Chapter 15: A novel village

The hedge towered over us as we walked alongside it. A strong sweet smell emanated from it, from thousands of flowers that were growing along it. Soon we reached the road that would lead us into the village, a mountain of trimmings from the hedge lay beside the entrance.

“Ugh, what is that smell?” I asked as we entered the main road surrounded by little wooden buildings.

“That would be fish. I despise fish!” Kaylin said. Pinching her nose. I wasn’t entirely sure what my stance towards fish was. It had been too long since I had last eaten some. Looking around, I spotted small barrels on many of the window sills around us. Stepping closer to them, I noticed a strong acidic smell coming from them. Were they all preserving fish?

“Let’s see if we can find an Inn.” Said Kaylin.

“I wonder if they have a branch of Eventyr here, we could sleep there,” I said. It was close to a miracle, but my guild emblem was still tucked away in one of the pockets of my battered armor. Lucky!

“That doesn’t sound like a bad idea, they are sure to have vacant rooms.”

We continued on towards the middle of the village, a larger building made of stone was in its center, a tower extending from it into the sky. A bell disturbed the night as it rang through the settlement. Looking up, I noticed that it came from the tower of the large building.

“What is that for? ” I said, tilting my head.

“That would be a church of the six. I am quite surprised to see one here, I thought the religion had fallen out of favor in Inas. I guess it still has a small foothold here.”

“What’s a church?” I asked.

“You don’t know what a church is?” Kaylin looked towards me, eyebrows raised.

I shrugged. “Explain it to me, this language is still new to me, and not every word is immediately clear. There is a good chance I know what it is, I just don’t know the word. ”

“Hmm, makes sense. Honestly, it’s scary how good your Inacian already is.” She said.

“Yes, uhm, again, what is a church?”

She blinked. “Hmm? Oh, yes. They are places of worship. People gather there to pray to their gods. In this case, the six.”

“So worship is a thing again?” I said.

“Yes well, not everywhere, and the belief in the six has declined since they left.”

“Wait, you are telling me those gods actually existed?”

“Yes up until around nine hundred years ago, that’s when they decided to just leave. Honestly, if you ask me, they were probably just very advanced mages from another planet.” Kaylin said.

“But let’s not talk about that here, considering they still seem to worship them.”

“Alright”, I said.

Someone came out of the church, closing the heavy doors with a creak behind them. The man was on the older side, with short gray hair and a long white robe.

“Apologizes but may I ask a question” Kaylin called towards him.

“Sure my child’s you may,” he said.

“Would you happen to know where the local branch of Eventyr is?” Kaylin said.

“Those heathens! You are part of those sinners? Just my bad luck.” He pointed towards a street leading away from the church. “Down there, you cannot miss it. Now remove your sinful presence.”

Raising her hand in an act of peace, Kaylin walked around the man, towards the direction he had pointed out. I followed, looking back at him, still staring at us with a disgusted expression.

“What is his problem?” I asked.

“Maybe, I should have seen this coming. Eventyr is known to have never accepted the six as gods.” She said.

“That’ll do it.”

“Yes, but still that was quite the extreme reaction.” Kaylin said.

Shortly after the unpleasant conversation, we found ourselves in front of yet another large building. Eventyr had its establishment at the very edge of the village. This one was standing out quite a bit from its surroundings. Must be the massive hedge growing straight through it. Quite a bold design choice.

“They’d better have a bath,” said Kaylin as she walked up the stairs.

“I wish you luck that it wasn’t in the destroyed part.” I said and followed her inside.

“That is not what I expected,” said my companion. Taking a look around, I would have to agree with her. Instead of the office-like interior from Inas Gate, we were greeted by shelves everywhere. Full of books. We couldn’t even see the other half of the room; with the labyrinth of bookshelves before us.

“But it did say Eventyr on the outside right, Kaylin? Did I misread?” Scratching my head, I looked around. And here I thought all guild locations would look similar. ” Turning to Kaylin, I saw her eyes shining.

“Salvation at last!” She said, walking to the closest shelves. With her hands, she caressed the back of one of the books. “Oh, how I have missed you.”

“Are you okay?” I asked. She turned around, her face a bit reddened.

“Yes, sorry, I have lost my composure for a bit there. It’s just being surrounded by books again is calming.” She said. Fair enough.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“You can take a look around if you like, I’ll see if I can find the counter,” I said, turning around one of the shelves. The amount of books here was staggering. As I walked past them, I tried to read some of the titles. Beside a book called “100 Foolproof ways to tell Fortunes” was another called “Among Draigkin: Their History and Beliefs.” There was a total absence of order. Random books just shoved thoughtlessly into shelves. Turning around the next row of books, I saw what I thought to be the guild’s counter.

Behind it sat someone who wore a plague mask of all things. This place becomes more peculiar by the second. I raised my hand in a greeting.

“Hey there, I was wondering if there is still a room for two free tonight?” I asked, but got nothing in return. Walking closer, I could see through two openings in the mask that the eyes of this mysterious person were closed shut. The sound of light snoring reached my ears. It was late, but I didn’t care. A bell was conveniently placed on the top of the counter. I pressed it once, and a soft ring came from it. Looking up, the masked one did not steer even a little. I raised my brows when she crossed her arms. I pressed it again, twice this time. Still nothing. I hammered it. The room was filled with the continuous ring of the bell. The person before me jumped.

Green eyes fluttered open beneath the mask. That is when I noticed that the person's hair was similar to Kaylin’s but without the blue tint.

“Neh? Who are you! What are you doing here?” She said, eyes half open. Pulling out my guild emblem, I showed it to her.

“I am a guild member. Looking for a room.” I said, deadpan.

“Oh yeah we have those, heh,” she scratched her head.

