by Lars M.
Huh, that seemed like a reasonable approach. The next handful of papers were even worse than the first one. One was pretty much just a handful of slurs and slang - I couldn't even tell who they were talking about. A final one caught my eye, though.
After checking in with other patrols, it looks like there's fewer new fugitives or Chroniclers coming to High Hold from the north. Over two years, give or take, only a scant handful have made it safely to our city, and those who do invariably come from the south, west or east. Signed By Probationary Citizen Hendrick.
A comment was carved into the parchment. An absence of something is not information. Reprimand the Probationary Citizen.
That final one did look interesting. It could be nothing - or monsters - but also sounded suspiciously like the disappearances surrounding Grant's Crossing. I decided to stuff it into my pocket and get going. As I did, I noticed the blinking icon and checked out the pop-up.
You have been offered a quest:
Tall Tales? (Chronicler Quest)
You have decided to look into Apprentice Citizen Hendrick's tale regarding fewer fugitives making into town and suss out the truth.
Reward:
Unknown.
Accept/Decline?
Nice. I - wait, what? There was yet another blinking icon.
You have been offered a quest:
Dig For Dirt (Chronicler Quest)
You have voiced suspicions regarding the security of the Chronicler system. Investigate into the matter and learn the intricacies of how information makes it to the Hub and back out to the relevant Repositories.
Reward:
Unknown.
Accept/Decline?
Huh. So maybe I wasn't just being paranoid. At the very least, it would give me the chance to kill off my suspicions.
Chapter 24 – The Magic Of A Good Book
My stomach was starting to make its presence known, and I considered my options. I'd skipped lunch and didn't even know if the cantina was open outside break times to serve me godawful food, but if I left the Academy, I sure wasn't going to take the hour-long walk back to the place again. Ah, well. I'd already done the one quest. I'd turn it in and then be back tomorrow for more.
A bit later, I was standing at the billboard, glaring at the quest notification.
Congratulations. You have completed the quest:
Cantina Band
You have performed your duty, providing entertainment for the Academy during the midday meal.
Reward:
You have received 100 experience points. Experience towards next level 3095/5000
Your reputation with High Hold has increased by +50(+20%)=60. New reputation: 1660 (Liked)
1 down, 69-ish to go. I had to figure out some way of improving those numbers, or this was going to take for-frigging-ever.
An hour later, my mood had much improved. I'd gotten some truly excellent kabob wrapped in a huge piece of bread, steaming warm with the juices dripping from it and just the right amount of spices. Pondering what I should spend my time on, I'd returned to my old friend - the mental checklist.
My current checklist was a mess, though. I had a dozen different quests, ideas, and goals and didn't know which one I should aim for first. In the end, I opted for listing out everything I needed to get done in High Hold and then ensure I made progress on everything.
1: Increase my reputation. Find the easiest quests for the best rewards and get to work. Keep using magic - that Affect Emotions spell should become fun on higher levels.
2: Become a Chronicler. That involves finding a topic and some good old-fashioned bribery, apparently.
3: Choose classes. Maybe try a few different ones to make sure I don't waste my time.
4: Find the time to play with Atlas every day.
5: Figure out the deal with those missing fugitives.
After a bit of staring, I added a final line:
6: Have fun.
Everything had become so serious for me lately, and with the realism of my surroundings, I kept forgetting that I was inside a game that I was playing to enjoy myself.
Thus resolved to keep everything from becoming overly complicated, I marched on with a smile on my face. Soon, I found my current target sitting on a bench outside in the sun alongside the rest of her team. "Oy, Tirane!"
The scarred harpy's face split in a huge grin. "Hey, if it isn't the tiny bard. They haven't kicked you from the city… that's good news, right?"
I grinned right back at her. "Yup. And they haven't kicked you from the force. Guess we're both in luck."
Her raucous laugh was infectious. "Too true." She lowered her voice. "Hey, I never got the chance to thank you for your help with the Mangler. You saved us a load of trouble, and now the Night Witches are looking like one of the top teams." She expanded with her arms. "They even let us have the day off. Want to share a mug?"
"I'm not one to say no. Night Witches?"
"Yup - that's us. Because we're damn good at night actions and have keener eyesight than most. And we're silent - when we want to be."
I chuckled. "I'll take your word for it. Hey, believe it or not, I was actually looking for you." I let her in on both the note and my craving for mystery meat. "Do you think you can help with either of those?"
She took a long pull of her mug. "Might be, might be. I'll spread the word that somebody's paying well for something outside of the normal. You are paying well, right?" I nodded and she continued. "Good. We stumble upon the weirdest things out there, so it should only be a matter of time before a team finds anything that can fit the bill. As for the other question... let's move inside for a spell. Come along, the rest of you. Our half-elf friend here deserves to hear the truth.”
We moved inside the tavern - a seedier locale, this one, clearly favored by guardsmen. I saw a good handful of uniformed harpies and other races spread throughout the room. We found a corner table in the back and crammed ourselves in.
