Waking Up To A Smuggler In My Room

I opened my eyes, head fuzzy, mouth dry, and throat sore. The ceiling above wasn’t my workshop’s. It was my bedroom in the back. And I was in my bed… How did I get in my bed? Do I sleepwalk? That could be a serious problem.

Before I could sit up, a voice spoke from beside me.

“Thank the Saints! You’re awake.”

My heart skipped a beat.

Ravela was lounging in a chair by the bed, legs crossed, elbow propped, and chin resting on her gloved knuckles, like this was all a pleasant morning tea.

Her tone was light, teasing even, but her eyes were far too focused on me. If only she knew how over the moon this sort of focus made me.

“I swung by the workshop this evening,” she said. “Saw the lights were still on, door was locked… Felt a little offended that you would lock me out. So I popped in.”

I closed my eyes and chuckled. “As long as you didn’t break the lock again.”

She shrugged. “I already replaced it.”

“I guess that’s what I keep the spares around for.”

“I can tell you I didn’t expect what I would find at all. My dear nephew, face-down on the stone floor, sweaty, twitching, and reeking of half a dozen potions.”

“Huh,” I croaked. “Guess I screwed up a potion recipe. Or maybe it was all the mixing I did.”

“Mm. A potion recipe,” she echoed, voice velvet and sweet.

I tried to sit up again. My body ached. I looked at Ravela again, but I hated how noticeable her mana circulatory system was. I didn’t want to see it—not to say that it wasn’t beautiful in its own way. The glow veined across her cheeks, her arms, her collarbone… But I was more of a face guy. I closed my eyes, but when I opened them again, the mana system was gone.

My eyes widened slightly. I looked at my nightstand because I had left a mana crystal there, and yeah—it wasn’t as vibrant.

“Hey, you okay there, Tim?”

I put on a grin. “Yeah, sorry, just waking up still… I thought I’d be out for longer.”

Ravela reached down to the floor and fished up a bottle—Sleeping Beauty’s bottle.

“Sleeping Beauty, huh?” she asked.

I nodded.

“I know a little bit about alchemists. Sleeping Beauty is what you guys take when you botch something so hard that the mere act of existing makes you shit your pants from how much it hurts,” she said, her voice straddling the line between sweet and furious.

“An exaggeration, to be sure. But I’m fine, especially if I woke up within 12 hours. I really thought I’d be down for 48.”

Ravela raised a cautious brow. “So you’re okay?”

“Aside from the soreness, yeah, I think so.”

Ravela smiled gently, leaned forward, and patted my arm.

“Sweetie,” she said, “I’m so glad you’re feeling better.”

Her hand left my arm.

And then she whacked me across the head with something solid, heavy, and faintly damp.

“WHAT,” she snapped, “THE ACTUAL FUCK IS THIS?!”

The gloomspawn limb landed with a wet slap on the sheets.

I stared at it. I stared at her.

“Oh,” I managed.

“Oh?!” Ravela shrieked, mouth set in that livid smile only smugglers knew how to weaponize. “Why, for all that’s good in this world, do you have a Gloomspawn limb?!”

She grabbed the collar of my shirt and rattled me. Ahh, I didn’t know heaven could welcome me so vigorously.

“You little freak—level with me. Did you eat this shit?! People die, you punk!”

I glanced at the limb. “Oh, I see. This thing is so flaky. It must have flaked off and contaminated my potion. Wow, thanks, Ravela. You helped me solve the mystery.

Her expression flattened, and her voice dropped. “Are you fucking with me right now?”

I looked her in the eyes. “The last thing I want to do is upset you.”

It wasn’t a total lie. But also getting to see an angry Ravela? I didn’t get to see that in the game, so this was novel.

“I’m fine now,” I said with a chuckle. “I probably would have died if I had the whole thing.”

“Tim,” she growled. “I found you in a pile of your own vomit!”

I tilted my head. “Good thing I placed myself on my side—”

“Take this seriously, man! You could have died!”

I gripped Ravela’s shaking fists. “If you saw my vomit, then you must have seen my stomach contents.”

She raised a brow, the comment disarming her slightly. “Yeah? So?”

“Were there traces of anything strange?”

