Chapter 60: Chapter 60: There is a quest available in Hineni’s house and it is to work hard for minimal pay

“Excuse me, sir! No fire allowed inside of the premises,” says Kleidet, talking to a man who sits at one of the booths. He seems to be some kind of shaman or a druid or something of that nature and holds his hands above a bowl on the table. A stick of incense burns within it, a vapor of smoke rising up towards the rafters.

 

His hands, old and grayed, move through the smoke as he continues his tonal chanting.

 

“Excuse me!” says Kleidet, trying to get his attention.

 

It has been a week since the kidnapping incident.

 

Tensions were high at first and the next day was certainly awkward, to say the least. But she seems to be taking the whole situation better than Hineni had expected, in all honesty.

 

She plants her hands on her hips, leaning in towards the man, grabbing the stick of incense. “Excuse me!” she says a third time.

 

Hineni turns back towards Sockel.

 

“How’s the quest board going?” he asks.

 

“Pretty good,” she replies. “We got a new quest today from a farmer outside of town,” says Sockel. “He’s been having some problems with the undead.”

 

“The undead?” asks Hineni.

 

Sockel nods. The restaurant is mostly empty at the moment, given that it’s still early. There’s only the chanting shaman and Kleidet to fill the space with their voices as they argue. “Yeah,” says Sockel. Her ears twitch. “Word on the street is that the first skirmishes started in the south,” she says. “The ambient magics are starting to go wild.”

 

Hineni crosses his arms. “You mean like the kind that keeps Eilig alive?” he asks.

 

A laugh comes from the side. Hineni looks down at Rhine.

 

“The world is full of strong currents of ambient magic,” says Rhine. “Especially the deep-forests of the south. Everybody knows that.”

 

“Boy, were you laughing at me?” asks Hineni, lifting an eyebrow.

 

Rhine stiffens up immediately, his face going pale. “N- no!”

 

Hineni puts a hand on his shoulder. “You’ve gotten bolder,” he says, nodding, pleased. “That’s a good thing,” says Hineni approvingly. He lifts a finger. “- But don’t lie,” he warns. “Commit to what you do.”

 

“Sorry,” says Rhine, lowering his head. “I got scared for a second.”

 

“Don’t worry, twerp,” says Sockel. “I’ll take him out if he causes any problems.”

 

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Hineni looks at them. “You two do remember that you work for me, right?” he asks.

 

“Sure, sure,” replies Sockel, waving him off. “Anyways, large scale fights like that are going to screw up the ambient currents of magic,” she says.

 

Hineni shakes his head. “What does the war in the south have to do with a farmer all the way up here?” he asks, not quite understanding the connection.

 

“They’re like rivers!” exclaims Rhine. “- The ambient currents. So if something messes with the magic down there on a large scale, the leylines are going to change directions and flow a different way instead.”

 

Hineni pieces everything together. “So… a farmer up here has a problem with the undead, because of a war three months away by foot?”

 

“Sure does,” says Sockel. “Probably. Either that or there’s a necromancer playing some pranks.” She shrugs. “Either way, we got the quest.”

 

“Could this affect us?” asks Hineni.

 

“If by ‘affect us’, you mean make us a boatload of money, then yes,” replies Sockel, pointing at him with her pen. She bends down and grabs a ledger, flipping it open. “See this?” she asks, pointing at a chart of numbers. “These are our quests. The last two days, we’ve had twice as many as the weeks before.”

 

“Two days isn’t a lot of time,” notes Hineni.

 

Rhine butts in. “With the leyline current shifted, a lot of stuff is going to get weird,” he explains. “Monsters spawning in places they didn’t exist in before, spells acting strange, there’s even a story about a dungeon-break happening once because of this.”

 

Hineni nods, looking over towards their, objectively owly, quest-board that he had paid a tidy sum for.

 

“There’s no time to profit like in a crisis, huh?” he asks.

 

“Now you’re getting it,” replies Sockel. “People are coming inside in droves to get help killing monsters and stuff now.”

 

Hineni looks around the empty restaurant.

 

“- figuratively speaking,” she adds on.

 

The door opens and a man walks in, holding a piece of paper. “Hello, I’d like to hang this up?” he asks, showing it to Sockel.

 

She points at the board. “Sure, just put it up there. We’re asking for three percent of the sum payment in advance.”

 

The man nods, heading over to the board and pinning up his quest. Hineni stares at it, while the stranger walks past him to pay.

 

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