B3 C37: Only the Best

Nadja woke up the next morning lighter than she’d felt in ages. There were a number of reasons for that, but one of the most obvious was that she’d awoken in a bed. Not just any bed, in fact, but the kind of bed she hadn’t known existed until the night before. The kind of bed she imagined that kings and gods probably slept on.

In fairness, it was not exactly where she’d expected to end the night. The fact that Verin hadn’t been lying about her “vacation home” in the forest had already been shocking enough. The fact that the interior and its furniture were even fancier than the exterior, however, was another level of unbelievable.

After she finished gawking at everything, they’d ended up doing exactly what they said they would. Nadja played as best she possibly could, feeling considerably more self conscious than she usually did with her audience of one. Though her only listener wasn’t exactly the “cheering and clapping with a standing ovation” type of person, Nadja was happy to note that Verin was free with her compliments. More than that, she seemed to greatly enjoy the music, staring off with a happy and wistful expression throughout the performance.

It was some time after that, with a few more drinks between the two of them, that Nadja had eventually disrobed and gotten very familiar with the bed she now lay in. Verin had kept her there for hours, and by the end of it all, Nadja’s muscles were sore and her body, exhausted.

Which was to say, it was where Verin had had her pose for her sketch.

Who knew it was so hard to maintain a pose like that for so long?

Of course, with her house in the middle of the woods, it wouldn’t have been right to send Nadja off with how dark it was. Naturally, she stayed the night.

As for where Verin slept that night, who was to say? And if anything else had ended up happening between then and the morning, well, that was between them and the gods.

“Ah, good. You are awake. Here.” Verin stood at the side of the bed, somehow looking fully awake and proper, without even the barest hint of bed head or grogginess. She handed Nadja a steaming mug of tea, although just from the smell of it, she could tell it was far more potent than she was accustomed to.

She accepted the mug, and her first sip confirmed her earlier thoughts, making all the tea and kash she’d drank before seem watery in comparison.

You have consumed Queen White Tea!

Alertness greatly increased.

Stamina regeneration greatly increased.

+4 Charisma

+4 Constitution

+4 Perception

Nadja practically moaned as the stats and energy hit her system, feeling slightly embarrassed for doing so when she recalled that she was still unclothed. It wasn’t like she’d thought to bring sleepwear along, after all. If Verin cared, she didn’t show it.

“Regrettably, I believe I have already been quite rude to my host by spending so much time with you, and I should be off presently. As befitting your host, however, I have breakfast stored away which you are free to eat at your leisure.” At her words, there was a flash of light, and a number of platters materialized atop the bedsheets, each of them laden with all manners of delights which emanated heady aromas. Nadja found her mouth watering, only barely managing to keep herself from drooling on the bed.

“Additionally, this is for you.” Verin gently placed a sheet of paper atop a nearby night stand. When Nadja craned her neck over, her breath stopped in her throat.

It was, quite naturally, a drawing of her, rendered in near-perfect, exacting detail. Only, it was even better than real life. Something she would have expected to see in a museum instead of on a bedside table.

As she stared at her own form brought to life before her, sipped at the finest tea she’d had in her entire life, and breathed in the scents of all the food laid before her, Nadja descended into a sort of bliss she hadn’t known was possible.

“I’m pretty sure I would do whatever you told me to right now.” The words slipped straight from her brain out of her mouth, bypassing any sort of filter she would normally have.

At this, Verin leaned in exceedingly close, her eyes somehow pinning Nadja down, unable to even tilt her head. There was something dangerous and fiery in that stare, only made more frightening -- and more gripping -- by the icy cold calculation beneath it.

“Oh? Anything?”

Somehow finding the energy to move, Nadja mutely nodded her head. Verin continued to stare into her soul for a brief moment.

And then, just like that, she pulled away, dispelling the effect entirely.

Almost casually, she started walking away, offhandedly calling back to Nadja while leaving the room.

“Good. In that case, I hear you bear some form of ill will towards a close friend of mine. Please see that you’ve resolved your issues with the Lady Tess before my next visit. You are both adults, and such things are beneath you, yes?” Right as she reached the door, she twisted her head back around and nodded at Nadja’s prone form. “And Lady Nadja, it was a lovely night. Farewell then, and do enjoy that bottle of mine. I believe you will find it to your liking.”

With that, she left, leaving Nadja both dumb and mute for several minutes.

When at last she regained her senses, she let loose every form of invective in her arsenal, stopping only when she was out of breath and then restarting only moments after.

Of course she has something to do with fucking Tess. Where does she get the gall to say something like that? She really had to ruin the mood that I was in? Fucking hells! She was of half a mind to leap up and chase after the infuriating woman, only stopped by one thing. Her eyes wandered to the trays laid out atop her and also to her half-finished cup of tea.

