When Fuyuko had her armor and covering clothes back on, she tested out her arm and shoulder, and when she was satisfied with how much better it felt she headed back to the main hall. Along the way, she passed an exhausted-looking two-tailed fox curled up on a bench, whom she assud was the sa healer kitsune who had worked on her shoulder. It was briefly tempting to give the little vixen scritches behind her ears, but the luponi clasped her hands behind her back to rein herself in. She felt that she suddenly understood so of the adults in her life a little better, ears like that were tempting. The idea made her own ears itch, and she shook her head to rid herself of those thoughts.
She found Gil and Traxalim waiting for her, and did her best to curtsy to Traxalim, “Thank you for your work, my shoulder feels perfect now.”
The old elf chuckled, “You are quite welco lass, but curtsying is currently only in vogue in the courts, a bow would have been appropriate. Though practicing is not a bad idea, if you do end up working with those three, you may end up dealing with royalty.”
Fuyuko shot a narrow-eyed look at Gil, who raised his hands innocently, “Hey, last ti I was here it was common for most won to curtsy unless they outranked the other person. I can’t keep up with customs that change after only a few decades.”
After a shake of her head, she turned back to Traxalim because now it was her turn to tell her story, with Gil filling in his parts. It took a little while, but when they were done, Gil added sothing that sent chills down her spine. “Oh, and it felt like The Witch was restless. She normally doesn’t bother moving about much, but her presence wasn’t at a steady distance.”
“But you didn’t encounter her directly?” Traxalim asked.
Gil snorted, “I’m not limping in with festering wounds that won’t quite heal, am I? No, we never got near each other. And I’ll be happy to keep it that way if I can. I’ve never been good at playing those sort of pretend-to-be-polite gas. I swear I took her head that one ti, but, well…”
“Mm, death doesn’t really stick to beings like her, it’s more of a temporary inconvenience,” Traxalim replied, then noticed Fuyuko’s expression and chuckled, “Don’t worry about it child, for soone like you just being polite and deferential should be fine, so long as you show enough spine. That one expects more of people like Gil and I. Also, I think Gil’s existence annoys her, so she sotis goes out of the way to harass him. That, or he amuses her, it’s hard to tell the difference.”
These two were just casually chatting about dealing with The Hag like it was an inconvenience, instead of terrifying. She’d already begun to suspect that Gil was an immortal, and this lent weight to that idea, but this elven priest was apparently at the sa tier of power. The thought was dizzying. And Fuyuko refused to even think Her na when She was being talked about so directly.
Gil’s laughter snapped her attention to him, “Hah, getting a glimpse behind the curtains of civilizations, are you? I’ll give you a heads-up, there are a lot more people like us around than most people realize. But we are also the ones that help keep people like the old woman in check. I learned my lesson about trying to be involved with things like kingdoms a long ti ago, it doesn’t turn out well.”
“I, but, you said you took her head? How?” Was all Fuyuko managed to get out, thoughts swirling in her head.
“Allow to take over,” Traxalim interjected, “Given your possible destination, you may need to beco more aware of so things to truly make an inford choice. First, know that most of the truly powerful heroes do not die a mortal’s death. Just having the stories about them spread tends to imprint them more solidly on reality, and many of them have already reached the potential to beco lesser immortals by then anyway. It’s a path I could walk myself, but,” he shook his head, “I know who and what awaits on the other side. I’ll not rush there, but I’ll not bind myself to this world either. Our friend Gil here is one of those, though his stories are long lost to most. As for The Witch,”
He took a breath and looked up thoughtfully, “She’s sothing else. That one is no god, but she’s not mortal either, and I am not sure she ever was. She can be ‘killed’, but it isn’t the sort of thing that ans much to her. She doesn’t stay dead, or is never exactly dead, it’s sort of ambiguous, but however you look at it, she is always there, and I do not know of a ti when she wasn’t. And as far as I know, most worlds that have people and forests also bear her presence, though her spread existence is not the sa as Li’s.”
“Okay,” Fuyuko said slowly, “Does that an she was created by the gods?”
“No, she’s from outside of this creation. And while I believe that the gods could possibly scour this reality clean of her existence, it would co at great cost, mostly paid by mortal lives. And while she is sothing of a malignant entity, her malignancy seems to be most likely to manifest in its worst ways against those who have gathered so sort of karmic balance that needs to be redressed. Not always, foolish innocents have found themselves in her pot, but harm seems most likely to fall on those most deserving of it.”
It sounded sort of simple on the surface, but it felt like she was seeing more layers to the world, and it wasn’t a terribly comfortable feeling. Stepping out of the city felt like it had been a big step, but if this was the edge of what awaited her if she followed the path she’d been offered, then what more would she face? “I don’t think I want to know anymore today,” she said abruptly, “I think I’m going to have bad dreams already. Maybe we can get rooms and Gil can show around?”
The two n were slightly taken aback by her sudden change of topic, but Traxalim smiled wryly, “We old n do tend to ramble sotis, don’t we? Don’t worry about it, between the elves and the kitsune, that one doesn’t like coming down this far. Now, as for showing you around town, I have a couple of recomndations. There’s an alchemist shop that’s run by a nice half-elf couple. They are the parents of Moriko, and eting them might give you more of a feel for the sort of people you will be eting. You don’t have to say anything about your situation, just go in, browse and chat. I would also recomnd being straightforward and just asking any groups that seem like they might be celebrating their trip to the dungeon about their experiences. It’s pretty common for newcors, we are one of the major stops before the dungeon itself. It’s been good for business, and the city has been in quite a good mood overall.”
