The boat marched down into the water on its many hands, and walked, for a moment, with its fingers in the silt and muck. The boat didn’t quite move of its own volition, instead working on the ‘collective will’ of the party, which was apparently somewhat novel, though still within the bounds of plausible behavior for entads. It made sense that an entad taken from ‘Verity’s’ dungeon might be different from the normal ones, but it was still an interesting thing to have confirmed, and it created the possibility that they might find something that was wholly unique among entads, beyond the normal bounds. Even if Verity could cause the creation of an entad that was at the boundaries rather than crossing them, that would still be quite the win.
She rather liked the idea, and had been happy to talk about it, which had put her into a good mood on the trip to the lake.
“The weather is nice,” said Pinion with a glance at Isra. There were a few spotty clouds in the otherwise blue sky, occasionally crossing the sun, and a mild breeze was bringing them the scents of late summer. It was just the three of them, as Alfric was driving the house, Mizuki was at school, and Hannah was away.
“I’m not sure that I agree with the position that there’s non-nice weather,” said Isra. “I like storms, personally. I like drizzle, cloudy days, days where the sun is beating down hard and your clothes get stuck to you with sweat. There’s something to love in every day, even when the wind is a cold whip across the water.”
“That’s a very positive way to look at it,” said Pinion.
“When I was little I caused a drought,” said Isra. “I was … eight or so, I think. I had wanted sunny days, so I kept the clouds away, until everywhere I went I felt like the trees and grasses were screaming for water. It was horrible, and when I realized, I brought the rains back for so long there was nearly a flood.”
“I don’t think you ever told me that,” said Verity. She’d taken her shoes off and was wiggling her toes as the boat paddled out. None of them knew how to do the rigging, so they weren’t using the sail, just trying their best to direct the boat with their minds as much as possible. With only two fifths of the party, it was somewhat slow going.
“It’s embarrassing,” said Isra with a shrug. “I was so worried that my father was going to yell at me, or that we were going to get in trouble with the police.”
“I don’t think you could get in trouble for that,” said Verity.
“You could,” said Pinion. “Interfering with crops is actually a pretty serious crime, and I think it would fall under that.”
“No one really worries about food these days, do they?” asked Verity.
“The government does,” said Pinion. “It hasn’t been a major concern for at least a century, not when it comes to the staples, but it’s something that the government keeps an eye on, yes. It’s just low visibility. I had friends at school who were going to go into government work. Some of them on dungeons, in fact!”
“That sounds incredibly dull,” said Verity. “Also, isn’t the League in charge of most of it?”
“The League is effectively an arm of the government of Inter,” said Pinion. “But they need scholars to advise them, where possible. I think they prefer seasoned dungeoneers who also happen to be scholars, but those are in short supply.”
The hands of the boat were moving them along, and Verity leaned over the side to watch them in action. They were, as Mizuki had pointed out, the hands of women, very feminine, and that did seem like it was possibly Verity’s influence shining through. The movements of the arms were calm and slow, and the resulting motion of the boat was also slow, nice and sedate.
“I think you’d look good with long hair,” Verity said to Pinion, unprompted.
“Would I?” asked Pinion. “I think you’re actually the second person to tell me that.”
“Who was the first?” asked Verity.
“A girlfriend,” said Pinion with a shrug. “We were more friends than partners though. Very little, ah, kissing.”
“Why’d you say it like that?” asked Isra. “‘Ah, kissing’?”
“Kissing and other things,” said Pinion. “There were a few times, but it was always … I don’t know. Unsatisfying for both of us. Eventually we stopped trying, and we were still partnered, but as I said, it was like having a friend more than having a partner. She liked my hair long though, was the point.”
“I like long hair generally,” said Verity. “I like hair you could make a nest in. Hair you could drown in. Though it is quite a bit of work.”
“I think it makes me look weird,” said Pinion. “Weirder, I guess.”
“I wouldn’t say you look weird,” said Isra. “Odd, maybe.”
“There’s a difference?” asked Pinion.
“Typical Qymmos question,” said Isra with a cluck of her tongue.
“Weird has negative connotations, odd has positive,” said Verity. She reached out and dipped her hand into the water. The boat was moving faster now, though with no particular destination in mind.
“Is that a fact?” asked Pinion.
“It’s my opinion,” said Verity with a shrug.
“I think it’s neutral,” said Isra. “If I’d meant it as a compliment I would have said that you looked eerie.”
“Ouch,” said Pinion.
