She paused, looking around to meet everyone’s eyes. The rules made sense. There just wasn’t any room for errors.

  “Accommodations and basic fare are available for free in this building, on the southern end,” the woman continued. “I will not say they are comfortable or tasty, respectively, but until you can afford a room or meals in one of the inns, I suggest you find a bunk. Then, I assume most of you are here for the Mad God’s Maze.”

  There were several nods from the other groups.

  “You may enter the Maze at the discretion of the Maze Watcher. You will only be allowed to enter once per day.” She shook her head with a wry smile. “I forgot. There is no change of light here. There is no night, and no day, at least not as those upstairs understand it. Downstairs, we mark time by Qetgen Yotl’s Flames, which are the flames outside the Maze. When they change color, we mark a new day. Sometimes, it is shorter than you expect. Your party should not exceed eight members for going into the maze, though that is not a rule so much as a suggestion. The final aspect of our talk regards chits. Perhaps some of you have heard of them. We do not use coinage here. You may go to the Exchange, which is located next to the Maze, and there you will be able to exchange any items of value for chits. Questions?”

  I looked at my party, and they looked at me. No one seemed to have a question. I had several, per usual, but nothing that I felt like asking in front of the other parties.

  A dude in my Earth-born buddy’s party stood. “Is there any wait or line or permission required to go back up to, uh, upstairs?” He asked.

  “Just when the lift goes,” the woman in white said. “There is not a set time for going up, as it depends what is happening in the market that day. There is usually a call when the lift is leaving, and then you can gain a spot on the lift based on your ranking. Which reminds me, ranking.” She sighed, and shook her head. “All party leaders received a rank when they were granted access to Gloomguard. Your spot in line for meals is designated by rank. Your choice of spoils from any Gloomguard defense is also designated by rank. You will find there are plenty of ways your rank is used in our town. Party members who do not have their own rank are considered to have one rank below their leader. Other questions?”

  This time, nothing.

  “You are dismissed,” the woman in white said. “When you walk through that door, consider yourself under the Laws of War. You will be expected to fight at any moment. If you need to put armor on, now is the time to do that.”

  There was a bit of motion as people got armor out of bags and started strapping stuff on. The woman in white watched over everyone with a mixture of casual disinterest and practiced indifference.

  I went up to her.

  Her eyes snapped to mine.

  “Yes?” She asked.

  “I, uh, was wondering if I might ask a question,” I said.

  “That moment has passed, elf,” she said. “I have other duties to attend to, and I fear I am not allowed to leave this room until it is empty. So, unless you need my assistance with your armor...”

  I didn’t. I gave her a wan smile and walked back to my group. I strapped on my black leather armor and put a short sword on my belt. I was definitely the least armored in the room — even Nox had on chainmail. Lux wore a bronze cuirass and what seemed to be bronze chainmail everywhere else. Jørn helped Mornax get into heavy plate armor that looked so thick I knew I wouldn’t be able to walk in it. Jørn, meanwhile, had on a brilliant silver cuirass and two shiny steel pauldrons. Harpy Sarden’s armor was certainly more ramshackle, with not one piece that matched. He brilliant bronze leg pieces, a banded metal cuirass that had a distinctively Roman flavor to it, and chain arm sleeves attached with a heavy leather strap across the back. He put a heavy bronze helm with a plume of blue horse hair on last. There was a large scimitar on one side of his belt and a smaller cutlass on the other.

  He gave me a nod. “Let’s go find some adventure,” he said with a smile.

  I worried he didn’t understand what we were doing down here. Still, couldn’t fault his enthusiasm.

  29

  Apparently I had the highest rank out of any of the newcomers, which meant I managed to score a whole room for our party, instead of having to bunk in the larger open. It wasn’t exactly a big room, and once Hellion was in place and Mornax’s double bed was assembled, there was basically no place to walk. Lux had to climb over Denitza’s bed just to get to her own.

  Next up was the cantina, which was fine enough. Just a wide open room with tables and benches. Lunch, or dinner, or whatever mealtimes were called down here, was a mystery meat stew. Given the location, I assumed it was some unlucky Gloombeast.

  We ate quietly, like everyone else in the place. But here there was a decided absence of the figures in white. Even the cooks were just, well, normal people cooking food. They just did it while wearing armor and small weapons. And while giving off mild disdain for all of us newbies, as if we weren’t worth their time.

  With stew settling in our bellies, we all sat at the table.

  All eyes were on me, but I didn’t realize it at first.

  “What?” I asked. “Do I have something on my face?”

  “What is the plan?” Jørn asked.

  I sighed. “I don’t rightly know,” I said. “I need to find this Girgenerth fellow and see what he says.”

  “Okay, where is he?” Jørn asked.

  “We’ll need to ask about that,” I said. “I think we should probably take the rest of today to get a lay of land. See what’s going on, make sure we know how to respond to attacks, that sort of stuff.”

  “And get chits,” Nox said. “We should exchange some of our things for chits.”

  “Yes, excellent idea. Nox and Lux, you’re on chits. Mornax, Jørn, and Denitza can scope out things. I guess Harpy and I will go ask about Girgenerth.”