I can go find her and throttle the woman eventually. But… maybe after breakfast.

After all, it would hardly do to let it all go to waste, right?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“You seem… agitated, girl.” Rock sat at the bar, the singular patron of the usually bustling business. Despite the inner turmoil she’d started the day with, she had things to do. Prior to her training session, she’d dragged the ailing forest shadow into the bar, intent on having him try some of the unconventional cocktails she’d prepared for him.

He was, of course, correct though.

“Don’t want to talk about it! And also not what I brought you here for. Here. Try.” She poured him a drink out of one of the flasks she’d prepared, and though he seemed confused, Rock wasn’t one to turn the drink down.

He also wasn’t one to gently sip at things, taking a long swig from the blood cocktail. As hoped, the change was visible, color returning to his face in real time. Seeming to realize what was happening, he coughed violently, flecks of the cocktail shooting out from his mouth and landing on the bar.

“Girl! Was that what I think it was?”

Euch. Going to have to clean that extra thoroughly before opening. “A tasty, delicious cocktail custom created for you? Why yes, thank you for noticing. Now stop being a mopey drama queen and drink the rest of it, or you’re not allowed in the bar anymore. I’m tired of you glumming up the place, and I’m not budging on this.”

She stepped atop a short stool behind the bar, for once in her life managing to look down on Rock rather than the other way around. Rather than say anything more, she pushed his cup forward and fixed him with as firm a glare as she could muster.

They remained locked in that state for what felt like ages, twin glares pushing up against one another. For all of Rock’s usual bluster, however, Nadja easily rebuffed the seething self-pity in the ex-commander’s eyes.

With a wheezing sigh, he at last gave in. Accepting the cup once more, he downed the rest of the cocktail.

“I hope you know how strange this is, girl. Blood cocktails… I don’t suppose I need to ask you not to inform anyone of this.”

Not like she would want to tell people either. It was pretty strange. “Not much stranger than anything else, though.” She gestured broadly to the entirety of Emer’Thalis, and with a defeated look in his eyes, Rock couldn’t help but nod in agreement.

“I suppose not. Now, if you’re done inserting yourself into my issues, do I get to hear what has you so ruffled, or are you the only one allowed to overstep?”

Who said I was ruffled? Asshole. Then again, there was no denying what he was referring to. The momentary joy of having him accept the cocktails wasn’t quite enough to wash away the morning’s turmoil.

Do I explain it all to him?

Her mind went back to Verin’s final words, and she found herself drawn to the bottle the bothersome woman had given her the night before.

For a brief moment, she considered just smashing it out of spite, but she stopped herself. She wasn’t one to waste good alcohol, and besides, Elphaea had instructed Verin to bring it to her. She wasn’t going to spit on the dryad’s good will.

“You know what? Fine. I’ll tell you about it, but we’re doing another drink. No blood this time. I think she meant for this bottle to be something special, but I don’t care. We’re just going to finish it now.”

With measured and practiced motions, she fetched two cups and poured the bottle’s contents -- what turned out to be a light blue beverage -- into them. For all that she’d talked big about finishing it all there, the bottle felt just as heavy when she was done as when she’d started. She shook it, and as far as she could tell, it was still entirely full.

Did she give me a spatial bottle? I didn’t even know they made those.

Well, whatever. She’d just serve it to everyone until it was good and empty.

“I am unclear as to who we are cursing, but I have no qualms with swearing at people and drinking wine, girl, especially if I get to hear who managed to irk you so much.” With that bit of solidarity sorted out, Rock lifted his cup and Nadja did the same. The two raised the beverages to their lips, took a sip, and then-

You have drank from Rime’s Descent, Thrice-Blessed Ice Wine.

You have gained a temporary well-fed buff.

Mana regeneration improved by 300%

+10 to all stats

+30% to experience gain for ice-related skills

+200% to the effect of all Ice Magic

Achievement unlocked: Earthly Delights

You have consumed something special, something that few will ever get to try and fewer yet are capable of creating.

+10 Prestige

Bartending has reached level 28!

Bartending has reached level 29!

Drinking has reached level 34!

Class quest completed: Only the Best I

Class quest completed: Only the Best II

Class quest completed: Only the Best III

Class quest completed: Only the Best IV

Serve a patron an alcoholic beverage of a sufficiently high price.

What the-

It was a testament to the drink that she was forced to focus on it before fully taking in all the notifications. Damn that shit was good and complex and so wildly impossibly cold too. She felt deeply refreshed from head to toe even after a single sip.

