by Pirateaba
“It’s a long story. But I’m back, and so…these are my friends. They’re going to be staying here.”
“Where? All the rooms are full.”
Revi pointed that out, glancing idly at the other adventurers. She didn’t say anything else, but the implication was clear. The rooms were full, and she wasn’t sharing with anyone. In terms of pecking order, she and the other Gold-rank adventurers far outranked a new team of Silver-rank adventurers.
Erin frowned, vexed. Already problems were popping up! She knew Lyonette had done well to get the other adventurers to stay here, but where were her friends supposed to sleep?
“I guess you guys can sleep in the common room, maybe. I mean, it’s not very private…”
Pisces looked very unhappy at the idea, and Ceria and Yvlon nodded slowly. Lyonette bit her tongue, then spoke up.
“What about the basement?”
“Basement?”
The young woman nodded, blushing as Erin stared blankly at her.
“You do have one.”
“I have a basement?”
Erin thought about this. She vaguely remembered…hadn’t the Antinium built it? She followed Lyon over to the room and blinked as the girl pulled up the trap door. Erin walked down the steps and shouted in surprise.
“I have a basement!”
She came back upstairs, shaking her head in wonder.
“The things you learn…hey Ceria, do you think you guys could sleep in a basement?”
Ceria glanced at the others and nodded.
“Probably.”
“What? It will be cold down there! And what about privacy? I object!”
Pisces complained as he stomped over to stare at the basement in disgust.
“No problem. We can totally make this work. All I need are some blankets, a mattress, curtains—I bet we could even buy some bed stands in Liscor!”
“Or we could sleep in the Frenzied Hare. Isn’t that a far simpler solution?”
Pisces sniffed as all eyes turned to him. He gestured at the door.
“The Frenzied Hare—or a more reputable inn, perhaps? It would be far more effective than sharing elbow room down there.”
“I’m afraid you won’t find many rooms, even if you do know the owner of this inn.”
Typhenous called out to the others. He gestured towards the city through one of the windows.
“There’s far too many people here. Every building, loft, and apartment in the city is getting more crowded by the minute.”
Erin laughed, making the old mage frown.
“The Frenzied Hare isn’t here! It’s in Celum!”
Everyone stared at her. Revi spoke slowly.
“Are you planning on heading north right away, then? Because if you’re going a hundred miles to sleep at a different inn…”
The other adventurers chuckled, but Erin’s eyes just sparkled. She turned to the Horns of Hammerad.
“We’ve gotta show them. Come on Pisces, is the door ready?”
He sniffed.
“The door hasn’t stopped being ready. It’s merely placement I was concerned with—”
Erin brushed past him and ran over to the door, which had been leaned against one wall. She beckoned Lyonette, Mrsha, and Zel over. The Drake stopped playing ‘catch the claw’ with Mrsha and walked over to stare at the door.
“What is it, Erin?”
The adventurers sitting or standing at the room stared in bemusement at the plain wooden door—all that is, except for Typhenous and Moore. Revi was openly yawning until Typhenous nudged her and pointed. Then she sat up straight in her chair.
The rest of the Gold-rank teams picked up on the cue, and stared harder at the door. Erin stood in front of it like a circus conductor about to unveil the biggest trick of the night.
“Alright, brace yourselves, everyone. A little bit ago, Ceria, Pisces, Yvlon, Ksmvr—they’re the Horns of Hammerad—they went into Albez with this map thing. And they found this. Well, they didn’t find this, but—”
Erin broke off as she realized she was losing her audience. She shook her head.
“Never mind. But they got this magical door. Look what it can do!”
She flung the door open, and spread her arms wide.
“It’s a portal door!”
There was no wall, behind the door. There should have been, but instead the amazed room of people stared straight into a second room, one filled with racks full of glowing potion bottles, workbenches with powdered ingredients and empty class containers—
And sitting at one table, humming a song under her breath and putting a label on one bottle, a young woman with dark skin. She looked up, frowning at the sound of the door hitting the wall in Erin’s inn.
