“Thel, what the hell …” Du’s right outside the door as I don’t so much step through as damn near fall, barely managing to catch hold of the frame in time to stop myself from just crashing on my face. He’s shocked enough just seeing me, but more than that he almost seems angry too. “What the fuck are you thinking? You can’t be up, you need to be in bed.”
“What I said.” Brung growls from somewhere low at my side now “But more words.”
“Just shut up and help me, you fucking idiot.” I growl through my tightly gritted teeth, giving him the darkest glare I can manage, and I doubt it has to work very hard given how much pain I’m in.
He blinks for a moment, giving me a particularly hot glare, then ducks forward so he can slip under my arm and pick me up a bit straighter. “You’re the idiot here, not me.” he mutters, starting to manoeuvre us back round to head back the way I’ve come. “Come on.”
I lash out with my other hand and grab hold of the doorjamb and just hang on with all I got. It’s a jolt, but somehow I manage to hold it, and it brings him up short, seeming to surprise him. I dunno, maybe he’s still not all the way better himself yet. “Hey!”
“I am not going back to bed right now, Du! Just help me, damn it.”
“For Thorin’s sake, Thel, you have to rest. You’re a mess right now.” He sighs deep. “Whatever the hell’s going on, it’s not your business right now. You’re in no fit state.”
I don’t let go, instead just craning round much as I can given my strength to look him square in the eye. “Fuck that noise. Just help me walk.”
He stares me down for a long beat, or at least tries to, but even though I’m still tired as hell and every inch of me is just fucking sore I ain’t gonna back down. Finally he just slumps, hanging his head as he lets a heavy sigh go, and starts to turn back to the open door again, so I let go of the frame at last. Needless to say my arm instantly drops like it’s a limp, dead thing.
“Where to, then?” he finally mutters.
“Just wherever all that bloody noise is coming from.”
“What noise?” He blinks at me, and I realise now it’s grown a good deal quieter out there again, ‘least compared to what got me up in the first place. “Oh, yes. Of course. Come on, then.” Before I can respond he starts to haul me into the hallway, heading for … well, wherever we’re going. In truth I got no idea where we actually are right now, I just try to get my feet under me enough I don’t just end up getting dragged, and sort of manage it.
Gods, I’m fucking tired, though. I knew this was a fucking mistake the second I was relatively upright, but by then I’d kinda committed to the whole moronic enterprise. In truth it took me three minutes just to get myself out of the bed itself, and then once I was up I damn near went right down on my face cuz I had no energy in me at all. Instead I somehow managed to turn the fall into a desperate stumbling collapse into the nearest wall, and somehow from there managed to claw my way along it to the door. After that it took me another minute to just manage to open the bloody door …
The whole way Brung was shadowing me, but still not getting close enough that, if I did fall, he’d be any position to try and catch me. I would’ve just flattened him anyway, he’s not even half my size. So instead I just waved him off the first time, and he clearly took it to heart.
It was the noise that got me up in the first place. In truth it’s the second time I’ve been woken up by a great desperate clamour, but the first time I was barely even conscious enough to actually even ask the attendant who was watching over me about what was going on. It was Brung who let me know when he came in a short while later, telling me about the dirty trap that Vandryss and her witch laid for us in the warehouse Vik told Kesla about when she interrogated him. Apparently she took a major hit, it was touch-and-go whether she’d even make it. That hurt to hear, I’m getting quite fond o’ that big lass.
He stayed after that, dismissing the attendant to watch over me himself ‘til I fell asleep again, then when I got woke up again he was still there, perched on the chair next to the bed, those intense yellow eyes of his still locked on me. It sounded bad as last time, and it got me worked up enough I felt I had to do something, and ‘least this time I felt like maybe I had enough strength in me to actually go check it out. I could almost laugh at that now.
“Least you’re up and about again.” I manage to grunt out after a moment.
“What?” Du slows for a moment, frowning down at me, like he don’t quite know what I’m talking about. “Oh … well enough, I suppose. My side’s still giving me some gyp, but I think I’ll be all right again by morning. The clerics came in to see me again earlier, helped me over the hump. I expect they did the same for you too.”
