by Pirateaba
He nodded at Erin.
“As you might recall, you questioned me about the possibility of using non-humanoid remains to create undead. I took up your challenge, and thus the fruits of my labor were made manifest.”
Erin vaguely remembered needling Pisces about that. She regretted ever bringing the topic up.
“Great. Now you can make undead spiders. Keep them away, and we don’t have a problem. But that’s not something I really care about. I’m more interested in one skeleton. Toren.”
Pisces looked at Erin with a slight frown, and then around the inn.
“What about my creation? Is something…wrong with him?”
Erin tried to explain as briefly as possible what had happened. Pisces rolled his eyes when she told him about her order to go away, but he seemed attentive to the problem, at least.
“He’s gone. I can’t find him anywhere. You wouldn’t happen to be able to find him, would you?”
The mage paused, and closed his eyes.
“Odd. I should be able to tell where he is, but I cannot.”
Ceria took a seat opposite Pisces.
“I thought [Necromancers] could tell where all their creations are, regardless if they bound them to someone else.”
“Normally that’s true. But I’m—not sensing his aura anywhere nearby.”
Erin stared worriedly at Pisces.
“He’s not dead, is he?”
“He’s undead.”
He sniffed at her. Erin raised a clenched fist threateningly, and Pisces spoke faster.
“What I mean, is that he’s still animated, but I can’t sense his location. I would know if Toren had been uncreated, but I can’t locate him. It’s almost as if…something is interfering with his aura.”
“Magical spike? A concentration of mana?”
Pisces nodded at Ceria.
“Something like that. I could try to get closer, but that would involve a lot of work.”
“Well? What’s stopping you?”
Erin propped her hands on her hips and stared at Pisces. He blinked at her.
“Why would I do that? The skeleton will return sooner or later, regardless of your orders. It is in his nature. Besides, I’m quite hungry. As I said. Would you bring me a menu, or your dish of the day?”
“Of course! Because all I want to do is make food for a mage who brings spiders into my inn and never pays me!”
Erin raised her voice and grabbed at her hair. Pisces was impossible. Ceria punched him in the shoulder and Pisces gave her a hurt look as he rubbed at his shoulder.
“If your skeleton isn’t back by tomorrow I’ll take a look. But I need food to cast magic, and I’ve been sequestered by myself for the last few days. A few hours won’t make any difference. And I am a valued customer. Unless you were expecting other patrons?”
“I thought I’d have hundreds of customers by now! Or at least ten!”
Erin stomped around her inn, wondering what she could get away with serving Pisces that would take the least amount of effort. She pointed furiously out the window at the city.
“I made over four hundred hamburgers yesterday, and not one person’s coming here for another! Why’s that?”
“Hamburger? Interesting. I will try one.”
Olesm coughed into a scaled hand as Erin made a strangled sound.
“I can explain that, Erin.”
She looked at him. The Drake looked apologetic.
“I saw a lot of shopkeepers and vendors on the streets as I was coming here. Only a few were open that early, but all of them were selling those hamburgers.”
“What?”
They’d taken her recipe? Well, it wasn’t her recipe, but it still felt like theft.
Erin stared at Olesm, hurt. That wasn’t fair. Actually, it was. Erin didn’t own the hamburger recipe and it was really easy to make, but it still felt wrong. Ryoka had warned her. Erin just hadn’t expected the copying to happen overnight.
“But I’ve got more than just hamburgers! I’ve got other food I’m totally ready to make.”
“Really? I’ll sample all of it for you and give you my considered opinion.”
“I’m sorry, Erin. But that’s how it works. You have a really good idea, and the others decided to copy you. They’ve got your recipe down quite well. The only thing they haven’t managed to figure out is how to make the red and white stuff.”
Mayonnaise and ketchup. At least Erin still had that, although the two condiments were such a pain to make it didn’t make her feel any better. She slumped into a chair and sighed.
“Great. So much for a full house tonight.”
“Sorry about that, Erin. If it helps, I think you’ll still have Relc and Klbkch tonight. And probably some of the Antinium too.”
Ceria patted Erin on the back. Erin nodded. It was good that she had a customer base, but her hopes had been dashed. She’d really thought she had something special.
“…Alright. I guess I can make a stupid cheeseburger or something.”
Pisces raised a finger.
“This ‘hamburger’ interests me more, actually. I prefer meat.”
“It’s the same thing!”
—-
Erin had slapped together a fast cheeseburger and served it to an appreciative Pisces when she started to feel a bit better. She sat down with Olesm and Ceria, listening to the mage’s appreciative noises and thought today might not be that bad.
