Chapter 149: Nine Hundred Coins and He Still Wouldn’t Go Easy

Dove read the purchase screen three times before telling Sprout to explain what nine hundred Favor actually bought. If it said confidence, she was going to become a problem.

"Guided instruction, illustrated movements, and review of the included exercises," it said. "Physical skill requires practice."

"And if I buy it and still trip over my feet?"

"You will have purchased instructions for improving that."

She hated how reasonable the answer was. A miracle would have been easier to argue with.

Thorne sat beside her on the bed while Edrik put their movie away. Neither could see the private page she was reading, so she explained the price and the limits aloud. She wanted to do this herself, but that did not mean pretending the people sharing her life had no reason to care.

"You don’t have to prove anything tonight," Thorne said.

"I’m not proving anything. I’m trying to make it harder for some asshole to put me in a bag."

Edrik stopped winding the cable. His fingers tightened around the cable, and she knew that stillness now. "Then we start with getting away. You don’t need to stay and win a fight."

"I would enjoy winning one eventually."

"I know, sweetheart. Your face makes that very clear."

She bought the book before she could spend the coins on something that smelled nice instead. Nine hundred vanished, leaving one Favor in her purse. Dove looked at the remaining coin with the offended affection she might have given a particularly useless pet.

The first lesson covered balance and turning out of a controlled wrist grip. She read it properly instead of skipping ahead to the part where her enemies regretted their choices. There was no such Chapter heading, which seemed like a missed opportunity.

While she closed the lesson, two new offers appeared under development manuals. One concerned shaping connected metal parts while keeping their joints usable. The other covered reinforcement through a continuous metal object, directing effort toward the part under strain while maintaining touch.

"Those are for my men?" she asked.

"Their current abilities qualify. Each manual costs 240 normal coins after its listed practice requirement is met. Neither is currently purchased."

Dove made it show the limits. No free metal, no strengthening a whole building from across the road, and no promise that reading a page would make either husband unstoppable. The books would teach control that could support greater work. They would still need to train.

She described the offers. Thorne looked interested; Edrik looked like he was already considering unpleasant uses for a stronger shield.

"We are not buying both tonight," Dove said. "I just spent nearly everything in one purse, and I would like to experience breathing before opening the other."

"You’re enjoying the idea," Edrik said.

"Obviously. You’re already a nuisance. Imagine what I could do with an improved nuisance."

She saved the offers, then went to bed between them with a plan that was hers.

After eggs and fruit, she chose household goods. Four family shampoo bottles appeared behind glass. Three sales would pay forty-four normal coins. Sprout’s Favor target could unlock a padded practice mat for purchase, but it did not provide one. Dove folded their spare blankets and took them into the rear yard instead.

The restaurant’s back door faced theirs across the concrete. She set up beside her own doorway, away from delivery traffic, with the carts moved against the fence. Her men were large enough to fill a room, but she refused to let the lesson spill into the place where somebody would eventually arrive carrying hot soup.

Edrik checked the ground, asked whether her shoulder still hurt, and waited for an honest answer. She rolled it carefully before shaking her head.

"Then show me your stance. Don’t move because you think I’m about to. Wait until you know."

That sounded simple until his hand closed around her wrist. Dove pulled backward, exactly as the book had told her not to, and nearly stepped on her own tail.

He released her at once. "Your feet stayed facing me while the rest of you tried to leave. Turn together."

"I think my feet are trying to get me killed."

"Then stop giving them a head start."

She laughed despite herself and tried again. His hand stayed loose enough for practice, his corrections clear. When she kept her feet under her, he noticed that too. He touched her elbow to show the direction, then removed his hand when she had it.

Thorne came outside with water after the first few attempts. He watched one escape, nodded at her footing, and told her she had stayed upright that time. It should not have pleased her as much as it did, but he had noticed what she was actually working on.

When Sprout counted fifteen active minutes, Dove finished the attempt before reaching for her drink. Her shirt stuck between her shoulders. Nothing hurt, but her patience had developed a serious injury.

"I know what I’m supposed to do," she admitted. "I can picture it, and then I do something stupid anyway."

Edrik crouched in front of her chair. "You saw what went wrong that time," he said. "Yesterday you just called me an asshole. That’s progress, sweetheart."

She looked at him instead of the yard. He had not made the lesson easier to protect her feelings. Somehow, that made his patience mean more.

She had approved groceries and towels before her lesson. By lunch, all four bottles had dispensed without anyone calling her away. She stored the towels, collected the sales and exercise rewards, and let Sprout settle genuine reactions from the shop and her men. The normal balance reached 1,339 and Favor fourteen, including the single daily mate extra.

The afternoon lesson began with the same grip. Dove moved correctly when Edrik counted her in, and that small success immediately made her suspicious.

"Don’t tell me when you’re doing it this time," she said. "I need to know whether I’m learning or just following along."

His smile changed, slow and pleased enough to make her want to take back absolutely nothing.

"All right," he said, offering his hand. "Then keep your eyes on me, and stop guessing what I want you to do."