Inch by Inch

A new wave of adventurers had flooded into Lauchia over the last few days, overflowing the dormitories and submerging the training grounds under untested feet. Ana, Jay and Kane had managed to avoid all the mess yesterday by spending all day out in Slow Keeping, but today they were forced to face it in the worst way.

This morning, the touch of the stone floor against his bare feet had made Jay wince. Outside water flowed down the streets into gutters in a slow, unrelenting stream and people dashed around to limit exposure to the cold and rain. Yet all that failed to quell the excited atmosphere that lapped at the road outside the adventuring guild. With the new arrivals, and the fact some locals were avoiding the daily event given the weather, the average age of dog track runners had dropped a decade and a half overnight. Few stalls were out this morning, not that there was much space for them with all the runners.

With all of this, it was a mercy that the rain hid any bad scents from the city and reduced that of the adventurers. Armour of any kind was now a rare sight in the crowd gathered on the street. Many had none yet — their guilds not having outfitted them, and others, like Jay himself, had found themselves unprepared for the weather. Hard leather armor wouldn’t disintegrate in the rain, but it was best to oil or wax it to prevent long-term damage. Another item added to the team’s shopping list.

No one spoke about this change, however. Conversations about equipment prices, oddity sightings and shifts in the wild had disappeared in favor of introductions, hometown bragging, gushing about the size of the wall and more introductions. Endless introductions. Without armor, adventurers wore the emblem of their guilds or at least their colors. They divided the road up like blotchy splatters on a canvas.

The change made Jay antsy. His team had enjoyed an unprecedented advantage in the city recently, only competing against the local recipients for resources and tasks. That was about to change. He wasn’t sure they were ready.

“Oy! Jay!”

He turned and grinned as Bakti shoved his way through the crowd. Not everything was bad about the new arrivals. One of the many caravans arriving to Lauchia had carried friends and news from home.

“Bakti!”

Today Bakti wore a blue and black tabard, with a cream undershirt underneath. Jay wondered how long he’d had to argue with his seniors in the guild to break ranks and wear a tabard instead of the more common tunics in Lauchia. Knowing how his friend could get, the battle for trousers may have lasted hours.

Besides him, Ana greeted the bulky man with a quick wave. Kane gave him a curt nod, though they’d trained together at the guard’s morning sessions for years. Bakti responded with a friendly but guarded smile. He didn’t know Ana well and Kane’s response was entirely in character for the old Kane.

Bakti shifted, turning so he was facing Jay and Jay alone in a way that made him want to groan. Bakti was never good at talking to people he didn’t know well. He always managed to seem surly. “I didn’t see you yesterday. Are you staying in the adventuring quarter?”

“Yes,” Jay said with a wince. His promise to meet Bakti yesterday had been forgotten until after their evening patrol. By the time they’d eaten dinner, the city was dark and his brief search was unsuccessful. “We’re in dorms on the east side. I’m sorry. We had a task, and it slipped my mind. I couldn’t find you at Peak.”

Bakti shrugged, and Jay knew he was forgiven even if his friend’s expression didn’t change an inch. “We forgot to agree where to meet. Last night... I had more guild business. They have us scheduled for every minute.” His perturbed expression did not make Bakti look any friendlier. If anything, some of the crowd started to edge away, sensing violence.

“Oh. Eh… you never said what guild you were with.”

To his chagrin, Jay couldn’t even say what his friend’s Word was. He had not acted or reacted well on the solstice. The whole granting ceremony had started a mess, and he hadn’t returned to normal for days after.

“Brayden’s brigade. It’s a better description for them than I’d realized.”

“Oh?” Ana chimed in, watching them with her arms crossed. “I haven’t heard of them. What do they do?”

Jay turned to her in disbelief. She hadn’t heard of any guilds before yesterday.

“Defense. Escorts, protection. Anything along those lines.” Bakti brushed her tone off without missing a step. He might not have even noticed it.

