Rok Chapter: Questions and Answers (Patreon)

Rok was sitting at his desk, busily reading over a small handful of the many reports Kelly had placed before him earlier that day. Across from him, the elf continued her slumber, slumped over and breathing heavily. Rok didn’t pay her much mind after she’d fallen asleep, simply ignoring the soft snoring coming from her chair, and the occasional toss or turn. Instead, he was focused on actually completing the work he needed done.

He’d already disregarded a huge portion of the stack of papers, either ignoring or answering with short, shallow answers, leaving him with just over half a dozen requests and reports to be considered. These small few were more ‘delicate’ in nature, needing some form of finesse in his wording to avoid offending their delicate sensibilities, or just being letters which actually merited a second glance.

Among the list, a request to build a local temple somewhere in town was easy to sign off on, as was the guilds’ requests to convert one of the nearby islands into an artifact refinery. Rok had no problems approving both, the first for the significant portion of healers and mages which did worship, and the latter because it was already in the works, and even running it by him was a formality to begin with.

There was also the fact that such a construction would be ridiculously profitable for him and the guilds, though he wasn’t as concerned about that as many would think, especially in his line of work. There were a few proposals which required some more consideration on his part, mostly from other organizations or kingdoms trying to weasel their way onto his island.

He was stuck in a rather delicate position with many of them, to outright refuse would be a hassle he doesn’t need, to accept would be setting a precedent that the rest would try to exploit. So far, he’d only allowed one nation to have any sort of foothold on the island, and by extension, the Reef Dungeon, and that was Hynix itself. Given that Sleepy Gills was still part of the nation, to do otherwise was something Rok would try hard to avoid.

And so, after firmly denying the need for assistance, the offered benefits, and the favors he’d be owed by three of the more polite neighboring nations, he was left with the final proposal, one that was actually interesting, too. It was an offer he had a hard time turning down, the chance to create a more accurate map of the Reef Dungeon was something Rok needed to heavily consider. It could be a literal lifesaver, after all. The only possible demerits to this were who it was that offering their services. The Mapper had an excellent track record, though he was often described as a bit… eccentric.

His deliberations were cut short, though, when the silence reigning in his office was abruptly broken. The elf which slept across from him suddenly came alive, kicking and gasping for a breath she didn’t need to take, startling him rather heavily. He jerked upright, sending his chair back into the wall behind him as the pen in hand was crushed, and rendering both it and the document that Rok was currently filling out ruined. Of course, it took only a moment for both parties to realize what exactly was going on, but neither seemed very pleased with the elf’s sudden awakening.

As Rok started to move his now soggy chair back into place, he realized that the elf before him was apparently at least partially of the Sea variety, it was the only thing he could think of which would let her get so little rest after her ordeal and still be so lively, since an elf could only really get such a great rest in their ‘home’ environments. He shook away the thought as soon as it came on, though, knowing her ancestry wasn’t all that useful to him at the moment, rather, he was much more interested in the more recent history.

After both parties had calmed down some, he proceeded to grab the pair of blackboards he’d placed to the side, as well as a couple lumps of chalk for the both of them. He hastily scribbled down some words onto his own, hoping that this would work alright. It was certainly going to be an unconventional ‘talk’, to say the least, and unfortunately, she was unlikely to be the only person he’d need to do this with.

‘Feeling better?’ Rok held up the board, feeling a little embarrassed when the elf simply stared blankly at the board he was holding, then turning to him for some clarification. He coughed lightly, wiping away the writing and rewriting it more steadily this time, and it seemed to do the trick. She turned to face him, giving him a nod and motioning for him to continue. Rok wiped away the board once more, then took a bit more time to write his next question.

‘So what do you remember?’ Rok followed up, feeling relieved when it took very little time for the elf to parse the information before she took up her own board, and began writing something. 

‘Not much. Someone said they had a hurt partner outside and I followed, a merman grabbed me and dragged me under when it was dark. A siren sang her song, and everything gets a bit hazy. All I remember after that is taking a few healer uniforms for them to wear, and jumping back into the waters. I’m not really sure how we made it past the watchers, just that we did, and then everything was very loud. Other than that, all I can give you is the siren’s name, Jenna. I’m sorry.’

She looked downcast as she held up her board, unsurprising given the circumstances, and Rok found himself gritting his teeth. He made sure to quickly jot that there was no reason to apologize, but whether she could understand that or not was another story. 

