They stayed in their little room for three days. Irene kept running around during the day bringing things back. She really did seem to have itchy feet. First she brought iron bowls. Stan found it difficult to lean over and pick up his bowl from the ground while sitting on the sofa. Irene arrived with a stack of tubing and metal sheet which she snapped together into a side table. Lizzy said something about putting the portable stove on it so she could stand and cook. Before they knew it there was a new table under the stove. Irene spent the first evening wrapping rope around a chair frame to give it a seat and back. By the third day the rope was replaced by rawhide, and there were three of them. Stan wasn’t certain where the rawhide came from, although fresh meat along with mushrooms and even the occasional vegetable kept appearing in the pot.
Irene kept mumbling something about an anvil. On the third morning when Stan announced he was strong enough to make the rest of the trip. Irene promised she’d be right back. She returned with an anvil sitting on a little cart. The cart rolled along with surprising ease on a set of tiny wheels. She pulled it along with a piece of rope. Stan thought it was the same piece of rope that was once on the chair.
“Isn’t it awesome?” Irene said. “I found the wheels on the bottom of a mop bucket. I really wish I’d found them a couple years ago.”
“We need to go down quite a few flights,” Lizzy warned.
“I’m going to try to put it into my inventory. I’ve been looking for one for different reasons for about a year now. I ended up buying one from a vendor in the north. It occurred to me that everyone assumes an anvil can’t be put into inventory because it is too heavy to try.” Irene rolled the anvil into the room and lifted it with little effort onto the prize altar. She shifted the item around a little until it was stable on the shelf.
She opened the prize interface and tried to put the anvil into her inventory. Nothing happened.
“That is a disappointment,” she said. She left the anvil on the prize altar and flipped up her cart to retrieve the little wheels. She slipped the wheels into an extremely full gathering bag. Before untying the rope and rolling it up. “I’m ready,” she told the others, as she stuffed the rope back into her pack.
Although fully healed, stairs were still hard for Oliver. He was using a spear as a cane, with Stan steadying him. Stan was nearly fully healed himself. Although there was a large scar across his abdomen and his stamina was limited. Walking slowly down the stairs with Oliver was giving him a much needed break.
“What tier are you?” Lizzy asked, as the two women waited for the men at the bottom of the stairs.
“Why do you ask?”
“I know how heavy those anvils are. You moved it onto the altar like you could have skipped the cart and just carried it over your shoulder,” Lizzy replied.
“It's easy to just let go of a rope to fight. I lose more time tossing a load aside,” Irene explained. “I am tier four,” she said after a moment's consideration.
Lizzy whistled. “No wonder you aren’t afraid,” she commented.
“Don’t misjudge me,” Irene responded. “I am deeply afraid. I wouldn’t have made it to four if I wasn’t.”
They arrived at Northbrook to widespread relief. The suburb welcomed back their missing residents. Irene filled her water flask and ate a meal with the group before heading back north to Chicago.
Lizzy looked around the bare rooms her friends and family all lived in, and remembered how Irene fully decorated that random room in under three days. She wondered if the wizard had the same kind of effect at The Heights. She should have invited the woman to visit again.
Irene came up the north stairs into Chicago near nightfall. When the guards demanded the entrance tax, Irene told them she was from Redfalls. The guards looked extremely nervous. One went running off, while the other asked Irene to wait. Irene raised one eyebrow at the man. A few minutes later, Ian came marching up to the entrance, a thundercloud on his face. His eyes settled on Irene. For a split second his anger held, then it melted away.
“Irene,” he said in greeting, a smile transforming his features.
“Ian,” Irene replied. “I hoped I’d run into you. I’ve been in and out looking for you.”
“Is she with your suburb then?” one of the guards asked.
“Yes, of course,” Ian said expansively. He stepped forward to take Irene’s hand. “I gave them a hard time,” Ian said confided in Irene, “I didn’t realize it was you. Now I will have to reward them.”
“I should have paid the entry fee,” Irene said. “I don’t like special treatment.”
“Nonsense,” Ian said. “Beautiful women always get special treatment. Have you eaten?”
“Just travel food,” Irene responded.
