Memoirs 183 - Step one (Patreon)

Rosa shielded her eyes from the sun’s rays as it descended towards the western horizon, painting the sky in a radiant display of colors. The mid-December chill accompanied their journey as the wagon trundled along the dusty road, and she wrapped herself in a warm cloak to stave off some of the cold.

If she didn’t mind wasting her mana, she could probably have kept up a charm or two to provide some warmth to the wagon’s occupants, but it was probably for the best that she conserved her energy for this trip.

Seated opposite her was Father Abraham, still dressed in his pristine white robes, the man’s long blond hair cascading over his shoulders. He didn’t seem to mind the cold much, though Rosa wouldn’t be surprised if it turned out those clothes were enchanted. The priest clearly wasn’t just a simple wandering priest, despite his claims.

The man turned his eyes westward, peering across the rolling hills toward the sun-drenched horizon. “Ah, the splendor of a day gone by and a night approaching,” he mused. “Always a spectacle to behold, isn’t it, Miss Hale?”

“It’s decent enough,” Rosa replied. “Prefer the sunrise, where you don’t have to worry about getting stranded in the middle of the countryside, unable to see past your own nose. But there’s a certain charm to the sunset as well. A lot more intimate and romantic, for one.”

A soft chuckle escaped the priest’s lips. “That it is. I count myself fortunate that I get to spend it with a lady as resplendent as yourself.” Father Abraham turned to look at the only other passenger seated in the rear of the wagon with them, an elderly man with weather-beaten skin and a hawk-like nose. “And you as well, of course, good sir.”

Rosa smiled, her fingers fiddling with the pegs of her klert to keep warm. “I’d save shooting your shot for now, mister. While I won’t shy away from dancing a dance or two, the last fellow who tried wooing me quickly realized he was in for more than he’d bargained for. Last lady, as well.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t dare. Doubly so now. Furthermore, I couldn’t bear to inflict such cruelty upon the good citizens of this empire by altering my bachelor status.”

“Now that’s something I can get behind,” Rosa said, then paused, leaning her head to the side. “Funny. I feel like I’ve uttered almost those very words before, or if I haven’t, I should have.” She plucked at one of the strings on her instrument, producing a short, muted note. “Though my audience at the time likely wouldn’t have been as receptive to the accuracy of that statement as I am.”

“Would this audience perhaps have consisted of a certain baroness?” Father Abraham asked.

Rosa nodded. “Got it in one.”

The man smiled. “You two appear to share a rather unique bond. It is not often one sees something of the sort between a noblewoman and her retainer.”

Rosa released an amused breath. “Yeah, unique’s one way to put it. I’d like to take some of the credit for that, but there’s not a thing with that woman that doesn’t veer into peculiarity or strangeness eventually. Lady’s got a pet stone that she’s sunk more money into than most people see in their whole lives.” She shook her head. “But yes, we’re close. In a manner, at least. To be honest, though, I don’t think there’s a living soul that truly knows her or what’s going on in that head of hers.”

Her mind drifted to the countless instances where Scarlett had hidden things from her, even when it was blatantly obvious. Had it been any other person, Rosa wondered if she would have tolerated that behaviour to this degree. Sometimes she wondered why she even did it with Scarlett.

Though she supposed she wasn’t one to talk. The woman had been at least as accepting of her dirty secrets, if not more so.

“Based on the—unfortunately—limited interactions I’ve had with the Baroness, I am inclined to agree with you,” Father Abraham said. “Even Miss Livvi Knottley, who has known her since childhood, admits to struggling with understanding the woman completely. It seems to be a recurring trait of the Baroness to leave those around her bewildered and astonished. It leaves me wondering if it’s intentional on her part.”

“Don’t I know it.” Rosa grinned wryly. “Can’t tell you much about how much of it is intentional or not, but she’s definitely aware of it most of the time. If shamelessness had a face, it would be paying her compensation fees for borrowing it.”

“Hey, you two!” a call reached from the front of the wagon, as the driver looked back at them. Lit by the descending sun behind them, a crossroads approached them ahead. “You’ll have to get off here if you’re hoping to reach Crowcairn before night. It’s about an hour's walk from here if you move those feet of yours with some speed.”

Rosa arched a brow, turning to look at Father Abraham. “You’re heading to Crowcairn as well?”

She’d assumed the man was taking the wagon all the way to Flatgulf.

The priest nodded. “We are becoming rather mired in coincidences here, are we not? At this pace, before we know it, we might discover that we are lost-lost twins separated at birth.”

Rosa smirked. “Don’t know about that one. I think you got a few years on me for that to be the case.”

He looked even more hurt than when she indicated Scarlett might not quite see him as a friend. “I’ll have you know that I am barely past thirty. I’m in my prime!”

“If you say so.”

The wagon pulled to a halt where the road forked. One path continued northeast, its dirt well-packed and showing signs of use, while the other headed south, with fewer signs of traffic.

