by Pirateaba
Termin explained as Erin happily patted one of the horses, Erma, on the head and she chewed her oats. Fox was busy trying to eat the food Erin had brought—warm bread and a spicy dip as a snack with cold meat and cheese for toppings.
“Shoo! You damn horse.”
Pisces waved it away as Ksmvr sliced cheese, cutting with little regard for the sharp blade of his dagger. Fox wandered away and Erin happily accepted a sandwich from Ceria before nearly dropping it.
“It’s hot!”
“Really? Sorry. I tried to tone down the heating spell, but it’s hard when one hand’s…”
Ceria waved her skeletal hand. Erin shook her head as she juggled the hot sandwich.
“No, it’s just that I wasn’t expecting it. Magic is really useful, isn’t it?”
“Best thing on a road.”
Yvlon smiled as she accepted a second sandwich from Ceria. She peered at Ceria’s hands as the half-Elf warmed another sandwich for Termin, trying not to scorch the bread.
“I thought you were a specialist at ice-magic, Ceria. Is it hard to cast flame spells?”
“I used to be quite good at earth and fire magic. It’s my master who taught me a bunch of ice spells.”
Ceria shrugged as she tossed Termin a sandwich. He bowed slightly to her and she grinned and waved a hand in reply.
“I have a few Skills that improve my ice magic, but it’s not like I can’t cast any spell I learn, Yvlon.”
“I see. Magic’s a mystery to me, so I wondered.”
“You never tried to learn?”
Ceria sat with Yvlon on the wagon, the only non-snowy surface as Ceria and Termin clambered on top as well. Yvlon shook her head.
“Not my thing. I had a tutor of course—most rich families have tutors who teach their kids all sorts of skills and find what they might be good at. I couldn’t figure out how to cast [Light] and neither could my older brother or my sisters. Swinging a sword works well enough for me.”
“But it’s magic. If I could learn it, I’d be so thrilled!”
Erin sighed as she chewed her warm food. There was something special about eating in the cold and on the road, she decided. It gave her food…character. Then she remembered something else and slapped her head.
“I forgot! I was going to give you all some of my Corusdeer horn soup! My blue soup!”
The others eyed Erin.
“Your what?”
“Hang on! I’ll show you!”
Erin opened the door lying on the back of the wagon and crawled through it into Octavia’s shop. One of the [Alchemist’s] customers had a very nasty scare when he saw Erin crawling into the shop—from his perspective, it looked like Erin was crawling out of the sky, down through the doorway. But in a few seconds she had some of the soup she’d kept in a glass jar and was showing it triumphantly to the others.
Ceria and Yvlon stared hard at the soup adhering to the walls of the glass. It certainly looked blue, but that wasn’t a good thing. Blueberries were edible, and so was blue cheese, but there was something about blue soup that made it look particularly nasty.
The wagon driver shook his head the instant Erin uncorked the bottle and offered the soup around. All the ingredients had become a gelatinous mess from sitting in the bottle for so long, and the fact that it was still steaming didn’t make it any more appealing.
“I’m not eating that.”
“Aw, come on!”
Erin tried to get him to take a bite, then Yvlon. At last Ceria tried it, but only after Erin had taken a few bites and not immediately thrown up.
“It’s…dead gods, it’s not bad, Erin, but it doesn’t taste that great either.”
Ceria mumbled around the mouthful before she swallowed. The soup was hot going down, and that too felt wrong. But after a few moments, the half-Elf blinked and gasped.
“It’s hot!”
“See?”
Erin beamed around as the others stared at Ceria. The half-Elf’s cheeks had flushed and she was starting to sweat.
“It’s way too hot. Erin, is that soup magical? I have cold protection spells on—I feel like I’m in an oven!”
“Oops. Sorry.”
Ceria shook her head as she examined the soup with renewed interest.
“You made magical soup? I can’t believe it.”
“It’s great! And I think I can make an actual dish next time, not just soup. But this stuff is going to be a huge hit—you can drink it and you won’t feel the cold even if you’re naked!”
