Chapter 10: Chapter 10: Summer Scarlet’s Inn

Leir jumped out of the back of the wagon and landed firmly on his feet before stretching every muscle in his body. They’d been on the road for a few days now, and he was sore from all the bumps in the road, but they had finally arrived at the city the arana had told them about. Adalnard stretched out before Leir and climbed the mountains on either side of the valley they were on. It looked almost like an inversion of a city, in that the highest buildings were on the outskirts.

“Alright, we’ll take the omnibus from here,” Lotus Dust said. “Hopefully it won’t take too long to get to the tavern.”

Burrow and Baldovin haggled with the stable master over how much to pay for the horses and wagon. Everyone grabbed a small bag and filled each with their most important supplies, including clothes and books. Once everything was taken care of, Lotus Dust led the way deeper into the city.

Adalnard had the feel of an old European city, like Paris if it were just as big as it was now without ever having advanced past the medieval period. They climbed on board a half-full omnibus, eating up all the remaining room, and the driver flicked his whip at the horses to get them moving. Leir kept his eyes out the window, taking in the now-familiar feel of garishly painted stone architecture.

A lot of buildings used square columns in place of their front wall, and the main street they drove down was lined with obelisks. About halfway up one of the mountains was a large building painted red and covered in glittering gold that one of the dwarfs on the bus called a palace. Painted statues were scattered around, sometimes on pedestals in the middle of the street, and they passed under an archway belonging to an ancient aqueduct that was also painted in bright geometric patterns.

They got off the omnibus and Lotus Dust led them into a thin two-story terraced building. Above the front window was a small mural of two dwarfs each drinking from a tankard. Stepping inside, Leir was assaulted by the musty smell of beer and sweat and had to blink the tears out of his eyes.

“Scarlet!” Lotus Dust cried, walking up to the counter. “Summer Scarlet!”

Another Florelle, this one with blooming purple wisteria flowers for hair, grinned and sat down the glass she was cleaning before coming out to embrace Lotus Dust.

“Lotus, how are you doing?” she asked. “I was so happy to receive your letter. The rooms are ready for you, half price, of course.”

Leir leaned closer to Whisper and asked, “How do you guys get your money, by the way? Are you all just independently wealthy?”

Whisper shrugged, admitting, “I don’t really need a lot.”

Baldovin explained, “We usually just do odd jobs in between adventures.”

That made sense, though it was a little underwhelming.

Summer Scarlet brought everybody into the kitchen where they could talk in private, explaining, “Alright, so etiquette laws have changed a little bit in the past few years. There are four things you need to know. If you bow to someone, it means that you are deferring to them. If you say something impolite to someone, it is common courtesy to spit on the ground to ‘purge your mouth of ill intent.’ Shoes are to be removed before walking into a private establishment, and you should always refer to people you don’t know very well as ‘Sir’ or ‘Madame’ along with their name or in place of their name.”

Leir nodded along, but he wished that dwarfs would either have less esoteric customs or decide on a few universal ones. This was reminding him too much of traveling to different countries for work. Hopefully, they wouldn’t be in town long enough for him to find a new way to make a fool of himself.

As they made their way up stairs, Baldovin told Leir and Melisende, “You two will be sharing a room. You’re free to wander around the city as long as you keep a low profile, but if you want to help with the investigation there is plenty of work to be done.”

Leir nodded, stepping inside the room. He undid his sandals and poured out his bag of clothes onto the bed before collapsing onto it. Melisende started unpacking properly, taking the top two drawers of the chest of drawers for herself.

Oh! There was one thing that Leir was forgetting! He peeled himself from the rough blankets and stepped out into the hallway. Leir knocked on the next door down and Burrow answered.

“Hey,” Leir said, “can we start that witchcraft thing we were talking about tomorrow? I’m really eager to learn.”

Burrow chuckled and told him, “Yeah, absolutely. First thing in the morning, alright?”

