Azoss led Dustin through the guard barracks at a brisk pace. Dustin and his caravan company had been in the final preparations for their departure from Karstess when a small detachment of city guards approached him.
“We found her passed out in the burning building. A fire essence user quelled the fire and we recovered her and the adventurers corpse.”
“She survived the fire?” Dustin asked.
“And by all accounts a bronze rank adventurer. A new, mediocre, and drunken bronze ranker, but bronze rank all the same. She was comatose when we got to her and had to call on a Healer acolyte. The healing magic seemed almost futile though, the acolyte said he stopped her internal bleeding and patched up her organs. But that was it, her ribs still appear to be broken, her arm twisted, and she was still comatose.”
Dustin tried to hide his relief that the acolyte hadn’t revealed more about the women than he should have. “Comotose, not unconscious?”
“Yes. That’s what the acolyte said, and none of the usual cures worked. Eventually the acolyte prayed to Healer for guidance and instructed us to feed her watered down low-grade stamina potions. After that her condition changed from comatose to unconscious and healing for about an hour before she slipped back away. We repeated the process until she woke up. that was about when I realized why the girl looked so familiar.”
Dustin pinched his brow “I can’t believe she started a bar fight with a bronze rank adventurer. I thought she was smarter than that. What kind of punishment are we looking at?” Dustin asked Azoss.
“That’s where things get tricky.” Azoss said slowly. “From witness testimony and her own confession the girl appears to be the victim. The adventurer was thoroughly drunk and tried to take what wasn’t his, if you know what I mean.” Azoss said leadingly.
Dustin grimaced. He should have foreseen this being an issue. Seras was stunningly beautiful for a normal ranker. Those kinds of looks without the right background became a liability for normal rankers. He normally would have tried to warn her, but he had been so taken in by her confidence and resolution that the idea never crossed his mind.
“So it was self-defense?” Dustin asked cautiously.
“Ordinarily I would say yes and turn her free. But one of our more zealous young members noticed that she had no accent whatsoever, and that she smelled like springtime.”
Dustin winced.
“So they’re right” Azoss said as he noticed Dustin’s reaction. “You brought an Outworlder into the city?” he asked incredulously.
“I’ll remind you that the Adventurer society put an end to any attempt to specifically outlaw Outworlders. As well as the Outworlder registration act.”
“Don’t pull legal bullshit with me Westbrook, you know how the nobility get about Outwolrders. Fuck!” Azoss cursed “this is going to be a shit show.”
“It doesn’t have to be.” Dustin said vehemently. “What’s the society’s reaction to all this?”
Azoss looked at Dustin curiously “They’ve been oddly amicable about losing one of their own. It would appear that the adventurer in question had tried this same thing several times before, but the victims would never testify, and the Dillon’s always swiped it under the rug. They’re glad to be rid of him.”
Dustin nodded “The Dillon’s, how are they involved?”
“The adventurer was on a team with their newest scion. They tried to press for murder charges, but all the witnesses proved that your Outworlder wasn’t the one who started the fight.”
“And the Dillon’s are only minor nobility, if that.” Dustin mused to himself “What state was the adventurer in?”
“Hard to tell with the fire. Best we can tell however is that he threw her around a bit before she got lucky and stabbed him in the neck with a bottle. At some point he spilled liquor on himself, and the girl tossed some hot coals on him to set him ablaze. He then stabbed her before dying.”
Dustin frowned at the story. He knew how strong and clever Seras was, so she would have put up a better fight than what Azoss was giving her credit for. But a one-sided assault worked to his favor. “Then it seems pretty clear to me that a known rapist assaulted one of my employees in broad sight of several witnesses, and was lucky to escape with her life. The guard have my thanks for stopping the fire and healing her before further tragedy.”
Azoss gave Dustin a sidelong look. “I see” he said slowly “And do you have the papers to prove she’s been an employee of yourcompany?”
“Give me a day and I will have them for you.”
The Draconian’s eyes narrowed, and he leaned in close to Dustin. “That’s strange, since I know for a fact you keep all your paperwork in your storage space.”
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“Right now, only two people in this barrack know that.”
“That’s a big ask Westbrook.”
Dustin nodded “I know, but maybe after this we have another game of cards, get the lads all together. I’m sure this time you’ll see your luck has improved.”
Azoss rubbed his chin, the idea of winning money was nice, but the idea finally winning was even more enticing. Maybe a thrown game from Dustin would finally break his years long losing streak. “Alright, we’ll hold her overnight, and you can bring in the papers tomorrow and you can be on your way.”
“Actually, it might be better to take her back now. The poor girl went through an ordeal and might need some emotional support.” Dustin suggested firmly. A lot could happen in one night, especially if you were a beautiful women who pissed off some nobles.
“Fine, take her and leave. See you tonight at Black Kettle?”
“Of course, first round is on me.”
Azoss nodded, pulled out a key and turned to unlock a door. He paused mid-way “There was one other matter.”
“Oh” Dustin said.
“The adventurer had a small pouch of coins as well as an essence of some sort. Ordinarily it would go to his family, but seeing as he caused your girl some undo harm its within my rights to see that it finds its way to your hands.”
Dustin smiled “that would be very nice old friend, I’ll remember this generosity.”
“Good” Azoss grumbled as he unlocked the heavy iron door and opened the cell.
The cell itself was painted a neutral white, lit by a single mana lamp on the ceiling. There was a table in the center of the room with Seras sat on the other side. There the Outworlder sat in a plain cloth shirt with the vacant look Dustin recognized as her watching a ‘movie’, which was like a play that someone recorded. She blinked and sat up, her gaze first went to Azoss and was suspicious. But then she saw Dustin and relaxed, then she went tense and averted her gaze.
