“Nooo don’t go!” Sanora hangs onto Mari’s clothes as she tries to leave the bed. “You’re so warm, I’m going to freeze to death if you leave now!”

“I’m sorry, but the others will be at the guild soon.” Mari pats Sanora on the head before getting up, tearing herself out of Sanora’s grip. “I’ll be back soon to warm you up. Don’t die on me alright?” She smiles at Sanora who just pouts in response.

“Mhhh alright.”

“Good girl. Don’t burn down the house.” She smiles at Sanora, gives her a kiss, and heads out to the guild. Sanora groans and rolls around on the bed, the boredom already taking a hold of her mind. A whole week has passed since she last saw Virelia and Sanora has eaten up all the books Mari has at home in the time, so she is left with nothing to do all day. Her hand has gotten a lot better. The yellow coloration is mostly gone, replaced by pale white skin, showing off the darkened veins below like snakes. The pain is mostly gone as well, only coming back occasionally, waking her up at night. But with how things are going she should be back in proper fighting condition soon. Her leg has healed well, the limp now finally gone. All that’s left is actually putting her body to the test again.

She lies on her back, looking out the upside-down window as the clouds lazily wander by. After a while she sighs and gets up.

“Guess I’ll go for a run.” She mutters to herself before getting changed and leaving the house. The cool morning air hits her face as she jogs down the street of the town, passing people occasionally. The cobbled street isn’t overly comfortable to run on, but going out of the city for a run is always a bit of a hassle with how long it takes to get back in through the gate.

The run in the cool air does wonders to take her mind off the numbing boredom. After a few lap she is finally getting warmed up, so she speeds. After a while she takes a different route, as her usual one is starting to become a bit monotone. Music resounds from one of the alleys as she runs down the street. Curious, she decides to take a turn towards it. There is a man sitting on the edge of the way, an upturned hat in front of him as he plays on his lute. But just as Sanora rounds the corner a hooded person walking down from the other side of the alley grabs the hat and starts bolting down the alley.

“Hey! Stop, thief!” The man with the lute cries out.

‘There goes my calm day…’ Sanora thinks as the thief runs towards her, his eyes fixed on the lute man running after him. Sanora idly kicks his leg as he passes her and the trips, coins splatter all over the road as he falls. His hood falls off his head as he comes to a rolling stop.

“Damn you, I’ll-“ He stops mid-sentence as he sees Sanora who takes a step back when she recognises the man. “You.” Jared hisses.

“You.” Sanora spits. It’s been a while, and he doesn’t look good. A shabby beard covers his face, his clothes are torn and dirty as are his hands. But Sanora wouldn’t ever forget his face.

“Look at the great adventurer. I see you’re out doing noble quests again.” She taunts the man who is furious at the remark.

“Shut up bitch! It’s your fault I’m in this place!” He draws a rusty dagger from his back.

“My fault? What did I do!?”

“Because of you I lost my standing in the guild, my reputation! I’m on the street because of you!”

“Hey, I never asked you to abandon me in the woods!” Sanora tries to argue, but the man is beyond reasoning as he storms at Sanora with the dagger. She sidesteps the swing, wondering at how slow he moves.

“Come on, no need to get all swingy now.” She says as she continues to evade his attacks.

“I’ll make you pay! I’ll fucking kill you and rape your corpse before I’ll do the same to your little friend!”

Sanora eye twitches and something in her snaps.

“You want to get personal!? Let’s get fucking personal!” With a swift motion she grabs his hand when he swings at her again and twists it. A crack resounds. He screams and drops the dagger. But Sanora doesn’t let go. She punches him in the face. Another crack resounds as his nose breaks and blood spills from it. She pulls on his hand and throws him to the ground. Sanora doesn’t let up and kicks him in the side hard, feeling his ribs break under the pressure.

“You want to drag my friends into this?!” She kicks at the curled-up man again before squatting down and taking him by his hair to look into his eyes. “Threaten her again, and you’ll see who pays.” She lets go of him before kicking his face, sending some of his teeth flying over the ground.

“He’s all yours.” She tells the frightened musician and turns to leave. A faint feeling of magic gathering behind her makes her alarm bells ring and she turns around just in time to see a scroll burn away in Jared’s hand, followed by a small ball of fire flying off it, right at her. Compared to her own it’s pathetically small, like comparing an apple to a melon, but what it lacks in power it makes up for in speed. It is too fast to evade so she raises her right arm to at least shield her face. She is already gritting her teeth, expecting the spell to burn her palm clean off just after it had healed. But the pain doesn’t come. She feels something weird. The heat nibbles at her skin a bit before the magic making up the spell starts to sink into her hand. It eats it up like a starving wolf, tearing apart the spell in an instant. A short, hot glow pulses up her dark veins as she devours the spell. She looks at her still smoking hand, blinking a few times.

