by S. R. Witt
I ducked into a narrow side street and stopped in the shadow of a small home to wait for Indira and Mercy to catch up.
The duo hustled after me like they were afraid I was making a break for it. They pulled up short when they saw Bastion and me waiting patiently. “Relax, I’m not trying to screw you out of your reward. How much are they offering?”
A small smile pulled up the corners of Indira’s mouth. “5,000 gold pieces.”
That was impressive. Much more than I’d thought the Hoaldites were willing to pony up. It was enough to make me shoot a nervous glance in Bastion’s direction.
For a moment, I thought of giving up on the whole thing and letting Bastion claim the reward for my capture. That was enough cash to buy us time. Time I could use to start a new character and start earning money.
It was tempting, but I couldn’t give up. I was positive my next character wouldn’t be a thief, and even more positive that the Hoaldites were up to very bad things with the Burning Throne. The Grandfather of Shadows even hinted the threat was much bigger than just this game.
There are other worlds than these.
I needed to know how this story ended.
It was time to take my shot.
“What if I offered you something more important than the reward?” I raised a hand before she could interrupt me. “Not more valuable, more important.”
“Talk,” she said, impatience stamped into her furrowed brow. I could tell she was about to lose her shit, but the fact she was letting me ramble at all gave me hope.
“There are monsters in Frosthold. They’re looking for something, and if they find it, we’re all screwed.”
Mercy scoffed, and Indira laughed. The archer shook her head. “That’s impossible. The only dangers in this town come from people like you. Monsters can’t get inside the walls. It’s a safe zone.”
She had a point. The town was a safe haven, except for player versus player combat. The guard discouraged even that, but they couldn’t stop every fight. And yet…
“He’s right.” Bastion said. It was nice of him to have my back. “I saw them, too.”
Indira chuckled. “You think I’m going to believe you? You’d say anything to get your brother off the hook.”
“Then let me prove it to you.” Mercy and Indira measured me with their eyes. “You’re a tracker, right? Let me give you something fascinating to track. I’ll take you to where we fought the nightspawn.”
Indira and Mercy drew back from Bastion and me, whispering with their heads close together. Indira’s eyes never left mine, and I could see she was pissed enough to gut me now and ask questions later if Mercy didn’t talk her off the ledge.
“I hope they buy this,” Bastion whispered to me from the corner of his mouth. “And you better hope we figure out some other good way to earn money because I’m not sure you’re worth 5,000 gold pieces.”
Stabbing my brother seemed like a great idea. “You’re a dick. And at least I’m worth something.”
“You sneaky asshole.” He grumbled. “Your plan better work.”
“Trust me.”
Bastion frowned. “You’re going to have to earn that back after today.”
Ouch.
Indira and Mercy turned their attention back to us. The archer crossed her arms over her chest and said, “Show us.”
“I’ll lead the way,” Bastion said. “Saint gets lost easily.”
We followed him on a winding path through the city, huddled together against the freezing wind and blowing snow despite the mutual animosity running through the two halves of our group. This close to Indira, I could smell something warm and sweet wafting from inside her cloak, like freshly baked sugar cookies. It was very distracting.
The Wenderly place hadn’t changed much since Bastion and I had fled it in a blind panic. The door was still busted down, and the front wall was splattered with blood. There were huge, gore-stained dents in the stone, evidence of the ogre’s massive club. The roof was mostly gone, and streaks of soot trailed up from each of the windows. The fire had done a number on the place before the guards had managed to put it out. The whole area reeked of burnt wood, and would until someone took the time to gut the place and rebuild.
Bastion sketched a half-assed bow toward Indira and motioned toward the door. “After you.”
Indira entered the burnt-out mansion, but Mercy waited for Bastion and me to cross the threshold before she followed. “I’ll bring up the rear, just in case someone gets naughty ideas.”
Her eyes lingered on me a little long for my liking.
“It’s up here,” Bastion said. “I’ll show you where we fought them.”
We passed through the fire-damaged rooms and climbed the charred staircase to the second floor. Bastion led the way to the spot where I’d stabbed the wargrai and pointed a finger at the blood stains soaked into the wood. “Right here. What do you think this is?”
The archer crouched next to the stain, and her tongue tested the air. “I don’t know, it smells like—”
“Like a trap, dumbass?” Bastion stomped down hard on the archer’s back, flattening her into the floor. His sword leaped from its scabbard, and he swung it toward Indira’s head as she unleashed a fistful of snarling fire.
The spell streaked at Bastion’s face, forcing him to abandon his attack to dive for cover. The ball of flame hit the wall and blasted chunks of burning wood in every direction.
With Bastion off her back, Mercy was free to roll toward me and come up slashing a curved short sword at my guts.
She was fast, but I was faster. I twisted away from her attack and drove an elbow into her back.
