“Caramel apples are over here!” Adeline shouted.
“Bennet cast Create Ice for Ol’ Ibrik. Five maple chews for a copper!” Amelia cried out, shouting to be heard over the top of her sister. The twins never failed to zig when the other zagged. They darted between impromptu stalls with the vigor to rival the young children who dashed everywhere at full speed, fueled by sugar and excitement.
“You two are hopeless,” Zorah muttered darkly, as the twin girls each tried to convince the tiny fairy to choose their favorite snack as the first one of the night.
Dahlia sat atop Zorah’s shoulder where she kicked her feet boredly in the air. While Dahlia loved sugar she couldn’t shake a feeling that this might be a waste of her time. She observed the humans with their competition to be the first to feed her candy with good natured mirth, but mostly the fairy had grown bored. What did it matter if a bunch of Hyena-men were dead to Dahlia? There had been little doubt about her ability to live and see another day, but across Riverwatch the townsfolk had expressions of wonder, as if one of their vaunted gods had sent Dahlia down to save them—or thanks to Dahlia herself, the name Vaelmir travelled from tongue to tongue.
“Ahem, is this thing on?” Lord Graystone’s voice boomed across the center of Riverwatch broadcast from a small metal cylinder covered in elaborate arcane glyphs. Dahlia had never seen both a cute and effective voice amplification item before. She wanted it, even if it looked heavier than she was. Maybe they’d give her one if she asked?
“Yes, yes. Well, thank you Bennet. Third times the charm, as they say. Friends, citizens, and anyone else who still stands here today in Riverwatch, I bid you welcome!” Lord Graystone spoke into the item and gesticulated at the crowd with his cane with his other hand. He stood behind a lectern, atop an outdoor stage.
“Tonight, we gather not in mourning but in triumph! Not in fear, but in gratitude! Today we are free—free from the tyrannical curse of Snarf, Set, and the foul pack of Hyena-men whose claws and laughter sought to destroy our peaceful lives. While their shadows loomed large over our lands, their teeth and claws can threaten our lives no longer! They have been driven away by a force far greater than their malice. Not only has this otherworldly force of courage and determination slain Snarf, but it has also broken his curse. No more will we see that rotten Hyena!”
For an old man, Lord Graystone knew how to speak well enough to keep even Dahlia interested. Especially when he talked about her. He should do that more.
“That force has a name, and it is Dahlia!”
Zorah squirmed awkwardly when the crowds around them turned their eyes to examine Dahlia. Apparently the archer didn’t like all the attention, a strong contrast to the fairy. Dahlia had no qualms about being stared at and praised by throngs of people, and in fact she rather liked it. Those who could see her, at any rate. A tiny, eight-inch-tall fairy wasn’t the easiest being to see from a few feet away, even with the occasional puffs of fairy dust around her.
“I had my doubts. A necromancer, a caller of gloam and whispers. But last night, the truth shone as brightly as any sun—Dahlia is a protector, a beacon of hope wrapped in the veils of twilight. When hundreds of Hyena-men charged our gates, she utilized potent war magic to strengthen our defenses. When Snarf broke in through the palisade, she and her cohort charged to meet him head on! Even when Snarf lay dead and broken, she unwove the curse placed upon Snarf by Set himself. No more are these lands darkened by an angry god’s curse.
You saved us. You saved me, my family, my people, and my lands—all of us owe you a debt that cannot be measured in gold or jewels.” Bennet climbed the stage to hand Lord Graystone a chalice, which the Lord raised to the sky in a cheer. Dahlia’s hopes climbed for a relic or artifact, but it had no magic. Why would Bennet give the old man a mediocre chalice of wine?
“Tonight we raise our glasses not only to victory, but to the one who made it possible. Dahlia, may your path always be illuminated by the spirits. May your courage inspire others as it has inspired us. And may this land remember forever the night the Gloamcaller became our guardian!”
Lord Graystone downed his whole chalice in an overly energetic single gulp. He nearly choked, but Bennet quickly leaped to the older man’s rescue. The mage thumped the old man’s back and prevented the Lord’s demise. The mage didn’t, however, offer him a handkerchief to wipe the crimson wine from his face.
Across the whole of the town people were cheering and thanking Dahlia. A strange warmth flowed through her—as if she’d eaten the best piece of royal honey. Warmth flowed through her fingers, toes, and concentrated in her stomach. Time seemed to slow down for a brief moment, and Dahlia had the stray thought: I could destroy this whole city—but the thought passed quickly, the warmth remained.
