Suara stepped into the Winged Rabbit clutching the wound in her chest. She desperately needed a nap to heal her wounds before doing anything dangerous. Aurea wasn’t in the main room but the clink of plates announced her presence in the kitchen.

She poked her head in to wave. Aurea was dusted with flour, and she had plates of freshly baked hand pies neatly arranged on the counter. The aroma of juicy ground beef filling and herbs teased Suara’s nostrils and she froze. She became locked on the pies. Turmeric in the pastry made it yellow. Garlic, all-spice, green onion. Scotch bonnet peppers. She hated the burn, but she loved the taste.

A memory sprouted and images of dough balls rolled with butter flashed in her mind’s eye. She wanted to try rolling them. She wanted to say she made the patties this time. But her dad was better at it. They were so much work to make that it always made her feel special when he wanted to make them for her. A tear rolled down her cheek. Why had she had to leave him?

“Suara?” Aurea’s voice pulled her out of her stupor. She blinked. “Did you want a pie? You’re staring like a madwoman.”

Suara stepped into the kitchen and wrapped her arms around the innkeeper. “Thank you,” she said, squeezing her. “I was just remembering something important to me.”

Aurea patted her back. “O-okay. Something… sad?”

“No.” She let the innkeeper go and leaned over the pies.

“I made them for you, since no one else comes around here. Have as many as you like.”

Suara picked up an entire plate. There were eight pies arranged on it. “Thanks! I need a nap and a bath, see you later!”

She ran up to her room and set the plate down on her little desk. First she took a nap by throwing herself onto her bed and bouncing back up.

Then she entered her tiny bathroom. A lone mirror hung on the wall, and it was too small for her to see much besides her face. She drew a bath in the small tub wedged between the walls and tossed all her clothes in a pile on the ground. Like the rest of the inn, she could tell it was old by the cracks and a bit of missing paint, but everything was clean.

The water was only lukewarm, but it was still nice to take a moment to relax. She hadn’t even taken the time to stop and think about where she was, and how she arrived. Now that she had the opportunity… she didn’t even know what to think. She didn’t remember enough. Xander might know something that could help her.

Thinking about it made her feel restless. There were important things she could be doing. Things that might help her get more memories back. She raised her feet and dropped them to create a splash. She could take as many baths as she wanted… With a sigh she stood up and pulled the plug out.

Once she stepped out she began to dry quickly automatically, which was a relief because she forgot to ask for a towel. She picked up her dress and smiled seeing it clean. The magic of baths!

Once she was dressed she pulled up her map to stare at it while she ate. The hand pie had a familiar flavour, from the flaky, buttery crust to the juicy beef filling that was just spicy enough to make her nose run if she had three. They were very close to her dad’s Caribbean cooking. She knew that they were, but she still couldn’t remember exactly what that meant, or who he was. Trying to picture him in her mind was making her head hurt.

She gave up thinking about it for the time being and savoured her three pies. The rest she stuffed into her inventory, where they turned into plain item cards that couldn't be added to a deck. She was fine with that if it meant she could eat and taste them, unlike the Fluffy Pasties.

Downstairs, she leaned into the kitchen again. “Aurea?” she called with a sniffle.

The innkeeper smiled at her, but she didn’t try to speak around the piece of carrot sticking out of her mouth. By the sugar and flour, she looked like she was making a cake now.

“Do you have a mirror?” she asked. “The one in the bathroom doesn’t help me see my outfit.”

Aurea swallowed her mouthful. “I have a small mirror… I might be willing to part with it if you helped me out with something. Nothing difficult! Just pick up a package for me from the Export Emporium—the Merchant’s Guild.”

Another Guild. She wondered if they were as pushy as the Unicorn Church. “Okay!” she agreed. It seemed worthwhile to get herself a mirror.

~QUEST ACCEPTED~

-Delivery for Aurea-

Task

Fetch and deliver Aurea’s Package.

Reward

Carrot Cake / Personal Mirror

Location

Export Emporium / The Winged Rabbit

Aurea showed her the location on the map. It was very close, just north near the harbour. It was only about as far as the Accariam Royal Bakery, just north instead of west, Suara squeezed Aurea before hurrying out.

She stood outside the inn where the road went westward towards the bakery. According to the map, the merchants would be straight ahead. She could make out the red roofs as she squinted through the trees.

She shrugged and ran north off the road. The Merchant’s Guild really was right there! After crossing a small field, there it was against the water. Five buildings surrounded a courtyard of busy people. Wagons were being loaded from a warehouse, players were counting coins, and non-players stood checking things off lists.

How exciting! Everyone here seemed to be having fun. Suara took a moment to examine the buildings. Four looked like warehouses, with massive doors that could slide. She was hoping not to have to bother anyone; they all looked busy. So she walked past a tall bronze statue of a man with a large bag on his back and entered the only building with normal doors.

The inside was cluttered with furniture, and the furniture was cluttered with packages and papers. A desk in a central position had a grey bunny-man sitting on it with crossed legs. He pored over a document on a clipboard while nodding at everything being said to him. The person speaking was an androgenous elf with short blue hair. They were discussing earnings, and had a frustrated tone to their words.

The bunny-man addressed her without looking up. “Now is a bad time, kiddo.” he said.

