Iris savored the warm embrace of the shower as it washed away the stains of adventure. A dark, multicolored whirlpool swirled around the drain at her feet, while warm steam drifted up past her face. She couldn't count all the places she was sore, nor even remember all the injuries she had sustained. For the moment, she preferred not to think about them at all, and placed a hand on the small crystal inset into the wall below the spout, pumping mana into it to increase the pressure and warmth of the water.
When she finally pulled aside the curtain and stepped out onto the wooden floor of the small, dingy washroom lit by a hanging lantern, her eyes lingered on her reflection. A column of three wide scars stretched across her chest, just below her collarbone. A shorter, angled scar crossed her abdomen, and a jagged, almost star-like scar on her shoulder marked where a wasp had stung her. She approached the mirror, leaning on the counter as she turned her head to inspect her face. When she looked closely, she could see small, speckled scarring around her right eye, faint enough to be invisible when she stepped back from the mirror.
The next thing to catch her attention was her muscle definition. She was still average in frame, with a healthy amount of pudge on her bones, but her arms seemed thicker than she had ever noticed before. With a curious expression, she flexed her right arm and saw the muscle bulge, earning a smile. From what she understood about attributes, her Strength stat was merely a modifier of her preexisting physical strength and didn't actually augment the muscles themselves, meaning she had earned this muscle the old fashioned way -- if swinging an oversized sword could be considered an old fashioned workout.
She thought back to Eli's words after the battle in the ravine. He had said she was only alive because she hadn't been unlucky yet, and the scars felt like proof of that much. But how much of it had been luck, she wondered? How much of her own survival could she attribute to her own power and skills? For every moment she would have died without help or luck, she could count a dozen more that she survived by her own accord. Every moment of every battle was spent on the edge of life and death, and time and time again she dodged and danced along that edge like its where she belonged. Even now, as she savored the peace and comfort she had been longing for, part of her yearned battle -- for the thrill of tempting death and laughing in its face.
She caught her own gaze in the mirror, and her eyes lingered on themselves. She saw the eyes of a young girl longing for adventure, then the eyes of her mother -- full of love and worry, and then the eyes of a killer, indifferent to the blood on her hands. The corpse of the man she had killed flashed into her mind like an invading force, like a presence demanding to be known. Her face was stern and brave, but the bravery only felt like malice. Her stomach twisted, the thirst for thrill and adventure that normally swelled within her now shrunk away, tainted by the price of seeking it. A knock on the door jolted her out of her thoughts, sucking her back to reality.
"Hurry up!" Victoria called the hallway.
"Almost done!" Iris shouted back, quickly drying off and dressing in fresh, casual clothes from her bag.
----------------------------------------
Later that night, the party was gathered at a table in the tavern, enjoying fresh hydra steaks with sides of vegetables and wild berries.
"The guy said they cook these way slower," Autumn said around a mouthful, "most of the spiciness seeps out that way, but it really brings out the savoriness."
"These are huge," Eli observed, "how much were they?"
"Very expensive," Autumn remarked with a short laugh.
"You've barely touched your plate," Victoria said to Iris, who was twirling the berries around her plate with a fork.
Iris looked up, seemingly surprised to be noticed.
"I bet she still can't handle the heat," Autumn smirked.
"It's not that," Iris said quietly.
Victoria slightly raised a hand towards Autumn before she could reply, "is everything alright?" she asked.
"Have any of you ever killed someone?" Iris asked, staring down at the table.
A few utensils gently clanked on plates, and Autumn and Titus glanced around at the others as they slowly and awkwardly finished chewing their bites.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
"Is it the wizard?" Victoria asked carefully, "did you have to--"
"Yeah," Iris said quickly, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have brought it up at dinner."
She moved to rise from her seat, but Victoria held out her hand, "it's okay, stay. Eli?"
There was another quiet moment.
"I thought I did, once," Eli finally spoke up, "when Vic and I were training in Everveil. There was another student there, he-- he fell in with the wrong crowd. They told him to complete his initiation he would have to kill us."
Eli paused, momentarily grappling with his own memories of guilt.
"What did you do?" Iris asked, looking up at him.
"I put a bolt of magic through his head," Eli said coldly, not meeting her eyes, "I-- I didn't even hesitate. I wish I could say I did."
"Everveil has powerful healers," Victoria explained, "they were able to keep him alive, and it took months, but eventually he woke up."
