A Soldier's Life - 286 - Misunderstandings (final edit 6-24-25)

Chapter 286: Misunderstandings

I had read a little about the city we were entering. The city of Grila was in the heart of the Caliphate, and as such, it was a crossroads for travel and trade. It was on a small plateau that allowed sewers to be easily incorporated into its design. Water was raised from deep wells by an Archimedes screw. Well, the text didn’t call it that, but I managed to figure out what it was called on Earth in the dreamscape. It was an ingenious use of technology and not something I would have expectedcted to see in orc culture.

Passing through the gates on horseback, the orcs flaunted the abundance of water with fountains, trees, and small herb gardens outside of homes. The orcs themselves were dressed in mostly gray and off-white colors, not favoring the brighter colors of the Telhians.

I wouldn’t call the city beautiful by any stretch, but it definitely had a more naturalistic feel than most cities in the Telhian Empire. I asked for directions in my limited Orcish, getting a sneer from the orc laborer at my buttery of the language, or maybe it was because I was human. He directed us toward the throng of people and pointed in the general direction. I suppose we should have followed Glasha if the Guild Hall was her destination.

The press of orcs and people lessened as we moved further from the gates. The simple structures were made mostly of black stone and aged red oak, both resources found in the dungeon. The Adventurer’s Hall was entirely made of this black stone and located near the center of Grila. It towered over the other buildings nearby, even the warlord’s manor who ruled the city. Tattooed orcs loitered outside the hall, and we found the stables across the street instead of behind the structure. After some exchange of coin with the stable hands and a dispensing a few apples to the horses for jobs well done, we entered the Adventurers Hall.

An orc minstrel played the lute while another thudded on some soft, deep bass drums. The rhythm was repetitive but therapeutic in its simplicity. A light hint of tobacco hung in the air, adding an earthy richness to the atmosphere. The room was well-lit with glowstones to offset the dark black stone walls that seemed to absorb the light rather than reflect it. There were multiple desk clerks in the largest guild hall I had seen.

Was this all because of the popular dungeon? Blaze nudged me, interrupting my assessment of the room, “Glasha is over there. Maybe you can stop whatever she is doing in regards to getting us into the dungeon.”

Blaze sounded anxious and obviously didn’t want to enter the dungeon either. I moved up behind Glasha while the others made their way to get food and drink after nearly two weeks in the wild. Hopefully, with the abundance of water, this guild hall had baths.

Glasha was engaged in a lively conversation with the orc clerk, her gestures animated and words spilling forth in a rapid cadence. I strained to keep up with the discussion, but the pace was too quick for me to grasp more than a few scattered phrases. Thankfully, it looked like we got here shortly after her.

Glasha turned, following the eyes of the clerk, “Here he is! I will sign both contracts as completed, and the guild can send someone to confirm the ankheg nest’s destruction.” Glasha turned to me, “My payment will be brought to you shortly. Forty gold,” she said, smiling. It was twice what we had been owed, but still a small fraction of the value of the artifacts.

“Thank you. There is no need for additional compensation with the dungeon queue. It wouldn’t be fair to bump the others who have been waiting,” I stated with an appropriate note of gratitude for her efforts.

“It is already done. I used my privilege to get us the next delve in the morning,” Glasha said, beaming a tusky smile happily.

I was confused as I parsed out her words in Orcish. “Are you planning to come with us?”

“Well, that is the only way you can jump the queue, with a cleric of the Caliphate. You don’t have a healer, and I feel I owe you a debt. I will not require a share of whatever you harvest. Besides, after seeing your fighting prowess, I doubt there will be any challenge for you in the dungeon of the Spirit Arachnid.”

I clenched my jaw, trying to hide my frustration and anger. If Glasha was with us, it would limit what I could do or risk exposing my secrets. A dungeon would have been a good place to reveal more of my abilities to my companions, especially if Benito was not coming.

A heavy bag was dropped on the desk with a clinking of coins by another orc. “Forty gold,” the orc clerk said, picking up and extending the bag to me. “Just a moment for the ankheg bounty. That will be another three gold, five silver, and eighty-eight coppers.” A second bag was passed to me a moment later.

My confusion at the higher bounty had Glasha explain. “There is a slight increase during the mating season for eggs. Also, there were thirteen dead farmers, so a vengeance bonus.”

Glasha looked pleased with herself as I took the coin. Not seeing a graceful way out of the delve, I asked, “How does a delve work in the Vault of the Spirit Arachnid?”

