Chapter Sixty-Seven — Fairness
Chapter Sixty-Seven — Fairness “Ouch,” I told the ceiling.“Did we die?” Amaryllis asked from somewhere nearby. I couldn’t see her on account of all the dust and stuff in the air. “Did Abraham die, at the very least? That would be fair.”I groaned and pushed myself up, then blinked through the haze as I realized that I was no longer aboard the Shady Lady. At some point I must have been ejected from the ship because I was now on some sort of deck that I didn’t recognize.Coughing, I pushed a bit of cleaning magic into the air around me in a sort of bubble. The worst of the dust vanished and unveiled the Shady Lady’s figurehead embedded into a wooden walkway, cracked planks and splinters all around the ship’s prow.The air cleared a little more when some wind slipped in from where the hangar doors had been at the very back. There was a nice big hole there, roughly Shady Lady shaped, though it looked as if the balloon hadn’t made it into the hangar with the rest of the ship.“Haha! We didn’t die!” Abraham shouted a moment before bursting out from a pile of junk with nary a scratch on him.Raynald was the next to appear. His goggles had a crack running along them and his suit had a few new stains on it, but he seemed fine otherwise. “We’re still alive? Joy.”“That was brilliant flying, Mister Raynald!” I said.“Yes, well, zank you,” the grenoil said as he looked around. “It seems as if ze Shady Lady will need a bit of maintenance before she can take off again.”“Bah, that’s no problem. We’re back home! Once we’re done with all the backstabbing and suchlike we can see about hiring some lads to patch the old Lady up. Maybe I can get that niece of mine to give her a look-see, she always loved the Shady.”Amaryllis hopped off the Shady Lady, tossed a bag that I recognized as my own to the side, then shook herself a little. “Right. Well I’m never flying with any of you again,” she declared.“Ah-hah!” Abraham laughed. “Another young lady ruined by Abraham Bristlecone!”My harpy friend stared at him for a moment, she looked around until she found a nice big piece of wood. Then, with noble poise and grace, she walked over to Abraham and started whaling on him with it.“Ah,” I said.Raynald shook his head. “Let her bleed off some energy. We can look for ze exit in ze meantime.”“Alright?” I said. Amaryllis did seem to be having some fun, and the wood didn’t seem to hurt Abraham at all. A product of his level, or maybe a skill? Or maybe knocks to the head just didn’t do anything to someone like him.Raynald and I moved to the back of the hangar. It was relatively small for a place to store airships, with walls of smooth stone that looked like something bored out with a huge machine. I ran my hands against the smooth surface, curious as to how they’d managed it.At the back were a few small cages with tools within and, much to my surprise, a sort of lift platform with railing that ran all the way up a dark, angled tunnel. Too steep to climb, but not enough that any platforms coming down the lift would be coming straight down.“Here it is,” Raynald said as he found a large machine with a pair of chains running beneath it. A panel on the front was covered in a bit of dust that flew off when the grenoil man made a slight gesture with his hand. “Let’s see if zis still works.”“I hope we won’t be stuck down here,” I said.“Wiz ze amount of fracas we made coming in? I doubt being stuck will be a problem. Being left alone will be a much larger concern.”He pressed a hand to a rune on the machine and it began to make a rattling noise, then the chains beneath started to move, one being pulled in, the other pushed out. It had to be some sort of motor, maybe.“Ah, Miss Bunch, do you have mana to spare?” he asked.Health 111/120Stamina 124/130Mana 101/115“More than a hundred points,” I said.“Good show. Place your hand where mine is, and push your mana into ze rune, if you would please? I will fetch some of our zings in ze meantime.”“Okay,” I said with a shrug. Soon Raynald was off and I heard him confiscating Amaryllis’ stick and telling her to go wait by my side before he dragged Abraham over to the wreck of the Shady Lady.I did hope that they repaired the Shady Lady, she was a nice ship.Soon I was joined by a dirty and rather huffy Amaryllis who was poking at a hole in her shorts and scowling. “Are you alright?” I asked. Pushing mana into the rune hardly required much focus.Amaryllis huffed and crossed her wings. “Yeah, I’m fine,” she said. “Just a little... irate. Forgive me. It’s hardly noble of me to be acting this way.”“It’s okay. An airship crash is a bit of a, um, harrowing experience, I guess.” I thought it had been fun, but it wouldn’t help Amaryllis any if I said as much.