As it turned out, the Hero of the Golden Arsenal was a lot more popular in a tavern situation than I was--no surprise, really. John and Alice also were popular in their own ways, but Steve...

Well, he had a deeply charismatic aura about him. It didn't affect us other Heroes, I guess, but when Steve threw open the door to the tavern and announced, "Drinks are on me!" I don't think it was just the prospect of free booze that got people cheering. There was something to him, and I could sense it.

It wasn't long before Steve led the whole room in a rousing rendition of a song I'd never heard, one in a much lower register than the songs that I'd heard before.

The road the conqueror rides upon

Supports ten thousand horses

We are but a moment's mirth

Upon a mound of corpses

Heroes, heroes, let me run

From here to heathered heartlands

All my life I bet upon ye militant enforcers

For demon hordes and deathy fogs

Have plagued these lands for ages

There has only ever been one cry

From men to holy forces

"E'er we march to death today,

I beg you lords of mercy,

See to those we left at home

Until they're grown and worthy."

And then they repeated the e'er we march stanza two more times, each time going a little more slowly and sounding a little more pained. The last version of it drew out the last two lines as much as they could, making it clear the song was ending, and then everyone cheered, as though what they'd all been singing wasn't insanely macabre and self-sacrificing.

"Friendly place," Jessica said to me after the song collapsed into more general rabble, with a lot of people trying to talk to the more sociable heroes and the rest talking over each other trying to talk to each other. The two of us had found a side table we could sit at alone, while the others were at one of the long tables that made up the majority of the seating space.

"Not my scene," I said with a smile. "But they seem to be good people, mostly."

"You really plan on staying here?" Although she had to speak too loudly to put any real subtlety in her voice, I got the impression she was genuinely unsure about my choices.

And... I could admit that she wasn't wrong. I frowned, not really sure how to say what I wanted to say. "Well," I said, "I could have spent a long time looking for a better place, and maybe someday I will," I shrugged. "But there might be a reason why we were placed here, and I don't know what kind of trouble I'd get into traveling far afield."

Jessica nodded back at me, and--after a particularly loud outburst from someone that made her flinch, gestured and wiggled her fingers strangely, and a bubble of silence suddenly surrounded us.

"Oh, that's much better," I said with a hiss, rubbing my temples. "Thank you."

"Don't pretend you can't handle it," she said with a smirk.

"Oh, no, I'm fine, it's just..." I shook my head. "Your first message spell would have split my eardrums if I weren't a Hero." She grimaced, and I just looked down at the water I'd been drinking. "Fortunately, nobody else was close."

"I'm really sorry," she said. "I wasn't sure it would work or how far you were, so I put extra power into it."

"I thought it had to be something like that. I guess the dispel effect hurt you in return?" She nodded at me. "Well, sorry about that, too. No harm done, so... I guess we're even."

"I guess." We both turned to look as a server stepped into the bubble of silence, blinking momentarily and looking between the two of us, then set two plates down and scurried back out of the magical effect without comment.

"They don't like magic here?" Jessica created a glowing fork and knife out of magical energy and used them to carve up what was probably goat meat, if I was honest, though I tried not to think about that.

"I went around fixing some things and they didn't hate me for it," I said as I used my bracers to very similar effect. "I think it's more along the lines of, you're not afraid to be different. In a small town, that's... essentially saying you're not one of them."

Jess frowned, and we both ate in silence for a little bit. A motion caught my eye, and it was Steve suddenly putting one foot on the table and lifting his mug up in a grand toast or something, and at least half of the table lifting their mugs in return.

"Steve could fit in anywhere, I guess," I said.

"Among normal people, maybe. I don't think he'd fit in with a mage's guild." Jessica put wry irony in her voice.

I nodded at that. "But he was doing okay at the capital?"

"When he was allowed to go out. The Vizier was a dick to all of us after the stunt you pulled."

I flinched. "Sorry."

"We're mostly sure he was going to be a dick anyway," she said, popping a piece of meat into her mouth and chewing for a long moment. It was fairly chewy meat. "But he made very sure to tell us it was all your fault constantly."

"Yeah, he gave me serious bad vibes," I said, still feeling kind of guilty.

"He also wasn't actually any help to any of us," she said, squeezing a piece of meat with her fork and draining some of the juices. "And that's basically what he was saying when you left--that we couldn't do this without him. Which is clearly false."

