“But you’re clearly thinking about it,” said Mizuki.
“Well,” said Alfric, not knowing how to respond. Disclosure had been a cornerstone of his education, and it felt wrong to lie about his further plans. He was already not being as forthcoming as he would have liked, on several fronts.
“That’s fine, no one is going to be forcing me to do something I don’t want to do,” replied Mizuki. “Oh, I think I can see the lights of the town.”
And indeed, through the trees, the warm glow of hanging lanterns was visible, though a number of them had been shuttered for the night, leaving only a soft glow coming from a few of the houses. It was fully dark now, with the last of the sun’s light faded away, and the temperature had begun to drop. Pucklechurch was nothing much to look at, a small town like most others, in the center of its hex, though the large temple was the obvious local landmark and quite grand. Mizuki reached into her bag and pulled out a hooded cloak, which she quickly wrapped around herself, covering her bare arms.
“Can I ask if you know any of the others?” asked Alfric. “I’m still working on recruitment, and any insights would be appreciated.”
“Names?” asked Mizuki.
“Hannah is the cleric, and Isra is the ranger,” said Alfric.
“Hannah’s not a local,” said Mizuki. “She patched me up once, just a minor burn. She seemed cheerful enough, but I don’t know her well. Church of Garos. Isra—is that a boy’s name or a girl’s name?”
“Girl’s,” replied Alfric.
“Then she’s probably not a local either, though I don’t know everyone in town.” She gave Alfric a skeptical look. “You sure picked a lot of people from outside the hex, since Verity’s not local either.”
“Ah,” said Alfric. “That’s not on purpose, I promise. The censusmaster didn’t say, and I haven’t been able to learn as much as I would have liked about everyone.” This, too, wasn’t quite a lie.
“Are you sure that Hannah is going to join?” asked Mizuki. They had reached the town and were walking down the street together, Mizuki still holding Alfric’s arm even though it wasn’t really necessary now that they were out of the woods and the ground was more even.
“The only one that I’m sure of is you, because you said you would,” replied Alfric. “Verity needs time to think, but she gave a soft commitment. Will you come with me to help pitch to the others? People seem to like you.” A little flattery never hurt, in Alfric’s opinion.
“I suppose,” said Mizuki, blushing somewhat. She came to a stop, and Alfric stopped next to her. “This is me.”
They were standing in front of a surprisingly large house, three stories tall, arranged in tiers of decreasing size, with eaves on each level. It was a beautiful building, but in a state of minor disrepair. Even in the dim light of the nighttime lanterns, Alfric could see moss growing on a few of the wooden beams and places where the tiled roof needed to have pine needles and fallen leaves swept from it. The door and windows were painted red, but the paint was faded and starting to chip. For all that, it was old and sturdy, a large house that had been built to last. It was completely dark, without a single light on.
“Do you live with your parents?” asked Alfric.
“No, just me,” said Mizuki. “You’re asking after the others tomorrow?”
“Yes,” replied Alfric. “I need to talk to Verity a bit more. She said that I could tell the others that she was in, but she didn’t actually say she’d go.”
“Well, then if this thing ends up working, I’ll be able to say that I was the first to say yes,” said Mizuki, smiling. “Have a good night. Come get me before you go see Verity. I might be able to help talk her into it.”
“Good,” said Alfric, feeling a surge of relief. Things were falling into place, just like he’d hoped they would. He needed the win. “You have a good night too. I look forward to working with you.”
Alfric couldn’t keep himself from smiling as he walked back to the room he was renting. He had done some basic research on the party members, but he hadn’t known that Mizuki was living in such a large house all on her own. He idly wondered whether and when it would be appropriate to ask for a room in her house, with payment, of course, or perhaps with a share of his dungeon loot. If they did the dungeon for the hex, then all six surrounding ones, that would be something like a fortnight of work. He’d need a home base.
On his way back, he stopped by the tavern and looked up at the second floor, where he could see a lantern still glowing, which he thought meant Verity was awake. He wanted to go up and speak with her, but she’d said to wait until the next day, and he would abide by that, as much as he wanted to get things moving. He didn’t really understand why she would have wanted to put it off. Bards were supposed to take joy in other people, never wanting a quiet moment to themselves, but it seemed that Verity hadn’t been cast from the same mold. Given what he knew of her history, this was little surprise.
The temple was quiet as well, with no lights on, which meant that there was no chance to speak with Hannah ahead of schedule, not that Alfric really wanted to. By his reckoning, clerics were one of the most useful professions you could have with you in a dungeon, depending on which god they followed, but they were also one of the hardest to convince to go in. Hannah was a devotee of Garos Orag, one of the best gods for healing, and also one whose clerics were typically the least inclined toward dungeons.
And as for the last potential member of the party, Isra, all Alfric knew aside from her vital statistics was that she came to the biweekly market in the mid-morning, carrying meat and skins from a day’s hunting, sometimes with the meat smoked or dried, sometimes with the skins tanned, and occasionally with other goods as well. She didn’t live in Pucklechurch, but she showed up on the censusmaster’s query, and she’d been seen around often enough that she must live somewhere in the hex, though the woman at the general store hadn’t had any clue where that might be.
All in all, Alfric had to call his first day in Pucklechurch a qualified success. If he could get a party together and head down into a dungeon within the next few days, everything would be back on track.
Chapter 2 — Big-City Energy
Alfric knocked on Mizuki’s door just after sunrise, having woken up to twilight filtering in through the curtains of his tavern room. She answered quite a while after he knocked, wearing a robe and looking disheveled, her hair out of place. She was squinting and frowning as she looked at him, trying to keep the light from fully entering her eyes.
“You,” she said.
“Alfric,” he supplied.
“Have you had breakfast?” she asked.
“I don’t eat breakfast,” said Alfric. “Lunch is my first meal of the day. It’s the custom, where I’m from.”
“Well, you can wait outside while I make breakfast, or you can come in and sit there awkwardly while I eat,” she said. “Your choice.”
“Sorry if I woke you,” said Alfric. Looking at her, there was really no need for the ‘if’.
Mizuki waved away his apology and staggered into her house, clutching her robe close to her and leaving the door open by way of invitation. She was barefoot, and Alfric hesitated slightly by the doorway, looking at the different shoes there, before deciding to take his boots off. He didn’t know the custom in Pucklechurch, nor did he know whether Mizuki would actually follow that custom, being as she was half Kiromon. He set his sword in a holder by the door as well, then trod into the house, following the sounds of someone banging around in the kitchen.