Cinnamon Bun

Chapter Five Hundred and Seven - Crimes Against Our Sanity

I woke up to a small surprise.

Congratulations! Through repeated actions your Snoozing skill has improved and is now eligible for rank up!

Rank D is a free rank!

Neat! I'd kinda sorta forgotten about that skill, but... well, it was going to level up all on its own. Was it why I woke up feeling so refreshed? Or was that because I ate well, exercised a lot, and got to sleep snuggled up between two friends on Miss Laine's floor?

In any case, I was happy to be heading out, but my happiness was nowhere near Miss Laine's. She was practically buzzing around her little kitchen as she prepared what she called her 'get out of my house' porridge.

It tasted pretty good for something meant to get us out the door, but I supposed that it also worked because only an hour or two after the sun rose, we were ready to go. Sir Aberrforth packed his tent dejectedly, but he had a few pals to help him, so it wasn't all that bad.

I wanted to stick around and help, but Amaryllis was insistent that we head out sooner rather than later. Technically, our mission was done here, and the sooner we arrived back in Port Royal, the sooner we'd get paid.

She doubted that Sir Aberrforth would get lost between here and the city, and I kinda doubted the same. His team of grenoil explorers didn't seem overly happy with him at the moment. Poor Aberrforth.

In any case, we left a bit of money with Miss Laine to thank her for the meal and the overnight stay, as well as some rations that we could spare. She was thankful for the small set of emergency potions that Amaryllis gave to her. I supposed that even a self-proclaimed witch had room for that kind of thing.

And then we were off.

"So..." I said once we were a good twenty minutes away from Miss Laine's place and basically retracing our steps from the way over. "I should probably tell you what happened in the mine."

"You have been quiet about that," Amaryllis said.

"Ah, did something bad happen before you met us?" Awen asked.

I chewed on my lower lip, then nodded. "Bad and not so bad? I met Miss Laine's monster. He was just an old, old Riftwalker that had, uh, maybe lost a few marbles? Once he arrived on Dirt, he went ... mean. Eventually, that caught up with him and he got locked up tight in the mine. Actually, his actions from way back then reminded me a bit of Rainnewt, in some ways, though I think he's much better now."

"Much... Broccoli, this is the opposite of reassuring," Amaryllis said. She almost looked ready to turn around.

"Rainnewt is that dastardly villain that you have been fighting for some time now, is he not?" Desiree asked.

"Uh, okay, starting from the start," I said. "Yes, Rainnewt is the baddy we've been fighting for a while. And the man down in the mines wasn't quite like that. He got, uh, kinda enraptured by a weird twisty dungeon core that let him see alternate pasts and which encouraged him to become obsessed with becoming stronger? And that led him to do a lot of really bad things until he was trapped in the mines by... I guess Miss Laine's ancestors. But it has been a very long time, so he's better now?"

Amaryllis groaned into her talons. "Broccoli," she said.

Awen shook her head next to her too. "Broc," she repeated, sounding a little disappointed.

"What? I destroyed the weird core in the end. Uh, but not before the riftwalker tried to use it to tempt me. Or maybe it was to teach me a lesson? It didn't really work."

"Broccoli," Amaryllis said, again. She really liked the sound of my name today. "You... urgh, I don't even know where to begin. Awen, you chastise her for me."

"Awa, okay? Um, Broccoli that was very... um... silly?"

"Aww," I said. "I got two more General points for it. I'm sorry I couldn't share them with everyone this time."

"This time?" Desiree asked. "Do you frequently commit what is widely regarded as the most heinous crime imaginable?" she was smiling as she asked it, but I still felt a slight shiver run down my spine.

"Uh," I said. "No? Not frequently? Only when there's a quest or something... well, this time was different! The core was on a weird magic plinth thing, not like a normal dungeon core plinth, and it was being magiced by stuff. It was definitely not in a normal dungeon core room, and stuff had been done to it. I think to power the past-seeing spell that happened whenever it was touched."

Amaryllis groaned louder. "Broccoli... that sounds like impossibly illegal magic. Do you know how much people would be willing to give to study that?"

"... But you just said it's super illegal?" I asked.

"And you think that would decrease the value?" she asked.

Amaryllis started to question me about the core, the magic around it, the feel of it to my magical senses, and everything else. I tried my best to answer all of her questions. Calamity joined in eventually, but he was more curious about what other past Broccolis were like. He was a little disappointed to learn that this real version of me was the only one to ever meet him, but that was okay.

We chitted and we chatted for a long while, at least until noon rolled around and we found ourselves on the outskirts of that little grenoil town we'd been to on our first day out. From there, it was easy to hitch a ride on a wagon that happened to be heading out to Port Royal.

We cut off the discussions about anything possibly-illegal we'd done as we rode out towards the city on the side of the mountain.

I wasn't sure if riding in the back of a cart was faster than walking or not, but the farmer bringing the cart to the city but the farmer was the sort of lifelong local who knew the land like the back of his hand, so he did take a much shorter route consisting mostly of shortcuts.

Port Royal eventually appeared out above us, first by the increased number of ships in the air, then we spotted a flash as Cholondee circled the top of the mountain, and finally the city came into view as we came up a rise at the foothills of the mountain.

It was weird, I'd been on Dirt for a good while already, and yet I was still used to the speed of cars. So what looked like it should only be a half-hour's drive away took a couple of hours instead by cart and on foot.

We did make it to the city by midafternoon though, just in time to be really hungry, but not so hungry that we wanted to dip into our rations instead of making it to a restaurant.

We rode one of the lifts up the side of the mountain. There was a small discount for Exploration Guild members, and the person selling tickets didn't check to see if we were all members, which was like a bonus discount that I only felt a little bit guilty about.

The moment we arrived in Port Royal proper, we had a choice to make. Back to the Beaver Cleaver, or the Exploration Guild, or, as a third option, we could head out to say hi to Booksie. "I think I'd like to visit Booksie first, and maybe get something to eat," I said.

Amaryllis huffed. "And skip out on reporting our successful mission?"

"Yes?" I tried. "Unless we split up again? A few of us check on Booksie and some of us go to the Guild to make sure to hand in the mission? Then we meet up again for lunch at the Beaver?"

Amaryllis considered it, then nodded. "Fine. Who wants to come with me to report?"

There was a long, long beat of awkward silence.

"Ah... okay, I guess I'll come," Awen said.

Amaryllis had her talons on her hips by then. "I see how it is. Just a bit of concern over our professionalism and suddenly no one cares."

"It is kind of boring," Calamity said.

I shook my head. I did feel a little bad for Amaryllis. "Let's all go to the guild, then," I said. "It shouldn't take long, right?"

"It shouldn't," Amaryllis said. "We report our success, that Aberrforth is returning, then fill out a few forms. I can take them with us and fill them out tonight, to save us all some time now."

"That sounds great," I said with a happy nod.

One of the city's guards ran over to us, and for a moment I felt a little nervous. There couldn't be good reasons for an on-duty guardsman to single someone out, could there? "Excuse me, are you Broccoli Bunch?"

"Uh, yes?" I said. I wanted to slip behind my friends so that I wouldn't have to lie, but it was a little too late for that.

He smiled and gestured back into the city. "Miss, ah, Booksie was looking for you."

"And she has the guard looking on her behalf?" Amaryllis asked.

He shrugged. "She's kind of running the guard by the nose. Well, her sylph friend is, in any case. The city really wants to please her right now, and we mostly don't mind. The big wedding sounds like the biggest party Port Royal will throw this century!"

I glanced at my friends. That would require a little change of plans, then. Also, I was starting to suspect that things might have blown themselves out of proportion while we were away.

***