It didn’t take long for Justin to agree.
“Huh, I… well, I can absolutely use your help. You already helped maybe stop some of the worst of it. And helped me get out of a cell. In the game, you don’t get a full party of four until after the war starts proper. And I didn’t think anyone would believe me… after eight years in Sanctum, I’d almost started to doubt my memories.”
“We may not be completely done yet. This royal uncle you talk of may demand the City Guard not be involved with the Coronation due to some other contrivance, of course. Unless you know of other facts that assure that we changed The Halcyon Call?”
He shook his head, “No, I basically shortcut here five days early and beelined it for the palace. I’d have to think about what else I know, but we are already sort of off the beaten path.”
I looked over my notes already compiled from my earlier interrogation. “You mentioned that the coronation happened in a royal park with tunnel entrances no one knew about?”
He looked away from his own Notes screen, surprised, “I- yeah. I did.”
“Perhaps we can team up and find a few bounty slips to help clean out the upper sewers and look around. The Royal Guard has stepped up the sweeps to make sure nothing disturbs the coronation and planned festival, but there may yet be places un-checked.”
“Oh, that’s a good idea. There’s a few chests and caches down there too - treasure and key events are what most of my notes are on - if we can avoid the Thieves Guild and the Mindgators.”
I shuddered at the thought of encountering the rumored reptiles. They were a scourge and bogeyman for anyone who had to sweep the sewers. Most people doubted they were real, but I’d read reports and the history enough to not doubt their existence.
If I were going to take Justin at his word, then I was going to have to face truths better left undisturbed. Like how my own existence was likely so minor as to not exist in the fiction of an outside world.
“Perhaps not at your level. I can scarcely take more than a hit or two more than you as well.”
“Oh right. Usually you are at least around level 60 when you get to the city again and can do things. In the game.”
“What did you plan on achieving after changing the Coronation?”
“Um… I wasn’t sure actually. There’s a bit of a time skip involved, but I was hoping to stop a few other bad things from happening, like go back and stop the bandits at the Coverinth farm. Or maybe prevent the sinking of the floating city of Nepanister. It is too late by the time you can get there in the game. That’s one of the things people didn’t like about Halcyon Call 4’s themes. The developers were trying to make it not feel like the main character, like me-” He did look a little embarrassed about calling himself the main character in casual conversation. “-Would be super powerful, but would have dealt with the aftermath of a bunch of issues, rather than prevent all the harm.”
“So benevolent of them to provide us a world to live in where so little good can be done to prevent massive suffering.”
“Yeah. When I realized where I was, I was less enamoured with their ‘grimdark-to–maybe-hope thematic flourishes’ myself. It was fine when it was fiction, but...”
We finished eating in relatively companionable silence. I was sorting my Notes and trying to figure out how to manage the comments regarding how much I’d lost - my job, my future, my worldview - in the last 18 hours.
Something rapped on my front door, sharp and loud, startling both of us. I went still, while he jumped.
I gestured for him to stay where he was. I smoothed my crown of feathers and grabbed my discarded modesty vest from its pile. One always had to look decent for the sentient mammalians, even if one had no mammalian presenting nipples.
I opened my small door and looked up - I was always looking up at whoever I was talking with - for a short but fit middle-aged Human, looking stately and formal.
It was dark out now, but I was able to see that their clothing didn’t have the modern regal cut, so I suspected it was not a nobleman’s servant. I so rarely had visitors that I guessed who this one was before they cleared their shocked expression and gestured fluidly at my silence.
“Distinguished person, I am here on behalf of Governer Dameron’s behalf. I am looking for the associate of Justin Stormhallow.”
“I am Scaleen Fortuna, she/her pronouns. The Governor’s assistance was greatly appreciated. To what great honor do we deserve his direct attention?” We danced the polite but occasionally vicious game of servants with little direct power ourselves, but it was clear there were no verbal blades necessary.
“My name is Quora Dens, she/her, the governor’s private assistant. I have come to relay a message and invitation to the Governer’s personal residence, in light of recent events.” She offered a letter of beautifully embroidered paper. “Your presence is, of course, also welcome, ma’am, given your involvement.”
The Halcyon Call 6 went to a first person perspective, which you might imagine caused quite a stir.
Oooof, giving me flashbacks to how annoying dragon age 3 was when released they took away a useful top down view