“All right,” said Alfric. “Then all we need is to go get our bard.”
“And add me to the party,” said Hannah with a nod.
“There’s not a party yet,” said Alfric. “We can do it now though, if you’d like.”
“Better soon than late, so it is said,” replied Hannah.
Alfric didn’t have a bag like the girls did, but he had folded up the instructions for the spell in his pocket, which he produced and smoothed out. “All right,” he said. “We just need to do this at the same time. There’s a phonic and a cheremic component. Have either of you been in a party before?”
“We had a family party,” said Mizuki. “Me, my mom and dad, and my two sisters. About a year after they left, my youngest sister was born, and the party channel was getting a lot of use for things that I didn’t care much about, so.” She shrugged. “Hard to get a toddler to do the spell, but not that hard.”
“I had two different family parties, one with Ma and Da, then another with some cousins, and then another few in the seminary,” said Hannah. “It was a lot of drama, if you ask me, people always wantin’ in or out of the parties, and the guilds weren’t much better, but there’s not much to be done about that. I tried to stick to the ones people made for studyin’, but there were always people usin’ the channel for other things, parties and such, flirtin’, and someone drunk on the channel tellin’ you their every thought isn’t too fun when you’re trying to sleep, let me tell you, ay? This’ll make seven for me, I think.”
“Just curious,” said Alfric, making a mental note that Hannah talked at length without much prompting or pause for breath. “Ready?” He got some nods. “Starting now.”
The finger positioning didn’t need to be terribly precise and neither did the words, which was good, because they were all slightly off from each other. Once it was finished, a glowing blue triangle appeared with each of them as one of the vertices. It faded quickly.
“Anything either of you need done before we get goin’?” asked Hannah. “Minor cuts and scrapes, bruisin’ that needs fixin’, cosmetics, things like that, ay?”
“No, I’m fine,” said Alfric.
“I’ve got a burn on my forearm,” said Mizuki, twisting her arm around. “Can you heal it?”
“Castin’ fireballs, were we?” asked Hannah, coming over to inspect the wound.
“Cooking,” replied Mizuki with a roll of her eyes.
Hannah touched Mizuki lightly, placing the burn in the span between her thumb and forefinger. She pressed against the skin and blew lightly on the wound. Within a second, it had faded away to nothing.
“Neat,” said Mizuki. “Thank you.”
“Just try not to break any bones,” said Hannah. “I can’t do much about that yet, not with regularity. And don’t lose too much blood either.”
“We’ll do our best,” said Alfric.
Chapter 4 — Three Raccoons
“This is all pretty fast, isn’t it?” asked Verity after she’d joined the party. Once the party was established, anyone else could join by doing the spell with someone who was a member, and Mizuki had volunteered to be the one to do it, because she felt the fingering technique of the others was ‘atrocious’. This time, the blue glow of lines formed a diamond among the four of them, briefly lighting up the Fig and Gristle.
“It is fast. Big-city energy,” said Mizuki, as though that explained anything.
“I’ve been waitin’ on a dungeon party for ages now,” said Hannah. “I’d heard that people always wanted healers, but until Alfric, no one had ever asked, which seemed a shame, ay. And I had a few rejections too, which stung. Thought they could just come into the temple an’ get their scratches and bites fixed, which they could, but still.”
“It is fast,” said Alfric. “But for a full party of second elevation, in a dungeon like the one the Pucklechurch portal will produce, there’s not much need for us to go in with more training or equipment than we have. Ten rooms, at the most.”
“For the second dungeon we do, I’ll have some armor,” said Hannah. “A breastplate at least, and maybe a helm, not that I’ll be on the front lines. You’ll mostly be in want of patchin’ after the fights are over, if you’re doin’ it in the normal way.”
“Second dungeon?” asked Verity, arching an eyebrow. “I’m not signed on for more than this one.”
“No one is,” said Alfric. “We’re a half mile away from the portal, and with how little magic there is in the area, it should be a breeze for us. A second dungeon would take more coordination, and maybe a little more preparation, but it would also be quite a bit further, since we’d be going to the next hex over.”
“Well, I’m up for a second if anyone else is,” said Hannah. “A second, and a third, and a fourth, ay?”
“Depends on what we get out of it,” said Mizuki.
“It depends on how dangerous it is,” said Verity.
“Can you sing us a song now?” asked Hannah. “I’ve heard you’re good with a lute, but never found cause to hear you play, and it’s good for a bard to test their strings with a new party.”
“Sure,” said Verity. She looked to Alfric as she undid her case and pulled out her lute. “You said strength and speed?”
“Whatever you’d like,” he said, trying to be diplomatic. He’d given her the specifics earlier, and her reaction hadn’t been what he’d imagined it would be. “That would be conventional though.”
Verity strummed her lute once, then began in on two verses and a chorus. It took a minute and a half, all told, as it was a short song about two children playing in the forest, but when it was over, Alfric felt a warm glow within himself. He unsheathed his sword, dampening the magical effect to err on the side of safety, and twirled it once, feeling the perfect balance of it, and spun again, practicing his forms. There was strength and speed, but something else laced in with it, and when he’d sheathed his sword, he dragged a nail across the flesh of his forearm.
“You added something?” he asked.
Verity shrugged. “Just testing the strings.”
“I can see better,” said Mizuki, using her fingers to spread her eyelids and look around. “That’s you?” She stared at Verity with her eyes held open by her fingers.
“Shush,” said Verity. She tapped her head. “I’m holding that tune.”
Mizuki let go of her eyes and frowned. “So she’s just out of commission for the rest of the day then?”
“No,” said Verity. “Just hard to talk.”
“We don’t need it now, if you’d rather drop it,” said Alfric.
“I can hear better too,” said Hannah. “That’s five effects?”
Verity shook her head, swishing her hair side to side, and held up her fingers, indicating six.
“I’d rather it be stable and weak than unstable and powerful,” said Alfric, looking at Verity. She was very clearly intensely concentrating on the task at hand, her musical magic weaving together their personal qualities and giving boosts to them.
“It’s fine,” said Verity. “Good practice. Easier when I’m playing. Saving that for later.”
“Oh,” said Mizuki. “Is the sixth magic? I think I can see it a bit better.” She looked down at Alfric’s boots. “Are those magical?”
“They are,” replied Alfric, looking down. “They increase my stride length.”
“It’s a real subtle effect,” said Mizuki, looking over at Verity. “Not the shoes,” she said to Alfric, before turning back. “The vision.”
“It works on what you have,” said Verity.