Chapter Five Hundred and Fifty-Six — Edge of an Empire
Chapter Five Hundred and Fifty-Six — Edge of an Empire Southerfell was as good a place as any to stick around for a day, even if I was a bit worried that the local nobility might be somewhat... not very nice, at least from the hints the nice guard captain had dropped.We weren't here for that, though, so I decided to not stick my ears out any more than I had to. It would be best to avoid problems.Our goal was that little village that Celiga, the historian, had brought up, and unfortunately we didn't know the exact location of it."So, this is the plan," Amaryllis said as we stood on the ship's deck. It was about midday. A lot of the crew had taken naps and we were... if not in tip-top shape, then at least we weren't so badly off. I think my Captaining skills was working to let me know that everyone was functional, at least, if not yet at their best. "Awen has a significant amount of repairs to look after. The Scallywags, and Steve, will be assisting her."Awen nodded once with a little 'mhm!' next to me. "I'll ah, do what I can," she said."Is the damage that bad?" I asked.She raised a hand and wiggled it in a so-so gesture. "The bolts that went through the hull are going to be annoying to repair. I have some skills to help, but it might be best if we can find a carpenter? One of the big hull-planks was smashed in half, so we'll need to replace it, and getting one cut and curved just right is going to be time-consuming. But it's not a structurally important part. I mean, no more than the rest of the hull? If it's not nice-looking, then it's not that bad, only...""Only we want it to be nice-looking," I said.Awen nodded. "Yeah.""We can afford to hire a carpenter," Amaryllis said. "While you do that, I'll be talking to the first mate of the other ships in the convoy. They did agree to donate some money, to get us back in fighting shape. The cost of a carpenter and some materials is nothing compared to the potential losses we helped them avoid."That seemed fair. "What's the rest of the plan?" I asked."You, Broccoli, are going to go into town with... hmm..." Amaryllis scanned the crew. "We need more humans if we're going to be working with humans.""Huh?" I asked."They tend to prefer working with their own sort," Amaryllis said. "I suppose you can go with Desiree. The two of you are close enough in appearance. Your goal is to locate the town we're heading to. Maps, rumours, any information you can find.""Alright!" I said with a thumbs up. That I could do! "What about the party?""The... what?" Amaryllis asked."What party?" Calamity asked.I pointed to Southerfell. It wasn't super obvious, but there were definitely signs. Banners were going up across the city, and it looked like people were cleaning rather vigorously. People seemed to have a lot of pep in their step. They might have just been happy, but my senses were telling me that there was something up."It's New Years Eve," Bastion said."Is it?" Caprica asked. She closed her eyes, lips moving, then opened them wide. "My goodness, it is. We'd be celebrating it tomorrow in Sylphfree.""Today in the Harpy Mountains, then," Amaryllis said. "At the stroke of midnight.""Do we know what they do here to celebrate?" I asked. There were a bunch of headshakes, so I supposed it would be up to me to find out! "Okay then! Well, I think we ought to have a bit of a celebration too. Calamity, Bastion, Caprica, you're not part of Amaryllis' plan, right?"Amaryllis' lips drew into a line, but she didn't say no."We're not," Calamity said."Neat! Then your job is to grab some coin and get us some food! I don't know how others celebrate New Years, but back home it's always been by gathering together, eating lots of finger food, and gossiping for hours until it's time to count the last seconds of the year away."That seemed like a plan that everyone could get behind. It would mean another long night, but this time with a much more fun twist than looking out for pirates. I think my friends deserved a bit of fun anyways!With everyone given some task or another, we split up and started to head out. It would be good to get any shopping or whatever done before the entire city got too excited for the New Year celebration and things closed down.Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.Desiree came up next to me, and we joined arms as we made our way down some wooden stairs on wheels all the way to the ground."Feels weird to have left the desert so abruptly," I said."Hah! I could do without returning to that furnace!" Desiree said. She twisted her tails around and ran her fingers through the floof. "Half the desert's sand has insinuated itself into my fur."I giggled, then tried to help with a bit of Cleaning magic, but Desiree complained that even if there wasn't any sand in her tails, she could still feel it. We really had to find a way to install a shower in the Beaver, though I imagined that would be pretty complicated.The air around Southerfell was a huge departure from the air in the Ostri Desert. For one, it wasn't nearly as hot and dry. Instead, as the sun climbed higher, it was warm and wet.The northern end of the city overlooked a cliffside that dropped down to the Moonstruck Sea. We couldn't quite see it from where we were, but I'd caught sight of it from the air. The sea pushed out warm, swirling winds, thick with humidity.When the wind shifted and came from the south instead, it was even warmer and muggier. That way lay the Silverstar Forest. We'd flown over the northern edge of it, where forest was sparser.The Silverstar Forest was more of a jungle, from what I'd heard. Massive trees