Published: February 21st 2025, 3:00:06 pm
“I would like to.” Wally the Warden said.
“I’ll come!” Royal the apista said.
Skye and Katarina traded looks.
“I think we’ve got some discussions first.” Katarina said. I stuck my tongue out at her.
“Really?” I complained. “No fun at all.”
Skye had a sour look on her face.
“Some of us aren’t specialists interested in one thing. Some of us need to play the political game and figure stuff out. Or do you want Orthus to get the short end of the stick? You live there, you know.”
I shrugged.
“Sure, but that’s why we pay you the big arcs.” I pointed out. Skye looked like she wanted to tear her hair out.
“I’m not paid at all!” She complained.
I shrugged, a mischievous grin on my face.
“Well, that sounds like a taxation problem, which is an issue for the almighty [Queen] of Orthus to solve. Bye!”
Katarina was glaring murder, and my own shadow had her arms crossed and was tapping her foot at me. I briefly channeled Iona, slung my arm through Wally and Royal’s arms, and dragged them all off to the festival.
Sadly, it was first thing in the morning, and most people were still getting set up for the day. Boo! How dare they not get up hours before dawn to prepare everything, only to work deep into the night!
“Do either of you need to visit the money exchange?” Wally asked. I lifted an eyebrow. That implied he didn’t, and he was carrying his money on him. I couldn’t sense it, even with [The World Around Me]. Crows, I wanted one of those masks.
I was struggling a bit. On one hand, I was trying to get out of the paranoid spy mindset. The Wardens had issues with me in the past, and I didn’t want to reveal too much. At the same time, this was supposed to be a friendly summit, and it wasn’t like I didn’t liberally use my pocket dimension. The most basic surveillance of me would reveal I had it. From what I had seen of the Wardens, they reminded me strongly of the Rangers and Sentinels.
Professionals.
They weren’t idiots that walked up to my door and assumed they knew everything. I’d never heard of them getting into a dumb fight. They scouted, planned, prepared, then executed. Was I really going to hamstring myself this entire trip just to add half a day to the Warden’s strike team if they ever came after me in force?
Nah, not worth it. Adding a bit of artistry to it though? That was worth it.
“I’m good!” I flourished my hands, making it look like I was performing a sleight of hand as I pulled out a bag of arcs from [Manor]. With another flourish, I made it look like I was stashing it down my shirt. I then patted my tunic, revealing absolutely no lumps.
A good magician never reveals her secrets!
“Oh, we don’t do money!” Royal cheerfully told us.
Wally and I shared a look of instant understanding, somehow being enough on the same wavelength for this. I suppose when Royal was so far off-kilter, it was easier.
“We’ll pay for you.” I said.
“Happy to split the costs in half.” Wally agreed.
Not like I needed another reminder why the apista were so insular.
While the festival was still warming up, there were an inordinate number of small tea shops and other places where people could sit and talk for an extended period of time opening up. Several large groups were heading into the town.
“Want to follow the experts and see what there is to do?” I suggested. “They might already know the good spots, and we don’t have to aimlessly explore.”
“The idea has wizzz-dom.” Royal buzzed.
We followed the crowds, and stopped by the first kabuki performance. There were no chairs here, just scattered tatami mats, and after paying - only two arcs a person, I couldn’t believe how cheap it was, but then again my sense of scale and value was probably wildly off - we settled down.
Then had to get up and shift around a bit. The performance was on a slight hill, but the massive size difference between some of the attendees had them shuffled further back, while we were pushed forward, mostly based off my height.
A series of taiko drums and flutes started off the performance of The Eight Thieves, and from there the rest of the festival went off, a beautiful day only missing my friends and family.
“I’ve never seen this one before.” I said as we sat down.
“I’ve never seen a play before! This is all the buzz.” Royal said as she sat down. I had to wonder if she was deliberately trying to mimic me to fit in, or if she was utterly unaware how weird it was.
People in glass houses, I had to remind myself. People in glass houses.
“I’ve seen it a few times, although it’s more interesting to see how the play’s evolved over the years. I wonder if there will be any significant differences this time.” Wally said.
“You’ve got to give me the analysis after. Maybe over snacks? I’ll buy.” I suggested. Wally nodded.
“I’d enjoy that.”
Eh… I was vaguely debating going off to see them instead of partying, because what was the point of all the fun alone? At the same time, it was fun, and turning down extremely rare opportunities was no good. These memories would live on strongly in my mind, the candle of memory burning strongly. As opposed to ‘generic summer day with everyone when Sara is 7 #64’.
I stayed at the festival, and it only ramped up from there. The streets ended up packed. Paper lanterns hung over everything, unlit during the daylight hours but promising a riot of festival colors once dusk had passed. Food vendors were elbow to elbow with kappa toy sellers, and I didn’t trust half the kitsune operating various games.
