I paused just inside Valen’s shop and sucked in my surroundings to assess what I had been invited into. This was not going to be our regularly scheduled tea. Valen seemed and smelled calm, though resigned, and the wolf that had padded past me scented more amusement than anything else.
That was irritating, but the enigma before me was an elf that was casting off a superfluous portrayal of airheadedness while also holding themselves in a way that suggested I could walk out without my family jewels if I leered too close. A fun contradiction and nice to see they hadn’t lost their touch. Slightly irritated at a perceived game, however, I groused while moving forward to the third-tier counter, “And who would Shadark be Valen?”
Placing my thirty-five completed potions of various remedies on said counter, I shot the elf a look that demanded straightforwardness and plain speech. The memo flew over their head as I expected it to. There was no recognition in their eyes, and Nattens had removed herself from the scene so I expected no complications there.
Rocking back on their heels with their thumbs looped through their swordbelt, they tossed to me, “Hey there tall one, I’m Shad, they/them, and that was Night, she/her. Whatcha go by?”
“Air or ground usually,” I said with a full dose of obtuse injected into the four words while peering down at them from my severe height advantage. While solidly built of lean muscle and a well-placed curve here and there was evident on the elf’s frame, I didn’t think death or severe injury would be coming from this one anytime soon. It hadn’t over the last several decades I had poked at them to see when they would break in the other instances we had been in together.
Turning away from Shad, who smelled like jerky and - was that mud? - for some unknown reason, I faced Valen to get my business cleared so I could give Shad my full attention. “My Quest is ready for logging Valen.”
Valen deftly flipped open the Log, updated my Quest and doled out my reward while Shad watched on with a serene veneer. It would be interesting to suss out who Shad was now and how much had carried forward to this instance. Collecting my reward and stashing it in my pouch, I asked Valen the only reasonable question at this moment, “Shall we sit and share tea together then while we get acquainted?”
Not deigning to answer, Valen wandered off to the back. I would probably be served a weak grassy green tea in revenge. I motioned Shad towards the table by the window and assumed my usual seat. They hesitated for a moment before gliding forward to assume the chair that they correctly guessed was not Valen’s. While this silence was a fun power struggle, it was beyond my tolerance for uncomplicated relations and demanded that I act.
“Why is Valen introducing us?” I summarily decided that was the fastest path forward.
“We’re, Night and I, needing to join a team to delve Drugal’s Bane and I was looking for party recommendations. Would you be a good recommendation to delve with? Valen seems to think you would be. You seem big enough to hold most things at bay at least,” their eyes took their turn to flit around my stature and assess what potential could be stored beneath my scales and inherent in my wings.
After letting them look their fill, I sat back and clued them in on an important detail, “If so, I would be support. I’m an alchemist not a fighter. That said, I do have a full delving party for when I, or they, decide to do Dungeons. Drugal takes parties up to 10 if I remember correctly, and, just your luck, our group is scheduled to run again in four days.”
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
I paused and cleared my throat, “I can check with the team if you can tag along and if they would gain anything from running Drugal’s, but I’m not sure what you would be bringing to the party, Shad?” I let it hang out there and got up to unnecessarily help Valen with the tea service. I had nearly slipped up and been too familiar whilst looking in their eyes, getting lost in those little sparks of color and the hints of mischievousness I remembered so well. Oh, how I forgot the depths of absence I felt over the stupid elf and their ingrained playfulness.
Valen wordlessly handed me part of the tea service and conveyed I needed to tread more carefully, another needless reminder I might add. As we returned to the front room I saw that Shad had arranged themself to have a leg swinging in a lazy arc over one of the arms of the chair, cleaning their nails with one of the daggers from their baldric. As we approached they stopped humming a tune under their breath and sat up slightly.
“Well, dragon man, I don’t bring much your team would find impressive. I’m a level zero with minimal weapons skills and no cash. I’ll need to be carried for most of it after the second floor and absolutely plan to be shameless in accepting anything your party is willing to offer my way. I don’t have a dungeoneering kit nor can I afford one, and I like to sleep in. I am known to be a great time and a peerless travel companion. Now Night,” they motioned towards the wolf resting out front, “on the other hand, is distinguished at ambush tactics, stealth takedowns, trap spotting and using common sense which leads to her being a great boon on delves I’ve been informed.”
The elf conveyed all of it with such cheeky confidence that the disparaging remarks took a second to sink in. I glanced at Valen then back at Shad. I saw from the corner of my eye Valen nestle back into their chair with their hands wrapped around their teacup doing the fogging trick to their eyeglasses. From this angle I could see the merriment however and suspected that this routine had played out to provide her with a sense of deja vu.
Exhaling out the potential roil of emotions, I again went head first to where I wanted us to go. “So, to clarify, you expect us to bring you along for your companion's sake, plan to mooch off of us, but hope that your jokes will make it alright? Again, what’s in it for me or my team.”
“Well, if you insist on usefulness, I do a decent job on finding things so I expect you’ll walk out with more carryable loot than usual and you being an alchemist will have some immediate returns as I tend to trend towards finds with herbal applications. How’d the Lionsmane work out?” I narrowed my eyes as they swiveled in the chair to a more formal seated posture and donned an inquisitive look.
“Fine, they worked out fine.” The inordinately pleased part of them could dial it back a bit, because even with the new additions of ‘gain’ there wasn’t a lot here for me to work with. They seemed to settle down as they watched me mull through what could be possible.
I was going to have to rely on karma, old favors and, frustratingly, I couldn’t even pull Sasha in to make it easier because the dungeon max was level 5+. I was going to have to bring Chad as our tank on this one - and I suspected Shad and Chad would be like oil and vinegar.
For the rest of the lineup to even out personalities and roles, we could have Samir fill the arcane battle mage role, Kiaralongh the fighter role with her Warden class and there was no way I was doing a potentially two-month dungeon run without Reev. Between his ability to break down components, cook amazing from nothing and stick an axe in anything that moved funny, it wouldn’t be worth doing without him. I know fives were more balanced, but as far as I was concerned Shad was the addition here.
Satisfied with my roster line up I grabbed my teacup for a victory sip. Milliseconds before the liquid hit my open mouth and ready taste buds, my nostrils warned me that I was indeed being served a revenge tea of weakly infused water. Powering through, I leveled a gaze at Valen and her fogged spectacles and downed the entire cup in one go.
Placing it gently down on the table, I rose to my feet and informed Shad, “I’ll get back to you in a few days, and you should plan to meet being ready to go in four. It’s Mavrich, he/him, and you better bring your A-game to this delve.”