Edge Cases

The first thing Vex did was, of course, explain his concerns about what he'd seen. "Do we know what that means?" was Misa's immediate question, and Vex just shook his head mutely.

"I've never seen mana behaving like this," he said, his tail swishing about nervously. He looked up at Derivan for comfort, almost automatically, and without seeming to think about it the armor reached out to take his hand and squeeze it — Vex froze at that little action, feeling his heart beating faster.

He didn't say anything, afraid it would spoil the moment; he was still nervous, even then, but it was... a slightly better kind of nervousness? He found it hard to gather his thoughts.

"Perhaps I can investigate the problems with the mana, together with Vex," Derivan said; he didn't seem to notice the small existential crisis Vex was in the middle of having. "I believe I may be able to coax more out of the mana. And even if I cannot, there is a pattern in the behavior of the mana we may be able to trace... There are people and places that it seems to prefer. If nothing else, that is something we can investigate — perhaps it is trying to tell us something."

There was a small silence. Misa looked at the remnants of the barrier that Derivan had cast; fragments of mana still remained, quite unlike the normal usage of a spell provided by the system. She shook her head after a moment.

"I don't really know much about this mana stuff," Misa admitted. "I gotta take your word for it. But I'm pretty sure this isn't about fucking goblin raids, so that's our biggest lead right now."

"I'm not sure we'll get much more done tonight, though," Sev said, glancing out of the window. Vex followed his gaze, trying his best to focus on the conversation, and not on Derivan's hand still placed casually over his own. The sun was already setting, and the town of Fendal was cast in the dim, orange hues of the sunset; many of the townsfolk were heading back to their homes, and the stalls they'd seen earlier were beginning to close up.

Even the mana seemed less active and more sleepy.

"We should get some rest," Sev continued. He wore a slight frown, though, and his leg bounced as though in agitation. "I don't want to stay here longer than necessary, but it looks like whatever's going on here isn't all that simple, so we're going to have to take the time to figure it out... I'll keep the Guildmaster updated."

"Something up?" Misa asked, raising a brow slightly. "I mean, I know we're in a hurry, but you're a little anxious."

"It's mostly Aurum," Sev said with a sigh. "He doesn't say much these days, but he's always very worried. His angels are scouting the celestial planes to try to find out if a new god is being targeted, but we don't have any news so far. I think the lack of news is getting to him."

"I'm pretty fucking worried about that," Misa muttered, then shook her head. "Let's just get dinner ready and then get some rest. We've got a lot to do tomorrow. Whose turn is it to make dinner?"

"Vex's, I think," Sev said, glancing at the lizardkin.

"What?" Vex said, blinking. He'd lost track of the conversation. Misa snickered.

"You two are going to need to sort that out eventually," she said.

"What do you mean?" Derivan asked curiously, and Misa just shook her head.

"They're hopeless," she said conversationally to Sev, and the cleric just grinned. "I said it's your turn to prepare dinner, Vex. But I can do it if you'd rather stare at Derivan for a bit longer."

"I'm — that wasn't what I was doing!" Vex protested, flushing.

"I do not mind," Derivan said, with what Vex thought might have been a touch of protectiveness.

"Don't encourage her," Vex groaned. He got up and out of the couch, stumbling a little when he realized his tail had wedged itself between the cushions. Derivan reached out to steady him, and he made sure he didn't pull away abruptly, even though that was his first instinct; instead, he gave Derivan a grateful, embarrassed smile, and made his way to the kitchen while trying desperately to pretend that the other three weren't staring at him.

Dinner was an enjoyable affair, at least.

The kitchen in their room was surprisingly well-stocked — Vex had expected to have to pick up some ingredients from their caravan, but that wasn't the case at all. Small preservation runes lined the cupboards, and exotic meats that Vex didn't even recognize were stocked in about half of them.

"There's no way this is a room they give to ordinary adventurers," he muttered, staring at the breadth of ingredients.

"No kidding," Sev said, making Vex jump; the cleric was watching over the kitchen counter, having apparently decided his time was better spent watching Vex cook. The lizardkin stuck his tongue out at his friend, getting only an amused grin in response, and began pulling out ingredients... mostly at random, really.

A lot of his favorite spices were available. There were leaves from an herb he didn't really remember the name of, but he knew was grown exclusively in specially cultivated gardens in Elyra; peppers that were spicy, in the sense that they actually converted part of your personal mana into fire-aspected mana; fresh five-point — star fruits. Berries, rabbit meat...

