“Cheers!” Voekeer said.

The rest of the party tapped mugs together and repeated the word before each one took a drink.

“And with that, we have enough to make it back to Oldforge,” Voekeer added.

“Does that mean no more sewer contracts?” Lyreen asked.

“No more sewers or any other contract. We can just relax the rest of the winter,” Voekeer replied.

“Oh, thank the tree!” Lyreen said.

“I guess that means we’re free for the winter festival,” Elaine added.

Anna flinched.

“What’s wrong, child?” Barika asked.

She looked around the table and realized that she had put off telling her friends about what had happened for long enough.

“I murdered eight people the last time I went to a festival,” she replied.

Her friends were utterly shocked. They just stared at her for a long while.

“What happened?” Voekeer asked.

“I was visiting a trade city with a traveling merchant named Qrixit. It was just before the rainy season there, and they were having a big festival before the rains started. While we were out, I saw a festival game that had a prize I liked. It was that cut glass, so I played it. After I won, Qrixit asked me how I did it ‘cause the game was rigged, and I told him I always win games, so he wanted me to play more, and I said yes.

We went to a part of the city that was filled with games, and I played a bunch of them and won them all. Finally, I ended up doing a rock-lifting contest, and I won of course, but when I tried to get my prize, it was a chest full of trade gems which they use instead of coins, the game master said I cheated and wouldn’t give them to me. I got mad and started to argue with him.

Then some enforcers showed up, they are like the city guards there. Well, I kept arguing, and one of the enforcers got rough with me. I just hit him, and, well, he died. The other enforcers attacked me, so I killed them as well, and then after that, I killed the game master and his guard.

I didn’t realize what I’d done until I went to pick up the chest, but there was nothing I could do by then. Qrixit grabbed me and pulled me away. He told me that no one would care if I killed anyone in the city if I stayed out of sight for a few weeks, so he brought me to a friend of his where we sold the prizes I’d won, and then we went to a sex inn because they didn’t ask questions, and we spent the night.

The next day, we went to a smoke den, and I saw someone die. That’s when I found out that people eat other people in the city, and then Qrixit told me that the enforcers were going to sell me to a meat stall if I didn’t have enough gems to pay them off. I didn’t want to leave Qrixit, but I couldn’t stay in a city full of people that eat other people, so I decided to leave. Qrixit brought me to a night market later, and I bought stuff I’d need for the road. That’s where I found the stone that absorbs mana, the one that the mages used to find me.

Once I was done buying supplies, Qrixit took me to see the big monster skulls in the city, and then we got found by the enforcers again, and we ran. The enforcers cornered us, but before anything happened, the portal opened. Qrixit ran away with the enforcers, and then I got pulled through the portal, and that’s what I didn’t want to talk about,” Anna replied.

“Damn, that sounds like it was rough, but honestly, I don’t think you murdered anyone,” Elaine said.

“But I killed them for some trade gems!” Anna replied.

“No, you killed them because they attacked you,” Elaine said.

“But I started it,” Anna replied.

“No, I’d say the game master started it. I mean, it’s pretty much impossible to cheat at stone lifting, so I bet he was just trying to make a commotion to get those enforcers to come over,” Elaine said.

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“Oh no, he was really scared when they grabbed him,” Anna replied.

“Bah! I bet the lad was working with them,” Thokri said.

“What makes you say that?” Anna asked.

“It’s an old trick. See, some lad running games will pay off the local guards. That way, if he starts losing too much, he’ll cause a scene, and the guards will come over and drag the unlucky winner away, all while roughing up the lad just so anyone watching doesn’t catch on that they’re working together,” Thokri replied.

“Humans do that kind of thing?” Voekeer asked.

“Lad, every kind of folk will try and run a scam on ya if ya let ‘em,” Thokri replied.

Voekeer looked thoughtful for a moment before nodding.

“I wonder why Qrixit didn’t say anything about scams like that,” Anna said.

“Lad might not have known,” Thokri replied.

“How’d you know about it?” Voekeer asked.

“I ran with a group of caravan guards for a while. One of the lads always blew all his coin on games every time we stopped. It got so bad he’d wander back into camp naked as the day he was born and beg us for some coin so he could buy some clothes. We ended up finding him dead in an alley one day. Someone cut off his head and hands,” Thokri replied.

