He Who Fights With Monsters

The Continental Council wanted Jason and his companions to stay while the aftermath of Boko’s destruction was being dealt with. As that would take months, if not years, they had decided to move on. Jason didn’t know when he would return to the city where he became an adventurer, and refused to let meetings and briefings be his last memory of the place. A local festival made for a good final day, so the team scheduled their departure for the day after.

Jason went out early to ride the water tunnel subway with its colourful mosaics, the same as he had on his first day in the city. Late morning, he and his friends joined Neil’s family in the park district for a picnic lunch. The park was busy, people out and about for the festival day. They joined some locals in a game of tri-ball that immediately went off the rails once the cheating with powers began. It started subtly, but soon the locals were watching wide-eyed as force tethers and magic barriers were used with shameless abandon.

It was early afternoon when they split up to attend the main festival area in the Divine Square. A massive open space, surrounded by temples, Jason’s first visit had also been his introduction to the gods. This time, he was less interested in religious pursuits than culinary ones. Food stalls had been set up in front of the houses of worship, boasting wares thematically linked to the gods they were fundraising for. It was a fun way for Jason to spend an afternoon, just another person in the heavy crowd.

The square was packed with people, stalls, stages and stands. This was courtesy of the religious festival, the specifics of which Jason hadn’t paid attention to. Rather than a sombre and ceremonious affair, it was more like a carnival. Families were everywhere, children eating food on sticks and playing games for dubious prizes.

There were stages where religious stories were being performed. These were the fun ones with heroes and monsters, not the weird ones about stoning people to death for having the wrong nipple ring or wearing purple during autumn. Some of the performances used actors while others were puppet shows that delighted the children and creeped out the adults. A few used illusion magic, although these seemed to be less popular. There was something impersonal about them that didn’t fit with the feel of the day.

Jason was roaming around, one hand holding an enormous drink he’d purchased in front of the temple of Ocean. It came with a decorative glass stein that showed off the blue colour. In his other hand was a candy on a stick from the temple of Lust. It was shaped like a dancing woman, using the stick as a pole.

Neil was with him as they went through every food stall and meal tent they could find. They were escorting three of House Davone’s young scions, Uncle Neil’s niblings. To Neil’s delight, they had refused to go along while he was wearing the clothes his aunt had given him. He was accordingly dressed well for once, showing off his actual physique instead of just looking chunky. That was especially valuable as Jason and Neil packed away their body weight in food, to the increasing astonishment of the kids.

Jason and Neil ran into their other friends from time to time. Zara, Sophie, Belinda and Estella were together, earning glares from the wives of staring husbands. Neil drew his own share of thirsty glances as the elf with gold-rank looks showed off how good he turned out to be with kids. Humphrey was with his mother, shoving one stuffed animal after another into his storage space as she won them. Clive was not present, being not beloved by several churches. They preferred people who found their divine relics to return them, rather than attempt to reverse engineer them.

There was a lull as the sun started to go down. People moved off to the feasting tables set up on the surrounding streets while the Divine Square was prepared for the evening. The festive atmosphere of the day would be replaced by a more ceremonial tone when the dinner feast was done.

The ceremonies were universally viewed as the boring part, but most people stayed because of the ending. The ceremonies would culminate with a release of sky lanterns, a cloud of lights, rising into the dark sky. Everyone was able to release their own lantern, many families making a craft project of it with their children.

That was still to come as people wandered out of the Divine Square at dusk. The stalls and stages were already starting to come down as they shuffled out. They would come back after long dinners of hearty winter food, even through the city never grew very cold.

Neil went off to join his family for the feast while Jason lingered in the Divine Square. Stalls came down as clergy emerged from the temples, putting up ceremonial displays with the help of volunteers. Jason found his way to a booth being packed up by a stocky bald man with skin so dark blue it almost looked black, marked by glowing sigils that looked like magic tattoos. He had broken down his booth and was loading the pieces into a large cart.