"Really? No equipment or anything?"

"Like I said," Jessica picked up the meat she'd squeezed and looked at it. "That's supposed to be your job. They can give Steve a big steel breastplate and John some chainmail, but both of their weapons are better than anything the kingdom could provide. They could spend a month having a smith tailor-make a suit of armor, or you could do it in... how many seconds?"

I snorted. "Few enough. So armor isn't a part of the Armory?" I gestured at Steve, who was standing and telling a story to a fairly buxom but old woman that I was almost entirely sure was married, and yet was practically draping herself on him.

"The Golden Armory can become any single piece of equipment," she said. "If he has to use it to create armor, he has no weapon."

I nodded. "And no ammo, no arrows or bullets?"

She smirked. "Do you know how to Fabricate a machine gun?"

"Not yet," I said. "Can you get me a sample of gunpowder?"

"Not from the capital. Somewhere to the south they have fireworks, so there has to be gunpowder around." She paused only for a moment, then set the meat down, clearly not very happy with it since she had only eaten around half. "But no, no ammo. He could create a golden ballista and stick a tree in it, or a catapult and use rocks, but he can't fire golden bullets from a golden gun."

I frowned. "Could he fire a golden bullet from a regular gun?"

Jessica stopped to consider that question for a long moment, then shrugged. "Maybe," she said. "He can recall the weapon to him after it's fired, so... maybe a golden arrow or bullet. But the bullet would need a casing and gunpowder..."

"Right, because after they separate, they're two things." I shook my head. "So no bombs either, I assume."

"John asked him about grenades once," Jessica replied. "He looked horrified and said he didn't dare try it."

"Fair enough." If someone asked me to blow up my bracers, I would feel the same. "So, to change the subject... what can you tell me about the whole Demon Lord situation?"

Jessica let out a very long, drawn-out sigh. "It's real," she said after a while. "That's the only thing we know for certain. It's an ancient power that is unhappy that mankind settled on this world. According to legend, there are four parts to the threat--the Eight Demon Generals, the Demon Lord, the Army that he raises, and his Grand Working."

"People say that the Army are normal people driven mad by the existence of the Demon Lord, though other version of it say they're an unbeatable undead plague. When he's defeated, they go back to normal; we're told that there's no need to purge all the armies if we can defeat him. But the Army protects him, his generals, and his Grand Working, and we have to destroy the Grand Working either before or immediately after we kill him. Like, hours, not days."

I raised an eyebrow at that. "Are they in the same place?"

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

"Usually," she shrugged. "But we have no idea. What interests me most is the Grand Working; it's supposed to be a magical engine miles wide that powers whatever mind-control effect the Demon Lord uses, can regenerate him, and... does other awful, mostly unspecified things. Doomsday stuff. Plagues, famine, storms."

"Dogs and cats living together?"

"Mass hysteria," she agreed, with a grin, and with both laughed, if quietly.

Suddenly, I turned to notice someone bash Steve over the head with a stool, and Steve--naturally, uninjured--turned and decked him in the face, still grinning wildly. I hadn't been in the tavern all that much so far, but I'd certainly not seen a brawl break out, and I doubted it was a coincidence that Steve managed to cause one the first night he was here.

"We probably ought to go," I said.

"What, you worried?" Jessica took a sip from her alcohol, some kind of kipear brandy that I hadn't tried, and made a face. She'd had some of it already, but it was clearly pretty strong stuff. She coughed. "It's not like anyone here could hurt either of us--"

Someone was thrown back into our table, knocking our food and my water onto the floor. His yell only became clear once he entered the bubble of silence, and we could also hear an unpleasant crack from either the table or his back in the moment of impact. He staggered, but was all of a sudden back on his feet and charged forward again.

I was surprised, but Jess just sighed and took another sip of brandy.

"That's also Steve," she said after a moment. "He can make a fight leave no injuries. It's supposed to be used for training, but..." she gestured at the barroom brawl, which seemed to only be intensifying.

"Oh, wow," suddenly, I heard John's voice, and he and Alice appeared from nowhere. His voice had a clear edge to it. "The quiet is nice. I'd forgotten what it was like for my ears not to be ringing."

"I'd rather just go," said Alice, looking a little embarrassed.

"No problem," I said, standing. "I'm sure that Steve will be able to find his way back."

