“More than that, depending on how much they want to keep in-house,” said Mardin. He seemed to be taking over talking as Grig ate. “And unfortunately for us, all that is under Lola’s control, and she’s… well, got her own things going on, as evidenced by us being in Liberfell as a way to be close to Alfric.”
“And him?” asked Mizuki. “What are the rumors about him?”
“The same, mostly,” said Mardin. “Though a lot of those rumors we got straight from Lola, and the ones we didn’t might have originated from her after their falling-out. I knew through the guilds that he was having a lot of problems finding a party, and some of that might have been from her poisoning people against him. I didn’t really take it that seriously, because it’s what happens when people have a bad breakup, but if we’re here because of him, that means that it’s suddenly party business.”
“Which isn’t great,” said Grig. “There’s a good chance we’ll be seeing more of you, and not just because dungeoneers working in the same area often cross paths.”
“Not that we’re not looking forward to it,” said Mardin, giving Hannah a smile. Hannah had dated a cleric of Oeyr, for a few short weeks, and while she’d been a lovely partner right up until the end, it wasn’t something that Hannah had any interest in repeating. There were too many philosophical differences.
“In the sense that you seem like fine people,” said Grig. “But in the sense that there’s probably some coming clash between Alfric and Lola, no, it’s been nice meeting you, but we don’t actually want to see you again.”
“Shame,” said Mizuki. “I’ve never met a dungeoneer before.”
“Absolute nonsense,” sighed Hannah. “You’ve met loads.”
“Retired dungeoneers,” said Mizuki. “They’re a different breed.”
“All the same,” said Hannah.
“And not career dungeoneers,” said Mizuki. “Not people who do it day in and day out for two or three decades.”
“Take an axe to my neck if I’m still doing this in a decade,” said Grig.
“It’s not that bad,” said Mizuki. She frowned at him. “Is it?”
“How many have you done?” asked Mardin. It was the first time they’d asked for more than surface information.
“We finished our second today,” said Mizuki. She rolled her eyes. “But it wasn’t bad, it was frantic and punishing, but not bad.”
“So you’re a very fresh party,” said Grig. He seemed like he was opening the way for them to say more, but Mizuki’s attention was still on Mardin, and Hannah wasn’t going to say much.
“And you think that’s how you’ll feel fifty-four dungeons in?” asked Mardin. “After you’ve been beaten and bruised more times than you can count, after you’ve seen horrible things happen to your friends, after you’ve been through the selden dungeons, where you have horrible monsters and almost nothing in the way of loot?”
“A chrononaut should help with that, ay?” asked Hannah.
Grig and Mardin looked at each other. “It’s been a point of discussion,” said Grig.
“She’s said she doesn’t like undoing things just because the payout is bad,” said Mardin. “Which I understand.”
“And it’s better than normal dungeoneers get,” Grig said with a nod. “But it’s still the kind of thing that makes you think that maybe you can just settle for a modest existence in the city with what you’ve got.”
“Look,” said Mardin. “Alfric is a good guy, even if he’s a bit tightly wound. You don’t need to worry about him. We wish him well, even. There’s no bad blood on our end. He’ll probably be with you for long enough that he can get his elevation up and have a bunch of dungeon runs under his belt, then get into one of the more serious dungeoneering parties that needs a fifth, or fall back on his family, or… something. But if it’s just a few dungeons he’s got you together for, he’ll probably be a stand-up guy.”
“You think he’d just leave us?” Mizuki frowned.
“Nah,” said Grig. “Alfric will sit you down and go over things in detail, giving you a firm timeline and trying to make it a smooth process. He’s a stickler like that. Which, like we said, means any claims about him having done and then undone some unsavory things kind of ring hollow.”
“I trust him,” said Mizuki, nodding. “I just wanted to know.”
Grig shrugged. “Now you know.”
And it was apparent that this was the other reason they had been so forthcoming: guilt.
“We’re going to have to talk with the others,” said Mardin. “We’re going to have to have a group meeting without Lola to talk about the fact that we went quite some distance over to Liberfell on short notice in order to be around Alfric.”
“Seems likely,” said Grig, sighing. He looked at Mizuki. “We have some solidarity through this, if the Alfric-and-Lola situation comes to a head? We’ll look out for each other, as the uninvolved?”
“Of course,” nodded Mizuki. “It’s been a pleasure to meet you both.”
There were murmurs of assent, and Mizuki and Hannah paid and then left. Hannah was surprised that they hadn’t been pressed further on what they knew of what Alfric had been up to, but she was grateful that she hadn’t had to stonewall them and, worse, make Mizuki do the same. Guilt, again, seemed like it might have saved them from having to be evasive or lie. ‘That guy we suddenly abandoned for a better payout with someone we don’t really like, how’s he been doing?’ It would have taken some brass ones to ask, but in their position, Hannah would have done it.
“Do you ever feel like you’re really, really on someone’s side?” asked Mizuki. “And you don’t know why, exactly, and you’re trying to work it out?”
“Can’t say I’m too familiar,” said Hannah.
“Well, that’s where I am,” said Mizuki. “I’m feeling like I want to defend him against the world. It… probably doesn’t make that much sense. I wanted to sit with them to get more from them, so I could be sure that he wasn’t, I don’t know.”
“The whole point is that you can’t know,” said Hannah.
“Yeah,” said Mizuki. “But I know. I feel it in my bones.”
“You care about him,” said Hannah, nodding. She could feel herself slipping into her clerical mindset, the one used for helping people with their problems. “Not that you shouldn’t, or not that I think there’s a real risk of you gettin’ hurt, but you’re seein’ him as a victim.”
“I am,” nodded Mizuki. “He is.”
“Ay,” said Hannah. “I didn’t say otherwise.”
They were silent as they walked to their hotel, perhaps because both of them were thinking, or perhaps because Mizuki had worked herself into a bit of a state. When they went into the hotel room, Mizuki went looking for Alfric, but as it turned out, he was already asleep, even though the sun was still not quite set. For her own part, Hannah was eager for rest, but she worried about Mizuki and whether their sorcerer would still feel the same iron loyalty in the morning.
Chapter 31 — Delicate Arrangements
When Isra woke, she found that she and Verity had moved together at some point in the night, close enough that their legs were pressed against each other, and one of Verity’s hands was touching the bottom of Isra’s rib cage. Extraction from this situation took a fair bit of time, mostly because Isra was trying her hardest not to wake Verity up, but some of that time was also spent with a tracker’s eyes, seeing how they had come to be touching. They had both moved toward the center of the bed, but it had been Isra’s leg that invaded Verity’s space, and Verity’s arm that had invaded Isra’s.