The pastry woman’s attitude changed completely when we showed her the empty basement and one hundred twenty five collected rat tails. She paid us for every last one of them, fattening both Iagan’s and my coin purses to their near limits. She even threw in a free chocolate cannoli for each of us in gratitude which we stopped to enjoy on one of the stone benches around one of the nearby trees.
“I didn’t say this earlier but that was smart thinking with the towel. With that I don’t think we lost even one of them!” He said with a crunch into the chocolate cannoli shell. I nodded through my bite.
“I used to have a hamster who could unlock his cage and when he’d go missing in my room so I’d have to do the same thing.”
“Well thanks to that we got paid very very well so we can either keep going or we can go shop for last minute things before our stroll.”
I clicked into my notepad and sorted through the notes I’d made looking for the relevant ones that I could do something about while shopping.
To Buy:
Bug Catching Net
Listening Stones (Various)
“I don’t have much that I really need right now.” I murmured, taking another bite into my treat. “Oh, wait a swimsuit would probably be a good thing to wear while swimming in the ocean.”
“I need a harpoon.” Iagan listed ticking them off on his fingers, “Probably some gloves if we’re going to be gathering things and a knife.”
I added them to my list. I had enough that impulse shopping wasn’t going to be too terrible as now I could manage to afford things that I saw that I wanted.
“Those sound easy enough to be able to find.” I said finishing the last of my cannoli and standing up with a stretch. “Maybe a fishing pole or a net too. I’ll bet if we catch some fish we could sell those too.”
We meandered back along the seawall finding the nearest smith’s shop. Iagan passed the Party Leader status back to me and the window popped up again.
[Role Changed to PARTY LEADER:
You have one (1) member in your party. You can now see other Party Member’s Health and Mana bars. Bonus* to Charisma activated while in the -Party Leader- role. *Bonus scales with number of members in your group.]
Grabbing two sets of [Serrated Diving Knives] for both me and Iagan I talked the owner down to five gold for both once Iagan found himself a [Steel Harpoon]. We managed to get all three weapons for an easy 25 gold pieces and left the store soon after.
We window shopped along the seawall the rest of the afternoon, I secured a few more new post cards featuring several of my newer shots from arriving in Seamyst. The seagulls over the bay, the busy streets featuring the horse drawn wagon, the ship in the bottle from Maggie’s desk and the Seamyst city map. I also snagged a few small empty vials that I filled with the orange sand from the beaches outside and a ribbon to tie it all together. Now that I had the last thing I needed to include with my postcard adventures to Balder I could finally send them out.
“Is there any post offices or ways to send mail here in Seamyst?” I asked, bundling the letters and the vial of orange sand together for shipping. The shop keeper of the general store thumbed over to the small box chest near the front that had a small sign with a letter on it and an arrow pointing down. I carefully laid mine on top of the others that made up the small pile waiting to be sent out to their destinations.
It was Saturday now and Balder’s show didn’t broadcast again until Tuesday so it had some time to arrive. It was still a big gamble whether or not he’d read them on the air or even talk about receiving them but maybe he could be persuaded with some souvenirs from my travels. They were out of my hands now and the only thing I could do would be to wait until Tuesday to figure out his reception.
Iagan had procured himself a pile of things up at the front counter: two towels, a pair of sandals, two sets of gloves, his own tube of sunscreen and pair of simply made faded burlap shorts.
“They don’t have swimsuits!” Iagan said throwing his hand up as I approached the counter.
“You can still swim in it.” I shrugged. It was disappointing that they didn’t carry better swimwear but I couldn’t expect a Tiffany’s Secret store out here in a fantasy video game. Which reminded me that I needed to get a pair of things to swim in myself so as Iagan worked on raising his own [Haggle] skill I perused the small section of clothes they had available.
There were a few garments that could fit me but would definitely require a bit of tailoring and hemming so as to not flash everyone with how baggy they were on me. I grabbed two simple dark gray tank tops and two pairs of the same shorts Iagan had grabbed but in the smallest size they had. Extra changes of clothes were never EVER a bad thing.
