Chapter Four: Not Your Average Rest Day
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Mid-morning was noisy and full of familiar faces as Bly stepped off the last step and turned onto the road heading west through town. Unlike the night prior, dozens upon dozens of folks walked the streets in pursuit of whatever their days had in store for them.
Wooden homes were tightly clustered together on either side of the streets and alleys, most likely to fight against the winds, and only the most well-off in Kelvader had any semblance of a yard or gated entrance. The town boasted over four-thousand residents, nearly a thousand more than Darskaart, but was nowhere near as spread out. The central square wasn’t much of a gathering place, the mustering hall held enough arms and armaments for perhaps thirty-five guards and soldiers, and there was no Guildhall at all, the nearest being in Synestra over one-hundred-fifty miles away.
But there were convenient things too.
The hunters were never lacking for game in the great forest of Calvergia, which meant a variety of meats and furs were readily available, much to Bly’s relief given his training regimen and proclivity for ruining his cloaks and boots. The woodsmen were exceptional too. There wasn’t a snowstorm Bly had witnessed yet in which repairs hadn’t been made in record time, and firewood was almost as good a currency as copper in Deepwinter. Everyone from the weavers to the roofers, to the bakers and the blacksmiths, they all amazed Blychert in how resourceful and efficient they were, and a lot of them weren't even all that high-leveled. But more than that, he enjoyed their seemingly effortless camaraderie. It was the one thing he loved most about this place.
After stuffing his face with food from the White Horn, and as quickly as he could manage before mister Ralf had the chance to pelt him with more embarrassing propositions, Blychert was back on the road and heading for the general store.
“Good morning, Missus Stein.” Bly said loudly over the sounds of the little bell ringing above him, as he closed the shop door behind him.
The entire store smelled of old parchment, worn leather, and hempen materials. Three narrow aisles ran deep, and were divided by shelves that reached the ceiling, each filled to the brim with all manner of assorted things, from the simplest of supplies to some more unusual gear. Non-perishable foodstuffs in jars, lanterns and oil, pitons and snowshoes, bedrolls, blankets, pots and pans, well-worn books and well-worn saddles, quivers, shovels, tinderboxes, flasks, and rope… there was so much stuff in here it was practically an eyesore trying to remember what you needed, let alone where to find any of it.
“That you, dear boy?” Missus Stein’s raspy croaked from the back, “Trelen?”
Shuffling down the middlemost aisle, Bly smiled, replying, “Yeah, it’s only me.”
Coming to the front, Bly greeted the elderly woman behind the stubby counter with a slight bow of his head. Of course, he had to pay the store tax before doing anything else, and so he gave the black and white-spotted tabby lounging in her bed on the counter a few good scratches under the chin.
Lowering her spectacles, missus Stein squinted, “You’re here awfully early in the day. Aren’t you? You’re supposed to be my last customer.”
“House arrest.” Bly shrugged, letting Tilly lick his finger gleefully, who no doubt smelled the latent bacon grease, as he added, “I did receive a peculiar quest though.”
“Oh?” missus Stein smirked amusedly.
Bly fished the silvers out of his pocket, and stacked them atop the counter, “Sealing wax for Miss Crane.”
“Hm.” Missus Stein shook her head, as she pushed her spectacles back up the bridge of her boney nose, “That woman goes through more wax in a fortnight than the whole township does in two. Whatever on earth does she use it for?”
Bly frowned.
He had absolutely no idea, truth be told. His best guess was material components for her scrying table, but even that seemed like a shot in the dark given how much of it she went through.
“Uh… letters?” Bly said puzzlingly, but nodded thereafter to double down on his effort, “Lots of letters. Extended family, personal friends, I… oh! She also works for a large trading caravan, you know. Out of, uh—Raustagar. But she likes the cold, so… it’s better for her up here. Think it’s a condition she has, actually.”
It was word vomit, as if he couldn’t stop himself from spouting off utter nonsense, or at least the first thing that came to mind, though they were likely the same thing.
“Mhmm.” Missus Stein echoed, unconvinced by the sound of it, but said with a sigh, “Well, it isn’t my business, and I don’t want to know either. Oh! That reminds me, I have something for you.”
