“He’s a fucking idiot!” Hreysti roared, his face contorted into a frightening visage of rage and sadness melding together.

Shani let out a short grunt as she continued to push forward, “He’s buying us time and you shouldn’t waste it by spitting his name. Move!”

Yet another growl escaped the vampire’s lips as they shoved through a block of ambling men, paying no heed to the curses that followed.

“You don’t need to push past people.” Ercole called back, “We’re just buying some horses for our long trip.”

Hreysti’s mouth opened for a moment before his objection died on his lips, remembering the guards and the precarious state they were all in. His logic overrode raw emotions even as tears threatened to spill out with a howl.

Agrippa coughed, trying to raise their voice while keeping it somewhat stable as they asked, “How much further to the horse- horse-“

“Just horse dealer.” Ercole corrected, “It’ll just be about three minutes, me and Shani found it yesterday. They said they’d have a few more delivered from the pasture today so they’d have enough for all of us. Do any- Shit-!”

Ercole’s tone suddenly shifted, his head whipping about as he scanned the group.

“Do any of you actually know how to ride a horse!?”

Shani nodded, “A little rusty, but I have ridden before.”

Hreysti nodded, “Same.”

“Agrippa?”

Agrippa swallowed, “I’ve never ridden anything…” they stammered.

“We’ll have to tie your horse up with one of ours then, along with Dyo’s,” Ercole grunted, “and hope neither you or him don’t fall off…”

“Is that easy!?”

“We’ll see.”

“You know, everyone here could do a lot more to make me feel more secure when this sorta stuff happens!” They huffed.

Hreysti growled, giving the changeling the evil eye. “I’m not in the consoling mood.”

“I know tha-“

Ercole's tanned hand suddenly shot up. “Looks like some guards want to ask us some questions…” he muttered.

Agrippa flicked around, their voice ascending into a squeak, “They’re going to take our hoods off!?”

“I can tear them t-“

“I’ll figure something out Hreysti,” Ercole cut in, grimacing, “just follow along.”

“If it fails, I won’t care what you say.”

“That’s fair, just hold it in…”

Herysti’s eyes stared at them, pushing through the crowd, the blue-clothed city watch. A satisfying “plinking” followed them as the rain hammered against their metal helms as they aproached.

One moved rather close, readjusting the grip on his halberd and he gruffly said, “Alright you lot let’s get this over with, what’s your business here and can you all take your hoods down for us? It’ll just be a moment, you’re not gonna have to be soaked too badly.”

Ercole drummed his fingers on his horse as he let out a small chuckle, “Of course! We’re just going down to the traders for some mounts for my retainers.”

Ercole, Shani and Agrippa flipped their hoods off, the guards scanning over all their faces till they came to Hreysti’s.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

The lead guard sighed, “Come on lad, what is it? Don’t make it harder than it has to be.”

Hreysti’s body tensed “I don’t like getting wet.”

“It’s just for a moment, take it off.”

The Guard’s hold on the halberd tightened.

A quiet moment passed with only the sound of the rain before he exhaled, letting it drag for a moment before sliding his hood off and looking the guard in the eyes.

What the guard saw was a pale man with ochre brown eyes and raven black hair, with his lips sealed shut. The very slight shimmer across his face hidden by the pouring rain.

“See, it’s not that hard! You’re all free to go but tell us if you see any suspicious persons around. We’ve got some heathen fae walking around here you know.”

“Oh, I perfectly understand,” Ercole responded with a smile, putting his hood back up, “We’ll be on the lookout but forgive me if I prefer getting indoors.”

The guard let out something between a laugh and a grunt, “Carry on then.”

And with that, they left, the two passing each other and everyone put their hoods back up and Ercole let out a long sigh of relief.

“Talking, acting, and spell casting without preparation is not one of my favourite activities…” He groaned as he cracked his knuckles, letting the tension in his body slowly wean away.