“Well I can finally buy you dinner,” he said. Ian took her to a cafe that was still open. They were close to the administration side of Chicago. Irene soon forgot her worries about running into Darien as she enjoyed Ian’s company.
“What have you been doing?” Ian asked.
“I found an anvil,” Irene announced. “I tried to put it into my inventory, but it didn’t work.”
“How did you try that?” Ian questioned.
“I put it on a prize altar, of course,” Irene said. “I think it is just too big to fit through the trap door. When I bought an anvil in a square it appeared in front of the vendor on the ground. There must be a separate trap door on the floor in front of vendors. I wonder if I could sell an anvil back?” she mused to herself.
“Is that all?” Ian asked.
“I found a sofa too,” Irene said. “I really, really wanted that, but I decided it is just too far back to our suburb to haul it.”
“I like how you say our suburb,” Ian commented. Irene smiled and kissed Ian on the cheek.
“Oh!” she said suddenly. She reached down to untie the gathering bag still secured to the side of her pack. She opened the top and felt around inside the heavily loaded bag. “I found these beauties too,” she said, pulling out four small caster wheels. “Aren’t they wonderful?” At a complete loss why anyone would be so rapturous over a wheel, Ian mumbled something approving.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
“I thought I could use them to move the sofa, but I decided I’d never get it down the stairs, it was just too bulky," Irene explained.
Jake came walking into the cafe. He did a double take when he saw Irene.
“Excuse me for interrupting. I didn’t realize you were in Chicago,” Jake said to Irene.
“I discovered something in Redfalls that I wanted to talk privately to Ian about,” Irene said. “I couldn’t find either of you on my first day and I’m afraid I got a little distracted.” She held up her wheels as proof.
“Are those wheels?” Jake asked.
“Yes,” Irene said. “Aren’t they awesome? They can carry a significant amount of weight. I built a little frame and rolled an anvil around.” Jake looked thoughtful. He still remembered the days before they found the square, when they were forced to haul all their belongings around when the rest crystal failed. He could see how useful a rolling platform would be.
“Where did you find them?” Jake asked.
“In a random room outside the west entrance. They were on the bottom of what looked like a damaged mop bucket. They popped right out when I twisted them,” Irene described excitedly.
“Did you need me for something?” Ian said, trying very hard to hide his annoyance.
“Umm yes,” Jake said. “One of our teams has returned from the border. Sophia thinks they need to report to you.”
“Tell them to come back in the morning,” Ian said.
“No, no,” Irene said, slipping the wheels back into her bag. “I don’t want to distract you from your duties, that would make me feel bad for coming. You go ahead. I’ll go find a bed for the night.”
“You can stay with me,” Ian said. “I’ll walk you over, before I meet with the team.”
“Great,” Irene replied. Ian escorted Irene over to leadership housing. It was a two room suite, fully furnished. The second room was set up as a kind of bathroom. Of course it wasn’t really a sanitation facility with running water and recycling plants. It was equipped with a pitcher and bowl set up for bathing. A chamber pot waited discreetly in a corner.
The bedroom was equipped with a bed identical to the ones she sold in Londontown. In fact it was so close, Irene wondered if it wasn’t one of her beds. It would be really weird if one ended up here. She suspected it was just another structure spawned bed that looked the same.
“This is nice,” Irene said as she looked around the room, “especially for wildspace. I’ll be fine here,” Irene assured Ian. “You tend to your duties.” Ian kissed her before leaving.
“Where are they?” Ian asked Jake sharply when the door to his quarter closed.
“This way,” Jake said, leading Ian out of the administration section to an area of Chicago that was all transient housing. He gave a quick knock on a door, before opening it for Ian. Ian stepped inside to find Sophia and Ian’s private strike team waiting.
“Keep a watch,” Ian told Jake, before closing the door behind him. “Well?” he demanded from the room's occupants.
“We didn’t find her,” Sophia reported. “We found Northbrook, but she wasn’t there. We told them their leader died on the border as you instructed.”
“How did they take it?” Ian asked.
“Not well,” one of the warriors replied. “They threw us out and doubled their guard.”
“I don’t think that’s a problem,” Sophia added. “I would do the same if I thought a band of blues were wandering around. We circled around and checked for the other bodies. There is no sign of them, the structure has already taken them.”
