Fae and Fare, page 46
part #2 of The Wandering Inn Series
“Something like that. Just place your hand on the seal, and it will do the rest. Don’t worry; it won’t hurt you.”
That didn’t sound reassuring, but Val was insistent, and Erin was intensely curious. Gingerly, she put her palm on the stone.
The black light glowing from the stone turned immediately white. Erin snatched her hand back, but the stone didn’t do anything else. It just fell off the ribbon, and Val caught it as the package began to unravel slightly.
“My delivery has been completed. Thank you.”
“Um, you’re welcome. I mean, thanks!”
Erin took the wrapped object and looked at it, at a total loss. It wasn’t that heavy—it felt rectangular and hard under her hands. She looked at Ceria desperately.
“What should I do. What is this?”
The half-Elf shrugged. She stared intently at the package. Even the Courier seemed interested. He coughed into his hand.
“You’re free to dispose of the package, but it’s nothing dangerous. The mage at my Guild would have detected that. It’s a delivery to you.”
“Well then…should I open it?”
Olesm nodded eagerly. He stared at the piece of parchment in his claws and then at the package.
“It must be from whoever sent that puzzle in the first place! Open it, Erin!”
“If it’s not too much trouble, I’d like to see what it is as well. I’ve come a long way and the curiosity is eating away at me.”
Erin blinked at Val, and then nodded.
“Of course. Sure! First Landing…that’s far, right?”
Pisces snorted and Ceria laughed. Val looked amused.
“Very far.”
“Well, um, have a seat if you want. This is an inn. Right, it’s an inn and I’m the innkeeper. I can get you food and I have a bed if you’re tired. Just as soon as I…”
Erin carried the package over to a table next to the one Pisces was at. The mage stood up, and he and Ceria walked over as Olesm and Val stared at the unassuming package.
Erin held her breath as she undid the black ribbon and pulled away the brown fabric. What could it be? She barely remembered sending the chess puzzle out, but someone had spent lots of money to send her something back? What could it be?
The last of the fabric fell away to reveal what was within. Everyone crowded closer to look, and then stared. Olesm’s face fell, and Erin felt disappointed.
It was…a chessboard. Just a chess board. It was made of gloriously smooth wood, and there was a deep richness to the set that made Erin think that she was holding something worth thousands of dollars in her world, but it was just a chess board.
It didn’t even have any pieces with it.
For a second, everyone stared at the chess board, and then Pisces snorted and went back to his hamburger. Erin stared down at the carved piece of wood, disappointed and even more confused than before.
“What’s this? It’s just a chess board. Why would anyone send me that?”
Ceria poked the board and shrugged.
“It looks nice. That’s quite a nice grain of wood there. A solid piece of Afzelia if I’m not mistaken.”
Erin had no idea what that was, but it sounded expensive. Even so, the chess board mystified her.
“What good is a chess board without pieces, huh?”
That was sort of the point. You didn’t need a chess board—the pieces were what mattered. You could play on the ground with lines drawn in the dirt if you had the pieces. But what good was a board?
Olesm scratched the spines on his head.
“Maybe it’s a gift to whoever made such a good puzzle?”
That made sense, but Erin wasn’t sure.
“It was just a puzzle. It wasn’t that hard. I know a lot more that are even worse.”
Olesm’s tail sagged.
“What? Really? But I worked so hard on it!”
Erin bit her tongue and tried to take back her words.
“I don’t mean it’s easy. No—you did a great job, Olesm! It’s just that I don’t get why anyone would spend this much money sending something just for a chess puzzle.”
“Some rich folks are like that. It could just be a gift of appreciation.”
Val nodded at the chess board, and Erin jumped to remember he was still there. He frowned at the board.
“It doesn’t explain why the sender was in such a hurry to get it here, but I suppose some people are simply impatient. But there was no request for a reply, just a confirmation of delivery.”
