There Is No Longer Any Question Of Courage; Swift Action Is Required
After won. Takki, Dirant, Eyanya, and Hugal left the workers free to go back to work, or possibly not, while they gathered relevant supplies such as a map and gazetteer bought from the company store before they joined Audnauj at a cafeteria table and listened to his initial conclusion.
“My first thought was to have the whole thing done in one type. Should look nicer that way. But then I recalled it's Yumins who are meant to look at it. They seem to like mishmashes and so forth. So we'll go for a mix, I think.” That made sense to Dirant, Takki, and Onzalkarnd. It made sense to the Yumins as well, though a suspicion they had just been insulted prevented a complete appreciation of their master's decision.
Afterward, Audnauj returned to detailed consideration of the interplay between artistic vision and material reality while Dirant extracted a pancake that used to be a hat from his rucksack under the theory that he should fear the sun more than a failure of his disguise. While he tried to fix it, the other investigators took their own precautions as far as canteens and extra scarves for extra wiping. That done, they set out on a course alongside a cart track which led to what the laborers reckoned to be the most active locations, ghost-wise.
A few haulers rolled downhill toward the camp as the expedition members marched upwards. They waved to workers panning for eardron in streams off to the sides as they went, chirping birds hailed them, and assorted critters paid them the honor of fleeing at the sight of them. The track eventually ended at a secondary camp where actual mining went on, and from there they trekked deeper inland up into the forested foothills where Chunawm Metals was attempting to cultivate a convenient lumber source but had not yet succeeded in replacing the scraggly local trees and brush with more regular growth of the sort that might meet milestones determined by management quarter after quarter.
The scenery failed to inspire conversation or anything besides contempt, and therefore Dirant returned to the subject at hand. “What do we expect to find, putting aside flippancy? I cannot decide between employees of a rival enterprise and fairies.”
“I'm going with the highest odds. Either local spirits or Drastlifan scouts from the other side of the island.” That was Hugal's opinion.
Eyanya put forward a more complete case. “Don't you two pay attention to the news? Those pirates are driven out of their friendly harbor in Eubosh Ashurit, and then by coincidence people who run away when they're spotted show up here? They're pirates or maybe the ghosts of people killed by pirates. It's definite.”
Takki went last. “We all get two guesses? All right then. The most probable explanations have to be spies from Stegzi or local weather effects. It didn't happen before because the mining operations changed the windbreaks, ground levels, and other factors.”
“It may sound condescending for me to bring this up, but I mean it when I say your Yumin is coming along rapidly,” Dirant complimented her. “And so I won't hold back. Why Stegzi? Naval matters are naturally of moment there I suppose, as they would be for any island-bound country. Still, Redrin aims to dominate the Arch Sea whereas Stegzi's interests are west and south of it. Drastlif, Noiswawau, Eubosh Ashurit, and many GE states must be likelier suspects, and even Chtrebliseu, or?”
Takki paused to help Eyanya over a tricky slope before she gave her answer. “Thinking about motive is important, but we have to be aware of what we don't know. Don't the places where the sightings took place suggest the spies are interested in eardron? Isn't it possible another country has found a real use for it? Even if we do find out the motive, that isn't enough. For example, in Mosso Eksu, the hope of financial gain was behind the mystery, remember? Knowing that much wouldn't have been enough to unravel it.”
“That is so far correct that indeed I can't claim we unraveled it at all. Please continue. I'm not someone who stops paying attention during the fourth act.”
“Is anyone? We'll cover theater later. Well, everyone knows the Stegzins brought over classes we don't know on Egillen from the south. I don't think we're sure how many. Rumors always get exaggerated. Some of our foreign, um, people who look hard at foreign things in Pavvu Omme Os have gone so far as to say the Stegzins themselves work to confuse the issue. Supposedly some of them learn sneaky abilities and they don't want other countries or criminals like Glainai Gabas to get it. I added the part about Mr. Glainai myself, but it fits, don't you think?”
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As true as it was that everyone knew Stegzi had its own hidden classes, Dirant reflected that he had heard the same about Sedoglai Dolinyan, Pavvu Istis, and even Tabiligdum. “Is that information reliable?”
