"How 'bout un more?" the man in front of her buying the shots asked looking noticeably unsteady on his feet. Apparently that fine line between the warmth of a few drinks and drunkenness had been crossed.
"I think that's probably about enough, sweetie," the brunette said with a polite smile. "One of us is going to have trouble standing let alone walking home if we keep this up."
"I ken wolk yoo home," he answered surprisingly quickly though his words continued to slur more and more.
Laughter came from the other men at his loss to the smaller girl. She seemed to have out drunk him not counting whatever he might have had earlier.
"Oh, sweetie, I am home for now; but maybe someone should help you?"
The statement of lodging here, somewhat obscured by her words or not, made a couple of their eyes seem to evaluate their chances of following her to her room. It was her cue to either gather up Katya to go to their room or find a partner for another dance. While her energy was there, the wizard noted that her feet were starting to get sore. She wore black, shiny slippers without much of a heel. Though a few women dared to wear heels, most valued the ability to walk and wore similar shoes to hers. No one else was showing as much skin perhaps, but feeling so young; Ylena had decided to flaunt the return of her teenage body.
Slipping off the stool slid the skirt up a little more before it fluttered back down once again. Appreciative eyes sought her shapely thighs as the beautiful wizard moved. More eyes noted the lower cut of the blouse revealing more of her back. The bar had blocked that view since Ylena had sat on the stool with her back to it.
"Well, gentlemen, I am afraid that I need to head to bed as well. If you would be so kind to help our friend home, it would be appreciated."
"You can't go so early!" one of the men spoke up a little too forcefully. Some looked at him with frowns, but others nodded that they believed as much also.
"A girl needs her beauty sleep," she assured them with a bright smile.
"One more dance, at least," the forceful suitor requested grasping her forearm in his hand. The grip was verging on painful.
Slipping closer to him, Ylena summoned the strength of her magic and angled upward slightly to speak into his ear. "You look tired too. It is time for you to head home now."
The hand went slack a moment and dropped to his side. A yawn suddenly broke from the man. "On second thought, I think that I am going to call it a night also. Have a good night, miss."
Katya noted the cast of magic and looked over at her with worry.
One down, six to go, most of the rest were willing to let her go even if they were not exactly content with giving up on her so soon.
Gesturing to Katya, whose attention was still on the transformed wizard, Ylena slid through the couples remaining and tried to use the stairs. One more of her admirers intercepted her despite how smoothly the wizard thought she had moved through the crowd.
"He was right though. Perhaps a last dance or... more?" the man suggested looking over his shoulder up the stairs.
There was bold and then there was rude, Ylena thought to herself. "I am done for the night. You should try your luck with one of the other women, perhaps one more your age?"
"I thought that you said you were older than you looked, old enough to drink and so on," the man questioned letting a frown cross his face a moment before trying to smooth it away again as if he hoped that she hadn't noticed. "You wouldn't even need to be that old to... dance."
Maintaining a polite smile, Ylena added, "No thank you, now please get out of my way. I need to use the stairs."
He wasn't ugly, she thought. Surely he could find another woman that was actually interested in him. On the other hand, he was much bigger than her. That fact might have dissuaded her, if the girl had given it more thought. Even as old as she was in truth, Ylena was untested in such things. Wizards, especially female wizards, didn't get to enjoy the pleasures of the flesh until they were older. They were supposed to remain chaste to avoid being distracted by things like pregnancy or children.
When the man didn't move, she started to ask again; but her ability to read others came in handy yet again. Tightening and looking almost angry, he took a step towards her without freeing any space for her to reach the stairs.
"You're a tease! You shouldn't play with a man's emotions like that!" he growled, but kept his voice low enough that he didn't make a scene. Only Ylena was to note his aggressive attention.
"A tease, playing with your emotions? Don't be daft. You were just one of the men around me. I never suggested anything to any of you. Now please move. Perhaps you need a kaffe to snap you out of whatever drunkenness has taken over you."
