Javok finished replacing his barrels of liquors behind his bar, when the doors of his humble inn creaked open. Rain spilled in followed by two cloaked people. They threw off their hoods revealing one as a well dressed blond woman with steely poise and the other as a... combat adept!?
The man was wearing the customary outfits of such beings: a layer of flowing metal that could be mistaken as chainmail on everywhere but his face, dark leather armor, a harness full of weapons, and most importantly not a single sound made by movement.
Javok had thought the descriptions given by travelers were absurd, but he stood corrected. Their words failed to fully capture the full sense of martial might of the being before him. The eeriness of no sounds of movement became painfully apparent with the numerous weapons in the man’s harness representing the many ways the man could kill.
Javok suppressed his sudden jolt of fear then grimaced. Didn’t combat adepts usually accompany blue blooded magickers? He took a closer look at the blonde woman with not a small bit of dread. As he feared, her dark blue dress had no sign of wear despite its wealthy fragility. Enchantments only lasted on leather or more durable things. But what was a blue blooded magicker doing with only one escort…? Then the reason dawned on him: the pair was traveling incognito!
The combat adept came up to him and set down coins, ten… silver filergonas! “Will this be enough for two rooms for a four day stay?”
Javok wasn’t like most innkeepers in the frontier who pumped travelers for money, but the sheer amount of money to be gained from a little dishonesty was tempting. He could just nod and stay silent, and they wouldn’t be able to force the issue. Trying out many more recipes would be possible on top of him being done saving up! Javok wrenched his thoughts from the pleasant possibilities. Integrity was a habit kept and lost in small steps. Such a habit led to more customers anyhow.
“Simply one of these should suffice,” Javok answered.
“Thank you, but you’ll probably need one more,” the adept smiled in gratitude before taking back the eight coins.
Javok almost decided to protest but handed two keys over and said, “the key with the number twelve is for the room at the end of the hallway with the other key with the number ten carved being for the room next door,” pointing out the hallway entrance in the left part of his inn. “I will have a stew ready in the hearth in an hour.”
The adept nodded before turning away and he and the noblewoman walked to their room.
Javok sighed in relief once he heard their room doors open and close. Some of the rumors about the nobility were pretty wild but a consistent part was only the more prestigious nobles having weapon masters in their entourage. After he handed over the keys, he noticed the insignia the adept wore on his leather armor specifically meant not for mastery of the sword, mastery of the spear, or even mastery of the bow he was carrying but for mastery of weapons. The sort of nobles who had weapons adepts in their employ couldn’t go incognito for solely their own benefit.
Javok looked around the inn he would soon leave behind, with twenty four rooms split in two wings, the old thing served him well. Stumbling on the last leg of saving up would be awful which meant he definitely needed to follow through with his promise of stew. There were many horrible possibilities if he had angered the noblewoman of likely high standing
Two days passed without incident. Fortunately, his unusual clients were utilitarian and only cared that he provided food and drink. Sure, magickers had monstrous appetites, but the second silver filergona kept this from being an issue.
His guests kept to their rooms after coming out to eat so he found himself the time to test some of the recipes he thought up, but the results wouldn’t be clear for at least a week. Maybe ole Kenso would decide one of them was marketable. Three of his recipes were legitimate tries at filling in demands. Javok was absently wiping tankards (both of his current guests also drank as much as they ate, though in a weirdly refined manner), when the more unusual visitors showed up.
Instead of a quiet entrance like the first, his inn’s door was slammed open. The storm continuing from two days before spilled in from the dark night and trudged in was a brunette girl and… another weapon master!? Maybe the other two were waiting for these two?
Javok braced for the girl to begin magicking a spell to clean and dry herself off, but she did nothing as her guard tossed him a silver filergona. Did nobles not carry coppers or even normal silver? He doubted they were going to stay more than a day.
Javok decided maybe the girl was conserving energy and tossed her a towel, “a silver filergona will be enough to stay for four days. Is that your intent?”
“How many days do you plan to stay?” he asked, seeing them shake their heads.
The weapons adept mumbled something and the girl mumbled something back before the adept spoke up, “one day for now.”
Javok figured the two were trying to meet up with his two other visitors, but he could be wrong. “Four normal silver should be sufficient then.”
The weapons adept forked over four normal silver (so they did have normal silver) and Javok drawed, “I think two guests I have are people you wish to meet up with. Another weapons adept and a woman who is probably a magicking noble showed up two days ago. Do you want me to give you rooms next to them?”
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The girl mumbled something and the weapons adept nodded with a frown before saying, “we appreciate the offer but we want rooms as far away as possible.”
Javok nodded also with a frown before having to stop from smacking himself. Weapons adepts let alone unknown possible magickers were dangerous. That was why he was on pins and needles the first day he had those guests staying in the first place. He put away the two keys he had before grabbing two different ones.
“The key with the number three engraved is to the second room from the end of the hall to the right and the other key with the number five on it is to the room next door to the left,” Javok explained as he handed the two keys to the weapons adept.
The adept nodded his thanks before he and the probably blue blooded girl walked off to their rooms. Javok finished wiping down the rest of his tankards before going to sleep thinking about the next spirit recipes he might test.
His suspicions were confirmed when his guests from earlier greeted his new ones and the weapons adept of the girl tossed him another four silver for another day. They conversed quietly with each other while helping themselves to absurd amounts of food, cutting a good portion out of the profit he made from the extra silver filergona he received.