After that, however, she immediately read through the myriad of notifications, focusing first on the quest details. She quickly scanned through the description of what “sufficiently expensive” meant. The quest helpfully displayed the price cutoffs in familiar Ftheran terms for her, and the moment she saw the exact number, she nearly started to choke.

Ah! Shit! Are you kidding me? Can I spit this out back into the bottle? Is that allowed? This is not something I’m supposed to be drinking! She could practically feel herself coughing up blood at how much money she’d just drank.

As if to verify that she definitely could not spit the alcohol back up, two more notifications awaited her.

Congratulations! You have reached level 14!

Congratulations! You have reached level 15!

She blinked the pair of them away, her brain fully shutting down for a moment before one thought broke her out of her stupor.

Who the hell exactly was she, anyway?

Annoyingly, another thought followed immediately afterwards, though it was one she could have done without.

She just gave me, like, a year’s worth of experience all in one. I can’t just- I can’t just ignore that, can I?

She groaned, hating where her thoughts were going.

I’m going to need to talk with Tess again, aren’t I?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Guardsman Delmin was quickly earning a reputation as a very sweaty man.

Or at least he would have been had there been anyone around to see him sweat. In this, it was something of a mixed blessing that he’d been assigned on his latest mission by himself: Sure, he probably would have been sweating a lot less if he wasn’t alone, but this way, the knowledge of his overreactive sweat glands could only spread amongst the tall and looming forest shadows he constantly found himself talking to.

And frankly, Delmin didn’t much care what they thought about his sweat glands. As long as they weren’t eating him or whatever it was that the troll-like creatures did, then he would call it a win for him.

Four days.

Four days it had been since Delmin had been sent to the outpost settlement of Emer’Thalis. Four days and three nights hunched over in a tent too small to breathe in.

It was the second time he’d been here, both cases at the behest of his king. If there was some small mercy to be had, it was that he hadn’t needed to make the long trek this time around, instead getting directly transported via the Diplomatic Visit settlement ability.

Unfortunately, he was coming to regret that choice now. Practically, it meant that he would need to convince the settlement owner to send him back with her own Diplomatic Visit ability. Failing that, he would need to make the long journey back on foot. Alone.

It was, he thought, an unenviable position to be in.

Then again, that applies to this entire mess, doesn’t it?

The first time Delmin had come to Emer’Thalis, his purpose had been largely benign even if borne out of suspicion. All he’d wanted to know was where the royal princess Calilah was and when she’d be returning to Ftheran.

That time, the settlement owner hadn’t even met with him, and the forest shadow he’d been forced to deal with had been deflective and dismissive. Even if the tracking device the king kept on his daughter had not suddenly started failing, it would have been a clear sign that something was very wrong with the royal princess.

This time, he was not here for innocent questioning and diplomacy.

This time, Delmin was here to scout.

He pulled out a notebook and began to write, each line heavily encoded in case anyone managed to discover it.

Settlement size greatly increased since first visit. Talks of underground city? Mess hall constructed -- long-term habitation planned?

Beneath that, he’d scrawled out approximate population estimates along with guesses at the city’s average level. Each new fact that he learned worried him more than the last, and taking them altogether, he didn’t like the picture they painted.

Calm yourself, Delmin. The most important -- and most dangerous -- part hadn’t even happened yet. Half the reason he’d been sent here was to fish for information from the settlement owner. She must have had something in mind when she’d kidnapped the princess. The question was what exactly her goal was.

He didn’t much like his odds when it came to deceiving a Protagonist. Then again, that’s why the king had given him the notebook -- a costly artifact without a doubt, but if he died, its contents would be sent back to Ftheran. All that he could hope was that it would be superfluous.

Well, that’s the one nice thing about being made to wait around like this. At least I don’t have to go meet with her right this insta-

“Guardsman?” A voice called out to him from outside the tent, one he recognized belonging to the leader, Amak. He hurriedly stashed his notebook away before doing his best to calmly respond.

“Yes? What is it?” He had no desire to invite the forest shadow in if he could help it.

“I’ve just received word that the settlement owner has returned. I know we’ve kept you here for a while. Shall I take you to her?”

Guardsman Delmin stiffened, his sweat glands once again making themselves known -- with a vengeance. Unfortunately, this was his task. There was only one possible answer.

“I’ll be right out.”

For all that it pained him to do so, he fetched the notebook that he’d just hid. It would be vital to take notes during the conversation, after all -- if she smote him down in the middle of their talks, the king would need to know what she’d said.

Then, with all the gravity of a soldier marching off to his possible death -- for that’s exactly what he was, in fact -- Delmin strode out the tent and off to meet the Protagonist.