Edited by: tommyjl7, Flubbykin
Jason cursed loudly. All these documents that he stole from the secret chamber of Redfeathers’ family were useless.
Fine, maybe he was exaggerating a little now, but it was still not what he was looking for. Looks like Mr. Head-of-Redfeathers is addicted to goddess dust, a nasty drug if bought unwell refined, but guessing by the prices that nobleman paid, he wasn’t buying cheapest stuff.
And even a note about money paid to Hieronymus van Kleir, Jason knew that name. The old mage, specialist of magical races – mostly monsters, was an acquaintance of Zariel. But why did they pay him? What possibly could one of the Grand Houses want from a weird monster specialist? Maybe they needed some nasty beast for tortures in those private dungeons, or for some degenerates pleasure? Who knows, maybe that mage has an affair with one of the family members and they are paying him to stay quiet… No, last option is most likely out of question. Old geezer isn’t material for lover.
Ho? Assassination request of a merchant from Rosewood family? Are they nuts?! If you think that war between countries is dangerous, wait till merchant guild gets involved.
In general, all the documents are awfully boring. Definitely no connection with the…
Wait. What was the merchant name again? He will have to check this lead. Of course, that nobility couldn’t contact the Church by their own, but if they were using someone who can freely pass the border, someone that no one would suspect… such as a merchant, for example. This way they could also smuggle some merchandise… but what could nobility possibly buy from Church? Or church from nobility? They both have no need for possessions of the other! That would make much more sense. Yes, especially if they wanted that man's death to cover their connection with the Church.
For now, let’s see if there is a record of business operation between the family and the merchant they wanted to kill.
… of course, there is none.
Guessing by the date on the document, the merchant should still live. Maybe it would be wise to pay him a visit? Maybe it would be nice to save him? Who knows, maybe man will be grateful enough to share why somebody wishes him dead?
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Elana was sitting by the table at the inn section of the guild, slurping lazily her milk-based sweet drink. She was bored, she really wanted to start doing something, unfortunately, because her body was still in quite a bad condition she was disallowed to do anything alone. No training, no taking request… well, she couldn’t take requests anyway, for she wasn’t a formal member of the guild. She talked about it with grandpa Jericho, yet the usually heartwarming old man that spoiled her whenever he could was extremely strict about this matter.
- “Absolutely not!” he said few days ago “… Don’t get me wrong, little El, I would love seeing you as legal member of our family, but until I am sure you can do easiest tasks by your own, I will not let you join. It’s for your own good!”
She knew that he was right. But right now, during the afternoon when the guild was almost completely empty, she was…
… so extremely bored!
She wanted to read some book, but these were expensive. Elana didn’t even realize how wealthy her family was compared to the average people, whenever she said that she would want another book, she would have it delivered by the end of the day.
Not that she was staying conscious to actually enjoy them as much as she wanted to, but in those few moments she was awake, someone was always reading her favorite stories. She missed father. And sister. And all these nice butlers and maids that became her friends.
- “El! El!...” a cheerful voice rang from the door
- “Ah, Rus! Welcome back! How was your quest?” Blonde-little-angel smiled with true happiness seeing her best friend stepping into the inn
- “You are asking as it was some big deal! I just delivered a letter...” Redheaded teen sat at the same table. In that moment she saw what her friend was drinking “… strawberry milk drink? You like it too?”
- “Hmm? Somebody else also likes it? I didn’t notice, though I did my best to memorize favorite food types of every adventurer!” She wasn’t lying.
As she entered the guild she had some problems with fitting in, she never really was in such big, spacious, loud places like an inn, not to mention crowds.
Back then, big sister Aiele told her that talking about food is a great way to start a conversation… And later could be used to poison someone. Ignoring the second part of her teaching El, despite no previous experience with food, became cuisine expert.
- “Yes, if I remember correctly big brother Zari loves them.”
Hearing the name of her savior was enough to make blonde choke on her drink.
- “R-Really?” she was still fighting for breath
- “Yeah, I heard he adds strawberries wherever he can – when he bakes cakes; he puts strawberry syrup on cheesecake – I will never understand this one; and also these shakes are his favorite alcohol-free drink… what are you doing?”
Lost in her thoughts Rus stopped paying attention to her companion when her gaze once again fell upon new Adventurer’s Guild idol, she saw her scribing something down furiously in her little notepad.
- “N-n-nothing at all! I am definitely not going to prepare anything for Mr. Zariel as he would return! Such a-a-assumptions are completely i-i-irrelevant!”
