The Outlands

The group shared a pleasant meal, after which the three young girls were shown to back of the bottom floor of the fort. “These are the baths.” Gramps said. “Well, baths and showers, but mostly baths; there are a fair few species for whom showering doesn’t really work very well, and everyone can bathe. Regardless of how they do it, though, everyone feels better after getting cleaned up, so we make a point of setting these up early. Anyway, I have to get back to guild business now, just head back up to the meeting room once you’re finished.”

He gave them a wave and headed back into the fort proper, leaving the girls…not alone, even now the place was too busy to be truly alone, but without the company of anyone they knew.

“Shall we, then?” Maven said, motioning towards the side marked “women’s”.

“Are…you sure you’re alright with me being there?” Tess asked in a small voice. “Since, you know…”

Maven frowned. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“Isn’t it a bit weird?” Tess asked.

“No?” Maven said, as if it were obvious. “It’s not like you’re just trying to peep or anything. Your general situation is a lot more common than you would think, no one here thinks twice about it. If it really bothers you, just take a quick shower and then head back up.”

“I might.” Tess admitted. “I haven’t really done something like this before.”

“You got changed for gym in the girl’s locker room, though.” Ellie argued.

“That was different. I just kept my head down and got out of there as quick as possible.” Tess replied. “It wasn’t like…an extended trip or anything.”

Understanding dawned on Maven’s face. “I think you’re misunderstanding what this is going to be like.” She said. “This is not like a hot spring or something, we’re not going to be sitting and relaxing. We’re going to get in, clean up, and get out. It would be rude to take up a bath for an extended period of time when so many other people are going to be using them.”

“I’ll just be quick about it.” Tess said. “You two can take your time if you want.”

“I also intend to be fast.” Maven said. “No point in lingering.”

“Well, I’m not gonna be the only one there, so I’ll just hurry too.” Ellie said.

“That settles it.” Maven said firmly. “Let us go.”

Maven half towed, half lead the other two girls into the changing rooms, which were…remarkably similar to locker rooms Tess had seen in gyms or rec centers. The most obvious difference was the absence of lockers or any other furniture, followed by the general…roughness of it; the room’s floor was made of some sort of smooth-ish stone, and the walls were of the same compacted earth as the outer walls.

So, in a sense, it really wasn’t much like locker rooms she had seen, but she could definitely tell that was what they were going to be. Already stalls to change in were set up, with earthen walls and curtains for doors, and there were piles of material that were undoubtedly for lockers.

Standing incongruously next to this rough changing room was a much more finished area that was clearly for the baths and showers; there were the several small stone rooms labeled “bath” or “shower”, a few large bins labeled “clean towels” or “dirty towels”, and the general sound of water coming from that direction.

“I’m going to use one of the showers.” Maven said, already walking towards the showers. “I’ll meet you two back up at the meeting room.”

“Me too, I guess.” Tess said. She followed Maven’s lead, grabbing a towel, taking one of the free showers and quickly disrobing. Unfortunately, there weren’t any lockers, and as her clothes were her bag, she didn’t have a bag to put them in. Fortunately, there was a platform just above her where she could place her clothes, out of reach of the stream of water.

As Tess took some shampoo and conditioner out of her clothes and stored them away, Silky worriedly scuttled about on the floor. What should I do? She asked. Should I wait outside like normal?

No. Tess replied. It would be bad if someone saw you. Just wait on top of my clothes, alright?

Got it. Silky replied, hurrying up the wall before pointedly turning away from Tess.

Tess turned to the wall containing the showerhead, scanning it up and down for controls. She quickly found a set of magic sigils glowing on the wall, and after some fiddling was able to get the shower to a…more or less comfortable warmth.

She turned off her fox features and began to get herself clean. Animal ears and tails were generally a pain to wash and turning them off and back on cleaned them up anyway, so she tried to avoid showering or bathing with them whenever possible.

