Chapter 226

Jay and Norri split up and went to their separate rooms. Jay wasn't surprised when he found Aiden waiting for him outside of Jay's front door.

“Hey! Where have you been?! It's getting late, you better get dressed!” Aiden said as he handed him a heavy package. “This is for you. Perry and Topher dropped it off. There was a card,” he said as Jay took the package from him and Aiden patted at his pouches until he'd found it. “Right, here you go.”

Jay would have taken the card but didn't have the hands to do so. “Give me a sec, will ya?” Jay said with a grin as he rested his staff up against the wall and pulled his keycard out of one of his pouches.

Still holding the heavy package he unlocked his front door and opened it just enough so that he could push it open the rest of the way with his foot. Then he grabbed his staff and escorted Aiden in to his rooms.

Aiden shut the door with his foot once they'd gotten inside. Jay took a moment to finally get a good look at Aiden.

Aiden took up a military like pose as Jay inspected him and flashed a grin. “I think we all got a package from Perry and Topher.”

Aiden was wearing what looked like a military dress uniform with a high collar, a hard to miss square of Glimmerhide was sewn in to the collar with a stylized Glimmerhide head burnt in to the hide, dress pants, and shiny black shoes. The uniform had no tie but a column of silver buttons on the jacket instead. There were details sewn in to the material in metallic red thread and a single thin red band of fabric ran down the outsides of both pant legs.

“What – they just dropped off the packages?” Jay asked after he had finished inspecting Aiden – he looked good in the uniform.

Although it looked like a military uniform, it wasn't. There were no affiliation patches on it, nothing to tie it to any kingdom in particular. The outfits just had the appearance of a uniform.

Aiden handed Jay a flat envelope that had been shut with a wax seal.

“Card.” Aiden said shortly.

Jay nodded and first inspected the seal. It was the seal of King Ferrigualt and Jay easily recognized it. He tore the seal off and removed the card.

Jay, I'm sure you'll end up far too busy to properly dress for tonight's occasion so I've taken it upon myself to help you out a bit. Perry and Topher already have your group's sizes so it was a simple matter to have them create something appropriate for you and yours.

After all, what are friends for? -F

Friends? Jay wasn't sure they were friends just yet. Jay put the card down and Aiden raised his eyebrows. Jay just motioned towards the card and Aiden picked it up and read it himself.

“Huh,” Aiden said after he'd finished reading it. “So the King thinks of you as a friend huh? You better be careful with that. Maybe ask M'redith what she thinks is going on – I bet she'd have some insight in it.”

Jay sighed and nodded as he began to unwrap his bundle and moved to get dressed.

He first turned on his aura for thirty seconds and made sure that Aiden would get caught up in it too. Aiden made appreciative sounds until the thirty seconds had passed and Jay finally turned it off.

“Thanks! Didn't even realize I needed that until you did it,” Aiden said with a pleased look as he puffed out his chest and squared his shoulders.

The room smelled a bit like an ocean breeze now and Jay smiled. He really loved that Class Ability.

Next was getting undressed, which he did in his bedroom while Aiden sat in a chair in the front room, bored.

“How did your date end up going?” Jay asked as he tugged his pants off.

“Great!” Aiden said from the other room. “She's a great kisser! She showed me her bottle collection. Turns out she collects rare bottles, something I was not aware was even a hobby. She had this one pale yellow bottle that glowed in the dark – that was really cool.”

Jay chuckled as he began to pull on clothing as he removed them from the package. “In the dark huh? So she showed you something just to get you alone in the dark?”

“No, she...huh. I guess that was pretty crafty of her,” Aiden said with a laugh as he realized that Jay was right and that Aisha had planned things just to get Aiden alone with her.

Jay finished pulling on clothes and began to straighten the outfit out now, tugging things in to place so that everything lined up nicely. Finally satisfied with his clothes he left the bedroom and rejoined Aiden in the front room.

“What's that?” Aiden asked right away as Jay entered the front room. He pointed at the left side of Jay's chest.

Jay looked down and noticed for the first time that there was a design sewn in to his dress coat – it was a simple design, a shield filled with metallic purple thread, and the letters K and D set inside of the shield.

“What do you think that is about?” Aiden wondered. He knew what it meant but not why the King would have had it included.

Jay shrugged, “That's just the King reminding everyone that I'm Patron of Kagan's Dome. I think.”

Aiden laughed, “M'redith would probably agree with you I think.”

Jay grunted. Not having M'redith around really sucked at times. She was like having a window in to other people's motivations, something that Jay struggled with figuring out himself.

Jay sat down in the chair across from Aiden and put on his own black mirror shoes. They were black but shined to such a degree that you could see your reflection in them. Someone had worked very hard at shining those shoes Jay thought to himself.

Jay got to his feet and took a couple of steps in the shoes and then re-tightened his knots until he was satisfied with the shoes' fit.

“Right. Let's head out.” Jay said and he moved towards the door.

“Do we need to bring anything?” Aiden asked.

“I know – I feel naked without my armor, staff, vest, backpack, and pouches. It feels weird.” Jay insisted.

Aiden nodded. “Just bring your keycard and maybe a gold coin or two just in case?”

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Aiden had taken his own advice and had a gold coin stashed in the pocket of his dress pants. His own room's keycard he'd tucked in to his other pocket.

“Ok, got it,” Jay said as he took a single gold with him. He held his keycard in his hand as the two left the front room and Jay tugged the door closed. He turned the knob just to make sure it was locked.

Only then did he put his keycard away in his pocket.

