Chapter 9 - A Talk Overdue

Sumire kept marching down the street, dragging Zach and Ryu along by the arm. It wasn’t until they were a few blocks away from the church before she pulled them into an alley and released her grip.

Sora fluttered down and perched herself on Ryu’s back while he nearly doubled over in laughter. “Did you see Reinhart’s face back there?” he said in between breaths. “Man, I never thought I’d be so glad to see a noble in my life!”

“It definitely a surprise,” Zach remarked, rubbing his arm. Since when did Sumire have that strong of a grip? “Nice thinking back there, Sumire.”

“Thank you,” Sumire sighed, the excitement of the last hour catching up with her. “Now will you two tell me what’s going on already?” Her question was met with an exchange of looks between Zach and Ryu. “Either tell me or Arthur hears about that weird cellar,” she added testily.

Ryu’s eyes went wide. “You wouldn’t!” he cried as Sora ruffled her feathers.

“Fine,” Zach cut in before Sumire could add to her threat. “We’ll tell you, but not here. Somewhere private.”

Ryu could only let out a sigh of defeat. “We can go to my place,” he groaned. “We can talk there.”

“I am not going to those stables, Ryu,” Sumire stated, her voice brokering no argument. “I’m filthy enough without getting the smell of horse manure on me.”

“Come on, Sue. It’s not far and we’ve both spent the night in worse places.”

“Don’t remind‒”

“Alright!” Zach exclaimed, breaking things up before the bickering really got going. “We’ll go to my room at the guild. Any objections?”

Ryu and Sumire looked at him in surprise, but neither raised any complaint. Zach pinched the bridge of his nose and took a deep breath to calm himself before leading the way down the street. The Kosaka siblings followed and the three soon leave the Quarter for Guild Row.

The avenue was bustling at this time of day. Was it really only just after lunch? It felt like they had been down in the ruins for hours. Zach could feel his stomach grumbling as they passed cafes and food stalls.

They eventually came to the Scholar’s guild gate and walked across the courtyard. The guild boasted a sizable campus thanks to both its age as well as considerable donations secured from wealthy families looking to ensure their heirs had proper schooling. Three buildings lined the courtyard.

The first was a single story building situated towards the left-hand side of the front gate used for administrating the guild’s affairs. Across the courtyard sat the Great Hall, a towering structure that held classrooms, lecture halls, and even the dining hall for evening meals.

Zach lead the way towards the third building on the far side of the courtyard: the dormitory. The exterior matched the well-aged architecture of its sisters with two rows of windows denoting the floors that separated the genders of those it housed.

Walking inside, they made their way toward a small room a stone’s throw from the common area. Thankfully, the hall was empty as most were out enjoying their day off or grabbing a meal. The guild’s attitude towards elves was more lax than that of the church, but a student escorting a pair of visitors into his dorm was considered worth noting.

Zach unlocked his door and quickly ushered Ryu and Sumire inside. Sumire took a seat on the edge of the glorified cot that served as Zach’s bed while he and Ryu remained standing. She crossed her arms and looked at them expectantly. Sora flew over to the small writing desk in the corner and began pecking at a stack of papers.

“So,” Ryu said awkwardly. “What would you like to know first?”

“What was down in that cellar?” Sumire answered flatly. “Goddess, what have you two gotten mixed up in?”

“Dwarven ruins,” Zach replied, holding up what he hoped was a calming hand. “Beyond that, we don’t know. My working theory had been an abandoned workshop, but…”

Sumire didn’t push him to finish his sentence. “Ruins,” she sighed. “That explains those weird fire traps.”

“Don’t forget the trapdoors,” Ryu chimed.

“What?”

“Trapdoors. Oh, yeah. We already locked those when you followed after us.”

Sumire paused as she processed the information. A shade or two of color seemed to drain from her face as she thought it over.

“Anyway,” Zach said, trying to steer the conversation back to something productive. “Ryu found the ruins a couple weeks ago. We’ve been exploring it when we have days off from work.”

“So you’re relic hunters now?” Sumire asked, rubbing her temple. “Wait, if Arthur doesn’t know what you’re up to, then who…” Her eyes widened in realization. “Riess! You’re selling to her, aren’t you?”

“Wow, got it in one,” Ryu remarked. “Yep, Zach takes what we find to little miss heiress and we split what she pays us.”

Sumire slumped her shoulders, looking from one boy to the other with a weak expression on her face. Of all the possible explanations she’d thought of, this hadn’t been one of them.

“Just… why?” she said after a moment. “How?”

“It’s good money, Sue,” Ryu replied. “Relic hunting is a way out of…”

“I know that,” Sumire cut in. She turned her gaze towards Zach. “What I meant was how in the blazes did Ryu manage to talk you into this?”

Zach let out a sigh. He should have known she would ask that. Heaven knew he’d asked himself that same question more than a few times.

