The catfolk and werewolves of Kef are going at it claw and ear, which is to say, cooperating despite their differences.

But his funeral cloak gets him a job with the tanner, who is glad to have an assistant with a useless human nose. Honest work for once, he might joke, but actually it's not so unusual. He works steadily. He does not steal from his employer. A golden opportunity will come eventually.

Or if it doesn't, well, this life is alright.

Huh, there's a young boy of a species he's never heard of. And he bought fur scraps at least once. Hm.

If Tomas, hypothetically, were to get the kid, what could he do? The Freedom Democracy is too far to go without help. The Lei empire is way too far. And he doesn't really want to commit treason. He has honor.

His father liked to tell him about a town deep in the mountains where humans still lived with dignity. Where men where respected, not despite, but because of their lack of magic, which gave them the ideal perspective to rule from. Where women didn't whore themselves out exploring, where they couldn't explore, and, faithful to their husbands, they raised their sons and daughters with care.

The town is in the Allheart Alliance. If it exists. So there's still an elph stomping around.

But it's an appealing fantasy. If it exists. And taking the kid there wouldn't be treason.

"How much more time do you want to prepare for the dance show? We should announce it in advance, and then we can talk to Paulo and his dad about selling something special to the audience! Maybe crunchballs or fruit wafers."

"Which dance would we do? We practice a lot of them. The first one has to be really good. And maybe have a story. Shows at home had stories. And we'll need music..."

"All of them!

People are going to be coming and going, but yeah, the first and last ones should be impressive. Maybe the one with the clock lights at the end, and the drumhop to start, with us running in from opposite sides?

I think the story should be something familiar, so no one is confused, or sad about missing the ending. And long enough that we can fit every dance into it somehow... Travels of Mortikesh, The Boark and the Harpy and the King of the Lake, The Hundred Deeds of the Scribe, A Farmer's Puzzle, The Sun and the Water...

The fire crews probably know lots of musicians... and are probably sick of them all. We need someone new, who hasn't worn out everything they know already."

"That makes sense. All the dances will last a while. And with music it'll be like a party. It'll be really amazing! I don't know musicians though. And I don't know these stories except some of the Travels of Mortikesh, but scribes are good... And farms are good... But maybe the one I know some of because Tanno has it, I guess. So I can follow it better. What's a Harpy like?"

"They can fly... and maybe fly better when they're in groups; something like that is implied because the one harpy doesn't have a special magical role without a group, just like the boark in the middle of a lovely peaceful part of the chartreuse. But they succeed at tasks for the king because they're clever."

Neffie will sing for them for one-twentieth of their profit.

Which they will have, because Basilio will pay them two-fifths of his marginal increase in profit during the time of the show. "And I can spice the fruit wafers, people will be feeling adventurous."

    "Daaad."

"It's my burger-wagon, get your own if you want."

He's pretty sure most shows make money by selling tickets, but that only really works if you're really famous...

He wants to ask Basilio if he's going to do something like measure 'profit' in a way that makes it smaller, but he kind of likes Basilio? And werewolves got all weird about money the first time, with the turbines... Basilio's nice anyway, he wouldn't do that.

And in that case they should loudly announce that Basilio's burgers are the best. He's pretty sure it's even true!

He's back to his old pattern of constantly paying attention to where people are in relation to him. At least when anyone he notices is human is around. Not that he ever fully dropped it, but... It might be noticeable how he's suddenly more wary at certain times.

"Are you going to practice with us for just one-twentieth, or just sing on the right day? 'Cause I'm pretty sure shows go better if you practice first. I don't mind paying you for singing, people should get money for things!"

"Yeah, Basilio's burgers are the best! The watertown burger-wagon is too dry."

             "Best, for plant-food."

"Snob."

             "We need to eat meat to be healthy."

"Yeah, I know, but some of us can't afford meat every meal. Or would rather eat plant-food five times and a nice plump rat for the sixth meal."

   "Why are you telling us Basilio's burgers are the best? Either you're wrong, or you're right and we can figure that out for ourselves. I'm going to walk to the watertown cart for breakfast to compare!"

