Chapter Five

Chapter Five. Get to Work

"You aren't being paid to believe in the power of your dreams."

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“How long are we here for?” Dolly muttered to Elera as they finished putting the soil over the dead body of the marid. The townspeople had been drawn to the fight thanks to the noise of the djinni’s howling and cracking of the earth breaking apart. They had witnessed the resolution to the fight, much to the dismay of the Players, and had been furious at the demon’s suggestion to just leave. The Players had been made to bury the body and help the townsfolk fill in the gaping hole behind Dalen’s house, which they feared would be a dangerous problem for the children. First, of course, they had to help empty all of the old records from the ditch, since the records were priceless works. Sforzan had told them later that Xeterou had been a famous researcher once, working for the Royal Court, which would explain not only why he would have records of the Heart Stones, but why people may have wanted to get rid of him after his sudden retirement twenty three years before.

The only reason the Players were even bothering to help the townsfolk was a simple matter that the records were written in codes, and had to be translated before they could be any use. Sforzan, being a scholar, had the ability to do this, but they’d have to wait for him to finish. Thus, unless they wanted to be kicked out of the village and sleep on the ground in the forest for the next week, they were helping around the town. Sforzan was exempt from rebuilding duties so he could finish the translations, but the three females had been given jobs. Ellera’s and Dolly’s first had been to bury the body of the guardian, being the cause of the human’s current complaints.

The demon looked up with a blank expression. Suddenly, she glanced around, checking to see if there was anyone within earshot. Seeing the coast was clear, she gestured for Dolly to lean closer. Intrigued, the human did as she was told. Quietly, the demon bent forward and whispered, “This is only the first job, suck it up.”

The human began sputtering and pulled back, glaring at the smirking woman. She turned back to the pile of dirt they had finished putting together before throwing down her shovel. “Come on, let’s see how Ace is doing.”

“I thought I heard screaming earlier.” Elera said thoughtfully. She looked over toward the crater where the gnome was helping the townsfolk dig out old records. “It sounded like one of the people here, though.”

Dolly snorted and began making her way over to the gap. As the two drew closer they began hearing the voices of some of the helpers, and the scraping of shovels and metal as the rubble was being dug out. Vivace was out of the hole, arguing with someone who seemed to be instructing the people.

“No way!” the gnome was saying angrily. When the man opened his mouth to argue, she stomped her foot. “If you need someone small make one of the children do it! I’m better for helping break the big stuff.”

“We’re not sending the young ones down there!” The instructor replied. “It might not be safe, and we’re not endangering them.”

“But you’ll endanger me?!” Vivace shot back, pointing to the hole. “If it’s not safe, wait ‘til it is!”

The two listeners glanced at each other, and approached the disagreeing pair. Dolly was the first one to ask, looking between the girl and townsperson. “What’s going on?”

Vivace spun on her heel, and pointed at the man beside her, before stating vehemently, “He wants me to go down into the ditch beneath the rubble to get that stupid box. I already told him El stole the stuff inside. He doesn’t think it’s everything.”

The two glanced up at the man, who explained with an irritated flush. “We found some records already that we could read. It said that inside the box, which was protected by a captured marid, were special documents and a gift Dalen had planned to give his young Segno! His will talked about an un-given gift, but we were never able to find it to deliver it before, now that we know where it is, it’s best for us to get it before something falls on it and it breaks.”

“It’ll be fine!” Vivace retorted. “Just be careful with your shovels, it’s not like you’re using heavy machinery here!”

“What kind of gift is it?” Elera asked curiously. She was peering over the man’s shoulder, trying to look at a piece of paper the man was holding. Seeing the demon’s goal the man clenched the paper harder and brought it down out of sight.

“We don’t know.” He replied, glaring at the demon, who simply fell back and went to stand beside Dolly, no trace of remorse evident in her features. “That’s not the point, however. The point is, Dalen Xeterou was a very respected native of this town, and we would like to follow through with his request.”

“Even after he brought this down on you?” Dolly asked skeptically, looking back over her shoulder at the ruined part of the town. The man bristled.

“He never thought this would happen, and most certainly never meant it to. He is still a great member of this community’s history, and we’d like to get that gift, whatever it may be.”

The three looked at each other, then the two taller figures looked down at the gnome. She was glaring back at the man, and didn’t notice their gaze for a long moment. She blinked, and turned to look back at them.

“No way! No! Nu-uh! It’s not fair!”

“Life isn’t always fair, pinky.” Dolly smirked from above her. “Why not help the poor man out and go down, it doesn’t seem that bad.”

Suddenly an oh to coincidental crash sounded from behind them, and a small pocket of yelling erupted from the group working on the hole. The words, “Oh gods, it hurts!” floated up through the noise, as well as a few “that looks bad”s and “get the healer!”s. Vivace didn’t bother turning around to see, but the two taller woman looked over her head, and the man who’d been arguing with them ran over to help.

