Between the limp and the bundles of equipment, it took maybe an hour and a half to make our way back to the village. The journey was pretty quiet. Conversation had kind of given up the ghost, as each of us focused on dragging the loot back. Even the lighter load I'd been given was surprisingly bulky and difficult to carry, although the leg was very much not helping. The longer I walked, the worse it got, what had started as only quite uncomfortable slowly turning into painful by the halfway point, and then getting more and more painful as we went, until by the time the walls of the village were in sight I was clenching my teeth.
I'd considered asking for a break a couple of times, but never quite managed to build up the nerve to do so. None of the others seemed to feel the need to stop, and some stupid prideful part of me decided that 'if they don't need to stop, neither do I', so I just limped my way on. After a while, I just started focusing on getting to the village, using the idea of being able to stop to fuel me onwards.
When we actually reached the gate, as Julie chatted to the guards there, I took the opportunity to lean against the wall and take some of the weight off of my leg. I wasn't actually paying attention to what was being said, my focus split somewhere between my leg, my inability to get the bundle of armour I was carrying to sit comfortably, and my desire to get back to the house and collapse, but I could make out that Julie's tone of voice was radiating smugness, for some reason.
Following the others, I slowly limped into the village as we made a beeline for the place that they (and by extension, I) had been staying. The process of knocking and waiting for the old man to open the door was almost intolerable, being so close to the point where I could drop everything and fall to the floor. When the door actually opened, I politely waited until the doorway was clear, made directly for one of the corners, dropped the armour off, and let my good knee bend as I straightened my other leg, falling over backwards into a what could charitably be called a sitting position, but more accurately was some kind of slump.
The rest of the party had done the same thing, although not quite to the extent I had. There wasn't one of them who hadn't taken at least a spider bite or two, and between the walking, the fighting, and the grave digging, all of us were some degree of tired. I leaned backwards, falling onto my back, and waved my hand. Speaking the command word of the ring, I slowly started removing the layers of sweat and grime we'd built up on the way back, along with some of the crap we'd trudged into the house. It was a surprising satisfying feeling, and the others seemed to agree.
"Urrhghm." Lidda exhaled? Grunted? Moaned? A sound came out of Lidda's mouth as the cleaning magic reached her. "Oh, that feels good. I hadn't realised how dirty I'd felt. I thought I'd need to rub myself raw tonight, but you got in there deep."
Well, there's an enjoyable mental image that was going to stick in my head for a while. I twisted my head around to look at her, and the shite-eating grin on her face made it clear that she'd done that deliberately.
"Really?" Julie complained from her spot a metre or so away. "Did you really need to phrase it like oh that does feel quite nice." Her concentration had been broken slightly as I'd moved the cleaning effect over to her.
A nod and a grunt was all I got from Zahri, but Sabrina was slightly more energetic about it.
"Thank you for that! I really must get around to learning that spell someday."
I tilted my head upside down to stare at her from where she was directly behind me, and frowned at her. "Isn't it one of the most basic and generally useful cantrips?" Certainly that was the reason I'd prioritised a ring of it rather than a healing belt or something more combat related. I might have never ended up in combat (although given how much I'd enjoyed it, I probably would end up in combat again), but cleaning things is always useful.
"I mean, yes, technically." Sabrina prevaricated. "But it wasn't one of the cantrips I was being graded on, and I wanted to graduate as early as I could, so I just kind of skipped over learning those ones and concentrated on getting first circle spells down as quickly as possible."
Well, that raised a number of different questions. For a moment, I wasn't sure which one to start with, before I went for the one that a bunch of the others were based on. "Graduated? You went to a magical school?"
"Of course! Well, I suppose the old 'master and apprentice' method of doing things is still popular in some areas, but Sennia has a couple of well funded institutes for the development of magic and wizardry. I studied at the Taige, myself, one of the oldest and greatest scholarly institutions in Sennia."
Not going to lie, that does sound kind of cool. School would have been a lot more interesting if I could set things on fire by the end of it. I mean, I could (and sometimes did) set things on fire by the end of my schooling, but not with magic. I was broken out of my thoughts by Lidda.
"Please don't get her started, or we'll be here forever. I don't want to have to listen to another rendition of 'my brilliant idea to simply not learn about anything regulated'." I wasn't sure the airquotes were necessary, but Sabrina took it with good cheer.
