It was the same way Gwen first remembered seeing her. Politely uncomfortable with the raucous chatter from a flock of vulture-esque adventurers flitting about her at K.O. Koffee, gifts and trinkets begging her attention to one group or another.

Lucky for her none of them had ordered anything for an hour now and she suddenly decided she needed the tables.

“Alright everybody, you've had your turn in the court of Queen Alouella. Run your butts on outta here before I run them out for you.”

There were some dirty looks, a side eye measuring her up. One of the younger men laughed.

“I'm sorry, maybe you don't know who we are. We're kind of a big-”

He didn't get to finish his thought before Gwen had him out the door, rolling around on his bruised ribs in the street. A glare had the others scrambling after until the shop was as empty as the after morning rush tended to be.

Gwen dusted her hands and refilled Alouella's coffee.

“He's chasing them.”

Alouella looked out the window, turning her head from one side of the window to the other.

“Wade again? I'm amazed the other guards haven't taken him off of that thing. It's dangerous.”

Gwen said, the coffee stopping just shy of the rim of her own cup as she had a seat, watching the bird dash by to disperse the rest of the pack hunting after Alouella. The bird snapped at the adventurers, catching one in its beak and throwing him. Wade roared with maniacal laughter atop its back and dashed down the street again.

“What can you do? You added another gem to your crown of accomplishment. I was amazed that Clarke turned it in since he was in such a daze after we got home.”

Alouella nodded, sipping her drink. It had been a week and somewhere in there Clarke had turned in his report despite the fact that he had been interfering like crazy. Whether it was his position or reputation for honesty that got it through was unclear but people had been stopping by and asking questions about the adventure or having the two sign a copy of the short story. Gwen smiled and leaned in conspiratorially.

“Even I got a little fame after all of that. Maybe we should team up for something small. Something relaxing, just go out and get some fresh air without the guys. Now that I'm not hobbling and I've made some new gauntlets, let's get out of here and look at some ruins. Besides, we didn't make this for nothing.”

She plucked Alouella's new staff from it's perch on the chair beside her. Gwen had helped her make it, substituting in some of the old pieces of her last staff for new decoration and making the orb and ring at the top of lighter metal. More so than the improvements she'd liked the closeness it had built between them.

Still, it was a proper magical tool and oughtn't be handled carelessly as she took it from Gwen.

“Hands off my staff, please.”

Gwen didn't say a word but laced her fingers together and gave Alouella a small, lewd smirk until Alouella caught the double meaning and turned pink all the way to her ears.

“That's not what I- Uh, oh, you know what I meant!”

She stuck her tongue out childishly and Gwen took the plates and kissed her forehead. Alouella didn't like to be teased so she had taken to 'teasing without teasing' by giving her sexy looks any time she made a double entendre, which somehow happened a lot during the staff making process.

“I know what you meant.”

Alouella sighed. They had become significantly closer in a lot of ways and it was taking some time to get used to. She'd never been in a...she didn't want to say relationship, not yet, but she felt if it were anything it would be that.

She returned to the thought from before.

“Going out would be fun I think. Would you mind terribly if we checked on Clarke before we head out? He's been cooped up for days and I'm a little worried about him.”

Gwen shrugged.

“Yeah, he's not the most social guy. I went by with some food a few days ago but he wouldn't even answer the door.”

They sat quietly, sipping their drinks before Gwen hopped up.

“Okay, let's go then.”

Alouella laughed and threw her hands up.

“What, right now? Isn't that a bit spontaneous?”

“No time like the present.”

There was a joyful sparkle in her eyes that Alouella couldn't say no to and smiled as she swirled her coffee.

“You do know we need some kind of food-”

Gwen was already up and in her kitchen packing a basket with food, sandwiches packed with the precision of someone who made it their business to know how a sandwich should fit together. A water skin beside those and she was satisfied that it would last a day or two. She joined Alouella at the door.

