Spidena paced aggressively, her heeled boots kicking up dust as she moved back in forth in the front yard of the inn. Her eyes were downcast, her jaw periodically flexed…

Ben stood by the door to the inn and wondered if it was a bad idea to pull out the half of the sandwich he had stowed away in his pocket and eat it while she decided how and what she wanted to shout at him.

At one point she halted with a stomp in front of him, then let out an irritable huff out of her wide nose, and resumed pacing.

Eventually, Ben sagged against the doorframe of the inn and withdrew the sandwich. He was surprised when she didn’t interrupt him as he ate.

The bread was a bit soggy from the cucumbers, but it still tasted better than anything Ben had been able to eat in a long time, and so he actually started to reclaim the sense of contentedness he’d found earlier in the inn despite his traveling companion stewing in some vexing mix of emotions.

Though as his thoughts turned free from food as his hunger was sated, he did think about how they were wasting a day at the inn when they should be walking. Especially with how slow Spidena was… Maybe Daffy would have some kind of magic, or even some other shoes in the inn that would be better than the heeled boots. He stared at a pair of cardinals that were hopping closer to each other along the bough of white barked birch tree as he considered this possibility.

“How did you find out you were a dodder?” Spidena’s high pitched voice jolted Ben out of his thoughts and his gaze dropped down to her.

“My parents told me the morning they sold me,” he answered shortly. He had been anticipating that question.

Spidena frowned, but he could see her mind working through the situation, and Ben was already dreading how quickly she’d guess some of his secrets that he’d prefer stay buried.

For as rude and temperamental the witch could be… She was intelligent.

Most of the time.

“Oleg took you knowing you were a dodder?” she asked carefully.

Ben shrugged.

And the tenuous calm that Spidena had engaged in visibly ebbed away in her face as it scrunched up. “If he knew you were a dodder then that means you were sold to high ranking nobles, or the army.”

He said nothing.

“I understand families didn’t advertise they had any dodders to avoid investigation and persecution until the laws changed recently, but you wouldn’t have known to hide your abilities as a child. What kind of dodder are you even?”

“I don’t know.”

“Bullshit,” Spidena snipped irritably. “Do you have vague premonitions? Are you unnaturally good in a garden? Or with healing? If you pray, do things normally go your way?”

Ben’s gaze drifted toward the sky that was edging closer to the darkened blue hue of evening. He was starting to feel remarkably tired…

“I need to know this! We’re already in enough trouble as is, and it won’t take much to make things worse!”

“Just treat me like a seeb,” he pushed off the doorframe and dared to angle his left foot away from the witch, revealing his intention to return inside.

“That’s what I did before and now we’re stuck together,” Spidena growled.

“Well I know enough now to tell you not to worry.”

“Like hells you do!” Spidena marched up to Ben, and thrust her finger in his face. “I am going to change you into a talking mouse and that is how we will spend the rest of this trip if you don’t-”

“You can’t even use a spell to find your own way to Kintel. Or defend yourself. Or shield yourself from rain. Or build a fire. Or run faster. I’m not all that worried about what you’ll do to me,” Ben called over his shoulder as he re-entered the inn and brushed his hands off from any residual crumbs.

It just so happened that as he did so, that Daffy was crossing the hallway with a vase filled with beautiful yellow and purple iris’.

“Oh! Are you two finished making up now? Would you like to see your rooms?” the nymph asked cheerily.

“I would, th–”

Spidena appeared in front of Ben, her wide green eyes staring furiously up at him. “Did our fun encounters with those awful men teach you nothing? We have to be prepared for anything, and I can’t be properly prepared without knowing everything!”

“I thought we agreed we would keep things private,” Ben argued stiffly.

“Yes, well… Would you rather keep things private, or would you rather keep running into people without having any plans on how to deal with them?”

Ben stepped around Spidena and proceeded to follow the direction Daffy had left in, taking a right instead of a left into the dining room, he found himself approaching an ornately carved reception desk with a gray stone top as its counter. A wall of hooks beside cubbies spanned all the way up to the ceiling behind the counter, and on the counter rested three bells…

The first was a silver one with a thin flat top one could push down, and below it was a label:Push for fairy accommodations.

Beside that one was a glass bell that glimmered with rainbows in the dying sunlight of the day, with a label below it that read, Ring gently if human

And the last one, a large, heavy, brass bell with a wooden handle had its sign read, Any large magical creatures, please ring only once

Spidena became distracted by the signage she read as she turned to Daffy. “What about sprites?”

Daffy’s face contorted into a rare look of dislike. “You want to hand a bell to a sprite?”

Despite her poor mood, Spidena did give a breathy laugh. “Do you not give rooms to them?”