Then again, when most of the contestants were ancient Immortals, I suppose they had to cheat as hard as possible to break even - or make it an entertaining experience.
The sound of drums and flutes echoed throughout, a thousand discordant tunes brought into perfect harmony through use of some clever wide-ranging skills. Crowds bustled to and fro, the strong Classers moving slowly and carefully. The world was made of glass for most of us, and not everyone had perfect control. One aggravated-looking demon had to plan his every step. Each time his foot came down, the earth rippled around his foot like a pebble going into a pond, no matter how gingerly he stepped. A… I didn’t know what the heck, just that they had a huge rack of antlers and were somewhat elvenoid, with lightning arcing between their antlers.
We hit the party full of life, enjoying every moment.
“Oh! I’ve always wanted to buy a kimono!” I dragged my friends off to a [Tailor], the lady hawking her wares and modifying clothes on the fly. “Only” level 210… but I remembered just how good someone at level 200 could be, especially with specialized skills.
As easily as I got levels, I had to remember not everyone could level as quickly as me. 200 was years, probably decades of experience with her craft, with a number of skills backing it up. I liked to imagine I had an eye for quality work, and the lady was going to be very busy very soon.
Wally shrugged.
“Sure, I wonder if she can make clothes that automatically grow. My youngest might enjoy a set.”
“It’s not my comb of honey, but I’ll watch! It is very interesting.” Royal said.
“Want to talk about your family, or does Warden mystique prevent you from saying anything?” I gently probed.
I got the sense he winked, even though his mask completely obscured his features.
“Maybe one day, but not today.” He said. I left it at that, and Royal fortunately derailed the conversation. Either she was secretly a social genius, or just had great timing.
“Are those goldfish?” She asked, fascinated by a game next to the tailor.
“Yup. Scoop one up with a paper cup, get to keep it.” I said, not even needing to glance over.
“Wow. I’ve never seen a fish before. I want one. Let’s do that next.” Royal said.
Wally coughed.
“The fish are for keeping as pets, just so you know.”
Oh god. That was both horrifying and hilarious, and I kept a straight face as the image of Royal chowing down on her new ‘pet’ in the middle of the street and the reactions from that danced through my head.
“Oh good! I hoped that was the case. I will name the fish Wallyelaineskye.”
On one hand, it was a bit of a struggle to be next to the ever-expanding social train wreck that was Royal. On the other… oh goddess. By Ciriel. Was this what I’d been putting people through for years!? I reviewed my memories, and… I’m so sorry. I was worse. I started looking around for some extra nice presents for Artemis. She’d had to handle me back then.
We made it to the front of the line, and I picked out a pair of plain kimonos I liked the look of.
“What do the three of you want?” The [Seamstress] asked.
“Those four kimonos, and a particular custom design on them.” I said, then started to explain. The [Tailor] was looking more and more delighted at the sheer detail in the custom order, both of us knowing the bill was rapidly reaching astronomical figures, while Wally and the people behind us in line looked vaguely disgusted. Which wasn’t unfair, I was kinda holding things up… but I wasn’t going to regret making a large order in the slightest. Royal was cool with it, her head spinning around as she absorbed the thousand and one sights.
“... a golden eagle in the middle, like this one.” I said, [Teleporting] out my old Sentinel badge. Wally almost freaked, but managed to restrain himself. Which looked like he did an almost-seizure next to me. “Flowers down the back end. For the second one, I’ve got the dimensions, but I’m not sure what you’re using. I can convert them if…”
I continued giving my entire order, and at the end I winked at Wally.
After all, to my understanding, this summit was the meeting of the best and the brightest the world around. Yeah, there were an overrepresented number of [Governors], [Lords], and other rulers, and the Wardens had more than their fair share of people. It was worth the reminder, mostly to myself, that the specialists were possibly the best in the world, and we all had hidden depths. Royal included. She didn’t seem particularly well rounded in many ways, but she’d immediately twigged that she was probably here because she was good at beekeeping.
Like.
I wasn’t going to pretend whoever was organizing this meeting had a ‘detect best at X’ skill or something wild like that. Communication and reputation mattered. The people being picked out were the ones known to the organizers, and they reasonably thought they could get them here. [Town Leaders] were easy, in a sense. Fly around, spot civilization, land, say ‘take me to your leader’, and go from there.
People outside of insular Gwyllt had heard that Royal was the absolute best at it, and the strength of what they heard and knew was enough to get her out here, skipping the hundreds of better-known elven [Beekeepers]. I started to keep an eye out for any bees I could see, to see if they were acting odd. For all I knew, Royal had a passive that let them move at the speed of sound and generate gallons of honey every trip, or something insane like that. If I thought of it in terms of area affected… could Royal be literally controlling every bee in the country? It was theoretically possible.
Welp! Moving on!
