“Mind pulling around back?” Zack asked when they reached the Valley View.

“Sure.” Camille had been about to pull in the front parking lot, but she kept driving down Pinecrest Street. “How come?”

“I have a rope in my room. I was gonna use that to pull the loot up through my window.”

She wanted to shoot him a knowing look, but she kept her eyes on the road. The Western Forest was close, and you could easily hit a deer if you weren’t careful.

“Hey,” Zack said. “Doctor Gilder told me to take it easy for the next week. I can’t go lifting heavy loads up the stairs.”

“As if you planned on listening to him.”

“I told him I wouldn’t do any fighting for a while, and I meant it. But yeah . . . I also don’t want everyone to see those bags.”

She raised an eyebrow as she pulled into the inn’s back lot. “Right. And I’m the paranoid one.”

“I’m just not ready to explain all this.” Zack ran a hand over his shaved head, looking guilty. “You know how people are with their gossip.”

Camille put the truck in reverse and parked next to the workout equipment. “So . . . whatever happened with you and Avery?” She tried to keep her tone casual, but the question still sounded desperate and nosy.

Zack unbuckled his seatbelt and opened the car door. “I thought you didn’t want to know about my ex-girlfriends?”

“I meant the physical stuff.” Zack and Avery had been far too ‘affectionate’ while they’d been dating, even making out in public several times. Thankfully, they’d both outgrown such immature habits. At least, they probably had. Zack hadn’t dated anyone since high school.

Zack limped around the back to open the cargo bed. Camille followed, and they retrieved the bags of gnomish tech.

“We met at the Temple of Strength,” he said. “Avery took a beginners’ class, and I was helping Kord teach it.”

That certainly explained a few things. Avery was a year older than them, and she’d already graduated high school by the time she moved to Starwing Town.

Zack set down the first bag below his bedroom window. “We got along great at first, but we just didn’t have that much in common.”

“Really?” Camille leaned back against her truck. “I thought she liked martial arts.” And even if she didn’t, why did it matter? Why couldn’t different people balance each other out? She and Zack certainly had today. He’d ventured into the dangerous tunnel, while she’d stayed behind with the control panel. Their plan had paid off, too. Zack and Daudilus would have gotten trapped down there if she hadn’t stayed behind.

He shrugged as he grabbed the next bag. “She just wanted to learn some basic self-defense. A lot of girls are like that. They show up for a few months, then call it good.” He leaned the bag against the inn’s stone foundation and limped back toward the truck. “Plus she spent all her time studying.”

“Makes sense. Apprentice doctors have a lot to learn.” Camille had briefly considered that path for herself. She certainly had the grades for it, but she lacked the stomach for blood. Not to mention the daily stress of life and death choices.

Zack reached for the next bag, but Camille blocked his path. “I hope you give that infuser to the clinic,” she said. “I mean—what’s the point of all this if we just help ourselves?”

“And I’ll give it to them if it works.” He gestured over to the other bags. “But that stuff’s been sitting in that outpost for decades. I’m not getting my hopes up.”

She bit her cheek and considered that. “Can we use the parts to fix the other ones?”

“Eh . . . I doubt it’s that easy. Someone else would have tried it by now if it were.”

“What if everyone else gives that same excuse?”

Zack shook his head. “Lots of people in town know machines. There’s the maintenance crew at the plant, the Lockwoods have their car repair shop . . .” He counted off on his fingers as he spoke. “Plus most of the farmers can fix their own equipment. But cars and tractors are human-made, so we know how to fix them. Gnomish tech is totally different.”

Camille deflated at that, then gestured a thumb over her shoulder. “Mind if I take the books home tonight?”

“Sure. Thinking of learning Gnomish?”

“Maybe. I don’t know yet.” These weren’t the first Gnomish books to resurface, but most people didn’t waste their time on such things. The gnomes had been Norinthia’s enemies in the last war, and this subject was a dead-end for most serious academics.

But Camille wasn’t some professor with ambitious goals. She was an apprentice librarian, free to study whatever she wanted. And she couldn’t stop thinking about that underground library from their first day in the tunnels. What sort of secrets lay buried in that place, just waiting to be found?

