by Peri Akman
“What… what do you mean? You said you had mimicked like three healers and Cosime’s ability, right?” Quinn asked.
“Well… yeah but… I… accidentally crunched most of them in a panic,” Kole muttered.
“Crunched?” Quinn asked, baffled.
“Dying, well, almost dying tends to ruin your focus. Way worse than sleep, poison, or any mind game. My powers are still maintained by my concentration, just not in the traditional sense. It’s why I usually lose powers after a day; sleeping tends to make it disappear,” Kole explained, looking at Quinn’s wounds with worry.
“You kept your internal healing, didn’t you?” Quinn pleaded, hoping for some easy solution. “Didn’t you keep anything else?”
“Did I?” Kole asked, looking upwards in confusion. “If I did, it’s gone now.”
Quinn winced as Kole returned to prodding his wounds with renewed vigor.
“You have some broken ribs, Quinn. And a broken wrist. And I think you twisted your ankle.” Kole reported, a bit more clinical than Quinn would have preferred, considering how he had just risked life and limb to save her.
Quinn shrugged. “It was… uh… well it wasn’t nothing. But it was worth it. I wasn’t going to let you go missing.”
Kole reached her hands out, and hugged Quinn, tightly.
“How’d you manage that?” Kole whispered in amazement.
“How do you think?” Quinn asked. It was only a matter of time before Kole picked up on his new learned skills.
“Uh…” Kole said as she looked around. “Unless the answer is ‘went into a rage and stabbed everything in sight’, I have no clue.”
Quinn released the hug and stared at her in confusion. Did she not see the massive spell labeled SUMMON A HUMAN BEING in his metaphorical magic cloud?
She had always been so quick on the uptake that her even questioning it had him worried. Was it a giant massive coincidence? No, that was ridiculous. Ser Hero had literally called him master.
Heck, he had been called master in multiple variations.
Unless it was all a hallucination. It had all happened within a few minutes; it almost seemed like Quinn had made it up, like it couldn’t actually be real.
Quinn felt a distinct snap, in a distant part of his brain. Wellp, that was probably Ser Hero being unsummoned. So apparently not believing in his own skills caused his skills to fail. Absolutely splendid. He would just have to compensate by being idiotically confident no matter what, then his powers would be unbeatable. Truly.
“I—” Quinn began, but stopped. He had just summoned a human riding a monster. And Kole had expressly told him not to do approximately one half of that. Plus, she apparently couldn’t summon Ser Hero, so… whatever it was, it couldn’t be mimicked. Which was worrying, to say the least.
Kole stared at Quinn in confusion, most likely already missing her empathic abilities.
“You, what? What did you do, Quinn?” she asked, her voice sounding constricted.
“I… I just chased after you. I was useless. You were dropped by a monster. We got lucky.” Quinn stumbled over his words. That seemed believable, right?
Kole did not seem particularly interested in analyzing Quinn’s tale, as she was instead distracted by her lack of walking stick.
She only flailed incompetently for a few moments, however, because as she forced herself to stand up, legs quivering, they both heard a noise closer to the temple.
“H—EE—Q—”
“How long have I been out?” Kole asked, wobbling as she found her balance.
“I dunno, half an hour?” Quinn speculated, although it was probably much less than that.
“Then I suspect that’s people looking for us—HEY! HEY WE’RE UP HERE! HEYY!” Kole yelled.
Quinn also yelled, but not as loudly. The minute his lungs expanded even remotely, his entire chest area practically shattered in pain. Right. Broken bones. Such fun.
Kole’s voice echoed, and the monster far away halted, and stared at them.
Quinn geared up to summon Ser Hero again and was just about to make the mental leap—when a black disc of energy went careening towards it.
Rising up into view were Dale and Cosime. Dale smirked.
“You guys needed some help, yeah?” she said, and flicked her wrist, causing an array of black discs to appear around her, ready to be flung at a moment’s notice.
The monster roared and charged. It took at least ten seconds for it to reach Dale. In those ten seconds, the discs merged and swirled before making a large black lance shape. Dale pushed it forward, and the lance cleaved through the monster’s skull like it was butter.
