Chapter Ninety-Five - Dungeon Known As...

“No,” Amaryllis said.

I looked away from the city ahead of us and towards my birdy friend who was standing, wings crossed, right next to me. “No what?” I asked.

“No, we can’t afford to have you run around the whole town acting like a country bumpkin,” she said. “There are a few things we need to do, then it’s straight to the dungeon with us.”

“Boo!” I said. “You’re no fun.”

“I’m responsible,” Amaryllis said.

“And that makes you no fun. It’s a good thing you’re one of my best friends or I’d call you boring.”

Amaryllis, being the mean and clever bird she was, waited until I was looking back towards Rosenbell before wapping me with a wing. “Idiot.”

I laughed and ran ahead of her and towards the long line of people entering the city.

I wasn’t actually sure if Rosenbell qualified as a city. It was a little on the small side, even compared to Port Royal and Greenshade, but it was way, way bigger than a place like Threewells. A town, maybe?

The walls around the town were tall and bright, made of white-beige stones set one atop the other. Huge banners hung from the sides, with symbols of wolves and bears and tridents done up in bright colours.

We arrived at the back of the line of people entering the city, and I couldn’t help but grin. The air smelled like a fair.

Young men and women in bright clothes were making their way down the lines, selling popcorn and drinks that they cooled down with big bursts of icy magic that left lines of fog in the air high above them.

A little group of musicians, just a couple of boys with some flutes, tambourines and one lute, were playing a little tune that carried all the way over to the end of the line.

“Is this place always like this?” I asked.

“Awa, no,” Awen said as she huffed and puffed and caught her breath from jogging after me. “No, there’s a big festival here every year. Um. Some people from Mattergrove, the Endless Swells, and Cinderrun all come over to participate. Ah, and there are some Ostri people.”

She pointed to a man a few placed ahead of us in the line. He was one of those tall fellows that I had seen in Juliette’s inn. All lanky and long-limbed, covered in beige and pale-yellow cloth that made him... her--them--look a lot skinnier. They noticed Awen pointing and nodded to us in a way that looked friendly.

“Cool,” I said. “What’s it a festival of?”

“It’s the festival of, um, Rose’s Bell.” Awen gestured to the back of the town where I could just make out a church-like tower with an open roof on which a large bell sat. “I don’t really know all the history,” Awen said. She sounded a little apologetic about that.

“That’s okay! More for us to learn!”

“World save us,” Amaryllis muttered. “How are you so energetic this morning?”

“I’m excited!” I cheered.

A few people down the line ahead of us laughed and I saw more than one give me fond looks. I decided that maybe I could be a little less excited.

I bounced on my feet as more and more people were let into the town and the line dwindled ahead. There were caravans and carts and such pulling up behind us, and hikers who were coming to town with big backpacks full of stuff too.

I gawked without shame. The people, most of them human, wore all sorts of strange outfits. From things I would have expected in a medieval society, to costumes made entirely of thick scarves, to leather and plate armours.

Finally our time at the front gate arrived and we were greeted by a nice older guardsman flanked by a much younger female guardswoman. “Welcome to Rosenbell, ladies,” he said. “I’ll be using an ability on all three of you in a moment, and then you may enter, is that alright?”

“Perfectly,” Amaryllis said.

The guardsman looked me up and down, then did the same to my two friends. He mumbled a few things to the woman next to him and she took some notes in a binder. “Alright. Members of the Exploration Guild huh? I can sense a few magical things in your bags. Would you mind if I have a look?”

I didn’t have anything special in my backpack, and I didn’t think the girls had anything either. We set our things on a table and the guardsman started to look into each bag. “Terribly sorry about this. It’s a precaution we need to take, especially with all the people coming in for the tournament.”

“What’s the tournament like?” I asked.

“Oh, it’s quite a bit of fun,” the guard said as he shifted my bag to the side and started sifting through Amaryllis’. “Are you going to be here the day after tomorrow? That’s when it’s starting off.”

“Ah, I don’t know. We’re here for the puppet dungeon,” I said.

“Oh-hoh. Yes, I suppose you’re all around that level. You might want to see the puppet shows then. Very impressive.”

Amaryllis sighed. “Broccoli, stop playing tourist.”

“But I am a tourist,” I pointed out.

She glared. “Mister guard, our equipment took some beating during our last mission, are there any local tailors available? And a smith?”

“Sure thing,” he said as he pushed Amaryllis’ small pack to the side. “Check out Rusty by the main square. Decent smith. Fast work. And... ah, there’s old Yoland near the inn. She’s pricey but good. If you need something done cheap there’s a new shop at the far end of town.”

“Thank you,” Amaryllis said.

The guard smiled genially at us and opened Awen’s pack. He moved a few things aside and then his smile became very much fixed.

Carefully, the guard pulled out Awen’s wand of cure hysteria and just sort of... stared at it. “Um,” he said.

“Awa, that’s, that’s mine,” Awen said.

Was that illegal here? I hoped not. “It used to be mine,” I said. “But I gave it to her a while back. It’s harmless, I swear.”