“I dunno, they might’ve done. I been a bit out of it, after all.” I give him a rather sharp sidelong glare that I don’t even have to try and make look tired right now. Truth is they could’ve cracked open my chest and rearranged everything and I wouldn’t have noticed the way I been passed out since they got me back.
It felt like miracle enough I woke up at all. After I blanked out after that half-hob ran me through I genuinely thought that was it for me, waking up in that bed first time really was a genuine surprise. I was groggy as hell, barely managed to register I wasn’t alone. And even then, all I could really think about, never mind care about, was whether Du was all right. The attendant letting me know he was already on the mend was one hell of a relief to me, but at the time I wasn’t really equipped to actually appreciate it.
Now, having him here, supporting me … I’ll admit, it feels good, in spite of the discomfort. He’s a good one, I’m real glad I got him on my side.
‘Least Du knows the way to the emergency room, cuz I don’t even know where I actually am. It’s a good thing I didn’t have to break out o’ this place, I’d really have come a cropper. But eventually we turn a corner and there are voices ahead and I got an idea where we’re going now. ‘Course it helps I catch sight of Kesla stumbling in ahead of us, although it takes me a moment to actually recognise her.
They must’ve had to cut her out of her clothes when they were operating on her, cuz she’s wandering round in bare feet with a fair amount of bare lower legs showing too under the big striped robe she’s wearing on top of an oversized grey linen smock. And, I’d imagine, not much else. I know this cuz I’m dressed much the same, and the breeze round my nethers is palpable, even inside like we are.
She don’t look much better off’n I am, from what I can see – okay, she’s actually upright, but only just, shuffling and wobbling badly as she staggers through a door with a clearly visible puddle of blood just outside of it that an attendant is just now starting to mop up. So when she makes it to the door she mostly just falls through rather than opening it, managing to catch herself at the last to hold herself up in the frame. By this point we’re close enough now I can actually make out what’s being said.
“How’d it happen?” she demands, sounding pretty shook, now. The tone of voice is enough that, together with the blood on the floor, I feel the chill ride up my back. If I had fur, my hackles’d be rising.
“Kesla?” someone inside exclaims, and I recognise Shay’s voice, sounding suitably surprised, but a little fragile too. “What … what are you … you shouldn’t be up!”
The way Kesla tilts her head tells me she’s giving the half-orc a good sharp look, and she pushes away from the doorframe now, taking a couple of very shaky steps inside the room now. There’s an immediate commotion inside and I clearly hear more than one person rushing forward to catch her even before she starts to stumble on her third step, and as Du finally helps me get within spitting distance of the doorway I see Yeslee’s the first to reach her. No surprise there, I seen how tight these two are.
“What are you thinking?” the Fir Bolg hisses in her friend’s ear as she picks her up much as Du’s propping me up now, and there are others still scrambling about beyond ‘em as someone’s clearly looking for a chair.
“Sounds like all hell’s breaking loose in here. Again. I came to have a look. Arrived just in time, looks like.”
“For the love of …” Shay snatches a wooden chair right out of Art’s hands as he approaches and sets it down a few feet away, moving in on Kesla’s other side to guide her the rest of the way to it. “You can’t be up, this is so dumb … I’m serious, Kesla, you look like hell.”
“An’ I don’t feel much better. Don’t mean I got a right to stay outta this.” She’s huffing and puffing, clearly winded by the efforts, so when they finally manoeuvre her round in order to help her sit down she lets out a great winded groan and just slumps into the chair. “Fuck … believe me, I’d be happy if I could just stay in bed right now, but …”
To be honest she don’t look all that bad, ‘least not after what I heard. She’s paler than normal, certainly, with dark bags under her eyes and her face is tight from a clear amount of pain and wear, but even so I can’t see any real damage. Right now the worst thing about her look is actually just her hair, which is a spiky, greasy mess, stuck up all over the place. Gods know what the hell she actually got in it, but then I can see there’s more’n a few scattered smears of it on her face too. Looks an awful lot like axle grease off a big cart, if I’m honest.