“No,” she cautiously replied, releasing my collar.

I didn’t want to let go of her hands, though, and to my surprise, she kept her hands there, nestled in my grip.

“Thank you. If there was blood or something, I would still be in trouble. So, thanks.”

She let out a breath and gently pulled her hands away. “I swear,” she mumbled. “What would I tell Meredi?”

I inspected my shirt. “Oh, this is fresh.”

I lifted the sheets and inspected my shorts.

“Those are fresh too.”

I lifted my shorts and inspected my underwear.

“Those are fresh…”

I looked at Ravela with renewed vigor. “Rav, I am so sorry you had to do that!”

Ravela shrugged. “I’ve seen worse,” she said, holding her head as she came down from the heights of her rage. “Tim, where did you even get one of these things? I don’t deal with any of this. None of my associates touch the stuff either…”

Her eyes narrowed.

“Did you beg my daughter for this?”

I grinned. “Nah, I got it myself.”

Ravela’s mouth dropped. “What?”

“I went and hunted a spawn,” I nonchalantly replied, returning to testing Mana Vision. It looked like I had gained control of it.

“Tim, are you serious right now?” she asked.

“You like snooping, right? You probably saw my weapon downstairs.”

“It looked like one of Meredi’s… I thought you were coating it with something.”

“Well, I do want to do something like that. I collected a ton of Gloomspawn fluids, so coming up with a coating that’s resistant to them should be trivial now.”

Ravela shook my arm. “Hey, look at me for a second. We’re depths people. We don’t go out there, Tim. We stick to the depths and the sludge monsters. Not Gloomspawn,” she said, a noticeable sense of anxiety behind her words.

It pained me to see this choking darkness behind the eyes she directed at me.

“Val goes out there,” I countered.

“You talked her up. Val’s different. She’s like a guiding star. We’re not like that.”

I nodded. I couldn’t really disagree with the assessment. Valray was an amazing character.

Ravela was still watching me, her lips pressed into a tight line, one hand still hovering like she wasn’t sure if she wanted to pat my head or slap it again.

I reached out and gently took her hand in mine.

She blinked. “Tim?”

I gave it a soft squeeze. “I’ve got big ambitions, Rav. I’m going to do whatever I need to do to get it done. Even if that means becoming a dirty, foolish, swamp man,” I said, trying to wear a smirk like hers.

Her eyes narrowed slightly, searching mine. Then her gaze flicked to our hands.

“Wait,” she said, “why are you holding my hand like this?”

I raised a brow. “Ravela. You stripped me.”

She froze.

“You must’ve seen me naked. If you can handle that, you can handle a little hand holding.”

Her lips parted, probably to throw out a quip—but no words came out. Her ears went faintly pink. Oh god, she was flustered.

Holy shit. I was living my best life.

She glanced away with a little scoff that didn’t have any real heat in it. “Yeah, true enough, I guess.”

I didn’t think she could be so cute when she didn’t know what to do with herself.

My chest actually fluttered a little. I had to suppress a grin. There was actually a Ravela route for me. There really might be one. Ahh, but I couldn’t get distracted. I wasn’t here to gush over goddesses. I was here to save goddesses.

“Alright, enough of you being cute,” I said.

Her eyes widened. “Pardon me?” she said, her voice a little shriller than usual.

“Help me up. I lost control of my legs, and I can already tell that the feeling hasn’t totally come back.”

Ravela helped me out of bed without a word. Her grip was steady, but her whole demeanor had shifted. She looked like someone trying not to think too hard about things.

“You can tell yourself that I’m still disoriented from my episode,” I said, eyes focused on the door.

“You don’t know what I’m thinking.”

“Can you let me know? I’d love to be privy to your inner thoughts,” I said, letting her guide my arm over her shoulder.

“Just helping my idiotic nephew not collapse,” she replied quickly and with a grunt.

I chuckled. “Hey, are you okay? You’re almost as red as your hair.”

“I’m hot.”

“Yeah, I’d agree with that.”

She made a tiny noise like a kettle trying not to boil over.

We shuffled through the doorway into the workshop.

“Wow, I can’t believe my legs are still having trouble,” I muttered.