- “Riiiight.” Rus gave her that
- “Ah, yes, she indeed is in guild today, but she said that she also needs to train so her abilities wouldn’t grow dull. She asked Mr. Mrogul to be her partner today… the only thing that seems strange to me is that they moved to the private rooms above, and not to training room….”
- “I can already tell what kind of skills she trains…” once again, Rus said rolling her eyes
- “Really? What kind?!” El raised from her chair leaning over the table “… Please, tell me! If that’s some secret training… I wish to partake!”
- “NOO! I mean, no, there is so need. You see… Ay is… polishing Mrogul’s spear! Yes, that’s right! Taking care of your equipment is very important in life of adventurer! The quality of your equipment often determines if you will leave the dungeon alive!”
- “Is that so? I thought that Mr. Mrogul prefers axes…” El looked confused
- “No-no-no, he is an orc… and… umm…. You see… it is a tradition… for orcs… to have… spear… Yes, you could say that this is their tradition for every orc male to have an enormous… spear… They are well-known for that fact actually.”
- “Hmm. I have never seen Mr. Mrogul’s spear… Do you think he would show it to me if I asked him nicely?”
- “NOOO! NO! GOD PLEASE NO! NO! I-I mean… They don’t show it to everyone… I mean, those more savage orcs do… BUT THAT’S NOT THE POINT! ELANA!...”
Russiwell put both hands on smaller girl shoulders
- “Y-yes!?”
- “Please, promise me, you will never, ever, absolutely never! – ask any orc to show you his spear! That’s important!”
- “F-fine, I don’t mind, but I just wanted to kno…”
A muffled moan could be heard from the higher floor
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- “Hoh? What was that?” El raised her head
- “Must be sister Ay… admiring Mrogul’s spear. Yes, that’s for sure the reason.”
- “Hmm. But why couldn’t miss Aiele take me with her? If she is really just taking care of equipment then I could also…”
- “A-ha-ha! Silly me! I am such a goof! I just reminded myself that Ay asked me to show you how you should treat your gear! Yes! That’s what she did! Silly me! Ok, El, you have five minutes! Go grab your backpack and meet me in the training room. I will show you everything, ok? OK!? So go on, go on! Let’s just move from this place!”
She started pushing her toward the exit
- “B-but my milkshake!” blonde’s eyes watered as the distance between her and her treat kept increasing
- “I will buy you one after we would be done!”
- “You pro…?”
- “Yes! I promise, I give you my word of the scout!”
- “Yeey!... Hey, but you are not a sc…”
- “GOOO!”
Rus sighed loudly. This day just become far more entertaining, not in a good way.
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We waited for the Marie to calm down, which surprisingly didn’t take long. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not because she was cheating or manipulating (or so I hope), but simply because she seem to have such personality.
A personality that makes her act instead of thinking. She did something bad and she knew that, yet instead of crying in place and repeating “I am sorry” she actually started studying in order to fix her mistake. Still, when I gazed again into those annoying eyes of her I noticed exhaustion.
All those smiles and excessive words were to cover her insecurities and despair. She wanted to keep herself busy with actions, just to avoid thinking about this matter.
Yet now, as for god-only knows how long she kept failing, her mind snapped for a few minutes.
- “Kay, big-baby Marie stopped crying? Then maybe you would be nice enough to tell us what you need and stop wasting our time?!”
I hissed not even looking at her
- “Zari!” Gis rebuked me
I wasn’t being an asshole “just because”, I was afraid that if we would start comforting her she could once again remind herself about the sorrow and fall into despair. And guessing by her expression, it was a right choice.
- “N-No, he is right. I keep troubling you… so… just in order to not waste your time… I can give you the picture as we would be heading toward the village.”
- “That would be best possible option.” Lana agreed with a nod
We resumed our journey to the west, for first minute or two Marie was absolutely quiet, as she was trying to put all the events into one story in order to give us the whole picture of the situation.
- “I was born and raised in Rorado village west from here, we are heading there now. When I was young, local priest found out my extraordinary affinity to magic, and I started training in nearest villages, at local witches, mostly because I couldn’t afford academy tuition…” I cleared my throat loudly letting her know we are straying from the topic “… no, that’s important. I have no formal education, I barely managed escaping accusation of being a rogue mage! So, I have studied to become local village witch too… and I was growing up with this boy, Johan, son of hunter. Childhood friend. We knew that one day the two of us would marry, in such small villages it is often decided from the day of our birth… Not that I mind, we liked each other, he is a good kid… But damn, the two of us were troublemakers. Most of the village problems emerged from our little scheming, up to the point that when there was a period of drought and barely any crops grew, the villagers would start blaming us, I am not even kidding.”
