Hunter's Choice

by C E Keene

  Nothing he could say would make this better. Zindar obviously knew he'd made the right choice, and it didn't seem like he regretted it. Maybe once they'd gained some distance from the Pruvari settlement, he’d return to his old self.

  >Your relationship with Zindar has improved.

  These were the times when Arheis wanted to turn off system messages completely. It was nice to know he'd said the right thing, but there was more to these relationships than a series of hidden numbers and thresholds he had to reach. He just hoped that if he focused on being a good friend, that would be enough.

  Later that night, as the moon began its slow climb into the sky, Arheis heard someone approaching their makeshift camp.

  He tensed where he lay on the ground, keeping still until he could glean more information. It sounded like boots crunching dead leaves and twigs, not a curious beast that had come upon them. Still, considering the "warm" welcome they’d received from the Pruvari, he wasn't taking any chances.

  He grabbed for his spear, fingers curling around the haft, and thrust it forward as he sat up.

  "It's just me," a familiar voice said.

  Mira.

  And it wasn't just her, apparently. Arheis could hear two other sets of boots, and when he looked up, his eyes adjusting to the darkness, he saw she was joined by Higrem and Galen.

  "What are you doing here?" he asked in a whisper. Unnecessary, since Zindar was already stirring nearby.

  "We didn't want you to stay out here alone," she said. "It isn’t right."

  Higrem made a face, his lips pressing into a thin line. "They didn't want you to stay out here alone," he clarified. "I told them you'd made your bed and you could lay in the dirt if you so chose."

  "And I pointed out," Mira began tersely, "that it'll be easier for us to travel to Iskaral first thing in the morning if we’re all together."

  "And you?" Zindar asked groggily, the question directed at Galen.

  The elf just shrugged. "I'm a Naturalist. I prefer it out here."

  They could have spent the night in the Pruvari settlement, leaving at first light. The three of them being here wouldn’t save that much time. Arheis suspected that their presence had more to do with Mira being worried about him and Zindar, and less to do with any practical reason.

  Not that he was going to complain.

  "How is Treyous?" he asked.

  "Stable and recovering," Mira said. "They let me watch while they worked on him. I've never seen a wound closed so quickly."

  "They use surgical tools and electrical current to speed up the process," Zindar explained. "I don't really understand any of it, even now, but it's pretty fascinating to watch."

  Mira's expression was one of sympathy, her brows drawn up in concern. She didn't ask the obvious question, and Arheis imagined their friend was grateful for that.

  "Bren and the rest of the Lady Katherine’s crew are staying behind," she said.

  Arheis just nodded. He didn't expect anything else. Bren especially seemed incredibly loyal to her captain, and none of them had business in Iskaral.

  Then again, neither did Treyous. He'd taken this job as a favor to Arheis. Guilt stabbed from every direction, needling away at him. He knew it was irrational, but that didn't lessen the feeling that he’d somehow done this to Treyous.

  At least the man was recovering. Arheis would find a way to make it up to him. For now, they needed to focus on the task they’d come here to complete.

  "We only have two pallets," Zindar said with a frown, "but I can sleep on the ground if one of you want to —"

  Mira shook her head, speaking before Higrem had a chance to. "We’ll be fine on the ground." She settled nearby, on the opposite side of the fire. “Besides, it's not that long until daybreak."

  They needed more rest, but Arheis wasn't about to send them back. Instead, he set his spear down and returned to his uncomfortable position on the pallet of leaves.

  Tomorrow, they'd head to Iskaral.

  Tomorrow, they'd get things back on track.

  15

  The trek through the mountains took most of the next day.

  Mira, Galen, and Higrem had been able to purchase a few supplies in De’shal, so they weren’t completely on their own when it came to surviving the wilderness, but Arheis wouldn’t say they were well-equipped, either. Even when they found the road, the ridges it wound around were steep, the walkways just barely large enough for a cart to pass through. It was a acrophobe’s worst nightmare, and even Arheis found himself experiencing a few bouts of vertigo that the game was kind enough to tell him about.

