Chapter Five Hundred and Eighty-Nine - Seek And Ye Shall Find Out |
Chapter Five Hundred and Eighty-Nine - Seek And Ye Shall Find Out
I sat up straight, but before I could say anything, Amaryllis jumped on the opportunity. "What, exactly, did Rainnewt tell you?" she asked.
I nodded along. I wanted to know too!
Tristan paused for a moment, then glanced up and over to the side. "One moment, before I answer that, perhaps you'd like to meet another member of the Avatars?"
I I followed his gaze, then smiled as someone slipped into the room, only to freeze a moment later as I took her in. She was a foxkin!
"Guinevere, you finally found some free time to join us?" Tristan asked.
"I sniffed some tea out of the air, and it was made better than you could ever manage, you old rat," the woman said as she moved closer. She walked with a strange gait, like a model on a catwalk, almost. Not to appear prettier, I don't think, but rather to accommodate the tails swaying behind her.
The four tails.
Desiree had explained it to me already. On hitting level ten and rising to the second tier, she had gained a second tail. If that same pattern held, then Guinevere here was between levels 30 and 40 in her main class, which also meant that she had at least three other classes. That was a very, very high total level, and it came with a lot of potential skills. Fourth tier! The same as Abraham.
"Hi!" I said with a wave. "A kitsu? So's one of my best friends, are you from the islands to the south of Deepmarsh?"
Guinevere blinked languidly, then smiled. "I am! And you do have the scent of someone of my sort on you. How interesting! Pour me a cup? What were we talking about with our fine guests?"
"We were talking about Rainnewt," Tristan said.
"I told you he'd be trouble," Viviane said.
"No, you did not," Percy replied.
Guinevere chuckled, then nodded to me in thanks as I handed her a cup of tea. "I don't recall you saying anything of the sort," she said. "Percival is right. So, what of Rainnewt, and what of our guests? You are brave souls, to have pierced through my storm."
"Your storm?" I asked, latching onto the last part.
She grinned, and her teeth were the sharp blades of a predator. "Yes, mine, little bun."
Tristan cleared his throat. "This is Captain Bunch, Ladies Amaryllis and Sylph, and Paladin Bastion. Despite their unannounced arrival, I think it may be best to treat them as guests, and give them the hospitality afforded as such."
"Hm, fine. But only because this tea is good, and I'm dying to hear any sort of gossip, even poor, unfounded tales, as long as they're titillating enough," she replied as she sat and crossed one leg over the other so that she was angled to let her tails flow freely.
Amaryllis looked at her, then back to Tristan. "So, you were about to say, on the topic of Rainnewt?"
"Ah, yes," he said. "The young man. Some of our members encountered him near the Snowland capital, Stormtower, a few months ago."
That meant that they had met Rainnewt around the time I was in Sylphfree? Or a little before that, maybe.
"He was searching for people of a certain tier of power, and happened across some Avatars working in the region. When he proved that he did have a World-given quest, we arranged a few more meetings. He soon left to take care of other business, presumably in line with his quest."
"Have you seen him since?" I asked.
He nodded. "Recently, in fact. You just missed him. He returned with some explanations about a new way to accomplish his quest," Tristan said.
Guinevere hummed. "I assisted him. He spent about a week and a half here. We designed and built a few devices to alter the mana flow around a dungeon's core and to provide a protective aura around the core. Risky work, that, but there are few people who know dungeons and their cores better than I."
"You know a lot about dungeons?" I asked.
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She grinned. "You could say that I'm the preeminant scholar on their subject. This floating castle is my life's work in that regard."
I blinked. What did that mean? Was the castle a dungeon? It didn't feel like one.
"Was that the end of your contact with Rainnewt?" Amaryllis asked. "And did you know about his criminal behaviour and past?"
Tristan hummed and swirled a small spoon through his cup. "Contact is ongoing. He is currently travelling not too far from here, with Black Avatar Nicholas. They are installing more devices in local dungeons to protect them from the threat his quest outlined."
"You didn't answer her second question," Caprica pointed out.
The small man nodded slowly. "We are aware of some of his... criminal behaviour. Though keep in mind that, while the Black Avatars as an institution have interfered with criminals in the past to subjugate and arrest them, we are not law enforcement. We generally act in an extra-legal manner."
"You're vigilantes," Caprica said. "At best. I believe many states would simply classify you as rogue actors."
"Yes, I suppose we are. There are some states where people of our power are not able to move about freely, where we would be monitored, reported upon, taxed... it's not worth the hassle. We have also acted against the law many times and may well do so again."
"What?" Caprica asked as she sat straighter.
He shrugged. "When the law is written by the cruel, the moral thing to do is to disregard it."
I didn't want to bother Caprica because that seemed like a touchy subject for her, but I kind of agreed. Doing the right thing was more important than doing the legal thing.
"Even so--and I'm not agreeing--you must know that Rainnewt is an objectively bad person. Supporting him can't lead to anything good," Caprica said.
"Ah, I don't like calling people bad," I said. "But I don't think he's a very nice person, and I don't know if he'd ever want to be a nice person either. Um. I think that you should be careful when working with him. We took apart your machine in one of the dungeons."
"You did what?" Guinevere asked. Her tails flicked out in a way that I knew from spending time with Desiree meant that she was peeved.
I shrugged. "It was hurting the dungeon it was in. It was weaker, and acting strange. I think there are other ways you could teach a dungeon to resist Evil Roots."
"So, you have encountered these roots," Tristan said.
"Uh-huh," I replied. "I figured out a way to clean them away. Did you see any?"
"Not myself," he said. "But other Avatars have, and I have their reports. Rainnewt's experience with them corroborated with our own, and also with our experiments."
"What kind of experiments?" Amaryllis asked.
Guinevere pursed her lips, then stood up, tails swirling behind her. "Come to my lab. I will show you."
Percy coughed. "Maybe not now?" he suggested. "Is your laboratory safe for visitors?"
The fox-tailed woman paused. "Fine! Come tomorrow morning, at first light."
"You want us to stay that long?" I asked.
"The storm waxes and wanes during the day," she said. "You missed the best time to exit safely. Your next window will be tomorrow afternoon. So, you might as well stay anchored here."
"I guess so," I said. "If you want, we probably have some supplies that we wouldn't mind selling! I bet you guys don't get some of the things we have! Oh, and I bet Desiree would love to meet you, Miss Guinevere. She's a fox lady too."
"Ah, the one I sniffed out? Yes, I don't think I'd mind meeting a kinswoman," she replied.
Amaryllis huffed and tried to get us back on topic. "Where is Rainnewt now, exactly?"
"Pyrowalk," Tristan said easily. "Near the Betrayer's Strait."
"That's an ominous name," I said.
"A coincidence, I'm sure," he replied. "He should be back within a day or two. His group left to test some of the newer iterations of the devices we built."
I sat up. "Wait, do you know the exact time?"
"You're thinking it coincides with the timer?" Caprica asked, guessing what I was thinking.
"Exactly! I bet he didn't think we'd make it here before him, though!" I grinned. "So... if we're going to be spending the night on your island, what do you do for fun here?"
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