Prytaneum
Diffusion
After Welf finished my new armor, I saw myself out after giving him directions to the Church. It was only a little bit past noon, still too early to go to dinner, and there wasn't much point in me sticking around to get in his way; I could tell that he was eager to do some more blacksmithing in his down time and I would just distract him. Being…well, me, I didn't really understand what it was like, but the protection the Undine Silk offered him must have helped a lot because even after forging all of my armor, he didn't seem the least bit tired.
For my part, I just kind of wandered for a bit. I could lie and say it was to explore and get a better feel for Orario, but in truth I was just sleepy and not sure what to do. Even before I'd arrived here, I hadn't had a lot of hobbies and not going into the Dungeon left me feeling a bit aimless. The truth of the matter was that there wasn't anything else I really wanted to do and all my friends—Hestia, Wayland, Welf, and Eina—had actual jobs to do. As such, I just walked around for a bit, bought a few things that I'd gotten ideas for while speaking to Welf, and then went home to rest.
Which, in my case, meant taking a shower. I didn't even bother undressing, just popped in, turned on the spray, and settled down under it, seating myself on the shower floor as I closed my eyes. The water helped me relax enough that I might have dozed a bit, because while I didn't remember waking up or going to sleep, the water got cold at some point, though I hardly felt the difference. I might have been running up our water bill, but whatever it was, I'd deal with it later; right now, it felt worth it.
But however long I'd ended up dozing for, I didn't feel at ease when I woke. I felt rested, shedding the faint exhaustion I'd carried all day, but my thoughts felt heavy. I wasn't entirely sure why; it wasn't the upcoming dinner that was setting me on edge, not really. I mean, sure, there may have been some unknown monster waiting for me and I may have been walking straight into danger, but what else was new? I felt a little bit nervous knowing it was coming, but it was nothing out of the ordinary for me. If anything, I was looking forward to it, if only as an end to whatever this was.
Quiet moments where there was nothing to do were bad for me, I think. There wasn't much for me to do but reminisce and there was nothing I really wanted to reminisce about.
I sighed, pulling my knees up to my face and bowing my head under the spray, part of me wishing the thoughts would just wash away. When they didn't, I reached up with one hand and pulled the shower curtain aside. Even without it there, the spray didn't reach beyond the limits of the shower itself, stopping and falling as if hitting a sheet of glass and I tilted my head to look beyond it, focusing on the bag I'd dropped in the center of the room as I rested my cheek on an arm.
Might as well do something instead of feeling sorry for myself. To start with, I guess I should come up with some plan for tonight, though it was kind of hard to do when I had no idea what I might be up against or what the location would be like. Still, there were a few things for me to do, like…picking out what to wear. I'd leave the helmet behind tonight, to avoid looking too suspicious, and dress up in all of my new armor so I was ready for a fight. Done.
…Well that timewaster didn't waste much time.
Brushing aside the increasingly tempting idea of just going for a quick brawl in the Dungeon—largely because I knew that with me, nothing would ever be quick—I moved on to something else. Even after leaving, I'd continued to fail to think of anything for Mystery so far, beyond just making more Undine Silk. Which was fine, I guess, because it was one way of distracting myself, but I was having a hard time working up a lot of enthusiasm about making stuff for the sake of making stuff. I had some, Welf had some, Hestia had her ribbon, and that was everyone provided for. Granted, I had faith in my ability to ruin my new shirt in a day and need to make a new one, so having a few spares around wouldn't hurt, but…what else was there? Welf had suggested trying something else, but what did I have?
Without moving, I extended limbs of water toward my bag, pulling it towards me and opening it. One by one, I took out the items I'd spent most of the day packing it with, from the strings to the seashells to the bottles and flasks. I laid them out in a row to better consider them, looking them over. The string was just because so far, it was the only thing I'd had luck with, and I'd bought about a dozen spools to keep myself supplied for the foreseeable future. I'd also gone cloth shopping, just to pick up a few things to practice with, just to see what might happen. Also, I needed new socks and shoes, badly enough that I'd actually gone out and gotten them, which was saying a lot.
