“Oh! Uh, yeah, I can do that. Sorry, I didn’t even think to offer,” Xander said. Or rather, half-yelled, so he could be heard above the crowd.
Xander and Valteria moved over to inspect her suit of armor, which had fallen to the ground after she’d sprung from it. “Wow,” Valteria said as she circled the suit, which effectively doubled her four-foot height to a hulking eight, “these are some smooth joinings… it’s like you flowed the metal together.” She traced a finger over one of the sealed joints.
“I hope I didn’t damage it too badly,” Xander offered. “I probably went about as deep as I could go with such short contact. I wasn’t taking any chances after I watched you snap that dagger with your knee. Well… the armor’s knee. How does this thing even work? Is it rune powered?”
Valteria grunted in frustration. “Damn, that probably means that the gears and bearings are damaged… I’ll need to take the whole thing apart to get it walking again.” She turned to face Xander, “And to answer your question, no, it’s not rune powered. I’m a [Tinker] and a [Mechanist]. I made it myself,” she said proudly. “It’s partly powered by my abilities, and partly powered by different magical artifices.” She sighed. “Runework is too hard to find, and expensive, too…”
“Huh. That’s awesome. Why don’t I have a giant, magically powered suit of armor?”
“Well, you’d have to build one, for starters. It’s not like you can just buy one in the market square. Also, you’d need to have, you know, a class that would allow you to make one or power it.”
“Well, I’m a [Combat Artificer], so I think I have that going for me,” Xander said with a laugh. “That’s what let me manipulate the metal on your suit.”
Valteria looked at Xander with renewed interest. “An artificer, huh? Now I’m really hoping you’re still willing to compare notes later.”
“Definitely still interested,” Xander said. “If that suit of armor is any indicator of the type of things you like to make, I think we’ll be getting along real well in no time at all.” He looked around for a moment. “But, uh, first I guess I’ll help you drag this thing off the field. Also… do they, like, give me my winnings here, or am I supposed to get them at the guild, or what?”
Valteria laughed. “You’ll pick them up from the guild. Haven’t you ever done this kind of thing before?”
Xander shook his head. “Nope,” he said as he moved around to the head of the suit of armor and used [Creation] to produce a length of chain that he wrapped around the chestplate.
“Wait, really?”
“Mmhm, this is my first tournament, actually. I wanted to get some training for fighting against other skill users. I’d say it was a success,” he said flippantly.
Valteria shook her head in disbelief as she watched Xander settle the plate of metal that had been ejected from the breastplate of the armor roughly back in place and then walk back over to the length of chain he’d left lying on the ground after wrapping it around the suit’s torso. Picking up the chain, Xander began to drag the suit off the field, leaving a furrow in the dirt behind him.
Valteria trotted up to Xander as he neared the edge of the field and told him, “I have a cart on one end of the stadium. If you don’t mind also helping me get this hunk of metal on the cart, I should be able to manage from there.”
“Sure, not a problem. I was realizing just about now that I might have consigned myself to dragging this halfway through the city. Cart sounds a lot better,” Xaner replied.
While the crowd slowly filtered out of the stadium for the last time, Xander followed Valteria to an exit near the end that she’d left her cart. There, outside the ring of stands that encircled the arena, were several carts. Some were small hand carts, others were full sized and had a mule, horse, or donkey waiting in their harness. One, however, stuck out to Xander, and made him assume it was Valteria’s.
It had no yoke or other method for which to hook up any kind of animal, but was certainly too large for the small woman to pull by hand, especially considering she wanted to put an eight foot tall suit of armor on it. Near the front was, instead, a strange looking device. A few gears could be seen on the outside, and on one end was a glowing dome that seemed filled with a dense, swirling, green mist. From it ran several tubes and pipes that terminated somewhere beneath the cart. Xander took an educated guess on what it was, assuming it to be the propulsion method for the cart, a magical engine of some sort. Xander wondered if Valteria’s suit filled with devices like that.
“I guess I’ll just… stand it up and let it fall onto the cart, then push it the rest of the way up there?” Xander half asked, half suggested.
“Mmm, try not to let it fall to hard, if you can, please.” Valteria asked of him. “I don’t want to break anything off the cart.”
Xander dragged the still rigid suit of armor around to the back of the cart and tried his best to be careful as he hauled it to its feet, still using the chain as an aid. Once it was standing upright he shuffled it forward as best he could closer to the back of the cart and let it fall slowly onto the cart. The thing was damn heavy. He wondered just how much power or mana it drew to function between Valteria’s own skills and whatever other devices powered it. Once it was laid down onto the bed of the cart with a heavy thump and the creaking of wood, Xander moved to the feet of the suit and lifted them up, using them to push it onto the cart fully.
