Chapter 25: Isekai Life & Dancing at the Mouse

With the haycarts still burning, we had no other choice but to make a way out through one of the manufactories. We chose one that lead in the direction we wanted to go, and Katriana smashed the chains open with her warhammer. I felt a little bad, so I cast Mending on the padlock while we made our way though- at least this way the owner wouldn’t be out an expensive, precision-made device, and besides that, the square was probably going to be crawling with guards as soon as they could access it.

The manufactory was dark and silent, and we were able to make our way through with a minimum of fuss. At the far end, what seemed to be past the burning barrier, we unlatched a window, and Voss held it up while we each slipped through. I held it open for him from the outside so he could also escape. We then hurried through the night, finishing the trip to the docks.

Calliope took the lead there, and lead us to a dockside inn. The inn’s sign was a mouse-man in clothing, hands on hips and beaming with pride over the bulge in his pants. Below that, a hand-letter wooden sign named the place, “The Big Mouse Inn”.

“This is where you work?” Katriana asks, with a sardonic tone, “A dockside inn? You have to know the reputation of places like these.”

“Sh-shut up!” Calliope replied, red-faced, “Let’s just ... get this over with.”

When we entered into the inn, the innkeeper, a scrawny, stick-like man with an eyepatch, laughed to see her. “Three hours late, and then you show up looking and smelling like you’ve rolled around in a slaughterhouse? You’re done, princess. I replaced you already, two hours by.”

The innkeeper pointed over his shoulder with a thumb, to the centre of the busy inn. There, four girls in multicoloured outfits with short, frilly skirts and bare bellies danced in whirling, teasing steps as a fiddler and drummer played in the background. One of the girls was obviously more clumsy that the others, tripping over her own feet and stumbling after her partners.

Katriana chuckled, and Calliope somehow became even more flushed. “W-well, I’m just here to get my things! Just let me back to the dancer’s room and I’ll be on my way!”

The innkeeper scowled, but nonetheless grabbed one of his serving girls, to lead Calliope to the back. Katriana kept silently giggling, to the point where Ashryn prodded her and admonished, “You have to be nice! Calliope’s a good person.”

“Sorry, sorry,” Katriana said, shaking her head, “But you didn’t know her before, a common village girl who acted like she was better than others just because she knew a little magic. It’s just funny to me, to see that she’s so bad at finding a party for herself to adventure with that she had to become a dancing girl in a dockside tavern to make ends meet.”

That made me wonder a little bit about Katriana. Did she mislike Calliope for the Invoker’s attitude, or... ?

My thoughts were interrupted by the reappearance of Calliope, carrying two big bags with her. They were large and bulky, but she didn’t seem to have any trouble carrying them both with her.

“Well ... sorry about all this,” she said to everyone as we filed out of the Big Mouse Inn. “This ended up being mostly a waste of time ... and worse, we ended up in a fight, and some of us got hurt,” She shook her head, “Well ... I hope you let me pay you all back for this.”

Voss shrugged. “We walked into a trap and got out alive, and now there are two less hobbos’ and two less of their apes, if they even have more.”

Ashryn nodded. “You’re one of us, now,” she said insistently, “This trip was the least we could do.”

Katriana didn’t say anything, but I stepped forward. “It’s you who’s wrapped up with us in this plot, not the other way around,” I said, “If you want to apologize for the walk out here, then I ought to apologize for bringing you into that potter’s shop in the first place.”

Calliope gave me a bit of a smile, and nodded. “It’s late enough, we ought to get back.”

The walk back was quiet, which I had expected. Whoever was after us, they had all afternoon and evening to plan their ambush, and we walked right into it and dealt with it directly with no casualties. Their next logical step would be to hang back, keep an eye on us, and either prepare another trap or wait for a weakness to exploit.

It was late enough when we arrived at the Lazy Ox that the musicians had been cleared away, and the only people left in the common room were a handful of groups still talking low and laughing over drinks. There were only a few serving girls around, but still, I handed over a few coins for wine and goblets to be brought upstairs for us to enjoy in private, and we headed up to our room.

Voss volunteered to sleep on the floor, giving Callipoe the couch, but she would have none of that. “You need to be comfortable or else you’ll shift and pop your stitches,” she said, “Ashryn can heal you in the morning, and we’ll figure out what to do then.”

“About that,” I said, “I think tomorrow should be all about recovering. Nobody leaves the inn, unless three of us go, and we don’t leave at all during the night. Our fighters heal with help from Ashryn, while we try and figure out who is hunting us and why.”

At the very least, everyone was too tired to argue.

I shuffled over to Ashryn, and gave her a nudge. She startled a little bit, but then smiled up at me. “Yes, Theo?”

“You still have that spell memorized, right?” I asked as I drew the black steel broadsword, “Can you analyze this for me?”

Ashryn muttered her prayer, then examined the blade. “Yes, it’s magical, alright,” she confirmed, “It was from one of those hobgoblins, right?”

I nodded. “It’s alchemical steel, I think,” I told her, “It holds a weak natural enchantment, but it can’t compete with a proper enchanted blade.” I knew that bit of lore from Theodore’s memory of magic school. I guess it’s for +1 weapons, to help explain why they are way more common than others.

I offered the sword, handle-first, to Katriana. “It’s not quite like your longsword, but it could be handy to have a magic weapon around,” I mentioned.

She took the blade and hefted it experimentally, and nodded. With her “related weapon” non-proficiency penalty, she would be at a +0 to hit and a +1 to damage compared with the +1 to hit and +2 damage for her longsword speciality ... but the magical weapon would be able to damage certain enemies immune to the effects of mundane steel. And, if she spent to proficiency slots on it, it would eventually rise to +1 / +1 and then +2 / +3 if she also specialized in the broadsword ... but a magical longsword might turn up by the time she hit level 6, having earned an additional proficiency slot every three levels. Still, it was good to have.

I got into bed, and immediately Ashryn hopped in next to me and snuggled up to me, earning a derisive snort out of Calliope. Katriana also eventually climbed into bed, but started out with a bit of space between us ... until the last candle was out and she felt comfortable enough to turn towards me for a cuddle.

For all that we almost never left the building, the next few days went by in a blur.