Hannah had puttered around the temple while baking and made sure that this time she wouldn’t be waking Mizuki up. To her surprise, as she came to the door of the house, she saw Verity approaching, still looking bleary-eyed and with a sack over her shoulder and her lute case held in one hand.
“Hannah?” she asked.
“I brought bread,” said Hannah. She looked at the sack over Verity’s shoulder. “Are you… movin’ in?”
“Yeah,” said Verity. “I played my set at the Fig and Gristle last night and talked to Cynthia. I have a standing offer to play there, but she thinks she’ll be able to get someone in to replace me relatively soon. She seemed more happy that I was moving on to something else than she was sad to lose me.”
“Well, good,” said Hannah. “Nothin’ to stand in the way of dungeon delvin’, I suppose, ay?”
“I suppose not,” said Verity. She looked like she was ready for a nap. “I still need to go back and pick up a few things from my room, and Cynthia is making me clean up, but I’ll wait until I play my set tonight.”
“Well, consider this a housewarmin’ gift,” said Hannah, raising the bread.
“Thanks,” said Verity. “Could you get the door?”
Hannah followed Verity in, and while Verity went upstairs to put things away, Hannah went to the kitchen, where Mizuki seemed to spend most of her time. The smell of eggs and toast still hung in the air, and Mizuki was eating over the counter, sitting on one of the stools.
“Mmf,” she said around a mouthful of food. “Bread.”
Hannah set the loaf of bread down on the counter. “Bread,” she agreed. “Verity came about the same time I did, said she was movin’ in.”
“Sure is,” Mizuki said with a nod. “Hopefully we don’t drive each other insane.” She eyed the loaf. “That’s for me, right?”
“To share.” Hannah shrugged. “But I made two, and left one with Lemmel, so if you eat it all, no worries.”
“I doubt I’m going to sit and eat a whole loaf,” said Mizuki. “But, thank you! People don’t usually get me anything.”
“No problem,” said Hannah. “Alfric and Isra should be back today, around noon if they got an early start on things and don’t have trouble along the way. We’ll get our share of the money then and my guess is start talkin’ about the what and when of the next dungeon, if I have the measure of Alfric.”
Mizuki sighed. “Can’t say I’m looking forward to it,” she said. “The talking, not the dungeon. The dungeon is probably fine. But I think I’ve got a better understanding of the magic, given the practice we did yesterday.” She looked at Hannah. “If we’re waiting until noon or so, do you have plans until then?”
“Well,” said Hannah. “Ay. I was thinkin’ that if you didn’t mind, I might take a look at the house a bit and see if there’s mendin’ to do.”
“Mending?” asked Mizuki as she took the last bite of eggs on her plate.
“There’s a lot a cleric of Garos can do,” said Hannah as Mizuki took her plate to the sink for a quick wash. “Healin’ is what we’re most known for, but we can do more than just that. I fixed up Alfric’s shield as best I could, and I was goin’ to take a look around and see if there’s anythin’ I can do, as a favor of one friend to another. The house uses square beams all over the place, but the grain might make it a bit difficult. If I can see repairs that aren’t too hard, I’ll make ’em.”
“Ah,” said Mizuki, as she dried the plate.
“Unless you take offense,” said Hannah.
“No,” said Mizuki. She turned to look back at Hannah. “I mean… you’re saying that there are some problems with the house, and I know there are, things that I never knew how to do or repairs I couldn’t afford, and like with the garden, it’s stupid to get offended about, but a part of me hates that people look at this place and instantly know how out of my depth I am.”
“Sure,” said Hannah. “Well, if it helps, when I’m done, they’ll think about nothin’ but how nice it looks, though I can’t say that I’ll clean off your roof.”
“Do you need to clean roofs?” asked Mizuki, raising an eyebrow as she wiped her hands dry.
“You have some small trees threatenin’ to grow through the tiles,” said Hannah, as gentle as she could be.
“But I kind of like the moss up there,” said Mizuki.
“There’s somethin’ nice about the look, true,” said Hannah. She rubbed the back of her neck. She hadn’t quite realized how out of her depth Mizuki was. She desperately hoped that the septic was getting some regular attention. “But… you know a house can rot, ay?”
“From moss?” asked Mizuki. Her nose crinkled, as though she’d smelled something bad. “I thought that was from leaks.”
“The moss and dirt and leaves and things mean that it doesn’t dry as well,” said Hannah. “Anyway, as I said, I was goin’ to check the beams, the stones, the skeleton of the place, and see if I could do anythin’ for you. It’s somethin’ we do as clerics of Garos, though of course I won’t charge.”
“Two gifts,” said Mizuki. “Seems a bit generous to me, and I don’t know how I could pay you back.”
“One is payback for breakfast yesterday,” said Hannah. “And as for the other… Lemmel will let me use the room at the temple for as long as I please, but I was thinkin’, if you had the space, and if you and Verity are both goin’ to be here, well…” She hesitated. “If it wouldn’t be an imposition.”
Mizuki considered this. “And you’d do baking?”
“And home repairs, where I can,” said Hannah. “And other things, surely, like healin’, ay, and if you need someone to talk to about symmetry-related matters.”
“Then yes, of course, you’re welcome to stay,” said Mizuki with a little laugh, like it had been an entirely foregone conclusion. “I actually have space for all five of us, just barely, though two of us will have to share a room.”
“You’ve come around to dungeons then?” asked Hannah. “Goin’ through and clearin’ all the ones in the area?”
“Yes, probably,” said Mizuki, shifting slightly. “It would be fun to have a full house again. Alfric would probably be interested, if just to save a few rings, but I don’t know about Isra. She’s got a place in the woods somewhere, I’d think.”
“Well, we won’t press her on it, and hopefully when she comes back with Alfric she won’t have been driven off forever,” said Hannah. “I’m goin’ to go look at the bones of the house while Verity unpacks.”
Hannah wandered out of the house again, looking for any damage. Mending was, as she’d said, a specialty of clerics of Garos, and she had more than a bit of knowledge about structures and what could go wrong with them. Sometimes houses were built with the clerics of Garos in mind, but that was a rarity, because having a perfectly symmetrical house meant that, in some respects, you had to give up a bit of practicality, more was the pity. For a large enough house, no cleric but one of the Ashar would have the reach necessary to make repairs, and Mizuki’s house would likely stretch the limits of Hannah’s ability if it was necessary to make the front symmetrical with the back.