Samantha and Silas didn’t arrive back to the Outpost until the next morning. As she feared, the sound of the drake falling and the smell of the carcass drew spirit beasts to the area. They had a couple close calls where they had to hide in trees or cross short distances with [Cloud Step] and flight to avoid detection, but the journey was otherwise uneventful. Again, she found herself appreciating how much easier it was to get around when she only had to worry about herself and Silas.
As they approached the outpost and were spotted by Marcus and Evan–another guard on duty who she’d only recently met–she waved her hand in greeting. Marcus waved back enthusiastically, but Evan seemed to groan in frustration.
“Ha! Pay up.” Marcus said smugly.
Evan grumbled and held out his emblem, and Marcus jovially tapped his own emblem against it to accept the points.
Catching on quickly, Samantha complained, “You bet I’d die, Evan? Rude!”
Evan shrugged, “I played the odds and I lost.”
Marcus elbowed him playfully, “You’re the third sucker to bet against her. I told you she’s sturdy.”
Evan waved him off irritatedly, “Yeah, yeah! Whatever.” He looked over to Samantha, then nodded his head towards the gate, “Well, since you’re still alive, why don’t you go talk to your buddy? He’s making trouble with the shops. Again.”
She frowned, “I told you we’re not buddies. I barely even know him.”
“You’re not? Then how is he getting all of his supplies for his alchemy? No one else is selling to him and he never leaves the outpost.” Evan accused.
She felt her cheeks redden, “Just because you do business with someone doesn’t mean you’re best friends. He doesn’t gouge prices for basic potions just because I’m not a Delver, and he pays significantly more for raw ingredients.”
Sensing the rising tension, Marcus held up a hand, “Woah, you two. Let’s relax a bit, huh? Evan, you know she’s not required to adhere to our blacklist. Besides, there’s no way she’s the only one trading with him. If they were only swapping points between themselves they’d both be going broke. People are buying his goods regardless of how upset that makes the shops.”
Evan sighed and shook his head, “If it gets back to the Alchemy guild that there’s an Unaffiliated copying and underselling their products here, there will be consequences.”
It was Marcus’s turn to shrug, “Who’s gonna tell them? As far as I’m concerned, we followed procedure once we were made aware of the issue. If he continues to acquire materials through other means that’s none of our business. And, there’s no explicit rule against trading directly with Unaffiliated.”
“Tell that to whatever assassin they send to deal with the problem! They might even come for those who traded with him.” Evan huffed, “You’re being too laid back about this.”
Marcus laughed, “The Assassin’s Guild? Who’d spend that kind of money on a weak Mid-Copper with no guild backing. If anything, the Alchemy Guild will just ‘encourage’ him to join. Besides, even if they could find everyone he sold to, what are they going to do? It’s not worth a guild war.”
Samantha inwardly grimaced at the mention of the Assassin’s Guild. It seemed there truly was a guild for everything, which made her wonder what other options might be out there. Not wanting to get overly involved in the continuing argument between the men, she awkwardly walked through the now-open gate, “Well, good to see you both! I’ll just be on my way…”
Evan paused speaking to Marcus to call out, “Don’t forget to tell your pal to stop causing trouble!”
“We’re not–!” she started to shout back, but Evan had already turned his attention back to his fellow guardsman and didn’t seem to hear her. Mood soured, she parted ways with Silas and went straight to the barracks to speak with Harold. Silas had made a reputation for himself among the children as an near-endless source of entertainment, so he enjoyed spending his time in the outpost being fed, petted, and played with. She was happy to let him leisure while she dealt with everything else in town.
Once she entered the barracks and caught Harold’s attention, she gestured for him to follow her. After leading him to a semi-private spot near the outpost wall she jumped straight into business.
“The Delvers are complaining about you again.”
Harold snorted, “Of course they are. I’m bypassing their idiotic rules and controls.”
“That’s well and good for you, but they’re still lumping us together! It’s affecting me too. I don’t know about you, but I’d like to get a recommendation for that supply ship that’s coming in six weeks instead of being forced to walk the whole way!” she snarked.
“How has playing by their rules been working for you? You manage to claw your way out of debt yet?”
“I’m not worried.” she said confidently, “I’ve only got 182 points of debt left to pay off. At the rate I’m going I’ll have hundreds of points to spare by the time the boat comes by.”
He gave her an appreciative nod, “Not bad. To be honest, I’d expected you to be even further in the hole with all the disadvantages they’ve imposed on us. But, let me show you something.” He held out his emblem and Samantha tapped it with her own.
Emblem: Delver’s Guild
Membership: Non-member
Balance: -182 points
Transfer funds? Y/N
Emblem: Delver’s Guild
Membership: Non-member
Balance: 1,963
Request funds? Y/N
Her eyes widened at seeing Harold’s point balance, “How have you earned so many points? That’s impossible.”