“No. I’m not doing it.”

“You are doing it.” Dolly said from above her as the demon finished tying the rope around the gnome’s back. Vivace cursed, and Sforzan leaned over the small gap they’d dug that disappeared down into the darkness. They had recruited the centaur to read his wind magic and help them move anything that got in the gnome’s way, as well as being able to put a small shield around her in case anything did fall.

“Why don’t you try it?!” Vivace snapped, eyeing the rope tied around her waist with distrust. Elera patted her on the head when she had finished, causing the smaller female to flail her arms until the demon stepped away.

“Unfortunately,” the human said as she inspected her gloves. “none of use are small enough to fit down into the hole. You’re the only one who can. Just run down there and grab the box. Don’t worry so much, Sforzan is here to help out. He’ll keep you safe with that wind of his.”

“Will you be able to stop that crap from crushing me?” Vivace wanted to know, turning to look at the centaur with a critical eye, apparently doubting his certainty.

“Of course.” he snapped, bristling. “Nothing will go wrong with my spells, they are plenty powerful enough to stop some rubble. I will thank you to know I’ve never had problems with my magic before. If I say in can be done, I can do it.”

“Hmm.” Vivace squinted at him, but before she could make any remark Dolly was prodding her forward.

“Time to go, we’re growing old here.”

The gnome pushed the human’s foot away, for that had been what had been prodding her, and took a deep breath, walking over to the opening. She squinted into the darkness, clicking the flashlight she was holding on. She tied the light to her belt, and slowly crawled into the space to make her way down. A small breeze of wind wound itself around her, while she descended, and Vivace had to stop herself from yelling that it was too cold. She didn’t need to be fighting with the centaur so early in the climb, especially if he was going to be the only one helping her. The light shown down below her, and Vivace concentrated on what she could see to know where to put her feet. When she reached the bottom, she got onto her hands and knees, pulling the flashlight from her belt and holding it in one hand while she began crawling. Every time a blockage appeared, she was forced to crawl around, and found herself cursing the three Players above for making her do this task. How was she even suppose to know where the stupid box was?

Vivace twirled the light, looking for any marker as to where she was. The roof was all the same design, and she couldn’t figure where the pieces may have fallen from. The shelves were blocked from view, and the gnome growled in frustration, continuing to crawl forward. After a series of blocked passages, some she had succeeded in digging her way through and others she had to turn around for, Vivace finally spotted the elegant lock that had held the box shut. It wasn’t, however, attacked to the box. Vivace cursed, but made her way over to the pile that was half burying the metal anyways. She pocketed it, and upon inspecting the piled further, spotted something she thought may have been the wood used to hold the records. Carefully, she reached forward to try and dig the wood out of the rest of the rubble, putting the flashlight on the ground to give her another free hand to dig with. The pile swayed dangerously, but Vivace didn’t waste time trying to steady it. Instead, she chose a spot above where the box was stuck, and kicked, losing her patience and deciding to test the centaur’s wind shield. Scrapes of metal grating fell down at her, and where thrown aside by the wind swirling around the gnome. She smirked, and kicked again. More loose rubble fell, and Vivace was able to dig a little further into the pile. Finally tugging the box free, she loosened the rope around her and shoved the box into the part coming around her front. Putting it on her back would have been preferable, but it was to likely to hit the rubble she passed on her way back up.

The climb to the surface was far easier then the way down, considering the trail she had left behind her with the cord. Vivace was clambering out of the hole when the centaur noticed her come up. “You found it?”

The gnome nodded, and he looked over to the other side of the rubble toward the hallway they’d walked through, and nodded to the two Players who had gone to help over there. They looked over, and seeing the gnome they passed their equipment to some of the villagers to join their team. The centaur looked back down at his book, which he was reading while taking notes on a piece of paper on the page next to it.

“You found it?” Dolly called needlessly as she came closer. Vivace held the box up, taking the lock out of her pocket and putting it on the ground next to the rope she’d removed. The two gathered around, peering at the box that had given them so much trouble just a few hours previously. Another person had noticed Vivace’s arrival, and the man who’d been arguing with the gnome earlier made his way over to the team as well.

“You have it?”

Getting tired of being asked the same question three times in a row, without so much as a ‘you’re alright?’ thrown in between gave Vivace the strong urge to throw the wooden container at the man. Instead of replying or holding up the wood, she simply glared. Dolly answered for her, “Yeah.”

“Excellent.” he exclaimed, and picked up the box from where Vivace had put it on the ground. He opened the container, looking at what was inside. The man frowned. Picking something up, he peered at it closely before putting it back and sighing.

“What?” The gnome asked, irritation ready to break through her restraints. The man looked over at her and shook his head.