You have earned 42 Glimmer points due to the sincere gratitude of Riverwatch.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you smile so big!” Adeline complimented Dahlia.
Dahlia took a deep, overly dramatic breath and winked at the girl.
“I’m pretty amazing,” the fairy proclaimed. It wasn’t a lie. Dahlia felt appreciated and great. The deluge of thanks and the wash of strong emotions which gripped the town both solidified into Glimmer points. Such a huge surge of potent magic manifested in euphoric waves that crashed haphazardly inside her tiny frame. The things Dahlia could do with forty points!
If the mortals thought Dahlia’s smile was one of appreciating the sentiments being directed at her, instead of the power she gained from it, that wasn’t her problem. According to Lady Nyxaria mortals were dumb, and it was best to let them think whatever got them to act as you desired. The less you offered, the easier it was to speak the truth.
A shiver ran through Dahlia’s spine and the hair on the back of her neck raised. Someone, or something, was watching her. Physically, and magically. None of her minions were currently manifest so she couldn’t rely on any of them to have noticed if anyone was watching her, and really, an entire town of mortals stared at her. Maybe it was just one of them being extra intent?
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“I want sugar!” Dahlia cried at the twins and Zorah, who all nodded as if they had expected that declaration. Dahlia did want sugar, but more than anything, she wanted an excuse to have her group keep moving. Maybe she could lure out the watcher?
The twins feasted her with maple chews, caramel apples, and pastries topped with a sugary white cream that Dahlia quite liked.
“We’re being watched,” Zorah remarked in a low whisper.
“Well, yeah. Dahlia’s the savior of town, of course we’re being watched, Zorah.” Amelia responded with a roll of her eyes.
“By someone with dark intent,” Zorah added.
The twins looked at one another. Both had replaced their armor with cotton dresses, and neither wore more than a dagger on their belt.
“There!” Dahlia pointed at a figure lurking in the darkness between two tents. The sparkle of two green eyes had caught the fairies attention, and when she pointed and exclaimed to her friends, the figure noticed and vanished into the shadows.
“I’ll let Dad know there’s a skulker. Don’t chase after them, please.” Adeline waited until Zorah nodded that they wouldn’t follow the figure, before she slipped into the crowd to report to her father.
“So, do we chase?” Amelia immediately asked Zorah.
“No,” Zorah shook her head.
“I’ve summoned Shade. He’ll help keep an eye out,” Dahlia assured the other two. Although, as a shadow, Shade was the least sapient of her minions, he was the only one who didn’t glow and draw attention to himself. He also happened to be the weakest. All of these made Dahlia want to experiment with her new Soulshaper powers. Could she remake Shade into something more useful?
Adeline rejoined the trio at the fortune tellers table, while Amelia got her fortune told by one of the village elders.
“…and so, you are at a crossroads. One path is easy, paved with duty and expectation. The other is wild, uncertain, and filled with trials and triumphs. Know that shadows circle the fire, ready to snuff it out regardless of which path you take.” The old woman cryptically warned Amelia.
Amelia slid a copper across the table to the old woman.
“How about you, Dahlia?” The lord’s daughter asked.
“I wouldn’t dare read the futures of a fey, m’lady,” the old woman waved her hand frantically. Fear radiated off the woman in palpable waves.
“Mhmm,” Dahlia murmured. While it was one thing to watch the talentless crone play for Amelia, it would be an entirely different matter for a human to have the audacity to lie about glimpsing the future. Such things could be done, of course, and they carried a terrible price that this decrepit mortal would be unable to pay.
The hair on the back of Dahlia’s neck raised again.
Mistress. Stalker!
“We’re being watched again,” Dahlia whispered into Zorah’s ear and gave her the directions from which Shade spoke into her mind.
“Stay behind me, you two. You aren’t attired for a fight,” Zorah warned before she vaulted over a barrel, broke into a sprint, then took a hard left at the first alley. A dark shape scurried away from them in a panic.
“Don’t let them get away!” Dahlia snapped at Shade. She lifted her hand to unleash a blast of power at the retreating stalker. The blast of radiant energy from Soul Lash drove earth and rock into the air, narrowly missing the stalker. The mysterious figure vanished in a poof of magic.
