” The guard leaned his spear against the wall and supported Payton as she began to shake.
Becca came running from her garden at the sound of the yell. She had dirt on her hands and on her apron. Her braid was coming undone too.
“Payton, what’s going on?” Becca asked immediately and Payton latched onto her shoulders immediately on hearing her voice.
“She’s gone. She just left without telling me. She’s going to that manor!” Payton said through her sobs.
“Let’s go back to my hut and wait for her. I have a jug of that apple juice we just made and we can let the guards close the gates.” Becca put a hand gently on Payton’s face.
“They can’t close the gates!” Payton shouted and then immediately knew they were going to have to close the gates.
“It’s ok, they will open it again when the party returns and they’re only closing it to keep the night animals out. What do we say when we’re worried about Sage?” Becca started slowly leading Payton away from the gate.
“She’s not in danger. Sage isn’t really in danger.” Payton repeated.
“That’s right, Sage and Zahir and Isaac aren’t really in danger. The whole party is just playing an elaborate game and they’ll be back here soon. Are you ready to talk about why having her away puts you in this state?” Becca spoke softly to Payton and walked beside her with her arm around Payton’s shoulders.
“No, I can’t. I can’t.” Payton began to sob again. “You should be working in your garden instead of babying me.”
“The garden is part of the game Payton. Speaking to people, that is the work that I miss. I miss helping people work through these hard moments. Gardening isn’t bad, it isn’t as rewarding as helping another person. So, no more talk about ‘should this’ or ‘should that’. We can sit, I’ll wash my hands, and then we can enjoy the apple juice Adeline made. We don’t have to talk and you don’t even have to stay long. I’m only asking for one cup’s time with you. So you’re not alone.” Becca spoke very evenly and clearly until Payton was in the hut.
Becca’s hut wasn’t as well sealed up as Payton and Sage’s. But she had it to herself and had a table with chairs. Those were fairly rare in the village. Becca had gathered flowers from the valley and had bundles of herbs drying from the beams of the hut. Just as promised, she had a jug of apple juice and two clay cups. The jug and cups were made from unfired clay so they weren’t expected to last, but it was better than drinking out of your hands.
“Thank you for the juice. Where did we find the apples?” Payton asked in an attempt to distract herself.
“Margaret found apple trees on the other side of the valley, across the river. Why is it you like mining so much?” Becca took a sip from her own cup.
“I’m good at it. I’ve been mining my whole adult life.” Payton didn’t like how Becca changed the topic, but she didn’t mind talking about mining.
“Were you a miner on earth?” Becca asked.
“No, Earth Co ended all earth based mining before I turned eighteen. I got a job at the Serenity Moon Mine.” Payton nodded in agreement with her own history.
“That must have been a hard transition. Earth still had free air, bad air but it was free. To go from that to living in confined space in low gravity must have been rough.” Becca observed non-commitally.
“It was a horrible month. I had already passed my simulator training for the diggers so that wasn’t an issue. I was sick off and on that first month and couldn’t seem to sleep through the night. They almost fired me, I’m so glad they didn’t.”
“Why didn’t they fire you? If you don’t mind me asking.” Becca sipped again.
“I snapped out of it. I worked a whole week without calling off sick and never looked back.”
“You snapped out of it? Was there anything that happened just before that? Anything that might have snapped you out of it or helped you snap?”
“Wait, are you therapisting me?” Payton realized her cup had been empty for a few moments and she was still here.
“I’m just asking questions. I want to help and I can’t help if I don’t understand. If you snapped out of a bad situation before, it might help you now.” Becca admitted. She didn’t say she wasn’t being a therapist for Payton.
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“You think we could do that again?” Payton asked. She would really like to snap out of this instead of shivering in the warm sunlight.
“I don’t think recreating the same event is going to help you, but it might point us in the right direction to prevent these anxiety attacks. Do you want to stop having these anxiety attacks?” Becca held her cup still instead of turning it in her hand. The question hung in the air for a moment while Payton considered it.
“But I can’t stop. Sage is the only family I have left, I can’t just not care if she’s in danger.” Payton responded.
“Payton, I’m concerned that you have the impression that if you don’t feel this way, don’t have these anxiety attacks, then it means you don’t care about Sage. Is that what you were trying to say?” Becca set down her cup gently.
“No, that doesn’t seem right. I just want Sage to be safe.”
“And nearby?”
“Well she’s safest with me, right? I can’t help her if she’s not here. She gets hurt, she used to get hurt all the time. Not like me, I’d get into bar fights and be able to explain my bruises. She plays the violin but would always visit me in a cast or with bruised ribs. How do you bruise your ribs while playing the violin?” Payton felt angry now.
“That is a good question. I have no idea how you bruise ribs while playing a violin. Have you talked to Sage about it?” Becca probed a little.
“She always gave me flimsy answers. She hit her head on a car door, fell off the stage with the orchestra. One time she tried to tell me the trombone hit her elbow with the slidy part. None of it made sense.” Payton felt a measure of pride that she could fight with other miners, they were a rough crowd. But she had never thought of Sage joining the London Orchestra as falling in with a rough crowd.
“Do you think Sage is lying to you?” Becca asked.
“You know, I’ve had enough juice I think.” Payton stood up and put her cup on the table hard enough to chip the base.