“I'm sorry to say it isn't. Which means if we can find evidence here, won't that feel rewarding?”
“I want to switch to a sneaky class,” Eyanya announced.
“To make slinking off to a hammock easier?” Hugal asked.
“No. I'll be the most energetic blackmailer of all time.”
“If you had the Sticktoitiveness for that, you'd already be in a better class.”
“You'll be my first customer, Hugal.”
“Great. Lend me some money so I can get in a social predicament.”
As much as Dirant hated to interrupt the grooms while they were working out a new routine, the topic of class changes interested him for all that his staggering Receptivity had decided he must remain a Ritualist. “Does anyone here qualify for any secret classes? They appear as a series of question marks until you discover the true title, I was told.”
Eyanya said, “I think that's supposed to be how it normally works. One of my cousins told me that he'd heard from the janitor at this research institute that sometimes new classes show up in your list even if your stats don't change.”
“I have to tell you something about our Yumin ways. When we say a cousin heard it from some guy, that means we're making it up.”
“Not this time, Hugal. I'm serious. And the researchers also had a theory that at first there was one class everybody had and we branched out from there. They were arguing over whether it was Warm Body, some other basic class, or maybe an ur-class that's been lost. This is real information. Go ask around if you don't believe me.”
“I will do so,” Dirant promised, already reviewing which universities might be involved in that sort of inquiry.
Takki had a troubled expression. “If that's true, our guesses about stat requirements for exotic classes may be off. Right? Since it's done by surveying people who don't have question marks in their class lists and writing down their stats to compare.”
No one at Todelk engaged in general class research, Dirant believed. Perhaps Paspaskudenna University. “Must you therefore admit Redrin has surpassed Pavvu Omme Os in class science? As to where Greater Enloffenkir stands, nobody bothered to tell me.”
“That's so cruel of them, Ressi.”
“It's my fault for never thinking to ask. The next question is whether, blessed with a secret class, you would switch to it. Ability debt is a serious consideration.”
Takki agreed. “I'd never leave Battler.”
Hugal, however, belittled that serious consideration. “I guess you two need your class abilities, but the only time I use any of mine is when a horse kicks me in the head. That hasn't happened in years.”
“Should I schedule one for you, Hugal?”
“Yes, thank you, Eyanya. I could use a medical vacation. So that's why I don't mind losing my abilities for a while. The new ones would definitely be better for me.”
Class chat occupied them all the way to the artificial pond area. Chunawm Metals, an outfit dedicated to innovation, had engineered eardron harvesting fields by digging dozens of shallow ponds in land where nothing more productive could be done. The workers who informed the visitors of the project emphasized that was probably supposed to be a secret, but only after they did the informing. In any case, since the last eardron harvest for some time had been carried out a littler earlier to get in a good stock for Lord Audnauj's inspection, they figured no harm had been done. Dirant pointed to the loose lips of the employees to support the commercial espionage idea. A rival need only set men with functional ears to hang around if it wanted to collect information on Chunawm's enterprises.
The four picked their way among pools whose clear waters showed every rock and pebble beneath while they scanned the landscape for any sign of human activity. Footprints, scraps of clothing, anything. They found many such, but all belonged to the mining company's employees so far as the volunteer investigators could determine.
Eyanya offered a sly suggestion. “Unless the infiltrators, the ghost infiltrators I mean, disguised themselves as hard-working Yumins.”
“That's an easy mistake for foreigners to make,” Hugal said in support. “They should have disguised themselves as normal Yumins.”
Dirant joined in. “Then we ought to refrain from exposing them. Chunawm Metals might go under if investors lose confidence in the personnel.”
“So?” Eyanya asked.
“So some of them might take up groom as their new career.”
“You're doing a good job, everyone. If you keep talking like that the people watching us won't grow suspicious.” None of the other three had known Takki to employ deadpan, at least not successfully. Her tone usually started rising and falling as if a song was about to break out when she engaged in humorous talk. As such, they concluded she meant it.