Either way, if the elf wasn’t wrong in her recollections, then this was a well-organized event. He’d already been reasonably certain of that just considering that they had managed to make it into the dungeon at all, but knowing that they were brazen enough to abduct a healer in what might as well have been full view of everyone, and skilled enough to succeed made him wary of who exactly was masterminding this.

He took note of the name she mentioned, Jenna. While it wasn’t all that much to go off of, he’d be sure to look for any Sirens with the name in hopes of finding out something concrete. He didn’t have high expectations though, and even then he was prepared to be disappointed, there simply wasn’t anything concrete to go on that could guarantee names.

He pushed aside his worries and turned back to his guest. He wrote down another few questions for her, hoping that maybe something would jog her memory.

‘Are there any other names you can recall? Or what they were wearing before the uniforms? Did they mention who they worked for?’

Rok was reasonable certain that he wasn’t going to get any answers for any of these questions, so when he saw the elf’s eyes light up after struggling to read the whole board, he felt a bit of anticipation for what she had begun hurriedly scribbling onto her board.

‘No, they weren’t in uniforms. But I remember that one of the mermen was Hector, I think. They were talking about something before we went into the dungeon. He also told me to tell Jenna that he was leaving before the other two to inform their employers of something. I didn’t get to tell her that, though, but he did make it out.’

Rok was both disappointed and elated. While one more name wasn’t too groundbreaking, knowing that this ‘Hector’ was out there, relaying news to someone, about something, could be important. Of course, that was only if he could track down this mystery merman, and the chances of this were low, at best. 

Still, it was a possibility, and that was good. He’d try his best to get word to spread around the islands, looking for a partially deaf merman named hector. All of this fell apart if the man wasn’t hard of hearing, but Rok felt reasonably confident in at least that deduction. This Dungeon seemed to take offense at anyone coming in with the ability to hear, and between the unknown Song and those cursed shrimp, it seemed to be a genuine liability to descend without otherwise unnecessary levels of hearing protection, if the reports were to be believed.

He made sure to jot down a note to have Kelly start spreading this information, before turning back to the elf and cocking his head to the side, asking a wordless question. She seemed to understand well enough, and shook her head slowly.

Rok sighed, and stood up, offering a hand to the elf. She took it and stood herself up, leaning a bit to avoid stumbling, and Rok almost fell over himself when he opened his door, only to run into Jacky. After the mermaid pried her back from the wall at the sudden meeting, Rok looked towards her and apologized, then asked a question.

“I’m sorry about that, but can I ask you to help take her to a room down the hall? I’m not sure if there’s any open, and you might be better for that.”

Jacky took a deep breath, then nodded, deciding against saying whatever it was that was on her mind. Rok watched as Jacky swam beside the elf slowly, making sure that she wasn’t tripping over herself, before he shut the door and returned to his desk.

It was with a heavy heart that he realized just how badly his earlier mishap had damaged his progress, and he had to correct himself when he realized he had started hissing without meaning to. Instead, he could only pull another paper out of his desk, and a new pen and inkwell from another drawer, the third replacement he’d needed in as many days, before he set about to rewriting the ruined letter to the Mapper. 

It was only after he’d finished that he realized something was amiss. He went back over the original message and found that there was no way to actually return the message to the man. He’d only figured this out when he’d placed his reply into the envelope the offer originally came in, along with the strangely pristine offer itself. 

He couldn’t well continue thinking about what exactly to do, though, as he suddenly found himself covered in the shattered glass of his office window. Turning around with a start, he could only make out a grey blur of motion, one which raced to him at obscene speeds, violently speared the letter in his hand, and then rocketed back out of the room with a mighty gust of wind.

Rok watched on, dumbfounded, as the grey streak disappeared into the distance in a matter of moments. So fast was it that he was unable to be certain if the thing was even alive, much less what it was. The only sign it had even been there at all was a single feather, floating lazily down until it made contact with the waters of his office. That, and the utterly demolished window, shards of glass stuck into the relatively weak wood paneling, and the papers which had once neatly lined his desk being reduced to a soggy catastrophe.

Rok slowly lowered himself back into the seat, staring blankly at the empty desk. A deep rumbling echoed throughout the room, though no one was around to hear it until a frantic and confused Kelly flung open the door and discovered the despondent Rok.