Sometime not long after my tirade started, Deacon approached me. He gave the familiar whistle that closed off sound from outside, and prevented it from going out. “Okay, what now?”

  After a few more expletives, directed at Zeratus to which I got not response other than Deacon’s face going a little pale, I calmed down. At least enough to tell Deacon what was going on.

  “...fuck.” He ran his hand through his hair and looked around Elayne was giving us a confused look, having heard me start swear. He waved her off, motioning for her to continue. “Does this change anything?”

  I shook my head, “Probably not, though I have no idea what a spawning pod is. They’ll ask questions when I break it.”

  Deacon’s brow furrowed and he looked at me sharply, “You aren’t even going to try to save the guy?”

  A huff of air came out as a sigh and I rubbed at my face using one hand, “I don’t know.”

  “What do you mean you don’t know?” He pressed.

  “I mean I don’t know! Okay.” I shouted back. “I was expecting to have some time to come to terms with this, but he’s involved in all this shit going on with Alexei and Zeratus and who knows who else.”

  Deacon took a deep breath. He motioned for me to walk with him and I did. “How about we get there and make a decision? Think about it on the way, but if I have a vote we save him.”

  My shoulders slumped as I walked and thought. I didn’t respond until well after he’d dropped the sound barrier and we’d made it to the road in front of the mansion. “You’re right. See the situation, and decide then.”

  “Decide what?” Paige asked, bouncing up between us, putting an arm around my shoulder and Deacon’s waist.

  Deacon delicately stepped away from Paige's grasp, “Whether we look for anyone dumb enough to try and work during this to save them.”

  “Oh, I mean…” Paige actually considered it, “I suppose if it’s on the way why wouldn’t we? There shouldn’t be anyone in there, though, right?”

  “Weren’t you paying attention?” I asked the nimble girl, whose class I still didn’t know, “Some were trying to sneak in while the quarry was closed.”

  “I got bored.” She admitted, “I was paying more attention to the map and the various detailed bits. I’d never realized a crystal could do that!”

  I shrugged as Jason came by riding a bright golden colored bird, leading a small rainbow of others behind him. He was back in the large metal armor plates he wore and carrying a spear with a large shield at his side. Why does he have a spear, we’re probably going to be in tunnels.

  We each took a different strider, mine had green and yellow plumage, and Jason waved for us to follow him. There wasn’t a lot of talking on this trip, even Paige noticing the seriousness of the situation.

  While we rode, I went through my character sheet. A few skills went up, but nothing went up a tier. With a look towards Deacon and the others, I put a few of my free points into Strength and Endurance, knocking them both up to 20. Even with that, I still had 68 points and was hesitant to spend them. Even the five points I used were making it hard to focus on staying on the strider from the strange spasms shooting through my body, mostly in the limbs.

  I’d also gained the Riding skill about an hour into our trip. It made it to Rank 2 before we finally started to slow down. The trip had been uneventful, most of the creatures staying away from the well maintained main roads. Even the smaller trail all the way to the quarry from the road was clear, though I felt Deacon doing something from his spot in the middle of the group. His aura had spread out, avoiding us but forming a dome of something. I’ll ask him about it later.

  We got to the Quarry and it was about ten stone buildings, a few of which looked like bunkhouses. It was all about a mile from a large, open pit with several caves dotting the mostly square crater that had been mined out of the ground. Jason ignored it all and went for the three story building that had a bronze quill and page on a sign over the door.

  Elayne and Deacon followed him in as Paige and I started to look for somewhere to tie the striders up to. A man in dust stained clothes and built like a mountain approached from one of the houses. “Can I help you ladies?”

  I nodded, “Yea, do you know where we can tie these up, and maybe somewhere to stay the night?”

  The man, who introduced himself as Gawker or just Gawk, showed us to the set of stables that had been built near a warehouse where a bunch of wagons sat outside. When we got them settled, he asked, “So, are you here cause of the bug problem?”

  “That obvious?” Paige said, smiling up at him. The man was large enough it looked like he could eat her and still have room for one of the striders, which only brought me up to the middle of his torso.

  He nodded, letting out a booming bark of a laugh, “Guards have the mine closed and a bunch of heavily armed people come riding up? Doesn’t take book smarts to figure that out.”

  “Know anything that could help?” I asked, hopeful for some information.

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  He scratched his head and motioned for us to follow him to the tavern nearby. “I’m not sure, but Barn actually killed one of the things. He might know. Should be in here.”

  The tavern was crowded, but the mood was far from jovial. A woman was valiantly trying to liven the mood up by playing a piano that was up on stage, but only a few were paying attention. Gawk led us over to a group playing with some cards at a table, a scattering of blue and orange crystals in the middle of them all. The mobile mountain tapped a more reasonably sized man wearing a pair of thick goggles on the shoulder. “Hey Barn. The people here to clear the mine are here. These two want to talk to ya.”

  The man, Barn, held up a hand for patience. He tossed a couple orange crystals into the pile and two of the three others tossed their cards onto the table. The third threw in his own crystals and showed his cards, “Got Emperors and Queens.”

  Barn set his own cards down with a sigh, “Just Jades and a Crown. All yours.” The man who had apparently won dragged all the crystals to his side with a wide grin and Barn stood up to talk with us. “Barnaby Miner. You two look a little young to be here.”

