Chương 46: 35. Veridical Creations

Shortly after Havlo left the inn, Maelle took Boots up to the room that she would share with Amberlin. There wasn't anything to unpack because her inventory wasn't close to full, and it was more convenient to keep everything in there. Boots settled on one of the beds and curled up to sleep. She supposed this meant that bed was going to be Amberlin's once she got here.

Amberlin and Havlo were meant to meet up at the adventurers guild sometime before dinner, since she needed someone to take her to where they were staying. Before leaving the room, Maelle checked that her horns were adequately concealed under the hood of her robes. It was possible that the assassins had agents in Ardark on high alert for her arrival. She also double-checked that her tail had taken on a form that was as indistinctive as possible. Sometimes she forgot to change it back after altering its shape.

When she stepped into the hall, she made sure to lock the door behind her so that Boots couldn't get out. Then she went downstairs, past the dining room, and out the front door. Havlo had wanted her to get something to eat from here, but she had other plans. Outside she began her search for the safe house. Marina had described it to her on their flight to Ardark. It was supposed to be located at the back of an alchemy shop called Veridical Creations. When she asked around, no one seemed to have heard of the shop.

It was only when she ventured off the main streets into some of the dirtier neighborhoods that she came upon some luck.

"Veridical Creations?" a friendly old lizardkin lady said.

"Why, yes, I do know where that is. I used to get my arthritis potions from there. But my dear, you're a bit late. They closed down last week." Just as she was getting hopeful, her heart sank.

"How did that happen?"

"I hear they had trouble sourcing ingredients for their potions. Something to do with road closures or bandits? I sure hope they get it fixed soon."

"Do you know where they went?" she asked.

"The owner? Oh, they're still there. You just won't be able to buy anything. They've got no product left." She started getting excited again.

"Can you show me the way?" The old lady walked at a snail's pace with her cane and arthritis, which was agony as Maelle wanted to see Marina again. But these back alleys were confusing and a little bit scary, so Maelle stuck by her side. It was a good thing she did because when they came to a stop at last, it was outside a plain door with no indication there was a shop here. There were no signs or markings or hint as to what lay behind the door.

She thanked the old lady and offered her some of the lunch money Havlo had given her, but the lady turned it down quite insistently and then refused to hear any objections. Then she slowly hobbled away while Maelle knocked on the door. When no one answered, she remembered the secret knock that Marina had previously showed her, and tried again, this time using the special rhythm. This time the door opened to a man with his face obscured in a dark hood.

But she could tell just from his eyes that he was a lizardkin and quite possibly even dragonkin.

"I wasn't given a password," she said, realizing her predicament.

"No need." His voice was a smooth baritone by dragonkin standards.

"Come on in." Once she was inside, the man secured the door behind her, completely sealing out all the noise of the outside world. The interior of the shop was poorly lit, and smelled like crushed herbs. The man removed his hood, revealing his horns and dark green scales, before casting [Light], which caused his horns to glow and bathe the room in a soft, warm light. Then he went down on one knee and bowed his head.

"Your most loyal servant Virdis would recognize Your Highness anywhere," he said. She'd been worried because, on Marina's advice, she'd taken on her most humanoid form possible. In this form she didn't have any apparent scales and instead had weak, thin skin like a human. It left her feeling vulnerable, but it was the best way to blend in. It was surprising that this knight was able to recognize her, as she'd never taken on this form before coming to the human domain.

She supposed that her horns were more distinctive than she'd imagined.

"Please rise," she said.

"There's no need for formalities between us." In truth she hardly felt like a princess anymore. Virdis led her past the curtain that separated the shop at the front from the living quarters at the back. There was a separate room for the alchemy lab, which looked like it had been used recently despite what the old lady said.

"When will Marina be arriving?" he asked, inviting her to sit at a small dining table. Her heart sank. She'd hoped to find that Marina had gotten here ahead of her. Her bodyguard wasn't still searching the forest for her, was she? Her prolonged silence was an answer in its own, and a concerned expression fell over Virdis's face.

"Can you tell me what happened?" As she recounted the battle over the Lorear Hills and how she and Marina had gotten separated, Virdis's mood grew grim. She went on to explain how she was rescued by an elf and joined up with a merchant caravan to make it to Ardark. This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. Once she was done, he stood up and made his way over to a small kitchenette.

"Has Your Highness eaten?" She hadn't yet, since she'd prioritized finding the safe house, and realized that she was starving. As if to betray her thoughts, her stomach growled. Virdis glanced back at her with a forced smile.

"I'll make us both something." While he busied himself with the stove, she couldn't see his face. But she knew that Virdis had worked with Marina in the past, long before they each rose to the ranks of the Draegorian Guard.

"Marina is alive," she said.

"She'll make her way here."

"I know she will," Virdis said without looking back.

"We can also go out and look for her."" No." He said this so emphatically, it shocked her into silence. He must have realized the effect of his outburst because he said, "I'm sorry, Your Highness, but your safety comes first. If anything were to happen to you, then her... efforts would have been for nothing." She thought for a moment and said, "Ardark is a safe city, and the adventurers who have taken me in are very capable people."

"From what you've described, they sound like a suspicious lot," Virdis said before thoughtfully adding, "but if we look at it objectively, the human saved you from an assassin, and the elf saved you from the bandits and is earnestly teaching you magic. You may in fact be safer by their side than by mine."

