Alfric was overwhelmingly happy to be back in the house. They hadn’t taken quite as much as they might have from the dungeon, but leaving meat on the bone was a classic dungeon issue, and you did eventually end up with a lot of unsellable junk if you took everything. The trick was taking only the best junk, which Alfric thought they probably had.
And coming back meant seeing Mizuki again, who Alfric had really missed. There was something she added to the group dynamic that he hadn’t fully appreciated until she’d been gone.
“I didn’t get into trouble!” said Mizuki. “Why does everyone think that I can’t go five days without getting into trouble? I lived on my own in this house for four years before you people came along.”
“And did you get into trouble?” Alfric asked.
“You should be aware that I know the answer to that question,” said Hannah. “So think carefully before you lie.”
“I got in heaps of trouble,” said Mizuki. “But it was only small trouble, and while you were gone, I didn’t even manage any of that. I was good. Do you want to go first, or should I?”
“We took apart the theater,” said Hannah. “Nothing much of note happened, it’s better summed up with a list of what we took, which won’t take all that long.”
“No, there’s got to be more,” said Mizuki. “You were there five days, and I spent a lot of that time thinking about what must be going on. Did a monster break through the barricades and you had to fight it? Did you suddenly realize you were in mortal peril from the air supply and had to race to safety? Give me the details.”
“Alright,” said Alfric.
He was halfway into his explanation of the difficulty in getting the chandelier down when he realized that her face had fallen, so he switched the story to include all kinds of minutia that he knew she wasn’t interested in, including the specifics of the tools he’d used, the relative weights of every piece involved, and how he’d managed to get leverage.
“You’re making this boring on purpose,” Mizuki finally said, interrupting him.
Alfric smiled. “Only once I could see how painfully bored you were.”
“Mean,” said Mizuki.
“And what were you up to?” asked Hannah. “If it wasn’t trouble.”
“Oh, lots of things,” said Mizuki. “But where are Verity and Isra?”
“Erm,” said Alfric. “It seems like they may have made things official.”
“You mean,” said Mizuki. She made a circle with her thumb and forefinger of one hand, and then moved like she was going to insert a finger of the other hand into the circle, then stopped in confusion. “Wait, what is it for girls?”
“I don’t think there is one,” said Hannah.
“Lame,” said Mizuki. She made a circle with each hand, then bumped them together.
“I don’t think it’s appropriate to speculate on,” said Alfric. “I’d rather allow them their privacy.”
“I can’t believe I missed out on that,” said Mizuki.
“You didn’t miss anything,” said Alfric. “It’s between them, not between us.”
“Very noble of you,” said Mizuki with a nod. “I’ll get the juicy details from them later. Though … I don’t really get it.”
“Get … what?” asked Hannah.
“The whole, you know,” said Mizuki, gesturing vaguely. “I don’t understand what men like about women, so it’s even harder to understand what women like about women. So I’m just kind of baffled. It’s like, some people like olives, right? And there are these two people who are both good friends, and they’re sitting down to eat a bowl of olives, and I wish that I could join in, or at least, I don’t know, have a discussion about olives. Or say ‘yeah, I like olives too’.”
“Er,” said Alfric. “And to be clear, in this case eating a bowl of olives is … having sex with a woman?”
Mizuki blushed. “You know what I mean.”
“I really, really don’t,” said Alfric.
“It’s okay to not ‘get it’,” said Hannah. “But maybe don’t say that in front of them, or make comparisons to eating olives.”
“Right,” said Mizuki. “I’m just … trying to express something. Confusion, I guess, or a feeling that I’m missing out.”
“Again,” said Alfric, “Just to be clear, you think the thing you’re missing out on is … having sex with women?”
Mizuki nodded. “You get it. If all my friends are doing it, why doesn’t it work for me? That kind of thing.”
Alfric shook his head. Sometimes he really didn’t understand Mizuki. This was what she was greeting them with after five days away.
“Anyway,” said Mizuki. “I’ll keep my mouth shut about it around them, and when I get the juicy details from one or the other, I’ll just imagine that they’re talking about a boy.”
“So what were you up to?” asked Alfric.