Harold smirked, “Now you understand. Following their rules doesn’t pay. You’re lucky I’ve been giving you a decent deal on the herbs you bring in, or you’d be even worse off than you already are. So what if I’ve hurt some egos? While you’ve been building your relationships I’ve been building up my funds. Though, from what I’ve heard, even that endeavor isn’t working well for you. Is it true the guards start a betting pool on your survival whenever you leave town? Seems to me like they aren’t that concerned about you despite your best efforts. Take it from someone who’s been through something similar–you’ll always be an outsider to them.”
She clenched her jaw, but had no retort. She had been struggling and working earnestly every day to make guild points, risking her life in the wilderness to give herself the best chance to grow stronger and escape debt. And Harold, who by all appearances never left the outpost and spent most of his time crafting, relaxing, or sleeping, was bringing in 10 times the amount that she was.
Harold clapped her on the shoulder consolingly, “It’s not really your fault. Sure, you and I were both raised in merchant households, but I’d bet our experiences were drastically different. My family specialized in high-end alchemy: a rigorously regulated, cut-throat business. The quantity of ingredients you could purchase at once, the margins you could earn on sold items, rules on discounting, rules on quality, rules, rules, rules. And you know who made those rules and enforced them? The same people who were mysteriously exempt from them: our competitors who happened to have friends in high places. And do you know what we had to learn how to do in order to survive? Bend those rules to the extreme without breaking them.”
“So, what’s your point?” Samantha asked bitterly.
“You’re not willing to bend the rules far enough! Trading directly with me is a good start, but what about all the others you could be working with? You need to undercut those exclusionary, greedy shops to make real money. You think you’re the only person being overcharged or underpaid? For all their talk about taking care of each other and being family, this looks like any other predatory business scheme to me.” he pointed to the roll of leather tied to the top of her pack, “My advice? Quietly take that straight to the armorer. Be subtle about your desire to sell and see if he’s willing to make a deal.”
She frowned slightly, “Are you trying to get me blacklisted too? Besides, what good are all of your points if you can’t spend them anywhere?”
Harold shook his head disappointedly, “Have you been listening? Why would I pay a 25% markup for items from the shops when I can hire a guild member to buy it for me? Even if I pay them an equivalent of a 10 or 15% markup for the job, I’m still saving money. And, yes, before you ask, it’s against guild policy for members to buy items for others at a discounted rate. However, since I’m ‘Unaffiliated’ or whatever they call us, that doesn’t affect me at all. If someone is willing to break a silly rule to earn some easy points, I’m happy to pay them for the trouble.”
“Well, that doesn’t change the fact that you won’t be able to board the supply ship without a recommendation or someone to vouch for you!” she said petulantly. It was petty, but she was proud of the fact that at least she was doing better than Harold at building relationships here.
He looked down on her with exaggerated, condescending pity, “You poor, naive child. I secured my recommendation days ago. All I need to do is pay my contact 500 points, and he’ll be singing my praises. I could introduce you to him later if you need it.”
She clenched her fists and seriously considered punching the self-satisfied smirk off of his face. Instead, she settled for hitting him somewhere else she hoped would hurt just as badly: his purse. “I think the cost of herbs I collect has just gone up by 15%”
Contrary to the outrage she was expecting, Harold gave her an warm smile, “Took you long enough.”
Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.
----------------------------------------
After selling all of her herbs to Harold, she stomped off to the bathhouse to get cleaned up, unwind a bit, and get changed. Though squeezing more points out of the irritating alchemist had diminished her anger somewhat, she couldn’t quite shake that sensation of unfairness and indignation. As much as she hated to admit it, Harold’s more unsavory approach to business was clearly working better than her rule-abiding efforts.
After making herself presentable, she decided to put out some feelers and see if his advice would pan out. She made her way to the armorer and–after dropping a few carefully worded hints–discovered he was eager to discreetly purchase the Cliff Drake leather from her. In fact, he extended an offer to purchase any spirit beast materials from her for a much better price than the shop would pay her. The unusual readiness with which he received her and presented the deal made her suspicious that he had been prepped and was expecting her arrival, but she wasn’t sure what Harold would be getting from this arrangement if she was right and he had set it up.
She spent the rest of the day going through the outpost doing small jobs for people and chatting with them. Though she’d benefitted already from Harold's methods, she wasn’t about to completely forgo her way of doing things either. Even if she could pay off someone for a recommendation, she’d prefer to get one organically and enjoyed the socializing. As she was making her way towards the residential section to visit Harper’s home–a Peak Copper woman who often had work for her–Silas met back up with her in a hurry.
“You were going to visit the pie lady without me?” he accused.
Samantha rolled her eyes, “She gave you pie one time.”
