by Pirateaba
“What?”
Ryoka hesitated.
“I don’t know. But it was…dark. No, that’s not the word. Look, let me explain. It started when I was running through a blizzard. Ivolethe was guiding me since she can see through the snow, but she suddenly started getting lost. We ended up in a forest, and I had to build a fire since she and I couldn’t find our way out. It was like we were trapped there. And then it started getting really dark…”
Erin’s eyes widened as Ryoka told the story of the three visitors who sat around the campfire. Ryoka finished, telling Erin about hurling her fingers into the fire. She flexed her right hand as she did. She thought she could still feel the fingers. She could remember them burning.
“You’ll probably think I’m crazy. But it was all true Erin, I swear. And Ivolethe knows something. She just won’t tell me who—or what—they were.”
She waited for Erin to laugh at her, or at least be a bit skeptical. That would be natural. But Ryoka’s blood froze as Erin pulled something out of her pocket and told her what had happened to her on the Winter Solstice.
“Do you know what this, is Ryoka? It’s a coin, but it doesn’t look like it’s silver.”
Ryoka stared down at the bright, off-silver color and the faded inscriptions on the shiny metal. She felt it carefully and then put it down on the table.
“I have no idea. But you say some travelers gave it to you?”
Erin nodded.
“In exchange for the food. Not the gifts.”
The gifts. An umbrella that contained the sun. A rope to hang yourself with and pretend to be dead. A horn—
Ryoka’s skin erupted into goose bumps. She’d heard a horn while she sat around the fire. She stared at the coin and felt very, very cold.
“Who do you think they were? Do you think they were connected to the people you met?”
Carefully, using the tips of her fingers, Ryoka pushed the coin back across the table towards Erin.
“I don’t know. I don’t like it. Tamaroth. I’ve never heard that name before in my life. But I’ll ask about it. I’ll ask Klbkch—”
“Why him?”
“He might know something. Look, until I can find out more, don’t show that coin to anyone you don’t trust, Erin. There’s someone else I can talk to besides Klbkch who might know.”
“Who? Teriarch?”
“Ye—how’d you know?”
“I met him.”
Erin blinked as Ryoka lurched up from her seat.
“You met—”
“Didn’t I say? Yeah! We met him on the road. He was looking for you, Ryoka. He wanted to know if there were other games besides Cookie Clicker.”
Ryoka stared at Erin. She tugged at her ears when Erin described meeting Teriarch—appearing as his Human [Mage] form no less—and how Erin had taught him to play Angry Birds.
“Hold on, I need a break. Would you hand me a knife? I need to slice off my ears, because clearly I’m hearing things.”
“Don’t be dramatic, Ryoka! I really did meet Teriarch—he’s weird, like you said, but sort of nice! How did he duplicate your iPhone? Do you think he can do it for me if I ask?”
Ryoka put her head in her hands.
“Please stop talking. My head hurts.”
Her head really did hurt. Teriarch, out in the open? Playing crappy games? What did it mean? Was there a meaning? What could she do about it? Bash her head in with a rock? Forget? After a while, she looked up. Erin was gazing at her, grinning.
“Isn’t it weird?”
“What, specifically?”
“We keep running into the same people. You knew Octavia before I met her, and I met Teriarch…everything’s connected.”
“It’s a small continent. Just about the size of Eurasia.”
“Well, I think it’s awesome. And I also think…yeah, I think I know what to do.”
Erin smiled. Things felt clearer to her, as if a fog had lifted. Here was Ryoka, her friend. Maybe her best friend? Her friend from another world. And it felt like Erin had been waiting for a long time to talk to her. Not about anything specific—it was just that she needed to talk to someone.
“Build my inn, hire people, and sell food to adventurers. That’s my plan for now. What about you, Ryoka?”
The girl shrugged.
“I’m staying here for now. I’ve been away too long, and there’s so much I need to do. Ivolethe is going to teach me…something. Faerie magic, maybe. Or a way to run faster. I’ll go shopping—see if I can pick up some magical items and get Octavia to brew me some potions, but my goal is to become a Courier. If I can make it all the way to First Landing with my two feet, maybe I can see about getting a ship to go to Wistram.”
