Ethi looked at the pair before them. One a woman, skin brown, clearly the mixing of Unixian and Haven blood. The other was a man, slender with short brown hair and a beard that hadn’t been shaved in weeks. Neither looked pleased to meet them, both had their guns levelled at Cut and her.
“Name and reason I shouldn’t shoot you in the face.” The brown skinned woman asked.
Cut kept her hands in plain view and Ethi did the same.
“Ethi,” She answered quickly, cutting her off. “And if you shoot me you’ll be shooting your only chance at having a mystic join you.” Ethi knew people like these would have no compassion, they wouldn't care that their lives were in danger, if they would get help from them it would only be with an exchange.
“So you’re the ones who caused the shit storm outside,” The woman answered, still keeping her gun levelled. While the man seemed completely on edge, his partner was as calm as a frozen lake.
“Hide us and we’ll help you.” Cut said. It was the plan they’d come up with on their way here. Cut had been the one to hear a boy yelling about a job, Ethi had been far too busy trying to get on the ship. Anyone desperate enough to try and rent mercenaries for three orbits wouldn’t be stupid enough to let a mystic go. It was long odds, but shorter by far than any others they faced.“And make your enemies our enemies, fuck that,” The man laughed.
“I’m a mystic!” Ethi protested. The Eksha men could burst in at any moment and they would be dead, she didn’t have time for this.
“And I’m a spark,” Cut revealed and Ethi raised an eyebrow. “You’re a-” She caught herself. “And she’s a spark, a mystic and a spark, you won’t get a deal better than that.”
The woman nodded as if she were thinking it over.
At least she’s thinking.
Ethi held onto that hope like a string in the middle of a hurricane. “Who’s after you?”
“Are you seriously fucking considering this Isla?” The man asked.
Ethi felt her frustration burn at the question. She couldn’t tell her the truth-
“Don’t even think about lying to me or the last thing going through your mind will be a lead ball.” She informed her, and Ethi felt her mouth dry.
A lie could end her but so could the truth.
If Cut was right about what she said of the Eksha then there wouldn’t be a soul in the city willing to help them.
“Take your time now,” The woman said impatiently.
Ethi cursed internally. Think, think, think. Desperate enough to offer three orbits for mercenaries, desperate enough to see the two magic users before her as more than she could ever hope for, perhaps desperate enough to take on the monsters after them. “The Eksha.”
The woman’s eyes widened.
The man; Lachlan, laughed bitterly. “Get the fuck out of here, might as well have brought a lit grenado in here.”
Cut cursed and began speaking quickly. “There aren’t that many of them, I doubt they even know we’re-”
“Shut up,” The woman ordered and Cut did. “Hide.”
“What?” Cut asked and the man repeated.
“Under the counter, quick.” She said and Ethi felt the touch of magic in the air, pushing against her ears and popping them like a sudden descent. It was a weak thing, a matchstick to her candle and yet the woman carried it like the lethal weapon it was.
Ethi found her way beneath the counter and so did Cut.
“You can’t actually be serious Isla?!” The one called Lachlan yelled. “The Eksha, the fucking Eksha, I didn’t sign up for this!”
“Relax, we’re heading off the island anyways .” The woman sniffed, still calm, like the winds themselves danced to her will. “Their reach doesn’t go that far.”
“Well that’s lovely and all but my shop is still on this fucking Island!” He yelled.
“You still plan on coming back here when we’re done? A shame, I thought we’d head to the Great Empire together.” She said and Ethi could hear her smile.
The man grumbled, cursed and hit something before relenting. “Fuck!” He yelled. “Fine, fine.”
“Good,” Isla said. “Now, girls, how many of them did you manage to piss off.”
Ethi tried to remember how many she’d seen. There was the one on who fired at her, the one who-
“Around ten,” Cut answered. “None saw us come in but they’ll be searching the shops ‘round these parts, shivs and blades for most I assume; they weren’t expecting us to be here. A musket for one and a pistol for another.”
“Noted,” Isla said approvingly and then her voice was tinged with worry. “Well, it seems we’ll need all hands on deck to get out of this shit-” Isla began. “Soon as I give the signal, the two of you come out with full force, kill anything that isn’t me or him.”Ethi’s gut churned at the thought of killing again, the need to survive compressed that to the back of her mind.
Cut had no such problems from the looks of it, she was already reaching for a gun.
“No, not that one!” Lachlan yelled. “Not if you want to keep all your fingers boy,” Cut reached for another. “Not that one either. Nope. No.That one’s a toy.”
“Then which fucking one!” Cut snapped.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
The man grumbled and reached into his bag, he tossed Cut a pistol and she caught it.