“I see,” Ana said, tapping one finger against her arm.

“The training is all about that too. I spent all day yesterday following the ‘gem’ — one of my teammates — around town. Anyone touches them, we lose, and someone else gets to be the gem. It’s ridiculous, and we don’t even get to use our Words.”

Ana’s mouth widened in false shock. She raised an eyebrow at Jay. “That sounds horrible. What’s the point of stopping you from using your Word?”

He scowled back at her. She knew exactly why they didn’t practice their Words just anywhere. Near death-by-tree aside, the amount of destruction alone... besides, they had practiced! Yesterday!

“They choose us for our Words, and don’t let us use them!” Bakti agreed, face animated, eyes focused and missing entirely the other half of the conversation.

Ana shook her head and tutted.

“Anyone else from Kavakar with you?” Jay asked, eager to end this stream of the conversation.

Bakti shook his head. “The Brigade is a defensive Word only place. It’s just me. I wasn’t alone on the caravan here though. Abby, Raja and-“ He paused for a second, hesitant. “-Eric joined guilds here.”

“Raja. He had an odd spear form,” Kane interjected, looking puzzled and not like they were talking about someone he had trained beside for years.

“Yes, that Raja,” Bakti said, rolling his eyes. “His uncle taught him that. The same uncle is part of Heritage, some guild that only takes legacies.”

“And Abby?” Ana prompted. It looked like Jay wasn’t the only one who missed out on some of what happened during the solstice.

“Marching Orders. There was a big fuss about it.” Bakti avoided looking at Jay, knowing of course what his plans had been, but he was unable to do so in a way that wasn’t obvious. If anything, it just drew more attention to Jay.

Jay bit his cheek and pushed past it. “And Eric? Why did you pause earlier?”

Eric was a bit obnoxious, and it was unfortunate he’d ended up here instead of any of the other city states, but not a big deal. Jay never spent much time around him in Kavakar, and saw no need to change that in Lauchia.

Bakti jerked his head back and his eyebrows shot up his forehead. “Because you— Oh. You don’t know. You’d already left before then.”

Ana leaned in, sensing a story.

“I what?”

Bakti winced and scratched his head. “You fought him during the guild trials. It was... a short fight. He still got recruited, but when Marching Orders took Abby after rejecting him…” Bakti trailed off and made a face that was mirrored by Jay.

“Ugh. What did he do?” It was shit like this that made him want to avoid Eric.

“Blamed you for the fight and the guild he ended up with. Did it rather loudly and in earshot of both guilds. It wasn’t pretty and his recruiter did not let him forget that on the way over. He... might have a grudge for you over it.”

Ana snorted, glee overtaking her features.

“What?” Jay asked in dismay. All he did was win a fight, now he was being punished for it?

Bakti nodded. “Maybe avoid him for a while.”

Jay groaned, but they had no more time to get into detail. The Marching Order and Bedrock guilds arrived, led by the same two adventurers as always, Maya and Jason. Lots of shouting recalled Bakti to his team and all the runners set off.

| i i i ¦ i i i | i i i ¦ i i i |

The door to the dormitory shut behind Kane, leaving the room in silence. Jay lay down on his bed, butting his head into the pillow.

Lunch was settling in his stomach. He’d already stopped by a shop to pick up oil and wax for all their armor. They already had a task for tomorrow. He knew which training grounds they’d be using this evening. Bakti was busy with his guild work, and he hadn’t seen Raja or Abby yet.

There was nothing for him to do.

He smacked his head back, trying to smooth out a lump in the rough bag of feathers. The team needed no new equipment. He sorted the team’s budget for the week two days ago. They scouted for places that sold packaged meals for lunches while finding today’s meal.

For the first time since arriving in Lauchia, Jay had a free afternoon.

He had no idea what to do with it. Laundry was an option. There wasn’t enough dirty clothes built up yet, but it was always better to stay ahead, right? There was lots to do… shops he still needed to check out.

