Holidays

Chapter 44

The day of the new year I decided would be an informal holiday. A fact which was as much a result of a lack of creativity on my part as anything. The skeletons and hounds were pretty much free to do as they liked in the absence of adventurers anyway. Establishing traditions to celebrate it could wait a year or two.

Though I had effectively said everyone else could have the day off, I didn’t have a reason to take it off. I did try to put in a bit of an appearance and visit the various denizens’ as well. I spent a little extra time with the hounds in particular, heeding some requests to modify their area.

I was learning about them as I went, which proved fascinating. Stalin wasn’t quite as reticent to ask for things as I had thought. It was more that he found certain categories of request uncomfortable. Namely, those that brought their environment closer to a natural one.

Blackmoor didn’t have any hang-ups about that, however. It was an interesting contrast between them. I risked a few attempts at probing, but gave it up as a lost cause after a few minutes. I was bad at subtlety, and neither hound was inclined to pick up on it anyway. I politely excused myself to do other things after giving them all the pats.

Once my more chore-like tasks were done, I decided to drop in on the necropolis and see how things were. I’d pulled a bit of an awkward vanishing act the prior evening, though I didn’t exactly expect to have been missed.

“M-Mistress, c-care to join us- us?” Henry asked as I made an appearance. He was sitting at a table with Chris and two other skeletons. The newer faces were Kessia Ann Clavicle, fighter, and Jeffry Allen Clavicle, ranger.

“Sure, though I don’t know how to play,” I said as I came over to the table. I’d put up the decorations already, but left the furniture.

“Then we’ll teach you,” Chris said gleefully. I shook my head but took a spot between him and Henry. I could look up how to play the game, but it wouldn’t be faster than learning by doing.

It took three rounds of coaching before I knew the phases in order. Once I had that down I was still pretty helpless tactically, but I could at least participate. Kessia and Jeffry weren’t much better though, so I didn’t feel singled out in that respect.

“Is this not a common game where you were from?” I asked Kessia conversationally. She was playing along, but didn’t seem that interested in the game. She kept trying to strike up a conversation with Henry. He and Chris were actually rather serious about playing though. He shut her down politely every time.

“Not that I know of. I lived in Lamont and I’d never seen this until today,” Kessia replied, sounding a touch irritable. I could sympathize with her a bit, though she needed to be a little more strategic in my opinion. She’d tried talking during play and then when Henry was busy setting up to deal. Not the best moments.

“I’m not familiar with Lamont, is that part of a larger country?” I asked, genuinely interested. My grasp of local geography was limited after all.

“Country? It’s the capital of the Empire,” Kessia replied with an odd sound. It was kind of a click.

“And that empire is called?” I probed, confused by how certain she seemed. Even if there were an Empire locally, that wouldn’t mean I’d know it was the correct one without knowing its name.

“The Breaken Empire, the only Empire,” Kessia insisted. Very belatedly something about the way she was tipping her head and the feeling she gave off reminded me of something. She was gnashing her teeth, a gesture that really didn’t communicate clearly without soft tissue.

“Never heard of it,” Chris and Jeffry chimed in.

“Uhm… Give me a moment,” I said as I opened my art interface and encyclopedia. I made a fast copy of the continental map onto paper and set it on the table after Henry and Jeffry quickly cleared it off.

“Kessia, this is a map of the continent we're on. Does any of this look familiar to you?” I asked, gesturing to the map. At first I thought Kessia was studying the map in detail, but realized I was wrong when I noticed her jewels weren’t moving at all. She was just staring.

“I’ve never seen such a place,” Kessia said, sounding defensive.

“Is this familiar to-” I stopped my question as the other three shook their heads. They didn’t recognize where we were. I felt a bit troubled by that but I couldn’t say there was anything especially alarming about the information.

“Well, I don’t have a full globe so I can't be sure of anything. It’s possible you're just on a different continent,” I offered, though I wasn’t sure who I was trying to comfort or why. I was from an entirely different world, if not reality. My money was on a different reality.

I felt bad that I might be revealing the same could be true for the skeletons. It wasn’t exactly comfortable information.

“Breaken rules the whole of the world and its seas. I’m not so ignorant I wouldn’t know the shape of its lands,” Kessia said hotly.

“Wow, chill, I wasn’t implying that,” I said, putting my hands up placatingly. It appeared I managed to say exactly the wrong thing, as she immediately turned and left.

“Oh, shit,” I said, not sure how things had gone wrong so quickly.

“I was from a shitty little fishing village in a country called Larsen. Can’t say I’m disappointed to not be anywhere near it,” Jeffry offered wryly.

“Never heard of it. I’m from Salispor, a shitty port town in Jalensburg,” Chris offered.

