Walking through Cotanaku hand-in-hand with Heluna made Kaldalis feel a little self-conscious. His friends all knew by now that he was in a relationship with an NPC, and they - for the most part - knew that the NPCs were potentially actual people and not hyper-advanced computer programs.

But the other PCs didn’t have all the information. He didn’t want to get teased for dating a computer.

If someone managed to get under his skin in just the wrong way, he might accidentally spill the beans.

Kaldalis didn’t have particular affection for Monsoon at this stage, but he was undeniably at their mercy. Blowing their cover-up wide open against their wishes was not going to lead to a happy ending while they had his Earth body on life support in a tube.

“So what happened to your adrenaline crash?” Heluna asked, leading him towards a part of Cotanaku he hadn’t been to before. “I thought you were too exhausted to stay awake.”

“I guess I got my second wind,” Kaldalis said.

She was leading him into the southeastern region of the town, where the sailors lived, but past where he had been before. The buildings here looked newer. They were made of fresh wood, even if their designs were obviously meant to evoke the same feel as the buildings constructed of shipwreck salvage.

“Fish gives you a second wind,” Heluna said with a wicked smirk. “That sounds pretty fuckin’ useful to know. I’ll have to remember that.”

Kaldalis tried not to imagine what she was thinking about.

***

She eventually led him to a building that was shaped like an overturned longboat. It was just inside the city wall, tucked up under the wall’s shadow in a way that would have made it look seedy if the lumber used in construction didn’t still look fresh and pristine. Kaldalis figured that in ten or fifteen years, it would look like the perfect stereotype of an old dive bar. But for now, it was the awkward teenager version of such an establishment: too young to look rugged enough to demand respect.

As soon as they entered, a half-dozen folk scattered around the interior gave a greeting cheer. It sounded like they were saying “Hey, Heluna!” but it was scattered and slurred. Kaldalis found that a bit alarming as it was still early afternoon. When did the drinking start around here? And should he be worried that Heluna was a regular at such an establishment?

“Hey,” Heluna called back, visibly doing so by sheer reflex. She peered around the room, looking for someone before pointing towards the darkest corner of the ship-shaped building. It would be towards the prow if this were actually a boat. “There’s the asshole. This way, Kal.”

Kaldalis looked around as she led him through the place. The building was obviously meant to be a dingy tavern, and while the exterior still looked fresh, the interior had clearly suffered some amount of weathering at the hands of the patrons, with signs of smoke damage, stains of various colors, and even some scrapes and gouges that looked like a fight had happened in here. There were about eight round tables scattered asymmetrically around the space, each one surrounded by between two and four intentionally mismatched chairs.

Against the back wall there was a bar manned by one slightly scrawny-looking Bhogad, but there appeared to be no other employees. Perhaps that was just because it was still so early in the day.

At the prow of the bar there was a table with four chairs, three of them occupied. By their outfits they were clearly sailors, as were most of the bar patrons. One was a Vathon, one Finnian, and one Suyon, though the mismatched chairs meant that they were all seated with their heads at roughly the same height.

Heluna grabbed an extra chair from an unoccupied table and scraped it over, flipping it around to sit leaning over it backwards. She gestured for Kaldalis to sit on the chair that was already available at the table.

“Heluna,” the Vathon said. “Who’s your friend?”

“Oh, nobody special,” Heluna said with a grin. “This is just Kal.”

The Suyon had been taking a swig from her tankard, but suddenly sputtered and choked. Ale visibly trickled from her nostrils as her surprise sent it flooding into her sinuses. The Finnian’s jaw dropped open, and the Vathon’s cocky grin immediately vanished.

“Kal,” Heluna said, turning to him, her grin only growing larger. “This is Jorarre, Arnaud, and that asshole is Bastijn.” She indicated the Suyon, the Finnian, and the Vathon in turn.

“Nice to meet you all,” Kaldalis said carefully, unsure of what fresh hell Heluna had walked him into.

“What, uh,” the Vathon, Bastijn, began. He was obviously trying to act cool, but Kaldalis’s reputation had obviously preceded him. “What brings you to this neck of the woods, Kal?”

“I asked Heluna for a favor,” Kaldlais ventured, “and she brought me here.”

“Favor?” Jorarre asked, wiping the ale from her face. “You. Kal-fucking-dalis. Asked Heluna for a favor. This Heluna. Our Heluna.”

“Why wouldn’t I?” Kaldalis asked, unsure of where this was going. “She’s helped me out in the past with bigger problems than this. I trust her.”

Heluna visibly puffed up with pride. Jorrare cursed and jammed a hand in a pocket to retrieve a full crescent coin before shoving it across the table to Arnaud, who silently pocketed it with a satisfied smirk.

“I just happened to know someone who could help,” Heluna said, gesturing at Bastijn. “Go on, Kal. Show him.”

In the absence of anything else to do, Kaldalis produced the weird hexagonal puzzle case, placing it on the table.

The three at the table leaned over to peer at it curiously.

Jorarre tentatively reached out towards it.

“Mind if I fuck with it for a second?” he asked.

“Go ahead,” Kaldalis said with a wave. “It’s why I brought it here.”