Yet, he didn’t move.

“Where do you think he goes?” Ana asked, breaking his chain of thought and inner debate. She was sitting on her bed, fiddling with a needle and that fabric she hung across the room in place of a curtain. Normally tied up at the corners by a string that Jay or Kane would take down as needed, it looked like she was sewing the edge of the fabric into a loop so it could be hung like an actual curtain and brushed back and forth.

“Huh?”

“Kane. What do you think he does every day?”

Jay blinked, twisting his head on his pillow. “I... I don’t know.” He rarely saw his team during this free time period. Ana was usually around the dormitory, but he was always off to do one task or another, and Kane was... somewhere. “I’ve never thought about it.”

Ana set her needle down carefully, placing her full attention on him. “Do you think he’s meeting someone?”

Jay sat up, brain suddenly awake. “Who? Kane doesn’t talk to people.”

She bobbed her head from side to side. “All of you guild hopefuls knew him, didn’t you? Think he’s gone to find Raja for his ‘spear’ technique?”

“No.” Jay snorted and settled down. “Kane was not talkative. He barely knows Raja. Anyone really.”

“What about Taylor? She can’t stop staring at him in Peak.”

“Really?” Jay sat up again. He couldn’t remember Taylor focusing on Kane. The slate-blond ringlet haired woman was usually very active in the conversation.

“Mm-hmm. Very interested I’d say.”

“Huh. I wouldn’t have thought.” He would have to watch for it next time they met up. It was surprising. Taylor seemed too outgoing to mesh well with Kane.

The room fell quiet for a moment, the sound of needles oddly absent.

“We could, find out, you know.”

“If Taylor’s interested in him?” Jay asked in disbelief. It seemed a little... childish. He hadn’t expected it from Ana.

“No,” Ana snapped. “What Kane does every day. He just left a minute ago. We could catch up.”

“Eh...” Was it an invasion of privacy? Kane didn’t invite them... but he hadn’t asked them to stay away either. If he didn’t want them to know, surely he would have told them. Kane’s whereabouts were important to know in case something happened, and, it wasn’t like Jay had anything else to do. “Okay.”

Ana popped to her feet and rushed to the door. She’d clearly been wanting to do this for a while. “Come on then, we need to catch up.”

Jay scrambled to get off the bunk bed and follow her.

| i i i ¦ i i i | i i i ¦ i i i |

“There he is!” Jay hissed, tapping Ana’s shoulder frantically. They hurried to get behind a cart on the street.

They peered around the wooden cart full of small gravel to be used with liquid stone to repair the road. Anywhere that supported wild-travel capable wagons was always in need of repair, and the transports were a familiar sight in the city. It was a perfect cover to hide behind.

“I think he’s in a daze again — he always moves slower like that,” Ana whispered.

Jay squinted and watched as Kane leaned more and more to the right, leading with his head until he staggered, off balance. “Yeah, it looks like that. He’s– he’s turning there!”

Kane disappeared down a side street.

Ana led the charge to get him back in sight. It became a pattern. They’d follow behind him carefully, only for Kane to make abrupt turns and twists. He led them down alleyways, behind restaurants, through a cleaners, into a bric-à-brac and around a theater. None of the turns made any sense, often doubling back on themselves. It wasn’t Ana and his presence, either. Several times Kane took turns before they were in sight and often they followed him closely for minutes without change.

They got to see a lot of the city. Jay didn’t realize you could carve stone into so many shapes and didn’t know why anyone would. He also resolved, if he ever ran a caravan, to charge double to any passengers moving away from Lauchia. Their luggage would weigh ten times as much as anyone else’s. It was an astoundingly beautiful city. Lauchia’s stonemasons were masters at their trade and here was where they experimented and exhibited that skill. Many buildings were like nothing he’d ever seen before. The theater was decorated with tens of scenes that he recognized from stories, and a hundred more that left him curious. Wonder stone inlaid buildings rose like cliffs. Awnings swept out into the street, supported by little other than air.

