The Outlands

“Are you sure it’s okay to just walk in?” Ellie whispered. “We didn’t announce our visit or anything.” Ellie was currently standing in front of an opulent mansion found in a plane called Loma. It was, apparently, the house of Alice’s parents, and Ellie couldn’t help but feel a little daunted now that she was looking at it in person.

“Yeah, I’ve been here with Alice a few times, and they’ve made it incredibly clear that they want me to just walk in any time I want to visit.” Tess replied, walking up to the gate and placing her hand on it. “It’s sweet, really.”

The gate swung open at her touch, and Tess walked through confidently. She led Ellie and Maven down a path through an immaculately-kept garden, eventually ending up in front of a large pair of double doors. Without even so much as hesitating, Tess knocked on the door, and it opened a few moments later to reveal a sleepy-looking elf in a butler’s outfit.

“Ah, Mistress Tess, do come in.” He said. “The masters will be delighted to see you again, and even more so to meet your companions. May I ask to what we owe the pleasure to?”

“Yeah, I wanted to tell them about some changes to our wedding plans, and I thought it’d be nice to do it in person since I haven’t seen them in a while.” Tess replied.

“Delightful. In that case, I won’t inform them, so you can tell them the news yourself.”

“I appreciate it, Tamas. Where should we go in the meantime?”

“Head into the sitting room and I’ll have them with you shortly.”

Tess gave him a nod, then walked down a hallway, trailed by Ellie and Maven. After a moment, she led them into a side room, then had them sit down on one of the couches with her. They chatted for a few moments before a pair of people walked into the room, smiling at them.

“Tess, what a pleasant surprise!” The woman, a humanoid dryad that was the spitting image of Alice, said brightly. “And you brought your party members, too! It’s a pleasure to meet you two, I’m Avery, and this is my husband, Jared, we’re Alice’s parents.”

“Likewise, it is a pleasure to meet you as well.” Maven said. “I am Maven, party member of Tess.”

“Same. I’m Ellie, Tess’s fiancée.”

Avery beamed at them, sitting down on the couch opposite the trio. “So, what can we do for you today?”

“Well, um, we came here because I wanted to tell you about some changes to the wedding plan.” Tess said.

“Oh?” Jared asked. “Nothing bad, I hope.”

“No, nothing of the sort.” Tess said quickly. “Um, we’ve decided to move it out a bit because we’ve decided to marry Maven too.”

“That’s fantastic!” Avery squealed, her eyes glinting strangely. “How’d that happen?”

“Well, Maven had sort of been unaware of her own feelings, and once she realized it, she let us know, and one thing sort of led to another and…here we are.” Tess said. “It all happened really fast, but it just felt right.”

“I would ask that you keep this next part secret until the public announcement has been made, but I have abdicated my position as crown princess, so there will be no diplomatic confusion over my role in this.” Maven said. “So, please do not feel the need to treat me with that sort of dignity, it is not me anymore.”

Ellie smiled inwardly. It seemed that Maven was as nervous as she was, judging by the fact that Maven had seemingly fallen back on her etiquette training to help her handle the situation. “Sorry, I know it’s a lot to drop on you when it’s our first time meeting each other, but we were out letting people know and Tess wanted to tell you in person.” Ellie added.

“I wouldn’t worry about it.” Jared said, waving a hand dismissively. “We’re at least somewhat aware of you and your situation thanks to Alice, so it doesn’t feel like you’re total strangers or anything. And Avery’s been talking about wanting to meet you for a while, so we’re glad you visited in person.”

“Would you three like to stay for dinner?” Avery offered. “I’m sure you’re hungry, and I’d love to get to know you over some food.”

Tess glanced at Ellie and Maven, and after they nodded to signal their agreement, turned back to Alice’s parents. “That sounds great, thank you.” She said.

“Perfect! The staff was just getting dinner ready, follow us to the dining room and we can start!” Avery said, standing up and turning to leave the room. The rest of the group followed, and Ellie soon found herself in a small but luxurious dining room. She sat down at one of the eight chairs around the table, fidgeting nervously as she did.

“So,” Jared began, sitting at the head of the table, “I’ve heard you did pretty well on your rank exam, and that you’ve graduated from your apprenticeship. What are your plans now?”

