It took a while, but eventually the three of them had removed every last one of the heat leeches from the necks of bonfurtles. Riva and Warner had started to help after watching Azim, helping him remove the leeches after the robot shook the shells they were hiding in. Soon enough, the robot and the others stepped back as the tortoise-like animals all rose to their feet and started to grow their fires once more. The farmer thanked the metal man profusely, letting him know that bringing the creatures back from their hibernation would help the town recover from the effects of the raider attack all the better. Azim insisted that it was no trouble and that he merely saw fit to help whenever he could. Warner tried to find something he could give the kind travelers for their troubles, but they assured the feliome that they were fine.
The other farmers in town quickly learned of what had gone on that afternoon and insisted the two travelers stay the night, so that the farmers could celebrate them. Azim tried to calm them down, letting them know his companion had to get going, but the farmers were persistent. Riva turned to the robot and let him know it was okay, and they could afford to stay for one night.
By the evening, the bonfurtles were back to their usual selves, and some had even been brought out to the center of town to walk around and keep the festivities going. Azim watched as Warner asked Riva to dance, who was shy but reluctantly accepted. The two awkwardly strutted around the square, the woman admitting she was not much of a dancer. The other farmers danced together as well, cheering and laughing as they roamed about, doing their best to forget the intensities of earlier in the day.
Azim simply watched, not wanting to participate but still enjoying himself for the most part. One of the other farmers had come up to him with a Firework spell bottle. She suggested that he be the one to throw it since the robot had been the one to save their farm animals. The robot obliged, tossing the bottle in the air, he and the farmer looking up as he did. As it reached the peak of its arc, it was supposed to detonate and send colorful sparks showering everywhere. Instead, the bottle started falling back down toward the two of them. Azim caught the bottle before it hit the ground and shattered, then looked back up at the farmer. She was perplexed at why nothing had happened but did not let the worry get to her. Instead, she took it from the android and threw it up herself, saying that it was on his behalf. As soon as the bottle reached about 12 meters in the air, it exploded and sprayed bright colors in every direction. The dancing crowd stopped for a moment to awe at the sight, before returning to their festive jigs. The farmer thanked Azim once more and returned to the rest of the crowd.
While half of his processors were focused on the festivities and the amusement, Azim’s back brain was processing something else entirely. His first day in Irvana had been quite eventful, but it left him thinking. Both about what was to come, and what he was missing…
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The next morning, after a bountiful sleep, the two travelers finally made their way out of Tuften. They said their “thank you”s and their “goodbye”s and ventured on toward the next town. Riva was in very good spirits. She had enjoyed the party, the dancing, and the good sleep. It also didn’t hurt that she had made a couple sales while she had been there. But now, it was time to continue onward. Riva gave Azim a heads-up of the next town, which they would reach in about an hour. The town was called Welstom, and it was slightly bigger than Tuften and Speels. Not by much, but it was more than just farmers and their houses. There were about 20 or 25 buildings, as far as the woman could remember, most of which were homes but the rest of which were restaurants or shops. And unlike the two farmer towns, Welstom had an actual mayor.
When they arrived at the town, Azim and Riva were greeted by a small group of worried residents. Without getting much context, the present townsfolk explained that their mayor was not welcoming any new visitors to Welstom at this time, and if anybody showed up, the mayor wanted to see them. Riva offered to turn around and leave, but the townsfolk explained that the mayor wanted a record of anybody who stopped by, just for the town’s safety.
The one who led the escort towards the mayor’s building was named Gil. He was rather warm and welcoming to the two outsiders, talking to Azim and Riva the whole way, while the few other people with them simply followed behind. “Our mayor’s been really stressed lately, hence the whole ‘no visitors’ thing,” the man recanted. “Something’s been up with him lately, but we’re not really sure what. Because of that, the town has kind of been running itself. A few of us have tried to manage things while he’s dealt with, whatever has been going on…”
Once they made it to the front of the building, the ushering townsfolk backed up to give the two strangers room. “This is it,” Gil remarked. “Just go inside and talk to the girl at the desk. Let her know why you’re here. She'll tell the mayor everything, and he’ll speak with you, though he is a little distrusting so be careful.” Then he and the other two townsfolk headed back to the rest of the town.