“I’m sure,” she said. “I suppose I imagined adventuring to be a little... safer?”“Um,” I said.“You’re thinking that-for once-I’m the one being a moron,” she said.“No?” I said. She looked at me, and I knew that I hadn’t sounded all that confident. “Maybe a little? I think the whole point of going on an adventure is... well, it’s not just about getting something out of it. Or maybe it is that, as long as you count experiences as something you get. We’re out here risking our lives to discover new things, sure, but we’re also bettering ourselves, filling our minds with new ideas, and challenging the world to see how much we can take. That’s where the fun of adventure is, seeing how strong your bonds of friendship can be by overcoming challenges together!”Amaryllis stared at me, her head tilted to the side like a bird that was staring at a piece of toast and wondering if it was on the menu. “Your world must be downright bizarre,” she said. “Where did you learn that kind of thing?”Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!“H-hey,” I said. Laughing at all the cartoons and manga and such I had devoured wasn’t nice. They had important lessons in them.“Haha! Broccoli is right! The life of adventure is the only way to live a proper manly life!” Abraham said as he stomped over. He was carrying the ship’s engine under one arm. An engine that had to outweigh him three times over. At least it was super clean thanks to my cleaning practice the night before.“That’s right!” I cheered. “If we go on tons of adventures we’ll be the manliest, don’t you want that, Amaryllis?”“You absolute moron,” Amaryllis said. “There isn’t enough time left, or effort remaining, for me to beat the dumb out of you.”“Hey!” I said. There was nothing wrong in being the manliest girl ever if it meant having a life full of adventure and friends. Plus, some boys liked girls with muscles. And I was sure that if I worked hard enough, I’d be able to get rid of the Cute skill and replace it with something like Cool.“I’ll take it from here,” Raynald said as he moved to my side.I let him take over, my mana was dipping into the low forties already and I had no doubt he had a whole lot more to work with than I did.The chains started to rattle a little faster and from the hole above came a large wooden platform with metal rails all around it. When it stopped at the bottom, Raynald stepped up to it and opened the front to allow us all aboard.“Zis zing makes quite ze racket,” Raynald said as he moved over to a second panel that was stationed on the platform and pushed his hand onto a rune there. “We should expect some trouble when we get to ze top.”“Bah, nonsense,” Abraham said. “I’m sure it’ll just be a few guards and maybe that butler my brother loves so much. He ought to have married the man instead of that shrew.”“Isn’t she a countess?” Raynald asked.“That’s the thing with shrews, they can be more than just one thing, haha!”The platform shifted and started to climb back up where it had come from, and for a moment I was nervous as we were swallowed by the dark. I kind of wished we had a light. Then I realized something. “I forgot Orange!” I said.“You moron,” Amaryllis said.“Ah, the poor thing, she must be so worried,” I said. “Did you see if she was hurt after the crash?”“She’s a spirit cat,” Amaryllis said. “A little crash like that wouldn’t even begin to scratch her.”“Oh, oh good,” I said. I really didn’t know all that much about my kitty companion. But that was okay, we had plenty of time to learn about each other as time went on. “I’m going to resummon her, will that do anything to the platform?”“It shouldn’t,” Raynald said.I nodded and, under Amaryllis scrutinizing gaze, pressed my hands against my collar and pushed some mana into it.A ball of orange magic appeared before and, and just as it did last time, it resolved into an unamused Orange.“Orange!” I said as I extended my arms for a hug.Orange padded over to Amaryllis and sat on her shoulder.“No...” I whimpered.Amaryllis huffed, and it was an evil, smug huff. One that meant that she thought she was better than me.I didn’t have time to cry or lament the loss of my kitty friend to my birdy friend because the platform rumbled to a stop and I noticed that we were no longer in darkness. There was a slit of open sky, one that began to widen as hands gripped the edges until a pair of sliding doors were pulled aside to reveal a dozen men in shiny plate armour with halberds lowered to point right at us.My hands reached for the ceiling. I knew what to do when the police were around. Be nice and ask to see your lawyer.There were two people that stood out from the bunch, one a straight-backed man with a face whose main expression seemed to be placid resignation, and a guard whose uniform was a lot more colourful and who was wearing a helmet with a bunch of feathers sticking out the top.They eyed us all, then locked onto Abraham.The butler-looking man closed his eyes and sighed.The guard... Captain, I guessed, started to tremble.