  “Might I make a suggestion?” Nox asked.

  “Wait, let me guess, you want to keep reading,” I replied.

  “Well, I am currently reading about Qetgen Yotl, who is the Mad God, which means I could turn up very useful information. Especially because I am finding out some information I have never heard before.”

  I sighed as I looked at Nox and watched him drop back into his book almost immediately. He had a point. He was learning things. And maybe I was being a little hard on him because I was still rather pissed about the whole rescue Lux thing. And, as I took that moment to think, maybe this was also his way of not being put into a position of temptation. It probably wasn’t the best idea to send all our money with a recovering gambling addict…

  “Harpy,” I said, “how do you feel about going with Lux then? I’d prefer not to send someone off alone with all our party funds.”

  “I feel damn good about that,” Harpy said, winking at Lux.

  She laughed slightly.

  “Okay then,” I said. “We’ve all got our gigs — let’s get to work.”

  I got nods from around the table, and everyone else got up and left.

  I sat there alone for a moment, just watching the rest of the parties. There were four groups, all of which seemed pretty different. My viking friend Erling and his party sat near the door. They had their swords on the table, and were huddled up close. The next group was more ready for ranged attacks, with quivers of arrows on their hips, and unstrung bows on their backs. I saw at least two sets of pointy ears, and I wondered if there was a thing about elves and archery in this world too. Though I hadn’t heard anything like that yet. The next group was one of the only mono-racial groups — only dwarves. It was interesting to note how much bigger they were than the elves, not height-wise, of course, but in thickness. They were very wide. And had tremendous beards. I felt a twinge of jealousy as I’d never been able to grow a beard in the Old World. And given what I’d seen of elves, I didn’t think I’d have much of a shot at growing one in this world either. The last group looked a whole lot like knights, minus the horses. They wore heavy plate armor, and had just their helmets off. They had wide swords in sheaths and large shields on their backs. A slew of sword and board dudes. Except three of them were women. It looked to be a mix of humans, elves, and at least one other race I couldn’t identify on sight. One of the human women looked my way, and when our eyes met, she blushed and looked away quickly.

  That was my cue to leave.

  I got up and walked out of the mess hall, back outside.

  At least as ‘outside’ as Gloomguard was. It was colder out, and it somehow felt even wetter. Looking up at the hole, it seemed like water vapor was pouring through in vast quantities. I wondered if that was what happened to rain as it fell down. Whatever the case, it caused a general mist to form across Gloomguard, and the lampposts became glowing balls. It was certainly atmospheric, if nothing else.

  I looked around the town, idly watching as new wagons were being pushed onto the lift, each one loaded with goods and covered with an oilskin tarp.

  The fires on the pillars were still burning the same color, though it was a bit hard to see in the mist.

  I meandered over that way, interested in taking a look at the Mad God’s Maze. But I promptly slipped on the slick stone, and face-planted. It hurt both my face and pride equally. Of course, no one could really see me, what with all the mist to hide me.

  Or so I thought.

  “Need better boots, elf-boy,” a voice called out.

  I looked around, but I couldn’t see anyone. Then a shape materialized out of the mist, and a woman in matte black armor strolled up. It was tough to determine much about her, considering the armor covered her entire body. She even had a chainmail coif over her head. A heavy-looking helm was tied to her belt, and a nasty-looking warhammer hung on the other side. She knelt down and looked at me with a smile. She had surprisingly chubby cheeks, one of which had a gnarly scar down the jawline. Her eyes were a brilliant green, and sparkling like she was just about to laugh.

  “I was just, uh, interested in the rock. You know, geological makeup.”

  “Oh? You’re a rock scientist?”

  “A geologist.”

  “Didn’t know there was a word for that,” she said, tilting her head a little. Then, she laid down on the floor next to me. “What did you find out?”

  “It’s wet.”

  “Wow. We are lucky to have a researcher of such quality amongst our mix.”

  “I feel the world would be worse off were I not to share my gift.”

  “Well then, perhaps your boots are just fine.”

  “I wouldn’t say no to better boots. You know, if you’re offering.”

  She laughed, shaking her head. “I don’t think my boots would fit you.”

  The woman stood up, managing to not slip a bit on the wet stones, and extended out her left leg. Her foot was clad in a metal sabaton, matte black like the rest of her armor, and decidedly smaller than my foot.

  I got up, only slipping once or twice. She actually reached down and let me use her arm to get up. I looked at the bottom of my boots. They’d been worn completely smooth. Or maybe they’d been that way the whole time. What with rubber not really being a thing in Vuldranni, smooth leather was usually the best choice for sneaking about.

  “If you want boots,” she said, “I would say your best bet is to skip the general store and head over to the Wizard’s Tower.”

  “There’s a wizard’s tower here?” I asked, not having noticed a tower at any point in my survey of Gloomguard.

  “It’s called the Wizard’s Tower, but it’s just a one-story building. I guess you’d have to ask Phagoris about that.”

  “You’ve been here a while?”

  “Gloomguard? Yeah, you could say that.”

  “Do you know someone named Girgenerth?”

