Kestek had already decided that she liked Luss the least out of everyone in the group. 

But that didn’t stop her from being genuinely impressed by the show he put on for them the second they entered the market area.

At first she didn’t understand why Luss nearly walked directly into a tengu that already had her wings full with various things she was carrying. Like all tengu, she had arms, hands, and five fingers that included an opposable thumb, along with feathered wings that were connected as part of the limbs.

Two small children that looked to be hers romped around, being a tripping hazard as they circled her.

“Sorry, ma’am—I wasn’t watching my step,” Luss said to her, steadying the load she was carrying. “Do you need any help carrying all that?”

“Oh, that’s very sweet of you,” the tengu replied, her beak clacking as she spoke. “I won’t make you go out of your way, but thank you.”

Luss shrugged.

Kestek expected him to drop a snarky comment and then leave, but he surprised her.

“Are they yours?” he asked the tengu, watching the two children orbit her.

“Yes, they are,” the tengu said, tiredly smiling. “They’ve been sitting in the nest all day, so I thought I’d better take them with me on my errands, but they somehow have more energy than they started with.”

The two children slowed down, curiously staring at Luss. 

“What are your names?” he asked, giving a friendly smile.

“Shyu,” the taller of the two children chirped, scooting to hide behind his mother.

“I’m Iskra!” the other boy declared, nowhere near as shy as the first boy.

“If it’s all right with your mother, would you two like to see something special?”

The two children looked up at their mother. She nodded for Luss to go on.

Luss slowly reached into the inside of his cloak, pretending to be searching for the thing until the children were visibly impatient—and then he pulled it out with a flourish.

“Whoa!” the two boys shouted, their eyes going wide.

Luss grinned, expertly spinning the eight magnetic marbles around his fingers, four in each gloved hand. Adif had found the marbles in her bag and said that she had no use for them, donating them to Luss for his cause.

“Magic marbles!” Iskra crowed. “Can I try?”

“If that’s all right with your mother,” Luss said.

The boys pleadingly looked up at their mother. She nodded, giving a relieved smile.

Within a minute, Luss had taught the boys how to use the marbles, warning them not to eat them or put them in their mouths because it would make them very sick and they might not ever get better.

“Can we keep them?” Shyu eagerly asked.

Kestek waited for Luss to tell the boys that it was going to cost them some jag if they wanted to keep the marbles, but he again surprised her.

“As long as it’s all right with your mother,” he told the boys.

The mother laughed as her two boys started pleading with her.

“How much jag?” she asked Luss.

“Name a price,” Luss said.

“A copper bit?” the mother tried.

“Let’s call it two tin bits,” Luss replied. “One for each.”

The exchange was made and the three tengu continued on their way, this time with the two boys calmly walking behind their mother as they focused on doing tricks with the marbles.

“Well?” Luss held out his arms as he swaggered over to where Kestek, Adif, Shayrow, Jelro, and Jelro’s animal friends were watching from the cover of some shrubs. “Did I pass?”

“Just one question,” Shayrow said. “Why did you offer her a lower price?” 

“It seemed fair.” Luss shrugged.

“You’re one lousy merchant,” Shayrow teased.

“What I lack in skillful haggling I make up for in my ability to sell just about anything.” Luss smirked.

“You probably couldn’t sell cow dung,” Kestek scoffed.

“Are you joking? Cow dung has all sorts of uses!” Luss started counting off on his fingers. “It makes fantastic fertilizer for practically anything you plant in dirt—not to mention it can double as insect repellent—and it can be used as fuel, it’s a material in papermaking, and it’s a great construction substitute.”

“I’m sorry, did you say papermaking?” Shayrow dubiously looked at Luss.

“I sure did. The fibers can be”—he motioned with his hands—“plucked out and pressed on a screen to make paper.”

“That’s incredible!” Shayrow shook his head. “I had no idea that was possible.”

Kestek groaned.

She somehow was beginning to like Luss even less than before.

And now that she was aware that Shayrow had been in top position in the swordbearer class, she wasn’t really sure what to think of him. Initially she had been put off, seeing as he had essentially been Piklof’s rival.