‘…that’s new.’

“What in the gods…” Jared looks at her with wide eyes, sweat rolling down his face. Sanora looks at him, a grin slowly splitting her face.

“Wanna try that again?”

“What’s going on here!?” One of two guards rushing into the alley shouts.

Sanora sighs as she looks at them. “This is going to take a lot of explaining…”

============================================

“You should have seen me kick that thing’s skull in! Splattered like an apple!” Serantis laughs as he tells a waitress at the guild his heroic stories.

“I wish he was joking.” Balmir says, wiping some blood off his face with a handkerchief.

“This will take forever to wash out.” Mehena sighs, looking at her bloody clothes. “Is that why you’re wearing red today?” The elf shoots the beastkin a glare.

“Oh no, this this used to be white.” He says before taking a good swig out of his mug while the rest of the group just stares at him.

“I see Serantis is as himself as always.” Someone says, drawing the group’s attention.

“Brenn, good to see you.” Balmir greets the tall man as he sits down.

“Likewise. Judging by the amount of dead monster on you I’d say your hunt was successful?” he laughs.

“Sadly so.” Balmir sighs. “How are things? Is the guild doing well?”

“As well as ever. Though I’m a bit sad Sanora hasn’t been here for so long. She caused a bunch of new recruits to join. Speaking of which, I need to talk about something with you.”

“Did something happen to her?” Mari immediately asks a bit loud. She sinks back into her seat with a red face.

“Something did.” Brenn nods. “Or rather someone. Apparently, Jared and Sanora had a not so friendly reunion earlier today. Now, don’t worry, she is fine, and people don’t know who was involved. We only know because some guards came to ask a few questions. From what I heard she gave him quite a beating, deserved I may add.”

“I heard Jared was still making his rounds in the city. I guess it was only a matter of time until those two would meet again.” Balmir sighs.

“Right. We banned Jared from taking anymore quests after the incident with Sanora, and apparently he hasn’t been doing well. Which is why he attacked Sanora when he saw her. He blames her for what happened to him.”

“But that’s nonsense!” Mari slams her hand on the table. “He left her back on a hunt alone! How insane is he, blaming Sanora for getting what he deserves?”

“Of course, he isn’t right in his mind anymore.” Brenn sighs. “But some people just aren’t. And Jared is one of those.”

“But this isn’t what you want to talk about, is it?” Balmir asks, earning some confused looks from the group.

“That’s right. While people generally don’t know that Sanora was involved the word is still spreading.”

“What word?” Mari tilts her head.

“Well, the story is that two people had an altercation in an alley. One of the used a scroll for combat magic and apparently the other person just sucked up the spell.” Brenn balls his fist in the air. “Just like that.”

“Something like that isn’t possible.” Mehena shakes her head. “You can’t absorb a spell once cast. Every race has tried things like these since the birth of magic and it was deemed impossible countless years ago.”

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“That’s what I thought too. At least until I heard that Sanora is the one who supposedly did it.”

Everyone’s eye grow wide as they stare at Brenn.

“Sanora did that?” Mari blinks at him.

“Or so I’ve been told at least.” He nods. “I didn’t talk with her myself yet, and I honestly find it hard to believe. But despite being here for only a short while that girl has proven that she isn’t normal. And if there is any truth in this story…”

“She’s in danger.” Mehena mumbles with a grim look.

“I’m afraid so.” Brenn sighs. “She already has every eye in the guild on her. Half the city knows about the famed kingslayer as well so it’s only safe to assume that the dark parts of the city have long had her on their list. And if they catch wind of what happened today, it’s not just her they’ll come after. Some criminals will stop at nothing to get what they want, and if that happens to be Sanora you all might be in danger as well.”

A mug slammed on the table interrupts Brenn.

“Then I say let them come.” Serantis grumbles. “If some second class criminals think they can just come around and take one of us, they better be prepared for some bloodshed.”

“If that was the case, I wouldn’t be this worried.” Brenn says with a serious voice. “But after what Sanora did it won’t just be some low henchmen you’ll have to deal with. I’m talking about the big shots, gang bosses, human traffickers, if you’re really unlucky maybe even the Bloodcult.”

“The Bloodcult? Come on Brenn, there’s no way. To have someone send the Bloodcult after you you’d have to be at least something like a viscount. They don’t go after common folk.” Balmir shakes his head.

“They go after whoever they are paid to go after. And for an ability like this… there isn’t even a price. This is worth more than you could weigh in gold, Balmir. And should they come for Sanora I can only hope she won’t survive it.”

“What do you mean?” Mari frowns at the man who raises his hands in defence.

“Don’t get me wrong. I don’t want anything to happen her, believe me. But if someone captures her alive only the gods know what they’ll do to her.”

“I… then what do we do?” Mari gulps.