So far I'd made ribbons and shirts into Undine Silk and, as far as I could tell, there was no difference. Would making shoes or socks or pants change anything? Maybe. The only issue was that it might be a little harder to wear them. I loved the color blue and all, but if anyone identified it for what it was…well, I could cover my shirt with a breastplate, but disguising the nature of my pants might be a bit tougher. Still, something to think about.
Next, I had the various vials, bottles, and flasks. About half of them were just water of some type or another; most were just from my usual supply for the Dungeon, but I'd picked up another bottle of Alv Pure Water, like the one I'd given to Eina before. The way I figured, if I couldn't think of anything else to do with it, I could give it to her again, but it did have a nice feel to it. What that meant was hard to explain, but it felt very pure to me, so I guess the name fit. I wasn't sure if that would do anything in practice, but who knows; it might come in handy.
Then there were the shells. I'd managed to find a place selling them at the free markets, apparently having brought them over from whatever the nearest sea was—I had no idea what it was called, but I could sense it vaguely. They'd been a bit pricier than I'd expected, probably because of how far they'd had to transport them and their exotic nature in a place like Orario, but a little pricey for a normal decoration and a little pricey for an adventurer's supplies were not at all the same thing and I'd shrugged and gotten a bunch of them. In an emergency, I figured I could summon water from them; even if that wasn't my first choice for providing water, it was better than having no choice at all, especially in the Dungeon.
Thinking about it, though…every time I'd summoned water like that before, I'd gotten in trouble. Well, I mean, I was usually in trouble to begin with and it ended up saving me, but I ended up exhausted or worse every time. Bringing the water out was part of it, but maybe because it was always an emergency, I always went overboard. When I was cleaning the Augean Stables…well that had just been a dirty job and I'd had no choice but to do it; it had taken a lot to make that place clean again. Mt. Saint Helens had been do or die and it had probably been what allowed me to survive the whole exploding volcano thing, anyway, even if it had probably played a part in the shape I'd found myself in afterwards. And when I had that brief job as Mrs. O'Leary's chew toy…enough said. But all told, I'd ended up exhausted twice and near-death once.
I should probably work on that…
Putting a shell into a bowl with one of my helpful water hands, I focused and took a deep breath. What had the naiad said? Even when I was out of the water, the water was within me.
—Abruptly there was a faint sound, barely audible over the shower itself; the faint trickle of a tiny waterspout, rising from the center of the bowl. Slowly, it began to fill with the stuff and without even looking, I knew it was salt water. Which of course it would be, considering who I was, but…thinking about it, it had been awhile since I'd touched seawater. Since before the battle in Manhattan, in fact.
The bowl tilted in place before sliding across the floor and into my waiting hand. I turned my back to the shower's spray and held it in front of my chest, touching it with the fingers of my free hand. I felt a small rush of energy at the touch, but that wasn't why I smiled. Like in the stables, there was something exhilarating about seeing this salt water fountain, however small it might be. Because I'd done this. I'd brought a bit of the ocean to the basement of an empty church.
I could bring more of it, too. When I'd cleaned the stables, I'd made geysers that shot twenty feet in the air, cleaning it with enormous jets of water. But doing something like that here would be…problematic, to say nothing of the fact that it had hurt, the tugging sensation that normally accompanied my control of water growing painful and deepening with every moment and exhausting me quickly. I hadn't been able to fully control it either; it hadn't been as easy as just turning off, I'd actually had to force it down. Stuff like that was why this was my last resort, not my first resort.
But even so, I'd done this; I'd summoned the sea from sea shells.
Could I summon anything else? Come to think of it, if I could summon that Alf Pure Water or whatever, I could give it to Eina whenever I wanted. Could I summon fresh water, if I tried? I didn't have anything like sea shells for that—but I had a bottle of the stuff here already. Would that work?