She smiled to her memories
- “We could have… messed a little with everyone. Johan would steal wolf’s fur from his father, we would tie and patch leather together creating scary dummies and put them in forest close to the village to freak people out… And adventurers were hired quite few times… bah, we have called them ourselves… the faces of everyone when they realized that they hired people to defeat a monster made of sticks and leather!... Back in the day we thought it was funny. Yet eventually guild stopped responding to our requests, instead, they made an agreement with village head, that he would pay them annual salary, and every week or so adventurers would come to scout the forest looking for dangerous creatures. Yet I was banned from even entering the guild building… time passed, the two of us grown up and we started working harder to become useful member of society, Johan trained to become a hunter, just like his father, and I was given small hut on the village’s edge where I started treating people… and played a prank on them every now and then…”
She scratched the back of her head and smiled awkwardly admitting that her annoying personality never ceased existing.
- “… but Johan was… well, clumsy. He is great archer, wonderful tracker, but each time he would start sneaking up on the pray, he would step on twig, shake the bush or drop his knife. Out of ten of his hunting journeys he would return eight times empty-handed. And that’s not very good for the village which constantly requires leather for clothing… So, he came to me to ask for help. I am not an alchemist, I can barely make a medicine that would treat the fever, so potions that would raise his awareness and enchante his senses, even temporarily, are out of my reach. So, if not science, then magic! I know this and that about healing and minor blessing, but what Johan needed was something far more potent… so during night of spring equinox…”
I already knew where it was heading to
- “Goddess… No…” I covered my face in palms
- “A-ha, looks you really know what happened.” She smiled with sorrow
- “What? WHAT?!” Gis hated being left behind
- “The spirit realm is usually separated from ours, it’s like world on the other side of mirror, they are influencing each other, yet cannot touch…” Lana started explanation “… yet during certain days – or more precisely – nights, the border between the worlds becomes thinner allowing witches with weak spiritual connection to see and interact with them.”
- “Aaaand?” Gis still couldn’t link the fact together
- “Gis, being able to make a deal with spirit is one thing, making deal with spirit that doesn’t wish to trick you – another one. Just as our world is filled with good and bad people, as spiritual world is filled with kind and vicious spirits. If your spirituality is low, they would try pulling a prank on you, or worse, harm you.”
- “Why is spirituality so important though?”
- “It’s the link with the spirits…” it was my turn to join the lecture “… the stronger it is, the more
- “There is yet another factor…” future priestess added “… you can easily summon the spirit via ritual, then your link with him is enchanted. But during sacred nights, this link does not exists, it was random encounter. A wandering spirit, like will-o-wisps that attract travelers into the bogs.”
- “You made a deal?” I asked
Witch nodded.
- “And what’s worst, he filled his end of the bargain.”
- “What did you ask for and what did it want in return?”
These were most vital questions.
- “I asked him to fill Johan with power of wild animals – predators, so he would become stronger. In return he… it was some weird riddle. Can’t repeat it word to word, but he wanted to come into our realm, something along the line
I trembled.
- “Did you boyfriend change physically?”
- “Yes, at first he became much stronger, faster, he could find a coin lying in grass from hundred meters. He saw in night as good as in day… Then he started acting… different. Everyone in the village mocked him that he preferred eating meat
- “That’s why you started studying polymorph spell?”
- “Yes.”
- “That’s not nearly enough. His body is only adapting to the soul that is changing. Shapeshifting spell wouldn’t cure your friend, only slow the process down.”
- “That’s why I thought I would find a druid that could help me… but after ritual night they all went in all directions so quickly, that I didn’t manage to ask them… and then I saw you heading in same direction… and I just thought… that maybe goddess herself put you on my path…”
As much as I wanted to snort, I was slowly growing suspicious about it. At first, Aira asked me to come for the ritual night, then she made me an Oracle, that greatly boosted my affinity with nature spirits. Coincides do not exist. At least not in such sophisticated form.
- “What is happening with Johan now?”
- “I… I told everything to the village elder. Together they decided to chain Johan in the basement of his house until I would find a way to undo it.”
- “Good. Letting him hunt in the forest would accelerate the speed of changes.” I said more to myself than anyone else
- “Do you know how to reverse it?” Lanele looked at me
- “There is not one solution, at least I may try to do so. At very least, I need to inspect the patient.”
- “T-thank you.” Marie said
At first I wanted to yell at her and tell that her
In the end, the silence was my answer.