“Nervous about getting locked out?” Aiden asked as he watched Jay go through his little routine.

Jay grinned in embarrassment. “Maybe just a little, hehe.”

The two left the rooms and headed for the main courtyard. They drew a number of stares thanks to their outfits, which stood out a bit in the throng of people who mostly wore adventuring gear. The purple shield on Jay's chest seemed to draw just as many stares as their outfits did and Jay began to feel a bit self-conscious.

“Do we look weird? Is that why everyone is looking at us?” Jay half whispered to Aiden who walked beside him.

Aiden looked around them but no one would meet his gaze. They all tended to look away when he looked in their direction.

“Nah. We look fine. Just a bit overdressed for this crowd is all.” Aiden insisted.

They had to stop and wait for a group of six Librarians to cross the path in front of them at one point and the two stood quietly as they watched them go.

They all carried weapons, and not just fighting knives. All six wore black Librarian battle armor with teal details sewn in to their leather armor. One carried a heavy war mual – a long thing handle attached to a heavy metal head, like a double headed hammer, with spikes that would pierce and tear when used.

As they passed one of them caught sight of Jay and was startled. The other five Librarians all turned to see what had drawn their eye. Seeing Jay, the Librarian at the head of their procession paused long enough to nod and spoke to Jay.

“Tiny Librarian.” the seven foot Librarian said as he looked down at Jay. He didn't wait for a reply but turned and led the group of Librarians away.

Unsure of what else to do Jay nodded in return, and watched them go.

They'd been standing on the side of the path and Aiden tugged Jay to get him moving again.

“What on Eden was that about?” Aiden asked in surprise as they reached the end of the path and took a left.

Jay wasn't sure where to start. “The Librarians all think of Norri and I as Librarians now. Long story. I'll tell you all about it when we get into a carriage.”

That wasn't enough for Aiden and he hounded Jay with questions until they had reached the courtyard.

They didn't have to look long to figure out where Norri and M'redith were – they were immediately flagged down by a very good looking M'redith who was standing on the driver's bench of a upscale looking carriage.

M'redith looked great in her uniform-like outfit and it fit her well. It was obvious that it had been tailored to fit her perfectly.

They made their way over to the carriage, almost getting run over by a passing cart in the process.

Aiden pulled Jay back just in time and he managed to avoid getting hit.

“Eyes on the carts, not on M'redith!” Aiden scolded him with a wide grin.

They reached the carriage finally and M'redith hopped down off the driver's seat and gave Jay a big hug and a quick kiss. “Let's go! We don't want to be late!”

She dragged Jay by the hand into the carriage and sat him down next to her. Aiden entered next and sat down beside Norri who was waiting inside for them.

The driver shut the doors behind them and for a moment there was just quiet.

“So I heard you almost got yourself killed – or worse?” M'redith said in to the silence in a frosty tone of voice.

Jay frowned. Things had been going so well.

“You could say that about all of my outings,” Jay tried.

Norri giggled but M'redith looked upset.

“You could have really gotten hurt! Why didn't you guys wait for us?” M'redith said with a worried expression.

Jay shrugged, “It needed doing right then and I felt like we could handle it.”

M'redith nodded but still looked upset. She'd gone a bit white in the face too.

“Jay. Have you ever heard of Clench?” she asked after a moment's pause.

Jay shook his head, “Er.. no?” Clench just meant to squeeze really tightly but other than that Jay had no idea what she might be talking about.

M'redith nodded as if that sounded about right to her.

“Imagine squeezing your fist, as tight as you can. Tighter. Only you can't stop. You just squeeze tighter and tighter,” she began. She paused to make sure that Jay was still with her.

“Now imagine all of your muscles doing that, all at once. FOR A MONTH OR LONGER!” M'redith said and her volume rose as she continued speaking.

“Clench HURTS – it's a poison, and it's outlawed, and you and Norri got chased by the monster that makes it. You might have died, sure, but it would have taken over a month and it would have hurt THE ENTIRE TIME,” M'redith yelled before she went silent entirely.

“Norri told me about your excursion, and I understand why you guys did it. I don't think either of you had any idea of how much danger you were in though, and that really worries me.” M'redith said with a shake of her head as if she were too tired to be angry about it anymore.

Jay could argue that it hadn't been any different than all of the other times he'd gone through a portal but she was right. They'd gone in unprepared and with no idea of what they'd find – of course there was a chance that things would work out poorly.

Thankfully they hadn't worked out poorly.

Jay nodded, “I'm sorry for worrying you so much. We just did the best we could with what we had, just like we always do,” he explained lamely.

M'redith sighed loudly, “Just... be more careful next time? I feel like everywhere you go something happens.”

Jay chuckled, “I promise – to be more careful.”

Jay wasn't sure if that would be enough to mollify her but M'redith seemed to calm down now that she had gotten across the danger that Jay and Norri had been in.

She sighed one last time as if to breath the rest of her worry out and then laid her head on Jay's arm.

No one spoke for a time as the carriage moved smoothly through the city streets – or at least smoother than a cart would have.

Jay wondered, what could he have done differently? Asked more questions of the Bibliomancer – that might have helped. Once they were inside they could have had Norri leave before Jay picked up the device – that would have kept her out of danger at least. That might not have worked out either though. The more Jay thought the more he felt like there hadn't been a lot he could have done differently.

He took M'redith's hand in his own and gave it a squeeze. M'redith looked up at him and smiled as Norri and Aiden looked out their windows at the passing city shops and crowds of people.

Thank the Goddess that monster hadn't stung them, Jay thought.