“We can ask Clarke if he knows a place nearby, I don't even care if it's picked clean, I just want to stretch my legs.”

Gwen said as she put the padlock on the door. Someone cleared their throat behind them and Gwen turned to see a lizardfolk woman, her foot claws tapping on the cobbles. She looked past the duo at the lock and growled at Gwen.

“Do you even run a shop any more or...?”

She asked. Gwen laughed sheepishly but rooted in her basket for a sandwich and handed it off.

“On the house.”

The lizardfolk nibbled on the edges, biting through the paper wrapping and sighed.

“You're lucky these are so good or no one would stand for this. Have a good trip.”

The town was bright and sunny and the air warm as they walked to Clarke's home hidden back in its alley. A few people stopped them and asked for signatures on their books which Alouella gladly gave. Gwen was a little more embarrassed as her signature was so blocky that it could have been written by anyone.

“Was looking through that old castle really so impressive?”

She'd whispered to Alouella after the third child asked her to sign a copy of their book.

“From what I'd heard the place had been mostly forgotten because getting in and coming back was considered impossible. Even my father wanted me to tell him about it and he's usually so disapproving of adventure and adventurers. He claims they're the bane of true research and learning.”

“You going home to meet with him soon then?”

She nodded.

“He's living in the elven homeland now, Wubwé so I'll be taking time off from adventuring and the party.”

Gwen had to reach but she ruffled the golden curls on her head.

“Awww, then I get the last bit of you before vacation. Yay~”

“Ah, my hair! I just fixed it how I liked.”

They finally made it to Clarke's alley and around to his home, scrowding at the bottom of the stairs. Gwen hammered on the door a few times.

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“Clarke! You can't stay in there forever! Alouella and I are going out of town so we thought we'd check on you and if you'd made any progress.”

There was not a peep from inside as they waited but something small caught Alouella's eye, a tiny slice of metal by the key hole. She pulled her hand into her sleeve and pulled it free.

“A needle?”

Gwen looked at it and where it had come from.

“A sprung trap likely.”

Gwen eyed the door and pushed Alouella back up the stairs so she'd have room. There wasn't a lot of space to rear back but a solid blow cracked the door and whatever was blocking it. The second broke the lock and pushed the door in.

Despite the sunshine the room beyond was nothing but inky black. Alouella called up a light as they stepped in.

It was a mess. Hundreds of papers made a soft new floor that shuffled under their feet. Books were spilled, broken glass littered the space around Clarke's alchemy table. The smell was stale and sweaty as though the room were simmered in human liquids and the girls recoiled when the smell hit them.

Alouella knelt and picked up a page, then another, every paper a swirling, maddened scrawl of mandalas and formulas, magic written out and written over so much it had become gibberish.

“Magic?”

“No...yes? I mean...some of this is such absolute non-sense that I can't read it but if you look at the formulas I can recognize it flows into things I don't know. It's like brand new spells.”

Her eyes lit up but she caught herself, snapping herself out of her daze.

“But why is it here? Clarke is no mage...although...”

She recalled his ability to read magic and it made some sense. But then who was he reading?

Gwen circled the room, stopping to finger a scratch in the wall or lean in to examine something.

She growled and Alouella came to see what had elicited this animal response. Gwen dug a spike out of the wall, metallic threads dangling off the end. Blood spattered near it and looking around again showed more splotches of dark red, dried up life.

“That looks like Wormwood's little swinging gadget.”

“That's because it is. That pointy eared son of a bitch had something to do with this.”

She only noticed what she'd said after the fact.

“Oh...uh, no offense.”

“None taken but he was one of us. Why would he attack Clarke?”

“He wasn't 'one of us'. He only showed up to find Clarke for that other weatherguy in the first place and it looks like he got tired of waiting.”

She turned and raced out the door, her anger rising like a wild beast disturbed.

“Wait!”

Alouella called, slamming the door behind her. She caught Gwen easily.