“Once is enough!” he declared fervently, “It was delicious. She will forever be the pie lady. ”
She chuckled to herself as she knocked on Harper’s door and waited for her to answer. A few moments later, a tall, slender woman opened the door and happily greeted her.
“Oh, Sam! Good to see you made it back safely.” Harper bent down and scratched Silas under the chin, which caused his stumpy tail to wiggle in delight, “I’m glad to see you as well, Silas. Why don’t you both come in, I was actually just thinking of you two.”
They walked into the small, cozy home which smelled of freshly baked sweets and the young-looking woman fetched some snacks and refreshments. After filling two cups with cool, fruit-flavored water and putting pie slices on plates, she set them on a wooden table placed against a window. Once she and Samantha sat down and got settled, she cut a chunk of pie off and set it on the floor for Silas to snack on.
“I love the pie lady!” Silas cheered as he devoured the small treat.
Harper laughed, “You weren’t kidding when you said he’ll eat anything.”
Samantha smiled and rested her cheek on her hand, setting her elbow against the table top, “You know he already calls you the ‘pie lady’, right? He’s never going to let me visit without him now that you’ve fed him twice.”
She grinned, “Funnily enough, that name is spot on considering the job I have in mind for you. You know how I was telling you my husband's birthday was coming up soon?”
Samantha held up both hands and waved them side to side, “If you’re going to ask me for help baking a pie, I think I’ll do more harm than good. I can cook fine, but baking has always been a mystery to me.”
Harper gently grabbed Samantha’s hands to stop them from waving, “No, silly! I have the baking handled–it’s the ingredients that are giving me trouble. This is the first year we’ve traveled so far from Centra that he can’t go back to visit his family, so I wanted to make something special to help keep things cheerful. His mother usually makes him a pie to celebrate, and I managed to finagle the recipe out of her after a few letters back and forth.” Samantha’s expression fell for a moment at remembering her own, now-distant family, and Harper gave her hands a comforting squeeze, “Sorry, I wasn’t thinking. You’re probably missing yours too, right?”
Samantha shook her head and blinked her eyes a few times, “No, no! It’s fine. Please, I’d love to help you out if I can. What do you need?” Harper was only a few years older than she was, and the two of them had gotten along well together. The last few times Samantha visited they spoke a bit about their personal lives and differences between the floors. She hadn’t yet met Harper’s husband since he was often out doing delves, but she always spoke fondly of him.
Harper reached into a pocket and placed a round berry on the table, “Have you seen one of these before?”
Samantha picked it up and turned it over in her hand, “A Riftberry?”
She lit up, “Yes! I could buy them from the shop, but because they only grow near rifts they’re considered a rare delicacy and are horribly overpriced. Since you and Silas always venture out, I was wondering if you could keep an eye out for some? I only need a small basketful.”
Samantha stared dumbly at the fruit, berating herself for not making the obvious connection sooner. She recalled Silas stumbling across the rare fruits when they first descended into the canyon, “These only grow near rifts, huh?”
Harper leaned in conspiratorially, “I’m not really supposed to tell non-members this, but Riftberries are actually one of the ways we find rifts! They only grow within a mile or two of a rift entrance, so if you start seeing these, you know one is close. That’s why these grow all around the outpost–our rift is right in the center of town under the main hall.”
Samantha looked up at Harper with a delightfully shocked expression. She failed to cover her wide, partially open smile behind her hand, “You’re kidding!”
Harper responded with a mischievous glint in her eye, “You didn’t hear any of that from me!”
“If anyone asks I’ll say I heard it from Harold.” Samantha promised solemnly.
Harper teasingly slapped her on the arm, “He has a hard enough time as it is, you shouldn’t add to it!”
Samantha gave her a doubtful look, “He’s doing fine. Trust me. He was rubbing in how rich he was getting earlier to me, you know.”
Harper blew a stray strand of hair away from her face, “Well, even so! I want him to stay in business… if you know what I mean.” She gave her a knowing wink.
“Aww, not you too!” Samantha groaned. “Is everyone buying his stuff?”
“Pretty much, but can you blame us? It’s good quality and cheap!”
“I suppose not. I was his first customer, after all.” she sighed, hanging her head.
Samantha and Harper gossiped, joked, and worked out the fine details of the job over the next hour. When she and Silas finally left, her mood had significantly lightened and she was feeling optimistic. If she knew anything about the Delvers, it was that they would pay her a premium for information about an undiscovered rift they could explore. All she needed to do was pinpoint exactly where it was and her money concerns would be solved.
From what she gathered speaking with Harper, rift entrances looked like a jagged line of distorted air. They were hard to see if not viewed from the correct angle, but noticeable if she knew what she was looking for. That night when she laid down in her assigned cot, instead of sleeping she went scouting in spectral form.
