Ellen and Sarah were already at their usual table. Grandmother took her own seat, after telling a passing server she would like tea. The two sisters were discussing the butcher.
“She uses a bunch of utility spells,” Sarah was explaining, “mixed with a couple force imbuements.”
“Force?” Ellen asked.
“Yeah,” Sarah explained. “She uses force blade to cut through the bones. What was interesting was she talked about some kind of nimble spell I didn’t recognize.”
“That sounds a lot like a sixth tree spell,” Ellen commented.
“I know!” Sarah responded. “Can you imagine if we spent years and traveled half the continent looking for a way to cast sixth tree spells and the butcher’s been using them this whole time?”
“Will she demonstrate it to you?” Ellen asked.
“I told her I would pay her twelve iron if she taught it to me. She said she didn’t need the coin, but if I promised to bring her porcupines next time we go south she’d do it,” Sarah explained. “I guess the innkeeper ran out of the prize porcupine meat Todd left while we were at the Speedwell. The selkie keep requesting it, so demand is high.”
“I suspect the coliseum will attract even more selkie,” Grandmother commented. “Do either of you know Arnie?” she asked the sisters.
He is an upper level weaver,” Ellen explained. The description meant the man worked out of one of the apartments over the square and not a shop on the courtyard. “He is on the east side of the second level.”
“Have you seen his fast bandages?” Grandmother asked.
“No,” Ellen responded. “Today was the first time I heard of them.”
“I’m going to buy some from him tomorrow,” Grandmother commented.
“I’ll come along,” Ellen responded.
Todd arrived with Harry in tow. Harry was Todd’s uncle, but Grandmother was unaware of that. Last year she’d noticed that the two men shared a similarity and wondered if they were related. This was the square’s twelfth year. Grandmother couldn’t figure out a way to politely ask if they were related and not look like an idiot at this late stage.
“Todd says Amanda’s leg should grow back,” Harry said as soon as he sat. “How long will that take?”
“About four to six days,” Grandmother responded. “It depends on nutrition intake and the volume that needs to be replaced. It’s about the same as a tier four spell. I’d like an update on how long it actually takes her to regrow it.”
“Is there anything she should be eating in particular?” Todd asked.
“She’ll need a lot of calcium,” Grandmother responded. “There’s this really nasty white paste the inn vendor sells that works well. I call it ‘bone builder’. No one ever buys the stuff by choice.”
“I remember it,” Todd commented, as a cook, he bought everything offered by the food vendor at least once in his life. “It is nasty.” When he tasted it the first time, he thought maybe it was an ingredient, since he couldn’t imagine eating it straight. He started considering what he could add to it to make it more palatable.
Alex, Companion and Kai came into the inn together. Grandmother wondered what the three of them had been up to. Usually Companion and Alex were the first to arrive, united as they were in their love of beer.
“That’s everyone,” Sarah declared. “Now tell us about your encounter with the Tinkerer.”
“Alright,” Ellen agreed. She took a sip from her glass, before settling into her story. “You saw as much of the Tinkerer as I did. The light curtain was a quick transport. I don’t think it took me very far. I actually have a vague memory of motion.” Ellen explained.
“I stepped out the other side into a workroom. There was a table with a torn set of wizard silks and an assortment of tools.” Ellen didn’t mention that she experienced a moment of panic when she realized there was no way out. She half turned and saw that the portal she arrived through was still alight. That calmed her. She circled the room. Its plain concrete walls and floor offered no hints. The ceiling was solid light panels that were all lit, providing excellent illumination.
“I repaired the silks and when I set them back on the table, doorways opened to two other rooms. One held a notched iron spear, while the other contained worn leather armor.” From Ellen’s point of view chunks of what seconds before was unbroken concrete simply crumbled away. It looked a lot like how the defeated automata dissolved. She knew this was just an animation Control was running for her using the nanobots in her cornea.
“I repaired the spear and two more doors off that room opened. The door I entered through didn’t close so I decided to back track. I repaired the leather and again two more doors opened,” Ellen explained. “This continued on for some time. Sometimes the new rooms contained items from a different craft, but sometimes they were items in the same craft but at a higher tier. If it wasn’t for my map I think I would have gotten hopelessly lost. Luckily I figured out I needed to mark that first room pretty quickly.” Ellen took another drink before continuing. Her map functioned inside the test area, but it didn’t show anything outside of that area. She looked over her map after returning and the test rooms were gone.
