Breaking the Rules Pt. 19

Breaking the Rules takes place in an RPG universe, and is the sequel to Bending the Rules. To understand the characters and how the world works, please start from Part 1 of either series. Not based on any particular gaming franchise or storyline, but there may be guest appearances.

My new year's resolution is 4896 x 2448.

*****

Nuru's bladder woke him early. He started standing up to relieve himself in the chamber pot, and Furaha slapped his arm.

"Alright, troublemaker. Time to get up and at 'em."

"Aw. I was enjoying staying in bed with you."

"I was too, I've been up for an hour at least. But now you're up and we're out of excuses. Get your stuff together and let's go. Stick close to me, the locals aren't fans of yours."

"Hey I've noticed something. You're smart, you know all these big words, but you haven't used them much. Until yesterday."

"Oh. The 'insipid oaf' comment?"

"Right. What's up with that? I know you didn't get dumber."

"It's a form of code switching, you could say."

"Come again? There's nothing gibberish about it."

"No, no, not like our code book, it's a speech pattern. Like how dwarves all grew up around humans and know how to speak the language and everything, but they all have an accent."

"Huh. I thought they all just had Dwarven as their first language."

"Except they all go to Home Town to finish growing and take their level like everybody else, because they count as human. Elves don't even have an accent, because they're so close to human that the distinction serves no purpose. Orcs on the other hand, aren't allowed and even when they're a half-breed have a more broken pattern of the common speech because they usually still have to try to fit in with their tribal side at least a little bit."

"Weird. Zuberi seemed pretty well-spoken, he must have been around humans a lot more than I thought, even though as an orc he was hiding from us in the Home Town area. OK, so what does this have to do with big words?"

"OK, so, when I'm by myself, reading all my fancy books and everything, I have a tendency to use my big words when I talk to myself or make notes. It's my natural state, if you like, and I revert to it under stress."

"Go on."

"So then when I'm talking to someone else - do you know, I actually have a Dwarven accent I use when talking to them. Or when I'm talking to you, I match the vocabulary you use, a more common set of words I should say. I don't want to assume you know what all the words I know mean, and if you just assume you know what they all mean and you're wrong - well, it's my fault for assuming you understood properly, and something could go horribly awry, maybe get someone hurt. I loved the few times I've gotten to write letters to Masego's academics, I got to pull out all the fancy words, and the phrases popularized in literature or academic papers. But for you, and Dayo, and Ace, and so many of my organization's contacts - I meet you where you are, rather than expecting you to meet me where I am. It's a subconscious habit now, but I got into it because it's not fair to expect someone to be hyper-literate when that's not the standard society uses at large."

"So why *do* dwarves have an accent?"

"To identify themselves to each other. It's one thing to be short; it's another thing to say, 'I am of the dwarves both by birth and by culture'. It's possible to be a dwarf raised by humans, and those have no accent at all, unless they spend a lot of time around other dwarves and then pick it up. But it's usually not the same; speech patterns solidify during the very young formative years, so a fake accent can be heard by listening carefully. But if you're a dwarf, and you talk like a dwarf, it's a way of saying that you share a particular cultural outlook. Dwarves are known to form bonds of instant trust with each other who've never met before, even from different clans, and that's a big part of it."

"So do the Southern Dwarves not trust the rest, or what?"

"What an intriguing question! I actually don't know, I've not studied that. I take it you met one? The same as you found in the company of those pixies?"

"Yep."

"Fascinating. Well, hold that thought, we probably shouldn't be seen to be acting so familiar with each other in public. I also need to build a ward to drain this enchantment on the scroll case, and I need to buy a few supplies. Fortunately I've got a bit of faction allowance saved up because I've been away so long."

Furaha put on a dress that showed off her figure, boots with tall heels, and a little bit of jewelry, and Nuru followed her around like a lost puppy, sticking close but simultaneously trying not to get in the way, and nervously watching all the suspicious glares cast their way that did linger on her a bit longer than necessary, which Nuru figured was the point of getting dressed up as she made a few stops on the surface level where a number of the shops were, then headed towards a city gate. Nuru noticed the main pathway running through town was made of multicolored stones; a long stretch of it did kind of resemble a bunch of rainbows forged together from a distance, giving him a better understanding of it as 'rainbow road'. Outside the city it faded to gray, and then devolved to a dirt road from the intersections.