“Tested it out, have you?”
Yvlon sighed but took a few bites. Termin did too, and in a few moments everyone was walking around and shedding clothes, standing in the snow and remarking at the way it melted on their bare skin.
“You’ll make a fortune off it—assuming you can sell a lot before the winter ends. Is it expensive?”
“Not too much. But I’ve got other soups and stuff as well! Funny—I always have to make it into a soup first. After that I can figure out how to combine stuff, but soup is easiest to experiment with.”
Erin offered Pisces the last bit of the blue soup. He declined, letting Ksmvr consume the rest of the enchanted food.
“Enchanted cooking is a rarity even in Wistram. I suspect your products will do very well, especially given the difficulty in reproducing a recipe such as this from taste alone.”
The innkeeper smiled wickedly.
“Yeah. No one’s stealing this recipe.”
“I feel like I could lie about in the snow all day. But I suppose I’ll settle for a nice breeze while riding. Time to be off!”
Termin clambered aboard the driver’s seat and called to the others. Erin, Ceria, and Yvlon got on top, but Pisces declined.
“I will walk.”
Everyone stared. Yvlon, Ceria, and Ksmvr had all walked to stretch out, but up till this moment Pisces had refused to expend one bit of energy more than necessary. Termin just shrugged and shook the reins lightly.
“Your choice. Just don’t fall behind, necromancer.”
Erin laughed. Erma and Fox began pulling the wagon, faster than a walk but so slowly that Pisces would be able to catch up quickly.
But the mage didn’t immediately walk after the wagon. Instead, he stayed where he was. Sitting on the wagon back, Ceria frowned. She was about to call back at him when Pisces took one step.
Snow whirled. It flew up into the air in a gust, following the mage. He blurred forwards—too fast to really be called movement at all—and appeared right next to the back of the wagon.
Erin gasped.
“[Flash Step]! That’s the spell, right?”
“It is.”
Ceria watched as Pisces stood still next to the wagon, letting it continue onwards for about five seconds. Then he took a step and appeared next to it in a moment. He looked up, and his eyes met Ceria’s. Both mages looked away.
From her seat, Yvlon frowned at Pisces before looking at Ceria.
“I saw Pisces using that spell in the ruins and in the battle with that old mage. I didn’t know there was a spell like it until now. It looks incredibly useful. Do you know it?”
Ceria shook her head.
“It was one of his specialties. It’s a good spell for movement, but very hard to use. One bad step and you can break your foot or your toes.”
“Ah.”
Pisces continued to follow the wagon. At first Erin kept staring at him, gasping a bit as he blinked forwards with each step, but quite soon she grew tired of the spectacle. Ceria didn’t, though. She knew what Pisces was doing.
He was training.
With each step, Pisces kept pace with the wagon. It was slow, monotonous, and, Ceria knew, had to be mentally draining. But the fact that Pisces could keep performing the spell over and over was a sign of the skill she’d told Erin about.
What was amazing was the accuracy. At first it was off—Pisces would teleport too far ahead and spook the horses, or end up a few feet behind the wagon—but as time went on h
e eventually started appearing right at the back of the wagon, each and every time.
That was unusual, and Ceria knew both Yvlon and Ksmvr could tell how impressive that feat was. The wagon didn’t move at a uniform pace and the road wasn’t always straight. Pisces had to calculate how far to step at a distance in order to land precisely where he wanted to go.
After a while, Pisces added to the exercise. He drew his rapier from its sheathe and walked slowly forwards with it on the balls of his feet. Each time he stepped now, it was into a thrust, as if he were stabbing an opponent in the heart.
Now Pisces would step forwards into a slow lunge, fully extending his back leg while all the weight rested on the front. He kept his arm still as he held the rapier extended as far as he could go. Pisces slowly stepped out of the lunge, blurred forwards and moved into it again.
Slowly. Ceria could see his arms shaking the fourth time he did it, and he began to sweat despite not having had any of Erin’s soup.
