Current Quests

Justice For Courbefy: Find justice for the victims of the corrupt mayor of Courbefy. Use…

Chosen Of Knowledge: Escort Hugh on his journey to becoming a fully awakened iron…

Healer’s Materials: Gain Healer’s favour by donating alchemy ingredients to the church…

Don’t Kill Anybody Today: Death doesn’t want you to kill anybody today, thank you.

Crimes Of Megève: Justice wants you to solve three crimes in the Megève area.

Wine tour: Vineyard wants you to try the different wines in the Megève area.

Acquire Follower: Dominion wants you to gain another follower.

Dave rolled his eyes as he accepted the quest from the church of Hero while casually pushing open the church door.

“Oh, Chosen Of Hero, hey? Yeah, this’s gonna be easy,” he grumbled to himself, eyes flicking over the text in front of his face. “What’sit say? Travel north, Lake Auvernier, blah, blah, find chosen, recruit to adventure, blah, blah, blah… ten silver pieces and a blessing. Cool. No fuckin’ problem.”

He wandered into the Church of Hero like he owned the place. There was seating and a raised dais as per the usual church setup but regular statues of heroic figures with plaques on the bases were about the room.

“You in here, Hero?” called Dave, not really expecting a reply.

A head poked out around a door a few moments later.

“My lord says to head to the beer garden at the back!” shouted the man. “Just that door over there and keep going!”

“Thanks, mate!” said Dave with a wave and started wandering towards that door, maintaining the confidence of someone with no fucks left to give.

Dave walked to the back area of the church as instructed and found it led outside. The church had a bar recessed into the wall with a deck and a pergola to relax in. There were two pints of beer sitting on an elbow high table at the far end of the deck.

“Pick a beer, I’ll be out in a second,” said a voice from through a door behind the bar.

Dave felt a Presence with the voice. It wasn’t a god but it washed over him and felt like it encompassed the space between every atom. Some kind of demi-god? Was that a thing? Still not giving a fuck and figuring not to disappoint such a person, Dave strolled over to the beer and dragged one of them in front of him. He leaned on the table while he waited for the voice to collect theirs and looked at the garden. It was a nice garden with wildflowers in raised beds and some local bushes making the enclosing hedges. Good place to do yoga.

“Hey!” said the voice, bustling over to Dave from behind the bar. “Had to tap a new keg. Was just getting rid of the old one.”

Dave turned his head to see a friendly, looking celestine face that radiated power which, somehow, Dave could tell wasn’t hers. She had lustrous bronze hair and a stocky build that gave the impression she could shoulder her way through a door if she wanted to.

“Natalia, but I’m channelling myself; Hero,” said the celestine, offering her hand.

“Dave,” said Dave, taking the hand. “Channelling?”

“Projecting into a follower instead of manifesting. Less taxing on everyone involved,” said Hero through Natalia. “I got the sense you’d had enough direct divine intervention for one day.”

“Too right,” said Dave.

They picked up their glasses, tapped them together and took a gulp of beer and sighed in contentment at the taste.

“So, you come to my church for guidance?” asked Hero.

“Yeah. What the hell is going on?” said Dave, shaking his head in disbelief.

Hero settled Natalia’s body onto the table with her elbows beside Dave overlooking the garden with him.

“In your parlance, shit is about to kick off, Dave.” Hero took another sip and continued. “I’ll admit, I’m mostly just following Knowledge. She’s putting folks in places all over the world and won’t tell anyone why. But, Warrior, Soldier, myself and a few of the other gods too, we know what it looks like before a fight. This world is going to see battle like it never has before. I can feel it.”

“And battles make heroes of people, don’t it?” said Dave, wryly.

Hero raised Natalia’s glass.

“Yep! Please don’t grudge me my only job, Dave.”

Dave sighed.

“Yeah, fair enough. It’s just… there’s a lot of nice people who’ll get dead. Heroic teachers not good enough? Heroic surgeons?”

“They are,” said Hero with a smirk, looking over the garden.