“Wow,” Valteria said, impressed. “You made that look easy. Last time I had to get that thing onto a cart I had to hire three men to do it.”
Xander flexed the nonexistent muscles in his arm momentarily with a laugh. “What can I say? The benefits of a combat class, I guess.” As well as he felt things were getting on with Valteria, he certainly wasn’t ready to have the ‘I’m actually a spirit piloting a rune powered construct’ conversation with the woman.
“Well,” Valteria said with a slight grunt as she began climbing up onto the cart herself, “I’m off to my workshop to start getting my armor fixed back up. I’m still holding you to your offer to come compare notes about our fight, though! Come by around dinner time if you’d like. Workshop’s in the mercantile district down the road from the guild. Sign outside says ‘Valteria’s Mechanics and Sundries.’”
“’And Sundries?’” Xander asked.
“Mmhm! Just because I can make death machines doesn’t also mean I can’t fix a clock.”
“Fair enough. I ‘spose I’ll see you this evening then. I’ve got to pick up my winnings and then I should meet up with my team to let them know I’ll be out.”
“Oh, you’ve got a team? You really are a professional merc and not just a moonlighter, aren’t you?”
“I can’t say I feel like a professional most of the time,” Xander said jokingly. “But we do take contracts regularly, yes. Though we’re on a bit of a… break while we wait for an investment to pan out.”
“Is that so? Maybe I’ll get to hear more about it later, then. I’ll see you soon, Xander!” Valteria waved a goodbye to him from the driver’s seat of the wagon before fiddling with some unseen element of the arcane motor. With a clacking, whirring noise, the device sprang to life, vibrating slightly, and the cart began to trundle away.
Xander stood for a few moments, watching the strange woman and her strange cart leave before saying to himself, “Guess I ought to go get my money.”
As the area he was in was relatively empty, seeming to be some kind of storage area for merchants to store a cart if needed, Xander decided to skip the crowd and the gawking stares, or god forbid, requests for autographs, and used his wings to bring himself into the sky. As he winged his way upwards, and then towards the guild, he opened up his status sheet, and saw that there were new entries within it.
---For becoming known by the moniker “The Wraith of Ilbek” by over one hundred people, you have been granted the title “The Wraith of Ilbek”---
---For defeating all opposition in a large tournament, you have been granted the title “Champion”---
[Champion] – Damage in nonlethal combat or for the purpose of others’ entertainment is increased
The title granting him [The Wraith of Ilbek] seemed to be purely cosmetic, simply a recognition by whatever power or powers that governed the status sheets that he had achieved being known by enough people by that title. [Champion], however, provided a tangible, albeit niche, benefit. Really, they both just felt like bragging rights that had been attached to his status sheet. He wondered if people sat around and compared their sheets against each other’s to see who had the most interesting titles or the strangest achievements recognized by their status sheet.
With a mental shrug, he shelved those thoughts – He’d arrived at the guild. The titles were there, they weren’t going away, and they weren’t hurting him. Xander gradually circled lower until he alighted on the street, choosing a portion that was mostly free of passersby so that he didn’t accidentally slap someone with a wing as he was touching down. Tucking his wings back into place on his armored back, he walked the short distance from where he’d landed to the door of the guild building and opened it.
Inside, it was business as usual, though perhaps a little on the lighter side. Xander wasn’t sure if it was due to attendance at the now finished tournament or just coincidence. He made his way to the next available attendant, a tall woman wearing a green jerkin and a yellow shirt underneath.
“What can I help you with today?” She asked.
“I’m here to pick up my winnings from the tournament,” Xander said, a little uncertainly. “Name’s Xander Jones. I’m not sure exactly how I’m supposed to go about doing that though, other than doing it here.”
“Ah, I see,” The woman said, peering down at Xander from the vantage of her greater height. “For that, I’ll have to confer with my superior. Please wait here.”
The woman came back with her superior, a dwarf who looked even shorter than he actually was as he walked next to his subordinate. “Jarep will be handling the rest of your transaction,” the woman told him, indicating towards her supervisor as she did so. Then she left the two of them to go help another waiting merc.
“So, you won the tourney, eh?” Jarep asked.
“Mmhm!” Xander said happily. “It was certainly a learning experience for me. I’ve never seen so many fighting styles before.”
Jarep nodded. “Everyone’s always on their best form for the tournament. Not like out in the wild where some unwashed criminal is trying to bash your brains in with a rusty mace, that’s for sure.”
