Delvers LLC 5, ch 5

I seriously just realized that I've been tagging these chapters wrong.

Doh!

---------------------------

Mayor Calista Reetha watched the two visitors fly away with a dry mouth and mixed emotions.  Cherilyn, her neighbor and one of the townspeople whose house was currently smouldering, approached.  The woman squinted, which created worry lines in her usually-smooth Asian features.  Her little daughter Kate, who’d been hiding during all of the danger earlier, was now following her mother around as usual.  All of them shaded their eyes and watched the two people disappear towards what looked like a massive flying ship on the horizon.  Callista had never actually seen one of the airships used for transportation between countries before, but this sort of looked like one.

But there was no way anyone could actually own one of their own right?  That should even be impossible for nobles.  Most of the people of the newly renamed “Pallet Town” watched as the impossible ship disappeared into the distance.

Cherilyn finally said, “Mayor, nightfall isn’t too far away.  Can you help me get a group to do something with the bodies?  If we leave them out, it’ll attract monsters or and nasty animals.

“Yes, thank you Cherilyn.”  She sighed.  “Just go find everyone you need right now, and tell them the order came from me.   We don’t have time to waste.”

“Alright, I understand, Mayor.”  Cherilyn moved away with a purpose, and it wasn’t hard to tell she was heading directly for Jenny Ferris, her best friend and an earth mage.  Next she’d probably find and volunteer George Erris, a fire mage, and some others.  When dealing with offal...or bodies, one of the most efficient ways to prevent monster interest was to dig a hole, burn inside the hole, and cover it, preferably while there was still daylight.

The events of the last few hours had been...terrible.  It’d be nice if there was time to process everything, to just destress, but there wasn’t time for that.

Calista looked around her at the destruction, the bodies on the ground, and she suddenly felt all of her energy disappear.  She still believed her daughter about that man Tyron, she had to.  It was a matter of survival at this point.  There was a stump nearby so she stumbled her way there and took a seat.  “What a day,” she muttered.

“You can say that again.”

Calista turned to study the round-eared Mo’hali adventurer squatting glumly on her heels.  Jason, no, Lord Jason Booth, had offered this woman a job.  But now she was Calista’s problem.  It would be her responsibility to figure out what to do with someone who’d been part of the group that had fought with her people and set homes one fire.

She scanned the area again, shivering as she glanced at all the bodies. Blood, there was blood everywhere.  Calista reminded herself again that emotionally drained, shocked, it didn’t matter, she was the mayor and had a job to do.  “Are you going to cause us any problems, Mo’hali?”

“The name is Zast-clasta. ...And no.  Maybe if I was alone, but I’m not.  That human Jason Booth was correct.  There is nowhere else for me to really go.  All I ask is that you allow me to move my sister-widow here to live.  She is somewhat difficult to move and she requires daily care.”

“That should not be a problem.”  Calista sighed with weariness.  “I should be angry at you, but I just don’t have the energy right now.  We need to do something with all these bodies, probably realistically be prepared for some monster attacks over the next week, rebuild houses, build a few more…  But we don’t have a choice.  Life goes on.”

“Yeah.” Zast-clasta.  “You know, I would have had a hard time dealing with all of this if something similar--and worse--hadn’t already happened less than a year ago.  I actually cared about those people, though.  These folks, Destiny’s Chosen, were good people, but they weren’t Family.”

“Good people?”  Calista’s voice was icy.

Zast-clasta sighed.  “I’m sorry for everything that happened.  Truly.  I just wanted the job to be done and to make money to take care of my sister-wife.  Most of the group wasn’t really happy with how things were going before everything went rotten, but we had to back up the other members of the group.  Kind of like how you kept telling your townspeople to calm down, but some of them were shouting to put us all in a prison you don’t have.  Remember that?  When Pima hit the woman that said this town shouldn’t have to pay us, that justice was enough of a reward.  Remember that?”

“Yes, I do.”  Calista shook her head.  “This has been one of the scariest, most stressful days, most shameful of my life.  To be honest, I do have some sympathy for you.  It sounds like your life has been…”  She let her voice trail off.

“I told them not to attack, you know, I really did.”  Zast-clasta clenched and unclenched her hands.  “Nora Hazard killed my entire team before, my Family.  We had two second rank orb-Bonded, Calista.  They--we--were one of the best bounty hunting groups at low to mid level in Berber.  In Tolstey, very few groups could likely even compare.  But she killed us all, left me for dead, and my sister-widow Jialji is a broken woman now.”

“Why?” asked Callista softly.

“Bad blood from before I joined them.  Jialji and the rest left Nora for dead.  It was a job.  But violence creates violence, it’s a cycle, right?  I attached her.  Actually got a hit in.  And in that moment, even before I struck, I knew I was probably going to die.  We have to protect our own.  I don’t even have a Clan anymore.  They were all that I had.”

Calista felt the other woman’s words resonating.  She looked at the town and said softly, “I think I can understand that.”

