Let’s check in on the adventuring members of the Gang, shall we?
*
“Do you ever think we’re in the ‘happily ever after’ stage of our lives?” Fina said, keeping her voice low.
Velune hissed back, “Is now really the time?”
The three of them were in the rafters of a large dining hall that currently contained two officials, having the most boring conversation Fina had ever heard in her life. Something about exports. Fina couldn’t make herself concentrate on it. They weren’t here for this anyway, they were here to do some snooping on an illegal slave trade that the lord of this hall might be involved in. It was just bad luck that a couple of accountants got in the way.
“Relax, we’ve got Pass Without Trace on,” Fina murmured. “Just don’t roll a 1.”
“You have never satisfactorily explained what that means,” Velune grumped, and no wonder. They didn’t exactly have a stable footing. Their knees must be killing them.
“What do you mean?” Betty rumbled. “About happily ever after?”
“Well, you know.” Fina wished she could take out her guitar, but unfortunately Pass Without Trace didn’t cover blatant stupidity. In lieu of that, she fiddled with a button on her sleeve. “We’ve done the big thing. Restored the throne. Saved the princess, a couple of times. Defeated the fey. Like…what’s left? We’re not going to top that.”
“Got plenty of adventures left,” Betty said.
“I mean, sure, of course, but like…” Fina heaved a sigh that was just quiet enough to keep their cover. “‘And they had many more adventures after that, and lived happily ever after.’ That’s not much better. So boring.”
“I’m sorry, do you find this boring?” Velune’s eyes were bugging out of their head.
“Like, at the moment, yes.” Fina gestured at the officials. “What are they even talking about? Who cares? Who even cares?”
“We are clinging to the rafters!”
“And it’s boring.”
“Shush,” Betty interrupted.
They were quiet for a while, and Fina tried to resist the urge to cast Thunderwave, just for some excitement.
“Do you mean to say,” Velune whispered after a bit, “that you think this sort of thing doesn’t make a difference?”
“It’s not even about making a difference,” Fina grumbled. “I know we’re doing good things for good reasons. That’s not what bothers me. It’s the…mundanity of it all.”
“Again, I protest this particular situation being described as mundane,” Velune said, carefully shifting their weight a little. “But I don’t understand why you’re trying to beat your own record. Who on earth is keeping track?”
“I am!” Fina hissed. “I don’t want my best days to be behind me! I don’t want the nostalgia!”
“Your best days are not behind you,” Velune said, really testing the limits of that Pass Without Trace. “I’m living proof of that, if anyone is. I don’t have any idea what metric you’re judging by, but I suggest you find a new one!”
“They’re talking about the slavery,” Betty commented.
Both Velune and Fina paused. “What’s that?” Velune asked.
“The two guys. The exports they’re talking about. It’s…people.”
Fina brightened. “Does that mean we can get out of here?”
“It means we must listen,” Velune said, holding up a staying hand. “Peace. We’ll know in a moment what we must do.”
Fina tried not to be disappointed, and instead considered what Velune was talking about. What metric was she measuring this by?
…Fame? Gross, that was…that was some very ancient feelings coming back, and Fina couldn’t say she liked them much.
Maybe it was time to recenter what mattered.
“That’s it, we gotta move,” Betty said, resituating, ready to jump down.
“Oh jeez, is it time?” Fina prepared herself, adjusting her guitar so it didn’t hit a rafter on the way down.
“Right then,” Velune said. “Let’s do something that matters.”
Now that was a pretty good metric.