Inch by Inch

The crowds at the bureau had not died down the next day.

Or more accurately, new crowds had gathered to protest a second development. There were far too many clenched jaws, crossed arms and shouted words in the mob outside Lauchia’s bureau of adventuring for this to be a continuation of yesterday’s announcement. No, this morning the adventurers had come dressed for something else, most wearing full armor and even carrying weapons.

“What is it today?” Ana groaned with a weariness that Jay felt in his bones.

He was not without hope, though. Moments like this gave him hope that his team would someday reach that unspoken level of understanding that the true professionals displayed.

“It will be difficult to seek tasks in that,” Kane noted.

“Yeah...” Jay said with a sigh. They hadn’t tried yesterday for obvious reasons, but they couldn’t wait forever. With only one task lined up for the next week, they were on shaky ground. Rent didn’t stop while Lauchia council and Pono threw their weight around. His team needed to find and accept more tasks today.

A familiar blond figure in a black and gray tunic caught Jay’s eye as he stepped out of the crowd. The man had his head tilted back, like he was searching the skies. His hunt only lasted for a second before he turned and looked straight at them. Peter’s face split into a grin.

Jay waved. He was still a little split on how to feel about Peter. Mostly because he didn’t know where the Lauchia native and Bedrock recruit stood. The scout-in-training said he was on Jay’s side, yet so far his actions didn’t show it. You didn’t meet a friend in an alleyway and silent support wasn’t much support at all. If it hadn’t been for the confusion, Jay would have been glad to see a friendly face in the mess before them. However, Peter was not alone.

The face that followed Peter out of the crowd a moment later was less welcome. Even in a crowd of adventurers, Tema stood out. His spiked blond hair looked all the stranger next to the locks that flowed over Peter’s big ears. As always, the singlet wearing man carried his sharpened fans with him. How he had avoided cutting anyone in the crowd was a wonder in itself. Jay suspected Word shenanigans.

To Tema’s obvious displeasure, Peter started walking towards them. The ostentatious adventurer glanced around a few times, searching the crowd. Failing to find what he was looking for, he trudged after his teammate.

“Hey,” Jay called once they got closer.

“Hey! It’s been a while.” Peter responded with more enthusiasm.

To Jay’s surprise, Peter seemed to be addressing all of them with that statement. Hadn’t he seen Ana and Kane in Peak over the last few days?

“I heard about one-shot.” Peter gave Ana a wink. He needed to raise his voice to be heard over the clamor from the crowd. “But what about the two of you?”

Kane shifted his weight to his right side. His face was still impassive, but given Kane, that was the equivalent of Jay preparing to flee.

What are you hiding? Jay narrowed his eyes at Kane. Was this about Taylor?

“Hey,” Tema snapped, elbowing Peter. “You don’t know if she wants to be called that.”

It was so out of character that Jay abandoned his examination of Kane to look at Tema instead. The blond’s cheeks were flushed and his lips tight. Something about the nickname had set him off. While it was a slightly strange thing for a man who didn’t seem too fond of them to say, Jay was ashamed to find Tema had a point. He’d never called Ana ‘one-shot’, and never would on pain of death, but he’d never asked how she felt about the name either.

“It’s fine,” Ana said, leaning back and her shoulders settling.

As attempts to look aloof went, it wasn’t bad, but next to Kane’s detachment, it fell flat. Jay knew something about the name bothered her, as much as she also seemed to enjoy it.

“See?” Peter said, raising an eyebrow at his friend.

“Whatever. I’m going to find Mark.” Tema strode off.

Kane shifted again. He was definitely hiding something.

“Ugh.” Peter groaned like he’d just had a realization.

They waited a second, but it seemed like it wasn’t a realization he wanted to share.

“What’s going on?” Jay asked to fill the silence.

Peter’s brow furrowed and his mouth set. He crossed his arms. “A Pono officer visited the bureau last night before it closed. They had a long list of repeat tasks and complaints going back several solstices. Nearly every guild has been reassigned from something and this morning, soldiers were at every task.”

Jay nodded along to Peter’s words for a second before their full meaning registered.

Wait...

“Pono bumped them?” he shouted.

The notion ran riot in his mind. Pono, bumping the guilds of Lauchia. The angry crowd. Pono. Pono had bumped the guilds off their cushy repeat tasks, and now they were here in force to complain about it. The guilds that bumped others were bumped themselves. It had the ring of a saying to it, “Those that bump shall be bumped in return”.