“Ouch?” asked Isra.
Pinion waved a hand. “I’m feeling self-conscious now, but that you didn’t mean it as a compliment is … well, the reason I say ‘ouch’.”
“Is that how it works?” asked Isra. “If I try to stay neutral, that ends up as an insult?” She was using her typical blunt and somehow charming curiosity on him.
“Hmm,” said Pinion. He tapped his chin. “It depends on why you were trying to stay neutral.”
“If you went up to a girl and said ‘that’s an odd-looking dress, and I don’t mean that as a compliment,' there would be blood,” said Verity. “It would be an unbelievably catty thing to say.”
“Mizuki told me that paying a compliment to someone was a way of flirting,” said Isra with a frown. “I was trying not to flirt.”
Pinion gave her a raised eyebrow at that, and the obvious ‘but why’ question seemed like it died on his lips.
“Let’s have lunch, shall we?” asked Verity. “I’m eager to see what our sandwich master has made.”
In truth, the jokes about Verity’s inability to cook were starting to wear a little thin, and Verity was taking seriously the notion that she should learn how to cook to at least a level of competence where people couldn’t make fun of her. That she wasn’t trusted to make a sandwich was going too far, in her opinion, and while Isra had been able to point out specific points where Verity’s sandwich-making was lacking, it did feel like a bit that had gone on too long. Verity had picked up all kinds of skills through the course of her life, the womanly arts as Society was fond of calling them, but cooking wasn’t one of them. Unfortunately, Verity’s approach to learning things was to sit down and practice until she had it perfect, which you couldn’t really do with food, not unless you were willing to waste a lot, or you had lots of hungry people to feed.
The sandwiches that Isra had put together had been made with cold chicken that had been cooked the night before and stored with a rich and pungent spice blend that had turned everything a muddy orange. The leaves were from a plant that Isra didn’t know the name of, but they were minty and mild, fresh in comparison to the spices, and there was also some kind of unidentifiable sauce, something creamy. The bread was Hannah’s, though Hannah had been baking less bread since deciding that she was going to transition to being a wandering minister.
“This is amazing,” said Pinion. “I think I’ve underestimated sandwiches. Is it a Tarbin classic?”
“I don’t know,” said Isra. “The spices are. It’s a blend that I had tried in a dish in Plenarch. There’s much more of this chicken.”
“You spend a lot of time away from the house,” said Pinion. “I’d be envious, except that I’ve been enjoying our leisurely stroll through the countryside.”
“We’re going the wrong direction for Tarbin food,” said Verity. “This sandwich is delicious though.”
“I’ve been seeking them out,” said Isra.
“Them?” asked Pinion.
“People from Tarbin,” said Isra. “I’ve been testing the waters a bit.”
“Ah,” said Pinion. “And, er, how does that work?”
“I go looking for people who look like me,” said Isra with a shrug. “It’s been a very idle pursuit. Nothing too serious.”
“I could mistake you for Chelxic,” said Pinion, squinting at her a bit. “I didn’t mean that as a compliment.”
Isra gave him a smile. “You see, I think that’s flirting.”
“You’re very much out of my league, I’m well aware of that,” said Pinion with a little laugh. “Druid dungeoneer extraordinaire, looking like you do?”
“Why do you think it’s flirting?” asked Verity.
“Jokes are flirting,” said Isra. She gave a little ‘so it is said’ nod like Hannah did sometimes.
“Let me guess,” said Verity. “This is from a conversation with Mizuki?”
“A bit,” said Isra. “With Hannah too though. Not just Mizuki.”
Pinion was holding up two fingers. “Jokes are flirting, compliments are flirting, what else?”
“Touching is flirting,” said Isra. “Paying attention to someone, spending time with them, noting aspects of their appearance, finding their jokes funny … there were others.”
“So everything, basically,” said Verity.
“Yes,” nodded Isra. “But those are just signs. We have wine, right?”
“I took care of the wine, yes,” said Verity. She pulled a bottle out of a bag, one of two, which felt like it would be plenty, then got out the cups. They were, unfortunately, not glass stemware, but that didn’t feel quite appropriate to the boat. She poured a cup for Isra, then one for herself, and the final to Pinion when he gave her a hopeful look.
“I was talking with Mizuki about how to flirt with people and how not to flirt with people,” said Isra. “For me, flirting had always been sort of a … mood more than anything else. It was a character that I would play. But I ran into some trouble with a man who thought that I was flirting when I wasn’t, or thought that I would respond well to his flirting, or something.”