Strangely, her eyes didn't tell her that this man was drunk at all. If not, it was a bigger worry.
"No, I want you to dance with me!" he stated aggressively.
Leaning towards him, Ylena retorted, "No, now go home or I will have you removed by the guards."
Magic pushed into her words even as the musicians seemed to get louder. If that kept the man from giving in to her spell, Ylena wasn't certain; but he lashed out grabbing hold of both her wrists. The movement must have shifted her top as well because his eyes glanced to her cleavage and the exposed skin leading towards her slim neck.
"I won't give up that easily," he told her still slowly working his eyes upward towards her face. "You have a room..." the man added suggestively.
"If I told you that I was fourteen, would you stop?" she asked feeling his grip tightening even more.
"Fourteen? You said that you were old enough to drink!" her assailant argued looking down into her eyes.
Her lips were already moving. Her voice raised above the din of the crowd and musicians enough for the man to hear her. The words were unintelligible to those without training in magic, however, but their meaning was made known well enough as the man's eyes started to roll back in a dazed state. His hands began to loosen their grip, but as he started to fall back, Ylena was pulled forward with him.
It wasn't as planned, though it was hardly a fully fleshed out plan, the woman realized.
When the man sank down and sat onto his haunches in front of the stairs, Ylena fell onto her knees in front of him. The wood was solid, painful, and she thought the added pain of at least one splinter meant that her legs wouldn't be as nice looking in the morning.
Wrenching away from the dazed man's grip, Ylena rocked back to stand on her feet once more. She adjusted her blouse noting that it was barely covering her for modesty now. Being pulled onto the man had also caused her skirt to shift awkwardly forcing Ylena to readjust it as well.
Pulled back together, the wizard frowned and walked over to the bartender with more focused intent than the effort she had used to evade the people in the crowd.
"You should call the city guard. That man just tried to force himself on me," she stated sounding surprisingly calm to the bartender's ears. Her face didn't look flustered at all.
Nodding, he watched the girl turn back around to walk towards the stairs. Kicking her assailant in the groin vindictively, Ylena then stepped around the stunned man and walked up the stairs.
Katya excused herself from her partner and tapped Elzen on the arm pointing to the man sitting in a magical stupor on the floor in front of the stairs. He nodded and started to follow his friend's sister to check on the man even as the little blond hurried up to check on her friend.
A knock on their door received a disappointed sigh. Ashleen covered up with a frown while Sebastian pulled on his discarded pants. They hadn't wasted any time knowing that they would need to get to sleep for an early morning rise.
Opening the door slightly, hand still holding the wood securely to prevent prying eyes from looking past his muscular frame; Sebastian was surprised to see Elzen standing in front of him.
"We have a little problem," the shorter mage stated and glanced back down the hallway.
He didn't see Serrena or anyone else, but noticed that the music had dis
appeared. It was getting pretty late and without this interruption Sebastian would have just assumed that the musicians had finished for the night.
"What is it?"
Waving for him to follow, Elzen led the owl towards the stairs. He could hear voices. One was a man's raised in anger.
"The girl hit me with some sort of spell. She's a witch, probably a wilder! She looks too young to be a real wizard."
Another man said calmly, yet firmly, "We were told that you tried to force yourself on the girl." A pause for a moment was followed by, "Has anyone gone to summon her for testimony?"
"You aren't judges. I want to take the little witch to court! How dare she sully my name! She's the one that should be put in jail or maybe shipped off somewhere with wizards to deal with her properly!" the first voice continued to complain until Sebastian and Elzen reached the top of the stairs. He spotted a man surrounded by four guardsmen of the city. Hilda and some of her family were there in earshot looking nervous.
