By the moment Lucrece came back into her room, she would find Gabrielle still sleeping on her chair, snoring slightly because of the bad position. The lancer could feel a pit growing bigger and deeper in her stomach as she approached to try and wake the girl up. Now, how to approach this sort of conversation.

She didn’t get much time to think: just trying to touch the redhead was enough to make her immediately jerk awake, her eyes bewildered and scared for a second before tranquility and neutrality returned to her visage.

“Luci. You are awake.” There was relief in the swordmaiden’s voice, the smallest hint of a smile curling on her lips. “Have you rested well? Are your wounds okay?”

The legitimate concern in Gabi’s voice was enough to throw all of Lucrece’s plans down the drain, her heart feeling the stabs of guilt almost immediately, how did this girl keep doing that!? She was quick to shake her head and wave her hands dismissively, trying to take away some of the importance from her wounds… only to wince once more for all that sudden motion.

“Ouch… I-I am fine, woman. Calm down, it takes more than a bunch of rats to take me down.” A cocky grin cracked on Lucrece’s face. “You weren’t that worried, right? Do you have that little faith in me?”

“I did worry for you, your wounds were bleeding a lot.” The way Gabrielle said it sounded almost like an admission of guilt. “I apologize, I should have acted faster.”

“What exactly happened, anyway?” Memories of that night were still fuzzy in Luci’s battered head. “I remember falling down after one of those bastards bit my ankle.”

“They tried to eat you after that.”

“Oh shite.”

“Indeed.” Gabrielle sighed, there was no way to get Lucrece to stop cussing. “I killed what was left and took you back to the tavern.”

“Really!? Damn impressive, woman. But how did you even do that? We couldn’t even get the horde to slow down when we were together!”

Silence. Gabrielle looked down and her red hairs covered her eyes for a moment, as she stared holes into her right arm. Now that was… something complicated to explain for way too many reasons. Lucrece simply waited in silence, giving the girl space and time to think what to say, or how to say it. She was already assuming that magic had something to do with the matter, so! It was best to let the “expert” explain.

But Gabi was no expert, no great thaumaturge or scholar. She was but a young girl.

She could still hear Baraqiel’s voice and what they said the day they left, the last piece of advice from her only friend: “Don’t tell them. Don’t tell anyone about the Rune.”, and in normal situations she wouldn’t even doubt their wisdom, but Lucrece was different. The woman had already seen her use a Rune, although she didn’t have to explain it to her.

Maybe… maybe it would be good as long as she didn’t give any details? But would that be really fair to someone she is traveling with? What difference did that make anyways?

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Finally, seeing the distress in Gabrielle’s eyes, Lucrece would sigh. Looking at her companion through a lid eye, she said:

“Magic, right? You did your magic thing.”

Gabrielle nodded.

“And you don’t know if you can tell me that sort of thing, because of some weird magical reason, right?” The redhead would open her eyes wide, rubbing the back of her neck nervously as she scrambled for a retort, but Luci stopped her. “I can’t read your mind, don’t worry. I was just guessing… look, if you can’t tell me it’s fine. I won’t pry.”

“Really? Why not?” Gabrielle was stunned.

“Because you saved my ass. Really, I should be thanking you instead of interrogating you about stuff.”

“Oh. It was nothing, I saw you fall and couldn’t simply let you there.”

“You could and you should had, really. I am a bigger problem than I’m worth.” Lucrece said with a loud cackle, only interrupted by another wince. It hurt to laugh. “But really… thank you, Gabi.”

There it was again, that hint of rosy pink on the witch’s brown cheeks. Why did this always happen? Was Gabrielle really that shy? Lucrece could believe it really, that’s what a sheltered life would do to you.

“So…” With a little grin, the redhead ventured, “Does this mean I can wear your hat?”

“Don’t push your luck.”

There was a moment of silence before they shared a hearty, loud laugh. People would probably wake up due to the two rambunctious women letting out the tensions like this, but they didn’t care at all at that moment. They were just happy to be alive.

They were just glad to have each other.

“Ah, right, I need to ask you something Gabi.” With a bit more confidence, the lancer started speaking. “Do you feel like hunting more rats, or do you feel like you had your fill already?”

“I can keep going as long as you can.”

Lucrece practically deflated with a deep sigh of relief, shaking her head quickly and trying to regain her posture. She had promised herself in the middle of it all that if Gabrielle said no, the deal would be over and they would just have to find a way to run from Rennos before the church started mobilizing… but she was certainly dreading that possibility, not only for the loss of that juicy reward, but also for the stress of having to run from a city and then live in the wild for probably a month.

She wasn’t sure which one of those factors she dreaded more though.

“Good, good. Let me give you the details of the job then, because oh Saints let me tell you! It’s a tricky one.” Luci would clear her throat before starting to speak again:

“The whole city has an issue with Rats. They started appearing a few months ago and now they push around every damn night. They always come from the sewers, and every time they do there is no number to their swarm.” The lancer shook her head slowly. “They have tried to exterminate them but the guard has been overwhelmed so many times that they refuse to continue humiliating themselves against them. The city council has been thinking of exploding or even flooding the sewers to get rid of them but, nothing yet… they need someone to go into the sewers, deep in the innards of this damn city, and find the nest to burn it to the ground.”

“So we would be exterminators.” Gabrielle lifted a single eyebrow. “I thought you didn’t want to be an exterminator.”

“I don’t, but they are paying one hundred golden empires to each person who manages to get rid of the rats for good!” Now Lucrece could barely contain her excitement. “One hundred golden empires, Gabi! Do you have any idea how much that is?”

“I do not.”

“Oh. Right.” Luci hit herself on the forehead, she kept forgetting how sheltered this girl was. “With that amount of money we could buy good weaponry, food for a month and maybe even a horse! And still have enough left to throw around if we want!”

“That’s a lot of money.”

“Right!?” Lucrece’s smile could upset the sun with how radiant it was. “Come on Gabi, we can do this together! It will be so good! I swear! You’ll get all the soup you want, until you are sick!”

“I hate being sick.”

“Alright then don’t get sick! Come on, please…?”

“Alright, fine. But we will be more careful this time.”

“Don’t worry!” Lucrece would jump right off her chair, ignoring the pain on her wounds and raising a thumb up. “This time we’ll be prepared, I promise.”

Gabrielle was aware that this deviation was taking far more time than she was comfortable with, but seeing the lancer so pumped made it clear that she was happy. And honestly, making the other girl happy didn’t feel bad at all… “So, let this adventure come!”, she thought.

“What’s the worst that could happen?”