Was that curious? Erin thought so. What was the point of sending a chess puzzle if you didn’t send another, even harder one back? That was how it was supposed to go, and she was really looking forward to a dialogue. Back in her world, she’d done that with several people online…
The Courier shrugged, and rolled his shoulders, cracking his neck gently.
“Well, it’s a mystery. But I’m glad I was able to find you. I searched the entire city for the better part of an hour before I was told Olesm might be in this inn. And then the inn turned out to be in a different spot than I was told.”
“Oops. Um, yeah. We…moved a few days ago.”
“It only took me a few minutes to find the correct one. Don’t worry about it; the signs were helpful.”
Val smiled, and Erin smiled back. He had an openness to him that she liked.
“Well, I guess I’ll use this later. It’ll be good if we play more games of chess. For now…”
The wrappings Erin tossed in the kitchen. She could reuse some of it, and the brown fabric looked tough. She put the board on a table in one corner of the room and forgot about it the instant she turned around. Erin looked at Val and realized she had an opportunity here.
“Um, Val? I’m really grateful you came all the way here. And I’m actually an [Innkeeper], and this is my inn. So…would you like something to eat before you go?”
The Courier had been stretching, possibly about to run out the door. But at Erin’s words he paused, and grinned. He looked around the inn and nodded.
“I’d love that. Do you have anything you recommend?”
Erin smiled slyly, and Olesm and Ceria had to grin.
“How about a hamburger?”
Pisces raised one hand and called out.
“I shall have another!”
—-
Ryoka ran through the night and into the next day without stopping. It was willpower and desperation that kept her moving. Only that and one of Octavia’s stamina potions.
Every time Ryoka took a gulp of the terrible, blue liquid she wished she could rip out her tongue. But a second later energy would flood through her veins like a bursting dam. She ran ahead, legs forgetting the aches they kept reminding her body of, sprinting down the frozen road by herself.
But no matter how fast she ran, she knew she would never catch Val. He was so fast. Beyond fast. He’d surpassed the human limit. Her limit.
A horse would have been hard-pressed to keep up with him. No—he was probably neck and neck with a galloping horse. Maybe faster.
God. Ryoka closed her eyes for the briefest moment as she ran on. She’d always thought she could take on the challenges of this world by herself, without magic or classes. With some clever tactics and Octavia’s alchemy, Ryoka had thought she might qualify as a Courier. But Val had shattered that illusion.
He could run twice as fast as she could. That wasn’t just cheating. It was reinventing what it meant to be human. If people could beat horses without machines…
Maybe it was time to rethink her ideals. If that was what Ryoka could attain, maybe…
Ryoka’s melancholic thoughts were interrupted by a flash of light far off to her left. She paused, slowed, and changed directions in a heartbeat. Something was lying in the snow, around a mile away.
It was small at first, but as Ryoka approached she realized the object was actually huge. She stopped as the snowy ground grew muddy underfoot.
It was a…massive suit of armor. It lay spread-eagled on the ground, in an area of ground that was no longer covered in snow. The snow had melted, and something had turned the wet grass into a muddy landscape.
Ryoka slowed as she made her way across the broken earth and churned and muddy ground. What had happened here? A battle of some kind. But this armor…
As she stepped next to it, Ryoka realized that this armor wasn’t normal at all. It was plate armor to begin with; black metal hammered together to create an imposing behemoth. And behemoth was the right word for this armor. It was massive.
Even Calruz—even he would have found the armor a loose fit. But that wasn’t what attracted Ryoka’s attention. No, it was another aspect of the armor that bothered her.
It was battered. There was no other word for it. It looked like someone had bashed every single square inch of the armor with hammers. The black metal was dented in places—in others, Ryoka found holes where something small had punched through the metal.
Crossbow bolts? Ryoka doubted it, but that was the only thing she could think of. Either that or a huge longbow had done this damage. She’d seen only one broken crossbow in her entire time in this world, but something had punched through the armor.