True, it was a disappointment about the customers, but—
Someone knocked on the door to her inn. Erin’s eyes widened and she stopped beating Olesm in chess to smile at the Drake.
“Aha! See? First customer of the day.”
He blinked at her as Erin raised her voice.
“Come in!”
The door opened. But instead of the Drake or Gnoll that Erin expected, a human stepped into her inn. He shook some snow off his shoes and stepped into the room.
“Good day. I’m looking for a Drake named Olesm. He wouldn’t happen to be in here, would he?”
“What?”
Olesm looked up from his game of chess as the young man who’d entered spotted him. In a few steps he was at Erin and Olesm’s table.
Erin blinked up at the guy, so surprised that she nearly didn’t wonder how he’d moved so fast. He was a human? A human guy?
Yes, he was a normal human being. He had tanned skin, black hair, and a slightly crooked nose. He was dressed in traveling attire, and he looked like he was in great shape.
Olesm stood up.
“I’m Olesm. Um, are you some kind of messenger?”
“I’m a Courier from the First Landing. I’ve got a delivery for the best chess player in the city of Liscor. Would that be you?”
The Drake’s eyes went wide, and he looked from the Courier to Erin.
“A Courier? That’s—I mean, yes, I am the best chess player in Liscor, but Erin here is far better than I am. What’s this about?”
“I’ve got a package. It’s got no listed recipient, but the instructions I was given were to deliver this to whoever recognizes this drawing.”
The Courier fished in his pocket, and pulled something out. Everyone in the room stared at a worn, faded, piece of parchment. Erin recognized it instantly as he unfolded it.
The ink had run in places from water stains, and someone had spilled something orange on a corner of the parchment, but on one side she saw a simple chess puzzle, with her listed solution on the back.
On the other side, a complex little chess game she’d once struggled with had been solved in four moves. Olesm took the piece of paper from the Courier and inspected the scribbled lines next to the puzzle with shaking claws.
“It’s…correct. Correct! I struggled for over a week on this one. Someone else figured it out?”
“Ah, so you are the creator of this…thing?”
The Courier lifted a thick, wrapped bundle out of the rucksack on his back. Olesm blinked at him and shook his head swiftly.
“Me? No, I barely solved it. Erin’s the one who made the puzzle.”
He pointed at Erin and she blinked and turned red as the Courier turned to her. He was taller than her by a good few inches, and he scrutinized her hard.
“My apologies. You’re the creator of the puzzle? My name is Valceif. Val. I was told to deliver this to you.”
“Me? Oh, I’m Erin. Erin Solstice. I uh, did make that, but I didn’t expect anything in return. Just…a letter, not anything else. What’s this about?”
“I really couldn’t say, Miss Erin. I’m simply a Courier. Someone put a generous request up for priority delivery to whoever sent this piece of paper. I’m supposed to give it to you, if you did make it.”
“I did. But…what is it?”
Val glanced down at something in his left hand.
“Hm. You’re not lying, so that makes you my recipient.”
He offered her the package, but Erin was still metaphorically ten feet behind the conversation. She blinked at his hand.
“How do you know I wasn’t lying? Is that a Skill?”
Val shook his head. The Courier opened his palm, and showed Erin a clear bit of quartz hanging from a leather cord. The clear stone was glowing yellow.
“Just a gem with a [Detect Truth] spell enchanted on it. Standard-issue for Couriers.”
“A Courier? That’s like a super-important Runner, right?”
He smiled, briefly.
“Some might say so. We’re just more competent than City Runners, that’s all. We do long-distance deliveries that are too important to entrust to anyone else. Someone paid a lot of gold to get this to you, Erin. I’d be pleased if you took it off my hands.”
She reached out for the package, and then hesitated.
“What should I do? I don’t have any Seals on me! You need one, right?”
He shook his head.
“It’s fine. Couriers use a different system than City Runners and Street Runners.”
He held up the wrapped package, and for the first time Erin noticed something odd about it. The object had been wrapped in layers of some kind of brown canvas fabric, but a black ribbon bound the object together. And in the center of the ribbon, a strange runic stone was embedded.
It glowed with black light. Ceria whistled and Pisces looked up from his meal to stare at the strange object. Val tapped it gently.
“This is a Courier’s Seal. It will record this location, your faces and identities, and the time I completed my request. Any mage will be able to ensure I delivered my package to the right recipient this way.”
“Oh. So—so it’s going to take a picture of me?”
“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 lik
ed.
“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…