"I spent months believing I'd killed him -- that it was just a matter of time before the healers gave up," Eli continued, "even now, I still have to live with knowing I made the decision to do it."
"How did it feel?" Iris asked hesitantly.
"Like I wanted to crawl out of my skin just to get away from the hands that had done it."
"Does it go away?" she asked, hopefully.
"Not really. It fades over time, I guess, but it doesn't leave you."
Iris looked back down at the table without actually seeing anything on it, sitting with the words and emotions floating around in her mind. The others looked on in silence.
"I tried not to fight him," she said, "he wanted the egg, and I tried to give it to him but just said 'every bit of experience counts.' Can you believe he actually apologized before he tried to kill me?"
Eli and Victoria exchanged a glance when she mentioned the egg, but said nothing.
"I knew I guy like that once," Titus said, "we were young, as far as I know he had never killed a person, but he'd brag about killing innocent animals just for the modicum of experience he'd get for it. He said if you kill enough of them, it adds up. Still makes me sick to think about."
"Does it--" Iris hesitated, "I killed him to save myself, but I got a lot of experience for it. Does it make me a bad person if I got excited about that?"
Titus thought for a moment, "is that why you killed him?"
"Of course not," Iris replied quickly, "he was faster than me, and I was hurt--"
"Then no," Titus interrupted, "it doesn't make you a bad person."
"You did what you had to do," Victoria said, "in a situation that you didn't choose to be in. It's not your fault."
Iris nodded absently, poking her hydra steak with her fork.
"Are we gonna ask about the egg?" Autumn asked.
"No, Autumn, we're not," Eli said, "not right now."
"It's fine," Iris said with a tired smile, "I, uh, think I sort of found a wyvern egg?"
Jaws dropped around the table.
"As in, the wyvern egg?" Eli asked.
"Yeah," Iris said, cringing under the looks she was getting, "it was an accident! I was blipping along and it just-- fell out of the sky? And it fit in my bag, so--"
"You stole a wyvern egg?" Autumn exclaimed, "that's so cool!"
"I didn't steal it!" Iris insisted, "I just, secretly recovered it."
"We have to turn it in," Eli declared.
"I was planning to," Iris said, "probably."
"Well," Victoria said, immediately getting a glare from Eli, "I mean, there are other options."
"Are you serious?" Eli asked a deadpan stare.
"Look, I don't trust Commander Bridge," Victoria said, "no one gets that high in the Adventuring Corps without being shady. Whatever he has planned for it definitely isn't good."
"What he has planned for it is none of our business," Eli said, "what matters is that he's a government official and he's laid claim to it through the proper channels, which makes not giving it to him stealing."
Victoria scoffed, "Laid claim to it? Listen to yourself, It's not even our government! you might as well go find the newest Corps official and kiss their boots. "
"Really, Vic?"
"I think we should cook it," Autumn chimed in.
"We are not going to cook it!" Eli shouted.
"Guys!" Iris yelled, "shut up for a second."
Everyone turned to look at her, and she shrank slightly under their stares.
"Look, I found it. That makes it my responsibility, right? So just, everyone calm down and let me figure out what to do with it."
"That means if someone comes looking for it, you take all the heat," Eli said.
"Okay, deal," Iris said.
"No--" Eli started
"You offered the deal," Victoria shrugged.
"Yep, them's the rules," Iris smiled, then took a bite of her food.
Eli put his head in his hands and groaned, "you're all ruining my life."
----------------------------------------
The Dreamweaver dropped from the canopy onto the gnarled roots of the web strewn woods. Before her was the half eaten corpse of the Matriarch, the head was gone and the thick exoskeleton of its thorax was cracked open like an egg in a puddle of innards. Mangled legs were splayed awkwardly around it, and the once swollen abdomen now lay trampled and deflated. She walked around to the largest opening in the exoskeleton, where the Wyvern had buried its maw to feast. With a grimace, she climbed into the spider queen's corpse and trudged through the now thick goop.
Her aura senses quickly located what she sought. She pushed her way through the remaining innards, reaching deep until her hand clasped the prize. She pulled against the strings of sinew-like flesh that suspended it within the thorax. With a grunt, she ripped it free of the final strings, and climbed back out of the corpse.
She held the tall, slender crystal high. It appeared almost black in the darkness, but she saw the hints of brilliant purple hiding within. Though the power was locked away inside, she could sense the very essence of the Matriarch's soul against her flesh.