As the horses neighed and the wagon resumed its journey without them, leaving both Rosa and Father Abraham standing at the intersection of the two roads, they exchanged a glance.

“Guess you’re stuck with me for a while longer,” Rosa said, hefting her klert onto her back and securing it with a strap, then leaned down and picked up her pack from the ground.

The priest had his own knapsack slung over his shoulder. “And I am quite glad that I am. Rare are the times where I get to enjoy the company of a kindred soul on my travels.”

“I’d drink to that if I had one.”

“If I may ask,” he began as they started trekking down the road ahead, “who is this acquaintance of yours that you are visiting in Crowcairn?”

Rosa cocked her head as she looked forward. “A friend of a friend, I suppose you could call them? I need a bit of help solving a minor inconvenience, and they’re the only one I know who might be able to help without jumping through a loop or one hundred. What about you? What were those ‘disquieting reports’ that led you here about?”

“Not much, if I am to be entirely frank with you,” Father Abraham said. “We received some conflicting information compared to what we knew before, and since I happened to be close by, I took it upon myself to determine the reason for that.”

She glanced at him.

Like he’d said, it was quite the coincidence that he happened to be heading to Crowcairn on the same day as her. Almost too convenient to believe. Was he telling the truth?

Maybe Scarlett had a reason to advise against getting him involved in their affairs. The woman rarely acted without purpose. Rosa’s gut told her the man was alright, but for the time being, a bit of discretion wouldn’t hurt.

They strolled along the path towards Crowcairn, engaging in some light chatter on the way, but they didn’t speak much about their reasons for being here. Neither of them had to voice it to know that the other party was keeping something to themselves, and Rosa liked to think that there was an unspoken understanding not to pry into the other’s business for now.

Eventually, after about an hour of walking, as the wagon driver had told them, they started nearing what appeared to be a smaller settlement. The darkness had deepened to the point where Rosa would typically have relied on the stars and moonlight to see, but a perk of traveling with a priest of Ittar was their handy lumomancy. Father Abraham had conjured several tiny lights that illuminated their path without blinding them, a welcome aid on the somewhat rough road.

The first proper buildings that came into view were some aging barns along the roadside, but those looked to either be abandoned or unused at this time of year. It wasn’t until ten or so minutes later that they reached what appeared to be Crowcairn itself, which comprised a collection of stone and wooden houses nestled next to a meandering river.

In the western and eastern parts of the empire, living in a village this exposed to outside forces would have been a nightmare for any ordinary person. Around Wildscar and the Everdust Barrier, Rosa knew that there weren’t many that still weren’t afraid of another undead incursion from the Undead Council and their horde of spawns, even after decades had passed since the last occurrence. In the west, the dense forests and mountains in the region always put one at risk for monster attacks, even during the coldest periods of the year.

Rosa herself had traveled around the western empire on foot plenty of times without issue, and she knew attacks were about as rare as polite dragons nowadays, but it was a different thing when one lived in one place year-round where a single unfortunate attack could ruin a village for decades.

Here in the central parts of the empire, people barely had to worry about those things. Not only had the majority of roaming monsters long since been culled to a level where they mostly only occurred in predictable locations—if she were to believe what various Shielders had told her, and they were supposed to be the experts—but the Faywild Basin south of Bridgespell was also like a major monster sink that attracted anything dangerous to it and left most of the surroundings relatively calm.

She bet that the basin hadn’t been near, these villagers wouldn’t be living even half as relaxed.

That being said, she was surprised when they entered the village and found that the atmosphere wasn’t quite as calm as she had expected. Even though it had been well past an hour since the sunset by then, there were still people out in the streets and in their workshops, working away where they could.

While not a large number, Rosa spotted a few individuals sitting outside their houses with lanterns beside them as they washed clothes or tended to other chores, and even a blacksmith that was hammering away at some nails, the sound of the man’s strikes echoing through the village. No one seemed to mind, shockingly.

A productive bunch if she’d ever seen one. They reminded her a bit of the people in Freymeadow. Other than the kids, those villagers were more often working away at something than not.

The people who noticed her and Raimond walking through the village gave them appraising looks, but most didn’t bother greeting them even as Rosa waved with a smile.

“Can’t say I was quite expecting them to roll out the welcome mat,” she mumbled to Father Abraham, leaning in closer to him, “but I wouldn’t mind if they at least pretended to say hello either.”

“Well, different strokes for different folks. They are the ones missing out, I would say,” the man replied. He had dismissed his lights after they entered the village, and was now surveying the facades of the buildings they passed. “Where will your feet take you to find this acquaintance of yours?”

Rosa followed his gaze, eyeing the houses. “Well, not really sure where around here they live. Was planning on asking around. How about you?”

“Much the same, I am afraid. It would have been far simpler otherwise.”

