Hannah hadn’t been intending to stay with Marsh. Her intent had been to use the wardrobe to get halfway to Liberfell, walk the rest of the way, check in, and then do a bit of shopping in the city. She’d called dibs on the dagger, which meant that it was really just the six miles from Traeg’s Knob to Liberfell that she’d have to walk. Marsh was staying at the Dragon’s Arm Hotel, the same place that they’d stayed when they’d all gone to Liberfell as a party, and Hannah went right up to the room where Marsh was convalescing, thinking that it would be a quick visit.
She hadn’t been taken by surprise though. She’d cleaned up and put on her best underwear. She hadn’t been expecting anything but a visit, but she’d wanted to be prepared for the possibility of more.
He’d called for her to come in, and he’d been laying there in a very large bed with his shirt off. One thing had led to another, and then Hannah didn’t really feel like getting dressed again.
“I should get stabbed more often,” said Marsh.
“We were headed in this direction anyhow,” said Hannah. She ran her fingers through the hair on his chest. “Sooner than I’d planned, but there is a certain charm to the wounded.”
“I was mortally wounded, thank you very much,” said Marsh. His hand was on her bare back, tracing up and down her spine.
“It’s not a mortal wound if you don’t die,” said Hannah. The hotel had nice sheets, which felt good against her skin, and the temperature of the room was nice and cool.
“Well you can take that up with Mardin then,” said Marsh. “He says that any wound that would have killed you without a cleric to heal it is a mortal wound. A wound that threatens mortality.”
“Well, ay, I see the sense in that,” said Hannah. “And I’d wager you’re right, it was the kind of stabbing that would have killed you if we’d not been there. Mardin more than me, I’m sorry to say.”
“You didn’t save my life?” asked Marsh, moving just a bit to look at her. “Well then perhaps I was a bit too hasty in bedding you.”
She slapped him on his chest.
“Ah!” he said with a sharp hiss. “My wound.”
“Could you really feel that?” asked Hannah, sitting up to look at him. He had a grin. “Or were you just fakin’ it, hopin’ that you’d get more of my special attentions?”
“Just fakin’ it,” said Marsh with a smile. He was teasing her accent, just a bit.
“And what comes next for you?” asked Hannah. “Movin’ on, I s’pose?”
“Is that why this happened?” asked Marsh. He was staring into her eyes. “You were worried I would skip town before you’d experienced everything I had to offer?”
“I have to say that my curiosity was rewarded,” Hannah replied.
For a moment there was fire in Marsh’s eyes, and it seemed like he was contemplating going a second round with her, which she’d not have minded at all. She hadn’t had any relations since leaving the seminary, and while this all felt a bit more casual than she was used to, it had also felt quite good, especially with a large, muscular man like Marsh. Whatever was going through his mind, he decided that talking was more his speed, perhaps because he needed a bit more time.
“The party is broken,” said Marsh. “Shattered. Josen is still out, though we’ve told him that he’s free to come back in. Lola’s entads were ‘recalled’ this morning. Lola’s father came by to take everything that belonged to the Underhills, leaving aside all the things that we acquired in the dungeons. That was a real blow to morale, I can tell you that, but we’d done a number of dungeons, and there’s plenty of gear for us, just of a lower quality. We’re down a member, or possibly two if Josen doesn’t pull his head out of his ass. But it’s not clear whether we’re going to be doing dungeons at all, going forward.”
“Do you have enough to live off the entads?” asked Hannah.
“If we’re splitting four ways rather than five, we’re probably fine,” said Marsh. “Lola is the one that left the party, and we have a party contract set up that cuts her out.” Hannah wondered whether Alfric had considered having the girls sign such a contract, and decided that he had wisely opted not to bring such a thing up. “It depends on whether or not she fights it though, but I got the sense from her father that they wouldn’t. If they fought it, it certainly wouldn’t be about the money, it would just be spite.”
“How far does the apple fall from the tree?” asked Hannah.