“Any chance of another one of those, please?” Du pleads now as he hauls me in after her, puffing a little himself now. He’s bigger’n I am, and I know he’s stronger, but I guess he’s still not all the way fixed yet. Not if he’s getting winded again already.
“Oh for …” Shay breaks away immediately, rushing towards us now. “What the hell were you thinking? You definitely shouldn’t be up.”
“This shit is … loud.” I manage to growl out as Du hoists me up a little more as he tries to adjust his position with a loud grunt. “All this … it’s getting to be a habit.”
Frowning deeper, Shay stops short, a little taken aback, and by that point Art’s arriving with another chair, giving her a particularly pointed look now as he sets it down near to Kesla. Du makes a beeline for it now, just as Krakka swoops in to join him. I offer my arm up in invitation and he ducks right under it without a word.
As they guide me towards it I finally get a look at what’s run ‘em all ragged – Tulen’s girlfriend, that pretty half-orc wizard, Sessa. Although it takes me a long moment to actually recognise her, something pretty horrible’s clearly just happened to her. Fuck … where’s her hand?
“Bloody hell …what happened?” I ask, just as they manhandle me to the chair and I just collapse into it, slumping even more completely than Kesla did. Du stays close by, fussing over me as he tries to prop me up, but he’s starting to turn quite pale himself, breathing hard now with all that effort I just put him through clearly catching up to him. By the time Art’s fetched a third chair and Yeslee’s helping him into that one he’s almost doubled over.
‘Least they planted it right next to mine, so he’s able to prop me up. I lean right into him, as much to keep him from slumping too.
Tulen’s just rocking her girl gently back and forth now, stroking her hair with a shaking hand as she sniffs miserably, looking almost as stricken herself now. Sessa’s getting over the worst of her tears now, it seems, but I get the impression she’s been drugged sometime before I arrived – she’s altogether too calm now for these kinds of wounds. Finally she blinks the tears out her eyes and starts to focus on everyone. “Oh … um …”
“Sessa, luv … you all right there now?” Kesla ventures, cautiously licking her lips.
“Oh …” Sessa breathes again, blinking more deliberately this time as she looks her way. “Hello … um … Kesla. Yes. Um … oh, I think … I’m … I don’t know, really.”
Kesla sits forward now, looking like she’s an inch from just doubling over entirely but finally just propping herself up on her folded arms as she looks up at the wounded half-orc. “You said Madame Daste is dead? Can you tell us how? Please … we need to know what happened.”
“It was …” Sessa looks round again, but it’s not like she’s actually focusing on anyone now, she’s just searching for an answer. “Oh … Minerva … I don’t know what it was, I’ve never seen anything like it. We were on our way here, Madame Daste had scrounged up some people to come help you. Some of her best in the townsguard, men and women she was sure she could trust. Good fighters. But …” She frowns now, taking a deep breath. “Oh .. oh my … I don’t understand, it was like … it was so strange. It was like there were shadows all around us. Shadows that … they were alive. They just started … they attacked us. I was … I couldn’t understand what was even going on … people were being torn apart all around me, it was chaos …” She creases up and starts sobbing as she breaks again, and that’s it. I don’t see anyone getting any more out of her now.
The silence that follows, as she sobs away and the healers who are trying to tend to her just step back in rather shaken deference while Tulen just hugs her close and starts sobbing herself, is deafening. I couldn’t think up anything to say if I tried, and Du’s just sat there, wide-eyed with his mouth hanging open, genuinely struck dumb too. Kesla sits back, or rather just slumps in her seat again, and lets a heavy, devastatingly weary sigh go, a genuinely haunted look on her face now. But mostly … gods, she looks so tired, still.
Finally Art turns to Yeslee, who’s stood by with her arms folded tight across her chest much as I’ve often seen her, although this time it almost seems like a protective gesture, certainly given what we’ve just heard. Her eyes are a good deal wider than they normally are, too.
“Living shadows?” the bakaneko finally manages to get out, and as he looks up at the Fir Bolg it almost seems like he’s pleading. “What the hell … is that … what?”
