Isra looked at the three of them. “You’re saying that you have no control over what the weather does?”
Mizuki laughed. “No, none at all. Wow. I wonder what else you thought was completely normal?”
“Mmm,” said Isra. She stopped leaning against the counter and straightened out. “I think I’ll be going.”
“I didn’t mean it like that,” said Mizuki, sitting up a bit. “I just—it’s interesting, isn’t it?”
“It’s not because of what you said,” Isra replied. “I’ve been on the road and need some rest. I need time to myself to think.”
“There’s a room upstairs if you want it,” said Mizuki.
“No, thank you,” replied Isra.
“We should talk about the timeline for the next dungeon first,” said Alfric. “I’d like to do it before we have the channel, but obviously coordination after we have the channel will be easier.”
“I can move at your schedule,” said Isra. She moved toward the door. “I’ll be in town again tomorrow. I’ll come here around noon.” She looked to Alfric. “I’ll get the rocks then.”
She slipped out without saying more, and Mizuki just stared at the door. “Huh,” she said. “Hope we didn’t scare her off.”
“It’s probably just a shock,” said Hannah.
“So when are we going to the next dungeon, if that’s what we’re doing?” asked Mizuki.
Verity chose that moment to come into the kitchen, though it was anyone’s guess how long she’d been listening in. In Mizuki’s experience, sound carried fairly well up the stairs, though not into the bedrooms.
“Hi,” she said.
“Hello,” said Alfric.
“How do you feel about lying to my parents?” asked Verity.
“I do my best not to lie to people,” said Alfric. “Though a lie by omission… that, I would think, would be acceptable, if there wasn’t some compelling interest in disclosure.” He seemed to use that word a lot, ‘disclosure’.
“Then I want you to send mail back to them, as you said,” said Verity. “Tell them the truth, but paint it as best you can. Don’t tell them that I’m running off to become part of a low-level dungeoneering team. And… let me read it, before it’s sent.”
“I can do that,” nodded Alfric. His sense of relief was controlled but still visible.
“I need a few days of rest and practice,” said Verity. “I think we were risking too much going into a dungeon without proper preparation. And yes, I’ll buy some pants somewhere, if I have to, I guess.”
“Practice would be good,” Alfric said with a nod. “And Isra already took her share of the rings, so we can divvy up what we have now. I’ve already gotten what I was after in Tarchwood, to help round out my gear, but most of what I need are entads, which I’m not willing to pay the markup on.”
Hannah went to the bag of rings and began dividing them up, which didn’t take all that much time since the denominations were fairly large. It was more money than Mizuki had ever seen in one place, but she did her best to swallow her shock at it. Mizuki had never really wanted for money growing up, but after her parents had left, there had been some lean years as she got used to living by herself and the expenses associated with that. Cooking all her own meals had definitely helped, as well as scavenging what she could from what remained of the slowly deteriorating gardens, but most of her money came from random bits of sorcery, whether that was chasing down odd jobs or trying to make something of value from converting castoffs. Every now and then, someone needed a tree cut down or a stump removed, and big, splashy magic was what that called for. Really, dungeoneering had been the obvious choice, but it required a party, and short of doing what Alfric had done and getting a candidate list from the censusmaster… Well, that was decidedly not her kind of thing. Even approaching people about odd jobs wasn’t her kind of thing. It felt unfriendly.
When Mizuki slipped the rings onto her string, she felt awkward about the weight, and it really wasn’t the kind of money that she wanted to be carrying around with her. She was going to have to find a place in the house to keep it, but with another person living with her—well, she didn’t think that Verity was the type to steal, but it did pay to be a little bit worried about security. It was a lot of money, especially for Mizuki, who had almost nothing in the way of expenses.
“So what’s it going to be for the next dungeon?” asked Hannah. “Six options, ay?”
“I’ll ask around a bit,” said Alfric. “They seem equivalent to me though, all with towns so small they almost don’t deserve the name… If there is a distinction between them, it will be in terms of how far the dungeon is from the hex center, since the differences in terms of dungeon difficulty should be pretty small.”
“No,” said Hannah. “Southeast is a mana mine, northeast is a magical forest, those should be more difficult affairs.”
“They weren’t marked on my map,” said Alfric, frowning.
“They’re both small operations.” Hannah shrugged. “How many mage trees do there need to be to show up on one of your maps?”
Alfric pondered that for a moment. “I suppose I don’t know.”
“I’d think it would be a mild difference,” said Hannah. “But the Pucklechurch dungeon was harder than expected, and I doubt anyone wants a surprise like that.”
“Definitely not,” said Verity.
“I didn’t realize there was a mana mine so close,” said Mizuki. “You’d think we’d get more wizards in the region.”
“Nah,” said Hannah. “Wizards need the mana stones, but bein’ close to a mine does nothin’ for them. Besides, none of the processin’ is close by.”
“And the woods?” asked Alfric. “What variety are they?”
“Nothin’ major,” said Hannah. “Thought to be a dungeon escape, but they’re slow growin’. Fractalwoods, I think they’re called, both the forest and the trees. So far as I know, there’s an outpost of scientist types there tryin’ to figure out somethin’ useful to do with them, but the town is so small that it’s mostly scientists.”
“Either of those might be valuable dungeons then,” said Alfric, rubbing his chin. “But best saved for later.”
“Fractalwoods are neat,” said Mizuki. “I went up there a few years back to see whether I could make anything of them and came back with a souvenir, which is probably still around here somewhere.”
“But there was nothin’ to be made of them?” asked Hannah. “No aether manipulation or what have you to be done?”
“Oh, I was a time god there, which was neat,” said Mizuki. “But nothing that anyone would pay me for.”
“It’s not polite to compare yourself to a god,” said Hannah, scowling. “Least of all in front of a cleric.”
“Sorry,” said Mizuki, though she couldn’t tell whether that was honest offense or good-natured ribbing. Either way, the scowl left Hannah’s face quickly, replaced by a smile. “For a while I had a standing offer out to any artisans who wanted things rapidly aged or wanted things cast forward in time or for people who wanted themselves cast forward in time, but I never had any takers. If we went into a dungeon, would it have some of that flavor to it? Or some kind of space manipulation aspect?”
“Hard to say,” said Alfric. “It would be best if we could speak with another team who had gone in. There’s supposed to be a tradition of leaving notes for other dungeoneers, but there was nothing at the Pucklechurch dungeon, and I’m actually not sure where the local Adventurers’ League branch is, but especially out in an area like this, they’re essentially useless.”
“They’re in Liberfell too, same as the druid,” said Hannah.