Courier Quest Chapters 40 & 41

No chapters tomorrow because of Thanksgiving, but I'll resume posting on Friday! To all Americans out there, I hope you have a happy holiday, and just a good day to everyone else.

Also, the contents of these chapters are really far out of my wheelhouse as an author of things mostly violent, but I hope you enjoy them anyway.

40 - A Courier Is Perfect

Lunch had been an absolute blast, and the two ate until they were stuffed. In spite of their best efforts, there was still a lot of food left and Trevor made sure to transfer everything he could to the plates, bowls, and containers he had brought along for this single reason. Even with his stomach close to bursting, he was looking forward to the next meal.

“Trevor, I know I’m not in any position to make demands,” Adabelle started. “But I must insist that you keep working with Klar.”

Taking a deep breath, Trevor nodded as he left a tip on the table. “That is absolutely a demand I’m willing to get behind, Adabelle.”

The two were in good spirits as they left Matteo’s and headed back to the park. There was a lull in the foot traffic as many people were eating lunch, which allowed them much more room to explore. Despite this, they still walked arm in arm as if they were practically glued to each other.

As it turned out, the park was one of the busiest places in the entire festival. Because it circled the entire castle, which was a central point in the city, it was one of the easiest places for everyone to reach. There were games, shops, and food stalls set up everywhere, and a musician or group was playing at nearly every bridge.

Trevor found himself stopping everywhere that caught his interest, including some places that caught his eye from across the bridges. It made for very slow going but Adabelle enabled his behavior, and they lost themselves in the festival’s atmosphere.

When they finally found the place where they could board the gondola after an hour or two of wandering, they were quickly picked out and brought to the front of the line where they were given a boat all to themselves. Trevor was dumbstruck as the gondolier, an orcish man at the front of the boat, shoved off with just the two of them on board.

“Did we get special treatment because you’re a noble?” he asked, turning to Adabelle.

She leaned against him and shook her head. “No. I may be well known, but I’m not that well known. It’s because you’re showing off to everyone that you’re a Summoned.”

Lifting his arm, Trevor looked at his tattoo. It was true that he generally kept it covered, though that had been due to the weather more than anything. Once it warmed up he would have no problems in shorts and a t-shirt, as that was his go-to back on Earth, but even then he didn’t consider it showing off.

Seeing his confusion, Adabelle continued. “The Summoned are just as important as the nobles in Lucent, and much more popular. We’re the country that does the most rituals, and we have the greatest success rate of people that Jackson would call good eggs. Like you, Trevor. The vast majority of them become adventurers, and they go around helping people and protecting the civilians from threats that the guards can’t handle without casualties.”

“So they’re treated like real life superheroes,” Trevor concluded.

“That’s something I’ve heard people from Earth say, yes,” she agreed. “They often get special privileges for their service, such as skipping ahead in lines and getting a gondola all to themselves. Since you’re showing off your tattoo, they assumed that you were an adventurer.”

Dropping his arm, Trevor looked back at Adabelle. “But I haven’t done anything,” he whispered. “We could have let other people join us, at least.”

Looking around, he could easily see everyone watching the river. Some of the people were sitting over the edge, their legs dangling in the water, while others were simply watching. A group of children waved enthusiastically at them, and the young man waved back with a smile.

“I, for one, don’t mind being alone with you like this,” Adabelle said, squeezing his arm a little tighter. “Plus, you certainly deserve this, even if you don’t think you do. And, because I know you never think you’ve done enough, at least be at ease knowing that I’ve sufficiently earned both a cut in line and a ride together with you.”

“Oh yeah, that’s fair,” Trevor chuckled, and a thought occurred to him. “But a Summoned’s tattoo could be anywhere, right? With only the king’s being in the same spot every time? What about those who have it in a place where they can’t really show it off?”

“There are magical badges that adventurers can receive from the castle,” she explained. “Wayne likened it to a get out of jail free card, though if it’s constantly used like that then it’s going to get revoked. That used to happen a lot, but things have been better recently.”

“Do you have a badge?” Trevor asked.

