Her heart beats nervously as Sanora waits at a table in the guild. Bullwind would come around for work soon and she a bit antsy. What would they say when seeing her again? Has Serantis already told them about her? But her question is about to be answered as the familiar group enters the hall.
“Look there she is, told you she’s alright.” Serantis points at Sanora and a wave of relief washes over the group, especially Mari seems rather happy.
“Hey guys.” She waves at them as they come over. “Sorry for disappearing so suddenly, a lot of stuff happened.” She says before they can react the same way corvina did.
“You better be sorry! I was worried sick about you.” Mari says a bit angry but mostly happy.
“Now now Mari, these things can happen. But she’s back now, and alive.” Mehena says with her usual, gentle smile.
“She’s right.” Balmir nods. “It’s good to see you’re in…” he stops when he really looks at Sanora who chuckles wryly.
“I know. I look like shit.”
“Not my words.” The leader says as they all sit down. “But yes, you look pretty beat up.”
“What happened to you? Serantis wouldn’t tell us, only that you’re alive. Where have you been? What happened?” Mari asks her rather insistently.
‘He didn’t tell them about the Dancing Vixen? Figures.’ Elle told her that people don’t take kindly on workers from the Dancing Vixen and similar stands. And after working there for almost a saint Sanora has felt it firsthand more than a few times, so she is grateful for Serantis keeping it a secret.
“It’s… complicated to say the least.” Sanora sighs. “I can’t tell you everything, but the short version is: Me and Vadia broke up and I needed some time to rest, away from everything.”
“You broke up? My, I’m sorry.” Mehena says but Sanora shakes her head.
“Don’t be. The whole thing really wasn’t for me. I just wish I’d realized sooner.”
“I see.” The elf nods understandingly. “Noble relationships are never easy.” She sighs.
“Yeah…” Sanora avoids her gaze. ‘If only the noble part was the problem.’ Her fists clench under the table as the bad thoughts start to well up again. “But enough of that. How have you guys been?”
“As always. Lots of Trerchers, lots of lurchers. Luckily, we didn’t run into any more Prowlers at least.” Balmir starts and tells Sanora about the adventures the group has had while Sanora was gone. They have been out and about, making the roads safer with every trip they take and earning good coin while at it. As she listens, Sanora catches herself smiling, actually smiling earnestly for the first time in a saint. Only now she realizes that she missed out on quite a lot.
But aside from the new stories to tell, the group hasn’t changed. They are still the cheery, slightly chaotic band of friends they used to be. Sanora yearns to go out with them again, get away from the city and be out in the plains fighting against evil. But after just disappearing without a word, she dares not ask them to join again. In a sense she abandoned them like she did her home. She feels like she is in no place to ask anything of them. That aside, the only reason they ever went out together to begin with was to get Sanora ranked in, so they have no reason to take her along.
“So, are you going to join again?” Mari pulls Sanora from her thoughts.
“Huh?” She blinks at the girl. “Sorry, what did you say?” She asks, thinking she must have misheard.
“I asked if you’d join us again.”
“Join you?”
“Yes. Is that not why you came here?” Mari seems a bit dejected.
“I don’t know. Don’t get me wrong I’d love to. But aren’t you angry at me? Do you even want me to join you?” She looks at Balmir.
“Don’t worry, no one is angry at you for taking a break when you needed it. As for the wanting part, we’ve actually decided to ask you to join for a bit longer shortly after we met, but before we could ask you, you were already gone.” The human says and the others nod along.
Sanora just sits there at a loss for words.
“Oh dear, no one is angry at you. If anything, we were worried.” Mehena smiles at her reassuringly. Sanora looks at the others. They are all wearing similar expressions, not of anger or displeasure but encouraging smiles. Or in Serantis’ case an encouraging grin.
“You…” Sanora shakes her head and smiles as well. “Thank you, everyone.”
“You know if you want to make it up to us.” Serantis says and grins. “You can pay a round of drinks.”
Sanora laughs while the rest of the group roll their eyes. “Sure, a round of drinks on me.” She waves over the nearest waiter and orders a round for the group to celebrate the occasion.
