Path of a Summoner

The path to Guadosalam wasn’t long, but Tana had been right: there were plenty of fiends. Twill commented that it wasn’t unusual, as the entrance to the Farplane was inside the town, but they had seen more action on the road than anticipated, especially since the entrance was being cared for again by the guard.

Wren could only keep her torch burning while the others took care of the fiends. She felt chills as she avoided the skirmish, all the while keeping the path lit.

Tana had an interesting way of moving while fighting, Wren noticed. It was fluid, and had a rhythm to it that reminded her of ocean waves. She was light on her feet, and though her attacks were undisciplined, she took advantage of the landscape and the timing of the attacks of the other two to quickly defeat any fiend before them. Wren couldn’t get a good look at the sword in motion in the dim light, but she could see the light shimmering off of the nicks in the metal. It looked shorter than the average sword she’d seen in her whole life, and curved and broadened near the sword’s tip. It was perfect for close range combat. She would make a note of that—it was difficult to cast around Merris’ style of fighting already, she was lucky not to have singed him.

They neared Guadosalam with only mild scrapes and bruises.

Twill seemed hesitant to cross the threshold of the ancient tree hollow that marked the entrance of the town, but they followed nonetheless. They had quieted down considerably since they left the Moonflow, however. No one pushed the issue with them, tired and eager to get a soft bed for the night.

They went deeper underground, and Wren could see the roots and vines that made up the walls of the passage into town. It made for interesting architecture, and though it was too dark to see, she recalled it being bright and colorful, with stained glass that mimicked organic patterns of foliage.

Tana directed them to the inn, shuffling them through the door one at a time. They were blessed that the inn was so close to the entrance of the town.

There was a strangely dressed man sitting at the desk, tall and lanky. He was human, but it was difficult to tell from the way he was dressed head to toe in a strange purple garb, only his face visible. He seemed to be fighting off sleep himself.

“Room for the night?” he asked, stifling a yawn.

“There are four of us,” said Tana, nodding.

“I see,” the man replied, somewhat rudely as he opened the thick tome in front of him to a marked page. “It’s good to see you’re back in town, though I wasn’t expecting you to bring such an entourage with you. Rumors from the grapevine mentioned that you had gone missing. What were you up to, I wonder?”

“Nothing, nothing, don’t worry yourself about that,” snorted Tana, waving her hand.

“I wasn’t.”

Tana ignored him. “Oh, but you know what? My friends and I here had to pay off the ferryman to take us across so late. We’re a little short right now.”

He sighed. “I take it you’ll be staying for breakfast, then. There are never too many extra hands to go around in the kitchen. You’ll arrive early, of course. The service lasts three hours.”

“Do we have time for that?” asked Wren.

“We don’t have a lot of choice, unless you want to sleep on the ground,” said Tana, patting Wren’s shoulder. “It will take time for Mobius to catch up to us, and breakfast is early enough that I’m not worried.”

“Since we cleaned up a few fiends on the way here, I’ll check the board,” said Merris, nodding. “If we’re lucky, we’ll be able to pick up a couple bounty fees tomorrow.”

He moved away from the group, checking a sign along the wall to the right of the door. There was a small bulletin board with scrawlings of fiends or lists promising rewards. He began scanning it for anything pertinent to them, pointing with his finger while he searched.

The man at the desk cleared his throat, a little too obnoxiously, tapping a pen on the guestbook. “Sign here, please.”

Each one of them signed their name in the book. Wren signed last, looking at what Twill had written. It was difficult to read, almost illegible, but it most certainly did not say Twill’s name. Had they intentionally written a pseudonym? Or was their handwriting really just that bad?

They were pointed to their room, and Twill rotated between healing the three who had been fighting the way there.

“We may still be sore tomorrow, so be sure to get plenty of rest,” said Twill. “Although the bruising should mostly be gone.”

Tana rocked back in her seat briefly, thinking. “Are you gonna be alright working tomorrow?”

“Oh, right, about that…” said Twill, frowning. “What exactly is involved in kitchen duty?”

“It’s just a couple of hours— I’ve never actually done what we’re doing right now, because I usually have more time to prepare before I leave on my trips here. But it’s exactly what it sounds like: cooking, cleaning, serving the food,” she said. “We’ll be able to split the work up pretty evenly, since there’s already four of us, plus the regular staff.”

“I would prefer to stay in the kitchen as much as possible,” said Twill, removing their extra layers. “I want to leave as soon as we can. And I won’t be able to stay hidden while we’re working.”

“We can work something out,” said Tana, smiling weakly. “Oh, uh… also, the meal is served inside the mansion, in the gathering area. It’s not usually very crowded, and all we really have to do is put food on people’s plates, so we may even get to leave early.”

“Not great,” said Twill. “But that’s about what I expected. There aren’t many places to hold large gatherings.”

“I’m sorry about this,” said Wren, rubbing at her cheek as she listened.

Twill glanced at her. “It’s not your fault. I’m the one who decided to be like this. But I do want to make this as painless as possible. I’d rather put off seeing anyone I know for as long as I can.”

They murmured among themselves for a while longer before going to sleep, deciding the sleeping arrangements arbitrarily.

---

 

The next day, they were let into the mansion with no problem. As they made their way to the kitchen, there was a woman darting back and forth between stations in the kitchen, cleaning things as she went along setting out cooking instruments for the morning.

She wasn’t particularly dressed for working in the kitchen, which was odd, since she did seem to be doing that. Would the three of them be the only ones to serve for the day?