“Be extra careful, especially in the city. Her friends are the first option when it comes to hostages. What about her family? Do you know where they live? Parents, relatives, lovers?” Brenn asks the group.

“She has friends back at home she always talked about, but I think they live rather far away.” Mehena says, holding her chin. “She never talked about her parents, but I assume it’s the same with them. Mari, do you know anything else?” The elf asks her, but Mari just looks at the table in silence. “Mari?”

“Huh? Sorry I was thinking. What did you say?”

“Sanora lives at your place right now. Do you know if she has any family that could be targeted?”

“Uh I don’t really know if any live close enough to matter.” She speaks. But the girl is unsure how much she can tell the others about Sanora true past. She said she used to live in River’s Rest which isn’t awfully far from here. But she has no family there, so the only people who come into question would be her friends from home who Sanora luckily didn’t tell a lot of people about.

“That’s good then.” Brenn nods. “But that still leaves this city. Do you know anyone else she’s close with?”

Mari shakes her head. “Not… particularly, no.” She averts her gaze. There is someone she is close with, but the others don’t know about it since Mari couldn’t work up the courage to tell them.

“That makes things easier. We don’t have to worry about that, then.” Brenn nods.

But what should Mari do? Keeping quiet and playing it safe seems like the best call right now. The less people know about their relationship the better. Especially considering the new circumstances. But then again, they haven’t made a secret out of it when they go out together which means that while Bullwind doesn’t know about it plenty of other people do anyways. She sighs. It seems that the last sand has finally fallen through the hourglass. It would have come out sooner or later, but Mari would have preferred later by far.

“Actually,” She speaks up, causing the others to stop their talk to look at her. “ -she does have a girlfriend.” Her eyes are glued to the table.

“She does? I guess that’s our top priority then.” Brenn says with a nod. “We should probably talk with her too. Do you know where she lives? It might be best if we all meet up somewhere calm to talk things through. We should at least warn her as well.”

“You don’t have to worry, she’s already in the picture.” Mari’s voice has grown quiet as the other’s eyes grow wide. What would their reactions be? Now that the cat is out of the bag.

“She is?” Serantis asks. “But only we know about-“ Mehena jams her elbow into the beastkin’s side.

“Hey! What was that for?” He glares at the elf who just returns him a look. Slowly his gears start to turn as the realisation sinks in and he slowly turns to look at Mari.

“Is… is she invisible?” He gulps. All eyes turn from Mari to Serantis now.

“Please tell me he isn’t for real.” Brenn mumbles to Balmir who just pinches the back of his nose.

“I wish I could.” He whispers.

“No Serantis. She isn’t invisible.” Mari sighs. “Because it’s me.”

“Oh, thank the gods.” He sighs. “I really thought someone was listening in on us.”

“You’re hopeless.” Mehena shakes her head.

“That means the only one we still need to talk to is the woman in question.” Brenn says.

As the others are invested in their planning Mari looks at them with a relieved smile. It seems all her worried were unwarranted after all. She takes a quick moment to thanks the gods for having found such great friends.

============================================

A sigh escapes Sanora. After her run in with Jared she went back home to take her mind off things while waiting for Mari. With nothing else to do she started to draw a bit. She can’t help but wonder how she didn’t have the idea sooner. It is a great way to spend the day, and while they are just drawings seeing Amni’s and Bawarag’s faces again really helps to calm her. It is a surprise how well they turned out. She already knew she can draw well, they found that out when designing her house after all, but still it surprises her.

‘Mari is sure taking long today.’ She thinks as she looks out the window with a bored look. The fight has occupied her mind all day. Not only because something from her past showed up that made her uncomfortable, but what is really occupying her mind is how slow he was. He may have been an awful person, but he was still a rank 7 adventurer in the past, so there must have been at least some amount of skill in him. And yet to Sanora it felt as though he was moving through honey.

“Maybe I should start going on quests again. Guess I’ll talk with Mari once she’s back.” She muses to herself as she stretches her hands over her head. Just then her senses picke up someone coming home. Not just one but five people are walking towards the house. A smile spreads on her lips as she recognises the signatures of the group. With a spring in her step, she walks to the door and opens it right as Mari is about to grab the doorhandle.

“You’re back!” She beams at the girl. “And you brought visitors.” She smiles at the others behind Mari.

“Yeah.” Mari smiles at her, though Sanora can see there is something else going on.

“I guess you aren’t here for a party?” She sighs.

“Afraid so.” Brenn nods. “We need to talk, let’s head inside?”

============================================

“There’s no way the whole criminal underworld is coming after me just because of that.” Sanora waves Brenn off after his explanation.

“But I’m here to tell you that exactly that might happen. I don’t think you realize how… I wont even call what you did extraordinary, that was insane. It shouldn’t be possible.”

