continued - 13/14

Joe saw her confusion and stopped for a moment to explain a second, giving a beat each second for several seconds, "Each of those beats was a single second, OK?"

She looked at Joe before nodding cautiously, "So… this," she offered, then repeated the beats that Joe had sounded out.

Joe nodded, "Yeah… just about. Maybe a bit faster. But yeah, those are one second.

"So, every second, you are able to intercept two attacks, parry three, and block two. I am uncertain, but I believe this is possible as long as you are not exhausted. Exhaustion would likely reduce or even negate this ability. It's also only used to protect others of your people."

She nodded at that, smiling slightly, "This would still be quite useful, especially if we could train our own soldiers to parry and block for each other."

Joe considered that before laughing a bit, "Yeah, you're probably right! Anyway, you also gain the ability to protect your people outside your lands but also can do so without offending the local authorities. You also gain half again and double to two of your mind stats, making you smarter and more able to defend your people in debates against others and even any leadership in the area as well."

Her excitement grew with this latter point and she still nodded excitedly, "Not exciting, but so very useful!"

Joe laughed at that, "You enjoy debate, then?"

Her return smile was genuine, "Always!"

Joe laughed as he nodded, "Interesting."

She laughed as well and then pressed the last title, "Last one."

"Hopefully a good one!" Joe replied, then looked at the title.

The title was Wind Princess and the description was quite short, but as he read, his eyebrows climbed into his hairline.

"OK. Wow! This is a good one. It's Wind Princess. You gain half again to any and all wind magic in everything! So it is half again as big, half again as long, half again as powerful, half again as precise, half again as piercing, half again as long distance, lasts longer by half again… everything is half again better. So, if your wind spell has the power of a dragon, it now has the power of one dragon and a half of another dragon."

Her eye's crinkled in joy at hearing this and her smile quickly erupted into laughter, "Ha! I knew that there was something happening with my wind magic."

"Well, something like that would be pretty shocking and obvious."

"True."

They fell silent and Gwenvair stared up at him, the amazing news Joe had offered quickly faded from her mind as the realization that he had been capable of explaining titles settled on her, joy quickly changing to awe laced with fear. Joe noticed the emotions and quickly waved them away, shaking his head and waving his hand.

"Relax. I was just helping and I can only hope it is of use to you."

Her smile returned, if a bit shaky and Joe hid his own sour discomfort, "Anyway, could we return Kilniara to our conversation?"

Gwenvair glanced at Kilniara in shock then embarrassment as she quickly yanked away her privacy artifact, slipping it into her purse, "Ah! Sorry about that Kilniara! I did not mean to exclude you for so long."

Kilniara smiled politely but bowed her head slightly, "Noble talk for nobles. I understand."

Joe reached over and tweaked her ear, "Enough of such talk! It means nothing to me, you know this."

Kilniara giggled and slapped him softly on the shoulder, "But it is still fun to tease you. What advice did you give her for her status?"

"She just wanted to know of her titles."

"Ah. That must have been useful."

"It was. We just showed each other… OH! Shoot! I forgot to show you my status!"

Joe flipped open his status and showed her his main status page.