Chapter Seventy - In Which Broccoli Kidnaps the Cute

“So, we’re going to the Greenshade Exploration Guild place first, right? And then I guess we can shop around for some of the stuff we’ll need for our adventure?” I asked. I was still holding onto Awen and Amaryllis because... well, because I liked being in contact with my friends. Amaryllis might complain that I was touchy-feely, but she wasn’t wrong.

“That’s about right, yes,” Amaryllis said. She looked around, but both sides of the street before the Bristlecone manor were lined by pretty houses with little yards, and no indication of any sort of guild buildings. “Miss Bristlecone, could you guide us to the guild building?”

Awen was staring at my hand, her face looking a little red. It took a moment before the silence seemed to snap her attention around. “Um, pardon me?”

“The guild building,” Amaryllis said.

“Awa? Oh yes, I can do that. It’s- it’s that way.” She pointed off to one side then squeaked when I started marching off in that direction.

“So, Awen, are you a member of any guilds?” I asked.

“N-no, I’m not,” she said. “I thought of joining the mechanic’s guild, they’re not very big yet, and they have lots of work, but, um, it’s not suitable for someone of my station.”

I worked to keep a scowl off my face. It wouldn’t do to have a new friend think I was a scowler. “That’s too bad. I bet you’re a great mechanic.”

Awen shook her head, a fresh new blush climbing to her cheeks. “I’m really not. I don’t have nearly enough experience, and I have... other obligations.”

“Oh,” I said. “But do you like tinkering with things?”

“I love it!” Awen said. She coughed a little, as if the outburst had taken something from her. “I mean, yes, I enjoy it. I only ever get to work on things for my uncle. It’s how I got the class, actually.”

“That sounds like a story,” I said. “Do tell!”

“Really?” she asked. I nodded a whole bunch. “Oh, awa... w-well one day, when I was about the age that Callio is now, Uncle Abe came to visit and he left this big repeating crossbow in the dining room. It was a model from the Snowlands, with a system that used a rack and pinion mechanism that slid a new bolt into place. It was very intricate, and one of the prettiest things I had ever seen.”

“Say what you will of the Snowlanders,” Amaryllis said. “Their trinkets are impressive. We have been trying to catch up to their industrial ability for some time. And while we can outproduce them with ease, the quality of their engineering isn’t as easy to reproduce.”

“Yes,” Awen agreed. “It was very well built, but Uncle Abe was a little rough with it.”

“I can imagine that,” I said.

Awen nodded. “He used it to club a drop bear. A-anyway. The problems with it were all small, and there were some tools around, so I... fixed it. And I got the Mechanic class. Uncle was very happy but my parents weren’t.”

“Why not?” I asked.

Awen shifted and her grip around my hand tightened. She seemed to be looking for the right words to say, but Amaryllis beat her to it with an exasperated huff. “The humans around here have some weird notions about class and nobility, especially the younger clans... pardon, families. It’s all quite backwards.”

“That’s awful,” I said. I couldn’t imagine my parents being disappointed in me, let alone expressing disappointment when I found something that suited me and that I enjoyed doing. As long as it didn’t hurt others or anything like that, it could only be a good thing. “Well Awen, I like your class. Mechanics are cool.”

“You... do?” she asked.

“Yup. There are a lot of machines where I’m from, so people that build them and fix them are really important.” I nodded. “Oh, and I’ll need a bunch of mechanics when I buy my airship one of these days.”

Amaryllis snorted at that, but Awen was practically glowing. “Awaa... I wish I could join you on your airship, Miss Bunch.”

“I don’t see why you couldn’t,” I said.

Awen looked away, the spark in her eyes dying off like an ember being doused. “I have responsibilities with my family.”

“Like, with a business or something?” I asked.

“No, not like that,” Awen said. She didn’t add to it though, instead she gestured to the road ahead. “The Guild buildings are mostly along this road.”

Greenshade’s guild row bore some resemblance to Port Royal’s. There were colourful and strange buildings all along the street, crystalline towers, buildings with large signs on the front and some that looked like castles in miniature. It was as if the guilds were trying to outdo their neighbours in terms of sheer opulence and strangeness.

The differences between Greenshade and Port Royal mostly amounted to the height of the buildings. Few reached up to two floors, and only the mage’s guild, with its peaked tower, rose above that. There was another one of those buildings with a bunch of poles sticking out of it with large panels that were moving on it that was also pretty tall, but that was it.

“Why are they all so short?” I wondered.

Awen blinked dumbly at me for a moment.

“The buildings, I mean.”

“Oh, awa, it’s because it’s hot here. Most buildings have extensive basements. A large part of Greenshade is underground.” Awen explained. “The population tends to move a lot. Um, most of the people here are from caravans and such, not residents.”

“Huh, neat,” I said. It was a little hot, but the air was so dry that it wasn’t an uncomfortable heat. The few people I saw walking around were almost all wearing light and breezy clothes, especially the workers who seemed to favour sandy-coloured cloth that looked very light. “Hey, Amaryllis, what season is it?”

