She chased after him. It was soooo much more comfortable to run across bricks with shoes on. No longer did the bricks dig deeply into her foot every time she stepped. The boots also protected her hurt foot wonderfully, so she could easily walk around without too much of a limp. “Where are we going?”
They dodged a carriage stopped halfway on the sidewalk. “I’m dropping you off at the Shattered Grail. Arnz wanted to talk to you as soon as you were able. Technically, I was supposed to take you to him as soon as you woke up, but your clothes…” he shuddered.
They walked down several streets full of people. Compass put the sun about an hour before twilight, but the number of people dressed in fine clothes only seemed to increase as the minutes ticked by. Quinn eagerly watched the people chatter in a carefree manner as if they weren't standing on the edge of death. How she envied them. "Any idea about what for?"
Mikeal shook his head. "I don't know. My best guess is he wants to return part of your payment to join the caravan. He gave me back two silver yesterday as a price for his failure."
It wasn’t long before they arrived at their destination. It was a dark building sandwiched between two off-white ones. It upheld the city's architectural norm of having plenty of arches and balconies. A simple wooden sign swung from the top of the door, pushed by a phantom breeze. She couldn’t understand what the words said, but she recognized the symbol of a broken chalice.
It was in a slightly less nice part of the city. The place just felt… dingier. Everything was just a bit more worn away. The stones were chipped and a layer of dust coated the walls. It was nasty or filthy by any means, but just… well-loved. Even the people who walked around seemed to have just a bit more weight on their shoulders. Of course, they still dressed in suits and dresses. Theirs, however, had frayed strands here and there and patches of worn-away color.
They walked into the establishment. The bottom floor was just a short lobby with a set of stairs off to the side and three long hallways. Mikeal passed the bored-looking receptionist and headed further into the inn, stopping in front of door seven down from the lobby in the first hall. He rapped on it several times.
There was a commotion on the other side and the door opened to reveal Arnz. “Mikeal. Quinn! Glad to see you and about once more.”
Mikeal politely nodded his head. “I brought her. I'll see you around, Quinn.” He quickly backpedaled out of the hallway and disappeared into the lobby. Coward.
“S-sir? Did you need me for something?” Quin asked.
Arnz opened the door wider and stepped back into the room. It was an obvious invitation to enter. “Of course. I wanted to talk to you about Umbersnkecht.”
“Oh.” She could see why Mikeal left so quickly. She wished she could join him wherever he went. Although she didn't remember much about the town, what she did remember... needless to say she wished she didn't.
She followed the old man into his room and saw Torrence reading a book in the corner on a bed. She waved at him. He politely nodded before turning back to his book.
“Don’t mind my grandson.” Arnz sat down at a table in the room and motioned for her to sit. He only started talking again once she had. “You know, I was quite worried about you that night.”
“Y-you were?” Why? She could barely be called his customer by a day.
The old man laughed ruefully. “After you started barking, I feared the worse… glad to see the poison is out of your system.”
Her face turned red in an instant. “Barking?” A faint memory of the world slowly turning gray played in the back of her head.
“You were quite delirious by the time Sangomas got to you. Thankfully the poison faded without too much effect. He was worried it would be the kind to cause permanent brain damage.”
P-permanent brain damage? Was she almost turned into an idiot without even realizing it? Several thoughts raced through her head, but one was the most prominent: she needed to learn how to protect herself better. She shuddered to think about being surrounded by the undead. If she was by herself... her chances of survival were exceptionally low.
The old man leaned back in his chair and ruffled his beard. “I wanted to talk to you about the pay we received.” He placed a silver coin on the table and slid it over. “Although we were in a weaker state than normal that night since most of our forces were left here, I can not use that as an excuse for you getting hurt on our watch. So here. I’ve decided to give you back part of your money since we failed to protect you.” He had a heavy look and his shoulders slightly sagged down.
“Thank you, I guess…” She received the coin and tossed it into her new coin pouch. There was no denying that she was injured, but the Shel caravan hadn’t just abandoned her to die out there. In her opinion, the old man was being far too generous. Her life was far more valuable than a measly silver piece. That being said, she was in a position with no income, so she needed all she could.
“Now that such dreary talks our out of the way, do you have any questions? About that night?”
“N-not really… Mikeal answered most of them… but, um… would you help me out with something?” There were several things to do and not nearly enough time. It was better to ask for help in such situations.
“Sure.”
“I-I can’t read or write. Do you know somewhere I could go to learn? It wouldn’t have to be much, but anything could help.” If she could just learn to read the language, she would be able to solve most of her questions by herself. She wouldn’t need to keep interacting with people to learn more and could simply read books.
Arnz scrubbed his beard. “Hm… It's very expensive, but the easiest and fastest way to learn would be through a grimoire. Outside of that... I could get Torrence to teach you some words in his free time.” The fifteen-year-old glanced up at hearing his name before returning to his book.
“Grimoire?”
“Oh, you aren’t a mage or merchant, so you’ve probably never seen one.” He scrunched his eyebrows in thought. “Basically, a grimoire is a rare artifact that instantly grants knowledge to someone. The artifact is devoured in the process. Their price befits their usefulness.”