Soon later the drinks arrive, and everyone takes a mug to have a toast.
‘Wait, everyone?’ She looks at Mari who is holding a mug as well and it dawns on her.
“No.” Sanora says wide eyed.
“Is something up?” The young girl tilts her head at Sanora.
“I missed your birthday?” Sanora’s face falls.
“Oh, don’t worry, you even celebrated with me.” Mari smiles at Sanora who thinks for a moment before her face lights up again.
“The dagger?”
“The dagger.” Mari nods.
“I had no idea. Why didn’t you tell me back then?”
“I just don’t like to make a fuss about it. A nice day out like that? That’s my idea of a perfect party.”
“Still, I would have gotten you something.”
“Your company was present enough, don’t worry.”
That smile. That damn smile of Mari still makes Sanora’s heart flutter even after all that happened. What she wouldn’t give to have met someone like her instead of Vadia. Things would have gone so differently. But it’s a stupid thought. After all, she has met someone like her before Vadia. This all would have never happened if she hadn’t left Amni behind like this. She takes a big swig to wash away the thought again, not wanting to spoil the mood with the everlasting frown that has chiselled itself onto her face lately. This is a joyous occasion after all.
They drink up and have some more small talk to catch up a bit before it’s finally time for business.
They look at the board with the quests posted on them. A lot of it is stuff around the city. Go there, clean up that, take care of a rant infestation. It’s all stuff that’s a bit below the usual paygrade for Bullwind. The higher rank a party gets the higher the upkeep costs for equipment get as well. All the good jobs seem to be gone for the day already. Either that or there just isn’t anything going on right now.
Sanora scans the many sheets until she finds one peeking out from below many others. It seems untouched, some dust has already gathered on it. She takes it out and reads it.
It’s another extermination job. But this one isn’t for lurchers but…
“Giant spiders huh? Never seen one of those.” Sanora mumbles. “What about his one, pay is really good.” She hands the sheet to Balmir whose forehead creases.
“It is, but this is a rank 7 task.”
“So what? Aren’t you rank 7?”
“Me and Mari might be yes, but our overall party rank is 8 still. Serantis and Mehena are at rank 8 and a party rank is set by the lowest member. A measure to keep people safe.”
“Oh ok.” Sanora nods as Balmir hands her back the sheet.
“Giant spiders aren’t that dangerous, but they dwell in caves full of webs which makes it a tedious and dangerous jobs. Mari can’t handle poison either so if anyone gets paralyzed-“
“We’d be screwed.” Sanora nods and puts the quest back on the board. They eventually settle on a simple patrolling job for a small river outside of Deepvalley. It doesn’t pay a lot, but money is money and any lurchers they find and kill will add some extra coin to the reward. The take the quest and get ready before heading to the gates.
Sanora’s heart starts beating faster the closer they get to the gates. This is it, the moment she’d find out if she’s safe or not when trying to get through the checkpoint there. She is mentally preparing to bolt at any moment. To make a run for it into the wilderness. She’d take the chance of making it out there over being burned at the stake any day.
Her hand rests on the handle of her sword as they approach. They walk out of the gate, the guards looking at the group all while Sanora’s heart is pounding. The guards scan the group and one locks eyes with Sanora. Her muscles tense, the grip around her weapon tightens. But after a moment the guard’s gaze wanders to the next group behind them as he goes about his business.
The breath Sanora takes when is finally on the other side of the gate is the most liberating she has taken in weeks. A giant stone falls off her heart as she takes in the view of the plains, the view of freedom. Now that the tension has left her body, she notices the odd looks the others are giving her.
“Are you alright?” Mari is the first to ask.
“Yeah uh, I was just afraid…” Sanora searches for the right words. She can hardly tell them ‘I killed the ruler of the city so the guards might arrest me’ after all.
“-that it might rain.” The others look at her in silence. ‘Gods I’m stupid.’ She mentally curses herself.
