158 - Quest Board

“This is it?” Alexandra asked Zeynep when the Gold-ranked woman stopped in front of a circular wooden building in the lower city. “I would have thought the city council would meet in a troglodyte building up the cliff or something.”

“I used to be like that,” Zeynep answered with a shrug. “Until the inhabitants of the lower city got seats and advocated for the councillors to be closer to the people.”

Alexandra didn’t press. She didn’t want to get involved in local politics.

They entered the building hosting the council through the main door, a wide, double-frame wooden craft that stood open during the day. The entrance hall had a tall ceiling and was relatively busy, with clerks and guards going about their daily tasks.

Zeynep took Alexandra to a small wooden board displayed near the entrance.

“This is where the council broadcasts open talks for our citizens,” she explained.

Alexandra took a look. On the board, a dozen posters were displayed, each listing a task and a reward. Her eyes shone as she moved closer to read.

“Quests,” she whispered.

“I guess you can call them that. What do you think? Can you use them?”

Alexandra leaned forward to get a better look. The quests on the board were varied. From clearing up a river clogged with fallen trees to making a trip across the mud wastes to deliver a letter, there was a bit of everything.

“No monster hunting quests,” Alexandra said.

“Those are rare in Balrum. We have a lot of elemental hunters in town, so it’s hard for monsters to get strong enough to be a problem worth paying for.”

Alexandra nodded. Still, this quest board was a good thing. It meant that people here were accustomed to picking up quests and completing them for a reward. She felt that her plans had taken a huge leap forward.

“Can I put a quest on the board myself?”

“No. The board is reserved for council-approved tasks.”

“Is there another board where I could?”

Zeynep shook her head. “Not really. Maybe you could ask a tavern to display your quests. Lot of passage there.”

Taking out her journal, Alexandra flipped the pages to her event quest list. So far nothing new had appeared. She frowned. That wasn’t what she had hoped for. Maybe she needed to accept the quest for it to appear.

She picked one at random and mentally accepted it.

Words etched themselves in her journal.

Courier of the Wastes: Deliver Emerh’s letter to its recipient in Izrum (0/1).

Reward: 5,000 CP

Failure condition: The letter is destroyed or delivered by someone else.

“Yes!” She paused. “Wait. No. Why did I take this one?”

“Why one?” Zeynep asked.

Alexandra pointed at the poster on the board.

“Oh. Izrum is beyond the mud wastes.”

“Near Oldwater?” Alexandra asked.

“No. It’s even further, on the other side of the basin.”

“Well, shit.”

Zeynep patted her back. “I’m going to cross the wastes in two days. You can come with me.”

“More hunting?” Alexandra asked.

“Yes, I’m going back to the stone fields. It’s the best place for my skillset.”

Alexandra bit her lip. Traversing the entire basin for 5,000 points was worth it, but it would take her days, while there were other quests on the board that she could complete faster. She tried accepting another quest, but nothing happened.

“Looks like I locked myself into this one.”

“The council limits how many tasks you can take on at the same time,” Zeynep said. “There have been issues with people hogging them all and not completing them.”

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“I guess I need to find that letter now. Who is Emerh?”

“A councilor, but there’s no need to meet him. The letter should be at the front desk.”

Sure enough, a quick discussion with the clerk, and Zeynep’s guarantee that Alexandra was competent and trustworthy was all Alexandra needed to exit the building with the letter in her bag.

“I’ll reserve a spot on the caravan for you. Meet me at dawn in two days,” Zeynep said as they parted ways.

Alexandra wasn’t looking forward to announcing her departure to Willow and Kam, especially so close to them taking in Nara. But overall, she was satisfied with her trip to the council. Having access to a somewhat reliable source of contribution points was great, not to mention she would get a stipend for each task she completed. They didn’t pay as well as the elemental source business, but she could always hunt on the way.

Before going home, she stopped by the tavern to have them display a few adventuring contracts. She’d picked the three training quests she believed would be the easiest to complete, with the hope that perhaps someone would pick them up on a whim.

Accounting was just a matter of doing calculations, Basic Hygiene was just about washing regularly, and Cleaning was also easy enough. Boring? Yes. Useless? Also yes. But they were quests people could complete by accident if they just accepted them.

