alexanderwales
patreon
This Used to be About Dungeons, ch 85, Seeker
🕑 Added 2022-03-09 16:47:38 +0000 UTC~~~~
It was largely by chance that Isra was the one to answer the door. Mizuki was in the kitchen, preparing lunch, and Isra had just come down from using the upstairs bathroom. There was some question in Isra’s mind about whether it was appropriate for her to be answering the door, but she did almost live there, more nights than not, and it was likely to be someone that she knew, or at least knew of. Answering the door was something that normal people did, and Isra wanted to be normal, though she was also aware that normal people didn’t spend so much time internally debating things before doing them, and they didn’t focus much of their time and effort on being normal.
The woman was tall, taller even than Alfric, and she had very straight, very white hair that went down almost impossibly far, to her knees, which seemed like it would be a complete pain to keep clean and out of the way. Her face was lined with age, though not overly so, and in a pleasing way that made her seem like she might be a font of sage wisdom. Her eyes were almost blinding green, and it was hard to tell whether they had their own luminance, or whether they were simply that bright. Her clothes were, like her hair, so long as to seem impractical. She had robes that nearly touched the ground and obscured her feet, the sleeves so long her hands were likewise hidden.
“Is this the home of Alfric Overguard?” the woman asked, lifting an eyebrow. Her voice was hard like metal but also somewhat yielding, in a way that made clear she was willing it to yield.
“It is,” said Isra. She had never answered a door before, and couldn’t recall having seen someone else do it, and so was somewhat lost on what came next. As was her habit, she kept her mouth shut lest she appear ignorant.
“May I speak with him?” asked the woman after a small moment.
“Yes,” said Isra. She looked into the house. “Come in. Take your shoes off. Please.”
The woman followed, seeming to float, and Isra noted that she didn’t take her shoes off, which meant that either she was using magic to not touch the floor, was barefoot, or perhaps just very rude.
“Alfric,” said Isra. “For you.”
Alfric came out from the living room with a smile on his face. “You’re the woman from Greater Plenarch?”
“Yes, Cate Peregrin,” she replied. Her smile stretched across her face in a way that Isra felt was a bit unnatural. “We had your report, and I felt it better to deal with it quickly, just in case.”
“If there is a monster trapped there, it’s been trapped for centuries,” said Alfric. “Hardly worth moving fast on.” But he seemed pleased to be talking with her, whatever his reservations.
“I’ll need to know what you saw in the dungeon, in detail,” she said.
“Of course,” nodded Alfric. “Here, in the dining room.” His eyes moved to Isra. “Do you have insights you’d want to share? I would want Mizuki there too, to talk about the feel of it.”
“No insights, no,” said Isra. “The monster was dungeon mad, same as all the others.”
Alfric nodded, then turned to Cate. “I’ll grab Mizuki, you can get yourself settled.”
Isra found herself drawn to the woman, and followed her into the dining room, where they each took a seat.
“Alfric was explaining that there might be something buried in the hex,” said Isra.
“It’s very possible, especially in this region,” the woman replied. “Humanity was swept out of the area and only recently came back in.”
Isra took ‘recent’ to mean on a very long time scale, hundreds of years. It was dizzying to think about, the casual way that people could talk about a dozen generations, and that was for humans, nevermind the animals and plants that had gone through comparatively endless cycles in that same time span. Isra had trouble conceiving of even a hundred years, and wondered what was different with other people that they were able to blithely discuss such things.
“Alfric was saying you might have some insights?” asked Cate.
“I’m a druid,” said Isra. “But I saw very little of the trapped creature. Peering too deeply at them, with the dungeon madness, makes me feel awful.”
“I see,” nodded Cate. “And what can you tell me about the containment?”
Isra frowned. “Didn’t Alfric send a letter to you?”
“It’s good for me to get different perspectives,” said Cate.
But Isra was saved from having to go in depth on anything by Alfric and Mizuki joining them. There was a round of introductions, and after that, Alfric launched into an explanation of everything that they had seen. He was remarkably observant, Isra noticed, able to say with certainty what shape the stones had been, and with a better description of all the creature’s features than Isra would have been able to give. He must have been looking closely and actively remembering, preparing for this moment.
