Seeds of Discordia

Liam scanned the area the moment he stepped through the portal. The room was spacious and was cooler than the room he was in just seconds ago. The walls were painted blue, and the ground was made of some sort of wood. There was a window showing a dark sky. That confused Liam, but then he remembered the place they had agreed to go to was on the other side of the world.

It was a little after noon back in the Arkadian Empire. He looked at his internal clock and saw it was barely past eleven at night here at Wayside Port in the human territory. Eri had told him, and the others who were tied to her, that the place they needed to go was here. They had played it off that Artem, Blair, and Roman had suggested coming to this place because they had last heard about the other three possibly being close by this city.

A sudden sinking feeling hit him, making him swiftly turn back around to see if he was alone once more. Before he started to freak out, the teleportation portal lit up and Artem slowly walked out. Liam let out a sigh of relief as he watched the others come out one by one until Uncle Naro appeared, taking the rear.

Liam wanted to chuckle as he saw the shirt the giant man was wearing now. On the other side of the portal he didn’t have one on. Now he was sporting something similar to a Hawaiian shirt that tourists wore. He must have put it on before coming through. However, instead of having floral print, it had different style meats. Adding to his attire were a pair of shorts, a straw hat, and a pair of sunglasses. He really looked like the vacationing uncle if he didn’t have the Bear ears and stood taller than the others.

Uncle Naro let out a loud laugh after seeing how dark it was outside. “I forgot about the time difference from where we were compared to here.”

Liam shook his head. Before he or the others could say anything, the single door in the door slid open and two people walked right in. One was a human who stood slightly taller than Liam and the other was a gnome who stood slightly shorter than Roman. Both of these men wore matching light blue and brown uniforms.

“Good evening,” the human said with a gruff voice. “We are sorry for not being here when you arrived. We weren’t aware of any incoming parties this late in the evening.”

“May we ask where it is you came from as we look at your identifications?” The gnome male ask. His accent almost similar to a French accent.

“We have come from Cashat Port, Little Wing Island from the Arkadian Empire,” Uncle Naro informed as Liam and the other pulled out either their C.I.D. or A.I.D. to show the two men.

“Arkadian Empire huh?” the human man said as he paused and got a good look at each of them. he then paused as he looked at Uncle Naro’s I.D. and looked back at the man.

As Liam was putting his C.I.D. away, he didn’t notice as Uncle Naro placed a finger to his lips in a shushing gesture. The man understood and asked, “How long will you be here at Wayside Port, manner of business, and do you know if you will be leaving through the portal or through a different manner of means?”

Uncle Naro looked down at the others before he said, “I am not sure how long we will be here, but we at least plan to be here for a few days before leaving. They are new arrivals, and I wish to use your Library and possibly Mage Tower associates to help increase their missing and lacking knowledge as well as help train their magical abilities some. Our manner departure depends on our business.”

Liam took this cue to chime in. “We are looking for some people. I am not sure if they are here or in a place close by.”

The two men looked at each other warily before looking at Liam and asking, “Does your purpose for searching for these people have any ill intent or on friendly terms?”

“Friendly terms,” Liam swiftly stated as he gave him a confused look. “May I ask why you would ask if we have ill intent towards people we are searching for?”

“It is a procedure we must ask. If the reason falls into ill intent we have to ask that you take any fighting outside the town. We do not have the proper means to protect innocents that could accidentally get wrapped up in whatever is planned,” the gnome replied as he let out a sigh of relief.

“I must ask,” Roman started. “Even asking and stating that how often does someone listen to that?”

The two men looked at Roman and gave him a grimace.

“Majority do not listen, but there are some who do. So we ask in hopes there are more like that,” the man answered. He then looked back at the others and informed, “All looks to be in order. We welcome you to Wayside Port in Geraldo’s Dukedom in the Human territory. The Library is currently closed until tomorrow. There might be some people still in the Mage Tower if you wish to go there, but other than that there are some bars open. A couple are still serving food if you are hungry. Other than that there is only one inn we are aware of that still have some vacancies. It has a pub attached to it and will still be serving food until a little after midnight. It is called The Freaky Fin.”

Liam couldn’t help but chuckle a bit. The name reminded him of a bar back in his old town on Earth called the Battered Beaver. He believed it must be customary in any world to have drinking places named after animals with a weird word that matched the first letter of the animal. Maybe it helped patrons to remember it that way.

“Thank you,” Uncle Naro said. “We will seek the inn out and enjoy the refreshments there.”

“Enjoy,” the gnome said.

 

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It didn’t take long for Liam and the others to find the Freaky Fin. The establishment was three stories tall and had another building attached to it on the left side. After they entered and spoke with the woman running the desk, they each got a room and met back at the reception room. There was a door on the left side of the build where they could hear a mixture of laughing, yelling, talks, and music.

As they opened the door it had gotten louder, and they could see that there was quite the crowd within. A lady wearing a dress stood next to a podium near the door greeted them with a smile. She was beautiful with long blond hair and blue eyes. She looked to be Human since she didn’t have any feature belying that.

She took them to an area that had two tables pressed together and empty. There was enough seating and space for more people to sit there, but he figure the lady gave them that table to accommodate both Artem and Uncle Naro’s bigger figures.

The waitress, a late teenage elf woman with dark green hair and light green eyes approached to ask if they wished to eat. They placed an order and was informed that if they wished for alcohol they would have to go to the bar to get some since it would be hard to get their drinks to them through the crowd at the moment.

After she left Uncle Naro asked, “So what is your plan?”

“What do you mean?” Liam asked.

“How do you plan on finding the three you are seeking?” He reiterated.

