84. Liecha

After talking so much about how Eolstree was just like Yuikon, I was a little surprised when the protection of the teleportation magic faded and I was standing in a magic circle that was not nearly as elaborate as the one on the Yuikonese side of the journey.  A middle aged avian-man was administrating the receiving platform, not that he had much to do aside from directing the arrivals away from the magic circle before the next travelers arrived.  All of the actual magic was done on the other end of the portal; the platform here simply stabilized and directed the transit.

“Is this your first time to Prowlhaven?” the receptionist inquired.  He was in mostly human form, with the primary hint of his heritage being the feathers that grew in place of his hair, and his otherwise hawkish appearance.

“For me, yes, definitely,” I answered.  “I don’t think Larissa has been before, although I guess I don’t have her life story memorized.  But I’m pretty sure Tarisha has been.”

“There are a number of tours and theater events scheduled over the next few evenings, if you wish to partake in our rich cultural heritage,” the guide informed me.  “They detail the true history of--”

“Thank you,” I said before he could get too far into his introduction, “But I’m afraid I don’t have time to be a tourist right now.  Perhaps in the future, when my affairs have settled down a bit, I would enjoy such diversions, but at the moment I’m in a bit of a rush.  I would appreciate it if you could direct me to the Wildeheart estate.”

The receptionist gave me a critical examination, and obviously found me wanting.  I would have been more annoyed if I didn’t get a notification at that moment informing me that [Illusion Magic: Disguise] had gained a level.  Apparently it was working.

“Do you perhaps have a letter of invitation, or a package to deliver to Lord Wildeheart?” the avian man inquired.  “I’m afraid that not everyone is allowed to visit the house of a noble without express invitation.”

“My mother lives there,” I said simply.  “If you don’t know the way, I’m certain I can simply hire a local guide instead.”

“Perhaps that would be for the best,” the Avian said, his voice heavy with suspicion.  “I’m afraid that I’m unable to leave my post, after all.”

“Very well.  Thank you for your time,” I said, and I led the way out of the portal building.  My friends followed me.  Larissa nudged me and chuckled.

“See, that’sthe sort of brushoff that a player usually gets when we try to intrude on noble Natives in their own habitat,” she informed me.  “Do you think that’s your disguise working, or would that guy have been a jerk no matter what you said?”

“I don’t know.  I think it was partly the disguise, but not knowing my identity might actually have been in my favor,” I said.  “I’m not exactly certain what my social status is in Eolstree.  I mean, legally I’m an Yuikonese noble, which is good.  The Eolstrians don’t get too hung up on bastards, necessarily.  Most of their tribes don’t care if a couple gets married or not.  Which means that my royal blood counts for a lot as well, even though I’m illegitimate.  The problem is that I’m definitelynot Lord Wildeheart’s son.  Which, depending on how much of a traditionalist he is, means that he might feel honor bound to kill me.”

Tarisha groaned and pinched the bridge of her nose.  “Lord Hail, how much of a problem will this be?”

“Probably not at all?” I said, hesitant.  “I really don’t think Grandfather would have let the marriage happen if he was that sort of person.  If I was actually in danger from him, I’m pretty sure he would have at least warned me.  But because of the way my stepfather’s tribe views the matter, it was easier to leave me behind in Yuikon when Mother came to Eolstree.  But, um, yeah.  Maybe keep an eye out for assassins?  And where is everyone else, anyway?”

“Waiting in line for a teleport,” Tarisha answered.  “It seems that while we do get a free ride-along when you teleport now that we have official status as your guards, doing so triggers our Fast Travel timer.  They’ll catch up to us in a moment.”

“That’s inconvenient,” I muttered.

“Yes.  The amazing one of a kind system perk which allows us to instantly travel to your side from anywhere in the world is inconvenient because of a minor wait time issue,” Tarisha teased.

I blushed.  “I didn’t mean it like that.”

“And I was just teasing.  However, there is a matter we need to discuss sooner or later.  And another matter which we need to discuss once my boyfriend and I have what will probably be a series of very serious conversations and we either become much closer, or break up entirely.  But the immediate matter involves my new canon position as the captain of your guard.  It might take a few minutes, let’s get some Liecha,” Tarisha said, and she waved us towards a conveniently placed stall serving the hot drink.

“I’ve never actually had Liecha before,” Larissa commented.  “I heard it’s like a berry mocha late with almond extract.”

“Liecha tastes like Liecha,” I said, giving her ‘a look.’  “Why would you make it more complicated than that?”

“Because the Liecha fruit doesn’t exist in our world,” Tarisha explained.  “So we don’t actually have an analogue to compare it to directly.  There’s actually a lot of foods in this world like that.”