       "What if that's the point? To sell more burgers in water town?"

           "Devious."

   "I think there's nothing wrong with reminding us to be prudent and open-minded! He's doing us a service."

"Well let us know if the burgers there are still too dry!"

           "Hey kid, we heard you, now shut up with the noise pollution."

"Okay, I'll practice with you for another twentieth." She should have asked for more. She was trying to pick a normal amount, but is more familiar with fees in bigger towns, and she may have unconsciously shifted her price down a bit to be appealing...

Of course people should get money for things? Oh, right, that's not normal here. "I appreciate your honorable dealing."

She notices Nico watching her, and does her part to keep her distance from him. If all she does here is make him more comfortable around human women, so that one of the other girls has a chance, that's still a success. The Magistrate might have been lying about plenty, but will obviously want as many kaleids as possible, and will make her breed off the first baby, whoever bears it. It's likely that the Allheart Alliance will get lots of kaleids. That's fine. The goal is to get an advantage over the Lei, not to damage a fragile opportunity for all of Ansaf. This is war, but she still has a choice to make it a less destructive war.

Oops, he probably got a little bit too excited about the concept of advertising.

If they have him and Calsa and one other person... "One tenth still seems low. Especially if we practice more than once. I don't want to cheat people, then they'll hear I'm a cheater forever and that's much worse than winning once! If you hate it because it's too low and don't want to do it again that would be bad also. One fifth of what we get. Since Calsa is teaching me a lot and designed the dances, and I'm doing the magic."

"Very sensible." Aaah.

She can be friendly! That's her natural state! But she doesn't know how to be friendly when friendliness is suspicious! And asking questions is suspicious!

The show draws a crowd. Basilio makes 195 money-of-Kef more than usual, giving Nico and Calsa 78, of which Neffie gets 15.6.

He's very focused and intent during their few practices, and rambles about plants and his other non-magic hobbies (mostly to Calsa, but to Neffie kind of incidentally) before and after. Did you know plants are MADE OF AIR?

Yay! It's a lot of fun! They should do more shows, maybe once a deci-year!

...Nico has been wanting to write down when he gets and spends money-of-Kef, so he doesn't forget. Which is kind of hard when there's not much paper. So he goes and buys some from Tanno to keep track. And now he has more money! He will go buy more fur to work on more thread for the hat he's been weaving, and maybe try for some socks and gloves too if he's feeling ambitious later.

Aw, cute kid. "In rainy parts of the chartreuse, there are plants that live high on top of other plants and never touch the ground!"

Tomas accidentally puts a pelt in the liming bath for bare leather instead of the one for fur. Not even an important pelt, but the tanner tells him he has to be more careful.

Fuck this town and its patronizing nincompoops.

Hm, the kid bought some shorn fur recently...

He asks around for where Nico lives, giving the excuse of wanting to hire him and Calsa and Neffie for a party.

"Approaching, may I enter? It's Tomas, I work with the tanner."

He looks over from his spot by the mouse enclosure to Lin in her pool with a questioning look.

"...Calsa and Merta aren't here!"

Lin puts on a smile, hops down, and goes to the doorway. "Yeah, it's just us, sorry."

"That's fine, I was actually looking for, uh, Nico was it? How are you liking the fur you got the other cycle, and the pelt scraps? We're thinking of ordering a new color from Archer's Tabard, is there something you would be likely to want?"

He jumps up and heads to the door too. Displays the partial hat. "Oh, yeah, maybe! I was just thinking about buying more so I can make socks too. I don't really care about the color that much though, it just has to be the warm stuff."

"The warmest yarn we make is a blend of cat, wolf undercoat, and gnomunk fuzz. It's a lot of work, so we'd want payment in advance... most people just use more of the cheap stuff instead. Do you want your socks to be extra thin? Like my gloves, thin but warm." That's a lie - his gloves are an ordinary cat/wolf blend - but people are suggestible. "Sorry they're so worn. There's a nicer sample back at the shop."