SWNOVELS Chapter What You Want
Mr. Muffins felt like the night wasn’t going to go anywhere useful, so he took the plates, silverware, mugs, and some of the leftover food and placed them on the table. The students sat around him, quietly watching his every move. To his left was a human named Candace. She was top of her class in her early twenties. Across from him sat Khoros, a triton from a small town in Nothon, who had learned he had abilities by falling off a building and managing to slow his fall so that it didn’t hurt him. To the right, a small kobold that responded to Rux. He reminded Mr. Muffins of Nuv and Kiks, excitedly playing with items and creating but able to speak Draconic, which Mr. Muffins knew some of. Thankfully, Candace was fluent in five languages, so she was able to translate when needed.
“It’s important to remember that sometimes you need to relax, away from the work, but it’s okay to find other ways to flex your mind. Try this.”
He pulled out a set of dice and placed them on the table. He couldn’t even remember where he had bought them but carried them around in case a good game could be won where coin was involved.
“Take this table here, and let your minds expand. Imagine it’s a battlefield. Here are some ruins that have fallen over, giving cover to the other side. These pillars once held the ceiling of a large building, but the broccoli fields overtake it. And those pieces of diced potato are the enemies.”
He talked for a while, allowing them to understand the rudimentary rules he placed in front of them. With the dice, they would roll for various things they wanted to do, and it would control the chicken bones that represented them. Hours went by, and by the end, they had destroyed their “battlefield” and diced potatoes, but the students were excited, laughing, and having fun.
“See? Sometimes, you don’t need chalkboards and books to take notes in. You’re smart kids. You learn, grow, and make use of it all.”
He helped clean up the mess, keeping an eye on Nazira, who scowled at his table for being so messy. Once done, he said his goodbyes, made plans to meet again in two days, and went back to Lyrical Lute to rest.
The morning came quickly, but he woke up as the sun rose. He grabbed some clothes and walked out into the dining hall. At the table, already nose into his books, Leaf read over some scroll. After a few minutes, Mr. Muffins ordered two mugs of hot brown potion, walked over to Leaf, and set one down next to him.
“Morning.”
“Morning.”
“Whatcha got there?”
“It’s a letter from Gisela.”
“Yeah? How’s she doin’?”
“It seems like she’s been okay. She left Stillmight Campground shortly after us and mentioned that she went to the Fey Realm for some time. She’s going to try and meet us here during Seladon’s next full moon.”
“And when will that be?”
“If I’m right, she’ll be here on the 9th of Frosthold.”
“That’s a little over five weeks,” Mr. Muffins thought aloud.
“She wants us to meet her at The Duodenary. She said that would be the easiest place to find each other,” Leaf stated while rolling up the scroll.
“Say, when did you two start becoming pen pals?”
“It’s nothing like that. I wrote to her when we arrived in Berkton. I wanted to be the first to tell her about Bruna.”
“Good on you. That’s respectful.”
“Thanks.”
They sat silently for a few minutes. Then Leaf looked up at the clock above the doorway.
“Well, I’m off to another day of classes.”
“What are you learning today?”
“Physics.”
“Ah. Have fun with that.”
“Thanks,” Leaf smiled as he sarcastically replied.
Mr. Muffins watched him pack up his things and leave. He stood after a moment, refilled his mug, and went back to his room. Placing the cup on his bedside table, he moved to the desk and started to pull out the plans and rules he had written down for the game he started working on last night with the students. As he finished reading over the laws he made, he heard a soft knock at the door.
“I’m busy.”
“Mr. Muffins?” Ana’s voice came muffled from the other side of the door. “I have an idea for something. Do you have time?”
Mr. Muffins grabbed his mug, approached the door, and spoke at it.
“What?”
“I learned how to make programmed illusions in just one spot. Do you think there’s a way to put a programmed illusion into an item so we could take it places?”
Mr. Muffins pondered for a moment, then opened the door.
“That’s kinda interesting.”
He walked away from the door, allowing Ana to enter the room.
“I was at the academy yesterday morning, and they were teaching people how to make an illusion of a cat that moves around your room. You can program it so the cat appears only when someone, say, opens a door. Like this.”
As Ana finished talking, she placed her hands out in front of her, and he watched as a cat materialized from under the bed. It had a similar coloration to Mr. Muffins’ hair. It crawled out from the bed, stretched, hopped up, circled twice, and then laid down at the foot of the bed.
“It’s stuck here, though. It only works when I open the door. What if I put it into an item that I could carry around? Something that could be much bigger than just a cat through. Something like a whole story in one item, like a play.”
“It’s a concept, but it would take a massive amount of work and manpower.”
“You’re not wrong.”
“Very rarely.”
Ana stared at him for a long moment as if waiting for something. When nothing happened, she spoke.
“What do you think?”
“About what?”
“The programmed illusion in an item.”
“I have a solution, Ana.”
He stood and gestured for Ana to follow him. He walked to the other side of the room, moving the blinds away from a window.
“What do you see?” He asked her.
“The academy?”
“That’s a whole lot of manpower.”
“Okay?”
“Do you see where I’m going with this?”
“That I… Need to hire people to do this?”
“A lot of people, Ana. That’s not something I have the time to work on with everything goin’ on lately.”
“That’s okay. I wanted to talk to you anyway.”
Mr. Muffins turned back towards Ana, a little confused.