Xander chuckled along with the dwarf, uncertain if he was downplaying the worth of the tournament in a roundabout way by trying to say that it wasn’t indicative of real mercenary work, or just idly chitchatting just how different jobs can be. The dwarf did have a point, though. Xander’s life and death fights were much more frantic, and dirty, than Xander’s experience in the ring. “All’s fair when it’s your life on the line,” he said, trying to be as neutral as possible since he couldn’t tell how the dwarf was leaning.
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“Exactly,” Jarep said with a sagely nod. “Now, as for your winnings, I’m afraid you’ll have to wait a tad bit longer.” He noticed Xander cocking his head questioningly at his statement and added “Not too long, though! It’s just… well, the runner that was supposed to give official notice of the winner hasn’t made it here yet.”
“Ohh, well that’s okay. It was pretty packed around the arena,” Xander commented. “I managed to circumnavigate most of the crowd – I was scared I’d be stuck there ‘til next morning with a line of people trying to get me to sign my initials to various objects. I can wait around for a bit.”
Jarep laughed at that. “Oh the young do love their good luck trinkets. I always tell them that they’d be better off spending their time training harder, but such is the purview of youth.”
Xander quietly nodded along. The dwarf was proving to be a bit curmudgeonly. He bet that the dwarf would chide local children to stay off his lawn, too.
“Anywho, I’ll let you know as soon as I receive word from the runner. Then I can officially disburse your credit slip.”
“Credit slip?”
“Well, we don’t usually hand out thirty-pound sacks of coin,” the older dwarf explained. “You’ll be able to take the slip to one of the banks or brokers in town and they’ll credit the coin to your account. You can withdraw it all from there, of course. Your business is your own when it comes to how you handle the coin after it’s been transferred from the Mercenary’s Guild to yourself.”
Xander nodded. “That makes sense. I should still have an account in my name…” Did he? The team had been drawing from his investments for group expenses, so presumably his accounts were still active. If not, he supposed he should make a new account anyways. Couldn’t hurt to have funds stashed away somewhere other than in his inventory.
After about ten more minutes of waiting, a breathless looking woman came through the door, holding an envelope. She quickly made her way behind the counter, locating Jarep as she did so. Still breathing heavily from her run she said, “Here’s the tournament winner, Jarep. Got here as fast as I could. Damned spectators filled up the roads all around. Still, good time overall. I should be here well before…” the woman trailed off as she noticed Xander on the other side of the counter. “Wait,” she said, confused. “How’d you get here before me?”
“I cheated,” Xander explained, and extended his wings a hair to add to the explanation.
The woman harrumphed with a slight pout, and handed the envelope over to Jarep.
“Thank you, Yerell. Go have a sit down and drink some water before you do anything else,” Jarep told the runner. Despite seeming like a potential grouch, he at least seemed to care for his workers. Turning back to Xander he said, “If Yerell’s reaction is anything to go by, I’m sure your name will be the one I see on the paper here, but you’ll have to humor me. For this much of a payment I’ll need to be sure, and that involves me ensuring your name with a look at your status sheet.”
“Of course,” Xander agreed. “Might as well do it the right way.”
Jarep nodded absently as he broke the thin wax seal on the envelope. It wasn’t an embossed seal or anything fancy. It looked more like someone had simply dripped a candle over the mouth of the envelope to keep it from popping open. From within he withdrew a small slip of paper with only two words scribbled down on it: Xander Jones. He nodded to himself. “Congratulations Mr. Jones, on winning the tournament. Just the formality of my confirming your name on your status sheet and I’ll let you be on your way, credit slip in hand.”
Xander pulled up the abridged version of his status sheet and flipped it around to be viewed by the dwarf.
“Mmhmm,” Jarep said, nodding as he confirmed Xander’s name. “Give me a moment, and I shall return forthright with your payment.”
Jarep ambled over to a desk, and removed a sheet from one of its many cubbies. Then, using quill and ink, he began filling out information on the sheet before blotting the ink dry with a small sprinkle of sand. Xander watched at the dwarf made a flourishing signature on the bottom of the paper, once more blotting it dry, before he retrieved an envelope from another cubby, placing the slip inside of it. He then produced a small wax sealing kit from a drawer set in the base of the desk. The kit was enchanted at least in a small way, as Jarep seemed to be melting the wax in the small brass cup without needing a flame. The wax was poured, sealing the envelope, and Jarep pressed a ring that Xander hadn’t noticed to it, embossing it. The dwarf then walked back to Xander and carefully handed the sealed envelope over the counter to Xander. “There you are,” Jarep said. “Don’t lose it, now. I can’t tell you how much of a headache it would be to for me to deal with making sure no one can try to use a lost credit slip.”