“So, you actually did something with that magic of yours?” Hreysti huffed, a very slight smile slipping onto his face, “I didn’t think you’d do anything more than heal your own wounds with it and play bloodhound.”

Ercole’s mouth twitched as he chuckled, “I studied this most of my life, of course I can do more than that.”

“And you trained at a university too, didn’t you? Wouldn’t minor illusions like,” he waved his hand in front of his face, “this be easy for you?”

Ercole sighed, “Not on the spot and I don’t have a lot of experience with masking Illusions.”

Shani raised an eyebrow, “There’s more than one type of Illusion magic?”

“They’re not really types, they’re more methods to achieve the same end. You can either make a mask to create an ethereal façade, or you can manipulate the senses and mind of the observer to make them see what you want. Both have their benefits, and both have schools and practitioners who favour one or the other. I didn’t get too deep into it myself but I’m somewhat competent at both methods.”

“So why did you choose masking then?”

“Because trying to alter the minds and visions of an entire crowd would be far too difficult and costly. Just making a façade and hoping people don’t notice the slight imperfections or shimmer in it was the far safer bet.”

Agrippa’s brows knitted together, his eyes dropping down as he murmured, “So what was Dyo’s…”

“That I don’t know. It could have been one or the other, it could have been an actual manipulation of the world, it may have even been a combination of them! I have no idea, despite how much I want to know…”

A coarse laugh cut forth from Hreysti, “So how about you harness that curiosity to get moving faster to save him!? You know, our friend in a life-or-death situation!?”

“Y- You’re right,” Ercole nodded, grasping the reins of his horse with both hands, “We can talk about the complexities of this later.”

----------------------------------------

“I need four of the sturdiest and fastest Massians that you have.”

The red-faced merchant lazily turned around to look at Ercole, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion and indignity. “Sorry, could you slow down for a moment? Four Massians?”

A heavy thunk resonated around the small stable office as a purse filled with large gold coins dropped onto the table. At that, the merchant’s expression changed instantly as his eyes widened and became larger than the coins they were looking at.

For a moment they just flicked between them and the noble, going up and down as the man swallowed while processing just what he was looking at. The glorious pile of gold that could be his with a few simple words.

“Of course, sire! We have some just in the stable sire!”

“And you can guarantee they’re good ones?”

The merchant bolted up, slapping his hand to his heart, “On my honour, they’re exactly what you want sire! B-But they’ll cost you all-“

Ercole took the bag and pushed it into their hands before they could finish, “That’s fine, take it. You have barding and saddles included in that?”

“Of course!”

“And two sets of rope?”

The merchant swallowed again, wavering for a moment before replying, “Anything for a good and noble customer sire!”

“Take us to them then.”

He shook their head, quickly pushing out through the door without even putting up their hood, “Follow me!”

The group followed, Ercole’s expression straight, firm and unwavering as he looked upon the collection of bay and chestnut horses. All of them seemingly in perfect condition just as promised.

“You can get to know them a little while I bring everything out for you. I-I hope you won’t mind that the saddles won’t be properly adjusted for your retainers? I can point you to a good-“

“It’s fine. As long as they’re good enough to get us to the nearest Inn along the west road.”

Shani chuckled softly as she looked at a large, muscular bay Messian, slowly inching closer to it with an outstretched hand, “You’re not going to ask us anything else?”

“Why would I!?” Scoffed the merchant, “I don’t ask questions when generous people like you come in.”

“Excellent,” Ercole said firmly, “We’re in a small hurry now so I’d rather have that barding here and fitted sooner rather than later. Don’t forget the rope either!”

“I won’t sire! Just pick out the ones you want from those five rightmost stables, and I’ll have the saddles for them ready!”

He nodded, looking between them all and noting Shani already getting along well with the second leftmost one. Agrippa also seemed to be doing well which was some good news given that theirs would need to be tugged along.

“Merchant, I want the four rightmost ones.”

“An excellent choice sire!”