"Alright, this is where I told the thief to meet me." She stepped off the road and started building her ward.

Nuru noticed that a few people had followed them from town, and were beginning to collect into a crowd. "Hey, you see this, right?"

"Yeah, don't make eye contact. See if you can play something chill, but let me handle it, if it comes to that."

Nuru activated Tusa's oath to alert him to the location, and broke out his drum, starting up a steady concentration rhythm.

"!Wahayi mai kida!"

He let the Influence Emotion wash over the onlookers with both serenity and attentiveness. I wouldn't affect their Initiative if they attacked, but it might keep them from getting aggressive for a little bit. He hoped it might keep Furaha's mind off of them as well.

"What is that?" one of them said.

Nuru debated snapping that it was none of their business, but then noticed they weren't looking at him - or Furaha. He looked up and gasped. Off in the distance, a column stretched to the sky, leaving a dark cloud of dust in its wake.

"Shit. Somebody really stirred a hornet's nest," another of them said.

"Is it coming this way!?"

"Bloody hell. I don't know wards that well, but I'm pretty sure it's not you causing that. I think someone's trying to stop you. Hey, elf-girl. You hear me? You're in danger!"

"Wouldn't be the first time," Furaha replied grimly.

"Gods above! Over there!"

The small crowd gasped at once, and Nuru turned his head to see a tiny prick of fire slowly growing larger in the sky, from another location.

"Somebody's pulling a meteor! Fuck this, I'm outta here."

Half of the spectators scattered in all different directions; a few went straight back to the city.

"Um... at what point do we just cut our losses and run?" Nuru said.

"At the last possible moment," Furaha replied through gritted teeth. "We've worked so hard to get to where we are. Will you give up the goal now?"

"There might be another way," Nuru said. "And it might be worth dying for, but not if that death is certain."

Furaha finished her preparation in moments, and stood looking anxiously around.

"C'mon kid, don't get distracted," she muttered, looking at the cyclone travelling in their direction.

A minute later, a party of heavily-armed centaurs thundered up the road and came their way.

"Gods above, Furaha, what have you done this time?" a thickly-muscled man with large upper and lower wolf fangs said, slipping down from the back of one of them, followed by a diverse group in similar ceremonial gear; Nuru saw a half-orc woman, a male elf that was freakishly tall and perhaps a quarter giant, an indeterminate-gender half-dwarf-half-elf, and several gnomes.

"Mayeso, this is my associate, Nuru. Nuru, this is Samba's Archon, Mayeso," Furaha said.

"How do you do," Nuru said, turning back to the oncoming meteor with a frown. It was growing worryingly large and bright.

"And you of course recognize our best ritualists," Mayeso said. "There's no time to quibble; tell me true, are you the reason for this nasty weather?"

"I can't prove it to be because of me, though I admit the timing is quite suspicious," she replied tightly. "I am certainly not the proximate cause."

"I doubt if it's entirely about you, but I'm also fairly certain someone has you in mind," the man replied.

"Did you let slip our earlier conversation about my position then? Or am I just supposed to be flattered?"

"I have not betrayed your confidence. Here, let me instead show you the support we are prepared to provide. Devotees! Countermeasures!"

They took hands in a circle, with Mayeso standing in the middle, some jeweled cuffs clasping them all together. The gnomes stood on each others' shoulders, putting the topmost of them on level to hold onto his neighbors, and a silver chain on the ground ran to Mayeso from the outside of the circle. He began chanting and waving his arms. Streams of light poured out of jewels on their cuffs and around their necks, swirling inwards, and then shot up several meters into the air, spraying sparks in all directions. Over Furaha's ward, a crackling teardrop shape in very unnatural-looking yellow and green shades solidified into brown and dark green and hovered ominously. The cyclone drew closer, and Nuru heard someone yelling wordlessly. All eyes turned to the big man charging towards them with reckless abandon, with the raging winds whipping not far behind.

He turned and called over his shoulder. "Are these the ones!? Tell me they're the ones!"

A half-goblin dropped out of Sneak and raised his hand to Furaha.

"Are we secure?" he called.

