“Astral spaces are pretty common,” Farrah said, “but normally they’re sealed off and you need magic to track one down and break in. Being naturally open like this is rare, especially with so many apertures. The river we’ll be going down comes out of the biggest one.”
“You can’t just constantly introduce new water,” Jason said. “Even if it takes a long time, it’ll eventually start messing with the climate.”
“No,” Farrah said, “the water coming out of the astral space has a high level of magic. When too much accumulates it turns into water quintessence. When it forms, it condenses huge quantities of magically-imbued water into a little crystal.”
“Is the crystal super-heavy?” Jason asked.
“No,” Farrah said. “Why would it be?”
“Conservation of mass,” Jason said. “Or energy, or something. Physics isn’t my thing.”
Gary and Farrah glanced at each other and shrugged. They were quickly getting used to not knowing what Jason was talking about.
Farrah pointed out what looked like fishing boats on the small lake.
“Those are all people scouring the bottom of the lake for it,” she explained. “As forms of quintessence go, water is a common one. It’s one of the most useful, though.”
“Especially in the desert,” Gary added. “Being able to find it reliably means there’s real money to be made.”
“Yeah,” Farrah agreed. “There’s whole villages along the coast dedicated to hunting up water quintessence that forms after the river water washes out to sea. Funnily enough, this desert is one of the best sources of water quintessence in the world.”
The wagon drew closer to the village. They passed by what looked to be a staging area for exporting the marble before reaching the village itself. Rufus separated himself from the group to find somewhere to stable the string of heidels for the night. An inn would have livery with room enough for the ones pulling the wagons, but not the extras ones as well.
The village was made up of a single, circular street running around the entirety of the lake, paved in tan-coloured brick. It looked like sandstone, but for all Jason knew, it could be some weird magic rock. The brick was close enough to yellow that if it didn’t loop in a circle he’d expect to find a shady fake wizard at the end.
“Or a real one,” he said to himself. “I wonder if I count?”
There were buildings on either side of the ring-road; the ones fronting the lake were larger and nicer. The smaller buildings were made from the same brick as the road. The larger ones were coated in a white plaster, with green marble embellishments.
The buildings were pleasantly placed among the trees and bushes growing around the lake. It was a stark contrast to the desert, with its dry dirt and spiky scrub. The smaller buildings had their own appeal, with an inviting homeliness to them. The street was busy with people, but more than broad enough that neither wagons nor pedestrians were inconvenienced. Looking around, everyone seemed happy.
Gary pulled the wagon to a halt in front of an inn and everyone climbed off. After hours of riding the wagon over bumpy ground, Jason’s body was creaky and sore. He took in a luxurious breath, heavy with moisture from the lake. Compared to the dust and heat of the open desert, it was like drinking in nectar.
“Think I might walk off the stiffness of bumping along in this wagon,” Jason said. “This is my first piece of civilisation not full of cannibals. Hopefully.”
“They’re not cannibals that we know of,” Farrah said with a laugh.
“Good,” Jason said. “I think I’ll have a look around.”
“Sounds good,” Gary said. “I’m going to get us some rooms and get these heidels unhitched.”
“Then Anisa and I will go track down our little friend,” Farrah said. “Don’t want him spotting us and running off.”
Anisa nodded her assent.
“Will he still be in town after selling you out?” Jason asked.
“Should be,” Farrah said. “He wasn’t expecting us to ever come back.”
“Do you need any money?” Gary asked Jason.
“I have some gold spirit coins left,” Jason said. “The rest are lower ranked, but I have a lot of them. Will that be enough?”
Gary and Farrah started laughing, even Anisa had an amused look on her face.
“Jason,” Gary said, “A gold spirit coin would buy the nicest building in this village, and I doubt there’s enough currency in it to give you the change. Unless you’re buying magic items or bulk trade goods, most people use lesser spirit coins, iron-rank at the most.”
“What’s the exchange rate between coins?” Jason asked. “Actually, I’ll figure it out myself. That’s part of the fun in coming to a new place, right?”
“That’s the spirit,” Gary said.
25
Blasphemy is Kind of My Thing
After handling the string of heidels, Rufus made his way into the village. He knew from their previous visit that the inns were all clustered together, so he had no concerns about finding the rest of the group. The sky was turning a rich blue, with orange and gold encroaching as twilight came over the desert. Along the ring road of the village, magic lamps were lighting up and some kind of night market was setting up. He came into the village along with a good many quarry workers who had finished up as they lost the light. Moving amongst the gathering people, he saw a familiar face.
“Jason?”
“Oh, g’day, Rufus,” Jason said with a wave. He was behind a stall selling skewered meat, helping what Rufus assumed was the stall owner to fry meat.
“What are you doing?” Rufus asked.
“Dan here is teaching me to cook… what was it called again?”
“Bruschard,” Dan said.
“It’s a giant worm!” Jason said. “Luckily I tried it before I found that out.”
“You seem to be adjusting well,” Rufus said.
“Yeah, no worries,” Jason said. “You go get your revenge, or whatever. I’m good here. Gary picked the inn on the end with the big livery, by the way. There’s a sign with a little house and a cart on it.”
“Thanks,” Rufus said.
“Now,” Jason said, turning back to Dan. “Give me those sauce ingredients again. I haven’t heard of any of them, so I’ll have to write them all down. Which means I’m going to need some paper…”
Hours previously, Jason was happily meandering around the circle road, frequently pausing to take in the village. He’d stop and talk with villagers who proved more than ready for a conversation. They were proud of their village and rightly so, Jason was happy to acknowledge. The colourful houses looked inviting, everywhere was lush with greenery, so removed from the desert around it. The air was fresh, cool and clean. Jason thought back to Gary’s claim about a gold coin buying whole buildings and found himself tempted.
He came across something that looked like a covered bus stop, but instead of a timetable there was a bulletin board with various pieces of paper pinned to it. Looking over them, he saw they were all descriptions of monsters, along with when and where the monsters were last seen. He asked a passer-by about it and, true to form for the village, she was happy to explain. According to the villager, Doris, any time someone discovered a monster around the village they would write down the details and put it up on the board. Every month some adventurers would pass through and clear out all the monsters on the board.
Doris was surprised at Jason’s lack of knowledge about something so basic. As he had done a number of times that afternoon, he explained that he had recently come from an isolated area with little knowledge of the outside world. It was more or less true.
Jason himself was as interesting to the locals as they were to him, as visitors were mostly the same selection of stone traders. Adventurers didn’t often appear outside of the monthly patrol, and by all accounts were a surly bunch. Roaming the remote villages was apparently a punishment duty, so their visits weren’t often friendly.