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
“Were you okay?” asked Verity.
“Fine,” said Isra. “It was annoying, nothing more. To be honest, if I hadn’t slept with Xy, I might have been interested, but … I don’t know. I feel a bit different about flirting now.”
“Ah, and that’s why you stopped,” said Pinion.
“It is,” Isra nodded. “But as I said, it was more of a mode for me, but sometimes I would end up flirting without meaning to. Paying a compliment to someone and having them think you’re flirting can cause problems, I think.”
“I think I don’t know how to flirt,” said Verity. “Flirting mode … maybe I should try that.”
“You’re too self-serious, that’s a large part of the problem,” said Pinion. “You prefer dry humor, which doesn’t come across like flirting.”
“Isra, you’d know, am I bad at flirting?” asked Verity. “You can be honest.”
“It’s hard to tell when you’re interested,” said Isra after a moment. “I do think you default to business talk. It’s what Alfric does too. He’s also bad at flirting.”
“It’s an interesting question, whether flirting always has to be fun,” said Pinion. He’d finished his sandwich and sat back with his cup of wine in hand. “I’m very tempted to say ‘no, it doesn’t’, but then again, I’m a contrarian.”
“Not every question is a Qymmic question,” said Isra.
“Well,” said Pinion. “The contrarian in me wants to debate that, but you’re right, of course.”
“Am I?” asked Isra.
“I think the sun and wine is getting to me,” said Pinion, “Because for once I’m not up for a Qymmic argument. You know, I think the best thing about Qymmos is the arguments? And that you can have them with people who aren’t experts?”
“I don’t like arguments,” said Isra.
“You do, a bit,” said Verity. “I think you just don’t like arguments where you feel like you’re missing a piece of the puzzle, and because of your upbringing, that happens to you a lot.”
“Mmm,” said Isra. “Possible.”
“It’s nice and warm,” said Pinion, looking up at the sky. The clouds had parted, and the sun was beating down. The boat had slowed its paddling, and was drifting across the lake. “There’s something about wine on a day like today that settles well in the stomach.”
“Do we have dessert?” asked Verity, feeling hopeful that the answer was yes.
“There’s seaweed,” said Isra.
Verity stared at her for a moment. “You’re joking.”
“No,” said Isra, shaking her head. “It’s one of the things this particular lake is known for. They call it sugarweed, it’s apparently very sweet, and possibly a dungeon escape, because it can’t be found elsewhere. Hannah asked me to gather some, while we were out, but you can eat it raw.”
“Does it … taste good?” asked Verity.
“I’ve never had any,” said Isra. “I’ve only heard about it.” She leaned over and looked down at the lake. “It’s down there somewhere.”
“And how are we going to get it?” asked Verity.
“Swim?” asked Isra.
Verity looked down at her dress and frowned. “I’d have brought different clothes if I thought there was a chance for swimming.”
“You’ll dry quickly in the sun,” said Isra. “Or you could go without clothes. That’s what I was going to do. We’ll see if there’s a place where we can just reach down though.” She turned to Pinion. “Do you know how to swim?”
“I do,” said Pinion. “I hadn’t thought that the day would turn in the direction of skinny-dipping though.”
“I used to do most of my bathing in a nearby river, so long as the weather was nice,” said Isra. She looked at Verity. “Is this weird?”
“A bit,” said Verity. “Nudity is … I mean, if you wanted to make sure that you weren’t flirting, then I think being naked in front of someone is … not something that my mother would approve of.”
“But we don’t care about what your mother thinks, do we?” asked Isra.
“No,” said Verity, feeling a bit of hesitation. If it were just the two of them, it would be so much easier to be cool and collected about it, or to treat it as mere flirtation, a possible sign that Isra wanted to rekindle things. With Pinion there, it felt different, threatening somehow.
“Is it fine with you?” asked Isra, turning to Pinion.
“If you’d like to preserve your modesty, I can be the one to dive down,” said Pinion. “Though I’m a mediocre swimmer.” He looked down at his pants. “These would be fine to dip in the lake, but I don’t have all that many sets of clothing, so I’d need to do laundry when we got home.”
“I don’t think that’s necessary,” said Isra. She was wearing a dress with thick straps, which she put her thumbs under, and before anyone could say another word, she had slipped it off. She was wearing a shift underneath, and this she slipped out of as well. She folded it and set it aside, then leapt from the side of the boat.