Octavia froze, potion bottle in hand as she saw the room full of people all staring at her. She stared at the beaming Erin, at the open-mouthed Jelaqua, at Moore, blinking down at her, and then yelped as a white shape bounded towards her.
“Mrsha, no!”
Lyonette grabbed for the Gnoll. She caught Mrsha a second before the young Gnoll could cause havoc in Octavia’s shop. The Stitch-girl slid off her seat.
“What in the name of exploding cauliflower is this, Erin?”
“Octavia! I’m back in my inn!”
The room—both rooms—erupted into sound as everyone began talking.
“Extraordinary! I can’t believe it!”
“A magical door?”
“In Celum?”
Everyone started clustering around the door. Erin stepped through and beamed at the others as Pisces tried to explain.
“Isn’t it so cool? I can go all the way to Celum just like that! And if I step back—”
She walked back through and spread her arms.
“I’m in Liscor!”
She hopped through again. Ceria frowned and opened her mouth.
“Hey Erin, that’s not the best—”
“In Celum! In Liscor!”
Erin jumped back and forth in rapid succession. Pisces turned and snapped.
“Don’t do that! You’ll exhaust the mana supply!”
“What? Oh—”
Erin half-turned to look back as Pisces as she jumped through the door again—
And the portal closed. One second the other room was there, full of noise, people—Erin could even smell them from Octavia’s shop—and then she was staring at a blank wall. Erin paused and then slowly poked the stone behind the door. Hopefully, she closed the door and opened it again.
Nothing happened. Sitting at her counter, Octavia smacked her forehead and groaned.
“You idiot.”
—-
In the minutes after the door’s mana supply ran off, there was a lot of shouting. But adventurers being used to sudden changes, no one panicked too much. Except for Mrsha. Lyonette had to lift the howling Gnoll away from the door, and reassure her all was well.
Zel sat with her at a table as Lyonette coaxed Mrsha into sitting with her. The other adventurers were still standing around the door, although now an effort was going on to bring Erin back.
“Erin’s just gone for a little bit, okay Mrsha? It’s all okay. It was just an accident—no one’s hurt!”
“That was startling, though.”
Zel remarked as he stared back at the door. He eyed it, and the adventurers who were beginning to split off, leaving only the five mages to talk about what should be done. Lyonette thought his eyes lingered for a long time on Ksmvr.
“It’s a magical door. It must be incredibly powerful if it can teleport someone so far.”
“Yes. It’s an artifact worth—I can’t imagine. But it clearly has its limits, as your boss seems to have discovered.”
He did not look impressed. Zel turned to Lyonette.
“She has a very scattered personality.”
“It was an accident. She was—um.”
Lyonette stared at the door as the mages began to argue loudly. She saw Pisces standing protectively over the door as
he and Typhenous began raising their voices.
“And what, pray tell, do you have to object to in the way I altered the enchantment? You will note I barely altered the matrix—”
“By creating a portal? That’s the element of the trap, don’t you see?”
Typhenous looked irritable as he poked the door with one finger, glaring at Pisces.
“It was clearly meant to open and reveal another room—thereby teleporting the incautious to another place entirely. But such a spell isn’t meant to safeguard the user! If it had closed on that young woman’s hand or leg she might have lost it entirely!”
Pisces turned red and Ceria interjected quickly.
“It was a mistake, but the key now is fixing it. If we work together we can probably—”
“We? Let Typhenous fix it. He’s the highest-level out of all of us.”
Revi interrupted, folding her arms. Lyonette winced as Mrsha turned to look. She knew conflict when she saw it, and this was the kind of battle she was used to back home. Not physical, but social, a battle of willpower and hierarchy.
“Oh, is that so? And I take it you are an expert in enchanting magic?”
Pisces drew himself up as Ceria let out a hiss of exasperation. Typhenous stared back archly.
