The Witch

by V. A. Lewis

  But he was not affected by any of it. He shoved a man, and he was thrown back nearly ten feet off the pier, joining his two buddies in the water.

  Another man charged, but the Dwarf whirled around and elbowed him in the gut. He collapsed, and puked in an instant.

  "That all ya got?" Gennady raised his arms to his sides, seemingly unimpeded in combat by the heavy bag on his back. "Ya fight like a bunch of kids!"

  The last two men shouted an insult back, and one of them pulled out a knife. "Die in Hell!" he yelled.

  The weaponless man dashed forward at Gennady, going to grapple him and hold him in place. He held on for just a moment, before the Dwarf pried him off and threw him off the pier as well. Gennady turned back just in time to see the other man swing his knife at him—

  And I swung my staff at the back of his head, knocking him out.

  I stared at the Dwarf, as he looked down at the unconscious man.

  "I had that just fine," he said.

  "I don’t care," I retorted, and pointed past him. "I care about that."

  A bunch of angry sailors from other ships were staring at us with fury in their eyes; I could practically feel their hate burning from all the way where I stood. They were amassing into one big group of 20, and they were still growing.

  "Uh oh."

  I looked blankly at Gennady as he turned back to me.

  "That’s a bit of a problem," he said.

  "You think?"

  "We should run."

  I rolled my eyes, then ran.

  I heard shouts and screams coming from the sailors charging after us; they were not happy about how we— two random individuals coming to this harbor for the first time— seemingly picked a fight with a prominent crew.

  "Wait…for...me!" Gennady called out from behind me, each of his thudding footsteps creaking the wooden floor below.

  I slowed a little, craning my neck slightly to check the distance between us and the angry sailors. They were getting closer!

  "Does this usually happen with you?" I asked, trying to keep my voice calm despite the rush of the moment.

  "No—" he panted, catching up to me slightly. "Never!"

  I narrowed my eyes but did not question him further since we were still running. We finally reached the start of the pier, back to the city area, with my feet finding itself on solid ground. I glanced around at the hundreds of people going about their business at this busy time of day.

  "We’ve got to escape into a crowd," Gennady said, about to dash into a group of passersby.

  I grabbed his hand, and yanked him back; I shook my head.

  "No."

  "What? But—"

  I cut him off by shouting at the top of my lungs.

  "Help, guards! Help!"

  "What are you doing?" The Dwarf cocked a brow, but I ignored him.

  Immediately, at my screaming, a handful of individuals stopped what they were doing and started for me.

  "What’s going on?" a man asked.

  "Get the guards! Please."

  A susurration ran through the crowd and the message quickly found its way to a small patrol of guards. They pushed their way through gathering bystanders as I quickly ran up to them.

  "You have to help me," I begged in a pleading voice. I looked up at them with my eyes, and gave them my best puppy-dog eyes. "That group of men— they attacked my dad! And they’re trying to attack me now!" I spoke hurriedly.

  "Calm down, little Miss. What’s going on?" the patrol leader asked. "Explain slowly."

  I took a deep breath, and sniffed. "My dad brought me to his ship, The Lightbringer’s Vessel, like he usually does once a week. But then that group of bad men came and got mad at us. They attacked dad’s friends, and threw him off the ship. Now they’re chasing after me. Please, you’ve got to stop them and help my dad!"

  I buried my head in my hands, pretending to sob as I did; the guards exchanged a look, and the patrol leader spoke reassuringly.

  "We’ll speak to them and try to resolve this, ok?" he said. "Just wait right here."

  "Ok," I said softly.

  Then the group of guards walked past me, and intercepted the angry sailors right as they reached the end of the wooden wharf. I immediately shot a look to Gennady, and he nodded.

  We ran.

  We made a dash out of the dockside area of the city as the guards distracted the angry sailors; we did not duck into any side streets, choosing to stay in the main roads despite the fact that we could get caught. I doubted it would happen, plus I did not want to get into any more trouble in some dark alleyway.

