“These are incredible!” It had taken a few hours, but Dan was now confident that he understood Raffyer’s accent properly now. The man was still talking in a slow tone and that was partially his awareness of his accent, but also because he was unwilling to treat them as anything but children. Which they were in his eyes, apparently. “Never in my four hundred years have I seen the like! Any dverg’d be honoured to say they had a hand in crafting these beauties.”
“They were a gift to my family.” Fa Lian’s words had an air of defensiveness about them but Dan felt she need not have worried. Raffyer had been nothing but excited once he had thawed from the cold beyond the door. He did not seem to notice Fa Lian’s apprehension as he casually spun the knuckles around on one finger, whistling at how well they were weighted. She added, with a slight huff that “an ancestor of mine saved the life of a dwarven child.”
“That’d do it!” He answered happily. To Dan, it truly seemed as though the jovial and gregarious man was unable to take any statement in any way but the best light. It was supremely charming, and Dan decided that he liked the dwarf, strange as he seemed. When the language barrier of the man’s accent had been breached, Dan had asked what lay beyond the door he had come through. The man’s eyes, dark brown lumps, glinted with a playful energy while he tapped the side of his large nose and gave no other answer. After giving his name, and saying that he was just going to stop to warm himself, Raffyal had taken control of the conversation.
He had asked a slew of questions himself, staying quiet just long enough to get a short answer before happily asking another question.. He stopped speaking so infrequently that Dan wondered how he had enough air in his lungs. The dwarf moved on abruptly from Rise and Ruin, throwing the heirlooms casually as one might a ball in a game and letting Hyun soon scramble to catch them. He was now focused on the staff which Fa Lian pulled closer as he approached.
“That’s a masterwork, right there, make no mistake. I can hear the music of its power, been distracting me a little. Getting restless, is it?” Raising his hands, he moved closer slower. Fa Lian’s brow creased, her grip on the staff tightened.
“What do you know about it?” She asked, her defensive posture from before apparently hard to drop.
“Fa Lian, it’s okay.” Dan mirrored Raffyal, his palms in the air. He lowered his hands and his eyes as she raised and eyebrow and tilted her head, asking him wordlessly whether it was his business or not. Dan decided readily that it was not, and kept quiet, something he noticed that Hyun Soon and Xiaomei had wisely opted to do earlier than himself.
“What I know and what I suspect are two very different things.” Raffyal answered with the grace of a politician, but quickly gave a real answer. “Carrying around something with clout. I don’t recognise the scales, but I know a dragon where I see them. Sensible, losing the wings and all that. No one can cut them from you when you do it yourself. No wonder it’s angry.”
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Dan knew the properties of the Dragon Bo already. In his sight, the properties of magical items became known to him easily. It seemed that Raffyal had a similar ability, though it was possible he was simply knowledgeable and experienced. Dan hadn’t shared the secret of the staff with Hyun Soon or Xiaomei, and could only look apologetic and shrug at their questioning glances.
“What do you mean angry? Why would Ryong Aang be upset?” Fa Lian’s worry overrode her suspicion, and she was now divulging information on her own. Dan found it funny, but kept that to himself lest he taste the heat from the austere girl’s glare again.
“Couldn’t say, now could I? Rude to guess… but sitting still? I wouldn’t want to do that if I could help it, not after so long sitting still.”
“How do you know so much?” Fa Lian’s voice was quiet. To Dan her words sounded like an accusation, one covering up insecurity.
“I’m a dwarf.” Raffyal answered, apparently confused as to why that would be a question. Softly, he added, “magical items sing and the dverg hear them. Some better than others. I’ve got good ears, that’s all.”
Both Fa Lian and Raffyal fell into the first long quiet since the dwarf had arrived. The man moved away from the staff and Fa Lian, the latter leaning on the former slightly. He then took a deep breath, and held it, as though savouring the smells of the labyrinth which, in Dan’s opinion, was not worth doing.
“Right,” he said, slapping his knee, “I best be off then.” Without waiting for reply, the dwarf began making his way to the door. He had his hand raised towards it, apparently ready to push it open.
“Wait!” Dan yelled, not meaning to shout and grimacing as the word echoed around the room. Raffyal turned and all eyes fell onto Dan. He didn’t want to let the dwarf leave without giving them some useful information. “You haven’t told us anything about these doors, what are they?”
“Oh, aye. Well they’re waydoors. You knocked on my waydoor.” It seemed as though it genuinely hadn’t occurred to Raffyal to explain. Seeing that this was clearly not information enough, Raffyal turned from the door and continued. “Linked to me, right? Wherever I go, I can jump into the labyrinth. Never heard of one before?” When they all shook their heads to say no, the dwarf laughed. “Lucky it was my door then, eh? Could have been someone real bad news behind one of these.”
“So we can’t leave through them?” Xiaomei asked, speaking for the first time in at least an hour.
“Afraid not. Well,” Raffyal gesticulated, leaning from side to side and waving his arms as though scattering smoke, “I suppose you could, but until you can raise a proper shell, the journey would kill you.”
“Shell?” Dan asked, alighting on a word that seemed important.
“See, if you don’t even know that much, then best you stay out I’m afraid. You’re an interesting group of kiddies, make no mistake.” Raffyal’s eyes became serious underneath his hood. They focused on Dan. “Don’t lead them wrong. You’re close to Allusia, for what good that will do. Less monsters of the magical kind, I suppose.”
“Why do you think he’s the leader?” Fa Lian was clearly not of the same opinion, given her tone. Dan wasn’t upset by this, much happier to leave the decisions to someone else.
“Girlie.” Raffyal put his hand on the waydoor again, this time pushing it. Although it had opened inward when he arrived, it opened outward now. Dan had not seen beyond the door last time, and his mana did not seem to survive the journey, but this time he saw what looked like rolling green hills. Definitely not the frosty area he had left before. “If you could hear the music coming off that boy, you’d know that he’s the important one.”
Without another word, the dwarf walked through the door and closed it behind him. Leaving Dan with no answers, two confused friends and a very bristled Guan Fa Lian.