Friends in a Foreign Land

Regina woke feeling like she had slept for days. When she looked outside she realized it was morning. She must have slept for like fifteen hours or something. She took care of her morning ablutions before heading down stairs. She heard her friends before she saw them. Ramiro was saying something that had Mira and Alexis laughing. When she came off the stairs and headed toward their table they all went quiet causing her to want to turn and walk away but Regina pushed herself forward. After sitting at the table she looked at her friends.

“Apologies for sleeping for so long.” Looking toward Alexis, “Thank you. I know it wasn’t easy for you to say what you did yesterday but I needed to hear it. And Calore agreed with you on some things. He and I spent some time together and I’ve decided that I want to divorce Eric. Calore even taught me some of the various divorce rituals used and I’ve picked an easy one. I just need to get Eric to agree.”

“Haven’t you asked for a divorce before and he refused?” asked Mira.

“Yes. Several times. But I think it may be different this time.”

“And after that you’ll be able to continue our tasks alongside him without constant issues?” asked Alexis with a bit of force.

Regina nodded, “Yeah, I think I can. I’m sure I’ll still be snarky sometimes but nothing like the bitch I’ve been recently.”

“Oh honey,” chimed in Mira. “You haven’t been a bitch.”

“Alexis disagrees, she called me that twice yesterday.”

Mira looked aghast at Alexis, “You did not.” While she was saying that Ramiro was patting Alexis on the back, and saying “Good job.”

Regina chuckled, “It’s okay, I know it’s true. Look, I don’t want to be friends with Eric. I’d like to divorce him and then wrap up this hunt as quick as possible. Eric can go wherever and we go reunite with the others. ”

“I’m pretty sure he’d come with us. He’s on a new world and we’re the only people he knows,” said Mira.

“I don’t know. He’s pretty good at making friends.”

“Doesn’t matter until we find him,” said Ramiro. “Now eat up. We’ve got some businesses to take over.”

After breakfast the group asked around and learned this town had a mayor that ran things. So they went and found him and explained that they were the new owners of the businesses the Lucky Loom and Straight Laced. After showing them the documents notarized by the royal notary the mayor sent a runner to get a couple gate guards to escort the party to the businesses to make sure there were no issues.

The party made their way to Straight Laced first and found that it was a cobbler’s shop and had dozens of types of shoes. As they walked in Ramiro pointed one of the guards to stay at the door with Mira. The other was sent to the rear with Alexis. Seeing this an elven lady approached Ramiro and Regina. “Welcome to Straight Laced. I’m Oanh. You don’t appear to be locals, are you in need of new shoes for your travels?”

“Hello Oanh,” said Regina in her best customer service voice as she pulled out a writ of ownership. “My partners and I recently acquired ownership of this business from Ngoc Van Mal. We’re going to need you to show us around and help us get a handle on things today.”

Oanh took the proffered paper and read through it before looking back up. Regina noticed that she had lost a touch of color but was putting on a brave face. ‘

Casting [Dome of Truth] Regina started lecturing. “I’ve just cast a dome of truth around us. If you try to lie you’ll be unable to breathe so please be honest. The day will be long enough without having to resurrect you multiple times. First question. Were you aware that Ngoc Van Mal was a cultist and slaver?”

For just a brief moment Regina felt Oanh trying to resist her magic. That was the first time some one had been able to fight it hard enough for her to feel it. But the effort failed and Oanh hung her head and answered simply, “Yes.”

“Are you a cultist?”

“No.”

“Do you help with the trafficking of sapients?”

“Yes.”

“Do you have such people in your custody now?”

“Yes.”

“Are there any other laws or oaths that you’ve broken? If so, explain.”

“Yes. I’ve skimmed money off this shop. Mal didn’t care if it was profitable, he bought it for the location and let me run it as I wanted. So I kept more for myself than what I was entitled to by our agreement.”

“So you profited from the business and from the slave trade?”

“No. I profited only from the business. I was forced to help with the other. Mal said he would kill my daughter and I if I did not do as he ordered.”

This caught Ramiro’s attention. “Where is your daughter?”

“I don’t know. Mal took her to the capitol with him and claimed to have apprenticed her to someone there.”

Regina looked at Ramiro who just nodded and left. Regina then called to Alexis and spoke with her briefly before turning back to Oanh.

“My friend is going to get a messenger. When the messenger gets here you will describe your daughter to him and give her name. The messenger will head to the capitol and speak with a friend of ours at the royal palace. If your daughter is still in the city we will find her and return her. ”

“What about your other friend?”

“She’s going to the second property in town that we own to make sure no one tries to flee before I get over there. Now, please show me where you’re keeping the captives.”

The next several hours was spent freeing and healing people. In addition to a messenger, Ramiro returned with more guards and the mayor himself. The mayor was great at organizing and calming the former captives and helped the whole process go faster than it otherwise would have.

As soon as they could, the party reunited with Alexis and repeated the process at the Lucky Loom seamstress shop. This time the owner, a gnome of all things, was a cultist and was handed off to the guards. But thankfully there were no additional captives.

“That’s the first non-elf I’ve seen since we left the capitol,” remarked Regina.

The mayor nodded, “It is rare for outsiders to settle out in the small towns like this. But Jik has been here for nearly two hundred years. Finding out that he’s been a cultist this whole time is rather unsettling. The next non-elf to move here will have to work that much harder to become accepted now. But enough about that, what should we do with Jik?”

