Once Kasa had calmed down enough, Dana sent her to the Exalted with the instructions to let Wilben pick any room she fancied in the hotel. There was still much work they were going to have to do to make it a true retreat for the different cryptids that might make use of the area. Rooftop access for some rooms to accommodate fliers, and water tubes connecting rooms to the outdoor pools for aquatic races were only the beginning of making it a place of comfort. He had noticed a tendency on the campus for the different species to self-segregate… congregating together in dorms even to the point where different parts of campus were referred to not just by the architecture found there but the predominant species housed therein. He would make sure all were welcome once the hotel was refit.
He arrived to practice with Master Whisperwind in a foul mood. Not even wasting time with chit-chat before retrieving his weapon and laying into a heavy bag. Dana let his mind drift as he fell into the familiar patterns of combos and strikes, working on his footwork simultaneously. A part of him, a very loud part wanted to confront Kasa’s father… but the mere thought clouded his vision with rage as he took his frustrations out on the bag. Kasa had said her people were some sort of assassins… killers… a barely competent teacher with ten times Dana’s experience would likely get destroyed in a fight.
“You are angry, human.” The tengu walked over to him as he practiced.
“Oh, you noticed?” Dana snapped sarcastically. Immediately regretted it. “Sorry… that’s not aimed at you.” He stopped, dropping his arms to his sides.
“I feel useless… I want to keep the people I care about safe. That’s why I am here… but as I am taking my time learning how they are still getting hurt.”
“Many dark magics prey on people facing just that conundrum.” Whisperwind held the bag for Dana as he returned to hitting the equipment. “Take the peasant living in the village beset by a monster… he makes a deal with a demon for the power to destroy the monster. He saves his village but when the price comes due the village he was trying to save suffers.”
“I can understand that,” Dana said between strikes to the sandbag. “But if the peasant boy takes so long to gain the strength to defeat the monster that the village is destroyed anyway isn’t it worth it?”
“Some can see it that way… the village is destroyed anyway so the peasant boy trades his soul to give those he loves a few more years that they otherwise would not have.”
“But you don’t believe that?” Dana prompted the weapons master.
“No… I don’t. Because to believe that is to confuse one situation with a lifetime.” She released the bag, coming around front to address Dana. “If the peasant boy perished with the village then perhaps it is worth it… but that is not part of the scenario, is it?”
“Under the demon’s thrall after the village is destroyed the boy may do even more harm… destroy more villages. While losing those he loves while training does not mean he will never love again. The life lived must be remembered… though in the moment that is the hardest thing to think of.”
She led him back out to one of the practice rings, squaring off once more to spar against her student. “Weighing the total good of a decision against the total evil complicates all. A family within the village is sick with a disease that is deadly and contagious… kill the family and the disease stops there. Work to a cure and losses pile up but your morals are clean.”
Dana launched an attack at the tall woman, his movements still quick with the emotions he was feeling but becoming more measured.
“Then what is the answer? You can add variables endlessly to any decision to the point where you just freeze under the onslaught of the choices.”
“There is no right answer. There are always unforeseen results to any choice a person can make. Trying to outguess fate can just as easily lead to being unable to choose. The best we can hope for is to make informed decisions.”
They continued to spar for the rest of their time in silence. Trading blows back and forth for the better part of an hour-long session.
* * *
After getting some of his aggression out sparring against Master Whisperwind Dana was feeling a little better. He rushed out the gates of the school campus heading out to the diner where he was to meet Meira. There was a bit of a spring in his step as he moved, looking forward to making the best out of the day.
Arriving at the diner he froze… what he saw there completely took away his ability to move. Maera was sitting at the little outdoor bar the place had in a form-fitting green dress that fit her like a second skin. She was sipping slowly out of a drinking straw when she looked up and saw him, her face splitting into a grin.
“Wilde! You made it! Come, sit down… I started a tab in your name! I hope you don’t mind.” She walked over, her every movement pure poetry in that dress as she gave him a quick hug. Dana hugged her back before backing up to look at her again.
“Wow… I didn’t know we were dressing up for this, I should have changed before I got here.”
“What’s the matter, Wilde? Think I’m a cheap date or something?” Meira winked as she turned back to the bar, scooping up her drink once more and taking a sip from her straw. “Don’t worry… you look fine.”
Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.
Dana ordered another drink for himself, joining her at the bar.
“Things going well with Whisperwind? I heard you were making some decent progress.”
“Not fast enough… what if something else happens to my students and I can’t protect them.” He took a long draw of his drink, his shoulders slumping.
“Then I will… or one of the other teachers will. You aren’t alone in any of this Wilde and nowhere does it say you must shoulder that burden alone.”
“My brain understands that just fine but in my heart is a different tale. I just want to show that I am worth the way that they look at me every morning.” He looked at her, struggling to find the right words. “I just want to show I’m worth… something you know?”
“Do you think that your worth is only by your physical deeds? Don’t fall into so simple a trap Wilde.” She reached out and touched his face, gently turning him to face her. “I’ve met many in my years on this world and few have shown the openness and caring you have. Do not doubt yourself.”
Dana met her eyes, drawn into their depths as the noise of the small crowd in the bar faded from his awareness. He could nearly feel the faith she had in him like a tangible force running through his veins.