  The Dwarf and I finally reached our inn, and it was only in our room did we breathe a sigh of relief.

  "That couldn’t have gone any worse," I commented.

  "Yep."

  "I mean, that was the first crew we talked to. And now we’re probably blacklisted by every ship on the harbor."

  "We definitely are."

  I glanced down at my companion who was still trying to catch his breath; he did not have the best stamina, probably due to his bodyweight and his age. He was in his 60’s, which was considered middle aged for a Dwarf.

  "What happened there?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. "You were so calm one second, and the next…"

  Gennady shook his head. "Nobody insults a Dwarf’s craft," he said, straightening. "You may think us to be short, ugly, and maybe even too hairy— that makes no sense to me, but apparently Elves hate facial hair.

  "However, you never denigrate their tinkering abilities. Especially not mine. I was one of the best, if not the best, in all of Taw. I would never take such offense lightly. Sorry, lass, I know it made things much more complicated, but I had to defend my honor."

  I eyed the Dwarf for a moment, realizing that the sailors genuinely hurt the man with their comments. I rested a hand on his shoulder.

  "Ignore them," I said. "They’re just idiots."

  "I know," he snorted, and I smiled.

  I added, "Plus, you may be short and excessively hairy, but I don’t think you’re ugly."

  "Now you’re just patronizing me."

  "‘Course," I imitated him and grinned.

  Gennady laughed and slapped me across the back. "Lass, you really are a fun one." He paused, before quickly continuing. "And an interesting one too! I can’t believe you fake cried to get some guards and bystanders to help us! I’m glad I decided to stick with ya."

  I shrugged. "You’d be surprised how often children lie to get what they want." Even though I’m not a kid, I thought.

  "Well, good thinking anyways," he said, laughing again.

  "So," I started, finally deciding to discuss the elephant in the room, "what happens now?"

  Gennady grabbed a chair and slumped over onto it, wiping sweat off his forehead. "What do you mean?" he asked. "And before you respond, it’s a rhetorical question."

  "Right." I clamped my mouth shut.

  He continued, "We already had a plan if going to the harbor failed, didn’t we? Plan B if no ship was willing to take us."

  "Ah," I said, not surprised, but let down that he did not have some sort of super secret plan he didn’t tell me; instead, it was just the backup illegal plan we had in mind. "Hire some smugglers."

  Chapter 23: Saved and Spent

  Water, earth, fire, fire, air, earth, fire, air.

  Earth, air, fire, air, fire, water, earth.

  Water, fire, air, water.

  I glanced down at the final combination of symbols; it was not a common sight to see water paired with fire, since the two were supposed to be diametrically opposed in their real elemental forms. But this was simply a representation— the symbols were named as such because they roughly resembled the elements, however they were not the direct equivalence of said elements.

  The theory behind these symbols was a result of complex observations, with its origins stemming from the Great Hero Xander himself. There were basic fundamental rules to creating working runes to draw the power out of a mana
crystal— such as how increasingly complex polygons made out of the fire symbol would generally increase the energy drawn from the mana crystal— yet it was entirely possible to create a brand new, working rune out of a random shape with an arbitrary arrangement of the symbols.

  So far, I had been making simple shapes: ones that had been studied thoroughly and was good for training, but had little practical use for real mana tools. It was like learning calculus as a mathematics major hoping to pursue a Doctorate in Mathematics in the future— I had a long way to go before I could create the kinds of tools my Dwarven companion did.

  I was diligent, but I was not a genius.

  I picked the piece of paper up, and inspected it carefully; there were no mistakes that I could see, which instilled in me a sense of accomplishment. I proudly laid the sheet back down onto the table, admiring my work for just a moment longer.

  Then the door to the room swung open, and I craned my neck away from the paper lain on the desk to see Gennady enter the room. The rotund man strutted in, his heavy footfalls thumping on the hard wooden floor as he lifted his hood.

