The Curse of Arcadia

The walk back into Avalon felt shorter than it should have, the two of them worn down enough that neither bothered filling the silence with much of anything. By the time the gate came into view, Kaelid's legs had gone past aching into something closer to numb, and Aria wasn't faring much better beside him, pack straps digging fresh grooves into shoulders that had already earned a rest days ago.

"Boar Hat first," he said. "I don't care about anything else right now."

"For once, we agree on something."

They didn't make it past a shower and a bowl of something hot before sleep took them both, and neither surfaced again until well past sunrise.

Kaelid woke to actual daylight for the first time in what felt like weeks, blinking at a ceiling that wasn't canvas or open sky, and lay there a moment just appreciating it before his stomach reminded him breakfast existed.

He found Aria already downstairs, working through a plate of eggs with the single-minded focus of someone who hadn't eaten a real meal in days.

"Guild first," she said, not looking up. "Then John's."

"Was gonna suggest the opposite order, but sure."

"You just want to see the number before you spend it."

"...Yeah, fair."

Emma's eyebrows climbed steadily as she sorted through the bag Kaelid dumped on the counter, cores clicking against each other in small, satisfying piles.

"Fifteen," she said, more to herself than either of them, stacking the goblin cores off to one side. "That posting said ten to twenty. You're telling me it was closer to twenty."

"Give or take a queen we didn't stick around to meet," Kaelid said.

Emma's hands paused. "You what—"

"We left it," Aria cut in smoothly. "Cave went deeper than the posting mentioned. Figured that was a job for someone who isn't us."

"Good instinct." Emma resumed sorting, though she gave the two of them a longer look before going back to her count. "And these?"

"Scorpions. Three of them. Long story — helped some people out on the way."

Emma turned one of the scorpion cores over, weighing it in her palm the way she always did. "Whelp-class, same tier as the goblins. Rough shape for the fight they must've put up." She glanced between them. "They give you trouble?"

"Not really. Whoever fought them first did most of the work — we just finished it."

"Explains it, then." She finished the tally, abacus clicking through the numbers with practiced speed. "Fifteen goblin cores, ten silver each — a hundred fifty. Three scorpion cores, ten silver each — thirty. Plus a bonus for clearing a new nest, call it twenty." She slid two neat stacks of coin across the counter. "Two hundred silver total. Split evenly, that's a gold each."

Kaelid stared at the coin for a second longer than was strictly necessary.

A whole gold. My own gold, not banked cores or half-formed promises. Actual, spendable money.

"Feels illegal," he said finally, pocketing it before Emma could change her mind. "In a good way."

"Don't get used to it," Aria said, though she was smiling as she said it.

John's bell rang the same cheerful note it always did, and the old man looked up from his workbench with the particular grin he reserved for customers who'd clearly come bearing something worth his time.

"Back already? Tell me you actually brought money this time, and not just more excuses for why you're two copper short."

"Frostclaw Lynx cores," Kaelid said, setting the bag down. "Three for me, plus my two banked wolf cores — that's five, right? Enough for the armor?"

John picked through the cores with the same unhurried care he gave everything, turning each one to catch the light. "Five it is. Cat-sourced material's going to want to sit differently than pure wolf would've — lighter, probably, and I've got some ideas for what that means for the design." He glanced at Aria's contribution next, two more wolf cores set apart from Kaelid's pile. "And what are these for? December's long finished."

"Figured it's past time I actually protected more than my bowstring arm," Aria said. "Whatever you can put together."

"Good. That one I can turn around fast — the plate's going to take longer, given what I'm picturing for it." John was already sketching something in the air with one soot-stained finger, more talking to himself than to either of them at this point. "Full set for both of you. Something that'll actually hold up to whatever you two keep dragging back here."

"However long it takes," Kaelid said. "Not in a rush this time."

"Good, because you don't have a choice regardless." John waved them both toward the door, already turning back to his workbench. "Go on. I'll send word when there's something to see."

Yami didn't ask where he'd been. He never did — the tower simply resumed the moment Kaelid climbed it again, laps and swings and sparring folding back into the same unbroken rhythm as if the goblin cave had never happened at all.

The days blurred together after that, one indistinguishable from the next — run, swing, spar, collapse, repeat — the only real marker of time passing being how much less each stage of it took out of him now. He stopped counting laps around the third week. Stopped bothering to guess how many swings he'd done by the second.

