Chapter Ten: Rewards & Mysteries

The dirt roads were a lot busier than they were when we came to town last night, with about a dozen people walking on the road we were on. All of them were dressed in simple rags and were walking in the opposite direction we were. I glanced at where they were walking and saw a large wagon led by two horses with a driver who wore a black overcoat that I knew had to be uncomfortably hot underneath.

“Where is everyone going?” I asked.

“To work,” Hazel answered. “There are several connected farms about a mile from here.”

“They didn't put the farm next to the town? Is that a normal thing here in Gandria?”

“No,” She thought for a moment. “Actually, I do not know why they put a farm so far from town. It is a bit strange.”

We came to a large building made up of logs that resembled a cabin. On top of the front door was a sign that read 'Guard Station'. Next door was the only two-story building in town. The first layer was made of stone and brick just like the other homes but the second was made of logs like the guard station. There was only one man who could've possibly lived there.

“There's the mayor's home,” Finn said, confirming my suspicions.

“Let's go to the guard station first and turn in our contract,” Gronan said as he pulled open the front door and held it for us.

I didn’t know what to expect the inside of the guard station to be like but I definitely hadn't expected it to be so...mundane. A small, older-looking woman, wearing reading glasses that sat at the brim of her nose, was at a desk looking at a piece of paper.

Note to self, they can make glasses.

On both sides of her were hallways that led somewhere only the town guards could go. I imagined inside there to be a lot like cop movies, each guard getting a cubicle where they do paperwork and watch videos before heading out to do whatever police work they had to do. The only exception here was that there was no way to watch videos.

The lady at her desk looked up from her paper.

“So you finally made it back?” Her voice was dry, uncaring about the answer.

“Sure did, Milanda,” Gronan said, pulling out a crumpled paper from his backpack. “We completed the contract and are here for the reward.”

The woman held out a hand and Gronan placed the page in it. Before my eyes, the crinkled paper began to straighten out until it looked like it hadn't been creased a single time in its life. She seemed to not even give the paper a single glance as she put it on her paper and began to look at the paper she had been reading.

“Ah, yes,” The woman's tone stayed dry. “You all did complete it, and found a new Adventurer it seems, not just new for you, either, but the world.”

Everyone seemed as shocked as I was that she somehow found out this information from the contract paper. I noticed Finn had his hand firmly on a sheathed dagger.

She took the quill that lay on the desk and dipped it into ink before she wrote something on the paper she was looking at. Then, she looked at me with a face that didn't have any emotion, yet, inside of myself I could feel her smiling. “Good job on your first completed quest, traveler,”

Finn spoke, “What are y-”

She cut him off, “Your reward for the contract is in the drawer on your side of the desk. Before you ask, Finn, your next contract is to take down the necromancer of the town, for which you will be rewarded with twenty gold pieces if you complete it. There is also another contract that you have been assigned to, but I will not say what it is yet.”

Finn let go of the dagger. I saw his hand tremble as he took hold of the drawer, “I never told you my name.”

“Good day, Adventurers,” She went back to looking at her paper. “I'm busy, shoo.”

Finn opened the drawer and took out two sheets of paper and a small, leather coin pouch.

“Um, good day,” Without another word, Finn pivoted and walked quickly past us and out the door.

The rest of us, stunned into silence and not knowing what else to do, began to turn to leave too. Just then, words appeared in my vision:

Quest Attained:

The Necromancer:

Take down the necromancer that plagues Thandesia.

Reward: 15 gold.

In a blink, it was gone. I glanced behind me to see Milanda staring at me, no, through me. As a chill ran up my back, I allowed the door to close behind me.

Finn was right outside, looking inside the coin pouch. “Five gold coins and two silver as promised.” He closed it and handed it to Gronan.

“We’ll split it evenly, the rest can go into the group fund,” Gronan said, giving each of us a gold coin before he put the rest of the coins into his bag.

“One piece of paper is titled The Necromancer which has the vague description to take down the necromancer and another one is just blank.”

“What do you think it means by take down?” Gronan asked.

I shrugged, “I guess either kill or capture them.”