“It’s nothing. Just like old Dalen to put so much importance on an item like this.”

“What is it?” Elera asked, none of them having seen what the man held up. He smiled tiredly and pulled it back out, holding up a small thimble. The team went quiet, staring at the small piece of iron. A few seconds of silence passed, with nothing but the wind ruffling the trees behind them.

“THAT’S WHAT YOU MADE ME GO GET?!”

Elera quickly stooped over to the raging gnome, making hushing motions and trying to prevent her from stabbing the man with her blade. None of the team seemed very eager to continue with the helping afterward, but returned to their work nonetheless, giving Sforzan the time he needed to finish the translation of his notes. That night the females bid the centaur goodnight, and each went to their beds feeling a little less then placid.

Dawn broke on the fifth day of their stay, when the translation of the notes had finally been finished. Sforzan had told them at diner the night before that he was almost done, and would be staying up the rest of the night to complete it so they could view it the next morning. The trio were all to eager to have a ready excuse to avoid more work, and happily woke to their meal the next morning.

“What’d you get out of it?” Dolly asked, entering the diner and sitting at the table where Sforzan was waiting for his food. Elera and Vivace came in behind her, also jumping into seats at the table, and looking at the man expectantly. The centaur sent miffed looks at them at the same time as the bartender came out with his food.

“I didn’t know centaurs drank coffee.” Vivace said out loud as the brown liquid was put in front of him. Sforzan glared over his mug at her.

“I happen to be a big fan of coffee. It’s a good morning drink.”

“Not a big morning person, are you?” Elera asked chirpily as she waited to place her order. “Dolly isn’t either.”

“And you are?” the centaur asked in a cold voice.

“Only with hyperactive gnomes opening the blinds on me in the morning.” She responded. Vivace looked over, affronted.

“Morning is like any other time of day.” She said defensively. “There’s no reason to be tired in it.”

“Except that you’ve just be sleeping for seven or eight hours.” Dolly muttered, watching the man walk away with their orders. Before Vivace could open her mouth and argue, Dolly plowed on. “So,” she said, addressing the centaur again. “you finished the translation?”

“Yes.” Sforzan replied. He pulled a few sheets of paper out of his book holder at his side and passed them to Dolly. “These are the details of the Heart Stones. It tell you where they are located, what they look like, and what they once did. Besides that it’s pretty vague. It describes that the Stones are guarded by fiends, but won’t say what they are. It’s possible that Dalen didn’t know himself when he wrote it. The specific powers that the Stones used to posses are also useless, since he writes that they were checked and ended up having lost their power after the last time they were used. He hints that he has theories about the power loss, but didn’t write any of it down, saying he wasn’t sure if he was right.”

The women looked at the papers while he spoke, clearly wanting to see for themselves what was written. They each spent a few minutes staring at the spots on the paper describing where the stones were located.

“That’s it?” Vivace asked in a hushed tone.

“Yeah, looks like it.” Dolly responded. Neither had taken their eyes off the paper. The demon looked up at the centaur.

“You’re sure this is right? All of it?”

“Yes.” Sforzan replied in a stung voice. “The code was simply to break, it’s the same one he uses for all of his works, and some of those have been translated in the past. All I had to do was cross reference, it’s even based entirely on the common languages.”

He looked over the table where the two woman were still staring at the paper. He sent them a cold look, still feeling grumpy from morning drowsiness. “Can you read it alright, or shall I read it to you?”

Suddenly Vivace began giggling. It quickly turned into an all out laugh. “We have it! You know what that means, don’t you? We know where the Heart Stones are! We’re gonna win!” She pumped her first into the air. “We need drinks!”

“It’s seven in the morning!” Sforzan exclaimed, staring at her. The gnome shook her head, uncaring.

“Hey, mister!” she called, looking over at the bar. The man poked his head out from the kitchen, and Vivace asked, “Bring us some drinks with that?”

The man watched her for a moment before going back into the kitchen with a puzzled look on his face. Dolly leaned back, a triumphant expression on her face as well. Seeing Sforzan still staring at the gnome, she smirked, “Come on, this is a good occasion. There’s no time when drinks aren’t proper if there’s a reason for them.”

The centaur turned to stare at her, obviously thinking quite differently. Dolly shrugged. “You must be happy, too. You just found out what plenty of Players are dying to know. Why’d you search for the records if you didn’t want to find them?”

“I did want to find them.” Sforzan stated. Dolly looked at him questioningly as the bar tended came over to their table with food and drinks, both the ones they’d ordered originally and the ones Vivace had called for.

“Are you in the Tournament?” Elera asked, picking up her utensils to start eating. “Nobody asked you when we first met, we were too busy looking. Where’s your group?”

“I’m not in the Tournament.” Sforzan replied in a dignified tone. “I was thinking of entering, but people aren’t so keen on letting a centaur join their group.”