"Pass me the item! Your quest is complete!" she called back.

He reached back and grabbed the scroll case from a bag stretched tight between his belt and his collar, and hurled it overhand in her direction. "I'm outta here! Good luck!"

Furaha jumped to the side as the case entered the ward, and arcs of mystical power lifted it level with her face from runes just inside the containment circle. There were bright flashes of white, and Nuru couldn't follow what she was doing, but he saw Mayeso gesturing and watched the teardrop over her head slowly turning to point towards the oncoming fiery doom that now roared audibly. The cyclone struck, but encountered an invisible dome-shaped barrier that pushed it up away from the ground as it drew closer and closer; the sparks of color marked the edge of it overhead, and the maelstrom failed to reach her or the case, blocking out half the sky instead.

"I hope you're almost done! I'm going to have to drop this any moment now!" Mayeso called over the din. "I can't stop the meteor, but I can keep it from flattening the city using the ground you're standing on if I hurry!"

"You can't rush this!" she snapped back. "Fortunately... there!"

She pulled the scroll case halves apart, grabbed the sheet from inside with her teeth, and then let the empty case snap back together under its own internal power.

"We go! Run, as fast as you can!" she waved at Nuru, turned on her heel, and bolted.

He wasn't as light on his feet, but he was a bit steadier; she tripped and sprawled on the ground over her fashionable footwear, and snagged the hand he offered as he ran by, pulling him a little faster as they went. Not letting go, they sprinted back onto the road and through the city gates, past the wide-eyed onlookers watching the scene.

"Take cover you fools!" she yelled out.

The ground rumbled and groaned beneath their feet, and Nuru looked back as he held onto Furaha's shoulder to steady both of them. The ground was rising up in a massive bubble of earth, stretching away in the direction of the screaming rock in the sky, before breaking free and launching on an intercept course. The impact was hidden in an explosion of dirt and dust, and Furaha pulled Nuru down an alleyway and into a hidden staircase they inched down as it shook and heaved under them. Further down, it was gentler and they made their way down the passage. Mayeso was waiting for them at the entrance to her room, with his centaur guard.

"Wow. How'd you beat us here?" Nuru said.

The gnomes appeared in a gust of dust and explosion of dirt, with another centaur.

"Shit! That was way too close," one of them said.

"Something that big should not be able to appear so suddenly," Nuru gasped. "How can you all be thief classes?"

The centaurs all looked at each other and grinned.

"They let us take adventurer levels as long as we're under five hundred pounds at our eighteenth birthday," one of them said. "Gotta be Class C you know. There aren't that many among us, but we lucky few have options."

"And an EXP growth penalty, unfortunately," another said.

"But the ladies love us!" said the third.

They all burst out laughing, then went silent as Mayeso held up his hand.

"You're going to need all the mirth you can get," he said. "If Nyala wants a war... she's got one."

Their grins slipped, and they escorted Mayeso and the gnomes out. Furaha opened the door to her room and locked it as soon as Nuru stepped through with her.

"Crap. What did we do? Are they going to blame us for this?"

She shook her head. "Taurai overstepped his bounds. He probably thought he was only making sure the case is destroyed rather than the contents falling into our unworthy hands, but he should have checked the map before going full meteor with it. A greater cyclone could be excused, but a meteor is just... way too much. Now, it's likely that he'll be the one the finger points at, and Nyala's House won't take the full blame for it, but he's highly placed and it still reflects badly. The trick is going to be proving exactly what happened. Unless you want to testify, as the only person that was there to witness his location spell, it's going to go on for awhile, and some hot tempers are going to jump into action before it's even close to settled. The accusation's already being made, and whatever happens there's a lot of blood about to be spilled."

"You think Katlego's going to be implicated? She did snatch it for me when he wasn't looking, as part of our deal."

"No, her branch of Nyala's Hand has a shroud of complete secrecy. We don't have her proper name to give, so all she's got to do is lay low a bit and she'll get off without direct consequence, although it's anyone's guess how the Third Ring will handle her involvement, among themselves. She's far too clever though, I wouldn't count on any significant sanctions keeping her from chasing you down again eventually. She's probably got Taurai thinking you were nimble enough to abscond with the map yourself. You, Katlego, and I are probably the only people in the World Map that know what happened there. At least, until Ace-"

"...what?" Nuru asked, as she paused.