Riva opened the door to the office, with Azim following behind her. A woman sitting at a desk to the left of them perked up at the opening of the door. She was an Elf, and young. Maybe 56, which in human terms was about 22. Her desk was a simple wooden structure with no features. In front of her was a stack of papers and a pen, which was enchanted to not need separate ink. Looking around the room, Riva noticed that there wasn’t much to look at. The walls were the same plain wood as the desk. The only “decorations” were two windows for light, two unlit lanterns for when it got dark, and a floor rug so rough that it looked like it had been worn in battle. Despite visiting this town many times in the past, Riva realized she had never been in the mayor’s office. It was honestly a little disappointing. “Hello? Can I help you?”
The woman was slightly nervous but was keeping her composure. I’m not sure what’s going on, but I’m everything’s fine, Riva thought to herself.
“Hello,” Azim began before Riva could respond. “We were instructed to come here by residents of this town. We are to speak with the mayor.”
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Riva gently put her face in her hand. “What he means is… we were informed about your ‘no visitors’ rule, and so we’re here to check in… or whatever we need to do. Honestly, I was just here here to sell some goods but we can just as easily be on our way.”
The elf was quiet. Riva continued. “Some of your people talked to us and we offered to leave, but they insisted we stay. They then walked us here and told us to speak with the mayor.”
The young elf turned and ran through a door in one of the side walls without a word. The two travelers just looked at each other. A minute later the woman came back, accompanied by a short man. The mayor was a Gnome, only about 4 feet tall. He had a long, ginger beard with gray streaks that reached his waist and a bald head. He had a simple leather garb, but what stood out were his boots. They were shiny, black boots of obvious quality, likely handmade. Gnomes were well known for their shoe-making. The gnome also wore a thick bracelet on his right hand, with a gray-and-yellow stone embroidered into the fabric, which Riva admired.
“Ho, ho! You must be the ‘merchants’!” the old gnome began, almost sarcastically. “My lovely assistant Amira told me everything. From the sound of things, you’re just looking to get out here, ho ho! But we have our procedure, you see, I’m sure you won’t mind.”
The tone of his voice was dismissive, not entirely rude, but definitely not sincere. Riva supposed it was fair. The two of them had no way to prove they were not a threat. If, for whatever reason, the town was on guard about something, she figured they would have to remain guilty until proven innocent. If that was the case, it stood to reason that the town’s mayor, being a responsible leader, would be a little assertive and abrasive with strangers.
“Sir, maybe they can actually help with ‘the issue’?” the elf asked, not sensing his abrasion to their company.
“Amira!” the mayor snapped. “We have no reason to trust these strangers. We shall not indulge them in our private concerns, especially when even the rest of the townsfolk remain unaware.”
Azim broke the tension as fast as it formed. “Mayor, if there is something concerning this town, I would like to help. In the short time I have been here, all I have aimed to do is assist others. If I can do the same for you, I will give you my best aid. I recognize there is no proof I can give you that we do not mean the town harm, but I assure you. You can believe my words. From reading my programming, I know I am incapable of lying.”
“Reading your- What?! Ho, ho, we have a weird one in our midst, I see. So you can’t lie, huh?” the mayor asked, walking back to his room as he did, returning with a box. “As a thank you for wanting to help with our little predicament, I have for you a chest filled with gold. This here is half of the town’s entire supply, and is what is used to keep the town’s economy afloat. Yet I will give this entire chest to you… if you can do one simple thing.”
Riva gasped. She had never seen that much money at once before, and was admittedly a little flustered. “Tell me…” the gnome continued. “You wish to see Amira fired. Say so, and I will do so. Then I will give you your prize.”
