Friedrich stepped outside of the bank, having tossed a couple of dozen kupons into his portal vault. He was satisfied to be slowly gaining more wealth, but it was coming far too slowly for his liking. At this rate, Marina’s jokes about him doing the accounting for the local taverns seemed like a viable alternative and he didn’t like that one bit.
“A good start to my birthday,” he said merrily as he hopped down the stairs.
“Your birthday?” asked Marina, surprised. “Why didn’t you mention that before?”
“It didn’t seem important,” shrugged Friedrich.
Marina looked him up and down. “Come to think of it, you do seem bigger. You’re almost two inches taller than me now.”
“I know you’re joking, but I do feel taller,” said Friedrich laughing. “I’m going to enjoy it while I can because I’ll probably not grow that much from now on. People normally stop at around eighteen, right?”
“I think so?”
“That gives me one more year.”
Marina held out her hand. “Well, let me be the first to congratulate you on surviving the last couple of months with me.”
Friedrich looked at her hand and shook his head. “Nice try.”
“Please?” asked Marina, smiling sweetly at him and fluttering her eyelashes.
With a sigh, Friedrich held out his hand and touched her palm. He felt a horrible surge of electricity run through his body and nearly toppled over, only just managing to maintain his composure.
“It’s getting stronger, right?” Marina asked devilishly.
“Much,” said Friedrich, trying to shake off the lingering feeling of discomfort.
“I am the storm goddess!” called Marina, attracting a couple of odd stares from passersby.
Friedrich laughed as she looked embarrassed. “What does Hansel think of your progress?” he asked.
“He said I’m doing very well, but I’d like to still do better.”
“I know something you could do to make yourself more powerful.”
“Embed the lightning gem into my staff?”
“You’ve taken all the fun out of me suggesting it, but…yes.”
“Then pretend I didn’t say it,” said Marina with a wink. “What a fantastic and original idea, Friedrich! Let’s go right away so I can shoot bolts with the might of a storm.”
The two Mercians walked through their capital, seeking an enchanter who would be able to combine the wooden staff with the magical gem. Marina insisted on not going to the Mages Guild, saying that she wanted to maintain some level of independence from them. The less they knew about her business, the better—Friedrich thought she was overthinking things, but said nothing.
Their wanderings and questioning of complete strangers eventually led them to a shop called Western Arch Enchantments, conveniently located by a large stone arch underneath a footbridge in the western half of town. Friedrich and Marina walked up the five steps leading to the door and headed inside.
*
“I can’t wait to test it,” said Marina, twirling her newly enhanced staff in her hands as she skipped down the street. The purple stone set within the twisted tip of her gnarled implement fizzled with electricity even when she made no effort to channel her magic.
“Maybe don’t brandish it so wildly in case you blow up a building,” said Friedrich, looking around nervously. “We couldn’t afford to fix it before, but we definitely can’t now that you’ve spent most of what you have.”
“Then let’s take a more dangerous job,” said Marina, lowering the staff but continuing her giddy skipping.
“Do you want something else at the Dinner Party level of dangerous? I would prefer if we didn’t repeat that horrible experience.”
Marina bit her lower lip, regretting what she said. “Not quite that dangerous. Perhaps something more toned down, but not as basic as killing rats in a tavern basement.”
The two sought out a bounty board—of which there were plenty around the city—where Friedrich spied a familiar notice. He laughed at the sight of it and read it aloud to Marina.
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BY ORDER OF KNIGHT CAPTAIN DESCARTES!
The serial killer, known to locals as The Butcher of the Bay, is still on the loose. Any information regarding to his or her successful apprehension will be rewarded at a value dependent on its usefulness.
As much as the city guard would prefer citizens to refrain from vigilantism, successful apprehension of the dangerous killer by a citizen will also be rewarded handsomely.
REWARD: 500 kupons
“Five hundred kupons?” asked Marina, her jaw dropping.
“Yes,” said Friedrich nodding along. “I saw this notice when I found the one about the mushrooms.”
“And you didn’t think to tell me?”
“I thought we would be safer going for mushrooms, but maybe opting for hunting down a serial killer would be the best thing we could do to get a lot of kupons at once.”
Marina pursed her lips and put a finger to her chin. “For a city guard that doesn’t want to encourage vigilantism, they don’t seem to mind posting a large reward.”
“It’s almost like they’d rather not deal with it themselves, isn’t it?” asked Friedrich, taking the notice down, rolling it up and pocketing it.
“Excuse me,” Marina said to a young man walking down the street, waving him over.
“Yes?” asked the man who wouldn’t have been more than a year or two older than Friedrich.
“I’m sorry to trouble you so out of the blue, but what can you tell me about The Butcher of the Bay?”
“The Butcher?” asked the young man, looking nervous. “Why in Eradrel would you be asking about that?”
