“I can’t believe you didn’t bring Rhodia. Whatever will you do with yourself?” Ella asked. “I brought mine. See? If you bring them, they’re with you. It’s not hard.”

Minos patted his wife’s hand as they walked arm in arm. “Now now. The boy made a mistake. We can’t all be smart all the time.”

“Mom. Dad. Come on,” Milo said. “She didn’t want to come. She’s been here recently, she has her own work to do, and she said, ‘you are going to spend all your time in smithies anyway, and I have no interest in that.’”

“That is fair. Mizu has wells to go look at,” Arthur said. “And if you go to a bunch of restaurants and cooking demonstrations, Minos isn’t going to care. He’ll be eating the whole time.”

“I really will,” Minos said. “I’ve been trying to put on some weight lately. I’m hoping this trip speeds that up.”

The combination of hiking everywhere, pushing his body beyond normal limits thanks to the use of system skills, and being generally active and social meant that for someone like Minos to try to gain weight, they had to really try. And when Minos tried to story body fat, it generally meant something very specific.

“Are you trying to go back out, dad? Already? The frontier just expanded,” Milo asked.

“It did. And one day it will need to expand again.” Minos made a grand gesture with his arm. “And in that day, they’ll need maps.”

“There’s no hurry, though, right?” Arthur asked. “I thought this was a once-in-a-generation sort of thing.”

“Oh, it is, but there’s no use trying to stop him. He gets itchy.” Ella patted his hand. “One time I managed to keep him home for a whole year and a half. He got so antsy he tried to build an addition onto the house.”

“That’s nice,” Mizu said.

“Well, it didn’t exactly turn out well.” Minos frowned. “I sort of broke one of the walls.”

“Wait, wait.” Milo waved his arms and stopped everyone in the street. “Are you talking about the wind room?”

“Yes, dear. I’m surprised you remember it,” Ella said, then turned to address the rest of the group. “When Minos said he broke a wall, he means he removed a wall from our house, then couldn’t figure out how to put others up. He told Milo it was a wind room. For enjoying the wind in.”

“Which I’m just now realizing today was steaming hot nonsense,” Milo said. “How did I never figure that out before?”

“You were a kid, right?” Arthur asked. “Everything seems normal when you are a kid.”

“That and all he wanted to do was stab furniture with his father’s knife,” Ella said. “He was in his warrior-class phase.”

“And with that, I think I’m going to leave before the stories start,” Milo said smoothly. “I can smell coal smoke somewhere around here. Someone’s doing something with metal.”

“Meet you back at the hotel?” Arthur asked.

“Maybe. If I don’t run into you, I’ll meet you for breakfast.” Milo disappeared into the distance.

“What about you?” Arthur looked at Ella and Minos, who were inching suspiciously close around Lily. “Why are you ambushing my assistant?”

“Because she’s coming shopping!” Minos yelled, as Ella got a hand on Lily and pulled her into a hug. “Ella’s been going stir-crazy without her. She calls it owl withdrawals. And I never got to buy her anything. Not so much as one dress.”

“Let me go!” Lily yelled. “I’m not a doll!”

“You are.” Ella hugged the owl to her chest. “And I’m going to buy you shoes.”

“I already have shoes!” Lily puffed up, as if by doing so she could expand beyond Ella’s ability to hold her. “Arthur made me buy them! They cost more than my furniture!”

“I didn’t make you buy them,” Arthur said. “It’s a good investment. I counseled you to buy them.”

“You aren’t going to save me?” Lily pleaded. .

“From them?” Arthur looked at Ella and Minos, who were visibly sizing her up for an all-new wardrobe, cost be damned. “No. Absolutely not. I don’t want my hand bit off.”

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“And, to sweeten the pot,” Ella said, sweetly, “If you come, I’ll make sure Eito can’t nag you about advancing your class too fast for two whole days.”

“Now hold on,” Eito said. “That’s not fair.”

“Three whole days.” Ella glanced at Eito, who snapped his mouth shut, then back at Lily. “Deal?”

“No dresses.” Lily squinted. “And no bows.”

“Skirts, and two bows. For your head, not on the clothes.”

“Practical skirts?”

“Only if I get to buy you a Coldfall dress.”

“Deal,” Lily said.

Minos and Ella didn’t wait long enough to give Lily a chance to change her mind. They moved off in the direction of a shopping district, one of them holding each of her hands in case she decided to try and get away.

“So Mizu, me, Karbo, Itela, and Eito. That’s five. What can five people get up to in a town this big?” Arthur asked.

“Three people.” Karbo put an arm around Itela and kissed the top of her head. “I’m taking my lady to dinner. At a fancy spot.”

“Where?”

“The mayoral residence.” Itela rolled her eyes. “We have a standing order to report within one day whenever Karbo is in town so the mayor can threaten him. The guards would have told him that Karbo’s here by now, so we are expected.”