VERBOSE COMBAT MESSAGING ON
UNARMED COMBAT SKILL CHECK
Strength (10) + Unarmed Combat (1) + d100 (43) = (54)
vs
Dexterity (12) - Dodge (4) + d100 (35) = 51
Result: 3
Degree of Success = 1
Unarmed Combat Damage (Strength) = 10 points of damage - Huntress Armor (8) = 2 Total Damage
Attack Time: 5 seconds
Stamina Cost: 1
SUCCESS! You have increased your mastery of the Unarmed Combat skill. (Rank 2)
Well, that could have gone better. I’d expected a Dexterity-based attack, but apparently just smacking someone around with a fist or an elbow was governed by Strength. Which meant no free follow-up from my spiffy magic bracers.
The damage I’d managed to inflict hardly showed on Mercy’s health bar, and I hadn’t even stunned her. Why hadn’t I just stabbed her in the kidney?
Another fireball streaked from the elf’s hand toward my chest. The ball of writhing flame homed in on me with unerring accuracy. I was a dead man.
And then time slowed as my Friendly Fire talent kicked in to save my skin.
It wasn’t just my perception of time that shifted, the entire world jolted to a halt and unraveled into a seething tangle of burning threads.
The ball of fire hung at the center of my awareness. A blazing red thread trailed behind it, leading back to a pulsing, multicolored core of light within a shadowed form I realized was Indira.
A second, blazing white, thread sprouted from the fireball’s leading edge and vanished into the center of my chest. The spell inched forward along that line, burning it up as it closed in for the kill.
Not a chance, I thought to myself and hooked my fingers around the white thread.
It pulled away from my chest with a dull sucking sound, leaving behind a whiff of sulfur and a lingering flash of gray light that dissolved into fading sparks in super slow motion.
The white thread twisted in my fist like a decapitated snake. It pulled against my grip, eager to plunge back into my chest.
Instead, I aimed the thread at a pulsing ball of blue light in the core of Mercy’s body and willed it into place.
SUCCESS! You impose your will over the raw elements of magic and bind a primal thread to your target.
You have learned the rudiments of the Threadweaving s
kill. (Rank 1)
Time hurtled forward with a crackling snap. The ball of fire swerved around me, passing so close my eyebrows shriveled away from its heat and slammed into Mercy’s back. It splattered against her armor and sprayed across the hallway like a bucket of boiling grease.
Indira’s mouth fell open, and her eyes bulged from their sockets. “That isn’t possible…”
I grinned and waggled my stiletto in her direction. “Oh, it’s possible. I’m just full of surprises.”
Indira’s fists clenched and unclenched as she glared at me. A nascent ball of fire died in her hand, and she ground her words out through gritted teeth. “You’re both dead for this.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
I don’t think you’re in a position to make any threats,” I said to Indira. “Or would you like to take another shot at me and risk flash-frying your buddy over there?”
Bastion held his sword’s point level with Indira’s heart. “He’s got a point. Give it up.”
Mercy scrambled back to her feet, but her health bar was low, and she bore scorch marks across her face and neck. She looked about as happy as you’d expect for someone who’d been unexpectedly set on fire by her buddy.
I pointed my finger at the bloodstain that had served as ground zero for the fight. “What kind of blood is on the floor?”
The archer twisted her head from side to side to work out the kinks, and grunted, “Nothing good.”
I held my position between Indira and Mercy because I didn’t trust either of them to play nice. If I moved over by Bastion, Indira might toss some kind of area effect fire blast and take us both out before I could bust out my threadweaving skills. If I stayed between them, there was a chance I could use Friendly Fire to put a stop to any foolishness on their part. It wasn’t a great chance, but it was the best I could hope for, given the circumstances.
Bastion closed in on Indira. She held her hands up to show she wasn’t a threat, but she didn’t strike me as the kind of lady who’d accept her fate meekly. If Indira got the chance, she was definitely going to cause trouble.
Which is why I focused my attention on Mercy. She seemed the more practical of the two, less likely to lose her shit and stab me in the eye if I rubbed her the wrong way. “Care to be more specific about the blood?”
Mercy grunted and rubbed her bruised nose. “Some kind of dog? No, that’s not right.”
I touched a finger to my nose. “Ding ding ding. You’re almost right. It was a dog woman.”
Indira sniffed at my response. “That’s ridiculous. Are you saying it was a female dog?”
“You’re awful mouthy for somebody with the sword pointed at her heart. No, I’m saying it was a dog woman. Like a woman who was part wolf.”
“There’s no such thing,” Mercy said.
“Oh, like there’s no such thing as a snake woman?”
Mercy actually growled at that. It was a low rumbling that was as alarming as it was unexpected.
“I’m not a snake anything. I’m dragon-blooded.” She glared at me from the floor. “Not that I would expect a scumbag thief like you to understand what that means.”
I held up both hands, palms out. “You got me there, I’m just an ignorant human. But I think if you check your nose again, you’d see I’m right. There was a crow person here, too. And an ogre.” I tapped my toe on the floor near Mercy’s head. “You picking up any of that, bloodhound?”
Her tongue flickered again. Then again. It was fascinating to watch, really. “There’s something--”
“You can’t hold us here forever.” Indira interrupted. The elf magus stood with her arms crossed, and her brow furrowed. Her eyes flashed red, and drizzles of wavering flame fell around her. She might be a great wizard in training, but her poker face sucked.