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
Yeslee don’t answer him, she just shakes her head profusely, and I can see she’s scared. Wow … I didn’t think that was even possible.
“Lady Naru?” Kesla wonders after another, more thoughtful beat. “Does that … I dunno, does it maybe ring a bell with you?”
The sorcerer’s silent for a long moment, considering, but holds her gaze well enough, which surprises me given what’s being discussed. Finally she looks down, though, shaking her head now. “No. I don’t think so. Moving shadows … yes, I’ve seen that kind of thing before, but never anything more than illusions. For them to actually be able to harm anyone, to do the kind of damage she describes … that we can see here …” She shakes her head again as she looks back up, and she’s as shook as the rest of us. “No, that’s very strange.”
Frowning deeper, Kesla turns back to the two lovers huddled on the bed. “Tulen?”
The dragonhalf jerks, jumping, likely not expecting that right now, or perhaps she’s still simply too distracted by her friend’s misfortune. “What … what? I’m sorry, I … um …” She blinks her swimming, teary eyes and tries to focus on Kesla now.
Kesla leans in as close as she can, without crowding the girl, and speaks softly. “How about you?”
“Me? I don’t …” Tulen blinks again, frowning a little, but maybe the query seems to shake some of her rust off, because she starts to focus now. “No … no, I don’t think so. It’s … I’ve never heard of magic like that, either.”
“Shit.” Shay growls, genuinely hissing her words now. “It’s warlocks all over again, like with Ashsong. It’s either whatever Tavarret’s gotten into now, or …” She looks ready to spit, but I suspect she curbs herself before actually just hocking a was right on the floor here. “Fuck. It’s Vandryss. It has to be.”
“We can’t be sure about that.” Kesla mutters, half to herself, before straightening up again and looking at her now. “Just because that bitch is creepy –”
“Oh, she’s supremely so, but I’d say it’s a pretty safe guess, wouldn’t you? Either her directly, or …” Shay scowls. “Well, we don’t really know quite what’s really going on here, do we?”
Another discomfited silence falls on the group as a whole, and I don’t like it one bit. Being left sitting here in the quiet with that idea swimming round in my head … fuck, it’s enough to set my teeth on edge.
Then the doors swing open again behind us and I can’t help tensing when it does, but all this really does is damn near spill me out the chair in my surprise. Fuck … Thorin help me if I actually gotta fight right now, I’d be completely useless.
‘Least I manage to crane my neck enough to get a half-decent look round, and I’m able to relax quick enough seeing it’s only the half-hob wizard, Shul. She’s hustling in with a typically short, business-like look on her fact like always, but even so she looks strikingly different – from the look of it she’s been at rest and had to get up fast, cuz she’s out of uniform now, ‘least in the manner of the Order here in the Temple. She’s wearing a simple linen shift under light grey woollen robes that mostly look like they’ve just been thrown on in a rush, while she’s barefoot and her hair’s still down. It tumbles round her face in a surprisingly fetching cascade of somewhat unruly, shaggy dark locks, several bangs falling into her face that she has to tuck back behind her ear as she focuses on the group at large.
She ain’t alone, either, that tall dragonhalf official, Saxiros, sweeps in after her, but he at least is still fully dressed and seems more collected. He takes one look at us all and frowns deep. “My apologies, I’ve been informed that there was an incident that –” He falls silent the moment he catches sight of what’s happened to Sessa, and his eyes widen significantly. “Oh … Minerva save us, what …”
“Gods.” Shul just growls it under her breath and, unlike her superior, barely even seems fazed by the development. Instead she just pads forward on her clawed feet, her expression barely changing as she goes to the stricken young half-orc. “What happened?”
“We got no idea, and what she says ain’t making much sense. Something about living shadows?” Kesla scowls now, much like Shay’s doing. “Some kinda seriously nasty dark magic, that’s all we know.”
“Something fell, then.” Shul shoos the nearest cleric outta her way and reaches out, not quite touching Sessa’s ruined arm but letting her fingers hover close all the same as she mutters something under her breath. “Yes … this is definitely something very dark indeed. I’ve never felt anything like it, but … fell indeed. It’s Eldritch in nature, clearly. Did she say how it happened?”
