Chapter 30 - Alanis

"How much did you say Porterson offered you to find me?"

The six exited the Harbin Central Bank, Claire now carrying seven bags of one hundred gold coins. As expected, they had quite the heft to them - and with everything she carried, she couldn't just stuff them away.

Eric scratched the back of his head. "He said five hundred gold coins."

"Then here." She held out five bags of the gold coins to him.

He stumbled back a bit. "Wait, you're giving me money?"

She nodded. "I can't use up all of this myself. And since you gave up your reward for me, I thought it was only fair to compensate you."

"I won't lie, it kinda feels bad to accept a split like that when I haven't done much myself. I don't know, I..." He turned to look at Laura and Antoni, who shot him glares. He wanted to ask for their input, but it was very obvious what they wanted. "On second thought, we're always willing to accept money given to us. You sure though?" 

She nodded. They took the five bags and, after thanking her, they left, ecstatic over their newfound monetary gains.

"You sure that was a good idea?" Peter asked. "That was more than half your remainder."

"I didn't go to the Tarlands to strike it rich. Besides, I needed to get rid of the temptation to go crazy with spending. Two hundred gold is plenty for my purposes, and we still have some of the money we stole from Taykaw."

"Right."

They went back to the Building of Debt and sat on a nearby bench, the sun lazily coming up behind the buildings in front of them. He watched the wagons and people pass by hurriedly, observing them casually. "So, when are we meeting Alanis?"

"She's coming to us. She'll have to talk to the tellers inside, but once she's finished, we'll start heading out."

"Huh. I thought we'd pick her up at Applecot Mansion."

"If we do, Barford Porterson will burst a vein, and I've had enough of his angry rants in this lifetime. She'd have to come here anyway to process the debt termination, so it's best to wait here."

"Right. I hadn't thought of that."

He kept an eye out for anyone that looked like an elf, or at least anyone that seemed like they were looking for someone. Many of the latter came and went, but none of the former. Thinking back to it, he didn't see any other elves during his journey, and he never read up on their history at the bookstore.

"So, if you don't mind me asking, what's with the elves in Deusterra? I haven't seen any in Hylokans, Phegolan or Arkalo."

"They're not on this side of the Six Kingdoms. You'd find more of them on the eastern side, especially within Vydali. There used to be much more of us, but constant wars and Fermigan's conquests destroyed a lot."

Oops. He probably shouldn't have brought that up.

Just then, Claire stood up, pointing at somebody on the other side of the street. "That's her."

Also standing up, he looked at the person in question. Light brown hair that went past her shoulders, amber eyes, and a red beret. A light red dress, with a thin blue overcoat and a blue ascot. A big black suitcase, held in front of her. And, perhaps most importantly, intact elf ears. "So that's Alanis," he thought to himself.

Alanis scanned the area, turning her head slowly as she did so, until she saw them. She hurriedly jogged to them, then carefully navigated the traffic after nearly getting run over by an incoming wagon. After successfully getting to their side of the street, she ran over to Claire and pulled her into a tight embrace. It was only then that he realized Alanis was taller than him by quite a bit.

"Claire! It's so nice to see you!" She said, excitedly. She pulled away for a moment to take a better look at her. "It's been so lonely without you at the Mansion, I-" She took notice of her ears and rubbed them. "My goodness, what happened to your ears?"

"I might've cut them down a bit..." Claire stumbled over her words a little.

She frowned. "What? That's terrible! Why would you put yourself through that?"

"It was either that or get found out immediately. You know elves aren't exactly commonplace in Phegolan."

She sighed, still upset. "I suppose you're right. But no more mutilating yourself!"

"I wasn't planning to."

She smiled, then turned her attention to him. "And who's this young man with you?"

He held his hand out. "My name's Peter."

She shook his hand enthusiastically. "Hello! You must be a friend of hers, right?"

He nodded.

"That's great! Claire's never been the type to make new friends, so I thought she might've been by herself all this time!"

Claire pouted a bit. "You didn't need to say that, Alanis."

She chuckled. "Sorry, sorry." She hugged Claire again, a bit more gently this time. "I'm just happy you're okay. I've been worried a lot about you, especially since you never wrote to me."

"Yeah. Sorry about that."

"No apologies needed." She put her hands on her shoulders. "Let's talk more after I get everything sorted out here. We have a lot to catch up on, don't we?"

"Yes. I'll have to tell you everything."

. . .

After the business at the Building of Debt was finished, they fetched Maya and walked towards Morden, a nearby town that Alanis had heard about quite often from Porterson's friends. Along the way, Claire and Alanis chatted about everything that had happened in the last five years. The struggle of making a living at Arkalo, the frustrations brought about by Porterson's ego, that kind of stuff. Even though he didn't pay much attention to the actual topics, he noticed how much Claire brightened up around her. He wished he had a friend like that back in the real world.

Maya tugged on his sleeve. "So what's the plan now?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. Tomorrow, I think we might just split up. We'd go back to Hylokans, and they'd do whatever it is they want to do. Why?"

"Hmm. Just thinking. It's been a while since I've seen Beatrice too."

"You know, I've only heard you call her 'mother' once. You always say Beatrice. What's with that?"

"She's not my mother."

"Wait, really?"

"Yeah. She's like a mother to me, but she isn't my mother."

"How'd you meet her then?"

"That's a long story. Maybe another time."

"Ah. Alright."

And so, they walked on, not stopping until they reached Morden.