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Spell Candler
Chapter 16: A Hug, A Bath and a Difficult Task.

Chapter 16: A Hug, A Bath and a Difficult Task.

Chapter 16: A Hug, A Bath and a Difficult Task.

So my class had some distinct disadvantages, but I didn’t accept that was particularly unique, surely most classes required more than one school of training and path of advancement. “You said warlocks have masters, don’t they have to split their attention between doing favors for the master as well as improving those other things?”

Victoria shook her head and tried to dump the information in a way that made sense to me.

“It’s just not done, because it doesn’t have the intuitiveness of other hybrid disciplines, you’d have to take an apprenticeship with a candlemaker and as far as I know there are no candlemaker’s who can also teach you magical theory” She went on to explain a little about how battlemages, spellswords, psy-blades, monastic rogues and holy assassins were much more intuitively levelled up. She also told me about all the ways they kicked ass while Spell Chandler most decidedly did not. That actually ended up taking at least 15 minutes with myself occasionally interjecting with questions and Victoria finding herself drawn into tangent after tangent.

I wanted to get to know her a bit more but I didn’t know how long I’d have to wait and didn’t want to make things awkward by leaving a very fertile topic of conversation until I had to. Just as I was about to risk it and ask more about her the library’s side door opened and all intention of small talk shrivelled and died inside of me as the chill gaze of the Lady Selene fell upon me once again. “Victoria, would you give me a moment with your sister’s friend.”

The pale blonde shot me an apologetic look as she grabbed a book to read and walked quickly from the room. I listened to the retreating footsteps and the slow closing of the door behind her. A few tense seconds went by and when I couldn’t take it any more I broke the silence “I’m sorry Lady Delacroft, I’ve never been around nobility, I don’t have the slightest idea what to do.”

The chill gaze never left me as she took 3 long steps towards me and then threw her spindly arms around me. I went stiff in shock that only lessened a little as the imposing noblewoman pulled me into a hug. “Thank you for bringing back my daughter Jack.” Her voice warmed slightly from arctic to perhaps subarctic at most but I could tell that was significant in and of itself.

I felt Selene's icy cold hands on my back and I had no idea what to do so I awkwardly rubbed her back and tried not to squirm in her frigid grasp. After a moment she let me go and primly stepped back from me, now we were facing each other, her eyes looking straight through mine and boring into the back of my skull.

“I love my daughters and I know they aren't going to take the path I wanted for them, I’ve known it since they were much younger than you'd expect. I wasn't happy about it, but when Robert passed, I still kept to his wishes, I hired mentors to guide them wherever they wanted to go and let them think they were rebelling against me. But Luna was never supposed to just sign up with some back-alley mercenary and run away from home. I really, truly can’t thank you enough for what you did.”

I was extremely confused and Selene laughed bitterly. “You look just like Luna did when I told her. I made sure she had opportunities to learn the trade she wanted to follow. Yes, I helped her direct her abilities towards the path of a rogue by providing suitable challenges throughout her youth. Eventually I would have let her go to the capital and learn directly from one of the mentors. Not just run into the wilderness and die in some Rot-Scale dungeon.”

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I tried not to shuffle my feet and forced myself to contribute to the conversation. "Well, she's certainly got the skills she needs. She saved my life twice already."

The Lady Selene sighed, “The way she tells it you saved her. No matter, from now on Luna is free to leave and return whenever she wishes, I won’t stop her, I won’t risk the lives of my subjects unnecessarily nor my relationship with my daughter, strained though it may sometimes be. I just wish I could help, that I could be with her.”

This was way more forthrightness and emotional vulnerability than I would have ever expected from the Lady of the Manor and I couldn't guess why.

I cleared my throat and looked pointedly around the books “At least Victoria won’t be going anywhere soon though.”

Selene smiled a little. “She's more likely to willingly return at least. You know, you're the first actual adventurer I’ve seen around these parts since Robert passed. That team of scoundrels Luna signed on with were just a militia with some high profession ranks who thought they could make fame and fortune robbing graves. They would have been thrilled to have an actual adventurer join their party."

That made sense why they'd risk bounty hunters being sent after them by Luna's mother then, from what I'd seen and heard so far an adventurer with class levels would function as a real force multiplier for a group like that.

"She blames herself for what happened in that dungeon I think, for Karl losing his arm in the woods as well. But Karl would have taken a search party out even if I'd ordered him not to, he would have had a lot of volunteers as well. As for the dungeon, Robert knew of the Rot-Scale Tomb, his adventuring party made it quite a long way inside but only barely escaped. I doubt Luna could have done anything more than she did”

I nodded my head, “You're absolutely right, those things were dangerous opponents, if that was her first proper fight and everyone else was running in different directions. Well, what could she have done to save them?”

Selene nodded in return and I saw a smile that was as bitter-cold as the accompanying laugh. “That’s the thing, now she knows, she knows that sometimes there’s nothing she can do to help people. It’s a harsh lesson for her but she was always going to learn it wasn't she. Now, enough of my complaining, how will you and my daughters defeat this demon I'm hearing about?”

I gaped at her, but her gaze remained unflinching. “It would take 2 days to send a horse messenger to the capital requesting adventurers, another 2 for them to get here and by that time we might all be dead. You need to find him and kill him while he’s helpless and if you have to kill the demoness, this Merillax then you’ll do that too. Complete this task and you'll have land, a workshop and a dwelling within Croftop. If you fail it won't matter much anyway. We'll all be dead”

I had no real response to that so Selene led me from the library to a washroom and left me to clean up before we would speak again.

The washroom was well lit via high windows and smelled strongly of herbs. I stripped away my now very fucked-up clothes and slipped into the already-drawn bath.

A jug of steaming water lay on a shelf for me to increase the heat to my taste but I wasn't picky enough for it to matter so I just soaked and scrubbed until I was cleaned up. I felt much better, hot water had washed away the grime and dust, herbal soap left my skin smelling fresh and a good scrub cleared out my pores. Now that i was sufficiently clean I climbed out of the tub and found that a pair of men’s travelling clothes had been left on a rack for me, they were a decent fit and I assumed they were a loan from a servant rather than the clothes of the Lady’s deceased husband due to the seeming newness of them. Luna had mentioned his death only in passing but I understood it had been horrendous based on the other information I'd picked up. Apparently he had been mortally wounded clearing a nest of Shadelocks and died at home some days later. I suspected the guard currently recuperating within the estate was exceedingly lucky to be alive if the creatures had killed an adventurer who seemed to be significantly experienced and wondered how the hell I was supposed to kill a demon, even if it was recovering from some kind of massive skill drain I'd seen what Merri could do and I really wanted no part of such an evisceration.

I dabbed my face dry, shaved down to stubble with a razor that had been provided and then went out to see the Lady Selene once more, hoping I didn't look as much like a dead man walking as I felt.