“That…” Serantis starts. “-would be pretty bad.” He nods and luckily the other decide to not press the matter. Whether that is because they believe it or are just respectful Sanora can only guess but she is pretty sure it’s the latter.
The rest of the day goes by rather eventless. They patrol the river for a few hours. No lurchers, all good. And before long it’s time to report back to the guild and collect payment for the day. It doesn’t even come to a gold per person but for basically just walking around its solid.
“Thanks for having me again. I have to head out now.” Sanora says when the group sits down to have dinner together.
“Already?” Mari seems a bit deflated.
“Yeah, I have some more work to do today. But I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Don’t overdo it. ‘Till tomorrow.” Balmir nods at her.
“Tomorrow then!” Mari says with a re-invigorated smile.
“Stay safe.” Mehena smiles at her.
“I’ll drink for you!” Serantis grins at her.
Sanora waves at them one last time as she heads out of the door to sleep before her shift at the Dancing Vixen starts. Finally, after a long saint she is starting to feel like she doesn’t have to drag herself through the day anymore. She finally has something to look forward to again and the closure of being able to leave the city.
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Things are slowly starting to get better again at last. Maybe her life isn’t completely fucked after all, despite everything that happened.
Sanora’s life is slowly gaining colour again. Her days are busy. At night she works in the Dancing Vixen, during most days she is out with Bullwind doing quests in the regions surrounding Deepvalley. Not as an official member of the party though. In her spare time, she mostly sleeps to manage it all. Her smiles start to become the norm again rather than an exception. Her coin purse is growing heavier, and she can feel her rusty muscles waking up over the course of the next week. Slowly but surely the name Sanora grows more and more known among the local adventurers as she finishes jobs left and right. But the title they gave her is a rather ironic one that makes her wince mentally every time she hears it.
“Excuse me, you are Sanora the kingslayer right?” Someone asks Sanora who is enjoying a meal before her nightshift. People still remember her feat of killing the nestking lurcher and started calling her the kingslayer at some point. It would have made for a great title if it wouldn’t remember her of the fact that she killed the actual king of Deepvalley every time she hears it.
She looks at the young man who interrupted her dinner. Young, short black hair and iron plate armour. Sword on his belt. He is the spitting image of a rising rookie with better than average skills.
“That’s me.” Sanora nods. “You from the guild?”
“I am.” The young man sits down with a smile, not bothering to wait for an invitation.
“I’m Gant, the leader of Justicia.” He says and looks at Sanora.
“Ok.” She raises an eyebrow. “…And?”
“Ah I guess you haven’t heard of us.” He chuckles and scratches the back of his head. “We are still kind of new after all. But that’s not why I am here. Word’s been spreading about you and your skill, and I would like to ask you to join us.”
“Ah so that’s what this is about.” Sanora nods. “Sorry but I’m not interested in joining a party.”
“I see, that’s unfortunate.” He nods. “I think you would fit in well. We are all young and motivated to make a real difference around here. A band of rather exceptional fighters I daresay, one of the few parties in Deepvalley on rank 7.” He says with a proud smile. But as Sanora chuckles his expression turns confused.
“Sorry Gant, but I’m not made of hero material. Quite the opposite I’d say.”
“Very humble of you. From what I heard you are. Appeared out of nowhere two saints ago and you’ve been cleaning the plains unlike anyone else I know. If that’s not hero material, then I don’t know what is.” He insists.
Sanora just snorts. “Sorry, but you know nothing about me. I have a steady swordhand sure, but that’s about it. And I already told you, I’m really not interested in joining any parties.”
“I see, that’s a shame.” He sighs. “Then what about a one-time job at least?”
“A one-time job would work.” Sanora nods. “What do you have in mind?”
“There is a cave full of giant spiders which is growing concerningly fast. The guild has already posted a quest a while ago, but no one dares to take it, understandably so. But that doesn’t make it any less of a threat. We already have two mages, an archer, a heavy frontliner and me. All we need to complete our first line of attack is another specialist, someone like you.”
“So, you’re taking on those spiders?” Sanora says, her interest awoken. “What about the poison?”