  Paige took offense, “Hey! I’m in my 20s.”

  He held up his hands as Gawk took Barnaby’s seat at the table. Even sitting down, Gawk was still a head and a half taller than I was. I stared at him before realizing Barnaby and Paige were moving to the bar. “No offense meant. I’m just saying, I expecting grizzled warriors, not cute girls.”

  I rolled my eyes and took at a seat at the bar next to Barnaby. He was a pretty average looking man. I wouldn’t have been able to pick him out from any of the others in the tavern if I was pressed. Everyone had dark hair, medium to large builds, and similar clothes. Barnaby was the only one with goggles though. “What’s with the eye coverings?”

  He laughed and pulled them up, showing a much paler section of skin around his eyes, “Oh, the goggles? They give darkvision. Not the shoddy kind either, full color and everything. Sometimes can’t even tell it’s dark out if I leave them on. I forget I’m wearing them all the time.”

  Paige was on his other side and looked impressed, “Oooh, that’s awesome! Where’d you get them? How expensive were they?!”

  Barnaby laughed, “The quarry shop sells them. I had to pay off two years of wages to afford them. Everyone else said it was a waste of money.”

  I shook my head, but he was focused on Paige and didn’t see me, “Doesn’t sound like a waste to me. Is that how you saw the bug?”

  He nodded, “Scary little thing, almost mistook it for a rock until it moved.” The man shuddered, “When I started paying attention, they were all over the tunnel we were excavating based on Harold Treasure Seeker trait. We got out fine, but one of the smaller ones had started trying to eat my boot. I whacked it with my sledge.”

  “How’d the other bugs react?” I asked.

  Barnaby shifted nervously, “It… turned bad quick. Everyone was mostly out though, so no one got hurt, but about twenty of them followed us out of the tunnels. We got up the cliff and then the guards went to work on them.”

  Paige looked pale, “So… killing one made all the others come after you?”

  Barnaby nodded, “They actually kept coming until one of the guards threw an oil lamp at the entrance. The ones nearby kept coming through the fire, but they slowed down a lot after that.”

  I shared a glance with Paige, who shrugged. “Thanks, Barnaby. You said the shop would have the goggles? Can you tell us which building it’s in?”

  “Oh, it’s the main office building. Plaque over the top with a quill and page on it.” He nodded in the direction. “Maybe after talking, one of you would like to join me for a drink?”

  “I’ll pass, sorry. I’m not in my 20s yet.” I told him. Though I’m not sure if that’s technically true… Paige leaned in and whispered something into his ear before we headed out of the building.

  When we went inside the main office, the clerk at the front greeted us and led us to some meeting rooms on the third floor. We heard shouting from Jason, “...just send a few of the grunts in to soften them up?”

  There was a loud smack and we entered the room to see Deacon with his hand raised and Jason with a slowly reddening patch on his cheek. “How many times do we have to go over this?! We were hired to do the job, so we DO. THE! JOB!”

  Elayne was leaning against the edge of a floor to ceiling window that looked out over the quarry at large. Deacon and Jason were next to a large map on a table while an older man in a nice vest with a pocket watch sticking out of it’s pocket standing at the other end of the table.

  Deacon turned to look at us and cleared his throat, readjusting his posture. “Welcome back, did you find out anything?” Jason glared daggers at him before turning to look at the map.

  “They’ve got some pretty good darkvision goggles, and the bugs act weird when you kill them.” I responded, moving to take a seat on one four couches that were in the rather massive room. It was actually bigger than the one I had back home. Huh, wonder when I started thinking of it as home…

  “Odd how?” Elayne asked.

  Paige recounted our brief conversation with Barnaby while I stepped up next to Jason to look at the map. I started examining it, ignoring the seething man beside me.

  For the most part, the map was just a large square. There were labels and numbers pinned to certain areas, but I was more interested in what was along the edges. I saw cutouts of the various walls where an attempt at a three dimensional model of what I guessed were the tunnels was sprawling throughout. I reached out to touch one and it was some kind of metal.

  “Uh, I’d request you not touch that, please.” Said the rather nasally voice of the man I didn’t know. My best guess was the manager of the quarry, given where we were.

  I moved my hand back and gave him a slightly apologetic smile. “Sorry, was wondering what they were made of.”

  “The maps materials aside, Barnaby’s information could cause some problems. They likely have some kind of Swarm trait.” He said, and I could sense the emphasis on the word Swarm. “We’ll have to be careful, but the mission is still on. Elayne and I will be more involved, though.”

  Elayne nodded, “Between my defensive traits, Deacon’s shields, and Danielle’s heal spell we should be fairly safe doing this. I’ll be talking with someone about increased pay for this job, though.”

  I felt Jason stiffen, and I cleared my throat. “I would like to talk about getting some of those darkvision goggles. Maybe at a discount for the increased danger?” I said, turning to look at Elayne, who gave a begrudging nod of approval.

  The manager smiled and nodded, “That can be arranged, I think.”

  “Good idea.” Deacon said, turning to look at the manager, “Can we borrow a pair for each of us? You can bill the Rosecrest house if we don’t return them.”

  Elayne looked shocked, but I just gave Deacon a nod, “I don’t think anyone there would mind.”

  “Good!” He said, slapping his hand against his side, “Then if we have a plan, we’ll rest for the night and start the first thing in the morning.”