Leir was grinning after he left the room. Lotus Dust was standing outside his bedroom door, and judging by their expression, they had bad news to share. Heart sinking, Leir stepped closer and coked his head to the side.

“What is it?” he asked. “Is everyone okay?”

“Everybody is fine,” Lotus Dust replied. “I just wanted to talk to you and make sure that we’re all on the same page.”

“I’m ready to hit the ground running,” Leir promised, pounding his fist into his palm. “We’ve all but got Shadow Fang dead to rights and I intend to see her captured this time.”

“We share your confidence, Leir, but that’s not what I meant. Silken told us that Shadow Fang wanted to come here because she had contact with a local smuggling ring. I wanted to make sure you were prepared for the possibility that she’s already sold off your energy crystal. There’s a chance that, no matter how quickly we capture her, you may never see it again.”

Leir’s heart sank.

“There’s no way,” he insisted, closing his eyes and shaking his head. “She has to know it’s more important than that. It’s not just some pretty jewelry. It brought me to this world and Shadow Fang will be able to sense how important it is.”

Lotus Dust replied, “So you claim. I need you to understand, Leir, that we’ll do everything within our power to return what was stolen from you, but it might not be enough.”

Leir was quiet for a moment.

“Leir?”

“I understand,” he mumbled, not looking directly at them. “I need to get some sleep for tomorrow.”

“Try not to dwell on it too much.”

He merely grunted in reply.

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Closing the door behind him, Leir started stripping down for bed. Melisende was already under the covers but had her face in a book. Leir was quiet. His mind was swirling with the thought that he might not be going home after all, a thought which threatened to blow the dam and wash him away in grief.

He threw himself onto the bed and turned over under the covers for a while. Leir buried his face in his pillow. His tail kept twitching anxiously. This was the closest they’d come to cornering their prey and the closest he’d come to losing his energy crystal for good.

“I really want to go home,” he told Melisende, who glanced over at him but didn’t say anything. “I want my condo back, I want my summer home back, I want my pool and jet ski back. I want to take long weekends to a private beach where I can be photographed by pre-approved reporters. I really want people to see me for the genius I am and not some kid who can barely take care of himself.”

Melisende was quiet for a while before finally replying, “I only understood about half of what you said, but what I really don’t get is why you’re so determined to go back if you won’t even be honest with people about who you are and where you came from.”

“I have to go back!” Leir snapped, before softening his tone and adding, “I built a life of luxury for myself from hard work and I deserve to enjoy the fruits of my labor. Where I come from, only the best make it to the top and that was me.” He grabbed his fluffy tail and hugged it tightly. “Everybody loved me; everybody with taste, anyway. My private chefs served me the best food and drinks and could go anywhere in the world I wanted to at a moment’s notice. Worst of all, I used to shape the entire world with my decisions, and now, I’m a complete nobody.”

Sighing, Melisende asked, “So you want to live like a monarch, but do you want to know something I noticed? You didn’t once mention friends or family in your diatribe. What is the point of comfort if you’re alone?”

“If the cost to gain the world is friendship, then it still gains a man the world,” Leir said, casting a dark glance over at Melisende. “I know what’s important in life because I had all the important things before I came here.”

Melisende closed her book and placed it on the bedside table before blowing out the light.

“Goodnight, King Leir. I hope you get what you’re looking for out of life.”

In the dark, Leir continued to toss and turn so much that he thought for sure that it was keeping Melisende up, though she said nothing if it was. He knew that she was wrong because his detractors from his own world had bemoaned him not having any friends or family as well. People like her would never understand what it felt like to be on top of the world, and how much of an accomplishment it was to reach the peak of that icy mountain. The thin-skinned would be cooked alive by the chill.

The words of his enemies bounced around in Leir’s skull. That lady, the Irish one, had said that he was only in it for the money as if that were a bad thing. The world he wanted to return to was one where people hated him for no reason. His would-be-usurper also talked about having people in her life who needed help through scientific advancements. She probably had people who would miss her company if she’d been the one to disappear.

