RavensDagger

  Chapter Two Hundred and Sixty-Seven - Lost and Found in Transtion

  “Rai?” Reginald asked.

  “How did you figure that?” Amaryllis asked.

  I gestured vaguely through the air. “The ’s obvious, isn’t it?”

  “No. No, it really isn’t,” Amaryllis said.

  I huffed. “e on. Drizz L. Lizard? It obviously means drizzle lizard, and that’s just a terrible pun for rai.”

  Amaryllis blinked. “None of that made sense,” she said.

  I stared at my birdy friend for a bit. The clues and all were super obvious, and she was a smart girl. Then it clicked and I felt silly. “It’s a multilingual pun,” I said with mounting horror. Puns were already a bit evil, puns that required transtion... that was a whole new level of terrible. Rai really was a vilin.

  “How does it work?” Amaryllis asked. “I don’t see the liween the names.”

  “It might be because of my autotranstion,” I said. “But the name means rain lizard. A is a kind of lizard. That, and Reginald mentioned something that might have been shapeshifting.”

  “And there’s a solid link with the Exploration Guild,” Amaryllis added. “But then, for him to be able to make that kind of...dare I say joke--with his name, he would o either have a gift for multiple nguages, or be a riftwalker.”

  “That would make sense, wouldn’t it?” I asked. “Him being a riftwalker. He’s beeroying dungeons. Reginald! Did the dungeons he destroyed have any evil roots in them?”

  Reginald leaned ba his big office seat. “Evil roots? Ah, I don’t know? Actually, there was-- give me a moment.” He slid his chair to the side and opened a drawer. “I only have these on hand because the inquisition demanded copies of everythied to Drizz. They couldn’t find him initially, so they started to iigate with more depth. That meant going over everything with a fiooth b.” He pulled out a stack of papers ahem on his desk, thearted flipping through them.

  I watched as he paused on a page, frowhen tur around and slid it our way.

  Awen, Amaryllis and I all leaned over to ihe paper. Reginald tapped a paragraph he middle.

  The Hidebank Dungeon was explored by a local delve team who reported strange growths on the Boss floor of the dungeon. The dungeon has not acquired any new floors sis st survey, but there have been some noted ges in its behaviour.

  “What’s this report?” Amaryllis asked.

  “It’s the demand from Riverhide to send someoo explore one of the small dungeons in the region. It’s not a very popur dungeon, so there wasn’t a lot of local i in unc the ges within it. It was one of the first missions that Drizz took. That dungeon was destroyed.”

  Amaryllis turned my way, a taloing against her . “It’s not much to go on. Circumstantial at best.”

  “But it’s something,” I said. “Did any of the other dungeoion pnt stuff? Big roots, the dungeon ag weird?”

  “Not that I’m aware of. Drizz had a knack for tag dungeons across the nation, but he only destroyed three as far as I’m aware.” Reginald sighed. “Only three. As if that’s not an enormous number of lost dungeons.”

  I looked at Amaryllis, and she hough it was a little relut. “Alright, I’ll admit that you might be onto something.”

  “You know Drizz then?” Reginald asked.

  “Yeah, but not uhat name,” I said. “I’m not sure, not without seeing them, but it sounds like Drizz might be Rai. He was a man that worked at the Port Royal Exploration Guild. He tried to get Amaryllis kid some point, and he might be responsible for a bunch of diplomatis in the area too.”

  “Not to mention what he did in the ing Kingdom. He set off an explosive that killed and injured members of a sylph diplomatic party,” Amaryllis tinued. “He got away with it too, as far as I tell.”

  Reginald paled. “He did what?”

  “Yeah, it was really bad,” I said. “I don’t know if he destroyed more dungeons along the way, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he did.”

  Amaryllis’ eyes narrowed. “Why did you suspect he was lio the Evil Roots, Broccoli?”

  I shrugged. “The world told me to fix those. So if there’s another riftwalker, maybe they’re here for the same reason. Trying to start a war doesn’t make sehough. If all he wanted was to destroy dungeons he could be a lot sneakier about it.”

  “Awa, maybe he doesn’t want to do it himself?” Awen asked. “If he could vihe nations to fight, then one of the first things they’ll do is destroy each other’s dungeons, right? I know that my dad had some procedures in pce, if there was ever a war or something, to protect the dungeons closest to Greenshade.”

  That made some sense, but it was su awful way to go about doing things. Why not just eople? Or find another way to get rid of the Evil Roots. I’d proven that ing magic could do it, so I bet there were other ways to get rid of the roots too.

  “This is distressing,” Reginald said. “But, at this point, I’m not sure what the guild do about it. It’s obvious that this is a problem that’s much bigger than the guild.”

  “Hmph, that’s no reason not to try to do your part,” Amaryllis said. “We’ve moved very much off-track. I came here to ask the guild for help findiain groups iy. It would help us a lot if we could track them down.”

  “We’re trying to stop Rai,” I said. “Or at least the war he might be trying to start.”