The clerk answered my question in Orcish. I asked him to slow down his speech, and he started over: “At sunrise, the guardians will let you through the entrance as long as the previous party has vacated. If you fail to exit after a day, all harvests and prizes are seized on your exit and taxed at fifty percent.”

Glasha quickly put her mark on some documents from the clerk and excused herself. “I need to file a report of my find and log the items with my superiors, but I will return soon.” She wore a woman’s devilish smile that made me think she was up to no good. But she was gone in a rush of energy—yep, definitely up to no good.

I joined my companions at the table; they were sharing a massive haunch of roasted meat in the center of the table, cutting off strips for their plates. Bowls of yellow mashed potato and boiled red beets were also being shared. A flagon of dark, fragrant, rich gravy was being passed around. I sat next to Raelia, who was feeding Baldo chunks of meat as he obediently followed simple commands.

I shaved off a few thin slices of the pink meat, scooped a generous helping of potatoes, and ladled the thick gravy over both. The gravy was easily the best part—rich, savory, and clinging to everything it touched—while the potatoes had an earthy, almost nutty flavor—maybe pureed mushrooms. Raelia handed me a full mug without a word.

The ale hit hard, stronger than I’d expected and bitter enough to curl the tongue. With such poor taste, I could see why the Pathfinder potions tasted so bad. We ate in a noisy sort of silence—clanking utensils, low muttering from nearby tables—broken only by Baldo’s insistent chirping whenever he felt overlooked.

Blaze was the first to sit back, rubbing his stomach, “So, where are we going next, Eryk?”

“The dungeon in the morning. The cleric wormed her way into the delve, but it will be good to have a healer with us. We will run the six rooms quickly.” Everyone was looking at me expectantly. “Maveith, Blaze, and Mateo will join us.” Benito was relieved, Mateo seemed indifferent, but Blaze had some angst.

Raelia, maybe seeing his reluctance, offered, “I will go in Blaze’s place.” I looked at her, about to ask about Baldo.

Relieved, Blaze said, “I would much rather watch Baldo than delve.”

“I am sending him back to the Esenhem,” Raelia said sharply, which surprised everyone.

“He understands directions?” Benito asked in awe. “I used to get lost walking in the woods outside of town.”

Raelia’s eyes seemed to be searching for an explanation. Tom me it was clear she was going to ask me to move Baldo to my dimensional space. “Griffins can return to the place they were hatched. It is instinct.” I almost wanted to call out bullshit, but it wouldn’t help the situation. Instead, the others took the statement as fact, just nodding in appreciation. After all, she was a griffin rider.

Maveith belched out a question, his breath laced with alcohol. “So what do we know about the dungeon?” I looked at my friend and was slightly worried. He had never drunk to intoxication before, and I guessed he was coping with our slow pace in his own way. I promised myself we would move faster after this diversion.

I told them what I knew from my lengthy talk with the healer in Artiria. “Six rooms. A safe room on entering and another after the third room. Only five can delve at a time. The first room is the easiest, with giant black stalagmites jutting from the floor. Myconids—fungus men—are the creatures in the room. The second room is a bridge across a green, algae ridden lake. There are giant snapping turtles lurking in the water. The third room…” I had to pause to recall my conversation with the orc healer.

“I believe it was a rocky expanse of black boulders. It is the room where they primarily harvest the black stone you see around town in the buildings. The creature inside is called a lurker.” Knowing they were unfamiliar with the creature, I explained further. “They are large winged creatures that drop from the ceiling and encompass their prey in their leathery wings, constricting them while their jaws gnaw away at their flesh.”

“Sounds pleasant,” Mateo grumbled. He clearly was having second thoughts about coming on the delve. I paused to toss the reward sack between him and Benito for the ankhegs.

“The ankheg reward. Also, here are six gold coins for Glasha’s job.” I passed around the gold sack, and each happily took their coin out. We attracted some looks from the other tables, and I did not know if six gold was a lot for an Adventurer here. I made a note to myself not to pass out pay in the open again. It was my fault as we were frequently paid in Legion Halls and openly paid over seventy gold each for the dungeon discovery in Telha. I also didn’t consider six gold coins a large sum now, but it was.

When the gold sack came back to me, it had ten small golds remaining. The extra four golds were for Fortuna’s Chosen expenses. I assumed I would be paying for everyone’s rooms and meals again. Benito and Mateo were whispering to each other, probably discussing how they planned to spend their coin. Maveith was more interested in the challenge of the dungeon. “What of the last three rooms?”