“It’s my chance to study Dwarven tools,” he said. “I can finally learn about them from something other than whatever theories I find in books.”

“Come on, Zach. There have to be pieces around worth studying that don’t need you going down into those ruins.”

“Yeah, and they’re all either in the church’s vaults or private collections.”

It was common knowledge that archeological piece had a habit of disappearing from dig sites and storerooms. Almost an open secret really. Rosar knights involved in digs were always quick to claim discoveries for the church. It was annoying, but not terribly unexpected.

The real headaches came from scholars who had taken money under the table and procured items for wealthy clients when others had their back turned. The worst part was that it was always the Dwarven tools in the best condition, the ones worth studying the most that also happened to look better displayed on a shelf. It was why most archeological scholars worked feverishly to document their findings as soon as they were excavated.

Sumire shook her head. “I know you’ve always wanted to change the world, Zach,” she sighed. “But is it really worth taking a risk like this?”

“Why do you think I asked Zach to come along in the first place?” Ryu asked, crossing his arms. “We use his Ore magic to check for traps. We wouldn’t have made it more than a dozen steps in without that.”

“Is that supposed to reassure me?” Sumire said flatly.

“Yes! Sue, despite what you might think, we’re not being stupid about this. We’re careful. What happened with the lindrakes before was bad luck, but that’s it.”

Silence fell over the room. Sumire seemed to mull over her brother’s words and the boys waited to see her response. After a long moment, she sighed in defeat.

“Just… what happens now?” Sumire said.

Zach and Ryu exchange looks. “Well,” the latter replied. “I’d say we’re done exploring for today. Not sure how happy the guards would be to see us after the scene at the gate.”

“I was going to study what we managed to bring back,” Zach added. “I have a couple days until my next tutoring session with Abigail. I’d like to use the time to figure out how some of those traps worked.”

Sumire’s eyebrows shot up. “You mean those things that shot fire at us?” she cried. “Please tell me you didn’t bring one back.”

“We disassembled it. It should be inert now.”

“Should?”

“Speaking of things we brought back,” Ryu chimed in. “Are we going to talk about the fact we found someone down there?”

Sumire quieted at the change in subject. She seemed to retreat into herself as she recalled the scene. Zach couldn’t blame her. Even with half a day left, he wasn’t sure how he’d sleep after seeing those cells.

“Do… do you think he’ll be okay?” Sumire asked quietly.

Ryu sat down beside her on the bed and placed an arm around his sister. “I wouldn’t normally put much faith in Reinhart,” he said. “But I don’t see him slacking off when the patrician’s son is breathing down his neck.”

“Callum Caravet… never thought I would be so glad to see him,” Sumire remarked with a dry chuckle.

“You know him?”

“I’ve seen him at a few of the wealthier parties Wynrose gets invited to.” Sumire paused as a thought struck her. “Oh, I hope he didn’t recognize me.”

“Bad date, I take it?”

Sumire frowned and shook his arm off with a playful shove. “No,” she said. “I’ve barely ever talked to him. He seems to keep mostly to himself. I’m more concerned about rumors going around. I get a hard enough time as is.”

“Any idea why he’s working as a guardsman?” Zach chimed in.

“Not sure,” Sumire said with a shrug. “I know he’s going to Everset in the fall. All the wealthy families send their kids there. They have a military course there, don’t they? Maybe he’s trying to get experience.”

It sounded plausible, at least in theory. To Zach, though, it seemed more like a way to learn what not to do given his personal experiences with the city guard.

“So…” Ryu said awkwardly. “What happens now?”

“We wait, I guess,” Zach replied. “I can’t sell anything we found until I see Abigail and that’s not for a few days. If we’re lucky, our mystery man will wake up soon and we can try and get some answers from him.”

Sumire sighed and nodded her head before standing up. “I guess so,” she said. “Guys… please just… promise me you’ll be careful. I have a bad feeling about those ruins and I don’t think it’s those traps.”

Zach didn’t object to her concern. If he were to be honest, he had begun to feel the same way. Finding those cells… those skeletons… it had made the whole place feel so… wrong. Zach looked over at Ryu and could tell he felt similar.

“We promise, Sumire.”

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Author's Note

Not too much to say on this chapter.
Sumire confronting Zach was a good chance for me to tinker with his motivations some more. Since he's the group's scholar, I want to give him a reason beyond selling relics like Ryu. As I write Vestria, I find I'm having more fun with the use of mana crystals the Dwarves had and having someone like Zach try and study their technology is nice to explore.
Really looking forward to playing around with Sumire's involvement moving forward. I can't see her volunteering to help explore the ruins, but I can see her helping should the wrong sort of attention come their way.
As always, please leave a like and comment with your thoughts. Getting feedback on these early drafts is a huge help.
Til next time.

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Next Chapter:	TBD