Chapter Twenty-Two

While we were waiting for Dwarguy to meet us, there wasn’t much to do, so I chattered on, “That was amazing! Like with the mace, and the wham! Wham! Wham! Did you see that?!” I asked, I imitated the swing and the footwork of the metal beasts. “I can’t believe that’s real!” My ears wiggled and my tails danced behind me, but Loysa was quiet.

When I finally fell quiet, huffing and puffing as I tired myself out, admittedly the alcohol probably had something to do with it, though I didn’t drink ‘that’ much compared to the previous evening, I was nonetheless full of genuine excitement still.

It was only when I’d exhausted myself a little that Loysa spoke up. “You know, you got us in with somebody very dangerous.”

I sobered up, sort of. “I got that feeling.”

“Yorgim Schnee is infamous and rich. He’s got connections all over the place, in multiple industries, and he’s not one to let assets walk away. You promising to do him a favor could get you into some serious shit someday. You and your whole party.” Loysa scratched her head, “I’m honestly surprised he’d give you what you wanted.”

“I hate to point this out, but it wasn’t me.” I said, and she snapped her jaw shut.

“Right… I said he was the one we needed… excuse me a moment.” She said hastily.

“Why would you get me involved with that guy?!” She barked at… well seemingly nothing, but by now I knew she was talking to Kuduru.

“He’s trouble, and this,” she gestured toward me, “greenhorn toothless adventurer knows nothing about how this world works! Yes, I know you always say ‘trust you’ but this is going too far! You also told us to take on that quest! No, I’m not going to do that. That’s why I’m upset!” I turned away to give Loysa some privacy while she fought with her Goddess.

It wasn’t lost even on me that she fought with her Goddess, but would barely talk back to Yorgim Schnee. I don’t know how much I was really to blame for this, but even so, I couldn’t help but feel I had to have had some level of responsibility.

“Sorry.” I said, “I probably overstepped myself on this kind of thing. It’s just, you said it had to be him, and I was trying to help.” I bowed my head to her, and Loysa ceased arguing with her Goddess.

She exhaled hard and rubbed her temple like she had a headache. “I know. And maybe this was inevitable. Maybe no matter what you did, it was going to come out this way. Some people say that fate is just the process of cutting the threads of probability down until one becomes an inevitability, which then creates all new probabilities. If my Goddess knows whether that’s true or not, or if any of them do, they’re not talking.”

I didn’t know what to say to that, so I shifted focus, checking the exit and waiting for Dwarguy, eager to congratulate him on his win, I asked, “So once we’ve got him, are we going to be alright? Can we get the ore we need and then go handle this job?”

“No. You’ll need one more.” Loysa said after a moment.

“Who?” I asked.

“I have no idea.” She said, but before I could press her further she said, “But I know where we need to go.”

“Oh. Well… that’s good. Where?”

“Steelven City.” She said as if that should mean something to me.

“Right. Of course.” She said, “How would you know?” She asked rhetorically and then answered, “Steelven is a city dominated by high elves. They’re kind of…” She scratched her head as she sought almost vainly for a word.

Then she found it, “Insufferable.”

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“How’s that?” I asked. “Are they arrogant? Stupid? What?” I had no idea what could be the problem, hell the very idea of hanging out with the elves of myth was almost as intoxicating as the alcohol from last night. My weeb heart was singing with delight.

“They’re pompous windbags that throw around magic like old ladies and bored soldiers throw around gossip. They’re impractical and stubbornly proud, and you can’t get them on board a ship unless you get them drunk enough to bring them on board like luggage.” She said, and then stopped talking to me to address her Goddess.

“It’s not prejudice if it’xs true! You hang out with them then!” She nodded her head sharply as if self satisfied with whatever Kuduru had said.