Bastijn picked up the case, clearly surprised by its weight. He started to fiddle with it briefly, and the little ceramic tiles slid around over the surface. That was obviously the puzzle. Finding the right arrangement.

“Well, I see how it fuckin’ works,” Bastijn said, turning it over in his hands. “But I can’t read this shit.” He tapped on the Lataxinan symbols on each tile. “None of them match. Some of them look pretty damned similar, but without knowing what they mean?” He shrugged, putting the case back down on the table. “I could fuck with it to try and get there by luck, but that’ll take…” He paused, counting the tiles. “Fuck. It could take months, even if I could afford to just sit on my ass and try every arrangement non-stop.”

Kaldalis was tempted to ask how many crescents it would cost to get the man to do just that, but he got the impression that even if Kal ponied up a few months worth of salary, he might say no just to avoid the agitation.

“There is, of course,” Bastijn said, pushing the case back across the table. “The dumbass solution.”

“The dumbass solution?” Kaldalis asked.

“Yeah, just, you know.” Bastijn rapped a fist against the case, making a clicking sound with his tongue along with the impact. “Crack the fucker. Pound a hole into it and tear the bitch in half.”

“How?” Heluna asked.

Kaldalis raised a hand, grabbing a hold of the case with the other. “Ah, now the ball is in my court. I know someone for that.”

Heluna’s friends invited her to stay and have a drink with them, but she insisted on coming with Kaldalis as he left. She claimed her curiosity had been piqued, but he suspected that she thought sticking with him might put their dinner date back on the table. Kaldalis had to admit, the refreshing hit of dopamine of quest progress - and the promise of further progress to come - was refreshing enough that he might indeed be up for a nice quiet night of dinner and a walk on the beach.

Kaldalis went back towards the jungle side gate. He was heading towards the crafting area, specifically to the other good friend he knew he could trust.

***

“Sivima,” Kaldalis called as soon as she put down her hammer and returned the steel she was working with into the forge. “Can I borrow you for a minute?”

“Kal!” she said, looking up with a soot-stained smile. “Good to see you. I thought I heard you were in trouble today?”

“Am I ever not?” Kaldalis asked with a laugh.

“And who is your friend?” she asked.

Kaldalis was suddenly reminded of how Heluna’s friends had reacted to seeing him.

“This is Heluna,” Kaldalis said, reaching out and taking Heluna’s hand to give it a squeeze. “I guess you could call her my partner in crime. Heluna, this is Sivima. An adventurer’s closest ally is always going to be a blacksmith. Without her weapons, I couldn’t have won half the fights I needed to.”

“Nice to meet one of Kal’s friends who isn’t, you know,” Heluna said, visibly struggling to keep the profanity down. Or perhaps her head was spinning at the display of public affection. “One of his crazy adventurer team.”

“Pleased to meet you as well. So what can I do for you?” Sivima asked with a knowing smile. “Are those weapons doing well for you, or do you need something new?”

“No, yeah,” Kaldalis said with a smile. “They’re working great. I actually was hoping for a different favor from you.” He produced the puzzle box again. “I asked a puzzle nerd about this, and he said I should just give up on the puzzle and knock it open. As soon as he said it, I thought of you.”

“You’re not wrong,” Sivima said, hefting her hammer. “Let me take a look.”

She stepped over and took the case from Kaldalis, giving it a quick look-over. As soon as she saw it up-close, she frowned.

“I could probably crack it,” she said, squinting at one end of it. “I’m not sure what it’s made out of, but there’s not anything I’ve ever seen that won’t break under enough fire and force. I don’t know if you want me to, though. There’s no telling what’s inside here. It might not hold up to what I have to do to open it.”

Kaldalis grimaced, and looked at Heluna, finding her looking uncertain as well. “I don’t know if we have another option, though,” he said. He held out a hand to take the case back.

“Well, you could solve the puzzle,” Sivima ventured, passing it back to him. “It’s obviously the intended means of opening it.”

“If we could,” Heluna grumbled. “The symbols don’t make any fuckin’ sense.”

“Did you try arranging them by shade?” Sivima asked.

“Shade?” Kaldalis asked.

“Yeah,” Sivima said. She pointed to the symbols on the tiles. “I recognize a couple of these from my grandfather’s work.” She specifically touched a couple of them along the top side. “Green. Red. Orange-red.” She tapped one with a frown. “Don’t know this one. But the next one is yellow-orange.”

“Wait, these aren’t Lataxinan symbols?” Kaldalis asked, looking at them again. “You can read them?”

“A couple of them,” Sivima said. “A proper painter might be able to tell you more.” She pointed south. “Look for Yestry down that way. I think she was setting up shop next to the town hall. Just let me know if you need help finding her. I have to get back to work.”

“Oh no,” Kaldalis said as the blacksmith returned to her forge. “I should have known this would happen eventually.”

“What?” Heluna asked.

“The trade quest,” Kaldalis said somberly. “I’m just going to be running around town all damn day.” He shrugged and started heading south towards the town hall. “Come on. Let’s go. As long as you’re with me, I’ll be able to stomach it.”