But that brought another question to Ryoka’s mind. She squatted down next to the damaged piece of plate. It had no helmet, so she could peer inside without a problem. And what she saw was an absence of any blood or flesh.
There was no blood on the armor. Anywhere. That was the oddest thing. With all this damage, there surely should have been some blood or a corpse nearby, but the armor was simply empty.
Ryoka looked around. Someone had fought there. There should be some bodies. But there weren’t. She saw something else sticking out of the ground and headed towards it.
A massive, broken sword was embedded in the ground twenty meters away. Ryoka stared at it and noticed how something had cracked the blade in two different places.
“What the hell…?”
Just by following the muddy ground, Ryoka could see a terrific battle had been waged in this area. The swath of muddy ground was nearly two miles across, and reached all the way back to the foot of a mountain in the distance.
Ryoka followed them to an odd opening in the rock. It looked like the opening to a cave, but very small. It was just large enough that the massive armor might have fit through, but it was too thin to let anything wider through.
The human girl peered into the darkness of the cave, but couldn’t see anything. She went back to the armor, and regarded it.
“Steel?”
She was no metallurgist, but Ryoka guessed that was the case. It rang as she knocked on the armor with her knuckles. Iron would have been more of a thunk.
Who had the resources to make something so expensive? Ryoka was almost tempted to try and see if she could salvage the armor, but it was so wrecked she didn’t know if it was worth it.
It was probably worth it either way. Ryoka mentally marked the location as something to come back to. After a moment of hesitation, she buried the armor in the snow so it would be less visible from the road.
But who had fought here? Who was the wearer of the armor, and who had destroyed it? There were no clues.
Just another mystery to solve. Ryoka groaned as she stood back up. More tracks led into the crack in the mountainside. Something had gone in there, but Ryoka wasn’t about to follow.
For one thing, she was exhausted. For another, she had an aversion to entering dark caves where something with a crossbow might or might not be lurking. And for a third reason, she had a Courier to catch.
She was only a few hours away from Liscor. Ryoka made her way back to the road and set off. Her body hurt. She wanted another sip of the stamina potion, but Octavia had warned her it could only stave off exhaustion for so long.
Ryoka ran through the brightening morning, thinking only of the end. She could have food, a place to sit, and hot water when she got to Erin’s inn.
But when she arrived at the place where The Wandering Inn should have been, Ryoka only saw an empty hilltop. She stared up at the empty spot and looked around. No. She was definitely in the right place. But…
“…Where the hell did it go?”
—-
The inn’s glass windows were full of warmth and light when Ryoka finally found it. For a few minutes she just leaned against the wall of the inn, too exhausted to do anything else. Then the tantalizing smell and heat from inside called to her, and she pushed the door open.
The room was beautifully warm, and the instant Ryoka entered, she saw a familiar face. Ceria sat at one table, smiling and laughing with Olesm. Pisces sat across from them, munching on a familiar food. Erin sat at a table and laughed with Val—
Val.
Ryoka stopped in her tracks as Erin got to her feet. The Courier inclined his head at her and said something apologetically. She waved it away as she walked towards the kitchen.
“Another hamburger? Coming right up!”
Ryoka stared at Val as he leaned back in his chair and sighed happily. He had several empty plates on the table, and he looked like he’d been in the inn for quite a while.
He looked towards the open door, and saw Ryoka. Instantly, Val smiled.
“Ryoka? What a surprise! I didn’t expect to see you here! Did you just get in?”
Everyone in the room looked up at the sound of her name. Erin halted in her tracks, and beamed.
“Ryoka!”
Ceria got to her feet, and so did Olesm. Ryoka walked slowly forwards as her friends approached.
Erin went to hug Ryoka or do something friendly, but then she halted a few feet away from the running girl. Olesm sneezed, Erin coughed, and Ceria leaned away from Ryoka. She couldn’t blame them.
She stank.
“Sorry. I just got here. Ran all night.”
Ryoka knew she was drenched in sweat, melted snow, and not a bit of mud. But Erin waved at her face and smiled anyways.