“Old man? Speak for yourself,” Gil grumbled, “I’m still in the pri of my youth! Co on, let’s leave the self-proclaid geezer to stew. If it’s the sa family-owned shop I rember, we’ll have no problem finding it.”
Getting rooms turned out to be difficult, especially as they wanted two rooms. Gil decided to change their plans for the mont, “I’ve got an idea, but we’ll need to try it later on. Let’s grab so food and then visit this alchemist shop.”
There were a lot of options when it ca to food, but with Gil offering to buy whatever she wanted, Fuyuko settled for three different fish dishes offered up by the street vendors. One of them was smoked trout, the second was so freshwater prawns fried in a light batter, and the third one made her a little nervous, but everyone else seed to like it: Raw fish combined with rice and a spicy, salty sauce. The rchant promised that they only used a known-safe fish, but that even more dicey fish could be rendered safe by freezing it. Or by using a purifying prayer of course, but either way those fish were higher-end luxury due to the increased cost, and weren't available.
She loved all of them. The smoked trout didn’t seem much different than the scraps she’d managed to filch back ho, the prawns were light and crispy and the thin shell crunched wonderfully, and the raw fish, well, by itself it was a tiny bit bland, but with a little bit of the sauce the flavor of the fish suddenly popped.
She also wasn’t used to anything spicy like this. She’d tasted a little bit of horseradish before, and the sauce had so of that sort of kick, but it also had a strong peppery type spice to it. She kind of liked it, but too much was overwhelming.
When they were done, and she had cleaned her hands and face, Gil led the way to the alchemist shop where he proceeded to be a rather boisterous chatterbox. It mostly seed like rambling to her as she shadowed him, but his random-sounding comnts seed to strike chords with many of the custors as well as the shopkeepers. He even congratulated the woman, who blushed happily, but Fuyuko had no idea how he’d been able to tell she was pregnant, the alchemist looked normal to her. He picked up several pricey potions, a couple of which he gave to her, complete with instructions (which cost extra!), plus pre-paid for so items they didn’t have in stock.
He also managed to get a lot of information from so of the custors. While the dungeon was pretty generous with things like healing potions, if you wanted specific alchemical mixtures for your delving you had to either buy them here or trade with the dungeon, and it was harder to know if the dungeon was going to be able to accommodate your purchase on a given day. Plus, the price advantage for trading with the dungeon for raw materials was dropping, at least, if you didn’t have anything unusual with you.
Eventually, Gill took advantage of a lull in the number of other custors to say “It’s too bad that the inns are all full. I don’t care much, but my young friend Fuyuko here is a city girl, I was hoping to get her a few days of comfort instead of finding soplace to camp.” Fuyuko tilted her head at the sudden segue, frowning slightly as she tried to figure out what he was doing.
The two alchemists looked at each other and seed to communicate with just a few expressions before the husband made a palms-up gesture as he gave her the win, and the wife bead before turning toward them. “So, we’ll pretend that you were subtle with that, since you were at least generous with your purchases first, but there is a price. You are a swordsman I take it?”
“Er, Weapons Master would be more accurate,” Gil seed a little taken aback at being seen through, and Fuyuko was starting to put together what was going on, but was at a loss for words as the two continued to bargain on her behalf.
“Well then, our current youngest is a boy with aspirations to beco a great warrior. We’ll feed you both and give her a room so long as you help train him each day. But, well, no offense, but our 21-year-old daughter still lives with us, so while you seem like a nice enough guy, we’d rather help set you up in the garden, it’s warm enough to be pretty nice under the trees anyway.”
“Hey, wait a mont,” Fuyuko interjected, “Okay, I appreciate what you are all doing, but Gil saved my life, I’d have bled out if he hadn’t found and patched up my shoulder, and since it healed all stiff, he asked Traxalim to heal it up proper for cause they’re friends. You can trust him. And he doesn’t even snore.”
The woman looked thoughtful, then narrowed her eyes suspiciously. “You said his na is Gil, and he’s known Traxalim for a while? Funny, there was a rather enthusiastic entry in my grandma’s diary about a man nad Gil. He was rather notably tall too.”
Gil suddenly looked nervous and coughed, “Coincidence, I’m sure.”
“Mmm,” she tapped her lips thoughtfully, “Maybe, though I suppose it doesn’t matter. She didn’t et Grampa until several years later anyway. Well, if the old priest is willing to give his approval, we can put you up in a room as well. Anyway, I’m Kaoru, my husband is Jhaeros, our youngest is Galan, the daughter you’ll et is Hainako, and I suspect you already know that my eldest is Moriko, but she’s not here right now.”
“Hah, you’ve got to rights,” Gil laughed, amused at having been caught, “Though I’m not trying to get one up on old Mordecai, Fuyuko here is just a little nervous about eting her first dungeon.”
Fuyuko scowled at him. He wasn’t exactly wrong, but she didn’t like the way he’d phrased it. But her scowl seed to have no effect on any of the adults, despite her being taller than two of them, and she soon found herself being escorted along with Gil to the house by Jhaeros.
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