Dani strode into the meditation room to find Peter had arranged the cushions to form an armchair-like structure and pulled the table up to it, and was scribbling furiously on the provided paper with a very impressive looking pen. Two steaming hot cups of tea sat nearby on the tabletop, the gentle scent wafting throughout the room. He glanced up briefly and gestured to the opposite side where a second set of cushions sat in a similar configuration. DB ran around the tabletop with a piece of fruit in his mouth.

“Have a pew,” he invited. “I’m just working on a journal. I needed to collect my thoughts, and this seems the best way. Do you know where I can get these bound, or learn to do so?”

Dani slid into the faux-chair and flipped through the pile of papers on the table. “There’s a scribe’s guild in the capital, but otherwise, no?” She took up the teacup closest to her and breathed the steam. “Lemongrass and mint?”

Peter laid down his pen and sipped from his cup. “I took a guess. Did I do alright?”

“I’ve had worse,” Dani acknowledged, “it’s a bit strong.” She stuck her chin out at the scythe standing in the corner of the room. “What’s up with that? And what was with the whole your soul is forfeit thingy?”

“Page five,” Peter answered distractedly as he turned over the sheets to the right place before going back to what he was doing.

Picking up the page and flipping it over, Dani’s forehead crinkled. Then she rotated the page one-eighty and then flipped it again. “Wha-?”

“I’ve done my best to sketch what I saw a few days back,” Peter explained defensively. “There was a strange vision when I first sat down and properly looked at the scythe after you gave it to me. At first I couldn’t get anything out of it. Now when I use Appraise, well, I still can’t see all the stats, but now there’s a Quest attached to it.”

“Huh. That’s… huh. Yeah, that’s new.” Dani took the time to read through the journal carefully as she finished her tea. Peter kept on writing, taking breaks only to clarify a point for her or feed DB another piece of fruit.

“You spoil him, you know. He’s going to be the fattest rat on the peninsula at this rate,” Dani admonished, looking up from the manuscript. “Did you really die this many times? I knew about the incident in the tavern, and the were-vixen, but this is… unique.”

“Peninsula? We’re on a, wait,” Peter paused and dug through his pile of papers. Eventually he extracted a scratch map he’d started. “Could you show me on here?”

“I’ll give it a go, but I don’t have the cartography skill. It’s going to be rough.” She took the pen and scribbled around his roughly drawn image. The land came to a point to the west, there were mountains to the north and east, and water to the south. Dani hashed in an area to the northeast and put a very crude skull and crossbones over it. “That’s the forest. Nobody goes in there. There’s no dungeons and nothing worth the fight drops any good loot. I’d say only go in if you wanna die but I feel you’d take that as a challenge. Seriously, mate, do you like it, or are you just a sucker for bad jokes?”

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Colouring in embarrassment, Peter ducked his head. “Yeah, when I first got to Averton I wasn’t, you know, sure what to expect or what to do. I’ve never been in a world like this before. The few Travellers I’ve met, the ones that haven’t tried to kill me at first sight, all say that I went about it all wrong.” Peter stopped and stared off into space. “I was just trying to help people and stay alive. I guess I wasn’t much good at either,” he whispered as his throat tightened.

“Oh, I dunno about that, mate. You’re terrible at staying alive, for sure, but you’re definitely helping people. Here’s proof,” Dani rummaged about in her pouches until she found what she was looking for. A small pile of coin and a letter were laid on the table between them. “John was so grateful that he threw in a whole silver’s worth, that’s like a week’s pay around here, and wrote up a letter of introduction to the local guild heads. You take this to the guildhouses in this county and they’ll let you try out for an apprenticeship. You might look like a skeleton right now, with yer scrawny twigs you call arms, but a few days with a pick or axe and you’ll put on some muscle.”

Rolling his eyes, Peter remembered his first day in The Age. “Yeah, no. You can keep that. I’ll stick to my leaves and berries thanks. Is there a Herbalists Guild on that list?”

Dani pouted at him, “Aww, come on. It might be fun. I’ve got me patch from every guild on that there paper and a few more besides. There’s no problem with the beginners trying out their hands at as many trades as they can, it’s just Masters that get frowned on for working two jobs.” Dani paused before continuing in a falsetto. “Mnyeh, can’t be wasting time on the other guy’s work, mnyeh.” She returned to her normal voice, though laced with sarcasm, “cos, you know, everyone’s work is the most important thing in the world. It’s like once they get to Master they go through a ceremony where someone shoves a stick up their butt that stops them from seeing the big picture.”

Pausing for breath, Dani saw she’d lost her audience. “Sorry, those old timers just get my goat. Anyways, the guild hall for the miners is up here,” she pointed at the map where she’d sketched the mountains to the north. “And right next door the herb guys have a, a, thingy. You know, remote bloke. The miners go through so many health, stamina, darkvision and strength potions and stuff that it was worth having a permanent shopfront up there.”

Closing his eyes and taking a long slow sip from his cup, Peter shook his head. “You’re not really selling this, Dani. A job that needs regular health potions does not sound fun.”

“That’s just for the dedicated knobs who head deep underground. Apprentices don’t go more than two levels down, that’s where the the ore you can mine will be. Anything that spawns there we can take care of and you probably won’t even die.”

“Probably?”

She reached over and shook his emaciated arm in front of his face. “Yeah. Probably.”

“Good point. Buuuuut, how about tomorrow? Can you do tomorrow? I’ve got to get some sleep first and I’ve got study to do,” Peter grimaced.

“Didn’t you get enough sleep in the box?” Dani finished her drink and stood up. “Seriously though, it’s a fair call mate. It’s been a long day. Tomorrow arvo at the north gate then?”

“See you there. And Dani?”

“Yeah?”

“Thanks.”