The whole thing was such delicious irony that he had to revel in it for a few seconds before dealing with the implications.

They got bumped. Ha! How much I’d give to see their faces when they found out…

Jay savored the due correction of fate until an inconsistency reared its head. “Wait, how did Pono bump them?”

There was nothing in the announcement about special privileges for the Pono soldiers. They should have been treated like any other guild. Guilds that couldn’t interfere with each other like that.

Peter turned and scowled at the embassy. “That officer was a Grandmaster. Iron tag. None of the guilds knew they had anyone ranked that high. I don’t think the council did either. Whichever city state granted that soldier the rank is in for a lot of complaints.”

“Oh...” Jay exhaled. Some of that amusement was starting to drain. He wasn’t feeling bad for the guilds, but it was starting to sound like what boded well for the Pono army boded poorly for everyone else.

“That shouldn’t have mattered,” Ana said, chewing her upper lip. “You can’t bump an adventurer of the same rank, and you need to have an iron tag to start a guild.”

Jay looked at her in surprise. When had she learned that?

“I can read, you know,” she said with a sniff at him, reading his thoughts from his expression and declaring them unwelcome. She turned that disdainful look on Kane next. “And you’re not the only one who knows where the library is.”

Kane nodded like it was a fair point.

Jay accepted that, but he also noted that she went to the library to learn that instead of asking to view a freely available copy of rules in the bureau. Or asking Kane or him, for that matter.

Peter shrugged, ignoring their byplay. “Not all guilds have an iron tag team. You need that rank to found a guild, not run one.”

All three of the independent adventurers present made the same face.

“That’s cattle shit.”

“Sounds unwise.”

“Total crap.”

Rules like that were very biased. It was also somewhat new as adventuring went. Jay knew that his own grandmother had shut down her father’s guild — which had been successful — because no one had been there to take up the rank. They had been given time for someone to rank up, sure, but not that much time. Not enough to Lift anyone up. That was meant to be the way of things. Guilds rose and fell on the merit of their members, not the grand castles their ancestors had built.

“A few guilds were unaffected. Bedrock, Marching Orders, Heritage. Nearly everyone else...” Peter trailed off.

They all watched the crowd for a moment.

Peter’s next words were faint and far away. “The dog track has been called off today. Too much of an uproar. There’s talk of marching to the council offices and Wonder instead.”

Jay winced. Six bronze they wouldn’t be earning today, and it looked like the bureau was closed to them as well. A poor start to the morning.

Then again... if all those guilds were marching to the council offices, the bureau would be empty. And all the soon-to-be-limited tasks would be up for grabs. Tif, the overindulgent grandfather, had been right. Adventurers were about to become a lot less finicky about what tasks they took.

There may be more birthday parties in his future. Jay groaned.

“They are striking while the iron is hot,” Kane said. “Adventurers were already complaining. If Pono can’t make them happy, why try to appease them at all? Better to weaken them instead.”

His statement left them all shifting uneasily. The tall swordsman had that knack. He could assess and identify what didn’t fit, or was hidden. It was a skill that Jay needed to develop.

Jay’s shoulders fell. Long days indeed and more ahead. “Breakfast and wait them out?” He didn’t mention scooping up all the good tasks in front of Peter. The Bedrock recruit might be offended on behalf of the other guilds, and at the very least, a competitor for those tasks. When they got a moment alone, he’d say it to Ana and Kane.

“Jay, you have a moment to talk?”

He raised an eyebrow at Peter. The Bedrock recruit shrugged.

“Sure.” Jay looked at Ana and Kane.

“If we aren’t running, I’m changing,” Ana said, flicking her leather armor. It said something that she wasn’t celebrating at the lack of exercise this morning.

“I’ll go with her,” Kane said.

Ana looked side-eyed at him with a raised eyebrow, but said nothing.

“What’s up?” Jay asked after the two of them set off.

“I don’t know,” Peter confessed. “It’s my Word. My Nose.” The offending organ twitched, almost as if in response to hearing its name called out. “It’s at me and it’s you.”

What?

“Your nose?” Jay couldn’t help the incredulity in his voice. Peter’s Word was Nose? Peter, who wanted to be a scout, had a Word that affected his sense of smell? Was that why he kept tapping it? He looked at his maybe-friend again.

The Three had a worse sense of humor than he realized, if they gave a man with such large ears Nose for a Word.

“I thought you got feelings about things?”

“Not that nose,” Peter sighed. “Nose. I can nose around. Get a feel for a place or a thing or a-“

“Person,” Jay finished, eyes narrowing. This conversation wasn’t helping his mixed emotions about Peter.