“Whatever. They’re not all bad. They’re just pompous, excessive, and love to pontificate and make big speeches… it’s all… very epic, but a bit much to be around all the time. They’re better in small doses. But… they’re also the foremost experts on Greentech and it was them that invented the gates that let people move between cities.” Loysa’s explanation didn’t mean much to me, so I had to ask.

“Greentech?”

“A blend of the old nature magic and steam powered machinery, they grow their cities and use wooden piping, normally the steam would warp it, but they use magic to make the steam ‘guide it’ it makes for some impressive architectural innovations, and they can do things nobody else can. Kind of like how dwarves are the only ones who can harvest the stuff, high elves are the only ones who can blend the natural magic of the world with the ore to produce certain effects.” Her explanation began to make more sense to me, and a clue fell into place about this world.

It seemed similar to the rpg rules where certain races had natural traits, classes, and jobs that only they could perform. It was like the world operated on similar rules to my favorite litrpgs. I just needed to figure out what all those rules were, and I’d be a lot better off.

‘And I need to really start testing the limits of my magic… preferably out of a city though, if kitsune magic is as strong as it is in the fictions back home, I could do a lot of damage without meaning to.’ I made the mental note just as Dwarguy came into view around the bend, still piloting his mech, he only stopped when he was a few paces away from us, just out of burn range from the steam, and then it powered down, the chassis settled, steam expelled from all the vents at once, and the cockpit opened to reveal his sweat soaked and grinning face.

“That was a helluva match, weren’t it lass?” His grin focused in on me, and I erupted in rapid, loud applause without any hesitation whatsoever.

“That was amazing!” I jumped up and down, I couldn’t help myself, my tails danced and my ears wiggled with glee. “I’ve wanted to see something like that for my whole life!”

“Aye, well, lass, I’m at yer disposal until we’re done, assumin the green shorty has no objections.” He said, and then his smile died when he saw Loysa’s face.

“He won’t. She,” Loysa pointed at me, “put herself in his debt to get you free to leave.”

Dwarguy’s rosy cheeks drained of color. “And you let her?” It was an accusation, clearly.

Loysa crossed her arms in front of her chest.

“I can’t stop her. Only advise her.” She said, and Dwarguy’s building anger slowly abated.

I began to wonder if I’d screwed up even worse than I’d earlier believed.

“There’s going to be a contract waiting for her at the guild after this job.” Loysa clarified, and Dwarguy gave a small, subtle nod.

“We’ll make it work out. It’ll take me about a day to do all me repairs, but I don’t need to do those here. So, where do we go now, eh?” He asked.

“Um, how do you move that thing, it seems like it would be hard to be in it all day?” I asked and pointed to the metal hulk.

“This way.” Dwarguy pulled out a small crystal from his pocket and held it out to his mech. It ‘swallowed’ the mech whole, seeming to shrink the vehicle down to the size of a toy, and then he put the crystal back into his pocket.

I’d seen a man with a glider do that before, and I had to ask, “Doesn’t that make it easy to steal things?”

Loysa shook her head, “No. The resonant frequency must match, otherwise, nothing happens. And the resonant frequency is based on the person, it isn’t ‘impossible’ to steal, but you’d need to mimic a person perfectly, and that’s really hard to do.” She answered, but to me, that sounded more than impossible.

“So, yeah, that sounds like it can’t be done.” I replied, and Dwarguy shook his head in turn.

“It can be, ye just gotta take the hand of the person first and put the crystal in that. But if’n a man just lost his hand to ye, he’s probably got bigger problems than robbery. That’s why we’ve got a sayin lass, ‘To keep yer stuff, keep yer hands to yerself.”

I turned a little green in the face, and that prompted Dwarguy to laugh and clap me on the shoulder, “So where do we go first ‘boss’?”

When I said ‘Steelven City’ his expression was a lot like Loysa’s.

But you know what? That didn’t diminish my enthusiasm, not even a little. How could it?

I was going to get to meet a whole city full of elves.

My weeb heart couldn’t have sung more if it tried.