“Sir?!”
“Hold on, dear,” the old mayor said, never breaking eye contact with the metal man in front of him. “This is his word and his word alone. Ho, ho, what say you, young fellow? You want to see her go, don’t you? You want your prize, don’t you? Ho, ho!”
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Riva was unsure what she would have done. On one hand, the right thing would have been to turn down the chest and tell the truth, she did not want to see the elf fired. However, she also figured that with that amount of money, she could give the woman severance for her leave. If anything, she’d be better off with even 10 percent of the chest’s contents than staying here anyway. Plus, the consequence wasn’t so bad. It wasn’t as if she would be exiled or killed. Only removed from her office position. Things could be much worse. Or maybe it was more of a taste than she realized, and he would or wouldn’t give away the gold, regardless of what answer was given. She knew most people would probably lie and say “yes”, hoping to take the gold without worrying about anything else. She recognized that there was more to consider.
Azim did not consider any of this. “I do not wish to see your assistant fired. I believe it would be inefficient to you, as you would be losing half of your resources as well as a valuable asset to help make them up. Additionally, I think it should be stated that I do not desire your supply of gold either.”
The mayor was stunned. He walked back to his office to put the chest back, huffing along as he went. While he was gone, Amira began explaining the situation. “Somebody manipulated the town’s memory.”
“What?” Riva asked. “What do you mean?”
“Someone in the town manipulated everyone’s memory, and we don’t know who.”
“Amira, come on!” the mayor yelled, trotting back into the main hall. “The boy may have shown he wasn’t lying about his claim, but that don’t mean they need to know our business!”
“I’m sorry, I just thought that maybe they could help, being an outside voice and all.”
There was no covering it up now, the mayor figured. “Alright, alright, I suppose outsiders can’t hurt too much. But ho, ho, are we worried! Especially Amira here, since she’s the one who realized. The two of us have been trying to figure out who the perpetrator is without alarming everyone, but the discretion has only made the task more difficult.”
Riva was the only one to notice Azim twitch. She figured it was the mention of not having memories, and she was right. The matter at hand was hitting close to home for the robot, and reminding him what he hoped to accomplish while he was lost in Irvana.
“How can you possibly know the town’s memory was wiped?” Riva questioned. “If your memory is gone, how would you know?”
“In the office, we keep a Totem,” the elf responded. “I was the one to see it go off last week. The totem glows when magic of a certain level is used in a given area, in this case, the area being the town. The color of the glow indicates the type of magic. While whatever happened is unknown to us, and the very fact that something happened at all would normally remain unknown as well, the totem alerts us that something happened even after the fact.”
“Okay, so, the totem went off and you guys weren't aware of any magic that had happened. Why does that mean it was a memory spell? Couldn’t it have been something else that’s just hard to detect, or something you didn’t see, like an Invisibility spell, or Time Manipulation or something?”
“Well for one, the color of the totem's glow told us it was a spell that affects the mind of its targets," the mayor remarked. "So that already narrowed down the options of what could have happened, ho, ho!
The mayor continued. "That's not the concerning part, however. You see the thing is, this town doesn’t use magic. Ho, ho! I mean of course they have some level of it, but nothing higher than base level 2 or 3. The totem is designed to pick up on magic of level 10 potency or higher, something none of our people could pull off.”
“And the only ones at that level,” the elf continued, “are myself and the mayor. None of the townsfolk have the power to set off the totem, but everyone was here, and there was no one else in the town when the totem went off. Nothing was odd before or after the totem went off, and nobody has left the town since that day, either. Meaning, as far as we could tell, the only suspects were, and are, the townsfolk.”
The mayor grumbled. Amira continued, “Which means, not only did someone in this village use magic, but whoever did is still here. And since no one in our town has a high enough magic level, the spell cast had to have been a memory manipulation spell… because whoever it was, is an imposter of this town!”