The Legendary Monster Layer!

“Okay,” Ari said. “That’ll do it. That’s everything.”

Handing off the last bundle of belongings to Claire, Ari had officially moved out.

It hadn’t taken long, because Ari hadn’t had much stuff to begin with. Most adventurers didn’t have mountains of belongings, considering their often-transitory lifestyle, and all the big furniture in her room—bed, dresser, et cetera—belonged to the Guild, not her. But still, she’d had more than she could have lugged back in one trip, alone. Or even a few trips. Having to only bring the items to the outskirts of Molehill, then pass it off to her Menagerie, made the process ten times easier, and turned an all-day venture into something that had taken about an hour and a half.

Claire was the last one to be passed off a bundle. The others had left for the burrow, already.

“Okay,” Ari said. “But, uh, before you head back … can you wait for me?” she asked Claire. “I have something to take care of, real quick. It’ll be like, half an hour?”

“Sure,” Claire said.

Ari nodded, and that settled, she set out. She had someone she needed to talk to.

###

Elise opened the door halfway through Ari’s second barrage of knocks.

Like usual, seeing her best friend’s face cheered Ari up immeasurably—not that she was in a poor mood. Just, how couldn’t a grin split Ari’s face, met with Elise’s messy hair, bags under her eyes, and grumpy expression that softened the moment she saw who was interrupting her?

“Hi, Lee,” Ari said. “Hope it’s not a bad time.”

“With the amount of work Mistress Selia is giving me? It’s always a bad time.” Despite the words, Elise opened the door wide and trailed into her room, Ari’s invitation a given.

And Ari would admit she did feel the slightest bit bad about interrupting, because however much Elise welcomed Ari whenever she stopped by, Ari knew Elise was also being honest about how busy she was. Mages had their work cut out for them—they were an odd mixture between an adventuring class and a craftsman class, where study and practice were, at least early, many times more important than monster hunting.

Maybe some day Elise would get a taste of that life, but some mages never bothered adventuring, choosing instead to level up the safer—if most would agree, slower—way. That was less common, though. Elise would probably see a few adventures in her years. Just not as many as a ‘real’ adventurer.

Ari closed the door behind her as she followed Elise in. Like usual, her room was a mess. Magical paraphernalia interspersed chaotically with her day-to-day living items, a whirlwind of chaos.

“Man,” Ari said. “Being a mage … kinda sounds like it sucks.” After how much fun Ari had been having, Elise’s class sounded like a drag.

Then again, Ari’s class was … not what most adventurers got.

“It’s busy,” Elise agreed. “But only if you want to make something of yourself—which is true for everything. Besides, it’s interesting. I enjoy it.”

Elise had always been better with sticking her nose in a textbook than Ari had. Ari didn’t care how fascinating a book was … she’d rather be out and about, doing things.

Ari plopped down on Elise’s bed. Elise, for her part, cozied up in her chair, tucking one leg to her chest as she frowned at her opened notebook. Lines of cramped text were packed on the page, with complex-looking diagrams scattered between. Ari couldn’t begin to guess what it all meant. Arcane stuff, obviously. It would take her all year to understand a single page of Elise’s notes.

“Just here to hang out?” Elise asked.

“Um,” Ari said. “No, actually.”

Elise paused, then glanced her way. She’d been about to get back to working on her assignment, whatever it was. She had an impressive ability to multi-task. Or maybe entertaining Ari wasn’t very hard.

“No?”

“I wanted to talk to you.”

A quirked eyebrow. “I assumed as much.”

“About something important,” Ari clarified.

“The Guild?”

It was Ari’s turn to pause. Then, Ari shook her head. Elise meant the dungeon, and the way a lot of locals would be getting priced out of the Guild’s rooms, shortly. Lurran had thought Ari was going to go live with Elise, even. It made sense Elise was aware of these events—who wouldn’t be, when the town was swarming with ten times the adventurers as normal, and still growing?

“Kind of,” Ari said. Peripherally, she guessed.

Elise tried again: “Then, why you’ve been acting weird, recently?”

“Weird?”

“You’ve been cagey,” Elise said. Her attention returned to her notes; there was a forced casualness to her tone that concerned Ari. “And everyone’s entitled to their secrets. You’re hardly obligated to confide in me. But something’s going on, that much is obvious. We’ve known each other forever, Ari, and you’re not especially hard to read.”

Guilt surged through Ari at Elise’s matter-of-fact tone. For having just accused Ari of being easy to read, the hurt Elise was masking was also easy enough to see.

And the accusation was true. Ari had been avoiding talking to Elise about adventuring, which, yeah, was suspicious, seeing how for the past decade, it’d been all Ari could talk about. And Ari’s reasoning for not divulging the strange events of the past few days obviously wasn’t from a lack of trust. Rather, the total absurdity of everything. And the awkwardness that would ensue.

But that was, actually, why Ari had come to visit Elise. It’d been long enough, and she’d made up her mind. She’d been nervous, but seeing Elise’s disappointment gave her the courage she needed.

“Yeah,” Ari said. “It’s about why I’ve been acting weird, recently.”

Elise glanced over.

“But,” Ari said. “I think it’s easier to show.” Or not easier, but it would give credence to Ari’s bizarre circumstances. They could skip the ‘doubtfulness’ stage … which, honestly, would hurt Ari’s feelings, if Elise thought she was lying—or going crazy. “So can we take a trip? Do you have boots, and a cloak?”