“Hahaha! A king’s welcome!” Abraham said as he stomped off the platform and batted aside the nearest halberds. “Albert! You sly old dog, you’re still alive?”“Yes, Lord Bristlecone,” the man in the neat suit said with a short bow. “A pleasure to see you returned to our fair lands. You look... well.”“Never been healthier Albert you dog. Who's the boy pissing himself next to you?”“This is Gerald. Commander of the Western guard,” Albert said as if reporting on the fact that it was currently sunny and rather on the warm side.“Well, tell him that shaking in his boots won’t intimidate anyone,” Abraham said. He tossed the ship’s engine to the side where it landed in the grass with a dull thump and didn’t so much as bounce, though it did make all the guards jump back. “Come on girls, Albert here makes a great tea! Sometimes it’s not even poisoned!”“That was a mistake, Lord Bristlecone,” the butler said.“Bah! It didn’t do anything more than make me want to take a piss anyway. Now, where’s that cute little brother of mine? Oh, and get someone to look at the Shady Lady’s engine here. It exploded this morning so we had to coast in for a landing. The hangar’s in a bit of a state too! Haha!” I looked over to Amaryllis, but she just shrugged one shoulder. Judging by the awed looks on the faces of all the guards, Abraham was a known quantity around here. “Come along now! No time like the present to muck up the old mansion!”
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Chapter Sixty-Eight — A Cure for Hysteria and Loneliness
Chapter Sixty-Eight — A Cure for Hysteria and Loneliness I had seen the Bristlecone mansion from afar. Or rather, from above while riding the adrenaline high that comes with knowing you might die at any moment. That’s why I took a moment to really take in the building now that we were on the ground and approaching it at a more reasonable pace.The mansion was built in three parts, with a large section in the centre and two wings that swept around a large garden at the front filled with bright, blooming flowers and a few well-manicured trees. The area was surrounded by a tall wrought-iron fence, and as we approached I could make out a few guards patrolling in pairs.The lot around the mansion wasn’t that large, but it was bigger than the ones for any of the other mansions in the area, so I guessed that it might have been a symbol of status. Most of the homes overlooking the large cliffs were big beautiful buildings, which left me wondering how the people working at the docks got there.Maybe there were more tunnels under the city? That would be pretty neat. I always wanted to meet a fantasy dwarf and braid their beard.“You look excited,” Amaryllis said.I blinked and turned to look her way. “Shouldn’t I be?” I asked.“I suppose there’s no harm in it. I don’t think we’ll be staying here for very long,” she said. ”We’re not exactly in a hurry, but I would rather get going sooner rather than later.”“Where are you heading off to?” The guard commander, Gerald, asked.Our little procession was laid out in a rough column, with Abraham and Albert the butler at the front, Raynald on their heels and then Amaryllis and I in the middle. Gerald and all the rest of the guards were walking behind us, most of them working hard to look as if they were asleep while walking.“Wherever we wish,” Amaryllis said. “Our business is no affair of yours.”“Amaryllis, don’t be rude,” I said.She rolled her eyes. “He’s not your friend, Broccoli, he’s a guardsman of the city.”“He’s an officer of the law, which means we should help him,” I said.Gerald didn’t seem to know what was going on, so opted to stay quiet as we spoke.“Our dealings aren’t in this city and are therefore none of his business,” Amaryllis added. “We can finish up here, then move over to the local Exploration Guild house and announce our presence before moving on.”“Didn’t you just say that we’re not in a hurry?” I asked.“I know you’d rather stick around Abraham and listen to his little stories, but I also said that getting a move on sooner rather than later would be for the best. We can return whenever. Are you really so daft that you only hear what you want to?”