We were mostly quiet on the walk back, which was a small blessing... though I could tell that Quinn wanted to fill the silence. Perhaps a little unfair of me to allow him to be miserable. Well, not unfair. Something usually unlike me, however.
My need to impress and woo everyone had been tempered by the need to keep the three of us safe. Humbling him was a mercy compared to what the bad side of me wanted to do. There I went again, trying to separate myself into a good and bad. A normal and an other. I wasn’t even truly sure what a soul was, let alone understand how they could be merged or what that meant long term.
I had settled into being a necessary evil, with an unnecessary amount of flair.
Tiring of feeling like I was dragging around a sad puppy, I turned a scowl over toward the failed duelist.
“So, Quinn. How to you propose to assist us in leveling, that we couldn’t do ourselves?”
Ren glared between the man and I, either annoyed that I was engaging him, or perhaps she just didn’t like him enough to even entertain the fact that he could be useful. I didn’t blame her, and shared the same views. The silence had kept me bouncing around thoughts I didn’t want to have, though.
I had pictured a future where Ren was kidnapped by the Crimson and wounded Wolf. In anger, I would become untenable. Closer to a demon than ever and driven to murder everything solo in an attempt to rescue her. It soured my already dim mood, but I at least hoped that thinking it out so clearly would prevent the world from putting it into action. Wouldn’t be narratively interesting to hit the replay button.
“There’s a dungeon. I know of all the traps and secrets in it.” He kept his eyes on the ground, not willing to do more than grovel with his potential knowledge.
“How far?” I wasn’t about to be dragged toward a Crimson Shadow trap.
“Southwest of the campground. Near the coast.”
My right eye twitched. Well into the supposed ‘safe area’ yet the entire prospect of a dungeon had images flickering through my mind. The ambush. The risk. The bloodshed.
Still, lightning wasn’t supposed to strike twice in the same place. I think that was the idiom, anyway. We’d need to have a proper Party chat about the prospect before any concrete decision was made.
“Is that it?” Ren asked.
“No.” He shook his head, but still didn’t meet either of our eyes. “There’s a Quest chain that can also get you a whole level in a short amount of time. I know where it starts, and the steps required.”
I sighed and looked up at the rock we were coming up to. Where we had first seen Rolo sitting. Shame we couldn’t get some answers out of him before I pulped his head in. It was dangerous to make assumptions, but if he wasn’t part of a group from the camp, then he was probably part of a Shadow group. They would know he was now deceased.
Whether that could be a problem or not didn’t seem to matter to me right now. He had been spying on us, so our presence was probably known. If the Lady had told this second area about us, then we should expect more sloppy assassination attempts coming our way. Then again, she might have hoped the countless thugs she had around her little finger back on the other side of the bridge would have killed us off by now.
Little did she know I was developing an immunity to death by constantly smashing my own skull in. What didn’t kill you made you trauma.
We circled the rock and took the switch in the pathway. The campground ahead of us, there was already a handful of people out front by the barricades. A small amount of tension filled me. Ready and willing for the worst, but too emotionally spent to wish it to be anything but acceptance and accolades.
“Let me talk, if you want?” Ren offered. Her eyes looked exhausted at the prospect of the looming conversation.
I nodded. “They might be more receptive to you.” While I had happily fit into the slot of being the Party face, the elf had a bit of rapport with Fiona, and might take the news easier than if I strode in and waved around my accusations. Plus, I didn’t feel much like talking for a change.
It came as no surprise that the fighter was one of the figures waiting at the gates. Magnus and Ruby were there too, plus two others I hadn’t seen before. A lithe woman with deep red skin in an amber robe, and a muscled man in thick black leathers. He looked tense, and the pair of knuckle dusters in his hands made him look ready to tussle, despite the relatively relaxed stances of everyone else.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Naturally, as the group of us were in clear view, we became the focal point of all their attentions. How could we not be? While most of them were between bemused and indifferent, Fiona and the goblin didn’t look too pleased at our arrival. How I hated to disappoint them further.
“I see you hired another clown for your group,” the fighter said, rolling her eyes.
Ruby had her arms crossed. “Quinn, I told you to stay put, and now you’ve gone and gotten roughed up. Too soon to adventure while you still had Mild Trauma.”
I felt a little twinge of sympathy for the man. Not so long ago, I was in those boots. Not those specific ones. I was being more figurative. They didn’t look my size and would clash with my suit. Hmm. A nap sounded good after the current performance was complete.
“Thinly veiled insults aside,” Ren began, choosing her words carefully. “We have something to show you.”
“If it’s some trick, then I don’t care for it.”
