This Used To Be About Dungeons полностью

“I think there might be a guild for woods witches,” said Mizuki. “And if there is, you could get in that way.”

“I don’t know anything about guilds,” said Isra.

“Yeah, I hear you,” said Mizuki, nodding. “They’re tough, and each one is its own thing.”

Mizuki was taking in Liberfell, which she hadn’t visited in quite some time. The streets of Pucklechurch were mostly packed earth, save for a strip down the main section of town that was cobbled, but in Liberfell, it was proper stonework all the way around, going from storefront to storefront, and only little gaps for patches of grass or shade trees at regular intervals. The number of stores and the height of the buildings was probably the other main thing, along with the small streams of smoke and vapor that came up from various buildings. There was a mage collective in Liberfell, with their own little section of the city, and they had engines running in a number of the shops. The whole place thrummed with aether, and Mizuki could feel the possibilities taking shape in her mind, not that she was actually going to do anything. Mages didn’t like when people messed with their things. There was a valley below Liberfell, which part of the city hugged, but they weren’t close enough to see it.

“So many smells,” said Isra.

Mizuki sniffed the air. Isra was right, there were a lot of smells of the city, from the bakeries, the restaurants, the crafts districts, all layered on top of each other, so that it was hard to pick out any individual one. Did a woods witch have a better nose? Or was that just Isra? Mizuki didn’t know, and when she thought about it, she decided that Isra probably didn’t know either.

“We’ll deal with the eggs first,” said Mizuki. “Which means probably going to the edge of the city, but,” she scanned the shop signs, looking down the street, “we’ll ask in an entad shop.”

She set off, and Isra followed after. Isra carried Mizuki’s bag, which held the three eggs, tucked safely into some bedding at the top. Her hand stayed near them, making sure that they were safe and wouldn’t break. It was possible, especially with three, that they were valuable, something that in twenty years’ time might be the next chicken, but it was equally possible that they were worthless or wouldn’t hatch.

The entad shop was a nice place, filled with all kinds of things, but as Mizuki’s eyes looked across them, she saw that fully a quarter of them weren’t magical at all, either there to make the place look more important than it was or, more generously, henlings. She’d been in the shop once before, hoping to find something that gave off enough magic that she could get some use out of it, but the kinds of effects that were best for a sorcerer didn’t come cheap. Most entads did their work without making many ripples in the aether.

She chatted with the shopkeeper for a bit, a young man with a winsome smile, who, in the course of talking bastles—creatures that came from dungeons—had revealed that it was his father’s shop, which he and his sister planned to take over someday. Mizuki was a bit envious of someone with a family business, especially one as interesting as entad sales, because all she had was a family house and sorcerer’s blood, which had done its irregular skipping of generations. The boy seemed a bit nervous at the mention of sorcery, which wasn’t an uncommon reaction, but she did her best to put him at ease and to talk about what entads she might buy or possibly sell. She told him they were dungeoneers, which was more or less true, and that seemed to interest him, which in turn led to her showing him the three entads they had with them, starting with Isra’s bow and Mizuki’s staff—though it wasn’t technically hers yet, because the dust hadn’t settled on their second dungeon run. She saved the spoon for last, and he seemed suitably impressed by it.

Eventually Isra reminded Mizuki about the eggs and their quest for a bastlekeeper, and the shopkeeper, Rolaj, was happy enough to give them directions and then draw out a map when Mizuki felt a bit confused. Mizuki promised that they would be by with Alfric when he got into town, and with that, they were on their way.

“That seemed to take a long time,” said Isra as they left.

“Did it?” asked Mizuki. “It’s not like we’re in any rush.”

“All we needed were directions,” said Isra.

“I’d say Alfric had rubbed off on you, if I didn’t think you were just like this,” said Mizuki with a sigh. “What do you get from being direct and to the point? Besides, it was nice to meet Rolaj. Don’t you like meeting people?”

“He looked at me too much,” said Isra.

“Did he?” asked Mizuki. “Maybe he was interested.”

“Interested?” asked Isra.

“You know,” said Mizuki. She looked at Isra. “Okay, maybe you don’t know. Interested in courting. I don’t know how that’s done in Tarbin or what your father taught you. I’d thought Rolaj might be interested in a date.”

“Or interested in the headscarf,” said Isra. “Or my darker skin.”