“Payton, please. I don’t need that answer, but I think you need it.” Becca didn’t pursue Payton out the door or beg her to stay. Payton heard her, but was already at the door and on her way to the gate.
It was getting dark now and someone rang the bell. Everyone who didn’t want to or couldn’t handle the night animals were supposed to get indoors. There was a species of giant bat that liked to steal fruit if the guards weren’t vigilant. They’d attack people too if given an opportunity.
The gate was already closed and the guards hadn’t seen the party return. That meant Sage was outside the village at night with the bats, wolves, and whatever creepy toads were hopping around.
The guards did their best to ignore Payton this time, as she seemed mostly calmed down now, and kept their spears ready. They watched the sky and the road outside the village, so Payton watched the street inside the village to the bell square.
Isaac appeared in the air over the square and dropped the tiny distance to the ground. His bronze armor had a crack from hip to shoulder and he was missing a boot. Shortly after him, two others appeared, then Sage as well. Zahir appeared last as Payton ran through town to the bell.
“Sage, are you ok?” Payton clasped her sister’s hand and held her breath until her sister answered.
“Yeah, I’m fine. We come back perfectly fine.” Sage answered. It wasn’t the whole truth. She had left with a bronze breastplate and it was gone now.
“Then I don’t know why you wouldn’t tell me before you do stupid stuff like this!” Payton shoved Sage with both hands and nearly knocked her down.
“Cause you freak out anytime I go outside the gates. I’m not in any danger, we’re fine.” Sage shoved her twin back.
“Then where is your armor? If it was touching you, it would come back with you. Did you even make it to the Manor?” Payton stomped towards her sister.
“No, we didn’t even get past the ruined wall.” Zahir answered and got a very angry glare back.
“I’m exhausted worrying about you, I’m going to bed.” Payton stomped again and stomped towards the hut. Sage was right behind her, so when a giant bat swooped down and grabbed Payton.
All the anger and confusion Payton had been feeling went right to her hands. She grabbed that bat, ripped it off her face, and threw it against a nearby hut. With red scratches across her cheeks, Payton then proceeded to stomp the life out of that brown, winged mammal.
Sage was too late with her spear to help and when the inhabitants of the hut came out to see what was going on, she waved them back inside their home.
“I get it, you really want to play your violin and the bows are back there in the manor. The next time someone tries to go, I am coming. I will train to fight and I will be with you. Understood?” Payton didn’t really mean it as a question and Sage understood her tone.
The next day, Payton’s scratches were healing well enough. Sage was still asleep, but Payton had business to deal with.
“Mark, what do you have that’s big and heavy to swing?” Payton asked the blacksmith before he even got his furnace lit.
“Up early are we? Everything we’re making is heavy, too heavy. We love bronze, but steel is what we really need.” Mark struck a spark into some dry fibers and waited for it to spread.
“Mark, I’m here for a weapon, not a chat.” Payton frowned. Mark blew air out in a silent whistle and moved his tiny fire into the forge. He moved to the back of his forge and picked up an ax. It stood as tall as Payton’s hip and had a surprisingly modern looking head.
“I made it before I realized you were only going to commute to the copper mine and back. You seem like the hit-it-with-something-big type, so I thought it might fit.”
“Thanks, that’s nice. I like it a lot.” The anger went out of Payton’s voice.
“Yeah, where are you planning on going?” Mark asked. He shoveled some charcoal into the forge and worked the bellows to get the fire going.
“The other side of the valley. I think I saw another mine, it might have iron and I thought I should find it. As long as you have enough copper and tin?” Payton didn’t have to look at the stack of crates full of ore. They probably had more bronze than Mark could use in a hundred years if he was honest.
“We’ll be fine, just take some others with you. The other side of the valley has some weird apes living there.” Mark saw his first apprentice show up and started directing her on their first tasks of the day.
Zahir was in the bell square again. There was a table pulled out for the day and the de facto town council used it to compile information on how the village was doing.
“You’re up awfully early. Is the mine even awake yet?” Zahir asked.
“I think there’s another abandoned mine in the valley. It’s on the other side of the river though and that’s more dangerous.” Payton spoke immediately without reacting to Zahir’s joke.
“That could be iron or coal. That’s a big deal. We’re organizing some extra militia to go over and secure the apple trees. I assume you want to be part of that.” Zahir looked to the guard captain at the table.
“It should be today, we should go out today.” Payton got a brief laugh before they realized she was actually serious.
“How long have you been holding that ax?” The captain asked.
“What does that matter?”
“Just answer the question.” The captain got up from his chair and stood next to Payton. He was old, gray haired but not out of place with a weapon.
“This morning, I got it this morning.” Payton admitted and grit her teeth.
“Great, you’re right there with the other thirty recruits. They’re training on the shoal on the river. You’re just in time to start training.” The captain smiled and walked with Payton to the river. A bend in the river had a wide, sandy stretch outside of its arch and the recruits were busy learning their weapons. Spears were common, but there was a player trainer with a sword and one training others with large, studded clubs.
None of them were militia or laborers. In real life they had been programmers, teachers, administrators, and cashiers. Not careers that required grit in Payton’s opinion. She lined up with the other heavy weapons and decided she was going to have to play nice with them.
