It took Davin a few moments to put his eyes on the person who had yelled his name. The purple-skinned hand that waved wildly just barely stood above the crowd, it raising and lowering as if the person it was attached to was jumping. Davin pointed, aiming Hugh towards the hand, looking for Grim or Gale to stand out above it. Shifting his way through the crowd, Cadence stuck close to Davin and Hugh as they made their way to the voice. Jes was smiling as wide as her face would allow as Davin and his friends stepped out of the crowd.
"You're back!" Jes rushed into Davin's arms.
"Would have been back sooner, but we didn’t get to Edges Rest soon enough," Davin said with a pout.
"I know, Big Green let me know that you were close, so I figured I would wait for you." Her smile was infectious.
"How did he know we were close?" Davin asked as he held Jes close.
"He has your party stone, any time you have been away for more than a few days, it will glow again when you get closer, and he told me that yours was getting brighter. By the way, who's your friend?" Jes asked with a tone of excitement in her voice.
"This is Cadence," Davin said with a flourish as he waved his hand at Cadence. "We met them on the road when I was diseased by a dog bite from a dog with two heads." Finishing his statement with a shrug.
Cadence held out their hand to shake, to which Jes took with gusto and shook vigorously. "Hello! I'm Jessabelle! But my friends call me Jes."
Cadence's face was full of surprise, it's had been a while since anyone was so upfront and overwhelmingly pleasant with them. "It is very nice to meet you, Davin has told me many stories."
"Many? Hopefully all good ones." Jes said with a small giggle.
"I would say so, most of them seemed to be how excited you would be to try some of the spoils that they got from one of their adventures." Cadence waved their hand in the general direction of Nibbles the donkey.
"Oh? Well, that is exciting, and you got a donkey!" Jes broke away from Davin and quickly moved over to pet the beast.
"If that’s how you react to Nibbles, I can't wait till you meet Truck." Davin smiled as he walked over to the donkey.
"Let's get to the hall, I'd love to offload some of this, I have so many notes to compile." Hugh butted in, pointing to the center of the city.
"Oh! Yes!" Jes shook her head. "Let's go, Big Green will be excited to hear the stories."
They wove their way through the side streets as Jes led the way, knowing the fastest ways to get through the city. Davin felt refreshed, as if just making it into the bastion was revitalizing him, by the time that they made it to the back entrance of The Hall, he was feeling a lot better than he had in the morning. When they stepped through the doorway that led into the common room of the, for lack of a better word, adventurers guild there was a cacophonous applause that hit Davin and his friends, Jes had a wide smile plastered on her face.
"We thought a small welcome home party and successful adventure was a good enough reason to cheer." Big Green's booming voice rang through cutting the cheering for a brief moment before it swelled again.
Davin laughed loudly as the big green smiling orc approached him. "I apricate it, was a little more harrowing out there than I had originally expected," Davin said with a grimace.
"I saw, you had a few rough days that we could see, what happened?" Big Green's face shifted from his jovial smile to concern in a moment.
"Oh, that?" Davin played up the tension. "Does this place have a stage?" Davin asked.
"A stage? I guess we could put you and your friends on a platform.
"Close enough, I really only want to have to tell this story once." Davin let a grin spread over his face as his friends looked nervous.
Several long moments later Davin had a chair that was staged atop a pile of crates. He then told the group at large a slightly edited version of his story of his time away. Hugh and Cadence fielded questions to the best of their abilities, trying to fill in any gaps that they could. By the time they were done with their story Davin's throat was dry, patrons had kept trying to send him drinks, but after the third one was sent away, they opted to set up a tab for Davin in the future.
Big Green had pulled him aside after he had finished his tale. "Want to use my altar?"
"Hmm? Is that what I have to do to check in with Compass to claim the reward he promised us?" Davin asked in a half-whisper.
"Yes, the three of you can use it when you're ready." Big Green nodded. "But before that." He pulled out the same stone tablet and a fresh knife. "Sign here and a fresh blood here." Big Green set the tablet in front of Cadence.
"Oh?!" Cadence blushed as they found the group of people that surrounded them were all focused on them. "So soon?"
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Hugh shrugged. "Why not, we're here, might as well get it done and over with… unless you're having second thoughts, it’s a bit late for that." He smiled widely, letting out a chuckle as he did.
"I thought we were a party?" The forced sadness that Davin filled into his voice.
"Whu-we are? But this is a big move… I mean…" Cadence continued to get more flustered.
"I mean if you don’t want to join us on future adventures? We could always find someone else to go with us?" Davin shrugged.
"NO!" Cadence grabbed the knife, stabbing it into their hand harder than they needed to, causing the entire group to either jump back in horror or immediately lean in to help. Cadence slapped their hand on the stone, before anyone could do anything to help the words that poured out of Cadence quickly healed the small wound.
The group was left gaping, and Davin spoke first. "That was Dramatic."
"I panicked… I did not want to miss out." Cadence blushed even further, covering their face with their arms.
"Good thing that you can heal yourself." Hugh pointed out as he grabbed their hand holding it up seeing the wound had healed.
