The Fusionist Book 3 -- Chapter 34

Chapter 34

Moving through the gates of the town, Larek could see that the stone façade of the walls wasn’t very thick, as it was simply reinforced with wood behind it that created a walkway where defenders could stand. At only 12 feet high, it was one of the shorter defensive barriers that he’d seen in a tow, though he had to admit that he hadn’t seen very many. Those that he had seen had been in passing as he had traveled to one Academy or another and wasn’t exactly something he had paid attention to; now that he had the opportunity, he couldn’t help but notice that the defenses were, for lack of a better word, scrawny.

It wasn’t that he didn’t think they were enough to hold off a small Scission or two, but more that they had a less permanent-looking structure than even the wall around Barrowford. Like it was half-finished and any construction after a certain point was stopped, as if it was suddenly decided that no more was needed.

Then again, he thought, they don’t really need anything stronger than this right now, do they? With how the Scissions around the Kingdom seemed to be in a bit of flux, towns and cities were relatively safe from attack at the moment. It was only those moving around the countryside that risked running into monsters.

“How many live here at Whittleton?” Larek asked of their escorts as they finished passing through the open gates, only to be bombarded by the sheer amount of noise coming from the people inside. The walled town was on top of a short hill, so it was impossible for him to see much of what was actually inside, though from the spread of the walls he suspected it was a good size from outside; now that he saw all the people, he wasn’t sure what to think.

“Just under 30,000,” Karley replied loudly with a sigh, shouting to be heard.  “It’s expanded heavily over the last few months as things started to become chaotic throughout the Kingdom, and we’ve had to expand the walls twice to accommodate the expansion. That’s why things look a little unfinished around here.”

“And how many SIC are stationed here?” Penelope practically had to yell the question as their progress was temporarily impeded by the press of people moving around behind the walls. From the outside, the area outside of the town looked relatively deserted to Larek, with only a few people moving around, but inside the walls was a different story altogether. Hundreds or thousands of people were moving around, pushing carts, shouting and trying to sell their wares, or even constructing one of a dozen different buildings he could see from their position. It was just as overwhelming as his experience when he arrived at Peratin on his way to Crystalview Academy; in a way, it was worse, because Peratin had room for all the people inside the city, whereas Whittleton seemed to be bursting at the seams.

“There are 60 of us—er, I suppose 55 of us, now,” the Noble, whom Larek learned was named Zorey, interjected into the conversation as he took over the explanation. Thankfully, while the man had more than a little of the confidence and sense of entitlement he saw in many Nobles, he didn’t have the same condescending tone when he talked to Larek and the others in his group. “Which reminds me, I need to go report Swanek and his group’s unfortunate demise. Karley, if you would, please show our new friends around and find someplace for them to stay. Good luck with that,” he said, murmuring that last bit under his breath as he shook his head, which Larek was just barely able to hear over the sheer cacophony of noise coming from the crowd.

As the Noble took off into the crowd, the healer and the two Martials begged off from showing the newcomers around, though that was understandable for at least two of them. The healer, Deivin, hadn’t really taken his eyes off the Healing Surge Anklet that Larek had let them keep, and the Fusionist had the impression that the man wanted to go somewhere to be alone with it and not be disturbed. The Martial that had her leg mangled was still looking quite peckish and exhausted from her healing, and Larek could tell that she just wanted to eat a whole bunch of food and then pass out somewhere comfortable. As for the warhammer-wielding Martial, he just looked like he had hit his limit with socialization for the day and didn’t want to be saddled with the newcomers, and was more than happy to be able to escape that kind of responsibility.

“I guess that leaves just me, then,” the Elementalist said with a shrug. “Come on, let me show you around.”

It took approximately 10 minutes to get through the crowd of people, 99% of them from the Kingdom with only a bare handful having the appearance of someone from a different land, until they were moving through cramped alleyways where the noise wasn’t nearly as bad as it was near the entrance. Penelope spoke with their guide as they moved through the busy town.

“You only have 55 SIC members here to protect the entire town? How is that possible?”

The woman shook her head. “Well, it used to be 80 of us, but then again there used to only be 5,000 people living in Whittleton,” she explained, hopping over a pile of unrecognizable refuse on the ground inside the alley they were passing through. “But with the expansion and the craziness of the Scissions nearby, we’ve lost over a quarter of our forces, and replacements are hard to come by. That, and communication feels almost nonexistent, so we don’t even know when we’ll be reinforced. Thankfully, trade is still coming through as we keep the roads clear, but most of the food around here is starting to shift to coming from other lands outside of the Kingdom. None of the locals want to work the land with the threat of a monster horde appearing to wipe them and their entire family out – and I can’t say that I blame them.”

