26 – Clothes

The pale light of early morning peeked through the small window as Ren cracked one eye open. For a moment, he squeezed it back shut, pulling the rough wool bedspread up around his face. You gotta go man. He flopped the blanket back down, huffing at his inner voice as he swung his bare legs to the side of the bed. “Jax was right,” he muttered to the table and unlit lamp, one hand going to the side of his head. ”Being refined isn’t the cure for a hangover.”

Dragging himself out of bed, he dressed, feeling the air around his exposed ankles, grabbed the stub of his bokken, and trudged out of the room towards the stairs.

“He didn’t!” Kaylin’s voice, far too energetic for the early morning, drifted up to meet him at the top of the stairs.

“He did! Had to walk nearly two langs back out of the forest with one shoe and no pants.” Stubbs cackled.

“What ever persuaded him to make the wager in the first place?” Kaylin wiped one of her eyes, grinning.

“A bottle of mead and a misplaced sense of pride. Never underestimate the power of someone who thinks they’re right.”

Ren creaked on a stair.

“Ah, Ren! Join the crowd.” Stubbs looked over to him, gesturing at the empty common room. He turned back to Kaylin. “Anyway, that’s how I finally got my boar pie recipe. Now old Lanni hardly looks at me, and I doubt he’ll ever forgive me for it.” He chuckled again, sliding a slice of meat pie over to the spot on the bar next to Kaylin. “Still. I think it was worth the price.”

Kaylin laughed, “I don’t know if he would agree. How did you rest, Ren?”

“Not as well as you apparently.” He stretched, letting out a yawn as he crossed the common room to join Kaylin at the bar. The golden pie steamed, with meat, peas, and carrots drooping out of the sides. Ren breathed in deeply, inhaling the scents of sage, reduced ale, seared meat, and rich, creamy butter.

“A quick check of what we need before we depart.” Kaylin continued, talking through her mouthful. “Fresh clothes from Hilda and a custom order for you, Supplies for two days travel.” She held up two fingers as she spoke. Her eyes moved to the shattered sparring sword. “And a weapon that is more potent than a splinter.”

“Well,” Stubbs began, “Hilda begins as early as I do—I swear, the council itself couldn’t stop her from work; she’ll outlive us all. And Brant….” He held one large hand out wobbling it from side to side. “Well, it depends on the day, but as long as you are picking something already made, it shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Do you think there will be trouble for everything that happened last night?”

“Oh that.” He gestured to a scuff in the floor where one of the heavy tables had been shifted in the brawl. “It’s nothing. The Steel will likely stop by. I’ll serve them a slice of pie and tell them how some very kind and gracious refined travelers were passing through. While they were here they stopped a fight from getting out of hand. They’ll make a note of it on far too expensive paper—paid for by my taxes— drop it off at the guild and that will be the end of it.”

“What about the enforcers?” Ren asked. “I feel like we didn’t leave them… in the best light.” He thought about the trouble an angry group of men could cause for a lone tavern in a rural town.

“Ah, don’t get thorns about them. They came looking for a taste of power and bit off more than they knew what to do with.”

Kaylin leaned forward. “And you’re sure that you don’t mind us leaving it to you?”

“Not in the slightest. Asha was right, it’s much cleaner for you all to be gone for a few days. Say, whose farm are you going to, anyway?

“I hadn’t thought to look.” She pulled the contract from a chestnut-colored leather side bag

“It says that the job was requested on behalf of someone named the Scoppers?”

“Ha! Not surprising.”

“Should we be concerned?”

“No no, nothing like that. They’re generation farmers. Their family has been working that land for as long as I or anyone I know can remember. They don’t get out much and so have, let’s call it, a certain view of the world.”

A comfortable silence settled over the three as Ren and Kaylin enjoyed their pie while Stubbs busied himself going back and forth to the kitchen. Beside him, Kaylin scraped the last bite of flaky crust from her wooden plate before pushing back from the polished bar. “Well, I think it’s time to wake the oaf.” She started towards the stairs but paused mid-step. ”Stubbs. Do you happened to have a cup of cold water that I might borrow? I seem to remember having a mid-bath interruption to re-pay.”

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The bar man smiled, white teeth showing throw the bramble of red hair. “I certainly do.”

With Kaylin heading upstairs, Stubbs turned to Ren. “Now I believe we have business to attend to.”

He nodded. “Do you mind if I take one more look at your ingredients? It’ll give me a better idea of what I’m working with and what kind of food to expect.”

“Certainly!”

Ren walked around the bar, once again making his way back into the spacious, high-ceilinged kitchen. The wide hearth already dancing and crackling with soft tongues of flame while the thick iron stove radiated heat. In the larder, he confirmed that, besides the honey and the mushrooms, no other food appeared to glow with magical properties. I still don’t know what Golden Tongue does, but taking chances on strangers probably isn’t the best time to figure it out. He casts one more longing look at the kitchen and whispered, “I’ll be back,” in a poor approximation of an Austrian accent.

Back at his two-thirds eaten slice of pie, Ren nodded to Stubbs. “Yeah, there should be enough to make at least six or seven servings of food that gives a speed boon like you had last night.”

“And gallows afternoon would work, yes? The Scopper farmstead isn’t but a morning’s journey away.”

Still have to ask Kaylin about the days. Not able to think of a way to avoid the question, he responded, “Yeah, I think so. We have the guild test in the morning the day after tomorrow, so afternoon should work.”

“Excellent! And if memory serves, I believe we said two silvers as an advance. Though you should only need one for clothes, supplies and”—he, too, glanced at the jagged end of the splintered sword—“a more potent weapon. Better to be prepared I always say.”

Stubbs reached under the bar, before sliding two silver coins across the top to Ren.

He picked one up, examining it. On one side was seven small crowns circling the edge while the other appeared imprinted with the symbol of three miniature representations of the nebulas from the mana plane.