Training first, he reminded himself, on the mornings it would've been easier not to. Jobs when there's time for them.

There wasn't time for them. Not yet.

Ten days after they'd parted ways in the forest, Kaelid spotted the three missing faces of their soon-to-be party standing outside the Boar Hat.

He waved them down, and the three of them crossed the street toward him and Aria — Ana first, moving like the trip had worn on her but hadn't broken anything; Tatsuya a step behind, Moonlight at his hip the same as always; Eric bringing up the rear, plate armor dulled with travel dust but otherwise intact.

"You made it," Kaelid said, grinning wider than the moment probably called for. "Was starting to place bets on which one of you got eaten first."

"Charming as ever," Ana said, though something in her expression eased at the sight of him — relief dressed up as exasperation. "We're all still here, in case that wasn't obvious."

"Barely," Tatsuya added. "Raptors again, two days out. Smaller pack this time. Manageable."

"Manageable," Eric repeated, dry. "He got clipped across the ribs and called it manageable."

"I'm standing here, aren't I?"

Kaelid led them toward the Boar Hat's usual corner table, the five of them settling in with the particular awkwardness of people who'd shared something real once and then spent ten days apart not entirely sure how to pick the thread back up. It didn't last. By the time the food arrived, Tatsuya was already interrogating Aria about December's draw weight again, Eric was working through a plate like he hadn't eaten in a week, and Ana had claimed the seat across from Kaelid without seeming to think twice about it.

"Glad you all made it safe," Kaelid said, once the initial noise had settled into something closer to conversation. "How was the trip?"

Ana let out a long breath before answering. "Fine. A few monster attacks along the way. Nothing serious." She paused, considering. "Nothing we couldn't handle, anyway."

"Good. So — what do we want to do about living arrangements?"

Tatsuya's ears practically perked up.

I knew this guy would ask.

"What do you think we should do?" Tatsuya asked, already leaning forward.

Kaelid took a sip of water, considering. "Well. It was just me and Aria before, so we made do with an inn. Five of us, though — that's going to get expensive and cramped fast. I think we should rent a building. Turn it into a proper base."

Tatsuya's grin sharpened. "Sounds like a great plan. But before that — could I join you on your daily training?"

Kaelid's eye twitched, his smile faltering for just a second.

Of course. Training's the only thing this battle-freak actually cares about. Honestly though, misery loves company.

"What does everyone else think?" he asked, glancing around the table, mostly to buy himself a second to recover.

Ana was watching him with an amused, faintly teasing look. "Kaelid, are you trying to get two young ladies to move in with you?"

Kaelid froze for half a second before answering with a completely straight face. "Yes, I am, Miss Ana. Figured it'd be more fun than living apart. No?"

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"I'm fine with it," Ana said, glancing at Aria with a small smile.

"Then it seems the decision's made," Aria added, already reaching for more food like the matter was settled. "So, Kaelid — got a spot in mind?"

He did.

Between two large towers rising off the south wall stood a three-story mansion built entirely of red brick, worn down like it had been abandoned for a very long time. The constant snowfall off the Death Mountains had at least kept any real growth from overtaking it — no vines, no rot creeping up the walls, just quiet neglect.

A real home. Not a village I never fit into. Not an inn room I'm renting by the week. Something that's actually mine.

"Beautiful, isn't she?"

Four blank expressions greeted him.

"You have interesting taste," Ana said.

"Thank you. I'm still amazed I found this hidden treasure. Just needs a little fixing, and — voilà. A new home."

Nobody objected outright, so Kaelid led them inside. The front door opened onto an intricate wooden staircase spiraling up toward the roof. Past that sat an empty room with nothing but an old table and a pair of chairs, and beyond it, an open space he called a living room with as much confidence as he could fake.

Upstairs, a large window lit a hallway flanked by a closet and an empty bathroom — meant for a shower, sink, and toilet, though all that remained was bare wood flooring. Three bedrooms took the other corners of the floor. The third story mirrored the layout with one key difference — the bathroom sat in one corner same as below, but the opposite corner held an empty laundry room instead of a fourth bedroom, leaving just two shared rooms alongside the bedrooms up there. The tour ended on the rooftop, wind cutting sharp and clean above the city.