“Not a master, but I am well-versed in it from years of practice and time spent in dungeons. I was educated in the college of magic in the capital city of Pheron for twelve years. And you are…?”
“Pisces. I, and Ceria here, are graduates of Wistram.”
Revi and Typhenous blinked. Revi looked frankly incredulous—Typhenous muttered what looked like a spell under his breath.
“You two?”
“Correct.”
Pisces stared unflinchingly back while Ceria mumbled something in agreement. Typhenous nodded slightly to Revi, and her demeanor changed.
“Well…we might not be Wistram mages, but I was tutored by an expert. We’ve got the experience here—we’ll alter the enchantment on the door before we draw the girl back.”
Pisces’ eyes flashed.
“I am fully capable of doing any needed configuration myself. Your assistance would be useful—”
“It needn’t be a competition.”
The deep voice came from Moore, making all the other mages pause. He had been quiet, but now he looked disapprovingly around at the other four mages.
“We are all experts in some way, aren’t we? I have never been to Wistram, although I have dreamed about studying there. But since none of us specialize in enchantments, let us pool our knowledge.”
“It’s not a question of pooling, Moore.”
Typhenous looked unhappy as he glared at Pisces.
“AS I was saying, the enchantments need reworking. If you look at how much magical energy this door drained from just a few moments of being active—”
“My spells did nothing to inhibit the costs! Ceria, back me up here.”
“Let’s all calm down and—”
Across the room, Ulrien and Halrac sat together with Jelaqua and Seborn. They were used to mages, and as such, gave them room. Jelaqua stared at Ceria and Pisces, looking thoughtful.
“Wistram mages?”
Seborn nodded.
“It seems as though they are. Typhenous was surprised. I wonder why?”
Ulrien spoke quietly.
“Probaly because he didn’t believe it. I’ve heard Wistram mages are a cut above most other mages, even at lower levels.”
“Well, we knew Springwalker was good. Her team might be important to watch. More importantly, where the hells did they find that door? I heard them mention Albez, but I heard that ruin was tapped out decades ago!”
“Why not ask?”
Lyonette saw the Gold-rank adventurers get up and begin talking with Yvlon, who looked overwhelmed to be speaking with so many higher-ranking adventurers. She turned to Zel.
“It looks like there’s a lot of competition.”
The Drake nodded.
“Adventurers work together, but they also compete for the same things. These groups seem pretty mellow, actually. I’ve seen things get ugly fast, although it might come to that if the mages don’t cooperate.”
“I’ll do something about that.”
Determinedly, Lyon stood up, letting Mrsha hop off her lap. Erin might be back, but Lyon could still be useful. The Gnoll followed her into the kitchen and in a few moments, came out chewing something in her mouth.
Lyon came out a few moments after that, holding a platter with cut cheese, some sliced bread, and sausage all sliced up. She approached the angry mages, holding the smorgasbord out in case someone cast a spell. They ignored her until she raised her voice tentatively.
“Excuse me. Would anyone like something to eat? Or drink?”
The bickering mages looked up. Like magic—a different kind of magic than was being argued over here—they stopped fighting as all fives mages eagerly grabbed the snacks off of the plate. Moore, who hadn’t really been that confrontational to begin with, smiled gratefully as Lyonette handed him a block of cheese she’d sliced into two parts and half a sausage on a plate of his own.
“Hm. Oh, thank you, my dear.”
Typhenous smiled at Lyonette, and Ceria and Pisces remembered they hadn’t eaten since breakfast as they shoved food into their mouths. Lyonette hurried back into the kitchen, and in a few minutes everyone was sipping from mugs and speaking far more calmly to each other.
“Yes, I see. I suppose we can simply concentrate our mana together to reactivate the doorway until a better solution can be found.”
Typhenous brushed some crumbs off his beard and nodded at Pisces. The young man inclined his head as well.
“How would you like to focus it? Neither Ceria or I have a focusing agent—”
“My staff would work well. Allow me.”