“Not sure,” said Marsh. “You’ll have to talk to Alfric about it.” He sighed. “Anyway, if we get everything in the hoard, then we have enough to live pretty modest lives for a bit, so whether we’d go out into the dungeon again — I don’t know. Three is a party, and if Josen doesn’t come back, I’m at the mercy of Grig and Mardin.” He shook his head. “If they want to ‘retire’ then I guess I will too.”
“And it’s back to Dondrian with you then,” said Hannah. “And you don’t have some marvelous entad that will let you come back to visit?”
“No, I don’t,” said Marsh.
“Shame,” said Hannah. To her faint surprise, and possibly just because warm feelings were flowing through her body, she felt a bit sad.
“So that’s what’s next for me,” said Marsh. “Maybe we’ll try to find someone else, spend the money on chrononaut insurance and do more dungeons, or maybe just live off the entads we’ve got and the money we’ve built up from everything else, making some money on the side doing real work.” He shrugged, gently enough that he didn’t displace Hannah. “An inglorious end to this chapter of my life, but at least I got stabbed in the chest. It’s a good story.”
“Mmm,” said Hannah. “I wish I could have done most of the work to save you, but lungs are a bit asymmetric, mostly to make room for the heart, and it was mostly Mardin.”
“Oh, I’ll change the story,” said Marsh. “It’s a much better story if you saved my life and then bedded me.”
“Feel free to punch it up,” said Hannah. She kissed his chest and smiled. She liked the hair there. “Tell them that when I was usin’ my healin’ touch I was shocked and intrigued by your manliness.”
Marsh laughed, and Hannah moved up his body so they could kiss, which lasted quite some time.
“And for you?” asked Marsh, pulling away after some minutes. Hannah had thought that they were going to have another round, but he again seemed more interested in talking.
“For me what?” asked Hannah.
“Are you … continuing along?” asked Marsh. “Dungeons with the Settlers, and a simple life in Pucklechurch?”
“Ay,” said Hannah. She felt a bit tense. “And why shouldn’t I?”
“What Lola said,” replied Marsh. “I thought — she was trying to get to you, that’s all, I thought that maybe it had worked in some way.”
“‘A promising young cleric brought low by politics’,” said Hannah. “I’m not sure it’s the right diagnosis, but it did strike home. And I have been thinkin’ about it since yesterday. It gives me too little credit for my own downfall, if you can call it that. There were mistakes made in how I dealt with people, mistakes that I might make again, since they come from my nature, but ... she was wrong in how she phrased it, as though it was somethin’ that happened to me, rather than because of me.”
“So it cut deep, but not in the way she’d thought?” asked Marsh.
Hannah nodded. “And I’d already been havin’ some thoughts on my place in the world. I don’t think I’m goin’ to change what I’m doin’ all that much, but … I might change who I am.”
“I like who you are,” said Marsh.
“Nice of you to say,” said Hannah. She had rested her head back on his chest, since the kissing seemed like it wasn’t going to resume. “But in my experience you shouldn’t trust someone you’ve just slept with to give an honest evaluation of your character.”
“Nah,” said Marsh. “It’s before you sleep together that you have to worry, because then they might just be saying nice things to get in your pants.”
“Happen to you a lot?” asked Hannah.
“I can hear the smile in your voice,” said Marsh. “But yes, it has happened to me.”
Hannah sat up to look at him. “You were seduced with false promises?” she asked.
“Not false promises,” said Marsh. “Just … a woman who had no interest in me once we were finished. Which might have been fine, if we both knew that’s all it would be, but it stung because I had no clue.”
Hannah laid back down. “Sorry.”
“It happens,” said Marsh. “It was a while ago, I’m not hurt about it. Not much.”
Hannah kissed his chest. “Well, I should be going.” She didn’t move.
“Should you?” asked Marsh. His hand was on her back, and he gave her a little squeeze. “I was feeling a bit off, thought you might stick around to make sure that I was okay.”
“You know, if you don’t end up leavin’, it would be awful manipulative to keep me here,” said Hannah. “To say ‘oh, poor Marsh, I’ll likely never see him again’, and then you linger around Liberfell, that would be a rude thing.” She wasn’t sure why she was saying that, but it felt like a good sort of teasing.
