It's annoying not having the Eorzea gathering data in our journals. We don't exactly need it in this world, but looking up where something was found in Eorzea would give us an idea of where we should look for it here.

Fortunately there's a couple good-sized FF14 wikis out there, so we can look stuff up any time we have internet. Which isn't Middle of Nowhere, Oklahoma, so we need to do research before we go out.

(Random find on Reddit: "Final Fantasy 14 Surpasses 24 Million Players, Becomes Most Profitable Final Fantasy Game In the Series". The mythic realm theory gains credence.)

I showed Tsu'na the sites as I looked up ash and elm. Both are found in the Central Shroud, which is a mix of stuff...hills and cliffs and streams and lakes and swamp and chocobo meadow and a barren rocky patch with a cavern. Nothing with that kind of variety around Wyatt, but northeast of Tulsa is near the edge of the Ozarks. Maps I could find online suggest we might find all that there, minus the chocobos.

It was a bit cooler there. Good for keeping each other warm in the tent. Also not as taxing when we got down to the actual harvesting during the day. It didn't take long to find nodes for ash, along with chanterelle, which is used to make potions. The elm nodes weren't very far away, but instead of the tinolqa mistletoe we'd normally find with it, there was tulsa mistletoe. That might not work for ether...but then, we don't have imp wing either. Not counting on bat wing working as a substitute, but we can only try.

We harvested a goodly amount of both kinds of wood. And since harvesting is a pretty mindless activity, it made for conversation.

"So how was your first night as a bouncer?"

"I think it went well. I only threw one person. The rest behaved."

"Cool. Though they may need to learn to relax around you now. Did you get to know them?"

"The only one I talked to was the one I threw. He touched me more than I wanted."

"How much was that?"

"At all."

"Gotcha. Yeah, a female bouncer may need a different dynamic."

"Is bouncing the best use of our skills, Husband?"

"Define 'best'. If you mean what will bring in the most money, no. We could do better with a fight club."

"What is a fight club?"

"Like an arena. There's professional fight clubs and fighting championships, but the big-name ones would take ID, and we'd get a lot more publicity than we probably want right now. But there's also private ones. They range from bunch o' guys in a parking lot to some basement room somewhere. Those aren't legal, which means they pay in cash."

"Who pays?"

"I think for the parking lot it's more of a duel...each fighter puts up his bet. For the private rooms there'll be someone taking bets on both fighters and paying the winner out of the house winnings."

"What are the rules?"

"For private fights there might not be any. That's why they're illegal."

She chopped for a while in silence as she considered this. "We are stronger than the people in this world."

"Far as I can tell."

"So this fighting should be easy."

"If anything, it might be hard to not kill them by accident."

"Not killing them is a rule?"

"Not necessarily in the illegal ones. Even in the legal ones it happens sometimes. But we should probably try not to."

"Losers get nothing?"

"In the legal ones both fighters get something, and I think the winner gets a bonus. Not sure about the illegal ones."

"It must be awkward coming back for one's pay after being sent home."

"Sent home?"

"Regenerating at their home point."

I stopped chopping. Right. We hadn't had this conversation yet. We really should have.

"Um. Earth people don't regenerate."

She stopped chopping.

"...What?"

"Earth people don't regenerate. They don't have home points."

She stared at me. "What happens when they die?"

"They're dead. They're gone."

"They return to the aether?"

"I suppose that's possible."

"You do not know?"

"Different religions claim different things. We don't...have...I am not aware of there being an actual expert on the subject."

"What about NPCs?"

"There are no NPCs."

"No NPCs? At all?"

"No. Any person you see is a unique individual, with a name and parents and everything. Who, if they die, will stay dead."

The next question was obvious. She didn't want to ask it. For that matter, neither did I. It took her a moment to make herself do so.

"What about us?"

"Well, we have a home point, so we will hopefully regenerate there."

"Hopefully."

"Yes."

"You do not know."

"No."

Her eyes lost focus. She sat down slowly on the leaf-covered ground. She stared at the hatchet in her hands as if she had no idea what it was.

I holstered my hatchet and sat down beside her. I put my arm around her shoulders. She didn't move.

In time she quietly asked, "How long have you known this?"

"People here tend to learn about death kind of young. They're usually told about what their parents' religion says. People generally try not to think about it too much."

"You thought about it in Eorzea, did you not? You were so afraid at first, so careful. Until the first time you died. Then you were...I thought you were reckless."

"I was kinda blown away by coming back from death."

She raised her eyes to look at me. "But things are different now. We are Earth people now."

"I don't think we really are. You know how fast we heal...Earth people don't heal that fast. And we can Return. And we have our skills and our inventory. I don't think we're normal Earth people."

"But you do not know."

"No. I don't know."

"Why did you not tell me sooner?"

"Honestly, I didn't think about it. Earth people try not to think about death."

"I could have lost you. I could still lose you."

I brushed my lips against her hair. "And I could lose you."

We sat quietly for a while, heads together. There was a pit in my stomach that I could not decide was new or not...it might have been a background worry I'd had for a while, especially the first time I saw Tsu'na use Return. As for her, she might never have had to think about death seriously before now, certainly not after her first attunement.

After a bit she reached up toward her chest and grasped something. She held out her hand in front of us, showing a glowing orange crystal. "I still have Hydaelyn's gift, Husband. Do you?"

I'd forgotten about it. It's not in my inventory. I hardly ever thought of it except when the story demanded it. I didn't know where it was, if I still had it. But I followed her example, raised a hand to my chest and tried to grab something that wasn't there...and it was. A matching crystal.

"I think we will be all right."

"Willing to believe that. But let's not try to find out too soon, okay?"

She nestled against me. "What would you do if you lost me?"

"I'd want to burn the world."

"You would make Earth my funeral pyre?"

"Yeah. And if that wasn't enough I'd find another world and burn it too."

She sighed. "If I lost you, I would want to kill anyone who dared to be more happy than me."

"Tears and lamentations for all?"

"Yes. I would raise an army of the sad."

"For the sake of the world, let's try not to die."

"Let us drink to that." She produced a bottle of cider. "I got these after bouncing. They stay cold in inventory."

"Cool. Did you bring an opener?"

She started laughing. Softly at first, then harder. I held her as she laughed way past the point of it being funny. When the laughter subsided I released her, switched to Paladin, and used the edge of a gauntlet scale to peel back the bottle cap.

"That is clever. I shall remember that."

"Or you can pack an opener."

"I will pack an opener." She took a long sip and handed the bottle to me. Her eyes wandered over the woods around us. "Do we have enough wood? I think I would like to return to the tent."

We spent a long time simply clinging to each other. The crystal was reassuring; if we still had that piece of Eorzea, we probably had the regeneration piece too. But I still never want to lose her, and I didn't want to be even an inch away from her right then.