“Saw a lot of weapons on those statues inside,” remarked Dave, also staring over the garden. Some birds were flitting from tree to tree and were quite eye-catching.

“People around here like weaponed heroes the most,” said Hero with a shrug. “There’s a place in southern Africa where they’re all about the best river rowers. It’s a cultural thing.”

“Militant cultures, hey? Popular choice in every universe. That quest you gave me? I’m supposed to turn some poor chump into a hero, hey? Train your champion?”

“Yep.”

“And who is this poor sod?”

“You’ll know them when you see them,” said Hero mischievously. “It’s real story book stuff.”

“Bloody hell. That’s a bit ominous, you know? Are they going to survive?”

“I don’t know. All I know is that they’re going to be a hero and you're the best option to make it happen.”

Dave sighed and looked down into his beer.

“Why me?”

Hero put a hand on his back.

“We tried someone else but making good decisions wasn’t their thing. So, Knowledge brought you in. Someone who’ll do the work that needs doing. That’s what we were aiming for.”

“We?”

“Yes, the pantheon.”

“I wasn’t summoned by accident, then?”

Hero moved Natalia’s head in a side-to-side, uncommitted kind of way.

“Specifically you, specifically by Hugh then and there? That was an accident. But, someone like you coming into this world between now and a future event? That was intentional. Don’t think about it too hard. It’s god-level stuff. Interfering with the fundamentals of reality and stuff.”

Dave nodded. He guessed it was a bit like meteorology. It could only be expressed in terms of probability and any particular prediction would either make them look like soothsayers or liars but the people asking the questions always wanted certainty.

“You think I can do it?” said Dave, taking a pull from his glass. “The heroic quests?”

Hero nodded seriously while watching the birds.

“Warrior and I asked Knowledge the same thing. Want to know what she said?”

“Sure,” said Dave with a shrug.

“She said barring an untimely death, the only real question was how many nations your heroes would kill.”

“My heroes?”

“Your racial ability. I can feel it. You’re going to make a line of heroes like this world has never seen.”

Dave sighed.

“How many will they kill?”

“Countless”

“How many will they save?”

“The same.”

“Will the same amount of death happen even if I do nothing?”

“Yes.”

“Sounds like I don’t matter much. Just another hand on the scales of fate?”

Hero nodded and raised Natalia’s glass to him.

“Good luck, Dave.”

And drained the glass.

Hero left Natalia’s body. She was a little disoriented but as he refilled their glasses, she described the experience as basically just doing what the voices in her head told her to do. She just went with it. Dave continued drinking with her for a while. She was the solid type, not rattled in the slightest.

“No, it’s fine,” she said in an accent that really settled deeply into the O and U vowels. “The world needs heroes sometimes and it sounds like you’re about to make a few.” She winked at him. “You’re basically clergy already.”

“Unwillingly,” said Dave, rolling his eyes.

“Ohh, eh? That’s life for ya!” she chuckled in reply.

Dave grinned into his beer.

“Any advice?”

“Oooh, lad. Just get out there and do the best you can.” Natalia took a gulp of beer and continued. “It sounds like life’s going to be coming at you and coming at you hard. All you’ll be able to do is make the best decision you can. So just do it.”

Dave pulled on his beer and nodded.

“One foot in front of the other, hey?”

Natalia nodded and they watched the birds for a while and drank.

“Yeah, I better get going,” Dave said eventually.

“Yep, the Lord tells me that he hears that Hugh will be done soon. Good luck, adventurer. The Lord says you can drop by any church for a chat any time you’re about,” said Natalia.

“Thanks! I appreciate it,” said Dave and waved as he walked back through the church and back into the pubic area where Sam was strolling about, feeding sticks into her all-eating slime.

“You good to go?” asked Dave as he walked to her.

Sam just smiled and nodded up at him.

“Hugh will come out soon, I think. Which sticks does Slimy like best?”

“Fresh sticks! Turns fresh sticks into mulch!”

“Or fresh humans,” said Dave wryly.

Sam covered her mouth as she grinned guiltily at Dave while searching for the tastiest sticks.

Hugh came out a few minutes later. He looked content and at ease with himself.

