22
1423 Words
He was going to explain more, but the air bubble popped as their waiter came in with two massive trays of food. He let the matter drop for now.
It smelled divine, and for its absurd price it had better taste as good as it smelled. It still stung to spend this much money, but he consoled himself with reminders that it was a special occasion and kept the pain of his slightly lighter wallet off his face.
As the meal progressed, he started to rehash the adventures that he had been through with Liz and Aster. Most were things that they knew already, since he had shared stories in their messages back and forth, but it was more fun to share in person. It was really nice to hear about how simple and calm their lives had been. It was fun to see the other side of being on the Path.
As dinner wound down, with most of the plates only half-cleared, he suggested they move to a park and continue the talk there. He had seen the waiter pass by twice, and the restaurant was full. He didn’t want to hog the table when they could talk long into the night in the nice city air, without bothering anyone else.
They chatted well into the night, and as it was winding down, Melinda stretched with an exaggerated sigh. Her party seemed to take their cue, as they started getting ready to go.
Matt said, “We should spar tomorrow morning. Like old times. It would be great to see how you have all grown.”
Melinda smiled. “We’ll spank you around like we did at Tier 3.”
He waggled his eyebrows and said, “Ah, but I was only Tier 2 then.” In an overly pompous voice, he said, “We are now the same Tier. Now, I have the power to defeat you!”
As they said good night one final time, he smiled while thinking about how good it was to see someone from home. It had been so long, and they had all grown so much.
Aster was nearly asleep when he picked her up, and he walked arm in arm back to their room with Liz. She leaned on his shoulder as they walked back.
When they were halfway there, she said, “Your friends seem really nice.”
Matt resisted the urge to fist pump the air. He had been trying to make sure Liz was included in the conversations throughout dinner, but once he saw her talking to Sam about alchemy, he stopped paying attention.
He was unable to prevent his excitement from coming out in his voice. “You like them? Really?”
He had to make sure but felt confident that he would get a good answer.
“Yes, they seem kind and intelligent. They also treated me like one of their own, which was AMAZING!”
She shouted the last bit, which caused Aster to kick in her sleep. Matt felt like he was on cloud nine as he floated down the sidewalk. Things were looking up in the best way possible.
Liz wasn’t sure that sparring was the best idea for friends that hadn’t seen each other in years, but with how casual they all seemed, she didn’t say anything.
She was just hanging back as they all talked, watching them. They all seemed so happy. Sam even made sure to smile at her as the others got ready to board the fighting platform.
The woman was knowledgeable with alchemy, and Liz wanted to collaborate with her to use the leftovers she had from the herb rift that Matt had made for her to practice with.
She was debating how to best ask the woman, when someone appeared next to the referee and shooed him off.
That oddity caused Liz to instantly go on alert.
The unknown man said, “I’ll be refereeing this match.”
Matt looked irritated when he asked, “And you are?”
His attitude matched Liz’s own. She didn’t like unexpected occurrences like this. Something was off, and she could smell it.
Liz barked out, nearly at the same time, “What authority do you have to do that?”
The man seemed un-bothered and calmly answered, “I’m Baxter. Over Tier 40 and a healer in the employ of the Emperor. I can keep any secrets you might reveal in a fight just that. A secret.”
Liz was about to start screaming and sending messages at the blatant lie. The Emperor had only one personal healer, not the multitudes that this man implied, and she knew the Emperor’s healers. He was her healer growing up.
This young man was not the Harvest Moon. Moon was old and wrinkly. She only knew him from her time in the palace, which wasn’t an extensive period of time, but she had spent a few weeks visiting Uncle Manny now and then. She had met and interacted with Moon enough to know that this wasn’t him.
As she was creating a message to call for help, she received a message from her Moon, “I’m undercover, so don’t blow it for me.”
Liz paused. It sounded like the Moon she knew, and faking messages was incredibly difficult. A quick check showed that the ID matched her Moon’s old ID, so she sent him a testing question.
“How many times did I break my arm, and how many times did you heal me?”
The man’s lip twitched as he replied, “You broke your leg twice falling from the same roof trying to fly, once with a bedsheet after the first attempt without one failed. And you landed in my garden in the imperial palace. Twice. Don’t try and test me child.”
Liz swore she caught the slightest glimpse of a wink as she finished reading his message.
She smiled at the memory. She’d thought that if mom was a bird, then she should be able to fly as well. When the first attempt hadn’t worked, she realized that she didn’t have wings, and that had to be the problem. So, she grabbed a bed sheet to make the jump a second time. Her logic at three years old was flawless.
Moon was one of the few who knew that she had broken her leg trying to fly. Uncle Manny and her parents knew, but no one else. While he could still be a fraud, albeit one with a good information source, she found it highly unlikely.
His voice messages sounded right, and she trusted the little test she had done.
She said out loud for the benefit of the others, “Oh, okay. That’s fine.”
Liz was unable to stop the grin that crept onto her face.
Moon, or Baxter, she corrected herself, glared at her. She sent him on the side, “I’ll have dad flood your garden if you’re mean to me.”
His lip twitched for a second time. But he didn’t rise to the bait and instead asked her, “Now that you know who I am, convince your friend that I need him to do what I asked.”
Matt laughed as he said something to his friends that she missed while talking to Baxter, but Liz messaged her teammate, “You can trust him.”
He paused and looked at Baxter questioningly with a raised eyebrow.
Liz shrugged and sent another message, “Don’t tell anyone else, but that really is one of the Emperor’s personal healers undercover, don’t tell anyone else who wasn’t here. But you can trust him.”
It was a long moment later that he seemed to reluctantly nod, glancing at Liz.
Taking her spot off to the side with Aster, she waved the fox’s paw at everyone and called out, “Have fun!”
She watched as Matt exploded forward while casting [Hail] and shooting at one of his friends with his crossbow. The crossbow golem arm had taken up Matt’s free time while he tinkered over the last week, and he was as proud as her mother after a molt with his new toy.
They intended to sell them at the auction, but they were going to hold off until after he used them in combat at least once. They wanted to show their creations’ value to the queendom and start a bidding war as the kingdom, more specifically Juni and the prince would already know their potential.
- Writer