The nymph gave a beleaguered sigh while turning to the keys hanging on the wall behind her, that, interestingly enough, all had different styles. Some were basic heavy iron skeleton keys, others were delicate and thin, looking more like a blob of metal rather than a key…

First she plucked up a gleaming silver skeleton key, and then she picked up a gold ornate one before turning back to the counter and laying them before Spidena and Ben.

“We’re in the middle of designing a room or two with the sprites in mind. But we aren’t ready for it yet,” Daffy didn’t bother hiding her lack of enthusiasm.

“I know you both mentioned that sprites can be tricky, but what’s so bad about them…?” Ben wondered interestedly, though he also hoped the change in topic would distract Spidena long enough that he could escape to his own room and lock the door.

“If they like you? Nothing. They’re great. They do things to help you in ways you don’t even know are helpful… But if they are neutral about you or worse yet, dislike you? Gods. Problem is, it’s hard to tell what will make them like you.” Spidena shuddered.

Deciding it was too risky to engage in more conversation, Ben’s eyes drifted to the silver key on the counter and reached for it.

“That one is room twelve. On the first floor,” Daffy explained.

Ben nodded his thanks and turned back around to find his way there, only Spidena was standing in his path.

“Let’s go see your room.”

Ben’s eyes widened and he shrunk back in horror while behind him Daffy clapped her hands together loudly. “Oh this just keeps getting better and better!”

Utilizing his shock, Spidena plucked the key from his hands, and turned on her heel as she strode off purposefully down the doorway on the far right that most likely led to the rooms at the back of the inn.

Ben looked over his shoulder at Daffy who had glowing cheeks as she gave him encouraging thumbs up.

It did not help him feel less doomed as he carefully reached across the counter, and slowly slid the golden key away from the nymph just in case she started getting any other ‘fun’ ideas about how to spark romance.

Then he followed after the witch who was causing him bigger and bigger headaches with every hour more he spent around her.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

I should’ve just kept running from Oleg on my own…

*

Eventually, Ben did find room twelve, and he also found that Spidena had already granted herself entry, and was waiting inside.

Dragging the soles of his feet on the hallway runner that was a ruby red with beautiful vines and white flowers dotting the fabric, he entered the room, and stared at the witch who stood with her arms crossed.

He closed the door tentatively behind himself, while also noticing the spaciousness of the room, and how, like the rest of the inn he had seen so far, how it had a warm, friendly glow.

There was a stone fireplace bubbling out from the wall on the left, with a round table and two chairs in front of it with a thick cream rug underneath that had a similar vine pattern to the runner in the hall. There was a low dresser on the wall across from the door pressed beside the window with an oval mirror hung above it and a pitcher with a wash basin. Best yet, the wide bed on Ben’s right had a cozy, homemade blue quilt with patches of blues and reds. All the furniture was heavy, and made of pine that had been polished to a shine…

Ben was more than a little stunned that he would be given a room that could’ve been given to a wealthy merchant or even a baron…

He was starting to feel nervous about touching anything.

“If I had brewed a potion or woven a spell to get to Kintel, it would’ve taken me a year, and if I wanted to find some way of being protected as well? That would’ve been another year. That incantation potion hybrid you asked me for would’ve paid enough for an escort, so I asked you to take me instead. It seemed fair,” Spidena informed Ben bluntly. “I didn’t know that you were a dodder. Do you even know that most dodders were executed because they were easy targets? Which explains how the big magic that you are involved in is more prone to debt, and also… Witches, like cooks, specialize in certain types of recipes. Even if I am technically an incantation, spell, and potion witch, I only have a certain type of repertoire.”

Ben frowned, the ache in his head flared was thanks to the onslaught of information from Spidena once again hurled his way.

“Back to our own dilemma… You’re saying that because there was something important around me that Oleg knew about, and I’m a dodder, we wound up in debt?”

“Yes. As that annoying fairy pointed out, you were like a bomb waiting to go off, what with being alone in the world and already being prone to magic. Our deal lit the fuse and the explosion wrapped me up in it.”

“How does my repaying my debt to you repay the magic debt?” Ben reached up and pinched the bridge of his nose as the inside of his temples felt like a fat knuckle was grinding against them.

“Well, it completes our agreement, and because we’re fate tied, I imagine us meeting and erasing Oleg’s memories created a bunch of imbalances in the world and somehow on our journey to Kintel we will come across a lot of problems as a result.”

“Imbalances? And– wait. Is magic a god?”

Spidena dropped her head back with a groan. “We’ve been over this. No. It’s kind of like a… A constant presence that maintains the balance of the world and is somewhat sentient.”