She flew at a dizzying speed upwards until the canopy was a distant, indistinct strip of green. Then, she headed back towards where it all began: the butte on which she and Harold had made their stand against the raiders. Her mind meridian worked hard to compare the many tall columns of stone to the ones that existed in her memory until eventually she found what she was looking for. Still partially intact atop the 1000 foot tall pillar was the remnant of the shelter built by Sandy. Following in the phantom footsteps of her past self, she retraced her path from the butte, through the desert, and down the cliff side until she was in an area that looked somewhat familiar. Though the surrounding vegetation had grown and shifted in the weeks she’d been away, she was able to recognize some landmarks that let her know she was in the right place.
Then, her dedicated search began.
It didn’t take long for her to come across patches of Riftberries, but finding the actual rift entrance was proving itself to be a much larger challenge. Knowing that the entrances could be pretty much anywhere made the process incredibly difficult. She first tried to establish the rough perimeter of where Riftberries were growing in order to try and determine where the center of the ‘circle’ would be, but she didn’t have much success. Whether due to the plants naturally growing in a sporadic pattern, or wildlife eating the berries, the fact remained that there didn’t seem to be an easy shortcut for her search.
Starting at the forest floor and working her way up the trees, she circled the area the berries covered again and again. She systematically covered the wide swath of land from multiple angles, and moved slowly to lessen the chance that she would mistakenly pass the rift by. After hours upon hours of tedious work, she finally narrowed the area down to a section of the cliff face that had several large cracks and seams running through it.
Glad for her spiritual body’s ability to move through solid rock, she flew in and out of the narrow gaps to continue her search. She fully expected to come across cliff drakes, as this seemed to be the perfect place for them to make nests, but she found nothing. When entering a gap that was slightly wider than the rest–around four feet wide–that started about 30 feet up the cliff face and ended just below the top of the tree canopy, she noted that the edges of the rock were uncharacteristically smooth. Venturing deeper, the crevice quickly widened and formed into a rounded cave 10 feet tall and 20 feet wide. In the middle of the dark cave, shimmering in her spiritual eye with near imperceptible, undulating light, was what appeared to be a rip in the air. Though in spectral form, something about this place made her hair stand on end.
When she was finally able to tear her eyes away from the rift entrance, she noted that the cave floor was littered with broken shards of bone and old eggshells. Looking around, she found the culprit nearby. The sleeping Cliff Drake was the largest she’d ever seen, and its scarred scales were pearlescent white unlike the browns and tans she’d seen on smaller members of its species. Even curled into a tight ball, its body was around 10 feet wide and 6 feet tall. Unfurled, she could easily imagine the beast spanning 20 feet.
Curious about the rank of such a unique creature, she reached out and started pushing through its qi defenses so she could [Inspect] it. The tough shell of qi stubbornly resisted her efforts to penetrate it to the point where her spectral hands started to ache with strain, but she persisted. After a couple long minutes, she finally felt her fingertips break through to the other side of the defensive barrier and she funneled qi into [Inspect]. Upon investing 20 qi, she received a notification.
[Inspect] on Ancient Cliff Drake has failed! Target notified of attempt.
Before she even had time to fully read the system message, the cliff drake let out a fearsome roar. It thrashed its body from side to side and immediately began spewing dark red gas from its mouth. The gas was ejected with such force that it blasted the nearby bone shards away and into walls, and it filled the entire cave in seconds.
Ancient Cliff Drake has used [Spiritual Miasma: Blast of Decay]
Qi Defenses Ov▓rc▒▒e!
Y░u ▒▓░░▒▓ …
She screamed as it felt like her very soul was set aflame. Her mind was simultaneously empty and filled with countless snippets of memories that spanned lifetimes. She became everyone, and in becoming everyone, became no one at all. The strings of qi that tied her projection to her body and to Silas started to come apart and fray. Unable to think anything coherent in all of the noise and pain, her survival instinct kicked in and she canceled the art. Her spirit was ripped backwards towards her body, slamming into it and jolting her physical form upright in bed.
Her head felt like it was being split in two, and her ears were ringing so loudly that she couldn’t hear anything else. Her lungs seized as if she’d been kicked in the diaphragm and her stomach threatened to empty its contents.
“What happened? I don’t feel so good…” Silas’s voice echoed in her mind, banging around the inside of her skull.
▓▒░░▓t▓░░▒ poi▓▒▒ ha░ ac▓░v░t▒▒ [▓ois▒▒ Con▓░is░▒▓r]....
“Damaged in… spectral… form.” she mentally gritted out, “Need… a m-minute.”
More notifications appeared, but she was unable to read them. Each system message seemed to reinvigorate her raging headache, so she held her hands to her temples to try and soothe the pain. Laying back in the cot, she closed her eyes and took deep breaths. She had mistakenly believed this entire time that she was untouchable while projecting. She only hoped that her ignorance hadn’t caused her permanent harm.