Heart of Dorkness

Terror Seven - Fancy

“That was pretty good,” I say as I set my fork down next to my plate. The inn served us a nice little meal. Some bread, cheese and a small cut of some sort of meat. The sauce was actually pretty good.

I lean back into my seat and look across to my... guest? Friend? I’m not entirely sure what Felix is to me yet. I guess she’s just a nice girl that was willing to give me a hand in exchange for a bit of help.

She looks a bit stuffed. I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone scarf down their food so quickly, even if it looked like she had a hard time with the whole fork and knife thing for a while.

“Thank you, Miss Valeria,” Felix says. She’s looking a lot nicer now that she’s not in rags and has taken three baths.

“No problem,” I say.

“If Miss needs anything from me, anything at all.” Felix pauses, as if she’s looking for the next thing to say, then she grins. “I’ll do my best.”

I laugh. “Thanks, I appreciate it.” Sighing, I lean forward and put my elbows on the table then grab one of those tiny loaves of bread from a basket in the middle of the table. I’ve noticed Felix hiding a few of them under the table already, but I don’t comment on it. “So! That was a good meal, and now I have a sort of base of operations, which will be good.”

Felix tilts her head a bit. “Is Miss planning something?”

“It’s just Valeria,” I say. “And I don’t know if I am planning anything, not yet. Someone burned the temple down, and someone delayed the shipment of my mom’s books. That’s two things I need to solve. Mom won’t like having the temple destroyed.”

“Your mom’s temple?” Felix asks.

“Uh, I mean, the temple of the Dark Goddess. Who my mom... likes.” I’m really not good at this whole undercover thing. I blame the lack of good spy fiction. “Anyway. I need to find Mister Juárez. Which means... I guess asking around about him?”

“Maybe Fancy could help?” Felix asks.

“Fancy?”

She nods. “Fancy is the person who runs the city. Well, the parts of the city where people who aren’t rich come from. The South Quarter, the Roughs, and the North Quarter. Basically, everything but Midtown is run by Fancy and his crew.”

“I have the impression you’re not talking about an elected official here,” I say.

“Oh no, Mister Fancy is, ah, he’s just the boss of the city.” Felix shrugs.

I’m imagining some sort of mafia-don kind of guy. Big and burly, in a nice suit and tie, with a few equally large bodyguards, of course. “Where does Fancy stay?” I ask.

“In the South Quarter, there’s a place with a lot of warehouses. One of those has a sort of inn inside it. There’s gambling and alcohol, and that’s where Fancy rules from.”

I stand while glancing out of the nearest window. There’s still plenty of light out, even if the sun is starting to dip. “Let’s head out then.”

“You want to go see Fancy? Just like that?”

“He might know things that I need to know. I won’t learn any of that without asking.” I stretch. “Did you want to come?”

Felix looks like she’s thinking about it, but only for a moment before she stands up too. “I’ll come. I’ve never met Fancy before, but he’s supposed to be kind of dangerous.”

“I’m kinda dangerous too,” I say. It comes out sounding a lot cooler than I usually sound, which is neat. Mom once told me that the person I was most dangerous to was myself, but I’m pretty sure I can hold my own in a fight.

Felix follows me downstairs, patting her belly which is a little distended with every step as if shaking it too much might make it burst.

The inn’s... keeper? Maitre d’? The guy who stands near the door--greets me as I come down. “Lady Valeria, is there anything we can do to assist you?”

“I don’t think so, though maybe later. We’ll be leaving for an hour or two. If we don’t come back by this evening, can you inform the guard that there’s some sort of trouble? We’ll be down by the South Quarter.”

He eyes me and Felix, one eyebrow perked. “As the lady wishes. We could arrange for a guard to escort you, if you wish.”

That might not be a bad idea. “Can it be done fairly quickly?” I ask.

“I’m afraid not. It’s not a common request.”

“In that case I should be fine. Thanks though.”

We step out into an evening that’s turned a little cloudy. The wind has shifted and it’s coming in from over the nearby lake, thick with humidity that’s turning the sky a dull grey. “It’s going to rain tonight,” Felix says with bored certainty.

“You’re the Joy mage,” I say.

“Joy mage?” Felix repeats.

“Your kind of magic, that you’re using to see,” I add.

“Oh. I didn’t know it was called that,” she says.

I shrug a shoulder and take off, quickly leaving the inn’s courtyard and stepping out onto the not-so-busy streets of Santafaria. “It’s what the books call it. I never really studied it. Which way?”

“That way,” Felix says while pointing to her left. “Down the main road all the way to the Yellow Gate.”

I nod along and start heading off that way while adjusting my cloak. If this Fancy person is going to be any sort of trouble, then I want my little friends to be ready to pounce. I can feel about all of them if I focus a bit. Little pinpricks of... something, nestled in close to me.

I think it’s similar to proprioperception, but not quite. None of the books I’ve read cover anything quite like it, but then, it is a unique class.

Name Valerie Malvada Displayed Title Magus of Four Paths First Class

Mom put a spell on me that changes my displayed class. I think she’s playing some sort of prank on me, giving me a class like ‘Bookworm,’ but it’s not a mean sort of prank. I wouldn’t mind the class that much, actually. It’s probably really weak, but fun.

“What can you tell me about Fancy? Other than his position and all that?”

Felix tilts her head. “Well, he’s strong. I think he was a noble once. I heard people say that he’s the forgotten prince of Santafaria.”

“Santafaria isn’t a kingdom,” I say. “It doesn’t have a king or queen to produce a prince. There’s a marquis, I think.”

“I don’t know about that,” Felix says. “Sorry.”

I wave it off. “No matter. It’s not important anyway. I don’t think we’ll be dealing with the local nobility, not unless things go very pear-shaped.”

“Pear-shaped?” Felix repeats.

“Uh, it’s a fruit that’s sort of... not quite round? Actually, I don’t know where the expression comes from. Some book I read, I bet.”

Felix nods. “I don’t know how to read, so I wouldn’t know, I guess.”

“Oh, right, you can’t read.”

Felix turns her head my way, but not entirely. If she had eyes, they’d be looking a foot past my shoulder. “No one in the Roughs knows how to read. And you need to see the letters besides.”

I nod. That makes sense. But I don’t like it. “Well, once we get your eyes fixed, I’ll see about teaching you a little. I thought that the level of literacy here was pretty high, what with people having to read their system stuff.”

“You mean classes and skills?” Felix asks. “Mine sound like my voice when I listen to them.”

“Huh,” I say.

Had any of my books mentioned how the system would function for someone unable to read or write? Or a person with no sight for that matter? I suppose the people writing those books aren’t the people with no eyes and an inability to write.

Maybe Mom had ulterior motives in sending me out here. The more I look around, the less I like the way things are.

I can meddle once things are fixed with the books.

“That’s the Yellow Gate,” Felix says while pointing ahead.

I snap out of my reverie and take in a gate that isn’t very yellow at all. There are banners around it that are, though, so I suppose the name isn’t entirely awful.

Getting out of Midtown is significantly easier than getting in. No one even tries to slow us down or ask any questions, though some of the guards watch us pass by.

The South Quarter isn’t as bad as I expected. It’s filled with little homes, all squished together and with no two alike, but the roads are only a little dirty. I take a few steps only to feel something tugging at my sleeve.

“That way’s the road to the South Gate and the Roughs,” Felix says before pointing to her right. “Fancy’s place is that way.”

“Ah, well, lead on then!”

***