After thirty minutes Pisces had to stop. He could barely raise his arms, despite alternating them while lifting the rapier. He collapsed onto the back of the wagon, panting as he pulled a blanket over to wipe his forehead.
“Wow. That looked really hard.”
Erin offered Pisces a pillow and he sank his head onto it, exhausted. He nodded, too tired for sarcasm.
“I am out of shape. It has been a long, long time since I last…”
“Not bad. You have excellent form.”
Yvlon handed Pisces a water flask. She looked at him with a touch of respect. He nodded wordlessly as he drank deeply from it.
“It is a shame the Antinium cannot learn magic. I believe I would benefit greatly from mastering such a spell.”
Ksmvr remarked as he stared at Pisces’ rapier. Ceria shook her head and saw Yvlon and Termin both doing it as well. For all she liked Ksmvr as a person, the thought of thousands of Antinium using [Flash Step]—or a basic spell like [Stone Dart]—was a nightmare.
Pisces shook his head as he handed the water flask back to Yvlon.
“Your species has a distinct absence of any kind of magical affinity, Ksmvr.”
The Antinium nodded calmly.
“Yes. This has been well observed and is a deliberate factor of our creation. Moreover, since the Antinium do not level greatly, magic has not been seen as a viable field to explore for our species.”
“Good. The last thing Wistram needs is Antinium mages running around.”
“I don’t know. I suppose seeing a few Antinium sitting in Rievan’s class would be quite amusing, don’t you?”
Pisces glanced sideways at Ceria. She couldn’t help but grin.
—-
After a few hours Termin called out to the half-dozing adventurers and Erin sitting in the back of the wagon.
“There’s the city. I heard it was abandoned and then retaken. Should we go around, do you think?”
“What city? Oh—”
Erin gasped as she stood up on the wagon. Ceria reached to steady her, but then stopped as well. Yvlon sighed softly as she spotted the distant buildings. Familiar, and yet alien now.
“Esthelm.”
It was more of a whisper. Erin peered at the walls, clearly damaged from a distance, and the way many buildings were only partly standing.
“Whoa. It looks messed up.”
“Well? Go around or go to it?”
“I heard my brother had helped retake the city. I’d like to ask about him, if we can.”
Yvlon turned to the others. Ceria nodded.
“To the city then, Mister Termin. We can probably rest there for the night.”
“So long as they don’t look too hungry. The last thing I need is a bunch of starving folk trying to eat Erma and Fox…”
Termin grumbled as he drove them onwards. The closer they got, the more Erin could see the damage that had been done to Esthelm. The damage, and just as notably, the repairs.
“Looks like they’ve patched up the wall pretty well. And it’s manned.”
Ceria noted the Humans standing on the battlements with bows. Their wagon had already been spotted and she could tell people were eying her back as well. Esthelm was vigilant after two Goblin attacks it seemed.
“Not only that. Look—they’re reinforcing it.”
Yvlon pointed down the wall, where work was clearly being done to expand the fortifications and add onto them. Pisces sighed as he stared at the burnt and ruined buildings.
“I suppose we won’t be resting in luxury here. It might be best to camp outside of the city if all the buildings are in such a state of disarray.”
“We’ll see when we get in. But at least we can eat at Erin’s inn.”
“True! And we can stay there if Termin finds a place to put his horses for the night.”
“Oh no.”
The wagon driver crossed his arms firmly.
“I won’t sleep anywhere away from Erma and Fox. They get agitated if I’m not close by and I won’t risk them being stolen. One of you’s got to stay here at least.”
“I volunteer.”
“Good for you, Ksmvr.”
“Thanks, Ksm!”
“You are a valuable member of the team. Exceptionally useful, I must say.”
Ksmvr nodded modestly as the others thanked him warmly.
“I volunteered for the position because I believed I was most suitable for the job. Guard detail is a position of merit, but I will understand if anyone wishes to trade places with me.”
Soon, the wagon was in hailing distance of the walls. Termin shouted up at the people shouting at him and after much shouting and arm waving, the gates were opened and the wagon rolled in.