Tirane's grin was gone as she spoke in hushed tones, "It's not like this is a secret. The Birds of Prey all know what’s what. Still, criticizing the people in charge is never a recipe to promotion - like Hendrick got to feel. Poor guy. Anyway, it's not like there's much to tell. We used to get the occasional straggler who joined us from the north. We're no more than five days of walking from the forest edge, you know? The last couple of years, however, there's been almost complete silence. But are they listening to us grunts? Nooo. That Chronicler who came to talk with Hendrick made little effort to hide his feelings. 'Stick to stabbing monsters, let us do the thinking.' Snotty, frigging, tattooed freak!"
Tattoed? Aron? He didn't come off as somebody who looked down on warriors, but you never know. "All right, I'm just an Apprentice Chronicler, so I don't have any push with those in charge… yet. But I'm listening. Do you have anything solid?"
Her mouth twisted and she rested her head in her hand. "Of course we don't. How do you prove something's not there? Once, another group found footprints from a large group of humanoids, and this one Chronicler who made it here said he hid in a cave for days because he believed he was being stalked. Still, what does it prove? Nothing." She flung up her hands in frustration. "As long as it doesn't cost the higher-ups anything, they're not likely to look into it."
I looked her right in the eyes. "I will."
"You... will? Why?"
"Out of the good of my heart, obviously," I said with a theatrical half-bow, grinning. "Hah. I can't even say it with a straight face. Nah, I'm working to become a Probationary Citizen and this might just be the thing to prove how helpful I am. I guess, if it helps a bunch of unlearned thugs at the same time, it's not to be helped."
"Hah. You're all right, Arcangelo.” She looked me over with a lecherous grin. ”Add a couple of feathers and twenty kilos of muscle, and you'd be a decent catch."
I half choked on my beer. When I was done coughing and wheezing, I managed, "Thank you for that image. What do you think it could be, though? Monsters? Highwaymen?"
>
"Do you see a highway out here?" she laughed, before composing herself. "No, seriously. There aren't enough targets out here for several highwaymen to make a living, and with the area they'd have to cover, it would have to be several. Monsters? Sure. Except we haven't found any tracks from a monster large or intelligent enough to be the cause of it. I shudder to think what could manage this effect."
I thanked Tirane and left. It was still early in the afternoon, so I decided to go visit Atlas. After a round of circling the area, his presence popped up inside my mind, and before long, I was tumbling around with an ecstatic giant lizard who needed me to play for him. Time passed by as we played and practiced communicating. He was taking to it like a fish to water, and at this point, he understood one in two spoken sentences, as long as I kept to short words. Before long, I looked at the time and sighed. "I've promised the others to eat dinner with them. I know, I know. I want to stay, too, but those bad people in charge didn't think it was a good idea to let you inside the city with tons of sharp-eyed hunters flying around." He looked at me like I'd taken away his favorite chew toy and projected 'sadness' at me. "I'm sorry, Atlas. I don't like it either. I'll make sure to visit you every day and bring you something good."
"Meat?" The word came clearly through our bond and I laughed. Apparently, his heartbreak wasn't something that the promise of a treat couldn't fix.
"Yes, meat," I promised and gave him a final scratch before walking away, details of his requests filling my head.
When I returned to the Perch, Arack was already there. She looked done in, but was completely absorbed in drawing… something on a piece of parchment. I moved closer and looked over her shoulder. Huh. "Hey, that’s that harpy, isn’t it? Morine or something."
Arack jolted and pulled the drawing closer. "Hey. Don’t peek. That’s mine!"
I smiled and held up my hands. "Relax – no harm meant. Besides, you’re actually pretty damn good. I didn’t know you could draw. Can I see it again?"
Grudgingly, she pushed it towards me and I took in the drawing in full. "I can’t believe you never told me you drew. This is top-level stuff. I don’t think Morine even looked this attractive in real life. Nor so – ahem – disrobed."
Arack blushed and then grinned. "That’s easily fixed. Let me just-” She grabbed the image and quickly blurred a few very specific places and turned it back towards me. "Happy, old-timer?"
"Aw. I didn’t mean for you to do that." Lyle remained absent, and I ordered a large portion of whatever the kitchen had before rejoining my talented kobold accomplice on the bench.
"So, unknown talents aside - did the craftsment accept you?"
"Yes. And then some." She had a plate sitting beside her, completely untouched.
"That's wonderful... isn't it?" I glanced at her.
She sighed. "It is. It really is. My head is just swimming with all the new information. I thought I was pretty good for a beginner Alchemist. In fact, I always complained at Videk and Tarek that they wanted to stuff too much into my pretty head. These guys, though, are demanding so much. They're making me memorize the composition of all sorts of things. Like, plants? I didn't become an Alchemist to learn the basics of a flower girl."
"Ouch. You want out?"
"Pits, no. I'm just, like, complaining. I'm going to be the best damn Alchemist whirlwind warrior princess who ever existed." Despite the bags under her eyes, her grin was ferocious.
I snorted. "You’re also bound to be the only one. You’d never be able to make an epic song with that title. Still, I'll help you as much as I can. Probably be good to get some food inside you."
"Mm-hm. Hey, Uncle. Guess what?" She lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. "Did you know that they have all sorts of ingredients just, like, y'know, lying around? Good stuff, too!"
