Luckily, she set me down before we entered and I put Steve on my shoulder. "Vana, we'll see you at your place in fifteen minutes," I said as we entered and headed up to my room with Jasna in tow. When Jasna saw the state of the box and the ruined lock, I thought she'd be angry but instead, the woman got very close to examine it, muttering to herself.

"Uh, we should probably go, right?" I asked, interrupting her investigation.

"Yes. I am still very upset with you but I am no longer upset about Gabby being exposed. This is excellent work. Though you probably shouldn't have left her in your room, Vana appears to be incredibly skilled."

She lifted the lid off completely, stuck her head against the dungeon core and started muttering, occasionally laughing.

After about two minutes, she silently put the lid back on, engaged what was left of the lock, hoisted the box to her shoulder, and turned to leave the room.

"Okay, yes I want to talk about… her… but first, let me see my little man." After opening her front door, Vana approached me like she was going to pinch my cheeks and swerved at the last second to pick up Steve, tossing him lightly in the air to his delight. She then took him over to the food table and was thrilled at how he spotted it from feet away.

We enjoyed some light chitchat over food while settling in, Vana not wanting to rush the conversation. Jasna took the lid off the box and nodded to Vana as if executing a previously agreed upon signal.

"Gabby, can you hear us? Please give us a sign," Vana intoned like we were in a seance.

And the dungeon core obliged with a loud fart sound. Vana chuckled and Jasna burst out laughing, almost breaking her chair in her mirth. I rolled my eyes and Gabby blew a raspberry I knew only I could hear.

"Before we start, Vana, I would like to compare lockpicking later. I thought Terry forgot to lock the lid and was ready to be even more mad at him. But you barely damaged the lock and still picked it. How long did it take?" Jasna was staring intently at the innkeeper like she might miss something if she blinked.

"<Two minutes> maybe?"

"Incredibly impressive," Jasna replied.

After a few seconds of awkward silence Gabby piped up. "Okay, okay, now let's focus all our attention on the most important person in the room. Me!" She made mouth trumpet noises like fanfare but it was lost on everyone but me. "Ah yes, Earth-specific reference. At least Terry thought it was absolutely hilarious and he was right."

Vana and Jasna looked at me and I rolled my eyes.

"Gabby, you're in rare form. As always," I said in a deadpan.

Jasna went to ask something but Vana put a hand on hers to stop her. "Dear, 90% of what Gabby says is utter nonsense so just ignore it unless we ask you a direct question. Well, at least that's my recommendation. How the heck did you two get along before this?"

"She annoys Terry and that makes me laugh?" Jasna just shrugged.

Gabby burst into laughter again.

"Okay, I get it. Har har. Now, can we focus on why we're having this meeting? We always knew the box under the bed was not a long-term solution. And then it ended up being viable for far shorter than we hoped or expected." I was trying to bring us back to the actual problems that needed addressing as we were all in actual danger if Gabby was discovered.

Isekonsultant Tip to Thriving #25: While every important meeting should move the agenda forward, keeping people on task and on target doesn't have to be a fun killer. Don't be the party pooper when you can still 'do the needful' in a fun atmosphere.

"What's a party pooper?" Gabby asked, though thankfully only in my mind.

Ignoring her, I looked over to Steve. He was happily in a food coma on the table to the side and, for all our noise, he didn't seem to be aware of anything other than his contentment.

"Wait, you treated me like a box of… bedroom activity enhancement tools… you stuck under the bed? Hm, not sure how I feel about that. Nah, seems fine. I am something that makes everyone's life a little more spicy." Gabby started to hum a few saxophone-heavy songs I wasn't going to explain to anyone on Putijama, much less the people in this room.

Vana chuckled. "Yes, yes, you are sassier than I am Gabby, congrats. But I agree with Terry, this is actually serious. If you're discovered by the wrong people, the best you can hope for is a quick destruction."

"Way to bring the mood down Vana," Gabby replied.

A scoff and an eyeroll later, Vana continued. "I have some ideas but wanted to hear what you all were planning to do before steering you one way or another. This is dangerous but I think we can do something good." Vana was far more serious than I had ever seen her.

Jasna and I laid out our basic thoughts and goals while Gabby provided – usually entirely unhelpful – color commentary.

"Okay, so the plan is to deploy her in an area where she won't get discovered, to try to feed her some bodies, to use her for training and maybe some light testing, and to use her as a source for great loot? Anything I missed?" Vana had started writing things down on paper and I actually missed an erasable whiteboard for the first time in my life.

"That I'm right here? That you haven't talked to me about my motivations?" Gabby gave a harrumph that triggered another round of eyerolls from us all.

"We also need to figure out how to tell Tiesa," I said, looking to Jasna.

"Not yet, she's already grumpy enough with me. And more so with you. I don't think we want to burn that bridge yet." Jasna sighed and slumped in her chair. "I don't like keeping secrets from her. And she always knows. I'd think it was a skill if I didn't know her better."