with huge, thick canopies covered a small, hidden world of entwined branches and vines and a multilayered thicket.I wouldn't want to have to navigate through that, actually. It seemed like an annoying kind of adventure.Desiree and I chatted until we reached the gate into the city. On this side, it was barely manned. A few guards who glanced us over before letting us in. I supposed that that was one of the advantages of being so far from everything.As we walked through the more industrial parts of Southerfell, all of them on the southern end of the city, we came across a large trainyard. It looked like there were cargo containers of different sizes, all being loaded into box-cars with cranes and trolleys.It looked like Southerfell was connected to the rest of Pyrowalk, all via a long trainline that ran along the northern shore all the way to a space called the Betrayer's Strait. At least, that's what I gathered from talking to a local for a few minutes while waiting at an intersection.The people here were pretty talkative, and it was nice to be able to just ask a question and have someone tell me what I wanted to know. Though Desiree and I did get a lot of weird looks and some double-takes. Whenever we talked to someone, they'd kept staring at our ears.Maybe it helped that we looked like adventurers, and that we were asking about the local adventuring places. They didn't have an Exploration Guild, but they did have one for adventurers, and people were happy to point us in that general direction.As we left the more industrial areas of the city, the new years stuff became more common and a lot more colourful.People were stringing up these long vines across the street and from home to home. I think they were cuttings taken from the forest. Little girls were weaving knots of flowers into the vines, and there were little wooden lanterns being put up all over. They had thin, papery covering and small wooden bases that held onto thick candles.The papers were often painted in greens and forestry colours, or in blues and greys with wavy patterns.Eventually, we found the Adventurer's Guild. It was nearer to the northern parts of the city, just a block over from the noble quarters and surrounded by nicer shops and other guilds. Young men and women, often wearing a few bits and bobs of armour and carrying sheathed weapons, were lingering around the place, but Desiree and I managed to squeeze our way in without too much trouble."Alright," I said as I turned to my foxy friend. "Let's find someone who's in charge around here, or like, an archivist, question them about the location of our destination, and then we can head back!"I was looking forward to celebrating the new year with my friends tonight!
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Chapter Five Hundred and Fifty-Seven — Outside Context People
Chapter Five Hundred and Fifty-Seven — Outside Context People "Hi," I said as I bounced up to a nice wooden counter. It wasn't so much nice because it was nice wood (though it wasn't ugly wood, certainly, the grain was... very grainy, and the counter had little filigree decorations along the outside) what made it nice, at least to me, was how worn it was.The counter had been treated with oils and such to keep it nice and shiny, but that didn't prevent a large area of it from being worn down. It looked like the kind of counter where a thousand little touches and scrapes had started to dig into the wood.It made it feel homey, and it fit in with the rest of the place.The Adventuring Guild reminded me a little of the Exploration Guild, but it did differ in some big ways.For one, it was a lot busier.For another, the Exploration Guild branches I'd stepped into had usually been pretty quiet and stately spaces. Comfy, sure, but like... luxuriously comfy? The guilds had nice furniture and a focus on classy materials that would last a long time. A lot of them felt almost like stepping into a museum, or a bank.I supposed that fit. The Guild had people that were nobility in their ranks, and old-timey Explorers were tough and usually on the well-off side, so their hangouts kind of felt that way. Like really fancy hunting lodges.The Adventurer's guild felt like more of a cross between a dingy-but-well-loved bar and an accountant's office.In one corner was fireplace with cheerily crackling flames, and in the other was a bar with moderately rowdy patrons. Behind the bar was a kitchen, from which wafted the scent of garlic and roasting meat and fresh bread, while in front of the bar were round tables and chairs and a lot of adventurers. On the other side of the seating were short counters with people behind them, including the one Desiree and I had arrived at.The young man behind the counter looked up from some papers and seemed to do that thing where he rewound and replayed my greeting. "Oh, uh, hello," he said. "How can I help you? Are you adventurers?""Nope," I said. "I just thought that this might be the best place to ask a few questions, but we could be wrong.""Certainly," the man said. He sat up in his seat, eyed mine and Desiree's ears for a moment, then refocused on my eyes. "So, what can I help you with?""We're members of the Exploration Guild," I said, thumbing my pin. "We're coming in from... I guess Port Royal? We're basically on a quest!"The receptionist blinked a couple of times, then started. "Oh! Well, that's very nice. We don't often get visitors from out of town. I mean, from out of the Empire. I suppose that explains the, uh..." he gestured vaguely above his head, making little ears out of his hands."I guess?" I said. "I was born a human, though," I said. "It's only when my class