Missus Stein ducked down beneath the counter and began to rummage around through her things. Soon enough though, she reappeared with a slender wooden box and placed it on the countertop.
“Go on.” She gestured with a wry smile, “Open it.”
Bly squinted at her curiously, but gave a little smile of his own, before doing as he was encouraged to do.
Removing the lid, inside the box sat a perfectly rolled up piece of parchment, a silky-white color, tied off around the middle by a blue-colored, almost glistening kind of twine.
“Is this…” Bly started, but his answer fell away, and his eyes went wide.
It was!
A spell scroll—no, not just a spell scroll, this was a Circle-scribed spell scroll. Bly had seen this exact kind of parchment and composition in Bartolo’s effects. More than this, the blue coloration of the binding meant that there was an advanced spell contained within.
“Nicked it off a fellow in dire need of some arborvine and road supplies.” Missus Stein nodded, seemingly more than a little proud of herself, “Seemed all too happy to part with it.”
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“Arborvine?” Bly asked curiously, “Was he burned that badly then?”
“Like a Calvergian abroad.” She snickered, “Half his face was scorched, and most of his left arm. He must have been in some trouble too, because he was off in a hurry, didn’t even ask after Ralf for an overnight room. Anyway, he traded me for some other things, but I doubt you’d find much use for them. This though, I had you in mind the moment I laid eyes on it. Rare occurrence for me to come into a bit of magic, lucky for you.”
Luky indeed. Bly thought with a giddy smile, but immediately his expression turned, “Wait, I can’t possibly afford this. Spell scrolls aren’t cheap, let alone blue ones.”
“Is that so? Well, it's a good thing that it's a gift.” She waived her hand, “An early Summer’s Parting gift. For all your hard work.”
“Hard work?” Bly asked confusedly.
Missus Stein chuckled, “People talk, and my eyes still work, you know. I see you going out of your way to help where you can. Before the storms, and after too, and the guard can only spread themselves out so far on the road, but you always seem to spend a lot of time outside of town. Don’t you? It’s been mysteriously peaceful around the outskirts of Kelvalder ever since you started going up to the mountains by your lonesome.”
Bly felt his face flush.
The occasional monster wandered too close to town from time to time, and sometimes he just happened to be in the right place at the right time mostly, that was all. Monsters that spawned on the edges of the forest were typically E rated anyway, so it wasn’t that serious. Honestly, he didn’t even think about it, he just did it.
“I—” Bly stammered, but shook his head, “I didn’t realize… I hope I’m not offending anyone out of the barracks?”
He was momentarily worried that he might have been moving in on other people’s experience. The last thing he needed was for the guards in Kelvalder to turn against him. But nobody had said anything to him until now, so maybe they were afraid to confront him? He hoped not.
“Offend? Offend!” Missus Stein suddenly broke out into laughter, but sobered shortly to say, “Dear boy, there are more than a fair-few number of folks around here feeling a lot better with you around. The guard included. We’ve hardly had a single incident in how many months? It’s quiet here, and we all know who’s responsible. So, you take your gift, and I won’t here another word of it.”
Bly opened his mouth to insist otherwise but nodded wordlessly instead. Missus Stein wasn’t one to be argued with, and turning down a piece of advanced magic wasn’t exactly the wisest decision. Even still, he’d make it up to her somehow.
Departing the general store with more than he’d imagined, Bly felt a small bit of pride blooming in the back of his mind. But it quickly turned into a confusing sense of self-doubt.
Had he really had that much of an effect in Kelvalder? If so, was it drawing too much attention to himself? If that was the case, Alyse likely would have intervened by now. Was that why she told him not to go to the dungeon today? It seemed unlikely that one day off would have any long-lasting influence in that respect, unless what he was doing wasn’t a problem at all?
Well, it wasn’t a problem for Trelen anyway, though perhaps that was for the best.
For the remainder of the afternoon, Bly shelved his worries and instead did his part to help attend to the town. The hunters had all returned early, and with them grave news of the storm that was all but guaranteed to blow in tonight, the weather witch from Hustad had confirmed as much in their passings through.
