This Used To Be About Dungeons полностью

“I think that ‘lost’ is something other people get,” said Isra. She had a soft and quiet nature that quite appealed to Mizuki, along with a confidence that was reassuring.

“Well, so long as you’re by my side,” said Mizuki. “We’ll probably want to get going back fairly soon. I need to go see that boy about a date.”

“Mmm,” said Isra.

“I don’t suppose,” said Mizuki, “that you’ve dated?”

“No,” said Isra.

“They do it differently in Tarbin?” asked Mizuki.

“They do,” said Isra. “There are matchmakers.”

“Down in Cairbre they basically do a series of ‘engagements’,” said Mizuki. “Or one engagement, if you’re lucky. It’s much less of a big deal to break an engagement off. I was actually with a guy who wanted to do it that way, but I laughed it off, since it seemed so ridiculous. We ended up doing some normal dates, and it didn’t work out, which seemed like basically the same thing as a failed engagement, I guess, if you squint.”

“Matchmakers seem like they make more sense,” said Isra.

“They do, I guess,” shrugged Mizuki. “But I grew up in Pucklechurch where there wouldn’t have been much of a point to it. There were seventeen kids in my year, and I knew them all through comp.”

“Comp?” asked Isra.

Mizuki looked at her, or rather, at the back of her head. “Compulsory schooling?” she asked.

“Ah,” said Isra. “I knew about that. I hadn’t heard it called that.”

“And your father… opted you out?” asked Mizuki. You could do that, technically. Mizuki had begged her mom for it for a brief few days when she’d had a big fight with another girl at school, and been denied.

“I guess,” said Isra. “We didn’t talk about it.”

“Anyway,” said Mizuki. “In Kiromo, relationships are religious, and it’s kind of like having a matchmaker, but the matchmakers are clerics. And I still wonder how it’s done in small towns like Pucklechurch, where you know every single possible partner by the time you reach puberty. And most people are paired off early, so.” It had almost happened for Mizuki, but then she’d had a falling-out with her possible husband, and after that, it had mostly been a series of brief courtships that never went anywhere, even the ones that had seemed intense and promising. At twenty-two, it was getting harder and harder to find someone her own age who was unpartnered, and she had this sinking feeling that she was going to eventually settle with someone older, a widower, perhaps. So she knew how it was done in Pucklechurch, yes, but she didn’t know how it was done for her, specifically.

“You think that Rolaj might suit you,” said Isra.

“Oh,” said Mizuki. “Well, I don’t know, he seemed nice. I’m a big believer in giving people a chance. He is young, but I’ve spent the last few years just doing basically odd jobs with no real stability, so maybe that balances out a bit.”

“Odd jobs?” asked Isra.

“You know, if someone needs some sorcerous might,” said Mizuki. She sighed. “Not that it comes up often, but I can clear a tree from a road faster than just about anyone. Of course, some of my time is spent tracking down magic and trying to make something useful out of it, but there are precious few things that allow me to make real money. The will-o’-wisps were always the best for it, but kind of a pain.”

“How do you make money with a will-o’-wisp?” asked Isra.

“Oh, they have a rare all-destroying thing,” said Mizuki. “Normally, it’s like… there’s some kind of magic that eats up wood, and that allows me to do creation of wood, kind of? But for the will-o’-wisp, for whatever reason, it’s anything you want. I pick gold every time since it doesn’t matter if it’s misshapen, and it’s easy to test and sell. So yeah, before this dungeon thing, I was going out during the time for will-o’-wisps, just a bit after dinner, trying to get close enough to them that I could use some of what they did to the aether.” She shrugged. “Not hard work.”

“People don’t farm them,” said Isra, almost like a question.

“People have tried, but you can’t,” said Mizuki. “They’re easy to kill, too, so every time someone tries to capture one, they end up with a dead will-o’-wisp. Or at least, that’s what I’ve heard from the other sorcs. They’re a much-loved creature by sorcs everywhere, but they’re also one of the reasons that we tend to stay away from each other. Them or things like them. It’s kind of a lonely profession, in that way.”

“They’re not a creature,” said Isra. “They’re something else.”

“The will-o’-wisps?” asked Mizuki. “Sure, I didn’t mean to say they were one particular kind of thing, I was just kind of talking freely. You know, I sometimes consider myself an adherent of Qymmos, but other times I just wonder what the point of it is. Categories and things. I dunno.” They passed a leafy plant, and Isra stopped to caress it before moving on. It seemed like Isra feeling free to do weird things in front of Mizuki was a good sign.

“I don’t like Qymmos,” said Isra.