"No, it's just you're pretty easy to read dear," Vana said, laying a hand on her shoulder. "But to the point of decisions for today, I don't have an essence stone to feed the princess here – yes, she told me her full title, and no, I shan't be using it. It would be odd for me to try to source one too. But I do have some excellent wards here so no one should find out about her and I don't have anyone trying to get up in my business."

Vana slapped her knee. "Well, not in the way I'm meaning but yes Gabby, there are many… suitors… shall we say. But my point is that I think Gabby should stay here and I can keep her out of her box so she can recover. I have some ideas for where we might deploy her as well."

"I'm still worried about people scanning the area, especially if we are feeding her—"

"I'm RIGHT HERE! Talk to me, not about me!" Gabby bellowed in my mind.

"Fair, sorry Gabs. Nope, that one is taken by Gabor." I made an apologetic gesture.

It's really hard to not make physical gestures when you're talking to someone. Pre-pandemic, I always made them when I was on audio-only calls too.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Recovering my momentum, I tried to get us back on track. "Anywho, Vana do you have ideas for how to make sure she doesn't show up on scans once we do deploy her? Maybe we put her near a Tier 2 rift that we can keep relatively well delved to make sure there aren't any visitors but Gabby's rising essence from feeding her doesn't set off any alarms? Are we trying to thread a needle?"

"Eh, I'll finally go on that date with the guy who has something to do with maintaining the scan network around here. He should have more information and I'll circle back. Can't remember his name. Bad breath and a worse mustache…" Vana shook her head morosely. "The things I do for you princess. You better reward me with something pretty from one of the delves. I really want nice vambraces – and no, they don't have to be practical. I'll send you a sketch via AAI. Ooh, I'm excited."

"About the date, helping Gabby, or the decorative armor?" Jasna asked.

"The latter two. Again, bad breath, worse mustache."

We chatted a bit further but when it was clear we wouldn't make much more progress, Jasna and I said our goodbyes to Vana and Gabby, collecting a sleepy sugar glider.

"We still have to talk. Let's head back to your room," Jasna said, plucking Steve from my arms, placing him in her hair and walking away before I could answer.

Upon sitting on the bed again with Jasna facing me, I tried to look at her while she screwed up her face, clearly not wanting what came next.

I was almost sure she was reading off an AAI but she still made an effort to mostly look at me. "Terry, I am very upset that you didn't listen to my warning and went off to speak with Barno. He is a slimy piece of sodus and you not trusting my judgment there upset me."

"And I sincerely apologize. I shouldn't have gone with him then. I let my tiredness from the day – Steve, the delve as a whole, Gabby almost getting discovered, the meeting, just everything – win over. I probably would have still met with him eventually but I should have discussed with you first. No, you know what, that's an excuse. I shouldn't have gone with him and that's that."

Her expression was difficult to read as she listed out a number of things the Councilor had done to remind me not to trust him. It was hard to hear some of the more gory details of her uncle's death as well as some of the other things Uros Barno was accused of previously.

"Uh, so when I tell you he set up a meeting with a merchant that can scan my Cap, what do you say? And that they have someone who can likely tell us what we picked up in that awful experimentation facility? And examine my ring too."

"There are usually protections against them sharing that information so Tiesa and I will review. Maybe we can bring a merchant of our own too?" She started to rub her chin in thought.

We discussed the Uros meeting for a bit before she said simply she was still mad at me but that we could move past it for now. She also had no idea if the Councilor had a Cap or skill related to influencing people but had never heard speculation that he did.

We headed over to Gabor and Tiesa's house to strategize and set the time for the meeting with the merchant. I left Steve with Vana at the front desk as I didn't trust the merchant enough to bring him.

As per usual walking down the street, I received random acceptances of my language translation blast request. I had put them on 99% transparency so they didn't clog up my vision and learned to ignore them almost from the second they started. It happened again as Jasna and I reached Gabor and Tiesa's house.

"What the <> is up? …shit," a boy asked as we entered. There was an odd blank space where I physically heard him say sodus but my AAI didn't translate and fuzzed out before translating it a few seconds later. Then, 'hearing' a swear word in English from someone other than Gabby was so jarring, I didn't know how to react.

"Sorry, what did you just say? And why did shit come through so late?" I asked.

"Well, I didn't want to drop the worst words I know, ladies are present," the dark-haired boy in his early to mid-teens said, like that was all the explanation needed.

At seeing my confusion, Gabor laughed and stood up. "Terry, remember Lora and Bruno Zepa? Bruno mentioned his friend's kid was working on some language translation software. Well, meet Karel Kosmen. Bruno put me in touch with him and I wanted his first module to be translation of swear words. I know how annoying not being able to swear can be. Plus, your pronunciation leans towards cute and those words deserve some oomph. You aren't doing them any <> justice… fucking."

