The next morning was a bit tense.

  During the night, Oras had screwed the brains out of Theria. She had quite enjoyed that, but she did not enjoy realising the fact that Oras had pulled the covering foil off of Celia’s female bits. At least he had managed to hold back on screwing her, courtesy of her refusal to say that she wanted it. Consent had been pretty clear in her body language. The insistence of her mouth that she would just be doing it to satisfy her owner’s need, however, had been too much for his conscience.

  He had that little moral victory to cling onto, while both women gave him the cold shoulder. Theria was annoyed that she had not been properly conscious when the ancient String had been unveiled. Celia was annoyed, even if she didn’t admit it, because she had been riled up and then let down. Because of her servile nature, she hadn’t taken the edge off by herself either.

  Oras headed downstairs first and ordered breakfast. After the two of them had eaten, they began to soften up. It was the Dragonblood’s experience that people in general and women in particular were quite a lot easier to talk to when they weren’t hungry.

  “So,” Theria decided to talk to her husband again, “what’s our next step? Straight to the guild again?”

  “Not immediately,” Oras responded. “There is something else we need.”

  “Do we have enough money to get any new equipment?”

  “No. That is not what I mean.” Oras pointed to a map of the world that hung decoratively on one of the walls. The paper was yellow, the names faded, and the borders thoroughly inaccurate. “We are adventurers. We cannot let our understanding of the world deteriorate like that map. Plus…” he turned to Celia. “...you would probably appreciate learning some more details.”

  “Affirmative,” the blonde admitted.

  “So we will spend the day news gathering,” Oras decided.

  One always had to know where the biggest quests were, after all.

  ___________________________________________________________________

  After several hours walking around and gathering news, they returned to the inn. They had one more meal paid for and it was as good as any.

  “Let’s summarize what we learned,” Oras said and unfurled a map of the world. It was now out of date, but he could visualize the changes well enough.

  “Ya remember what the continents are called?” Theria asked.

  Celia nodded and pointed at them in order from west to east. “Terria, then Cursora, where we are located, and Cern. The Empire of Strings was in constant decline over the past centuries and has finally dissolved 11 years ago.”

  “That is the origin of our fractured polities, yes,” Oras confirmed her recollection. “Down here in Cursora, the fall of the empire caused some ripples. Erde, Kart and Akayan each have sizeable populations of Stringless.”

  “Stringless…” Celia spoke the word with a small amount of disdain. Oras ignored it for now.

  “Overall, however, courtesy of how gradual the decline was, the Elephant Peninsula was left no worse off for it. As the Empire of Strings, bit for bit, receded from its self-imposed duty of custody over the world, adventurers and local armies stepped up.”

  Oras vaguely remembered the one time a patrol of the Empire of Strings had come through their neck of the woods. He could not have been any older than 10. It was no huge event, just 10 Strings coming through for supplies.

  “In any case, with the world hegemon now shattered, we live in an era of a lot of chaos. Theria, you heard about the Ylieli news?”

  “That I did.” The redhead and her husband had separated to scan for rumours more effectively. “Their campaign of missionary work is done, I heard. The mayor of Boydi took the Baptism of the Trunk and that basically marked the end of the last bit of resistance.”

  “Ylieli is a theocracy, I recall?” Celia asked.

  “Correct,” Oras said, his eyebrows knitted as he stared at the map.

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  “You are displeased, Master. Should the advance of your faith not make you happy?”

  “We Midyurters pride ourselves on our tolerance for faiths that can co-exist and the Cult of the Supernatural Elephant does not need to be enforced, only strive towards wisdom,” Oras responded. “Still… I understand their wish to bring this enlightened thought to more people. Pragmatically, I am coming to understand that our religious diversity also introduces fault lines.”

  The encounter with the cultists was still on his mind, as was what Torm had said about it. Nothing was ever only upsides.

  “What is Boydi?” Celia asked afterwards.

  Oras pointed her to the southwestern tip of Ylieli. “It’s the second largest city of the nation. It sits on a river, so it will also be the best line of defence if they get attacked by Serokyurt. Having it share the faith of the theocratic rulership makes Ylieli a lot more stable.”

  “Are wars frequent on Cursora?”

