“Welcome to Action,” said one of the representatives, a sandy-haired, thin woman with streaks of grey in her hair. “My name is Yis Smith. May I ask who you are?”
Diore nodded. “We are an adventuring group, Dolos’s Chosen.”
“I see,” replied Yis, her eyes moving over the laden pack animals. “What is your business in Action?”
“We’ve been on the road a long time. A bath, some trading, and a place to sleep would be great. We are willing to pay a weapon tax if you have one.”
Nicole winced at that. Their group didn’t have much money left after buying provisions for the latest dungeon job.
Yis Smith waved a hand. “We won’t require a weapon tax if you are planning to trade in good faith. I take it you are arriving in good faith?” She cocked her head. “I must warn you, we are a small village, but we do have some able-bodied mages and fighters. A few of them are prepared to act if you are raiders.”
Nicole narrowed her eyes, glancing back to the people watching from the village, and now that she was looking for it, she spotted a glint of light off inside a window, likely made by an airgun barrel or an arrowhead. The village’s defenses weren’t all that impressive, in fact, she’d be amazed if they actually had an air rifle, but the threat had been real. These were hard people, accustomed to being on their own.
The village’s fighting force was likely made up of volunteers, but underestimating them would probably be stupid.
Now that Nicole thought about it, she realized that the three elders coming to meet them had likely been the ones to approach because they were old. They were protecting the younger people in the village; if their adventuring party had been aggressive, only the elders would get hurt. Nicole didn’t have any way to verify her suspicion, and she wasn’t going to ask the villagers about it, but it felt true to her. If she was right, her respect for the three elders went up quite a bit. It took spine to meet strangers like this one in Ludus, especially a group of four heavily armed, masked, grumpy women like her adventuring party.
The fact that they wore masks didn’t necessarily mean that any of them were ‘Bonded—wearing masks had become fashionable among most adventurers within the last few weeks. The masks had shown up at first to hide the identities of the orb-Bonded who might otherwise be targets, but had become a mark of pride among adventurers, then young people in all major cities.
Of course, this didn’t mean they weren’t all orb-Bonded, either. Dolos’ Chosen, their group, could either just be fashionable, or hiding in an orb-Bonded, or two, or three for all the villagers knew. This show of force by the people of Action might work on regular bandits—or not—Nicole didn’t know. What she did know was unless the village had a truly powerful mage or their own orb-Bonded for some reason, Diore could probably level the place to the ground all by herself.
Diore smiled politely and said, “That’s practical of you. We mean no trouble, I promise you. Even if we did, we’re too tired and sore for anything like that.”
The man in the village group laughed at that, then introduced himself. “I’m Simon.”
“I am called Veel,” said the second woman.
Yis nodded and said, “Welcome to Action. We don’t have an official mayor, but I am about as close to one as we have. The other two here are village elders. We have our own duties to attend to today, but if you need anything, you can flag us down or come find us.” With that, she turned, and the three began walking back to the village.
Nicole turned, and saw that the others in her party had as well. They all made eye contact, practically all shrugged at the same time, and followed. Some of the people who’d been watching them or aiming weapons in the village immediately dispersed, but a few lingered, watching with careful eyes.
***
Getting settled in Action turned out to be quick and fairly simple. The townspeople stared at first, but soon everyone lost interest in the newcomers other than the children, who still followed Dolos’ Chosen around everywhere.
Since Action was small and out of the way, not on any serious trade routes, it didn’t have an inn. It was still close enough to the Berber farm land that they’d obviously planned for guests, though. The town’s pub and eatery had a few rooms in the back that served as rentals.
Nicole desperately wanted a bath, but after a brief discussion, the four adventurers decided that Diore and Pasha would get cleaned first. Ultimately, Nicole decided she was okay with this—she’d rather bathe closer to sleeping time anyway. She also wanted to do some shopping. Since nobody in Dolos’ Chosen ever went anywhere alone as a rule, Bentru went with her.
