“You wish there were still wars?” asked Mizuki.
“No, it’s not that,” said Alfric. “It’s… I don’t know. I don’t know how to say it without sounding like I wish that the world were a violent and wild place again, because that’s not what I want.”
“It’s common,” said Hannah, nodding. “For a particular kind of person, the peace and prosperity of the modern age feels like bein’ in a pen.”
“Huh,” said Mizuki. “Well, I don’t understand it. All I ever wanted was to be safe and comfortable. Which I mostly am.”
“I said I was going to go, so I should do that,” said Verity, getting up from her spot. She turned to go, then remembered her plate and took it to the kitchen before going upstairs.
“Well, we have some time until dinner,” said Hannah. “I was about to go into town and see if Lemmel needed some help, and Alfric, you’d said you wanted introductions to the local clerics, was that right?”
“It was,” Alfric nodded. “And now is as good a time as any.”
“Then what am I doing?” asked Mizuki, pouting somewhat. “I’m just going to be left to my own devices?”
“Try not to cause trouble,” Hannah suggested. “Read a book.”
“I’ve read all the books,” said Mizuki.
“I brought some from my room,” said Hannah. “Though they’re mostly romances, I should warn, ay?”
“I could go for a romance,” said Mizuki, perking up. “You’re fine if I go in there and pick one out?”
“I’ve no secrets,” Hannah replied.
She and Alfric put their shoes on, sitting side by side as they did so, then took off down the path that led away from the house. Mizuki’s grandfather, it was increasingly clear, had been quite well-off, given the extensive plot of land and how nice the house was. That wealth didn’t seem to have transferred down to Mizuki though, and the girl seemed to live hand-to-mouth most of the time, perhaps because she seemed possessed of a certain indolence. Hannah wasn’t one to judge though, if it kept her happy—though it wasn’t clear whether that was the case.
“The team is goin’ well,” said Hannah as they walked.
“So far,” said Alfric. “I was worried that we would have a rocky start.”
“Talked to the censusmaster, ay?” asked Hannah.
“Yesterday,” said Alfric, wincing. “Isra and Verity are both third now. I should have brought it up while we were all on the channel. I don’t think that substantially changes things, but common wisdom is that it increases the risk. They both must have been on the verge.”
“Or Isra knowin’ she’s a druid and not a ranger has changed things,” said Hannah, nodding. “Happens, though rarely.” Elevation wasn’t one of the more considered aspects of the world, in Hannah’s opinion. Sometimes all you could do was look at the Editors’ work and cluck your tongue.
“Very rarely, in the case of someone being a druid without knowing it,” said Alfric.
“Ay,” nodded Hannah. “Still some mystery with that, isn’t there?”
“Some,” said Alfric. “And her circumstances are unusual even if we discount the druid stuff.”
“More so than your own?” asked Hannah. “Or Verity’s? You certainly grabbed a complicated set of people.”
“Complicated people are more likely to be available,” said Alfric. He said that like it was self-evident.
“Well, I s’pose,” said Hannah. “Who were the alternates, by the by? You said there were two of them, I was wonderin’ whether it’s anyone whose names I know.”
“Kell Westling, a wizard who mostly works with farmers, though he’s on the younger side and only first elevation,” said Alfric. “The second alternate was Micah Skybloom, an apprentice blacksmith, but he’s third elevation and in his mid-twenties. He seemed strong, but I was hoping to have that role covered.”
“Ay, Micah,” said Hannah with a sigh. She had already talked to him with Mizuki and had been thinking about him in her off time, turning the idea of him over in her head. “He propositioned me.”
“Propositioned?” asked Alfric.
“For marriage, when I first came to town,” she said.
“Without knowing you?” asked Alfric, who seemed alarmed.
“We’d met a few times,” said Hannah. “It’s a custom, down south, to make such a proposition if you’ve a good feelin’ about things or if you’re properly smitten. The idea, then, is to have a long engagement, a year or more, to see if you’re truly a match to be wed.”
“And,” said Alfric, working through that, “you turned him down?”
“There are times I wish I hadn’t,” said Hannah. “But it was tradition he was anglin’ on, and tradition didn’t appeal to me much, so it was clear he had the wrong of me. Micah is the sort to like a muscular woman wearin’ pants, I think, and there’s some appeal in the tall and burly, for my own tastes, but… well, to do it in that way, to have a love that grows and blooms over time rather than startin’ with a spark…” She shook her head. Micah had felt a spark, that was clear enough, but Hannah had only seen the appeal of him in the abstract. “I don’t think it was wrong of me to say no, mind you, but there’s a part that wished I’d said yes. I still see him ’round, of course, in a town as small as Pucklechurch, and he’s been quite decent about it, no hard feelin’s. Perhaps in five years, once I’ve had my fill of the dungeons, I might see if he’s still available or kick myself because he’s sure to have found someone. To settle down now, though, have children…”
It was easier to say to Alfric, knowing that he wasn’t likely one to gossip. Talking to Mizuki meant trying to think carefully about her words. Something said to Mizuki, who had friends in town and an open mouth, could easily end up in the ears of someone else, and it was too early to know whether Mizuki could be bound to secrecy or trusted with private feelings. Not that these were secrets, just things that were a bit delicate.
“And do you think about that?” asked Alfric. “Marriage?”
“Worried I’m not goin’ to be patchin’ you up if I have a husband or a wife?” asked Hannah, smiling at him.
“Just curious,” said Alfric. “But yes, it would also be unfortunate to lose you because you wanted to start a family.”
“Ay,” nodded Hannah. “But no, I s’pose down the line I might be through with bein’ wild and free, and if Micah is still available, he seems like a good sort to settle down with, but I’ve got dungeoneerin’ I want to do, travels through the hexes of the world, all that sort, and to take a husband or a wife and then leave them seems a bit cruel, to my mind, or at least unreasonable.”
“And it would be?” asked Alfric. “A husband or a wife?”
“Ay, well,” said Hannah. “I am a cleric of Garos. I had a few girlfriends in the seminary, and it was nice enough. My mind goes to men more often though, so she would have to be, well, somethin’ special, which is what we all hope for, isn’t it?”
“I guess,” said Alfric.
“And you?” asked Hannah. “Any romance, prior to this part of your life?”
“There was a girl,” said Alfric. There was an obvious and immediate hesitance, not just in his words, but in his whole character. “She was… someone special. I’d known her since we were small. And then things didn’t go as they should have gone.” He shook his head, maybe because he knew he was being too circumspect, though Hannah thought it more likely that he was just thinking on it. “My parents are both dungeoneers. Their advice was that I’d be traveling so much early on that it would mostly be about brief encounters, and that I should take what I could from them. Then, when I was older, I could have longer, more stable relationships. The dungeons at my parents’ level, they take three or four days to clear, and they don’t do more than one a month, if that.”