  “No, but with so many pieces in the air, this might change.” Oras waited for more question from the ancient doll woman. When none came, he moved to the next topic. “Speaking of pieces in the air, Lefdores.”

  “Good ol’ leftovers,” Theria weighed. “‘Member how Oras said the Empire of Strings has been dissolved?”

  “Yes?”

  “Not entirely true. Lefdores claims to be a continuation of it, it’s just that no one takes them seriously. They’re ruled by a small elite of Strings that cling onto the old ways, governing over a bunch of different peoples and Stringless that really ain’t a fan anymore.”

  “It’s a remnant of an empire that is still breaking further apart. This here…” Oras put his finger on the swath of land Lefdores owned on the northern tip of Cursora. “Is the Nulhe region. It’s been trying to break away for some time. Word on the street has it that they succeeded. A fleet was sent to intimidate them, but it was made to flee in turn by the Nyranghed navy. Afterwards, it was declared that the Nulhe region would defect to Nyranghed.”

  “What kind of nation is Nyranghed?”

  “I don’t know much about them,” Oras confessed. “Just that they are said to be entirely Stringless. It fits, Nulhe is similarly said to be entirely Stringless.”

  “Shirking their duties…” Celia muttered again.

  “They have more than fulfilled them, their lives are their own.”

  “On that, we continue to disagree,” Celia stated. “You are an oddity, Master, to praise tools for breaking.”

  Oras sighed. “Well, we’re done with the rumours now, so let’s-.”

  “Wait, wait, wait - did ya not hear about the Binlikeli thing?”

  “What is the Binlikeli thing?” Oras asked, getting a bit excited.

  “What is a Binlikeli?” Celia asked.

  “This one!” Theria put her index finger down on the nation. Located on the western shore of the large bay on the eastern side of Cursora, Binlikeli had two much larger neighbours to its north and the nation of Turk to its south. Despite its relatively small land area, it was incredibly important.

  “Binlikeli is built around Kesemir, the City of Gold,” Oras explained. “It’s the biggest of the trade cities built in the bay and the biggest city on Cursora period. I’ve read it’s three times the size of Kumse.”

  “It’s also absurdly rich,” Theria said.

  “He already called it the City of Gold,” Celia sassed.

  “Yeah but… really absurdly rich.”

  “Besides being a major trade hub, they also have the self-proclaimed Hallowed Bank of Kesemir. Investments flow from Binlikeli to the rest of the continent, favours and cash flow back.” Expectantly, Oras looked at Theria. “The only thing I heard about them is that they were attacked by Merfolk again.”

  “A regular occurrence?” Celia asked.

  “Practically every year. They have a city somewhere in the bay. Not even the Supernatural Elephant has been able to find and crush it.”

  “Yeah, that’s the exciting thing!” Theria squeaked. “I was at the harbour when the messenger ship arrived. The Merfolk raid was beaten back, but they took prisoners and managed to actually squeeze a map out of them! The Bank is opening its vaults to pay for adventurers and mercs to partake in an attack on it.”

  Oras’ eyes widened. That was not some small rumour, that was a massive opportunity. If Theria had heard that fresh of the boat, the news had only started to circulate. If they set out immediately, they could be one of the first to heed that call.

  Squashing an enemy of commerce was good for the entire continent - and lucrative. Besides the pay for the contract, there would doubtlessly be looting involved.

  On the negative side, looting a city meant looting a city. Families would be there, women and children. It was an entirely different scale of encounter and a lot of the risk would be thrust upon them by the tides of the battle, rather than their own decisions. They likely would have to fight in the water as well.

  The longer Oras considered the idea, the more he tilted away from it. “This is above our capability,” he said.

  “Really?” Theria asked. “Think of the money!”

  “Think of the enemy leaders,” Oras returned. “We are novices. They are seasoned pirates. We might be able to fight the rank and file, but anyone up from there? If we get caught in the wrong spot, we will be squashed.” He shook his head. “Too risky. “

  “Mhm… yeah, I suppose.” Disappointed, she reclined in her chair. “So, our next move is…?”

  “Finishing dinner, then we go to the Adventurer’s Guild.”

  “Figured.”

  Celia raised a hand to her mouth, then spoke without any covertness. “Is she suicidal, Master?”

  “A little bit.”

  “Oy!”