“She was with Madame Venne Daste, of the Authority.” Shay snaps to attention, her eyes flickering to Kelsa for a blink. “They were on their way here when … something attacked them. She got away, but … she said everyone else died. That they were torn apart.”
Shul takes a sudden step back, and now I finally see her stoic composure slip a little. “What?”
“Venne?” Saxiros gasps, his shock turning to genuine dismay, but there’s more to it than that. The news genuinely hurts him, the loss of a friend. “No … no, it can’t be.”
“It … it happened …” Sessa manages to get out, even as her words are heavily wracked with her hitching breaths. She’s making an effort to be coherent again, likely given that she’s now in the presence of a big deal in the Order, but she’s still really hurting, and clearly on the verge of breaking even more. “She was … gone … before I could do anything … as if I could have …” Her lip wobbles badly even as she’s clearly trying her hardest to hold it together. “Fuck …”
Tulen hugs her closer and shushes her gently as she starts to rock her again, while Shul fusses over her wound. I have no idea what the hell she’s actually doing, but she keeps muttering something under her breath, and I imagine it has something to do with Sessa’s wound, but I know she ain’t a healer, so I can’t think what it could be.
“We think it must’ve been that Vandryss bitch.” Kesla growls now as she turns back to Saxiros. “Somehow … I dunno how it all works, but after the signs we been seeing, and then her, together with what we saw and heard in the Reaches with Ashsong … I’m starting to worry we might be in over our heads with this.”
Saxiros watches her for a long moment, his gleaming yellow eyes narrowing, thoughtful now. “I suppose it is possible that there might be some connection, but really it’s little more than conjecture at this point, surely. The evidence is not strong enough yet.”
“Maybe not, but it still don’t look too good.” Kesla folds her arms again, looking down for a moment. “I guess I’m just … I dunno.” She looks up again. “How’re things progressing with you?”
That has me stumped, I got no idea what that’s about. I shoot a look to Shay, but she’s just frowning too.
“I’m sorry.” Saxiros sighs, and I’ll admit, despite his haughtiness, he does manage to look genuinely regretful. “I’m afraid I have exhausted all the covert channels available to me in the hopes of dredging up any information about the whereabouts of young Master Foxtail. The only avenue left open to me would be to pursue more official and overt channels of inquiry, but I am reluctant to pursue this path, since –”
“Yeah, better you didn’t try that. We still got no definite idea exactly who it is safe for us to trust in this, and if you start trying to go through them channels anyway it’s gonna run the risk o’ ringing too many of the wrong bells in the Authority. We can’t take that chance, not with Gael.” Kesla’s frown deepening, but there’s a more curious edge to it now, a troubling thoughtfulness. “Wait …”
“Perhaps I should make contact with Mistress Thermyse again.” Saxiros offers up now, seeming to have largely missed the change in her demeanour, but then he is a little distracted now. “It is possible that I’m simply overlooking some –”
“Shit.” Kesla largely just breathes that word, but it’s just loud enough to make a clear impact on the dragonhalf official, who frowns the deepest I think I ever seen him do since I met him. But the big woman just sits all the way forward, not seeming to notice her wounds or wear this time since she’s clearly having a revelation. “Oh hell … my Lady?”
Again I just blink, momentarily lost who she’s referring to, then Lady Naru turns her way and glides over with that same unconscious, perfect graceful ease of hers. “Yes, I’m here. What is it?”
“Exactly who else is in on this, besides Madame Daste, I mean?” She cocks a brow as the sorcerer just frowns. “I mean the whole business with Hontiresk, and Jammund. Y’know, this mess we’re in now.”
