Alvec, Bait, and Naya

Bait followed the black-robed figure as he walked around the dance floor, muttering to himself and greeting every plant he ran into while gazing straight past people. Bait, no mind, Bait, just keep shouting cheese facts to him. He had already informed him how much milk it takes and how long a cheese should cure. Told him the different varieties of cheese, listed every type he could, and listed uncommon ingredients that made new types of cheese, like how peppers, when combined with cheese, created a spicy pepper jack. Tell stranger how Bait plan to make earthy and nutty cheese. Use mushrooms, maybe the kind that makes you see strange colors or shadow people. Bait not decided yet.

Still, man show no interest in Bait, and worse... no interest in cheese. As the goblin followed him, he noticed that Alvec had begun to follow him. Alvec good acolyte, remembers cheese facts, and can recite them. Before too long, Bait also notice Naya join in, dress look like pumpkin to Bait. Make Pumpkin cheese later.

Alvec frowned; whoever this man was, he didn’t like the general vibe of the man. Worse, getting Bait to stop following him was challenging. You’d think he’d have bored of this already, yet somehow, he was still following this man and shouting new and strange “facts” about cheese; admittedly, some of it had been rather informative. It was becoming louder and more deranged, though, by the minute. Someone had to try something. Using magic to make a voice wasn’t super complicated. So he did that, trying to place it right behind the man and be as unique as possible.

“Why thank you, young Goblin, I’ve learned oh so much about cheese,” Alvec said, forcing his voice much deeper as it played out from the man's location.

“Bait do a good job, Bait tell you even more!”

“Tozhen, damn it!” Alvec said, relenting. “You got any ideas, Naya?” Alvec asked, turning toward her. Of all the cheese acolytes, she’d gone the furthest to tidy up for this little dance event. It was a powerful look on her. He tried to make sure his gaze didn’t linger. It was a strange lens to view her through, certainly not a bad one, but a strange one nonetheless.

“Does tossing a potato sack over his head count? We can abduct him from here, and hopefully, he won't find and follow the same fellow?”

“Catch and release. I like it, but I feel like we might get some strange looks.” Alvec said.

“Yeah, and I’ve only gotten to dance with Illaria so far, so I’d like not to get kicked out just yet,” Naya confirmed.

“Fuck it, we leave Bait to his own devices. He’ll tire of it eventually,” Alvec extended his hand to her. “We’re here to celebrate, right? So I think we’re supposed to share at least one dance.”

“It would be my pleasure, but uh, what type of dance are we doing? Illaria didn’t need to touch me?” Alvec grinned ear to ear.

“I’ve got a feeling Illaria and I are of two very different dancing traditions. Best keep up, Naya.” Alvec said as he began to move, slowly at first guiding her. It was far more a ballroom dance than whatever freeform moves Illaria preferred. It wasn’t hard at all to imagine Alvec in a royal court. An instructor to a prince or an adviser to a king. Someday, he’d get the recognition he deserved. She was sure of it. Before she could get too lost in thought, he kicked up the tempo to the point that Naya struggled to keep pace for a moment as she adjusted to the more intense movements. “Did you think I would make it easy on you?” Alvec asked.

“I was hoping so; this is my first time at an event like this,” Naya said.

“Exactly, why I can't. We’ve gotta make your moves shine as much as that outfit,” He said. They continued for a few more moments before; eventually, Alvec spun her a few times, twisted her away, and bowed out. He gently put a hand on none other than Hoc and pushed him forward. “You're up next Hoc, have fun! Just do what I showed you,” Alvec said, laughing at the minor chaos he’d sewn. Hoc wasn’t in church clothing, just a clean white button-up shirt and a pair of Khakis. Standing just a few feet away was Sarbie. Her hair was down and hanging messy around her face. She had also abandoned her church clothing for a simple white blouse and a long blue skirt that went just above her ankles.

Alvec extended his hand towards her. “I promise to go slower.”

“Much slower?” she asked.

“Much slower,” he confirmed, still holding his hand out to her. “So what do you say?”

“I’d rather be reading about a dance than be in one. This is embarrassing. I don’t know why I agreed to come.”

“Probably because a certain friend of ours doesn’t know how to take no for an answer, and I think I’m on his side on this one,” Alvec said with a wide smile.

“Alright, how do we even do this?” She asked.

“First, I grab your hand like so, and we raise our arms like this.” He said as he took her hand in his, slowly and gently bending her arm into the proper position. “Then I put a hand upon your back. Since we’re going for a light, jovial tone, not a romantic one, I place my other hand on your back about midway up.”

“If it were romantic, where would your hand go?” She asked. Alvec flushed red for a moment, and his grip stiffened.

“Well, you know, it would likely be resting on the small of your back, bordering on your, uh, rear. I’d probably pull you closer to myself, whereas we’re making more of a square with our torsos right now.” He took a breath, loosening his grip a bit. He drummed his fingers on her back a few times. “That's the rhythm we’re going to use,” he said

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“Alright, where does my hand go?”

“Onto my arm, near where the bicep meets the shoulder.” She moved her hand there. “Ok, now what?”

“Well, this is a waltz, and it's about the most basic thing we can do. We essentially move in a square, and it's done in two motions. I move forward, and you step back.” He said as he very slowly moved himself forward. We’re stepping diagonally and then bring our other foot up in a sweep to match. Then we do the same thing, but back the other way. Ready?” he asked.