“Unfortunately, you’re the only worthwhile thing about this region, no offense to Pucklechurch.” He paused. “I suppose if we could find a replacement, there are still dungeons left to do here, and that would mean that I could see you again, if you wanted.”
“Mmm,” said Hannah. “Just as I thought, this is all a ruse. I feel ashamed to have fallen for it.”
“Can I be serious for a moment?” asked Marsh.
“Who wasn’t being serious?” asked Hannah. She sat up to look at his face. “Be serious then, if you must.”
“I know you were just in it for a fling,” said Marsh. “You were pretty clear about that, which I liked. But you’re easy to talk to, and cute as a button, and if you were the only reason to stick around the area, I’d do it. I’ve got money to coast on, there are dungeons to mine out, we’re probably going to be recruiting from around here if we keep up with the dungeon thing …”
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“Okay,” said Hannah. “That’s … somethin’.”
“Right,” said Marsh. He seemed to wilt.
“I like you too,” said Hannah. “Though we don’t know each other half as well as we should yet. There’s somethin’ between us, I’ll give you that. But we’re young, and it’s a time for us to be out and about, doin’ whatever we please with our lives. If you stayed here for me — well, I confess I’d be pleased if you stuck around, if we could keep the tryst goin’, if there were a chance for it to develop into somethin’ more — all that sounds good to me, and I see how your eyes light up at ‘somethin’ more’, but —”
“Alright, I’m staying,” said Marsh.
“Marsh,” said Hannah. She felt a bit of exasperation.
“It’s like you said, I’m young, I have time,” he replied, smiling. “When you’re young, you can do dumb things like sticking around town for a girl. And if we come out the other end with having slept together a few dozen times being the only thing to show for it, that’s fine by me.”
“I’m not agreeing to be partnered,” said Hannah.
“Oh, gods forbid,” said Marsh. He was still smiling. “We’re just continuing on like we were, just two people with an intense attraction to each other, and if you sometimes look out for me, and I sometimes look out for you, and we enjoy talking, hey, nothing wrong with that.”
Hannah frowned, but she couldn’t hold it. “You know, it was clever of you to turn around the ‘young and free’ thing on me.”
“I’m clever,” said Marsh. “It’s my best kept secret.”
“Very well kept,” said Hannah.
Marsh pushed her onto her back, and started kissing her, and if he thought that was going to distract her, he was quite correct.
~~~~
Hannah stayed the night. She was sending Marsh mixed messages, she knew that, acting more like a girlfriend than anything else, and she had said to him outright that perhaps it wouldn’t be so bad if that was what they ended up becoming, which seemed to be setting them up for trouble down the road if she decided that it just wasn’t going to happen.
She liked Marsh though. Sleeping with him once hadn’t ‘gotten it out of her system’ as she’d thought it might, nor had it dampened her enthusiasm for seeing him again. It also hadn’t escaped her notice that without his prior warning, Lola would probably have had a few attempts at the day. Who knew how disastrously that could have ended up, especially if Lola had learned about the ring, or about Mizuki’s ability to fly, or any other things that would have allowed her to keep slipping away. Hannah didn’t feel that she owed Marsh, not in some transactional sense, but she was quite appreciative. His contact hadn’t been without its own risks. And he had been stabbed.
It was, she decided, the Qymmos part of her that was having the most trouble. There was a book she’d read once, the one that had firmly put her off Qymmos, Variations on the Standard Relationship, which attempted to catalog first what a relationship was, then all the axes along which it could be measured, and then the approximate clusters into which the space of all relationships could be divided. It wasn’t blisteringly stupid, but it was stupid, and Hannah had walked away from the book with rather the opposite opinion than the book seemed to be putting forward: classifying relationships was, in fact, pretty worthless.
They ate breakfast together, room service that had been ordered by Marsh. Hannah had followed her ‘quick and cold’ rule, ordering a bowl of overnight oats with berries and yogurt, and Marsh had gone for a full spread that was mostly meat and potatoes, with a few fried eggs thrown in there for color and a bundle of small tomatoes that had been cooked while still on the vine. Marsh, as expected, ate like a bear, but he apparently knew quite a bit about sausage-making and gave a lengthy critique of what the Dragon’s Arm Hotel had to offer. He also kept asking Hannah if she wanted to taste bits and pieces, and she let him feed her, which was nice in its own way.