The first few places they stopped, like the general goods store, turned out to be quick errands. Action may be a small town, barely more than a settlement, but the people were hardworking and efficient, something Nicole had come to expect from Ludus. Another thing she’d grown accustomed to was how most of the stores were run by women, and she did catch a glimpse of the occasional man aimlessly wandering around, or talking to other men. A couple were obviously devoted fathers, watching their children.
Ludus was weird.
The last errand Nicole had, to find a blacksmith, was also on Bentru’s to-do list. One of the children following them, a little girl named Amy, pointed them in the direction of a plain building on the outskirts of town. When she could smell the smoke, Nicole knew she had the right place.
Of course, unlike a smithy on ancient Earth, this one wouldn’t be working with steel. Iron and steel all rusted on Ludus, even if it was covered. Since the Dolos’ Chosen were a mid-level adventuring group capable of—barely—handling smaller Berber dungeons, they’d had better gear than the bronze weapons that were fairly standard back in Tolstey. However, every adventuring group used plenty of bronze tools besides just weapons.
As she and Bentru approached the building, the children following them reluctantly held back. It was likely that this was a place off-limits to the town’s youth, which made sense. There were probably dozens of ways that a child could easily get hurt or hurt others if they were playing around molten metal.
After opening the door, Nicole scanned the inside of the smithy. She was surprised by how orderly the place was and all the sweating, working people. How much work did a small town like this generate? She still couldn’t decide whether to keep thinking of the place as a village or not.
The blacksmith, noted by the ornate chain around her neck, was a heavy-set Mo’hali woman, some sort of herbivore race. As the door opened, she looked up from what she’d been working on, measuring something out on a roll of expensive paper. She had large, floppy ears, and her black-and-white fur covered more of her body than most Mo’hali Nicole had seen, which meant the blacksmith was probably considered lower caste among her people. It was surprising that one of the beast people was living in a small village like this, but it wasn’t unusual for a Mo’hali to be working as a blacksmith. Mo’hali were the strongest civilized species on Ludus.
Two other people were in the forge area. One, a plain-looking human woman, was banging on a bronze knife with a big mallet. After her years on Ludus, Nicole knew the woman was probably hardening the edge of a cast blade. The last person was a dark-skinned man with long, dirty hair that hung limply, partially obscuring his face. He was using a stone grinding wheel on some piece of sooty metal. The man was wearing plain, but clean clothing, at odds with his disheveled appearance. He got up from pedaling his wheel to stand, walk to a wooden box, and begin to remove a casting from its surrounding sand.
The room was large, but still sweltering hot, and Nicole could feel herself already beginning to sweat. Sometimes she could forget she was wearing a mask, but when she perspired like this, the leather irritated her face.
“Hello!” The blacksmith’s voice was surprisingly high and sweet. She stopped what she was doing, wiped her hands on her apron, and ambled over. “I’m the town blacksmith, Gramie-shilla. We don’t get many visitors in Action. Is there something I can help you with?”
“Yes, my adventuring group needs some work done,” said Bentru. She pulled out a list and a leather bag that rattled.
“Don’t forget my cooking knives,” said Nicole.
“They’re in the bag.” Bentru pointed.
Nicole nodded and promptly ignored her friend haggling with the blacksmith. She wandered the shop, looking at the half-complete projects, some more recognizable than others. Several metals were being used, the most common were bronze, copper, and tin. There were a few smaller, more intricate projects too. She saw some metal that might have been aluminum or titanium, but she doubted it was the latter.
The walls caught and held her interest. Wow, she thought, spotting what she was sure had to be a blessed steel, or maybe enchanted sword. After spotting it, she scanned the walls more quickly, noticing other examples of expensive-looking gear. Nicole made a face, wondering if they were for sale.
Her curiosity brought her to the back of the shop, eventually spying a beautiful, very expensive and powerful-looking, undoubtedly enchanted sword. The male worker with the greasy hair was nearby, so she asked, “Excuse me, are these enchanted weapons and gear?”