“Need a hand?” Jason asked.

“Oh, so the great and mighty adventurer is willing to do some manual labour?”

“I wouldn’t go that far.”

All the pieces were lifted into the air by Jason’s aura, floated into the wagon and arranged themselves like Tetris blocks. Some of the surrounding stall workers glanced over before turning back to their own work. Even in a low magic city like Greenstone, it wasn’t that much of a surprise. Arash shook his head.

“Still can’t help but make a display of yourself, can you?”

“Hey, I’ve been here all afternoon, and no one even noticed. I didn’t have a loud and inappropriate conversation with any of the gods or anything.”

“Then I suppose I should thank you. If you’re going to magic things up anyway, can you do something about the cart, so I don’t have to haul it home?”

Jason touched the cart and it vanished into his inventory.

“Shall we, then?”

They walked together out of the Divine Square, Arash directing them towards his home.

“I have all the drinks made up and crated in the warehouse you rented,” Arash said. “You’re sure that ritual will keep them fresh?”

“If Clive says it’ll work, it’ll work.”

“Took me a week to make them altogether, even with my nephew helping me.”

“He’s as good at making the drinks as you?”

“Oh, he’s quite the talent. Which is good, given that his ambitions of adventuring went so terribly.”

“Bad experience with a monster?”

“No, he couldn’t bring himself to kill things. Even monsters. He even gets a bit funny at the butcher shop these days. That made it hard to pass the society assessment.”

“Fighting monsters is a fairly critical element.”

Arash gave Jason a side glance, Jason sensing the uncertainty in his aura.

“Something wrong?” Jason asked.

“I have a request. It’s not a small favour, and feel free to say no.”

“What do you need?” Jason asked.

“I’ve always been happy with my lot. Selling my fruit, making my drinks. I’ve got my family, my friends, and a successful business that I’m proud of. I never had a need to go out and see the world when I was happy right here. My nephew, though, he’s got the wanderlust. Wants to see the world.”

“Thus, the ambitions of adventuring.”

“Exactly, but he doesn’t have the killing in him. Which I am not sad about, but it does make things difficult for him. He wants the travel, the experiences, but those are hard unless you’re an adventurer or an aristocrat. Giving him essences was already as much as the family could fund.”

“No adventuring means no adventuring income.”

“Indeed. I honestly don’t think he would have done well, regardless. His results were middling at the training centre. Frankly, his talents lie elsewhere. I taught him to make drinks myself, and he worked the bar at the Norwich Distillery. He can put together near any drink you can think up, if you get him the ingredients. He’s kitchen manager there, now. He manages food service for the dinner crowds. And that cloud boat of yours looks to have room for a lot of people. I was wondering if maybe it could use a good bartender and kitchen manager.”

“My friend Emir keeps telling me I need to expand my staff. He’d definitely get to travel and have new experiences. But being around me isn’t always the safest place, even if you’re staying back on the boat. I’m not saying it’s dangerous, exactly; it’s an extremely well protected boat. But when only something truly outrageous can threaten you, only truly outrageous things do. Drastic things happen around me, from time to time. Like at Boko.”

“You had something to do with that? I had been wondering”

“I had quite a lot to do with it, sadly. We managed to get most of the people out alive, but not everyone.”

“I told him much the same myself when he started talking about becoming an auxiliary adventurer. That being around people who dive into danger is dangerous itself. But the young, you know? They’ll see a whole square full of people bowing before a god and stay standing like a damn fool.”

Jason chuckled.

“He should know that I’ll be leaving this world soon. We’ll be back, but he’ll be a lot more than just a portal away from home. If he finds he wants out, it’ll be some time before he can come home.”

Arash shook his head.

“That’s a warning that’ll work on someone like me, but the boy’s a little more like you, I fear. Another world. I can’t even conceive of such a thing. You know, I’ve never been further than Hornis, down south. But Jamar, I know hearing that would only excite him more. We all make our mistakes and learn our lessons, and he’ll be no different. I just want him to live long enough to learn from them. I imagine you made your share of mistakes, getting from where we met to where we are now.”

