— Keira —

By some unspoken agreement both Keir and Antheia were extra quiet as they continued their individual studies, something made easier by their undead natures, to allow Iida to continue sleeping. The only time either had taken something close to a break was when Antheia had paused to create and apply an enchanted slip of paper to the open book the exhausted gnome was resting her head on.

The little air elemental didn’t seem to care about such things but as a roughly harpy shaped distortion in the air it didn’t create much noise as it occasionally flitted around the room excitedly.

Keir was reading about a sauropod-like armored creature that moved in herds across the Great Beast Steppes. More pertinently she was reading about the young of the species that stayed in the forest from the time they were rabbit sized hatchlings until they were at least as large as mammoths.

She was just moving on from the section detailing their habits to advice on combating them that the steady sleep noises coming from the gnome shifted.

Moments later Iida sat up with a groan that was cut off by a start when she noticed she was not alone. It was likely a testament of her personality and class that in that instant of startled surprise her first instinct was not scanning them weapons or moving away to assess the situation. Instead she immediately checked the state of the book she’d been sleeping on.

By the time she’d ensured she hadn’t damaged the book, she had clearly remembered what was going on as she glanced at Keir before turning to face Antheia and said “I do apologize for falling asleep here.” She smiled up at the tall serpentine woman beside her and continued more cheerfully “Alright, nap over, and I’m ready to dive back in. What’d you find while I was sleeping?”

Before they could get completely absorbed in their research Keir interjected saying “Before you get into that can I ask the pair of you something?” The pair turned to face with excitement sparkling in their eyes. Clearly they were hoping for an intriguing problem to solve like the issue with the strange language within her soulscape. Keir felt a little bad for getting their hopes up, but she continued “Do you have any advice for navigating this city? I need to find a specific shop and I was barely able to find this temple last night.”

Excitedly the little elemental flew out in front of her face and waved its arms. Seeing that Iida grinned and said “Well you could learn dwarven runes, hire a guide, wander around until you stumble on your destination, or you can allow this little elemental to guide you.”

Keir held out a hand for the elemental to perch on and said “Could it guide me anywhere or just in the city?”

Iida glanced over to Antheia who seamlessly took over and said “Well, in broad strokes an air elemental makes a decent guide due to their connection to the wind. Within the city you are unlikely to find any guide more accurate. The city can only survive due to an extremely complex and robust series of enchantments that carry fresh air to every street and tunnel, every room of every building. Aside from areas shielded against such things, air elementals like this one can tap into that air flow to find specific locations or people.”

Keir nodded as much to herself as the pair of scholars and said “Thanks for that, I’ll get out of your way. Oh wait before I go, how are you doing hunger wise Antheia?”

Antheia clearly gave the matter some thought before answering “I’m definitely getting uncomfortable but you won’t find anything to sate your hunger or mine in this city.”

Keir sighed and said “Yeah, I suspected as much. If possible I’m hoping to set off back towards Still-Leaf as early as tonight. I’ll keep you informed, but for now think about if you want to come along.”

Antheia confirmed she would consider it and Keir stepped out into the narrow hallway as she looked at the little elemental and said “Can you guide me to the home of Aleka and Emrik?”

The little elemental standing on the palm of Keir’s hand tilted its head back and forth a few times before nodding. Standing a bit taller with pride obvious in its posture it proceeded to indicate down the hall before returning to her customary position on Keir’s shoulder.

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After traveling along what she presumed was the same path between the reading room and the main library three times before, Keir would have liked to say she barely needed a guide. Unfortunately the few landmarks she recognized didn’t coincide with the turns she remembered taking before. The narrow stone corridors and staircases were all but indistinguishable and the vast majority of the doors were either unmarked or out of sequence.

Fortunately none of that seemed to matter to the air elemental who never hesitated at any intersection. It guided her confidently and soon she was exiting the temple.

It was when they reached the street that some confusion arose. The elemental directed her to go in almost exactly the opposite direction from the nearest pillar, and the transit hub in its base.

After the elemental gestured down the road a few times and even flew a few feet in that direction before returning and Keir still hadn’t moved to follow its instructions, the elemental came to halt standing in mid air and tilted its head in obvious confusion.

Keir shared that confusion especially when she described her destination in more detail and the little elemental continued to insist she go in the wrong direction. She’d thought that the elemental would lead her in the most direct path to her destination.

She felt a bit foolish when she realized that for an air elemental the shortest distance would be as close to a straight line as possible rather than by transit cart.

The elemental’s innate empathic sense likely made the subterfuge pointless but Keir did her best to keep her annoyance with herself out of her voice as she said “This may seem a bit odd but can you guide me to the transit hub in that pillar first.”

Even without words the elemental made its confusion as to why Keir wanted to go further from her destination rather than take the most direct route. After making its point in so far as it could the elemental gestured in direction closer to where Keir remembered coming from.

Much like Marsaili the elemental often took odd turns that seemed like detours but somehow shaved off considerable travel time and in less than half the time it would have taken Keir, they arrived at their destination.

The elemental was clearly curious as it flitted around the mechanism to retrieve a transit cart. It was even more curious and confused when Keir got into the cart but when it hurtled down the tunnel the elemental sat on the front basking in the wind like a cat in a patch of sunlight.

Rather than watch the tunnel pass by, Keir found herself watching the happy elemental. It was adorable and infinitely better than stewing in her worries.

Unfortunately once they exited the closest transit hub to the industrial area containing her destination she didn’t really have anything to distract herself.

Navigating was as simple as following the elemental’s directions and most of the people on the street were too busy to notice anything more about her than the fact she was a visibly armed stranger. The rest saw her expression and were more than happy to look the other way and go about their own business.

Keir was hungry and tired and not only knew that the other undead who’d come with her were in worse condition she knew there would be no relief until they got back to the village at the earliest.

That need to do her best to expedite her remaining task warred with the discomfort of seeking out the artisans she hoped to recruit many hours before the time they’d agreed to meet and give her an answer.

As her mind chased itself in circles Keir was especially glad for the elemental's guidance, as well before she’d expected they were entering the narrow alley containing the entrance to Aleka’s smithy.

When Keir drew close enough to see into the smithy itself she was surprised to see the forge was unlit and the quenching troughs were covered.

Several possible explanations came immediately to mind but rather than try to parse out the most likely reason she walked over to the door and knocked.

For what felt like much longer than it probably was, Keir waited for a response while all the reasons they weren’t answering danced through her mind. She was just debating how inappropriate it would be to ask the elemental resting on her shoulder to guide her to one or both of the craftsmen when the door opened.

Even as the door started swinging open Keir heard the voice of Aleka saying “If yer ‘ere ta…” She cut off whatever she was in the process of saying when she saw Keir and switched from common trade speak to orcish and said “Huh, Keir, It’s not time for us to meet up is it?”

Once again Keir was glad her blood was stationary in her veins and couldn’t cause her to blush with embarrassment as she replied in orcish “No, it's not. I apologize for arriving well in advance of the time we agreed. I know you were supposed to have considerably more time to think over your decision but some issues have come up and I’m going to need to leave to travel towards the village tonight if possible. Have you come to a decision by any chance?”

Aleka was clearly surprised and paused for several seconds before fully opening the door and stepping to the side to let Keir through as she said “Come on in. I’ll go and get Emrik and we can over the job and if everything's in order we can go over to the local temple of Stherin to get a proper contract drawn up.”