“Something feels off with your arm, too,” Ravela added.

Ravela was putting in more work correcting me. She was focused on the task—so focused I wondered if she saw me as a carriage wheel about to fall off.

I focused on my feet, and I slowed my breathing. There was a flicker again. The ground was the marsh, and my feet were the legs of a Gloomspawn. I hastened my breathing and was out of it.

“You okay?” she asked. “You’re breathing hard there.”

“The tip of your corset’s poking into my ribs.”

Her eyes widened, she looked down, and then at me with ire twisting her lip. “No, it’s not.”

“Heh, made you look.”

She frowned. “This isn’t the time to take up being a little gnat!”

“Did I miss dinner?” I asked, glancing at the muted lantern light. I willed Mana Vision to turn, and with a blink, it did.

“Dinner was four hours ago.”

“Four hours… That’s not so bad after all. I really wasn’t that out of it.”

Ravela rolled her eyes. “Oh, great. Glad your period of unconsciousness wasn’t that bad.”

She glanced at me, and her pout intensified. She even clicked her tongue.

“Is something the matter?” I asked.

“Since when were you taller than me?”

“I don’t know. Since puberty?”

She clicked her tongue. “You’re barely walking straight.”

“Yeah. Maybe I can shake it off.

We made it to my main workbench. I reached out and fished up the compact satchel I’d prepared earlier—my portable alchemy kit. Folded leather, reinforced with brass corners, lined with color-coded vials and tiny instruments. It clipped neatly to my belt.

“What are you picking that up for?” Ravela asked, incredulous.

“I want to go see Meredi.”

“Get real, Tim. She’s probably sleeping.”

I shook my head and smiled. “I bet she’s not.”

“Yeah, and why would you say that?”

“Because she’s the person who cared for me when I had no one else.”

Ravela’s lips parted, and then she scowled before looking at the floor. “Come on… No one else? Seriously?” she muttered.

I heard the pain in her voice. I didn’t mean for it to come out like that. I was just acknowledging Meredi’s maternal side—damn me. I let my admiration for one hurt the other. I chastised myself nine times. I had to be more even-handed.

“I know you care too, Ravela. You’re the one who busted in here to save me.”

Ravela grumbled something I didn’t catch, then caught sight of something on the tray nearby. Her brow furrowed. She reached out and picked up one of the gleaming, needle-like shards.

“This tray here... What the hell are these?” she asked.

“Oh,” I said, casually adjusting my satchel. “The Gloomspawn I fought fired those at me. Poisoned me, too.”

“What!?”

She held the needle away like it might explode.

“It wasn’t that bad,” I added quickly. “Just a pain-based deterrent as far as I could tell. Pretty easy to neutralize with the right stuff. Heck, I think a body with stimulants can neutralize it pretty effectively.”

“You are insane,” Ravela hissed. “Why do you sound so calm about that?”

I shrugged. “Pain’s just the body reminding the mind it wants to stay alive.”

She stared at me. Then, in a softer voice: “Could I have some of it?”

I blinked. “The poison?”

“Yeah.”

“You planning to use it on someone?”

“Not you, if that’s what you’re worried about,” she said with a wicked smirk that meant she was starting to recover. “But maybe I know a few folks who could use a dose of ‘just pain.’ For… cooperative purposes. You know… Business dealings.”

“I don’t mind, but give me a couple days to brew the antidote in measured doses. You don’t want to overdo it. Even just pain can be too much if you’re not careful.”

“Don’t patronize me.”

“I’m not,” I said. “I’m enabling you, responsibly.”

She laughed—a low, genuine sound that made my spine tingle. When she noticed me looking, she shook her head, but didn’t argue.

“Fine,” she said. “Let’s go bug my sister. But Tim, if you can’t walk straight by the time we get to the door, I’m hauling you back. I don’t care.”

“Heh, I might just need you to distract her until I get to the dinner table.”

“If you can manage to walk from door to table on your own, then, sure.”

Ravela groaned and muttered something under her breath that might’ve been a prayer or a curse. Either way, it sounded like affection in disguise, and I was buzzing. If this kept up, I might get distracted and doom us all…

Mmm, nah. I almost vomited blood making that joke.