"I'd be safer with you and Marina."

"Then you only need to stick with them until Marina reappears." She said nothing against this. She wasn't opposed to staying with Havlo and Amberlin for a while. And she had to admit that Boots was growing on her. Why had they never kept a cat at the palace? It was something she was determined to remedy if she ever got to return home. Virdis returned to the table with two bowls of what he called sauteed mushrooms sprinkled with soy sauce.

Apparently this forest fungus with fermented bean juice was a delicacy Virdis had picked up from another alchemist while living among the humans. While they ate, Virdis tried to persuade her to his way of thinking.

"If you stay with the adventurers," he said, "I can go out and search for Marina. I can only do that if I know you're safe."

"It's a big forest," she said.

"And what if Marina returns while you're away?"

"There's a protocol for that. There's a designated time when I'm sure to be home, and that's midnight. She'll know to come only then. As for the search, I won't be proceeding on foot. If Marina takes to the air, which she might if she's looking for you, I'll be able to spot her right away."

"So you'll be spending the afternoon searching for her and will be back here tonight?" she asked.

"We might not find her in the first day," he warned.

"We'll review our plan as time passes, but for now, I think you should register as an adventurer."

"Shouldn't I be keeping my head down? This sounds like I'd be drawing attention to myself."

"You can register with a fake name. I'm sure you can think of something good that no one will ever figure out is you. Once you complete a few quests and earn a promotion to silver, it'll prove that you're useful, and these adventurers will be more willing to keep you around."

"But it's only going to be a short-term thing," she said.

"I promise you, if Marina is out there, we'll find her. But we don't know how long it may take, and until then I need to know that you'll be safe."

"Adventurers fight monsters, you know." He shrugged.

"The earthbound races get scared of their own shadows. Your Highness is at Tier 2, aren't you? Once you reach Tier 3 and learn [Fireball], you'll be able to handle most mundane threats in this region. If this elf is as capable as you describe, then he should be an adequate teacher."

"Do you realize how long Marina has been trying to get me up to Tier 3?" she pointed out.

"Ah. My apologies, Your Highness makes a good point. Being a capable mage is no guarantee of being a good teacher at all." After a moment's thought he asked, "How has the elf been teaching you?"

"He gave me some training exercises to perform. Oh, and this book." She summoned the book from her inventory and showed him. It was a copy of The Third Tier: A Guide for Advanced Beginners that Havlo had lent to her when he found out that she was already at Tier 2. Virdis's face lit up in recognition.

"Ah, yes, the Amber Mage's textbook. A standard choice. But not the best, I'm afraid."

"Then what is?" He went over to his bed and pulled a wooden box out from under it. He carefully unpacked a number of books from the box until he found the one he wanted and handed it to her.

"In my travels I came across this training manual." She took a look at the cover. The Third Tier without Tears. It was much thinner than the Amber Mage's book.

"Where did you get this?" she asked.

"I got it off an ogre. He offered it to me as payment when I treated his arthritis."

"An ogre?"

"They have health issues like everybody else." She opened up the book and saw that it had many more diagrams than the other textbook. They had all been laboriously hand-drawn. She could imagine how manually copying out books like this would eventually give someone arthritis. They really should invent a machine to do that work for them.

"The funny thing is," Virdis said, "he actually wrote the book himself. The original, I mean. But he's having trouble selling any copies because he doesn't have all the usual credentials." Ogres were legendary for being solitary creatures. They were the hermits of the earthbound races. You would never find one with a guild membership of any kind.

"That wasn't very funny," she said.

"My apologies, Your Highness."

"How do you know this book is better than the Amber Mage's?" she asked.

"Aren't you afraid I'll burn my fingers off miscasting a [Fireball]?"

"It's a funny story," Virdis replied.

"Before setting up this shop here for use as a potential base, I was in Cisteen, an important human city to the north of here. I was given an assignment that required me to infiltrate some of the noble houses. I found a convenient way in by posing as a magic tutor. One of those kids, his name was Havlo, after the Amber Mage, but he got bullied a lot. He blamed his problems on his name and refused to use the Amber Mage's textbook. So I offered him an alternative."

"You gave him this book?"

"He never complained about the bullies again." She decided it was worth a try, and stowed both books away in her inventory. While she was accessing her inventory, she removed the coins that Havlo had given her for lunch and placed them down on the table.

"What's that for?" Virdis asked.

"To help cover your expenses," she replied.

"Your Highness, they say that an alchemist is never poor who doesn't rely on his own supply. You should save that and get yourself some good adventuring equipment. In fact, here." He pulled some coins from his own inventory—gold ones—and placed them next to her copper ones on the table.

"That's too much," she said.

"All the money in the empire is yours."

"They think I'm an orphan. A normal orphan, I mean. I can't just come back from lunch wearing expensive armor."

"Take it, complete some quests, and then say you used the reward money," he said.

"How long would it take a bronze to earn this much?" she asked.

"Being at Tier 2, you'd be equivalent to a silver-rank in capability. Depending on the jobs, maybe a year." She wanted to push the coins back to him, but seeing the shining gold on the table triggered her basest instincts. They told her to just grab it and keep it and never spend it. That it was better to watch the pile grow and the numbers go up. Swallowing her temptation, she pushed the money back to him. He smiled.

"I think you'll pass very well as an earthbound."