"Are you sure? I could intersperse it with complaints about the fact that I still ended up graduating at 24 despite my best efforts?" She joked back. Was this a regular thing? I wasn't sure how to tell, and I didn't really have the energy to delve into that right now. Much easier to lie down and just passively receive info, and maybe work up the effort to actually stand up and move later.
"They teach regulated magic?" There we go, simple question, and hopefully a not-so-simple answer that allows me to put off moving for a little while.
Sabrina made a so-so gesture with her hand. "It's a complicated situation." Aha, nailed it. "Technically, no magic is regulated. There are already laws against committing crimes, there doesn't need to be additional ones based around particular spells. That said, crown funded institutions, such as the Taige, have additional security requirements put in place to vet those individuals wanting to learn from the schools of Necromancy and Enchantment. Those are, incidentally, the only schools of magic where particular spell effects are mostly outlawed in Sennia."
"Oh?" I wouldn't have thought they were that much worse than another school. Well, they were dangerous, sure, but so was throwing a fireball at someone.
"Both the long-term raising of undead, and controlling the mind of another individual, unless in self defence, are punishable by law." She almost recited this, as if quoting verbatim. "There are exceptions, of course, but as a general rule, that holds."
I was suddenly, painfully aware of my Beguiling Influence. It wasn't mind control, just a buff to my persuasion skills, but I wasn't sure exactly what the limits on this law was. Now, how to ask without revealing I can actually do something like that. I wasn't a citizen of this place, but somehow I wasn't convinced that that would help if I was arrested for anything. Somehow I doubted England had an extradition treaty with this place.
Before I'd actually managed to figure out how best to verbalise that question, the old man (Jeff? I was pretty sure their name began with a J) came in with a tray of drinks and handed them around while striking up a conversation. I pushed myself up to a sitting position, took the cup with a quiet thanks, and took a sip as he started chatting to Julie. I wanted to call the drink wine, but it was more like squash with aspirations. Surprisingly nice, but I was unlikely to get drunk off of it anytime soon.
"Did it go well?" John? asked as he handed Julie a clay cup. She knocked it back in one, before handing the cup back to him.
"Yes, mostly." Her eyes flickered over to me, and then back to the old man. "A couple of heavy blows and injuries, but we all survived, and we cleared out the crypt. The graveyard should be safe for you to go back to."
He started tearing up at that, choking back a sob. It took him an minute to get his voice back, during which I could help but feel kind of awkward. I'd never been good at dealing with people crying at the best of times, never mind old guys I didn't know.
"Thank you. That means so much to me. I don't know how I'll ever be able to repay you." Ok, now I was just feeling weird. We cleared out the undead around your wife's grave, we didn't save your life. "If there's ever anything I can do for you, just let me know."
There was a pause, before Lidda piped up with "Our fee?"
"Ah, yes." said Julie. "I hate to bring it up" and to be fair, she did genuinely sound reluctant "but I'm sure the money that you promised us will be more than enough."
"Of course, of course. I'll have it counted and sorted by tomorrow morning, don't worry about that. I'll just go and get started on dinner, let you gals sort yourself out." He bustled off back into the kitchen, and the sound of clattering kitchenware floated out soon after.
"Was that really the best time to ask?"
Lidda was shameless in response to Julie's question. "I'm not saying that I don't enjoy helping out someone's grandfather, but some of us joined this group to risk our lives for profit, and it would be remiss of me to not mention it."
"But right then?"
"Wouldn't be the first time I've seen someone play the 'woe-is-me' act as a distraction. I'm not saying they were, but a gentle reminder seemed a good idea to me."
Julie just shook her head, and giving up the argument as a lost cause, changed topics. "We should get this stuff cleared away, and maybe fix some of it up while James is cooking." I knew it began with J. I'd say one of these days I was going to actually remember someone's name, but I've been saying that for years, and it's yet to happen. "I think I've got some spare straps lying around, do you Zar?" Zahri grunted in what I was pretty sure was a positive, and Julie seemed to take it as one. "Right, we can fix up at least one of the suits, maybe salvage some leather from something else for the short term to fix both of our ones, and probably find a spare couple of gambesons for the chain shirts. Get started on that, then dinner, and then the pub?"
"Pub sounds good." Zahri confirmed.