  On the plus side, once they’d made it past the western edge of the mountain, they could see well into the valley below. A valley that was almost entirely made up of a massive, sprawling city and the farmland that surrounded it.

  It was a deceptive thing, because seeing it made it seem like they were closer to resting than they actually were. In reality, they’d had to travel down a knee-breakingly steep cliff side just to get into the valley proper, and then it’d been another several hours’ walk to reach the gates.

  By the time they arrived, all four of them were exhausted. Considering the looks the guards gave them, he could guess the kind of picture they presented, too. Three humans, an elf, and a Pruvari, all of them dirty from the road, wearing the same clothes they’d been wearing since the shipwreck, smelling faintly of salt and seaweed.

  Their priorities were clear. Especially when the game kept nagging him.

  > You are hungry. If you don’t eat soon, your health will slowly degrade.

  > You are exhausted. If you don’t rest soon, your stamina will slowly degrade.

  > You are unclean. Civilized peoples will be less likely to speak to you, and merchants are likely to gouge you on prices.

  He was hungry, he was tired, and he stank. Three things he could have gathered just from existing. The notice of the various penalties was handy, but right now Arheis didn’t care. His reasons for rectifying those states had nothing to do with game mechanics and everything to do with the fact that his stomach was going to start consuming itself soon, and he was close to falling asleep standing up.

  “Where’s the nearest inn?” Higrem asked, shoving his way to the front of their party to talk to the guards.

  “Just down that way.” The woman eyed them dubiously, but jerked her head toward the main street that seemed to split the city into two halves. “It’s the sign with the pig on it.”

  “Oh,” Mira reached down, untying the coinpurse Arheis had given her, “here.”

  She handed the small sack to him, and as he took it, he realize its weight was more substantial than he thought it would be.

  “The market in De’shal didn’t sell the most… practical things,” she said by way of explanation, glancing at Zindar carefully.

  Their friend just laughed. “No, they wouldn’t be. It’s mostly art pieces and things like that, right?”

  “Art pieces… sure,” she said, a note of amusement in her voice, “let’s call them that.”

  “Probably for the best,” Arheis said, dumping the remaining credits into his palm. A lot less than he’d started with, but anything was a blessing at this point. “We’ll have to take some jobs around town. Earn enough money to pay for our expenses. But this should be enough for everyone to get room and board for the night, and some supplies in the morning.”

  He spaced the rolls of credits using two fingers, dividing the pile as equally as he could. In the end, he was able to hand 500 GC to each of his companions, leaving 575 GC for himself.

  “We’ll pay you back,” Zindar promised, pocketing his share.

  Arheis just nodded, not all that worried about it. They’d figure it out. “Let’s meet back here tomorrow morning and Galen can take us to his friend.”

  The Naturalist looked past him, down the cobblestone road that led into the city. “That will give me time to figure out where his shop actually is. Iskaral has grown since I was last here.” />
  It was massive, in a way Arheis hadn’t fully been able to appreciate yet. Right now, he wasn’t sure he could comprehend it even if he tried. He needed at least a couple hours of sleep to be able to look at a map.

  “Get some rest,” he told his companions. “I have a feeling today’s going to feel like a picnic compared to tomorrow.”

  Arheis wasn’t wrong. Especially when the next day started with an earthquake.

  He’d gone to The Eager Sow, the inn the guard had pointed out, and purchased the meal on offer along with a hot bath and a room for the night. Mira, Galen, and Zindar had all done the same, with Higrem wandering off to do God knew what.

  They’d eaten in near silence, everyone too tired to chew properly, let alone try to talk. As soon as the meal was finished, they’d all gone up to their respective rooms. Arheis’ bath was waiting for him, steam curling blissfully from the surface of the water. He’d stripped down, slipped in, and promptly fallen asleep the second he got comfortable, jolting awake only because he’d heard raucous laughter coming from the common room below.