“That wasn’t the whole point of you knockin’ on my door?”
“Well… No.”
“What else then?”
Ana walked a few steps away, and he could tell that she was embarrassed by something. He waited for her to talk.
“I’m sure you heard Lyla yell at me. Do you… Do you feel the same way?”
“Well, regardless of how I feel, I’d like to point out here that you came to my room, talkin’ about an invention. Something that would pique my interest. But that was only a ruse to lead into a more difficult conversation?”
Ana started walking towards the door briskly.
“I- I can go.”
“Look,” Mr. Muffins said as he slumped into his desk chair. “Fundamentally, it comes down to a couple of things. What you want and what the group needs. What we need is pretty simple, mostly boiled down to not dyin’. Unless I’m mistaken, many of the complaints levied against you were based around the idea of things getting in the way of not dying. I feel like that is both a reasonable objection and fairly straightforward. Now, some of this is not necessarily your fault. We’re carny folk. We’ve got a level of depth of experience that you don’t have access to yet. You don’t right now.”
“I can be better.”
“But what do you want, Ana?” A few weeks ago, you said you were focused on one thing: getting to Aramore. Things went tits up, and we adapted, but in the short period since then, what you want and what we need has become very obfuscated. The idea that people might go through different phases of their lives in the light of difficult events is not foreign to me. But you went through a very drastic change of behavior, and it’s more than a bit suspicious. It became a significant threat to our ultimate goal of not dyin’. Me personally, I don’t give two shits one way or another, as long as everything lines up as it needs to.
The main issue is that your goals and ours don’t seem to be aligning, and that could lead to our main goal not happening. The ultimate question is, what do you want? What are your goals? Is this the sort of life that will get you there? If not, there is no dishonor in that. You are leaps and bounds ahead of many if you know what you need.
I joined the carnival because I thought I knew where I was supposed to be, and it didn’t line up with their goals. Life changes sometimes. Look at me! I’m sitting here making rules for a game! It’s a waste of resources just so I can pass an evening at a bar.”
“I saw your game idea last night. You know, we could use my idea of programmed illusions for that, too!”
Mr. Muffins sighed, the agitation showing on his face.
“Do you see what you just did? This is the crux of the matter. Are you here for a conversation about a game and programmed illusions or the talking to you had last night? What do you want, Ana?”
“I don’t know… I’ve been taking a few classes since I’ve been here. I want… I want to know that I’m not hated. I want to help you make this game with illusions.”
“Ana, stop. What. Do. You. Want? If you want someone to like you, and you’ll do whatever it takes, that’s just chasin’ your teeth while grindin’ your gums. What do you want?”
Mr. Muffins watched as Ana stared out of the window. He could tell she didn’t have an answer, and she might never.
“You need to focus on one thing at a time. You got to stop tryin’ to do it all, or nothin’ will get done. Do what you want, but slowly communicate it with those around you.”
Ana nodded. They sat silently for a bit, and then Ana stood and thanked him for his time. He closed the door behind her and sat back at his desk. Mug still in hand, he took a drink and found it already cold. He drank it anyway, then went back to his work.
Hours later, with folded parchment in front of him, he punched holes into and placed three rings to hold it all together, and a knock on his door took him away from his writing and working.
“Yes?”
“Mr. Muffins, sir. This is Sarnorin Evensense. Lady Ana asked me to come and get you all.”
He stood and opened the door. On the other side, a tall and lanky firbolg with long brown hair and stone-gray skin. His eyes were sky blue, and his smile was friendly but nervous.
“Thank you, Sarnorin.”
Mr. Muffins followed Sarnorin towards the dining hall. The troupe had already been gathered in the room and stood by the door. The only one missing was Ana. Once he stepped in, Sarnorin walked to the other side and spoke.
“Lady Ana wanted me to bring you all together and to present this meal. She spent the afternoon making it, using the finest spices and meats she had in her magical bag. She also left a note.”
Leaf stepped forward and took the letter. Opening it, he read it aloud.
“I paid for the dining room tonight and tried to make all the things you would like. Mikella has arrived and said she will take me home, where I can speak to some healers and see my family. I think I know what I’m going to do now. Thank you.”
Myla stepped forward, her face showing her shocked emotions.
“She just left?”
“She paid for everything,” Sarnorin replied. “Afterward, she asked me to send a note to the students Mr. Muffins had been working with and some of the VerdantKnoll scholars you spoke with yesterday. She didn’t have names for all of them, so it took some time, but they said they’d be arriving soon.”
In half an hour, Mr. Muffins joined the troupe at the table while waiting for others to arrive. They showed up one by one, and once all the seats were filled, they began to eat. While the students were a little confused but excited to be involved, they removed the silence as they asked questions and talked the general small talk that filled most gatherings.
It wasn’t long after that the conversation moved to the game Mr. Muffins had played yesterday. Not wanting to ruin the night by saying it wasn’t ready, he pulled the parchment out and flipped to the first page.
“I haven’t come up with a name for it yet, but its untitled name for now is Towers and Tables.”
“Why not Dice and Dicks?” Lyla joked.
He gave her a disapproving look but smiled as those around him laughed at her suggestion. He quickly moved into the rules, which he tried to keep simple, then grabbed a few metal clockwork pieces he had put in a bag earlier and placed them in the center of the table. Lastly, he pulled the dice out of another pocket and held them out.
“Who wants to go first?”