Friends in a Foreign Land

After breakfast, Mira and Regina decided they were going to explore a bit of the town and left Ramiro and Eric behind. Looking for something constructive to do, the men grabbed the five who had volunteered to help, and they went downstairs and started cleaning up the mess that had been left behind from the previous day’s fighting.

As they cleaned, they got a feel for each of the young elves’ personalities and even some of their skills. It was obvious to both Eric and Ramiro that the five had led a harsh life when they willingly helped them move and dispose of the bodies of those killed in the fighting yesterday without any hesitation.

While they worked, they spoke of life before being put into slavery. The one called Rye seemed to be the planner of the group, and he had put together a doozy. They called their crew ‘The Hand,’ and they were each ‘Fingers.’ Rye had encouraged them all to choose different skills to grow. His twin sister, Rain, was a magic user, Mal was the tracker, Nails was an assassin, and Aim did some pickpocketing as well as running confidence games.

“Hold up,” said Eric, “Your names are actually Rye, Rain, Aim, and Nails?”

“My given name is actually Malquis,” said Mal, “but that’s a bit of a mouthful.”

Rye added, “Yeah, my name is actually Ryel, Rain is really Rania, Nails is Naill, and Aim is Aimer. But those aren’t really suitable street names.”

“Fair enough. Sorry for interrupting,” apologized Eric.

And Rye continued his story they learned that The Hand was successful for a time. The crew was young, especially for elves, so people tended to underestimate them. Things went well until another crew felt threatened. Tensions between the two crews escalated over time, but in the end, the other crew won out by being more devious. Rye had standing plans in place in case the city guards interrupted one of their jobs. He did not have plans in place for being jumped by cultists.

Ramiro saw Rye’s demeanor change when that part of the story was told but he had no idea how to comfort him so he changed the topic, “How are we going to dispose of the bodies without the city guard getting involved?”

“We can bury them,” Aim suggested

“I can burn them.” Rain said. “I have a spell that will burn everything but the bones.”

“That’s going to smell horrible.” Eric replied

“And we don’t have anywhere for the smoke to go, do we?” Ramiro adds.

“We may. These rooms have to have some sort of ventilation.” Rye said while looking for said ventilation.

Nails snaps his fingers, “Nam killed too many folks for him not to have a way to deal with bodies. There’s got to be a mass grave or something around here.” Looking to Ramiro and Eric he asked, “Are there any doors you haven’t opened yet?”

“Quite a few,” Eric said

The group split up and started searching. Most of the doors they opened appeared to be offices or bunk rooms. Ramiro found a locked door but managed to get it open after some effort. The room behind it was small, not even five by five. But the shelves were full of jewelry and other valuables, including more than a few stacks of coins. Mal found a room that was full of clothes, many with blood on them. Eric found what looked like a laundry chute and, next to it, a door to a staircase leading down. He called out to everyone, and a few minutes later they were all heading down the stairs.

At the bottom, the stairs ended next to a massive pit. Looking into the pit they initially couldn’t see anything because of how deep it was. Rain used her magic to conjure some fire to see by, and what they saw turned their stomachs. Deep in the pit were dozens and dozens of bodies in various stats of decomposition.

Ramiro turned to the others, “No one tells Mira about this.”

Everyone nodded as they all started walking back up the stairs.

“How wide do you think that pit was?” Eric asked

“No more than 15 feet; why?” Rye responded

“Rain, go back down and throw all the fire you can into the pit. The rest of you start moving bodies to the chute.”

“Dude, the smoke and the smell are going to go everywhere,” Ramiro warned.

“I don’t think so. I think that room is sealed. The air in there was nothing like the air in here. And the smell in there hasn’t gotten in here. I think we’ll be okay.

Within twenty minutes all the bodies had been stripped and dropped down the chute and into the pit which was full of roaring flames thanks to Rain. Eric stopped Rain from casting more and motioned for them to head back upstairs. Once they had the door closed again Eric took a deep breath. “Yep. The smoke and the smell are all contained.”

“Must be some sort of enchantment,” replied Rain.

As Rain and Eric got back to where they left everyone else, they saw the others are going through the clothing room and selecting outfits for themselves. Rain took a seat on the floor with her back against a wall and used her magic to clean and repair all the clothes the others picked out. Within the hour, all of them had a week's worth of clothing.