Adabelle seemed surprised by the question before grinning. “Are you actually curious about a badge?” she asked quietly. “Or are you trying to fish for information on where my tattoo is?”

Trevor hesitated, because he hadn’t been thinking about it before but he absolutely was now. “That depends, did you say I was fishing because we’re on a boat?”

The woman blinked before laughing and shaking her head. “You’re trying to change the subject.”

“Yeah, kind of,” he admitted. “It was just kind of a reflexive question. I really wasn’t trying to figure it out, but now I’m very curious.”

“Well,” Adabelle whispered with a sly smile, leaning her head against his shoulder to look up at him. Her eyes sparkled in a way he noticed only happened when she teased him. “Perhaps, if you’re lucky, you’ll eventually see it.”

“Oh,” Trevor stuttered out. “Well, I, uh, I think I’m already pretty lucky. So. Yes.”

“Don’t get flustered on me, Son of Ander,” she laughed, sitting up straight to tap his chest. “It’s nothing like what you’re thinking. My tattoo is vertical beside my spine, so even if I’m wearing something that shows it off my hair is always in the way.”

“I wasn’t thinking anything bad,” he claimed quickly.

“Oh, really?” she challenged, scooting away from him to get a better look. “Then why is your face all red?”

“What do you mean? I’m always like this. All the time.”

Reaching up, Adabelle pat him on the cheek. She couldn’t seem to help that smug smirk she wore. “Of course, Trevor, of course.”

Despite her teasing, or perhaps because of it, Trevor couldn’t help but laugh, and she quickly joined him. He was glad that she was comfortable enough to playfully jab at him like this, and he realized again how pleasant it was to have someone like Adabelle at his side.

Trevor had thought that he would be a nervous wreck the entire date, but found that it was actually the opposite; he was very relaxed. The time he spent with Adabelle before asking her out had given him a solid platform on which to be at ease, and knowing that she was a kindred spirit soothed him. Anxiety could have been hiding underneath all of the giddy excitement and rampant happiness he was feeling, but there was no bursting those bubbles.

“I’m very happy,” he suddenly stated, the thought needing to be vocalized.

Adabelle's smug look changed to one of contentment. “I’m very glad to hear that, Trevor,” she replied.

Behind her, something curious caught Trevor’s attention. A building had been erected in the park, one that he had seen before on a much larger scale. “Um, excuse me gondola man, but can we get off?”

“Sure, give me a moment,” the orc replied.

“What is it?” Adabelle asked curiously.

“I think I see something from Tosa that definitely shouldn’t be here,” he said as the boat headed to the shore.

Not quite sure what Trevor was talking about, Adabelle still went with the flow. They stepped off of the gondola and the young man tossed the orc a gold coin. His face lit up as he bowed deeply before deciding to take on passengers from his impromptu stop.

Trevor took Adabelle’s hand, her fingers intertwined with his, and started walking through the trees to where he had seen the structure. He knew that her Speed was far higher than his own, but she seemed content to be dragged through the crowd, weaving with far more skill than he.

They stopped in front of a small tower nestled perfectly between the trees off of a heavily treaded path. It looked exactly like one of the buildings in Tosa, just as Trevor had suspected, but smaller. There was no door, and the bottom opened up to reveal a shop full of bags of all shapes and sizes. Sitting in the middle of the room was the familiar figure of a short human wizard.

“Melvirn?” Trevor asked.

Tosa’s high wizard blinked and turned his head to regard the newcomers. “Trevor!” he exclaimed, standing up. A second later he noticed Adabelle, and bowed. “And Lady Adabelle, as well. What a surprise running into you two here.”

“We are away from Tosa on business, and enjoying the festival,” Adabelle said, slipping into her noble voice. Trevor attempted to let go of her hand in case that made her uncomfortable, but all that did was make her tighten her grip.

“As am I, as am I,” Melvirn nodded as he stroked his thick beard. “I come to the festival every year to sell my wares for a little extra funding, you see. It’s only been a few hours, but the Anderson Bags are going out better than I expected.”

“Anderson Bags?” Trevor asked. It was clear they were named after him, but he was still surprised.