“Mmm,” Cate frowned. “That does sound very close to what we occasionally find. It will, unfortunately, take some looking into.”
“Can we help?” asked Alfric. “If you need an extra pair of hands, we’re available.” He glanced at Mizuki. “Or I’ll help, I guess I can’t speak for others.”
“Most of the work is in scouring the area with entads,” said Cate. “It can take some time. And because of the way dungeon instantiation works, what you found might be from you, or from a long-ago trap, or an adjacent hex, or even someone who had passed through.”
“Is that true?” asked Alfric. “Someone passing through the hex could influence what’s in the dungeon? I hadn’t heard that before.” He seemed somewhat concerned, though Isra wasn’t sure about what. At a guess, it was because there was some new information about dungeons he didn’t know.
“It’s all theory,” she said with a wave of her hand.
“Sorry,” said Mizuki. “I’m … not exactly clear on who you, um, are?”
“Cate Peregrin,” she said, placing her hand on her chest, though she’d said as much in the introduction before. “I’m with the provincial authority, charged with responding to certain threats and curiosities. My official title, if it helps, is Seeker of Secrets.”
“Wow,” said Mizuki. “What do I have to do to get a cool title?”
Cate gave a high, tinkling laugh. “Be very old, and know many secrets,” she replied. “Though much of my duties are in chasing down things that turn out to be nothing at all, and in practice, I’m semi-retired. There was little to clear from my plate when I decided to come out here.”
“Nothing? Like this might be?” asked Alfric. “Sorry. I saw the containment, and thought that it meant … something more.”
“And it might,” she replied. “There’s a very good possibility that it is. But it will take time to search through the area, and there’s cause to be careful with such things, if it is a trap that’s been left behind. There’s —”
Lerial hopped up onto the table, and Cate stopped and stared at the herb dragon.
“Isra, can you get her down?” asked Alfric.
“No,” said Cate, holding out a hand. She was staring at the herb dragon with a certain intensity. “What is that?”
“The species doesn’t have a name yet,” said Alfric. “We’ve been calling it an herb dragon.”
“There’s more than one?” asked Cate. She seemed shocked by the animal, and wasn’t taking her eyes off it.
“Three,” said Alfric. “One male, two female. We hatched them from dungeon eggs.”
“It eats herbs?” asked Cate. She held out her hand, and by some unseen magic, there were herbs in it when she unfurled the fingers of her fist. Isra immediately reached out with her senses, but the herb was unfamiliar, something sharp and pungent.
Lerial went for the herbs with a speed they hadn’t yet seen from the herb dragon, and took them from Cate’s open palm. It was behavior that Isra hadn’t seen before, the way Lerial snatched the herbs as though they might disappear, and retreated with them to safety once they were in her tiny claws.
Cate finally looked up at Alfric. “Where are the other two?”
“In Liberfell, with the bastlekeeper there,” he said. “We may try to move them here though, the better to breed them.”
Cate’s eyes had lost any friendliness they had, but after a moment, it returned. “I have a fondness for dragons,” she said. “How much are you selling them for? As a set?”
“We hadn’t discussed it,” said Alfric. “At this point, we’re still looking at what profit might be had, and want to know what kind of breeding we’ll be able to get out of them.”
“A thousand rings each?” asked Cate.
“We haven’t done our due diligence,” said Isra. It was a phrase she’d picked up from one of the druids in her guild. ‘Due diligence’ just meant making sure you weren’t making a huge mistake. “We need to speak with other potential buyers first.”
“What would you need as payment for me to take this dragon from you right now?” asked Cate. “You have some uncertainty about the value, and other buyers, but I would pay you more if I could have them today, without consulting anyone else.”
This was raising Isra’s hackles. It had the smell of a bad deal. The woman had seen something with the herb dragon, knew something that they didn’t, and was trying to pull one over on them. If someone offered you a deal that seemed too good to be true, there was probably some catch. Was a false dragon like this worth hundreds of thousands? It seemed remotely possible to Isra.
