noct
patreon
310. A Mystery
🕑 Added 2025-02-20 15:00:03 +0000 UTC“You three. Are you still wandering around aimlessly?”
Before Ike could find anything fun to do, the man who’d caught them in the automaton’s room called out from behind them. Ike turned.
Crossing his arms, the man shook his head at the three of them. “Look at you louts, flouting about while there’s so much work to do. Come on, pitch in. If you have nothing left to fix, then follow me.”
Ike shrugged. He glanced at the other two.
Wisp put her hands behind her head and strutted on, every ounce of her suggesting that she had absolutely no intent of doing any work, but that she’d follow to see what was happening anyways.
Mag bounced in place, incensed. “What about the fun?”
“Fun? You can have fun after all the work is done,” the man said. “I haven’t seen you three around, anyways. What’s your names? I’m Toru.”
“I’m Ike, that’s Wisp, and he’s Mag,” Ike said.
“Stick to the north part of town, do ya? I mostly run around the south, myself,” Toru said.
Ike nodded non-committally. “Something like that.”
“Hmph. Kids, always thinking you’re too cool. Aren’t you tired of the act by now?”
Act? “What act?” Ike asked, deliberately leaving his voice just flat enough that it sounded a little sarcastic.
“I mean, how long do you have to spend down here before you give up the ghost? None of us have been young in a very long time.”
Oh? Wait, so the puppets are self-aware that they’re… if not puppets, at least trapped in an abnormal situation. That wasn’t the case with Shopkeep’s city. “Variety is the spice of life.”
The man looked back. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“Be boring if we were all the same, that’s what it means,” Wisp translated for him.
“Be less annoying if you gave up the act and stopped causing trouble for people,” Toru replied.
Wisp dropped her jaw in an excessively sarcastic expression. “What? Noooo.”
Toru wrinkled his nose, glaring at her.
Ike chuckled. He spread his hands at Toru. “You gotta think, you know. When you come and fight people like us, well, we’re the pigs, relishing in the mud. We’re just gonna drag you down and smear you with mud, not try and fight you on your enlightened level.”
“And we’ll enjoy it, the whole time. You’re the only one who’s mad,” Wisp added, punctuating her statement with a yawn.
Toru looked at them for another second, then shook his head. “I’m glad I haven’t encountered you troublemakers before, come to think of it.”
“That’s probably wise, yeah,” Ike agreed.
The man nodded ahead of him. Most of the buildings had been constructed, wisely, of stone, but ahead of them, a large, very decayed wood mansion stood on a hill. “That’s our problem child. The automatons are busy growing trees for wood upstairs. They do the basic carpentry, too, so we’ve got a steady stream of planks and beams coming in. Join the rest of them, and see if you can’t help patch up the big house.”
Toru walked off, leaving the three of them to stare at the house. Ike crossed his arms. “You know, I really thought we were going hunting.”
“We are,” Wisp replied.
“What part of hunting is ‘build someone else’s house?’” Ike mocked.
Wisp shrugged. “Look, the ants are the best mental mage I know. They’ll tell you where the skill is for just a little knowledge. Isn’t that way easier than wandering the wilds yourself, killing monsters at random?”
“I mean, yes, but…”
Without a word, Mag ran past them. He immediately joined in, carrying fresh boards up with the other workers. In a few seconds, he blended in with them, just a slightly shorter worker among all the rest.
“Nesting instincts, activate,” Ike muttered to himself.
“What if we just sit back, and let the birdbrain put the whole house together?” Wisp suggested.
Ike glanced at her. “Don’t you have building instincts, too?”
“Oh, sure, but they aren’t building a web, are they? Show me one material in that building that they secreted themselves,” Wisp challenged him.
Ike grimaced. “Gods, don’t say that.”
Wisp grinned. “See? It’s not web-like at all.”
“No, I guess not.”
“Aren’t you a human? Look, that’s a house! A human-dwelling. Where are your house-building instincts? Go, builder!” Wisp said, giving him a little push.
“No such thing. I’m a stupid primitive human. Give me a cave and a tree and I’m happy,” Ike replied.
“No housing instincts at all?”
“Nope.”
Wisp looked at the building for one more second, then turned. “Well, if that’s all, I’m gonna go build my web in that alley—”
“There you are!” One of the workers ran over, planks in hand. He handed some to Ike and some to Wisp, then gestured for them to follow him. “Thank goodness. We really need a few extra hands. The automatons just can’t handle this kind of complexity, but we need this done by the night. Come on, come on.” Gesturing them on, the man dashed off again.
Ike and Wisp exchanged a glance. Ike shrugged. “It’s a way to pass time, I guess.” Carrying the planks, he set off after the man.
“Humans and birds, tearing down pieces of perfectly good web-building trees,” Wisp muttered under her breath, following after him. The two of them joined Mag and the construction crew, and worked on the house.
The work wasn’t too hard. They ripped out the old, rotten boards, and replaced them with new. Sometimes, they had to rip out nails, or replace structural beams, but they, and all the workers, were mages. No part of the task was particularly hard for them. Ike marveled a bit at the idea, as he ripped out nails with his bare hands and hammered them in with a flick. Not long ago, he would have struggled to set one nail into a board this firm. Now, he struggled to keep the board intact as he worked to put them together.
Wisp followed along after him, mostly following the human techniques, though every now and again, he caught a glimpse of her shooting a burst of spider thread in and setting a board with thread as glue, instead of using their nails. He snorted, but didn’t stop her. It wasn’t as if her thread was any weaker than nails.
Of the three of them, Mag took to it the best. He seemed to have truly activated his nest-building instincts, and fluttered around the house, ripping out old boards and setting new with a fury. He didn’t slow until the entire house was re-boarded. When the workers drew out the paints, he outright retreated, completely lost. Mag looked at Ike. “What’re they doing?”
“Painting. You know, what you do to walls after you fix them,” he replied.
Mag stared at the house again, aghast. “Ruining such a nice, soft, wood nest.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Ike patted him on the shoulder. “Come on. We’re done here. Let’s scurry before they find another job for us.”
“I can get behind that,” Wisp agreed, darting over.
Mag nodded. “If they’re just going to ruin it, there’s no point.”
With that, the three of them made a swift exit, leaving the workers to put the finishing touches on the fine wooden house.