Footfalls from behind the mage caused him to turn around to see Ylena trailed by Katya. The wizard wasn't dressed the way she had been while dancing. As if she had already tried to go to bed and had been roused, the dark haired girl wore a simple white shirt, sleeveless and only falling to her upper thighs, this wasn't an outfit meant to be worn in public by any means. It reminded him more of when Ashleen would wear one of his shirts to bed. Usually that was when she was trying to be coy, a ploy she often used to try seducing him that tended to work well enough he had to admit.
Looking like a queen being led to the gallows, Ylena walked with serene composure. Her light blue eyes glanced to Sebastian revealing nothing. They had changed from cool gray with her transformation, yet there was ice in them still.
Moving past the mages, Ylena led the others down the stairs. He noted her observers eyes move to the girl, her bare legs and feet, the tight shirt masking too little; yet the diplomacy wizard never blushed or seemed to care what they saw or thought about her.
"We could have waited for you to change, miss," the apparent leader of these guards said after a gulp of surprise. His eyes were enrapt and betrayed that he probably was happier that the girl came to them looking more like a seductress than some demure woman.
"This shouldn't take long and I need to get my rest," Ylena answered coolly looking at the man who had assailed her. Even though he was the one having an issue with the raven haired girl, he couldn't seem to resist her beauty and appeared in awe. "Do I need to sign something to have him arrested?"
Her comment shook the man out of his shock, though his eyes continued to look at her lewdly. "Arrested? You hit me with magic and kicked me in the balls! You're the one who should be arrested and hauled off, wilder!"
She ignored him and looked at the guardsman who had addressed her first. "This man was told that I was not interested in him, but tried to force me to take him to my room. While I appear to be too young to understand, I am a full wizard and perfectly capable of dealing with men too full of themselves to listen to a woman who tells him 'no'."
"So you did use magic on him, miss?" the guardsman countered sounding a little leery of such things. Magic was somewhat common in Hala, but only in that wizards lived here and guarded the city. Many things ran because of magic here as well, but regular people came to simply expect things like running water year round and forgot that it was wizardry that made such a thing possible.
"Only after he laid hands on me and tried to force me upstairs for who knows what."
"That's a lie!" the man shouted, but Sebastian could see the sweat on his forehead and heard the shift in his voice. While no diplomacy wizard, the mage had been watching people and learning the subtleties of their behavior for a long time. This man appeared to be the one lying. Ylena continued to remain cool, unreadable.
"I can make him tell the truth, if you wish," she stated making the man pale slightly. The guardsmen looked both uncertain and a bit afraid.
"If you can use magic on him, it would also be hard to prove that your magic couldn't also make him say whatever you wished," the lead guard said considering her proposal.
"I saw the whole thing," Katya said from the middle of the stairs. While Ylena had descended to address her accuser, his sister had stayed there analyzing the situation and listening to it all. "I was dancing when she left a bunch of men surrounding her. This one cut her off at the stairs and grabbed her. I saw her shake her head at him multiple times, but he argued with her until he grabbed her wrists."
"You didn't hear anything!" the man argued feeling whatever strength of position he had in the "He said, she said" battle shifting to the girl's side. "She said it herself. She was dancing and couldn't have been close enough to hear us talk."
"A girlfriend always watches her friend's back," Katya stated. "Ylena is too pretty for men to ignore. You're all nearly drooling over her now and yet this is a serious matter. I danced and kept an eye on her as did Elzen and Serrena. My brother did too until he went upstairs.
"We were worried that something like this might happen. Ylena is somewhat irresistible and not every man can be told no safely."
"She's a tease!" the man cried out angrily. "She led me on and said that she was old enough to drink. Then she tries to tell me that she is only fourteen?!"
"I asked if telling you I was fourteen would make a difference," Ylena clarified. "Apparently it did not. I never said that I was actually fourteen, though I am physically about that age probably."
Her eyes met the confused looking guards.