Dale jumped down, and pointed to Quinn. “Cosime.”
Cosime obediently walked over to Quinn.
“That mind reader came back a sobbing mess.” She looked at the fallen monster nearby. “You guys took down a few of these on your own; pretty impressive.”
Cosime touched Quinn lightly, and the bones snapped back into place.
Quinn screamed in pain. Holy Gods Above, that was the worst thing he had ever felt! It was literally his bones just snapping back into place, with no regard for anything else.
Cosime didn’t seem particularly torn up by this, staring at him dully.
It was… awkward. Of course, any awkwardness and moral confusion Quinn felt was dwarfed by Kole’s own emotions. She was practically vibrating with what Quinn could only assume was untempered fury.
Dale, however, didn’t even notice, as she pumped her fist in victory. “Hey, Quinn, you saw that right? One shot, and it was down! Took me ages to perfect that. Never got it off so good before, though.”
Quinn gave a grimace, but his body seemed to be pulsating with pain as it tried to figure out what to do with the sudden abrupt change in himself. His adrenaline had completely faded away, which just made things worse.
Kole seemed to be struggling to move, so Quinn summoned a walking stick, in the likeness of her old one, and handed it to her.
Kole barely noticed it. She seemed to struggle to even take her eyes off of Dale as she continued her slow ascent to a standing position.
Dale, in her lack of understanding of the situation, strutted over to Kole and tried to grab her hand to help her up.
The reaction was immediate. Kole practically toppled over, screeching bloody murder, forcing herself back, all to avoid contact with Dale.
Several discs of black energy instantaneously surrounded Kole, at least the size of the one Dale had just used to take out the monster, if not bigger. Kole panted heavily, clearly panicking.
“What in the gods—?” Dale spat, clearly taken aback. “What did I ever do to you?”
“Don’t. Touch me,” Kole hissed.
A silence rang out between the two warlocks. The large, floating lance-shaped black discs ominously hovered over Kole.
“I wasn’t trying to, sweetie,” Dale said, her teeth bared like fangs. “But if you’re that intimidated by me, I can stop saving you.”
Kole did not move, but the energy discs doubled.
“Don’t. Talk. To me,” Kole hissed. This time her voice wavered slightly, like she was trying to choke out the words. Dale probably didn’t even pick up on it, but Quinn was familiar enough with them to know Kole’s tells.
Dale’s eyelid flickered, and Cosime stepped back with a sort of franticness that made Quinn wonder if it was an independent action or not.
“Bet you wouldn’t be so confident if you weren’t leeching off my powers,” Dale said smoothly, her carefree smile gone. “Drop my energy, and then we’ll see your tune, eh?”
Kole twitched ever so slightly, and it was at this point that Quinn took action.
He stepped in between them, a bit closer to Dale than he was to Kole, and summoned a wall of glass between them.
Or more accurately, he put himself in a giant glass cylinder with no top, but from their vantage points it was basically a wall.
“Stop it! Stop this right now!” Quinn
yelled, surprised at his own force.
Kole flinched, like she was afraid Quinn was going to clobber her or something. It was the strangest reverse in power Quinn had ever seen.
Cosime gave the smallest of exhales in relief.
Dale stepped back coolly, and ran her fingers through her hair.
“I don’t even know what I did wrong,” she said with a shrug.
“Of course you don’t,” Kole snapped. “Your kind never do.” She looked pointedly at Cosime.
“Wait—seriously? That’s what this is all about? My apprentice? You judgmental bitch, do you have any idea what our relationship is like? No. You don’t. Cosime agreed to—”
“COSIME IS A KID YOU MONGREL” Kole roared through the glass. “I DON’T GIVE A RAT’S ASS ABOUT WHAT YOU CONNED THEM INTO THIN—”
“SHUT UP!” Quinn screamed. “WE. NEARLY. DIED! There are MONSTERS and DEMONS and it’s only a matter of time before they ATTACK US FOR SQUABBLING!”