“There’ll be food,” Karbo offered.

“That’s true. The mayor has a very good chef on call.” Itela patted her husband’s hand affectionately. “Which means I don’t have to kill you for making me sit through everything.”

“I’m also leaving,” Eito said.

“You have responsibilities here?” Arthur asked. “Already?”

“Well, not as such.” Eito suddenly looked awkward, more so than usual. More even than when he was explaining a Karbo-inflicted hangover to Arthur. “I have… obligations. Of a sort.”

“Wait, what is this?” Mizu looked at Itela. “Why is he being like that?”

“Because he has a… What would you call Jumie, Karbo?”

“Scary,” Karbo said. “Thank the gods she’s a dancer, or I’d have competition. I still don’t know how you two work.” Karbo shoved Eito the softest he possibly could, which was still enough to send his friend a few steps back. “He sees her once every year or so, when he makes his way to the capital. And somehow she’s still here waiting for him, every time.”

“An artist type?” Mizu tilted her head.

“You look confused, Mizu. Is that not good enough for Eito?” Itela’s eyes twinkled as Eito began to visibly plot escape from the conversation at perhaps any cost.

“Just not what I would have expected,” she said.

“He broke her out of a six-year bottleneck,” Itela explained.

“He does that a lot.” Arthur looked at Eito in a new light. “How many girlfriends does this man have?”

“It’s not just that.” Itela nodded at Karbo, who caught Eito before he could skulk off. “It was a six-year bottleneck that multiple very qualified trainers had been unsuccessful helping her break. Eito walked up, kissed her on the cheek, and said ‘do a dance about that,’ which really is quite the power move.”

“It’s an acknowledged training technique! It’s just a small amount of shock and discomfort, channeled. Any trainer would have done something similar,” Eito protested.

“According to Jumie, several of them did. But only Eito’s little shock managed to sink in.” Itela grinned like a loon. “Okay, Karbo, let him go. He’s embarrassed enough.”

Karbo released his friend, who jogged away and around a corner before any more words could catch up to him.

“Is he okay? It’s funny, but… I’ve never seen him embarrassed like that.”

“Oh, he’s fine.” Karbo said. “He always wants to brag about her but doesn’t know how. Bragging isn’t really an Eito thing. Plus, even if he wasn’t okay, he’s going to see Jumie.”

“Is she pretty?” Mizu looked after Eito with interest. “I bet she’s pretty.”

“When she’s just standing around, she’s gorgeous,” Itela said. “When she dances, she’s like… oh, I don’t know. All of the beauty of nature crammed into a single bottle, or something. I’ll force Eito to get tickets to her next show. It’s really worth seeing.”

“I thought the world didn’t have real dancing classes,” Arthur said. “Or something like that. No arts classes. Someone told me something like that.”

“It’s kind of true,” Karbo said. “She’s not, either. Her real class is pretty close to mine. Closest I’ve seen, anyway. Its… Jumper?”

“Mover,” Itela said. “It is like Karbo’s, except focusing on mobility. Jumie says that centuries ago, it was a versatile combat class. She found someone talking about it in a book. But the practical aspect is that it mostly just enhances what she gets out of her stats. She has a few very basic skills and a load of achievements that make them work better, but the rest of it is all her. And she likes to dance.”

“Huh. I wonder how far a cooking class could go, doing the same types of things,” Arthur said.

“Pretty far, but it’s a different kind of thing.” Itela shook her head. “Ask Ella about it, next time you see her. She’ll explain it better than I can.”

“Will do.”

“Come on, Itela. We should get there,” Karbo said. “He’s going to want to yell at me for at least a few hours before he brings the snacks out.”

“I can’t believe he’s hungry again,” Mizu said. “He just ate all those noodles.”

“Not hungry, maybe, but he gets food where he can get it.” Arthur took Mizu’s hand as they started strolling back towards the hotel. “So it’s just you and me then. Any ideas? I sort of want to see the city, but I’m sure you’ve seen most of it already.”

“Not as much as you’d think. Mom had a few places she liked when we came through. And then we’d see all the wells. But not much besides that. We can just walk around if you want. I’m sure we’ll find something interesting.”

“Absolutely. Let's do it.” A sudden thought hit Arthur. “Except if it’s okay I want to stop at the hotel first.”

“Why?”

“Its weird.”

“Just tell me.”

Arthur sighed. “I just feel like I’m behind on showers from the trip. I know that’s not how it works, but the water felt so good earlier, and….”

Mizu kissed him on the cheek. “No more explanation needed. It’s genius. There’s no law against taking two showers in the same day, Arthur. Nor could there be. I’d rebel.”

“So double shower day?”

“Double shower day,” Mizu said. “I’ll meet you back in the lobby in an hour. Then we’ll go out.”