  She tilted her head when I said the name, which most likely meant that whatever she said next would be a lie.

  “Nope,” she said. “Can’t say that I have. But the Wizard’s Tower is that way.” She pointed to the left of the Maze entrance, on the south western side of GloomGuard. “Tell Phagoris I said you can have a pair of boots on me.”

  “Kind of need your name for that,” I said.

  She gave me an enormous smile. “My name? I never thought you’d ask. Euphrosène Le Sueur. But most people call me Rose.”

  “Clyde Hatchett, but most people call me Heyyou.”

  She gave me a smiling side-eye. “I highly doubt that, Clyde Hatchett. Good luck walking around here and not falling.”

  “Falling is good for my research. Good luck, uh, doing whatever it is you’re doing.”

  She winked, and sauntered off into the mist once again. The matte black armor really helped her disappear quickly.

  I paused, thinking about the slickness of the floor, before proceeding very carefully to the left of the fire pillars. Sure enough, I found a small building that looked like a quaint house. Short green roof, little chimney, small windows and a tiny green door that matched the roof. Only the picket fence and lawn were missing. The sign hanging above the front door, clearly a later addition, claimed the little house was, in fact, The Wizard’s Tower. I’m not sure I’d ever seen a building less tower-like, but, well, good to have aspirations, right?

  I went inside. There was a fire going in the little fireplace, which had a nice sitting area, but then there was a counter around the whole sitting area that blocked off the rest of the building. Which had been largely removed, replaced by quite a few products on shelves for the shopkeeper, or wizard, to grab, as well as a single door on the back wall, ostensibly leading deeper into the cave. The shopkeep, or wizard, was not in evidence, but a bell rang as I stepped onto the wooden floor.

  “A moment!” called out a voice from behind the lone door.

  I walked near the fire, and felt the pleasant warmth coming from it. I knelt and peeked up the chimney, since I hadn’t seen any smoke coming out from the house on the outside.

  Sure enough, no smoke. A smokeless fire.

  “It won’t set you on fire,” came a calm voice from behind me.

  I bumped my head on the flue in surprise, causing a host of soot to tumble down all over my hair.

  “Odd,” the voice said, “I hadn’t expected that. Might need to examine why the soot is forming.”

  I rubbed the back of my head, trying to ignore the pain as I turned around.

  Standing on the counter and peering over at me, was what looked very much like a frog. A frog in purple robes with a pointy hat and walking stick topped by a softly glowing pink gem, but a frog nonetheless. Green skin, bulging eyes with horizontal slitted pupils, and webbed fingers and toes that had little pads on the ends of them. I’d say he was about two or two and a half-feet tall. Big for a frog, but small for a person. A frog-person.

  “Sorry about that,” I said, noticing I was shedding black soot everywhere.

  “Bah,” the frog said. “My fault for trying to be showy.”

  He flicked his stick, and the gem flared. A soft breeze blew all the soot out of my hair. Then all the soot on the ground drifted into the air and back into the fireplace.

  “Fixed for the moment,” the frog said with a froggy smile. He stood up tall, all twenty-four inches of him, and leaned on his stick. “Can I help you with something?”

  “Are you Phagoris?” I asked, coming closer to the counter.

  “Doth my fame proceed me?” He asked, one hand on his chest in mock surprise. “Phagoris at your service! Proprietor of magical goods, repairer of magical items, procurer of wonders, and inventor.”

  “Inventor?”

  “Are you someone as curious as I am about how magic might improve our lives?”

  He leapt off the counter, his hat brushing right against the ceiling as he soared across the room and landed right in front of the fire. Which promptly sent the just-swept soot flying back out of the fireplace in a dark cloud.

  A few coughs escaped the newly-blackened frog before he turned around, a bit sheepish.

  “Should have seen that coming,” he said.

  “Well, you didn’t mention prognostication among your talents. Maybe—”

  He laughed. “Very true!”

  Again, he flicked his stick, the gem flared, and he cleaned up the soot.

  “The smokeless fireplace,” he said, with a gesture at the, well, smokeless fireplace. “Still making soot though. Can’t imagine that to be good.”

  He did a little wiggle of his fingers, and the fire blinked out.

  “Still,” Phagoris continued, “plenty of other items. Chairs that heat your bottom while you sit in them!”

  He pushed me into one of the armchairs.

  It was quite hot, and I hopped right back out.

  “Amazing,” I said with a forced smile.

  He looked concerned, and turned me around. I felt his hand on my butt.

  “Oh dear,” he said. Then I heard a soft sizzle and a yelp.

  I turned around, and he had one of hands in his mouth.

  He mumbled something at me, not yet taking his hand out of his mouth.

  “I’m sorry?” I asked.

  “Need to look at this too,” he said as he shook his hand. I could see a burned spot on two of his fingers. “Let’s pretend I said ‘aspiring’ inventor.”

  “Uh, done,” I said.

  “Lovely,” he said with a smile, and hopped back up on the counter. “Now, is there something I can do for you?”

  “I, uh, sure, I met a girl named Rose, and she said you could help me out with a pair of boots. That maybe you’d put it on her account.”

 

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