“The same instructions we gave the messenger will apply here as well. You’ll need to transport him to the capitol, to the royal palace.”

The mayor walked away grumbling about having to pay guards to take someone that far but didn’t argue about it. Mira walked up to Regina, “Do you find it odd that the captives were stored in Oanh’s basement and she wasn’t a cultist but the basement of the cultist was empty?”

Regina raised an eyebrow, “I didn’t but I hadn’t thought about it like that. Let’s go ask Oanh and Jik some more questions.”

As they started walking Ramiro appeared in front of them. “Aah!” yelled Mira. “Stop doing that. Just because you can teleport and hide and stuff doesn’t mean you can just keep scaring me.”

With a smirk on his lips Ramiro replied, “Wasn’t trying to scare you. Just wanted to ask a quick question. We now own a seamstress shop with no one to run it. Rather than just locking things up and hoping they aren’t taken, would either of you mind if I sell all the contents of the building to the other seamstress in town? Then we can just lock up an empty building.”

Both of the women nodded and Ramiro vanished again.

“I swear he’s just doing that to screw with people,” Mira complained.

“Probably,” relied Regina. “But with as much as he uses that skill it has to be his highest leveled one, right.”

“Totally. A couple months ago all he could do was hide in a shadow. Then he could barely teleport across a room. Now he he’s leveled it so much he can teleport like forty feet away. There still has to be a shadow though.”

⚶

Eric and Joon got up with the sun and struck camp. The trip into Sarnthorn was uneventful and they were able to make it into town before midmorning. As they road in, Eric asked his new friend, “Do you know where a good inn is?”

“I do, but why don’t you stay at my place? We have several unused guest rooms.”

“I don’t know. When my friends get here they’ll check the inn for me.”

“Do you expect them today?”

Eric thought about it for a bit before replying, “No. Tomorrow at the earliest but probably the day after.”

“Then it’s settled, you can stay with me for a couple days. It’ll be fun.”

Nodding, Eric agreed and continued to ride beside Joon. They cut across town and Joon pointed out places of interest as they went.

Eventually they came up to a large iron gate with well dressed guards standing on each side. Looking between the bars Eric could see a stone tower that was easily two hundred foot high at the end of a long entryway. Attached to the side of the tower was a beautiful, five story tall manor home.

“You live in a mansion?”

Joon, just nodded as he waved to one of the guards. “Yeah, my parents did some traveling in their younger years and saw a home similar to this somewhere and loved it. When they settled down they built one of their own. Like I said, we have plenty of guest rooms.”

Eric tried to take it all in as they road their horses down the tree lined approach to the home. As they neared the entry several servants came out. They helped Joon and Eric off their mounts and lead them away. Eric was watching them leave when he realized that Joon had already went inside so he hurried to catch up.

“Come, let me show you which room you can use during your stay,” Joon ordered. Eric stayed silent as he followed trying to memorize everything. The walls had beautiful paintings and tapestries on them and everything in the home was very obviously made by master craftsmen.

“Hey Joon, why are there so many bulls on everything?”

“That’s our family crest. A bull passant guardant.”

“A bull doing what?”

Joon looked around and saw one of the servants and waved them over. “See on her apron here. The bull walking by but looking at you. That’s what passant guardant means.”

“Okay. That’s cool. Why did your family pick a bull? Do you all raise cattle?”

Joon thanked the servant and continued walking, “Ha, no. My family wouldn’t know where to begin. A few hundred years ago my grandfather was injured in a battle. Somehow or other he ended up being tended to by a human farmer. While there he befriended the farmer’s bull and learned a bit more about them. Grandfather thought a bull was just there to procreate. But he learned that the bull’s job was to protect the herd. To stand guard. The farmer even said that it was the bull that found grandfather lying in the field and if it hadn’t liked him, it would have killed him but instead went and got the farmer. Later in life, when our family grew in status and it was time to design the family heraldry he remembered that bull. He wanted our family to fill that same role in the kingdom. The joke in the family is that we’re here for ‘protection and procreation’ since Grandfather went on to have four children.“

“Four kids? I thought elves rarely had any and if they did it was only one?”

Joon just started at Eric for a moment before responding. “That is true, my grandfather was unique in this regard. And in taking four wives. You know, you sound like you’re reciting something you read about elves rather than something you know. Where did you say you were raised?”

Realizing he goofed, Eric froze for a moment before answering, “More like I was told that, I don’t read much. I grew up surrounded by dwarves and humans, so much of what I know is second hand. Anyway, that’s a pretty cool legacy. Did your grandfather ever go back and tell the farmer?”

“He tried, but with human lifespans being so short the farmer had already passed on. He tried to talk with farmer that was there to see if they were a descendant but the man was so bigoted, he never found out. The man just kept yelling for grandfather to get ‘his knife eared ass off his property’ and grandfather didn’t want things to become violent so he left.”

“That sucks.”

“Indeed. Racism has killed more people than anything else in history and yet people are still teaching it to their children.” Joon sighed before continuing, “On to happier news, here’s your room for as long as you need it,” motioning to the door on the left of them.

Eric looked into the nicest bedroom he’d seen since coming to Traum and said the only word that came to mind, “Wow!”