I Hate Dungeon School

We quickly made our way to the administration building, which, in the low light of nightfall, looked kind of ominous. I was impressed at how quickly Eira could move, even with me in her arms. Her extraction team training really paid off.

It was kind of making me excited, which was a shame as there really wasn't any time for such things right now. Curse my weird ability to get dragged into conspiracies and other such nonsense.

"Do you suppose you could at least put me down before we go into the conspiracy meeting?" I asked, feeling my cheeks burning.

"Yeah, I guess I can do that. But you look adorable right now!" She smiled playfully at me, which did nothing to help the burning in my cheeks. Gods above and below, I bet my face and hair matched right now. I loved the woman, but damn it all, she knew how to turn me from a hardened dungeoneer to a blushing maiden in nothing flat.

She gently set me down, and I took a few seconds to make sure I was stable. Thankfully, I seemed to be doing ok, and I could feel the lingering side effects of both the magic and whatever drink I had fading away. It probably wouldn't do to be wobbly at a secret meeting. Maybe? I had no idea if there was an etiquette for that sort of thing.

I made a mental note to be a bit more discerning. I did not care much for weird dreams like that. I really hoped it was just a dream.

We made our way into the administrative building, and despite having been there before, I still felt utterly lost trying to find Farina's office. No matter what I did, I just could not manage to create a mental map of this place.

Eventually, we found our way there, and before I could even knock, Farina opened the door with a pop. She looked a lot more frazzled than I had ever seen her before.

"Oh, good, you're here. And you brought Eira? That's fine, that's fine, whater, get in here please." Farina said, all but pulling the two of us inside.

After we got inside, Farina started to pace, wringing her hands.

"What's going on, Farina? You look absolutely terrified!" Eira said, putting her hand on the elf's shoulder.

"I had asked an advisor to join us about what we found at the old manor. You know her, Alta, it was Danica. She said she had found something out about what was going on, and it was really important, but she had been arrested!" Farina's eyes looked like they were going to pop out of her head.

"What in all the hells could they have arrested her for?" I asked, very dumbfounded. Danica was a bit shady sometimes, and more than a little strange, but I couldn't imagine she'd do something illegal. Well, nothing she would have gotten caught for. She was very clever and observant.

"They say she's committed treason! And espionage, sabotage, and other stuff! We met up earlier today to discuss something, and the town guard just walked in to nab her! I haven't been able to reach any of my contacts in the guard to figure out what is going on, and quite frankly, Alta, I'm freaking the hells out here! I need to know what she found out!" Poor Farina looked like she was on the edge of having a complete meltdown.

"Ok, sit down, take some deep breaths, and let's think this through." I gently guided Farina to a seat. I guided her through some breathing to try to get her to relax, but that was proving difficult. I told her to keep it up while I talked to Eira.

I almost considered talking to Eira in the hallway, but I had no idea if anyone was lurking around.

"Danica's one of those who's been figuring out your whole, dungeon core thing, right?" Eira asked.

"Yeah. She's got a lot of knowledge about a bunch of stuff. I'll be honest, I don't know exactly what her deal is, but if she's involved, it must be pretty big and complicated." I said with a sigh, rubbing the bridge of my nose in irritation.

"I've got some friends in the guard, maybe I can see what I can find out?" Eira suggested.

"Would you mind? I don't think it'll be a good idea to try anything this late. We'll-" My thought was interrupted by a sneeze.

"Ooo, that sounded painful! Hay fever is really bad this year, huh?" Eira said, handing me a handkerchief.

"Yeah. Been hitting me hard. Ugh, I didn't have this trouble last year. Pollen is really being a bastard." For some reason, my brain tickled at the word pollen. Pollen, pollen, where had I heard that word recently? My brain was still a little foggy from everything that had happened today, but something was really digging at my mind.

I'd think about it later.

"Farina, what about the manor? Do you have any information about whatever is going on in the basement of that greenhouse?" I asked.

"No. Danica had all the information. She snuck out there and found something and was going to tell us about it tonight." She said, finally calmed down.

"Why, Danica, though? I get reaching out to an adventurer, but a researcher?" I asked, curious.

"Danica owes me a favor. A lot of favors, actually. And I wondered if it might have been a spontaneous dungeon formation, or something like that, and Calderon has been on a vacation, so I couldn't ask him." Farina sighed, putting her head in her hands. "Why did I drag her into this? They're gonna find everything out now!"

As she groaned into her hands, my brain was filled with all sorts of questions. It seems the little elf secretary had more secrets than I would have expected, and Danica of all people was involved.

I swore to myself. Very colorfully, I might add. As I swore, memories of the meeting I eavesdropped on popped into my head. I wanted to tell Farina, but I also didn't want to have to repeat information if I could avoid it.

"We might not be able to wait till morning then. I have a feeling we're on more of a time crunch than I had previously thought. And more things are connected than I had anticipated." I said, my own internal panic starting to rise.

"What do you mean? What's going on?" Farina asked, her calm gone.

"To put a lot of things in simple terms, I think that the manor house, the Harpy referendum vote thing, whatever Scarletti is investigating, and the disappearances in town might all be related, and whatever is going on is ticking down in a hurry. I don't want to say anything more until I'm sure, but to do that, I think we need to get Danica. If we can get Danica, this." I blanched at the thought.

I didn't like going to the guard station, and I liked the idea of maybe getting thrown in there even less. But it might be impossible to help.

"This night is going to get annoying in a hurry, isn't it?" Eira said as if she were reading my mind.

"Yeah. Really, really damn annoying, really, really damned fast." I nodded.

Eira ruffled my hair and smiled. "Well, you've got me. And you've got Farina!"

"Oh, please gods above and below, don't rely on me here. I'm just a secretary! I barely have magic!" Farina protested.

"I don't believe that for half a second. That little disappearing act you do is too damn clever to be the work of a mere secretary." Eira raised an eyebrow.

Farina sighed and sat back, crossing her arms like a pouty child.

"Ok, so I know the one spell. So what?" She huffed.

"Stop with the brat act, we're all going. C'mon." I pulled Farina out of her seat and dragged her towards the door.

This night was sure to get messy because of Farina and her little quest, and by all the gods in alphabetical order, I was going to make sure she saw me earning the money she was paying me.

Also, it never hurts to have an extra body to throw at a problem. Even if I did kind of like Farina.

On top of all that, she seemed to have more connections than she really lets on to, and I want to be able to make use of that if necessary.

I had a bad feeling about this whole thing, and while networking and politics were the farthest thing from my skill set, noble birth notwithstanding, I knew it could be valuable. Farina had those skills, and by all the gods above and below, I was going to use them if I needed to.

I was going to need an eighty-year nap after all this nonsense.