“Oh … well of course, Thura and Shembad are my most direct contacts after Venne, but there are at least half a dozen other members of the Authority who would at least have peripheral knowledge, and who would be able to help.” She turns to look up at Saxiros now. “But I don’t see how they would be able to aid you with Gael or –”
“No, that’s not exactly what …” Kesla plants her feet the best she can with a heavy sigh as she drops her head and brushes her hands up and back through her messy hair. Immediately getting grease and whatever else that is all over her hands. “I mean the plot itself. Such as Daste understood it, and the rest. I mean, I know there’s Sonagh too, cuz he was working direct for her. I mean, he knew about Darion, and we know that Lady Thura and Lord Wralin did too …” She looks up again, and this time she’s looking up at Lady Naru with genuine urgency, almost pleading with her eyes now, actually. “If Daste was a genuine threat to Hontiresk, and they knew about her through Darion, then …”
“But …” The sorcerer shakes her head, but now her denial looks just as desperate. “No. There’s no way that Darion would ever tell them anything, not –”
“But they didn’t have Gael before.”
Lady Naru’s brows shoot right up, her eyes going very wide, and I see her visibly pale as her perfect mouth forms a tiny O. “Oh … gods no, that would be … it’s monstrous.”
“Fuck …” I can’t help it, it just slips out, and they all turn to me now. If I had any more energy I might actually start to get self-conscious. “She’s right, he’d talk. Any father would.”
“Oh fuck, no …” Lady Naru takes a few frantic steps away into the open and starts fishing through her robes now, and this time it takes her a few beats to locate that ubiquitous length of string she keeps using. She wastes a few more seconds desperately trying to unravel it, and in that time realisation seems to have spread to Saxiros too.
“Minerva …” He starts digging in his own robe pockets now. “Who should I contact, Sulin?”
When the sorcerer looks up as she finally works the last kink out of the string, she frowns deep for a long beat, staring right at him. At first I think maybe she’s just perturbed that he actually called her by her given name, but then she blinks and seems to come to her senses. “Oh! Of course … Shem. Message Shembad. I’m going to try Thura.” Before he could even think of replying she stretches the string out between her thumbs while lacing her fingers together and closes her eyes as she bows her head, and that’s it, she’s out the conversation.
For a beat Saxiros just frowns at her, then he continues searching, finally pulling a small ball of yarn from a pocket and, with surprising focused efficiency, draws out a tidy length which he then stretches out for himself. He turns and looks to Kesla, but says nothing, simply fixing her with a sharp stare for another beat, then bends to his own spell.
Taking a deep breath that she then lets out in a tight, clipped exhalation as she does the best she can to sit herself up good and straight, Kesla turns to the tengu cleric now. “Krakka, I need your help.”
Blinking, he takes a step towards her, letting his big hammer settle beside her chair as he reaches her. “Of course. Anything you need, you know that.”
“You got enough in you for a big charge?”
That just makes him frown, and once again the way he cocks his head makes him look more like a normal raven than ever. “Of course, all I need to do is pray to My Lady and She’ll give me all that I might need.”
“I need you to get me on my feet, ready to fight, and I need you to do it inside the next ten minutes.” Her face alone brooks no possible arguments.
Even so, he still looks at her like she’s asking the impossible. “But why, I don’t understand, you’re in no shape to go out now, even if I do. You’re still too badly hurt, and you need time to –”
“There is … I don’t …” Saxiros lets the loose end of the string fall loose from his fingers as he looks up. “Shembad isn’t there. I can’t make contact with him at all.”
“You don’t think maybe he just couldn’t reply?” Shay’s clearly trying to keep her cool right now and it don’t convince at all. “It’s pretty late, I mean … maybe he’s just sleeping.”
“No, I don’t think –”
“The spell doesn’t work that way.” Tulen interrupts him, but if Saxiros finds any offence in it at all I reckon he’s took shook to let it show. I doubt she even realises she’s just done it, anyway. “Even if Lord Wralin was asleep, he would still feel him, even if he couldn’t make contact. The only reason that he wouldn’t be there at all is … if …”
“If he’s dead.” Kesla growls, turning back to Krakka, who looks back with wide, fearful eyes now as he realises what she means, and that what she’s asking of him is pretty necessary after all. “Like Daste. It ain’t just her, it’s all of ‘em. That bitch is using Gael to make Darion give everybody up, and whatever the hell it is she’s doing, she’s wiping all of ‘em out. We gotta do something. Right now.”