That sounded like a cheat. Something nagged at the back of her mind, but it soon faded as she thought about how useful these grimoires were. It seemed as though they were similar to uploading data from a USB to a computer. “How much are they?”
“That depends. Language grimoires are the most common. Common languages like Hellion, the language of the north, and Aquis, the language of the south, can be found for no more than ten silver. Of course, those only teach how to speak.”
Quinn could easily afford that. “And how much for the reading and writing ones?”
He frowned. “Quite expensive I’m afraid. As reading and writing are seen as an upper-class affair, they can go for a gold or two. That being said, literacy rates are rapidly on the rise, so you might be able to find one cheaper than that. Unfortunately, the Schel Caravan Company does not deal in artifacts, otherwise, I would offer you one at a cheap price.”
She couldn't easily afford two gold. She only had nine gold, seventy-four silver, and five copper left. Not even! Her coin purse containing her copper had mysteriously disappeared after Umbersknecht. But… it would be worth it. Being able to read was the gateway to education.
With a heavy sigh, she asked, “Any clue where I can find one?”
He shook his head. “I’m sorry. If we were in Strumgard I could easily point you to a good shop. Maybe someone else might know?”
“I know where a good bookstore is, Grandpa. They sell a few grimoires, though I don't know which.” Torrence spoke up from his bed.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
The old man looked surprised. “Now when would you have time to find one of those? You’re always here reading when we come to Mauershein.”
The boy merely shrugged. “I’ve got to get new books somehow, right?”
“I guess so? Hmm… well it is quite late already. Would you mind taking her around tomorrow?” The old man asked. He had a peculiar expression on his face. Quinn couldn't quite place it.
Torrence stared at Arnz for a few seconds as if he could read the old man's thoughts. “I guess not. I was planning on going there anyway.”
“W-when do you want me to meet you?”
Torrence looked back down to his book. “Whenever. I’ll be here.”
The old man sighed. “Well, I’ll be here at nightfall every night and early in the morning if you need me for anything. We have six more days before we leave; meet here at that time."
“Okay.”
He snapped his fingers. “Oh! Willa and Atamai wanted to talk to you. Well, I guess just Atamai, technically.”
“Um… okay? Any idea what about?” She hoped she hadn’t done something to piss off the two women when she was delirious. She actually liked the two. Atamai was a bit too carefree, but she was pretty relaxing to be around. And Willa wasn't so bad once you got over the fact she never speaks.
Arnz Schel shrugged. “There’s no telling with those two… they’re on the second floor if you want to go now. Right most hall, first door, I think.”
“Right.” She stood up and walked out the door. She worked her way up the stairs and hopefully to the right door. She took a deep breath and knocked on it.
She heard rustling and then the door creaked open. Atamai was on the other side with a head full of bed hair. “Oh, it’s Quinn.”
She kicked the door open and receded into the dark room. Quinn stood on the threshold and held the door open. “I uh, I was told you wanted to see me?”
“Yeah. C’mon in, girly.” Quin watched Atamai flop onto her bed.
She hesitantly walked into the room. It was exactly the same as the Schel’s. Instead of Arnz, Willa was sitting at the table cleaning her rapier. For some reason, she was using a cloth and some kind of oil to clean the silver blade instead of Cleanse. The taciturn woman nodded at her before going back to scrubbing her weapon. She hadn't gotten a good view of it earlier, but the rapier was quite fancy. It was made from some kind of silver metal and had runes running up and down the thin blade. It had a dome-shaped pommel guard with a snowflake intricately etched into it.
“S-so… what did you, uh want to see me about?” Quinn stood awkwardly a few steps from the door.
Atamai sat up. “We wanted to thank you.”
“For?”
“Your warning at Umbersknecht. It gave us just enough time to prepare for the assault.” Willa nodded along in silent agreement.
Quinn rubbed her bandaged arm. “I should be the one thanking you… I would’ve been z-zombie food if you guys weren’t so strong.”
Atamai smiled carelessly. “True, but don’t sell yourself short. You can learn to be strong, but senses are much harder to train.”
“I guess…” Quinn would much rather be strong than have good senses. If you were strong enough, it wouldn’t matter if you were ambushed.
“Well, you’ll see one day…” She lazily lay back down. “Here.” She tossed a circular object to Quinn as if it was garbage.
Quinn caught it. The thing was smaller than her hand and entirely black. A small indent sat on one side. “What’s this?”
“A bomb.”
Oh, it was only a bomb- “Why the hell would you just casually throw this?!” Quinn looked to Willa for backup, but the silent woman shrugged as if it was common to throw bombs.
Atamai waved off her worries. “Relax, it’s not like it was primed.”
“Like that’s supposed to make it any better?!” Quinn took a deep breath as she carefully put the device in one of her belt’s pouches. Part of her didn't want to accept it, but another part remembered being surrounded by flesh eaters. “Why’d you give me this anyway?”
“A reward. Press the small indent to prime it and then it will blow up on impact.”
This hardly seemed legal- she forgot where she was for a moment. In a world where magicians could cast explosive magic easily, surely the small device would be overlooked. But still, it was a bomb. Normal people don't just casually carry explosives around.
