Lisa made herself walk up to Allison with a scowl and snatched the letter opener out of her hand. She remembered the last time she’d threatened one of her friends in this room, insisting they maim Micah so he would become a proper [Alchemist] and apprentice in some shop.
That had turned into a massive fight with Garen that had ended up with furniture broken and her leaving them for weeks, off to stay with the Tors.
She was having none of that again.
She shoved the knife in a random drawer, slammed it shut, and gave the woman a stern look who looked away like a sulking child.
Garen lifted the chair out from behind the desk to offer their guests a seat but Ryan declined and stood next to the window instead.
The man shrugged as if to say, Suit yourself, and sat with a heavy sigh. Then it was Allison, Ryan, and her looking down at the three. Maybe that was better.
“So,” he said in his usual friendly tone, arms crossed, “you have questions. Where do we start?”
“Oh! Uhm …” Micah said and started fishing around in his backpack for some reason.
“Legality,” Ryan spoke first. “Lisa said she would speak to you about working with the city?”
Still in that same friendly tone, Garen didn’t miss a beat and shut him down, “Absolutely not.”
Ryan leaned in. “What? Why not?”
“Because,” Allison answered him, “there is no way we will deal with the attention that will come her way if we admit Lisa was not born here, especially not when we just began climbing again and won’t always be around to protect her from the harm that may come with it.”
Garen pointed at her without looking. “As much as I hate to admit it, she has a point. I made a promise to Lisa’s mom that I would protect her. Your suggestion would be doing the opposite of that if I’m not even around to shield her from the fallout.”
Then maybe you should have stuck around? she thought. Or you could buy me items for a worst-case scenario. Or let me make my own with your help?
Lisa thought of the arguments and didn’t voice any of them. They were pointless and she wasn’t decided anyway.
“I’m sorry, sir,” Micah spoke up, now with a piece of paper in his lap, “but I have to disagree? What you’re doing right now puts Lisa at risk. The longer you wait, the worse it will get. What if someone finds out on their own and you can no longer control what happens?”
Allison glared. “The only way that could happen is if you or your friend decide to put Lisa at risk.”
“Bullshit,” Ryan said.
She tilted her head. “Excuse me?”
“Ryan!” Micah hissed almost at the same time. He glanced between them, worried.
“Sorry, but I’m not sorry,” he sneered and looked at her. “No offense, Lisa, but you’re weird. You know it. We know it. Not in a bad way, but in an obvious way. The way you act, the things you know, you say—anyone willing to pay attention knows something is off about you.
And with all of the lies the three of you have told, it’s only a matter of time before someone connects the dots and realizes why, that you might not be from around here.”
“And who would do that?” Allison asked. “The people around her? Children? Her friends who should have her best interests at heart? No, I don’t think so.”
“Her teachers,” Ryan countered.
“Her teachers are dealt with,” Garen said casually.
Even Lisa did a double-take when he said that and asked, “What do you mean?” Because it sounded like he meant they’d threatened or bribed them and she knew nothing of that.
“Huh? Oh, no, I just meant, they’re too overworked and busy with other things to focus on one weird student out of a school full of them when that student has ample reason to be weird, considering the immediate people around her”—he waved a thumb between Allison and himself—”and considering those same people are endorsing their school with the moneys.”
He moved his hand as if tossing a pouch of coins up and smiled at her. Even Allison relaxed a little.
Micah scowled instead. He sounded almost as ‘insolent’ as Ryan had when he said, “Is this a joke to you?” Before anyone even said anything, he winced as if the question had slipped out again.
Garen sat up, eyes wide, and said, “Huh?”
They looked at him and waited. Anne nudged him and taking it as encouragement, Micah said, “You say friends, but there’s only the three of us because she’s not allowed to tell anyone.”
He turned to her instead of talking like she wasn’t in the room … and Lisa began to wish she hadn’t joined them for this discussion. Part of her regretted telling them at all.
Things had been peaceful and now, her friends were arguing for her sake when she didn’t even know if that was what she wanted.
“It has to suck, right?” Micah said. “Lying to people all the time? That’s why you told us, right?”
She made herself shrug and felt shitty even while she did it. She felt like she was betraying him but if she had said anything, she felt like she would have betrayed her family, too.
“If you care about her,” Ryan said, “stand by her side.”
“We care,” Allison hissed. “I care about her as if she were my own, but there are more important things than schoolyard friendships. Will you protect her if everyone else at school turns on her? If people try to lock her up, throw her out of the county, assault her in the street?”