“My lady tells me you’re ready to train me?” said Hugh.

“I guess. Can I have the Chateau Chamois estate as the location to set up a research school?”

Hugh grinned.

“She says ‘not yet’ but there’s a cheeky feeling with it.”

“Yeah, I’ll train you anyway, you big bugger!” Dave slapped Hugh on the arm. “Sam will help. She’s more savage than me.”

Hugh looked at Sam who mimed kicking him and laughed at his astonished expression.

“You know, I’ve never really done any fighting,” said Hugh self consciously.

“We’ve done a bit. It’s a learned skill, just like anything else,” said Dave with Sam nodding encouragement. “As long as you treat it like learning any other subject, you’ll get there. We just have to figure out how bad you are before we really begin.”

Hugh looked sheepish.

“You think I’m that bad?” he said.

“Everyone is,” said Dave, rolling his eyes and thinking about all those young men who walked into his old MMA gym thinking they were going to walk out a badass but ended up wheezing for oxygen after the warmup exercises.

“Well, my Lady says that you know unarmed techniques that nobody on this planet has ever thought of!” said Hugh, beaming.

“Oh, that can’t be…” Dave trailed off, thinking. Actually, that might be true. The 10th Planet style of jiu-jitsu was only about twenty years old and innovations that’d come out of that gym were pretty unique. A few sweeps and submissions that hadn’t existed before. And, this reality seemed progressively stunted compared to his home reality. It suddenly dawned on Dave.

“Hugh… do I have access to several hundred years of martial innovations that don’t exist in this reality?”

“My Lady says that the answer is a light ‘yes’,” said Hugh.

Dave’s mind reeled. He turned to Sam.

“Sam, you know some fighting. What’s the most important punch in boxing?”

“Umm, all of them?” She smiled her unsure smile.

“Oh, God.”

Hugh looked at him.

“Gods.” Dave corrected himself with a shrug.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Both of Dave’s companions continued looking at him with mild puzzlement.

“The correct answer is the jab but it seems it hasn’t been invented yet.”

They both maintained the same look.

“I’ll show you tomorrow during training.”

They began walking out of the park.

“What do we do now? Lunch time?” asked Hugh.

“Yep!” said Dave. “What do you want, Sam?”

“Hotpot!”

“Not sure that’s on the menu,” said Dave, with a questioning look at Hugh who shook his head. “How about a fish stew? I hear that’s nice.”

“Oh, it is,” cut in Hugh, nodding vigorously.

“Alright!” grinned Sam.

----------------------------------------

There was a hot serving pot full of what Dave could only describe as general marine life stew for lunch. There was fish, shellfish and molluscs in with a bunch of turnip-like things and some aromatics. It was emblematic of Dave’s experiences in this world, both familiar and alien together. It was served to their table with a loaf of bread.

The team discussed plans. They had to get out of town, and quickly.

“We can leave tomorrow morning, if we’re quick,” said Hugh, who was thoroughly enjoying the stew. “Dave should be able to use Epistemology to get our measurements and order some decent adventuring clothes from the tailor. Just ask for something tailored to be loose fitting from the retainer’s folio. They’ll have that ready to go. While that’s being made we can go to the adventurer’s hall and browse what gear is available -”

“I can’t!” interrupted Sam. “If someone has identification power.”

“That’s fine,” said Dave, cutting in. He was already telekinetically writing down everyone’s measurements in Tome. “You can go to the massage place I saw earlier. You can have a nice steam bath, get your nails done and have a back rub while Hugh and I are in the hall. We can take our time.”

“We sure can!” said Hugh heartily. “After that, we should be out in time to browse the adventuring goods store if there’s anything we don’t find in the hall. We’re going to want collapsible beds and suchlike, if I understand your cabin spell correctly?”

Sam smiled and nodded vigorously.

“Yeah, for sure,” said Dave with a glance at Sam. The Comfortable Country Cabin was secure and had a nice temperature which was more than most people got while camping. “Furniture doesn’t come with the summon. Chairs and a table if possible?”