“You couldn’t find one?” Dolly asked. Vivace was still giggling and staring at the paper excitedly at random intervals, and didn’t seem entirely concerned with what was going on at the table. The taller Players had doubts if she’d even realized the appearance of food, or more importantly the drinks, in front of her.

“I didn’t try so hard, after being rejected by a few narrow minded teams.” Sforzan said dismissively. “I thought I’d find a reason to prove to them why I’d be a good choice. I’ll go back to the towns and search again later.”

Suddenly the gnome shot up, startling the other Players and causing Dolly to choke on part of her breakfast. As Elera thumped the human on the back, Vivace exclaimed loudly, “You can join ours! We’ve already worked together, and now that we have the information we’re sure to win! Right?” She added happily to the other Players in her group. Dolly was glaring at her, trying to regain her breath while Elera kept one hand ready to stop the human if she tried to kill off their leader.

“It’s not a bad idea.” Elera agreed slowly, watching Dolly out of the corner of her eye as she turned back to the table. “We could use another member, having an all female group looks bad on the listing.”

“Sure.” Dolly coughed. It was all she said, rubbing her throat from the effects of her near death experience.

“See? Why don’t you come with us?” Vivace said, turning back to the centaur. He glanced between the Players for a minute, from the beaming gnome, to the glaring human, to the wary demon and gulped in what he hoped was an unnoticeable fashion.

“Uhh, well,”

“No, we don’t look like much, do we?” Elera said happily from where she was sitting. “Dolly’s always pointing that out too. But think about it. How many Players are actually going to believe you have information on the Heart Stones if you try to tell them? It seems like a cheap ploy to join a group, if you ask me.”

“She’s right.” Dolly pointed out, glad her throat didn’t sound hoarse any longer. “And, no offense, but centaurs aren’t exactly good traveling buddies. I mean, I’m already stuck with a gnome and demon, so I can’t talk, but a lot of people won’t see it so easily.” The centaur shifted slightly, frowning, but not arguing what he knew was true.

“Arg! What does that matter?” Vivace asked, pounding her fist against the table. “The only thing that matters is that we’re going to win, and coming with us would be a good thing! If you don’t want to, then fine! We’ll win on our own.”

The centaur stared at the small, pink-haired figure in front of him. “You do realize you would have made a much better impression had you continued with the technique they were using, right?”

“Does it matter?” she asked again. The centaur quirked an eyebrow, studying the girl carefully.

“Don’t worry, you get used to her.” Elera said, nodding. “She’s not so bad when you know her.”

“OY!” the gnome protested. She glared at the smiling demon for a moment before huffing and turning back to face the centaur. “Are you with us? We’re leaving as soon as we can, so we can’t give you much time to think. You can have ‘til tonight, if you want.”

“Wait- we’re leaving during the night?” Dolly asked, turning to look at the gnome. “Shouldn’t we either leave now or tomorrow morning?”

“We can’t leave now.” The gnome replied, glancing at the woman. “Mister mayor asked us, or me, to drop by today after our meeting with Sforzan. Don’t ask why, I don’t know.”

Dolly frowned. “Well we can’t leave during the night, that’s pointless. We can head out after we talk to him.”

“We need supplies.”

“We’ll split up then.”

“I was kind of hoping the team would be there for the meeting.”

“And when were you going to tell us?!”

“After breakfast! That’s why I’m telling you now!”

The centaur watched the exchange oddly, glancing at the demon who was eating her food without paying much attention to the bickering. The team didn’t notice his observance, and went on to argue about the priorities of talking to other team members as they finished their breakfast. When the talking had finally stopped, the two were glaring daggers at each other.

Vivace turned back to the centaur. “Alright, you have until tomorrow morning to give us your answer, then we’re leaving.”

“No need.” He said, putting down his napkin, which he’d been folding repeatedly waiting for them to stop. “I’ve decided. If it’s alright, I’ll join you.”

“Really?!” Vivace asked excitedly.

“Really?” Elera asked simultaneously, stunned. Obviously, after noticing him watching the team argue, she’d figured the centaur would be turned off more.

“Yes. The two of you did each have a point with what you’d said earlier, and this group does seem to be at an advantage now, given we know the locations of the Heart Stones, which the rest of the groups are still searching for in vain.”

The gnome nodded happily. “Welcome to the team!” She looked around at the table, and noticed the forgotten drinks. She seized one of the mugs and held it up, exclaiming “A toast!”

Something which was obviously not on the centaur’s mind. “I, don’t drink.” he said hesitantly.

“C’mon, just once.” Vivace egged. “It’s to celebrate finding the records and adding a new member to our party.”

