Gwen awoke to the nicest smell, the nicest sound.
The sizzle of cooking meats.
“I'm not putting that in there!”
“You will or you'll be wearing those eggs!”
And the shouting of two cooks cramped in a tiny kitchen. Twinty and Clarke reached over one another, around one another, shoved each other out of the way as they reached for pans, vials of strange liquids, salt, pepper and walked back and forth into the large, black hole in the wall that Clarke called his lab.
She'd fallen asleep on Alouella's bed and beside her was the Mrs. Lawfer whom she'd met yesterday, her hand stroking the blonde hair.
“Good, you're awake.”
She nervously smoothed Gwen's hair back and straightened her shirt until she was satisfied with the dwarf's appearance.
“Someone keeps coming to ask me for directions about what to do with the school but I couldn't leave her. I can leave her in your care, right? You're friends?”
Gwen nodded, still half sleepy but waking. Her hand was placed on Alouella's head in place of where Mrs. Lawfer's had been and she stood, straightened her own clothing and kissed Alouella's head.
“Thank you.”
She said as she hurried out the door.
Gwen looked at the face under her hand. Alouella's body, deprived of magical essence and exhausted, had been colorless and her skin cold to the touch just last night. Of them all she'd worried about her the most but now her skin was pale pink and she rolled in her sleep, strands of hair falling over her face as she turned in Gwen's direction.
She'll be fine.
The life in the home chased away the terror of last night, the worry and fear dying under sunlight. Sickness was not something she could punch and it scared her the most on her list of things to be afraid of.
“I can guarantee that no one else is going to be able to stomach that vile eye of salamander crushed over it.”
“Well no one else is eating it, these are for me.”
“Then use a separate pan!”
“I don't wanna wash one. You're all just going to leave an old man with dirty dishes? You're a heartless boy.”
Gwen grabbed a chair away from the table to keep her watch over Alouella, the scraping of the chair turning the cooks to her.
“I'll try it. Love new stuff. Salamander is a lizard that's on fire, right?”
Twinty looked aghast. He'd have turned ashen pale if his fur would allow it.
“Kinda backfired on you, didn't it?”
Clarke smiled and flipped several coins through the air for her to catch. He jerked a thumb at Twinty behind his back and she offered her hand, jingling the coins inside for him. He scowled and grumped but took them.
“You only get a little. They're mine. And they're expensive. You're practically robbing me.”
He handed a plate to her, the bright orange sauce of crushed eye atop it steaming up into the air.
She scooped it onto a spoon and popped it into her mouth without a second thought, Clarke cringing as she did. It was naturally hot in temperature and good for keeping food warm but had the taste of sulfur. On top of more eggs, it was unbearable to most, though Twinty put some other spices in there that did who knew what to the flavor.
Gwen brightened.
“This is good. Tastes like my city smells. Like eating a piece of home.”
“Your city smells like rotten eggs?”
Clarke asked.
She took another bite and closed her eyes. It looked like she was reliving the past.
“Our city was in a caldera. We dug down far enough to get at the lava so the smiths could work and there was an abundance of minerals, not the least of which was sulfur. So...”
“Yuck. What was this magical city of rotten eggs called?”
“Oversmederij.”
“No wonder dwarves will eat anything if they're born thinking it's okay to smell like that.”
Wade remarked, sitting down heavily at the table. He still looked tired, eyes half closed and hands still holding his belly. He nicked a pinch of the eggs from her plate and swallowed them despite the taste. His usual dislike of exotic foods not withstanding he needed food after throwing up so much. Twinty walloped him upside the head with a wooden spoon.
“What was that for, you stupid-!?”
Another smack with the spoon cut that sentence short.
“She paid for those. I won't stand for such poorly executed theft in my house.”
Wade rubbed the bump on his head but quickly forgot it when Clarke put a plate piled high with meats down in front of him.
“My house.”
Clarke corrected Twinty as everyone took a seat.
“Not any more. I bought the land and the house because everyone else was afraid it was haunted but they couldn't just give up the land for nothing. Made a pretty good penny on those weird stones that were in the floor.”
Everyone instinctively looked down, though only Clarke understood what was different. The unusually magicked stones that had launched people into the air near the door were missing, as was the central stone that would have sat under the table. He confirmed it with a toe tracing where the old symbol would have been.
They exchanged a look but Clarke just shrugged. That was probably where Twinty had gotten the money for him to practice potions.
An investment in education I guess...
Twinty had a taste of his eggs, rolling the flavor back and forth in an act reminiscent of the most elite gourmand.
