A Soldier's Life

Chapter 323: Restocking

I woke suddenly from a nightmare about being trapped in the demon dungeon, with the entrance sealed and constantly battling meddlesome quasits. As I came awake, I felt that disorienting sensation you get when you don’t know where you are or how you got there after being ripped out of sleep. My danger sense kicked in, and I was on my feet, magebane already appearing in my hand.

I slowly relaxed as I remembered where I was. Raelia banged on the door, her muted voice shouting, “Eryk, you put the bar on the door!”

Magebane disappeared, and I walked to the door, pulsing earth speak to make sure Raelia was alone. I slid the bolt and opened the door to find Raelia and Baldo. Baldo chirped, irritated at me and having to wait, and sauntered into the room. Raelia looked amused at the griffin’s attitude. “You weren’t having fun without me, were you?”

“Maybe,” I grinned back at her and let her in, sliding the bolt back in place.

“The inn has baths with showers. I am going to wash, and I suggest you do the same.” She winked at me. Baldo curled into a ball on the bed and put his head on my pillow. I snapped my fingers and whistled, but he didn’t move and just closed his eyes, ignoring me. He looked exhausted, and I felt for him, but I still reclaimed my pillow. He didn’t even open his eyes as I snatched it away and just settled his head on his forelimbs instead.

“How did Baldo do?” I said while shaking out the pillow and making it disappear.

Raelia stripped to her underclothes. She was animated as she talked. “Many goliath children came to watch us practice, which motivated him to show off. All the clapping and cheering made him work twice as hard, but he might have overdone it. He was so exhausted that he had trouble on the walk back here.” I placed a bowl of cubed meat and water for him, and the fact that he didn’t move to eat it immediately told me he was spent. “He has trouble making tight turns, but once I am riding him, it will be easier to teach him.”

“Any news from the others?” I asked, stripping my underclothes to join her. Hopefully, the baths were private.

“I didn’t see Konstantin or Gilda. The city is abuzz with talk about the rescued goliaths. I don’t understand the language well, but runners were sent to the villages to inform them that their family members have returned.” She was in just a thin pair of linen shorts and a shirt, holding a bundle of her dirty clothes from the voyage.

I collected my dirty clothes and went with her into the basement. The bath in the basement was entirely constructed from smooth granite and brightly lit by numerous glowstones. Unfortunately, it didn’t look to have a private bath, just two pools inset in the floor separated by a wall. The cold showers were also separate.

An old human woman attendant was here, and we handed over our dirty clothes for laundering. I wasn’t surprised to see a human woman working here. I had seen several humans and dwarves when I walked from the ship to the inn. “Do you two want the private bath? It is available.” she asked with a grin after seeing us interact demonstratively.

“Yes! That would be fabulous,” Raelia answered for both of us. A silver coin, and after a short cold shower and scrubbing later, Raelia was nestled in my arms in a heated stone tub in a private side room we hadn’t noticed. A trickle of steaming hot water kept the water tepid.

“What are you thinking about?” she asked, breaking the silence.

“My girlfriend says I have the habit of not thinking,” I replied, playfully squeezing her.

“Girlfriend? I prefer to be called your lover. But yes, I agree with myself. Tell me what you are thinking about anyway,” she said, pressing back into me to look up into my eyes.

I sighed, not liking to talk about my feelings. “Lots of things. How to get a book on charm spell forms. How to hunt manticores. About what the Titans said about the World Gates.”

“You want to go home?” she asked cautiously. My status as an otherworlder was not discussed openly, but I had confirmed as much to her during the voyage.

I paused before answering her. I had thought about it many times, and although there were times that I did want to return, that was no longer the case. “No, but I want to understand how I was brought here. Maybe understand the dungeon workings a little more. For instance, why were there demons in that dungeon when they do not exist on Desia?”

There was a pause before Raelia asked softly, “If you decided to return to your world, you would tell me, wouldn’t you?”

“Of course—if we are still together.” My experience with women has not been great. I find they either get sick of me, I do something to make them angry, or we drift apart. That made me think of Renna. I knew she was alive, but was she doing well?

“Let’s just enjoy our time together,” Raelia said quietly, turning and kissing me passionately. I understood what she meant as her tongue chased mine. She thought that I would grow old and die in front of her while she still looked as young as she did today. An elf could live to be over a thousand. I didn’t have the heart to tell her that it would be I who would be seeing her grow old and die, as I would live tens of thousands of years if I kept my slow-aging spell form active.

Later, when the old attendant delivered our cleaned laundry, I purchased an uncut soap block from her, weighing almost thirty pounds. It was a bit grainy but had a pleasant, earthy, lavender scent. We returned to our room to finish what we were doing in the tub, but were thwarted by Baldo, stretched out on the bed. He had found the energy to eat at least, as the bowl I left him was empty.

We let the griffin rest and went to the common room for a late dinner. Konstantin had an empty bowl in front of him and was sipping from a massive mug, closer to a pitcher in size. He nodded when we sat down with him.

“Did you familiarize yourself with the city?” he asked, but it was clear he already knew that I had not.

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“That was why I brought you along,” I retorted.

Konstantin didn’t miss a beat. “And if I didn’t return and there was a serious threat?” he said, amused instead of incredulous like I wanted.

I don’t think Konstantin understood my humor. I gave up, conceding his win and not wanting to argue. “What did you find out then?”

He took a long pull. “There was an elf flying a griffin recklessly just outside the city walls. Drew lots of attention.”

I smirked at Raelia, happy to have Konstantin being critical of someone other than me. Raelia retorted at him defensively, “The manticores don’t hunt near the cities.” We had been told as much by Maveith.