“That’s one of the mages’ job. He is a healer specialized on detoxification.”
“I see.” Sanora nods. “Well, you had my curiosity, but now you have my interest.” Sanora smiles at Gant. “Tell me more.”
Gant gives Sanora a rough rundown of the plans. With their two mages in the rearguard – both healers, one of them a one-time member as Sanora would be – they have injury and paralysation covered. The archer is for scouting, making sure they don’t get caught up in the webs and for picking out any targets before they can reach the group. And the frontline is for taking the battle into the caves and eventually to the broodmother of the nest, an especially nasty and dangerous target. The quest has had Sanora in its grip ever since she saw it for the first time. Especially the reward. After the short rundown Gant gives her, they make plans to meet up with the rest of the group the next day.
“Well then Gant, I will see you tomorrow.”
“It’ll be an honour and a great help to have you aboard, Kingslayer.” He smiles at her as he gets up. “See you tomorrow. The others are itching to finally meet the famous Kingslayer as well.”
“Not much to see here though.” Sanora chuckles wryly.
“We’ll see about that.” He winks at her before leaving the tavern with a last wave.
Sanora remains in her seat for a bit longer. It is quite an enticing offer that Gant made. She’d get to clear out that nest of spiders, get paid a pretty coin for it and see a whole new group of people and how they fight. She can compare herself to them too, see where she stands among the local elite. She is looking forward to it already.
A glass of mead later she pays up and heads to the Dancing Vixen to start her shift as night rolls around. Things are as usual. People come, then come and leave again. The occasional ruffian throws a tantrum but it’s nothing a suggestive hand on Sanora’s sword along with a very insistent gaze can’t solve. A big part of the whole bouncer job is just looking as scary as possible. Most people just scoff when they first get approached by the seemingly tender Sanora. But the sword and the armour usually make for a decent deterrent. And everyone who isn’t convinced by those, swiftly gets to meet her other two arguments: left fist, right fist.
Sanora is sitting at her small table in the dark corner, playing around with her knife that she uses to eat on particularly exhausting shifts. The small table is really useful for stuff like that, which is the whole reason it’s there. Her attention snaps to the door when the hooded regular comes in. In all her time here she has never once heard her speak, let alone seen her face. But she has figured out that it is a woman quite some time ago. An accidental byproduct of flesh sense. She understands. While it wasn’t forbidden or anything people really don’t like same sex relationships around these parts for some reason. It’s quite odd considering what a pool of diversity this city is otherwise.
The person leaves the stack of coins on the counter and is about to head upstairs.
“Room 12 today.” Kera calls after her and the person just nods shortly before heading upstairs.
‘Room 12? That’s Elle’s room…’
“Didn’t expect Elle to swing that way.” Sanora comments idly. The sound of a coin dropping to the floor resounds throughout the hall. Kera turns to Sanora with an odd expression. A mix between shock and anger.
“How do you know?” She hisses.
“Huh? Oh well, you just sent another woman to her so I figured-“
“Not about Elle!” Kera cuts her off. “How do you know about-” She gestures at the stairs.
“Ah that.” Sanora nods. “Flesh magic.”
“You’re a damn mage?” Kera has completely abandoned the coins on front of her and looks at Sanora with wide, unbelieving eyes. “You never told me!”
“You never asked.” She shrugs. “And it wasn’t important until now.”
“I… I guess that is true.” Kera sighs. “But damn, Elle was right. You really are stupid.”
“Oh wow, what a rare compliment from you.”
“But it’s true. Any mage could earn a small fortune doing anything but this.”
“You’re right. Consider this my resignation.” Sanora smirks at Kera who just snorts.
“Mhm, sure. Back to business: you are to not tell a single soul about this. That customer pays a good heap extra to stay anonymous and I like a good heap of coins extra. Not even I know who that is.”
“My lips are sealed.” Sanora says nonchalantly as she continues swirling her knife around with her fingers. All things considered she has more important things to care about than this anyways.
A while later the woman shrouded in mystery leaves again and Sanora looks after her a bit longer than usual. Who might be hiding beneath this hood? A mystery it is.