She set her share of the contribution points reward at ten percent, and just prayed that someone would understand their value.

Alexandra knew this was a shot in the dark, but it cost her nothing. Yet, looking for the best training quests on her list reinforced her impression that she lacked options. Her quests were too tailored to her unusual skill set, and the few she could share didn’t reward enough points to be viable.

It was a problem she hoped would solve itself with time.

When she found her way back to the house, the others had already returned.

Willow was waiting for her, standing next to the carpet, and her eyes were throwing daggers at Alexandra.

“What is this?” she asked.

“A carpet.”

“Oh. So you know it’s not a trashcan. Then why did you put all that dust in there?”

Alexandra winced. “Sorry.”

Alexandra grabbed her broom and swept the offending pile of dust out the door. It took her a few embarrassed minutes of stooping and scraping at corners she had overlooked before Willow softened.

“There,” Alexandra said, straightening up and leaning the broom against the wall. “Better?”

“Marginally.” Willow crossed her arms, but the tension in her shoulders had already started to ease. “You know Kam and I just spent two hours convincing Nara that staying with us will be fun. A pile of dust in the middle of the floor doesn't exactly sell the place.”

“Where is she?”

Willow tilted her head toward the ceiling. “Hiding. She heard you come in.”

Alexandra huffed a small laugh. “So. About that. I need to tell you something, and I don't think you're going to love it.”

“I took a quest from the council board.”

“Okay.”

“It's in Izrum.”

Willow blinked, then pinched the bridge of her nose. “And you think I’m supposed to know where that is?”

“It’s on the opposite end of the basin. Past the stone fields.”

“Alexandra—”

“I know. Bad timing. I didn't mean to grab it. I just wanted to see what accepting would do, and now I’m stuck with it.” She held up the letter from her bag. “Five thousand contribution points, Willow. That's not nothing.”

Willow opened her mouth to argue, then closed it again. “When do you leave?”

“Two days. Zeynep's got a caravan crossing the wastes and offered me a spot.”

“Of course she did.” Willow rubbed her temple. “Fine. Go. Get your points. Just— be careful. I know you.”

“No promises.”

“Alexandra.”

“Fine. I promise to try.”

A small scuffing sound came from the hole in the ceiling. Nara crouched half-hidden behind the frame. When Alexandra caught her looking, she ducked back out of sight entirely.

“Shy,” Speck said, crawling down the ladder to hide inside Alexandra.

“I know. It’s to be expected with what happened to her.”

Then it was Kam’s turn to poke his head in the opening to the second floor. Unlike Nara, he didn’t shy away and climbed down the ladder.

“Before you go, there's something I need to tell you.”

Alexandra nodded. “Go ahead.”

“The Velvet Masks. They were after me for a long time. It’s my fault that they found us here.”

“Yeah, I think we figured that out. Don’t worry about it,” Alexandra said.

“Alexandra is right,” Willow agreed. “It’s not your fault.”

Kam shook his head. “I knew.”

“How?” Alexandra asked.

“My uncle sent me a letter. The masks are behind the scuffle that destroyed my family. I knew since the beginning. That’s why I left with you. I thought they wouldn’t find me.” Kam caught his breath. He wasn’t used to long sentences like that. “I’m sorry.”

Alexandra pinched his cheek. “You should have told us. Dumbass.”

“I know.”

“Idiot.”

“Tell him, Speck.” Alexandra put a hand on Kam’s shoulder. “You should have told us, but it's in the past now. In the end it all worked out. We got Nara out of their claws.”

“That’s a small revenge for what they did to your family,” Willow said.

“Not enough.” Kam looked at the hole in the ceiling.

“Not enough,” Alexandra agreed. “And they might come back. I’ll leave Speck with you.”

“No. Speck. Go.”

“They need protection.”

“Speck. Go. Stone. Field.”

Alexandra grimaced. She wasn’t going to convince the elemental to miss out on that.

“We’ll coordinate with the Hands,” Willow said. “Now that we know, they won’t catch us off guard.”

“Are you sure?”

“You have your reasons to doubt the orders, but they do fight cultists.” She hesitated. “Except when they are cultists themselves. But I don’t think your experience in Esmera is representative of all the orders.”

“Fine. I’ll trust them this time.”