  “I try to help,” Reginald said. “But I’m not sure if there’s much I do at all.”

  I shook my head to clear it. There were too many thoughts all boung around in there at once, and I only had so mu for thinking things. “Maybe we help you while you help us!” I said.

  Reginald sat up a little straighter in his seat. “You think you help the guild? At this point, we’d accept any help we get.”

  “We might be able to help, a little, on the dition that the guild helps us in turn,” Amaryllis said. “Notably, we’re looking for the location of the diplomatic parties sent over for the summit. We have a little over a week to try and vince all the pyers here not to go to war with each other over the as of one madman.”

  “Or madperson,” I said. “Rai shapeshift. We have no way of knowing who they are.”

  Amaryllis nodded. “That’s a fair point. I suspect that most nations will have ways of intercepting and preventing that kind of security breach, if only to ter skilled spies and assassins. Warning them of a potential issue wouldn’t be amiss.”

  “The weakest point of any defence is the people behind it,” Awen said. It sounded like a quote. “Even if everyone has things io catch spies, they might not be paying them all that much attention. Though I guess that wouldn’t make sense now, not with everyone being in high alert.”

  “No, it’s a fair point,” Amaryllis said.

  I nodded along. Spying and such wasn’t my forte, but I imagihat my friends were probably right. “So that’s what we o know who and where the nice diplomats from everywhere will be.”

  “I think I mahat,” Reginald said. “I don’t have many tacts left, but I still have some. The guild isn’t lost, not yet. If I help you with that, what you do to help the guild?”

  “We don’t have much money,” I said.

  Amaryllis shook her head. “Certainly not enough to keep aire guild afloat.”

  “Surprisingly,” Reginald cut in. “We’re still staying afloat financially. We had to cut off a lot of services and such, but we had some gold saved up. It’s our reputation that we o salvage the most.”

  “Well, I don’t know about that,” I said. “But maybe if we ed the pce up a little that would help? Give me half a day and some gardening tools and I have the whole pce looking like new.”

  Reginald smiled. “I think that would help, at least a little. I suppose we’re not presenting the greatest image while looking so slovenly.” He hen eyed me, and then my friends up and down. There was a calg gleam in his eyes, and I couldn’t help but feel that maybe Reginald was the guild leader for a reason. “You’ve been on some iing adventures, haven’t you?”

  “Oh yeah, plenty,” I said.

  “Any of those ret?” he asked.

  I sidered the trip from the ing Kingdom to here. “Yeah, I think a few of them are,” I said.

  Reginald’s eyes narrowed, and he leaned his elbows onto the table. “Would one of you mind telling the story of your voyage? Truthfully, that is. o exaggerate or anything of the sort, just a straight reting of what occurred.”

  I g my friends, then shrugged. “I do that,” I said.

  “Awa, maybe I do it?” Awen asked. “I have a good memory for that kind of thing, and Broight be busy ing and doing gardening work.”

  “And in the meanwhile, I have a few small questions I’d like to ask,” Amaryllis said. “Notably, what exactly are you thinking of doing with our story?”

  Reginald nodded. “That’s only fair. The guild needs a victht now. Several, in fact. And spreading the story of a successful venture by some intrepid young members might just t as that sort of victory. It’s not much, but I’m sure we find some mutual be from announg to the nobility of the nation that you’re a force to be respected and admired.”

  “Ah, I see,” Amaryllis said.

  It souo me like Reginald just wao use us to create a good image for the guild. I wasly against the idea. We hadn’t done anything too amazing, I figured, but maybe stories about going around and making friends would attract more people who needed friends too.

  After all, Amaryllis joihe guild because she secretly wao make friends, deep, deep, down inside.

  I bet there were plenty of Amaryllises out in Goldehat needed a good friend too!

  “I like it,” I said. “But no lying or embellishing.”

  “He wouldn’t be able to in any case,” Amaryllis said. “We had Bastion with us for the erip. He would be able to fact-chey part of it, and to most sylph the word of a padin is assumed to be truthful by default, and usually food reason.”

  “Bastion?” Reginald asked.

  “A padin who apanied us on our voyage,” Amaryllis said.

  Reginald’s brows shot up, and he seemed genuinely impressed.

  I cpped my hands. “So! Should we do all of this stuff today?”

  “Ah, well, as much as I would enjoy that, I’m afraid that I ’t uphold my side of the bargain today. The information Miss Amaryllis wants isn’t something I know off-hand. Would it be possible for the three of you to return tomorrow?”

  “Sure thing,” I said. “ you set out some gardening supplies? I’m hardly an expert, but I fix up the front no problem. And I am an expert at all things ing.”

  “I look forward to seeing the results. In any case. Yes, I think we have tools and ing supplies ying about.”

  Reginald stood, and so did we.

  “You’ve given me a lot of think on. But I think this might be the start of the Exploration Guild’s return to a proper level of de. Or at least I very much hope so. Thank you, girls.”

  “No problem,” I said.

  ***

  RavensDagger

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