The guardsman eyed me, then Awen. He looked at a loss for words. “Sir?” his partner asked.

The wand was stuffed back into the bag and the guard pushed it towards Awen while wiping his hands on his gambeson. “Alright, you’re ah, good to go.”

I waved to the nice guardsman and skipped into town.

Within its walls, Rosenbell was a quaint, if busy, little town. There were homes all over, set into roads that didn’t travel straight for more than a house or two’s length, and the streets were cobbled with big flat stones that made every passing cart sound like a machine gun as they rolled past.

We ended up passing crowds that were bumping along shoulder-to-shoulder until we stepped into an open square where a whole lot of people were setting up seating areas around a large stone stage.

Merchants were putting up little tents and kiosks all around and workers hauling long bits of wood were making a mess of any cart traffic in the region.

The entire town felt chaotic and, most of all, alive. I loved it.

“That way!” Amaryllis said as she pointed off to the far end of the street. The moment we were on a less-travelled road Amaryllis and Awen sighed. “Right, that was unamusing. We need to find that tailor first. Then we need to hope that there’s room for us at one of the local inns.”

“Why the tailor first?” I asked.

“Because your armour has a hole in it,” Amaryllis said as she pointed to my chest. I poked at the hole. It was a little annoying. “We can have that repaired before hitting the dungeon. Then we can see about that spade of yours.”

“You mean, I could fix it?” I asked.

“You kept the head, didn’t you?” she asked. “We’ll see about it. Otherwise, you might have to resort to purchasing a proper weapon.”

“Aww, yeah, that’s fair,” I said. “I’ll need better shoes too, mine are starting to fall apart.”

Amaryllis nodded. “Armour, then shoes, then the blacksmiths to fix your spade or replace it. Then we find an inn.”

“And if we can’t find a room?” I asked.

“In that case...” Amaryllis paused. “I suppose we could visit the dungeon early.”

“It’s a plan!” I said.

Finding the shop the guard had mentioned was as easy as asking a few locals where to go, then getting lost a few times in the winding roads of the town. At least the bell tower gave us something to line ourselves up with no matter where we went.

The shop itself was a little thing squished in between two homes with big windows at the front that showed off racks of cloth and bundles of clothes. There weren’t any clients in the shop when we stepped in, just an older woman carefully sliding a needle in and out of the base of a dress and leaving a pretty pattern of flowers wherever she moved.

“Hello,” Amaryllis said. “Are you Miss Yoland?”

“That’s me, dearie,” the woman, she said. She finished what she was doing, then set the dress down on a table while sticking her needle into a pincushion. “How may I help... three young ladies. My, I’m popular all of a sudden. Looking for something pretty for the festival? I’m sure I can make you something that’ll catch any beau’s eye.”

I laughed and shook my head. “Nothing like that,” I said. “My gambeson got a little, ah, perforated. And cut. And... well, it needs some help,” I said.

“Ah,” Yoland said. She adjusted a thick pair of glasses and squinted at my armour. “That seems like some nice work. Handmade too. Well, well.” She looked up and to Awen, then smiled kindly. “Dear, could you lock the door and lower the blinds? Wouldn’t want anyone snooping.”

“Awa, yes miss,” Awen said as she jumped to it.

“Now, young miss...”

“I’m Bunch, Broccoli Bunch. This is Awen, and that’s Amaryllis, my two best friends.”

Yoland tittered. “Very good. Now, are you wearing anything under that pretty bit of armour? I’m afraid fixing it while you’re in it might not be terribly comfortable. I’m a steady hand with the needle and thread, but we wouldn’t want to take any risks.”

“Ah, sure, sure,” I said before I started to unbuckle the armoured bits of my pretty dress and then slipped out of it. “My blouse has a hole in it too,” I said as I took that off as well, leaving me in just my bra and shorts.

“Awa,” Awen said.

After placing all my things on the counter before Yoland, I pulled Awen in for a quick side-hug.

“Hrm, this is a clean cut. Nothing too complex,” Yoland said as she prodded the hole in my gambeson. “And this... this...” she ran her hands over my blouse. Her breath caught. “This is incredible.”

“Huh?” I asked.

Yoland pulled up my blouse and held it before her. “Where did this drop from?” she wondered.

“Um... Walmart?”

“I’ve never heard of that dungeon. It must be an exceptionally rare drop. The quality... my my.”

I blinked, then fired off an Insight at my blouse.

A Simple white blouse of Masterwork quality, new.

Huh. That was different. I stared down at my feet and fired off another Insight.

A well-worn pair of sneakers of Masterwork quality, new.

“Hey, Yoland, can you fix shoes too?” I asked. Then I had a brilliant idea. “Can you enchant them?”

“You would want me to try enchanting Masterworks?” Yoland asked. She looked a whole lot younger than she did when we entered. “Oh dearie, I would love to try.”

I grinned. “Neat! We’ll leave things with you then while we go check out a few other things!”

Awen started to stutter. “Y-you can’t go out ju-just with that.” she said.

“Ah, right,” I said. I turned to Yoland, “Do you have anything I can borrow? I’ll bring it back super clean, promise!”

***