Jason let out a wincing laugh.

“You have no idea.”

“I’ve made my own, as well. But here, I always had family. Friends. Church. Community. There was always a helping hand when I needed it most.”

“You want to make sure your nephew is taken care of. Not left to blindly stumble through a big, dangerous world.”

“Just so.”

“I can tell you this, Arash. I’m very powerful, now. That’s not a boast, just a reality. And those mistakes I made came with hard lessons. Power comes with the responsibility to avoid hurting the people around you. To safeguard them. What happened in Boko taught me that all over again. Taking care of my people is what matters most to me, and it’s not just about safety from danger. The world can hurt you without leaving a scratch. If your nephew comes along, he’s one of my people. That means we go to the wall for him.”

Arash nodded.

“I know you’re a good man, Jason, but I also know that you’re a great man. And as you said yourself, people like that are dangerous to be around. When they make a statue of a someone, they don’t sculpt in all the dead folk around them.”

“No,” Jason agreed. “No, they do not.”

“I went to see the statue they put up of you, back when we thought you died saving the city. Was a little hard to find. Out of the way, and someone planted a bush right in front of it.”

Jason chuckled again.

“Yeah,” he said. “I know who that was. I’ll take your nephew with us, Arash. Jamar, you said his name was?”

“Yes. Thank you.”

“The next few months should be relatively quiet. The messengers are wary of me now, and we’re mostly just touring around. It sounds like what the boy is looking for, and we can see if he’s a good fit. If not, I’ll portal him home before we go somewhere he can’t easily come back from.”

“I won’t say I like the idea, but I appreciate it. Honestly, I hoped you’d say no. But the boy has wanted an opportunity like this for a while now. Then you knock on my door, the best opportunity he could hope for. It would be an unkindness to not ask. And if we don’t let him go, it’s only a matter of time until he runs off into the night. We’ll wake up to a note explaining he signed up to fetch and carry for some adventuring team. Who knows if or how people like that will look out for him. They might use him as monster bait, for all we know. Standing next to you might not be the safest place, but I don’t know. I’d wager that, some days, it’s the safest place there is.”

The pair were well away from the Divine Square at this point. Jason stopped at a street junction as the aroma of roasted meat drifted up the street.

“You, know,” Jason said. “This cart is going to keep where it is. I could take it back to your place later.”

It was Arash’s turn to chuckle.

“I was going to join my family at the feast once I delivered the cart back. Would you like to join us?”

Jason looked contemplatively down the street where the smell was coming from, along with the sounds of laughter and celebration.

“I wouldn’t want to make a big deal of it. I mean, I know I’m not that famous, all these years later, but people remember. This time should be about friends and family.”

“Yes, it should. And yes, they do remember.”

“Great, let’s go,” Jason said, and set off towards the feast. “You can introduce me as John Miller.”

They joined the stream of people heading for the food tables.

“You realise they’re going to know who you are, right?” Aresh asked.

“My false identity is very rigorously put together. And I am excellent at maintaining it. Everyone says so.”

“Jason, very few silver rankers pass through this city, outside of the monster surges. Golds are almost never here, and my family know that you were a regular at my juice stand, all those years ago. If I show up with you, they’re going to realise immediately.”

“There are all these investigators here because of Boko. I could be one of them, taking the day off for the festival. I’m already making my aura read as silver rank.”

“That might work. Your being less handsome than most gold rankers will help.”

“Hey,” Jason said in mock affront. “How would you know what gold rankers look like? How many have you even seen in Greenstone?”

“Today? Quite a few, and they all turned heads, except for the one with the big chin.”

“My chin is fine,” Jason said defensively as he prodded it with his finger.

“I do remember it being larger. Memory is a funny thing, I suppose.”