“This one works?” Cut asked, severely.
“Eh, fifty-fifty.” Lachlan shrugged.
Ethi chose to assume he was joking and held out a hand. “Where’s mine?”
“Aren’t you a bug?” He asked, frowning with confusion and then with hostility. “In fact, aren’t you both magic fucks?!” He glared at Isla. “How come the only non-magic haver in the room is one of the two people not behind cover!”
“Being a mystic doesn’t mean a point blank shot won’t crack your skull, and it’ll barely even notice your face if you’re a spark. But most importantly, because they’re kids Lach,” The woman replied.
“Kids who can think me into a frog or some shit, yeah, fuck that.” He laughed bitterly.
“Everyone ready?” She asked, ignoring him and tossing Ethi a pistol from the bag. She barely caught the thing.
“No, no I’m not fucking ready-” Lachlan began but stopped. There was a knock on the door.
----------------------------------------
Isla gave the room one last look around. The pair were hidden behind the counter, and though Lachlan had his guns out such a thing wasn’t amiss in a gun shop.
It helped, no doubt, that they were within hearing range of the shot that had the entire docks scrambling in all directions.
She looked at Lachlan and gestured him to the door.
“Me?” He hissed, voice low. “Fuck no.”
“Coward,” Isla rolled her eyes and approached the door. She opened it. Men, five of them stood outside, two with weapons so cheap and nasty they couldn’t be called anything but shivs, and two with more expensive looking purpose-made combat knives. The last had a pistol. They held their weapons out proudly. Idiots.
Pistol was a killer, Isla could see it in his eyes; pale skin, gloved hands and a nasty scar that ran from his neck to his lips where someone had failed to put him out of everyone else’s misery. He smiled like a thing pretending to be human, not to pass as one but simply for the formality of it. It conjured the image of a monocled wolf with a baby in its jaws. He made Isla sick.
“Can I help you handsome men?” Isla asked and stepped aside as they invited themselves in.
Pistol bowed. “Sorry for the disturbance but you wouldn’t have happened to see a couple of girlies running around, would you?” He asked, and standing next to her Isla couldn’t help but be aware of the striking height difference between them.
The Goddess made men large, she reminded herself, so that women could focus on thinking.
“One’s all red skin and hair, bout’ fifteen, fourteen and the other’s built like a man, eighteen to twenty range probably.”
“Can’t say I have, no.” Isla replied.
She caught his men lurking around, one moved close to the counter and Lachlan stepped between it and him, musket in hand, but nothing was as dangerous as his eyes. “Too close to the merchandise.”
The others moved past Isla, there was only one way around the counter but they could jump over it. If they were willing to risk a shot in the head.
A man had the right to protect his goods, after all. And one would become a story told in pubs if they got a new breathing hole poked in them because they vaulted the counter of a gun shop in front of its owner.
He could try to look over it, but if the girls had any sense they would be pressed against its other side at an angle that made it impossible to see them that way.
Isla couldn’t turn to check however. It made sense that Lachlan would be that protective but with her it would be too suspicious, regardless of how much her body itched for her to do so.
“I would just like to inform you,” Pistol began. “That it is vitally important to the Eksha family that we retrieve those girls.”
Isla nodded. “I see, well tell the Eksha family I wish them luck then.”Pistol looked at his man, who was currently in a rather subdued argument with Lachlan. “Tin, let's get out of here.”Pistol turned for the door, took one step forward and stopped. He looked at the floor, stared at it intently and Isla followed his eyes to the cat idly grooming itself to the side of the room. It was a black thing, collared and ratty. Distinct, but Isla couldn’t recall ever seeing it.
“A cat?” Pistol asked. “You have a cat?”
“No, must have wandered in here while we weren’t looking,” Isla replied.
“You can take it if you want.” Lachlan added.
He looked at her with an expression she couldn’t quite read, and yet it made her stomach churn. Had she said something wrong? It felt like she had, but if there was a right answer she couldn’t begin to guess how it might have been found.
There was no time for guessing either, for Pistol’s gun was aimed square between her eyes only a moment later.
“What the fuck are you do-”“Where’s the girl?” The man asked. She thought of reaching for her weapon, but decided against it, it was too late, she’d been meandering in her head while he got his.
“I told you, I don’t know!” Isla yelled. She heard Lachlan causing a ruckus behind her, he shouted, cursed and threatened. “Put that shit down, I told you I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.” His protestations were cut off by the snapping of gun-flint against steel.
She shut her eyes, opened them and found the room was silent. All eyes turned to the older girl who now leaned over the counter, gun in hand.
She had pulled the trigger, Isla knew, but it hadn’t gone off.
Bugger.