“One hundred thousand each,” said Isra.
“That’s outrageous,” replied Cate, though if she were outraged, she was doing a very good job of keeping her face impassive.
“It does seem high,” said Alfric, giving Isra a doubtful glance.
“Future earnings,” said Isra. “In five years we could have a clutch of them. In ten, an entire industry. I don’t know when they’ll be sexually mature, or how they’ll handle breeding, but this might make us money long after we’re too old to run dungeons.” Her face was set, and she knew from past experience that this was how deals were made. Cate would come back with a counteroffer, and they could work something out.
“I’ll let you do your due diligence,” said Cate, frowning slightly. Her eyes had gone back to the dragon, and there was something there. Greed, perhaps. She turned back to Alfric. “As for your offer of service, I’ll let you know. Pucklechurch is the closest town to Pate Knob, and I saw a good tavern on the way in.” She stood from the table. “I have work to do. If you’ll excuse me, I need to get started.”
They said their goodbyes, and then the three of them, Alfric, Mizuki, and Isra, were left at the dining room table.
“Hopefully she wasn’t too offended,” said Alfric. He was frowning a bit.
“Mizuki, did she seem magical to you?” asked Isra.
“In what sense?” asked Mizuki. “Entad robes, and her necklace was probably an entad too.”
“When she fed Lerial?” asked Isra. “What was that?”
“Dunno,” said Mizuki with a shrug. “Whatever magic it was, it was over before I had a good look. You should count yourself lucky that I was able to see the entads at all, my magic sight has gotten a lot better lately.”
“She was odd,” said Isra. She felt deflated though, and it was clear that whatever instinct she was feeling, the others weren’t sharing it.
“Some people are,” said Alfric. “My guess is she’s a former dungeoneer with a fairly long career, but that’s just the sense I get, I didn’t get much biographical information when I made contact. ‘Seeker of Secrets’ is a very suggestive title for a person to have.”
“I want a neat title,” said Mizuki. “Hey, we should all have titles.”
“You also want to name every entad,” said Alfric.
“Uh, yes,” said Mizuki. “I’m just bad at names, otherwise I would name everything in my possession.”
“But then when talking about them, you have to explain every name to someone outside the party,” said Alfric.
“Simple, just don’t talk to people outside the party,” said Mizuki with a smile.
Isra thought that this was probably flirting, or if it wasn’t, she didn’t actually know what flirting was. There was a back-and-forth to the way they talked, a teasing familiarity that she had seen often in her books. She wanted to ask them, but had the sense that this would be quite rude, and resolved to do it when she was alone with Mizuki, who seemed to like to talk more.
“Isra, do you want to do due diligence?” asked Alfric. “Or would you rather I handle it?”
“It would involve talking to people?” asked Isra.
“Er, yes,” said Alfric. “You have somewhat of a relationship with the bastlekeeper in Liberfell, if you could talk to him about pricing and find some potential buyers, that would be wonderful.”
“You think I should have just taken the money,” said Isra.
“I don’t know,” said Alfric. “I would have accepted a thousand a piece, that’s a pretty significant amount, though I also agree part of what we’re selling is the risk.”
“What does that even mean, selling risk?” asked Mizuki. Isra was glad that Mizuki had asked, because she had never heard the concept either.
“Let’s say you have an object that might be worth a hundred rings, or might be worth a thousand,” said Alfric. “Its actual value is in the future, but you can sell it before then. Obviously you don’t sell it for a hundred, because there’s a chance it might be worth more, and just as obviously, you should definitely sell for a thousand, because it’s not going to be worth more. The question is what’s a good point to sell at between those two extremes, and a lot of that comes down to risk.”
“Just sell at the midpoint?” asked Mizuki.
“There’s an argument for selling lower,” said Alfric. “Less than you think it’s going to end up being worth in the end, even on average. What you’re doing is taking money now because you might not be able to get the money later. You’re selling the risk of failure to someone else.”
“I’m not sure I understand,” said Isra.