There were noises of agreement from the others, and I felt John slip a phantom cloak around us all, which not only let us sneak out without attracting attention, but also seemed to let him, but not the rest of us, phase through a door.

It occurred to me as we stepped out into the night that any one of the heroes would be a absolute nightmare to have as an enemy. And yet... the Demon Lord was apparently dangerous enough to require five heroes to defeat. So... I frowned and looked up at the stars, definitely unhappy to think about the possibility that I couldn't keep myself or the town safe if the Demon Lord decided to target me. And... also, it was very possible that when the campaign really started, four wouldn't be enough, and I'd have to leave it all behind and do my part as a Hero.

I wasn't so much afraid of adventuring, as I was concerned that spending all the time between now and then not fighting was going to put me at a disadvantage. And yet... it didn't feel wrong, either. Was that just me being a idiot? Or did I have a specialist role, somehow, maybe taking apart the Grand Working or whatever?

"So what is with you and the goat?" asked John in the quiet.

I just sighed. "I guess one of the functions of the bracers is having a familiar, or something like it."

"And you just decided to use it on the first animal you crossed paths with?"

"She needed a home. I was going to take her as a pet anyway..." I shook my head. "And I get the impression I'm not limited to one. I actually get a buff from the kind of creature I'm bonded to, and it doesn't feel..." I gestured, vaguely. "Full."

"If we come across any dragon eggs, we'll keep you in mind," promised Jessica.

"Can we go?" asked Alice, and we started walking back.

We were partway through town when we ran into a group of two of the town's elders who were standing around waiting for us. It was the crone who was against me and one of the ones who wasn't, though I didn't know either of their names even after all this time. Part of that was that I didn't respect them just for being old, but also, I don't remember them mentioning their names or being introduced.

"Colin," said the crone, her voice a little insipid. "Introduce your friends?"

I mistrusted her immediately, but Alice stepped forward, and I felt an aura effect from her wash over the area. "Greetings to you, elders," she said, bowing. "I am Alice Terrace, and I am the Hero of Purifying Light, one of the five heroes summoned along with Colin." She gestured with one hand. "The two you do not know are Jessica Kelley, Hero of the Diamond Mind, and John Phillips, Hero of the Phantom Arrow."

Somehow about Alice's aura was seriously screwing with the old woman, I could tell, but it wasn't clear how or why. "I, well," she blinked a lot, stepping back, as though Alice was giving off actual light, which she wasn't at the moment. "I'm, um, Rigni Altool, one of the Elders of Kurnal."

"And I'm Korm Jarman," the other elder said, bowing a little more elegantly. "We weren't entirely sure how much of Colin's story to believe."

"In the time I've known him, I have not known him to be a deceiver," Alice said, carefully. "He keeps quiet about things, but he does not seem to be a liar at heart."

Korm seemed to relax, but Rigni definitely didn't. I frowned, my thoughts drifting to the whole Demon Lord thing. Was there already some effect? I thought from the way things were phrased that the Heroes had some time before we had to go off and do the Main Quest as it were. The most obvious answer was that this was all petty small-town politics, and I wasn't about to start getting paranoid unless it became a serious trend, but why was she responding so badly to the Purifying Light? Perhaps she was just a small-town evil?

"It's good to know," Korm said, and stepped back, as though inviting us to continue on, although Rigni stayed standing there, confused. "Best of luck to you all, Heroes."

Alice moved straight forward as though ignoring the remaining Elder, until her path brought her uncomfortably close. "May we pass?" she asked, sweetly.

Rigni scowled and took a step back, and the other three of us hurried to catch up to her as Alice passed her by.

"Was there something there?" I asked quietly as soon as we were a little ways away.

"A ghost of the town's past, holding on to a woman close to death," Alice said, as though it were a simple matter. "Exorcising the ghost would probably kill her, even with my skills. She has nothing to hold onto, now, except bitterness that isn't even her own."

The only clue that what she said was truly metaphysical and not a metaphor for petty small-town politics was 'exorcising', but I nodded anyway.

"I was going to ask earlier," John said, as though continuing a thought. "But what skills do you get from your goat?"

I laughed. "Mundane things," I said. "Kicking, jumping, climbing, headbutting, and an iron stomach."

"You need that if you're going to keep eating the food," said Jessica with obvious distaste.

I just smirked at her, since I agreed that the food wasn't great. "Maybe in the future I'll help the town by making a newer, better tavern, with a good, modern kitchen."