“Huh,” I said, then I shrugged.  Liecha was a bigger thing in Eolstree than it was in Yuikon, since the trees grew better further north.  At the castle we would pretty much only have it on the winter solstice as a hot drink to keep us warm.  But I hadn’t known that it wasn’t a thing that existed on Earth before.

The barista took our orders and promptly filled three mugs with the steaming fruit juice before pointing us to a small patio where the customers of her little stand often drank their purchases.  There was a small bin for the empty mugs nearby, and judging by how full it was, she did good business.

“This is actually really good,” Larissa commented as she sipped on her steamy drink.

“They’ve been trying to get a recipe to taste in the physical world like it does in the game for some time now,” Tarisha commented.  “But they just can’t quite seem to get it quite right.  It’s quite curious, really.”

I just sipped my drink, reminiscing about winters past when I had shared it with my mother and Beckah while waiting for the weather to improve.  “So, Tarisha, what is it that you wanted to talk about?”

The swordswoman sighed and looked in her drink.  “Hail, I want you to understand something, and I really hope that you don’t take offense.  This canon position you have given me; it is without a doubt exactly the sort of thing I was hoping to obtain when I first approached you and offered you my services, and that of my guild.  I told you then that I was making plans in the long term, but something like this was always my goal.  My investment in you has simply paid off much more quickly than I had anticipated.  And now that it has, I’m feeling quite guilty about having ever taken that view of our relationship to begin with.”

“Oh,” I said.  And I thought I understood.  “Mutually beneficial, right?  You got what you wanted, and I got a reliable ally when I needed it most.  I don’t really see the problem with that.”

“If that’s all that there was, then I would say that there wasn’t a problem,” she agreed.  “But when we first met, I thought that you were simply a more advanced and very fascinating computer program.  After you confronted your father, before the Raid on Zhesa Castle, I dug deeper into what Arc meant about Seeds of Consciousness and learned more about the details of your existence.  They were quite forthcoming about it all, and I think I understand the material they gave me as well as any layperson can.  And, well, it bothers me that I originally approached you for my personal benefit, now that I understand you better.  So I want to apologize.  And, if you feel it’s appropriate, I would offer my resignation so that you could appoint a better candidate than myself.”

My jaw dropped in surprise.  Fortunately, I had already swallowed my Liecha, or that would have been a mess.  “Tarisha, you’re, like, my best friend.  I’m not going to fireyou.  I don’t even really understand why you think I should.”

“I do,” Larissa said in a quiet voice.  “A lot of us do.  The ones who’ve been around from the beginning.  We sort of feel the same way, but we don’t really know what else to do.  Completing your quests does seem to help you, after all.  But it also feels sort of exploitative.”

“Exactly,” Tarisha agreed.  “I’d like to say that we would still be friends if you suddenly lost your quest giving powers, Hail.  And we would be.  But we probably never would have met if you hadn’t had them to begin with.  And coming to realize that has, well, it makes me feel shallow.”

I considered her words for a moment as I drank the hot berry juice for a moment, formulating a response.  But I only had a vague understanding of what the problem was to begin with.  “Tarisha, I really can’t think of anyone better to be my captain of the guard than you.  I need you.  If anyone is being taken advantage of in this relationship, I think it’s you.  I mean, do I even pay you?  Shouldn’t I owe you and your guild thousands of gold by now for watching over me all this time?”

She snorted.  “No, the quest system takes care of that for us.  The difficult part has simply been the human resources aspect of scheduling people to be online in staggering shifts to protect you.  This upgrade will make that aspect much easier for everyone involved.”

“Right, but that’s not the only thing you do for me,” I pointed out.  “You give me advice all of the time.  And your, like, my go to liaison for the endgame guilds.  I really don’t know what I would do without you to guide me, Tarisha.  And I’m really not sure what brought this entire conversation about.  If there’s one thing I’ve come to expect from you, it’s confidence, not self-doubt.”

“I do know where these thoughts come from.  But perhaps you are right, and I am holding myself to an impossible standard,” Tarisha admitted.  “Perhaps I should have waited to broach this subject until it was time for the full disclosure of my future plans in this world.  But, as I said, I’ll need to have a series of very mature conversations with Lewis before I know for certain the shape of those plans.”

I nodded.  “Is there any reason you can’t be my guard captain in the mean time?  Or is that a selfish thing for me to ask.”

She chortled.  “It is my pleasure to serve you, My Lord,” she said, making a mock bow from her seat.  “Considering that I got everything I wanted to, I sure went out of my way to throw a wrench in the gears in a right hurry, didn’t I?”

I shrugged.  I didn’t really get the reference she made about wrenches; it was probably a Traveler saying which I lacked the context for, but I got the gist of it.  “I don’t mind.  I’d much rather talk about it than have you serve me while feeling like you were taking advantage of me.  So, it’s probably a good thing we had this conversation?”

