"Distinguished guests, if you are unfamiliar with the customs of the Blinelands, weapons are typically surrendered at the wall of the town. No need to get up. The innkeeper would be happy to store them for you."
Aridius had settled herself on a bench near the corner and listened in on Leno as he spoke to the rough crew now dominating the inn. He rubbed his hands together nervously as he talked, eyes flicking from person to person. She'd brought a stone in from outside and it casually sat beside her, lost in the folds of her cloak. The innkeeper leaned against the bar, a towel slung over one shoulder.
"Would you like a drink?" asked the serving boy.
"How much for an ale?" Aridius eyed her inventory.
"One mora for a pitcher, miss."
She plucked out the smallest coin from her Inventory. It looked like a rough slug of metal to her with a bird of some sort on one side. He took it without a second glance so whatever she carried must be the local currency.
"...would be unwise," Naril's voice drifted from the other table.
Leno's voice followed: "Oh, not to worry, the young elven miss has that handled."
Once again, the eyes of the Blood Song company were upon her. It wasn't a pleasant sensation. It was a downright unfriendly one, in fact.
Aridius kept her expression neutral. "I'm probably older than you, Leno."
Elves were always long-lived, right? Haughty, enigmatic, and old... sometimes sexy. That was the essence of elfhood. Aridius could do that.
Leno gave a squeaky laugh, even Aridius caught the edge in it. "Yes, an accomplished adventurer like you would have no trouble taking down another stoneman. No need at all for anyone else in town to carry weapons around."
"It was such a minor pest; I'm not sure what the issue is," Aridius said with a shrug. "But some people are timid..."
The serving boy had finished filling his pitcher from the barrel behind the bar. He hesitated to leave the safety of his little nook. Aridius idly waved him over with a languid gesture, not even bothering to look at the Blood Songs.
He scurried forward, pitcher held high. First, he placed a mug on the table and then he poured, peering at the amber liquid and filling the mug almost to the top. Aridius thanked him and he headed back to the kitchen.
She pulled the mug to her and took a tentative sip. This was much better than the stuff they'd given her earlier though the flavor profile was unusual. It was best described as toasted pine and, thankfully, it wasn't too sour.
"Fair enough," Naril finally said.
The innkeeper came forward and gathered spears, shields, and axes before ferrying them to the back. Aridius noticed that most of them still carried long knives but she'd also seen most of the ratfolk with daggers on their belt.
Leno shot her a grateful look as he ordered a meal and a round of drinks for the Blood Song. Once things were settled, Aridius started on her pitcher of ale. It was rather much and after drinking half, she waved the serving boy over again.
"Would it be too much of an imposition if you took this to my room?" she asked. "Leave it there with a cup so I can enjoy it this evening."
"Oh, not a problem at all, miss!" He gave her a lopsided grin as he took it away.
Aridius departed the inn but hadn't made it to the fountain when Leno hurried out the door, following her.
"Is something wrong?" she asked.
"Not at all, not at all. Let me walk with you a bit. It's good for these old bones."
"Lead on."
They followed the village's main, circular path. The same one the earth elemental had used earlier. Several times, Aridius had to slow or stop her walking. She wasn't used to being so long-legged and Leno had a bit of the stiffness of age.
"I appreciate you helping with the mercenaries," he began, "and I wonder if you might help me keep them in line while they're in town."
Aridius glanced this way and that. She wasn't sure how sharp ratkin ears were and everywhere they stepped there was one tending to their business.
She kept her voice low and hoped no one was eavesdropping. "I hate to tell you this, but I didn't defeat your stoneman. I lured it out to the pasture where your bull gored it. I only grabbed the bottom sphere to harvest."
There it was. Aridius didn't feel good lying to the old fellow, anyway. He'd been nothing but good-natured to her so far.
"That is a conundrum..." Leno stroked his wispy beard and eyed her. "Given your new clothing and restored state, I assumed you were an adventurer with one of the magical classes."
She shook her head. "No class at all, actually, just a bit of healing magic and an Inventory."