"That's everything," Kaelid said, feeling the collective weight of four unimpressed stares.

"The place is still run down. We'll need to furnish and clean it ourselves."

Ana's expression shifted into something more considering. "It'll take money and sweat to make this livable..."

Before she could finish, Tatsuya cut in. "How much did this place cost?"

Kaelid smiled, proud. "Got a great deal. Ten gold. Been neglected a long time, wasn't furnished, so the price dropped from fifty."

Ana shook her head slowly. "You were scammed. You fool."

"...How so?"

She sighed, the particular sigh of someone explaining something she couldn't quite believe needed explaining. "This place is worse than neglected — it's basically uninhabitable. You could've gotten it for five gold, maybe less. Especially given the location isn't exactly safe."

Kaelid's smile disappeared. Ana wasn't finished.

"That said — it will make a worthy base, once we sort out a few issues."

After the full tour, the party settled into the empty living room to discuss just how poor, collectively, they actually were.

"I've got a whole ten silver," Kaelid admitted. "And a debt of ten gold."

Eric looked at him with something close to pity. "It's alright. We all start somewhere. I've got about two platinum."

Kaelid blinked. "...Can you say that again?"

"Two platinum coins."

Kaelid stared at him, genuinely unable to process it for a second. "Haha. I feel even poorer now." He recovered enough to actually ask. "Wait — why do you have two platinum? You're a frontline tank, not a prince."

Eric shrugged, a little sheepish about it. "It's family money, mostly. Trading company out of Raichas. I don't touch most of it — wanted to make my own way instead — but they insisted I take something before I left, in case I needed it. Never really had a reason to spend it."

"Must be nice," Kaelid muttered, only half-joking.

Ana spoke next, unbothered by the detour. "I have twenty-five gold."

Aria followed. "I've saved ten gold."

Kaelid turned to Tatsuya, half-dreading the answer. "Don't tell me you're secretly rich too."

"Afraid not. Five gold to my name."

Everyone has money except me. Damn these rich kids.

"So," Kaelid said, mustering what dignity he had left, "who wants to pay for repairs?"

Ana let out a long, put-upon sigh. "You really are something, aren't you."

"You flatter me."

"It wasn't a compliment." She waved a hand, already moving on. "Nevermind. I'll look around town, find someone reasonable, and pick up new furniture while I'm at it." She glanced at Tatsuya. "You're coming with me."

Tatsuya nodded without argument.

The party split for the day — Kaelid off to training, Ana and Tatsuya hunting down repairs and furniture, Eric heading to the Boar Hat with Aria to secure a room until the mansion was livable.

Ana caught Tatsuya's arm before he could wander off toward the tower with Kaelid. "Not you. Today, at least, I need someone who can actually talk a price down, and you're the only one of us who looks like he'd enjoy it."

"I would, actually."

"I know. That's why I picked you."

Tatsuya turned out to be better at haggling than anyone had given him credit for — patient where Ana was efficient, willing to walk away from a stall three separate times before a mason finally caved on his price, something sharp and pleased in his expression every time a number dropped in their favor.

"You're enjoying this way too much," Ana said, watching him needle a furniture dealer down another two gold.

"It's the same as sparring. Find the opening, press until it gives." He shrugged, entirely unbothered by the comparison. "Turns out I like winning regardless of what weapon's involved."

By the end of the day, between the two of them, they'd lined up a mason for the bathrooms, a small crew for general repairs, and enough secondhand furniture to actually fill the place — all for less than Ana had budgeted going in.

"That's the last of it," Ana told him that evening, ticking through her notes with visible satisfaction. "I don't need a haggler for the rest. Just people showing up to do the actual work now."

Tatsuya's grin sharpened immediately. "Good. That frees me up."

The next morning, over breakfast, Ana delivered her report with the efficiency of someone who'd clearly spent the whole day working.

"I solved our housing problem. Fifteen gold — five per bathroom, five to repair and furnish the mansion properly."

"How long will it take?" Kaelid asked.

She thought it over. "At least a week."

Kaelid grinned. "Perfect. Let's take the week off, then. Once we move in, we start speed-running our way to twenty-five gold."

Nobody argued.

Tatsuya showed up at the tower with Kaelid the next morning, and didn't need to explain why.