Sforzan looked around at the other Players, evidently hoping for help. Dolly had already taken up a mug from the center of the table, and was holding it lightly grinning at the centaur as she waited for him to join them. Elera pushed the fourth drink in his direction, whispering in a perfectly audible tone, “You don’t have to drink it all, just take a sip and make our leader happy.”

Vivace chose to ignore this, and Sforzan sighed, picking up the mug, a strong feeling that he was signing some sort of unbreakable pact beginning to weigh on his conscious.

“To our new group, and information!” Vivace cried happily, with the three women clinking their glasses celebration style as the centaur pushed it forward with a type of funeral movement. The centaur took up Elera’s offer, and only took the one sip before pushing the glass back into the center of the table.

-:-:-:-:-

“You want us to what?”

The mayor sat behind his desk, a small box on the center of its surface. He sighed, and looked up at the four in front of him. “You’ve helped us around the town recently, as well as settled something for us that had been haunting the town for years. We now know that Dalen did in fact have the information that those Players from twenty years ago had come searching for. While it doesn’t justify what happened by any means, it does let us settles our doubts about whether or not the slaughter was for nothing. To think that a dangerous creature was living in the rubble all this time! Had one of the children been the ones to have found it, we would have been devastated. You’ve done us a great deal. I ask for you to do one more thing.

“Will you take this gift and place it on Dal Segno’s grave for us?”

The group looked at each other, and back at the box. Vivace questioned, “She’s dead?”

“Yes, Segno was once Dalen’s apprentice, but she left to join the Royal Guard. Sixteen years ago, she passed away.” the mayor looked up from his musings, “It is to far for us to go, simply to give this to her, but you are already on that quest. We’d like to ask you to put it with her when you return to the city.”

“She was a member in the Royal Guard?” Vivace asked quietly.

“Yes.” the mayor nodded. “Her and her brother. We don’t know what happened to him, but we would like for this to be done.”

Vivace looked back at the team behind her. Not receiving any objects she turned back to the man behind the desk and nodded. “Yeah, we’ll do it for you. Next time we go to the city, we can’t turn around right now.”

“Of course, of course. Thank you, it means more to us then we can say.” He passed the box across the desk to place in the gnome’s small hand, and she grasped it tightly before storing it into her bag. “Feel free to come back to the town if ever you’re passing. You are no longer unwanted guest with us here.”

Vivace grinned, and the team made their goodbyes as they left the room.

:-:-:-:-:-:-:

The town was bustling with people as they approached it, Players weaving in and out of it’s large market and taverns. Remusfa was on the very outskirts of Burmexia, the last major check point before Players would reach Aknia, the kingdom to the south east of their current stay. Check points could be found outside of the home country holding the Tournaments, if the other nations allowed it, which most did. A variety of accents floated through the air, being so close to the border guaranteed a number of travelers would pass through the town, making it into a small city full of imports and trade goods.

The team made their way past the vendors and distractions, aiming to get to the next tavern so they could register Sforzan to their party. While party members could be recruited up until the final days of the Tournament, they had to be registered and added to the team’s listing at a verified checkpoint. The members of the group had decided to do that first instead of waiting to do it the next time the need of a town arose. They were also interested in seeing how far the other groups had gotten in finding the Stones, and planned on finding out while they were there.

“Ace, you have to go with Sforzan to add him to the group, you’re the registered leader.” Dolly began as they made their way into the town.

“I know that!” Vivace broke in.

“Alright, alright.” Dolly said, waving her hand dismissively. “Just making sure you knew. I’m going to go check out the bar, see where the other teams stand. Elera, we’re good on supplies, so go get us room and see if there’s anything new in the weapons shops, then you can do whatever. We’ll meet up at the room later.”

The demon smiled. “No problem.”

As they closed in on the tavern the four broke up and wandered to their destinations. Vivace and Sforzan made their way to the registration room, where the desk was free for them to head up to.

“Hey!” Vivace called, reaching up to wave her hand above the counter so the one behind it could see her. Sforzan cleared his throat, ignoring her and getting the attention of the worker.

“Excuse us. We’re here to add a member to our group listings.”

The employee glanced between the two for a moment, before nodding and pulling out a large notebook. “Which of you is team leader and which is being added? I’ll need your badges as well.”

“I’m the team leader! Vivace.” the gnome said, passing her badge up to the counter. Sforzan pushed his forward as well.

“I’m the new member, Sforzan of the Ashen Forest Tribe. Scholar.”

The employee nodded looking at the badges and flipping through the book. She found the page she was looking for, and jotted down the new member. Pushing the badge back, she closed the book and said plainly. “You’re good.”

Vivace smiled, and began humming happily as they left the room. Sforzan was tucking his badge back into his belt, the same fashion that the gnome carried hers in. He glanced over to the bar across the street, where Players were gathered to eat and get together with other Players. “Should we go help Dolce? We might have a better chance at getting information.”

