The Outlands

Tess handed in her paperwork, giving Graham a small nod as she did.

“Thanks!” He said, smiling in return. “I’ll get this all filed away for you.”

“Sorry for eating up some of your time.” Tess said. “I know you’re probably pretty busy today.”

“It’s all good.” Graham said, giving a wink. “It just means I don’t have to deal with the general lines for a little bit and no one can complain about it. Definitely worth it.”

“If you say so.” Tess said. “See you around!”

“‘Till next time!” He replied, waving as the group left.

“So…now what?” Ellie asked.

“Now we just wait.” Jin replied. “And we show up on the day of the expedition. We’re expected to pack at least some provisions for ourselves, but if you’re with the main column of the guild you’ll at least be given basic food and shelter. Depending on how things go, however, it’s not uncommon to have smaller groups break from the main one to check out interesting landmarks.”

“What kind of things should we pack, then?” Tess asked. “I’m assuming food and water, do we need a tent or…?”

“I was assuming you’d bunk with us in the hoverer. It’s safer and more comfortable than your standard tent.” Alice said. “But it can’t hurt to have stuff for camping in your bags, you never know what’s going to happen out there.”

“Oh no.” Ellie said, making a face. “Not her again.”

Tess frowned, looking to where Ellie was looking. Sure enough, Ilmir was walking over to the group, Eyfura trailing her at a distance. There was an odd air of apprehension around the two of them as they approached, as if they were gearing up for some sort of confrontation.

A few tense moments later, she had arrived. “What do you want, Ilmir?” Ellie growled. “I thought I was abundantly clear about how I felt the last time we talked.”

“I-I know.” Ilmir squeaked, looking down. “I’m not going to ask to be let back in or anything. I burned that bridge, I understand. I just…I need to apologize.” She said, stealing a glance at Tess. “I’m…well, I did a lot of horrible things, I’m starting to realize that. I don’t really think I’m…ready to be in a party, not for a long time.”

“Don’t make this about you.” Ellie snapped. “This was never about your readiness or not, this is entirely about the way you treated Tess, and the way you tried to pull us apart. If you’re going to apologize, do it properly, look Tess in the eyes, be specific, and don’t try to turn this around to trying to make us feel bad for you. Even if you’re not ready to be in a party, that doesn’t excuse treating Tess like dirt.”

“I wasn’t trying to do that!” Ilmir replied, shrinking away. “I was getting to the specifics, I swear.” She fidgeted for a moment before looking up at Tess, locking eyes with her. “I…I shouldn’t have said you don’t deserve what you have, and I shouldn’t have tried to break up your party. I really shouldn’t have said what I did about you and your grandfather, and I just…sorry.”

Tess thought for a moment. “I’m…not going to just say it’s fine.” She said finally. “You caused both Ellie and I a lot of stress, and I don’t know if I can just…accept an apology like that. I mean, I can, but…” She trailed off, struggling to find the right words. “But it also doesn’t feel…right. I can’t just say we’re at a clean slate right now, not when everything is so fresh. This is a start, but it’s just…not enough.”

“I know.” Ilmir said. “I get it. I wouldn’t accept it either. If you want, I’m willing to do whatever it takes to make up for it, but I’m guessing that you probably would rather just not deal with me, so I’m going to leave you alone. If you ever need anything, though, I’m ready to help.”

Tess nodded. “Yeah, you’re right, I would rather just not deal with you, but before that happens, I want one thing, unrelated to this whole apology business.”

Ilmir nodded slowly. “I’ll do what I can. What can I help with?”

“I want a rematch.” Tess said. “No Descent, none of anything like that. Now that I know what you’re capable of, I want to fight again after I graduate from school.”

Ilmir blinked in surprise. “I…that’s fine.” She said. “Just let Grandma know when and I can be there. Um…I’m going to let her talk to you now, and I’m going to go. Goodbye.” She hurriedly ducked away, leaving Eyfura to step up and take her place.

“I’m…well, I’m sorry too.” She said. “I let things get way out of hand. I was really just…hoping things would work out, but I…didn’t put in the effort to make that happen. Um…I’ve started taking her to a counselor, and, um,” she blushed as she continued, “I’m taking teaching lessons myself. I realized just how bad of a job I did and…yeah.”

Ava smiled, patting Eyfura’s arm gently. “Not everyone’s good at everything the first try, there’s no shame in admitting to your mistakes and trying to improve.”

“I…yeah.” Eyfura said. “I wasn’t planning to come and talk to you all for a bit, but Ilmir insisted on apologizing and I figured that was fine for now.” She shook her head. “I won’t drag things out any more than this, though. I’ll just…see you all around, I guess.”

“I’ll see you around, Auntie.” Tess said, giving her a quick hug.

Eyfura smiled weakly. “Now that you’re in the habit, Aunt Eyfura works fine.” She said. “Perhaps when we’re seeing each other more again we can go back to it, but for now, it’s…it’s fine.”

“Are you sure?” Tess asked, a note of concern entering her voice. “I really don’t mind.”