  "Welcome back," I greeted him, standing up and stretching my back after being seated for over an hour.

  "Ya are one studious kid, you know that right?" he commented as he peered over my shoulder. "Good job. You got everything right this time."

  I was just about to grin in response when the Dwarf smacked me across the back. Ouch, still not used to that. I rubbed the spot and the light sting quickly went away. Then I finally asked the question that had been in my mind.

  "So," I started, "how did it go?"

  "Other than the fact that I had to keep even lower than I usually am? Pretty damned good if I had to say so myself."

  He placed both hands on his bed, and hefted himself up onto it; he pulled out a small metallic flask and drank from it.

  "I managed to speak to a few guys, and they said they could arrange a meeting between us and these two smugglers. They’re one of the best in the city."

  I lifted an eyebrow, and tilted my head to the side. "Are they trustworthy though?" I asked. "That’s more important than how good they are at their job. They could be amazing, but if they betray us, it doesn’t matter."

  The Dwarf furrowed his brows, and sighed. "Lass, has anyone ever told you that you are sometimes very paranoid?"

  "What’s wrong with erring on the side of caution?"

  "Nothing." He shook his head and stood up. "I hear that they’ve never failed a job. But the thing is, they’re used to smuggling goods out and into the city, not people. There isn’t much illegal slave trafficking coming out of Luke by sea, and people who try to flee the country generally do so through land by the southern border." He took another swig of his alcohol.

  "Good," I said, nodding curtly. "I prefer it that way. I’d rather not deal with slavers or people who aid slavers. It just doesn’t sit well with me."

  "Because it’s illegal?"

  "Because it’s evil," I corrected the Dwarf, before changing topics. "So, where will we be meeting these smugglers?"

  "They have a hideout in a tavern near the docks. That’s on the northern side of the harbor, so we won’t have to worry about running into too much trouble, I hope."

  Right, trouble, I thought, remembering the reason why Gennady had to wear that cloak over his head, and I was staying in the inn by myself: there were very angry sailors on the lookout for us— as confirmed by Gennady— after the incident at the main pier area a few days ago. And it did not help that we tricked the guards to buy us some time so we could escape.

  Were we wanted by the guards for tricking them? Probably not. However, picking a fight with dozens of sailors was probably against some law in Laxis, which meant that the city guards were keeping at least one eye out for us; we were not criminals, but there was most definitely a hefty fine we had to pay for partaking in a brawl.

  Gennady wanted to avoid paying it if we could, and I did not disagree with that sentiment. So due to both those reasons, we were keeping on the down low while searching for a way out of this city.

  I walked over to the closet, and pulled out my ‘Aria’ disguise. "Well then, let’s get going," I said to the Dwarf.

  He frowned, scratching his scruffy beard. "Right now?" he asked. "I arranged a meeting for tonight."

  "We want to scout out the place first, of course," I replied casually, taking off my pointed hat. "Plus, I’m sick and tired of being locked up in this room. Maybe I can look around for anything I might want to buy in the market. You’ve bought your Superior mana crystals, well I want something of my own too."

  "Aight, if that’s what you want." Gennady gave a noncommittal shrug.

  "Now, if you’ll excuse me," I said, gesturing at the door. "Could you please get out?" I held my change of clothes up, indicating I needed some privacy.

  "Right." He hurriedly left the room.

  I carefully inspected the array of mana crystals before me, reaching for one that was about the size of my hand and held it up against the lamplight. The blue-green gemstone glimmered, reflecting the shine into my eyes; it was bright.

  I had read in A Tinkerer's Guide— one of the books Gennady had loaned me— that mana crystals of higher quality had highly reflective surfaces whereas lower quality mana crystals did not. This was due to the difference in the mana density inside each crystal, with an increase in mana leading to a more opaque body that allows less light to pass through. And yet, it was easy to mistake the light refracting through a translucent mana crystal as light being reflected on its surface, which often caused many without a discerning enough eye to be scammed out of their silver or gold.