I frowned down at the bowl, which was already almost full.
"Stop," I said, focusing again as I plugged an imaginary leak. As I did, the waterspout weakened and then died, and slowly the water in the bowl drained away to nothing, like it had at the stables. Where it went, I wasn't sure—back out to sea, maybe? Is that was happened when I used that sand dollar to clean those rivers?
Ah, I wonder if I could do that. Welf had mentioned that ideas might come to me if I did something else; maybe if I used Mystery I could do what my dad had done? I wasn't sure if it would actually matter here, but it had helped a bit there at the end—plus, I'd gotten used to having it around my neck. And…I'm not sure if I'd call it a hobby, but it made me remember something I realized I missed now. It used to be that whenever I was near the sea, or any other body of water, things would ask me to help them; sea animals, mermaids, naiads, and nereids. There'd be some monster running amok and need slaying, or someone would get caught in a net and need untangling, or, gods forbid, some sea spirit would get dumped, it would be the end of the world, and I'd need to go be the supportive friend and need to listen about the loss of their insignificant significant other, even though if I warned them a dozen times. Whatever problems they had, they'd call me—and trust me, they had a lot of problems. It had started to seem like my job for a while there; my duty as the son of Poseidon and all.
At least, until things had started getting bad, both in the sea and on land. It had been well over a year since I'd done anything like that—or however long it had been. Most of the time, I'd thought it was annoying to have to run out to the sea in the middle of the night, but now, after everything, I kind of missed it. It was familiar and nice and…something.
So maybe it was worth a try.
Before I could try anything, though, I heard a knock on the door.
Frowning slightly, I turned off the showerhead and willed myself dry, stooping down to gather everything back in my bag before leaving the bathroom and making my way to the door. When I opened it, I found Welf waiting there, as I sort of expected, but…wow, I'd slept longer than I thought.
"Hey," He said, looking at me. He was wearing his ragged work clothes over his Undine Shirt, and over that he was wearing his usual armor. He had his longsword strapped to his back and the rest of his adventuring gear, so it was clear he was ready for a fight. "You ready?"
I nodded, remembering to take off my helmet and put it to the side, since it might look a bit odd to eat in it.
"Let's go," I said, leading him the same way Hestia had taken me earlier today. We moved in silence, both of us treating this as we would hunting a monster in the Dungeon, but I paused at the entrance to West Main and opened my bag. "Here, take these."
Welf frowned as I handed him a couple of seashells and a flask of water.
"What are these for?" He asked.
"Me," I said. "If anything happens to me, throwing water on me is a good first resort; frankly, if I'm ever in trouble and you're not sure what to do, start with that. In an emergency, throwing me in a lake is a good place to start—throwing me in the ocean is better."
"Okay," He said, nodding slowly at that. He'd seen me heal enough that he could probably put the pieces together. "And the shells?"
"If a fight breaks out, throw them and get clear," I told him. "I'll summon water from them, so you can think of them as wet explosives. You see a group of enemies of something, throw it right in the middle of them."
"Got it," He replied, accepting that easily enough. "You feel anything yet?"
"One sec," I replied before walking slowly out into the street. I looked over the street, noting how different it looked at night, but quickly found the bar I was looking for and focused on the second story window. I couldn't see if there was anything on the other side, but nothing seemed to be staring at me right now. "Not yet. But don't let your guard down."
"Which one is it?" He asked, focusing as I pointed. "The Hostess of Fertility? I think I've heard of it. It's supposed to be really popular. How are we doing this?"
"Follow a bit behind me," I told him. "If anything happens, they'll probably target me; I'll be the bait, you be my backup. You need any money?"
"I'm good," He replied, shaking his head, but merely frowned when I tossed him a few coins.
"Order whatever you want," I told them. "Just keep an eye out, okay? And order a glass of water. I'll give you a signal if everything's okay."