“We won’t be able to afford the best but we should be comfortable,” said Hugh.

“This plane have folding chairs? I’d be fine with them. The ones with a backrest?” asked Dave.

“We sure do,” smiled Hugh through his whiskers.

Sam nodded and grinned earnestly.

“Four chairs and a table. All folding if we can get it. Simple stuff. Most of our coin we should be spending on gear to keep us alive, right?”

“That’s what I was thinking too,” said Hugh, clasping Dave on the shoulder. “So, with clothes, armour and survival gear taken care of, we can put in an order with the bakers overnight, wake up tomorrow morning, pick it all up and ride out. That’ll work for you both?”

“Oh! Need to buy good armour and weapons for skeletons!” said Sam with a concerned smile to Hugh.

“We probably can’t afford to give them anything enchanted. Just iron rank spears and shields. Hope that’s enough?” said Dave. Sam nodded happily.

“Alright, and Dave? Can you help me put some awakening stones in me this evening?” said High.

“You know I will,” said Dave.

Sam smiled happily and clapped her hands at Hugh.

“Then, let’s do it!” said Hugh with triumph.

As they got moving and left the cafe, Dave saw the reflection of the group in the glass of a shop as they went by. He gave a small smile at the moment of perfect representation that it was. Hugh, tall and broad of chest with a face full of beard and ruddy face looking pleased. Sam behind, shy but brimming with nervous happiness and Dave, looking sharp as a tack but distracted by a book.

He sure hoped they wouldn’t die.

----------------------------------------

Dave handed in their measurements at the tailor’s asking for five outfits each once he saw the price tag.

“Yes, the retainers collection only has a weak self repair enchantment on unranked cloth. It’ll cover you and look relatively fashionable from a distance but it lacks the self cleaning, comfort and minor protection enchantments of high quality cloth that adventurers usually favour,” said the tailor.

“Sounds perfect for what me and my team need. We’re new at adventuring so I’m thinking we’ll wait a bit to see if we live long enough to be worth the investment of anything fashionable,” quipped Dave.

“Even so sir, working with normal ranked cloth will give me more freedom to customise the style and the fit. For only an extra copper, if sir could tell me the status and image each of you wishes to project? Perhaps your professions? I could lend some fashion sense to your outdoors look.”

A copper wasn’t much considering how much good weapons and armour were going to cost. Dave nodded to Hugh.

“Monk of Knowledge, previously doing astral research,” said Hugh, grinning at Dave. Monks didn’t get a lot of clothing options so this was quite the occasion for him.

“I am gardener!” piped up Sam through her smile.

“I recently had a career change into detective,” said Dave. The tailor raised an eyebrow at him. “I got a quest ability.”

“Quite so, sir,” said the tailor. “I’ll have them ready by tomorrow morning, as you requested.”

Dave gave a reserved bow and thanked the man before leaving the shop.

“Okay, Sam. This is yours,” said Dave, handing her five bronze coins.

“Too much, Dave!” laughed Sam at the copious amount of money.

“I did a word search for the shop’s name. Just tell them you want the ‘half silver’ treatment. Apparently that’s a special, pampered treatment they don’t advertise. The notes I read didn’t say why. All I know is that the nobles all recommend it for each other after a hunting trip.”

Sam nodded and smiled nervously at the coins in her hand. In the end, her shyness won out and Hugh went into the shop to pay while Sam stayed with Dave. Hugh soon came out with a bathhouse employee.

“Sam, is it?” said the bathhouse uniformed man. “Yes, we don’t advertise the half-silver because we like it to seem more exclusive to our more discerning clientele. As a personal friend of The Running Monk,” the bathhouse employee grinned at Hugh, “we would be happy to include you. Right this way.” The employee indicated that Sam should walk past him.

“Get in there, Sam, don’t be shy,” muttered Dave while smiling at her.

Hugh beamed at her through his whiskers and indicated she should follow Dave’s instructions. Self consciously, grinning wide, she walked towards the bathhouse.

“I don’t know what to do,” she confessed quietly to the employee.