“I’m sorry,” I said. “All I heard was you telling me I should ask Abraham for more stories.”Amaryllis glared until I started to giggle and we bumped shoulders while she made a big production of rolling her eyes and being exasperated.Albert the butler insisted that we use the front door to enter the mansion even though Abraham said it was traditional to enter a mansion via a window, the chimney or-in a pinch— the privy pipes.We walked along a little path that brought us to the front of the mansion, where the huge entrance loomed above, flanked by arches that rose up to a balcony where a little boy was watching. He cheered and ran into the building just before we arrived at the front.“Ah-haha! One of my little nephews!” Abraham said. “We need to get the Shady Lady working again, give the lad a taste for adventure before my little brother puts ideas about pushing paper around all day into his head.”Albert jogged ahead to the large double doors at the front of the mansion while Gerald fell back and gave his guards some orders that had them moving off towards the streets before the mansion. He returned just as the butler opened the doors and bowed toward us with a hand extended into the building.The main hall was built to impress, with two rounded staircases on either side, a floor so polished it was practically mirrored, and twin rows of maids and butlers on either side of the entrance with their hands folded before them.At the end of a long carpet that led off from the door was a small family. A husband and wife and three children, including the little boy that had been on the balcony. They were all dressed impeccably, which was impressive seeing as how they probably didn’t know we were coming until a few minutes ago.The man looked a bit like Abraham if Abraham stopped bench pressing engine blocks and instead spent his time eating cake. He also looked ten years older than Abraham, but that faded as soon as he smiled. “Abe!”“Little Lewis!” Abe said as he walked across the entrance hall and picked up Lewis into a big bearhug.I felt a bit like a third wheel as I stood at the back with Amaryllis and the guard commander and Raynald. Not that I would interrupt a meeting between family.Lewis coughed a few times when Abraham finally let go of him. “Ah, come on, Abe, we can talk in one of the living rooms. And you can bring your...” he eyed us all in a hurry. “Guests too.”“Ah-hah!” Abraham said. “Of course! Splendid idea. I haven’t had a good cup of Mattergrove wine in nearly two days! Haha!”The Bristlecone family started to move along and I focused on the younger members. Older people were a little hard to approach sometimes, and the kids, at least the older two, looked to be about my age.The boy was walking with his nose pointing to the ceiling while his upper lip curled up; he didn’t strike me as super friendly. The girl was a lot softer looking, with her head kept down and her eyes focused on the ground when she wasn’t peeking up to spy on Abraham’s back.Lewis paused and looked at Gerald who was following a step behind me and Amaryllis. “Commander Gerald, what are you doing?”“Um,” the commander said. “My job... sir?”“Your job snooping on private family matters?” Lewis asked.“Yes?” the guard said.“How about you go do your job elsewhere?” Lewis suggested in a way that wasn’t terribly suggestive.Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.Amaryllis and I glanced at each other but neither of us said anything. That had been a little rude.The living room we were led to was like a cross between a study and a lounge, with a few sofas around a table, some bookshelves on the far wall, and banners hanging around a little hearth off to one side that was currently unlit.“Please, sit down, make yourselves at home,” Misses Bristlecone said as she smiled towards us and gestured to the sofas. “Abraham, you didn’t introduce your... companions. And what varied companions they are. My, a grenoil nobleman and even a... harpy.”Something about the way the woman spoke made me a little wary of her, but I couldn’t quite pin why.“This,” Abraham said as he patted me on the head like a big rude meanie. “Is Broccoli Bunch! Picked her up in Port Royal after she thwarted a kidnapping attempt by some clever cervid and made the director of the Exploration Guild look like quite the fool!”“Um, no, that’s exaggerating!” I said.“And this,” Abraham went on without even listening to my protests. “Is Amaryllis Albatross. She’s loud, but an alright sort deep down. Haha!”“An Albatross?” Misses Bristlecone asked. Her attitude towards Amaryllis made a sudden one-eighty that had me even more on edge.