“I’ll do my best,” Xander offered. “Thank you.” He inspected the envelope briefly. The wax was a bright yellow, and Jarep’s ring had embossed the symbol of the guild onto it – two crossed spears.
“You’re welcome.”
Taking Jarep’s words about losing the slip to heart, Xander stowed it safely in his inventory and decided that he should go straight to the bank. It was a ten-minute walk to the one nearest to the guild hall. There, he found out that his accounts were active, though the rest of the team’s names had been added to his investment account. The teller kindly informed him that the guild had petitioned for his account to be reopened with the balance that it had originally had when they’d gone about the paperwork reinstating him as ‘alive.’ There was apparently a special note in his records about it.
With the tournament finally concluded in its entirety for Xander, he made his way back to the inn. He could fly, but he wanted to just let his mind rest for a short while. So, he opted to make the twenty-minute walk instead, enjoying the sights and sounds. A few people clearly recognized him from the tournament as he noticed them do double takes or point him out to their friends, but no one approached or bothered him as he continued his leisurely paced walk back to the inn.
As soon as he entered the doorway of the inn, he was greeted with a chorus of cheers from his teammates. They’d already found a table and were celebrating his win with beer and ale. Someone had provided Freyja with a saucer of milk. He hoped they hadn’t tried to spike it with something.
“Xander! There’s our champ! What took you so long?” Frazay questioned him, beckoning him over to the table, mug in hand.
“Ah, sorry,” he said. “I was collecting my winnings from the guild hall, and then I had to stop by the bank.”
“Oooh, business first, how very mercenary,” Frazay teased.
“That big knight sure did put up a hell of a fight,” Atrax enthused. “But… it was a tiny person inside? How did that work? I was too far away to see the details.”
“Uhm,” Xander started off, thinking of how best to explain it. “It was like a machine that she piloted? I didn’t get much of a look at the insides of it,” he explained, “but I’m assuming that she looked out of the helm and the rest of the body used some kind of artifice, or skill, or magic to mirror her movements. I think. And she wasn’t that tiny. Just… a little shorter than Graffus. And purple.”
“Purple?” Gabrelle asked.
Xander shrugged. “Like, a deep violet purple. Have any of you ever met someone like that?”
“Can’t say that I have,” Graffus said.
“Could be from another continent,” Atrax said. “I think it was… oh gods damnit it’s on the tip of my tongue. They’re… distantly related to elves? Maybe? Ah! Pix! She could be a pix. I’ve heard they’re purple. Or blue. Both?”
“A… pix? I heard the announcer mention ‘esteemed visitors from across the seas.’ Just how many races are there besides human, elves, and dwarves?”
“Well, there’s the bug people – “ Graffus started off before being interrupted by Frazay.
“Insectoids, Graffus!” She chided him.
Graffus ignored her. “Bug people,” he continued, “and there’s the pix like Atrax just said, let’s see… the vorn – those are the tall furry ones that have tails. I’m sure there are a few more… Can’t say I’ve ever met any of them besides a vorn, though, and that was just once. Strange fellow, just kept asking me about different kinds of vegetables and what they tasted like. Apparently they only eat meat, or so he told me.”
“The folk that lie beyond the borders of our continent aren’t my area of study,” Atrax said. “You’re lucky I even remembered what a pix is, and I’m not even entirely certain she is a pix. For all I know she could have been dyed purple in some kind of magical accident.”
Xander looked to Gabrelle and then Frazay, receiving shrugs from both.
“Travel between the continents is really that uncommon, then?”
“Well, think about it this way,” Graffus said. “You have to brave a long, potentially dangerous journey by sea. That means you need good, high-level sailors, and a very well-equipped boat. That alone can become quite expensive. So there’s the factor of cost and the factor of danger. A not insignificant number of ships that go out that far to sea just… don’t come back. And for what reason would they brave the journey? Most resources they can, I assume, source from their home continent. Perhaps there are rare herbs that grow only on this side of the sea, but that’s a lot to risk for just a plant. So that mostly leaves traders who specialize in something so niche that we’ve probably never even heard of it, the intrepid explorer type, and the occasional person that wants to get so far from home that they flee to an entirely new continent.”
“Mmh.” Xander grunted, taking in the explanation. He realized that the ease of intercontinental travel back on Earth had been informing his thoughts of travel, still. “That makes sense. I wonder what it’s like over there. Wait, is it just one ‘over there?’ Are there more than two continents?”
Frazay shrugged again. “I’ve only ever heard of the one other one.”