The rest of the night passes normally and soon it is time for one of Sanora’s daily highlights: Breakfast.
Bullwind is taking the day off. Everyone needs some rest after a busy week of killing thigs, which is one of the reasons Sanora is able to accept the offer from Gant to begin with. The meeting is scheduled early so they can head out the very same day. Sanora is on her way to their base, and yes, the group is so motivated they have their own base. A small house in the lower parts of the third ring. Nothing special, just an old wooden single-story house. But still, they must have spent a pretty coin on it.
Sanora knocks on the door and a bit later Gant opens.
“Kingslayer! Please, come in.” He greets Sanora with a smile and steps aside. Sanora walks in and looks around the room. The walls are lined with shelves filled with all sorts of stuff useful for any sort of adventure. Spare backpacks and weapons, potions, armour, books and a lot of trophies as well. In the middle of the room the others sit at a table. A man with short blonde hair, a quiver full of arrows hangs on his chair. His armour is mostly leather and light. A big, bulky man with dark brown hair, clad in heavy plate armour from hand to toe. A bald man, clad in robes with a very thick book in a holster hanging on his hip. But the most odd one by far is…
“Mari?” Sanora says baffled when she spots Bullwind’s mage at the table.
“Sanora?” Mari seems equally surprised.
“You know each other already? Well, that saves me the introduction at least.” Gant says with a chuckle. “As for the others: Bob is our heavy frontliner. Few things can get past his armour and even fewer past him. Our archer Leo, he’ll nail a squirrel in its eye from a hundred meters away. The mage is Treston. A healer specialised in poison and other toxins. Everyone, meet Sanora.”
“Huh, I imagined the famous kingslayer to be more…” Leo says as he musters Sanora with a scrutinizing gaze. “Imposing.”
“Agreed.” Bob says, his low voice seemingly shaking the very air. “Can you really hold the frontline with that light frame of yours?” He asks her.
Sanora is less than amused. Judging by flesh senses alone she can tell that while quite a unit, Bob and her are evenly matched, if the man isn’t a tad bit weaker than her. But to everyone’s surprise Mari is the first to speak up.
“Did any of you ever go hand to hand with prowler and won?” She pouts at the group.
“Well, that’s impressive I have to admit.” Bob mumbles.
“Yeah, if it’s true.” Leo says with a smirk.
“Now, everyone, calm your nerves. We all heard the stories about the kingslayer. I don’t see a reason to be so sceptical. The guild doesn’t hand out ranks for fun.” Treston tries to calm the mood.
“What about Jared? We all know that prick mostly bought his way up.” Leo crosses his arms.
It seems Jared had been making a name for himself before the whole thing with Sanora.
Sanora looks at Gant who just sighs. For people like these there is only one way to show them what one is made of. Sanora sits down and puts her elbow down on the table, holding up her open hand to the archer.
He looks at the girl with a smirk and a raised eyebrow for a moment before grinning and accepting her invite to the arm wrestle.
“One condition.” He says before they begin.
“Which is?”
“If I win, let’s have dinner sometime.”
“Deal.” Sanora says, hiding her own grin. The others look at them tense. Except for Mari. She just leans back in her chair with a smug grin and crossed arms. “If I win, you’re paying for drinks today.” Sanora adds.
“Hah, deal!” The man grins.
“Like children.” Gant shakes his head with a smile. “I’ll be the judge then. Alright, get ready… and go!” The man shouts and Sanora can feel the force pushing on her arm. It’s quite formidable. Leo isn’t a rank 7 for nothing. But he probably didn’t have a god-chosen, millennia old envoy as a teacher.
“He said you can start.” Sanora taunts him with a grin as her hand hasn’t even budged yet. The man’s face turns red, his veins start to bulge out as he puts everything he has into it. And lo, Sanora’s hand actually starts to move a bit.
“You should train a bit more.” Sanora winks at him before slamming his hand onto the table with one swift motion.
“That’s it! Sanora wins.” Gant declares as Leo shakes his hand.