“It’s complicated money stuff,” said Alfric, waving a hand. “My tutors didn’t spend all that much time on it, and it’s not incredibly important, but my father was trying to get me schooled in finance. There’s a lot of talk of risk and how it can be avoided or capitalized on, especially for chrononauts, who can alleviate short-term risk.”
“I cannot imagine anything more boring than money,” said Mizuki.
“You’re a dungeoneer,” said Isra. “Which you do for money.”
“No,” said Mizuki, holding up a finger. “I do dungeoneering for things. Money lets me get those things, but money itself is only interesting as a path to things, and it’s the least interesting path to things. There are people who just deal with money all day in the cities, and to me that feels like a waste of a life.”
“I don’t think it’s that bad,” said Alfric. “We have to deal with money within the party.”
“We have to,” said Mizuki. “It’s a chore, like cleaning out the muck room, or doing dishes. It’s not fun, it’s the thing that you do so that you don’t have to live in filth and squalor.”
Alfric shrugged. “But as far as chores go, it’s not that bad.”
“I don’t like haggling,” Isra offered, not sure that it was a good contribution to the conversation.
“No?” asked Alfric. “But you’re pretty good at it.”
“I’m mean when I do it,” said Isra. “It’s hostile, adversarial.” This was another new word. She’d always had a good vocabulary, thanks largely to her father, but she’d been adding to it over quickly over the past year. “I don’t think that it should be. I want to be more gentle.”
“Understandable,” said Alfric. “And it’s a skill that I need to work on. Understanding what things are worth is one thing, though I won’t say that I’m quite there yet, but dealing with other people will take me some time.”
“I’ll speak with the beastmaster,” said Isra. “I was going to Liberfell anyway, to check in on the other herb dragons. I was thinking of convincing him to let me take them.”
“Why?” asked Alfric.
“We know them better now,” said Isra. “And they want to fly, which he can’t safely allow them to do. I’m a better caretaker for them, better able to watch what they eat and provide a good environment.”
“A sound argument,” said Alfric. “I hope he sees it that way.”
“She didn’t seem odd to you, this Seeker of Secrets?” asked Isra.
“Maybe a bit,” shrugged Alfric. “But I come from dungeoneers, and eccentricity is common among that sort, which is either from the profession, the entads, or the dungeons themselves, hard to say which.”
“Are you going today?” Mizuki asked Isra. “And if you are, can I come with you?”
“Yes,” nodded Isra. “You want to see Rolaj?”
“Er,” said Mizuki. “Right, Rolaj. I owe him like five letters. Maybe today is the day I break it off, not that there was really an ‘it’.”
“Just like that?” asked Isra, raising an eyebrow.
“Meh,” replied Mizuki with a shrug. “There’s no sense of frustration on his end from all the extra letters he’s been sending me, but if I’m not feeling it, it’s cruel to let him think there’s something there.”
“Here, let me give you the dagger, it should take the two of you with no problems,” said Alfric.
“And I’m taking the helmet,” said Mizuki. She frowned at Alfric. “Say, don’t you have an identification on that sword and bow yet?”
“No,” said Alfric. “There’s no rush, I will tomorrow. Today is my obligation to Filera, and I want to keep her happy.”
“I still don’t really get what she sees in you,” said Mizuki. “She hasn’t been asking me about my experiences in dungeons. Let her know that I like to talk, would you?”
“I guess,” said Alfric, though it didn’t seem likely that he was going to mention it.
Mizuki turned back to Isra. “Do you want to grab Verity?” asked Mizuki. “She had said you were going to go shopping together.”
“She needs to practice,” said Isra. There was a temptation to ask Verity to come with, certainly, but Verity had been bemoaning the relative lack of practice, and getting back into ‘concert condition’, which apparently involved an incredible amount of practice on very specific pieces. The dreaded letter from Verity’s mother hadn’t come in yet, but they were expecting it any day.
“Then it’ll be just the two of us,” said Mizuki with a smile. “Nice.”
They took some time to gather their things, and left not too long afterward, walking together to the general store. It wasn’t a market day, and the town always felt quieter when there wasn’t a market, more sedate in a way that Isra wasn’t sure she liked. It had taken her some time to acclimate to the markets and the expectant eyes of all the merchants, but it was a space she felt comfortable in after having spent so long there.