“Adventuring is one thing but you can't just burst into a man's home and beat him up! There are laws! We should tell the guards or Wade.”

“But we don't know if Clarke is hurt right now. We need to get to him. We don't even know how long he's been missing, whether yesterday or a week ago.”

“We also don't definitively know if Wormwood actually took Clarke. Who knows how many of those devices exist!”

She tried to slow Gwen down by holding her shoulders but she was only dragged on her heels.

“I do. It was Wormwood's toy alright. I had a look at it, I know it's his.”

“With what proof?”

“I just KNOW. It's a dwarf thing.”

“That's the sort of reasoning that gets a lynching started!”

She was practically charging down the street with Alouella being dragged behind, the picnic basket hitting her in the thigh as it swung. When they reached the market district people parted whether they wanted to or not with Gwen barreling through them.

“Do you even know where you're going?”

“Yeah, the fancy house district.”

“But WHERE?”

“I'll ask when I get there.”

She spat through gritted teeth.

Fifteen minutes later she'd made the thirty minute walk and the houses had gotten better, fancy design and fancier people dressed in clothing that might have cost more than a modest home. They got the side eye as they charged by and Gwen finally had to stop long enough to look around for a guard.

The unlucky bastard happened to be eating his lunch when Gwen stomped up to him.

“Hey. Where's Weathercloth's house?”

“Weatherworn.”

Alouella corrected. When he didn't answer immediately Gwen threw him up against a wall, her unadorned fists balled at the hem of his leather armor. He choked, food sliding back and forth until Gwen thumped him in the chest and he spit egg salad out between them.

Alouella panicked, trying to get between them with as much effect as a light breeze.

“You can't attack a guard!”

“I'm not attacking him. We're having a conversation and I'm rudely invading his personal space. Right?”

She asked the guard. He nodded and pointed down the street to a large house, the gentle curves of elven building style overrun with ivy and trees.

“See, no attacking.”

She let him go and patted him down where she'd had him by the armor.

“Run along.”

He did, full tilt leg pumping away looking for some sort of law enforcement.

Gwen stopped at the gates where two personal guards of the home looked at her.

Alouella jumped between her angry companion and the guards and whispered to her quickly.

“This is against the law!”

“It's better to beg forgiveness than ask permission.”

“In this case forgiveness is found in jail! I don't want to go to jail! I don't want you to go to jail!”

She clapped her hands down on Gwen and stared her right in the eye.

“Let me talk to the guards first. Let's try something that's not punching first. Okay?”

Gwen still had that wild look, her breathing heavy from anger and power walking but she breathed out in a long, cooling breath like some dragon.

“Alright. It almost worked before. Go ahead.”

“I'm not going to ask that first. Use your head.”

She approached the guards, smiling pleasantly, nodding at both with a gentle tilt of her upper body in an informal bow.

“Good day, sirs. I was wondering if I could speak to Mr. Weatherworn please?”

“About?”

One asked. The other reached into his pocket for a piece of paper he unfolded.

Alouella scrambled for a reason, her mind flying to magic and wizardry and trading until her mouth picked a reason for her.

“I...am an elf.”

As many reasons as she could have chosen the true ones would have kept them outside and the lies did not want to pass her lips.

The guard grunted but the other showed him the slip of paper and went inside.

“Wait right here.”

It didn't take much time until the other guard returned.

“I'm afraid-”

The punch had him on the ground holding his crotch, Alouella looking at Gwen with absolute shock.

“What did you do!?”

“He wasn't going to let us in. You heard him!”

The man on the ground managed a very hoarse,

“...you'll have to wait a few minutes...”

The other guard had quickly drawn his sword when Alouella reacted without thought, tossing a small bolt of lightning his way, the shock sizzling through him and putting him on his butt. People around them looked and when Alouella made eye contact with them they ran.

“Now we're in this together!”

Gwen smiled and the color drained from Alouella's face.

“No no no, this isn't right!”

“Let's go find our boy.”