But after talking with him and learning about the tragedy that had struck his family... she couldn’t help but feel sympathetic.

The more Kestek thought about it, she realized that she had uncertain opinions about everyone in the group.

Especially Jelro.

“You know what we need?” Jelro suddenly said.

“A task?” Adif guessed.

“A plan?” Shayrow tried.

“A miracle?” Kestek grumbled under her breath.

“Yes?” Jelro ruefully laughed. “That’s not what I was thinking, though. I was gonna say we could use a map.”

“You could’ve said that sooner.” Luss pulled out three rolls of paper from his cloak. “Take your pick.”

“How long have you had those?” Adif wondered.

“I always carry around a map with me. These are my spares.”

“Are they different?” Jelro asked, taking the maps from Luss.

“I think one of them might be in Abv’phenʒomyais, but that’s not a problem for-- Oh, wait, never mind; you probably speak Seyoenese, huh?” Luss indifferently shrugged.

“You’re bilingual?” Kestek asked Jelro—and instantly regretted it. If Jelro was half-merfolk, chances were that he was fluent in a Merrowish language and a dialect of Merrow Sign Language, which would be trilingual... or whatever it was called.

Jelro shrugged.

“My native language is MeSL—and Seyoenese, I guess. I started learning Segaugnal when I was about eight.”

“Pretty heavy accent still,” Luss remarked.

“At least I know how to communicate underwater,” Jelro countered, signing after he spoke.

“You trying to one-up me?” Luss asked, casually signing his response.

Surprise registered on Jelro’s face.

“That’s a fres’water dialect, isn’t it? You included the indicator at the beginning.” Jelro paused. “Where did you learn to sign?”

“My parents taught me.” Luss shrugged. “I also speak Nôgnugn, Vjsvisan, and Kyllish, in case that ever comes in handy.”

“But you’re a Magickless,” Kestek scoffed.

“Uh, Kestek, I’m pretty sure you’re the only magician in the group,” Adif said.

Kestek glowered.

“It’s different,” she argued. “He’s a human.”

“A human that’s standing right here,” Luss said, lazily twirling a wood bit between his fingers. 

“Who cares if he’s human?” Adif shot back. “None of us are complaining that you’re a sprite!”

“Because humans are something to complain about!” Kestek scowled. “Especially him!”

“Again, I am standing right here,” Luss said, flicking the wood bit into the air to flip the coin, catching it on the tip of his index finger so he could give it a twirl before he flipped it even higher.

“And, like, he doesn’t even look like a human,” Kestek went on. “Humans don’t have pointy ears! Everyone knows that!”

“These pointy ears can hear, y’know,” Luss loudly said. “Also, I just thought of another great use for cow dung, if you’re interested. It has something to do with putting it in your shoes.”

“You do that and I’ll use Shayrow’s sword to separate your head from your neck,” Kestek spat.

“Them’s fightin’ words!” Luss snickered. “Actually, that reminds me—Adif, you do know that you’re carrying around a blunted practice sword, right?”

“Oh!” Adif jumped. “That’s right, we were going to pick out a real sword for me!”

“You wanna do that before or after we try to get a task?” Jelro asked.

“After, since we should probably hurry.”

A few groups were still gathered in the center of the town, going over plans and talking to the townsfolk.

Kestek spotted Wrija and made a beeline for her.

“Kestek!” Wrija caught her friend in a hug. “I never got to ask—what happened during the choosing of groups? Why did you let yourself be unchosen?”

“I--” Kestek faltered. 

Wrija patiently waited.

“I’m no good in my class,” Kestek whispered, ashamed to say it.

“What? But...” Wrija bit her lip. “I still wish we were in the same group...”

“It’s okay. I’ll call you all the time on my C-stone!” Kestek determinedly smiled.

C-stones—short for chrysocolla stones—were magical rocks that could be used to communicate over long distances. The pocket-sized ones were easy to carry around, and could be used pretty much anywhere, whereas the larger stones were called “hubs” and kept in homes or other places that were of frequent contact. 

The stones just had to be tuned to each other once, then they could connect for a voice call anytime after that.