“No, but I’ve come this far, haven’t I?”

“That's the spirit. We’ll have you dancing like a princess in a fairy tale any moment now.”

“I think I’d need a prince for that.”

“Ow, breaking my heart,” Alvec said as he launched into a slow and steady waltz. Alvec was true to his word, keeping the pace slow and predictable. “You catch on quick,” Alvec said.

“I didn’t see you give Naya as much of a lesson, so I can’t catch on that quick,” Sarbie said.

“People learn different ways; Naya has been a much more practical learner as long as I’ve known her,” Sarbie nodded. It made sense.

“What type of learner am I then?”

“The sort that wants as much information before she starts as possible. You’d read a book about herbs before planting a windowsill garden box.”

“And you?”

“I confess, I also want to be an expert before I even start.” He said. “But I also know that sometimes you just have to dive right in.”

“OW, HOC, watch your feet. You step on them again, and I’m going to have Echo step on you.”

“Sorry Naya, Sorry. I’m new to this.”

“Me too, but I haven’t stomped on your feet yet,” she said, a bit exasperated. “Alvec, can we trade back!”

“Not yet.” Alvec sung back to her.

“Sounds like you're rather in demand, Alvec.”

“What can I say? I’ve got some skills.”

Both sets of dancers were interrupted as none other than Pacta arrived. “Tomorrow!” she bellowed. “The red banner and the cheese Acolytes clash! It will certainly be quite the rematch, Naya.”

“I beat you last time; let's see if we can go two for two in a row,” Naya replied.

“Yeah, but last time, I had to fight with a blade and not my fists,” Pacta said.

“Tomorrow, then we settle this,” Alvec said. The group chatted, drank, ate, and danced more before calling it a night.

Mavec

Before the sun was in the sky, Mavec was on his way to the academy. It had been too late at night when he’d learned of the book in the school's library. Now, though, there would be people awake and able to search for the old annotated book. He power walked towards the library, almost physically running into Praha.

He only paused for a moment to say sorry before sliding around her.

“What's the rush? Why are you here anyway? Aren’t you fighting in the Festival of Blades soon?” she asked, joining him in his march.

“Yeah, I am, hence why I can’t stop and chat. I heard a rumor and I absolutely need to know if it's true.”

“What kind of rumor involves our library?” she asked.

“One about a famous artificer.”

“You’ve got my attention,” she said. “What are we looking for?”

“An old version of Intro to Artificy. It's apparently got some interesting annotations. Didn’t see you at the dance last night,” he stated.

“Should I have been there?”

“Only if you wanted to be,” Mavec said.

“If you want me at an event, invite me next time,” Praha replied. The two of them made it to the library, and it took a few minutes to assemble all of the older copies of Intro to Artificy. They had about eleven books to leaf through, and Mavec was glad to have the help. He flipped through each page carefully for fear of going too fast. This information was too valuable to gloss over. They went through about four of them total before she finally and excitedly moved around the table and slid the book in front of Mavec. “Here!”

Below a page break, there was an illustration of a construct. Its legs were like blades or skis. Its body looked humanoid primarily, though it was tough to tell since it was clothed loosely in white fabric. Where a head should be, however, was a gyroscope. It was modest in size but very bizarre to look at. Next to it was a location name. Tsuhomma Downs.

“You know where that is?” Mavec asked.

“Off the top of my head... yes!” Praha blinked. “Yes, I do. It's a swampy pastoral region on the way to Ac-Aziza.”

“Well, that's interesting. I’ll have to ask Alvec if we can head that way. We might just find some time lost secrets if we do.”

“Any reason he’d say no to going?”

“Nah, he’ll say something like, ‘as soon as we win this tournament.’ And then we’d be off that way in a week.”

“Well, that's good, at least,” Praha said. “Now get out of here before you’re late. You’ve got a big fight to go win,” she said. “Good luck.”

“Promise not to tell anyone about this?” He asked.

“On my honor as a researcher.”

He rushed back to the house to find the rest of the group already ready to leave. “Good, I’m just in time,” he said to them.

“Whereabouts were you anyway?” Illaria asked.

“Bait suggest you been kidnapped for my cheese knowledge. Dey would ask for large ransom. Bait, no pay, you die. Cheese knowledge sacred.”

“You spent most of your night telling people free cheese facts. I think they would have acquired all the cheese knowledge they could already,” Naya said.

“Sorry guys, I got a good lead on something I had to follow up on. Alusai is notorious, and I do mean that in its literal usage, and not the improper usage. He was on the WRONG side of the war and went into hiding before Ageneon claimed victory. However, he was brilliant; his work uses many unique components, and the biggest among them is external gyroscopes. Turns out someone saw some constructs moving around in the Tsuhomma downs that look like they may have been built by him or someone with knowledge of his craft. So as soon as we can, I’d like to go over there and see if we can’t track it or them down.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Alvec said.

“Good, good. So uh, let's lose this round, so we can just get going to the Tsuhomma Downs.” Mavec suggested.

“Ahem, I won’t be reckoning that’s a good idea. We’re kind of broke now that we spent all our gold on the entry fee. So we best be trying to win, so we can have enough money to live off from, till we can find what you’re looking for,” Illaria stated.