“That’s big.”
“Why aim low?”
“True.”
Erin played with a bit of cheese on the platter.
“Do you think we should go there? To Wistram?”
Ryoka stared out of the window. She got tired of staring at the shutters and opened them. A cold wind blew in, and Ryoka stared out across the city of Celum, at the rooftops full of snow.
“I don’t know. But I know that I need more…power. No, that’s not the right word. More strength, more speed, more…something. I need to protect myself, and other people. Getting rich and learning to run faster is a way to do that.”
“I’d just like to earn more money. If I can make my inn better, well, then I think I can help other people. I could buy things for Mrsha, help out Ceria and the others…”
“Money makes the world go round.”
It was funny, but money was important. So important. Money could buy them safety, get them to Wistram, or maybe just protect them. Magical artifacts, [Barmaids], toys for a Gnoll cub. Was there anything money couldn’t buy?
It was clichéd, but perhaps the answer was a friend. Ryoka reached for a pitcher, embarrassed at the very thought and found it was empty. Erin looked into her cup and found it was gone too. She shrugged to herself and then looked at Ryoka.
“Tell me about Invrisil. Did they have any cool fashions over there? Did you see anything interesting, or were you talking with that [Emperor] guy too much to notice?”
“Oh, I got an eyeful. Invrisil’s huge, Erin. It’s a real city. You’d either love it or hate it.”
“I think I’d love it…if they have cool stuff there.”
“They have ice cream.”
“No way!”
“Yes…way. They’re serving tiny spoonfuls out in silver bowls as if it were Häagen-Dazs. If you started selling ice cream over there, you’d be rich in no time.”
“Ice cream’s that popular? Well duh, it is, obviously. I should make some more. But do they have plays?”
“Not that I saw. You think you want to send the actors all the way to Invrisil?”
“Why not? They could start Hollywood over there!”
“More like the Globe Theatre.”
“The what?”
“Shakespeare, Erin. Don’t tell me your actors only know how to perform Othello.”
“Hey! The first thing I taught them was Romeo and Juliet!”
“Aw. Romeo and Juliet? Really?”
“Actually, this play was Juliet and Romeo. I also got them to do Pygmalion, and Hamlet…and Frozen…but I’m running out of plays to teach them.”
Ryoka laughed.
“I’d sell my left kidney to see them do Chicago. Or at least, one or two songs from it.”
“Well, why not? You could teach them how to do the acting.”
“No. I couldn’t!”
“Why not?”
Ryoka was trying to imagine a bunch of female Drakes, Gnolls, and Humans doing the Cell Block Tango scene from Chicago. Her imagination was having trouble processing the idea.
“No. That would be—”
She broke off. Erin was nodding and smiling expectantly.
“Yeah…?”
Ryoka hesitated. And then she grinned. When she was around Erin, i
t felt like she could really do anything. Nothing was too crazy with her.
“Let me see if I can remember the lyrics. No promises.”
“I want to see if they’ll perform in Liscor. It would be cool to have them perform in my inn. Or maybe somewhere more public? And I could sell my new magical foods as well!”
“Yeah, we need to have a talk about that stuff, Erin. I know it’s incredible that you can make magical food, but…Defense Soup, Erin? Really?”
“Hey! It’s hard to name this stuff. I thought about Thickskin Soup, but that sounds really nasty. Relc was calling it Scale Soup…”
Ryoka was laughing. Erin was waving her hands. At some point, they stopped talking about anything important. They cracked jokes, came up with ridiculous names to call their soup—they laughed and for a few moments, they weren’t trapped in another world. They were just friends, hanging out together.
And then, at some point, Erin had to go to the bathroom, and Ryoka realized Mrsha was back in the room and trying to get their attention. Erin sighed.
“I guess we should do something today.”
“I suppose so.”
Ryoka made a face as she lifted Mrsha up. She recoiled from the Gnoll’s breath.
“How much did they feed you, Mrsha?”
The Gnoll child lolled about in Ryoka’s arms, stuffed to the point of unconsciousness. Erin sighed as she looked about the room.
