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  [colpse]Chapter One Hundred and Thirty - Hoping For a Better Tomorrow

  Awen and I slipped into the Exploration Guild like a pair of mice aware that there was a cat waiting just around the er.

  Awen hadn’t seen much of the director, but what she did see was more than enough to spook the usually shy girl. Mathilde was scary like that.

  Fortunately, the only person irance hall this time was a grenoil secretary behind the front desk. The young woman looked up as we moved towards her. “We’re just here to deposit a quest,” I said.

  “A quest? Do you mean a mission?” the dy asked.

  “Ah, yeah,” I said. Quests were something else here. “We had a mission to scout out the location of some flowers and su the area between Greenshade and Rosenbell. I have samples and a really ap with flower types on it,” I said.

  “The mission was handed from zis guild?” the dy asked.

  “Ah, no, not really. We got it from the guild in Greenshade,” I said.

  She nodded slowly. “In zat case, I accept ze mission, but ze rewards will be held until we firm zat ze mission’s pletion was to ze t’s satisfa. Zat might take some days.”

  “Darn,” I said. “Well, there’s nothing for it. Are there guild pces in... Fort Sylphrot? That’s where we’re goi.”

  “There is,” the dy said. “I give you a voucher zat you present zere. It will add a few days to everyzing, but you’ll receive your due payment in time.”

  “That would be really nice,” I said. “I don’t know how much time we’ll be spending there, but it might be a couple of days.”

  The secretary nodded. “Very well then, miss. I’ll need you to fill out zis form, and zen I process your request.” She pced a sheet on the desk before me, then a nice pen with a calligraphy nib o it.

  I thanked her and started putting my samples and the map I’d gotten from the bees onto the desk. Then I started to fill out the form. It was mostly easy stuff, but I had to ask Awen for help with the dates and such. When it was done, I gave it to the secretary and smiled while I waited.

  “Ah, Miss,” The secretary said. She looked a little unfortable. “I ’t read zis nguage.”

  I took the form and looked it over. My handwriting was a bit sloppy, especially where I had fun drawing little smileys in all the loopy letters, but it was still readable. Then it clicked. I was writing in English, and the on nguage here was... whatever.

  “Oh no,” I said. “I’m so sorry! I fot I’m using transtion magic. Um. I don’t know how to write the loguage.”

  “Awa,” Awen awa’d for the first time since arriving. “I help you. I don’t mind being your secretary.”

  “Really?” I pulled her into a hug. “You’re the best!”

  The sed form handed over was a lot more readable, probably. Awen’s handwriting looked and tidy, though I had some sort of gimmicky thing turning it to English, so for all I k could be totally sloppy.

  I thahe secretary, then waited o Awen for her to return with a voucher. It was a bit chilly in the waiting room, so I pulled Awen in for some recreational cuddling. She was just short enough that if I stretched onto my tippy-toes I could plop my atop her head.

  Awen must have been cold too, because she pressed into the hug with a tent little ‘a’ sound.

  And then the secretary returned with a grim-faced direathilde and a k of my good mood evaporated. I pulled back from Awen and faced the director while trying to tamp down my nerves. “Hello,” I said.

  “Good m, Miss Bunch,” she said. “Miss Bristlee.”

  Awen tensed up too. We shared a look and both khat could be in a heap of trouble. “How are you doing?” I tried.

  The director scoffed. “I doubt you’re here for pleasantries.”

  “No, we’re just here to hand in a mission. Really, that’s it.”

  She eyed us, then looked to the secretary who gave her our report. “So you are. Well, perhaps it’s fortuitous that you’ve e.” Her attention fell onto Awen like a sack of rice falling from the heavens. Awen made herself smaller. “Your parents have hired the guild to find, aurn you. There’s a sizable reward on the line.”

  “You ’t take Awen,” I said as I pulled my friend bad pced her behind me. I didn’t know how strong the director was, but I had to assume she was around Abraham’s level, which meant... that was bad. Still, Awen didn’t deserve to go back to her parents and I wouldn’t let this woman take her just like that.

  “I also,” she tinued. “Received a letter, and a bottle of wine, from Abraham, tellio leave things alohat Awen robably in good hands.”

  I nodded. “She is! I mean, she almost died a few times, and we were in a lot of danger a few others, but she’s uh, grown a lot. Please don’t take Awen away.”

  “I, I don’t want to leave Broccoli,” Awen whispered o me.

  Mathilde sighed. “Why do you always make me feel like some sort of vilin, Miss Bunch?”

  “Um.”

  “No, nevermind that. I suppose it es from being what you are.”

  “A, um, perfectly ordinary girl?” I tried.

  She didn’t look amused. “A Riftwalker. And a troublesome o that.”

  I felt a chill running down my back. My mouth worked, but I wasn’t sure what to say.

  “I’ll be watg your career with i,” Mathilde said. “Your sort tends to burn bright. I just hope that fire doesn’t start an inferno, or that it doesn’t get doused too early.” She shook her big froggy head. “You two be careful. Bad times are stirring up.”