“Please just tell me?” asked Marina, clasping her hands together and fluttering her eyelashes.
“Um…alright,” said the young man, rubbing his neck even more nervously than before. “As far as I know it, he’s struck three times and most of his murders have been somewhere close to Akatfall Bay. I couldn’t tell you anything about his victims, but the guards would know more…if you can get anything out of them.”
“Thank you,” said Marina, smiling widely at the man who smiled back, walking away and bumping into an old lady because of his fixed gaze on Marina.
“That was sly,” said Friedrich, narrowing his eyes. “I’ve never seen you be so manipulative?”
“Friedrich, how did we end up together?”
Friedrich thought about it for a while. “Alright, fair point. I’m your primary victim.”
“To the docks!”
“He said Akatfall Bay.”
“Is that not the same thing?”
“No,” said Friedrich, raising an eyebrow. “The docks are a few streets further west and the bay is in the south end of the city. Haven’t you learned anything about Akatfall in the weeks we’ve been here?”
“I’ve learned a little bit of magic,” said Marina, placing her hand on Friedrich’s arm and smiling sinisterly.
“You wouldn’t dare.” He could already feel the static running through his body and making him tingle.
Marina giggled and took her hand away before gesturing down the street. Friedrich led the way through the town and the two made their way down the bustling streets of the capital and towards the bay.
As they walked, they watched the city change from grand and civilised to rough and not-so-civilised—uncivilised would have been a bit too harsh. They watched as drunkards were thrown out of taverns, but passersby would still take the time to help them up. They saw gamesman more or less rob gamblers in broad daylight with the power of cards and dice, but they had the decency to cut the losers off.
It was approaching midday by the time they drew close to the bay. Friedrich could tell they were almost there as the flat streets became hilly and all paths led towards a large wall with a gate where a large body of water could just about be seen from a distance.
“Help!” called a woman as she ran through the streets covered in blood. “The Butcher! The Butcher!”
Friedrich and Marina ran to her. “Where?” they asked in unison as the people in the street gave the woman a wide berth.
“I don’t know,” wept the woman, “but Thomas…he’s dead. I found him too late...stabbed.”
“Who is Thomas?” asked Friedrich as the woman fell to her knees and looked at the blood on her hands.
“He’s the baker, children. Who would hurt a baker? What did he do to deserve this?”
“Where is the bakery?”
“Down there,” said the woman, pointing down the street. “Come…I’ll show you.”
The woman ran with the two adventurers; she was almost limping, so overcome with emotion as she was. She brought them to a nearby building with a beautiful window display of delicious rolls and cakes, leading them inside.
“Agh!” screamed the woman as she laid eyes on the horrific sight before her.
Friedrich was disgusted, but couldn’t take his eyes away, while Marina leaned into him and covered her face. The body of the baker was not as intact as the duo had expected, but was utterly desecrated. The middle-aged man’s innards were pulled out and strewn across the floor, while his head sat upon the countertop, very much separated from his body.
“What happened to him?” asked the woman, her voice shaky and weak.
“You said he was stabbed,” said Friedrich.
“He wasn’t like this when I was here no more than two minutes ago, I swear it!”
The woman tepidly approached the devastated remains of the baker and fell to her knees, weeping wildly. She leaned on the ground and scratched at the floorboards, asking aloud why the poor man deserved such a fate.
As if to answer the call, a swirling shadow appeared in the centre of the room behind her. From within the shadow, stepped a red-skinned demon clad in thick black iron armour.
“Kree sha fyth, nor vas kudahl,” said the demon as it lunged for the woman.
Friedrich charged at the demon, knocking towards the countertop. It spun around, drawing a segmented blade that moved like a snake. It thrust its twisted weapon at Friedrich who raised his shield just in time to avoid sharing Thomas’s fate.
The demon’s head exploded almost instantly as a heavy lightning bolt struck it. The electricity spread throughout the rest of its body, cooking it within its black, spiked armour. It fizzled as it crumpled to the ground, where it lay as limp as its victim.
Friedrich approached the demon and gave it a prod with his foot. He didn’t expect anything to happen, nor did it, but feared that the demon would somehow spring back to life even after Marina obliterated it so thoroughly.
“That was definitely more powerful than your earlier bolts,” said Friedrich, wiping the splattered blood from his face.
“I…I didn’t mean to blow it up. Did I destroy our evidence?” she asked.
“We have enough of us as witnesses to tell the guards what happened?”
“What…what was that thing?” asked the woman, looking at the ironclad mass on the floor.
“A demon from the plane of Blackfire,” came a voice from the open doorway. “It is a surprise to see the two of you here, Friedrich and Marina.”
The two turned around, but they need not have. They recognised the voice from the first syllable. Before them, looking as stoic as ever, was Blackjack.