1 Soul Bound
1.1 Finding her Feet
1.1.6 An Innocent Profaned
1.1.6.14 Tentacle friends
System only mentioned its estimate of our chances of getting Pierrot to that market in the city on time. But what if that’s not what I’m concerned about? What if I say “hang the game, hang the quests and rewards” and am more worried about Pierrot himself? Can I save him? Is there a third option I can take to try to save his life, beyond doing nothing, or trying to kill unkillable warriors?
Kafana started to quietly hum to herself. It would take at least 2 hours for Pierrot to reach Punto Reale, wait for a ship, sit through an inspection, and then return to anywhere the party could reach. That was plenty of time to win a game of volleyball, and thwart The Immortals too.
She spoke as lightly as she could: {Well, guys, if System says it is impossible, then it must be impossible. Let’s go play volleyball. We’ve got a launch to prepare for, right?}
Tomsk spoke gently to Vittoria: “There’s always hope. And if we see young Pierrot we’ll pass on the warning. Perhaps you should let his guild know that Captain Lelio has been informed about a threat against this particular messenger? They might be able to send troops to guard him or another messenger to head him off before he returns?”
Wellington: “I can also give you notes to take to Dottore, Pantalone, Landi and Trinci, warning them of the likely danger and of possible market manipulations connected with the ship due today. They might be able to do something.”
Vittoria pulled herself together and nodded, then got busy. The others wrote their notes and the party left to meet up with Alderney.
Bulgaria, watching the orphans lining up to take notes, commented: {Those kids are remarkably grown up and reliable, aren’t they?}
Bungo: {I don’t think they were ever given a choice about it. The ones who weren’t tended not to survive. If they weren’t kids they’d make amazing allies as scouts, able to blend in and follow people or listen for rumours.}
Kafana: {Bungo, I don’t know much about what life was like for you as a kid. Did you know many who were in that sort of situation.}
Bungo: {Oh, my childhood was great. Excellent. The best. Really loving parents, couldn’t praise me enough.}
Kafana detected something brittle in Bungo’s voice, and wondered what colour her diadem would be glowing now, if she were wearing it.
{Sys, please remind me later to ask Tomsk about Bungo’s real past. Would my purple mind magic stone let me look in his mind? How does that work, anyway? The game can’t really be implementing actual telepathy, can it?}
[Kafana, according to the game’s FAQ, tiaras are only capable of estimating what’s going on in the conscious mind, not reading past memories. According to the game’s FAQ, while accuracy of estimation can improve over time, there are strict limits on how accurately thoughts can be estimated. According to the game’s FAQ, the company complies with all relevant acceptable use of data regulations, and does not store any out-of-character data gained directly from player’s brains, except as needed for improving estimation capabilities.]
{According to the game’s FAQ, huh?}
[Yes, Kafana. According to the game’s FAQ.]
About 20 minutes south of Mud Gate, they found Alderney, Fra Gamal, Gregorio, Carlo and Columbina on a small sandy beach. Alderney had set up the net and was explaining the rules to Gregorio, Carlo and Columbina while Char and ChocolateTrain played against Blaze and Nastya. There was even a small white tent for changing in.
Alderney called out: “Hey guys, what do you think?”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
She and Columbina were wearing matching neoprene sports bras and shorts with a Harlequin pattern on it, and gave them a twirl. Columbina was spinning one of the spare volleyballs on her fingertip and effortlessly kept it balanced as she spun herself around on one pointed toe. Alderney had removed her boots, having decided that allowing anyone to use magic or magic items would be an unmitigated disaster. She’d put on a pair of pixie boots that matched Columbina’s, instead. They looked very cute.
Tomsk: “Fine work, Alderney, very fine. Do you have some for Bungo and myself?”
Alderney handed them over, and then others to Wellington, Bulgaria and Kafana. “Some for everybody. No exceptions, clear?” she said, making plain that “Oh, I don’t intend to play, just sit in the shade” wasn’t going to be accepted.
When Tomsk and Bungo came out, Kafana giggled. With the perfect body granted by the game’s avatar creation screen, they looked amazingly sexy. But there on the shorts was a cartoonish Womble. Bungo’s had a checkered hat, and Tomsk’s had a sweater with the letter “W” on it and a miniature ‘Captain of the Watch’ insignia . Kafana examined her own. Yep, it had a female womble in a cook’s apron, and a very small House Landi insignia. Alderney must have gone to quite a bit of care drawing the designs for Vessel-Alderney to follow. Perhaps she’s used her crafting knife’s overlay ability?
Kafana: “Would it be ok to cast Harmony between the two players of each team, and a Learning buff, to speed up the process of getting used to the rules?”
Alderney: “No magic!”
Columbina: “We’re going to beat Tomsk and Bungo. Don’t aid us, our pride is on the line.”
She looked incredibly serious, no flirtation whatsoever. Kafana gulped and went off to talk to the fishies.
Kafana: Hello Fishies!
Fishies: Hello. Hi. Hey, you fish feeder from river? You nice!
Kafana: Yes, I fed with fishies in river upon bad green thing.
Fishies: More bad things? Tasty bad things?
Kafana: Let’s look. Any big fishies want to help me go fast fast?
Fishies: Big fishie, coming. Big fishie, don’t eat us!
Big Fishie: H E L L O F I S H F R I E N D
Kafana swam further out. She marvelled at what 20 levels in swimming were doing for her. Something big loomed in the water before her. Very very big. She circled it until she found an eye the size of a cartwheel.
Kafana: May I sit on your tentacle, please.
Big Fishie: S I T
Kafana swam over to it and clung on tightly while it raised her several stories above the surface, like a rubbery periscope.
Big Fishie: G O F A S T N O W
Dimly through the water below her she could see a shadow. It wasn’t anywhere near the size of an oil tanker, but it was at least five times the size of a galleon. She directed it south along the coast, looking for bunches of heavily armed men. She found one, lounging around on a beach just out of sight of the road, about a 10 minute run from where the volleyball game was going on.
Kafana: Well done. You found the bad ones.
Big Fishie: W E E A T ?
It sounded a little dubious, as though it had had some bad experiences in the past when attacking Covadan and their magecraft protected boats.
Kafana: They taste bad. They lie in wait for nice youngling. I deal with them later, when youngling appears.
Big Fishie: L A T E R
Kafana: Thank you. Back that way now, please.
The big fishie took her back as near to the beach as its size would let it. Kafana waved to the beach volleyball players and then did a high dive from her tentacle, barely causing a ripple as she entered the water and swam most of the way back underneath it before popping out in a series of three jumps like a dolphin, the third one landing her on the sand. She was completely dry.
Mary-Lynn was chatting with Alderney when Kafana walked over to her.
Mary-Lynn: “I thought I’d caught her on a good day. She’s always like that?”
Alderney: “Yep.”
Kafana scowled at them.