Have a breakfast date with Blythe

With the emergency of the morning behind you, it’s time to find something to eat and finally have a heart-to-heart with Blythe. After what she just did for you, you certainly owe her that much. The two of you walk the streets of Evris until you stumble into another market square, much like the one you know. However, instead of the produce and accessories of the market by the Full Tankard, these stalls all seem to be preparing and selling street food. The morning rush of customers has likely already come and gone, though the place is still lively and the popular stalls still have up to double digits of people waiting in their lines.

You and Blythe buy an omelet each from a stall run by what looks to be a family of halflings. The omelets are cooked right in front of you, and the chef throws in several cut up vegetables and mushrooms. With food in hand, you both find a bench to sit at and quietly eat.

“Watching you has made me curious,” Blythe says after finishing her meal. “Are you perhaps from overseas?”

You **** on your last bite of omelet. “In a manner of speaking,” you manage to get out. Clearing your throat, you add, “Why do you ask?”

“I thought it strange, when you gave a gold coin for the omelet just now,” she says. “When you counted out your coins earlier, I am certain that I saw more than enough copper or silver coins to cover the price of the meal.”

“Maybe I just wanted more loose change?”

“Perhaps.” With her elbow resting on the bench, Blythe raises her hand and points her finger into the air. “However, you also admitted to not knowing how to operate a light crystal, which is an extremely common item here in the Empire.” Her outstretch finger dances to the rhythm of her words. “The only explanation I can come up with is that you have never seen one before. Am I incorrect?” Her finger comes home to roost poking into her cheek, her eyes watching you with pure, innocent curiosity.

Her cute display of deduction aside, you owe her some answers. Maybe not the whole truth, yet, but you ought to give her something. “Alright, you caught me,” you say. “I’m not from a place you could find on any maps.” You pull out your wallet and show her the assortment of paper money you brought with you from Earth. “Where I’m from, we use these for money instead of coins. Well, coins are actually used too, but not in the same way as they are here. Also,” you continue to say as you put your wallet back into your pocket, “we don’t have magic crystals either. We use other methods to make light, and we don’t really have anything like the crystal you had me use to find Lia. We don’t have magic at all, actually; it’s just not considered a ‘real thing’ where I’m from. All this is new to me.”

Over the course of your explanation, Blythe goes from curious, to confused, to dumbfounded.

“Your homeland does not use any magic at all?” she finally says. You shake your head. “How are things accomplished there?”

“With technology,” you say. You pull out your phone next, and turn it on. The lighting up of the screen captures Blythe’s attention instantly. “This is a multipurpose device that I can use to do lots of stuff. I can talk to other… well, actually I think most of its features don’t work anymore. Where I’m from, I could talk to people from far away, or find out anything I wanted to know. Those features don’t seem to work here, though. I can still use it to time things, or as a light, or for math that’s too hard to do in my head. Oh, and I can do this.” You take a picture of Blythe and show it to her. “Without a way to charge this thing, though, it isn’t going to last much longer.” Your elven friend looks like she wants to play with your phone, but you power it down and put it away. “Once it runs out of energy, it becomes completely useless. Electricity is the core ingredient in most of the devices my people have developed, and it’s possible to store it in devices like this. I can’t pretend to understand any of it myself though, so once the power stored in there is used up, I won’t have any way of fixing it.”

“It is a very precious item then,” Blythe says.

“It is,” you say. “But enough about me. Tell me about yourself.”

Blythe straightens up and thinks for a moment. “My brother and I are not from Evris, originally. I told you as much before. The rest of our family lives in Elethwren, the ancestral homeland of all elves. It is a great forest, beyond the Sisters to the north. I grew up there; it was only quite recently that I… left.”

“You looked super serious during the whole encounter with Lia earlier,” you say. “It made me realize you probably know your way around that sword of yours pretty well, huh?”

A flush of pink covers her face for a second as she blurts out a reply: “Oh, that? Well, you had your belongings stolen from you and I…”

“How did you become a duelist, Blythe?” you ask.

Your question sobers her right up. In fact, she almost looks depressed thinking about it. “What you witnessed last night has always been a part of me. My parents tried to fix me, but their interference simply drove my sins into hiding. Sometimes, my brother would catch me as I was yesterday and tell my parents. They would yell at me, and I would cry, and I would wonder why I am like this. I still do.” Her eyes tear up, and you reach over the bench to wipe them away. “I believed that if I were to dedicate myself to a respected sword art, my family would accept me. I trained under the most renowned swordsman in all of Elethwren — this rapier was a gift from him — but it was not enough for my family.”

Blythe is surprised when you stand up, but smiles gently when you walk over to sit next to her and wrap an arm around her shoulders. She leans her head into your neck.

“I have known you for less than a day, Evan,” she says, “but you have been nothing but kind to me.” You can’t help but think some of the stuff in the bedroom last night couldn’t really be called ‘kind,’ but you don’t say anything. “Thank you for not looking at me like I am a monster.” The two of you sit in silence for a few minutes, watching people pass by as you enjoy each other’s company.