"I was involved in a magical accident that made me look this way," she added and strangely this seemed to make the guards appear to understand. Sebastian and the others with magic didn't feel a spell used or any of Ylena's power. Men like these, without magic and rarely in contact with it, only knew stories of what wizards could do. That she could have been made to look like a teenage girl didn't seem impossible among the other stories that they had heard and likely believed.
Her accuser looked uncertain of what else to say. "So I was right, she is old enough..."
The guard looked at him and frowned. "She is old enough to say no and old enough to accuse you of this crime."
Lifting his glove covered hand, their leader pointed towards the ceiling before doing a little swirl that meant to wrap it up. The matter was over in his opinion. Two guards on either side of the man produced a set of manacles binding his wrists.
"Wait! Hold on! I didn't do anything wrong, I tell you!" he argued and tried to resist ineffectively as the guardsmen began to drag him out of the inn.
"You will need to be available if this should go to trial..." he led her to answer.
"Wizard Ylena of White Hall, we will be on a mission for a few days north of the wall. I can leave a statement with the desk here in the morning, if that would help?"
The guardsman paused a moment before nodding. His eyes glanced to her bare legs and feet, her bare arms and the shirt before returning to her face. "Is there anything else that I can do for you, Wizard Ylena?"
He seemed hopeful, but only received a polite, if radiant, smile as she answered, "No, thank you. I just need some sleep before we leave. Owl Sebastian seems to have a somewhat permanent residence here. I will make certain to check in after we return..."
"Lieutenant Blyke," he introduced himself with a start realizing that with all the shouting he had failed in that regard.
"Good night, Lieutenant Blyke, I am sorry to have inconvenienced you and your men," she replied and turned causing her raven hair to cascade in a rush behind her. The man's eyes strayed to her legs and rear end as the wizard returned up the stairs.
Sebastian frowned after her thinking that she was still trying to be seductive even now. He doubted that she wore any underwear but refused to try and catch sight of her panties to make certain. It would just have been another of the girl's changes of personality proved if she was trying to get them to look at her in that way.
His attention caught the lieutenant,
who started moments later realizing that he had been caught.
A brief nod from the guard preceded a sudden startled look. "Owl Sebastian, aren't you the battle mage who fought in the king's wizard tournament last year?"
He nodded.
"I caught a couple of your later matches and was amazed that a battle mage could stand up to wizards like that. No one expected you to be so powerful. We were all rooting for you. I'm sorry that you had to pull out early."
Elzen chuckled and commented, "They were lucky that it was last year. Bas is even more powerful now. I doubt any of them could beat him now. He's even beaten the champion every time Magnus has dared try him since then."
"Elzen..." he warned in a hushed voice turning to look at the other mage.
"It's true," the younger mage answered with a shrug even as the guardsman looked at the owl in greater awe.
"That would be a sight to see. It was good enough to see all those wizards humbled even so." Lieutenant Blyke nodded at the mages and turned to leave. "Have a good night, sir," he added to Sebastian in a surprisingly reverent voice.
The owl's reputation had apparently continued to grow with each retelling of his exploits. It was strange to hear, he thought. Sebastian returned up the stairs and slipped into his room to tell Ashleen what he had heard and seen.
Chapter 22- Altered Plans
The morning was still cool in spite of Ashleen's assurances that there would be warmer weather coming soon. Sebastian was first to breakfast as usual, though Ashleen joined well before the second bell which was early for the wilder. He had carried down a pair of packs for the two of them which had been packed the day before and after the girls' shopping excursion.
Elzen and Serrena were next after him, however, while Ylena came down alone. The girl limped slightly. Her knees were both bruised from her fall the night before. Her brown leather boots stopped a few inches short of them revealing the marks while avoiding rubbing the bruised skin.
Reaching out to take her hand, Sebastian used his healing magic to nearly erase all the damage. The darkened bruises almost completely disappeared. Small wood splinter fragments were shoved from her skin and even the lesser bruising on her wrists was smoothed away by the time Ashleen arrived.
Battle Mage, The Caves of Time Page 28