Vex paused.

"Isn't Elyra dealing with a food shortage?" he said quietly, looking from the contents of the pantry and then back to Sev. "Why do they have so much food just... available here?"

"Why indeed," Sev said with a slight frown. "...Maybe they just left it here and forgot about it?"

"Maybe," Vex said, but something about that answer didn't sit right with him. "But this is a lot of food."

"I'll ask around about the food situation when I'm out tomorrow," Sev suggested. "We're only going to be here for a day or two, hopefully, so if people need food... I mean, this is all technically ours, right? They don't know how much we eat."

Vex blinked, then grinned slightly. "You're not wrong."

And with that, Vex got to cooking.

It wasn't all that long ago that he hadn't known how to cook at all. Noble life was pampered, in that sense — he'd never had to prepare his own meals, not when their family had a personal chef that would prepare all their food for them. He'd been a little curious about it once, but all it had taken was one instance of being chased out of the kitchen for him to lose any interest he had; why learn to cook, when there was magic to learn?

Of course, then he left his home, and he'd had to survive on his own. He regretted not knowing how to cook, then — all he had to eat most of the time was stale bread, or oversalted stew, which tended to happen every time he tried to cook.

Part of the problem was that he wasn't brave enough to try cooking anything besides stews. At least with a stew, he could just throw everything into a pot.

He'd only actually learned how to cook when he'd joined Sev and the others. The rotating cooking schedule meant that he had to be the one to cook for the party every so often, and none of them were willing to let him get away with cooking stew every single time.

Which meant he'd had to actually learn how to cook.

And he'd learned to enjoy it, too. There was something calming about it — the process was easier once he knew what to do, and [Dagger Proficiency] actually helped him when it came to cutting meats and vegetables. Who would've thought!

Well, Misa had. But that wasn't the point.

He glanced up and over at Misa and Derivan just to see what they were doing while he was grilling rabbit meat, and saw that they'd found some sort of board game in one of the cupboards and that Misa was spiritedly arguing with him about the rules of that game. Sev was watching them, too, faint amusement painted on his face.

"It's nice to actually have a room to ourselves again," Vex commented as he plated up the rabbit.

"You have no idea how much I've been holding back my complaints about sleeping in the caravan," Sev said, grinning back at him. "Trust me, I'm very glad we have a room. Even if there's some weird shit going on. Heck, I don't care if this room is haunted."

"...is this room haunted?" Vex asked, suddenly worried.

"I'm pretty sure it isn't. But you never know!"

"Sev," Vex said with a sigh, but he wore a faint smile. "Alright. Let's have dinner, at least."

The dishes were plated up and served, with everyone except Derivan eating — but he participated in conversation right alongside the rest of them. Vex resolved to figure out that one skill that allowed Derivan to share in another person's taste. He wanted the armor to be able to try his food, dammit.

It was a good night for the four of them.

The next morning was... considerably more chaotic. Vex woke up in the early hours of the morning, as he usually did, and while he was going through the notes he'd made, he realized that something had changed since he'd woken up. There were sounds now, sounds of people talking and laughing amongst themselves, like there was a full tavern of people below.

That shouldn't have been strange, of course. But Vex was relatively sure that he hadn't heard anything when he'd woken up, and he hadn't heard any doors opening, either. The lobby had been completely empty when they arrived...

He frowned, and went to Derivan. The armor never slept, after all.

"I had not noticed it before you mentioned it," Derivan said, a hint of concern seeping into his voice. "But I believe you are right. I heard no sounds of people entering. Perhaps we should investigate."

It was early enough in the morning that Sev and Misa were still fast asleep; Vex sent a quick message to them through the system, to keep them apprised of what they were doing, and he and Derivan went down the stairs together. They stopped at the foot of the stairs, briefly stunned.

The inn was full. The lobby functioned as a tavern, and it was full of people of all kinds, from other lizardkin to orcs and even an elemental or two; every one of them were laughing and talking with one another like it wasn't four in the morning, and Vex couldn't help but wonder briefly if he was dreaming.

At least, until he saw the mana. He froze. The mana was thicker and denser here than he'd ever seen in Fendal — and it was dancing and twirling here, like it was partying right alongside all the people in the inn.

"Are you seeing this too?" Vex asked, just to make sure. Derivan nodded, and Vex stared.

Strange.