He started moving around the sales floor, looking at each of the bags. Most were labeled as simple extradimensional space of varying sizes depending on the container, but some were labeled as Anderson Bags in big, eye-catching letters.

“Yes, these are bags that I made based on our joint experiment together,” Melvirn explained. “Do you not remember discussing it? We did right before you left.”

Trevor nodded, but inside he was feeling bad. The events of the night after their collaboration was a bit of a blur as Melvirn said a lot of things that went in one ear and out the other. Magical theory followed by arcane hypothesis followed by a lecture on mana. The young man hadn’t made sense of it then, but didn’t have the heart to say so.

“Well, it’s no matter,” the wizard claimed as Trevor didn’t answer. “As we agreed, once we’re both back in Tosa then you’ll receive 40% of all profits received from the sale of Anderson Bags.”

That, at least, the young man vaguely remembered. “How many did you make?”

“And how much are you selling them for?” Adabelle added.

“Because it was such short notice, I was only able to make seven,” Melvirn admitted. “Of those, I still have two left. For Lady Adabelle, I can discount it to a platinum piece.”

Both Trevor and Adabelle bristled at the price. “A whole platinum?” she asked. “And that’s discounted?”

The wizard grinned. “I’m selling them for two,” he said slyly.

She released Trevor’s hand to cross her arms. “Melvirn, that’s a very hefty price. And people have actually bought them?”

“Yes!” he laughed. “Lady Adabelle, I don’t think I need to expound upon you the merits of a dimensional bag.”

“You don’t,” she agreed, her voice cautious.

“But these Anderson Bags-“

“There’s got to be a better name,” Trevor sighed.

“There’s not,” Melvirn said, not at all upset that he was interrupted. He pulled down two bags from the back wall. One was a large canvas backpack not unlike the one he experimented on first, and the other was a black messenger bag that, to Trevor, looked like it was perfect for carrying a laptop. “These are my last two, and I don’t expect them to last the afternoon.”

“Despite costing two platinum,” Adabelle stated.

“Quite right. Because, despite the fact that they look like regular dimensional bags, an Anderson Bag can hold three, almost four times as much as a bag of the same size.”

Trevor didn’t know enough about dimensional bags to consider that a good thing or not, but it sounded impressive. He had carefully watched Adabelle’s expression to gauge just how much better they were, and was surprised to see her arms drop.

“It’s that much better?” she asked incredulously. “That’s not just a sales pitch, but actual results, correct?”

“Oh yes, Lady Adabelle,” Melvirn said with a twinkle in his eye. “It’s absolutely going to revolutionize the field of extradimensional spaces for years to come. Trevor here has basically turned the whole study onto its head in one afternoon, though that’s to be expected from a Summoned who’s Power aligns so well. Still, it is rather extraordinary, don’t you think?”

“He sure is,” Adabelle said, turning to smile at the young man. He gave her a smile back, unable to help himself, before she turned back to the wizard. “I’ll take the smaller of the two.”

“The smaller of the two?” Melvirn repeated.

“Yes. I don’t much care for backpacks, but a courier is perfect for me,” she confirmed as a platinum piece appeared in her hand. Trevor wasn’t sure where it came from, but he wasn’t about to ask.

“Excellent, Lady Adabelle,” the wizard said with a bow. He handed her the bag as she paid for her purchase. Trevor was uncomfortable that his date had bought something so expensive that was named after him, but wasn’t quite sure how to voice his concerns.

“Would you like me to take that for you?” Trevor asked instead.

“No, I’ll wear it out,” Adabelle replied as she slipped it on over her shoulder. She adjusted her hair afterwards, and patted the bag gently with her hand. Since it was black, it matched well with her outfit. Once she was settled, she turned to Melvirn and bowed. “Thank you. We’ll see you back in Tosa. Have a safe journey home.”

“You as well, Lady Adabelle, and Trevor,” Melvirn said happily.

After a round of goodbyes, they stepped outside as Adabelle continued to fidget with her new bag. “If it’s as good as he says it is, then a platinum is a steal,” she said once she caught him staring at her.