“Yes, and no.” Peter tugged at the soft cartilage at the front of the organ. “It’s like an instinct. I can tell when something is interesting, but that’s all.”

They looked at each other for a bit. It felt like a moment. Maybe the moment where they figured out where they stood.

Jay knew he needed to say something. Peter was reaching out, extending an open hand. But what? What was he supposed to say or do with that information?

He decided to try trust, to meet Peter halfway and besides, it wasn’t anything that Peter didn’t know already.

“Measure. I see distance, numbers, heights, sizes. I figured you knew anyway, but...” Jay rubbed his face. This wasn’t what he expected Peter to want to talk about. “Why tell me now?”

Peter shrugged. “I couldn’t think of any other reason to explain it. All this-“ he gestured behind him. “-and it led me to you.”

Jay wanted to sink into a crouch and groan. Kane’s suggestion yesterday. Of course. Of course, the Three wanted to heap more onto his lap. It was something about Manuwai, about Pono. He was going to have to go and visit, wasn’t he?

“You figured something out?” Peter asked, brushing a lock of his hair behind his ears.

“Maybe.” Jay inhaled. He breathed out slowly. “I know someone who’d know more about all this.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.” Jay may have decided to trust Peter, but linking himself to Pono was a step too far. The last thing he needed was for the locals to think he wasn’t ‘on their side’. A ban from Peak could be extended to restaurants. Or even dorms.

“Okay.”

Jay looked at him with a hint of surprise. “Okay? That’s it?”

Peter shrugged. “I mean, I want to know more. I’ve always been curious, but it’s my Word, not me. I don’t have to follow my Word all the time.”

“Right.” Now Jay felt bad about not trusting Peter more. “If I find out anything, I’ll let you know.”

He was going to have to find a way to sneak past the crowds into the Pono embassy, which sounded stupider the more he thought about it.

Peter nodded. He looked back at the crowd and hesitated. “Look, about Tema. It’s not you or your Word. He’s just... he stays away from this kind of thing. And with Ana earlier, it’s the same.”

“I don’t really know him,” Jay offered. It was the best thing he could say about the guy. It wasn’t that he disliked Tema, the man was occasionally funny or helpful, it was more his aloof attitude. From Tema’s appearance to his words, it all felt designed to keep them at a distance.

“Just don’t think too badly of him. He’s a good guy. He just avoids controversy like the plague. Bad experiences.”

“Alright,” Jay said, holding his hands up, palm out.

Peter seemed determined to push the point. “His mother is a big deal in Marching Orders. She’s on the guildmaster’s team. When we were kids, they earned their iron tag. Grandmaster rank. With grandmasters... everyone knows their Word.”

Jay frowned, not sure where Peter was going. There were plenty of people in Kavakar whose Words were known. Some advertised it, like Ana’s mother, to gain business. Others, like his family, had theirs known for historical reasons. There were also those like Koa, that were somewhat famous.

“Her Word is Blow. Tema got a lot of shit for it. Too much. It was just bad timing, but he never forgot the whole thing.”

“Oh.” Kids could be horrible.

“Give him another chance,” Peter asked. He shrugged. “He’s a good friend.”

Jay found himself nodding. A little snubbing wasn’t anything he couldn’t put behind him.

“I’m going to go find him.” Peter’s nose twitched. A sign his Word was active? “Enjoy breakfast and I’ll see you around.”

Jay turned and went the opposite direction. He might be able to catch up with Ana and Kane before they reached the dorms. They needed to have a conversation about the Pono embassy and Peter’s ‘feeling’. It was needed if he was going to take the risk of visiting.

Do I tell them about Tema? Jay asked himself. It felt rude to share, but was it worse to leave them thinking the worst of the man? Then again, reasons or not, Tema’s actions were his own. Maybe it was best to leave some other details of the conversation rest until they became relevant.

After breakfast of some doughy-egg rolls from a street vendor, they visited the bureau. Even without all those that had marched to the council offices, the notice room was busier than Jay had ever seen it. Unsurprisingly, the press of people made it harder for them to find tasks. The three of them seemed to have an easier time than most, however, and walked out of the room with a couple of notices. If Jay didn’t know better, he’d think that half of the people there had never even seen the room before.

None of the tasks they accepted paid well, but they would keep their head above water.

Adventurers had flooded into Lauchia over the last few weeks. The tide was rising, and in this giant basin of a city, it was sink or swim.