“So where is Whaler's Wharf, anyway?”
Clarke asked over the constant clank of dishware.
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“Surrounded on all sides by the Hellassara swamps.”
Wade choked, coughing like mad until a firm thud on the back from Gwen sent the meat flying through the air and out of the window to be food for some lucky bird.
“We're going to Hellassara?”
Alouella asked weakly, her eyes barely open.
“You're awake! How do you feel?”
Gwen asked. Wade crowded closer when he heard her voice.
“Empty. Like there's nothing inside me.”
Clarke slipped around the table to the awkwardly crowded bed with a bowl in hand. He'd been boiling up some suitable porridge for a weak person and slipped it around to Gwen with a nod towards the ailing elf. She moved from her seat to beside the elves, spooning some up.
“Alouella, look, tasty alchemy porridge.”
She managed to open one eye just barely.
“What makes it alchemy porridge?”
Gwen took a sniff before moving the spoon in range of Alouella's mouth.
“Rare ingredients like cinnamon and...I think that's a blueberry.”
She took the spoonful and swallowed. Her other eye opened with what little strength food gave her.
“What esoteric ingredients. The lost art alchemists strive for.”
Wade glared daggers at Clarke, jerking a thumb back at the situation and gesturing to himself.
“What? Oh. Sorry.”
He tried to pry the spoon from Gwen who evaded him at every turn, fresh spoonfuls making it into Alouella's mouth. Gwen slapped his hand away.
“C'mon Wade, her mother told me to look after her, knock it off.”
He sank back in his chair, still watching but angrily chewing on some bacon.
After a few more spoon-fed spoonfuls Alouella managed a few more words.
“So, are we going to the Hellassara swamps? I've always wanted to go there. So much history and dungeons.”
Clarke spread out a map on the table and Twinty dotted out a line from Greater Rens across the faded paper to the very edge of the continent through some shaded swampland. Wade stared at the swamps, his knuckles rapping on the table in nervous rhythm.
“Now, I'd like to say that I think taking any of the elves with you is already an awful idea. The Hellassara lizardfolk do not like elves in a way that being an elf, with no further action, is a crime. Heck, I don't even think Wade should go since his mouth would put him on the short list to being hung with his own guts.”
“I agree with Twinty.”
Silverware fumbled and clattered and even Twinty himself pulled back to get a better look at who he thought was Wade. Wade let out a breath, still staring at the shading of the lizardfolk lands.
“What? He's right. They will literally kill Alouella on sight. They're man eaters, woman eaters, if it's alive they'll tear its throat out for a snack.”
“Wade, that's awful, don't say that!”
Alouella pushed herself up weakly on one arm to argue with him, feeling a little more energized.
Gwen pointed her spoon at him.
“What about Feathers? The little archer we met?”
“He was one of those weird ones. Any lizardfolk you see out of the swamp are the weak ones or the smarter ones that leave so they don't end up being someone's dinner. Lizardfolk don't take kindly to smarts.”
“Then you'll be their best friend, won't you?”
Gwen quipped, glaring Wade into quietly eating. He muttered through a mouthful of bread.
“I've been there, it's really dangerous...no one wants to listen to me...”
“They probably aren't as bad as all that. You be good Wade. Maybe if you weren't so fearful of other people you wouldn't have such a problem getting along.”
“I'm not exaggerating! They are literally that bad, Twinty just said it too. And I'm not fearful...just don't like being bit...bite from a lizardman'll rot the arm off...”
“You know, I've heard that, aside from the lizardfolk, elves just don't come back from that area and no one knows why.”
Wormwood walked in the door, a full cart led by a sturdy horse pawing at the dirt outside on the path. Wade pounded the table and pointed at Wormwood.
“See? I know we're all going to go but can't Alouella go with Wormwood around the whole swamp?”
Twinty balked at the suggestion.
“Oh yes, add a whole extra week of waiting around on both sides. I suppose you have the money for all that?”
Alouella shouted just after, eyes sparkling as she imagined the few reports of wet, stone built cities full to the brim with scaled citizens.
“No! I want to see these lizardfolk! Wade, you're a beloved member of this group but you have a...particular view-”
“Bigoted.”
Clarke supplied at her gentler word.
“-of other peoples. You can't let your fear of other cultures make your decisions for you. You need to open yourself up more.”
Wade turned an unusual shade of red, his hands rubbing over one another as though he were wrangling a snake that might bite him.
“Look, I've been there and I'm just worried about you. It's not me just making things up, you could be hurt!”
Clarke caught Wade's eye, looking him over as though he might find the root cause of Wade's nervousness written on him.