The next morning commotion broke out in the village and would have intrigued Javok if he weren’t short on sleep. Waves of weird pressure broke his sleep in the night before. One of the ladies was probably responsible but they probably left, fortunately. Javok helped himself to a cup of caffe to wake himself, when his door was slammed open.
“Javok, they’re taking my daughter away just after she got back! I want you to go with them to keep an eye on her!” A portly man with thinning black hair shouted.
Did he hear that right?
Javok pinched the bridge of his nose, “sorry can you repeat what you said? I didn’t get much sleep last night.”
The portly man he knew as Slajer Kazna, the mayor of the village ,exclaimed, “I will provide you with travel money if that is what you’re worried about. Weren’t you planning to attend the merchant academy, eventually anyway? You probably already have enough money for the fee. You certainly came to me for enough currency exchanges. It’s in the same city those harpies will be taking my daughter to learn magicking.”
Huh… well that sure was… something. Javok was expecting Slajer to ask for help dealing with a mishap with book keeping or maybe a fight, not… that.
Javok held up a hand, “would they even wait for me to get ready? I will do as you ask if possible, though, since traveling with two weapons adepts and at least one magicker could be safe as it gets.”
Slajer’s face brightened with gratitude, “I already have a horse with a saddle full of all the tools and supplies you might need ready, and don’t worry about your inn I will follow even the spirit of our agreement with you making sure my daughter is safe!”
Javok retrieved his hard earned savings for the merchant academy, a book of his recipes, and a sword, leaving instructions so his fermenting liquor didn’t go to waste.
He stopped and looked around the inn he had lived in for two years then owned for six.How he came to live in and how he came to own the place were both bitter, but the old thing served him well. Him leaving would have eventually happened in a week or two. His plan was simply accelerated. Javok smiled, a bit teary eyed, as he turned and left.
And so fifteen minutes later with his promised horse, he found himself standing in front of an irate magicker.
“So you want me to allow him to come along?” Lady Ethneri, his first noble guest, snapped at Slajer.
Slajer shot back, “You and the other girl have escorts for safety so why can’t my daughter have one?”
Lady Ethneri laughed, “we only have one guard each for a reason, in order to keep our presence low, and what would the boy offer anyway?”
Javok answered, “lady Ethneri, if I might interject, I have had to defend my inn from ruffians and I can handle money moderately well, a skill your weapons adepts seem to lack.”
Lady Ethneri scoffed but said, “you can come along, but you better not slow us down.”
Without further ‘fanfare,’ she mounted her horse and set off into the woods surrounding the village. Javok did the same, along with everyone else, but with a wince at how sore he will probably feel at the end of the day. Looking back, he felt wistful as the village he spent eight years at grew smaller in the distance.
After an hour of riding, Javok was not feeling well, at all. The pace Lady Ethneri set was brisk, too brisk for Javok who was missing sleep.
He sped up to catch up to the weapons adept of Lady Dunni, the younger of the two noblewomen. His name was... Benak if he wasn’t mistaken.
“Hey Benak, do you have anything for compensating for a lack of sleep?” Javok asked.
Benak turned to him with a raised eyebrow, “sure but not being able to sleep better not be a regular thing. I will give you something when we stop by the stream that is coming up.”
Javok grouched, “I would be fine if whoever in your group hadn’t been doing whatever they were doing last night. I thought I was suffocating for a second when I woke up!”
Benak turned to him once again but with wide eyes before turning back forward and shouted, “Lady Ethneri! I think you missed a candidate!”
Lady Ethneri signaled for everyone to stop before making a beeline for Javok. Her gaze quickly became unnerving for him since it felt like an actual… physical presence? Lady Ethneri’s blank expression became split with a shark-like grin, sending a jolt of fear down his spine.
“Hmmm… you wouldn’t make for much of a magicker but maybe as a magiformulist?” Lady Ethneri tossed him a coin, which he scrambled to catch. “Use that to get access to the Magicraft library. Do you think you could keep the pace I set for five more minutes?”
At Javok’s nod, lady Ethneri turned back forward and hollered, “we will stopping at the next stream.”
It was all that Javok could do not to pass out. Simple lack of sleep shouldn’t have affected him so much. Was his fatigue due to a spell one of the noble ladies cast?
Five minutes later, Javok didn’t dismount so much as fall off his horse in a controlled manner when they arrived at the stream. Looking up at the sky, he noticed the irony of him being so grouchy on such a beautiful day.
An unfamiliar voice called out, “I don’t know how you plan to sleep with me, but looking that pathetic probably won’t help.”
Javok groaned in exasperation, “whoever put that idea in your head is a fool, because I plan to go to the merchant school. I take it that you’re Shania, Slajer’s daughter.”
Shania replied, “fool? Merchant school requires a fee. Did you think just deciding to come along would work out?”
“Lady…, no, girl... you clearly know nothing about me, because I have plenty of money for the tuition cost. I have been brewing not only for the inn I owned for six years but for a traveling merchant too. Come to think of it, you were off at merchant school weren't you? I actually want to ask you some questions, but you are clearly upset from being torn from your home and so soon after coming back. Sorry, but I won’t be able to grit my teeth and put up with you. Lady Ethneri magicked a spell last night that messed me up. My patience is therefore nil. Please, don’t talk to me right now,” Javok growled.
Javok closed his eyes after his rant and fell into a surprisingly blissful sleep. Hopefully, he would be in a better mood after some rest.