Larek couldn’t help but think that was the reason they hadn’t seen anyone on the farms they passed on their way to Whittleton. It appeared as though their fields had been planted in the spring, but with fall fast approaching, there was no one available to harvest any of the crops that had been growing. He remembered hearing that the SIC had been doing everything in their power to ensure that the farms continued to operate normally, but that didn’t seem to be the case everywhere. Overall, it wasn’t a good situation, but it also didn’t seem that this farm abandonment was happening all over the Kingdom – or else everyone was going to be in a heap of trouble. Larek was inclined to worry about it, as it might also affect his family if their regular allotment of food was disrupted, but there wasn’t much he could do about it.

At least, not at the moment.

“But enough of our problems; here’s the tour that was promised you,” the Elementalist switched her tone, affecting a more cheerful attitude. “As you saw when you arrived, the west gate is the most populous and in a constant state of construction it seems, as it was the final area after the last expansion that was to be filled. The fact is that, even when those buildings you saw constructed are finished, we’ll still be short on housing our recent influx of people. I fear that we’ll have to expand once again—but anyway, we’ve finally come to our Central Square! It used to be a lot more humble than this, but you can still see some of its old charm under the new construction.”

Larek and his group emerged from the alleyway into a large, open area that he judged to be around 500 feet wide in a squarish configuration. There were only two main roads leading to this open area, one from the west and a second opposite of it to the east, and along the perimeter of the square were tall, 2-to-3-story buildings with a few possessing signs out front, advertising what they held within. He recognized one as an Inn, another as a General Store, one as a Blacksmith, and the last one with a sign as the SIC Headquarters for Whittleton. Based on its size, he didn’t think it was large enough to house all of the SIC members, even at their diminished capacity, so some of them must have had other accommodations in the town.

Other than these main buildings, which he assumed had been the heart of the settlement for years until the expansion happened, the rest of them he assumed were residences of some sort, all of them with clearly new construction added to what was likely previously only a single story. In the center of the Central Square was a small garden area with a few visible whitewashed wooden benches and a splashing fountain with a wide basin that looked out of place with the hordes of people wandering around, ranging from those that looked a little more well-to-do than a normal citizen of the town – reminding him angrily of the young women back at the village of Rushwood – to those who were wearing nothing but rags and had haunted expressions on their faces. No one seemed to be starving yet, at least, but there was certainly a disparity in their financial outlook.

Looking at the road that led off to the western gate where they had arrived, he wondered why they hadn’t taken it instead of navigating their way through alleyways. His curiosity was sated immediately after seeing that the entire thoroughfare was full of even more people hawking their wares than were near the gate, and the crowds were equally as thick. Getting through the mass of people would be difficult to do as a group, and he was glad that they had been led around it.

“The main roads leading from either gate are filled with refugees, who have turned them into two giant marketplaces. At first, they were told to disperse as they were clogging the pathways to the gates, but after a while they refused to listen to the SIC and stayed where they were despite threat of punishment,” Karley explained, waving toward both thoroughfares. “It turned out alright, however, as we are now considered one of the premier trading hubs in the southeast, all thanks to the refugee population, which makes trade much safer for the caravans that stop here, as they can unload most of their product without having to travel toward some of the harder-to-get-to towns and cities out this way. Of course, with the reduction of our forces here, we’re going to have a harder time clearing the roads out on patrol, but there’s not much we can do about that until we get reinforcements.”

She led them forward, heading for the inn across the Central Square. The number of people moving about was overwhelming to Larek, who hadn’t seen this many people all together in a relatively small space before. Gauging how large the town actually was turned out to be a little easier from the open area of the Square, and he estimated that it was approximately a quarter of the size of the Academy and Fort back in Thanchet. If that was the case, then it had just as many people inside its walls as Copperleaf and Pinevalley, all living pretty much on top of each other.

Their guide was stopped halfway across the Square by the arrival of another SIC member who zipped through the crowd with ease and an obviously high Agility stat. From the direction of his arrival, Larek assumed that the younger Martial had come from the SIC building across the way.

“Karley! The boss wants to see you immediately,” he told the Elementalist as soon as he was close enough to be heard.

“Tell him to wait; I’m showing our guests to the Waterbury,” she replied, gesturing toward the Inn.

