Chapter 32

The walk from the arena to their preparation room was the longest walk of their lives. The walk from Bo’s to Coastall had taken a week and wasn’t half as draining as the hundred feet it took them to reach the door. Inside Grok was bouncing around excited for them to return.

When he saw their faces, his ears tucked back and he immediately went to Riakon. He looked him over for wounds or signs of injury. Even with his superior vision, Grok couldn’t see their bruised pride, but he sensed it from their expressions.

The room felt cold to them as they wallowed in their self pity. No one spoke, the only sign of life in the room was Grok trying to nestle himself under Riakon’s hand. He was too big at this point to be able to manage the maneuver as he once had so instead he just lifted Riakon’s hand and put himself under it.

They sat in silence until a knock came from their outer door. A voice spoke from the other side muffled by the barrier between them.

“Boys, are you there? Can I come in?”

It was Miriana as Roden had expected.

“Yeah, come on in Mom.”

The door opened and Miriana strode into the room a smile on her face.

“Awe you poor boys. You put up a good fight. Don’t let one loss get to you.”

No one made a sound.

“Oh come now. How about we gather your things and we go home, hmmm? I’ll make you guys a nice meal and you can recuperate.”

Roden wasn’t hungry, but had to admit her plan sounded better than staying there any longer.

Miriana was true to her word. When they arrived at her home she had Roden conjure up his tree house,

“Oh and this time son, make the lower floor a bathhouse so you boys can relax and clean up, while I cook.”

Roden was a little confused, but figured it was worth a try. To his surprise it worked. He imagined a luxurious spa on the bottom floor of his tree house and sure enough when they opened the door the entire room was a bath. Steam filled the air and the water was hot. All three men stripped down to their shorts and waded into the water. The chorus of moans that came from the men couldn’t have sounded masculine in any way, but that was the last thing on their minds.

They hadn’t spoken much if at all since the arena.

Roden figured they better at least address it, but he let them just soak for a good while before he said anything.

“So that was some fight, aye?”

Errrkkkk responded with the most defeated, “Cacaw.”

“You got that right brother.”

“I would say it could’ve been worse, but I got tied up and thrown out like a sack of garbage so yeah…”

“At least you have an excuse for why you got thrown out, cacaw. I just got tossed out for being weak, cacaw.” He punctuated his statement by sinking up to his eyes in the water.

“Now, now, brother, they had you bound too. Had you your wings, it would’ve been a completely different story. I’m the one who fucked up. I shouldn’t have let myself get so exhausted last night. I don’t know what happened, but I definitely wasn’t at full strength today.”

“Even still guys three on two would’ve been a hard ask even for you two badasses.”

Riakon looked over at Roden, “How did you end up getting trapped in that binding? I thought clerics were practically immune to those kinds of spells.”

Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

“Well definitely not immune, but yeah I know what you mean. I’m a little confused myself. My spell failed too.”

“Which spell, cacaw?”

“My Divine Gambit, it never activated and it wasn’t there like it always is after I've cast it.”

“That’s quite weird.”

A knock and a voice came from the door. “Oh boys! The antipasto is ready! Hurry up before Grok eats it all.”

Her words were made all the more prophetic when they entered the house and saw Grok hovering over the platter of various meats, fruits, veggies, breads, and dips. The garg was practically drooling…No, he was drooling by the time Miriana got the tray away from the garg. As the men dug into the spread, she spoke,

“So what next for you boys?”

All three were a little taken aback at her forwardness. They looked between themselves and each shrugged. In situations like this it was expected Roden would deal with his mother so he did,

“Uuhhh well, we’re not really sure just yet. I guess we'll go back to adventuring after a bit of rest.” His friends nodded in assent to his words.

“That sounds nice boys.” She paused for a moment, “What would you boys say to a little change of scenery?”

Roden raised an eyebrow at his mother, “What do you mean?”

She talked nonchalantly as she prepared what looked like to be a three course meal. Complete with soup in a pot over a magical flame off to the side of the kitchen, some kind of meat that looked like a tenderloin of a moderately sized animal, and whatever she had just finished and placed in the box that passed for a freezer in this world.

“Well, I was thinking. I need to make a trip to the temple in Port Sept sometime soon and who better to guard me on the journey than my boy and his friends.”

Roden couldn’t argue with her logic on that one so he turned to Errrkkkk and Riakon to gauge their reactions. Neither one seemed put off by the idea.

Riakon spoke up for the two of them, “Ya know Lady Miriana, I think a change of scenery is exactly what we need.”