Yami looked between the two of them for a long moment when they reached the top, something unreadable passing behind his eyes.

"Another one."

"Tatsuya," Kaelid said. "He's with the party now. Wants in."

Yami studied Tatsuya the way he studied everything — flat, assessing, entirely unhurried. "You keep up, or you don't. I won't slow down for either of you."

"Wasn't asking you to."

Something that might have been approval flickered across Yami's face before it was gone again. "One lap."

The week folded into itself after that — laps and swings and sparring blurring into a rhythm that swallowed the days whole, Tatsuya keeping pace better than Kaelid expected and worse than Tatsuya clearly expected of himself, the gap between them closing by fractions with every session. Yami ran them both into the ground with equal, merciless attention, correcting Tatsuya's footwork with the same sheathed-blade taps he'd once used on Kaelid, and by the fourth or fifth day the two of them had settled into something almost companionable about the misery of it — matching bruises, matching exhaustion, the specific kinship of two people getting broken down by the same immovable force.

Guess he wasn't kidding about wanting in, Kaelid thought, watching Tatsuya drag himself upright after another failed block, still grinning despite it. Actually kind of nice, not being the only one Yami's trying to kill.

By the end of the week, neither of them could tell if they felt stronger or just differently ruined — but the mansion, at least, would be ready either way.

Move-in day, when it came, caught Kaelid off guard with how much it actually felt like something.

He climbed the front steps expecting the same worn-down shell he'd toured two weeks ago, and found the door swinging open on something else entirely — the entryway swept clean, the spiral staircase's wood oiled dark and gleaming instead of dust-grey, warm light spilling from somewhere he hadn't expected light to reach at all.

"Well?" Ana was already waiting just inside, arms crossed, looking equal parts exhausted and quietly proud of herself. "Don't just stand there gawking. Come see what your ten gold actually bought."

She led the tour herself, and it was clear within the first few steps that she'd earned the right to.

The front room — the one that had held nothing but a single old table and two chairs — was unrecognizable. A proper kitchen now, counters lined in dark stone, a magic-fed stove and icebox tucked against the far wall, the same enchanted plumbing that fed the bathrooms running through a deep basin sink. A long dining table sat just beyond it, big enough for all five of them, chairs that actually matched.

"You got us a kitchen?"

"I got myself a kitchen," Ana corrected. "The rest of you just happen to benefit from it. Someone has to feed this party, and I'd rather it be done properly."

Past it, the living room had transformed into something that looked lived-in already, low couches arranged around a hearth that had definitely not worked two weeks ago and now crackled quietly with real fire.

"Fireplace?" Kaelid asked, unable to keep the surprise out of his voice.

"Mmhmm," Ana confirmed. "So does the plumbing, which took considerably more convincing than the mason wanted to admit."

Upstairs, the hallway's bare wood floor had given way to real flooring, the closet actually holding linens now instead of nothing, and the bathroom — a magic bathroom, tiled and fitted with a working shower, sink, and toilet, rather than the empty promise it had been on the first tour. The three bedrooms on that floor stood furnished and ready, beds made, each one already claimed with a name Ana had apparently assigned without asking anyone's opinion.

"You picked our rooms for us?"

"I picked them efficiently. You're welcome to argue, but I already factored in who'd complain the least."

Nobody argued.

The third floor mirrored the second with one real difference — the bathroom occupied one corner same as below, but the opposite corner held a proper laundry room instead of a fourth bedroom, leaving Ana and Aria with just the two shared rooms flanking their own doors. Ana pointed it out without much fanfare, like it was the most obvious arrangement in the world.

"Didn't need a fourth bedroom up here," she said. "Figured a working laundry room was worth more than an empty one."

They finished on the rooftop, the same wind-cut view as before, except now there were actual chairs up there too, and someone — Ana, unmistakably — had already claimed a corner of it for something that looked suspiciously like a garden bed, currently empty but clearly intended for use.

"This is..." Kaelid trailed off, looking around at all of it — a real home, furnished and warm and entirely theirs, standing where two weeks ago there'd been nothing but dust and quiet neglect.

"Better than what you paid for, is what it is," Ana said, though something softer sat underneath the dig. "You're welcome."

"You're really something, you know that?"

For the first time since the forest, it felt like the beginnings of an actual home, rather than just five strangers who happened to owe each other something.