Chapter 22 - Chapter 21 questions
Soon enough Scarlett reached the mansion's reception hall with the two servants close behind her. Another servant was currently there and making those of the beds that weren't just a make-shift gathering of blankets lined up against one of the hall's walls. Most of the children were gathered over next to Kat at the other end of the room where it seemed like the Shielder was telling them stories. Or rather, showing them with her magic and pyrokinesis, as the woman didn't speak Voneian. Scarlett was certain that the servants appreciated Kat's help with taking care of the kids nonetheless.
Walking over to one of the large tables at the center of the room, Scarlett gestured towards Molly and the blonde servant girl. "Place them here. Then you may leave."
The two women did as she asked and rolled out the two maps on the table, bringing out small pieces of rectangular wood from pockets sewn into their clothes which they placed at the edges of the maps to keep them from rolling up on their own. The both of them then bid her farewell with a pair of curtsies and left the room.
Scarlett turned her attention to the laid-out maps. She touched the edge of the largest one. It appeared to be made out of some kind of fine leather instead of paper, which surprised her slightly. All of the books and documents that she'd read in this world had been paper, so it wasn't as if there was a large deficit of the material in this world. Was it perhaps because of the map's size? It was almost as tall as she was, and slightly wider, depicting the whole of the Graenal Empire with several landmarks on it that she presumed were Kilnstone locations. She glanced at the other map. This one showed the area around Freybrook and the southwestern part of the Empire. It was half the size of the larger one, and it at least seemed to be made out of paper. It also looked newer, though, so maybe that had something to do with it. Well, not that it mattered much.
She put the matter out of her mind and moved closer to examine the smaller map. As expected, Freybrook was the largest settlement on it, located just north of the Innisling Sea that bordered the Empire's southern border. Almost a good third of the map north and northeast of Freybrook was covered by mountains. It read 'Whitdown Mountains' in large dark letters on the map. If Scarlett remembered correctly from the lore in the game it was the highest mountain chain in the empire. It was also home to a lot of end-game dangers.
"What are we doing? Planning another trip?" Kat's voice rang out from next to her. She turned to find that the woman had already walked up to the table and started examining the two maps. The kids stood a short distance away and looked on with curious eyes. Their aversion to her had decreased slightly, at least.
"One could say that, yes," Scarlett said and looked over the map of the Freybrook area again. After a moment of searching, she found the name she was looking for and pointed towards the symbol of a small village that was nestled next to the western side of the large mountain chain. It was a far distance away from Freybrook itself. "This is where we are going."
Kat squinted at the map. "Whistlecreek?" she muttered in a half-surprised voice.
"Have you visited?"
Kat shook her head. "No, but I know of it. It's a pretty small place. Not much happens there as far as I have heard." She looked up at Scarlett. "Is this another place that your 'research' found for us to explore?"
"In a manner, yes."
There were a lot of things she needed to do in the future and a lot of places that she had to visit. One of the most important ones, one vital to her current plans in how to strengthen herself and prepare for the dangers she knew would appear in the future, was a dungeon known as the Howling Gale's Haunt in the game. Specifically, it held one artifact that she needed to get her hands on. But some rather hard criteria had to be met to even gain entrance to the place. One of those involved one of the possible companions in the game — a companion that you could recruit in the capital. But he wouldn't join you just because you asked him to, so she had to find a certain quest item first.