“Oh, um,” said Mizuki. “You know, on the third day I was thinking that I should have a little report ready to go about what you all missed, but then you were gone so long, and it wasn’t clear what I should be keeping track of, and I didn’t know what you would care about. Oh! That guy, who I helped with the frink fruit? He stopped by with a jar of frink fruit jam. He was very curt with me, but I think maybe that’s just how he is. We didn’t really talk, but it was nice. Alfric, Kell stopped by wondering whether or not he should join Vertex, but I guess too much time passed, because he joined Vertex anyway. And I had them all over for dinner last night, since I had bought a bunch of food thinking that you guys surely couldn’t be gone for long, and I was worried that it would spoil.”
“How did that go?” asked Alfric, raising an eyebrow. It felt odd, that his former team would be all together in the house, eating Mizuki’s food.
“Oh, just fine,” said Mizuki. “It was their first meal as a team, actually, though they’re waiting for you to come back so they can have a safety net.”
“Mmm,” said Alfric. He still wasn’t convinced that the deal was a good one, and perhaps it was explicitly a bad one that he’d made out of some misplaced obligation toward the team.
“Grig is trying to keep it all together, Josen thinks he’s better than everyone, Mardin is treating it like a joke, and Marsh is —” she looked at Hannah. “Missing you.”
“Ay, I miss him too, there’ll be no secret about that once I get showered off,” said Hannah.
“We’re kind of friends now,” said Mizuki. “He came over a lot, looking for you, hoping that you’d be by, and they were waiting on Alfric for dungeons anyway.”
“Wait,” said Alfric. “They’re taking Kell when he’s only first elevation?”
“He’s fifth,” said Mizuki. “He did a bunch of dungeons solo.”
Alfric gave a pronounced frown. “How did he get a key?”
“Dunno,” shrugged Mizuki. “I didn’t ask him. But you said that you could get a key pretty easily, right? They mostly just see whether you have any experience. And he’s got some military training, for whatever that’s worth.”
“You’re really not supposed to go alone,” said Alfric. “A wizard has the best shot, if they can have both offense and defense, or a surplus of offense, but there’s such a high chance that it’ll be lethal when compared to normal dungeoneering. I’ll have to talk to him.”
“He came out fine, and with a few good entads,” said Mizuki. “He’s actually a really skilled wizard with a, uh, better collection of stones? Or something? He’s been talking to me about wizardry a lot, I kind of want to give it a shot.”
“You want to become a wizard?” asked Alfric, raising an eyebrow. “You’re already a good sorc. And you’d have to go to school. Plus you’re a little old to be starting.”
“Ouch,” said Mizuki, clutching her heart.
“I’m showerin’,” said Hannah. “Then I’m puttin’ on somethin’ nice, hopin’ that there’s lunch, then goin’ to track down Marsh.”
“He’s staying in town,” said Mizuki. “At The Angry Plum. We may have had a little too much to drink last night.”
That gave Hannah pause. “You were with Vertex? Or just you and him?”
“No trouble,” said Mizuki, holding up a hand. “Not that you were saying there might be, but — he’s my first legitimate male friend. He talks about you a lot.”
“Wouldn’t I be your first legitimate male friend?” asked Alfric.
“Right, sure, he’s my second legitimate male friend,” said Mizuki.
Hannah went upstairs, and Alfric went into the living room to take a seat. He was tired, mostly because of the hard labor and the drifting sense of time, but also because he’d been cooped up in the dungeon for so long with only the same three people for company. Dungeons were great, but sticking around in a single dungeon was, somewhat surprisingly, very mentally taxing.
Mizuki followed him. “I suppose the shower is going to be in pretty regular use?” asked Mizuki.
“Do I need it?” asked Alfric. “We were showering in the garden stone, I had a pretty good setup there.”
Mizuki leaned over and sniffed him. “Yup, you need a shower.”
“After lunch then?” he asked.
“Time to get started, I guess,” sighed Mizuki. “Go do your business. Or keep me company in the kitchen.” She moved without waiting for him.
“I’ll keep you company,” said Alfric. He yawned. “It doesn’t feel like lunch. Down in the dungeon, we must have drifted off the clock, and for us, it’s more like dinner. I’m going to have to make sure I know my schedule so I don’t miss the witching hour.”
“Can I help with some of the work?” asked Mizuki. “I feel bad for not being in there with the rest of you.”
“There’s a lot of work, actually, and I would love your help,” said Alfric. “The trunk is going to need to be unloaded, and the garden needs to be cleaned up from our stay there, with everything reset and repacked. We ate through a lot of our supplies, which will need to be replaced, and there are lots of improvements to the food supply we thought up while eating through the rice and beans. We’ll be moving in some plants that can just live there, ready for the eating. Lots of shopping, lots of trying to find a buyer for the theater stuff, lots of work left to do.” He yawned again.