Seeing they were done with the clothes, Ramiro walked up to Rain, “If you’re not too tired, can you use that magic to clean all of us? I’d like to take you all shopping, but I’d rather we didn’t smell like the dead.”

Rain gladly started casting [Clean] on everyone.

“We just got some clothes; why do we need to go shopping now?” Mal asked

“If you’re going to help us, you’re going to need more than clothes. I want to make sure you’re all equipped properly. Whatever tools, weapons, or armor that you need.”

The five froze and looked at one another as if they couldn’t believe what Ramiro said and were wanting confirmation.

“Well, you just going to stand there or what?” Eric asked with a grin. “Can’t bring back The Hand with no gear.”

⚶

Alexis woke up to the sun shining in the window of her hotel room. She still couldn’t believe she was in another world. As she lied there letting her mind process everything she noticed a flashing underscore in the lower right corner of her vision. Focusing on it her vision was filled with a screen telling her that she’s leveled up. Her fighter class had assigned two points to her Athletics stat and she had two more stat points to assign. Thinking about how low her health had gotten yesterday during the fighting she dropped both of the free points in Athletics as well. “Now that’s done, let’s go see what the plan is for today.” She said to herself as she got up.

She went to the rooms next to her’s that the rest of the team was using and no one was there. “Guess I sleep later than I realized” she thought to herself.

As Alexis was descending the stairs into the common room she found about half of the captives that stayed were there and they appeared to be in a heated debate about something. She hesitated briefly but her stomach grumbled so she decided to go sit at the bar and hoped the cooks had made breakfast. In short order she had a plate in front of her.

“Morning Mia. How are you feeling today?”

The waitress paused for a moment in thought before answering, “I always thought I couldn’t wait to get out of this inn but this morning I find myself doing my usual duties for the comfort they provide. It’s going to take some time for me to adjust.”

“That makes sense. I know we just met yesterday, but if you need to talk, let me know.” Alexis responded.

Before Mia could say anything there was loud crash behind them. Both of the ladies turned to see one of the men lying in a jumble of wood that had been a table. Another man standing near him motioning for him to come at him.

“That’s enough!” Alexis yelled as she hopped off her bar stool and walked toward the men.

Both of the men fighting turn to her. “Stay out of this, it doesn’t have anything to do with you,” said the man standing.

“Oh? Then what does it have to do with? Free for less than 24 hours and rather than celebrating you’re fighting? What sense does that make?”

A puzzled look came across the man’s face, “You mean 25 hours?”

“Whatever! Why are you fighting?”

Before either man could answer an elven woman with streaks of gray in her hair stepped forward, and pointed at the man who had been thrown into the table, “That’s Harry and the other is Phuc. We were all talking this morning trying to decide what we’re going to do, where we’re going to go from here. Somehow, these two made the whole discussion about themselves. Come to find out they each blame the other for them being abducted.”

Alexis stood there for a moment processing what she’d just heard before finally shaking herself. “Thank you for explaining it. What was your name, ma’am?”

“I’m Siona” the woman answered

“Thank you Siona. I appreciate your help.” Alexis said before looking back to the two men. “Seems you two some issues to work out, just like everyone else here. But you’re the only ones getting violent. I’d think you’d have had enough violence in your lives already. Now, the person responsible for you being abducted is dead. Stop looking for someone else to blame and be thankful that you’re free.”

At this point both men were standing, heads hung in shame. Alexis walked to a table in the corner of the room, sat down and motioned for the men to sit with her. Then she looked at the rest of them, “Pull you chairs over here. Let’s sit and talk about what’s next. Let me know what skills and training everyone has and we’ll work together to try and figure out what occupations would be best.

Alexis learned that several of the recently freed people had never been taught to read. Since she served the Goddess of Literacy she figured she should offer to help them learn. Some readily agreed while others were hesitant. Alexis also learned that a few had experience in a trade skill but most were just manual laborers of some sort. Siona knew little beyond how to clean a house which wouldn’t have been too bad if not for the fact that she was over 600 years old.

But slowly a plan came together for most of the people as they discussed everyone’s skills and desires. When they finished, it was late morning and the group’s optimism was much higher than it had been. When Alexis excused herself from the table she was feeling quite proud of how she handled things.