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She snorted. “We’re in early Autumn,” she said.

“Neat,” I said.

We found the Exploration Guild building halfway down the street. It was, in my opinion, one of the pretty buildings. Taller than most, with a set of towers with bay windows on both ends and a wide inviting porch at the front.

I let go of the girls’ hands and hopped forwards to open the door for them.

“Awa, thank you,” Awen said as she stepped in. Amaryllis just rolled her eyes.

The inside was noticeably cooler, so much so that I wondered if they had some sort of air conditioning. I knew there were runes and magic to keep food fresh, but was there something that could work for a whole building? Or was it a combination of many runes working together?

Just as with the guild building over in Port Royal, this one had a tiny museum at the front and a few little knick-knacks and tools that were meant to help explorers on pedestals. The differences weren’t just in scale though. The pedestals here were made of wood and the maps and dioramas seemed a lot simpler than those over in Port Royal.

“I’ll take care of this one,” Amaryllis said. “How about you go look for a mission we can accomplish while we’re out. We’re heading over to Rosenbell, so anything between here and there that’s low-risk would do.”

“Is there like a wall with all of the missions pinned on it?” I asked.

“What? No. There’s a book by the front desk. Why would you pin things to a wall? That’s just asking for some idiot to tear the mission details off and run with them.” She shook her head. “I’m going to report that we’re in the region.”

I waved her off and then looked for the book with the missions and found it at one end of the counter behind which the branch’s secretary sat.

“Are you new to the guild?” Awen asked.

I grinned as I opened the book and started to leaf through it. “Yup. I’ve been on an adventure or two, but I’m still really new. Amaryllis is too.”

“Awa, that sounds wonderful,” Awen said.

“You could join the guild,” I said. “I’m pretty sure they have training and such, and not all of the missions they give are supposed to be dangerous.” The missions outlined in the book were mostly requests to map out certain areas. Some, those that paid better, asked for people to explore certain dungeons, or even retrieve certain items.

“My parents wouldn’t let me,” Awen said. She slumped a little, her shoulder folding in even as her hands pressed together.

I wasn’t too sure what to say. She looked miserable, but maybe her parents just wanted her to be safe? After all, the stories that Abraham spouted made it clear that not everything was safe out there. It took a special kind of someone to want to go wrestle a drake or fistfight a bear.

“What do your parents want you to do?” I wondered.

I was focused on the book, so it took a moment for the quiet to really settle in and grow awkward.

When I looked up it was to find that Awen was staring at the floor as if it was a puzzle to solve. “I’m to be married,” she said. “To a duke in Port Hazel.”

“Um,” I said. Usually, congratulations would be in order, but she didn’t seem keen on that.

“He, awa, he wants me to bear his kids and, and stay at home. B-but first I need to change my class. T-take something that’s appropriate for my station. Um, maybe something that will make it easier for me to give birth?”

I felt my breath catching in my throat. “What? I mean, do you want that?”

Awen shook her head.

I worked my jaw, looking for the right thing to do in this situation.

In the end though, the right thing to do was very easy. The first step, of course, was to give Awen a hug.

She squeaked as I glomped her and held her close. “You poor thing,” I said.

The second step in helping a friend out of a bad situation was, of course, kidnapping.

“You’re coming with us,” I said.

“Awa-what?”

I stepped back, still gripping her by the shoulders. “You’re coming with us. We can leave right away when we’re done here.” I looked her up and down. “We’ll have to stop and buy you some nice gear first. I have a few gold, and I’m sure Amaryllis would pitch in.”

“Awawa... why? I mean, you can’t, my parents--”

“Are big fat meanies if they’re doing things to you that you don’t want done.” I huffed just like Amaryllis did. “You could come with us, get some levels, go on a big adventure, and when you return you’ll be a whole new person. Or, well, I guess you could stay. I’m not going to make you come with us.”

“No, I mean, yes, I want to,” Awen said. Her lip wobbled and she dabbed at her eyes in a hurry before trying on a wobbly smile for me. “I really want to, Miss Bunch.”

“Why is the girl crying?” Amaryllis asked as she walked over to us.

“Ah,” I said. Now came the complicated part. Explaining to Amaryllis that I was planning on kidnapping a new potential-friend.

“Awa, Miss Bunch, she, she wants to save me,” Awen said. She snorted in a most unlady-like way.

“Broccoli, are you being an idiot again?” Amaryllis asked.

“No?”

She gave me a flat look. “Are you certain, Broccoli? Because I’m getting some very dumb vibes from this general area, and Awen here doesn’t seem like someone who’s braindead.”

“Well,” I said. “I might have agreed to consensually kidnap Awen to bring her on an adventure with us. And I might, maybe, have said that you’d help pay for it?”

“World damn it, Broccoli.”