“Well,” said Verity. She felt like she should have looked away, but she hadn’t looked away. There was, in the abstract, nothing inherently sexual about nudity, but it didn’t feel that way when it was her former girlfriend. She looked over at Pinion, who also hadn’t looked away.
“Hmm,” said Pinion. He looked at Verity. “We should join her, shouldn’t we?”
Isra came up for breath, handed wet clumps of seaweed to Verity, then descended down into the lake again, kicking her feet hard.
“It doesn't seem like a job for more than one person,” said Verity.
“Yes, but,” said Pinion. “You’ve said that she sometimes feels odd about things, like she’s weird, and it would help her to feel like she’s not weird, that’s all I meant. It’s a normal thing, to go for a dip, to spare your clothes from getting wet. Normal enough, I mean, though I can’t say I’ve ever done it in mixed company.” He stood without waiting for a response and began taking off his clothes, first his vest, then his shirt, and finally, his pants. Isra had made two more trips in the time that this happened, and then Pinion splashed down next to her.
Verity followed soon after, mostly so as not to be the odd one out. She was thankful that the dress she’d worn was easy to take off, not one with laces or many buttons, and then she was standing in the summer air, which suddenly seemed much colder. She looked around, which was something she really should have done before taking her clothes off, then leapt into the lake with the others.
The water was shockingly cold, seeming to sap the strength from her, but she kicked her legs and slowly adjusted to the chill, which wasn’t quite so bad once she’d had a chance to adapt. She became aware of something brushing against her leg and nearly yelped, but when she looked down, it was only some of the seaweed that they were meant to be gathering.
Verity spun up a song almost without thinking, one that played mostly in her head, which was more difficult to do and not nearly as strong. She kept herself warm, or at least not feeling the cold, then worked in a somewhat novel bit of breath-holding magic. It wouldn’t actually give her more air to breathe, but it would make it easier to suppress the part of her that would scream for the power to move.
Gathering the seaweed was tougher than Verity had thought, and she immediately wished that she had goggles, gloves, and a knife. It was harder to tear the seaweed stalk than she’d expected, the surface of the plant rough and slimy in the water in a way that it wasn’t as much when she’d been pulling it up. She got it apart by twisting sharply just as she was starting to run out of air, and she took in a deep gasp of air as soon as she had breached the surface. Her lungs were burning, and she clung to one of the outstretched arms of the boat for a moment to collect herself before lifting herself up and throwing the seaweed onto the pile they were slowly collecting.
Verity felt that her own contributions were minor, but then she watched Pinion, who had understated how poor of a swimmer he was, and felt a bit of relief. He was quite slender, but had very little fat on him, and while he didn’t have much in the way of muscles, the thing that seemed to be stopping him from swimming was a sheer lack of technique. He was floundering more than swimming, and keeping a close grip to the ship’s arms, grabbing only a few leaves rather than entire stalks like Verity had done.
The seaweed gathering didn’t go on for all that much longer, since they soon had a sizeable pile in the boat, but once they were finished with that, they stayed in the water for a bit, with a fair amount of splashing and fun between the three of them. Isra momentarily floated up onto her back and swam away, with a smoothness and fluidity that put both the others to shame, and Verity swam after, struggling to maintain the proper form that she’d been taught. Dondrian was on the ocean, and beach days were relatively common, especially at the house of someone rich enough to have a private beach, but all Verity’s experience couldn’t even come close to matching Isra’s natural grace. Verity had never been terribly athletic, and hoped that she wasn’t making a fool of herself. Eventually, Isra allowed herself to get caught.
“Hi,” said Isra. She was smiling as she treaded water. Her hair was pulled back, sopping wet. “We should go swimming more often.”
“You should mark some lakes on the map,” said Verity. She was treading water too, and felt like she was using a lot more energy to do so. The boat was some distance away, and as Verity looked at it, she saw Pinion climbing up the arms to haul himself into the boat. He looked funny, clambering up, all limbs.
“It’s not weird, is it?” asked Isra.
“It’s a little weird,” said Verity. “But Pinion was right, we should all be a little weird together.”
“He said that?” asked Isra. She spat a bit of water out, and for some reason Verity found that very fetching.
“Something like it,” said Verity.
“Does he think I’m flirting with him?” asked Isra.
“Are you?” asked Verity. She wasn’t going to last much longer, and still needed to swim back to the boat, but having a private conversation in the water felt so right to her.
“I wasn’t,” said Isra. “I don’t think I’m ‘out of his league’ though. That’s a sporting thing?”