"Hmm. Would have been a nice dramatic moment for him to get here. Guess he hasn't gotten my message yet... or maybe he's distracted by the mess upstairs."

"Oh."

"Anyway, until he gets here, or Dayo, that's it."

"Sanaa doesn't count?"

"Find her on the World Map," Furaha said, raising an eyebrow. "Go ahead. I'll wait."

"Hah. Point goes to the data analyst."

"The *triumphant* data analyst, who totally nut-cracked a high-level protected scroll case under pressure, in less than an hour."

"I'm not even qualified to know how impressive that is, so I'll just accept whatever praise you decide to heap on yourself."

She fought through her broad smile to bring her lips together in order to kiss him. "Gods above, I don't know what I'm going to do if you get yourself torched. Yes, it's pretty impressive, to those that know such things."

"And how many people saw that? A dozen and a half?"

"You tell me, Mr. I've-Got-Eidetic."

"How on earth did you have that skill, anyway?"

"Like most of the skills I've collected in my nearly half-century, it's useful in my organization. I actually started as a liaison for basic case unlocks at the start of my career. I'm no good at breaking into guarded buildings, but thieves and fighters aren't the best at getting into magic-protected storage at a certain level, so we work well together. They handle the mechanical, I the mystical."

"Didn't have any of those contacts left to get me out of Home Town? Why'd you need Ace?"

"Oh, I know some. The problem is, I know how far I can trust them. I can all but guarantee they'd have tried to renegotiate that final Smoke Portal trip from just outside Chosen HQ to the other side of the gate immediately after you got to Level Eleven, to squeeze you for more money. By the time you convinced them you really didn't have more money to give them, the Rules Lawyers out looking around for you might have caught up and issued the declaration requiring a faction, and the lightning trigger at the border would have activated while you were still inside, trapping you there as they originally intended. As I suspected, you made it out by the skin of your teeth, no way was I leaving that to one of those hoodlums if I could help it. I wasn't sure I could trust Ace either, but- well, that was your call to make."

"Were you worried that they would put a lightning trigger on all the land outside of Home Town?"

"Not so much. If you Smoke Portaled in somewhere else, someone could have effectively used you to aim lightning at something or someone else. That's why there's an official declaration first, so people know to stay away from you in case something happens."

"I still can't believe you had me go back to the gate after I Smoke Portaled out towards the Forbidden Forest and I'd already made it out."

"What can I say, I'm a sucker for a little smack talk when I win big. I couldn't be there in person, but I think it's only fair you did it for me. How was the look on their faces, anyway? I've asked before, but I'm in the mood to hear it again."

"Oh, man. They were so mad, it was terrifying. Every one of them turned and cried out at once. I've never seen a ghost lose composure like that before. Uh, that I'm allowed to talk about."

"Ha. I'm reading more into that than you mean to say. But don't worry, it technically counts as a rumor that you've actually never seen one of the lawyers more upset. I love it! Ahem. So, if we're going to be risking instant oblivion, I'd rather be on the subject of something that has the possibility of providing us some kind of benefit. And on that note, let's see what your... uhm..."

Furaha patted at her robe, looking confused.

"Hmm. Nuru, do me a favor..." she said, pushing up against him and pressing him up against the door.

"Yes?" he said, breaking into a smile.

She started unfastening his fancy shirt and ran her hands up and down his chest.

"Hold this door shut, will you?" she said.

"Err..."

"Oh, and give your shoulder demon a little poke for me."

Nuru tugged at Sanaa.

(Furaha wants something?)

/Ooh, celebration time! Wait. What does she want, exactly?/

"She's listening," Nuru said, raising an eyebrow.

"Most Exalted, I ask a boon. I don't need anything too objectionable, just crank up the aura for me... all the way."

/Very well. I'm excited to see where she's going with this!/

"Won't hear me complain," Nuru grinned.

"Well no, but... wait for it..." Furaha whispered in Nuru's ear, nibbling it playfully.

He pushed gently on the back of her head, pulling her in for a hard kiss. She melted against him and sighed happily, then turned and faced the room.

"Had enough yet?" she called out loudly.

"Not by far," Nuru said.