“Yes.”
Nicole waited a moment, expecting the man to say more, and when he didn’t she frowned. His face didn’t twitch, he just seemed to be waiting patiently for her to ask another question or leave him alone.
The man’s facial hair was unkempt, hair hanging limply over his face, and she’d been right that his clothing was all clean. However, up close like this, he seemed even stranger than before. Through his clothing, where some clung to him from sweat, she could see the outline of well-defined, lithe muscles. If he has the discipline to work on his body like this, why not wash his hair? she wondered.
Nicole couldn’t even tell how old the man was through his veil of hair. One of his eyes tracked her as she studied him, watching her right back.
“Don’t mind Tom, he doesn’t talk much.” The cheery voice belonged to the third person who’d been working in the smithy, the human woman. She’d left her work and was leaning on a table, amusement dancing in her eyes. “You asked about all the stuff on the walls?”
“Yeah. And you are?”
“Come again?”
“What’s your name?” Nicole was terrible with names, but she knew it was polite to ask. In fact, asking someone’s name was one of the first phrases she’d learned in this world’s common language, Luda.
“Oh! My name is Maggie! You?”
Nicole nodded and realized that Maggie was a little older than she’d originally judged. “I’m Nicole Presscott.”
“Nice to meet you, Nicole! It’s always fun to meet people from out of town. The items on the walls are all enchanted gear that has had three owners already. Every piece has been appraised and verified. It’s not worth anything anymore—if anyone tries to use it, well, you know.”
“Oh really?” Nicole’s interest grew, and she hardly registered as the man with long hair, Tom, went back to his work.
“Yes!”
“So why is it here? Isn’t that kind of thing usually given to children?” This part of Ludus culture was one that Nicole was well aware of. While adventuring, her group found and tried to sell anything of value, including enchanted weapons, armor, or gadgets. Unlike magic-powered technology, enchanted gear had its own power source. However, some of the items they’d had appraised to sell had already had three owners, and if anyone else tried using it, it would crumble to dust.
Nobody would pay for items in this condition, but it was common to donate them to a weapon shop to hand out to children. The children and young people would giggle and laugh while the expensive gear shattered to dust. This practice was supposedly because of some fairy tale on Ludus about a queen who used expired enchanted gear, becoming her equipment’s fourth owner. Nicole thought the story was a handy excuse to let children have the opportunity to hold priceless artifacts, and maybe encourage them to work hard for things they wanted in the future. Either way, the Dolos’ Chosen and most other adventuring groups usually just turned over their would-be treasure if it was useless, expired.
“So why is it on the walls?” Nicole asked.
“Gramie-shilla does it for decoration. She’s been here for a long time, and I have to admit, sometimes it’s fun to see what kind of gear has come through a small town like this, even if none of it is useful anymore.”
Nicole’s brain fogged for a moment before she remembered that Gramie-shilla was the name of the Mo’hali blacksmith. She nodded slowly and said, “I can understand that, I guess.”
Maggie smiled slyly and abruptly changed the subject, obviously getting to what she’d likely wanted to ask the entire time. “Any news?”
At first, Nicole thought it was a strange question, then she remembered how small and remote the little town of Action was. “Not really, most of it you probably know, like Dolos making that announcement about orb-Bonded, making it a hunt with rewards. Since my group has been here, nobody has said anything about our masks so I figure we aren’t the first adventurers to travel through while wearing them.”
Maggie’s eyes sparkled. “Have you seen any fights or assassinations?”
“Yes,” Nicole answered honestly. “My friends and I try to stay out of all of that, though. It’s getting nasty out there. I shouldn’t be surprised that so many people began hunting orb-Bonded so fast, but it still turns my stomach. Monsters are dangerous enough, do we really need to prey on each other? We already had bandits and murderers running around, now it seems like we just have more of them.”
The older woman seemed thoughtful as she digested that. Then she abruptly asked, “Are you orb-Bonded?”