“Teleportation?” Zorah asked as she skidded to a halt.
“No, worse,” Dahlia grumbled. “Invisibility.”
“How is that worse?” Zorah asked.
“I could have read where they teleported to in the magic. Can you track invisible things?” Dahlia asked hopefully. Glitterbomb would cause too much of a commotion to set off in the middle of a celebration. Savior or not, many of the citizens of Riverwatch still had an skeptical wariness against Dahlia—or she would’ve received far more than 42 points of Glimmer for a town with a population in the hundreds.
“I can try,” Zorah said with determination.
Ten minutes later, the four ladies stood near the guarded exit on the edge of town.
“Did you see anyone leave town?” Zorah questioned the older man on guard duty.
“Nope. No one’s come or gone for a few hours now,” the guard grumbled. Dahlia considered playing a prank on him, for having the nerve to be the one unhappy in this scenario. She refrained, only because she wanted to be ready in-case they stumbled across the invisible stalker.
“Keep extra dutiful watch,” Zorah barked, and they reconvened at the manor. Surprisingly, Bennet and Lord Graystone were waiting for them.
“Couldn’t catch them?” Bennet asked.
“They turned invisible,” Zorah grumbled.
“Hmmm,” Lord Graystone mumbled ominously, before he sipped his tea.
“I’ve a scroll of See Invisible you could have, Lady Dahlia,” Bennet said. He shoved a hand into an inner pouch of his robes and fished out a scroll. Based on how much of his arm vanished into his robes, the mage either had an extra-spatial container in his robe or he was the greatest contortionist-wizard Dahlia had ever seen. The fact the town mage had a container like that and she didn’t made Dahlia’s face flush red with envy.
“If the scroll is to be of any use we must find the stalker first,” Zorah pointed out. “Thank you, Bennet.”
Dahlia smiled, but didn’t say anything while Zorah tucked the wrapped scroll into her own pouch. The scroll was bigger than Dahlia.
“If they have any brains they’ll give it up, now that Dahlia is onto them. I wouldn’t want her host of minions to meet me in a dark alley,” Amelia muttered.
“If they went invisible and ran away they’re thinking like you already, sis,” Adeline said with a frown.
“It’s okay,” Dahlia said. Her tiny voice drew all eyes to the fairy. “I’ll catch them while I work on my quests around town,” Dahlia elaborated.
“Speaking of quests,” Lord Graystone said as he looked directly at Dahlia.
“Reward!” The command word reverberated with Nantes in a way that normal magic didn’t, and it disoriented Dahlia. A sack and a book appeared on the table in front of Lord Graystone.
“Let me contribute my own reward for you, Lady Dahlia. This has been in my family for generations, but it belongs with someone like you…” Bennet trailed off, a little, and reluctantly he dropped a small silk pouch on the table.
Dahlia squealed, her arms flailing happily in the air as she made a series of undignified joyful sounds.
“A Feywoven Satchel!” The fairy leaped through the air, flew, and landed on the satchel. As her tiny hands gestured and infused magic into the bag, it shrank to her size and hung on her belt in moments. When she tapped the sack of coins and the book, both vanished into the satchel. Dahlia’s smile grew even wider, as she gained a way to carry things that didn’t rely on Zorah, Xeras, Mr. Disapoofer, or anyone else. Being self-sufficient felt wonderful, and freed her from some of the tyranny of the gigantic mortal-sized world.
“For me? How delightfully unexpected.” Dahlia spoke solemnly for a change, for a few brief words. “Well, then, I suppose….” Dahlia’s face twisted a little in thought as she regarded her options with Glitter Warp.
“May the moon return your kindness for this thoughtful gift, Sir Bennet,” Dahlia intoned, the world of Nantes twisting slightly as the fairy burned five Glimmer points to give the wizard a small boon. Beams of radiant moonlight shone down upon Bennet, and a dusting of silver sparkles coated him temporarily while the blessing sank into his flesh and bones.
“I’m going to go read my book!” Dahlia declared into the brief lull of shock from the girls, Bennet, and Lord Graystone. The fairy’s mind, hopped up on Glimmer, sugar, the new found freedom to carry things much bigger than herself demanded solitude—and honestly, experimentation. She had so many good spells and powers, and a book of the dead! She flew into the manor without giving anyone the opportunity to stop her.