I noted how Fiona had not looked toward Ren at all during this interaction. Always a scowl solely leveled at me, as if the conversation was only between us. Maybe she was asking me to kill her with her eyes. Is that what they were saying? Begging for it? I shook off a chill as I saw Ren looking at me. Although she was gesturing toward the sling, I knew what else she was saying behind those pools of bright blue.
Terrible time for me to start losing it.
Exhaling, I crouched down and untied some of the sling. Tried to do the reveal with the least amount of clown-flair as possible. I barely survived the process.
As the corpse dropped to the ground, tensions hit the ceiling. Which was currently the sky, so that was quite high up.
“You killed Rolo?” Fiona seethed, her hand gripping the handle of her sword tightly, but not drawing it. Still glaring at me, as if I was the only one here. Magnus had moved up, anger on his face as well. Ruby just looked confused.
“I suggest you approach this with a calmer head.” The words came out without too much thinking, but I was able to cut myself off before I added, ‘while you still have it.’
Her right eye twitched. “Then I suggest you start explaining, clown.”
The pair that had been part of their prior conversation had stuck around, unsure as to whether a fight was about to break out or not. Slightly put off by the mangled corpse I had brought to display. I knew we got our hands a little dirtier than most, but I found it odd anyone could have gotten this far while still being a little squeamish.
I gestured for the goblin to come have a look, to which she did after a brief glance at the fighter. Trusted us enough to be close, at least. Wolf had been statuesque since we got here, his eyes focused on the lion-man and zero interest in taking part in the little chat we had in full flow. Likewise, since Quinn had been admonished, he had looked like he wanted the earth to swallow him up. The ground was often hungry, but its maw was only six feet deep.
“We caught him spying on us,” Ren offered, as Ruby stepped over beside where I was crouching.
Fiona bared her teeth at me, as if it had come from my lips. “That’s his job!”
She hadn’t taken my advice on being calm about this, and I didn’t feel like engaging and escalating to anything more than getting called a clown. The goblin was apprehensive, but had a cooler temperament, possibly a more clinical view of things. I adjusted the body to show more of his pulped face. Cards on the table.
“Mark of the Red,” she said, pulling a face. “Fucker!”
I nodded. “Right?”
Fiona was practically grinding her teeth down. “This doesn’t mean that… ah, fuck’s sake.” With a growl, she turned away from us and put her hand over her eyes. She sighed deeply. “No wonder we haven’t been able to gain any ground.”
Ruby then turned and put her hand on my forehead, pushing back my hat. “You’ve had quite the day, huh?”
“It’s been an effort.” I grimaced as she looked down at me. It would be nice to stand back up as my legs were cramping, but it felt too rude if she was diagnosing me or something.
“You have a bruised head and sunflower over here has a swollen nose, bruising around his eyes.” She removed her hand and put them both on her hips. “I don’t have any special powers to read between the lines, but looks like you won a duel.”
I raised an eyebrow up at the man before I finally stood. Wasn’t much to imagine he had either done something similar in his short time here, or perhaps was just loud about his intention to try to court Ren. Something that would earn the ire of Fiona, for sure.
Ren gave Wolf a pat on the side as she finished untying the rest of the sheet from him. “We thought bringing him here to explain would be better than just running off.”
Now the fighter turned to regard the elf. “You’re right. If we had found him and you’d gone, we’d have hunted you down.”
I yawned louder and longer than necessary and stretched my arms out. The temptation was to vocalize what needn’t be said. They couldn’t even dig themselves out from the Crimson Shadow. How were they going to hunt us down?
Fiona could read between the lines, and despite the renewed scowl in my direction, she seemed to calm. Or at least it didn’t anger her further. “I am unsure about how much I can tolerate your presence.” She exhaled slowly as she looked between the four of us. Somehow Quinn had been lumped in as our plus one. “Allow us to discuss it, alright?”
With a glance at Ren, she gave me a nod. Wolf was still AWOL, hoping he could eat the probably very pleasant Magnus. “We have our own things to discuss. We’ll head out just around the corner to give us both air to breathe?”
“Acceptable. We will send someone over when matters are decided. Hopefully, you won’t murder them too.” She turned, avoiding Ren’s heavily rolled eyes, and started off back into the camp with the rest of the onlookers following.
“I’ll heal you both up once you’re allowed in.” Ruby gave us a smile and a nod before following along.
I sighed and leaned against the bear, who snapped out of his focus.
“Well, that was underwhelming,” he grumbled.
Quinn shrugged. “I’m at least glad it didn’t resort to violence.”
With a slight smile, I looked down at the destroyed corpse we now had to go bury. “Why’s that?” I asked, turning my grin toward him. “You don’t know which side you would have been on.”