Liam thought about it. He had planned on asking Eri where they were and go from there. However, Eri said she wouldn’t tell him exactly where they were, but instead guide him as close as she could and have him search for them himself.

“I think it would be best to try and look at areas that they would love or best suit them,” Liam stated. “Mercer has a knack and talent for merchantry so I think areas that have markets, or merchant works would be best to find him at. Ariyana loves to dance, loves animals, and loves to drink so maybe places like this where she can let loose or somewhere she can find more animals?”

Uncle Naro nodded his head as Gimmel listened. Artem, Blair, and Roman looked at each other and smirked.

“What about Avrey?” Roman asked with a slight teasing in his voice.

Liam thought about the Crimson Elf woman. He thought about his time training with her. Her swordsmanship with a rapier was amazing and her magic was enchanting. Even the way she used Blood Magic, although he didn’t see as much of it as her Fire Magic, was amazing. He then thought about others things but stopped as he realized what he was thinking about.

“I wonder what he is thinking about?” Roman grinned teasingly.

Liam let out a cough as his cheeks blushed slightly. “She trains her sword work a lot so many a place that allows one to work on that. Or a Mage Tower. She’s diligent in her training and I believe that is amazing.”

Roman laughed loudly as Artem and Blair shook their heads.

“What’s so funny?” Liam asked.

Roman waved a hand as he said, “Nothing. Nothing.”

Gimmel gave the three a puzzled look as Uncle Naro stared at them a slight smirk tugging on the edge of his lips. Liam wasn’t too happy because he felt like there was a joke going on and he couldn’t figure it out.

After a few second Liam finally said, “Ah I need a drink.”

Roman slammed an open palm on the table and agreed, “Same here.”

“I too could go for a nice ale or four,” Uncle Naro stated as he stood up.

“Lucky for you guys. I can’t drink alcohol for another couple of years,” Gimmel grumbled.

“That’s what happens when you’re a youngster,” Roman stated with a grin.

“Says the guy who looks like a kid,” Gimmel shot back.

Artem, Blair, Uncle Naro, and Liam laughed at that. Roman was so caught off guard he sputtered his response. After a few seconds he finally stated, “And here I was about to offer you some of mine if you came with me to the bar.”

Gimmel’s eyes widened. This time it was his turn to be baffled. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it!”

Roman laughed at Gimmel’s attempt to apologize. “It’s fine but you’re still coming with me right?”

“I’ll come too. I want to see what there is,” Artem said as he stood up.

Blair stood as well as she nodded, but then pointed a finger at Liam and said, “You should stay here in case our food comes or someone thinks this table is free. We don’t want our table to go to someone else.”

“But I wanted to get a drink as well,” Liam stated.

“Its fine. I’ll grab you something I think you might like. It’s on me this time,” Roman stated as the five of them started to leave the table.

Liam watched as they left. He was confused by their behavior, but he just chopped it up to them wanting to have a drink after what they had been through recently. They weren’t in any danger here. No Immoral Vice worshippers looking to destroy the town. No crazy nobles looking to force people to do what they wanted. No death spiders trying to poison and turn people or creatures into their zombie puppets…that he knew of. Nothing like that. Just people looking to drink, eat, and be merry.

He looked around and thought about the other three. He knew how they would be if they were here. Avery would want to dance while Ariyana would join her after trying to get people to buy more drinks with that drinking chant of hers. Mercer would sit back in his chair and eye some of the people or he would join the girls on the dance floor.

Liam let out a sigh. Sure enough their presence had made an impact on him. Artem, Blair, and Roman were great companions as well as Gimmel and Uncle Naro, but without the other three he felt like there was some fun missing.

It didn’t take long before the others arrived. They each had a glass of beer and a shot glass of something golden. Liam looked at it and sighed. Them bringing a shot meant they were going to make a toast.

After Gimmel placed a shot glass and a mug of beer down in front of Liam, he quickly ran over to his seat where Roman, who had two shot glasses, looked around the area before sliding one towards Gimmel.

“Alright, let’s make a toast,” Roman stated as he grinned widely. “Liam? Do you want to do the honors?”

Liam thought about it. He could make a toast and finish it with something Ariyana would always do, but he felt that it wasn’t right without her here to do it. Instead, he said, “To good friends and great companions. May we find the others and hope they wish to continue the adventure we started in the Tutorial Area.”

He was about to drink, but noticed no one, but Uncle Naro who didn’t care to wait and was already on his giant mug of beer and Gimmel who didn’t want anyone in the establishment to notice him drinking the shot, had taken their shot. They stared at him with grins wide almost like they knew a secret he didn’t. He didn’t like this feeling and was about to say something but was stopped as a voice suddenly teased, “With a toast like that I’m not sure if we should continue our journey.”

Liam froze as he recognized the male voice.

“I think we need to redo this. Want to do the honors?” a recognizable female voice added.

“Hell yeah I do,” the last voice, this one full of giddiness and laughter answered. “But you all better join me.”

In unison, the three voices along with Artem, Blair, and Roman all chanted as they raised their shot glasses, “The Sun is down but our Spirits are high. Last one to finish, is the Next one to buy!”

Instinctually and out of habit of not wanting to be the last one, Liam slammed his shot glass down with the others. He noticed two hands, one on each side of him, slammed a shot glass down with him as he raised it to his lips and down the contents as quickly as he could.

Gimmel stared with a shocked expression as Uncle Naro let out a loud belly rumbling laugh as Liam coughed after the warm liquid burned as it went down his throat. After he finished coughing he swiftly turned around to see Mercer, Avery, and Ariyana stand right before him with wide smiles on their faces.