Ventress was where he'd left her tied up. The only new addition to the area was a man on the ground. He was lying behind Ventress, holding his chest and moaning. Ventress whinnied when she saw Jaeger and shook her head.
“Did you kick this guy?”
She nodded.
“Was he trying to steal my bags or you?”
She nodded.
“I thought you were a human Bounty Hunter. How are you speaking with your horse?” Lisette asked.
“We don't speak, I do, and she nods her head at my words. As far as I know, she doesn't understand words outside of a few command words. I'm just used to being alone and I find it helps to talk to her.”
“So you just assumed that your horse kicked that man because he was trying to steal something and not because I don't know, your horse was undisciplined or startled?”
Jaeger glanced at Lisette as he walked over to the downed man.
“Ventress is a Beserian warhorse. Now I understand that name doesn't mean much here, but where I come from that means she's a rare breed of battle-tested, war-trained, disciplined mount. Beserian war horses were the only thing my country had going for it, and Ventress here is not only a war horse, but a veteran to boot. She does not get spooked, and she is not undisciplined. If she kicked this man, it's because he deserved it. C’mon, we can just ask him.”
He nudged the man with his boot to get his attention, and the man seemed to have passed out from the pain.
“Help, that crazy horse kicked me. I need a healer.”
“Sure as sure. Just answer me this, what were you doing with the horse?”
The man groaned, breathing heavy and wet.
“What does that matter? I need a healer!”
“Well, friend, this is important because my companion here is worried that you might have tried to steal this horse. I tried to tell her that no one would do that in front of the Adventurers' Guild, but she won't believe me. So if you tell us what you were doing, we'll get you a healer from inside.”
“Of course I didn't steal the horse. It's obviously mine, I lent it to a buddy of mine so he could hurry here to deliver a job and he told me to just get it from outside.” He eyed me, then coughed before continuing. “She must be a little crazy from the hard run he put her through to get here.”
Jaeger stood up and turned to Lisette with a raised eyebrow.
“See, Lisette, what did I tell you? No one would be foolish enough to steal a horse from the Adventurers' Guild, because everyone knows the punishment for horse thievery.”
The man on the ground began to look at him as he moved. Jaeger went to his saddlebags on Ventress and began to pull out his gear. The battleaxe slipped into his hip holster, followed by his pistol into its holster, and finally his rifle from its place next to the saddle. He grabbed his powder horn but couldn't find any bullets. As he dug for them, he noticed that the horn felt empty. When he popped the top off, it was empty, and not just empty, but cleaned as if it were brand new. The bounty hunter turned back to the thief.
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“Where’s my powder and my bullets?”
“What?”
He moved over to the man and stepped on his leg, putting his weight on it.
“Where.is.my.powder.and.where.are.my.bullets?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Normally Ventress can stop someone from robbing me, but I guess in a world of magic anything is possible. So before I start asking in actions and not words, I’m going to give you one last chance to tell me where my stuff is.”
The man coughed, deeply and panicked.
“I didn’t take nothing. That horse kicked me onto my back and I don’t remember nothing please. I didn’t take nothing.”
“Jaeger, he may be telling the truth. Some Outworlder technology has been known to disappear upon arrival and be replaced by a Ragaea equivalent. If we go back in now, I can help you find out if that's what happened here.”
Lisette spoke quietly from where she stood, not to stop him, but to explain the situation. What she said would explain the condition of the powder horn.
“So what do we do about this guy? How does this work?”
“Well, for attempted theft and mount thievery at that, he is looking at hard time or time in one of the penal legions. Drag him inside, we'll have some of the people inside watch him while we send for a guard. Maybe you'll get a reward for him.”
Nodding his head, Jaeger grabbed the leg he'd been standing on and dragged the man inside. He groaned heavily as each step seemed to bump and grind his injuries.
“I’ll have someone through a small healing on him.”
The three of them made their way inside, where things were quickly taken care of. A group of three took the man and watched over him while a fourth placed glowing hands on his chest. As Jaeger was led away, he watched as the man slowly regained some color and stopped coughing; the first real use of magic he'd seen.
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Lisette led him outside to a new building. It was a closed, walled open space. Inside were some training dummies, racks of training weapons and an open area, it was a training arena. Lisette walked to a corner and raised her hand, a counter rose from the ground with a snap.
“All right, bring your weapons here. I'll take a look at them, and then you can show me how to use them. Once I've tested your martial skills, we'll go over your magical tattoos and test you for magic.”
He walked with her, and when they reached the counter, Jaeger laid out his weapons. His battle axe, well-kept but scarred; then came his firearms; his rifle and pistol. But where the axe was recognizable, these had changed.
The musket had not changed much, still made of dark wood with a black varnish and dark steel metal. The black wooden finish was covered with a bright blue inscription, the words were ones he recognized, it was the motto of the Beserian bounty hunters: In the Hunt, One Captures or Kills, Never Both. Running along the barrel was a spiral pattern, starting near the musket's trigger and ending at the musket's muzzle. The trigger itself was now silver, quite different from before.
Turning away from the rifle, he concentrated on his pistol, and unlike the rifle, it was completely different. How he'd handled it before and not noticed the change was beyond him. Apart from its general shape, the flintlock had changed completely. It was darker now, almost a shadow of itself; its metal was a deep black with baroque filigree. The handle was now black obsidian or some dark stone. He held it in a firing position to get a feel for it, and as he did so, the pistol seemed to weigh more in his hand, and when he went to put it down, he could not let it go.
“Hmm, soulbound weapons, and of an unusual design. These are clearly weapons, but I cannot begin to guess how they originally worked. Well, even though I still can't guess what they do, I can say that they definitely require an infusion of mana to work.”
Lisette had moved around Jaeger as he checked his weapons, talking to herself as she circled. Try as he might, he could neither speak nor let go of the pistol. But as he began to panic, the moment passed and he dropped the gun on the table.
“What the hell was that?”
“Hmm? Have you never bound a weapon before?” Lisette shook her head as soon as she finished speaking.
“Of course not, you had no magic, okay. These two weapons are soulbound to you, which means no one else can use them or keep them, and they are unbreakable. You also don't seem to have bound them to yourself yet, so that's what just happened. You and this little weapon are one now, it needed to get a feel for your magic and your soul. This will happen again when you grab the big one, so do it now and let us finally test your abilities. All this talking is getting boring.”