Roxanne’s POV

I woke up with a start, reaching for my staff, but it wasn’t beside my bed. Wait, I was in my room. Had the horrible events at the town gate been a bad dream? I heaved a sigh of relief, oh thank god, I thought to myself, I really thought I just killed a couple of town guards.

I got up, surprised that I was fully dressed in my blue robes. Why hadn’t I slept in my undergarments like usual? I glanced out my room’s window and the feeling of unease increased, as it was already very late morning, perhaps near noon. Had I really overslept that much? I was starting to feel very uneasy as I walked into the dining room and was already about to ask my grandmother, “Granny, do you know…” when I saw him. The bloodmage was sipping tea in our family’s dining room. I gasped in horror.

“Oh hello,” the bloodmage said, “I am glad to see you’re ok.” he added with a bright sunny smile.

Where was my staff? Oh my god, I needed to kill him before he killed my grandmother! I was panicking, but I forced myself to take a deep breath before answering. I couldn’t possibly fight him now, not while my grandmother was there, sitting across the table from him, and with my staff nowhere in sight. “What is going on?” I asked weakly, glancing at my grandmother, hoping she had an explanation for this.

She shrugged, “What was I to do? I am no match for a bloodmage. He brought you home, passed out. I gave him some of my special tea,” she added, stressing the word, “but it didn’t work.”

“Truly marvelous tea. Even better without the poison. I could get used to drinking lots of it.” The bloodmage commented with a satisfied chuckle. “Do you love your grandmother’s tea as much as I do?” He asked.

Taken aback, I hesitated. He seemed so calm about the fact that my grandmother had tried to poison him. What was wrong with him, and why hadn’t it worked? “Um, yes.” I answered lamely, uncertain of what to say.

“Will you brew some tea for me when I get married?” He asked me, his eyes clear and innocent.

“What?!” I asked, shocked.

“Oh, sorry,” he laughed, sheepishly, “I’m so forward, you don’t even know my name! My bad, please forgive me. My birth name is Gordon Summer, but the bandits around these parts called me “Blood Sting”, if you want my professional name. My father was the Blood Bandit Mage King. You might have heard of him?”

I had heard of the “Blood King” as he was more commonly known. He was the most feared bloodmage in the region, his bandits ruled the entire mountain range, choking off a sizable portion of the trade between two kingdoms despite the best efforts of both armies to hunt him down. It was considered the greatest failing of the region’s local Mage Guild that no one had been able to bring him to justice, despite the enormous bounty they’d offered. “Your father sent you?” I asked, feeling dread fill my gut. If he had the backing of the Blood Bandits’ leader, then it was no wonder he seemed so carefree and cocky. Was he the herald of a full fledged raiding party? This small border town was no match for such a fearsome foe. I needed to warn someone!

“Oh, no,” Gordon laughed, “I killed my father, he’s not sending anyone anywhere.”

“You what?” I asked, shocked anew.

“Killed him. Tore out his magic and added it to my own. I’m more than twice as strong as he was now. It was a bit of a tug of war, you see, he was trying to steal my power, but I used that spell I was trying to teach you, remember that spell that turns blood solid? I used that on him, and while he was trying to restart his heart, I reversed the magic stealing spell’s direction and stole his power instead.”

I stared at him, if this was true, then this Gordon was a serious threat. How could an ordinary pyromancer like me hope to beat him? I felt my heart fill with dread, but strangely, some tiny part actually felt sorry for him, his father had tried to steal his power? I knew enough to know that there was no way to survive having your magic stolen. Before I could stop myself, I asked, “Your father tried to kill you?”

“Well, he wasn’t my real father, he just made me call that, but really, he killed my real family and forced me to become his apprentice. I think he mostly did it because he didn’t like the pain that comes from doing the blood drain spell all the time. But, he also probably always intended to steal my power once I reached a certain point, he was always sparing with me, watching how my power developed, waiting until I was almost as strong as him. But, I always held back a little, so when the day came, I was actually a little stronger. He thought I wouldn’t be able to fight back properly without a staff, and he wasn’t expecting me to come up with my own unique attack spell, lucky, right?” He explained with an easy grin.

I was terrified, but I forced myself to smile and nod in agreement. "Lucky." I lied. Certainly not lucky for me, though I doubted that a double strength Blood King would have been great news either.

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“You’re so pretty when you smile.” He told me, wistfully.

I shuddered, I had a murderous bloodmage stronger than the Blood King infatuated with me? This was a terrible, nightmare inducing, horrendously bad situation to be in. How did I get out of this? What could I even say in response? This admittedly rather handsome blond haired, clear blue eyed, squared jawed, young man with an easy smile and charming manner was the most dangerous person in the entire region if his story was to be believed. How did I rebuff his affection without risking my life and that of my grandmother?

A knock at the door distracted me, and with a soft sigh, my Grandmother rose to answer it. The door wasn’t locked, but the nervous way that whomever it was had knocked indicated they knew the bloodmage was here. The bell by the door frame chimed softly as they entered. I heard a few muffled words from the storefront, then granny led the man into the family room where the bloodmage and I waited. It was the town mayor, his hat held in his hands, a nervous but determined look in his eye.