“Don’t let the door hit you on the way out,” Atamai called from her bed.
She didn’t need to be told twice. Quinn walked out the door with a small wave to Willa. She could figure out what to do with the bomb later. She headed back down to the lobby and the attendant as she contemplated her next steps.
----------------------------------------
Quinn ended up getting a room in the Shattered Grail. It was half the size of the others’ rooms and only designed for a single person.
She fell onto the bed, almost groaning in delight as she sank into the mattress. This was the first time in half a month she had felt such bliss. It made her miss home all the more. Sure she fell asleep at her desk most nights, but her soft, cloud-like bed soothed her soul when she slept in it.
Quinn barely relaxed for a minute before she got serious. It had been over almost two weeks since she had come here, and she still didn’t have a solid plan. Granted, it was hard to make a plan when she didn’t even know where she was.
So what did she want? Easy; to go home. Making the PM-1 again wouldn’t be impossible, but it would be difficult. That’s not even considering the impossibility of finding Galacius. That idea was out.
So magic was probably the only way forward. Where could she learn magic? Merlo or some other kind of academy, but the chances of getting into one of those were not good considering she didn't even know the basics of magic… She could join the military like Mikeal suggested, but she would become a servant for a country. That would've been fine if she was home, but the thought of serving a random country… She could always freelance and read books, but she wasn’t sure where to even start. It's not like there was a Magic 101 at the local bookstore…
Quinn tossed that spiraling question to the back of her mind and focused on another topic. Where could she learn spatial magic specifically? She had talked to Mikeal about the subject, albeit very briefly. From what she could tell, seventh-era ruins or earlier were the only possibility of spatial magic. They were very dangerous death traps akin to committing suicide. Should she forgo the academy and military and join an expedition group? That would be the most surefire way to learn what she wanted. She could fill the gaps in her knowledge with books… that meant she had to get a grimoire though. If she was to join an expedition, she wouldn’t have time to slowly learn to read as she would need to bring at least something to the table.
She sighed and sank her face into the pillow. It was just too much work trying to learn things she didn’t even know she needed to learn. Speaking of the unknown…
Quinn sat up on her bed and focused her senses on amber. The amber in this place was quite lively as it seemed to bounce all around her. It gave off a soft warmth like the sun in the early hours of dawn. She still didn't know what to do with the mysterious energy, so she moved to a more familiar one.
She tuned in on her mana. It felt… denser? But that wasn’t quite true considering it felt empty. Her mana felt even more hollow than it had and felt as if the weight on her body had increased by several times. So maybe it felt more compressed... regardless, it was a trend she noticed the other day. It was almost as if it was condensing or something. Unfortunately, she didn't quite know what to do about it.
Now wasn’t the time to deeply dive into how and why her mana felt the way it did. Now was the time for experimentation. This was something she wanted to try for a long time. Her heavy mana formed a circle over her palm in a deep pitch purple. Instead of the normal runes, she simply engraved light in her original language. She released her hold of the mana, expecting it to cast as per usual.
The black circle flickered for a brief moment before it crackled with purple light. The light rapidly coalesced in the middle of the circle, forming a small ball of brilliance. She immediately realized something was wrong as a sharp suction radiated from the circle. The skin over her palm was instantly torn from its place as blood flowed up into the ball of light.
She pulled her hand away with a startled cry, but the force was so great she was practically sitting still. Then the force abruptly stopped and she smacked herself with her bloody hand, blood splattering everywhere. She winced in pain as she looked at her mangled hand. Her entire left palm was skinned and a large chunk of flesh was torn from it.
She felt bile rising in her throat as the pain coursed through her. Thoughts quickly flew through her pain-addled mind. Should she go back to the clinic? It was probably closed by now... Arnz? But he would ask what happened and she didn't quite know how to explain it. She could only help herself. Quinn pulled up her right sleeve with her chin, careful to not touch her hand too much. She undid the wrap around her arm and redid it around her hand. The entire thing was steadily turning red.
She slowly lay back down and rested her hand, groaning as she felt the wrap flex around the flesh. Tremors wracked her body as the adrenaline started to wear off and tears gathered in her eyes. She had been so stupid. Experimenting with power beyond imagination and control wasn’t such a good idea… she shuddered at the memory of her helplessness as the rogue mana tried to devour her hand. It reminded her of how she came to this place.
Quinn lay there as she tried to figure out what went wrong. There was too much that she didn’t know; it could’ve been caused by anything. Here she was diving into something that could kill her without a hint of knowledge about it. So stupid. If she made a circle just a bit bigger… flashbacks began to race through her head of being a ball of agony. She finally couldn't suppress it and raced to a corner, stomach acid surging up her throat.
It took her a long time to collect herself as she looked at the scene. Her once-white sheets were splattered with bits of crimson and there was puke in the corner. She was tempted to cast Cleanse, but her heart started to beat quicker at the thought of using mana once more. Maybe in the morning...
She tossed her bloody sheet aside and curled into a ball, hugging her knees tightly. It took a long time before sleep finally claimed her.