  I squinted, making a hole with my fingers and looking through it as though it would help me see better; it did, but by a small margin. I was almost certain that this mana crystal was worth its price— it was a Lesser mana crystal of ostensibly high quality costing 6 gold coins: that seemed like a steal to me.

  "Hey Gennady," I called out to my Dwarven companion. "Is this one any good?"

  "That?" He frowned, and took the mana crystal out of my hand; he scrutinized it for a moment, then waved his hand dismissively. "Bah, it’s only a Lesser, and it’s barely above average. Maybe for its price it’s good, but otherwise I wouldn’t buy it."

  I nodded. "Thanks," I said, and turned to the store owner. "I’ll take it."

  The woman smiled eagerly, rubbing her hands together as I completed the transaction; I managed to haggle the price down to 5 gold and 10 silver— it was only a two silver discount, but that was worth over a dozen meals, or a few nights in most regular inns.

  I returned to Gennady as he crossed his thick arms over his broad chest; I inclined my head to the side. "What?" I asked.

  "I told you not to buy it— it wasn’t even a good," he said.

  "Are you saying it’s not good because it’s not a Superior mana crystal, or are you saying it’s not good because I was scammed out of my money?"

  "Well, uh, it’s..." the Dwarf stammered, scratching the side of his beard. "I was more leaning towards the former," he finally said.

  "Exactly." I smiled, and placed a hand on his right shoulder. "I got it because it was what I was looking for, and you told me it’s good for its price. I was taking your advice, don’t worry."

  "But if you’re planning on getting a mana crystal to practice with, you should at least start with Inferiors, not Lessers," he objected.

  "I’m not planning on using this just yet," I said, placing the blue-green gemstone into a small pouch, and tying it closed. I attached it to my leather belt, and strolled past Gennady. "It’s not for practice now. It’s for when we’re at sea and I’ve already mastered working on Inferiors. I’m planning ahead." I gestured for him. "Come on," I said, "let’s get going. We don’t want to be late."

  We left the shop and headed towards the docks; we passed by ships that were not currently being used— many of them looked as though they had been left in disrepair for months— while oth
ers seemed as though they were having improvements added onto them. It was mostly empty of life however, since it was evening, and the little noise we heard came from the nearby bars, taverns, or inns which were beginning to teem with life at the end of twilight.

  I followed Gennady as we made our way through the cobble street, finally stopping a block away from our destination. "There it is," he said. "The Merlion’s Alcove."

  I glanced at the small, wooden building; it was a much more subdued tavern than the ones we had seen on the way here, yet there were clearly suspicious people making their way for this spot. With a name like that and with people as shady as this, you really can’t be more obvious that this is a cover!

  "Let’s take a look around," I said.

  We spent the next hour loitering around the area; the brilliant vermillion sunset was covered over by the thick, dark clouds before it had fully disappeared beyond the horizon, and a light pattering of rain began to fall upon us.

  The drizzle slowly got heavier and heavier, and when it looked as though it would turn into a full-blown storm; Gennady and I had seen nothing indicating that we would run into any trouble in the tavern, so we decided to finally enter the tavern.

  The double doors swung open with a hard push, as the bottom of the wood frame scratched across the floor. The tavern, which didn’t seem lively from the outside, actually had some minor activity on the inside; the thick walls must have prevented noise from leaking out, which led to my earlier assumption.

  Regardless, it was almost evidently a facade: the bards playing in the corner evoked too large of a reaction from the early night crowd, and the boisterous laughter of sober men as they chatted only made the scene all-the-more jarring. I made sure to keep my hood up as a few faces inconspicuously eyed Gennady and I from their seats.

  The Dwarf waded his way straight to the bar, plopping himself on one of their stools as his hood fell off his head. I wanted to throw it right back on, but it was already too late; the barkeep looked over him once over and nodded.

  "What do you want?"