“Look what we have here, boys… a little human seems to have gotten lost.” A gruff voice interrupted his track of thought, drawing his attention to a tusky-looking orc standing in the street not far away from them. Three other figures, a dwarf and two tough-looking weres of some type stood behind him menacingly.
“Cute, fellas… how about you move along?” Meira’s face had snapped to the serious tone Dana only saw her use in combat and he knew the situation was more serious than he may have first believed.
“Afraid we can’t do that, pointy ears… we need to have a nice long talk with your friend there.” The orc leered at Meira before turning to Dana once again, cracking the knuckles on his hand. Dana stood up slowly, showing his hands to the orc intentionally.
“I don’t want any trouble, fellas.” Dana tried to de-escalate the situation, even suspecting his efforts were fruitless.
“You got plenty anyway, human.” The orc produced a knife, seemingly out of the air and charged him but Dana had been waiting, fading back out of his range and raising his fists.
Meira reached under her dress, pulling a collapsible bow from where it was strapped to her leg and extending it with a quick snap of her wrist. The dwarf ran at her, closing the distance fast only to be met with Meira’s bow crashing into his face, before she twirled it in an arc, pinning his neck against a pillar with one of the bow limbs and firing an arrow at the two weres faster than the eye could even register.
The orc’s blade cut across empty space spinning him as he over committed to the strike. Dana stepped in and drilled a punch up into the back of his neck. The orc had two feet and at least a hundred pounds on the teacher so he knew he was in for it when the orc barely grunted at the stroke, turning back to him more angry than injured. He brought his arms up to block the massive fist of the orc as it crashed through his guard, knocking him back through the air.
At the bar, Meiria brought the dwarf’s head down, guiding it with her bow to meet her knee with a loud crack… the dwarf fell to the ground dazed and she stomped on his neck again for good measure. She stared down the two other men in the street with a snarl, daring them to challenge her.
Getting quickly to his feet once more Dana found himself dodging back, barely keeping out of range of the orc’s knife as it flew through the air. He saw a wall out the corner of his eye, knowing he was running out of room to retreat, the blade cutting a long gash through his shirt and into his chest beneath. He cried out in pain, pushing through the hurt to launch a series of punches at the orc in an effort to gain back some ground. The orc seemed unimpressed by his efforts until he kicked hard at the creature’s knee, taking his leg out from under him.
The weres circled Meira, looking for an opening to attack… she could see Dana struggling against the larger enemy but could not help him while they were still in play. She nocked another arrow, leaving only two of the five she had brought with her to an innocent meeting for drinks. She rushed one of the men, kicking off the ground to launch herself into the air. She spun as she flew through the air her foot meeting with the smug face of her opponent with a satisfying thwack as she drew and fired the arrow back at his friend, right through the meat in his shoulder. She landed, scrambling to the side making a beeline for the exposed back of the orc facing Dana.
The pendant around his neck started glowing, a crack of light shining from deep within it as Dana’s body was filled with a familiar warmth from when he fought the hyena-frat-boy nights before. He felt, more than saw Meiria as she closed in on the orc’s flank while it came crashing down from its crumpled knee. His hand, glowing with a strength greater than his own, lashed out into the orc’s face, a series of lefts and rights in a blur before cracking him under the chin and raising his head just in time for both of Meira’s boots to collide with the back of its head, driving him face first into the street.
Meira rolled to her feet, shoulder to shoulder with Dana, her last two arrows in her hand ready to fire but the fight seemed to leave their last two opponents with the orc going down. They were nowhere to be seen on the street, leaving only the dwarf and orc unconscious on the ground… her breath came fast as the adrenaline in her system poured through her body mixing in an intoxicating cocktail as she dropped the bow, grabbing Dana by the shoulders and kissing him full on the lips.
Dana returned her kiss, his head swimming with energy and pain making a kaleidoscope of stars flash behind his eyes. Finally, the elf girl broke the kiss, a lopsided grin on her face as she patted his shoulder congenially.
“Not bad Wilde… not bad.” She blinked her smile faltering ever so slightly. “The fighting, I mean… you did okay.”
He nodded, staggering back half a step as she released him. “Thanks… um… you too.” Inwardly her cursed himself as a fool for saying something so stupid but something caught his eye. The orc was wearing a distinctive ring, a strange almost maze-looking pattern of lines covering half the ring’s surface like only every other piece of a pizza there. He moved to the dwarf, turning him over and checking his hands as well.
“What is it, Wilde?”
Sure enough, the dwarf bore a similar ring, he pulled it off the stocky fingers and held it up to Meira. “Any idea what this might mean, they both have one and I have a sneaky suspicion the two that got away might have also.”
“It’s not anything I recognize, why? Do you think they were targeting you for a reason?”
He stared at the ring in his hand… searching where he might have seen the symbol before for a long minute before it came to him… there were similar symbols in the chamber that housed the Fount beneath the library. Barely days after uncovering it people bearing a symbol showing up and attacking… Dana didn’t believe in coincidence and doubted that this was one now.
“I think so… but it’s still like trying to see a jigsaw with most of its pieces missing… I can tell they go together but can’t figure out what they are making.” He stood up, pocketing the ring. “And there is this thing too…” He lifted the scarab for her to see but it looked again as it always had. No light pouring forth at all.
“Well, that’s a little underwhelming…”