“Eventually I reached items that I struggled to fix. A tone sounded and the items, tables and tools sank into the floor. I followed a path of open doors through empty rooms until I reached a long hall with a set of closed doors along its length. I tried all the doors, but only three would open. Each of these rooms contained multiple tables and items, all with something different wrong with them. Each room was obviously dedicated to a single craft. The rooms open to me were glass, porcelain and bone.”
“How many doors were there?” Sarah asked. This was the first time any of them interrupted Ellen's story.
“Thirty six,” Ellen responded. “I counted them.” Sarah looked thoughtful as she considered what so many doors might mean. “I decided to start with glass. When I stood at the table and picked up the cracked bracer, one of the tools began to glow. I picked up the tool and I saw a ghost hand on it.” Ellen didn’t mention that there were six fingers on the ghost hand. “I adjusted my grip to hold the tool the same way. I was then shown ghost images of how to apply the tool. The spots under my finger tips glowed in the pattern of a spell. I tapped it out and the crack shrank. I learned the spells on the first try, although I went over them again and again trying to remember them.”
“I saw you recorded notes,” Grandmother said. “How much do you think you remembered?”
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“Most of it,” Ellen answered. “A lot of the repair spells are actually the same or very similar across crafts. I need to go back and look at all those unidentified tools we have. I think I can name almost all of them now. There were a couple spells I couldn’t learn, since they used the sixth symbol. I tried my hardest to remember them but they are also the ones I am the most uncertain about.”
“We can make a quick trip back to the Speedwell to download your video,” Grandmother offered. “If you think that will help. It won’t have recorded the ghost hand instructions or glows, but if you cast each spell yourself, it will have caught those actions.” Ellen looked surprised and glanced down at the pendant hanging on a stainless steel chain around her neck. It was identical to Grandmother’s. This was Ellen’s first trip wearing the camera. Grandmother made one for each of them on the last visit to the Speedwell. Ellen completely forgot about it.
“That is a good idea,” Ellen responded. “I’d hate to lose the footage if we end up staying too long. I don’t think there is any need to rush back, I want to check in with Do-Fa-Ti first.” The nanobots in the structure slowly destroyed all outside technology. The camera would only record for about two or three months. Even the stored recordings would last only a month or two more.
“When I finished working through all three rooms and closed the doors behind me, a new transportation door opened at the far end of the hall and I stepped back,” Ellen said, concluding her story.
“I thought you were gone a long time,” Sarah observed. “Now I am wondering how you managed to do all that in such a short period of time.”
“I was surprised everyone was still waiting,” Ellen responded. “I mean I knew you and Grandmother would wait, but I thought all the others would get bored and head back,” Ellen said to her sister.
“The Elder ran an after action report,” Companion said in his high voice. “It is the duty of a party member to attend.”
“Another one?” Ellen asked.
“Well no one had been injured yet. It was only after that happened that I thought we needed a second one,” Grandmother said defensively.
“Kai,” Harry asked, “how do you think our warriors did?” The guard leader wanted the opinion of the only person here who had seen others fight in an arena.
“I can’t believe how many won,” Kai responded without hesitation. “That was impressive. And no one died. In Peking there were always deaths on Challenge day and maybe only one or two wins a year.”
“It's good to hear my people did well. What do you mean by Challenge day?” Harry asked.
“Once every thirty six days there was an organized trip out to the arena,” Kai explained, “It is a way to limit the number of deaths.”
“Maybe we should do something like that here. I could organize an escort for a group out once a month. I can charge anyone not fighting in the arena a fee for protection on the trip in order to pay the guards,” Harry mused.
“Think about taking a camp cook along,” Todd commented. “I noticed some people didn’t bring their own food. A lot of the audience would pay for a hot meal and a beer.”
“You should take a stretcher to carry the injured back on, and maybe a harness to haul the wounded out of the pit,” Grandmother commented, “I don’t want you charging for a service that is life saving, so if you need funds for those two ideas I can make a donation.”
“The audience escort charge should pay for that,” Harry responded, “along with the guards' time. Rescue from a failed attempt will be part of the draw to get challengers to go with the group.”
“If you get the challengers to sign up ahead of time,” Ellen commented, “you could use the list as advertisement for the trip.” Harry was nodding his head.
