Chapter 24: Next Steps

The trip passed in comfortable companionship, Balthazar turned out to be a veteran of numerous campaigns, a man who had served alongside adventurers, militias, military units and more caravan guards than he could name. He'd been court mage, bodyguard, lieutenant and enchanter in between these quests and all of this time had filled him with many stories to tell and only a passing interest in my own class. "I've seen lots of showy classes, some better, some worse than what you have. There are entire cultures that have passed extremely inefficient schools of magic or combat down amongst their heroes for thousands of years. Even the strangest of those classes do tend to shine in one specific area or another though." Balthazar chewed the inside of his mouth for a moment before summarising his thoughts on the matter. "I suppose if I had to give you some advice it would be to never underestimate one who wants to kill you, no matter whether they come at you with a candle or a sword."

Victoria told me about some of her favourite books, I told her about Game of Thrones, Lovecraft, Robert Bloch and Phillip K Dick. A lot of things didn't quite translate but I adjusted them on the fly to fit in. It must have worked because she didn't make any attempt to break off the conversation or microwave my face and in fact quite liked the sound of some of the Lovecraft stories, particularly the one about the serpent-person city beneath the desert. Balthazar exchanged a look with Luna that we both caught. "What are you two up to?" I asked, wondering if they were just rolling their eyes at my obvious interest in the pretty blonde.

"This Nameless city of yours sounds like a rot-scale city. That's what we were hoping to find in the tomb-dungeon you rescued us from. Thanks again for that by the way."

Victori's eyes went wide as she looked at Luna. "You were exploring a lost city, and you didn't invite me? You said it was just an old cave full of Rot-Scales."

Luna looked uncomfortable, I assumed she was remembering the fates of her fellow adventurers. "Yeah, we thought it was a city, turned out to be a necropolis of some sort. We got split up in a maze when they started sending waves of undead at us. Seemed like unlimited waves, forming out of the ether and glowing like Sea-Elf whisky, looked like arcane magic didn't do much to them either"

Balthazar had a look in his eyes, clearly remembering the way the guardians had absorbed a soul spear or something.

"The only positive thing about those bastards was the smell, a hell of a lot nicer on the nostrils than a living Rot-Scale."

I had a lot of questions, Victoria clearly did as well but she tried to steer the conversation somewhere better. "I didn't think I was ready for adventure, probably would have stayed in the library until I was level 10 at least. This felt good though, I think I'm going to make a habit of it."

We all raised an eyebrow at her and she blushed under the obvious disbelief we held but still defended herself, pointing at me and Luna directly. "Hey, at least I stayed up for the whole fight". We all grinned, myself remembering the agony as Shadelock venom rampaged through my system, Luna remembering the acidic web scoring her skin wherever the leather had failed to protect her as it seemed to close around her ever more restrictively. We all laughed and Balthazar, who had suffered on the edge of death for an entire day and night laughed too. Did PTSD exist here? It must be a lot harder to get, otherwise the adventurers would become broken individuals very quickly.

Balthazar grabbed a leaf from a low-hanging tree branch and popped it into his mouth, beginning to chew the thin, sharp tipped green leaf with a look of contentment. "Ah, Golden Myrtle leaf, it's no tobacco leaf but its a damn sight better than chewing a hole in my face."

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That night we set up a fire on the ashes of our previous campsite, tomorrow we would be home, I would receive my workshop and see what I could cook up out of the extensive list of candle recipes I had dwelling in my brain. I looked forward to a break from the violence, I wanted to look forward to it anyway. But Victoria had been right, now that I'd beaten a proper foe, made my mark on local history and saved some lives I didn't know if I could stop. Not forever anyway, I suspected that even if I spent the next couple weeks reading, flirting with Victoria whenever I got the chance and crafting new spells I would need to venture back out. To fight and risk it all, I remembered the carnivorous fish tearing at me as I screamed beneath the river, pouring wax into those extremely unpleasant wounds and I noticed that I saw that memory through very rose-tinted glasses. Exceedingly rose-tinted, this wasn't a bad memory, I was proud of myself for leaping into danger and protecting my friends. The pain was just something that had happened, may as well have happened to someone else now that it was in the past.

"Any particular adventures in mind Vicky?"

Luna had caught a pair of some kind of big lizard for tonight's meal, it was better than the rabbit, especially after Balthazar had added some ingredients from one of his spell component pouches, grumbling about the demon-bitch stealing his tobacco but leaving him a full pouch of herbs and spices. Now we were all eating hunks of lizard meat and enjoying each others company. Victoria took a moment to finish chewing and then almost immediately listed off her plans. "I heard there were incursions to the south, a clan of Derro came up from below and they've already attacked a few farms. The farms were in the unincorporated zone between Mother and Lord Reed's domain so they're sending a team of adventurers in to drive them back into their holes."

Luna hunted for something in her sisters eyes, staring intently at her with a slowly spreading grin. "You were always going to go weren't you? Not ready till 10th level my ass. Were you going to sneak out?"

Victoria made no comment, burying small, perfect teeth into a hunk of Lizard with mock-savagery. I laughed and said I'd be happy to accompany her if she would have me, Luna pouted and gestured to herself in an exaggerated 'what about me?' gesture.

Balthazar shook his head. "Count me out, I'm done for a while. Gonna find someplace that needs a court mage and isn't too picky on account of me not having a class."

No one missed the obvious, pointed stare at the Chateau lights on the mountainside. Victoria was happy to respond. "We'll put in a good word for you, we haven't had a mage since Dad died, My mentor comes to town once a fortnight and he's usually able to deal with any issues I can't. Since I'm going away he won't be coming by anymore and we'll need a full time mage."

Balthazar nodded once and went back to chewing his leaves and watching the trees with a kind of alertness that had become second nature after a lifetime spent largely in hostile territory.

The next morning was the last stretch of travel and passed quickly, there was only a single detour that saw us wiping out a pack of Skin-Wolves that had begun stalking us. It seemed killing the butcher had not dealt with his creatures and I hoped the unburnt flesh washing up along the river didn't come back to cause us any problems later down the line. The wolves were slightly larger than the first pack and there was more of them, the demonic skin seemed to have become more symbiotic with these creatures as well, stretching tight over their bodies and growing coarse red fur that crackled with infernal sparks.

The fight ended with a pool of melted wax and demonic blood. I almost left the wax behind but I wanted to see what I could make with demon blood so I scraped it off the dirt and crammed the concoction into a glass jar Balthazar leant me. I'd have to get a bunch of those in future, I mentally added it to my shopping list and we kept going. "They're good experience those critters, can't breed can they?"

Victoria shook her head. "Carnifect's have gotten loose before, once they die their creatures have to be exterminated but they cannot propagate more of themselves. They do tend to get stronger if you don't put them down quickly though. I'm hoping there isn't many of them, I saw at least twelve corpses at his cave and you said there were more back at the cave you cleared. Even so, I doubt there's too many more of them out there."

I hoped so. But those worries were left behind me when we reached Croftop and made our way up to see the Lady Selene with news of our victory.