Edge Cases

68 - Book 2: Chapter 5: Time for a Quest

68 - Book 2: Chapter 5: Time for a Quest

The bandits were, in all honesty, the most exciting thing to happen on their trip to Elyra so far. It would still take a number of days for them to get there, and they had other stops they wanted to make along the way the Guildmaster had marked out two quests in particular that were relatively urgent and that the Guild didn't have the spare manpower for. Each quest was located in a small village that was just barely off the road, making it convenient for them to make a stop on the way to Elyra proper, and the first quest...

"I am still unsure why this request is urgent," Derivan admitted, looking over the quest form for the third time. It seemed relatively simple it was an extermination quest of sorts. At least, he assumed that was what the 'handle an infestation problem' part meant.

"Guildmaster priority," Sev said with a shrug. "Something weird happened with the receptionist that took down that quest, and the Guildmaster wants us to make sure that everything's on the level."

"Doesn't she have other people she can send to help with perception bullshit?" Misa asked. "I dunno about you, but I feel like we've dealt with more than our fair share of perception-related problems."

"I think that's exactly why she wants us to handle it," Sev said. "Nothing beats experience, and we've handled more infolocks and broken system boxes in the last week than most people do in their entire lifetimes."

"It makes sense for us to handle it," Vex said quietly.

Derivan glanced over at him. The lizardkin had stayed mostly silent throughout their trip he had been most animated when they were dealing with the bandits, and Derivan had hoped that whatever malaise had overcome his friend had been resolved. But the moment they got back on the road, it had returned, and he spent most of his time just silently staring out of the caravan's window.

Not for the first time, he tried to approach the topic gently. "Are you alright, Vex?"

"I'm... fine," Vex said, managing a small smile at Derivan. He held that smile for a moment before it crumpled, and he let out a sigh. "Or not, I guess. I don't know. I know it's some time before we actually reach Elyra, but I'm not... looking forward to going back there, I guess. I didn't plan on doing that for another year or so."

"You said before you wanted to wait until you were ready to talk about it," Sev said. "I don't think any of us want to push you, but if you think it'll affect you..."

Vex looked down, seemingly conflicted. "It won't," he said. "I handled the bandits fine, didn't I? And I'll tell you before we reach Elyra. I promise. It's just, we've got these two other quests to handle, and I feel like if I tell you all now it'll just be a distraction. Let's handle these other quests first."

"If you say so," Sev said. Derivan simply placed a hand on Vex's back, and the lizardkin looked back at him, grateful.

"Let's go over the quest again," Misa said. "See if there's anything we're missing."

They'd all looked at the form multiple times, of course, but they took Misa's change of subject for what it was a way to let Vex gracefully escape the conversation they'd found themselves in. Sev pulled out the sheet of paper that the request had been written on.

To say that the request was strangely worded was... an understatement.

To the Adventurer's Guild:

The town of Fendal would like to put in a request for a Silver team to handle an infestation. Further details will be given on arrival. Please come to the town hall and ask to speak to Gensen.

"I dunno," Misa said with a slight frown. "This place feels off, honestly. Can't pin it down, but it's... uncomfortable."

"I'm getting that too," Sev said. He glanced out, then patted the side of the caravan. "Let's just stop here and get to the town hall on foot. We can ask around for directions and see if anything jumps out to us as strange."

So they did. They set up the usual barriers around the caravan before they left, much to the chagrin of some of the guards, who didn't seem to like seeing magic being practiced openly in front of them Sev snapped the scroll shut as soon as he was done. Derivan couldn't blame him; he'd have felt uncomfortable with the vaguely hostile gazes of the guards, too.

Though he was surprised when Sev outright strode up to those guards to speak with them.

"Hi, we're new here," he said. "We're looking for the town hall. Any idea where we can find it?"

"...It's that way," a guard said after a short pause, pointing. "You here for the quest?"

"Yes...?" Sev blinked. Derivan paused at that, too, watching the guard carefully; he wasn't betraying any particular emotion besides a general distrust of strangers, which they'd expected coming into Fendal to begin with. But then was this quest common knowledge?

"Good," the guard said with a nod, and then he continued patrolling; Derivan stared after him, slightly bewildered by his behavior. Misa stared, too.

"Okay," Misa said. "I'm calling it now. There's some sort of mind control involved."

"I don't know if it's anything so direct," Vex said with a small frown. He was squinting at the air, as if only just noticing something strange; Derivan followed his gaze, amplifying his own [Mana Sight] to see what the lizardkin was seeing. "The mana here is behaving weirdly, too."

"It looks like it normally does," Derivan said cautiously. He watched the semi-playful ambient mana dancing around, as active as ever. "Are you seeing something different?"

"No," Vex said. "It's the fact that there's ambient mana here at all. It usually avoids towns. It prefers gathering in natural places."

Sev frowned. "Keep an eye on it," he said. "But let's get to the town hall and see what Gensen wants, first."

Derivan nodded, agreeing, and watched as the others did the same. The town hall wasn't actually that far away the only problem was that it was a relatively nondescript building that blended in with all the rest, and if the guard hadn't explicitly pointed out, they might have walked past it without noticing. As it was, they only realized they were at the right building because of the tiny letters emblazoned on the handle of the door to the town hall, of all things.

Even the inside of the building wasn't particularly ostentatious. It was clean, like everything else in Fendal, but it was sparse and barely decorated; there was a red carpet lined with gold, a couple of pillars holding up the upper floor of the hall, and then a desk at the far end of the room. Just in front of that desk stood a tired-looking elderly gentleman, who seemed startled when Sev pulled open the door.

"Er... we're looking for Gensen?" Sev tried.

"Then you're just in time," the old man said with a small, weary-looking smile. "I am him. Why don't you have a seat, and we can have a chat?"