evolved that I got the bunny ears. See, I still have my old human ones." I shifted some hair out of the way to show him."Oh, you have an evolved class?" he asked. "That's impressive.""Almost everyone on the crew has at least evolved once," Desiree replied.The receptionist's smile turned a bit wooden at that. Was that something wrong to say? "R-really? Well, that's very, ah, impressive. In any case, did you wish to speak to the head of the guild?""No no," I said. "We're just looking for information about a small town."He blinked. "Okay. Well, we do have a member who hands out missions in the vicinity. Is this small town close to Southerfell?""It should be," I said. "It's along the coast of the Moonstruck Sea, at least."He nodded, then gestured for us to give him a minute. A solid three minutes later, the receptionist returned, escorting an older gentleman in the local equivalent of a suit. "Hello, this is mission commander Joshua Paperson. I think he might be able to assist you with your inquiry. If that inquiry turns into a mission for the guild, he should be able to help with that as well.""Hello," Mister Paperson said with a nod. "Pleasure to meet you, misses. Shall we have a seat somewhere a little more discreet?""That'd be nice!" As homey and warm as the main lobby was, it was also kind of on the louder side.Mister Paperson led us through a thin wooden door into the back area, which was quite richly appointed, with a thick carpet on the ground and oil lamps hanging on the walls providing enough soft light to see by.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.We were brought into a small sitting room. "Tea? Coffee?" Mister Paperson asked."You have coffee?" I asked."Yes! Sourced from the jungle, in fact. It's one of the more popular types of missions to hand out to lower levelled adventurers. Of course, these come from local companies that ship them elsewhere, but a few beans always end up at the guild. I daresay some of our staff couldn't live without.""Wow! That's neat," I said. "But, ah, no thanks! I was never much of a coffee drinker. Some tea would be nice?""I shall try this 'coffee,'" Desiree said. "Why venture so far from home if not to attempt new things, yes?"Mister Paperson left, then quickly returned with two pots and something that looked like a French press. He poured for us while we made ourselves comfy on a pair of couches. "So, how might the guild assist two young ladies from our... sister organization.""Is the Exploration Guild well-known here?" I asked, curious."Not as well as the Adventurer's," he said. "Though the reputation of the Exploration Guild does precede it. Common folk in the Empire either see it as a knock-off of the Adventurer's guild-forgive me for that, I know it isn't accurate-or as a foreign take on something familiar. Those who know better are generally aware that the level caps in the Exploration Guild are a lot higher than what we usually keep.""Oh, I don't know, I haven't even been a member for a year.""But you did complete a dungeon and gained your second class," he pointed out."Well, yeah, I've completed ..." I paused and tried to count it out. "Nine dungeons? No, eight. I never got all the way through that Freudian one."He blinked."Anyway! We're getting off topic! My friends and I came to Southerfell because it's the nearest city to the place we're looking for.""And what place is that?" he asked."It's a small town along the coast. We don't have a name for it, but we're pretty sure it's to the east of Southerfell. It might be right next door, or some ways away. I don't know, but I was hoping someone here might!"He reached up and rubbed at his chin. "We could provide you with a map with such locations, but I'd be failing at my job if I don't at least charge a nominal fee, you understand?""Yup! That makes sense," I said. Maps had to be made, and that couldn't be cheap! There were probably people out there with some sort of Cartographer class, though. But I bet that they weren't exactly common!Mister Paperson nodded. "In that case, I'm certain we can help you. Would you mind if I enquire as to why you're looking for this town?""I don't," I said. "If you know about the Exploration Guild, then you'll know that we like exploring things. We're hunting down an old mystery. Have you ever heard of the Black Avatars?"His eyebrows rose. "I have. In children's stories, mostly.""Neat! That's kind of what we're chasing after. Apparently they had an old fortress next to one of the towns near here, and one day it up and left. The entire fortress! That's really neat, so we want to check the area out.""So ..." his expression had turned a bit uncertain. "You chartered an airship and ... flew all the way out here to investigate this ... fortress?""Chartered?" I asked."I mean, booked passage.""Oh, no no, the ship we came on-the Beaver Cleaver-is ours," I said.He cleared his throat. "I see." He tugged at the neck of his nice suit. "Well, in any case. For one gold piece, I'm certain we can provide you with a map, and I can canvas the adventurers that are present to see if any knows what town, specifically, you'll be looking for?""That would be super nice!" I said. I opened up my pouch, rooted around for a moment within, then set down the smallest gold coin I had onto the counter. "Is that good enough?" I asked."Of course!" he said.Desiree was shaking her head next to me for some reason."I'll get that for you right away. Wait here for just a moment.""Okay!" I said.Now... since we were mostly done, maybe I could ask someone local about their way of celebrating New Years? It'd be fun to try!
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