"You could make the whole town better," John said. "A lot of these places are terribly built."

"I can't go around changing things without people's permissions," I said, "plus it's better not to get people used to handouts, but they can't afford to pay me to rebuild the whole town."

"So make a ton of quality bricks and let people make what they want with them," he replied. "There has to be something."

I frowned. "One of the things I don't want to do is replace someone who's been laboring their whole life," I said. "And they have a quarry and a potter, both of who can make bricks."

"I think you're making excuses," opined John.

"Yes," I answered, in order to keep the conversation shorter, "but I also believe in what I'm saying."

There was a long pause, and before Alice decided to cut in. "We should talk more about materials, and what we want done with them."

I nodded to myself, doing my best to switch modes. "In terms of armoring you two," I paused and looked at John, "or maybe three, I was thinking along the lines of metal thread or very fine chainmail. It depends on what materials we have--"

"Oh, right," Jessica spoke up suddenly, and her voice had an authoritative edge. "There are some requirements for being able to enchant the armor. It needs to be in relatively few pieces, and one of a small category of metals. Of the magical metals we can use, we only have one..."

Alice broke in again. "The set of ideal metals for each of the heroes is different, and probably on purpose. We were able to find a sample of meteoric steel, which--if you can replicate it--"

"I'm sorry," I interrupted, then paused for a moment. "Is it actually just from a meteor, or is it somehow magic?"

"Both," Jess and Alice spoke at the same time.

"I--okay." I was going to emphasize that I had asked just from, and syntactically that excluded the possibility of both, but that wasn't remotely worth arguing about.

"If you can replicate it, that is one of the ideal metals for both Jess and John," said Alice. "In the end, we want pieces made of all the magical metals that we're compatible with, because each gives us a certain boon."

"How do you know this?" I asked, wondering idly if this were a part of the Grand Vizier's bullshit.

But Alice just turned to look at me, and I saw a holy white light deep inside of her eyes, just bright enough so that they were the only things really easily visible about her face in the darkness. "Holy knowledge," she answered, and then the lights dimmed.

I shook my head. "And what about me? What are my magic metals?"

There was a pause, and then Alice suddenly stopped. "You don't have any," she said. "You get the same bonuses from your animal bonds that we get from the equipment."

"Oh, good." None of the rest of us really stopped, until it became clear that Alice wasn't about to start moving again, and then we all turned to look back at her. There was that light in her eyes, again. "Is something... wrong about that?"

"She does this," whispered John. "Give her a minute."

"One creature familiar, to lead a man home;

one of great passion, to drive a man on.

One creature wise, for his steps to guide;

one creature wicked, to teach him to lie.

One taken wife, who cherishes virtue,

one taken husband, worth more than a hundred.

One broken soul, to nourish the need,

one creature forgotten, providing fresh leads.

A child of gods, who savors your work,

and one of the demons, who gives it flavor.

Excel and exceed the nature of each,

and extra abilities will they then teach."

I blinked, as we all did, but the light died out in her eyes. "Oh," Alice said, a moment later. "I hope you remembered that, because I don't."

"I've got it," said Jess, tapping her head like it was a common thing--which, for the Hero of Diamond Mind, it had damned well better be.

"Are those all required, or opt-in?" I said. "Because I never really thought about having a husband before. Even if it's one of each..."

"If it's like the metals," said John, "each one provides a bonus. So if you find a guy worth a hundred dudes and he's totally doable," he shrugged. "You get stronger. Probably just something to keep in mind."

"Yeah," said Alice, and she suddenly forced herself to keep walking. "I'm sorry, Colin, the answers come like that sometimes."

"Always in rhyme, or near-rhyme?"

"Usually," said Alice, while both Jess and John immediately said, "Yes."

"They told you what metals to use for armor in a rhyme?"

"Yes," Jess said. "Please don't ask me to repeat it. No offense to the gods, but it's terrible poetry."

"It's better in the language of the gods," said Alice. "Each line is the same number of characters, and the dichotomies are clearer. Honestly, the translation is a tricky thing. I think part of what makes me freeze in place is the gods trying to figure out how to translate poetry into a language where it doesn't make sense."

"To be clear," I rephrased what she just said, "you think that one of your important key abilities as the Hero of Purifying Light is translating godly poetry so that we mere mortals can understand it."

Alice just reached over and smacked my shoulder.