“I will, too!” Wrija gave Kestek another hug. “You won’t believe it—Piklof got us a task all the way out in Oodb!”

“Really?” Kestek was shocked. “That’s so far away—over the Osp Range! What are you going there for?”

“A couple things, it sounds like. We even got a request directly from the crown! We’re delivering a message straight to the chieftain of the Jaos Region.”

“That sounds important! Especially to send a group all the way to Oodb...” Kestek’s gaze fell on where Piklof was chatting with the other group members off to the side, just out of earshot.

“Oh,” Wrija suddenly said, “so you’re really going to be traveling all over with those animals?”

“They aren’t any trouble,” Kestek protested, wanting to defend Jelro—even though she wasn’t very fond of most of the animals, especially the snake.

“Hey, Kestek, try to keep up!” Luss hollered at her as the group walked past.

Kestek groaned.

“I won’t keep you,” Wrija said, giving Kestek a nudge. “Keep in touch, all right?”

They hugged again, and then Kestek hurried after her group.

“Perhaps if we split up?” Shayrow suggested.

Jelro started to reply, but he was interrupted as a man dressed in the attire of the royal guard suddenly bustled by, nearly bowling over Adif and Jelro’s swan. The swan indignantly honked, causing the man to jump and swerve to the side.

Kestek hopped out of the way of the man, not wanting to be accidentally trampled. He had an impressive build of muscle, especially in his shoulders and arms.

She tried not to rudely stare, but she couldn’t help it. The man’s skin was glass-like with a vivid green coloration, darker flecks sprinkled across his cheeks. His pointed ears were flared and he had a very pronounced nose.

Oh. He’s a goblin.

Kestek realized that recognized him—but didn’t know his name. She just knew that he was a member of the royal guard whose son was one of Piklof’s rivals in the swordbearer class.

“Pardon me, I have a task here...” the goblin was muttering under his breath as he tried to weave around the group.

“We’ll take it,” Luss offered, conveniently standing right in the man’s way.

“Well, I was really hoping they would take care of it...” The man anxiously looked towards Piklof’s group.

Out of the corner of her eye, Kestek saw Piklof pulling on the tips of his ears to make them stick out the way elf ears did.

Luss apparently saw him, too.

“Hey!” he snapped. “You—with the smug face! You apologize for that right now!”

“Apologize for what?” Piklof innocently asked.

“Hah!—you think you’re so funny, but I’ve had enough of this”—Luss waved a hand, searching for a word—“speciesist shit, and I’m not about to let you get away with mocking a member of my group, you hear me?!”

Piklof snorted.

“That’s some big talk for someone not carrying a sword,” he sneered.

“Well, it would be highly inappropriate for a merchant to point weapons at potential customers, so yes, I am in fact unarmed.” Luss gave a tongue-in-cheek grin, as though the words had a joke hidden in them somewhere. “But I happen to know that Shayrow here was top of the swordbearer class until you had the nerve to reflect the sunlight into his eyes in the middle of a duel.”

Kestek stared at Luss, then at Shayrow, then at Piklof.

“What’s the task you’re so set on giving them, anyways?” Luss asked, plucking the task envelope from the goblin’s hands. He frowned. “Asbvaj is out of their way. That group is going to Oodb.”

“You don’t understand,” the goblin scowled, snatching the envelope back from Luss. “I need the best swordbearer in the realm for this task.”

“Well, we have two swordbearers,” Luss offered, gesturing to Shayrow and Adif. “Take your pick.”

The goblin snorted.

“Boy, do you have any clue why I need to send a swordbearer to Asbvaj?”

“Sure—for the ceremonial challenge of the Asbvajian prince,” Luss said. “But you need a dueler that follows rules, and that group can’t give you one.”

The goblin skeptically looked at Luss.

“Oh, hey, here’s an idea,” Luss said. “You!” He pointed at Piklof, getting the sprite’s attention.

“Now what do you want?” Piklof impatiently asked as he drifted back over.

“This guy has a task to give,” Luss said, “and you need to be taught some manners. So, how about you and Adif have a duel right here and now?”

~ ~ ~