When they came, Whelp couldn’t understand a word they said. It was his first interaction with another race, and he had begged Scorch to let him join. When she had finally caved in to his demands, he had been so excited that couldn’t fall asleep.

Now he was frightened. They were too… different. They were too thin, far too thin. Whelp sucked his thumb as he surveyed the strangers, the elves. None of them had their hair in the warrior’s braids, none of them wore the blood-soaked leathers the orcs prided themselves on. Instead, their hair hung down, unnaturally straight. They wore robes, clothing that covered all of their skin, colored and patterned with things Whelp had never seen.

And their skin! So pale, so pink and white and colorful. Whelp thought that one good poke would pop them. He looked on with apprehension as one spoke to Scorch. When the elf opened his mouth, Whelp nearly let out a cry. They didn’t have tusks!

These strangers scared him. Whelp sidled up to Conquer, who was passively viewing the goings-on as Scorch did all of the talking in the strange, fluid elven language.

“Remember them,” Conquer said without meeting his son’s eyes. “They don’t know the ways. They don’t understand our language, our culture, our people. We use them to trade, and to sharpen our blades. No more, no less.”

Whelp nodded, mouth agape. Scorch finished speaking, and with a sigh, Conquer began to bring forward the large sacks they had carried, handing them off to the elves, who nearly stumbled under the weight of them.

Scorch was given the reins to a camel, laden with sacks. As they departed, Conquer’s words rang through Learn’s head.

“To trade, and as whetstones for our blades. No more, no less.”

The boots worked; Learn had asked for Gawain to try them out. The elf had managed to sneak in and out of Archmagister Lysselia’s solar without the old warlock noticing. He had made it out with a flower from the vase on her desk, a “trophy of our friendship,” as Gawain had explained. At length. The elf was quite wordy, but nice once you started to tune him out. Learn treated him as a sort of noisemaker; something to tune out when he wanted company, but also needed to work on debunking one of Aethyn’s new theories for Magister Lrfshmn.

Now Learn was working on the other pieces of clothing. The enchantment he had decided upon was fairly simple, but it took him time to gather the ingredients; the main one being essence of stealth, a creation of his own devising. Since an ingredient didn’t necessarily have to “be” what it was, as long as Learn’s thoughts about it mirrored what he needed, he could cheat costs. It took a lot of time, but he was managing to save most of the small stipend the Forum allowed him. All he needed for essence of stealth was a glass bottle and some time. He would wait around a corner in one of the many large halls. There was one such where he could fold his body into the crevice between two pillars, and he was basically unnoticeable from the side. Once he was there for a while, he would cork the bottle, and he would have it!

He had come to Where Ends Meet to talk to Lgthpt. The little goblin had insisted that he join her, as she was coming to the tavern to see Best perform. Learn still wasn’t quite sure for whom Best was performing, but he acquiesced. Better to just go along with whatever she wanted than to argue; Lgthpt had a way of getting what she wanted. And besides, it still irked Learn that they would waste such a valuable, defensive position. It was an excellent place to discuss more sensitive matters, like the blackmail that he was dealing with.

Thinking ahead this time, Learn had brought a tome with him, a discussion of artificing to help him pass the time before the pair of friends showed up. As he entered the warm interior, he scanned with his Command-sense to see if anything was amiss. Aside from the presence of Host, his was the only one there, so he allowed himself to relax and lean back. He chose a corner table at the far end of the tavern, sinking comfortably down into the plush seat, and opened the tome, reading and waiting until Best and Lgthpt showed up.

After around half of an hour, they did. Learn had needed to push away Host twice, before finally acquiescing and requesting a glass of water, and two for his companions. He didn’t notice when the pair showed up, he was so absorbed in the book. He only noticed when a sharp, thin finger poked the front of his shoulder.

“Ah. Oh.” Learn patiently folded the book over, leaving his hand inside the page he had been reading. “Good to see you. Any news?”

Lgthpt shook her head. Learn sighed.

“She hasn’t been doing anything,” Lgthpt said, “No sneaking, no stealing, no nothing.”

“She know you’re following?” Learn asked. Again, a shake of the head.

“Certain?” He asked, trying to temper the word as much as possible. He didn’t want to offend the capricious girl by having her take the question personally.

A third shake. “No, she doesn’t know I’m there. And she hasn’t been following you either.”

“Huh.” Learn leaned back in his chair.

Lgthpt looked him in the eye, and he was taken aback by the raw intelligence that he found in there. There was a spark, something that he had failed to notice before now.

“People underestimate goblins,” Lgthpt said. “They think we reckless, stupid. They don’t look under their feet. Don’t think that we can outsmart them.” Learn sensed a note of bitterness enter the young goblin’s voice. “We invisible, and all the same.”

“I understand,” Learn responded. Lgthpt glared at him, one eye up.

“Do you?” The little goblin asked, tone scathing. “You stand out, Learn. You big, different. A smart orc is different. People know you.”

“Not what I meant—” Learn started.

“I’m just another goblin,” Lgthpt interrupted, “If I go, you can replace me with another one. She didn’t notice I was there because nobody does.”