  Changing back into the same grimy clothes he’d been wearing for days wasn’t exactly something he wanted to do, but he hadn’t had a choice. It didn’t end up mattering when he fell into a deep, dreamless sleep the moment his head touched the pillow.

  But that earthquake destroyed what little rest he’d been able to achieve.

  It started with a mild tremor that sent Arheis’ spear clattering to the ground, waking him with a start. At first he wasn’t sure what had pulled him away from his much-needed rest, but the answer came soon after. A second tremor—maybe an aftershock from the first—pulled the basin and shaving razor right off the chest of drawers, water splashing up, metal crashing.

  Instinct—and a lot of practice drills when he was younger—sent Arheis to the doorframe where he braced through two more tremors that had the same impact as the last. By the time it was over, everything that hadn’t been nailed down was now on the floor. His room was a mess, and he expected to see more of the inn’s residents out of their rooms, wandering around in at least a mild panic.

  But the only people who even seemed to notice were Arheis and his friends.

  “I suppose that’s one thing we can say about Lacerda,” Mira groused as she emerged from her room, only a few doors down from Arheis. “No earthquakes.”

  “Just monsoons,” Zindar put in.

  Both of them looked like they’d been pulled from sleep as forcefully as Arheis had. The fur on the top of Zindar’s head was sticking up at every angle. Mira’s hair was mussed and there were creases from the pillow on the side of her face. Arheis bit his lip and tried not to smile.

  “Did this happen when you were here before?” he asked Galen once the man appeared from his room.

  Maybe this was just a common occurrence in Iskaral. Arheis hoped the elf would have mentioned that before they got here, but the journey hadn’t exactly been the most orthodox.

  “Never,” he said with a frown.

  Oddly he looked the most refreshed of the bunch, his pale skin flushed with lively color, no bags appearing under his eyes. He also looked like he hadn’t slept at all, not a hair out of place, clothes no more rumpled than they had been before everyone parted ways.

  Maybe it was an elf thing.

  Looking over the railing, Arheis saw there were a few people in the common room who seemed wholly unfazed. The innkeep was working behind the counter, as well, and he jerked his head in the man’s direction.

  “Time to be an obnoxious tourist, I guess.”

  The fact that nobody else seemed even remotely concerned about the earthquakes did a lot to put Arheis at ease, but he still wanted answers. Making his way down the stairs with no care for his haggard appearance, he stopped in front of the innkeep. The man didn’t bother to look up from wiping down the counter.

  “What can I get you?” he asked, his voice roughened by age.

  “Couldn’t help but notice the back to back earthquakes,” he said as the stairs creaked behind him, his friends coming down. “Is that a common occurrence here?”

  The man looked up at that, likely trying to judge whether Arheis was being serious or not.

  “City’s built on top of caves,” was all he said. “It happens.”

  “It didn’t happen before,” Galen said, raising one finger in protest.

  The innkeep’s square jaw set and he glared in the elf’s direction. “You calling me a liar?”

  “No, not technically, but I—”

  Galen’s Charisma score must have been even lower than Arheis’. He could have facepalmed at that answer, but he just did his best to use his Mediator ability to defuse the situation.

  “My friend lived here a long time ago, that’s all,” he said.

  > You have successfully used Mediator to navigate a tense situation. For the next hour, you’ll receive a bonus to your Charisma.

  Huh. Arheis was pretty sure that hadn’t happened the first time he used Mediator. He’d have to find some way to make use of that. Maybe he could leverage it for a little more information.

  “Then your friend’s memory is shit.”

  Or maybe he’d just extricate them all from this conversation before it turned into something even worse. He could feel Mira on the verge of exploding, and even Zindar seemed tense. Galen was the only person in their party with infinite patience for this man. Surprising, since he was the one the innkeep was insulting.