Working against the clock, Bly used his magic to help move loose items into more secure positions, and to hold up wooden boards for Durand as he applied his carpentry to reinforce windows and walls. He then helped Mister Malwin and his three sons move barrels of salt through the town, which they generously distributed along the roads for the purposes of dispatching ice should it build up during the night.
Veryl and Kara returned from the forest with extra sleds full of firewood soon enough, and Bly was quickly able to start fires in the homes that still needed their hearths lit with only a small portion of magic. The White Horn and a few of the other social places were outfitted with extra bedrolls and blankets, thanks to missus Stein, and Ralf and his wife had seen to the starting of several large pots of stew which could simmer deep into the night, as well as mulled cider, for anyone who wished to stay in the comforts of the inn instead. Old farmer Cordell accepted the invitation, though he was all too happy to bring his thirteen chickens along, and Bly was certain there would be a roast on the menu for dinner before long.
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{SAGE --> Raven System Notification}
> Maximum daily [generic experience] acquired.
[Experience gained: +10 xp]
[Experience total: 6,512 xp]
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Blychert had taken only a small break to enjoy an early supper, and to confirm his generic experience gains for the day too. But by then clouds had already started to roll in overhead, and the first passage of snow had begun too. It wasn’t long after that a haze of snowflakes and a flurry of wind settled over Kelvalder. The light of day went soon thereafter, and the storm grew in strength, battering the tightly clustered buildings, ripping off shingles here and there while the wind whistled through the air. Lanterns dangled wildly, though their light was little more than vague dots in the wall of snow that otherwise pelted town.
Bly pulled up his face mask as he exited the White Horn and trudged back into the street, heading for the western entrance. As he approached, he saw the forms of guardsmen Colt and Aletta standing under the stone awning of the squat watchtower, sheltering as they tried to start a fire in the brazier.
“Let me.” Bly said above the sound of the wind, still somewhat conflicted about what missus Stein had told him earlier as he nodded at the two guards, though Colt stepped aside eagerly. Holding out his right hand, Bly murmured, “Flickering ember, ignite my will. Fire bolt.”
With a mental gesture, Bly pinched his mana flow so that only a small amount could fill his spell. The fire bloomed in his palm for a split second before the muted projectile leapt into the doldrums of the brazier. Not a moment later, the device was filled with warmth.
“Much obliged, Trelen.” Colt approved, his accent much thicker than most, “Forgot to light it with all the running around this afternoon. By the time we made it out for our post, we’d feared the worst for our fingers!”
“Least I could do.” Bly nodded. He had half a mind to cast ‘Protection from Elements’ on both of them, but was dissuaded with some reluctance. Each of them possessed the Guardsman class, which offered moderate boosts to their overall constitution. And besides, they were used to this kind of weather as native Calvergians. Furthermore, it was possible that he might have needed for his magic yet tonight, and that wasn't exactly a cursory spell.
“Not been a storm like this in some weeks.” Aletta murmured grimly, her gaze shifting out across the land beyond the outskirts of town, “We’ll keep the vigil tonight, Trelen. You just leave any wandering beasties to us. No place for a Lorelic lad anyhow, that’s for sure.”
Bly grinned, about to protest her joke, but it was at that moment that something peculiar caught his attention far down the road away from town. It was a jolt of violet light lifting through the air, small but bright enough to clash against the darkness of night and the snowfall.
“What’s that?” Colt furrowed his brow, seemingly spotting the flash as well, “Ice demons?”
There was another flash, then another, small and chaotic blips of light. Then a different light splashed against the darkness altogether, this one hot and fiery red. It couldn’t have been ice demons. In fact, it was almost as if…
Magic. Bly thought as the color flushed from his face.
Was someone caught out in the storm? No one else in Kelvalder possessed anything beyond basic magic that he knew of, so they could have been from out of town. Whoever they were, the casting seemed too chaotic—too frantic even to invoke a sense of composure.
Were they in danger?
Bly was too far away to make use of any kind of aura detection himself, which made determining the situation even more difficult. But then, he’d already made up his mind on what to do next.
“Wait, Trelen—!”
Without giving a single thought more to it, Bly scrambled down from the watchtower and was darting westward through the wall of snow in a matter of seconds.