“Good gods.” He laughs. “The rumours don’t do you justice. That’s an iron grip you have there.”
“Thanks. I had a pretty strict teacher.”
“I believe you. Alright, drinks on me today.” Leo declares and grins at her. At least he isn’t a bad loser.
“Alright, now that this is settled can we get to the actual reason we’re here for?” Gant says and sits down as well. “The spiders. They are a problem that needs to be taken care of. From what Leo could gleam it won’t be long before the nest grows big enough to need more food. Namely humans. But everyone knows how dangerous those nests are, and since no one else wants to take the job, we will.”
“What exactly makes this more dangerous than your average lurcher nest?” Sanora asks.
“The most problematic part is poison. These spiders have very potent venom that can easily paralyse a whole ox. If even one member of a group gets hit by that, your number is not only down by one but you also have an injured friend to carry in the middle of a monster swarm. The next part is the location. These nests are usually in caves which will be full of webs. If you get caught in them it’s basically game over. They will swarm whoever is stuck in there and pull them deeper into the cave. But that’s not all. The vibration travelling on the webs will tell the spiders where we are at all times. They have the absolute home advantage down there.”
Sanora nods.
“That’s pretty bad indeed. What about just burning down the webs?”
“They don’t burn overly well. They are sticky and wet. And even if you get them to burn, we’d smoke ourselves to death in there as well while some of the eggs deeper in might stay intact.”
Sanora furrows her brows. That takes fire magic mostly out of the equation then.
“No wonder no one wants to take that job.”
“Few parties are equipped to handle this, skill and weapon wise. But the good news: this job pays a whopping thirty gold, and ten extra if we can kill the broodmother. The split is six for each of us and the extra four for Treston and Mari.”
Sanora mulls it over for a moment. Gant isn’t wrong. If anyone gets hit by that venom the whole party is at danger. Without the mage it would be ten times more dangerous to even attempt this. Same goes for Mari. Is such a heated environment, every last bit of power counts. A slashed tendon or a strongly bleeding wound is as much a death sentence as getting paralysed.
“Sounds fair to me.” Sanora nods.
“Great.” Gant smiles. “Alright then, for the plan of advance…”
Gant gives Sanora the rundown. It’s all pretty similar to how Bullwind operates. Frontline to clear webs and spiders, and the rest behind them for support. The mantra is: do not get hit. Even with Treston in the back, one break in their formation could spell death. These monsters aren’t like lurchers. They will swarm whoever comes into their domain with no regard of their lives to protect the broodmother, the source of the swarm. They are more like a hivemind compared to lurchers or trerchers who all think about themselves first and foremost. And one more thing is what happens after. Lurchers are bad, but at least they’ll just kill and eat their prey. The spiders however will keep you alive and slowly drain you of blood until you die eventually. Sanora shudders when Gant tells her. She can imagine about a hundred ways more pleasant to die than this.
“Alright, that should be everything.” Gant finished up. “If there aren’t any more questions, we should get ready and head out. Daytime is best to hunt them since they’ll be the least active when the sun is out.”
“No questions on my end.” Sanora says as it was seemingly meant for her. The others have probably been planning this for a while already and seem up to speed.
“Great. Alright everyone, get ready, we’ll head out in twenty.” Gant says and gets up with the others following suit, starting to gear up and taking whatever, they need out of the many shelves. Mari comes over to sit down next to Sanora.
“I really didn’t expect to see you here.” Sanora says.
“I can’t say the same to be honest.” Mari giggles. “You have been set on this quest since you first saw it.”
“Was it that obvious?” Sanora laughs.
“A bit.” Mari says.
“Is that why you’re here?”
“Not really. It’s mainly for the extra pay and to get my rank up sooner.” Mari explains.
“Huh, didn’t think rank is that important to you.”
“Oh well, only a bit. But I do want to be the youngest rank 6 mage in the Valley, too.”
Sanora laughs again. “I’m sure you will be. Well, let’s get ready as well, shall we?”
“Yeah.” Mari nods with a smile as they get ready as well.