“Do you have those for two?” I asked.

“Yeah, yeah… let me check. Here!” She put a key on the counter. “Take the door to the left, go up the stairs. Just try the key, it should work for one of the doors up there.”

I… what? Was she for real? My mouth was half open when I realized she hadn’t asked me if my rank was high enough to get the room for free. Closing it again, I took the key. I would not complain if I didn’t need to pay for the room.

“Thank you. Have a nice evening.” I said.

“Night.” Was what I got in response. Turning around, I noticed that Kaylin had come out of the labyrinth of books.

“Got us a room, let’s go.” I said, dangling the keys before her. Walking up the stairs, we were assaulted by dust. My nose tingled a bit; Kaylin, on the other hand. “Achoo, have you asked for a bath,” she said, sniffling.

“Nope, I doubt they would prepare us one. They don’t even know where our room is.” I said.

“I am sorry, what? Then why didn’t you achooo… ask?”

“Well, she asked me to just try the key until we find it, and, well, she didn’t ask for money. So I took my losses.”

“Fair enough,” Kaylin said.

It took us another few minutes until we found the door to our key. Behind was a dusty yet spacious room with two beds.

“I was worried, she just gave us a random room. But at least it has two beds,” I said.

Nodding, Kaylin went over to the window and opened it up. With a loud bang, she closed it again.

“The fishy smell really is everywhere.” She sniveled, skin showing just a tint of green.

“We can talk about where we go from here tomorrow. I am in serious need of sleep,” she said. Not bothering to even undress, she threw herself onto the closest bed, and started snoring.

Kaylin’s words stuck in my head. Where would I go from here, indeed? Windbreak sounded tempting, but what if it wasn’t right for me? The journey there was not an easy one, according to Dust. There was a chance I might be stuck there for a while if I don’t end up liking it. But on the flip side, it was so far away from everything else it might be quite safe. Maybe I should question Kaylin to find out more about Windbreak tomorrow. With crossed legs, I sat on my bed staring at the wall across the room. I had tried to sleep, but my mind wouldn’t let me. The events of the last days had shaken me too much. Things would never be the same again. I had no choice but to find myself a place to call home in this world. My thoughts continued to spiral around these issues until the morning light started to flood the room. Not soon after Kaylin’s eyes fluttered open, sitting up, she stared at me for a moment.

“Wait, you are already awake?” She asked. I scratched my head in return.

“No, I haven’t slept at all.”

“Do you even need to sleep? I assumed you do, considering how difficult it had been to wake you up the other day.”

“I am not so sure about that myself. To a degree, I think I do. Otherwise, I might go crazy from the constant uptime.”

She stood up and stretched, audible cracking sounds drifting over to me.

“So, what’s the plan?” I asked.

“We should find out what village this is, it could be either Mist’wallow or Novel’Noah. If it is the latter, we could reach the capital today.”

“Sounds good.”

Together, we descended the stairs down to the makeshift library. Looking around, I saw the masked person was still sitting in her chair. A gentle snore reached my ears, she was still sleeping. Guess I had to wake her up again.

“Haaanky” a voice echoed through the room as a brown-haired girl hurried around one of the shelves. She stopped, almost stumbling over her feet when she saw us. Our purple eyes meet each other, while my hand hovered over the bell on the counter.

“Ohhh you are adventurers, right? What a rare occasion!” She clapped her hands together, smiling at us.

“Yes, well, I am, she is not,” I said, pointing at Kaylin.

“My name is Booklet, what-what-what is yours? May I help you somehow?” She said with glowing eyes.

“U-uhm, my name is Tepin. We were about to check out.”

A groan came from the counter as the masked person… Hanky, I suppose, lifted her head.

“You are too loud.” she said.

“Now, that is no way to talk to your guests, Hanky.” Booklet said, arms crossed.

The masked one jumped, hearing the voice of the girl.

“Oh, you are here, Booklet. Is it already morning?”

“Yes, and your guests want to check out.” Booklet said.

“What guests? Oh, those yes. Heh.” I looked at her in disbelief. My mental image of Eventyr shattered.

“Just give me your keys, and we are good,” Hanky said. I did as I was told, ready to leave.

“Alrighty, Hanky, I think I finally know how to fix the hedge!”

From behind me, I heard Kaylin speaking up.

“Fix the hedge?”

“Booklet here had a spell go wrong a tiny bit.” Hanky said as her friend’s cheeks reddened.

“It surrounds the entire village! That is not a small spell gone wrong.” Kaylin rubbed her forehead. “Was it wild magic?”

“Y-yes, I just wanted to surround the guild with a little hedge.” Booklet answered, fiddling with her fingers.

“Do I attract magical anomalies?” Kaylin mumbled. “First an errant soulcore, and now this?”

“A floating what now?” Booklet asked. My ears twitched.

“Nothing!” I said. “Sorry to interrupt, but what village is this?” Better stop this conversation here before Kaylin says more.

“Novel’Noah!” Booklet said, a smile back on her face. She probably didn’t want to talk about whatever happened here as much as I did about my situation.

“Thanks! That is good news, right, Kaylin?” I said, looking over to her.

“Yes, but what about the…”

“Good, in that case, I thank you both for your hospitality,” I said. Why was she so curious about this? I filed that question away for later.

“Eh sure, you are welcome.” Hanky said.

“Hope you visit again!” Booklet said.

I waved as I took Kaylin by her hand, guiding her through the surrounding bookshelves.

“Tepin, why the sudden rush? What about the books?” She said as she tried to walk towards the books.

“Another day, if we want to reach Inas’Gate today, we need to leave as soon as we can,” I said.

She hung her head low as she followed me out of the building. I did not intend to have her accidentally spill my secrets to anyone.