After a quick shower, she reached for the towel, then hesitated. She hadn’t actually tried before, having mostly showered on Mael, where she tried not to use magic too much, but…yes, a quick test showed that flicking Phoenix Fire on and off neatly evaporated any trace of water on her, leaving her bone dry.

She hurriedly dressed herself, turned her fox features back on, left the shower, tossed the towel in one of the dirty towel bins since it had been on the floor, then headed back up to the meeting room. She was the first of the three younger girls to make it back, so she sat down and began to chat with Eyfura, Ava, and Atum.

The rest of her party arrived shortly after, and everyone just relaxed and enjoyed each other’s company. Or, they did until Gramps showed back up, a serious expression on his face. “Ava, Atum, Eyfura, we’re heading out.” He said. “We have to go recover some bodies.”

Atum grimaced, standing up. “Fun.” He said sarcastically. “You three go find The Rumors. We’re going to be a while.”

As Tess and her party said their goodbyes, Eyfura heaved a sigh and walked over to them. “I really hate to do this to you after…everything, but could you three watch Ilmir for me while I’m gone? You don’t have to take her anywhere if you don’t want to, but just…I don’t know, she’s mellowed out significantly since beginning therapy, but I’m still worried she’ll do something stupid and get herself killed.”

Ellie grimaced. “It’s not an ideal situation, but I’m going to vote whatever Tess votes. She’s the one Ilmir was beefing with, after all.”

“I, likewise, will defer judgement.” Maven said. “It is not really my place to weigh in on this.”

Tess gave a sigh of her own. Like Ellie said, it wasn’t ideal, but Tess was willing to put her past issues with Ilmir aside for the moment. “Yeah, I think we can handle that.” She said after a moment. “Just…don’t expect it to be a more permanent arrangement.”

“Sorry.” Eyfura said. “I wasn’t expecting to have something go wrong so soon. I was going to send her on one of the supervised expeditions, but they don’t start until tomorrow. It won’t happen again. Will you three wait here while I go fetch her?”

“That is acceptable.” Maven said. “I will try and contact Jin while you do.” She pulled out her phone and began typing up a message on it.

“Thanks, guys.” Eyfura responded, flashing them a shaky smile. “I’ll be back in a bit.”

As she left, Ellie turned to Tess. “Are you sure about this?” She asked. “I’m sure there’s someone else that could handle this here.”

“Time is probably of the essence.” Tess said. “And if Ilmir really has mellowed out, then it shouldn’t even be that bad.”

“After you defeated her, I doubt she would be willing to look down on you as I heard she did before.” Maven said, looking up from her phone. “You have proved your strength, and that is generally extremely important to beastkin.”

“Well, whatever the case, we can deal for a day or two.” Tess replied. “Not a problem.”

They fell into silence, and a few minutes later the door opened again, revealing a rather nervous-looking Ilmir. “Um…hey.” She said awkwardly. “Thanks for agreeing to take care of me while Grandma’s away.”

“Just so long as you don’t get up to any of your shenanigans.” Ellie said flatly. “If you do, we’ll pass you off to someone else without hesitation.”

“Yeah, I…I understand.” Ilmir replied. “So, um…how are we going to go about this?”

“Jin said he would like us to meet his party at the cafeteria area.” Maven said. “I informed him of the situation, so your presence should not come as a surprise.”

“Let’s get going, then.” Ellie said. “Might as well get this over with.”

Ignoring Ilmir’s wince, Ellie walked out of the room, and was swiftly followed by the others. They made their way out of the fort and over to the area where food was being served, conveniently marked by a large flag that was taller than anything else around.

From there, it only took them a couple of minutes to locate Ker; like the flag, he stood head and shoulders above almost everyone else. And, while there were a few other goliaths, they were either grouped together, in which case it was safe to assume none were Ker, or were easily distinguishable from Ker. So, they soon found themselves trotting up to The Rumors, Ilmir in tow.

“We’ve heard the details.” Alice said sourly. “Ilmir, if you so much as step a toe out of line, there are going to be repercussions.”