  I swallowed. “We’ll do our best to make them better,” I said.

  She huffed, then made a dismissiure with a hand. I didn’t o be told twice. Pulling Awen after me, I skedaddled half-way out the room, then ran back to get my backpack.

  On reag the outside of the guild, we found an impatient Amaryllis tappialons on the ground. “About time,” she said.

  “Amaryllis!” I said before crashing into her with a hug. “Direathilde almost sed-kidnapped Awen, and then she found out I was a Riftwalker.”

  Amaryllis stared at me. “And she let you go? Both of you?”

  We nodded.

  “Then she’s an idiot. Let’s not spit in fortune’s eye.” The harpy pushed me off, then started fixing her feathers. “I have arranged for teleportatioo Fort Sylphrot this afternoon. That leaves us nearly five hours before it’s time to leave.”

  The ge of subject caught me ft-footed, but my mind caught up soon enough. “Okay? So we get lund wait?”

  “World no. You don’t teleport on a full stomach. I was thinking, rather, we go do a little bit of shopping. Nothing too extravagant. Your clothes are... niough, I suppose, but they’re ill-suited to the more prestigious Fort.”

  I nodded, a grin ing on strong. “That sounds nice. I’ve been wearing the same panties for two weeks now.”

  Awen stepped away and Amaryllis looked at me as if I’d just gotten on all fours and started lig the pavement.

  “I have !” I defended myself.

  “Disgusting,” Amaryllis said. “e. We’re buying you a wardrobe.” She hugged e (who had goh her so that she wouldn’t be alone) close to her chest and stomped off with a huff.

  “Where am I going to put it?” I asked.

  “If you ’t even fit some uionables in your backpack then you o relearn how to pack,” said the harpy who didn’t carry a bag because she had a banking ring.

  I protested the entire way down to the main road, but my protests fell onto deaf ears, and Awen was too busy breathing hard from the walk to leap to my defence.

  Amaryllis led us across a boulevard and into a shopping district with a few stores. “You’ll need something suitable for presenting yourselves in polite pany. Don’t worry. I’ll be stowing it myself. World knows you’d find a way to lose it between now and this evening.”

  My curiosity iqued. “What is harpy fashion like?”

  “High fashion? I have no clue. I’ve been gone for over a month, so all I know is likely outdated. But there are some staples that are always respectable. Usually lighter clothes, flowing pants that are very loose fitting, with some sort e scarf or pelt to ward off the cold.”

  “Do you wear skirts?” I asked. “I’m not too fond of pants.”

  “We fly, at least short distances,” Amaryllis said. “It would be the height of impropriety to wear a skirt. Not to mention the wind around most of the cities aes around the ing Kingdom. You’ll just o get used to pants.”

  I shrugged. “When in Rome,” I said.

  “Where’s Rome?”

  “Ah, nevermind.” I waved the question off. “So, what about colours?”

  “When I left, the trend was to wear darker colours. Bcks, greys, browns. I don’t think that has ged so soon. No patterns. Those were left behind st winter, and I won’t have you looking like more of a bumpkin than you are.”

  “I’m okay with anything, I guess,” I said. “As long as it’s not revealing or unfortable.”

  Amaryllis gri me. “Usually you’d be trying to wear less, not more. At least, that was my sister’s advice when it came to catg a beau. Trust me, she would know. The womahrough bachelors faster than most outgrow a batch of feathers.”

  I snorted and followed her into the first shop on the road. “I’m not looking for a beau,” I said. “What about you, Awen?”

  “M-me? Awa, no, no I’m not looking for any boys.”

  I nodded. “See. Bunch of celibate old prudes is what we are.”

  Amaryllis shook her head and surveyed the shop. For the most part, clothes in this world, at least, in the very few shops I’d seen, came in two varieties. Pre-made things magicked to fit the first person that wore it, and ade clothes made by someoh tail skills.

  We were looking for stuff of the pre-made variety, which didn’t actually leave that many options.

  It was rather obvious that the whole mass-produ thing hadirely caught on. There were some clothes that all matched, but those were very simple things, probably meant to be worn by workers and the lower-middle css. It was good enough for me, but Amaryllis didn’t seem pleased by anything in the first two shops.

  For all that Amaryllis grew increasingly frustrated by the ck of ‘proper dies garb’ I still had a bst. Awen was quick to py the doll whenever we wao see how something would look, and I got to try on a few fits for my friends too.

  Even Amaryllis, who at first deed to try anything because she had a proper wardrobe in ste, eventually relented and tried a few colourful blouses on.

  In the end, we left having spent more time than money, and with only a few little things to show for it.

  “We’ll have to go looking through the stores in Fort Sylphrot,” Amaryllis decred.

  “More shopping!” I said.

  Amaryllis didn’t seem averse to the idea.

  We took our time on the way back, enjoying the sun and the gusty autumn winds.

  I hoped that the peace we had now wasn’t fleeting.