Quinn’s breathing was uneasy, his chest hurt, and hot tears streamed down his face from the act of aggression. No one responded. Dale simply gave a shrug and left the area, motioning for Cosime to follow her.
Cosime took a slight glance at Kole, their face quirking into a grimace, before following Dale.
Quinn let down the glass. He generated a staff and offered it to Kole, but she ignored him and made her own.
She hobbled down the area of what was essentially a long slope. Quinn kept an eye out for demons, but Ser Hero’s cleanup, however temporary, had been immensely efficient. There wasn’t even the slightest flicker of light. And with the monster steeds gone, there wasn’t even the noise of them either.
At the bottom, Dale was hovering grumpily, with Cosime standing next to her. Standing with her was Uleyn, who Quinn suspected had been the one yelling. With him were about three other people, clad in loose but thick clothing. It looked odd compared to Ser Hero’s shining, yet rather impractical, armor. Their weapons were also less…stylized than Quinn’s. Probably way better too.
Uleyn broke out into a huge smile when he saw them, and raced toward the slowly moving apprentice and even slower-moving warlock.
“Oh thank the gods—you’re all right!” Uleyn proclaimed.
“Yeah… the demons were literally riding the monsters. Like they were horses,” Quinn said when Kole didn’t reply. His voice quivered slightly, and he quickly wiped at his eyes to remove the wetness.
“Riding the—that’s impossible. They don’t work together! They oppose each other!” Uleyn uttered. “That’s…”
“Maybe they missaw,” Dale said, frowning slightly.
“Nope. We could do the whole song and dance of going to all forty of your empaths in an elongated truth line, but… I’d rather not?” Quinn replied.
Uleyn seemed to pale ever so slightly. “If that’s true… then we need to consult the rest of the high folk of the temple. A singular team of warlocks might not be good enough for this.”
“Well, I could turn in the paperwork and come back in a few weeks and help out,” Dale said. “It’s the least we could do since Cosime failed to heal your guard.”
Kole made an odd coughing noise, which Dale responded to with an angry glare.
“That would be an excellent idea. Otherwise we’ll put out the call for more immediate help. Kole, I’m sorry, but you two nearly died, do you think you can handle this?” Uleyn asked.
“Of course we can!” Quinn interrupted. “I’m sorry, am I the only one who noticed that there are no demons watching us anymore?”
The individuals looked around, as it only just sunk in that they were indeed quite alone.
“But you were dying… were you not?” Uleyn questioned.
“Well… yeah… but that’s because of the gigantic honking monsters. If it hadn’t been for the ones ridden by demons catching us off guard, we would have been fine. And now we know and can plan accordingly. We’ll be fine alone,” Quinn insisted.
He refused to make eye contact with Kole as he said this, or even look at her. He wasn’t lying. They could handle it. Especially if he could keep a consistent summon.
Uleyn looked at Kole for confirmation. Kole gave a long slow nod.
“All right, you have my blessing, for now. The rest of us will return; will you two be all right alone?” Uleyn asked.
Another long slow nod.
Uleyn smiled happily, wished them luck, and turned to leave after a few more brief nods and interactions.
The guards followed shortly thereafter, gawking and whispering about the lack of demons.
Dale and Cosime were the last to leave, fighting words just barely constrained from leaving Dale’s tightened lips.
Finally they were left alone, with only the short road ahead of them to go back to the houses.
Quinn gave an exhausted smile to Kole, hoping to the gods she would return it.
She instead responded by clubbing him across the head in a fluid shot and pinning him down with the summoned walking stick.
Yeah, probably should have seen that one coming.
Chapter Eighteen
The weirdest part about being beaten down by an adult was that Quinn had expected anger, hatred, fury, but Kole mostly just appeared spooked. Like something had deeply unnerved her.
“What’s your name?” Kole demanded as she held the stick, ready to strike again.
Quinn widened his eyes in confusion before rolling them back in annoyance. “If I was a demon I wouldn’t have been able to summon a stick or that wall of glass, come—OW! Stop that! Quinn of Haldon! For Prism’s sake!”