Tess shrugged. “Well, right now I think we’re just sort of planning on getting settled. We’re going to look for a cheap place to rent in the City, then probably take requests there until the wedding. After that we’ll start travelling more, like normal freelancers, and when we’re earning more we’ll look for something more permanent.”

“If you’d like, we own some property in the City, and could get you a big discount if you want to buy from us.” Avery offered. “We could even call it your wedding gift, if it makes you feel better.”

“We’ll have to discuss our budget first.” Tess said. “But I think we might well end up taking you up on that. Finding someone we can trust to rent to us or sell us property isn’t something we were looking forward to.”

Ellie held back a grimace. “Isn’t something we were looking forward to” was an understatement; the City held very lax laws when it came to property and business, and so long as something wasn’t theft it was basically fair game. It was an unfortunate side-effect of the way the City was founded and run, and while most even remotely popular businesses had to be honest or risk losing business to others, the same couldn’t be said for housing.

If they rented, there was no obligation for the landlord to do basically anything except make sure the house didn’t collapse unless it was specifically outlined in a contract. And, since there was a limited amount of space in the City, it was much harder to simply find another option like you could for groceries.

This wasn’t an issue if you were looking for any property that was priced for people with a moderate level of income, but a moderate level of income for the City was higher than it was in many other places. Even with Tess being a veritable money printer, their party simply wasn’t raiding dungeons that held desirable enough cores and loot to give them enough money to reasonable afford that. In half a year to a year they’d be able to, but for the time being it wasn’t in the cards.

Their ideal housing was, of course, in a dungeon; Maven and Dungeons would be able to customize the house as they pleased, they could make practically any appliance or piece of furniture, there would be no need to worry about neighbors or landlords or anything…the advantages kept piling up, but it simply wasn’t feasible to get dungeon housing in the City.

Dungeon housing was highly sought-after in the City, and there was a waitlist for anyone who wanted a house in a dungeon. Furthermore, there was a fifty-year limit on the amount of time they could spend in the housing before they would have to relocate, to prevent those houses from simply being occupied forever by the same set of people, so it wasn’t permanent, either.

Of course, they could simply make a new housing floor in a space no one else would be able to access, but that came with its own issues. They wouldn’t be able to receive any mail, since they wouldn’t officially be living there, they couldn’t invite over anyone who didn’t know Maven was an Appointed, and most pressingly, people would eventually notice and start asking questions.

Eventually they’d relocate to a dungeon somewhere, but until they felt that Mael didn’t need much more help integrating, they wanted to stay in the City. There, they’d be close to a significant portion of the Appointed in their circle, and it was a place that was easy to reach for their friends, most notably The Rumors, and had easy transportation to just about everywhere.

And, unfortunately, that meant navigating the perils of the low-to-medium income housing market in the City. Still, if Alice’s parents were offering a better solution…well, Ellie wasn’t going to complain. She had been half-expecting to end up staying in her childhood home for a while more, and that felt weird to do now that she was getting married.

“Do let us know when you know what your budget is and what you’re looking for in a house, we’ll be sure to get you something that’ll fit!” Avery said enthusiastically. “And if it would make things easier, we’re totally willing to let you pay in parts.”

“Ellie, Maven, forgive my wife’s enthusiasm.” Jared chuckled. “And don’t feel pressured to take the offer; she’s just a bit of a pamperer, and we don’t exactly have anyone she’s in a position to pamper anymore.”

“Oh, you should have seen Alice when she was younger.” Avery replied nostalgically. “She was such a mama’s girl. She was always clinging to me, asking to play with me and showing me all the of the stuff she learned at school and anything else that had happened that day. I sometimes wonder how that little girl became the big, strong, woman she is now. She hasn’t asked me for anything in ages, and it makes me kinda lonely.”

“Alice was?” Ellie asked incredulously. “I can’t even imagine it.”

“It’s true.” Jared confirmed. “I worked from home and Avery was always off running the business, so Alice loved it when she was home. And she wasn’t an absent parent or anything, she just tended to work a little late, so Alice only had an hour or two with her before bedtime. Avery spent as much time with Alice as was physically possible, and Alice absolutely adored her.”