Got out paying for the clothes under 40 gold, [Haggling] to include some needle and matching bobbin full of thread for adjustments. So I called that a rousing success, as my purse still mostly full from all our questing through the day. We both dismissed our items to our inventory and headed back out onto the seawall.
“What else do we need?” I asked as Iagan plopped himself down onto the waist high wall that overlooked the docks.
Iagan shrugged, shoving his hands into his pockets. “I dunno. You’re the one with the list.”
I clicked through my notes again, the bug catching net and finding more listening stones would just have to wait for now. There was something way more important to take care of first.
“It’s been way more than a few days since I’ve gotten here and I’m in desperate need of a bath.”
“I’m right there with you.” Iagan said, straightening up from his lean on the wall. It took asking a few shop keepers for directions before we found it way at the back edge of the town where we’d entered. Stacked stones formed the arches we entered through into the open building. There was just enough roof to cover the main entryway and the separate hallways that led to the left and right. An old man sat behind a podium desk busily rolling a cigarette that he popped straight into his mouth once he’d finished. He looked up at our arrival and struck a match taking a deep dreg, a cloud of purple smoke snaked from between his teeth.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
“Welcome to Seamyst’s Sit and Soak.” He grinned. “2 gold per person stay as long as you like.”
“Is the water hot?” I asked, happily paying for the both of us.
“All hours of the day no matter the season.” The man said taking the coin without complaint. “Women’s is off to the left, men’s is to the right.”
“See you in a bit.” Iagan said, walking off without me.
“If you finish early just wait for me out here.” I called after him and he gave a wave of acknowledgement not looking back. I took my hallway into an open roofed room filled with stools and benches where other women of varying ages sat chatting with one another as they bathed themselves openly. The tile patterns along the floor depicted a lush underwater reef and a pixelated tile version of a half broken ship. The back half of the room turned into a steaming wading pool complete with a miniature waterfall coming out of the decorative stacked rocks that ringed the edges.
I moved off to the side and trying my best to not feel self conscious changed into the overly baggy tank top and shorts I’d just purchased. I grabbed a spare bucket and summoned all the soaps I’d acquired over my time here in the Tower. I chose the citrus soap sachet I’d bought from Two Fin Inn and set to work washing myself.
After sufficiently scrubbing off all of the stink of adventure I sank into the hot water of the wading pool leaving only my face above the water. I let out a contented sigh as the heat wrapped around me like an all encompassing blanket. Hot water is a luxury I wouldn’t take for granted ever again once I got back out to my home. Sitting up on my elbows one of the elderly women chuckled at me.
“Long day deary?” She asked, her smile sitting in the wrinkles around her eyes.
“It’s been a while since I’ve had a bath so I’m doing my best to savor it.” I admitted.
The woman smile never faded, “I come here every three days and even that feels too long. It does these old bones good to have a long soak after a hard day.”
“Yeah we just stopped into town yesterday and were getting the lay of the land today. Lots of walking.”
“Seamyst is a decent sized town, it grew a lot the last few decades after Roqor took over.”
“Oh?” I asked intrigued, “I thought he was always here?”
“Not always—” The woman remarked as a strange expression flashed across her face and she shook her head. She blinked and looked around the room in bewilderment as though seeing it for the first time. Finally her attention returned to me and the look of confusion faded, her smile returned.
“Long day deary?” She asked.
“Yeah?” I replied slowly, as she nodded and started making her way back to the stairs and handrail. What had just happened?
“It does these old bones good to have a long soak after a hard day, but I’m afraid I can’t stay too long or I might fall asleep in the water.” She chuckled as she got out, repeating her words from just a moment before. “You enjoy it, you look like you’ve earned a bit of rest.”
The rest of the room paid no mind to the repeated exchange and it seemed I was the only one who picked up on it. I’m a video game reviewer not a doctor but that didn’t look like memory loss. My eyes flitted to the small black quest marker on my side HUD.