“You relax and let us do all -” said the employee gently before the closing door cut him off.

Both Dave and Hugh were smirking at the building.

“Too shy for her own good,” said Dave and shook his head affectionately.

“Oh, she’s lovely, isn’t she?” said Hugh heartily. “Adventurer’s hall?”

“Nah, I want to put an order in with a glazier first. Then we can head to the adventurer’s hall.”

“Sure.”

The stop at the glazier was quick and they soon progressed to the adventure hall, Hugh’s provisional membership causing a momentary pause and a shrug with the door from the doorman before they were waved in.

Megève was a small town and so there was only a single magical items shop. Dave and Hugh browsed the store slowly with Dave using his identification ability looking over items, making notes and comparing prices and Hugh, getting excited and testing the limits of Dave’s identification ability.

“How about now? Has the description changed?” asked Hugh, putting a handful of fire quintessence in front of a wand.

“Yep, still the same description,” said Dave, smiling at Hugh’s enthusiasm. “But you’re right, how does it know? The fire… particles, I guess? Are completely drowning out the cold particles and yeah, sure, the ability could be more sensitive than my magic senses-”

“But how could it be? You’re iron rank and Eldritch Eyes is easily the best ability for sensing pure magic.”

“Yeah, good point so the ability must be more sensitive than iron rank and have some way of differentiating sources.”

“Fascinating, isn’t it? What if we put two similar items-”

“Are you two going to buy anything?” called the store’s manager.

Dave and Hugh pulled guilty faces at each other.

“Ahh, yes. Sorry. This wand, these vambraces, the boots, this sash, the cuirass and helmet. Thanks,” said Dave, handing over a small pile of money to placate the store manager after putting all the gear on the counter.

“Didn’t mean anything by it, Missus Colbert. I hope you’re having a nice day,” said Hugh, trying the personable approach.

Missus Colbert eyed Hugh suspiciously but seemed mollified.

“Death enchantments? Do you know an enchanter that I don’t?” said the woman, still giving Hugh a cross, matronly look. She didn’t notice Dave momentarily freezing while he used Stop And Think to look up what an enchanter was and figure out why she’d make that comment.

“Actually, I was thinking of taking up enchanting. As you heard, I have identification powers, Eldritch Eyes and a rituals power. Enchanting would suit me, don’t you think? And, I heard that since restricted kit always sells for so cheap that it’s good practice for the art,” said Dave.

“That it would,” said Missus Colbert and chewed on her lip like she didn’t enjoy admitting any positive aspect of Dave. “You definitely enjoy magical theory enough. Both of you.”

“Sorry again, Missus Colbert. Actually, while I have your attention, is there anything you’d recommend for a bit of light adventuring for me? Since I’m just getting into it?” asked Hugh wholeheartedly.

With crossed arms, Missus Colbert tapped her foot and gave Hugh a thin-lipped smile.

“Well, since you’ve asked, let me know your budget,” she said and walked briskly to the consumables area of the shop. “And where you’re going.”

“About three gold,” said Dave, eyes flicking over his UI. “We could go up to four but that’d eat into what we’ve put aside for getting some decent outdoors gear, five leather armour sets for our teammate’s summons and snacks to make life worth living. And, we’re heading north up to Lake Auvernier”

“Well, what you’ve put on the counter will set you back two and a bit. You’re all set on potions?”

“We are indeed, Missus Colbert,” said Hugh with a whiskery smile full of gratitude.

“You all have proper potion belts? Or the like?”

Hugh looked at Dave who quickly looked up what that meant. Potion belts was a colloquial term for a bandolier style belt that held potions and was enchanted to protect the potions from breaking.

“I have the like but my two companions do not, Missus Colbert.”

She snatched a box of potions from the shelf and strode back to the counter, Hugh and Dave in tow, and took up two potion bandolier belts as she went.

“Burst of speed potions,” said Missus Colbert briskly. “Everything really dangerous up that way is either slow, like trolls, or can’t climb trees, like wolves. These will put your potions in refectory but get you out without spirit coin sickness or any kind of potion sickness. Just make sure you’re smart about your stamina because you’ll still get just as tired for covering the same distance like you’d run it.”