“Nah, she’s good.” Vivace said, crossing her arms behind her had and walking down the street at random. “She wouldn’t like us interrupting her any way. Let’s go check out the shops.”

Sforzan frowned. “Isn’t that what Elera is doing?”

“She’s checking out the shops for new supplies, I want to go look so I’ve seen it. There are a lot of imported things here.” Vivace corrected. “We might find something interesting. We’ve already done what we needed to do for today, the only one who really has a job is Dol.”

“Then shouldn’t we help her?” Sforzan asked, glancing back over at the bar. “It seems more efficient if we’re all working.”

“I told you, she’s got it. Dolly’s good at her job. We’ll all be working tonight, when we get the information and anything new that El’s found for us. Until then we’re on break. Even El's going to get a break once she’s skimmed the shops, it’s not just us.” Vivace turned to look at the frowning centaur. She frowned back, and turned back to continue her way to the market. The male followed, slightly disapproving.

Suddenly a window beside them exploded and a body was thrown in front of them, along with a loud yell from inside the building and curses from the people involved. Vivace glanced at the body, which was slowly getting up, to the shop it had come from. A brunette woman wearing a light tunic was angrily shouting at another man standing near the window, who seemed to have been the cause of the flying body. A black haired little girl was making her way out of the shop, heading over to the blonde warrior. After a moment the man at the window laughed and walked away, much to the obvious displeasure of the brunette, who shouted at him a few times more before huffing and coming out to inspect her team mate.

Vivace shrugged at Sforzan and went to walk around, the centaur following as he cast various looks at the small group behind them. “That reminds me.” He said. “We could use a healer. Have you three thought about getting one yet?”

“We’ve thought about it.” Vivace conceded. “But it hasn’t been that important, so we just haven’t done it yet.”

“And we could also use some more weapons. You realize that you’re the only with who uses an up close weapon? I believe you’re the only one who owns one.”

“Well, you guys all use magic.” Vivace huffed.

“It would still be profitable if we at least had other options to fight with. Normally, when an miscellaneous class enters a party, it’s fine for them to continue their respective style of battle. But this group now had three miscellaneous classes.” Sforzan went on, clearly bent on making his point. “It’s not a normal group balance, we should probably compensate somehow. What if we were to all get Silenced during a fight? You’d be the only one able to battle.”

“No.” Vivace interrupted. “That happened once to me and Dolly. She has a gun to use in case.”

“Really?” Sforzan looked slightly relieved, but trudged on nonetheless. “That’s good, but both myself and Elera are void of that luxury. I’ve never thought of getting one before, but now-”

“Wait-,” the gnome interrupted again, “I didn’t think scholars could be Silenced. Since the magic is coming from the book, not the person.”

“Well, we can’t.” Sforzan amended, “Our vision can be impaired however, and that prevents us from reading our spells. It’s basically the same thing, something that disables our ability to cast. What I’m trying to say is-”

“You think you and El should get weapons.”

He cleared his throat. “Yes, basically.”

Vivace shrugged. “Alright. Why are you telling me?”

“Well, we need to find Elera, first.” Sforzan stated, glancing around the shops. “Second, we need to make sure the group has the money for it. We’ve been pooling our money to get things, understandably, which also brings up the question how we’re going to keep funds going for the next eleven months during the Tournament, but I digress, fact is, we also should try for weapons to help balance the team. Just because our classes clash, doesn’t mean whatever other fighting style we use has to.”

“So then what? One of you gets melee, the other gets another distance weapon? You have to train to use lances and other specialized weapons.” Vivace was speaking in a half distracted manner, stopping to look at a small colored rock in one of the windows. She imagined for a minute what the Hearts Stones would look like, and wondered if she could find a similar stone in the store. As Sforzan began speaking again, she passed up the thought, moving on to the next set of windows.

“I suppose so, yes. Which brings us back to my first point, we need to find Elera.”

“Well, we’re in that area already.” Vivace pointed out offhandedly. “I’m sure we’ll run into her.”

“You’re not interested in this at all, are you?”

“Of course I am!” Vivace objected, turning around to glare at the centaur. “But we’re already doing what we need to be doing, El’s around here somewhere, so there’s no need to get all grumpy over it!”

Sforzan looked down his nose at the girl below him. “Well, you could begin displaying that by showing more interest while people are speaking.”

“I was!” Vivace huffed, “And for you’re information, there’s El.”

The centaur turned, and as stated the demon was wandering out of a shop distractedly. Vivace put her hands on her hips. “We have money to get weapons, so go talk to El and decide what you guys want. You can show the new things to us later tonight at the inn.”

Sforzan glanced back down at the gnome, seeming to debate saying something, but thought better of it and nodded, leaving the gnome to go speak with the demon. The woman looked up curiously upon his approach, and Vivace turned away sighing. She went back to inspecting the windows, thinking over the next step in their adventure.