“Yeah, I…I think so.” Eyfura replied., ruffling Tess’s hair. “I really do need to get going, though. Sorry for taking time out of your day.” She extracted herself from the hug and made a hasty exit, leaving the group alone once again.

There was a short silence before Tess spoke up. “Ellie, did you have a conversation with Ilmir where you talked to her about how you felt?” She asked. “She left pretty shortly after everything went down, so I’m just…wondering when that happened.”

“She bumped into me right after you all had your…talk.” Ellie explained, a sour look on her face. “She wanted to know if what you said was true and I didn’t like her. I said that, if I was being completely honest, I would greatly prefer it if she just wasn’t around. I told her the only reason I tolerated her was because Eyfura was helping you learn how to use your claws, and if it wasn’t for that I would have asked if we could go back to it just being the two of us.”

“I’m…guessing she didn’t take that well?” Tess asked.

“No, I don’t think she did.” Ellie said. “I mean, she didn’t really stick around, but I can tell that it really bothered her. I felt a little bad, but…well, she’s said a lot worse to us. I’d had enough of being tactful.”

“Yeah, I get that.” Tess replied. “But…that’s enough about that for now. I was kinda hoping that we could all go shopping, maybe learn about what sorts of things we wanna buy for extended trips out like this.”

“Seems like a good idea.” Alice said. “What do you think, Jin?”

“Agreed.” Jin replied. “It can’t hurt to start teaching them how to prepare for wilderness excursions.”

“Shall we go to the market, then?” Ava said. “I’m sure it’s going to be crowded, but we can use the waiting time to explain things a bit more, so it shouldn’t be that big a deal.”

The Rumors shared a glance. “Actually, for basic supplies, if we’re not in a hurry we usually just buy from Alice’s company.” Ker said. “We basically just put in a list of things we want and then submit it as an order. Full price, of course, we try not to abuse things like that, it’s just a way of avoiding haggling and lines.”

“Can we go to the market anyway?” Tess asked. “Like, not to get normal stuff, I was wanting to get a couple more…exotic cores. Nothing high level or anything, still just stuff around my level, I’m thinking about tweaking Silky and Isabella’s abilities, maybe fill out a couple of gaps in mine.”

Ava nodded. “Can’t hurt. We can discuss what you all need to get on the way.”

With that the group gathered up and began to move through the crowd. Soon, they were out of the building and into the streets, which, while less crowded than the guild itself, were still rather clogged.

“So, food and water are obvious.” Ava said. “The bags you two have will help preserve food, but it’s not perfect, so things that don’t perish easily are preferable. And you want huge drums of water if possible, bulk storage. There are some spells to purify water, Tess should know them, so unless you’re going to the desert or something then you should be more worried about storage than anything.”

“I’ll show you two some good ones.” Alice said. “You want sturdiness, since you’re going to use them a lot, and it’ll generally be in harsh environments.”

“How are we gonna refill big drums like that?” Tess asked. “It seems a little…unwieldy.”

“Just take it out of your bag while you’re on the shore of a river or other body of water.” Jin said. “The nicer ones have tops that can be removed relatively easily, so all you have to do is place it down and remove the top. Then you just seal it up, put it back in your bag, move it somewhere safe, and purify it.”

“What happens to the water on the outside of the barrel when you put it in?” Ellie asked. “Does it end up going in the bag too?”

“No.” Alice replied. “The openings of the bags naturally repel liquid. If it’s in a sealed container, then the repulsion isn’t strong enough to cause it to break the container, so it goes in, but otherwise it just slides off.”

“So, you’re saying I could use the bags as a quick way to dry clothes, right?” Ellie said. “That seems handy.”

Ker chuckled. “It’s a little more effective than wringing out the clothes yourself, but it’s not worth it, I’m afraid. Believe me, I’ve tried it before. Any spare drops of water that do get in the bag have to be emptied by like…turning the bag upside-down and trying to reach in for water and it’s just a mess.”

“So…for food, I’m just guessing canned food and stuff, right?” Tess asked.

“Pretty much.” Alice replied. “Canned food, dry pasta, honey, rice, basically anything with a long shelf life will do you good. If you’re only planning on being out for a short period of time, like a month, you can take things like non-canned vegetables and even things you’d have to refrigerate normally, those should last you that long. But you should always have long-term food in your bags just in case.”

“Makes sense. So, aside from that, what else?”

“There’s a bunch of stuff.” Alice said. “Rope is a good one, you can’t go wrong with having a few coils of rope around, you never know when that’s going to come in handy. We also like to use this sort of…magical rope launcher things for stuff like rappelling, basically just shoots out a beam of force that attaches onto a surface so you can climb easy.”

“Always have something that will let you make fire.” Jin added. “Matches are good, lighters can also be good, and you want to keep at least one everlasting torch around.”

“Everlasting torch?” Ellie asked. “Is that like…an always burning torch?”

“Pretty much.” Jin said. “You light it up, and then as long as it’s within about five feet of you, it’ll keep burning. It takes a bit of Mana as substitute for fuel every five or so minutes, but it’s a pretty trivial amount, even for Tess. As long as you’re not actively using Mana, natural regen should more than make up for it.”