“She was so sweet back then. Of course, talking about any of this embarrasses her to no end, but a mom’s job is to embarrass her kids, so it’s fine. And…on the topic of embarrassing childhood stories, I don’t suppose any of you have any you’re willing to share? Not necessarily of yourself, but of each other. I’m dying to know what you were like as kids.”

Jared rolled his eyes. “Not on our first meeting, Avery.” He said. “That can wait until we know them better.”

“I guess I’ll drop it.” Avery pouted. “But only if you three promise to come and see us again.”

“I do not see any issue with that.” Maven replied. “Though we may have to wait until after the wedding for that; I anticipate being rather busy in the coming days.”

“Of course.” Avery replied. “It was like that for our wedding too. In fact…” She trailed off as servants entered the room, bringing a large amount of food with them. “Ah, probably best not to get into a long story right as we eat. Please, don’t worry about manners here, and just take things as you wish. We won’t feel offended, this is a casual dinner, not an occasion.”

“We’re serious, by the way.” Jared added, reaching over Avery to grab some meat from a platter further down the table. “I’m not from money, and Alice takes after Avery in this regard; when in private we prefer to let all of that go.”

Tess didn’t need any more prompting, grabbing a few rolls from one of the platters and beginning to scarf them down. Ellie reached out a little more hesitantly, but Maven floundered, seemingly unable to throw away her manners.

“It’s fine.” Tess said gently, laying a hand on Maven’s arm and tossing a roll onto her plate. “I’ve eaten here before, they’re not kidding. If having good table manners makes you more comfortable, do that. If it doesn’t, then be casual, it doesn’t matter.”

“I…I understand.” Maven said. “I hope you do not mind if I still use a certain level of etiquette, it is simply ingrained into me for situations such as this.”

“We don’t mind at all.” Avery said. “Really, whatever’s comfortable for you is best.”

They ended up making some more small talk whilst they ate, but things didn’t get really interesting until halfway through the meal, when one of the doors to the room burst open.

“You came here without even telling me?!” Alice panted. “I didn’t find out until half an hour ago when Tamas texted me. She hasn’t done anything too embarrassing, right?!”

“Oh, I’ve been telling them about how much of a mama’s girl you were, but that’s it. And what do you mean she hasn’t? What about your father?” Avery said, smirking and motioning at the empty chair next to her. “Come, have some food.”

“Dad’s not the one I’m worried about.” Alice groaned, walking over and taking a seat. As she did, servants were already bringing another set of dishes for her to use, and she gratefully took them and started to grab food. “Ellie, Maven, sorry about her. As I’m sure you saw, she’s a bit excitable.”

“It is…preferable, when you consider the alternatives.” Maven said. “I enjoyed her exuberance myself.”

“This means she’s nervous, not that she’s like…treating you differently, by the way.” Alice said. “From what I’ve been given to understand, as of late she only gets formal like this when she’s nervous.”

“W-who told you that?” Maven stuttered.

“Tess.” Alice replied nonchalantly. “We text a lot, and I was asking how you and Ellie were doing. She happened to mention it, even called it really cute. At the time I thought it was a bit strange, since it seemed a little out of character to say something like that, but now that I know the context, I think I get it.”

“And who’s the one embarrassing people now?” Jared asked, giving Alice a playful smile. “You can’t exactly get on her case when you go and do something like that right after.”

“I was just giving some context so you guys didn’t get the wrong impression.” Alice protested. “It’s totally different.”

“And I was just giving context so they didn’t get the wrong impression of you.” Avery said. “So it’s not really that different.”

“Oh please, that’s not what you were doing and you know it.” Alice replied. “They know me already, they won’t be getting the wrong impression now.”

“You did admit that it was going to embarrass her and that you knew it.” Tess said.

“Okay, maybe I did knowingly embarrass her.” Avery admitted. “But it’s my job as a mother. You all will understand when you have kids of your own.”

With the addition of Alice, the dinner became even more lively, and Ellie found that she enjoyed herself quite a bit more than she thought she would. In fact, Ellie was surprised when it came time to leave, as she felt she hadn’t really spent that long there. And so they left, Ellie feeling more confident about the future than she had before.