Hannah was a bit disappointed that there wouldn’t be a dungeon, but it was something that could be discussed later. She wasn’t exactly feeling in fit shape to go back into a dungeon, not without a shower first. There’d been some temptation to have a shower in Marsh’s hotel room, but she had a good idea where that would lead.
Hannah used the dagger to go to the temple, then walked back home, enjoying the morning air.
She was just in time to see the herb dragon jump out of a second floor window.
The herb dragon had wings, but Isra had repeatedly assured them that the wings were vestigial, so it was quite a surprise to see her actually flying. The motion of the flight looked wrong though, and she was clearly straining enormously, but she was flying. Hannah stopped and looked at the dragon, not sure what to do. Isra had a longer trip to Mizuki’s house, and probably wouldn’t leave until Verity was awake, which always took a bit.
There was a moment of silence as they registered that.
Herby was flapping hard, putting in the effort, but it was clear that now that she’d escaped from the house, she had no real clue what she was going to do about it. After a moment, and just as Alfric came out the front door, Herby came in for a landing on a branch of one of the nearby trees. Mizuki was out soon after, though her attention was more on the house than on the tiny dragon.
“Not a big deal,” said Alfric. “We’ll just need to keep track of her until Isra gets here, she’ll be able to exert some control.”
“Ah shoot, it was me,” said Mizuki. “I opened my window last night to let in some cool air, I’ve only ever had to worry about Tabbins, and he goes out on the roof sometimes.” She turned to look at the herb dragon. “Oh, it’s magic!”
“Magic?” asked Alfric.
“The wings,” said Mizuki. “Isra said the wings are vestigial, which means, um, tiny and not really useful? Not enough for it to fly.” She was squinting at the herb dragon up in the tree. “But it’s not flying with just the wings, it’s flying with magic too, I think. It would be helpful if it, you know, actually flew, but I’m pretty sure it’s magic.”
“It’s a she, not an it,” said Alfric.
“Right, right,” said Mizuki. “Not a very girly dragon though, is it?”
“Do you need me here to watch?” asked Hannah. “I was hopin’ for a shower.”
“I think we have this,” said Alfric. “We’re mostly waiting for Isra.”
Hannah trekked into the house, grateful that escaped dungeon creatures weren’t going to be something she needed to deal with. Her head felt like it was swimming, mostly because the last few days had too much in them. Between the dungeon escape, the trip to Dondrian, and everything with Lola, it felt like it had happened as a blur.
She felt better after a shower and a fresh set of clothes though, and by the time she came out of her room, the herb dragon had come down from the tree and been ushered back into the house without Isra’s help being required. Apparently a bundle of mint from the back had been used as a lure.
“Marsh is sticking around,” Hannah said to Alfric. “Hope that’s not awkward.”
“No,” said Alfric. “So long as I don’t have to be friends with him.”
“It might be nice if you were,” said Hannah. “Or at least not frosty. I’d thought I might like to invite him over to dinner sometime.”
Mizuki gave a little laugh. “What happened to him just being a fling?” she asked.
“He’s still just a fling,” said Hannah. “Don’t go gettin’ your laughs in just yet.”
“What, should I wait until the wedding?” asked Mizuki.
Hannah could feel herself blushing. “Well, ay, we had some words, and I might have said it wasn’t the dumbest thing in the world to imagine that we could be more than a fling, which wasn’t what I’d gone into it thinkin’. He’s nice.”
“He is nice,” nodded Alfric. “So long as someone doesn’t offer him more money to partner up, you shouldn’t have any problems.”
That was particularly uncharitable coming from Alfric, but Hannah let it pass without comment. “It’s not clear what the rest of his party will do, but I think he’s going to try to get them to stick around for a bit.”
“They’re sticking around,” said Alfric. “I already had a meeting with Grig this morning. Josen is tentatively back on the team and they’re looking for a fifth.”
