Miner's Son (Part 2)
Conrad, always preternaturally aware of where Idris’s thoughts and feelings were, added, “And all of that is why I can’t bring Eana into the Seekers. Order knows how badly we could use a Healer, but she’s too much of a wild card right now. Who knows, maybe we’re all just a little crazy. Or something about this town or the Hive Dungeon makes us that way and, really, your sister is just the unfortunate focus of it all. Maybe she’s fine. But the only two people who are really sure about that one way or the other are you and Tomme.”
It was so much to think about. More than anything though, Idris wanted to talk with Eana about it. They were all just speculating and leaving her out of it. Maybe if everybody could talk it out with her it would be OK. They could find some way to work with… whatever it was that was going on. They had to.
Just then, a voice broke through the tension that had developed around Idris and Conrad’s discussion, “IDRIS!”
The two men looked up to see Idris’s father, Graham, striding toward them.
Conrad leaned in and whispered, “Not all of a Warrior’s battles are with the monsters of Chaos, Light Bringer.”
And watching his father come closer, Idris eyed his 910 XP, which was only about half of what he had had a couple of days earlier. He had made huge progress but he was hoping to have come a lot further toward getting it all back before he had to talk with his father.
“Where on the path of bloody Chaos have you been?” Graham said.
Idris’s mouth went dry. It was astonishing that he could spend the previous 24 hours killing things that wanted to kill him, being hailed as a hero, talking with his idol - maybe mentor now? - and yet talking to his father about it all felt like the most difficult task of all.
“Dad, I’ve… I’ve been out in the Chaos Lands with Eana” he started, figuring the literal answer to the question was a good place to start.
“You what?” Graham said, looking over his torn and bloodied clothing and the hammer leaning against the fence next to him.
He took a deep breath and continued, “I’m becoming a Warrior. I am a Warrior.”
Graham’s head cocked and he squinted his eyes in complete bafflement, “You took your sis… you’re a… start talking, lad.”
Idris closed his eyes a moment before beginning his story. He only got so far as investing his XP into classing as a Warrior when his dad interrupted him, “Eana too? You got Eana to spend her XP on a Warrior class?”
“That’s the funny part to me,” Conrad said, chuckling, “Eana did it first.”
Everybody was silent a moment, Conrad smiling, Idris nervous, and Graham dumbfounded.
“I think,” Graham said, “That I’d like to continue this conversation with my son alone, Conrad. If you don’t mind.”
Conrad stood and Idris’s heart sank at the prospect of having to deal with all of this on his own, but then Conrad said, “Meaning no disrespect, Graham, but after last night I’ve decided to bring Idris into my band. If he’ll join us.”
He stretched out his hand to Idris for a handshake. A smile broke onto Idris’ face and he took it, shaking vigorously.
Conrad clasped his arm with his other hand and gripped tight before letting go, “Normally a handshake isn’t quite enough, there’s contracts and all that, but we’ll get to the rest of that soon enough.”
“What is going on? What on the path even happened last night?” Graham said, flustered, “You know what? I don’t care about any of that. We’re talking about my boy here,”
“He’s his own man. And if this conversation is an attempt to get him to breach contract with me then I’m going to be present to renegotiate. If necessary,” Conrad said.
“You can’t just steal my son!” Graham yelled.
“Dad! This is what I want. It’s what we’ve been fighting about all these years and I’ve made the decision,” Idris said.
“I’m not going to let you throw your life away over a handshake and some wasted XP! We can earn it back. We can still fix this!” Graham said.
“It’s bigger than that, Dad! Just hear me out,” Idris said.
He continued his story, sure that if his father could just see things the way he did he would relent.
But even after having heard the entire story, from the Ironwood grove to the battle at the camp, Graham remained unmoved.
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“So you want to give up everything that makes our family who we are, our entire legacy, all that I have sacrificed and scraped and saved for because you cracked a few skulls and got a nickname? We had a plan, Idris!” he said.
“You had a plan!” Idris said.
“I’m your father! It’s my job to have a plan! It’s my job to take care of this family!”