Rolling my eyes, I put my hand out for the kid to shake. He just stared at it for a second before asking, "Wait, did you say something came through late? Well that isn't <> good." What followed for the next twenty seconds started as normal swear words in English; and then were followed by a number that weren't, mostly dealing with anatomy and a few related to other essence types that weren't common to the Kingdom. All gave a small fuzz to my brain before the translation happened a few seconds later.

"I thought you didn't want to say bad words in front of 'the ladies', what changed?" I asked Karel, interrupting his curse-a-thon.

"Oh, it's just Aunties Tiesa and Jasna, who gives a <> about being polite around shit them?" he asked like it was a weird question. It was still jarring to have the swear words translated out of order in the sentence.

Humoring him, I nodded. "Fair point. But yes, I am hearing a blank kind of fuzz and then the translation comes through about one and a half to two seconds later. Here, should I try it from my side?" At his nod, I went on to recite, to the best of my memory, a long skit on how the f-word is extremely versatile often attributed to Monty Python.

"Ah <> man, that shit sucks, let me try a few things I had ideas around. I'm betting there is a processing delay because I am making individual requests when the software detects swearing instead of actually running as a sub-process of your translation software. And yeah, I heard all those, man you got a potty mouth." The young teen slumped into the couch sticking his tongue through his teeth much like Tiesa did when working on her AAI while we went off to the meeting Uros Barno set up, leaving Steve in the care of his Uncle Gabor.

***

"Shame Nikolaj couldn't come," Tiesa said as we headed to the town hall. Apparently, even merchants as fancy as the one Uros knew conducted their day-to-day business in Velez at the hall, though they often took private meetings elsewhere and usually didn't setup stalls in the main hall.

Jasna stopped me just outside the doors to the building. "Remember, AAI messages can be intercepted. Even here. Illegal as hell but still possible to probable, given the Uros connection. Nothing over AAI that you wouldn't want everyone reading. Understood?" At my nod, we continued towards the special rooms at the back of the hall.

"Come in, come in," Ervin, the merchant said and indicated some pillows and a low-slung table. The man had skin patterned like wood with swirls and loops throughout, colored a dark brown with purple undertones. He was bald and with a beard on one half of his face, the other clean shaven. The giant earring hanging next to the beard was of a crescent moon and a little bear hanging off the tip. His clothes, however, were so nondescript that they were almost a shocking contrast.

As we sat down, he immediately busied himself in the corner making coffee while a woman wearing a bright orange veil over her face and a pink jumpsuit nodded at us. "Just humor him. His coffee tastes terrible but he does better deals and behaves if you pretend it doesn't."

I could just make out the mirth in her eyes at his scoff and the momentary freeze in his coffee activities.

"Milenka I presume?" I said as we made ourselves comfortable. "I have a few things for you to identify and maybe appraise I guess. I might be willing to sell but more than anything, we need to know what they do. The enchanters in town are mostly low-level or practical application focused on delving or farming. Basically, these things were beyond them. And you get to hopefully charge Uros an arm and a leg."

"Yes, yes I was briefed by our mutual friend— oh, from those faces, I see we aren't on the best of terms with the Councilor. Interesting. Very interesting. I might have some additional things to run past you if that's the case, oh ho ho." Milenka seemed to already be enjoying herself.

"Yes, I was hoping to start with these," I said pulling out the six items we'd picked up at the awful experimentation lab from my ring.

Instead, she shot forward fast enough that both Tiesa and Jasna tensed, ready to strike. Milenka's entire focus was on my ring and she started bringing out tool after tool examining it while it was still on my hand.

"I guess I did want that examined too…" I murmured, slightly confused by her behavior.

Tiesa cleared her throat and pushed the woman back slightly. At her perturbed look, Tiesa said, "AAI-guarantee first, analyze second."

[Incoming AAI-Backed Guarantee from Milenka Koleva: 'I, Milenka Koleva, swear to analyze, to the best of my ability, any items you present to me today or in the future. I also promise not to share the abilities of any items which are not sold to me with anyone that you have not given me permission to share. These terms expire either three years from today or upon your death, whichever is sooner.]

I looked over the agreement and asked for an addendum that she wouldn't do anything that would lead to the disclosure of any item's ability either.

Tiesa and Jasna looked over the wording and nodded, giving their assent.

As soon as I accepted, Milenka was once again in my face. Her veil pulled back, her golden brown eyes opened wider than I thought was possible as she stared at my ring from all angles.

"I'll give you 400 gold for it. Or 250 gold and this storage ring that I am selling for 250 gold."

At my shocked expression, she shrugged.

"It's not actually powerful. Yet. But I think this might not be essence capped. No idea what it will become but I'm eager to find out." She gave a malevolent chuckle. "I've never seen this style of enchanting. Just where did you say you got this boy?"

Ervin finally came back with the coffees. "Well, now you have both of our attention."

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.