“It’s an accusation that you’d want proof to back up,” said Verity.
“I know,” Alfric said, sighing. “And if I hadn’t felt like stabbing him, it would have been good to talk with Josen to get a better understanding of what they’ve been going through. That way I might have been able to convince him or one of the others. Sorry, I just—I wasn’t properly prepared for this. I woke up this morning and thought to myself that I would just go about my business.” He’d thought he was prepared, that he’d gotten a handle on things and his head straight. Clearly that wasn’t the case.
It wasn’t terribly far to the League office, and Alfric again did his best to steady himself before pushing open the door. An ornate building, it had columns on either side of the heavy brass-plated door in a style that wasn’t much seen in this part of the world. The building was old and a bit run-down, with some chips taken out of one column. Above the door, on the second floor, a stone inscription was visible and marked it as being the onetime home of Liber Cosmetics, which had apparently been established more than a hundred years ago.
A slender, reedlike woman was reading beside an unlit fireplace when they came in, and she stopped only slowly, putting a bookmark in place as though she was saying an extended goodbye to a loved one. She had blond hair that was starting to gray, contrasted against darker skin, and she wore a long dress that nearly touched the floor when she stood up. Her feet were bare, and she was unadorned in any other way as well, a relatively plain person.
“Priya Voyt?” asked Alfric.
“Yes?” she asked. Her voice was high and thin, almost unpleasantly so, and she looked Alfric over like he was a fish she was worried was rotten. “Oh,” she said. “You must be Alfric. I was told to expect you.” She stepped forward and held out a slender hand, which Alfric shook. She barely moved her hand at all and let it quickly fall from his. “You have a party?”
“I do. Five members, with two dungeons done. My provisional status allows me to do another three before any registration, but I’d rather get the registration done quickly, just so it’s out of the way. I have reports written for the two dungeons we’ve done, which were Pucklechurch and Traeg’s Knob. Neither seemed to have notes left by other teams.”
“My,” she said, drawing back slightly. She looked at Verity and Hannah. “Would any of you like some tea?”
“I don’t s’pose you have tuber tea?” asked Hannah.
“I do!” said Priya, clapping her hands. “Do you know, I’ve never come across someone else with a keenness for tuber tea? Do you prefer the corms, the leaves, or the petioles?”
Hannah froze for a moment. “To be honest, I don’t think I’ve heard any of those words before, aside from leaves.”
“The corms are the tuber itself. The petioles are the stem that connects the leaves to the stalk,” said Priya. She waved a hand. “I’ll get the petioles, they’re my favorite for tea, though they’re best with a spot of honey, if you don’t mind.”
“Honey would be lovely,” said Verity.
It was becoming clear to Alfric that this was going to be one of those conversations, the kind that went on aimlessly before it finally got around to the matter at hand. It was something that sometimes just happened, and unlike a negotiation or a proposition, it seemed like there was no ulterior motive at play, no need to psychologically soften each other up. Alfric’s requests were perfectly within the rules of the Adventurers’ League, and there was no element of diplomacy necessary. But it seemed that he’d been overruled, and so he resigned himself to a cup of tea and a rather slower run of things.
To his surprise, Priya pulled a giant axe down from the wall. She set the head of it in the fireplace, and the axehead was suddenly engulfed in flames, burning brightly. She left it unattended, then walked over to a cupboard and took down a large kettle, then spent some time filling it from a sink. This first floor was wide open but separated into different areas by the arrangement of furniture, and it seemed that in addition to being a common area, there was also a dining table and a little kitchen. If it was like most Adventurers’ League places, there would be a few rooms in the back where traveling parties could come spend the night for a very modest fee. In fact, it was entirely possible that this was where Lola and her party were staying, though with half a hundred dungeons under their belt, it seemed likely that they could find better accommodations.
Only once the kettle had been placed on the flaming axehead did Priya return her attention to Alfric.
“You’re of the Dondrian Overguards, yes?” she asked.
“Yes,” said Alfric. He was thankful that bit of information was out, so he wouldn’t have to explain it to the others.
“I partied with your mother, for a time,” said Priya. “Fearsome woman. Tough as nails.”
Alfric frowned. “When were you with her?”
“Early in her career,” said Priya, waving a hand. “We went our separate ways. I’d had a falling-out with Fossy, if you know him.”
That was, to Alfric, Uncle Fossy, a bear of a man who often showed up to family dinners. “I do,” he said.
“I’m retired now, obviously,” said Priya. “But in my time, I ran two thousand dungeons.”
That gave Alfric pause. “That’s a good record.”
“A good record?” she asked. She gave him an incredulous laugh. “There are perhaps twenty people of my generation who have run more.”
Alfric looked around the room, trying to reevaluate. He’d been to a few League houses over the years, as one of those things done as part of a field trip in the Junior League, and this one had its own eccentricities, but didn’t seem like it was all that much out of the ordinary.
“I don’t live here,” said Priya, sighing. “Though I do spend quite a bit of time here, and I’ve built up a nook.” She gestured to one of the chairs by the fireplace, where there were books on a shelf and a table with snacks. “I handle some of the administration across all of Greater Plenarch, but this is my favorite haunt. For my home, I own a demiplane.”
Alfric nodded. “A heavy investment.”
Priya laughed again. “You have a way of understating things.” The teakettle began to whistle, and Priya went over to pull it off the flaming axe, which she touched on the side and put out. The kettle was then brought over to the kitchenette area, and she brought four ceramic cups down from somewhere and set them on the counter, along with a small pot of honey. “I’ll make the tea and then, yes, to more serious matters.” She dropped a ready-made sachet from one of a dozen tins into the kettle, then swirled the water inside around for a bit. “So, Alfric, you have business to conduct.”
“Yes ma’am,” said Alfric.
“You want official recognition of your dungeons in preparation for asking me for a second-level key, is that right?” asked Priya.
“No,” said Alfric. “I’m not intending to take a key until we’ve exhausted all of the lower dungeons in the area. I’ve been told that it’s better to get things in when you have a chance, rather than attempting to get credit for ten or twenty at once. Further, we were in the area, and I wanted any information you had on the surrounding dungeons. I already have a key from Dondrian and special dispensation for party formation and expedition from my time in the Junior League. I don’t think there’s anything that we ‘need’ from you at the moment, and probably not for another few weeks or…” He looked at Verity. “Months.”