Lauchia was surely the architectural capital of the world and at their current pace, there was no time to appreciate it.

“Do you think he just walks around?” Jay asked finally. Frustration starting to overtake his interest in following Kane.

“No,” Ana insisted, slicing through the air with one hand. “He’s heading south.”

Jay eyed her doubtfully. Kane was heading in every direction. She just didn’t want to stop. He still committed to following for another ten minutes.

Fifteen minutes later, a similarly irate Ana slapped him. “There! He went inside that building.”

Jay blinked, having been dozing himself. “What? You sure?”

He inspected the building she was indicating. It was nothing special. Two stories tall and long, disappearing behind its neighbors. Though larger, it was made from patchwork, something odd for the area but not unseen. The building was built with a mix of browns at the sides, and glossy black and rough cream stone in the center. Jay couldn’t say it was tasteful, but he wasn’t an architect or good with color schemes.

“He didn’t go down the alleyway?”

Ana shook her head. “I saw him open the door.”

They stood still in the crowd for a moment.

“What’s he doing in there?”

“I dunno,” Jay whispered back. “What is it?”

Ana made a face, apparently as in the dark about the building as he was. “Let’s find out.”

“No, wait!“ Jay grabbed her shoulder, holding her back. “He might just be in the doorway. Give him a minute to... get further in.”

She shook off his hand, but did wait. Fifty seconds later, she was hurrying through the crowd. There was no sign or name on the front of the building, but there was a symbol of some kind. It consisted of two side-by-side squares, filled with wavy lines.

A swimming pool? Or a public baths? Jay wondered. The dormitory had washing facilities, but luxuries like a bath were not included. Now faced with the idea, he found himself wanting a soak himself. It would be a great way to rest after a long day’s work.

Ana and he shared a nod before grabbing the doors and stepping in. The entranceway was small and guarded by a long desk in its center. Two attendants sat there, a man and a woman. There were two doors on each side of the room, but it was the back wall that drew attention. The lower half was made from stone, but the upper consisted of foggy glass and the doors were no exception. Through the glass, Jay could make out a faint outline of tall stacks.

Cabinets, like those for the Wonder, he guessed. This must be where Kane was going to relax every day. Hopefully, they charged less for the experience than the Wonder.

“Can I help you?” The male attendant asked.

Jay winced. They must have been staring too long.

“Yes,” Ana said, stepping forward confidently. “We wanted to see if we could visit.”

The man gave her an agreeable but firm smile. “I’m afraid this is not like the tablet chambers. Membership is required to enter the Lauchia library-”

“Library??” He and Ana repeated back, in surprise and far too loudly for the venue. Loud enough for the sound to pass through those glass doors.

Thankfully, they were able to get out of the building without too much of a fuss or Kane spotting them. Once they got past the shock, the experience kept them entertained the entire way back to the dorms.

At training and dinner that night, the stoic swordsman made no mention of their presence. It looked like they were in the clear.

After dinner, however, Jay had settled into a funk. Something wasn’t sitting right with him. The minutes ticked by with no relief. Sleep eluded him. Faint snores from his room and the building in general taunted him. It was this odd feeling, this pressure on the back of his mind. Nothing concrete, like Bakti’s earlier warning or his fears for the team. Just a sense of foreboding.

Everything had been going so well, but could that continue?

Frustrated, he hurled his pillow to the side out of frustration. It fell with a muffled thump. A faint noise from Ana’s corner made him freeze.

Shit, did I wake her up?

Ana mumbled once more, then made no further sound.

Jay relaxed, only to realize there was no way to retrieve his pillow without waking someone up. Groaning, he settled back to sleep without it. It took what felt like hours, but he drifted away. The next morning he woke up without that persistent crick in his neck.