“Yes, I think it is,” Tarisha agreed.  “Which brings us to the second topic we have to discuss.  I believe it is time to significantly expand your guard, Lord Hail.”

“Oh?  Yeah, you’re probably right.  I mean, I’ve only been glancing at the forums since the battleground since last night, but everyone really is talking about me.  But I don’t want to put any more stress on your guild than you’re already under.  I know that at least some of my guards have been giving up other opportunities to protect me, and I don’t really want that.”

Tarisha nodded.  “Hail, there’s no rule that says that your guards can only come from <Peasant’s Revenge>.  The system that you unlocked for me isn’t unlimited, but it does seem to have a vast roster for me to fill with prospective guards.  I can only assign ten guards to you at a time, but there doesn’t seem to be a limit on the number of Travelers I can register.  I’m quite certain that all I need to do is reach out to get more than a dozen teams that would be eager for the opportunity.  They will, however, be strangers to you.  And me.  We’ll lose the stranglehold on information which we have currently, as they’ll likely be reporting on your activities to their own guilds at a minimum, and probably to networks well beyond that.”

“I see,” I said.  I sighed and finished off my Liecha.  “Well, I can’t think of another way to handle it.  I’ll just have to start watching what I say and do around my bodyguards, I guess.”

“I’m sorry,” Tarisha said.  “We’ll have to work on establishing a new normal, I think.”

“Yeah,” I agreed.

“There’s just one more thing --”

“Oh gods dammit, I’m all out of serious.  Can we talk about something stupid instead?” I asked.

Tarisha blinked in surprise, and then she began to laugh.  And laugh.  And laugh.  Much harder than I thought the joke actually warranted.  She tried to explain several times when she saw that she was embarrassing me, but it took her several minutes to get herself under control.

“Corinth,” she said breathlessly.  “Oh god.  The timing on that line was just too perfect.  Corinth has been bugging me for hours to let him join your guard.  I’ve been blowing him off so far, but the truth is that he’s made a few pretty solid arguments as to why you should have guard members around your level in addition to the endgamers who protect you from getting ganked.”

“Oh,” I said, feeling better now that she’d explained the joke.  “I guess that makes sense, if you think that they can get the same quest that everyone else gets when they’re guarding me.”

“It will likely be scaled down to their level,” Tarisha agreed.  “But they’ll be able to fight with you and gain experience the regular way in addition to the [Keep Him Safe] quest.  I’m not certain whether they’ll get the corresponding boon or not, but simply being around you increases the likelihood of receiving one of those, as Corinth proved in Storm’s Manor.  If we go with this, we’ll be establishing two teams.  A four man team matched to your level that supports you against threats that you have a reasonable chance of dealing with on your own, and a high-level team which will deal with everything else.”

“I’ll out-level them pretty fast,” I said.  I held up my left hand, on which the [Ring of Holy Light] was keeping my curse under control.  “Or, at least I will if I actually get a chance to go out and kill darkspawn.  I’m getting three hundred percent experience now, after all.  Unless I do get ganked, in which case I guess I’ll finally be free of this stupid curse and I can finally start over.”

“Yeah, about that,” Tarisha said.  “I still haven’t quite forgiven Corinth for his poorly advised ‘test’ of the contagion factor of your curse.  But one of his ideas for the lower level members of your guard was that they would all share the Traveler version of your curse.  You’ll still be able to outpace them if you’re active every day, even while your guardians are forced to rest.  But Corinth’s arguments supporting it are actually somewhat convincing.”

“He wants me to spread the curse on purpose?” I asked.

“He’s calling it a team-building exercise.  The penalty from [Reaper’s Embrace] is enough to significantly increase the stakes that a Traveler usually places against an in game death, and it will help them empathize with your own situation.  Actually, I think that if I had to do it over again, I would appreciate the challenge and benefit from having that particular curse/boon combo active myself.  Not that I’m asking for you to give it to me at this point.  But if I was level twenty?  It might very well be worth it.”

I considered her words for a moment.  “I’m not going to force the curse on anyone who doesn’t want it,” I said eventually.  “But I will give it to anyone who asks for it.  And that goes for anyone, not just guild members or my bodyguards or whatever.  As long as they understand the stakes of the curse, then I don’t see any reason not to let people try to exploit it.”

“I’m not certain that we want to spread the existence of the curse too widely yet, Hail,” Tarisha cautioned.  “It’s possibly your greatest vulnerability at the moment, and you do have enemies, Traveler and Native alike, who would exploit it.”

I sighed.  I glanced up at my honor guard, which had arrived at some point during the conversation.  “Yeah, I suppose you’re right.  Is there anything else, or can we set out to visit my mother yet?”

Tarisha nodded.  “Let’s get going.”

We dumped our empty mugs into the waiting bins, and summoned our mounts.  It took a while to find directions, but we were soon heading off in the direction of Wildeheart Manor.