“I can’t actually see entads that well,” said Mizuki, unprompted.
“You can’t?” asked Isra.
“They affect the aether, but not very much,” said Mizuki. “I kind of squint to see them.”
“Okay,” said Isra.
“So if she had some kind of magic to her, some entad that you were feeling or seeing, I might have missed it,” said Mizuki. “I’ll be on the lookout next time we see her.”
“Ah,” said Isra. “It’s probably nothing.”
“I think people should trust their bad feelings,” said Mizuki. “That probably goes double for you, given all the druid stuff.”
“Bad feelings?” asked Isra.
“You know, someone just doesn’t feel right, or that sense like there are some eyes on the back of your neck,” said Mizuki. “Maybe you don’t get that. There’s a little part of you that just … feels off?”
“Was that how you felt the first time you met Lola?” asked Isra.
“A bit,” said Mizuki. “But I didn’t know what was off about her. I just thought it was a weird encounter with a weird girl. I don’t know.”
“You didn’t feel the same about Cate?” asked Isra. “That she was … off?”
“No,” said Mizuki. “Old, self-possessed, and sure about what she wants, with a definite style, but that could be anyone. She’s the kind of old lady I’d like to be some day. And she seems to like dragons, which … who wouldn’t? They’re incredibly rare, creatures of legend.”
“Next time we go to Dondrian, you should see the museum,” said Isra.
“Are we going to go to Dondrian again?” asked Mizuki. “It’s incredibly expensive unless you want to take a long time.”
“Verity is going,” said Isra. “We could have her bring us in the garden stone.”
“Mmm, probably not,” said Mizuki.
“Why?” asked Isra.
“Entad stuff,” said Mizuki. “I was talking about it with Alfric, who knows a lot about how these things are. Some entads let you bring people or things with, and others don’t, and the ones that do let you bring people with are used for that, at a higher price, usually. So Verity will probably be coming into Dondrian through the cheapest method there is, and you won’t just be able to be a free rider.”
“We have the dagger,” said Isra.
“True,” said Mizuki. “Does it really have that kind of range?”
Isra shrugged. “The entad seller said that it did. I don’t know if it was evaluated by a cleric of Qymmos, or just a guess from what testing they could do.”
“Worth a shot,” said Mizuki. “How much did Alfric pay for it?”
“Seventeen hundred,” said Isra.
“Yikes,” said Mizuki. “Sight unseen? Without actually testing the range?”
“You wouldn’t have done that?” asked Isra.
“I’d have asked a local cleric to look at it,” said Mizuki. “Or something, I don’t know.”
“Clerics usually charge for entad identification,” said Isra. “At least, that’s been my understanding. We’re getting a special deal.”
“Filera,” said Mizuki, sticking out her tongue. “Is it weird that I don’t like it?”
“Bad feelings?” asked Isra.
“Eh,” said Mizuki. “Kinda.”
“Mmm,” said Isra. She wished that she were Hannah, who would have some insight to give, or Alfric, who could at least be practical about it, or even Verity, who was nice and supportive and could say nothing at all without the silence being awkward for everyone involved.
“Anyway, it’s probably just me,” said Mizuki. “I know I was saying that you should trust your bad feelings, but maybe not your bad feelings about what other people are up to?”
“I think I’m the wrong person to ask,” said Isra.
They came to the general store, and Bethany was there, beaming. “We have a date!” she said. “Second of Arctus. And your party is obviously all invited.”
“So soon?” asked Mizuki. It was a month away.
“It’s going to be huge,” said Bethany. “He’s the first of the Pedder boys to get married, so the family feels it needs to be a production. I imagine half the town will be there for the party, if not the ceremony, but you’re welcome to come to both.”
“I’ve never been to a wedding,” said Isra. She hoped that this was a safe thing to say.
“Oh weddings are wonderful,” said Bethany. “Mine is coming a bit late, but I think it’ll make up for it in size. You’ll be there?”
