Hello, Everyone!
Previously, on Mary Windfiddle's trial!
She's done what her Patron asked of her--plant a special seed in a magical underground garden--even though it was dangerous and it almost cost her companion Aurum's life. Her other companion, Bruno, is asleep in camp, "guarded" by a small grumpy pixie and, I don't know about you, but I personally don't think it can help him much if anyone attacks the camp.
Mary is a little irresponsible, don't you think?
But she's young, she'll learn.
Hopefully.
Anyway!
Here's for the last part of this adventure and for many more to come!
“Soo, one more door left to try out, right?” Mary said.
“Right” Aurum said, holding the key he’d found on Sylvanas’ body. “To the metal door!”
It opened without a problem and they came in, carefully inspecting their surroundings. Mary had her Eldritch Sight on and she was the only one who saw the silhouette of the--otherwise immaterial--Unseen Servant who greeted them.
“Oh, hello” she said.
“Who are you talking to?” Aurum said.
“Shhh,” she told him and turned back to the Servant. It looked at her expectedly. “Whose are you? Is your Master in?”
It didn’t move. Mary decided to do an experiment.
“Can I get… a cup of tea?” That was something she’d been dreaming of ever since she left home. There wasn’t such a thing as tea-drinking culture on the road to Myth Adofhaer.
The Servant nodded and went away. While it was gone Mary explained to Aurum what they were facing so he wouldn't be in the dark. Then the Servant came back and it was carrying a steaming cup of camomile tea. Mary's eyes filled with happy tears. Holding the cup in both hands and sipping blissfully, she headed further down the hallway.
"Can I get some spaghetti?" Aurum said to the air. He didn't see the Servant but it seemed he wanted to try out his luck, too. After the many, many days of dry rations he must have been starving for real food, too.
The silhouette in Mary's Eldritch Sight turned around and vanished.
"Well, it was worth a try," she patted the bard's arm as he sulked.
They heard clunking from another room and headed towards it. They passed through a tight hallway with a shoe stand and a cloak hanger (both empty), then followed the noise to an open door leading to a kitchen.
The Servant was cooking spaghetti.
This place was heaven, Mary decided. Not only had it tea and food (she was currently eating a cake! Can you imagine? A cake!) but it was all full of magic!!
The Unseen Servant was taking out empty pots and pans from the kitchen drawers and as it was doing the motions of putting ingredients in them, they filled up on their own. And the results were delicious!
After they'd filled their bellies, Mary and Aurum rushed to explore the place. It had several rooms all full of wonders. Mary found a room that had to be a toilet but it wasn’t like the ones she was used to. It had running water! She spent about half an hour inspecting all the little knobs and pulleys inside until she heard a melody and headed towards it.
There was a music room full of different instruments. Aurum was sitting in front of a piano with his back against the door, playing like Mary hadn’t seen him play ever before. His guitar was lying on the floor, discarded and forgotten, and he looked lost in the music. And he was good! Mary stayed in the door frame for well over fifteen minutes, listening to the bard’s melody and smiling to herself. She couldn’t see Aurum’s face but she could imagine the look. That’s how her mother looked when she danced. Like she was finally herself again.
She broke away from the music and continued her inspection of the place. She found a living room which didn’t have much to offer in regards to interesting stuff… although, she wondered, what was on the other side of the window curtains? The cave walls?
She pulled them and her eyes widened at the marvelous view.
“Aurum! Aurum, come here! This is amazing!” she shouted.
The music stopped and she heard the bard’s steps approaching and stopping.
“What is that?!”
This was not the normal sky. It was purple and covered with countless stars, many more than you could see on any night in the outside world. Rivers of molten silver were moving around the stars and enormous pieces of rock, the size of cities, were floating in them.
Following some kind of a celestial path of migration, a pod of almost translucent whales, swam through the purple sky past the window Mary and Aurum were looking through.
“It’s so beautiful!” Mary whispered and reached for the window's handle.
“Let’s not” Aurum stopped her, looking worried. “This place gives me the creeps.”
Mary found it hard to look away from the sky whales but then she glanced at the next room, saw a wall covered with books and forgot all about the world behind the curtain.
There were two portraits next to the bookcase. Mary almost passed them by but she did give them a look. A couple of elves, man and a woman, both blond and as refined as elves could be.
The books, however, seemed so much more interesting! She prepared to get lost in them when she heard a cough behind her.
“Mary, I think we should go,” Aurum said, looking concerned. “I have the feeling that this place doesn’t want us to leave. It gives us everything we want to have but I think it’s all... too much of a good thing.”
Mary frowned. Could this really have been some kind of a venus fly trap? She’d read about adventurers who found themselves on islands full of earthly delights just to be eaten or killed in the end by the nasty entity who’d lay the trap for them.
She looked at the bookcase with regret.
“All right.”
Before they got out, Mary filled her bag with every book she found too interesting to leave behind. It was almost cracking at the seams, that’s how full it was. Aurum, on the other hand, spent a few more minutes in the kitchen, ordering some grilled chicken for Bruno, figuring out that might put him on his good side (he did have to ask him for some healing after all).
Finally, after they were ready and Mary’d said “goodbye” to the Unseen Servant, they stepped through the metal door.
They heard a loud FWUMP and, suddenly, Mary’s bag got a lot lighter and Aurum’s food bundle sagged significantly. Everything that they had taken from the abode had vanished into thin air.
“No!” Mary cried. “The cake! The tea!”
She pressed down her belly but she didn’t feel hungry. The food they’d eaten didn’t seem to have disappeared. She felt a bit relieved.
“We shouldn’t tell Bruno about the cake,” Aurum said gravely. “He’s gonna flip out that we ate real food without him!”
“Agreed,” Mary said. “Maybe we shouldn’t tell him about the abode at all?”
“No, just don't mention the cake or the spaghetti.”
“Ok.”
They went back through the corridors (they were ready to run from the jelly again but it had mysteriously disappeared), then down the cave’s entrance, through the forest and to the clearing where their camp was. The sun was just starting to rise. They had been gone for about four hours.
Bruno was awake and very, very angry. No amount of explanations (“We left a pixie to guard you! What do you mean it wasn’t there when you woke up?! We saw it when we left!”) could make him forgive them. He would nag them about the incident for days and would continue to mention it weeks afterwards.
But Mary had fulfilled her Patron’s wishes and she’d passed all his tests.
She was worthy.
It is done! This was a big chapter but I didn't want to break into two parts. I hope it wasn't too long to read on one go :)
Bruno might be grumpy for a while but how can that compare with the personal satisfaction of doing, um… what someone else tells you to... without, umm… knowing why they want what they want…
I’m beginning to think that Mary doesn’t know what she’s doing, y’all!
But the cake wasn't a lie so... everything is fine!
Thank you for reading!
See you in the next Interlude :)
Take care and be well!