“Still reckless,” Konstantin stated flatly. “There was only a single goliath watchman in each tower, and your griffin was flying well outside of defensive arrow range.” I thought she would retort, but instead, Raelia nodded slowly at the scolding. She was a bit reckless as a Bartiradian Griffin Rider, and I think she needed to hear it.

Konstantin nodded and continued, having chastised Raelia enough. “Most of the city is preparing a celebration for the Returned. Maveith is being honored by the Eternis Council at a lavish feast tonight. He asked me to carry word to you to join him, but I found you two occupied in the baths here.”

We both flushed, having thought it was private, but this was Konstantin, and he didn’t respect boundaries. I brushed off the embarrassment. “Did you learn anything useful?”

“The city has only one central sewer channel that leads to a bay a half mile to the south. There are some predatory cats and large snakes in the humid wilderness, but generally, there are no real dangers unless you climb a mountain or head to the other end of the island. The goliath city is as advertised: safe and somewhat friendly,” he said, sounding disappointed.

“Where is Gilda?” Raelia inquired as we were served a bowl of stew.

“Wherever she wants to be,” he said brusquely. A strange dynamic continued to play out between the two. He sighed. “My guess is she is shopping. The city isn’t large, but the merchant quarter is expansive as they broker bulk goods delivered from the goliath villages to the trade ships. Prices are relatively low, from what I understand. Most ships dock here since it is the best and largest harbor on the island.”

“When can we expect Maveith back?” Raelia asked as she ate the steaming stew.

“You will have to go ask him yourself,” Konstantin said, standing and dropping a large Telhian copper on the table. “I am going to get some rest. Come find me when you are ready to hunt manticores.”

After he left, I muttered, “He seems a little more grouchy than normal.” Raelia hadn’t seen him any other way and shrugged. Maybe I would let him win some of our practice sessions to cheer him up. Later, we kicked Baldo out of bed and continued where we left off in the bath.

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Eternis’s Council was holding Maveith captive. He was honored daily as the freed goliaths’ family arrived to reunite with lost loved ones. He sent a messenger and begged me to join him and take some of the credit—and attention away from him. I figured that Maveith would stay here when I returned to Castile, so it was best for him to receive as much acclaim as possible. I knew nothing about goliath society or social standing, but he was welcome to all the accolades for freeing his people if it helped my friend.

After emptying and reviewing my coins, I found I had many dungeon and stamped coins from numerous kingdoms, some of which no longer existed. Raelia helped me sort the mess, giving me a lesson on each different nation.

In total, I had 3 platinum coins, 608 gold coins, 1806 silver coins, and 6034 copper coins. I also had one hundred trader’s gold bars from the Caliphate reward. Each bar was worth one hundred gold coins on its own.

There was some more value in silver and copper merchant bars as well, but Raelia didn’t recognize the stamps on them. I also didn’t know whether the metal content varied across the various kingdom coins, so maybe some merchants wouldn’t accept some of them. At least I knew all dungeon coins were accepted everywhere.

Raelia then convinced me to go shopping. I wore my manticore cloak and pouch at Raelia’s insistence. She seemed to think it would allow me to get better prices from the vendors. She was not wrong, either. I also got many compliments on them and always paid less than the posted price without having to haggle.

My first purchase was to replace my alchemy set. There was a goliath clan that specialized in blowing glasswork. The extensive tier one alchemy set I bought was half the cost it would be in the Empire, but of better quality. The glass was clear and had few defects. I added six crates of one hundred glass potion vials for future alchemy, taking advantage of the reasonable prices.

I lost a lot during the encounter with the Titans on Olympia, so replacing everything would take time. Luckily, some of my pellets and potions were stored in my dimensional belt, but I still had only a very small supply left.

The next purchase was a barber’s kit in a fancy wooden box that I came across. Although goliaths had no body hair, there were several non-goliath races living in the city. From there, I bought two large backpacks, new camping equipment, enough provisions for a mage company for a month, and simple hardened hide armor.

The armor didn’t fit well, but I needed something in decent condition. My one splurge was a heavy pancake-shaped thermal stone with two functional sides. One side was just hot enough to boil water, while the other side was hot enough to start a fire. Since Maveith had Raelia’s thermal stone, I wanted to be able to cook. The merchants sent everything to our room at the inn, so we had no need to carry anything.

When we returned to our room, we had packages scattered everywhere. On seeing Baldo, the delivery runners must have made a hasty exit. Raelia revealed at that moment that she had found an Elvish book on charm spell forms. Instead of handing it over to me, she teased me, expecting me to earn it. “I bought it, Eryk. If you want to read it, you’ll need to do me a favor—or two,” she said mischievously.

“What if I trade for it? Would you be interested in this?” The fire halo spellbook from the demon dungeon appeared in my hand. Raelia’s eyes narrowed as she tried to figure out what it was.

“A dungeon spellbook?” she said in realization. “What spell is it?” She reached excitedly for it, but I held it out of her reach. “Maybe it is you who will need to do a few favors for me,” I teased her back. Eventually, after a short, playful wrestle, we exchanged books. I immediately sat down to page through the book, to add to my dreamscape tonight.

Raelia was engrossed in the fire ring spellbook and mumbled to herself as she tried to decipher it. It was much more complex than anything she had learned before. Maybe she didn’t even have enough aether to cast it effectively.

I was reading through the index of the charm spell forms when a heavy knock came at the door. It was unmistakably Konstantin’s. His message was short and to the point. “Gilda just informed me that Maveith’s father has arrived in the city. I thought you would like to know.” His muffled footsteps could be heard as he walked away.

I suddenly felt a stab of guilt for leaving Maveith alone for the last two days. “Let’s go, Raelia. Our friend needs our support.” Raelia looked reluctant to stop studying the book, but eventually closed the book and joined me.

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