Nicole felt a flash of irritation at the abrasive question, which would have been socially rude even before orb-Bonded had begun being hunted on Ludus. She didn’t hide her disapproval. “Even if I was, I wouldn’t say so, so there’s no point in answering.”
“I suppose not.” Maggie gave a half smile, and Nicole felt her irritation grow. She didn’t know what the woman was trying to do, probably just amuse herself. It was odd, though—if Nicole had actually been orb-Bonded, rude questions would actually be downright dangerous. The law on Ludus was all shades of grey when it came to orb-Bonded. For instance, as an actual ‘Bonded adventurer, Diore would likely be wanted for questioning if she killed a villager like Maggie, but if she only broke a hand or an arm, or just debilitated her for life, the Berber government probably wouldn’t care.
Then again, maybe in a little town like Action, Maggie was just not aware of how the rest of the world worked. At the woman’s age, Nicole doubted it. It was also possible that the older woman was a retired adventurer or something. Nicole decided that ultimately she didn’t care.
“Have a good day,” she said. As she turned, Maggie nodded politely and headed back to what she’d been working on, her mouth twitching.
Bitch, thought Nicole. She went to join Bentru where the earth mage seemed to be finishing her business with the blacksmith. Hopefully Nicole and her friends could leave this town the next morning and head to a satellite office of the Berber Adventuring Guild.
Ludus was bad enough without random Ludans giving her attitude.
***
Nicole felt grateful to get back to the bar her team would be sleeping at that night. Then as Pasha and Diore went out to run their own errands, she finally took a bath. Despite the town being so small, she got her own bathroom. She had some time to kill and gleefully took advantage of it, soaking until her fingers were pruned and beginning to get uncomfortable.
It was amazing how refreshed she could feel after taking a long-awaited bath. After she bathed, she put on her last pair of clean, light clothing, suitable to be her pajamas later on as well, and set about cleaning her gear and her other clothing. Once the group got to a proper city, or a larger town, they could get everything laundered, but for now, she’d make do.
There were likely people in Action who could help h
er, but she was only going to be there for a night and didn’t want to impose, nor owe anyone any favors.
Finally, everything was finished, all her maintenance that she hadn’t gotten to while traveling had been taken care of. She headed back to the room.
Before she’d left the building, Diore had decided that the four of them would be rooming together. Nicole mentally sighed as she settled onto one of the four beds in the windowless room.
Diore’s paranoia was really legendary sometimes, but while she could be a bit...zealous, the Dolos’ Chosen leader wasn’t foolish. Nicole knew the reason Diore wanted all four of them in the same room was to make their inevitable watch rotation easier on whoever would be awake. The arrangement also provided a bit more security for the group, the same reason none of them ever went anywhere alone while they were in an unfamiliar place.
Nicole wanted privacy, but she liked to keep living even more, so as always, she would accept Diore’s judgement without too much complaint. The others would probably come to the same conclusion, as usual.
Pasha still hadn’t returned to their room and Nicole smiled at the unexpected, although likely brief privacy. She fished a book from her pack to read, and with the entire building silent, only the ticking of a clock in another room to keep her company, her eyes began to grow heavy.
She had the presence of mind to eat something, drink a glass of water, and get ready for bed before going back to her book. Before she could finish another chapter, she’d passed out.
***
Nicole awoke with a start, slowly blinking and getting her bearings. In the past, she might have panicked after finding herself in a new place, but she was a lot tougher than that now. The room was dim, but she eventually made out the silhouette of Pasha sitting in a chair and facing the only door to the room. The feisty woman had been reading a book by candlelight, but must have noticed Nicole move.
She put her book down, drifted over, and after the two of them made eye contact, she bent down to whisper, “Diore already assigned watch shifts. I just started mine. Don’t worry, you don’t have a shift tonight so you can just go back to bed and not have to worry about it.”
Delvers LLC- Surviving Ludus Page 34