“We can’t exactly kick her out.” Ker gently reminded Alice. “We are, technically, not the ones watching over her.”

“I didn’t say we were going to.” Alice said. “I was thinking more along the lines of banning her from my businesses for a year or two.”

Ilmir paled. “T-that won’t be necessary m-ma’am.” She stuttered. “I’ve learned my lesson.”

“I’m sure you have.” Alice said dryly. “So, did Eyfura leave you guys any instructions?”

“She said we don’t have to take Ilmir anywhere if we don’t want to.” Ellie relayed. “We just have to watch her until Eyfura gets back.”

“Well, I, for one, am not particularly thrilled about having yet another person to watch out for.” Alice said. “We can handle the three of you easily enough, especially since we’re guaranteed that you can get out of danger if it comes down to it, but adding one more seems like more trouble than it’s worth. We can just wait out the day or two it takes for The Titans to get back.”

“Eyfura said she was going to send Ilmir on one of the supervised expeditions, if The Titans have not returned by then, then I think that is our best option.” Maven said.

“Let’s go with that, then.” Jin said.

The group fell into an uneasy silence, no one quite sure what to say. This went on for a fair while before, finally, Maven began to ask some questions. They were small things, mostly, such as what Ilmir had been doing for training, or what each of The Rumors’ favorite adventure they had been on was, but they were a welcome reprieve from the awkward silence.

It was impressive, the way she was able to keep everyone involved in the conversation and keep things from becoming too heavy or awkward. Tess could only assume that was what a lifetime of training for politics taught a person; ways to navigate even the toughest of social situations.

This was a fact that Tess found herself thankful for on more than one other occasion the rest of the evening. Ilmir was…different than she had been before; whereas before she had been exuberant, belligerent, and either rude or near sycophantic, now she was quiet, withdrawn, and polite. It was a drastic change, and one that Tess wasn’t sure could be fully attributed to any amount of therapy.

She found it hard to believe that someone could change so radically over the course of a few months. Perhaps she was projecting from her own experience in therapy, but she was pretty sure it wasn’t something that could radically change a person like this.

“Are Tess, Ellie, and Maven okay?” Ilmir asked. “They’ve been staring off into space for a bit.”

“What?” Tess asked, snapping back to attention at the mention of her name. “Sorry, was talking with the gods.”

Ilmir blinked. “You were what?”

“Oh, right, you probably don’t know. Um, basically we have a window of communication open with the gods. Like the windows the status bands give, but different. It’s hard to explain.”

Ilmir frowned. “Wait, then…”

“Yes, all three of us are Appointed.” Maven said. “I of Dungeons, and Ellie of both Life and Death.”

“I sort of figured Ellie was, but you too?” Ilmir asked. “How long?”

“Since the middle of the drive over here.” Maven replied. “So, not long at all.”

The topic turned to Appointed and what they did, and that proved a difficult subject. There were many things that even The Rumors and Ilmir, knowledgeable as they were on the identities of Appointed, were not allowed to know, so many questions could only be answered by saying that the answer was classified, or something similar.

This caused them to swiftly move on from the subject, and time ended up passing quickly. The next morning, the group got confirmation from Eyfura via the gods that sending Ilmir on a supervised excursion was alright, and after seeing her off, they finally were able to head back to the canyon.

The trip over was much faster than it had been the first time. They didn’t have to slow down for the mapping orb, nor did they worry too much about dealing with the corpses of their kills; they just threw them in a bag and called it good.

Once they reached the canyon, Jin stopped the group and turned to Maven. “Can you sense the dungeon’s Mana from here?” He asked.

Maven’s face screwed up in concentration. “No.” She eventually replied. “Whatever’s causing the environment to change down there must be trapping the Mana.”

“I figured as much.” Jin replied. “No point in taking the long way down when we can just go down here, though.”

And so, they geared back up, and began their careful descent, thinking about how this time, they were going to do it right. They would find that dungeon, and they would do it without major incident.