“Hang on,” Hazel interjected. “Are we not going to discuss how strange that was?”

Finn shook his head, “I'd rather not.”

“Honestly,” I shrugged, “after seeing goblins and finding out magic is real, I’m just rolling with the punches.”

She put a hand to her forehead.

“Hey, we got our reward, right?” Gronan asked and nudged her shoulder.

She nodded. “Fine, let's just continue on our day. Whatever.”

“It's fine, just a little bit of breaking your shell of reality,” I told her. “If I can handle it, you can too.”

She gave a half-hearted chuckle, “I suppose you are right.”

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“Come on,” Finn said as he walked toward the mayor's house. “We don't have all day.”

“What's our plan on breaking the news to the mayor?” I asked.

Finn shrugged and wrapped on the door.

“Great, so no plan then.”

“Plans always go wrong.”

After a moment, the door opened a crack. On the other side came a deep, smooth voice. “Yes?”

“Sorry to bother you, Mr. Mayor,” Finn's mouth was in a large, toothy smile. He reminded me of a door salesman. “But we have some unfortunate news about your wizard.”

The door opened up all the way, revealing the mayor. He wasn't in any official uniform, instead, he had on a lush-looking bathrobe and held a glass of what looked like whiskey in his hand. He was clean-shaven and his hair swooped to one side, almost like he was showing off the streak of gray in his dirty blonde hair. His eyes had deep, dark bags under them and his face looked serious, almost downtrodden, “What happened?”

“How about we talk inside?” Hazel suggested.

He nodded, “Come in, I'll make you all a drink.”

The inside was lavish, furnished with a blue fur rug, two massive tusks that hung on a wall above the fireplace, and a bar that was so polished it was more like a mirror.

The mayor opened a cabinet under the bar, pulled out four glasses, and then took out a large, brown bottle. He poured a brown liquid from the large bottle into the four glasses, each about halfway. “Is he dead?” he asked as he set the bottle down.

“No, but, Mr. Mayor, he does like the dead quite a bit,” Finn said.

The mayor looked at him, stone still. He blinked and set the bottle on the bar. “Please, call me Gwent,” He waved at the glasses, “And go ahead, have a drink.” He smiled but it was obviously forced.

We all went to the bar counter and took a glass.

“What are you trying to get at?” Gwent asked, taking a sip of his drink.

Finn put his nose into the glass, smelling it but not saying a word.

“He's a necromancer,” Hazel said, holding her glass away slightly.

Gwent's forced smile got bigger. “A necromancer?”

“We are fairly certain,” Finn said, taking his nose from the glass.

I took a sip of my glass. It was sweet and syrupy, almost like honey and then it began to burn my throat as I swallowed. Whiskey. A bit sweeter than to my liking, but good.

I like whiskey?

As I finished my sip, the rest of the group took a sip. Gwent continued to look at us.

“Look,” I said, “I know it may seem far-fetched, but we can assure you-”

“Just a little bit?” He asked. “Fendrin has been a loyal wizard, staying by my side no matter what. He has helped this town immensely, and now you come in here and tell me he's a necromancer. It’s just a little bit far fetched,” he shot the rest of his whiskey down and set it on the table. “Thank you for bringing your concerns to me, but instead of trying to drag my right hand through the dirt, how about you all do something a little bit more useful, eh?”

No one said anything. They all seemed on edge. What did they notice that I didn't?

“There's been a creature attacking the cattle farm, I'm sure they could use some help finding whatever is doing that. How does a contract for that sound?”

Finn sighed, “We'll take it.” He shot back his entire glass and set it down.

“Great, I'll tell Milanda at the front desk to type one out for you all,” He began to pour another glass for himself. “Sorry for getting flustered, but Fendrin has been a wonderful man to me for many years and I will not have anyone speak ill of him,” He picked his glass up and took a long sip. “Ah, such a fine product,” He looked at his glass for a second too long then to us, “I am grateful to have Adventurers in this town finally, I really am. I wish you well on your travels and hope that this new contract will suit your fancy and help my wonderful town. Happy hunting.”