“So it is everything, and not everything, and aware.”

“Close enough.” Spidena waved her hand dismissively.

“Right. And so why do you need to know about me now? It seems like we have a grasp of what happened.”

Spidena sighed and made her way over to the table and chairs. “Because we need to know how far this debt carries. In other words, we changed one thing, but that one thing was connected to a lot more and so we didn’t just change something simple, like Oleg knowing who you are. We changed something big. For a lot of people. So if I know how extensive this effect is? I can better prepare magically with the incantations, spells, and potions I do know.”

Ben looked at the ceiling.

He understood that she was trying to protect them both. He did… but his throat felt dry, and even though he knew Spidena wasn’t casting any magic the world was still starting to feel topsy turvy again.

“I was in the military,” he answered shortly. “Oleg sold me to the king’s army. My commander there saw something in me and took me under his wing. But there is still someone I have to go back and help, and I wanted to get what was paid to Oleg for me so that I’d have the funds to do it.”

Spidena arched an eyebrow, but otherwise didn’t show her emotions regarding his brief summary.

“Wouldn’t you have gotten a severance pay of some kind when you were discharged?”

“People who were bought and sold don’t get what some might call ‘fair wages’. During our service we get a place to sleep, food, and medical assistance, but once we aren’t useful? They’re gratitude for your service once it’s finished is expressed in freedom. I’m a free man belonging to no one and nothing.”

“So you are no longer property to the crown… But you have nothing else to your name.”

“Yes.”

Spidena’s lips pressed together and her left cheek rose up revealing that she was working her way through what that all meant, and Ben willed himself not to react.

He hated talking about his past.

“Alright. It sounds as though you didn’t upset any balances when gaining your freedom… What kind of things did you do in the military? Did your commander know you were a dodder?”

Ben shifted uncomfortably and busied himself removing his coat and hanging it on one of the hooks by the door.

“Me? What about you? What could you have done to upset the balance?”

Spidena bristled a little at his gruff changing of topics, but answered none the less.

“I was balanced. I lived with a family of sorts until last year, when I bought my own shop and started a life of my own.”

“A family that specialized in memory spells?”

“Something like that”

“And you say that they didn’t disrupt any other balances.”

“No they did not. Then again, I rarely had to do one so large and detailed as the one you ordered…”

Ben sidled warily over to the chair across from Spidena and plunked himself down.

“Why do you need to go to Kintel?” he queried while easing back into the chair.

Spidena’s long, pale fingers started to flutter along the table surface. “I need information. And someone there has it.”

Ben shrugged. He didn’t care if she didn’t give a specific answer. It only made it easier for him to do the same.

“Why are you going there? Is that where this person you need to help is?”

“I need to get something there before helping. They asked me to pick it up before going to them.”

“Hm,” Spidena’s mouth pursed and twisted. “I guess the only thing I can think of that would come for us is men like Reggie who talked to Oleg before he lost his memory.”

“Great. Are we finished?”

Spidena lifted her chin at his rude tone. “You better not be keeping anything out.”

“We both are. Don’t put that on me,” Ben argued as he lifted his right hand to press against his shoulder so he could stretch better. “You’re too bony; I think you bruised my shoulder earlier… Go eat more.”

Spidena stood up, her palms pressed against the table indignantly.

But before she could say anything Ben fixed his dark brown eyes onto her green ones and said. “Look, we had a saying in the barracks. Don’t borrow tomorrow’s troubles for today, today has its own troubles and treasures to manage.”

Spidena blinked. She looked surprised that there could be any sort of enlightened philosophy coming out of his mouth.

Ignoring this, Ben continued. “For the rest of today? I just want to sleep and eat some good food. Can’t we just focus on that stuff in the meantime?”

“Easy for you to say! I have to figure out other spells to get away from people that might be looking for you!” Spidena snapped.

“Well. You chose me to be your guide so… Good luck.”

“Wow. You really do only care about yourself.” Spidena shook her head and turned her nose in the air while making her way to the door.

“Uh, Spidena?”

“What?” she snapped over her shoulder.

“You might want your room key,” Ben held up the delicate gold key with a grin that he could see made Spidena’s teeth grind together.

Stomping back over to him, she snatched it from his hand, and then resumed storming out of the room, leaving Ben to bask in the quiet.

Leaning his head back against the chair, he could already feel sleep tugging at his consciousness, and with no real good reason to fight it off? He rose from his seat, made sure to lock the door, kicked off his boots, and fell into the bed that was softer than any he had ever touched before in his life, though he didn’t quite get to savor the feeling, as he was asleep before his head even hit the goosefeather stuffed pillows.