“Wow, that’s fast! Here, take a seat and I’ll get you some food. And a towel. Do you want a drink? I’ve got this alcoholic drink I bought from Krshia…”
Ryoka sat at the table opposite Val and stared at him. Erin hesitated.
“By the way Ryoka, this is another Runner. A Courier, actually. His name is—”
“Val. We’ve met.”
“You have? That’s so weird!”
Val nodded. He didn’t seem bothered by Ryoka’s pong.
“We just met in a city north of here. Ryoka actually helped me find my way here. But I didn’t think we’d meet in this inn. You’ll never believe this, Ryoka, but it turns out my destination was here all along. I was delivering it to this innkeeper, Miss Erin.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah, it was a chessboard!”
Erin excitedly pointed to the chessboard in the corner of the room.
“I guess it was because I sent this puzzle to someone. And they gave me a chessboard. Well—it’s not that amazing, but it’s cool that we all know each other!”
“Oh?”
Ryoka’s face was completely blank. Erin blinked at her, but Val leaned over to her.
“I think Ryoka would do better with some food and drink in her. Water, not alcohol.”
“Oh, right! You must be starving! Coming right up!”
She was so tired Ryoka didn’t even question the hamburger. But she did nearly tear up, especially when she bit into it.
A proper hamburger. Not crap fast food. She ate two before she even realized what was happening and drank six glasses of water. Slowly—the food she’d take, but she had no intention of vomiting in this new inn.
“…And then they gave me windows, see?”
Erin was finishing explaining how her inn had moved from its previous location. It was a disjointed explanation, but Ryoka got the gist. Exploding inns? She had no idea what to make of that.
“Well, I am glad to have discovered this inn. I’ve never tasted food like this. I’d love to take the recipe back up north. I’m sure the innkeepers up there would love to learn it.”
Val sighed as he rested his hands over his full stomach. Erin smiled crookedly.
“It can’t hurt to tell you, I guess.”
There was something behind her words, but Ryoka’s head felt like static. She was full, and dog-tired, but she had another thought as she looked at Pisces and Ceria, arguing over something in the corner.
“I’ve got a problem.”
Everyone looked at her, and Ryoka realized she shouldn’t have blurted it out. But it was too late now. Ryoka’s exhausted mind couldn’t handle subtleties, only the thing that had bugged her all the way here.
“Can you tell if someone’s cast a mind-altering spell on me?”
She addressed that comment to Pisces and Ceria. The two mages blinked and exchanged a glance, and then came over to sit at their table.
“Mind magic? What, did someone hit you with something, Ryoka?”
“Maybe. I don’t know. Can you test me?”
It was just something the faeries had said. But the only people Ryoka even remotely trusted were the two in front of her. Ceria and Pisces exchanged another look and nodded. They were oddly in synch at times.
“There’s an easy way to tell, although it’s odd. Normally, a spell that messes with the head will remain concealed until the victim is aware of it. And naturally the magic prevents them from realizing something’s off. But if you think there’s a spell on you, this should work.”
Ceria explained as she raised her hand. Her fingertips were glowing green. Across from her, Pisces closed his eyes as his fingertips glowed blue.
“[Detect Magic].”
Pisces and Ceria cast the spell at the same time and glared at each other. The room suddenly lit up.
Ryoka and Erin gasped as Val suddenly exploded in colors like a Christmas tree. Magical auras swirled around him, concentrating on spots about his person. His pockets, places at his belt—
“Tree rot. You were right, Ryoka!”
Ceria pointed at Ryoka. She looked around, and noticed a shining coming from her as well. It was hard to see, but there was something…swirling around her head? Something bright, like a halo of smog. Erin stared at it.
“Hey! Your belt is glowing too!”
It was true. Some of the potions on Ryoka’s belt were glowing faintly, but one of them—the orange-pink potion Teriarch had given her was shining with light. Val whistled.
