Chapter 48: An Endless, Inescapable Nightmare (2/2)
“And every day, until you stop getting the children killed.”
“I… I don’t know if I can do that.”
“Yet you think you’re ready to do it when the people are real?” Rufus asked. “Adventurers aren’t hunting monsters recreationally, Humphrey. We are the shield for those who can’t protect themselves. Yes, there are adventurers who only care about money and status. But the real ones, and I know you want to be one of the real ones, care about duty. You have the heart for it, but until you have the mindset to match, all you’re going to do is fail.”
Rufus placed a hand on Humphrey’s shoulder.
“Only you can decide how much you’re willing to go through to do the right thing.”
Rufus and Danielle sat in the shade with a pitcher of iced drinks on a picnic table. Danielle had suggested Humphrey lead an enthusiastic Jason in the direction of the orchards.
“I’m sorry if you feel I went too far,” Rufus said. “You’re a good adventurer. You know the things he’ll be facing sooner or later.”
Danielle nodded.
“My father always said I shield him too much from the realities,” Danielle said. “But he was always such a good boy. It’s like there’s something inside him that makes him want to help people. I didn’t want to break that.”
“Did you consider something for him other than adventuring?” Rufus asked. “There are other ways to help people.”
“Not in our family, there isn’t. Gellers are adventurers, with all the good and bad that comes with it. And he has talent.”
“He does,” Rufus said. “If he can get past this obstacle, he could be one of the greats one day.”
“You have similar hopes for your friend, Jason, yes?”
“I’m sorry about him,” Rufus said. “He has a habit of saying whatever pops into his head.”
“No he doesn’t,” Danielle said. “You should pay more attention.”
“What do you mean?”
“Haven’t you noticed the way he seizes control of a conversation? The way he provokes people out of their comfortable patterns? He has a very political mind, but he applies it quite unlike anyone I’ve met. I do hope Humphrey can learn from him, a little.”
“You want Humphrey to be more like Jason?” Rufus asked incredulously.
“Humphrey is too straightforward a thinker for that,” Danielle said. “I’d just like him to understand that things are more complicated than he realises. Social survival training, if you will.”
“I think you may be overestimating Jason. You might be conflating unpredictability with cunning.”
“Perhaps,” Danielle said. “I will acknowledge he’s hard to predict. You know, I heard an interesting thing while you were off doing the field assessment.”
“Oh?”
“A god appeared in Divine Square.”
“They do that all the time,” Rufus said.
“There were a couple of interesting quirks in this particular instance.”
“Which god?” Rufus asked.
“Hero,” Danielle said. “Interesting god. Did you know he’s the only core deity not to have subordinate gods?”
“I did, actually.”
“That’s right,” Danielle said. “Your uncle is a member of Hero’s clergy, isn’t he? How is he doing?”
“Very well. I’ll tell him you asked after him.”
“Please do. What really caught people’s attention about Hero’s appearance, though, was that when everyone kneeled before the god, one man did not.”
Rufus put a hand over his eyes, groaning wearily.
“Jason has something of an issue with religion,” he said.
“I did hear some rumours about that priestess you were working with,” Danielle said. “She has some unkind words about you, by the way. But you can see why I wasn’t startled at Jason’s lack of formality. What is the deference due an aristocrat when you won’t bow to a god?”
Rufus narrowed his eyes at Danielle.
“You seem to know a lot about Jason for someone who just met him,” Rufus said. “It’s hardly a surprise for someone of your influence to hear about the Divine Square incident, but you were certain it was Jason. You’re investigating him, aren’t you?”
“I am,” Danielle said. “At your father’s request.”
Rufus groaned.
“Thousands of miles away, and he still can’t let me chart my own path.”
“He’s concerned about the man arresting so much of his son’s attention,” she said. “A man who seemingly fell out of the sky. Imagine my surprise to discover he did almost exactly that.”
“You know he’s an outworlder.”
“I do,” Danielle said. “Very exciting.”
“How?”
”It was a fanciful guess until I met him. He's so obviously a man out of place. The way he talks, the way he thinks. The way he looks at things. He doesn’t fit.”
“The way he looks at things?”
“Like a man who doesn’t expect to recognise anything.”
“Have you told my father what he is?”
“I did,” Danielle said. “It won’t be hard for anyone to put the pieces together once people start looking for them. Which they will, when they realise you’re training him.”
“It’s inevitable, I know,” Rufus said. “I wanted him to reach the point where his skills at least weren’t an embarrassment. Jason doesn’t seem to embarrass, though.”
“Oh?”
“He can be frustrating to teach,” Rufus said. “He’s driven, but whenever I see an opportunity to teach him a lesson, he just figures it out and explains it back to me, like he'd learnt it all before.”
“How do you think he manages that?”
“I advise strongly against ever asking him to explain. Something about an old man making a boy put wax on a carriage, then take it off again, because people were mean to him at his school. I think Jason’s world must be a very strange place.”
“Sounds rather intriguing,” she said.
“Then feel free to ask him about it,” Rufus said. “Just do it when I’m somewhere else.”
Danielle laughed.
“When will he find his way into the mirage chamber?” she asked.
“Sooner, rather than later. I want him to use a martial arts skill-book first. I’ve been holding that off to prepare him as best I can, but he’ll need at least a few weeks to consolidate before his field assessment. So, in a few days, most likely. In the meantime, do you need me to keep coming for Humphrey?”
“No, our family has trainers enough with the stomach for it,” Danielle said. “When you bring Jason by, we can have them spar a little.”
“I will,” Rufus said. “But first, I need to have a talk with my father.”