“Oh, good, you’re here,” she said, putting a hand on her hip as she stepped back from what she was doing. “The usual kitchen staff is late, so I came here to give instruction myself. They should be here soon, if they plan on keeping their jobs.”

None of them really knew how to respond to that, but Tana didn’t miss a beat, stepping forward to continue the woman’s efforts, and the others followed suit.

“This is Leblanc,” said Tana, removing her coat and setting it aside to get to work. “She runs the inn herself. Obviously, that includes the soup kitchen.”

“I don’t normally get my hands dirty in the kitchen, it’s not really my area of expertise,” said Leblanc, directing them to the ingredients she had laid out for the day’s meal. “But if the staff is a no-show, I’m the only one left to handle things. I don’t want to think about what would have happened if the four of you hadn’t shown up last night.”

Twill removed their layers and began to help finish what Leblanc started as they all dispersed. “It sounds like you’ll need someone to stay in the kitchen and manage things. Luckily, I’m at least a half decent cook. If you can direct me, I can make sure it gets done.”

“Oh, good, at least one of you has the right attitude,” said Leblanc, glad for someone to cooperate so eagerly. “Not to worry--I’ll be overseeing your work here until my staff arrives.”

As she turned to look at the one who had spoken, she eyed Twill a little oddly, like she was thinking, but she said nothing else. She was distracted when Wren brushed past her a little too closely in the narrow passage between countertops, scowling even when the poor girl began apologizing profusely.

The other two expected regular staff members arrived minutes later, dodging Leblanc’s scolding by hurrying her back out of the kitchen so they could get to work.

Things ran much more smoothly from there, and all six workers in the kitchen prepared breakfast for the people beginning to gather in the mansion. Twill managed to avoid leaving the kitchen by displaying competency in the area, to the delight of the two Guado workers. The spread was laid out, then the customers formed a line, and each one received a plate in succession, until the flow of people trickled to a stop.

Breakfast was nearly over.

Wren stood beside the food table, helping herself, now that everyone else had been helped. She hadn’t realized how hungry she had been, after preparing and watching everyone else get their food.

As she stood by the table, absently noshing from the plate she’d gotten for herself, she spotted someone moving into the kitchen. She wasn’t really sure what the rules were on that, so she debated saying nothing to stop the official-looking Guado. Until she saw three more people following a few seconds behind them.

She set her plate down, running after the group to see what was happening.

“Twill--” she gasped out quietly.

The four Guado surrounded them, two grabbing them by their arms, pulling tightly behind their back so it was painful to move.

Twill’s expression was pure frustration, but they did nothing, going limp in the arms of the guards.

“What are you doing?” asked Wren, raising her voice so she could be heard over the noise of what was barely a struggle. “What’s going on?!”

Twill didn’t answer, instead turning their head away from Wren.

The guards started to take Twill away, dragging them out of the kitchen and across the room to who knew where.

Wren followed after them as far as she could, to the back of the gathering hall, where the door was shut in her face. She turned back around to look around the room.

There were few people left in the room, besides the staff. The one or two Guado still there for breakfast seemed intent on minding their own business, but they had certainly noticed the scene. She spotted Tana and Merris, who appeared to have been chattering in the corner quietly until moments ago. Their faces were as confused as hers.

For a moment, none of them moved.

Then, the door in the back of the room opened once more.

The person who entered the room was an elderly Guado woman, whose age only truly showed in her face, but her posture was stiff, almost shriveled. She wore the same uniform as the other guards, but more ornate, with harsher shoulders and a unique trim not present on the regular uniforms. Her hair was a somewhat unusual shape, an even dustier pink that ended in a single horn, rather than branching off into multiple locks, as was common. She appeared to be tired, or perhaps very worried, and she rubbed at the marks left by crescent-shaped spectacles at her nose.

She looked to Wren, then followed her eyes to where Merris and Tana stood, and beckoned them with one hand.

“My name is Fennel,” she said, when they approached her. “There seems to have been a misunderstanding, but I understand that you are traveling with Twill?”

They nodded slowly, unsure of what to say.

“What’s going on?” asked Tana, narrowing her eyes. “Why was Twill taken away?”

“As I said, there’s been a misunderstanding,” said Fennel, shaking her head. “I am in charge of the Farplane guard, yet I did not make the order. It seems someone mentioned Twill’s presence to the wrong person. Twill will be released, but I do need to ask you all some questions. Please come with me.”

Tana held her tongue for the moment, not wishing to make things worse.

As Fennel turned away, the three of them followed behind her, through the door, into the next room. Into a secret room below the main floor of the mansion.

It didn’t surprise Wren that a place like this had a creepy underground room underneath its leader’s home, but she wished going down into them wasn’t becoming a regular occurrence.

It appeared to be the guards’ barracks, from the looks of things. There were more guards down here than she’d seen anywhere else in the town, but even here, it was more obvious there were not very many of them, at least compared to the numbers she had seen in Luca.

Fennel led them to a room that branched off of the others. Inside was a comfortable looking sitting area, two more guards, and Twill, seated on one of the comfortable cushions on the floor.

“Twill!” said Wren, running to them. She landed on her knees on the cushion beside them, and threw her arms around their shoulders. “Are you alright?”

Twill gave a startled gasp when she threw her weight against them, but patted her arm gently. “I’m... a little confused, but I’m fine.”

Merris took a seat beside the two of them, while Tana opted to stand as they entered the room.

Fennel allowed each of them inside before dismissing the guards and closing the door behind them. She took a seat across from the group, and as she did, Tana decided to sit as well, less on edge when it felt more obvious that she really did only want to talk.

“Oh,” said Twill, understanding the situation. “I see you’ve met my mother.”