“But bring a good flashlight too.” Ker said. “The torch is more useful for warding off weaker monsters, providing light in a wide area, and for cases where you might want fire around, but a flashlight is more convenient if you need something fast.”

“Even you, Tess.” Alice said. “I know you have that crazy good night vision, but sometimes you’re going to need to show other people something, and flashlights are just…handy. Especially the really bright ones, you can use those to blind something if you’re really in a pinch, though…to be honest you in particular are probably better off just getting an ability that lets you blind things, so scratch that last point.”

“I have the money.” Tess said, shrugging. “Not like I have much else to spend it on, aside from cores. Can’t hurt to be prepared.”

The group turned onto what was clearly a market street; there were all sorts of stall lining the sides, and the buildings all had displays showing various wares. “Keep your eye out for any magic supply stores, or any stalls selling miscellaneous things.” Ava informed. “Magic supply stores will always have a decent selection of cores, and stalls selling miscellaneous stuff are generally temporary things where freelancers sell spoils if they don’t want to sell it to the guild or companies.”

“Why wouldn’t they do that?” Tess asked. “Seems like less work.”

“They can get a higher price by selling it themselves.” Ava explained. “And if you’re buying here, it’ll probably be cheaper than what companies sell too, so it’s a win all around. The only problem is that there’s no consistent selection of anything, so unless it’s a super common item you’re not guaranteed to find it.”

“This is where I got that core I gave you as a present, actually.” Ellie said. “Picked it up off of some people who had just come back from some sort of dungeon run. I had a few cores I thought would be good, so I stopped by here from time to time to see if anyone had any. I found there’s also a bunch of gear from dungeons here, but I don’t really know how that…stacks up to custom-made stuff.”

“Usually worse, but a lot cheaper.” Ker said. “It’s not bad, but if you want something truly nice, you have to order it. Still, especially around these levels, this sort of gear is more than enough to get you through.”

There was a tap on Tess’s shoulder, and she whirled to find Amara standing there, smiling. “Fancy meeting you all here.” She said. “Gearing up for the expedition?”

“Grandma, don’t leave me like that!” Maven said, pushing her way through the crowd and up to Amara. “Oh, it’s you guys. Are you here to prepare for the expedition?”

“Sort of.” Tess replied. “We’re just here to pick up some cores for my Class. We’re going to be doing the rest of our shopping through Alice’s company.”

“You’re welcome to join us when that time comes, by the way.” Alice said. “You’re going to be as much a part of this party as they are, so it’d be helpful if everyone was on the same page. Plus, you don’t have to wait in lines if you don’t want to.”

Maven’s eyes lit up, and she turned to Amara. “Do you think that’s a good idea, Grandma?”

“Sounds like a great one.” Amara said. “We’ve already picked up a few things, but we’re not finished yet, so might as well do it that way. As you said, things are hectic around here right now.”

“By the way, Maven, have you met the rest of the team?” Alice asked.

“I have met Lady Vogel a few times, but I do not believe I have met the other two, no.” Maven replied.

Ava laughed. “Please, just call me Ava if we’re not at a formal function.” She said. “The whole ‘Lady Vogel’ thing is far too stuffy for my tastes.”

Maven nodded. “Understood.” She turned to Ker and Jin, giving a small curtsey. “My name is Maven Sarlienne, pleased to meet you.”

Ker smiled. “I’m Ker Riis, nice meeting you too.”

“And I’m Jin Yu.” Jin said. “Pleasure to meet you, as well.”

“Um…if you’re not gonna continue shopping for regular stuff, do you want to come look at cores with us?” Tess asked. “We were talking about what stuff you usually need for extended stays, so it might be worth hearing.”

Maven smiled. “Of course. Might I ask why you need cores, though? Surely you don’t use enough strong magic to need to stockpile before leaving…” She trailed off, giving Tess and Ellie an appraising look. “Well, you might, I understand you and Ellie are…exceptions.”

“You’re right, I don’t.” Tess said. “I mean…I can use magic that requires cores, but I don’t have the Mana pool to do it much. No, I have a…unique use for them, I’ll tell you more about it when we’re in private.”

Maven arched a brow. “You have my curiosity. I’m looking forward to your explanation.”

“Actually, I got this.” Ava said. “I can give us a sort of…perception filter that’ll keep people from taking notice, then we can talk while we look.”

“Perfect.” Tess said. “I suppose we can all sort of talk about our party dynamic too, while we’re at it.”

“Good. Give me a moment, then.” Ava said, then began to mutter a spell. Once she finished, Tess began to explain in detail her abilities to an increasingly stunned Maven.

It was in the middle of that explanation that they stumbled across a stall that could only have been manned by freelancers. “Sorry to interrupt,” Ava said, “but I’m going to have to drop the spell if we want to take a look at the wares. Would you prefer to wait until after your explanation is done, or should we go now?”

“I don’t mind either way.” Tess said. “Up to Maven, really.”

“I can wait.” She said. “It would be best to get in line now.”

“Got it.” Ava said. There was a moment’s pause, then she continued. “Spell’s down. Shall we take a look, then?”