“Miss Roxanne,” The mayor said, nodding in my direction, then turning to the bloodmage, “Sir bloodmage,” he said with forced politeness.

“Please, call me Gordon,” the bloodmage said with his infuriating easy grin. He even stood up to extend his hand, but the mayor only stared at that hand in nervous terror until it was withdrawn. Gordon actually looked a little sad.

“Um, of course, mr. Gordon.” The mayor shook himself out of his terror. “Sorry, I was lost in thought.” The mayor clenched his teeth and forced his hand out apologetically.

Gordon shook his head, “No need for formalities, I understand you’d be nervous about shaking my hand. I know the rumors say a bloodmage can kill you if they touch you. Although, to be fair, I don’t actually need to touch you to kill you, so there’s no added risk. Just a silly old superstition to think me grasping your hand would make it easier.” Gordon chuckled in amusement, completely oblivious to the mayor’s terror as he withdrew his now shaking hand back to grip his much crumpled hat.

“Quite, anyhow, I’m here to discuss the terms of our town’s surrender.” The mayor said awkwardly.

“Surrender?” Gordon asked, confused. “I don’t recall asking for that.”

“Well, you’ve killed two of our men, driven the rest of them off in fear, and are holding the family of our town’s only combat mage hostage. I’m not sure what we can possibly do other than simply surrender to you and hope for the best.” The mayor turned to my direction with a displeased look, “Unless of course miss Roxanne thinks she can defeat mr. Gordon?”

“I ah, don’t have my staff, sorry.” I said quickly. A mage with no staff was practically helpless, or so I’d been taught. Of course, Gordon seemed to disagree, claiming he’d beaten the most feared bloodmage in the region while he had no staff of his own. I had a hard time believing that, despite how honest and open Gordon appeared.

“Oh,” Gordon exclaimed, “That reminds me!” With a flourish, he drew an elaborate pattern of magic in his hand, and pulled out my staff from thin air. It appeared suddenly, filling his grip as if it had always been there. Had he held it before, but invisible? No I realized, with mounting horror, he’d used a dimensional storage! That was an archmage tier spell, far beyond anything I could do!

Bloodmages were supposed to be incapable of such a complicated and subtle magic, and he’d used it with no staff? How was that possible? Suddenly his claims of besting the Blood King seemed less implausible, was he some sort of prodigy? He made it look easy. With my face numb with shock, I accepted my staff back wordlessly.

“There you go. You can try to kill me now, if you’d like. If it’s you, I won’t mind.” He told me with a sad smile.

I shook my head quickly. “No thanks, I don’t think I could win, and, well, I don’t want to burn my house down trying.”

The mayor was glaring at me even harder. “Seems like you could have been so prudent earlier, before you killed two of my men.” he pointed out angrily.

“Hey,” Gordon said angrily, his face showing a scowl for the first time that I’d seen it, “Don’t be scolding my future bride. She was just trying to kill me to protect your town. Not her fault your men were stupid enough to wave their sticks pointlessly at me from such close range. Honestly, it’s your fault for not training them properly. Non-mages should stick to bows when facing mages, getting close is just getting in the way.”

“Future bride?” The mayor asked with a raised eyebrow, shock briefly crossing his features, then remembering who he was talking to, he hastened to add, “Of course, I’m sorry for the offense, miss Roxanne.” Turning to face me, he locked his glaze with mine, clearly wanting me to explain myself. “I meant no discourtesy, of course.” he added in a wooden tone. Did he think I was in cahoots with a bloodmage? Or worse, romantically involved? I would never!

“I’m not…” I started to object angrily, but when Gordon turned his clear gaze to me, I froze up and chickened out. “I mean, this is all so sudden…” I finished lamely.

“Ah, I’ve been locked up in a tower all my life,” Gordon admitted with an easy laugh, “All this is new to me too! I’m rushing things aren’t I?” His face twisted with anxiety. “We should go out on a date together first, right? That’s the right way to do things?”

The mayor’s piercing look turned calculating and cold. “Yes, that’s right.” He nodded. “Perhaps the two of you should go on a trip together. Somewhere far from here. I’m not sure I care where, but I’d be happy to provide as much travel provisions as you can carry.”

“I’m not…” I objected, but then what could I say without offending the murderous insane bloodmage in my living room? “I mean, this is my home, I couldn’t possibly leave.”

“Oh?” The mayor said with a false smile, “I think I can think of a place you should go. You should take mr. Gordon here to see the Mage Guild. If you could talk him into visiting there, I might see my way to smoothing things over with the family of the men you killed.” The mayor was being rather blunt. He wanted me to take care of Gordon, lure him to his death. The Mage Guild wouldn’t react well to a bloodmage showing up at their front door. By taking him there I would be signing Gordon’s death certificate. The mayor was saying that if I managed the seemingly impossible feat of getting Gordon killed, he’d give me amnesty for killing two guardsmen. But there was no way Gordon would be stupid enough to agree to such a suicidal plan…

“Wonderful! What a great idea!” Gordon said enthusiastically. “I was wondering how I could go claim the bounty on my father’s head! You can take me there and explain things to them. It will be like our honeymoon trip!” He gushed.