Learn wished that Best was here. He didn’t know how to deal with Lgthpt, he didn’t even know why she was so angry. She had everything he wished he had, and she complained about it?

“Right.” Learn said. “Sorry.”

The goblin girl glared at him, lips scrunched together. He could feel the anger radiating off of her.

“…Let’s wait for Best, then?” Learn suggested, hoping that the elf would be able to temper this situation in a way he couldn’t. He didn’t know what to say to make the goblin feel better, her situation was so different from his.

Though that was it, wasn’t it? The pain at the center of this was shared between the two of them. Being thought of simply as an other, rather than an individual, and Learn certainly had experience with that.

“Not fair,” he started pensively, pausing to see if Lgthpt would interrupt him again. When she didn’t he continued. “To be ‘just another goblin.’ Not fair, to be ‘just another orc,’ either. Do understand, kind of. Different problems, same source.”

Lgthpt pressed her palms down flat on the table, bringing her shoulders up as far as they could go, before letting out a deep sigh and relaxing, visibly, downward.

“You right.” She wiped under her eye with one hand, deft fingers quickly removing the drop of wetness Learn thought that he could see. His heart hurt for her, for though he didn’t know what she went through, it had clearly hurt her. He could understand that.

“She be here soon.” Lgthpt said. Learn nodded, and re-opened his book.

“What you reading?” The goblin piped up.

“Theories of Artificing: Best Practices and Procedures by Magister Lysselia,” Learn read off of the cover. Lgthpt tilted her head to one side, then scuttled over the table and onto his shoulder. He had to fight off the urge to flinch; he didn’t like unwanted contact. But the goblin was his friend. She was doing him a favor, and she cared for him, as he did her. So he forced himself to relax and open the book, and began reading aloud.

“Historians postulate that the gift of artificing has been relegated more toward the Commands given by Shine of a Rustic Diamond, and thus lie more within the realms of the dwarves. However, scientific inquiry has shown that Satisfaction…”

————

When Best finally arrived to the tavern, Lgthpt was asleep on Learn’s shoulder, snoring gently. Learn himself had gotten through several tedious chapters of the gigantic tome in front of him, and he doubted he would have been capable of even that were it not for his Command nudging him along.

The elf was clearly feeling feminine today, bedecked in a bright-orange dress, fur-lined cloak, and brightly-colored makeup. Learn looked up, annoyance clear on his face.

“Best.” He rumbled. “Late.”

“Ah, hello. darling. Yes, sorry, I got caught up. I had the most wonderful barrette lying around somewhere, and I’m quite afraid I misplaced it somewhere. I spent nearly an hour looking around for it, but alas. Ah, hello Lgthpt! How have you been, my sweetest?” She said, taking a seat across from Learn.

“Mmnh. Huh?” Lgthpt looked up, blinking large, tired eyes. “Best!” Learn felt a scratching sensation as the goblin tried as hard as she could to scrabble over from Learn’s shoulder onto Best’s from across the table. She made it with a flying leap, and Best had to jump to catch her.

“Whoa!” Best shouted as the goblin impacted her, a blunt projectile flying through the air at her face. “It’s good to see you too, dear.” Lgthpt settled down in the elf’s lap, and Best started idly scratching her behind the ears.

“So.” Learn grunted. “Performance?”

“Is that what Lgthpt told you?” Best asked, surprised. “I mean, I guess I can if you’d like. I wasn’t quite prepared for a full audience.”

Learn looked around the tavern pointedly. It was empty, space for the three of them and Host behind the bar, who was busy rearranging the bottles on the stacked, busy shelved behind him. He looked back at Best, who conspicuously avoided his gaze, reaching around her to grab something from her pack.

“I’ve actually got something here I’m fairly certain you’ll like, darling.” She dunked a round shape onto the table, a handle sticking out of one side making the shape look lopsided. It took Learn a second to recognize it.

“You have a shekere?” Learn asked, incredulous. “Take months to produce.”

Best picked it up by the handle, gently stroking the side, sending the assembled beads shaking and rattling. “Yes, it was quite difficult. But it’s quite an instrument. I haven’t run into anything quite like it in all my travels.

Learn was astounded. The orcish instrument was notoriously difficult to master, much less produce, and here the elf had gone and managed it all by herself. Learn himself had tried to make one, but he had gotten impatient waiting for the gourd to dry out, and accidentally crushed it while removing the seeds.

He had to shove down his instinctive reaction, to grab the shekere from Best, tell her that it didn’t belong to her. But no, he thought to himself. She wasn’t doing anything wrong. In fact, this was a good thing. One of his goals in leaving the Red Desert had been to sow the seeds of orcish culture, spreading bits and pieces in his wake as he went. This was good.

“Would like to hear it.” Learn said, eliciting a grin from Best. With a flourish, she began to shake the shekere, setting the beads clattering in time. After a few seconds, Learn realized that he recognized the tune, and began to hum along. He wasn’t great at keeping tune, but after a pause Best joined in, singing meaningless words in a high-pitched harmony that helped to keep his own in line.

External worries set aside, elf and goblin and orc sat at a table in an odd tavern, listening to Learn’s cultural music, twining their voices together in song.