[::SOLVE TRICK TOWER::]
Plyne’s words echoed through my mind, “With that quest active no one in the Tower will be able to give you the answer you seek.”
My breath caught and I looked back to the woman to find she was no longer in view. I pulled up my wrist HUD and quickly made a note about the encounter along with all my other notes I’d picked up from Plyne when I’d first been given the quest.
-Seamyst bathhouse; old woman: Roqor wasn’t always here? > Strange repeated conversation.
I relabeled this section: Secret of the Tower Notes. Was that what Plyne had meant? It wasn’t that she wouldn’t give me an answer if asked: but more of that something would mess with her memories and erase the conversation from having happened? I sank under the water letting the heat flood my face. There was no sense pursuing it further at the moment, it was just another mystery to add to the pile of growing notes I had on it.
The warmth of the water was hard to leave as the open sky above the pool slowly started painting the view with blushing pinks and periwinkles. Reluctantly I got out and redressed myself in my last dapper crate shirt that could still be considered clean. Hanging my towel around my shoulders I left out and found Iagan dressed and lounging on bench, his gaze focused on something in front of him that I couldn’t see.
He glanced up as I approached, “There you are, I was beginning to think you fell in or something.”
“What, how long was I in there?” I asked still toweling my hair as I checked the time. Barely after six in the evening.
“Like over an hour Mica.”
“And how long have you been here?”
“A little under a half an hour.”
“That’s not my fault you didn’t utilize your time wisely. A girl’s gotta soak.” I huffed, sending my towel away to my inventory.
“I got through a few more of those books from Roqor’s tower so that counts for something. Besides it doesn’t take almost an hour to wash myself.” He grumbled, “Now come on, I’m starving let’s go eat.”
We left the bathhouse and went back to Sharkie’s where I grabbed an order of fish tacos and an order of shrimp tacos. Iagan ordered three sets of crab legs which he tore through in a matter of minutes after their arrival to the table. I ate at a more reasonable pace and enjoyed the view of the large fish tank which was on the far end of the room from us this time.
If only they allowed pictures I could get several more entries filled in for the animals I was missing without having to go into the ocean itself. I glanced into my inventory page on my HUD and felt more secure seeing the underwater breathing potion. At least as long as I had three of them I wouldn’t drown immediately, which staved off the biggest of my fears. So long as I timed my potions properly being in the ocean wouldn’t be as terrifying as the last time it and I had come into contact.
We finished after Iagan stuffed himself on the crab legs and headed back to Two Fin Inn. The sky had grown dark while we ate as stars and constellations I didn’t recognize filled the night. The streets picked up with their same nightly festival style activities on the docks. Upon unlocking the door to our room I found the newly made bed awaited, where a small hand towel lay propped against the pillows in the shape of a nautilus shellfish.
Ker-chunk
After snagging a picture I flopped onto the bed with a contented sigh. “Oh yeah, it was right to let you take the first night on the bed.”
“It doesn’t sleep well.” He warned, taking the thin mattress on the floor.
“It helps when you stay in it the whole night.”
He shot me a look as he tapped into his wrist HUD. “Looks like we can do [::Quarry that Weight::] again early tomorrow for another 15 gold each before we get down to the [::Seabed Stroll::].”
“Or we could sleep in since we’re going to be swimming around for three plus hours.” I covered my yawn as I stretched, taking my shoes off. “More power to you if you want to do it and come back for me, but I’m not waking up early tomorrow.”
“Fine, but I’ll get all the gold.”
“I wasn’t gunna ask for any.” I waved a hand, “If I don’t participate in a quest I can’t ask for a reward now can I?”
He had nothing further to say about that. My eyes started to droop so I quickly excused myself into the small bathroom and got ready for bed. Sinking back into it I closed my eyes and let the sounds of the ocean and the revelry from the docks blend together. For once since arriving here at the Tower I felt clean, refreshed and almost like I was on a vacation.