"We weren't going to leave without you, we were teasing you," Davin stated as he grabbed a damp cloth to clean off Cadence's hand.
"I know that now, I have to say that I do not appreciate that kind of behavior," Cadence stated with a pout.
"Noted," Hugh said as he pulled out Leaf and exaggeratedly left a note on one of the back pages of the spell book.
"Did you just?" Davin asked as he pointed to the book.
"Hmm? Oh yeah, I have notes about you too." Hugh chuckled as he put the spellbook away.
"That seems extra…" Davin said as he scoffed.
"No more than what you do for food." Cadence chimed in as they finished wiping their hand.
Davin was left jaw gaping.
They began unloading the trunk, Davin pulled out the things that they had gathered, the popcorn, candy, and the few other odds and ends. The pile that Hugh had stacked onto his floating disk was a series of all of the things that they had found along the way as well as the pile of instruments that he had used to catalog their adventure.
"Okay, now that I have a better idea of what we need I think I can see about some specific and maybe custom pieces that I think will make our load a little lighter," Hugh said as he piled on the last piece from the trunk.
"Sounds like a good idea. I have a few things that I want to look into as well." Cadence said as they grabbed the few items that they had added to the trunk.
"And we meet tomorrow morning to use the altar," Davin said as he loaded a small cart that he had borrowed from Big Green. "That gives us the rest of today to decompress, and relax."
"And the week off?" Hugh asked.
"Starts after the altar." Davin smiled
"Tomorrow?" Cadence asked in clarification, a wide smile on their face.
"Tomorrow!" They all practically cheered in unison.
Davin took his cart, walking the few short blocks from the stable that they had set nibbles in. Jes had headed off ahead of him so that he could say goodbye to his team before he headed back home. Jes had done some redecorating while he was gone, adding in a few more cooking tools that she had found while Davin was gone. When she heard the door open she had already rushed out to meet him, practically bowling him over as he came in. Several minutes were just spent with Jes kissing him, softly pecking at his cheeks and forehead, an exaggerated "mwah" with each one.
Davin was happy to find that what was originally a single shelf in a case was now an entire display case that was just for him. There were a few more things that had been added to make the place seem much more homey, the singular reading chair that had sat in the corner now had a stout friend that made them an odd pair of chairs. Davin spent very little time adjusting, jumping into the full kitchen that Jes had, making himself some snacks and some tea before he took Jes over to the reading chairs and set up to tell her the whole story, feeling that she was plenty trustworthy. He spent the rest of the afternoon telling her all of the glossed-over details of their adventures happy to not have to hide it from someone.
Jes had been thrilled about the collection of candies that he had pulled from the dungeon, when Davin made her the first batch of buttered popcorn, she'd moaned in pleasure. Enjoying every crunch as they talked about their time apart. When the evening was official, and they'd eaten a light dinner, Jes had done her best to not drag him straight to bed, insisting that he very much needed a shower before he even got near the bed.
"You smell like old socks and garlic…" Jes said as she kissed his cheek once again as she pushed him into the shower, clothes and all, cranking the knob that let the hot water spill over him.
"Pftt." Davin spat and spattered as he tried to strip off his traveling clothes, the wet cloth clinging to his skin. "You could have at least let me strip."
"Nope, you need a rinse, and at least a whole bar of soap, did you not bathe the whole time you were gone?" She dumped a bucket of water over him as he pulled off the clothes.
"We did…. Just didn’t have the time to dedicate to laundry, and prestidigitation can only do so much." Davin argued as he tossed his clothes into the bucket that Jes had set out for him before she had bodily drug him to the bathroom.
"Prestidigi..what? What would that do for smells?" Jes asked as she helped him pull off his wet boots and pants.
"It can clean clothes, but we'd spent the night drinking and didn’t have the energy before we came into the bastion to fix it. I think this is just the smell from riding on Truck for the last day and a half…." Davin stood there naked as Jes continued to splash him with warm water.
"Speaking of, I want to meet this Truck, he sounds adorable." she began to pull off her clothes.
"He is, and he's massive, and I got a great deal on a saddle for him," Davin said excitedly as Jes finished undressing.
"We can get back to that, but for now." Jes pushed Davin under the full flow of the shower. "I've missed you.
---
Hugh strode into the arm of the wizard's tower that was made of the Hall of Scribes, his anticipation continued to build as he made his way to a desk that sat in the center of the room that seemed as though it was lined with books. Placing his hands on the desk, he drummed his fingers lightly, this being all it took to awaken the room and all of its denizens to his presence.
"I have the best news," Hugh stated as he put the large tome that he had been taking notes in since the start of their trip.
---
The melodic hums that filled the halls of the collage as they walked through them made Cadence feel nostalgic, they hadn't been back to the city in quite some time, and they had a lot to cover, especially with everything that they had learned about their new friend Davin. A newcomer from a world that had lost contact with the afterlife for more than two thousand years… Knowing that they could look into the collection for more information, they liked that they were learning it all firsthand. Cadence had begun to mumble a chant as they walked deeper into the place that so few ever tread.
"Ah, the Orator of Faith has returned." The melodic voice broke in, harmonizing with the general hum of the room.
"That I have, and I bring news."