Moore gently raised his staff and touched the door as he put his plate on one table. Typhenous nodded. He reached out and grasped Moore’s other hand. Revi stood by Typhenous’ side; she linked hands with him.
“A good old fashioned link-up, is it? I haven’t done one of these in ages. Do they do these in Wistram?”
“Not much. They have fancy crystals that let mages link up at a distance. I once saw a mage eating in the banquet hall while he helped power a spell two floors up.”
Revi snorted as Pisces took her hand. Ceria offered her skeletal hand to Pisces, he took it, giving her a bemused look. She shrugged.
“Better conductivity.”
“Just so long as you don’t expect the rest of us to do a blood link.”
“Hah!”
The other adventurers, Lyon, Zel, and Mrsha all watched as the mages grew silent. Lyonette had to pick up Mrsha to keep her from wandering over; she had a feeling serious magic was being done.
If it was though, it only took moments and, disappointingly, had no colorful effects or sounds to accompany it. The mages let go and Moore carefully pulled the door open.
“I’m telling you, you’re not going to get it open even if you pour a thousand mana potions on it. Put that down!”
“How do you know? It might work. Let me try one!”
Octavia’s shop appeared in the doorway again, as if nothing had happened. Erin and Octavia were caught in the center of the shop, fighting over a green bottle. They paused and turned to the door.
“Oh hey, the door works.”
“You did it!”
Erin leapt through the door and beamed at the mages. They stepped back, looking slightly weary.
Revi flicked a bit of sweat off her forehead.
“That thing’s a mana sponge. No wonder it can’t run for more than a minute at best.”
“Thanks, guys!”
Erin beamed at the others, and then pointed at the door.
“Will this thing last for a while?”
“Longer than last time, if you don’t exhaust it by moving back and forth again.”
Pisces sat back into a chair and reached f
or another piece of cheese. Typhenous nodded.
“You have a wonderfully powerful artifact here, Miss Solstice. I would love to talk to you about it—and with you adventurers, if you have the chance. Perhaps over dinner?”
“Dinner! That’s right!”
Erin turned to the window in horror as she realized how late it was getting. She called out to Lyonette as the girl hurried over.
“Lyon, we’ve got to start making food! Tons of it!”
“I’ve got a bunch of it in the pantries, but there’s more in the basement. Should I…?”
“Great! Bring up whatever you need—I’ll start cooking! I’ve got [Advanced Cooking]!”
That made all the adventurers in the room, and Zel sit up. Mrsha’s ears perked and the young Gnoll crept towards the kitchen to wait.
“Aw, you’re making food? Close the door before I smell it!”
Octavia groused to Erin as the girl began listing food for the appreciative crowd and accepting suggestions for what she should cook. Erin turned and smiled at Octavia.
“Why don’t you join us?”
“Join you?”
“Why not? Come on, lock up your shop and have a meal! You can talk to these guys while you wait—did you know everyone here’s an adventurer? Well, besides Zel and Mrsha and Lyonette—but these guys are Gold-rank adventurers?”
“Gold-rank adventurers?”
Octavia didn’t exactly teleport, but she was through the portal door in a flash. She offered a brown bottle filled with liquid that looked like it had tiny glowing fragments swirling around inside of it to Revi.
“Mana potion?”
“What? No, I don’t need—”
Revi tried to decline, but Octavia pushed the bottle into her hands.
“Free of charge. Complimentary. In fact, let me throw a stamina potion in as well. Have you tried my wares? Octavia’s the name. Please consider using my products if you’re ever in the area. I’d be happy to custom-brew anything you happen to need. In fact, I have a new line of defensive potions and items you might be interested in. Are any of you [Rogues]? I have this wonderful Smoke Sack—that’s what I’m calling it—that has incredible potency for the price. Let me just find you a sample…”
She began her sales pitch and Erin laughed as she walked into the kitchen. The night had gotten off to a bumpy start, but now? Now she felt like everything was beginning to be right.