“But you know what, I don’t know if I am more relieved I am alive now, or more ashamed that I didn’t do anything when I spitting distance from my Family’s killer.”  Zast clastly absently poked at the ground with a stick and laughed.  “Maybe deep down I am not sure she was wrong.  Or maybe even deeper down, I just don’t want to commit suicide, which is what attacking her would be.  You felt it too, right?  Nora didn’t hardly even do anything, but that man she was with, Jason Booth...  For all I know, Nora is at that level now too, but I bet if every single person who’d been here, my team and your town all attacked that man, we would have all wound up dead.  I’ve heard rumors about Delvers LLC, and I’ve sough rumors about Nora.  Now I believe them all.”

Calista didn’t look at the other woman.  Instead, she drew her most prized possession out of her belt, an enchanted dagger she’d bought years and years ago during her wild years.  In the past she’d draw strength from it, from the perceived power it gave her.  Now she knew it was all an illusion.  She said, “I’ve heard that people who meet Queen Smrithi can feel that she is on another level.  Sometimes their knees shake.  Everyone I’ve ever heard speak about it has said that the feeling you get from even seeing her is humbling.  I’ve never met the queen, but I think I know what they are talking about now.”  She turned her dagger over in her hands.  “The world is a bigger, and a scarier place than I ever really knew.”  

She didn’t say so out loud, but when she’d seen Jason Booth slaughtering the adventurers, she’d noticed that he hadn’t even used the long sword he’d eventually drawn from nowhere.  The way he’d held the weapon had been familiar, it’s grip worn.  She may not be a battle master, but she knew enough of the world to recognize that it was likely his main weapon.

The man hadn’t even been using his full strength.

Zast-clasta chuckled.  “Well, now you are serving someone strong like that, someone who looks like they have their own flying ship...somehow.  Someone who it sounds like personally knows the queen.  And you’re not even actually serving him!  Your new lord will be his friend he is going to give your entire town to.  Like other people give each other baubles, or buy lunch.”  She wheezed a laugh.

“Well, you are working for him now too,” said Calista in a deadpan voice.  “And this Nora Hazard person killed your friend with the big bow in a heartbeat.  They are friendly with me, but you were an enemy.  Maybe you still are.  They almost killed you before they left, remember?”  She put emphasis on the word just like Zast-clasta had earlier.  “I think you are in far more danger than I am.”

Zast-clasta’s laughter stopped.

Calista pointed at the two long knives on the ground and said, “You are--were--an adventurer, and you just fought us.  You are probably the best person here to find ways we can improve.  This town has survived by being remote and making ourselves a hard enough target that monsters don’t usually bother.  You definitely have more hands-on fighting experience than most other people in this town, and they all have other responsibilities.”

“And?”

“And since I have to provide you with a job anyway, I was thinking about asking you to be the leader of the new defense force of this town.  We will have new orb-Bonded, but just because they have power, they won’t necessarily know what to do with it.  Most of us won’t know what to do with all this equipment lying around, either.”  She gestured at the pile of weapons and armor that the cleanup group had been making as they prepared the fallen for burning.

Zast-clasta frowned.  “Stop with the jokes.”

“It’s not a joke.  Delegation is important, and you are already an outsider.  I am not an adventurer or a military person, but I think in this case it might actually be easier for our new defenders to answer to someone they haven’t known their entire lives.  We are all in this together now.”

“You’d trust me with this?”

“Since I think we’re both more afraid of Jason Booth than we are annoyed or stressed by our current situation, I think I would.”

The rodent-race Mo’hali woman made a face.  “So I’d be a guard captain?  And I’d be working for a friend of Nora Hazard?”  She turned to fully face Calista.  “You weren’t joking, huh?  You’re serious about this.”

“I think so, yes.”

“Wow, you aren’t the mayor for no reason.” She glanced at the people nearby who were already moving corpses.  “You move fast.”

“Yes, I do,” said Calista.  She couldn’t imagine what this Mo’hali was feeling inside, but she was holding herself together.  Zast-clasta seemed to be hurting, she had to be.  But she was still using her head, thinking things through.  More importantly, Calista’s gut was telling her that she needed an outsider’s perspective.  This was the right move.  Keeping Zast-clasta close would be the easiest way to track the woman.

There was no use stewing about things she couldn’t change.  What was done was done.  Plus, if and when Jason Booth or his friend came back to….”Pallet Town” for a visit, she would show them a much different settlement than it was now.  Calista knew she had her shortcomings, just like anyone else, but she prided herself on being a good administrator.  She would never be a great fighter.  Hell, she couldn't even run very far anymore--she was getting on in years and weight, but she was a damn good mayor.  To keep her position and protect her people, she’d need to prove overwhelming competence.

“Pay?” asked the Mo’hali.

“More or less standard guard pay for Tostley based on rank, maybe with a little bit of an increase.  I have a feeling that with so many orb-Bonded, we are not going to have any more money problems for a while.

Zast-clasta thought for a while before nodding slowly.  “I’ll accept with a few conditions.”

“I’m listening.”

“My pay goes up proportionate with the town’s growth.  In two years I want to renegotiate my contract and salary, and right now I want to go fetch my sister-widow Jialji in person.  Since this whole thing is shaky, maybe you could send someone with me too, maybe one of your new orb-Bonded in a day or two.”

