When we got down into the inn’s common room, it turned out there wasn’t just Malachite there. In addition to the somewhat expected Gilo, the other three of her group had followed after them as well, with Jakyl glaring at me, as if I had already done him the mischief I was planning to.

“Malachite, Gilo, so good to see you.” I gave her a smile, utterly ignoring the three uninvited people.

“There will be no problem if you want to join us on our journey to the west, at least until we reach Torop.” I continued, the rest of my party nodding along.

“Thank you for that. Gilo decided that she wanted to join us as well.” Malachite kept her voice unfailingly polite and, just as I had, she completely ignored Jaykl, Mibo and Myra, treating them as if they weren’t even there.

“Don’t ignore me!” Jaykl growled, obviously unhappy with our treatment of him. “Why are you quitting the party now? Just because I…” he whined, only to be cut off by Malachite.

“Just because you broke a promise? Because I gave my word that you’d keep it, and you broke not only your own oath but broke my word as well?!” Malachite snarled, anger palpable in her voice. Even the nearby innkeeper flinched at the venom in her voice.

“‘Oh, I was just saying stuff.’, ‘Oh, I didn’t mean it like that.’ Is that what you want to say?” she continued, her voice taking on a mocking tone, her arms wildly gesticulating, almost as if she was about to slap him.

Reaching out, I placed a hand on her shoulder, trying to calm her down a little. Not that Mal let my hand stop her, she just barrelled on, hate pouring out of her mouth.

“I’ve heard it before, I even believed such drivel once.” Given that she was only building up steam, there was little anyone could do to stop Malachite. In my eyes, her reaction was a little extreme, maybe even over the top. But there might be other factors I was unaware of involved, either way, I decided to sit back and simply watch with amusement, as Mal was shouting at Jakyl.

“What about our quest?” he finally managed to ask, when Mal had to take a deep breath, in order to have enough air to keep shouting.

“What about it?” she snarled, before sarcastically continuing, “There’s fuck all chance that I’ll go on any quest with you. To work together, one needs trust. Guess what I don’t have, and never will have, for people who treat their promises like farts, forgotten as soon as the smell dissipates?”

“You’d abandon the quest? Leave the town to suffer?” he asked, subtly changing his tone and pitching his voice in a way that carried, trying to guilt-trip Mal. As a frown formed on my face, Mal was already speaking.

“I’m not conceited enough to believe that leaving will have any great impact on the town. It has been here for many decades and it will remain here for decades to come.” she refuted him. Curiously, her voice sounded a lot calmer now. There was still anger, but it wasn’t a burning rage any longer, instead, calling it cold disdain might be more fitting.

“And what about you, Gilo? Are you certain that you want to leave? There’s an excellent opportunity to grow here, to become something more.``He changed his target, now trying to divide and conquer, likely giving up Malachite as a lost cause. Remembering that he was a Bard, I used Lenore’s special sight to make sure there was nothing untoward going on. Carelessness, in the face of Mind Magic, would only result in suffering.

“I only recently began to delve into practical alchemy. If nothing else, spending a year to develop that skill-set and learn, together with Malachite, will let me be a lot more effective in the future.” Gilo calmly refuted, shaking her head in refusal. “In addition, I decided to travel with Malachite in the beginning. Why would I abandon her at this point?” she asked rhetorically.

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“And you.” Jakyl apparently decided that there was no way to push Gilo. Or maybe he simply didn’t want to bother, given that a scout was a lot less important in a party, compared to a healer. Doubly so, given that scouts were among the most common adventurers, as hunting was a widely spread occupation, with only a small step from a hunter to a scout.

“What was that silly act all about? Do you think you are some sort of divine messenger, calling down the Gods’ retribution on anyone?” he snarled, looking at me.

“It might be a mortal’s Hubris, but I sincerely believe that you will not come to a good end. An Oath broken will invite retribution.” I calmly replied, trying to figure out a way to get some of his Blood. Having it, especially if I was able to take it using Blood Magic, would make things so much easier. Sadly, as satisfying as simply stabbing him would be, it just wouldn’t be subtle enough. No, the stab I wanted to give him was far more insidious, leaving a deeper wound that would fester and grow, until it consumed him.

Something about the smile on my face must have been off, as he stared at me for a moment, his face turning pale and his voice leaving him.

“Either way, Mal, how much do you need to get from your former base?” I asked, demonstratively turning away from Jakyl and going back to ignoring him.

“We took everything that belongs to us.” she assured me, getting a nod of acceptance in reply.

“We will leave tomorrow morning, so if you need to buy anything, you should. In addition, you might want to converse with Weise at the Guild, we wouldn’t want any misunderstandings,” as I emphasised the word, I turned to stare at Jakyl, before going back to looking at Mal, “to occur. It really wouldn’t do if someone, “ again, I took a moment to stare at Jakyl, “were to spread rumours after we left.”

At this point, I wasn’t so much dropping broad hits, I was taking them and clubbing Mal over the head with them. If she didn’t catch them, I would sincerely worry about her cognitive ability.

“I’ve got it.” she nodded, before she, too, turned to Jakyl and the others, “Is there anything else? If not, Gilo and I have a few errands to run.” she sternly told them, a bit of anger still simmering in her voice.

Finally, it seemed that Jakyl was letting things go. Or maybe he just didn’t know what else to try, given the firm refusal he had met.

Letting Mal and Gilo run their own errands, I retreated back into our room with Rai and we began to scheme. A part of me wanted to simply use hair for my later mischief, but having Blood would be so much better. It would allow me to weave my curse deeply into Jakyl’s body, maybe even his magic if I managed to procure it using Blood Magic. It would be worth it, just for the experiment and with the added benefit of retribution, I truly wanted to see what could be done.

And so, during the late evening, Rai and I set out together, heading towards the house the other group occupied. From Malachite, I had learned that Jakyl, just like me, preferred to sleep in Mundus, as it allowed him to rest for a comfortable eight hours, while only four hours passed in the real world, thus giving him more time.

Getting into the house was almost laughably easy. There was a wide gap beneath the door, and the shutters holding their windows close were far from perfectly tight. While I wasn’t able to flit around an enemy by dodging and weaving in and out of the shadows during a fight, I could take single steps, especially if I took my time. In this case, two shadows calmly stepped into the house, quietly moving towards Jakyl’s room.

Finding it was easy, though Mal and Gilo might wonder why I asked about it, and once there, we could just as easily step in. Neither Rai nor I dared to even breathe, we remained in the shadows as much as possible for fear of waking him. When he didn’t snap awake, I quickly put together a magical formation, enveloping his head with a cloud of darkness, one that put him into a deep torpor, one that he wouldn’t wake up from easily.

Once that was done, I drew my athame, carefully piercing the skin on his arm, just a little to let blood flow out and focused on my Blood Magic, using it to draw out the Blood. He shifted in his sleep and I could faintly feel his consciousness struggling against the magic keeping him under. Activating Overflow, I channelled more power into the magic keeping him under, the drain almost frightening, and quickly finished up what I had come for, his magically drained Blood stored in globules of Ice. It would last for a couple of days, easily long enough for me to do what I had planned.

There was a wide smile on my face, as Rai and I made our way out of the room, after making sure that his arm looked just like it had before we arrived. Now, I only had to wait a few more days for the New Moon, before I could enact my plan.