“Yes,” Amaryllis said. “A pleasure to meet you, Countess,” Amaryllis said as she stood a little taller.The Countess seemed to be waiting for something, but whatever it was it didn’t happen and all of a sudden her smile was a lot wider.“Abraham,” I said as I tugged on the man’s sleeve. “You should introduce us to the kids so we can become friends,” I said.Abraham grinned and his eyes practically sparkled. “Of course!” he said before moving over to the two older kids. “This one is Erato,” he said while waving towards the boy. “Don’t let him get in your knickers, he isn’t worth it.”“Um,” I said. I met Erato’s eyes and felt my cheeks warming up. That was far too forward. And also awfully rude. Poor Erato probably didn’t deserve it.Erato looked me up and down then scoffed. “I’m not keen on that sort of woman, uncle,” he said.Judging people too quickly was wrong... but I could make exceptions.“This little bundle of snot is Callio!” Abraham picked up the little boy, who screeched in joy as the older gentleman tossed him into the air, caught him, and placed the kid on one shoulder much to his delight.I noticed that Miss Bristlecone’s smile was rather fixed for a while there.“Ah, and last but certainly not least is my favourite niece!” Abraham said.The girl, who looked to be about my age, blushed a little and stared at the ground, but she still wore a happy little smile. “I-I’m your only niece, uncle Abe,” she said with a voice so soft I could barely hear her.“What’s your name?” I asked. “I’m Broccoli, Broccoli Bunch.” I extended a hand for a shake and tried on my widest and happiest smile for size.“Awa,” she began, her blush deepening even as she grabbed onto the front of her dress. "H-hi, I'm... um, I Aw-Awawen.""You're Awawen? Hi Awawen! Let's be friends!"“N-no,” she said.My hand dropped. “You don’t want to be friends?” I asked.“Yes! I mean, no. My name’s Aw-” She coughed. “It’s Awen, not... not Awawen.”“Oh, sorry,” I said before tapping the side of my head with my knuckles. “I misunderstood. So, do you still want to be friends?”Awen didn’t seem to know how to react and I was afraid I was being a little too forward with her.“Haha! Awen here is a great mechanic!” Abraham said. “But my little brother coddles her too much. You should take her out on an adventure, let her see the world a little!” he said.Awen looked up and our gazes locked. I wasn’t all that good at reading people, especially so soon after meeting them, but there was so much want in her pretty blue eyes that it would have been impossible to miss.“Nonsense,” Lewis said as he returned into the room. “Our little Awen isn’t suited to that kind of life. And she’ll be changing her class soon enough. Mechanic is hardly an appropriate class for a young noble lady.”Awen seemed to shrink into herself and it was all I could do not to reach out and hug her. She looked like someone had just announced that puppies were illegal now.“Bah, tell anyone that protests that they can argue with me if they want,” Abraham said.“Now now, Abe,” Miss Bristlecone said. “You know that Awen has these little bouts of... hysteria at times. No need to get her so excited.”I gasped. “I have something for that!” I said.I dropped my backpack onto the table in the middle of the room and rooted around until, finally, I found my Wand of Cure Hysteria. “Here Awen,” I said as I waved the wand in her direction. “This should help!”Awen’s parents both stared at my wand as if it was a live snake, Erato choked on air and Amaryllis covered her face with all of her talons. She was probably miffed that I was giving away something that might be valuable, but it was for a good cause.“Um, thank you?” Awen said as she took the wand. She inspected it, turning it this way and that. “I... um, how does this work?” she asked.“Oh, I... don’t know exactly,” I said. That was mortifying. How could I give her something like that without even trying to show her how it worked? So I stepped up and poked it, sending some mana into the wand.It started vibrating. The sound was surprisingly loud in the lounge room.“It uses mana,” I said with a proud smile. “I found it while exploring deep in the Darkwoods.”“Oh,” Awen said. “Th-thank you, M-Miss Bunch. Thank you very much,” she said as she hugged it close. Had no one ever given her a gift before? The poor girl.“Y-you should... put that away,” Miss Bristlecone said.“I don’t have pockets,” Awen said with a gesture towards her dress. I think she just didn’t want to put her new gift away, but really, if we were going to have tea and such then her mom was probably right about putting it away for now.I waved the comment away. “Just give it to your brother, he can stuff it somewhere, I’m sure.”
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