His long eyebrows raised in a quizzical look.
"Inventory. It's like a spacial ring but invisible."
"How fancy," Leno said in an amused tone. "Do you have any ability to help defend the village if the Blood Song should turn uncooperative?"
"Not really..." she gave him an apologetic look. The Voice of Planet or NOVA had given her useful abilities but in terms of a fight, the best she could do was throw rocks at people. "Do you anticipate that happening?"
Leno had stopped to right a sign in front of the baker's shop and house. The interior was still dark, as was that of a number of other homes. Aridius helped him with his task.
"That's a difficult question to answer. Being a stranger, I expect you don't know much about the politics of this region. This village is overseen by Bann Farmoor but his keep is over a week's travel away. The Blood Song is part of a group called the Eye and the Flame that follows the teaching of the Great Serpent. I don't think they intend to harm anyone here but given a chance, they'll try to make this one of their outposts."
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
"And that's a bad thing?"
"It's..." Leno trailed off and then sighed. "Not bad. They're not bad people. It's simply that we're a small settlement; I don't think we need to get entangled in these things."
"I can't help you with this," Aridius replied. It was obvious the man wasn't here to chit-chat or because he needed a sympathetic ear. Leno wanted a powerful, mysterious stranger to appear and solve the issue and he thought she might be the one. Which was amusing as Aridius had been mauled by a hell-weasel just a few hours ago.
Leno looked to the south where, in the middle of the river, a crude dirt tower rested atop a glittering black dome. "Jhastimir might be able to help then. Could you check on him and maybe leave a letter if he's away? He's a retired academy wizard. It's possible he's so wrapped up in his books that he didn't realize the town was under threat for the last couple of days."
"Certainly." It might be worth her wild to meet a real wizard.
Leno took her to his abode. It was a two-story high house of solid half-timber design. The roof looked to be thatched with bright yellow straw that gave it a soft, almost storybook feeling. This was the first time within a ratfolk house, and Aridius found she had to duck under every door frame.
She poked around the bookshelf in his den as he hastily penned a letter and then admired a painting on the wall. It looked to be a temple of living wood in the nearby forest. A white stag rested outside, nestled in soft grass while ratfolk children draped flower necklaces over its antlers.
"This is lovely," Aridius commented.
"Thank you, my wife painted that decades ago. The Temple of the White Stag--we used to visit it every year in spring."
He handed her the letter and they separated, Leno back to the inn and Aridius out of town.
She wandered along the riverbank, plucking up the smooth, black stones. They were fairly flat ovals and when she used her [Rock Sling] power on them, they shot impressively through the air. Aridius found out that she could sort of 'gather' in energy before using the [Rock Sling] and they'd reach further, though the shots were less accurate.
"Telling people you're from the Harpsgate might be a mistake," NOVA said after a while.
"Because I have enemies that I don't know about and you can't tell me about who teleported me away from the ship?"
"Your previous crew members have taken all the armaments and explosives from the ship. I have limited information on their activities and whereabouts but they have had serious conflict with the natives of Prism."
"Okay, the Captain..."
"No longer the captain. He abandoned his post and made it clear he wished to remain on this world."
"What about the CM?"
"Bradley now goes by 'the Archmagus.' He has a base in Ravenhelm, a city about 1,300 kilometers from my location, along the inland sea."
Aridius laughed despite herself. "Archmagus?"
"Yes, that is his preferred title."
"I'm sorry, that's ridiculous." She giggled again, softer this time. Yes, Bradley would call himself 'the Archmagus.' He was a good-natured man but had a flair for the dramatic. "But where are you then?"
"I crashed on a large island in the same sea. Now that you're connected to the system, I've been able to estimate your location. The Harpsgate is about 210 km to your southeast."
Aridius leaned down and began to gather stones in earnest, piling them into her inventory. As [Rock Sling] was her only form of protection, she would never want to be without ammunition.
"That's not far..."
"It is, I'm afraid. Transportation in this world isn't like taking a shuttle or hopping on a magrail."