Yvlon spoke to the others before they got out of the cart. She’d tugged a cloak around her head, covering up her bright hair and covering her face.
“When we talk to people, let’s just mention we’re adventurers passing through on guard duty. If we can avoid using my name—or our group’s name—I’d appreciate it.”
“Why? Is it because of your brother? Ylawes?”
Ceria frowned at Yvlon. The young woman nodded, looking unhappy.
“I’d prefer not to meet him at the moment if we can. He could be troublesome.”
“Define troublesome, if you please. Dangerous?”
Yvlon shook her head, frowning at Pisces.
“No. He’s not a threat—so long as he doesn’t meet Ksmvr for the first time alone I guess. But he’s…”
Erin nodded.
“I understand. Lips sealed, right everyone?”
They looked at her. She sighed, exasperated.
“Don’t you get it? This Ylawes guy. He might be a nice guy and all, but he’s still her older brother.”
“So?”
“So he’s going to be an older brother.”
“Oh.”
Ceria and Pisces nodded in understanding, despite Ceria not having any siblings to speak of. Ksmvr just tilted his head.
“I do not understand. Pisces, please explain—”
—-
“So this is Esthelm.”
Erin stared around at the ruined buildings, at the people in dirty clothes, helping to lift timber, board up buildings, repair, dismantle, clear rubble and make weapons. There were men and women and children helping to fletch arrows amid the confusion, and more still coming in with game they’d hunted.
“It’s a mess.”
Yvlon kept her voice low as she glanced with sympathy at the citizens. Many looked hungry, but none looked as if they were starving. If they had, Erin would have given them what she could, or gone to Celum for food, but the people here were…strange.
They were ragged yes, hungry, yes, and dirty. But they weren’t beaten. They worked together with purpose, helping to rebuild their city as the wagon trundled into the center of the city.
A man bustled up to the wagon with a few armed citizens following them. Ceria was worried how they’d react when they saw Ksmvr, but the man in charge
—some former [Soldier] by the look of him, wearing thick leather armor—didn’t blink more than once.
“Adventurers? Are you escorting the wagon?”
“That’s right. Is the city…safe?”
Termin asked nervously. The men were inspecting the wagon, staring at the single door on the back of the wagon and the blankets and pillows in some confusion. The man in charge nodded.
“That’s right. We fought off the last Goblin army that attacked this place and we’re not going to let a third one get past our walls again. We’re surviving, but we need supplies. We’ve asked for help from the other cities, but Celum, Wales, Remendia…they’re all claiming the roads are unsafe to send supplies down. So until we can get help we’re on our own.”
“Oh. Is it bad?”
The soldier turned his attention to Erin. She was staring at some children hauling nails in a bucket to some carpenters. He shook his head.
“Not bad, Miss. But I’m afraid that we might have to confiscate your wagon’s cargo if you’ve got anything we can use. We’re in dire need of food, blankets—”
“There’s nothing in here, Umbral!”
One of the men shouted to the man in charge. He frowned and looked at the empty back of the wagon.
“You don’t have any food or supplies? Where’s your cargo?”
“It’s her.”
Ceria pointed to Erin and the young woman waved.
“We’re escorting her to Liscor. She’s an innkeeper, so she doesn’t have much coin. It’s a favor—”
“But we do have food! I can get some—and you can have all the blankets and pillows! I’ll get more as well!”
Out of the corner of her eye, Ceria saw Erin pointing at the door and hoped that Umbral didn’t understand what Erin was saying. Fortunately, the man just looked confused. He tried to stop Erin when she started handing pillows and blankets down.
“We wouldn’t want to take your only supplies, Miss. We’re not robbers—we’ll pay a fair price—”
“Take it, please!”
“A place to sleep would be payment enough, sir.”
Ceria interrupted Erin and she saw Yvlon pull Erin back and whisper to her. The blankets and pillows disappeared fast, and Umbral directed them to some of the sturdier buildings in the city.