Dave selected the potions, used Stop And Think and ran his usual suite of informative abilities. The potions gave thirty seconds of the speed attribute being doubled. He did a little comparison with a few books and found out that he’d be able to run at about sixty kilometres per hour while under the effects of that potion. Trolls were surprisingly slow and topped out at about twenty-five kilometres per hour, which most human sprinters could achieve.

If the cross woman was right, and Dave thought she was, these two dozen potions, as expensive as they were, would be a much cheaper option than taking silver spirit coins to get out of danger. He quibbled in his mind for a moment about how they could just take bronze spirit coins instead but he already knew that Missus Colbert was right. If you’d screwed up enough to need an escape, chances are you were in deeper than a bronze coin could save you. And, that wasn’t even taking into account that you could take one of these and then still take the coin afterwards.

“Yeah, they’re a good investment,” said Dave. “We’ll take them.”

Normally there was a bit of haggling over the price but Dave had used Epistemology and already knew how much each item was worth. This almost turned Missus Colbert sour until Hugh mentioned that Dave could give her a generous tip. Dave offered her three silver or that he could scry some financial information for her.

“I want the quintessence market report from Oullins,” said Missus Colbert sharply with a wicked smile.

“Uhh, sure!” said Dave, surprised at her sharpness. At Missus Colbert’s instruction he cast The Stationary Scry Of Farseeing into a handy mirror and placed his magical sensor at a public board in Oullins that listed quintessence and prices they were currently buying and selling at.

Missus Colbert went for a pen.

“Allow me, Missus Colbert,” said Dave and telekinetically brought five pens at once to summoned paper. “Simply state or point at the entries you’re interested in.”

“Can you do the whole board?” asked Missus Colbert, her look becoming almost predatory.

“Absolutely,” said Dave. His pens began flicking back and forth over the papers in a fast but still readable script. A few minutes later he was handing over about five pages of buying and selling prices for all the most common quintessence trades in Oullins.

“Ooh, yes. You’ve not going to get me with your ‘standard prices’ this time Noal Linville,” said Missus Colbert. She looked only a single step away from cackling. “Hugh, you bring this young man back from adventuring safe and sound, you hear me? You hear that, young man? Come back and do this again for me.”

Hugh burst into hearty laughter that seemed to make Missus Colbert suddenly self aware and she started laughing too. Dave followed them vicariously.

“We’ll do our best, Missus Colbert,” he said with his whiskery smile. “Give our best to Mister Colbert won’t you?”

“Indeed do,” added Dave.

“Oh, thank you boys. Have a good trip,” said Missus Colbert shooing them out of her shop, still smiling.

Dave and Hugh stopped in at the combined weaponsmith and armourer and were quickly informed that five shields and spears all made of iron rank material with no enchantments was almost too easy.

“For five pixelaxe summons, you say?” said the smith who had the most adventuring experience when Hugh had explained their situation. “Look, summons aren’t a smart bunch. They’ll just keep jamming the spear points in. Without a self repair enchantment you’ll go through a couple of spears and shields? We’ll they’re supposed to take hits, you know? You’ll definitely go through a couple of them. Why are you avoiding enchantments? If you don’t mind me asking, o’ course”

“Just keeping costs down,” piped up Dave from behind Hugh. “We can’t afford the nice stuff yet but it’s better to have something rather than nothing until we’ve got enough of that adventurer money, you know?”

The grizzled smoulder nodded sagely.

“Alright, that’s fair. It can be expensive to equip all a summoner’s minions. Can I upsell you to ten of each?”

“I think you could!” boomed Hugh, who liked chatting with the smiths. “Dave, for the price quoted.”

“Yeah we can easily afford ten,” said Dave and nodded at the smith. “Do it.”

Hugh quickly wrapped up his chat with the smiths and dragged Dave away from looking at the enchantment infusion magic in the pieces around the shop. They dropped by the glazier and headed back to Sam.