Calista was curious about the last condition.  “Why not just send a magic messenger bird?”

The Mo’hali woman smirked.  “ I want to see the expression on her face when Jialji hears about this!”

***

Jason paused mid-bite and sneezed.  “What the heck?” he wondered out loud.  The sneeze had come out of nowhere.

One of the galley cooks, a woman named Eda was eating with him, Henry, and Uluula.  Eda said, “Someone was probably talking about you.”

“Maybe they were talking about how derpy and gangly you look all the time,” said Henry.  He took a big bite of his burger.  “These hamburgers are really good, Eda.  My compliments to everyone involved!”

“I’ll tell them, and thank you,” she said shyly.

“Henry, fuck off,” said Jason.

“Language,” muttered Uluula.  She gently elbowed Jason, but said in English, “Henry, fuck off.  Jason is not gagly, he’s adorable.”

“Adorable?”  Said Henry in disbelief.  Uluula glared but he just shrugged.  He took another bite, chewed, and said, “Fine, I’m outnumbered.”

Mareen walked into the galley and courteously bowed at Eda before accepting a plate of food that had been set aside for anyone to grab as they had time to eat.  This wouldn’t have been possible on a real ship, but the Hull barely had any feeling of motion at all as they traveled.  Henry said, “Hey baby, why would someone be talking about Jason to make him sneeze?  Is it because he’s gangly?”  He snickered and Jason rolled his eyes at him.

Mareen sat down next to him and gave him a withering look that was like her old self before Brecken.  She said, “It probably has to do with the fact he killed an entire adventuring company by himself.”

“Who told you that?” asked Jason.

“Nora.”

“I thought you and Nora were...not close,” said Jason.

“We aren’t.  That’s why we talk every day.”

Jason gave her a strange look and turned his wife.  “Did that make sense to you, ‘Lula?”

“Of course.”

“See?  Gangly and derpy,” said Henry triumphantly and took another bite of his burger.

Uluula narrowed her eyes but Jason put a hand on her shoulder and shok his head.  “He’s messing with you.  See, he’s in a good mood.”  Across the table from him, Mareen nodded.

“He is?  How can you tell?”

“Just trust me on this one.  So what is it, Henry?  What do you have to tell us about or show us?”

“You ruined the big reveal, dude.”

“Well, then don’t be so predictable all the time.  You can just just say that you’re proud of yourself and whatnot, you always gotta act like you’re 12.”

“We’re all still 12 inside, dude.  I heard you named that village you just bought, ‘Pallet Town.’  God, you’re a dork.”

Jason blinked.  “What the-- How do you know about that?  And who is a dork?  How did you get the reference?  That was like an hour ago.  Did you talk to Nora too?”

“She’s been telling everyone.”

“So what about Pallet Town?  How are you gonna call me dorky for a reference you understood too!?”

“Dude, I’m fucking Japanese.”  Henry smugly ate a fry.  “Stop being racist.”

“How is that racist?  You--”

Mareen interjected in a monotone, “He’s just doing it again.”

“They are really idiots, aren’t they?” said Uluula.

“I think they can be, but they’ve also known each other for a very long time.  They are like brothers,” said Mareen.

“Whatever,” said Jason.  He angrily ate a fry and felt the tips of his ears grow warm.  “Fine, are you gonna show us what you’re so excited about?”

“No, we gotta eat first,” Henry said.  As usual, he was already almost done with his food while everyone else wasn’t even close.

“You shouldn’t eat so fast, Henry,” scolded Mareen.  It was strange to see a horned woman with red eyes acting fussy, but it also made Jason happy.  Some of the old Mareen was definitely coming back.

Jason thought back to his actions in the village, the death, the feeling of letting his inner darkness run wild, even for a few seconds.  It was sobering enough to immediately cure himself of any mild irritation he might have with Henry.  He said, “So seriously, what is it you’re so excited about?  Did you finish something for the goblins?”

Henry seemed to feel the change in his friend, because he lowered his last fry, the one he’d been pointing and dropped his smirk.  His expression was strangely sad for just a heartbeat.  Maybe Jason had imagined it.  Henry said, “Yeah, I’ve been working on a system to drop crew to the surface, and also portable weapons that the goblins could use…”

As Henry continued outlining what he’d been working on all day, Jason caught sight of a strange expression cross Uluula’s face too.  Was it that obvious what he’d been thinking about?  Maybe it had been.

But they all had scars now.  And Jason had learned a long time ago that the world is rarely morally black and white, but usually shades of grey--just like what he’d done today.  He hoped that Pallet Town would use the opportunity they’d been given to grow.

On impulse, he gave Uluula a side hug and after a moment of surprise, she hugged him back.  Jason said, “Henry, you’re a dick sometimes, and you’re always a weirdo, but I’m glad you’re here.”

“What’s that got to do with the goblin weapons I’m talking about?” asked his friend.

“Everything,” said Jason.  He smiled and took another bite of his dinner.