This was her chance to venture into uncharted lands—to learn something real. What’s more, she had a mana core inside her chest, demanding to be used. And if she was right, then she’d barely scratched the surface of Gia’s potential.

~~~

An hour later, Camille pushed open the door to her apartment and flicked on the light. A familiar silence greeted her, save for the soft hum of the fridge in the tiny kitchenette. It wasn’t much—just a simple studio with beige walls, scuffed wooden floors and minimal furniture.

Camille kept things neat, but she’d hardly call it cozy—not like the Farron’s place at the Valley View. How was she supposed to justify the effort when no one else came here? Not to mention the expense.

“I’m glad I have you,” she said to GIa. “I really hate being alone.”

[You could move back in with your father,] Gia suggested. From anyone else, that would have sounded out sarcastic. But Gia sounded so earnest as if she genuinely wanted to solve the problem.

“No way.” Camile set her stack of gnomish books on the coffee table, then she headed outside to get the rest.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

[I take it you don’t get along?]

“You’ll see when you meet him. Did you know I still had a curfew, even after I turned eighteen?”

[I can see how that might interfere with your wild lifestyle.] Gia really was being sarcastic this time.

“It’s the principle of the matter.” Camille trudged down the staircase into the cool mountain air. “He controlled everything I did. What classes I took in school, where I worked . . .” She trailed off as she passed a few of her neighbors in the parking lot, then she pulled the last stack of books from the cargo bed. “Even this truck is his. And he threatens to take it back if I don’t babysit Ashton. Not that I mind that, but he asks for other favors, too.”

[Then why don’t you give the truck back? Vehicles in this town are optional, from what I can tell.]

“Stop bringing your logic into my emotional rant.”

Gia made a throat-clearing sound. [That jerk. How dare he!]

“Exactly!” She grabbed the books and headed up the stairs. “He wants me to be the mayor of Starwing Town. After he retires, I mean. He wants me to work at City Hall, and spend all night going to dinners and parties with him. I don’t even know why. Making connections, I guess? Collecting favors?”

She set the books on the coffee table, kicked off her boots, and pulled off her camouflage shirt. Fortunately, she hadn’t gotten that dirty in the tunnels, so her shower could wait until later.

[Dinners and parties?] Gia seemed to perk up. [That sounds like a solution to your loneliness problem.]

Camille furrowed her brow as she exchanged her jeans for a knee-length skirt. “Okay, I really can’t tell if you’re joking this time.”

[It was an honest suggestion. I’m a Gamified Intelligence Assistant, not your therapist.]

“Yeah, fair enough.” Camille plopped down on the sofa, spread out the books, and scanned their leather covers for clues. Maybe she could find a copy of a famous book, then compare it to one on her bookshelf.

“I’m just really bad at social stuff.” She grabbed a random book and flipped through the pages. “Always have been. You’ve probably noticed how I don’t have any friends. Aside from Zack, I mean. And I guess Daudilus counts now, too. But I’m always so bossy around Zack. I know it annoys him, but I can’t help it. It’s like my brain would rather say something stupid than nothing at all.”

[I believe that’s common behavior for young humanoids. Your immature prefrontal cortex lowers your inhibitions. This results in saying stupid things, as you put it.]

“Gee, thanks.” Camille glared forward into the empty space. “I normally make good decisions—age has nothing to do with it. I mean, what do Kendall and Avery have that I don’t? They’re both so different—it’s not like Zack has a clear type.”

[Ah,] Gia said in a knowing voice. [I think I understand the real issue now. I have to admit, I’m not an expert on this particular subject, but this might help . . .]

New Quest: Mate with Zack Farron.

A gnome Commando has needs outside the battlefield. So what are you waiting for? It’s time to follow your heart!

Reward: +0.5 Charisma.

Accept Quest?

Yes / No

“Ew, no!” Camille immediately declined the quest. Her cheeks grew hot, and she wrinkled her nose. “It’s not like that!”

There was a short pause. [Now I’m even more confused than before.]

“Fine.” She blew out a long breath. Maybe it is like that—technically. If you want to be crude. But I want to date him first, then do the other stuff later. Way later. In that exact order.”

[Ah. A chain quest, then?]

“No!” She held up her hands at swiped at the empty air. “No more quests! Can’t I just . . . raise my charisma or something? Would that help me say the right things?”

[Of course, but growth comes from stress and discomfort. You’ll need to put yourself in a difficult situation if you want to raise your charisma.]