“That was fast,” said Hannah, frowning.
“They’re trying to make it work,” said Alfric with a shrug. “But finding a competent fifth is going to take some time, and it’s going to be hard to do without going to a big city, which they might end up doing before coming back here.”
“They asked Alfric,” said Mizuki.
“Grig asked me,” Alfric corrected. “I said no. It’s a difficult thing to fit in with an established party even in the best of circumstances, and I have my own team. Plus the elevation and equipment mismatch would hamper us.”
“You need to stop mentioning the elevation mismatch,” said Mizuki. She was frowning at him, and this was clearly not the first time they’d had this conversation. “It makes you sound disloyal. Just say that you love us and wouldn’t leave us for all the riches in the world.”
“Alfric doesn’t really care about the riches,” said Hannah.
“Fine,” pouted Mizuki. “Just say that you wouldn’t leave us for all the great dungeon experiences in the world.”
“I want to be practical about it,” said Alfric .”And not to give you the wrong impression. I’m loyal, but —”
“Just end it at ‘I’m loyal’,” said Mizuki, smiling at him. She reached over and pushed his chin up to close his mouth. “There, much better without the endless qualifiers and caveats.”
“I’ll defer to your expertise,” said Alfric.
Hannah giggled. “Mizuki’s expertise in not sayin’ too much?” she asked.
“Oh hush,” said Mizuki. “Maybe you should keep your mouth shut too. You know, for symmetry?”
Hannah smiled, then turned to Alfric. “Is there a reason we’re not doin’ a dungeon today?”
“I just thought we could use some rest,” said Alfric. “And you were out last night, as was Verity. We want to be going into the dungeons fresh.”
“I’m up for a dungeon,” said Mizuki. She cocked her head to the side and looked at Alfric. “Are you not?”
“There’s other work to do,” said Alfric. “But I suppose it would make more sense to do another dungeon and then bring in a single larger haul. We’re not that constrained on carrying capacity, and we aren’t in need of restocking.” He looked at Hannah. “You’d be good to go? Because if you need more rest, that should take priority.”
“I communed with Garos,” said Hannah.
“Last night?” asked Mizuki, smiling.
Hannah rolled her eyes, but it was, in fact, true. There was ample divinity to be found in coupling.
“Oh, I got everything from the last dungeon identified,” said Alfric. “This is my second time through the day. Nothing of note happened there, aside from the entad identification.”
“Your second time through? Did we hang out?” asked Mizuki.
“No,” said Alfric. “I went out by myself to take some time alone.”
“Aw,” said Mizuki. “I like hearing about undone Mizuki, she sounds rad.”
“Anything worthwhile with the entads?” asked Hannah.
“Not particularly,” said Alfric. “The hammer flattens biological things without hurting them, the bow that compresses things into arrows can be used on even fairly large things so long as the string is being pulled back — it’s the best of the lot — and the other three bows are relatively weak. One of them will rust things the arrow strikes, another is half as strong as the last enemy it’s killed, and the third gives a defense against arrows. I can go over their properties in more detail, but it would be better to talk about them as a group. Also, I need to go talk to Filera and fulfill my end of the bargain, but I can do that whether we do a dungeon or not.”
“So far it’s two against one,” said Mizuki. “Right Hannah?”
Hannah nodded.
It took some time for Isra and Verity to come in, and once they did, there was some time spent with the herb dragon, looking her over and making sure that she knew not to go outside without the proper supervision. Then there was some discussion of the entads that had been identified, and some further experimentation with the ‘storage’ bow, which only Hannah could use. This eventually resulted in breaking one of the dining room chairs, though Hannah was able to fix it, since it was only a single leg that was shattered.
And then they were talking about the dungeons again, which seemed to be the topic of conversation that they kept drifting back to. There was a bit of risk in doing a dungeon, with this being Alfric’s second time through the day, but it wasn’t a large risk, and everyone seemed game.
There was coming to be something comfortable and easy about the team, a rhythm to their conversations that Hannah quite enjoyed. In the end, they decided that it was a dungeon day, and after a hearty lunch, they set off to see what the next dungeon would hold.
End Book 1