Liù decided that she had had enough for the night and flew away. On the way to the window, however, she heard a commotion behind her and got distracted. A small fight had broken out in the tavern, right where she was hiding. She kept flying but also tried to keep an eye on the fight, and curiosity soon proved to be fatal. She bumped into a chandelier she didn’t see and fell down to the ground in a small explosion of sparks and light. All around her, the fight froze.
Before she could even realize what was going on, everyone seemed to have gone insane. The fight broke out again and spread to the whole room, with spells and chairs and weapons flying everywhere, and everyone just tried to grab her. Liù shrank away and tried to fly again, but the people and their arms flailed around too much, they hit her, and she rolled on the ground while the mass of people dove for her like a cage of limbs and armor. She could hear people shouting to grab their weapons, to wake up their teammates, they were talking about a prize, about a wild catch all the way here in the city. Everyone wanted something. Liù was scared. She didn’t know how to get out of here. The only thing she could think of…
Her chest began to light up with inner light, and magic.
“Everybody freeze!” a powerful, shrieking voice of a woman cut through the brawl.
Again, like before, the fight froze. In the literal sense. Everyone just stopped moving, and those who were in the middle of attacking, jumping or receiving an attack just fell to the ground in a heap.
“Let me through,” the voice said. Liù could recognize her, now that she was not screaming anymore. It was the foxgirl Lisette had been talking with.
The crowd of tangled limbs and sweaty adventurers moved away in a cacophony of grunts and curses. Then Liù saw her. Her face was gorgeous, and her hair and ears were of a bright orange that seemed to shine with a light from within, just like her own.
“Hello, little one.” The girl said. “I’m Melina. Come to me.”
Liù regarded the outstretched hand. She struggled up to her feet and tried to fly away, making use of the distraction. Everyone gasped, their faces tracking her while she tried to get away, all the bodies around her immobile but shivering like loaded springs. She didn’t look back, and so she didn’t see Melina’s fangs shining in the light of the candles, keeping at bay the unruly mob with just her gaze. She only knew that she couldn’t wait to be at Ishrin’s side, watching him sleep.
***
Ishrin woke up to the smell of rain and rolled to the side to look out the window. It was closed, he noticed as he stretched in bed and yawned. It felt good to sleep on a real bed.
Liù was sleeping soundly beside him. Her little body was cocooned in the bedsheets and pressed against his, so that when he finally got up to open the blinders, the pixie just rolled in the depression left behind in the mattress. She timidly opened one eye to inspect why there was light now hitting her face, and yawned.
“Wakey wakey!” Ishrin said.
She chirped at the end of her yawn.
“So cute,” Ishrin gushed.
Liù’s cheeks turned red, and she hid under the bed. Ishrin just went to the window to look at the scenery, taking in the view of the small walled city from the second floor of the inn. He could see mostly roofs and chimneys, and the far away silhouette of green hills and mountains in the morning haze, bathed by the sun.
After a few moments, invigorated by the fresh air, he finally got to work. If Lisette kept to her word, she would deliver a few supplies before lunch so that he could restore his foundation, which meant that by the time she got to the inn he wanted to have a ritual circle set up.
It still felt awful to move around, and his body felt sluggish and little aches and pains made themselves known everywhere. Last night he had fallen asleep like a log due to exhaustion, but now that he was well rested, he was really regretting his choices.
Too late to regret it now.
Hopefully Lisette will be back soon. The other problem was where to draw the ritual. A quick eyeball measure of the room told him that the circle would not fit in his room, even if he moved the bed around or removed it altogether. That left drawing it outside as the only viable option.
As he was about to leave the room, he heard a knock on the door.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
“Lisette? Is that you?”
A grunt of affirmation came from outside the door.
“Come in.”
The wooden door creaked open, revealing Lisette and another woman standing in the corridor. He could not see the second woman very well with the light coming from behind her, but the shape of her ears and the hint of a tail was immediately visible and betrayed her demihuman origin.
“Who is she?” Asked Ishrin, falling into a well practice battle stance that would not help him much at all.
I can feel her power even with a broken core. She is dangerous.
He tried to gesture for Liù to fly up to him and be ready to fight at a moment’s notice, but the pixie was too distracted by the two guests and did not see him.
I’m going to have to improvise.
He crept to the far end of the room, towards the window, eyes glued to the unwelcome guest and hands ready to defend himself.
“She is Melina,” Lisette said.
That was that. No other explanation.
That’s how it is, then. Too bad.