Leir must have eventually fallen asleep because he was woken up by dawn filtering in through the curtains. It certainly didn’t feel like he’d gotten any sleep, though. Melisende was already up and getting dressed for the day. With a groan, Leir pulled himself out of bed and fell to the floor, where he laid for a few more minutes to drift in and out of consciousness.

In the morning, Leir fell out of bed and changed into fresh clothes before heading down to the kitchen for breakfast. Lotus Dust’s warning played over and over again in his head. He felt like he was going to cry. Leir didn’t cry. There had to be something that he could distract himself with.

When he heard a knock at the doorway, Leir wiped the tears from his eyes and turned to face Burrow.

“Hi?”

Burrow said, “I don’t mean to rush you, but will you be ready soon? I’d like to start investigating soon.”

Leir’s ears perked up and he sat up straight.

“Yeah! One moment! Let me finish eating!”

He followed Burrow back to his room. Baldovin was already gone, so Burrow sat cross-legged on one bed and gestured for Leit to take the other. Burrow picked up what appeared to be a large leather messenger bag and sat it beside him.

“I’m surprised that a magus is interested in learning about witchcraft,” he admitted. “Obviously, this isn’t true of everyone, but I’ve met a lot of magi who look down on witches because we don’t do magic their way.”

“So… is not every spirit a magus, then?”

“I guess you wouldn’t know, if what you’ve told us is true. No, some people have the spark of a magus, but many do not even if they’re spiritually nourished. It’s debated if witchcraft predates magi or if it was started as an alternative method of using magic. Seeing how you’ve struggled to manifest your own magic, I’m surprised that you weren’t drawn to it sooner.”

“It just never seemed like an option.” Leir didn’t know if witchcraft could generate enough power to activate the energy crystal and get him home, anyway. “Besides, it’s good to fully explore the resources you have available before starting something new.”

Burrow nodded while searching through his bag. He pulled out a few small bottles of herbs and flower petals, a few sticks of what looked like sage, some rocks and gemstones, and some feathers. Leir watched in silence, trying to figure out the common denominator between these objects beyond them all being natural materials.

“The reagents you choose are very important. Witchcraft requires a lot of experimentation, arguably more than the natural sciences do.” Leir resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Burrow held up a small vial of liquid. “This is a potion made from a few herbs and the bone meal of a bear. Drinking it will give me a huge burst of speed for a short amount of time. What makes it magic instead of merely unpleasant is the metaphorical value I place on the reagents themselves. Bears are awfully fast for their size and can do a lot of damage if they run into you. Letting my mana flow through the reagents activates the powers that they represent to you. That is why one witch’s tools often differ greatly from another’s and why people often have to apprentice to become a witch.”

Metaphor? Metaphor?! There was a metaphorical side to magic?! As if the spiritual nonsense wasn’t bad enough!

Leir forced himself to take a deep breath, then asked, “Why do they have to be consumables? Why can’t you create a device that works the same way every time?”

“Sacrifice is a big part of witchcraft. It’s important to recognize that you are giving up time, energy, or resources to accomplish more than you otherwise possibly could. A lot of magical reagents have to be consumed or burned in order to use them. Being a witch can be tedious at times because you spend a lot of time making more tools.”

“I see.” Leir nodded, but his mind was still racing. He’d been told that things were impossible before and always proved people wrong. If he was clever, he could probably get around that limitation.

“I’d be happy to talk more about this,” Burrow continued, packing his things away, “but for right now, I need to go join the investigation.”

“Of course. Do you have some paper or a pen I can use? I want to write a few things down.”

Burrow gave him some parchment and an ink pen. Leir returned to his own room, where Melisende was still sleeping, and sat down on the floor to scribble out some ideas. It was mostly illegible, but there was some gold in there somewhere. He just needed supplies.