Azoss growled “How did you get out of those cuffs?” he growled, and Dustin noticed the iron manacles bolted to the table.
“Would you believe me if I said they werent locked?”
“No”
Seras shrugged, “Worth a shot.” She said flippantly.
“Those were magically locking, how did you get out” Azoss growled.
Seras brought up and hand, and with her other hand pulled on it until it dislocated with a sickening crunch, then she popped the joint back in. Azoss looked disturbed while Dustin wondered if this was another ‘Biomechanical’ thing. Learning the odd quirks of Seras’ body continued to be both a source of interest and horror.
“You might find that padding the inside of the cuff would prevent anyone else from doing that, while also preventing it from digging in.” Seras commented conversationally.
“Or can make them tighter” Azoss growled.
“Or that” Seras acknowledged, “But I know ways around that too.”
Azoss turned to glare at Dustin.
Dustin sighed “I’ll handle her, thank you for everything Azoss.”
He harrumphed and left.
Now just the two of them Seras’ bluster disappeared. “Hey Dust.” She said softly.
~~~*~~~
Seras was once again surprised to find herself awake in a strange place after being sure she was dead. She didn’t get to be surprised for long as men in boiled leather armor burst in and began an endless round of questions. It wasn’t the first time Seras had been questioned she had chosen to play dumb and confused.
Four hours later and Seras finally had some time to actually think. She pulled up her memory of the fight and replayed it endlessly. She scanned every aspect of it to see where she was lacking.
But as hard as she tried she couldn’t find any glaring flaws, she had just been completely outmatched in terms of strength and speed. She had a slight advantage in flexibility, and better form, but in the face of overwhelming power she had been no match.
Essences. Seras was the pinnacle of biomechanical engineering, the product of two hundred years of Cybernetic development from a technologically advanced civilization. But Dale had essences, and in this world those trumped everything else.
Her one essence power had been so underwhelming that she dismissed the rest out of hand. She had seen Dustin and his crew perform incredible superhuman feats of power and strength, but she had thought that with her metal body she was at least their equal. But now that seemed childish and arrogant.
Essences were power, raw, undiluted power. But they also represented a complete departure from her normal. They were unlike anything her world had to offer, and that lingering sense of foreignness held her back.
Her concerns about the changes essences wrought on the soul were not unfounded, but she also realized they were an excuse for her timidity.
After her fight she realized, truly realized, that essences were power. That magic was power. Of course it would change her, that’s what all power did. But that had never stopped Seras before.
So what if she changed, as long as she had power.
She was at the bottom of pile in this world, but with power she could change that.
Seras was the pinnacle of biomechanical engineering, and now she would achieve the pinnacle essence magic. She would wield the power of both worlds to become greater than either. Magic and technology. Magi-tech.
Then the door opened to admit the scaley Draconian who had been the last person to question her, along with Dustin.
They talked, and then the Draconian left, and it was just her and Dustin. “Hey Dust.” She said, not meeting his eyes. Seras had claimed that she could make it on her own, and now only days later here she was. Ass kicked in by some drunken idiot, and locked within the local prison.
“Seras” he grunted. His usual friendly demeanor gone.
They sat in silence, well she sat, he loomed.
“What the hell were you thinking, killing an adventurer?” He growled, breaking his silence.
“I was thinking that I wasn’t going to let some drunk fucker have his way with me because he was an adventurer.” Seras shot back.
“Why didn’t you run?” he asked.
That rankled her hackles “Because I don’t run from drunken slobs.”
“THIS ISN’T YOUR WORLD ANYMORE!” he shouted. “you may have had power and influence there, but here you’re a normal ranker, with no idea how things work.”
“I FUCKING KNOW THAT!” she shouted back. “I got my shit kicked in by a man who could barely stand, I’m only alive because he fucked up and stabbed into my power banks.” She looked at her knees. “Its hard you know. Going from knowing my place in the world to this” she gestured to the room around her. “I’m not some underachieving loser whose been dreaming of being taken away from my old life and into a world of magic. In my world the people like that were the ones who never did anything with their life and spent their days wishing things would change without putting in the effort to work their way up. I was different, I mattered.”
Dustin’s eye bore into her “I’m sorry Seras, but you’re not there anymore, I don’t think you can ever go back. This is the world you live in now, and wishing things were different is just as pointless as you said.”
“I know” she murmured.
He sighed “Stand up, they released you into my care, we leave tomorrow, and you’re not allowed to wander off until we’re out of the city. I’m going to be filing the paperwork to make you an official member of my company, from now on I’ll be your boss. Do you understand.”
Seras’ head perked up “They’re letting me go, just like that?”
“From their point of view the whole thing was the adventurers fault, and you were lucky to survive. Being an outworlder complicates that. I can either claim you as my employee, or you can risk the courts.”
“What are my odds with the later?”
“Likely convicted for seducing an adventurer and sold off to serve an indenture contract. And women with your looks is likely to attract the shady types who want to buy your contract for your body.”
“And that’s accepted here!”
Dustin frowned “We don’t like it, but we can’t stop it. Those are your options.”
“I can either wander the desert, or get sold into sexual slavery. Fuck! What kind of choice is that?”
“A pretty obvious one.” Dustin said levelly.
“Yeah, yeah it is.” Seras stood up and held her hand out. “Well, I look forward to working with you, Boss.” She said, trying to force a smile onto her face.
He shook her hand “I expect good things from you. And no more trouble.” He warned.
This time her smile was more genuine. “That’s the thing, I don’t go looking for it, it comes looking for me.”