“Who? Uh… oh. Sorry, I don’t know anything about them. She seemed insistent that you hurry, though.”

Sighing, Karley turned to Bartholomew and then Larek, as if unsure who the leader was. “Sorry about this, but I’m going to have to leave you here.” She pointed toward the Inn. “That’s the Waterbury Inn, the only place that might have a vacancy, if only because it’s expensive and most of the refugees can’t afford it.  As you can imagine, prices have shot up for just about everything in the town, lodging most of all. I’ll try and visit at some point to see if you have what you need, but until I figure out what Mariel wants, I’m not sure when that will be.” She hesitated for a moment, before adding, “Thank you again for your assistance back there against the Dechonabras. I honestly didn’t think we were going to make it back alive.”

“It was our pleasure,” Bartholomew said, giving her a short bow before she blushed and took off toward the SIC building.

The group looked at each other before Larek shrugged, unsure what to do now. He’d never been responsible for finding lodgings, as most of his experiences with Inns had been cases when his stay was planned and paid for ahead of time.

“I’ve got this,” Vivienne said after a few seconds, pushing ahead of the others. “I grew up helping my parents with their Inn, so I’m probably the best one suited for this.” That was something that he had not known about their Ranger, which wasn’t surprising since the woman didn’t really speak all that much or talk about her past.

It didn’t take much longer to move through the crowd toward the Inn, and while they drew the attention of many they passed, he was thankful that it still didn’t seem to be because of his height; instead, it was because they were a highly unusual mix of people who were travel-stained and exhausted from their journey, and they stood out against the prevalent majority of Kingdom-born people nearby.

Ducking to avoid hitting his head on the entrance, his first sight of the inside of the Inn revealed a relatively empty common room, which wasn’t what he was expecting from the crowds outside. Looking around, he noticed that the tables and chairs that comprised the majority of the furniture he saw was very well-made and polished until it gleamed, and the lighting was surprisingly bright with natural light streaming down from dozens of windows dotting the walls. There were a few private-looking booths along the left-hand wall and a long, wooden and brass-decorated bar that lined the back of the room, a couple of patrons sitting at its shiny surface as they sipped at amber-colored drinks.

Behind the bar was a large, stern-faced woman who was polishing the bartop with a greyish rag that had seen better days but was likely still clean.  As soon as they entered and stood at the threshold, her polishing stopped and she pointed at them.  “I told you, if you can’t pay my prices, then you don’t belong in my Inn! Get out! Get out before I call the SIC and you’ll regret ever messing with me!”

The shout caused the couple of people at the bar turn around and stare at them, and he noticed that the patrons were well-dressed and potentially Nobles of some sort based on that criteria; unfortunately, he was too far away from them to know for certain. Regardless, the attention and the angry shout made Larek shrink back and nearly turn around and leave, but Vivienne stepped forward up to the bar and slammed a gold coin down on its surface. The instant the glint of gold was visible to the woman behind the bar, her demeanor instantly changed.

“Welcome to the Waterbury Inn, travelers! Or should I say members of the SIC? Either way, what can Grenda do for you today?” The abrupt change was a bit shocking, as was the welcoming smile that transformed her face from one of a stern disciplinarian to a doting mother figure. Larek felt like his emotions went through a whiplash at differences he observed in the woman.

“We need three rooms for the night,” the Ranger immediately responded.

“You’re in luck! We just so happen to have exactly three rooms vacant at the moment, which is a rarity considering how full the town is at the moment. You can have them for the night for 15 gold—”

“15 gold?” Vivienne asked, shaking her head. “Does it come with personal massages and beds that feel like we’re floating on clouds? No; 1 gold for the three rooms and you’ll throw in three meals and baths for everyone.”

The woman, Grenda, held her hand to her chest like she’d just been wounded. “A single gold? Why don’t you simply ask to stay for free while you’re at it? I’ve got an Inn to run here, not a charity. Since you seem like nice people and you have a few younglings with you, I’ll knock off a little. 12 gold and I’ll throw in the meals and baths.”

Vivienne stood her ground without budging. “It might not be a charity, but you’re slowly going to run out of clientele because the refugees aren’t going to be staying here anytime soon. You need our business, and I’m inclined to be generous to such a fine establishment. 2 gold with everything included.”

The two went back and forth, arguing about the price, but all Larek could do was stare at the Ranger. This was the most he’d heard her speak at one time, even counting the time when she had pretended to assassinate him in the baths, and he was amazed at her ability to bargain with the Innkeeper. Just watching the two go at it, he thought he might end up getting an extra Level in his own Bargaining Skill as a result, but he didn’t have much luck.