Isra blinked. She was being addressed directly. She had thought that the invitation was a courtesy, but Bethany seemed eager to have her there. “Yes,” said Isra. “I wouldn’t want to miss it.” This was true; Isra had missed enough weddings in her life.
“Excellent!” said Bethany, clapping her hands. “Would it be possible that I could ask you a favor?”
Isra kept the frown from her face. “You can ask, of course,” she said. She forced a smile, to try to make it a little joke, but from the cringe on Mizuki’s face, it wasn’t quite successful.
“Well, what I had heard is that you’re a druid, right?” asked Bethany.
“Yes,” said Isra. She shifted uncomfortably.
“I was hoping — oh, I don’t know, for something magical,” said Bethany. “A flock of doves flying through the church, or something like that?”
“Oh,” said Isra, relaxing. “I was worried you’d want something difficult. I can do a flock of doves.”
Bethany gave an excited clap. “Wonderful! And if we could keep it under wraps, just so it’s a bit of a surprise, that would be great.”
“Do you want anything else?” asked Isra, surprising herself with the question. “A moose to ride away on, or a bear to announce your entrance?”
Bethany’s eyes went wide. “You could do that?”
Isra nodded. “It would take some concentration, but yes. And I could grow some flowers, given enough time.” She thought she had read that people liked flowers for special occasions.
“I couldn’t let you do all that,” said Bethany, though it seemed like it pained her to say it. “Let me see what I can scrape together in the wedding fund.”
“Of course,” nodded Isra.
“Well that’s wonderful,” said Bethany. “I’m extremely excited about the wedding, as you might have noticed, but there’s so much to do.” She looked around the shop. “Do you need anything, or were you just here for the wardrobe?”
“Wardrobe,” said Mizuki. “If there are still charges left.” She seemed light on words.
“It’s early yet,” said Bethany. “It usually doesn’t run out until around fifth bell. Alfric had me raise the price, and it’s been going later, but still running out, which means the price will probably go up again.”
“Money,” said Mizuki with a wave of her hand. “That’s an Alfric conversation.”
They spent some time at the wardrobe, spinning the dial back and forth so that they could try to find somewhere at the very edge of the Traeg’s Knob hex in order to minimize how long they would need to walk. Determining where the portal was opening up was left to Isra, and an issue of reading the positions of the clouds as well as microbiomes of the region. It was technically possible to find a portal on the edge of the hex, but in practice, it was random enough that it would take hours. They settled on a forest that Isra thought was close, and which Mizuki had seen before on an earlier trip.
“This is a wonderful forest,” said Mizuki. She took her shoes off for a moment and dug her feet into the springy moss with a sigh.
“What makes it a good forest?” asked Isra.
“Lots of tall trees with no low-hanging branches,” said Mizuki. “Very little underbrush, lots of moss, interesting stones.” She shrugged. “I’m sure you have opinions on what makes for a good forest.”
“I’ve never really thought about it,” said Isra. “I like tall trees. A sense of being in twilight.” She hesitated. This was the sort of conversation that she really needed to get better at. “I like a quiet forest without too much chatter from the animals, paths that the animals have forged but no signs of them, rounded stones that show incredible age. Age, I think, is what makes for a good forest. A prairie or swamp feels less old, even if it’s been around for centuries.”
“Mmm, I do like age,” said Mizuki. “Are you curious about this trapped thing? Ancient civilizations and all that?”
Isra shrugged. “Will we get to know more? Cate seemed to think that it would take a while, if there was anything there at all.”
“I’m already getting my hopes up,” Mizuki smiled.
They talked as they walked, and walked what was probably a bit further than they needed to go into the Liberfell hex. Mizuki was simple and easy in a way that Isra quite enjoyed, and the bad feelings about the strange new woman slowly faded away.
Comments
fbt
She seems interesting, but a bit sketchy. I'd have offered her one of each successive generation (up to 5, start w/ 3 and bargain up) in return for info now that she knows/suspects related to the herb dragons. She clearly knows more than them, and wants some. Giving up the info for future ones would maximize her incentive to help them raise them, while retaining control and also getting some for her.