But before Ishrin had any time to do anything he might come to regret, Melina spoke.
“Wait, it’s not what you think. I’m not here to fight you or anything.”
Ishrin frowned. “What makes you so sure I was thinking that?”
The foxgirl smiled mischievously. “Let’s say that after a certain tier you develop some sort of sense for these things. Isn’t that right?”
Ishrin nodded reluctantly. Everything about her body language screamed danger to him. And she knows I know.
“Not something a broken Tier 1 should pick up anyway.” She added.
“It’s common sense to be a bit worried when two people barge into your room, one of which you have never met before and was not invited.”
“That’s only fair,” the woman conceded with a smile that showed sharp canines, “I am Melina, Noctis’ guild master and former A-rank adventurer.”
“A-rank…” Ishrin muttered, scratching his chin, “interesting that you use both letters and numbers for the tiers.” He looked her up and down. “A-rank equals to Tier 6, then?”
The smile on the woman’s face widened. “Interesting… did you guess or did you really sense my tier? In any case, it doesn’t really have a direct connection. The Tiers represent personal power, but the letters are simply a sign of status and trust in the guild. I say simply, but some might claim that the letter is even more important than the number.”
Ishrin turned to look at Lisette. “Why is she here, Lisette? If you plan on breaking your word, why wait all this time and not do it outside the city? Why involve her?”
It was Melina who once again took over, while Lisette stared in silence.
“I’m here because she told me what happened,” she said with a shake of her head, “and that got me very interested in you. She also insisted I gave you B-rank, and I thought I should come check you out myself.”
Ishrin felt his shoulders relax a little, but couldn’t help but let a bit of sarcasm drip into his voice. “How nice of her. Too bad I didn’t ask for it.”
Be good. No use relapsing into old arrogance.
Melina smiled again. “Sassy. But you might have a use for a guild rank, so don’t refuse the offer too lightly. Lisette told me some things about you that really caught my interest, you know? Is it true that you can restore a foundation?”
Ishrin nodded.
“Can you show me?”
“Do I have a choice?”
The foxgirl threw her hands in the air. “You do, Ishrin. I’m sorry we started off on the wrong foot. It’s clear that you are not the kind of person I assumed you’d be and that I should have approached you differently…” she cast her eyes to the floor. “I’m usually much better at handling people, this is so embarrassing. You move like a high Tier too, and I subconsciously assumed we were talking on equal ground. I did not consider how threatened the Tier disparity would make you feel.”
She paused. “You do have a choice. If you don’t want to show me, then I will give you these and just leave.”
She set a large box onto the bed. The box had not been there until a moment before she set it down, and the usage of mana betrayed the activation of a Tier 6 storage spell, at least according to local tier numbers. If he had to cast it, he probably could do it at Tier 3 if he was topped up, rested and in good shape. Nonetheless, Ishrin was impressed, considering his first impressions about this ‘backwater’ place, but he tried not to let it surface on his face or he would lose his superior negotiation position.
“I’ll show you,” he said casually, making the box disappear into his inventory. He registered, with a hint of smug pride, the surprised expression on the guild master’s face when she saw him use his skill without spending a single hint of mana.
He studied her. “I will need a safe space to draw the ritual.” He said.
Melina schooled her face in record time. “Of course. If you agree, I will let lend the item we usually only use for weapons testing and guild matters. It creates a mirror of our world where you can do whatever you want without consequence in the real world. This includes testing dangerous magic and drawing rituals, of course.”
There was a hint of expectation in her smile. A hint of a predator, too. “What do you want in return?”
“Other than witnessing the ritual? Nothing.” She shrugged. “But Lisette personally recommended that I make you a B-ranker. Sadly, I can’t do that without seeing your full abilities which – how lucky – you could show me in the mirror space after you’re done with the ritual.”
He didn’t miss it as her eyes went to Liù.
She knows the pixie is strong. She didn’t ask questions about her either. What did Liù get herself into last night? I really hope she didn’t meet with Melina without me protecting her.
About the proposal… the ritual is not easy enough that someone should be able to learn it just from seeing it, and Melina did stress how guild rank can be pretty useful, and I bet it opens a lot of doors for me.
“I guess it costs me nothing to show you, if my word isn’t enough.” He paused. Good, let her feel bad for not trusting me. “I’ll show you what I got. From what Lisette told me yesterday, I also think you will have some questions about my personal spells, and how they don’t really fit into what you think is the tier system. I’ll answer those questions too, for a price.”