“He thinks you’re pretty,” said Verity. She was pretty, in a specific way, a cat-like prettiness that probably didn’t appeal to everyone.
“Hmm,” said Isra. She was looking at the boat. Pinion gave them a wave. “I could see it.”
“See that you’re pretty?” asked Verity.
Isra looked back at her, brown eyes steady even as they were both bobbing up and down. “I don’t want to make the mistake I made with Xy, the mistake of thinking that it doesn’t matter.” She spat more water. They were both breathing a bit harder from the effort. “That it doesn't matter for me. But I don’t know if I like him like that, if it would be … right.”
Verity tried to shrug, but she had her arms out to the side, keeping her afloat. “He’s a nice boy. I like him. But he’s not going to be with us long.”
“I’m not committed to the idea,” said Isra. She was watching Verity in the way that she did sometimes, intently, as though she could read into every small movement of the eyes and lips.
“I don’t know,” said Verity. “My legs are worn out, I really need to get back to the boat.”
“Race you?” asked Isra with a smile.
“Unfair,” said Verity, shaking her head. She kicked her legs out and started swimming, doing the breaststroke, and felt like she was doing well until Isra sped by her.
Verity was the last up to the boat, and Pinion had already put his pants back on, though his hair was still wet and his pants were slightly damp. Isra was turned away from them, bent over so she could wring her hair out, and Verity tried not to stare. Verity had been in changing rooms before, especially for those aforementioned beach days, but this didn’t feel quite like that, and it made her feel like perhaps it was indecent. It hadn’t felt like that when they were in the water.
“We’ll dry off, then go back?” asked Verity. Her teeth were chattering slightly. She’d adjusted to the water once in it, but having gotten back out, she was once again chilled to the bone. Isra threw her a towel, then grabbed one of her own. Verity’s eyes went briefly to Isra’s tan lines.
“We had towels?” asked Pinion.
“Of course,” said Isra. “It was always the plan to go for a dip.”
“I could have worn a swimsuit then,” said Verity. “Though I don’t think I have one in the house. It wasn’t a priority when I left Dondrian.”
“We did fine without swimsuits, didn’t we?” asked Isra. She was slipping back into her shift.
“Mizuki will think that you were flirting,” said Verity. “Because if she had done it, it would have been flirting.”
“She’s gotten changed in front of me,” said Isra. “I doubt that was flirting.”
“This is why I think she’s a bad person to get romantic advice from,” said Verity with a laugh. “Especially with her current troubles.”
Pinion was drying his hair, and when he finally finished, he put his shirt back on, buttoning it carefully. “Alright,” he said, looking at the pile. “This is good to eat raw?”
“Only one way to find out,” said Isra. She reached down and tore one of the seaweed leaves, or whatever it was you were supposed to call them, and tasted it with care. “Mmm,” she said. “Interesting.”
Verity took her own piece, and slipped it into her mouth, holding it on her tongue for a moment. It was almost painfully sweet and slightly sour, with a grassy flavor that the sweetness nearly overpowered.
“It’s good,” said Pinion as he chewed on his piece. “I think I need some time to acquire the taste, but if this were mixed into something, dried out and ground down … used as a spice, maybe?”
“Mizuki uses seaweed in her cooking all the time,” said Verity. “Different kinds. She might like this, if she were cooking more often.”
“We’ll go catch up to the house,” said Isra, and even as she said it, the boat’s arms began to move once more, swishing through the water and bringing them to shore.
It was a longer trip than Verity had thought it would be, but one that was done mostly in silence. Verity drifted off to sleep under the hot sun as she completed drying off, but her first thought on waking was that she was going to have to take a proper shower as quickly as possible to get the lake water off her: there was nothing that beat the purity of a waterstone.
Isra and Pinion were talking about Tarbin, and Verity caught only a bit of it. It seemed to be mostly things that Verity already knew, things about Isra’s father, the people there, what Isra had seen around Greater Plenarch of ‘her people’. It was a phrase that Isra had been using more of recently, and while Verity had pledged her support, it wasn’t clear what form that support would or could take.
When they got to the house, which was halfway down the road, they had a brief handoff as they departed the boat. The whole excursion had brought them practically up to dinner, though much of that was travel time. Verity had just enough time to squeak in a shower, and was in the middle of it when she heard, from downstairs, Mizuki’s loud voice.
“You went skinny dipping!?” she asked. “Without me!?”