“Which reminds me,” Harry said to Grandmother, “several people have expressed to me their desire to hold a ‘the inn is never full’ event again this year. I have told everyone they can’t expect to get a free stay in the inn every year. Their response was that they would like a voluntary event where everyone paid their own way.”
“I don’t see a problem with that. The Speedwell held several yearly celebrations that dated back to Earth. They were used to mark the time between stars. Did anyone record when we did ‘the inn is never full’ last year?” Grandmother asked.
“Everyone apparently,” Harry responded.
“A year on this planet is 371.66 days. An Earth year is 365.25 days,” Grandmother said. “Of course the day length themselves don’t match exactly either,” she explained. “Pick either spacing.”
“We should use structure time,” Alex said. “Since it is our first human structure holiday.”
“Selkie have many holy days,” Companion sang. “We follow the pattern of twice at 372 days and once at 371.” Companion’s comment made Alex realize how close the word holiday was to holy day.
“That is interesting,” Grandmother said, “It shows your people are aware of the world’s outside seasons.” It hinted at a different past than the ‘we were created by the true god’ creation story Companion told them. Grandmother remembered how Companion said the protection crystal in Londontown would probably only last for two or three generations. When asked, Companion didn’t seem to know how many years a generation was. Grandmother thought they were asking the wrong question. They needed to ask Companion how many holy days were in a generation.
“Will there be Stout beer?” Companion asked.
“Of course, my friend,” Alex declared.
“I’ll warn Innkeeper,” Todd commented. “I don’t think she will object. She made a bundle during the last event.”
“Tell her to set it up,” Grandmother commented. “Harry has enough on his todo list with Challenge day. She can put up advertisements and set up a countdown.”
“Will do,” Todd responded. The innkeeper was Todd’s aunt on his mother’s side. Todd often helped out by cooking for the inn. The famous Londontown Stout was his invention. It contained an ingredient that was poisonous to humans. He brewed it as a gift to his friend Companion. It wasn’t a poison among selkie, they considered it a spice.
The food was served. Conversation fell off as everyone ate. Todd stepped aside to talk to the innkeeper.
“I’ve never seen anyone take a weapon from the arena,” Kai commented around his food. This comment was softer than the previous conversation. Kai was new and wasn’t certain Grandmother would want it known. “The award is always armor.”
“Does the north coliseum give out the same pieces?” Ellen asked. She’d obviously heard Kai’s comment even if he’d said it in a quieter voice.
“They are glass,” Kai responded, “but they are bulkier. Grandmother’s pieces were all much sleeker.”
“That sounds like heavy armor versus light,” Sarah commented. “Kai, didn’t you say your people are mostly warriors? Maybe the loot is tailored to the challenger. We should compare the pieces everyone got.” There was some discussion on this topic, with Harry volunteering that one of the tier two warriors who won didn’t know a single wizard spell.
“The gauntlets I won only have five fingers. That is evidence that they were tailored to me, since the skeleton plainly had six fingers on each hand,” Grandmother commented. Ellen nodded her head in agreement.
“Do you think if I went north and fought in that coliseum I could win another set?” Alex asked.
“If you fight again at the same tier there is no reward. At least if you fight in the same arena,” Kai commented. “I guess I don’t know about another arena.” Kai turned to Grandmother, “Didn’t you say in Chicago that you had seen two coliseums yourself? Where is the second one? Is it the one in the north or is it the one the selkie go to?”
“Ah, well I may have overstated that one a little,” Grandmother admitted, she was usually studiously precise. It made her a really boring teacher, but if a student could sit through her long explanations they learned a lot. “I was playing a role,” she explained. “South of here, on the other side of the tier three space, before the industrial section, we passed through the foyer of another coliseum. Or what I think was a coliseum, we were traveling and didn’t explore it.”
“We did?” Alex said suddenly. He sat down his beer and leaned back to open his map.
“Yes,” Grandmother confirmed. “Todd remembered it when he and I discovered this one.”
“Here it is,” Alex declared. “It really is almost to the industrial area. It could be a harder test to see if you’re ready to go into tier four space. We need to go check if it has different loot!” he finished excitedly.
“I think it took us a month to get down there,” Grandmother observed, “and it is deep into bear country.”
“Hmm…” Alex murmured as he seriously considered the situation. “That could be a problem.”
Grandmother was considering it too. Much of what Alex just said rang true. It was on the other side of tier three space. It probably was harder and offered a different reward. That made her curious. What they really needed was a transportation room that was closer to it.