“I think you made yours up,” Jeffry quipped, then chuckled as Chris flipped him off.

“I'm from K-Kerisen but I l-lived in For-Fort Royal, the cap-capital of Jalensburg. Both were t-terrible,” Henry offered.

“Earth, we didn’t have magic,” I offered, which got me pitying looks before we all shared a laugh.

“I’m guessing your other dungeon masters didn’t talk about stuff like this,” I said tentatively.

“I’ve only met one before and no, they did not. I got the impression they didn’t think I could talk nor wanted me to, so I didn’t,” Jeffry replied. Henry nodded in agreement and Chris looked away, crossing his arms in annoyance.

“This is kind of… I think its interesting. We’ll all have to compare holidays and things, figure out a calendar and how to celebrate,” I said after a moment. It was something I was meaning to do, but I’d expected to only need to blend my traditions with one set of foreign ones.

“Y-you mean… You’ll accept for-foreign ones?” Henry asked.

“Well, not all of them. I’m sure everyone’s going to have a few private observances. Still doesn't hurt to get everything written out and see what can be shared,” I explained.

“Oh, we're probably not even using the same calendar,” I added as it occurred to me a touch late. I knew the system calendar didn’t sync fully with the local one, but now I was potentially dealing with as many as there were skeletons. Well, less one since it seemed like Henry and Chris were from the same country.

“There's more than one calendar?” Jeffry asked, sounding scandalized.

“There's lots. My old world had a couple that I knew of,” I explained. I wasn’t about to make things messier than needed, so the official calendar would be the system one. If the skeletons knew enough about their own, we could figure out how they correlated to each other later. No matter how different they might be otherwise, most would usually have a common point like the equinox. If that was a thing. I had a lot of stuff to look up.

“I’ll send out a text about it later. I’m going to get going, I’ve got some work to do outside,” I added. The game had been fun, but I wasn’t really keen on playing anymore for the moment. It was best to get back to work.

“M-Might I ac-accompany you?” Henry asked.

“Sure, it should be fun,” I said amicably. I didn’t really need to do anything top-side in person, but I wanted to look at the snow. It had been a light dusting and I suspected it would be gone by the afternoon. Once we were past the mirror Henry offered me his arm again and I accepted it.

“Wh-What will you w-work on M-Mistress?” Henry inquired as we strolled along.

“Well, actually, I’m working already. Traveling the layers to experience them like an adventurer would is part of my design process,” I explained.

“The bit I’m doing outside will be to give the entrance a more defined appearance,” I continued. The blue stack was essentially done but I was still working on the overall layout of the green stack. Because it was only lightly modified from a natural state I found that getting the right balance between elements was a fussy process.

“T-To wh-what end?” Henry inquired as we reached the topside exit.

“Hm? Mostly just to make it easier to find. I shouldn’t count on luck and terminal levels of stupidity to draw people in. It should look like something distinctive and draw people out of curiosity,” I said as we exited into the valley. Henry’s steps made an odd crunch as he trod the snow and sand under his feet.

“S-Something imposing?” Henry ventured. I shook my head.

“Not exactly, though that's a valid idea. I have a different kind of set up in mind though. Essentially it should tell a story of how the mine happened to tap into a dungeon. So it starts with relatively safe spaces then moves up in difficulty,” I explained as I opened my art interface and started sketching.

“I was thinking something like this,” I added, switching over to share mode. The design was simple architecturally. A platform with roman esque columns holding up a roof. It was a more open air version of the original shed.

While Henry was looking the idea over, I started to put it together. I raised the level of the entrance several feet and created a stone platform to meet it. Pillars went up next while the roof was just a flat piece of stone for the moment.

“Makes you want to see what’s inside, right?” I asked. Fluting on the pillars and various other details would come later. Henry looked from the design over to the structure I’d actually put together and nodded.

“Feels like its missing something still but… Good enough for now,” I said with a shrug. When I looked over at Henry, I found him contemplating the snow.

“Didn’t see much of it back home?” I asked.

“N-no,” Henry said simply. I nodded sagely, taking full advantage of the fact he was lost in reverie to grab and pack a handful.

“Hey Henry,” I called sweetly.

“Mis-” his words were stymied by the collision of the snowball with his face. I cringed even as I laughed, my aim sucked so that was a lucky shot. I had all of three seconds to enjoy the moment before I found out it was a very bad idea to pick a snowball fight with a fighter class. Especially one focused on speed.

“S-S-Surender!” Henry called cheerfully as the third hit in a row connected. The force of it sent my near weightless form bouncing back a few feet.

“NEVER!” I called back even as I darted for the dungeon entrance. “I regret nothing!”