They were close enough that Isra could see Verity’s forearms tense up at particular points and watch her slender fingers play across the strings of the lute’s neck.
“She’s using the flute,” said Isra.
“It’s actually called a lute,” said Alfric, sounding apologetic.
“No,” said Isra, rolling her eyes. “The flute we pulled from the dungeon.” She gestured to Verity. “She’s got extra fingers on each hand.”
“Huh,” said Alfric. “That was fast.”
“Nah,” said Mizuki. “We were testing it the other night. The extra fingers come with something else, a kind of,” she tapped her head, “thing.”
“Enhancement?” asked Alfric.
“Ay, but anythin’ could be an enhancement, couldn’t it?” asked Hannah. “Not a very useful term.”
“It changes how you think,” said Mizuki. “For me, it was like I’d been handling a knife using extra fingers my entire life. For her, all the training translates. It’s actually a pretty good piece of kit.”
“I wonder if anyone else has noticed,” said Alfric, looking around.
“I don’t think they’d make a thing of it. Entads are more common here, in some ways,” said Hannah. “Not uncommon for people to have one or two. Different in a big city like Dondrian, right?”
“In some sense,” said Alfric, furrowing his brow. “The general rule is that entads flow toward the population centers, but… my guess is that you’d point out that dungeoneering is easier out in rural areas like this, so people run dungeons as a rite of passage, and any that aren’t immediately sold off end up in private hands, especially those that are bound and can’t move.”
“Ay,” answered Hannah, taking a drink of her ale. “Small stuff, mostly, but there’s quite a bit of it around, and every now and then, someone lucks out.”
“Like Isra,” said Alfric, nodding. “That bow,” he sighed.
“It’s a very nice bow,” Isra agreed. She looked at Verity, who was still softly playing away, her eyes half closed, gentle words on her lips to accompany the strumming of her lute. “I’m surprised she doesn’t have a magical instrument.”
“She did, in Dondrian,” said Alfric. “But like most of its kind, it was probably borrowed from one of the larger guilds at great expense, rather than owned by her outright. If she’d taken it with her to Pucklechurch, she would have been tracked down to retrieve it. From what her parents said, it allowed for an entire orchestral score to be produced from a single instrument.” He shrugged. “Perhaps she wouldn’t want me talking about it. She didn’t seem to have liked her life in the city.”
“She seems happy without all that,” said Isra. She looked down at her food, which was only half eaten. She’d been eating slower than the others and hadn’t yet touched her ale. She took a tentative sip of it and wrinkled her nose. It was fermented grain, mildly poisonous, but in a way that people seemed to enjoy. Grimacing and trying to get used to it, she drank more, then went back to the food to get the taste from her mouth.
“I don’t know that ‘happy’ is the right word for Verity,” said Hannah. “Not yet, anyhow. Some people take some time to find themselves, especially if they’ve been told their whole life that they were somethin’ they weren’t.”
“Ah, I do love that clerical wisdom,” said Mizuki, grinning. She’d drained her ale and had been trying to get the attention of the woman who ran the tavern so she could have another. Her cheeks were slightly flushed. The glasses of ale were quite tall.
“Oh, shove off,” laughed Hannah. “I spent years of my life becomin’ wise, you’d best believe I’m going to share that wisdom anytime I can.”
“Entads,” said Mizuki, returning to the previous topic. “I’m hoping for something great. Something to serve as some fuel for the casting. They usually don’t disturb much.” She waved her hand, gesturing, presumably, at the aether.
“Travel is the big one,” said Alfric. “With it, we won’t have to make a production of going to the dungeons, or at least less of one. There are lots of different possibilities as far as travel entads go—”
“And you’ve got them separated into categories and tiers,” said Mizuki. “Yes, yes.”
“You’re not interested?” asked Alfric. “Because I was just going to share because I find it interesting.”
“Ay, go ahead,” said Hannah. “The little one is just a bit flushed with the ale.”
“The little one?” asked Mizuki. She looked at the others, then down at herself. “Am I the little one? I am.” She nodded. “But I’m also the old one. Respect your elders, Hannah.”
“Two years does not make you my elder,” said Hannah.
“There are three categories,” said Alfric, plowing on in a way that Isra found somewhat admirable.
“None of this matters though, right?” asked Mizuki. “Because it’s just a roll of the dice what we find.”
“Are you drunk off a single glass of ale?” asked Hannah.
“Nah,” said Mizuki. “I’m loose and leaning into the looseness.”
“What’s the first category?” asked Isra.
“Conveyance,” said Alfric, happy to have a listener. “My boots are an example. They help move you along faster than you could otherwise go, or with less effort. The flying rug is a prototypical example, but technically mounts also belong in that category. The second category is point transfer, which includes both portals and teleportation, along with some others that are close enough. Those are usually the best, though entads often come with limits or restrictions. There’s a rod that allows whoever holds it to teleport anywhere they can think of as often as they please, and if we found something like that, well, we’d be rich beyond our wildest dreams. And then the third category is point travel, those things that let you go to a specific place or type of place. My mother has a statue that she can teleport to from anywhere in the world, but another example would be something that lets you hop from one fountain to another. The distinction between the second and third is the restriction on where you can go with it.” He seemed satisfied with having gotten that out, and Isra was pleased that she had prompted him.
“And leylines,” said Hannah. “That would make four.”
“Leylines are for leycraft and cartiers,” said Alfric. “It’s pretty rare for an entad to interact with them. And the natural portals are the fifth, if we’re counting extras, but then we should also include ships and things.”
“But entads can interact with leylines, ay?” asked Hannah.
“It would be a combination of the first and third categories,” said Alfric, seeming to think about it. “And if we got something like that, something that could simulate a leycraft… it would change our entire approach, I think. The map would look different for us.”
“There’s a cartier who’s based out of Pucklechurch,” said Hannah. “Though I think that’s because she’s got a family here. There’s actually an interestin’ history of leylines in Pucklechurch.”
“There is?” asked Alfric.
“Ay,” said Hannah. “You didn’t know? I was sayin’ for Isra’s benefit. You never wondered why the great big church was here?”
“I did,” said Alfric. “It has to do with a leyline? But there’s no leyline that runs through here, not for a dozen hexes. I know, because I had to plot a route.”
“Ay, there not being a leyline is somewhat the point,” said Hannah. “Some five hundred years ago, there was a nice thick leyline goin’ right through the mid-point of the hex, and this was durin’ expansion and all that. So they saw this place, and they thought to themselves that it would be a good place for a city, so they put some money toward it, includin’ a great big church, though it’s a pittance compared with the temples of Dondrian, I’m sure.”