Gabrelle offered, “I’ve read stories about islands far out to sea… but those don’t exactly measure up to being an entire continent.”
“I guess I can ask about it when I see her later…” Xander said, his mind still distracted from his realization that sea travel was thoroughly dangerous.
“’Later?’” Frazay asked, eyebrows raised.
“Huh? Oh,” Xander realized that he still hadn’t told the team about Valteria’s offer to come visit her and her shop that evening. “Yeah, she asked me if I’d like to come over this evening around dinner time and compare notes on our fight.” As he said the word ‘dinner’, he realized something. “Shit…” he said. “How am I supposed to pretend to eat?”
Atrax laughed. “You’ve got a date with a purple woman from another continent who wears a giant suit of magical armor, and you’re worried that she’s going to judge you because you don’t eat?”
“It’s not a date! It’s… a meeting between potential colleagues? I don’t know. Not a date though. She’s a [Tinker] and a [Mechanist], so I’m interested to see what kind of things she…”
Xander was interrupted by Frazay, who joined in on Atrax’s line of teasing. “Mmmhmmm. A woman invites you over for dinner and to ‘compare notes,’ and it’s not a date,” she said sarcastically.
“Just take it slow and get ta know her,” Graffus offered. “That’s the way a real man – or dwarf - woos a woman.”
“Do you know about contraception?” Gabrelle asked him, holding a straight face for as long as she could before it cracked into a smile.
“Even you, Gabrelle? Betrayed? By my whole team?” Xander exclaimed dramatically.
“Why would I take dating advice from you four anyway?” He retorted, trying to turn the tables on his team. “Not… that I’m ready, or looking to date by the way. I can’t say I’ve seen ya’ll going on dates yourselves. Uh, not that your advice was bad advice, Graffus. I agree with you on that, actually.”
“I’ll have you know,” Atrax said in a faux pompous voice, “that I am very successful with the ladies.”
“Tch,” Frazay snorted. “The ones that take payment, maybe.”
“You only know that because you sleep with the same ones!” Atrax exclaimed.
Frazay shrugged. “What can I say? Everyone loves me, men and women.”
Graffus rolled his eyes at the two of them. “Definitely don’t take their advice. As for me, well, I’ve got a century or two before I need to think about settling down. What’s the rush? It’ll happen when it happens. Or it won’t. That’s just how life is.”
Xander had forgotten just how long-lived dwarves were. He was always thinking of Graffus on human terms, as if he was just a short, broadly built human rather than a member of a completely different species. The difference in priorities, or at least patience, was eye opening.
Frazay turned her eye towards her next target: Gabrelle. “And when are we going to find you a date, hmm?”
Gabrelle stared like a deer struck by headlights. “W-what?”
“You know, a man. Or a woman. Or a dwarf?” Frazay explained, sounding like she was having to spell it out. “Someone you want to spend time with… not platonically?” She added with a rib at her and Xander’s earlier embarrassment around the misinterpretation of their relationship.
“Maaaybe I’m just not ready yet?” Gabrelle suggested.
“Awh, come on,” Atrax said, joining in, “Surely someone has at least caught your eye, right?”
“Oh, stop teasing her,” Graffus admonished the two of them.
“Yeah,” Xander agreed, though with more levity. “If she gets any redder people might think she’s from another continent, too.”
“Fiiine,” Frazay said with a dramatic sigh. “But if you ever need to gossip about a guy… I’m all ears,” She told Gabrelle.
“You’re all ears for any gossip,” Atrax quipped.
The afternoon wore on in similar fashion, the five of them talking, laughing, and teasing each other about various subjects. Xander learned that Atrax had found a potential buyer for any drakelings that hatched beyond the one that Frazay had reserved for herself. It should only be another month or so, now. Graffus had apparently taken up fishing as a hobby. Atrax had gotten into… something. Xander didn’t quite understand the topic beyond that it involved the study of how fire operated at base level of skills. Gabrelle spent much of the conversation talking about the various injuries she’d seen during the tournament. Frazay was still spending most of her free time sourcing what scarce knowledge there was about drake biology so that she could raise the drakeling more effectively.
Soon enough, though, it was time for Xander to excuse himself from the table. He needed to change into something other than armor, and then he needed to actually find Valteria’s workshop. He was always a little nervous about being on time – the one thing that seemed to have really stuck with him from basic training was a fear of being late for things – and the fact that he didn’t have an exact location for the place he was going only exacerbated that. He wasn’t sure exactly how he could be late for ‘around dinner time,’ but that certainly didn’t stop his mind from feeling like he might be. And so, around dusk – the days had grown shorter, he observed to himself – he found himself once more on the street in front of the guild house.