That wasn’t what he was watching her for. A smile bloomed on his lips. “A courier is perfect for you, huh?”

Adabelle’s ears twitched as if she hadn’t been expecting to hear her words again, and she took his hand so she could lead him away. “Let’s go see what else there is before it gets dark, shall we?”

“Sure, lady, let’s keep going,” Trevor chuckled, giving her hand a gentle squeeze.

41 - I Want To Be Selfish

The rest of the day was a whirlwind of activity as they left the park to see the city. There were less stalls set up out here, but the restaurants were working double time. Several had added outdoor seating to accommodate the increase in visitors, and even then they could have used more. There was even one that had an entire alleyway converted into a dining space, and was proving immensely popular.

Every so often, Trevor would pick out people setting up fireworks on the roofs and smiled to himself. That was going to be a perfect end to the night, not only for him but for everyone, and he was proud to be a part of it.

It quickly became apparent that the musicians further from the park weren’t as skilled as those closer, but Trevor still found their playing enjoyable. He wasn’t the only one, and several blocks had been turned into dance parties that the traffic closer to the castle wouldn’t allow.

Not much of a dancer, he politely declined when Adabelle asked if he wanted to join them whenever something slow was playing, but he relented the moment he realized it was what she wanted. After dragging her around everywhere, he was quick to change his mind. Offering his hand with a shaky apology on how bad he was, she took it and led him into the impromptu dance floor.

With his hand on her hip and hers on his shoulder, they smiled at each other as he was taught how to dance. Adabelle’s patience was extraordinary, though it took Trevor a lot less time to learn than he thought. She was an amazing teacher, though he couldn’t help but wonder how much his Dexterity stat helped him out.

Much to his surprise, hours passed as they danced. Not always at the same place, but all over. Trevor found it easy to get lost in her, and he was unconcerned with ever being found again. “I’m very, very happy,” he whispered as they moved together.

“So am I,” she replied. “Though, we should be getting back to the castle. It’ll be dark by the time we get there.”

“Once this song’s over,” he gently requested.

“That’s quite rich coming from someone who said he’s not much of a dancer,” Adabelle teased.

Trevor couldn’t help but smile. “I’m coming around to it.”

The two waited until the song was over before rushing off towards the castle. As the sky got darker, the people were starting to find their spots to watch the festival’s fireworks display. That made traveling through the city a lot easier than Trevor expected, especially as the park was nearly empty by the time they passed through it.

When Adabelle started leading Trevor into the castle, he realized he had no idea where they were going. “Where are you leading me?” he asked as they passed by the only elevator he had used so far.

“It’s a surprise,” she laughed. The smile on her face was infectious, and Trevor suddenly thought that it didn’t matter where she was leading him; wherever it was, he knew he would have a good time.

They traveled deeper into the castle than he had gone before and into another elevator. As Adabelle brought them up, she stopped at the top floor. She took his hand as the sound of explosions started going off outside. “No! We’re missing the start!” she complained. “Can you run?”

Pulling the Horn of Swift Heroics from his inventory, Trevor nodded. “After you,” he said before blowing on it. Honestly, his legs were very tired, but he could deal with that.

With a determined look on her face, Adabelle started running through the halls. She gradually increased her speed until she found where Trevor’s sweet spot was, and led him to a tall staircase. They began climbing it higher and higher, and the young man realized that they were going up one of the castle’s towers. It was a long trek, and he was breathing heavily by the end of it, but it was all worth it when they emerged on top.

Brilliant colors flashed everywhere, starting as dull trails of fire from the rooftops to explode safely above the city. Trevor found himself hollering and laughing despite his burning lungs, unable to help himself. They were so high up that the fireworks exploded only a few stories above them. He worried about the smoke, but very quickly forgot about it when clouds of it seemed to pass around them.

Adabelle led him away from the crenelations and onto a raised platform. Trevor followed, still doing his best to watch the fireworks all over the place, and sat down on the loveseat sofa that had been brought up here. She sat and snuggled up to him, placing a hand on his chest. As he wrapped his arm around her shoulders, her tail wrapped around his waist, and he felt safer perhaps than he ever had.

