This Used To Be About Dungeons полностью

“Probably,” said Mizuki. “I can’t imagine what I would have done in your situation. I was just asking because now that you’re old enough, they can’t do that, so you could report the crime and maybe get a bit of help from the province, depending on what was taken.”

“It was five years ago,” said Isra. “He could be halfway across the world. Or not even in Inter.”

“Sure. But going to the authorities couldn’t hurt. There are some fabulous tracking entads out there if there was something in particular you wanted to get back. And if it’s justice you want…” She shrugged. “Sorry if this isn’t anything you wanted to hear, it’s just what I’d do in your shoes.” Mizuki wanted justice too.

“There were entads,” said Isra. “Five of them. There were also a number of rings stolen.”

“Good entads?” asked Mizuki.

“Some. A feeding spoon. A bottled garden. A dagger that went through the air like a whisper.”

Mizuki felt questions coming and swallowed all but one of them. “A bottled garden?” she asked.

“It was small,” said Isra. She stopped her hiking and turned back to Mizuki and showed with her hands, something no larger than a cabbage. “A seed dropped into it would shrink down and grow quickly, usually within a day. A miniature. We had a small tin of seeds that we’d saved. It gave us oranges in the winter.”

Mizuki nodded, though she had more questions about the bottled garden. It sounded neat. Were they eating miniature fruits? Could you pull a whole tree from it? How were they getting the fruits out? She had lots to ask, because it seemed like an interesting thing to have, with lots of complications. Talking excitedly about something that Isra had lost, especially something with sentimental attachment, seemed like it would be a big and obvious misstep though, and for once, Mizuki was able to shut her mouth in time.

“Is it okay if I talk to Rolaj about it, or not?” asked Mizuki.

“About the entads?” asked Isra. “No.”

“No, it’s okay, or no, it’s not okay?” asked Mizuki.

“It’s okay,” said Isra.

“I don’t mean to butt in with your business,” said Mizuki. “I just thought… maybe it would be worth a shot. And if you’d like, I can go deal with reporting the crime.”

Isra was silent. “Why?”

“Um, I’m hoping that it would help get this,” she waved, trying to find the word, “resolved?”

“Why are you doing it for me?” asked Isra.

Mizuki shrugged. “I’ve been alone for a bit. I have lots of friends in town and had a series of boyfriends, but I know what it’s like to not really have someone to depend on, not that the community hasn’t been good for me.” She’d been looked after and checked in on when her parents left, but it wasn’t really the same. “Hannah came in and said the house looked neglected, which I guess is true, and Verity came in and said that my garden was terrible, which was definitely true. But here I’ve got a chance to do something for someone, even if it’s just stuff like dealing with the hexmaster for you or talking to a bunch of entad people about what’s gone through their stores in the last five years. Those seem like things that you might not want to do or that you’d find annoying, and I won’t say that they’re exactly things that I’m good at, but I don’t think I would find them annoying. And if I did find them annoying, I’m willing to be annoyed for your sake.”

They walked together for a bit. Mizuki worried that she was overstepping. That series of boyfriends had taught her that she had a tendency to come on strong or form attachments quickly, and sometimes that screwed things up, or the initial affection flared up so bright that it burned itself out. She was really, really hoping that she wasn’t doing that with Isra, but if she squinted, it seemed like it might be a part of the same pattern.

“I was wrong about the world,” said Isra.

“Yeah?” asked Mizuki.

“Yes,” said Isra.

In a normal conversation, this was where Isra would elaborate, so Mizuki gave her some time. It was pretty clear that Isra wasn’t all that used to talking to people and maybe didn’t understand certain aspects of it, like following up on a profound, sweeping statement, especially if it was particularly vague.

“And in what way were you wrong about the world?” asked Mizuki, unable to wait as long as it seemed to be taking.

“It’s less complicated than I’d thought,” said Isra. “There’s more good in it.” She glanced back at Mizuki. They were coming back to Liberfell proper, with the sounds of the city around them. “Knowing that I’m a druid, that I experience the world in a different way… it’s brought everything into focus. The people of Pucklechurch were just blind and deaf, unable to experience the world in the same way I could. They weren’t liars. They thought I was strange, not because I was an outsider, but because I had abilities and senses. I was strange.”

“I would think that would be kind of nice,” said Mizuki. “Being able to make sense of a whole bunch of confusing things?”

Isra nodded. “You’re very nice,” she said.

“Oh,” said Mizuki. “Well, thanks.”