This Used To Be About Dungeons полностью

“I think most people don’t really like being solitary,” said Hannah. “From the Book of Garam Ashar, ‘A person has only one symmetry of his own, the left reflecting the right, which leaves asymmetry of the front and back that can only be rectified by the addition of others’, section one, verse three. Alfric selected solitary people, picked those not in a party and young enough that we might be without connections, so my thinkin’ is that the best thing to bind us together as a party is the fact that mostly we don’t want to be alone. Bein’ without a party can be rough in a lot of ways, not havin’ someone to talk to whenever you want, bein’ cut out of conversations, things like that. So if I were him, I’d be tryin’ to knit us together without even talkin’ about the dungeons at all, tryin’ to make sure that we all knew we could rely on each other, that we would be friends and support each other more than just in the dungeons. Now, I can’t speak for them, and can barely speak about them, but Verity seems like she came here runnin’ from somethin’, same as Alfric. Mizuki and Isra, if I had to say, were both abandoned, which is altogether a different sort of thing, and that’s just me sayin’ that, but it’s probably close to the truth. I’ve seen Isra a few times, healed her leg once, and when she comes into market, she’s always alone. The leg injury? My guess is if she had someone, they’d have come with her, though I might be wrong. And Mizuki’s not so much abandoned, I s’pose, since she chose to stay behind, but I have to imagine it gets lonely in that big house. She’s friendly, but I don’t know that she has many friends.”

“You should learn more about them before judging,” said Lemmel.

“Oh, ay,” said Hannah. “I mean, of course, I’m just talkin’ first impressions and that, or what I know from what I’ve heard. Might be I’m wrong about the lot of them, or more likely, it’s one or two I’m a little off on. I have half a mind to go bother the censusmaster and see what I can find about the four of them, just to have some background, but some people take it the wrong way, even if it’s all just freely there.” She clucked her tongue. “But if I don’t go see the censusmaster, then that means I’m just sittin’ here on my hands, doin’ as much as a bear in winter.” She huffed a sigh and looked at Lemmel expectantly. “So what is there for me to be doin’?”

“Nothing,” he replied. “Same as when you asked an hour ago. If you want my advice, we have an hour until bed. Take the time to get yourself cleaned up and ready to rest. Were you planning to follow Alfric and Isra?”

“I was, hopin’ to mediate in case he puts his foot in his mouth or she decides she’s better off without us, but the more I think about it, the more I figure I need to trust him,” said Hannah. “If they can’t spend a day or two together without blowin’ up, then the whole thing is doomed, and maybe they’ll get to know each other on their own terms, for in the book of Garam Ashar it is said, ‘The simplest reflection is the one that is made by nature, not through the hands of man’, section one, verse eight.” Lemmel knew the book backward and forward, same as Hannah, but it was habit for both of them to give section and verse, especially when in the church. “So I was thinkin’ that tomorrow mornin’ I would stop by to see Mizuki and her house and maybe help her with cleanin’ it up, because it looked like it was in poor shape last time I passed by, and of course it would all be just to get us talkin’. She’s a sorc, so she can use some of what I put off, and maybe we can have a chat about that. At some point I’ll ask her if I can bed down in her house, but I don’t need to be told it’s a bit soon for that.”

“I would temper your expectations,” said Lemmel. “You have a way of coming on strong.”

“People like it,” said Hannah. “And anyway, I said I would wait, didn’t I?” Lemmel nodded. “I’m off to take a bath. Thank you again for lettin’ me stay, you have my word I’ll help when it’s needed, but in my time here so far it’s felt slow as sap.”

“I’ve told you before that it’s more about the community than the healing,” said Lemmel.

“And I listened, truly, but the point about slowness stands, I think you’ll agree,” she replied. She got up from her seat and went into the back room of the temple, which had the bathroom the two of them shared, a living space that they sometimes brought people into, their small bedrooms, and a kitchenette. It was somewhat cramped, but much more than a cleric normally got in a place like Pucklechurch.

Perhaps it was because she’d grown up in a big family, but the bathroom had always been her favorite place in almost any house. The old place, back in Cairbre, had a small tank, and they had to ration water, either sharing baths when she was little or sticking to short showers when she was older.