“Ah, you have a good eye, sir. Are you familiar with the grasshopper and the mantis?”
“I am.”
“Well, the sand-cutter is about halfway between, except it's four-feet long and lives in the desert.”
“That sounds horrifying.”
“They’re actually quite good at hunting mirage hounds,” Filbert said. “Shame you can’t train them.”
Filbert rubbed a hand over his mouth, thoughtfully.
“You know,” he said, “I did just hear about an adventurer that can control monsters. I wonder if I could get into contact with him.”
“That’s an unfounded rumour,” Jason said darkly.
Filbert, sensitive to the mood of the customer, returned the boots to the box.
“I imagine you’d know, sir, being the capable adventurer. So it was just the boots and the dimensional bag?”
“Thank you, Bert.”
“The first green pill will change your aura,” Belinda said. “Don’t use any mana or they’ll be able to sense your real aura through the fake one. I don’t have to tell you how fast they’ll be on someone with two auras. Once you’ve got the goods, get to the change point where I’ll be waiting.”
“I know all this,” Sophie said. “We’ve been over it many times.”
“Would you rather be bored from hearing it too much, or caught from hearing it too little?”
Sophie let out a sigh.
“Right, yes. No using mana.”
“At the change point,” Belinda continued, “I’ll give you the blue pill, which will purge the aura of the first green pill. That will take a minute to completely go through your system, during which time you change outfits. Then I give you the second green pill for another false aura. You leave the goods behind and catch the loop line to Marina South.”
“I don’t like leaving you behind.”
“I have to clear the goods of anything they’ve done to track them. The change point and the contingency point are the only places I have shielded from whatever they might be using.”
“No one knows what we’re after,” Sophie said. “How would they know what to tag?”
“Ventress has been pushing people hard,” Belinda said. “We don’t know if she’s compromised any of the people I sourced our assets from. If she’s figured out the target, or even narrowed it down, she may have warned the potential targets. Even if she hasn’t, you know the kind of people we’ve been stealing from. They probably tagged their valuables themselves.”
Sophie shook her head.
“I hate this,” she said. “I’m amazed we haven’t been caught already.”
“Thank the Adventure Society,” Belinda said. “Because you aren’t even iron rank, they’re refusing to let anyone higher than iron go after you. So the only bronze-rankers you’ll have to deal with are any that decide to chase you in the moment. That’s why you don’t want to get caught swapping your aura mask.”
“And if a silver comes after me?”
“I can’t imagine a silver who would deign to bother with you. They don’t want to be seen doing iron-rank work. But that’s why the disguise isn’t magical; it’ll hold up under magical scrutiny. So will the fake aura, so long as you don’t use any mana.”
“Are you sure about those pills?” Sophie asked. “The guy sells low-quality potions to poor people in Old City. Every other alchemist I’ve heard of rakes in money from rich people on the Island.”
“He knows what he’s doing,” Belinda said. “And just as importantly, doesn’t know what we’re doing. He doesn’t ask questions, because he’s sweet on me.”
“How sweet will he be when Ventress sends Darnell to break his elbows?”
“She can’t,” Belinda said. “He’s in the Alchemy Association and the Adventure Society.”
“And you?”
“What about me?”
“Are you sweet on him, Lindy? Is your judgement compromised?”
“My judgement has gotten us this far,” Belinda said, “and I’m hardly the one with the questionable taste in men. Could you pick one guy who wasn’t a con man or some kind of swindler?”
“They’re more fun.”
“Three of your lovers tried to sell you to Cole Silva. That would inspire most people to examine their taste in men, but you pick up every lying, scheming weasel that stumbles into view.”
“Not every one,” Sophie said. “And they weren’t lovers; they were just a bit of fun. And things didn’t exactly work out for them, did they?”
“The point is that you need to raise your standards. We aren’t in a great place to be socialising right now, but if you are going to pick a guy, pick a good one.”
“Then find me a good guy who’s also a lying, scheming weasel.”
Belinda groaned.
“I don’t think there is anyone like that,” Belinda said. “He’d have to be a crazy person.”
She pulled out a pocket watch to check the time, then put on her game face.
“Four minutes,” she said. “Time to go.”
77
Group Cohesion
Jason walked through the Adventure Society campus with a recording crystal floating over his head.
“…looks a lot like a university campus,” he continued narrating. “It’s more about child soldiers than education, though. Not super young, more America than Sierra Leone. Late-mid teens.”
The marshalling yard came into sight, where a number of young adventurers were loosely gathered.
“As you can see, late teens. The big one with the bird on his shoulder is my friend Humphrey, who I’ve mentioned before. We had bit of a fight last week, and we haven’t talked much since, so things are still a little tense.”
Jason saw Humphrey’s face light up with a smile, and followed his gaze to where an extremely pretty young woman was approaching him with a wave.
“That girl walking up to him is Gabrielle. She’s a priestess in training, with the god of knowledge. Goddess, whatever. Deities are gender fluid, as it turns out. Heard that from the goddess of knowledge herself, direct quote. Oh yeah, I found religion, which is kind of a big deal. I didn’t join, but I found it. It seems fine; not for me but who knows? Maybe there’s a god of delicious sandwiches. If God helps those who help themselves, then the god of sandwiches might offer a two-for-one deal. I might check that out.”
Jason took a pocket watch from his inventory, checked the time and then turned away from the marshalling yard.
“Still got time to check if that bloke with the juice stall is on campus today. An interesting fact about the goddess of knowledge is that she knows everything that anyone in this world knows, including me. Which means she knows a bunch of Mario Kart shortcuts, which is kind of awesome.”
Jason spotted a cart stall set up on the main promenade. The proprietor had set up an awning for shade, with a folding table under which were boxes of fruit and large paper cups.
“There he is. Nice.”
Jason joined the short queue, soon reaching the front.
“Blasphemer,” the man running the stall casually greeted him. “Gods haven’t struck you down, yet?”
He was a runic, with the usual dark skin marked by faintly glowing runes.
“Not yet, sorry, Arash.”
They had first met right before Jason saw his first god. Arash hadn’t been happy with Jason’s lack of reverence, but that wasn’t enough to make him turn away a customer.
“What do you have for me today?” Jason asked.
“I just got in the first gem berries of the season,” Arash said. “I can do you a blend with blood-wing cherries over ice I think you’ll like.”
“Sounds refreshing,” Jason said. “I’m heading into the desert, so rack me up a half-dozen.”
“Perhaps the goddess of earth will drown you in sand,” Arash said optimistically.
“I guess all you can do is pray.”
Arash tapped his finger on a plate fixed into the table in front of him, which lit up with a glowing magic circle. He started tossing fruit into the air, which stopped over the magic circle as if caught by an invisible hand. From crates under the table, he threw out berries, cherries and a few other fruits, as well as ice from a magical freezer box. Each fruit he threw up floated in a slow circuit over the magic circle.