“At least that is taken care of. There was a report of a woman coming in the north entrance, but that turned out to be Irene. No other women have gained entry traveling without men.” Ian stated.
“If she didn’t run back to her home suburb and she didn’t return to Chicago, she is dead,” another warrior declared. “She didn’t have any equipment or weapons on her.” He didn’t mention that the prisoner was naked when she got away. She was a quick thing. They only caught her in the beginning because she was carrying such a heavy pack.
“It looks like we got away with it this time, but I don’t want a recurrence,” Ian declared. “If you want to rob reds, everyone has to change out to blues first.”
“What about you?” Sophia asked. “Didn’t you say the discolor that happens when you wear blue is proof you're not one?”
“I’ll have to abstain from here on,” Ian replied. Any camouflage spell they used broke in combat, which was why Ian carefully recast don’t notice me after every attack spell. It was a quick tier zero cast. This method left only brief flickers of his true appearance. The real problem with it was that in Chicago's territory it made everyone look like a red. He couldn’t use it when they were pretending to be blues. He was a known figure. Any survivors could recognize him and report it to Darien. A report that reds were robbing reds was bad enough. A report identifying him could really mess up his plans. “Everything is going too well to screw it up now over a few coins worth of cargo and a bit of fun. I looked up Northbrook. It might be a small suburb but it is an old one. I don’t think the leader would have supported us as a replacement for Darien, so he is no real loss.”
“I don’t want to be disturbed for the rest of the night,” Ian told Jake when they were back at leadership housing. Jake nodded his understanding. He moved to stand watch in the hall. Ian gave the door a sharp rap and moved to open it. It opened easily to reveal Irene sitting in the center of the floor surrounded by sorted piles of crafting tools and sharpening her knife. Ian could feel the usual buzz from all the minor weapons in the piles.
“All taken care of?” She asked with a smile.
“Yep,” Ian responded. “Everything else can wait until morning. Actually that report could have waited too.”
“Let me just pick these up,” Irene said. She knew how Ian didn’t like the disorder. She returned her knife to its sheath. She took her belt off to get comfortable, so it lay on the floor beside her. She packed the tools into her gathering bag, one type at a time. She stood and stacked her belt and bag on top of her pack. When she turned back to face Ian, she found him already here, enclosing her in his arms.
“What did you want to talk to me about?” Ian asked later, when they were in the bed together. The bed was a little narrow, but Irene didn’t mind. She was completely blank for a moment.
“The crystal in Redfalls is getting smaller,” Irene said, slightly shocked it could slip her mind even for a moment. “Crystals in rests get smaller before they disappear, I am worried that will happen in Redfalls.”
“The Redfalls’ crystal is much larger than a rest crystal,” Ian said. “I don’t think we need to worry about it disappearing in a week.”
“It’s shrinking a lot faster than a rest crystal,” Irene said. “I talked to Ellen and I think it started before Kyle’s death. She remembers a crystal larger than what I first saw.”
“Don’t worry,” Ian replied. “I am sure we can figure it out. When you’re finished with your business in Chicago, I will escort you home and take a look.” Irene was relieved, knowing that someone else was going to help. She fell into an exhausted sleep shortly after that.
Ian lay awake for a while longer. He heard a rumor that Londontown’s crystal was shrinking. He needed to send in someone to check it out. The rumor he heard was that the shrinkage was tied to attacks upon the square. Ian thought the development was good news for him. If attacks on Londontown itself shrank their crystal, then the blues would push forward, attacking Chicago suburbs directly. The more they did of that, the more unhappy the suburbs would be with Darien and the closer they were to a change in power.
The crystal in Redfalls shrinking was a bit of a wrench in that plan. There wasn’t any fighting at Redfalls. That meant it wasn’t just direct attacks that affected them. He needed that secure base to keep his army up. As the suburbs became more dangerous, men with large families were fleeing to Chicago. From there it was easy to recruit them with the promise of safety for their children. Jake usually escorted the families back to Redfalls. There was a group waiting to go now.
Ian would take Jake's place and bring Irene along with the group. He just knew she would love the idea of him offering the square as a place of refuge. She must have seen earlier groups arrive. Witnessing him take care of the group on the journey should impress her.