“Surprise,” she announced, gesturing towards the light show.

“This is amazing,” he remarked. “You are phenomenal, Adabelle.”

“I have a set of skills the king needed, and luckily someone asked me out early enough that I could figure out what to demand in return,” she replied. “They wanted to try a new summoning ritual, one that required two people, so I agreed.”

“You summoned someone today?” Trevor asked.

“Yes, an elven woman named Lirwen,” she answered. “She was an adventurer in her world, so I related to her easily. I can tell she’s going to fit in just fine.”

“That’s good. Always a worry, though, isn’t it? How they would react to a new world.”

“It is, but most are grateful for a second chance,” she replied. “It’s really rewarding, especially when you watch people you summoned help change the world for the better. That’s one of the principles that Lucent values most, which is why our country performs so many rituals. That, and we’re the leaders in magical circles. That helps a lot.”

Trevor tore his eyes away from the fireworks to smile at her. “You’re just a big force for good in this world, aren’t you?” he praised.

“I try, but I’ll be able to do more once I’m mayor of Tosa,” she said, determination in her eyes. “There’s a lot I can complain about when it comes to Jackson, but I plan on continuing his vision after he retires. On that, we completely agree.”

“You’re going to do great, and everyone knows it.”

Adabelle tilted her head, locking eyes with Trevor, and smiled. “Of course. I’m going to do my best, and I know my worth.”

“I suspect that you’re still worth a lot more than you’d give yourself credit for, but I’m planning on being around to help you whenever you need it,” Trevor said.

“I’m looking forward to it,” she whispered, her voice almost being drowned out by the fireworks.

A brief lull in explosions caught Trevor’s attention, and he turned away from her. It restarted slowly with a trickle of lights on the far end of the city, but very quickly became a torrent. Fireworks started going off in waves, circling the castle. The young man found himself yelling approval again, and this time Adabelle joined him.

The lights circled the castle twice before dying down. Unwilling to release his date, Trevor used his leg to clap. “That was awesome, Adabelle,” he said. “This was-“

“Only the beginning,” she interrupted, pointing downwards towards the halo.

Caught off guard, Trevor fixed his gaze on the castle’s magical circle. It started glowing brighter as columns of golden light started to appear in waves. After the fireworks, the silence was deafening as even the air seemed still, but the faint sound of music reached his ears.

The columns of light started off small, but began growing in size as time went on. They ebbed and flowed in time with the music, and Trevor realized that the halo was the source. A beautiful, haunting melody slowly filled the city. Despite how loud it had to be for them to hear it clearly, it was soothing and warm.

The young man found himself entranced as the columns grew to be larger than the towers, and his eyes were drawn to a golden glow emanating from the tallest one. Squinting, Trevor could make out King Eskretet standing on a raised platform similar to theirs. His arms were waving through the air, looking exactly like a conductor keeping time for an orchestra.

“This is what Klar wanted to keep a secret from you,” Adabelle said as she watched him. “Would you like me to tell you more?”

“Absolutely,” Trevor said, not taking his eyes off of the light show.

“The halo is the pride and joy of Eskretet,” she explained. “It’s also quite possibly the most powerful magic circle known to the world. When it was first created, it was supposed to be a defense mechanism against invaders who thought the country was weak after the liberation. It could fire off magical bombs that could decimate armies of everything that wasn’t high leveled Summoned. It still can, but that was its original purpose.”

“So what about protecting people in duels?” Trevor asked.

“Just something else that the kings figured out it could do,” Adabelle answered. “It’s an incredibly versatile circle, and scholars are still determining new things about it regularly. However, it has a tendency to gather more power than it needs and store it, risking the city.”

Trevor finally looked away. “That’s what this is for, isn’t it?” he intuited. “To get rid of the excess.”

Adabelle smiled. “You understand, then. It was calculated that the halo only needed around 60% power in order to protect the city, and everything else is fired off into the sky like this. The current King Eskretet has the third highest mana of all the kings thus far, so it’s a particularly spectacular show, as the magic circle is constantly taking from their pool.”