The kimonos were more expensive than I was expecting, and the [Tailor] did spend a good amount of time checking that my coins were valid. Some of them were easy enough - we had an elemental overlap and could show the gemstone charging with a skill - but some quick horse trading was needed with neighboring vendors to check more of them.
We continued on. Royal spent six tries trying to catch a goldfish before I had mercy on her and captured one with a single lightning-fast move. Being able to see through the illusions and move unnaturally fast helped, and the man running the stall promptly uninvited me from trying again. Royal was happy though! We then lurched around a bit until we found a place that sold pet supplies, and I barely saved Royal from murdering her new pet as she tried to dump the entire can of fishfood in at once.
Wally went over to a calligraphy stand and ordered two dozen different pieces. I felt terrible for the man running it by the end.
“No no, this one’s no good either.” Wally declared, critically looking at what I thought was beautiful artwork. He crumpled it up and threw it away right in front of the [Artist], then tossed him the coins for the next order. “Don’t repeat it, let’s just try another one.”
The poor [Artist] looked like he was going to cry… but he did gain 12 levels in a single sale, and another 4 when Wally finally nodded his approval.
Well paid, well leveled, but the remarks had cut him deep.
“I’d like a few.” I asked. “Can you do ‘toothy’?” I was thinking of Sara’s favorite toy. I wanted something for her, but the list of options that didn’t include me or the shadow of Ithil was extremely limited.
And the festival just kept going! Origami artists got a pile of coins from me, I prayed to Ciriel at the shrines, the furin wind chimes tinkled as the breeze stepped up, and I bought a tengu mask, certain that Artemis would find them hilarious.
We watched sumo events and ‘level 32 capped’ tug of war, which was the only responsible way to play that particular sport. Street performers were on every corner and every street, entertaining in a thousand ways. I picked up a few fans, and twice as many adorable puppets, a full set for several plays.
I tried to juggle [Teleportation] around to do my own one-woman full performance, but I wasn’t quite good enough. I’d need to learn and practice, no matter the mastery given to me by [Everywoman].
I snorted in amusement. Night could probably teach me. He’d been Nyx, working as a [Puppeteer] when I’d been looking for him. Susan could also teach me, but I had the feeling her lessons would be a little more thorough.
Ugh… but I wanted to be with my family during the nighttime. Balancing this was going to be hard. Eh, I didn’t have to learn now. I’d show them to everyone before becoming a master of the craft, it was fine.
I shamelessly grazed on everything the food vendors had. New food? Last snack was 32 minutes ago? Om nom nom nom.
Sadly, there weren’t a whole lot of books for sale, but that wasn’t a surprise.
The sun went down, and the fireworks and bonfires came out. I spent a few hours with people - Skye and Katarina were still neck deep in the political arena, boo, but Tobias was able to hang out - before I zipped back home, across the Sea of Stars.
It was a modest commute, but there was a world of difference between going back to an empty, temporary apartment, and coming home.
My timing was bad though, I’d spent a little too long watching the fireworks. Sara and Auri were already asleep. It wasn’t terrible though, Iona hadn’t left to hang out with Fenrir yet.
I knocked on the door in a familiar pattern and waited with a grin in my new kimono. Iona opened the door, a delighted look across her face.
“Surprise!” I shouted, throwing my hands up and wiggling them. I promptly started answering questions that hadn’t been asked.
“Kazehara is just across the pond, and I’m fast. Nothing’s happening yet, and I figured why stick around and sleep there, when I can jet over here and sleep? I won’t be here during the day, but I will be here every night.”
Iona was beaming. She swooped me up into a hug.
“That’s great! Let’s go wake Sara up.”
“Yes! Should I give her the souvenirs now, or later?” I asked.
Iona studied me for a moment before grinning.
“Trickle them in, I know you’ve already bought a gigantic pile. One now, one tomorrow, and save the big one for when it’s all done.”
I snuck up on a sleeping Auri.
“Big bag of rice flour.” I whispered into her ear as I teleported the item in question out of my storage. I’d gotten some looks when I offered to buy the bag instead of the finished product.
“Brrrpt…? BRPT!” Auri perked right up, going from sleepy dreams to awake, alert, and LOUD in an instant.
“Brrpt brrpt!” She dizzingly spun around me before perching on my shoulder and nuzzling my cheek. “Brrpt!”
“You’d think I was gone six decades, not six days.” I joked. Iona cracked a smile.
“We’re just all happy you’re back.”
We snuck upstairs, and I quietly sank down next to Sara’s bed. I gently shook her shoulder.
“Sara. Psst, hey Sara.” I whispered, trying to gently wake up. Her eyelashes fluttered before her eyes focused on me.
“M- ELAINE!” She shouted, wrapping her arms around my neck. I pretended I hadn’t heard the start of her sentence.
I totally wasn’t crying.
It was good to be home.