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"Going to Crystal Lake City, it’s like, it’s like going to a great city a thousand years ago," the Thistle Witch finally said. "The Ancient Clan is... content. They don’t need to become better at anything to feed their people or clothe their people. Their buildings are simple and they don’t have engineers to make things better.

They do things the way they always have because they’ve already found an answer to everything that’s good enough for them. "

The words Talauia’s father had once used to describe the Ancient Clan were ’arrogantly primitive and deliberately so.

’ When she’d last visited Crystal Lake City, she’d seen a good many bronze-smiths and a few whitesmiths but the Ancient Clan still hadn’t seen the point of learning to smelt iron, much less to produce steel of any quality.

The few professions that made use of iron and steel tools obtained them almost exclusively through trade but convincing one of them they needed such tools was only slightly easier than pulling the fangs of a protesting alligator.

They were like that for almost everything they did, and they were as stubborn as stones about changing.

"How could that be?" Ashlynn asked, utterly baffled by the description Talauia had given. "Isn’t a natural law that without strong predators or constant warfare, each generation will be larger than the one before it? If their population keeps growing, surely they’d find a need to invent better things.

Better agriculture, fishing, better housing for larger families," she said only to trail off at the end when she saw Talauia shaking her head.

"It’s not like that, not like that at all" the Thistle Witch said. "The Ancient Clan live very, very long lives. They don’t consider themselves ’old’ until they’ve passed at least two centuries and their elders have usually lived for more than three.

For them, a thousand years ago is just a few generations. "

"Hey Tala," Heila said hesitantly as a curious thought struck her. "Do you know how old Jacques is? Is he considered very young for the Ancient Clan?"

"Don’t tell him that I told you, don’t tell him, all right?

" Talauia said as she gestured for Ashlynn and Heila to lean in close.

"He just turned thirty last summer," the winged witch said in a hushed, conspiritorial tone.

"He’s been here for half his life after.

.. no, nevermind," she said, suddenly realizing that she’d said too much.

"Don’t tell," she reminded them with a finger to her lips. "If he wants to tell, he can tell why he came her, but I shouldn’t tell for him."

"No, of course you shouldn’t," Ashlynn said, hastily waving off the notion that Taluia betray any sort of confidence. "But if the Ancient Clan feels content with what they have, what sorts of things should we concoct for them?" she asked, returning back to the original topic.

"I don’t think they’re all content," Heila said as she thought for a moment. "Maybe the wealthy ones are content, but if you don’t have many luxuries, there’s always something that the richer people have that you don’t.

Anyone who sees people living better than they do will spend a little time thinking about what it would be like if they had those things too. "

"I suppose that’s true," Ashlynn said as she thought. "The same is true of the wealthy. Maybe most of them are content, but there’s always something that one person has and their neighbor wishes they had it as well."

"Tala," Ashlynn asked as an idea struck her. "Has the Eldritch Lord of the Crystal Lake ever asked Amahle to concoct something for him? Something that Heila and I might be able to make?"

"Of course," Talauia said with an almost smug nod. "Thornback Egg Paste. It isn’t a potion that a person drinks, it’s something they slather on their eggs so their children grow up with the strength of the Giant Thornback Alligator. It’s an ancient recipe that originally comes from the Ancient Clan, but. .."

"Mistress Nyrielle told me about the Giant Thornback Alligators," Ashlynn said as she sank into thought. "She said they could crush bones with their jaws and swallow goats whole. This potion... we’d have to hunt down a Giant Thornback Alligator wouldn’t we?"

"You would, you would and it’s very dangerous," Talauia said. "You haven’t been practicing how to fight like a witch yet, you’ve just been working on potions and incantations with your wands. I don’t know if it’s a good idea to hunt one of those and Heila doesn’t even have a weapon yet so..."

"I can make one for myself," Heila said with surprising firmness. "I had to learn how to conjure weapons to fight when Cecile interfered with my trial. I’m not helpless anymore," she added, holding her head up high and giving Talauia a challenging look.

"How about this," Ashlynn said, thinking rapidly as she watched Talauia’s wings start to twitch anxiously. "There are other predators we could hunt to use in concoctions aren’t there? Talauia, you’re coming with us when we go foraging just to watch, right?"

"I am, but Auntie, I shouldn’t help you hunt, shouldn’t help at all," she said, crossing her arms in front of her petite chest. "But if you want help just finding thing, and only with the finding, then maybe... maybe I could do that much?"

"That’s even more than I was going to ask for," Ashlynn said with a gentle smile. "I was just going to ask if you can watch us hunt some lesser predators, then you can decide if we have the strength to fight a Giant Thornback Alligator or not. If we don’t, then it’s fine, we’ll still forage for other things.

But if we do, I’d like to take the chance. "

"After all, if this Thornback Egg Paste is so valuable that the Lord of the Crystal Lake wanted it for his children, I can’t imagine there are many parents who wouldn’t like the chance to do the same for their own children."

"You’re right, you’re right," Talauia said, her multifaceted eyes growing clouded as ghosts danced through the sudden mist that clouded her vision.

The sounds of her father shouting for her to fly, fly as fast as she could echoed in her ears and for a moment she could even smell the acrid stench of burning bodies mingling with the thick smoke of smoldering trees.

"Parents really would do anything for their children..."