I wasn't quite so happy with the idea of going back to that pub slash inn slash whatever it was. I was interested in drinking, after everything that had happened today getting pissed sounded like a great idea, but actually going back to that hole wasn't an idea I was quite so fond with.
The first issue with the place was everything that happened yesterday. I'd made a scene in a place that may or may not have been some kind of criminal hideout, and when I'd left I'd been followed out by some thugs I'd intimidated (well, that both myself and the rest of the adventuring party (did the party have a name? I should probably ask) had intimidated) away. Going back there was asking for an awkward conversation or two that I didn't want to have, and going back there injured might make some of them feel that they could win a fight if they tried to pick one. They might well be able to, to be fair, it's not like they had signs on them saying 'basic mook enemy, please beat up to show how strong you are', for all I knew they were high level, legitimately dangerous individuals. If they started a fight, though, I'd need to start breathing fire to win, and in a wooden bar, full of flammable booze, in a wooden village, that seemed like a kind of escalation I wasn't comfortable with.
The second issue was a lot less logical, and while intellectually I knew it was probably fuelled solely by anxiety, didn't actually help my brain deal with it. The idea of going out to celebrate with a small number of people that I barely knew, all of whom would know other people in the village and probably be interested in talking to them about their newest accomplishment, was the kind of thing that university taught me would result in me being abandoned in short order and left to wander home alone. Which was significantly worse when I didn't actually have a home to go to, really. Except for here, maybe, but I was fairly good at getting lost, and I had no desire to wander around the back end of this village while drunk trying to hunt this place down.
Some of my internal conflict between wanting to accompany the only people I actually knew in this place and getting drunk, versus not having to deal with a bunch of bullshite, both from (potential) criminals and my brain, must have shown on my face.
"Not a drinker?" Zahri asked.
Flexing my injured leg, and wincing slightly at the pain that produced, I thought about how best to answer. "It's not that I'm not a drinker, being completely honest getting hammered sounds amazing, I'm just not sure I want to go back to that pub, if the one you're talking about is the inn I went to last night."
"Only one in town." confirmed Zahri, as she looked at the others. Some kind of silent conversation passed between them all, as I just sat there, wondering if I'd said the wrong thing.
"Grab some bottles, drink in? I'm sure James won't mind." Julie stretched and stood up as she said that.
I frowned, some instinctual polite part of me that my parents had drilled into me worrying about the prospect of people changing their plans based on me. "Are you sure you're alright with that? I don't mind staying behind if you all want to go to the pub." Sure, it'd be boring as fuck, but I'd get the chance to futz around with my magic and the like, make it more believable I hadn't woken up with them yesterday.
"Oh no, we'll have to sit around the table and talk to each other and ask questions about things. If nothing else, I'm sure Sabrina would love to pick you brain about all kinds of magic stuff, and I'm interested in the whole 'researcher that can breathe fire' thing you've got going on. I'm sure you've probably got questions for us as well." Lidda had stood up as well, using sardonicism to cut through my attempt at politeness.
I did have a few, I just wasn't sure how to ask them. 'Something's different about y'all from what I was expecting, what it is?' isn't really a useful question for someone who doesn't know what my culture slash the culture of generic western fantasy is, and I didn't really have anything specific I could point at and go 'the fuck is up with that?', as opposed to a general air of something being fucky. "A couple, I guess."
"I'll bet. Well, here's one for you. What will you be drinking?"
Fuck knows what they have in this place, the brief glance I'd had at the list behind the bar last night having not stuck in my memory at all. "Mead?" Normally a decent guess for generic fantasy, and generally quite good, disregarding some of the horrific home brews I'd tried.
She shot me an appraising look. "Alright, mead it is. Usual? Usual? Usual?" She turned in a circle, pointing at each of the other three, and getting a nod in return. "Nice. Back in a bit." she said as she wandered out of the door.
This seemed to be the impetus for people to stand up and start doing things, people grabbing the nearest set of armour and carrying it upstairs. I pushed myself to my feet as well, wincing as I put pressure on my left leg again. It didn't hurt nearly as much as it did on the final bit of the journey back here, but it still stung like a bitch. I picked up my chain shirt and followed the others upstairs. Sort this out, then dinner, and then time to get drunk and ask questions. Let's hope I don't balls this up.