“Is that uncomfortable?”

“If it is, not one of them has complained,” Adabelle answered. “Our current king comes from a culture where music is one of their most important things, and he’s also the first to incorporate that into the Festival of Golden Lights. It sounds loud from here, but it’s actually the same volume throughout the city.”

“It’s amazing,” he repeated, lacking a better word, as he looked back over the lights.

The columns had started taking on other shapes, snaking upwards into the sky as they disconnected from the magical circle that spawned them. They mingled as they rose, passing by each other in intricate patterns that left short afterimages behind. Once they were high enough, they exploded into showers of gold that disappeared shortly before they hit the castle. All around the city they dropped a little further, though they never touched a single building.

Light saturated the sky as the teardrops fell and disappeared. Trevor watched in awe, feeling his eyes become wet as he had never seen anything like it before. He knew that he wouldn’t be able to get this kind of experience anywhere else, and he pulled Adabelle even closer.

“Thank you for this,” he said. “Thank you so, so much, Adabelle.”

“You’re welcome, Trevor,” she replied, patting his leg gently.

The music changed into something more upbeat, but still beautiful. Taking a breath, Trevor turned to look at his date. “Hey, stand up.”

Slowly blinking at his strange request, Adabelle unwrapped her tail from him and stood. Trevor followed suit and pulled the sofa into his inventory before offering her his hand. “There’s music, so we should be dancing, right?”

Adabelle’s face lit up as she nodded and took his hand. He pulled her close, pressing his body against hers as they began to dance. The lights from above could be seen clearly in her eyes, and he immediately decided that this was the best way to see them.

“I have a confession to make,” Trevor said softly.

“Is it one that I’ll like?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Probably,” he chuckled.

“Then go right ahead.”

Taking a breath, Trevor nodded more to himself than to her. “All day, I felt like I knew exactly what to say,” he started off slowly. “Quick quips, playful teases, fun conversation, all with the backing of raw enthusiasm. Right now, I have something to say, but I’m not sure if I have the words for it.”

“That’s going to make it hard for me to understand, you know,” she teased gently. Their dance slowed into a rhythmic sway as they stared at each other. “You imply that you’re speechless, but it sounds like you’re readying yourself for a speech.”

“I know,” he said, smiling. “I’m just… I know I’ve never been happier than I have today. The last few days, I’ve considered myself completely blessed to be here. To arrive in this world, to meet everyone, and to get to know you. You inspire me to be a little more selfish.”

Adabelle gave him a strange look before laughing. “More selfish?”

“That didn’t come out right,” he laughed. “What I mean is, I want to take better care of myself because I know that’s what will make you happy, and I know that because that’s what I want for you. I want to be by your side, feeling this every day, and taking care of you. More than that, I want to let my guard down and allow you to take care of me.”

“Trevor…”

“I know, I’m getting dangerously close to saying some things, but I’m living in the moment,” he said. “I’ve always been the guy who cares about other people, sacrificing my own happiness, and I realize how lost I’ve been. You called me out and helped me see what I’ve been missing for so long.”

Adabelle leaned her head forward, placing her forehead and nose against his, and stared into his eyes. “Say what you need to say, okay?” she whispered.

Trevor swallowed as he gathered his thoughts. “I’ve taken a liking to you, Adabelle,” he said. “Being with you makes my mind and heart race. It’s not… It’s only our first date, and it’s not a fully complete feeling yet, but I can tell that it could be. One day. And there’s a part of me that knows you’re way too good to me, but I want to be selfish. I want to keep you close. I want to be happy, and I don’t want to let you go.”

Adabelle listened carefully, barely blinking, as Trevor partially confessed his feelings for her. Her eyes were full of understanding on what he wanted to say, and she smiled. “I don’t think I mind this brand of selfishness,” she admitted, moving her hand from his shoulder to his chest. “As long as you don’t mind the same.”

The young man blinked. “Really?”

“Let me make myself perfectly clear, Trevor Anderson,” she whispered. Adabelle leaned forward and kissed him as the light-filled heavens rained all around them.

Trevor kissed her back, and they both knew bliss.