The records had told them the location of the Hearts Stones, and the team had put together a map of where the Stones were. The ten stone were located across the world, much to the dismay or delight- depending on the Player in question- of the group. The locations were all powerful, five star ranked areas, where people didn’t usually go without an extremely good reason. The group had figured as much, and therefore wasn’t surprised when they read the list, however the hints as to what type of land masses they were could be slightly confusing. There was a cave, living forest, underwater, desert, mountain, ruins, seaside cavern, barren lands, forest of fire, and floating island. The group had exchanged glances while reading over some of the list when they were planning, trying to decide which seven to go for. The locations had been given with coordinate points and the simple words, making them sound far to inviting. Considering the areas were ranked five stars, the group sincerely doubted they’d be so fun to go into. After much debate, the team had decided to skip the ones closest to them, the cavern in Aknia, and went for the second closest, the living forest. The reasoning was that if any other groups had discovered the locations, the cavern may be one of the first to go after, given its location. Not many groups were going to go overseas until they were certain where the Heart Stones were.

Vivace looked up, glancing around the area. Sforzan and Elera had disappeared, and the gnome decided to head back to the inn to go over the plans again. The shops were beginning to bore her, having no use for any of the objects she was seeing. She couldn’t buy goodies for the fun of buying them, since they would take up weight that she needed to use for other things. On her way back to the inn, she noticed the group that they had passed earlier with the man who’d been chucked out a window. There was a fourth person with them now, and they were sitting at the fountain talking. Vivace continued, having the sudden feeling she’d seen the blonde warrior before, but not being able to recall where.

When Vivace got back to the inn, she went back to looking at the notes for the coming journey. Getting bored after ten minutes, she started going through her bag, looking at the things she’d brought that she still had. Since the journey had barely started, her bag was still full of stuff from the Welsth. She pulled out the full money bag, and peered inside. She hadn’t been forced to turn to her bigger bag yet, but the coin purse on her side was getting light. Contrary to popular belief, carrying around gold and silver coins was a fairly heavy task, so most money bags were made of enchanted ‘feather light’ material created by wizards. That way, they were able to carry around all the gold they wanted, without breaking their back with the load. Vivace’s purse attached to her belt wasn’t of this material, being simple cloth so she could feel when it was getting low. After recounting the money she had, dividing out some she’d like to carry on her belt, she put it back and started looking through her bag again.

Suddenly an elegant lock caught her eye, and Vivace pulled out the iron that had previously caused the team problems. When did it wind up in her bag? Vivace glanced around almost guiltily. It’s not like it mattered since the marid inside the lock had already been killed, err, freed, so the lock was nothing but a nicely designed piece of metal. Vivace looked at it for a long minute, feeling it would be a waste to throw away, and yet not wanting it to be taking up room in her bag. She glanced down at her belt, seeing if there was any bag she could shove it into, but the only holder she had on her side was a small rectangular carrier with her badge and notes, and a money bag. Suddenly she was seized with an idea, and pulled her belt off to make the needed changes.

When the other members of the group began coming into the room a few hours later, they saw a gnome curled on top of one of the beds with her head facing the footboard and scrapes of leather and a metal belt buckle lying beside her

Dolly flopped onto the bed across from her, hearing the two other members coming in talking behind her. They had met up in the bar across the street when they’d gotten hungry, and made their way back here when the gnome hadn’t shown up, being finished for the day. The human continued watching the gnome sleep, and after a minute reached over and prodded her.

“Dolly, what’re you doing?” Elera asked from her bed across the room. She was examining a new pair of twin daggers she’d bought on Sforzan’s insistence, twirling them in her hands.

“Waking her up.” Dolly replied, prodding their leader again. “We need to talk about what we’re doing now. I heard some interesting rumors.”

Vivace blink blearily, opening her eyes to the bright room. The sky outside had fallen dark, but all of the lights in the room had been turned on.

“What was she doing?” Sforzan questioned, glancing at the leather and buckle.

“No clue.” The human prodded the gnome again, resulting in the swatting of her hand. “She’s awake, we can ask her. Hey, Ace. What were you doing? Do you need one of us to baby sit you constantly, or is there an explanation why you seem to be destroying belts?”

Vivace sat up, rubbing her head and glaring at the human across from her. “I wanted to make some changes.”

The team looked at her questioningly and glanced down at the belt she was wearing. Instead of the normal buckle, she’d put a familiar lock in its place, having the leather sewn onto it. They each stared for a minute, but out all the question s that could have been asked, Elera chose, “Do you have a way to open that now?”

Vivace flushed, “Of course I do! That was the second thing I checked.”