“Yes,” Micah said.
“I’d wear a flashy wristband saying ‘I love the North’ for her if I had to,” Ryan said.
“Good for you, but you can get yourself stoned in the street without dragging her into it.”
“I can protect myself,” Lisa made herself say with a fake flippancy. If anyone tried to throw a rock at her, they would soon wish they hadn’t.
Garen uncrossed his arms and twisted in his seat. “Can you? No really, Lisa. I’m strong, you know that, but there are many people in this city right now who could beat me in a fight. I know I can beat you.”
“It wouldn’t even be a fair fight,” Allison added.
… Dammit.
Lisa didn’t know what to do, what to say. She didn’t have the answers and she hated it.
On a whim, she pulled a mana ring out of her pocket, conjured a lizard around it with a connection, and headed for the door. In her head, she switched channels until she felt her summoning crystal in the living room and sicced the lizard on it.
She opened the door, flung it out, and closed it again.
The others stared.
“Getting Sam,” she mumbled.
“Oh.”
Garen sighed and leaned forward. “Look, Micah, Ryan. I respect your opinion. I’m glad you’re arguing on Lisa’s behalf, but in the end, regardless of the pros and cons and our different perspectives, this is our decision to make. Not yours. I ask that you respect that for Lisa’s sake if not ours.”
They hesitated, both of them. Ryan glanced at her, but Micah scowled to himself and grumbled, “It should be Lisa’s choice.”
“And it will be. Someday. But for now, she is barely an adult and she’s relatively new to this city, even if she knows more about its inner workings than most. Today will not be that day.”
Lisa hoped the two wouldn’t notice how glad she was to hear him say that. She loved the relative independence she had discovered ever since she had come here, but when faced with a decision this monumental, where she couldn’t see the entire picture, let alone imagine the outcome, she was glad she could enjoy the comforts of having adults decide things for her.
She didn’t know if that was childish or cowardly. She didn’t know if she was betraying herself by thinking it. She had spent the first fifteen—or seventeen—years of her life having other people decide things for her. To be safe, she would never admit to having the thought out loud.
“Can you—” Micah started and perked up a bit. “Can you at least put safeguards in place?”
“Safeguards?” Anne asked.
“In the workshop when we work with dangerous materials, we wear goggles. In the Tower, you wear both armor and a shield. So like, if you’re not going to go on the offense, can you make a plan or … discreetly talk to people so that, just in case, your defense is alright?”
“You want them to bribe people?” Lisa asked.
“Uhm, not at first? I meant, uhm, talking? But if they have to …?” he glanced from face to face as if he worried he was in the wrong, here.
Anne smiled.
“Of course, we can do that,” Garen said and hesitated, “ … right?” He looked to his teammate.
She looked at Lisa with a slight frown as if she were trying to convey something with the look but when Lisa did nothing, she nodded, and turned to Micah instead.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
“[Appraise Target].”
“Auntie!” Lisa snapped.
She waved her off, eyes shimmering and darting around fractionally as she read his Skills. “Don’t worry, I just want to know what we’re working with here.”
That was a lie if she had ever heard one. She didn’t have to glance at Anne to know it.
As if to sell the ruse, she looked at Ryan and said, “[Appraise Target].”
“Uhm,” Micah spoke up and rubbed his arm, “not to be rude, ma’am, but I feel like it is kind of rude to do that without asking for permission first, maybe …?”
“What he’s trying to say is,” Ryan said, “don’t do it again.”
“You said you would protect Lisa,” she said. “If you want me to believe you, not just for this worst-case scenario we are talking about but also the Tower, suck it up. Most people in her family know much more about you at a glance than I can find out with my Skills.”
She gestured at Anne, who shifted uncomfortably.
“Now you really are being rude, Allison,” Garen said.
“You shouldn’t point fingers at others,” she added in almost the same friendly tone, slightly affronted.
Allison looked away from Ryan and rubbed her temple with a groan, then glared at Garen. “You could stand to take this a little more seriously.”
“They’re kids,” he insisted, “and they’re her friends. You could be a little more glad?”
She sighed. “Maybe.”
“Thank you for watching out for me,” Lisa tried. “I really do appreciate it.” Sometimes, Allison reminded her of her mom … if a little darker.
Thankfully, that got a smile out of her.
There was a pause and an awkward moment of silence as nobody seemed to have anything to say.