Great. Clearly, she wouldn’t be getting any free points like she did with cognition and craft.

[I seem to recall an upcoming dinner on your calendar. Something with your father?]

“Yeah.” Camille glanced up at the calendar by the fridge to where she’d circled a day in red marker. “Nimday the fifteeth. I’m supposed to go over and meet his new girlfriend.” Then her gaze shifted to the day before. “I’m also supposed to play guitar at the Valley View. Would that work?”

[Music is a craft-based skill,] Gia replied. [Even when it involves performance.]

Camille crossed her arms. “Playing for a crowd is completely different from playing alone.”

[Sorry. I don’t make the rules.]

New Quest: Charm Your Dad’s Girlfriend.

Gnome commandos always conquer their surroundings, and that includes difficult social settings. So try being pleasant around your father’s new girlfriend, even if you’re not thrilled about the meeting.

Reward: +0.25 Charisma.

Accept Quest?

Yes / No

“I refuse to do that quest under the grounds that I don’t want to.” Camille made a grand show of annoyance, but she didn’t actually decline it. “Dads shouldn’t even have girlfriends.”

[Does this mean your mother is still alive?]

“You don’t know?”

[You haven’t talked about her.]

Huh. Maybe she hadn’t. Gia picked up on so many details throughout the day, and it was easy to take that for granted. “She ran off with some elf guy and got a job in the city. I was ten, and Ashton was two. Then there was a reactor explosion a few years later, and they got caught in the blast.”

[I’m sorry for your loss,] Gia said.

Camille shrugged. “It’s not like we’d still see each other anyway. She abandoned her family to act like a kid again. Who does that? Like I said before—age has nothing to do with the price of coffee.”

[The price of coffee?]

“Sorry. That might be a Starwing Town expression.” Gia automatically spoke her host’s language, but she struggled with idioms. She also couldn’t interpret imaginary words, which begged the question: how did she learn languages in the first place? Wasn’t every word imaginary?

[Ah,] Gia said. [Well I fail to see the moral issue with your father’s relationship.] She paused and seemed to mull that over. [But I suppose that’s my fault for bringing logic into your emotional rant.]

“Pretty much.” Camille re-read the quest, then mentally accepted it. She’d already agreed to this dinner, so she might as well get something in return. “Who defines ‘pleasant?’ Me or you? Seems a lot more vague than my other quests.”

[Charisma tends to be more vague than other attributes,] Gia agreed. [Think in terms of relative improvement rather than standards. Put in some conscious effort to improve, and you should get your quest reward.]

“What?” A sudden grin spread across her face. “Cartoons taught me I should always be myself. You’re saying my whole childhood was a lie?”

[By that logic, your father should continue to act controlling and overbearing.]

Point made.

Camille turned on the nearby lamp and focused on the tome in front of her. It looked like the Epic of Valdun, judging by the illustrations. But Valdun was an epic poem, and that meant vastly different word choices for the sake of meter and rhyme schemes. It might be useful, but she’d consider it a last resort for now.

After a few more minutes of searching, she uncovered a copy of the Ten Laws of Politics, written by Caldor Highwatch in the early Silver Era. This one was easy, because the gnomes had written the author’s name in Norinthian, and Caldor Highwatch only wrote one book.

Camille reached over to the bookshelf and retrieved her own copy. The text was rather dry, especially if you didn’t care for politics. But her father had bought her this copy in high school and he’d insisted she read it.

“Okay.” She opened both books and compared their first pages side by side. “Any idea where to start?”

[Hang on,] Gia said. [I’ll see if I can generate a quest.]

“Oh joy, more quests . . .” She’d briefly entertained the thought of translating this book one word at a time, but that approach was embarrassingly silly in hindsight. The Gnomish language used an entirely different set of characters, with no clear punctuation.

What’s more, the order of the words was all different. Her Norinthian copy started with the word ‘I,’ which seemed simple enough. Meanwhile, the Gnomish copy started with a long, sixteen-character word. Sixteen! Was this like Dwarven where they combined their words?

New Chain Quest: Learn Gnomish: Part One.

It’s time to learn the lost language of your people!

Step One: Stop getting hung up on words, and identify some reoccurring patterns within the text.

Reward: +0.5 Cognition.

Accept Quest?

Yes / No

“Patterns.” Camille blinked at the quest description, then grabbed her notebook. “Yeah, I can do that.”

She accepted the quest and got to work.