“What was the first?” Dolly wondered, shaking her head and trying her hardest not to ask why the gnome had fastened a lock to her belt. In response to her question Vivace shrugged. “Right, well. I got some rumors from the bar. Let’s move to those.”

The team pulled in together, Elera changing from her own bed to Dolly’s, and Sforzan coming to sit beside Vivace. Dolly continued. “There still isn’t anything positive on the whereabouts of the Heart Stones, so I’d say we’re still ahead of the game. There is however, mention of some of the teams making progress.”

“How-?”

“Quiet, Ace. I’m explaining. It’s simple really, some of the teams have started getting sponsors from the people in the Court. Those groups I was telling you about before? They’re fairly popular up with the nobles. The entire Tournament has turned into a type of TV show for them, there have been little side quests set up throughout it for any teams looking to get some extra money. They’re all broadcasted too. It’s a odd change, actually. Before now Tournaments were publicized all over the place, but they were really rather private. It’s because the empire really doesn’t want people knowing what goes on in the competitions, most of it’s not nice stuff. Some hotshot decided the people aught to see what kind of Royal Guard was being created.”

“So is the whole Tournament being broadcasted? All of it? How?” Vivace asked, a little worry entering her voice. She hadn’t expected this. Dolly shook her head.

“No, not all of it.” she corrected. “For now it’s only the new side quest they put in. Technically, a person can win the Tournament without ever showing up at the Tournaments, they’re not required. All the winning team needs is the Heart Stones and they’re good. It’s the money that’s the killer.”

At Vivace’s questioning look, Sforzan explained. “In Tournaments, one of the biggest problems Players run into is that they don’t have the funds to continue competing. Weapon repairs, healer bills, food and places to stay, supplies, they take up a lot of people’s savings, and in the end a team will be forced out of the Tournament because they can’t afford to keep going. True, you can sometimes find money inside of strong monsters from the past Players they’ve devoured, but it’s really not as likely as what people think.”

“These side quest give the Players exactly what they want.” Dolly continued. “It let’s them show off how good they are, if they win, of course, gives them funds to keep going, and they’ll gain access to other prizes, like rare items.”

“And it gives the masses something to entertain themselves with as well as the nobility something to bet on.” Elera added with a hiss. “It’s going to be popular.”

“Well, we don’t need it.” Vivace stated firmly. “We already have the Heart Stones locations, we’ll just go after those while everybody else is distracted.”

“The problem, Ace,” Dolly said wryly from her seat. “is that we’re going to have to restock our funds at some point. The farther we get the more things are going to cost. With the side quest going on, there won’t be many other options for us to get work for money.”

Vivace sat frowning. “How much money do we have right now?” The group glanced at each other. While they had been poling funds, each of them were still holding onto their own money as was expected.

“We should probably check.” Sforzan said, pulling out a money bag from his side. Vivace looked over and noticed he had an arrow case on his bed, as well as a long wooden bow. The others all pulled out their funds, and Vivace crawled over to her bag to pull out her larger sack.

“Paranoid, are we?” Dolly asked, noticing Vivace clamber back into her position holding another bag while reaching onto her belt for the one she kept by her side. Vivace ignored her, spilling out the contents of her first bag onto her lap. The others were doing the same, either pouring it onto their laps or the beds next to them. When Vivace had finished counting the money she had in her carrier, she edge back and poured the contents of her larger sack onto the bed in front of her. Much to the surprise of the other group members.

Vivace began counting in silence, and it wasn’t until she noticed the sound of clinking coins was only coming from her that she looked up. The other three group members were staring at her. “What?” she asked defensively.

“Who’d you rob?” Elera asked, leaning over to look at the pile.

“What?”

“Why didn’t you tell us you had so much?” Dolly asked annoyed.

“Huh?” Vivace looked at the money beside the others, and realized her pile was both bigger and had more gold in it then theirs did. “Oh, this was something my parents and grandparents gave me before I left home. It was suppose to be my dowry.”

The others stared at her, and Elera started laughing. “Well, that’s a nice leaving home gift.”

“Your parents supported your entering in the Tournaments?” Sforzan asked curiously. Vivace shrugged.

“Not at first, but Grandpa was a Player once, so they eventually caved. He got into some position in the city because of it, so he helped my mum and dad come around.”

The centaur nodded. Then, “And they gave you your dowry?”

“They said I wouldn’t need it.”

Suddenly a fit of laughter burst from the women on the opposite beds, and Sforzan looked away with an expression mingled with guilt and amusement. The gnome glanced between the three in annoyed confusion, but before she could do anything the human was starting to speak. “Let’s just, keep counting.”

The group returned to their task, after some jibes toward Vivace and her lack of future love life. The gnome dismissed it, having never had a desire to be with anyone romantically anyway. Once the team had put together their funds to find out how much they all had, Dolly declared them done for the night. They would still have to find more funds eventually, but for the moment they were set.