Hannah felt like she was the only one who noticed that offer from the usually quiet Isra. It was good that they were finding friends in one another, and she wondered whether it was something more, though neither of them was giving any of the usual signals.
“So no other questions, especially about the chrononaut stuff?” asked Alfric. “We can talk about this more in the morning, and on the way back, but I’ve done too much today, and my body is aching.”
“You’ll tell us, if you ever reset the day?” asked Hannah.
Alfric hesitated. “I’ll tell you if I saw you that day. I do, from time to time, take a day off and go out to train on my own. I’ve done that, since we’ve known each other. I leave a note, when I do.”
“So if there’s a day when we see a note, we’ll know you’re going to undo the day?” asked Mizuki. “What do we do then?”
“Act normal,” said Alfric. “There’s no good protocol. Keep your head down, do your work, don’t take risks, don’t try to find me. We can talk about some of the ethical questions later, so I can have your opinions, if you still want to be in a party with me.”
“Why wouldn’t we?” asked Mizuki. “You can literally undo it if I get a scratch. Seems good.”
“People have complicated opinions,” said Alfric. “I’ve been dealing with those opinions for years. I won’t take for granted that you don’t feel awkward about it or that you don’t hate me for it. It’s one of the reasons I was putting it off.”
“Go take your bath,” said Hannah. “You stink of dungeon. And we’re a team, ay? If she needs it, I’ll help you smooth things over with Verity, but I don’t think she’ll need it, she’s just tired.”
Alfric nodded, then trudged off to the bathroom.
“Wild,” said Mizuki once he was gone. “So we were never in danger this entire time?”
“Seems like,” said Hannah. “Puts him in a bit of a different light.”
“Does it?” asked Isra.
“The ’nauts are tricky ones,” said Hannah. “They’ve a reputation for both takin’ risks and bein’ conservative, but I’d guess they’re more than their power, and I confess I’ve never met one.”
“More than their power?” asked Isra.
“Most people are, more than their power, more than their profession,” said Hannah, nodding. “You’re more than a druid, Zuki is more than a sorc, and I’m more than a cleric of Garos, though I hew close to the mold.”
“Zuki?” asked Mizuki.
“I don’t know what people say about druids,” said Isra.
“We should probably go over that,” said Mizuki. She rubbed the back of her head. “The other woods witch, Dom, is part of the whole reason that we’ve come to Liberfell. I’ve got no idea whether she comes from the same ‘mold’ as a typical druid, but you should at least know what to expect.”
“Distant, a bit haughty, comfortable in their own skin but not around others,” said Hannah. “Save that you eat meat and bein’ from Tarbin, I think you’re close enough.”
“They don’t have druids in Tarbin?” asked Isra.
“They do,” said Mizuki. “Probably. At least, I haven’t heard otherwise. But coming from Tarbin means that you’ll be different from a normal woods witch anyway, right?”
“I suppose,” said Isra.
“Territorial,” said Hannah, snapping her fingers. “At least, so I’ve heard.”
“But they also congregate, right?” asked Mizuki.
“I wouldn’t say that,” said Hannah. “It’s more like… well, like a family reunion, ay?”
“Never had one,” said Mizuki, shaking her head.
“Aunts and uncles come from all over, and you see them like you were old friends,” said Hannah. “And then you go back to your respective corners of the world, not expectin’ to see them again for another year or two.”
“Oh yeah, that does make sense,” said Mizuki. She turned to Isra. “Druids are definitely like that. And I’m seeing from your face that it’s not helpful to you.”
Isra shook her head. “I’ll talk to Dom. She might understand me better.”
“Can I see the incubator and the containment?” asked Hannah, moving across the room to where they had been stashed. When they’d gotten back to the room, Isra had been carrying them, and Mizuki had been much more interested in talking about the mysterious girl, which in fairness was the more interesting thing to talk about. Then after that, there had been the whole business with Alfric being a chrononaut.
“I need to eat,” said Isra. “Are we all on our own tonight?”
“For food, I think so,” said Hannah. “We’ve made no plans, and Verity’s already wolfed somethin’ down.”
“Are you up for finding something with me?” asked Mizuki. “Liberfell has some great food.”
“Ay,” said Hannah. “Isra?”
But Isra only shook her head and slipped out the door.
Hannah looked down at the incubator. “Expensive, was it?”
“The old bastlekeeper seemed keen on her,” said Mizuki, nodding in the direction of the door. “After I talked to the crazy girl, Lola, I went into the back to see what was taking them so long, and Isra was just going through the animals, one by one, telling him what they each needed. ‘This one needs a small rock in its gullet,’ or ‘This one needs more fresh air,’ or ‘This one needs natural moonlight.’ She was amazing. She was just tossing it all off, like it should have been obvious to him, and he was hurrying to keep notes and ask her questions. I’m not sure that she even saw what she was doing as labor, but by the end of it, she’d probably saved him hundreds of rings, and he gave us what we needed and insisted that we don’t pay him. It does make me wonder how much the other druid might have been charging and whether Isra inadvertently undercut her. Probably something to talk about. Usually she’s got more of a head for business.”
The egg was in a heavy glass jar, sitting on a bed of linen fibers, and affixed in place with wires, which led down to a wooden base at the bottom of the jar. Also affixed with wires were two stones.
“Ventstone, to give it air,” said Mizuki. “And a warming element, to give it the ‘heat of a summer day’. You should have seen her going through what he had for stock, touching them. She had no idea what temperature she wanted in terms of degrees, but she could rest a finger on the element for, like, two seconds and say that it wasn’t warm enough or was too warm. She was smelling the ventstones.”
“Does that work?” asked Hannah. She didn’t know enough about ectads. “Do they… smell different?”
“I’ve got no idea,” said Mizuki. “If you’d asked me before today, I’d have said not, but…” She shrugged.
“We’ll have to get a voidstone to make it work with the book. And this,” said Hannah, moving over to the second acquisition, which was a stack of cages made out of a thick wire mesh which could apparently be folded. They were folded up, so they could pack flat. “Not somethin’ we could put into the book.”
“No,” said Mizuki, frowning. “But if you want it entirely sealed, that’s way more expensive.”
“Ay,” said Hannah, giving the folded-up cages a dubious eye. “Not sure that we’ll be able to pull out much, using these.”
“Small things,” said Mizuki. “We could have taken some of those flying books out.”
“Ay,” said Hannah, sighing. “Well, Isra will be the expert on the bastles, I expect.” She stood up. “Now, to find somethin’ to eat?” She wondered whether Mizuki was going to want to talk more about the chrononaut business, but it seemed like the girl needed more time.