Just then a message appeared in my vision but I ignored it and, to my surprise, the message disappeared nearly instantly.

I shot my glass down, enjoying the burn. No one else was speaking, just staring at the man. Whatever was going on, I would need to find out after this, but right now we had to talk to this guy. I decided to speak up, “We're sorry for the intrusion, we'll deal with your little cattle issue.”

He raised his glass to me, “Thank you for your service.”

We left without another word.

As soon as Finn shut the door behind us, Gronan spoke. “I sensed something very unholy upstairs.

“There was a chemical smell,” Hazel said.

“Probably to mask something else,” Finn suggested.

I stared at them. “How the hell did I not notice anything?”

“You’re perceptive,” Finn said with a sly smile. “But not as much as us.”

“He's right,” Hazel shrugged.

“We have the best senses around.”

“Right again.”

“And I'm going to assume y’all thought the drink he gave us was poison?” I asked.

“Pretty much,” Finn said.

“Great, so you just let me drink possible poison.”

“You would've healed,” Gronan said with a chuckle.

“Okay, whatever, I don't know about y'all but I think that the necromancer is a bigger deal than whatever thing is taking out cattle.”

“He's trying to distract us from what really matters," Gronan agreed. “We can't let him get away with using whatever unholy powers the necromancer is granting him. I think we should go to the shack Finn found and raid it to see if we can get any evidence on Fendrin.”

“Sounds like a good plan to me,” I said. “I've gotta wonder though, does the other blank contract have writing now?”

“Let's see,” Gronan began to unzip his bag. I thought about what text had appeared that I had dismissed moments ago when a text box appeared in front of me:

Quests:

Active:

The Hunt

The mayor doesn't want you nosing in his business, distracting you with the job of hunting down a beast that is killing the cattle to the East.

Reward: 10 gold.

Unknown Lands:

You have found yourself in an unknown land known as Gandria. Explore to discover how you arrived at your mysterious destination.

Completed:

Little Men

So I can see completed and active quests, that's good to know.

I closed the box and saw Gronan pull out the sheet of paper. “Well, no surprise there,” He held it with both hands, showing us text on it that read:

It was identical to mine. Weird. "Seems like the Milanda lady doesn't mind dissing the mayor,” I commented.

“How do you suppose she knows everything we are doing?” Hazel asked.

“Who cares?” Finn asked. “It's creepy no matter the answer.”

She nodded. “I suppose you are right.”

“Alright, let's change subjects off of the creepy, all-knowing lady,” I said. “Everyone ready?”

Everyone nodded.

“Let's get this show on the road then.”

They all gave me a confused look.

I shook my head, “Earth saying, just means let's get going.”

“Let's,” Finn agreed, walking down the road to the town exit.

“Earth really does have the weirdest sayings,” Gronan said.

“How the hell do you find my sayings weird? Y'all have magic women who conjure words onto pages and stuff.”

“I didn't say our world wasn't weird, but yours is still weird.”

“Fine,” I said. “Do you guys really think the mayor and the Fendrick - Fendrel? - guy are in cahoots?”

“Fendrin,” Hazel answered. “They have to be. It is the only logical connection I can see.”

“I guess you're right, it just seems a little too easy. I mean, we just stumbled across the necromancer and found out who it was in one day.”

“Yeah, I thought that too,” Gronan agreed. “It makes me uncomfortable. Anything this easy at first always gets much, much harder at the end.”

“That doesn't help ease my feelings on the matter.”

“Don't feel at ease, that's when you slip up,” He said darkly, “A slip-up could mean your doom.”

I felt my heart rate quicken as he stared into me.

Gronan cracked a small smile and smacked my shoulder so hard I stumbled. “Ha, don't worry boy, we'll handle whatever comes our way. Probably.”

I couldn't help but smile a bit too. It was all I could do, but even so, he was right. Even though we would probably get through this, there was always that probably there. We'd probably be fine, we'd probably not die.

I couldn't focus on that though. I'd go insane if I did, there was always a chance to die. Sure, being an Adventurer meant it was higher, but I had to do this. It was the only way I could find my way home. Probably find my way home, that was.