“Holy fuck,” Voekeer said.

“Sounds like he ran afoul of the local criminal gangs. As disturbing as it is, that’s a pretty common occurrence,” Barika replied.

“I’ve never seen anything like that before, and I’ve been living in human cities for years,” Voekeer said.

“That kind of stuff happens in the bad parts of town, and you don’t spend much time in places like that,” Elaine replied.

“Fair enough. All the more reason to stay away from them I suppose,” Voekeer said.

“So, what did you do?” Lyreen asked.

“Carried what was left of him to the temple and paid for a proper burial,” Thokri replied.

“Did you go after the people that killed him?” Anna asked.

“Na, I didn’t like the lad well enough to risk my neck,” Thokri replied.

“Really? But you were working with him?” Anna asked.

“Aye, but just cause you work with someone doesn’t mean you have to be friends or even close,” Thokri replied.

“But I thought parties had to be friends!” Anna said.

“Na, I can see why you’d think that with the way we all act, but all a good party needs to do is work together,” Thokri replied.

She nodded.

“Lass, there are more bad folks than good ones in this line of work, and if ya keep treating everyone like ya treat us, yer gonna get taken for a ride,” Thokri added.

“She already did,” Elaine said.

“What do you mean?” Anna asked.

“As soon as that traveling merchant you were with found out you could do something that could earn some money, he dragged you off to do it,” Elaine replied.

“That’s, I mean, he wouldn’t!” Anna said.

“I’m not saying he did to hurt you. He probably just thought he could make some coin quickly and jumped at the chance without thinking,” Elaine replied.

Anna looked down into her mug.

“I can’t believe Qrixit would do that to me. I thought we were friends,” she said.

“I have no doubt that he was your friend, child. He just let his greed get the better of him,” Barika replied.

“I guess I shouldn’t have trusted him,” Anna said.

“No, child, trusting him was fine. Going along with his scheme to swindle the festival games was the mistake,” Barika replied.

“Oh, yeah,” Anna said.

“So, anyway, where was this trade city anyway?” Lyreen asked.

“On the other side of the world,” Anna replied.

“What do you mean the other side of the world?” Lyreen asked.

Anna sighed.

Might as well tell them everything.

“After I got washed overboard that night, I couldn’t find the ship, and I ended up swimming towards a light I saw thinking it was the ship, but it wasn’t. I wasn’t sure where I was anymore, so I waited there hoping someone would find me, but no one did, and I ended up falling asleep two days later. When I woke up, I was on the eastern shore of the great inland sea. At least, that’s where I think I was,” Anna replied.

“What was it like?!” Voekeer asked excitedly.

“Nothing but desert, and the shore was covered in bones and shipwrecks. I walked for weeks before I came across some nomads being attacked by bandits and helped them. They ended up chasing me off for some reason.

After that, I just kind of wandered around until I met some snake men who tried to sell me as a slave at a village, but no one there wanted me, so they let me go. After that, one of the villagers fed me and gave me a place to sleep for the night before giving me some supplies and sending me off.

The village was on the edge of the wastelands which are kind of crazy. They are filled with rocks and mean lizards that spit, and there are lakes of acid instead of water. I met up with a caravan while I was heading to a town that was on a map the villager gave me and rode with them to the town.

I learned the trade language and even got a few gems from the caravan master before we parted ways. After that, I met up with Qrixit and traveled with him out of the wasteland and into the grassland where the trade city is,” Anna replied.

“So, what exactly is the trade language?” Lyreen asked.

“Well, there are hundreds of different kinds of people in that part of the world, so instead of learning hundreds of different languages, pretty much everyone just learns the trade language so they can talk to each other,” Anna replied.

“I wonder why we don’t have a trade language,” Lyreen said.

“We kind of do,” Anna replied.

“What do you mean?” Lyreen asked.

“Just about everyone speaks common,” Anna replied.

“Oh yeah,” Lyreen said.

“You know, the trade language might have been someone’s language to start out with and just spread,” Elaine added.

Her friends started to discuss the possible origins of the trade language while asking her questions about her time away.

They really don’t care what I did, I guess I didn’t have to worry after all.