This Used To Be About Dungeons полностью

“How much wine have you had?” said Mizuki. “You’re having trouble stringing things together.”

“No, there was a point,” said Alfric. He smiled at her. “Whether we do two in a row or not. I don’t drink much.”

“Well, I’m cutting you off,” said Mizuki, taking the glass from him and downing the rest of its contents in a single swallow. “Eat some food, there’s apparently enough for six.”

Alfric nodded and began making a little sandwich of his own, piling up the cured meats.

“I could do two dungeons, back-to-back,” said Verity. “But separated by a day and with an option not to do any. With Xy working with us, we can just have her run the dagger over to the next hex, right? No extra walking?” Perhaps it was the wine—she had already drained a glass—but the idea of a big project like that sounded nice. “I don’t want to end up sleeping in the woods.”

“Is that a problem?” asked Isra. She got up from where she was sitting with Verity, using Verity’s knee for support. For a moment, Verity felt like asking her to come back, but she was only grabbing food from the tray, as well as a glass of her own, and returned to her cozy spot beside Verity not long after.

“We’d need some supplies,” said Alfric. “Tents and bedrolls. Ideally we’d find something in the next few dungeons that would help us. Mobile housing isn’t hugely uncommon, but finding one would be a bit of good luck.”

“We could find a house in the dungeons?” asked Mizuki.

“Well, technically, yes,” said Alfric. “But mobile housing means,” he twisted his hand in the air, trying to find the words, “anything that lets you have shelter, basically. Things you can shrink down and go inside, a tent that’s bigger once you’re in it, a space like the stone, which actually, when I think about, might be workable with some preparation.”

“We’d have to leave our metal outside,” said Hannah. “And I’m not so sure I’d want to be in there for a whole night.”

“True,” said Alfric. “But it might be a problem we can solve with some kind of entad chain. We’re actually less far than I’d thought in terms of reaching, um,” he waved his hand, “you know, when it’s all coming together?”

“Apotheosis?” asked Mizuki.

Alfric blinked at her. “Criticality?”

“We’re close to bein’ proper dungeoneers, is what he’s saying,” said Hannah. “Where our problems all have solutions, and we’re off to the races.”

“I budgeted ten dungeons,” said Alfric. “In the original plan.” He leaned a little bit closer to Mizuki. “I think we could end up doing it in five.”

“You really don’t drink much,” asked Mizuki. “Or were you just not paying much attention?”

“Both,” Alfric replied. He leaned back on the couch and closed his eyes. “Do you mind if I stay here tonight?”

“You live here,” said Mizuki.

“It was a joke,” said Alfric. “I can be very funny.” He let out a sigh. “Sometimes.”

“Come on,” said Mizuki. “Let’s get you upstairs.”

“Chronos aren’t supposed to get impaired,” said Alfric as he got to his feet. “We have a responsibility. A hangover comes back if you have to redo the day.” He looked at Mizuki. “Is that just very strong wine?”

“It is.” Mizuki got up from the couch and put Alfric’s arm around her, though if she was trying to offer him some support, Verity wasn’t sure what good she thought she was doing. He wasn’t even that drunk, a bit sluggish but not swaying. They went off together, and Alfric was leaning on her a bit more than seemed entirely necessary.

“So, how long until they’re a couple, do you s’pose?” asked Hannah. She was looking at the doorway they’d gone through and had waited until they were out of earshot.

“You think they’ll partner?” asked Isra. “Alfric said we shouldn’t do that.”

“Oh, I imagine if she waits for him to make a move, it’ll be quite some time,” said Hannah, nodding. “It’s not a good idea, for a number of reasons, but sometimes if the attraction is there, people can’t help themselves.”

“What are the reasons?” asked Isra.

“We already went over that some time ago, ay?” asked Hannah, raising an eyebrow. Her eyes briefly went to Verity.

“But between them you mean it’s especially bad,” said Isra.

“Well,” said Hannah. “Ay.” Verity looked at the empty couch. Isra hadn’t moved, which meant that they were in the larger armchair, the tenyon, together on one side of the fire, and Hannah was in the other with the empty space between them. It felt a bit uncomfortable to be so far away, but Verity didn’t want to move. Hannah drained the last of her wine. “There are a lot of things necessary for a good relationship, and I wouldn’t say that there needs to be some commonality, but if there’s not mutual interests or personalities that align, you need people who are good at dealin’ with each other’s peculiarities. And I think Alfric has his own way of doin’ that, which I’m not sure works in the long term, and Mizuki… I’m less sure about. So they might have a nice roll in the hay, but after that, seems like there might be issues.”

“Roll in the hay?” asked Isra.