Gwen pushed the doors wide open to the entrance, a hall opening on a stairway to a second level, curves of polished wood construction making up railings and plants adorning the hall, hanging from baskets overhead at varying lengths. Gwen filled her lungs and bellowed as loud as she could.

“CLARKE!”

Alouella's mind raced. Should she run? Should she try to zap her friend in the back? Someone who had brought her into her home and fed her with food and company? Or if they were quick enough could they find Clarke and make up an excuse about why they forced their way in?

The sound of heavy boots pounding over wood floors rushed to them and guards burst through side doors on either side, one coming from upstairs. Five of them.

“Where are you punks keeping Clarke?”

Gwen crashed her knuckles together but this didn't encourage any sort of conversation and they rushed her.

Bodies flew around her, crashing into walls and smashing through ornately carved wooden banisters as she lit into the group. Alouella stood back and watched, checking those that fell near her to at least make sure they were alive, which they thankfully were.

“You could have left a conscious one so we could ask him.”

“They weren't going to co-”

She flinched and when she turned Alouella saw the crossbow bolt sticking from her shoulder and reached for it but where it was made it awkward. Gwen brought her hands up as a sort of shield and Alouella took cover behind her, pulling the bolt out. It was, mercifully, a bolt with a smooth tip, no barbs or hooks except for a small groove in the tip.

“There's your conscious one right there. Come on out!”

Gwen turned, looking all around but the shooter was hidden, no sound filling the room besides the groans of the fallen.

“If they're gonna play hide and seek then let's just go. We don't have time.”

Gwen ran ahead, Alouella still looking around the room, tracing where the arrow might have come from. She kept an eye out above and raced after Gwen.

They stopped in rooms only long enough to see what they were. Guest rooms lavishly furnished, a ball room, a library with books stacked many shelves high. Gwen stopped here, taking a knee and trying to catch her breath.

Her breathing had started to shallow and air didn't want to fill her lungs as though every breath were trying to fill a thimble.

Alouella started to run to her but something clapped around her wrist and her arm jerked around back, another clink of metal. Handcuffs.

And Wormwood was there beside her, out of the shelves and shadows. He pushed her back so she fell on her butt and ignored her, walking to Gwen.

“I'm always amazed at what a dwarven body can withstand. That poison should have taken effect immediately but you charged through here for a whole minute before you slowed down.”

Gwen tried to stand but her world swirled, eyes spinning like a top and she spread her arms out to steady herself on the floor. She looked up, her whole body shaking as it tried to support its own weight with rapidly failing strength.

“Where's Clarke?”

He did not respond to that but merely pulled out a knife and lunged for her throat. The staff flying in from the side smashed against his face and circled back to where Alouella wasto float at her side. She stood up tall and queenly, even with her arms bound.

“I don't know why people think wizards need our hands to cast spells. Now I believe you were asked where Clarke was.”

Electricity sparked off the head of the staff. Wormwood rubbed his mouth where a faint throb had taken root in his cheek. His ears perked and he just smiled as the crashing of armored men barreled through the house.

“Too bad. I almost had you both.”

City guards burst in through the door, a few clad in heavy platemail and a few others in the wizard uniform. One of the heavy knights scanned the room and yelled out.

“Mr. Wormwood sir! Is everything alright? We heard there was a rampaging dwarf coming to rob Mr. Weatherworn.”

He spread his hands and shrugged, eyes wide open.

“And an elf I would have thought respectable too! Isn't it amazing what the absolutely desperate will do when backed against a wall? Will you arrest them please?”

He caught Alouella's eye and smiled in a way that invited having his teeth broken with violence. The guards led her away and Wormwood knelt by the woozy dwarf as the guards came to take her as well.

“As for Clarke...he's not going to be himself ever again so I'd find a new friend if I were you, you filthy rock dog.”

She tried to kick and resist as her body lost strength but thee was no energy in her, like her whole body was made sand.

Wormwood waved after her and slammed the front door.