Kole’s eyes narrowed. She ceased her poking, but seemed to be unconvinced. “At the crossroads, you flipped out at a monster attack, what color was the monster?”
“Blue,” Quinn muttered.
Kole lifted up the walking stick, evidently convinced.
Quinn remained on the ground. “What if I had been colorblind, huh? If I had said like, gray or something, would you have bashed my head in?”
“You’re not colorblind,” Kole muttered, a bit distant in tone.
“How do you know?” Quinn asked.
“Because if you were, the answer would have been ‘I’m colorblind you judgmental asshole,’” Kole replied simply.
“I could not know I was colorblind. Then I’d die not knowing what I did wrong. Unless you want to put faith in my education, in which case, I’m all for that,” Quinn replied, still not moving from the ground.
“Cute,” Kole mumbled.
Quinn made a mocking face and started to sit up before Kole placed her summoned walking stick on his chest again, albeit this time much less forcefully.
“Not so fast,” she said.
“How many of these questions do you have, and are they all going to be accusing me of being evil? ’Cause I don’t really wanna do that. I nearly died today, and I’d like to, you know, eat food. Eating would be nice,” Quinn grumbled, pushing away the stick.
“Fine.” Kole snapped, removing the walking stick. Quinn stood up and began walking.
He was tired, his eyes were dry, and with his adrenaline sapped he realized how hungry he was all of a sudden.
“I’m sorry.”
Quinn turned around to look at Kole. He stared at her in confusion. What was she apologizing for?
“I shouldn’t have hit you. That was wrong of me. Even if I was one hundred percent sure, I shouldn’t have hit you,” Kole muttered, repeating it frantically under her breath, like it was some sort of mantra.
Quinn furrowed his brow.
Why would she—
Wait. Back up.
As far as she knew, Quinn hadn’t actually disobeyed her. Hadn’t dabbled in monster summoning. So what she must have been suspicious about… was the fact that Quinn had just ‘lied’ to Uleyn about the demons.
But even if it looked like a lie, the demons were still gone.
So from his perspective, Kole suspecting him of being a demon or something of that va
riety made sense, because of the monster-summoning nonsense.
From her perspective, he had just made it so they wouldn’t be taken off the job, possibly limited Dale’s influence, and had had the favor returned by being hit in the face.
“Look… it’s not that big of a deal. I stabbed a fake you that one time,” Quinn said, nearly joking. “If that had been the real you, that would have been terrible.”
“You’re the student. I’m the teacher. I shouldn’t have hit you,” Kole muttered, now barely audible under her breath.
Quinn frowned. “Well… you did? And I’m okay with it. I think you were being an idiot about it, but I was expecting it to happen sooner or later.”
“That’s the problem, Quinn! You shouldn’t have been expecting it! Do you have any idea how messed up of a statement that is?” Kole cried out, waving her summoned walking stick around.
“I…” Quinn trailed off. “Look, the only reason it sounds messed up is because I suck at talking. Really.”
Kole snorted. “Suck at talking, huh? Didn’t seem that way when you convinced Uleyn to keep us here single-handedly, or when you stopped the fight between me and… that woman.”
Quinn frowned. There was something wrong about this conversation. “I… Kole, can I just be… rudely blunt for a moment?”
Kole nodded. “Of course.”
“Are you sorry for hitting me… or are you just afraid of being like Dale?” Quinn asked, a bit terrified of the words that came out of his mouth.
Kole wilted. She looked down, and took a long deep sigh. “It… it can be both.”
Quinn walked over to Kole and attempted what amounted to an awkward hug. Kole returned the hug, gripping Quinn tightly enough that it felt like his spine was going to snap. His rib area roared with pain from the soreness.
“Why… why does she get under your skin so much? Have you met her before? I mean I don’t agree with what she does but… you just freeze up.” Quinn said, mid hug.
“Let’s just say she brings back terrible, terrible memories,” Kole said, her voice a bit louder and more sure of herself.
There was a sense of finality to it, like she didn’t want to explain further, but Quinn could guess. Chances were, whoever Kole's warlock mentor was, she had a lot of… problems about.
