Deephouse: Further adventures involving the employees of a mid-level adventuring corporation. New to Deephouse? Start here.
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A crowd was milling in the Great Hall when Durgin passed through.
Nobody tried to stop him.
He looked away from their faces, tried to ignore the light leaving their eyes. Hope was a strange thing. Intangible, more of an idea, really. And yet, if you looked closely, you could see the exact moment someone lost it.
Durgin pushed the chest into the lift’s cage and crammed in behind it. The lift shuddered to life and began the torturous climb to the surface. He watched Deephouse dwindle, growing ever smaller before the darkness consumed it whole.
Moments later, the lift coughed violently and died. It swayed, creaking.
“Can’t be done of this place soon enough,” he muttered. He knelt beside the engine and tried priming it, as he’d seen Perlen do.
In the silence, he could hear the muffled call of birdsong.
His LiveScroll.
The enchantments that enabled LiveScrolls were weak this far underground. Unlike on the surface, where communication was nearly instantaneous, messages here could be delayed by days.
He opened the chest, digging through layers until he found it. The lift forgotten, he sank to the floor and read the scroll by the lift’s ever-burning torch.
It was from Elryn.
My dear Durgin,
We’re all okay.
Dalrigg broke his leg falling off a roof. He was showing off to his new friends. It was a bad break. His days of running would’ve been over without tonics. We had just enough money to cover his treatments.
It’ll be a week before he’s whole again. He’s antagonizing his sister right now, which I take as a good sign.
I admit I had misgivings about this job. It took you far away, for too long. And I do not trust these adventuring companies. A person’s worth is greater than what they add to a balance sheet.
Still, I won’t deny it’s come along at a good time. Somehow those creditors tracked us to Thornview. I’ll sleep better once your bonus comes in and we don’t have to look over our shoulders anymore.
Speaking of sleep: make sure you’re getting enough. Write when you can.
All my love
~ E
Durgin sat staring at the words. His immediate inclination was to rush to the surface, sweep his family into his arms, and never leave them again. But the message was already days-old. The emergency had passed. He could do nothing more for them.
That wasn’t entirely true. Elryn’s words rang through his head: I’ll sleep better once your bonus comes in and we don’t have to look over our shoulders anymore
He wiped the scroll clean and penned a quick response, then stowed it and fiddled with the lift. It was several long, anxious moments before the engine roared back to life.
Durgin reversed the directional indicator and rode the lift back down into black depths.
He found Yeji studying documents in the lawyer’s office. The gnome looked up, the surprise in his eyes giving way to something bright.
Durgin looked away. He had no intention of giving them hope. Deephouse would have him only long enough to earn his 90-day bonus. He was nearly halfway there. It’d be foolish to leave now.
He sat opposite Yeji. “Tell me everything.”
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