“I wish we could do this again.”
“Why not? We can come back here again. Next week, or sooner. Whenever you like. We’ve got plenty of time.”
Ryoka grinned at Erin, and saw the girl’s face light up in reply. She lifted Mrsha up with a grunt and walked towards the door. Beyond it lay the rest of the world. But somehow it wasn’t as daunting to face it. This moment had restored something Ryoka needed. Something Erin needed.
And both of them knew it. Erin spoke up as Ryoka opened the door.
“Hey Ryoka?”
“Yeah?”
The young woman turned at the door. Erin smiled at her.
“I’m glad you’re back.”
Ryoka turned away. She opened the door and Erin got up. The two stood at the doorway. Ryoka grinned.
“Let’s shake things up.”
—-
Her name was Ivolethe. She was a Frost Faerie, at least to the people of this world. But that was a poor name for her true nature. But at the very least it hinted to her origin. She was no Human. She was not mortal.
And now she hovered in the snow, in the cold air, outside of a window. She could sense warmth from within, hear voices and laughter. Perhaps she might have entered, but there was cold iron in the walls of the building. And she was not invited.
Ivolethe hovered by the window, peering in through a crack. There were two girls sitting in the room. Erin Solstice and Ryoka Griffin. Ivolethe stared at Ryoka. Her friend. That a faerie could be friends with a Human was incredible. But Ryoka was still Human, still mortal. And there were ways in which she and Ivolethe could never truly understand each other. Yet they were friends, just as Ryoka was friends with Erin.
Ivolethe stared into the room as the two girls laughed and spoke. There was friendship there, still small, perhaps tenuous at times, but blooming and growing brighter in the cold. Ivolethe put her hand on the window’s ledge and took it away as the wood began to frost over. She looked into the bright room, and turned away.
Friendship. Ivolethe had it too. And it meant more to the Frost Faerie than Ryoka could know of for now. So Ivolethe flew. She flew high, high into the sky, and then south at speeds Ryoka could only dream of.
She flew south, coming to rest high in the air. Ivolethe looked down, and saw blood in the snow. She saw dead things.
And undead things. Two beings woven of magic and the grave stood in the snow, surrounded by children. Goblins. Armed children, a score of them, at least a hundred. Hobgoblins and Goblin warriors, fierce fighters in black armor.
They were all dead. The Goblins’ blood stained the snow. The two dead creatures stood among them, untouched. It had been a brief skirmish, and completely one-sided.
Ivolethe watched as a larger force of undead, thousands, no, larger, approached. A detachment rode forth, proud warriors surrounding a Goblin that reeked to her of the same death the two undead had.
Here was a threat. One that Ivolethe might have dreamed of wiping out with an avalanche, or some other wrath of nature. Yet that would have been meddling on a scale that would surely cause repercussion. And…punishment.
So Ivolethe did not interfere. But she watched a bit of destiny play out as the undead duo stood among the deceased Goblins.
—-
Venitra and Ijvani stood among the remnants of the dead Goblins that had ambushed them. She recognized them as belonging to the Goblin Lord’s army, but she felt no qualms in butchering them. They, like all things not created of her master, were lesser things.
Still, she didn’t attack the next group that surrounded her. Huge Hobgoblins and snarling Goblin elite warriors, Goblin [Shamans] and [Mages] who watched her with more fear than their warrior counterparts. So long as she was not attacked, Venitra would not harm the Goblins. Doing so would run counter to her master’s plans.
“They attacked us when we requested to speak with you. Next time ensure they are not so foolish.”
She was speaking to a Goblin who stood in front of her and Ijvani. He was pale and his eyes…there was something wrong with them. To Venitra, the eyes were reassuring, comforting, even. They reminded her of her master, Az’kerash. It might be presumptuous of the Goblin to emulate her master so and perhaps under other circumstances Venitra would have plucked the eyes out herself. But as it stood, Venitra considered the Goblin Lord an…ally of sorts.
He did not respond to her comment. None of the Goblins surrounding him could look at their leader, or at Venitra. Both were monsters, of a kind.