“Then how about we both start there?” She pointed towards the blacksmith they had seen earlier. Given the village’s size, she doubted they had an inn or tavern, so the local blacksmith was probably about as good as they’d get on this short measure.

Father Abraham motioned with his arm. “You first, my lady.”

“Why, thank you.” Rosa gave him a brief curtsy before proceeding towards the open foundry where the blacksmith was toiling away. It was built into the side of a house near the river, with a small forge set into stone and a bellow attached to it.

The blacksmith was looking down at his work and didn’t seem to notice as they approached. Rosa cleared her throat gently as they stopped just outside the foundry.

The man paused, holding a pair of tongs and a hammer in his hands, and glanced up at them. A robust man with a bald head and deep-set brown eyes, he was exactly the sort that Rosa imagined communicated in huffs and grunts.

“Hiya there, sorry to bother you in your work and all that, but would you mind answering a couple of questions?” she asked.

The blacksmith’s eyes shifted to focus on her, then roamed over to study Father Abraham’s appearance, stopping on the priest’s robes momentarily, before returning to Rosa. “Yes,” he said, in exactly the gruff voice she’d been expecting.

“Then I’ll just keep it to one,” she replied with a smile, turning to Raimond to give him a playful wink, earning her a betrayed expression from him.

First come, first serve.

The blacksmith regarded her for a while, then set his hammer down on a nearby table with what sounded like a sigh. If a bear had made it. “Speak.”

Rosa’s smile grew. “On it. You wouldn’t happen to know where I can find a person called Malachi around here, would you?”

The man seemed surprised for a moment, studying her for a bit before setting his tongs aside as well and crossing his arms. “…Up north. Continue for half an hour and you’ll reach it. Don’t bother telling her sent you.”

“Won’t do.” Rosa held up her thumb and index in a circle as she turned around to leave.

“Good sir, now that you’ve graciously expended some effort to answer the lady’s question, might you perhaps indulge one of mine?” Father Abraham asked.

Rosa paused, glancing back at the blacksmith, who shifted his attention to the priest, eyes forming into a slight glower. “No. Now leave.”

She suppressed a slight chuckle at the dejected expression that appeared on Father Abraham’s face.

As the two of them walked away from the foundry, the priest drew in a long breath and then sighed. “I thought I was being rather polite. Could it have something to do with how I look?”

Rosa shrugged. “I wouldn’t know. Maybe he just didn’t find you as charming as me.”

“Hmm.” Father Abraham’s brow furrowed, then he shook his head. “No, I simply cannot fathom such a scenario. At the very least, I am at least as charming as you, no?”

Rosa squinted at him, examining his features. He was about as handsome as men got if you asked her, but if anything, that made men like that blacksmith think you were less charming. Not that it’d be any actual point that out.

“Maybe you should try wearing a dress instead of those robes of yours. Might give you a better chance next time you gotta ask some questions.”

“I would rather not. The last time I attempted anything of the sort, I almost found myself wed to a baron searching for a mother for his destitute daughter. Poor man is likely traumatised to this day.”

Rosa snorted. “You’re gonna have to tell me that story sometime.”

“Yes, well, perhaps after imbibing a few spirits, or a dozen. You are buying, I presume?”

“Hmm. We’ll have to see about that one. No promises.” Spotting a road leading out of the village and northward, Rosa turned to Father Abraham. “I think this is where we’ll have to part ways for now. If your business is here in the village, there isn’t much point to you following me all the way to where I’m going. We’ll have to catch up at a later time and swap more stories.”

The man’s gaze started roaming their surroundings. “You won’t be waiting until morning to meet this acquaintance of yours?”

“Nah, it’ll be easier to get it done right away.”

She didn’t want to waste any time if she could. The person she was looking for might not be available at the moment, but if they were, she didn’t want to miss the opportunity.

“Hmm.” Father Abraham wore a thoughtful expression on his face as he examined the buildings around them, stopping for a moment on an older lady who was watching them while sitting on the doorstep of her house, wringing out some wet clothes. “Very well. I suppose I will have to find some lodgings for the night before inquiring with some of the other villagers about my own matter. If fortune favors us once again, perhaps our paths will cross again just as we’re about to depart for Bridgespell, Miss Hale.”

“Just call me Rosa. I think I told you that the first time we met, honestly.”

He smiled. “That you did. Then, Rosa, until next we meet.”

“Until then, Ray.” She nodded to him before spinning on her heel and setting off down the road out of the village.

While she enjoyed the man’s company, she didn’t mind leaving him to his own affairs here. Her instincts told her she’d rather not get too caught up in that if possible. She had a sense that she wasn’t the only one to spot the strange signs in this village.

As long as those matters didn’t intersect with her own objective here, that was all well and good. She already had her purpose, and she’d promised to get back to Bridgespell safely after that. That’s where her focus lay.

And it all started with step one. Finding this Malachi person.