“But I don’t …” Krakka lets a weary sigh go. “Kesla, please, you have to be reasonable –”
“Something’s happening.” Lady Naru’s let her own string go too, stepping up to us again with a particularly wild, somewhat harried look now. “At the estate. Thura doesn’t know what’s going on but it’s chaos there. If we’re going it needs to be now.”
Kesla turns back to the cleric now, giving him an even firmer stare now, one I’m amazed she can really muster up in her current condition. “You heard ‘er.”
“Please, I’m not sure –”
“She’s got kids, Krakka. A whole family, and they might only have minutes left. I have to go. I need you to help me.”
He watches her for a long, intense moment, and he’s both rattled and genuinely dismayed that she’s put him in this spot, clearly. But she’s making perfect sense, this Lady Thura and her family are alive now, but they might not be for much longer. And what Sessa described … fuck, nobody should have to die like that.
So when he drops his head with a heavy sigh and picks up his hammer again, it’s just to shift it aside so he can move round behind her, putting his hands on her bent back almost immediately. “Damn it … you’re right, of course you are. I’ll do my best. My Lady help me, I’ll try.”
“That’s good enough for me, Krakka. I know you can do it.” She takes a deep breath as he starts muttering under his breath now, closing his eyes and lowering his head as he starts offering up fresh prayers to his goddess, and turns to look up at Yeslee now. “Might as well break out my armour. The good stuff.” Now she turns to Shay. “I’d appreciate your help with it, if you don’t mind?”
Shay blinks, a little taken aback now. “Oh … of course. I suppose I should get my own back on too, as well.” She casts about for a moment before finally settling on Art. “Can you go fetch my gear? It should still be where I left it, in the lounge.”
“Yeah, sure. Back in a tick.” The bakaneko scampers off without any further hesitation, leaving Darwyn frowning after him in his wake. After a moment she just turns and gives her hobgoblin friend a complicated look, and he just shrugs back, which just makes her frown deeper. Then she just turns and cocks her head towards the door, and after a moment he nods before following her as they both head off at a more sedate pace. I imagine they’re off to get their own shit together.
Meanwhile the Fir Bolg is dumping her pack on the floor as she crouches beside it, unbuckling the flap and throwing it open so she can start fishing about inside. The interior is a whole lot darker and clearly more cavernous than it has any right to be for its size, and I immediately realise what it is. That’s a genuine Bag of Holding. Gods, it’s been a long time since I seen one o’ those.
“You’re really sure about this?” Yeslee mutters after a moment, not looking up as she reaches into that strange deep void and starts feeling about. The fact that I hear something shift inside there and then there’s an oddly resonant clattering sound like something bouncing away inside a great echoing chamber sets my teeth a little on edge, but it’s really a dread kind of fascinating too. “You really don’t look up to this.”
As Krakka starts praying in earnest Kesla sits up a little straighter with a small sharp intake of breath which seems equal parts pain and relief. “Oh … I don’t have much choice right now, Yes. I can’t let her die. I can’t let any of ‘em die.”
The Fir Bolg just looks up at her for a loaded moment, but then she nods and dips back into the bag. A moment later she lifts out a surprisingly substantial leather duffel bag that has no right to fit inside something so much smaller the way it does here. She holds this out to Shay and, once she’s taken it, closes her bag up again and slips it back on before starting to move off too. “I’ll go collect your sword.”
“Thanks.” Kesla breathes with a grateful smile as she lets her head dip a little, her eyelids fluttering slightly as though she’s starting to get sleepy. Reckon it must be all that healing magic Krakka’s pouring into her.
As Yeslee leaves the room, I turn to give Du a look, seeing him sit up a little as he watches her go. I can’t help cocking my brow a little at that. Reckon Kesla’s got the right idea, though. “All right then.”
Turning to look over the gaggle of clerics now hanging back from Sessa as Shul continues to do … whatever it is she’s doing, I clear my throat and try to sit up a little. It don’t really work, which only makes this all the more pressing, really. “Um … hey there, any chance I could get a fix-up of my own over here? Hello?”
THE END OF BOOK THREE
THE STORY WILL BE CONTINUED IN BOOK FOUR