“We are headed towards Liscor.”
Ijvani’s voice was closer to a hiss, and there was an unsettling echo to her words. The Goblin Lord looked at her. He did not speak, but one hand rose and pointed.
Venitra and Ijvani turned. Ijvani stared at Venitra, and the woman made of bone didn’t meet her companion’s eyes.
“I told you we were going the wrong way.”
“We’ll adjust our course.”
Venitra turned back to the Goblin Lord. His eyes were fixed on her. She nodded at him.
“We shall leave you to your work. Oh. I should mention this—there are two Drake armies closing in on your position.”
The Goblin Lord nodded. Venitra had seen the armies as she and Ijvani had moved past them, undetected. She studied his face.
“Each one is about ten thousand strong.”
He grinned. And turned away. Venitra paused, and then turned. She and Ijvani began walking through the snow. To Liscor. To find the accursed Human named Ryoka Griffin.
“I told you we were going the wrong way.”
“Silence, Ijvani.”
The next day the two suppression armies sent to crush the Goblin Lord’s army met his in the hills a hundred miles to the southeast of Liscor.
4.12
Erin and Ryoka left the room in the Runner’s Guild, a sleepy Mrsha draped in Ryoka’s arms. They left as friends, refreshed, ready to face the world.
“Ryoka’s back!”
Erin sang and danced down the steps, beaming in delight. She flexed her arms while Ryoka shifted the snoozing Mrsha.
“Erin and Ryoka, together again! The invincible duo!”
Ryoka smiled, embarrassed, and then covered it with a scowl.
“Stop that.”
“Come on, don’t you think we make a good team?”
“I think a good team doesn’t brag about how good they are.”
“But we’re like a duo! You know, Bonnie and Clyde! Jesse and James! Bert and Ernie! Tom and Jerry! Uh…Batman and Robin!”
“Erin—”
“Siskel and Ebert! Sp
ongebob and Patrick!”
“Which one are you, then?”
Erin hesitated.
“Uh…Sp—”
“You’re Patrick.”
“No…I don’t want to be him.”
“Well I’m sure as hell not Patrick.”
“Okay, maybe that was a bad comparison. But I could be, uh—”
“I’m Batman.”
“Aw.”
Their banter was interrupted by a [Receptionist] who hurried to them on the stairs with a smile on her face.
“Miss Erin, Miss Ryoka, I hope your discussion was productive?”
“What? Yeah. Oh—right.”
The [Receptionist] was staring meaningfully at Ryoka. She hesitated, cursed internally, and then shifted Mrsha to fish at her belt pouch.
“Here.”
She handed the woman two gold coins. Both Erin and the woman’s eyes bugged out when they saw the glitter. The [Receptionist] gaped at Ryoka, and then hurriedly curtsied to Erin.
“I hope you enjoyed our brief hospitality, Miss Erin. Please, if there’s anything we can do, do not hesitate to ask.”
“Uh. Okay.”
When the woman had hurried off with the coins Erin grabbed Ryoka.
“What was that?”
Ryoka grinned.
“The Guild charges a 5% fee on all deliveries. I’ll do the paperwork later, but right now they think you just gave me a delivery worth forty gold coins.”
“But that’s so much! Ryoka—”
The Runner shook her head. She was in a good mood.
“I’ve got the money, and I think we got what we paid for, right? Private rooms, delivered food, entertainment for Mrsha…and I feel a bit bad for bullying that receptionist.”
“I guess…”
“Don’t worry about it. I’m not. Here, hold Mrsha for me, will you?”
Ryoka dumped Mrsha into Erin’s arms. The Gnoll grunted and Erin did too. Ryoka strode over to two Runners who were approaching her.
“Garia, Fals. Thanks for looking out for Mrsha.”
“It was our pleasure, Ryoka. That little furball can run pretty fast! Are you going to teach her how to be a Runner?”
“Who knows?”
Ryoka smiled at Fals and turned to Garia. The shorter Runner smiled at Ryoka with an awkwardness Ryoka recognized. She’d felt it herself not a few hours ago.