Bastion smiled at her words and her temper. “We’re all alone here, lady. If only two of us walk out of here, no one’s going to be any the wiser. Judging by the fact that you didn’t kick our asses around the block once this little fight got rolling, I guess you aren’t fifth level yet. Which means if we pop you, you’ll have to re-roll. You won’t even be around to accuse us of anything. It’s a perfect crime, really.”
And here I thought I would be the one to put his foot in his mouth.
Indira, realizing Bastion was right and she had nothing to lose, turned and ran.
Bastion and I stared at one another. I realized my brother had no chance against Indira if she had room to fling spells at him, which left her pursuit to me.
I didn’t look forward to it because the last time I’d gone running through this house things had worked out very poorly for me.
Still, I knew if Indira got out of the house, she was going straight for the guards. I couldn’t have that.
So I chased her.
She didn’t know the place and got turned around in no time. I cornered her in the hallway that led to the study. The only ways out were past me or through the window.
“Stay away from me,” she yelled and raised a hand.
“Wait,” I said, but she didn’t.
Instead, Indira stormed into the study and slammed the door behind her.
She didn’t have the key to the room though, and the scorched wood was no match for a determined kick. The door flew open and the elf sprawled away from it, landing in a heap on the floor with her blond hair and feathered cloak draped around her face and body.
I drew my dagger and prepped it for a throw. I didn’t want to hurt her, but I wasn’t sure I’d have a choice if she decided to burn me to a crisp.
“Listen,” I begged. “I’m telling you the truth. There's a danger to the whole town, but we can stop it.”
Out in the hall, I heard Mercy shout, and Bastion responded with a roar of his own. Steel clanged off steel. Things were going downhill in a big hurry.
Indira crawled across the floor away from me. “You’re a thief. Why should I trust anything you say?”
I shoved my stiletto back into its sheath and picked my way across the burnt floor to Indira. I needed her to understand I wasn’t trying to hurt her. She needed to see that we should be working together.
I reached down to lift her from the floor so we could talk like civilized human beings, and she responded by trying to set me on fire.
Before I could touch her shoulder, Indira rolled onto her back and raised both hands. Blue flames leaped from her outstretched palms and arced through the air toward my chest.
I dodged her initial outburst, but Indira had more tricks up her sleeve than I’d thought. Her flames arced through the air like burning serpents. They streaked after me as I dodged and jumped around the room like a monkey with a meth pipe.
Indira hauled herself up onto one knee as she steered the flames toward me, bending them around the ruined furniture and aiming them at my head.
“Fine,” I shouted as I ducked under a noose of flame. You want to play rough?”
I flung a dagger at her, not to kill her, but to distract her.
It worked. The weapon struck the magus in the shoulder butt first. Her hands flew apart, and she lost control of the spell she’d woven. Lashes of fire whipped around wildly, carving scorched loops and swirls into the walls, before winking out of existence.
She shrieked in outrage and unleashed another spell. This one hit me like a battering ram, an unexpected pillar of invisible force that pinned me against the far wall.
“Ouch,” I gasped. The attack had come too fast for me to dodge it, much less bust out my mad threadweaving skills.
She stepped toward me, one outstretched hand holding me in place. “Enough. This is over. I’m going to leave you here and come back with the guard.”
Something crashed in the hall outside. Bastion shouted, and Mercy hollered in protest. “Let me go!”
But Bastion wasn’t one for listening. Something else slammed outside, and the pair of them rolled into the study with Indira and me. Bastion had a bloodied gash across his forehead, and Mercy’s nose was a bl
oody mess. Neither of them had a weapon, but they’d wrapped their arms and legs around each other and seemed intent on grappling one another into submission.
Bastion got the upper hand, just for a moment, and reared up over Mercy, gauntleted fist drawn back to deliver the coup de grace.
“Wait!” Mercy shouted. “I believe him. Stop fighting!”
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
Between my brother’s surprise attack on Mercy and Indira’s temper, it was a miracle we were all still alive. It looked like that was about to change, though, because Indira’s face had twisted into a mask of fury and the pillar of force was squeezing the air from my lungs.
“Stop!” Mercy shouted. “All of you. Saint isn’t lying. There were monsters here. Or at least creatures I can’t identify.”
Indira looked like she was going to flatten me like a bug just for spite, but she relented at the last second. She frowned at Mercy as if she was upset she wouldn’t get to kill us. “You have to be kidding.”
Bastion and Mercy looked at one another, and then carefully disentangled. They stepped away, Bastion standing next to me, and Mercy next to Indira. There was still tension in the room, but I could feel it dissipating.
“Now that we’re no longer about to gut each other like fish, maybe you’ll listen to me,” I said around gasps for breath. “I don’t know how they’re doing it, but those monsters can get into the city. And they’re trying to ruin everything.”
“Mercy, what do you say?” Indira asked. “Can you track these supposed monsters?”
Mercy’s tongue flickered. “No. There’s something wrong with their scent. It’s fuzzy, hard to get a fix on.”
Well, there went that plan. It would’ve been nice if the archer’d been able to track down the monsters and we could just finish them, but it didn’t look like that was going to be an option. “Look, we might not be able to track them, but we can stop them from getting what they’re after.”