"You didn't!" Her tired grin said otherwise, though. Ignoring that voice inside my head that spoke all too loudly about pots and kettles, I lowered my voice and spoke sternly, "That's going to stop. Right now! No. I don't care how good you are, or how much they leave things lying about. What if there are magical safeguards? Or somebody keeping tabs on all equipment? Do you want to be the one who ruined Grant's Crossing's chance at an alliance because you nicked goods for two silver?"
"No, of course not. I-"
"It will stop. Otherwise I'll march you back right this moment. You hear me?" I was bluffing on that count, but I wanted to get my point across.
"Okay. I'm sorry." Her voice was tiny and filled with hurt.
"Listen, Arack. I know you just want to help - and I love that. But you need to choose your targets. I promise you that you'll get the chance to let loose. It just has to be where it can't come back to bite us in the ass."
"You're not supposed to say ass." The outburst was surprisingly childish. Sometimes I forgot that she was still a teenager.
"Well, what can I say? I'm not a very good role model." I grinned at her.
"I think you're a good role model." The words were almost inaudible and she looked away when she said it.
Unsure what to say, I patted her hand. "Now, let's get some chow, or we'll both fall asleep on the table."
We chatted about unimportant things for a while, trading stories about our day and the people in the city. It turned out that she wasn't going to be allowed to create concoctions right away. The first couple of days were pure memorization and learning. Even following that, every creation would go right back to the school, unless she outperformed the expectations.
I was just considering whether my belly was going to burst or not when Lyle flopped down next to me. "This place is crazy!"
He had lines under his eyes, but his eyes gleamed with something. Excitement, perhaps. "Good crazy?"
"Pits, yes. Have you seen their library? I could spend a year inside just reading and not finish every book."
I smiled. "I did think that was going to be your reaction. Find anything good?"
"Yes! Of course!" He corrected himself. "Also, no. I'm just getting an overview of the place right now. I'm making a list though. Look."
He held a piece of paper up and I read aloud, "Metallurgy for Beginners. Advanced Metallurgy. Techniques for Removing Impurities in Metal. Historic Items Through the Ages. Crafting with Uncommon Materials: An Overview." The list went on, but I looked up at him, smiling. "Sounds like heavy reading. Not a single story about knights on that list?"
He pointed at one near the end. "Right there. Knight Orders of Aeion, Creation and History." Twirling his hands, he looked off to the side and coughed. " When I found the complete adventures of Squire Galen, I may have... lost an hour or so. I'm never leaving this place!"
"Hah. Good to hear that you're enjoying yourself. So what do they have you doing?"
"Oh, just manual labor, that sort of thing. I mean, there are plenty of research tasks available, but I'm nowhere near learned enough for those yet."
"No doubt on that count, meathead," Arack taunted. In retaliation, Lyle reached over to slap her, changing course at the last moment to swipe a sausage off her plate.
"Serves you right, Arack. Heh. Honestly, Lyle, if you keep reading like that, we'll have our very own warrior-scholar soon."
Conversation was light after that. Arack retired early, while Lyle stayed up. One of the Fingers players we'd spent time with the day before was a weaponsmith, and the two were soon buried in a dull conversation about... hell if I knew. As for me, I joined Piter and Viola and dedicated the evening to enjoying myself. I even managed to get a few games of Fingers in right before closing time, with a single increase to Gambling to show for it. With that, I hit 10 and Apprentice Gambling, leading to an… interesting update.
Congratulations. You have reached the Apprentice level with your skill:
Gambling
You have learned the basics of gambling. From now on, visiting the right places will allow you access to otherwise unavailable gambling quests.
I highly doubted there were any underground gambling dens ba
ck in Grant’s Crossing, but I looked forward to seeing what this one would bring with it.
Chapter 25 – The Magic Of Actual Magic
The following day was promising to be an emotional rollercoaster. First up was the class "Knowledge on Neyrus" that I had decided to attend, which turned out to be a mix of general lore and geography, both pre- and post-Separation. The teacher was living testimony to why I had disliked school back in the day. His complete lack of intonation or passion managed to make the current situation on Aeion seem like something that had happened centuries earlier. After five minutes, I was struggling to keep my attention fixed on the teacher, and after ten, it was getting hard to stay awake. I survived one class, but I sure wasn't going to power through any more, simply for the hope of increasing my lore skill. I didn’t even manage a single skill point, either. You probably had to be mentally there to learn.
Impressive how bad teachers manage to pop up everywhere, even inside fictional schools. I went to Carth for a change of pace. The friendly half-orc quickly made my disappointment disappear as he explained the possibilities regarding the social quest.
"You're telling me I can resolve this however I choose?"
He shrugged. "Yep. Honestly, we don't care. I mean, we don't want any violence, and you would be wise to avoid making any enemies. All the Academy cares about is that the conflict is resolved and teaching is back to normal. Nathaniel and Derek used to be friends, but now their rivalry is disrupting classes."
Quest updated:
Intervention
You have been tasked with improving the social well-being in the Academy. Carth will have the details for you.