“…alright, you have a deal. 4 gold and a total of 10 of these Illumination Fusions that you say you can provide; if you can’t produce them, then you’ll owe an additional 6 gold.”

Wait… what did I miss? He could’ve sworn he just heard that they were trading some Fusions for their rooms.

“Not a problem,” Vivienne said, before turning to Larek and beckoning him forward. “You’re the expert here, what do you need to know to create those Fusions?” she asked.

He looked at the Ranger and silently conveyed to her, Is this a good idea? with a look.

An almost imperceptible nod made him mentally shrug. If she thought it was acceptable, being one of his bodyguards, then he supposed he didn’t have any reason to worry about it. Turning to the Innkeeper, who looked at him strangely, he asked. What would you like them on? Also, would you prefer a single illumination level or the ability to change their brightness with a touch and mental activation?”

“You can do that?” the woman asked, shock clearly written all over her face and tinting her words.

“Sure. It’s a relatively simple Fusion, so it won’t take too long.”

“Then I would want the ability to change their brightness, if I get a choice. And… can you place it on anything?”

He wavered a little bit on what to answer. “Well, not anything, but close to it.”

“Can you place it on the glass chimneys on my oil lamps? They’re already perfectly placed, and not worrying about changing them out would be ideal.”

Larek looked around the room and saw what she was talking about. There were exactly 10 oil lamp wall sconces around the room in strategic places, providing a fairly decent amount of light to the room, but he was also used to magical lighting, so it was dimmer than he preferred. Illumination Fusions would probably be perfect for the space, though the entire ambience would change as the light would be steadier and constant as opposed to the burning oil that was used at the moment.

As for the glass chimneys? He’s never created a Fusion on glass before, but he didn’t see why it wouldn’t work. The problem with the material was that glass was, obviously, fragile and prone to breaking; he couldn’t even imagine what might happen were one of them to fall off the sconce accidentally and shatter on the floor. If he was to make an adjustable illumination level Fusion, then there would probably be enough Mana inside that the shattering of the lamp chimney and resulting Fusion formation would likely cause an explosion large enough to affect all the other glass in the place, setting off a chain reaction that might blow up the entire Inn.

Only one way to avoid that, I suppose. I’ll just have to Strengthen the glass at the same time.

He was already planning out how to do it when he moved his attention back to the Innkeeper. “Not a problem. I’ll have to take the chimneys up to our rooms to get the work done, but there really shouldn’t be an issue.”

“Excellent! Well then, upon payment of the gold, I have your keys ready to go; I can also have my daughter direct you to your rooms and locate the bathing rooms for you. You’re welcome to come down anytime within the next 2 hours for a late lunch, otherwise we serve dinner at 6pm.” Vivienne somehow conjured the 4 gold pieces that the rooms were costing them and placed them on the bar, which were snatched up quickly by the Innkeeper, only to be replaced by three keys, each of them with a round metal tag on them with a stamped number on them.

There was suddenly a young woman at their side, appearing as if from nowhere, and he could instantly tell that she looked like a much younger version of the Innkeeper, all the way to the scrunched-looking nose and slightly curved eyes. She, like her mother, were likely from the Kingdom, but they also had a slightly different set of features that made them unusual to his eyes.

“If you’ll follow me, I’ll show you to your rooms,” the young woman said softly, in complete contrast to the loud, impactful voice of the Innkeeper, before turning on her heel and quickly treading toward a staircase around back of the bar.

“I’ll be back down for the chimneys later,” Larek told the woman behind the bar, before wasting no time in joining his friends as they followed their guide. It didn’t take long before they were shown to rooms 3, 4, and 5 on the second floor of the Inn.

“These are your rooms, and if you follow this hallway down to the end, you’ll find a divided bathing room. There are only two bathing tubs per gender, so you’ll have to take turns, but there shouldn’t be any other guests using them at this time. If you have any questions or other concerns, please let myself or my mother know, and we’ll be sure to help with anything you might need.” The speech she gave seemed rehearsed and she didn’t even wait to see if they had any questions or concerns at that moment, as she immediately fled back downstairs, leaving the group looking at each other.

Rather than breaking apart immediately into the different rooms, Vivienne unlocked the Room 3 and everyone quickly walked inside, closing the door behind the last to enter.

Nedira immediately rounded on the Ranger. “Are you crazy? What was all that about?”

That’s what I would like to know.