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“You’re dead on your feet,” said Mizuki. “My guess is you did twice your share of the work?”
“I’m bigger and stronger,” said Alfric. “And I think if everyone else had their way, we wouldn’t have stayed there so long. I’m praying to Xuphin that we get a good payout from it, because if we don’t, it will mean that I wasted everyone’s time.”
“I’m sure it’ll be fine,” said Mizuki. She was rummaging around in the chiller. “I … might not take my share.”
“Don’t be silly,” said Alfric.
“When we first went dungeoneering, you wanted to use some complicated system to make sure that everything was fair,” said Mizuki. “And me staying home for practically a week while you guys did hard labor in isolation is definitely not fair. Besides, I did nothing in that whole dungeon.”
“Most of the money is going right back into the group,” said Alfric. “Or, we should talk about it once we have the money, or some glimmer of money on the horizon, but it does seem like a lot of it is just going to be group money. And if there’s money to distribute, you are going to get your share, just so there aren’t bad feelings.”
“You’ve changed your mind about loot distribution?” asked Mizuki.
“I guess,” said Alfric. “I do think it made sense when we didn’t know each other, to have some kind of system of bids instead of just a system of dibs, but —”
“Do you think they’re related?” asked Mizuki. She had a pan on, and was grilling thick pieces of pork, mixed in with apricots. Alfric’s stomach was rumbling, as they’d elected not to eat another meal of rice and beans before leaving the dungeon. A second large pan joined the first, this one with asparagus, which was at the end of its season.
“What?” asked Alfric.
“Dibs and bids,” said Mizuki. “It seems like they’re related.”
“I’ve got no idea,” said Alfric. “You know, I never did get to explain the system in full.”
“And you never will,” said Mizuki with a little laugh. She turned to him. “This looks good to you, right? It’ll be about ten minutes, I think.”
“Pork, apricots, and asparagus,” said Alfric. “It looks amazing.”
“It’s not really my system, it’s a common system used by a lot of dungeoneers,” said Alfric. “Even some long-lasting groups. It’s not what I’d been planning to do with Vertex, but it wasn’t that far off either.”
“I like the way we do things now,” said Mizuki.
“I do too,” said Alfric. “Everyone gets what they need, and we don’t worry too much about how it all shakes out. Which is why you shouldn’t give up your share. The dungeon before this one, you did far in excess of your share. It’ll balance, in the end.”
“It’s only spells,” said Mizuki. “And I would be ten times as powerful if I were a wizard too. From what Kell says, the biggest barrier wouldn’t be the stones, which he could lend me, it would be that first hump, getting to be able to build a vessel that can hold some mana.”
She had been piling things up on a plate, which she handed over to Alfric. He took it from her and got some silverware, then dug in, not waiting for the others. He was sure that they would understand, and it was anyone’s guess how long Verity and Isra would spend taking some time to themselves.
“I actually trained to be a wizard, briefly,” said Alfric. “I didn’t have the aptitude for it. They say that if you don’t get your first vessel by the time you’ve been at it for six months, it’ll take you two years.”
“You’re the patient type though, right?” asked Mizuki.
“Mmm,” said Alfric. The pork was incredible after so long in the dungeon. The apricots tasted sweeter, the asparagus fresher, and while he wouldn’t say that it was quite the best meal he’d had in his entire life, it really did come close. At some point the others came in and ate, and the conversation that he’d been having with Mizuki was put on hold for a moment.
“This is literally the best,” said Hannah. “I haven’t had a finer meal.”
“Top ten meals of all time for me,” said Alfric.
“I should have you all get stuck in a dungeon more often, if I get compliments like this,” said Mizuki. She’d eaten a lighter meal than the rest of them. “And I wasn’t even really putting that much effort into this.” She turned to Alfric. “You were saying that you never got much wizardly education?”
“I got education but had no talent for it,” said Alfric. “I put in the time and didn’t get any results. It happens. Anyone can be a wizard, but not everyone can be an effective wizard. If you’re going to have Kell training you, you’ll be at a disadvantage, but I guess it’s possible you learn whether you’re good enough.”
“And basically all you do at the start is learn how to build a cup?” asked Mizuki.
“Mizuki is going to be a wizard?” asked Verity, looking up from her food. “We’re going to have to hear all about what you were up to.”