“And somehow it only includes me! Eana isn’t even part of it for you! Everything is on my shoulders and I don’t want it, not your way!” Idris said, voice rising.
“Of course it’s on your shoulders! That’s what responsibility feels like! Your sisters path was set the moment she picked healing, so it’s you Idris! You’re the one that needs to be smart! You’re the one who can still go anywhere, be anything! And the one thing, the one thing I won’t let you do is take that potential and use it to get yourself killed in a hole some place out in Chaos only knows where!” Graham was shouting now.
But this was all old news. Just the same arguments, over and over. Idris had had enough. This time would be different.
“You just… you just refuse to listen, don’t you?” Idris said, frustrated.
Graham breathed deep, ready to keep going. He was always ready to keep fighting this fight.
“Idris you -” Graham began.
“I’m not going back to the mines! I’m done with it!” Idris yelled.
They both stared at each other in silence for a few moments. Conrad, to his credit, seemed unaffected by the awkwardness of being present in the face of the fight Idris had been anticipating having with his father for years now. They stared each other down, but Idris was not about to back down. Not this time.
Graham broke the silence first, “I’m going with the next caravan to Confluence. It’s leaving tomorrow,” he said, seeking some sort of middle ground, “I’ve got to sell the rarer metals we’ve uncovered and do some trading.”
Conrad’s eyebrow tweaked up.
“I’ll be back in a week. We can talk when I get back.” Graham said.
“This is awkward,” Conrad said, “Don’t mean to interject but you should know - I’m leading that caravan.”
“Then I should go too,” Idris said. He had never been allowed to go with his father to Confluence on any of the previous caravan runs. It was something he wanted to do, but his father usually had him continue to work in his absence to not take on too great an ‘opportunity cost.’
The road was dangerous though, so nobody ever traveled it without an adventurer escort.
“We should all go,” Idris added.
“No,” the two older men said in unison.
“You’ve got work to do back here,” Graham said.
“You’ve got training to do back here,” Conrad said.
The two men looked at each other, “At least we can both agree,” Conrad said, “That he isn’t going to Confluence.”
Graham nodded and took a deep breath, “Take the week. Do what you want, I won’t be here to stop you anyway. Conrad and I will have plenty of time to discuss this on the road.”
Conrad gave a small chuckle and winked, “Sure.”
Graham tried to stare him down in a “I mean what I said” sort of way but Conrad didn’t bite.
“Just… go home, Idris. Get some rest and check on your sister. Some of us have work to do,” he said, and turned to head off.
Idris watched him go for a short time before Conrad said, “Best not to let that fester too long. But it’s good advice. Get some sleep. Tomorrow I’ll have my boys set you up with some proper training and we’ll see about getting you into the dungeon when I get back.”
“Seriously?” Idris said.
“You expect me to be impressed by a man of your strength killing imps?” Conrad said, waving toward the camp, “The rest of this lot may have only just discovered you’ve got talent, but I expect more.”
He clapped Idris on the shoulder and walked off toward the camp. Idris called out after him, “Where are you going? Can I do anything else today? I’m not even tired!”
Conrad waved him off, “Going to be a dungeon funeral for all of this. Got to make the arrangements. Find my boys in the Inn tomorrow.”
“Dungeon funeral?” Idris wondered aloud, he’d never heard of it. But he had a suspicion as to what it might be.
As Conrad put distance between them, he glanced at his own inventory in his status interface.
Quest Complete
Armed for Battle
The ironwood you’ve brought back is enough for a staff.
Reward: 50XP
No option to get more rewards for turning the wood into a staff already? No matter, Idris had other things to do now that he was on his own.
He opened up his inventory. Scrunched up with the remaining ironwood and various nicknacks he had tossed in during his brief outing into the Chaos Lands was the corpse of an imp.
He checked his quest interface again.
Questline
The Shimmering Rocks I
Bring materials, items, creatures, and anything else to the offering point
Reward: Variable XP
Bonus Reward: Questline advancement to Shimmering Rocks II
Eana was right. If he had had his inventory skill before he would have fed the Hive Drone he killed to the Shimmering Rocks. And now that he did, well, he wanted to see what he could get for bigger game.