“He’s right.” Mari chimes in as well. “Sanora, I don’t know what or how you did it, but the rumors are already going around and there is no changing that. The mere imagination that there is someone who can cancel magic is just crazy. Something like this could turn the tide of a war.”

“It… could?” Sanora asks, her fingers tapping on the table.

“Absolutely.” Brenn nods. “And while we have peace right now, that doesn’t extend to criminals. If any of the bigshots get their hands on you the others might rally under them, and we’ll have a war against the underworld. And with you in their hands it might become a pretty one sided one.”

“Come on, there is no way people would just kidnap me over some rumours… right?” Sanora laughs nervously, shaking her head.

“Maybe not usually. But nothing about you is usual. With all the stories about the famed kingslayer people might not put this off as just rumours. It’s safe to say that you all have a lot of eyes on you. Now more than ever.”

“Us? I thought this was about me becoming a target?” Sanora looks over the group sitting at the table while shifting around in her chair. Now that the others, her friends, have joined the equation she seems a lot more worried than before.

“It is the same as with noble families.” Mehena speak up. “If you want to get to the head of the family but you can’t reach it, you pick the next best target. And that is whoever is closest to them.” Sanora shoots Mari a worried glance as the elf speaks.

“Put simply I brought you all into danger.” Sanora sighs.

“Ah don’t beat yourself up over it.” Serantis waves her off, his grin as unfazed as always. “Danger is part of the job.”

“I get what you mean, but you shouldn’t take this lightly.” Brenn says. “We aren’t talking about monsters here. This is a different kind of danger. You’re not facing empty headed lurchers or wolves. You’re up against other people. They are calculating, they know how to plan, sneak around, gather intel. While you have been out there fighting monsters, they have been in here fighting other humans. They know what they are doing.”

“Then what do we do?” Sanora asks Brenn, her eyebrows furrowed and her fingers fiddling uneasy.

“For starters: keep an eye out for anyone around you that seems suspicious. And people approaching you suddenly without reason. And don’t draw any more attention to you. Try to, uh, not suck up anymore spells. If the rumours turn into reports, you’re in for a ride.” The man grumbles.

“Then what about guild work?” Sanora’s question causes Brenn to heave a long sigh.

“Well, that’s a good question, and I don’t think you’ll like the answer.”

“You’re gonna tell me to stop.”

“All things considered, it might be better.” Brenn nods. “The office is probably a safe spot with all the members around there. But that’s really the only upside. Not only will it give people an opportunity to spy on you while you are doing quests, but the more you go out with Bullwind, the bigger the target on their backs grows.”

“But what else am I supposed to do? Fighting is the only thing I’m really good at along with using magic. Other than that, I just don’t have anything.” Sanora’s shoulders slump. It seems that her short life is throwing rocks into her path at last. She got by just fine until now because she could put her skills to use. But without the adventurer’s guild there isn’t anything she could think of where her training would be of much use.

“I get that. You aren’t the only one with this problem. But you are the only one with the other problems, so you’ll need to find a solution. I’m sorry.” Brenn lowers his head.

Sanora groans and lets her head fall down into the table. “Give me a break…” She mumbles as Mari lays a hand on her back, gently patting her.

“Do you have any suggestions?” Mari turns to Brenn.

“Honestly? Leave town for a bit. Let some grass grow over the whole thing. There are other guild branches where you can find work at. Travel a bit, keep a low profile. With a bit of luck people will have forgotten about the rumours by the time you come back.”

“Leave Deepvalley…” Mari mumbles as she looks around the room with a wistful gaze. “What do you think?” She turns back to look at Sanora who is still lying on the table.

‘Leave Deepvalley huh?’ Sanora contemplates the idea. ‘I mean, the whole point of leaving home was to travel and find the moon. But then Vadia came, and then the Vixen. And now I finally feel good enough to get out there again, but I can’t pull Mari along with me, away from her home. And leaving without her?’ Sanora turns her head, glancing at the girl who is looking down at her with worried eyes. Her heart flutters at the sight. Whenever she is with this girl, she cant help but smile all the time. Things with her never seem to get boring. Every touch between them feels more relaxing than a whole night of sleep. The mere thought of being without her seems so dull and lonely.

‘Yeah, no way I’m doing that. Aside from her probably not being overly happy about it either.’

“I’ll need some time to think it over.” Sanora finally sighs after a few moments. Taking the hint, the others get up. “Thanks for the warning.” Sanora smiles at them weakly as they leave.

“Don’t worry about it. Just stay safe.” Brenn nods at her.

“No matter what decision you make-“ Balmir starts. “-you always have a place in Bullwind. Both of you.” He smiles at the girls. Sanora looks at them. Balmir’s and his warm smile, Mehena and her gentle eyes, and of course Serantis wearing a wide grin.

“Thank you.” Sanora smiles back at them before they leave.