I nodded, returning to the briefing. “The fourth room has a most foul pair of beasts. Rust monsters. They can instantly corrode metal that contacts their antennae. And these are even more foul as they can destroy runic weapons. The good news is they can be dispatched at range.”

“The fifth room is Mateo’s favorite, a single ogre. It fights with a club and is pretty stupid, from what I was told. The final room is a large forest chamber. There is a single ghost spider hiding there. A ghost spider can turn itself invisible and move silently. Its body is just about the size of a horse.” I tried to sound reassuring about the spider, but I hated spiders. “There are also numerous webs in the forest that are easy to get entangled in, so you need to be careful with your movement.”

I had talked with a nonchalant tone so as not to scare the others. Truthfully, since this dungeon was delved daily, the creatures shouldn’t be overly strong for their species. There were also a number of valuable creature harvests we could get out of this delve.

I took care of everyone’s rooms and paid for their drinks for the evening. As our state of inebriation climbed, Glasha returned to the Adventurer’s Hall. She joined our table, having trouble hiding a smirk, and I wondered just what she had been up to. She didn’t seem the type to hire mercenaries to ambush and kill us for our runic gear. It had to be something else, and I would be glad to ride away from her orbit after the dungeon.

Mateo was so drunk that he was having trouble talking coherently and asking Glasha personal questions, which she seemed more than willing to answer in her accented Telhian. That was my cue to excuse myself. A short time later, I found my room and lay down in the lumpy bed. The good thing about the building being mostly black stone was that my earth speak resonated well with it.

I actually felt less safe in the Adventurer’s Hall room than I did in the wild surrounded by my companions. There were just too many unknowns here. I paid extra for a room with a private copper tub and running water, but the water was not hot, so I retrieved the thermal stone from Maveith for a hot bath. Once I was finally clean, and much later in the night, my earth pulse detected a Mateo and Glasha entering the same room. Both of them were extremely intoxicated by their movements, and I thought it best to let them make their own mistakes and regret them later.

I decided to avoid using the dreamscape amulet while I was in the Adventurer’s Guild Hall, not knowing if mystical eyes were spying on me. After a few short naps, I practiced with the spear, magebane, and Boris’ blade. I was topless and working up a good sweat and considering a second bath when a knock at the door had me pause.

My earth speak confirmed it was Raelia and Baldo. I was expecting them and it was a few hours before sunrise. Letting them in, I could see the indecision in Raelia’s face as Baldo sat without prompting, expecting a meaty treat from me. Her eyes traveled over my sweaty body momentarily before she looked away, her face slightly flushed.

Knowing why she was here, I tried to reassure her. “It will be fine. He will not know any time has passed. It is also better this way as well.”

“It’s still hard. He’s my responsibility,” she said, her voice tight with distress. Baldo’s head flicked back and forth between us, his sharp eyes tracking the tone more than the words. I tossed him a strip of bear meat to distract him—griffins, I had learned, had an uncanny sense for emotion. And right now, Raelia was radiating despair.

“This is going to keep him much safer than if he traveled with us,” I reassured her. “Baldo, do you want to go where all the bear meat comes from?” He cocked his head, probably only understanding the word bear meat.

Not wanting to draw this out, Baldo vanished as my aether bottomed out. He hadn’t resisted much. Raelia exhaled, the sound laced with guilt. I’m not sure why I did it—maybe instinct, maybe something else—but I stepped forward and hugged her.

She didn’t pull away. In fact, she leaned into me, resting against my sweat-damp chest. Her hair was silky, the scent oddly familiar—like the worn griffin pillow I favored. Probably because she often used Baldo as one when we camped.

She started to return the embrace, arms just beginning to wrap around me—then she stopped. Abruptly, she pulled back and stepped toward the door, ending the moment.

She opened the door slightly and paused. She turned and made eye contact with me. “Thank you. I needed that.” She opened the door further and was shocked to see Blaze standing there, probably on his way to the general privy on this floor. Orcs didn’t use chamber pots. We all froze, each making eye contact before Raelia walked past Blaze back to her room, leaving me and Blaze staring at each other.

Amusement was clearly in his eyes, and I knew what he was thinking. I walked forward and just closed the door, thinking no matter what I said, he had already formed his own conclusions. I needed to focus on preparing for the dungeon in a few hours.

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