That was, until Anne asked, “So, what have you guys been up to?” She said it in a joking tone like she didn’t really expect an answer, the same thing Garen might do, but that only worked if there was one Garen in the room.
The guy went with it. “Oh, you know, not fighting oversized creepy crawlies.” He turned to Allison. “I told them about Laura.”
She rolled her eyes. “If I had my full equipment, a backpack full of potions, and a cart full of arrows, I could probably take that thing down over a few days, but I don’t want to pull resources away from the northern border. The Turrels have been poking at our borders ever since the new year. They must have gotten wind of the crisis.”
“Maybe a show of force could chase them off,” Garen mused, “but Hadica is in no position to offer the manpower. Trest, maybe? They seem to have adapted best to the new situation.”
Allison nodded absentmindedly. “I’ll ask around, see what people are doing. Maybe we could get Lighthouse to send a storm their way to get them to shut up.”
“Might piss off the Heartsmiths more than them, but I could see that working. Maybe send a ship out to guide it as well.”
The four of them stared, Lisa included.
“Oh,” Garen said and put on a goofy face, “but that’s adult business. Nothing for you to worry about yet.”
“Yeah, like … What have you been up to?” Anne repeated herself with a daunted look on her face.
“We’ve been exterminating Guardian nests for the Bluths and a few other companies. Especially Wandering Guardians, those pests. Because—and get this—people want to build waypoint camps in the Tower again.”
“Wait, really?” Micah asked. “But what about the rules? They’re going to get themselves killed.”
Garen shrugged. “They think things might have changed, that it might be feasible now. We won’t know until we try and … so far? It’s been working pretty well. We just need to exterminate the strongest monsters near the camp and the [Guards] can take care of the rest.”
“Not that there haven’t been catastrophes,” Allison said, “but we are learning from our mistakes.”
“That sounds like a big deal,” Micah said, “how come we haven’t heard anything of it yet?”
“Early days. Most people think they’re being idiots. Those that don’t want to keep it quiet to make the most of the opportunity. You’d at most find a small article in the papers or a bigger one in a rumor magazine, but with how much sheer bullshit they print about stuff that has come out of the Tower, it’s no wonder nobody believes them.
“Micah doesn’t read the papers or magazines,” Lisa said, “and he doesn’t share in the gossip. He’s too busy with his work.”
She herself had gotten caught up somewhat while she had been hiding in her room here this last week. She knew Ryan bought some magazines from time to time.
What was on everyone’s mind right now were the rumors of sapient monsters inside the Tower, like the molemen and singing women that were said to stalk climbers.
Lisa didn’t have any qualms with fighting constructs, but she hoped there wouldn’t be any monsters out there that could actually think.
“So?” Micah said, defensive.
“Nothing,” she reassured him. “You have us to tell you about the important stuff. Most of it hasn’t been relevant to us anyway.”
Micah smiled. “I would rather you tell us about you.”
Anne perked up. “You had a bunch of questions, right? Where do you want to start in this ‘interview’?”
Oh, no.
Part of Lisa had hoped they would forget.
“Oh! I actually wrote a bunch of questions down,” Micah said and lifted the page he had been holding this entire time.
“You did what?” Lisa asked.
In a flash, Allison snatched it out of his hand. Garen stood up to join her as they read it.
“Hey! Why did you do that for?”
Lisa frowned at him. “Why did you write your questions down?”
“Because— Like— Whenever we talk, we’ll so often get off-topic—like we just almost did—and I’ll forget to ask things I meant to ask. And since I was working on my journal right before … It seemed like a good idea to sort my thoughts out?”
Allison walked around the desk to get a pen and started scratching questions out one by one.
Garen pointed. “That one, too.”
“Hey, what are you doing?”
“Censoring you,” he admitted.
“Aw, but why?”
“Because there are certain things we can’t answer. And … some of these questions are really intrusive, kid.”
“‘Where do your parents live exactly?’” Allison read out loud. “‘Exactly’ is underlined. You said you wanted to protect Lisa?”
“It’s a fair question?”
“Why? Do you want to visit them someday?” Anne joked.
“Well, yeah? Maybe?”
Her eyebrows shot up and she looked both amused and impressed.
Lisa imagined Micah meeting her family and … no. Oh, hell, he would never want to stop asking questions. They would probably indulge him, too. They loved getting to show off their projects.
No. Nope. Absolutely not.
Micah sunk into his chair with a scowl.