“Oh sorry!” Suara waved her hands apologetically. “I came to get a package and don’t know where to go.” So much for not bothering anyone.

“Yeah? For who? We have about a hundred here, and probably ten thousand more in the warehouse.” He scribbled something and nodded to the elf as they described something about ‘projections’.

“Aurea at the Winged Rabbit,” she answered.

He looked up. “Is that so?”

“Take a minute,” the elf said, and squeezed between two poorly placed armoires blocking the doorway into the next room.

The bunny leaped gracefully off the desk and picked up something wrapped tightly in wide leaves. “We’re messed up here because those damn adventurers keep over-committing to work, and then flaking out. Can’t trust a damn one. But you’re not an adventurer… you’re from the Church, right? Aren’t you all about helping others?”

“I don’t know,” Suara admitted. She smiled at being recognized as a member of the Church. “I’ve only been playing this game for a couple of hours.”

The bunny sighed. “Kids treat everything like a damn game these days. What happened to kids wanting to work? Earn some spending money?” He shook his head and handed her what he was holding, adding Aurea’s Package to her Key Items.

“Oh!” She said excitedly, “I would love to earn some gold.”

He gave her a long look. “How much work do you want to do? I’m not going to waste my time with you if you aren’t serious.”

A good question. She was glad he asked. She had two days before the Temple of the First Quarter was open. If she earned enough gold, she could buy more cards, and she would be helping people too. She just hoped the work would be fun, or at least something she could frame in a way that made it fun.

“If you need help delivering things around town, I have a couple of days to help,” she replied.

“A couple of days, huh? Well maybe you can help me clear out this room then. Tell you what, take this ledger.” He lifted a stack of papers on the desk and pulled out a board with five sheets stuck to it. He handed it to her.

~QUEST ACCEPTED~

-Tun Yeer's Backlog-

Task

Deliver the packages clogged the main office.

Reward

Merchant's Emblem / Up to 5000 gold.

Location

Accariam, various locations.

The ledger entered her Key Items. It had twenty item descriptions per page, and all of them were stamped PAID. The name and destination of each item was listed with their description.

“Here’s the deal. There are a hundred of the damn things in here, including the one for Aurea. I’ll pay you 20 gold for every one you deliver, but if you deliver all of them by end of day tomorrow, I’ll pay you an extra 3000 gold. That’s a one-time bonus to motivate you—we don’t normally pay like that. I’ll also give you a Merchant’s Emblem, so the others around here will know they can trust you with any extra work they have.”

“A Merchant’s Emblem?”

“It’ll mark you as a member of the Export Emporium.” He tapped the polished badge pinned to his blue tunic.

That sounded like a fun thing to have, but she had one concern. “Am I allowed to be a merchant and an acolyte?”

The bunny nodded, making his ears flop down to the sides of his head. “Of course. Merchant is a Job, you can have as many of those as you want. Only one Class at a time, though.”

“I see!” she clapped her hands together. “Thank you for all the information! I’ll start by taking every delivery I can make on my way to Aurea, and then I’ll come back and look at the rest!”

“Good,” he sighed. “Fantastic. I have a lot to do, so try not to bother me unless it’s important.”

He hopped with light-footed ease back onto the desk and crossed his legs without disturbing any of the papers on it.

There were nine deliveries for her to make to the various inns near the Resting Place. As she looked at the packages, she moved them around, organising them into piles based on the area of town they were in. She got the impression they had been organised already, but things had gotten shuffled and some were out of place. She tucked away the oak chair into her Key Items, a crate of oranges, a locked chest of rings, a bag of flour… soon she had them all, the last one being one of the armoires, which due to its sheer size still surprised her when she grabbed it and it transformed into a card.

To complete the route she thought out, she had to squeeze through the alley between two inns to reach the Resting Place. She brought the chest of rings to the Adventurer’s Guild, where the receptionist glared at her with a look of betrayal.

She hurried away from the heat of her stare and left some cabbages and oranges with the human cook at the inn next door.

Suara wore a wide grin the whole way as she handed off delivery after delivery. Most people were thrilled to finally get their things, and at worst, someone was a little short with her. She entered the Winged Rabbit last.

Aurea was just finishing packing a piping bag with icing and rolling it up at the end, although the cake appeared to still be in the oven.

“I’m back, Aurea!” Suara said happily. “I brought your leafy thing.” She placed the package on the only unoccupied space on the table.

~QUEST COMPLETE~

-Delivery for Aurea-

Reward

Promise of Carrot Cake / Personal Mirror

“Thank you so much!” Aurea said. “That took a little longer than I expected. I hope you didn’t run into any trouble.”

“Nope! I’m helping the Emporium make deliveries today!”

“Well I hope you like ginger. Those roots you brought me will make some delicious gingerbread.”

“Oh, do you always bake so much?”

“Only when I have guests.” Aurea seemed genuinely overjoyed to have company at her inn, and her cheerful mood was making Suara happy in turn.

She waved to the innkeeper. “I’ll see you later, then. I don’t want to disappoint the bunny-man.” There was something about the puzzle of planning out the perfect route for these deliveries that she found fun, and that was enough to motivate her out the door quickly.

Aurea waved back, leaving a puff of icing sugar in the air. “You can take the mirror from my dresser upstairs, and I’ll have carrot cake ready for you when you get back!”