They stopped in at the glazier to pick up Dave’s order and rode their origami mounts back to Sam. Even with all their detours to buy foldable camping furniture and place food orders along the way, Madam Bonnaire was still applying clothes to Sam when they got there.

“Of course! What did you think pampering means? She will leave here looking and feeling like the princess she is!” exclaimed Madam Bonnaire when they asked if it would be much longer. It was past mid afternoon.

“No problem Madam Bonnaire! We were only inquiring. We’ll be at the public house over there in the meantime. Would you kindly let Sam know where we are when it’s time for her to leave?” said Hugh.

Madam Bonnaire accepted the implied apology and allowed them both to leave. Dave and Hugh relaxed in the Pub’s outdoor seating while Hugh communed with Knowledge while Dave worked on reverse engineering a lightning bolt spell. It was another hour before Madam Bonnaire gave them both a brief wave and they met a radiant Sam. She was wearing a functional apron-dress with a white blouse and petticoats. She ran over, hugged Dave and cried. Dave, accepting this new reality, just pat her on the back and let her get it out.

“Thank you, Dave,” said Sam. “You make happy life again, ka!”

“Oh, you’d have got there eventually, Sam. I was just the kick in the pants you needed. It was Hugh and his faith who made sure we met,” said Dave above her hair.

Sam swapped Dave out for Hugh.

“Thank you for taking me out of mountains,” sniffled Sam.

Hugh took over back patting responsibilities and completely enveloped Sam in his husky frame.

“Those had better be happy tears ruining her look,” scolded Madam Bonnaire. Dave used Grand Wizard’s Gravitas to clear Sam’s face of tears.

“If your look needs something then this is a timely gift for you Sam,” said Dave and handed over the box he’d got from the glazier’s shop.

She opened the plain box which was padded with paper. Inside was a nice, silver hand mirror.

“You can touch up your appearance with this, if you like. Remember, I broke that little mirror of yours a week ago and even though you don’t seem to worry about your appearance much, I figured I’d get you a nice replacement. I got it engraved on the back,” said Dave.

Sam turned the mirror over. It read in a neat cursive script ‘For Sam. You’re a lifesaver. From Dave.’ She smiled widely into the mirror and her eyes started glinting again.

“I couldn’t see properly, it was dark, the plan was going wrong. I’d have died without you turning back to help so, here you go,” said Dave awkwardly while gesturing his fingers to start Grand Mage’s Gravitas on Sam again.

Madam Bonnaire peered over Sam’s shoulder and eyed her face as the tears spontaneously formed into droplets streaming away from her cheeks at Dave’s direction.

“He can clean, use pretty words and can show gratitude. Not bad. You told me he is just a friend?”

Sam smiled and nodded.

Madame Bonnaire tutted.

“Dave, one day you will either make a woman very happy or be murdered by her,” said Madam Bonnaire with a warning tone.

“I’m… going to take that as a compliment, Madam Bonnaire,” said Dave with a bow. “And if you could just show me an invoice I’ll hand over some more coin.”

Dave settled up with Madam Bonnaire and, summoning another mount for Sam, followed Hugh to Madam Orabelle’s. He inquired along the way what awakening stones Hugh had.

“Oh, there’s navigation, magus, purgation, karma, adventure and liberty,” said Hugh, ticking them off on his fingers as he went. “And, they have to be taken in that order. That’s what my Lady asked.”

“I’ll have some faith that there’s good reasons for that,” said Dave with a smirk.

“You’d better,” said Hugh with an attempt at a dark look through his bushy face.

Sam giggled.

“Oh, I do!” said Dave brightly. “She’s always seemed very intelligent. Never caught her being wrong about anything!” He poked his tongue out at Hugh.

“Dave, I’m not sure you’re allowed to use compliments as heresy,” said Hugh half-heartedly and then paused, listening. Sam put her hands over her big smile in anticipation. “Wait, nevermind, she says you can.”

Dave looked into the distance dramatically and shook his head as though in appreciation or disbelief.

“Perfect woman,” he said wistfully.

Sam giggled again and Hugh smacked Dave’s arm while booming laughter into the street.