Garen chuckled at something and pointed, but Allison didn’t scratch the question out when she read it. He glanced at her, smiling like he’d read a joke on her.
Starting to get worried, Lisa made herself walk around and looked. The page was full top to bottom with scribbles. “How many questions did you want to ask, Micah?”
He flung an arm out. “Forgive me for wanting to know your parents’ names! You don’t ever tell us stuff.”
“No, no, it’s … fine,” she said, slightly amused herself. “It’s just a lot.”
“Not anymore,” he mumbled.
“If you’re going to edit it that much,” Ryan asked, “can you edit it with Navid and Sion in mind so we can take this discussion on the road?”
They looked up at him. Allison echoed Garen’s first statement. “Absolutely not. You ask these questions in this room and this room only. You burn this page before you leave. You do not mention anything sensitive around the Madin boy. Am I understood?”
He frowned. “Why?”
“Because questions invite more questions obviously.”
Ryan grunted and stepped back. “Fine.” He must have heard something, because he opened the door and Sam slammed into the frame as it tried to drift inside, claws scratching on wood.
It waddled up to her and went still.
The two adults went over what remained of the list two more times, nodded to themselves, and handed it to her.
Lisa stared, no idea what to do with it.
Garen gave her a pat on the back and headed for the door. Wait, they were leaving?
“Gotta head to work,” he said.
“You can answer these questions just fine,” Allison said as she followed him, “but don’t go into too much detail and don’t repeat anything that was said in this room to anyone else.”
“And hurry up,” Garen said, “remember your teammates are waiting for you. Oh, and remember to have fun, you kids!”
Allison hesitated on her way out and ducked back in. “Yeah. Have fun.”
“Thank you?” Micah said awkwardly.
Lisa smiled and when they left, Anne said, “Well, that was awkward. Ooh, but let me see what’s on the list.”
“Yeah, yeah! Answer it!” Micah said.
She looked down.
What’s your last name?
Where do your parents live exactly?
Do you have any siblings? Pets?
What’s your cousin’s name?
Do you live in a city, or village, or house, or laboratory, or what? Do you have roads or trains?
How can you survive in the Witch’s Forest? What about the monsters? Have you ever eaten a real monster? If yes, how do they taste? If no, why not? Are they edible? Are they different from Unmade? Where do they come from? What’s your favorite monster dish?
Where did your family come from? Why did you decide to settle in the Witch’s Forest in the first place?
Where do your parents live exactly? How far is the trip? Do you ever go somewhere else? Do you have any neighbors? How do you get stuff? Like paper, salt, soap, etc.
Can you speak another language? Can you speak Myconid? Can Myconids speak a language? If not, how else do you talk? Can they write? How smart are they? What are they like? What do they eat? Do they have any magic of their own? Do you live with any other people of another species?
Do you have any spirit affinities? What other kinds of magic do you know that you can tell us about? Do you have any tattoos? Can you enchant stuff?
Where else have you been? Can you ride a horse? Can you use a bow? Did you need to hunt for food or did you have farms? Did you have to use magic to hunt for food? Did you have to fight monsters? Did monsters attack you or did you have some sort of fence or something?
Did your family fight in the war? If so, on whose side? Do the cities know about your family? Do you have any diplomats or something?
You said you have an aunt who lives in Lighthouse? Who is she? What’s she like? Is she friends with Garen, too? Can we go visit her next summer when the railroad is done? Or can we invite her to come visit us instead? Dinner party or something.
Do you write letters? Do your parents know about us? About you (school, class, Sam, etc.)? How would you even deliver a letter to your parents?
Are you still going to visit them this summer? How? When? How long will you be gone? Are you sure you’re going to come back? Have you found any souvenirs yet? Will you bring us any souvenirs from them? Ancient scrolls full of forbidden magic, maybe? Siblings of Tooth of Seven?
What kind of magic do your parents like most?
The list went on and on and … Garen had been right. Some of the questions were amusing to read but some hurt, too.
She looked at Ryan. “Have they left yet?”
He frowned and listened. “No. Not yet.”
“Damn. I’ll answer some stuff now, but the moment they leave, screw them. We’re taking this on the road. There’s no way I can answer all of this and not keep Navid and Sion waiting for hours on end. We only have so much daylight.”
Micah stared. “Really? But … won’t they be mad?”
“Only if they find out,” Anne said.
Lisa grinned. “Exactly. It’s finally summer. School’s over. After a year of following their stupid rules, so what if we break some of them?”