Approaching the black dome with the tower atop it, Aridius realized there was no easy way to reach it. A rowboat would help but none was available.
She pulled off her Eversummer Cloak and cool, wet air hit her body like a slap.
"Huh." Aridius hadn't even been aware of how the cloak was keeping her dry near the river's edge and the air around her at exactly the right warm. Even the ground under her feet felt a little harder and uneven, as though the cloak had cushioned her footfalls.
Rather than slip it back on normally, she wrapped it from shoulder to hip and tied it together. It would be a bit easier to swim with it this way. Aridius slipped off her boots and hid them in the shadow of a tree that leaned over the river. Then she waded on in.
"You can place your boots in your Inventory," NOVA reminded her.
Yes, yes she could. Sheepishly, Aridius retrieved them and then waded in again.
Swimming was mandatory at her home station. The activity helped counter muscle and bone density loss of low gravity. There were horror stories about the first colonists who were born and raised off-world--if they returned home, Earth's environment could make them sick or even kill them.
The current pulled at her and Aridius had to fight against it, swimming hard to the side in order to move straight forward. She realized she shouldn't have started so close to the dome but further upstream. Too late now. After half a minute, her arms and legs burned but she ignored that and focused on her front crawl stroke. In her mind, she could feel the burn of chlorine in her nose and hear the swim teacher yelling out to keep her leg kicks efficient and make sure the backstroke was out of the water.
She reached the dome faster than she'd imagined she would. Perhaps this new body was better at swimming than her old one. On her hands and knees, she crawled out and up its sides. The dome was slick to the touch and very warm, almost like it was made of solid glass.
"What do you think this is made of?" Aridius asked once she was safely at the top.
"I don't know but I might try to make a solar array out of it."
Aridius untied her cloak and then pulled it back on. Water began to run off her clothes like a mop being squeezed. In a handful of seconds, she was clean and dry.
"I love magic." She walked to the front door and found it locked. After switching out from [Healing Infusion] to [Skeleton Key], she held her hand in front of the lock and concentrated. Tendrils of glowing blue motes grew from her fingertips and slipped into the hole. There was a satisfying click, and the door swung open.
Then the smell hit her. Decomposition.
"Hello!" she called from the doorway. "Is anyone there?"
The tower wasn't very wide. From where she stood, Aridius spotted a spiral staircase and a bunch of chests and crates stuck under it. A jacket hung from a nearby hook along with a large brimmed hat and a fishing rod.
She stood there, less because she expected someone to answer and more to let the place air out.
"I'm coming in!" Aridius called. "I'm not here to cause trouble. Leno asked me to check on you."
Stepping inside, she was greeted only by motes of dust dancing in the sunlight a high-set window let in. She pulled her sleeve to her face and walked up the stairs. There were two windows and she opened them both up.
On the next floor was a modest bedroom, stove, and bath. Jhastimir's body lay beside the bed, tangled in his blankets. His nightclothes were stained with blood and there was arterial spray on the walls and ceiling. It looked like someone had stabbed him while he was asleep and he'd only had a few seconds to flail before he died.
The way he was crumpled up made it impossible to see the exact wound but Aridius wasn't interested in checking. Instead, she opened another window and headed to the top floor.
This was the wizard part of the wizard tower. Someone had already been here, tearing through the bookcase and desk, and opening a large, ornate chest.
"What are the chances that the earth elemental appearing, Jhastimir being killed, and the Blood Song appearing are all unrelated?" Aridius asked.
"The Blood Song captain specifically said he was here to fight the stoneman, so there is zero chance," NOVA replied.
That wasn't what she meant and Aridius suspected NOVA knew that. "What is the chance that the person who killed Jhastimir doesn't know I've been here and isn't going to try to kill me now?"
"I have no way to calculate that."
"That's also zero." Or, at least, Aridius would have to assume it was the case.
She looked at the mess that was Jhastimir's study sorrowfully. Though she didn't know why he was murdered, Aridius doubted he'd done anything to deserve it.
But that wasn't going to stop her from looting the place.