“I gave the brief version already,” said Mizuki. “Met some people, made some new friends, was bored out of my skull a bit, got some work done because I had very little else to do, cleaned up around the house, did everyone’s laundry, took care of the dragons — oh, Cate stopped by, twice.”
“What did she want?” asked Isra. It was the first time Isra had said anything. She’d been too busy making moon eyes at Verity.
“Our dragons,” said Mizuki. “Also she wanted me to let you know that work will be starting on the excavation soon, because they did find the buried thingy, and it does seem like there’s a monster imprisoned there. Not what we fought, something else.”
“And you didn’t give her the dragons, right?” asked Isra.
“I was tempted,” said Mizuki. “But no, I didn’t want to get yelled at. The second time she came, it was with some gifts. I think she was a little annoyed that you’d said you were going to figure out what a good market price was, then unexpectedly left for almost a week. Anyway, I talked with her for a good hour or so both times, she’s nice.”
“What gifts?” asked Alfric.
“Oh, nothing unusual, just some food, and a lot of herbs for the dragons,” said Mizuki.
“Let me see,” said Isra, standing up.
“Relax,” said Mizuki. “This happened yesterday, and I didn’t feed the dragons herbs because I knew you’d be suspicious. You can go in and check on the dragons, but I checked on them this morning, and they’re fine. I really don’t think Cate is a dragon thief or anything, she’s just really into dragons. You wouldn’t accuse Alfric of being a dungeon thief, or Hannah of being a Garos thief, right?”
“I’ll go check on them now,” said Isra. She glanced at Verity. “They probably want to spread their wings.”
“I think I did a pretty good job,” said Mizuki. “Though they’re ravenous and growing quickly, and I’m not sure that the herbs we’ve planted will be enough for them in the long run. Plus Cate said if we’re going to keep them, we need to think about how we’re going to have fresh herbs available to them in the winter months.”
“And she’s offering to take them off our hands?” asked Alfric. “But at a lower price than a hundred thousand per?”
“Something like that,” said Mizuki. “I told her from the start that I wasn’t the money person, that was either you or Isra. And Cate does seem nice, just really interested in the dragons, and not willing to pay the ridiculous price that Isra was asking.”
“I don’t think it was ridiculous,” said Verity. “It was the opening of a negotiation.”
“Sure,” said Mizuki. “Oh, you have mail, by the way.”
Verity blanched. “Ah.”
“Sorry,” said Mizuki. “I didn’t open any of it, I wasn’t sure whether you’d have wanted me to, or if there might be something urgent that would have required a response from you. There’s also a package, which … might be a lute?”
“A lute?” asked Verity. “They would never send a valuable lute through the mail, not even with a dedicated courier, and they would never leave it here without me being expressly handed it.”
“I did have to sign a thing,” said Mizuki. “It’s sitting up in your room.”
Verity swore and got up from the table, then turned back and grabbed her plate to take it into the kitchen.
“I’m going to shower, then rest,” said Alfric.
“I’m goin’ to see Marsh,” said Hannah. “Don’t expect me back until late.”
“Well what am I going to do then?” asked Mizuki.
“The latrine in the garden will need to be cleaned out,” said Alfric. “I emptied it into the dungeon before we left, but —”
“Nope,” said Mizuki. “I’m not doing it unless I draw the short straw.”
Alfric sighed. “Alright, I’ll arrange the drawing of straws later.”
Mizuki watched him, not seeming sure whether or not that was a joke. “I’ll help you with it, I guess.”
“It’s fine, I’ll just do it,” said Alfric. “Not a huge deal.” And it wasn’t, but it was also something that he didn’t particularly want to do.
“No, I will help,” said Mizuki. “If I’m not going to contribute in the dungeon, and not going to do any of the work of stripping things down, then I can at least make sure that you’re not the one burdened with all the poop work.”
Alfric nodded, feeling relief. “Now I really do need to shower.”
“Listen,” said Mizuki, pointing a finger up. “The shower is running.”
This was true, the shower was running. Alfric hadn’t called dibs on it after Hannah, but he had wanted to get properly clean before taking at least a quick nap. For the rest of the day, he’d resolved to do no work, and the day after would be an undone day, where he was also not going to do any work aside from getting the entads identified. But he had wanted to shower. The house had two bathrooms, but only one bath, which was on the second floor.
There was a brief pause.
