《Delvers》Chapter 15 - Streets Ahead
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It had been a long and awkward walk. They had been walking through the city for 10 minutes now and conversation had been quite slow. She wasn't the biggest fan of small talk, but she was getting uncomfortable. She had tried, she really had, but every time she asked a question The Rogue would just grunt. She tried a total of 4 times before giving up and letting the silence settle. She tried to think about something to say or ask that would give her more information. There were some things she had already catalogued in her mind.
1. There were others on Earth with similar classes and abilities.
2. There appeared to be some kind of alliance or organisation of them.
3. They knew what she was no more than a day since she had become The Warlock.
All this left her with a sinking feeling of dread. Maybe she should have done something different to escape. Thinking about what she could have possibly done differently it completely escaped her when the landscape around her suddenly changed.
She found herself in a street that clearly wasn't normal. The houses were full of colour, the signs brightly lighting the area. The street was paved with cobblestones of various colours that didn't blend together at all yet fit perfectly in the menagerie of the rest of the street. Looking up the sky was dark yet filled with light. The backdrop was of all dark night sky, yet instead of the small pinpricks of light, there were large light orbs of all colours flowed through the sky. The sight was insane and made no sense to her at all. With everything that happened over the last few days she thought that her surprise had run out. She was wrong.
She stood there, slack jawed, for a full minute. The Rogue had seen this coming and had walked to one of the many stalls and had gotten some food. The vendor had described it as 'Definitely-real-street-meat' which would have worried her, but it tasted great so who cares. The Rogue snapped her finger in front of The Warlock's face taking her out of her stupor.
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"Yes, yes. It's very awesome. Now, let's go. You have an appointment, and you'll have all day after to explore."
"What is all this?"
"Oh right, didn't do the thing."
"What thing?"
The Rogue handed her the 'Definitely-real-street-meat' and walked backwards in front of The Warlock. She spread out of her hands and said: "Welcome to The Street." She then walked back, took on of the sticks back and began walking forward. The waved The Warlock further as if saying. Come on, Let's go already.
I've gone mad. That second deal drove me insane. Yeah, that's it. The information download has fucked with my mind.
She decided to roll with it. If her mind was failing, might as well enjoy it. She followed The Rogue taking in the sights and reading the signs. The names were painted in neon colours that somehow shown in front of the actual signs. There were a lot of them, but a few stood out to her, and she made a new mental list of those.
- Smith, the best leatherworker
- Beholder Culinary Depository
- Spells and how not to die
She tried to keep the list short to what she needed most. Armor, food, and magic. Not in that order of course. Food was way more important those other two secondary concerns.
Eventually The Rogue led her to an ordinary house, which was strange as this house had none of the lights and fanfare. It also looked to have been built at least 200 years ago looking at the wooden and stone construction. It almost looked like a medieval castle the size of a small appartement. Not stopping, The Rogue led her straight inside the building and told her to wait in what looked like an ordinary waiting room. The sofa she sat down in was comfortable though so that was something.
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The Rogue came back soon enough and without a single word, led her back up the stairs. She was led to a small door in the middle of a hallway. Stopping before it, The Rogue stops for a moment.
"Look. I realise this has been weird. There has been this whole thing and now I've brought you here. To a strange place under strange precepts. The person through there can answer all of those questions. They might be the only one who can, really. However, they can be kind of an asshole. You'll get maybe 3 or 5 questions, and they count everything. I know it sounds stupid but think before you walk in there and talk. You'll get limit answers and while you can come back, these are the only ones you'll get for free."
The Warlock was stunned. This was more than she had spoken for the entire trip. Shaking her head, she tried to internalize what she just learned. This was some genie bullshit, but she could deal with that. She had seen Aladdin after all. She thanked The Rogue and took a deep breath, gripping the door handle and opening the door.
Instead of walking through she found herself suddenly in the middle of the room sitting in a big bean chair facing an androgynous person laying lazily on a cloud of ever shifting colours. The spectacle before her was amazing. The room filled with chairs off all sizes, floating cards of various designs and a seemingly moving pattern on the walls. The sight had stunned her into another silence, she really had to stop doing that.
"Welcome my dear Warlock. You may call me The Diviner. For this meeting you can have 4 questions. Ask away."
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