“What were you doing there?”
“Traveling.”
“For what?”
“Reasons that aren't any of your god damn business.”
His wrists popped, balled into nervous fists at the accusatory tone Clarke had taken with him.
Wormwood took a bite out of a muffin he'd gotten with the rest of the supplies, watching the stare down but it wasn't getting them any closer to moving out of the fowl dwarf smelling room.
“I don't like it either. Too much time and I still need Clarke back with me. Going around the swamp would require a boat and there aren't any close human settlements in that area. Disguises will do just fine if we wear hoods and roll straight through the city. I can take further actions if necessary but it shouldn't be.”
“Hey, what about me?”
Gwen asked.
“No one cares if lizardfolk eat me?”
“People are indifferent to dwarves. No one will even notice you.”
Clarke said. She almost wanted to refute that but a half seconds thought on how 'everyone would want to eat a dwarf!' sounded stupid in her head and probably suspiciously cannibalistic out loud. She kept quiet.
Twinty finished his eggs, pondering over a few things he was putting together.
“Speaking of why elves go missing way out there, my guess is that it's exactly the stuff that made you all so sick. Losing control of your magic would be a good way to kill an elf and being too sick to move works for everything else.”
“See? Another reason Alouella shouldn't-”
Wade was cut off by Alouella.
“Actually, that raises another question. Clarke, how did you know the magical formula for that spell I was stuck in? I tried everything I could, the same formula, a new formula, any slight variations I could find but time was just too short. How did you know what the formula was?”
“What do you mean? It's right there when you cast a spell, written right in the air and glowing like a lamp. I just wrote it down for you since you were having trouble focusing.”
Everyone exchanged looks but jaws dropped on the elves. Gwen spoke first.
“Clarke, when wizards cast magic, it's just a bunch of glowy non-sense.”
Alouella put her hands up, making a few subtle gestures with the most excited look on her face, like she'd found a basket of kittens. An orb of light sprang from the air, very bright in the small room. A glowing mandal floated under it.
“Quick, what's the formula for this? Write it down!”
He sighed, tore a sheet of paper from his book and quickly jotted it down. Alouella snatched it from his hand.
“Okay, what did everyone else see? Did any of you see this?”
Alouella showed it around the table and a chorus of nos followed. Wade pointed to where the mandala had been.
“I saw a glowing blob about here.”
“You can SEE magical formula! Great Wubwa on high!”
While it certainly was interesting, it didn't really strike him as fantastic since he'd been doing it his whole life.
“But what good is it? I can't do magic at all. And I can only write down spells I can see. Though I guess if-”
“No one can hide spells from you! You could just...just take spells from anyone and spread the formula! No more petty secrecy and monopoly of magical knowledge!”
Alouella fairly sparkled at the magnitude of what Clarke could do though such an explosion of joy quickly tired her and she had to sit down. His face sank into light stony deadpan.
“Well, I'm a bit busy right now but maybe another time.”
“Of course, of course! But...maybe we could take you on a nice trip to the Elven kingdom, let you have a look around at a few rivals afterward...?”
Twinty finished his eggs and belched, sulfur smell quickly curling the nose of anyone near him.
“I'm glad none of you are worried about how incredibly deadly this trip will be.”
This reminder killed whatever excitement the discovery had instilled in them and Clarke was immediately glad of Twinty's ability to spin the emotions of those around him as he pleased with a few words. No wonder he had been a spy.
“Then we'll leave after breakfast.”
Twinty cleared his throat quite loudly.
“My house has become awfully filthy. Too filthy for an old man to do easily, especially with my bad back.”
He dramatically rubbed his back, grimacing and making obviously fake pained noises until cleaning began while he wrote down some notes.
As the place was put in order in no time at all he called Clarke over and pushed the map and a few notes into his hands. Written on the note was the recipe for the algae antidote.
“You bring those people back. If you lose them I don't think you're ever going to find anyone else willing to put up with your rotten attitude.”
“You raised me, that's more a reflection-”
“A-ta-ta-ta, I don't wanna hear it. And take this. I had it sitting in a bowl of that stuff since last night after I swiped it out of your pocket. Should be uncontaminated now.”
He produced the earth elemental shard from a pocket and Clarke looked it over. It had lost the ugly glow the monster had had, now glistening with pure magic.
“We'll be back.”
Stomachs were filled and goodbyes were said, everyone piling onto the wagon and those staying behind seeing them off.
Wormwood grabbed a last item from the table, a small orb hidden underneath a towel. It was black, silent on his employer's end. He turned it off and put it in his pocket.