“We?” asked Mizuki.
“Well, at least they seem happy,” said Alfric.
“You’re not a fan?” asked Mizuki. “I think they’re cute together.”
“I do think they’re cute together,” said Alfric. “But … well, I don’t like to gossip, and this feels like gossip.”
“Fine, fine,” said Mizuki. “Keep your thoughts to yourself. I’m going to go flying, did you want to come with?”
“The helmet doesn’t allow for two,” said Alfric.
“We can walk to the stone in the backyard,” said Mizuki. “Then I can fly with sorcery, and you can fly with the helmet. I’ve never flown with someone before.”
“Sure,” said Alfric. “And then I’m going to shower, and then I’m going to rest.”
They talked a bit as they walked, but Alfric’s mind was elsewhere. He was thinking about Isra and Verity, and the complications that it might bring. He was happy for them, and tried not to lose sight of that, but he’d have been a bad team leader if he didn’t try to anticipate the issues. The biggest issue was what would happen if they broke it off for whatever reason. They all lived in the same house, though Isra would probably retreat back into the woods, and while people could have amicable breaks, and the dungeoneering was supposed to be a professional endeavor, it was also possible that the break would be a bad one that turned the dungeons into a toxic or awkward affair. Having two people in a party be partnered wasn’t the worst thing in the world, though it took the right two people. Dating within the party was significantly more worrisome though, simply because relationships often didn’t work out. And everyone had heard stories about party members being too familiar with each other over party chat, or on the other hand, airing their dirty laundry.
He worried that his experience with Lola was coloring his thinking. There’d been a time when he really had loved her, or thought that he loved her. They had showered together on a few occasions, before it had all gone sour. The tainted memories washed over him, giving him a piquant, bittersweet feeling. He was tired, that was what it was, and he really did need some sleep before making any big decisions or committing to anything.
They reached the large stone, and Mizuki climbed up on top of it.
“Ready?” she asked as Alfric put on the helmet he’d been carrying.
“Ready,” he replied, lifting a few feet up into the air. He’d been using the helmet in the dungeon, mostly for getting everything that was high up, but outside, it gave far more in the way of freedom. He reveled in the wind on his face and the freshness of the air, appreciating it like a deep breath after being underwater, or a meal of pork and asparagus after little but rice and beans.
Mizuki crouched down low and then launched herself into the sky, and Alfric shot up after her.
He was slower than her, which he found somewhat surprising, since the helmet was quite fast by the standards of running speed. She flew toward the house at a fast clip, then glanced behind her to see him falling behind and slowed to let him catch up.
“I should have been born a bird!” she called over the winds rushing around them.
He chased after her, smiling, until he was flying beside her with his arms outstretched. They held in that position for a moment, fingertips almost touching, until Mizuki pushed ahead with her superior speed and flung herself up into the air.
“Catch me!” she shouted out, the words difficult to hear and almost lost in the whipping wind.
For a moment Alfric didn’t realize what she meant, and only watched her falling, but the words registered and then he was off into a dive, going after her as she began to plummet to the ground. She was moving fast, faster than the helmet would allow, and he positioned his body like a falcon as it goes after prey, streamlined. He saw her expression just before he caught her, wild and free, with a mischievous grin, and then he wrapped his arms around her, one across her back, the other around her waist, pulling her close and then using the helmet to slow them down before they hit the ground. He turned them around so that he would take the impact and he could support her with his entire body.
As it turned out, they had quite a bit more leeway than he’d thought, and they ended up drifting to the ground with her on top of him.
“Wow,” said Mizuki. “Nice catch.” Alfric’s back touched the ground, and she climbed up off of him, brushing herself off.
“That was dangerous,” said Alfric. “Were you — if I hadn’t caught you —”
“You saw me go up before I stopped flying, right?” asked Mizuki. She frowned at him. “I’ve done this literally hundreds of times, I know my limits, and I’ve hardly ever gotten seriously hurt. I had a good enough hold on the spell to stop myself before I hit the ground, by a wide margin.” She softened slightly. “I just thought it would be fun. And it was.”
“You scared me,” said Alfric. He let out a breath. “In a good way, I guess. It was exhilarating.”
“Then we can do it again tomorrow,” said Mizuki. “But for now, I’m going to take that helmet from you and go do some flying on my own. I need to get all the stuff for dinner tonight, and I need to make it a good one, lest anyone think that I’ve lost my edge.”