“How wonderful! Now don’t you worry I am in no rush, take all the time you need and we can go whenever you boys are ready.”

Miriana ladled out bowls of soup and they ate merrily as the sunlight faded to a deep orange color. She carved up thick slabs of meat for each of them including Grok to his elation. The thing that shocked Roden the most were the mashed potatoes.

Nearly all of the food in this damn world was foreign to him. Sure the wine and ale had similar themes of flavor as back home, but he wasn’t getting Miller products or a Bourbon. Yet, on his plate before him sat mashed fucking potatoes. They were buttery and delicious. They were so fluffy, they nearly melted in his mouth.

He noticed everyone was staring at him, “What?” he said through a mouthful of mashed goodness.

“Are those good, cacaw?”

“Yeah Roden, if your mother wasn’t here I would think you were doing something dirty.”

“Oh uhhh…”

Miriana swatted the air between his friends, “Leave him alone, those were always his favorite.” She said giving him a wink only he could see.

They ate the rest of their meal by the light of sunset. It was nice to wind down after such a toiling day. Everything they had done for the last month led up to today and they had botched it. Roden laid in bed that night thinking over his thoughts from that day. He felt foolish for thinking they could win that fight. They had lost before and that was bound to happen.

He hadn’t addressed the Game Master in a while, but figured why bother at this point. It seemed pretty definitive that this story was going to take place as it was intended and that was that. It gave him a sense of confidence to think that he did know what was going to happen even if it didn’t happen in the exact way it had before, no matter what the outcome would be the same.

Those thoughts made him feel better about their shitty performance in the arena, but there was still one issue that nagged at him.

‘What the fuck had happened to his Divine Gambit? And what about Miriana’s comment from before.’

So much was starting to pile up and now they were taking her with them to Port Sept, which definitely didn’t happen in his game. When sleep finally came over him it was like a balm soothing a fresh burn.

Over the next few days the party took advantage of Miriana’s hospitality. They lounged and relaxed. Errrkkkk, of course, found multi-mile long runs relaxing and set out every morning. They hadn’t given Miriana a time table as to when they wanted to leave, but there was an unspoken understanding that it wouldn’t be long.

After just a couple days they started gathering provisions and equipment. It was on one such journey that they stopped at J.B's Forgeworks and Refinery to pick up their opal steel jewelry.

For the first time they actually saw Jehb smile as they approached. Roden could tell the man was practically bubbling with excitement. He quenched the piece of metal he was working on and met them with a handshake for each of them.

“Well if I ain’t glad to see you guys! Come on back here. I got your stuff.”

They walked to the back of Jehb’s Forgeworks to a small office tucked into a closet with no door. He went to a small safe that was set into the wall and popped it open with a quick spin of the dial, his hand clearly trained to the combination. He produced a folded cloth and laid it on the table. Once opened, Roden could see there were three glittering objects; a ring, a pendant, and an earring that looked more like a thumbtack.

“Now it took some doing, but I got it done.”

Each man took his item and held it. Errrkkkk slipped the pendant around his neck, while Riakon placed his ring on his finger. Roden just looked at his earring annoyed at Errrkkkk for suggesting it then tucked it in his pocket to deal with later.

“Now I don’t want to bore yall with the details, but your items are the first of their kind. Made with my completely new method for refining Opal Steel!”

“Impressive.” Riakon said while studying the ring on his finger.

“I thought so too. It’s a shame the stuff is so hard to get or I’d be as rich as the king of Vairhon.” Jebh laughed at his own joke.

Errrkkkk saw an opportunity, “How hard is it to get, cacaw?”

“Well it's less that its complicated, and more just expensive. Money solves all problems when it comes to a supply chain.”

“How much money, cacaw?”

Jehb was caught off guard by the birdfolk’s intensity, “If I had to guess I could get enough to get rolling for…” the big man paused and thought hard before answering, “It’d have to be an order of at least fifty thousand gold.”

The three men shared a look and Riakon set to pulling out fifty myrtium from his dimensional bag. Jehb looked like he had seen a dragon take a shit on his front yard.

“What the hell!?”

“Okay, here is your fifty thousand gold. We will call it an investment in your business. Consider us silent partners. You do your thing and we will fund it. Eventually, we will need some repayment, but we can figure that out once you are incredibly rich.”

Riakon was as smooth as silk when it came to negotiating deals Errrkkkk had already put in motion. They all shook hands and Jehb quickly set off to put in his order. As he hustled down the road, Roden couldn’t help, but think they had just made that man’s dream come true.