  “Okay, well, as helpful as that is, I think we’ll just head out.”

  Light streaming in from under the door revealed it was morning, anyway. While Arheis didn’t exactly feel well-rested—nowhere near well-rested, in fact—they had things they needed to accomplish today that didn’t involve arguing with an obstinate innkeep.

  Motioning to his friends, he moved a distance away from the counter before speaking again. “Let’s just get our things and go. Galen’s friend is more likely to give us a straight answer anyway.”

  He hoped.

  “Oh, speaking of that.” The elf reached into his robes and withdrew a folded piece of parchment. “I sketched out a map of what I remember. I’d hoped to send word with a courier this morning, but at this point it will likely be quicker for us to just find the place on our own.”

  “What are these segments?” Zindar asked, pointing to the thick black lines Galen had drawn that separated the map into different parts.

  “The districts of Iskaral. We’re currently in the Trade Quarter. This is the Marina,” he pointed to an area in the upper right quadrant, “where the Lady Katherine would have made port had we not been attacked. This is the Hunters’ Hall, which I imagine is self-explanatory. And this is the Hall of Scholars, where Archibald’s shop should be.”

  “At least that narrows it down,” Arheis said. “And we’ll be able to use that map later to get an idea of where everything is.”

  It wasn’t complete, and Arheis wasn’t sure he’d even be able to read it without Galen present, but it was better than wandering the busy streets of the city for hours on end.

  “Alright.” He blew out a breath. “Meet back here in five minutes, and then we can head to the gate and see if Higrem’s there.”

  Before Arheis had even set foot on the stairs, the door to the inn swung open. His attention turned toward the rather dramatic entrance, and he saw the man in question. Higrem’s expression was unreadable, his face made up of hard lines.

  “You’re going to want to see this.”

  Arheis grabbed what he needed out of his room, making it back downstairs after just a couple of minutes. Apparently everyone else had taken Higrem’s words seriously, too, because he was soon joined by their whole party.

  “Is this something we should be armed for, or are you being vague in the hopes of getting us killed?” Mira asked testily.

  Higrem just snorted. “I don’t think weapons are going to do much good here.”

  They followed the man out, Arheis unsure what to
even expect from that kind of a warning. It didn’t take long to see exactly what Higrem was talking about.

  Down the cobblestone road, in the middle of a square that connected three other side-streets, a massive sinkhole was close to swallowing a fountain.

  “I definitely don’t remember that,” Galen said wryly.

  Arheis had half a mind to call the innkeep out here to see it, but there was no point. Instead he made his way through the gathering crowd, getting as close to the sinkhole as he dared.

  The fountain was crumbling, water cascading over the broken side of it, only a semi-circle of stones left standing. A few people far crazier than Arheis went for the coins that had once been in the bottom of it and were now scattered around the fissure-laden area.

  “Get away from there!” a guard barked, shoving his way through the crowd.

  Stone began to crumble, a collective gasp of horror filling the square. The guard lunged for the boy who’d stayed to scoop up the last of the coins, barely managing to catch him by his shirt collar.

  He cuffed the boy upside the head once they were both on solid ground, then addressed the crowd. “All of you, get back!”

  There was some movement. Arheis and his companions stepped away, and a few people shuffled here and there. But the guard wasn’t having any luck getting everyone out of the square.

  The clip-clop of hooves sounded over the low din of the crowd, three riders approaching from one of the side streets in a tight formation. A woman led them, her armor perfectly polished and gleaming in the morning sun.

  Tilting up her visor, she gave a proclamation from atop her massive beast of a horse. “This area is now restricted, by order of His Highness. Return to your homes and your duties, for your own safety. Anyone found loitering will be arrested.”

  The crowd couldn’t disperse fast enough. Arheis was barely able to move without being jostled by men and women hurrying out of the square. Apparently they weren’t willing to do it for their own safety, but the threat of jail was enough to put the fear of God in them.