The Gift (Part 2)

The sun was only just beginning to peek over the mountains as they drew close to the Inn. Where the night before the new bustle of the growing Irondale would have been obvious, now the streets were nearly deserted. Despite the huge growth the town had experienced over the past two years, primarily of adventurers coming to try their luck in the Hive Dungeon, mornings in Irondale were always quiet.

The Inn, however, proved to be reasonably active. The innkeeper, having taken on more staff to manage the growing population of the town, served meals at all hours of the day and the adventurers who preferred an early start populated a few of the scattered tables of the tavern.

People in town usually did their best to pretend Eana didn’t exist, but a few of the early patrons smirked at Idris and called out, “Light Bringer!”

Idris looked annoyed as he gave small waves to the faces he knew. He’d earned that nickname for his light spell, and since it was his only spell it was a sore spot the townsfolk and adventurers alike enjoyed poking at.

Idris only smiled when Conrad used the name, but he was easily the most famous adventurer in town. Idris practically worshiped the man and would forgive him anything.

Eana helpfully pointed out an open table, but Idris instead looked to a deserted corner table. The one where Conrad and the Seekers, the band that seemed most interested in getting Idris to leave behind the life their father had planned for him, usually posted up.

“Well,” Idris said, “Bacon first then. Let’s take this table.”

He led Eana to Conrad’s corner table and waved at the server to come by. He ordered a full breakfast for each of them, with a double helping of bacon for Eana.

A few adventurers gave the two townspeople sitting at the Seeker’s usual table appraising glances. Eana was a little concerned herself. Were they encroaching on claimed territory?

A woman suddenly stood from a table where she had been sitting alone. She was big, almost as tall as Idris and if Eana had to guess from her size, maybe even approaching his strength stat. From the state of her, she seemed to have been at that table all night.

She strode unsteadily past the other tables, directly toward Idris and herself. The woman wasn’t a Seeker, they were all men… could she be… suddenly Eana froze.

It hadn’t been obvious with the low light of the inn and the lack of armor, sword, and shield, but her face, that heavy face common to women who alchemically enhanced their strength, came into sudden relief as she approached the pair of them.

Reflexively, Eana cast Assess as the woman stopped a few feet before them.

Chrys Broadstreet

Human, Level 6

Class: Shieldmaiden (Uncommon)

HP: 150/150.

Status Effects: Intoxicated, Exhausted

Chrys looked suddenly uncertain, maybe even embarrassed as she no doubt noticed Eana’s eyes flash with magic at the use of her spell.

“You made it out,” she said, clearly talking to Eana.

Idris glanced at Eana who, unsure even who to look at, decided to just drop her eyes back to the table.

“I don’t think we’ve had the chance to meet yet,” Idris said, putting on a polite smile.

“Sorry, I - I’m Chrys,” The woman slurred, sticking out her hand tentatively. Idris began to reach for it when he stopped, noticing Eana’s reaction.

“From Breakthrough. I’m a Shieldmaiden,” the woman continued, somewhat awkwardly.

At the mention of the band’s name, Idris withdrew his hand entirely, “It was your band then,” Idris said to the woman, “that my sister went out to heal yesterday.”

Chrys nodded and slowly retracted her hand too.

“She saved Galvar’s life and when we lost her… I was.. we were worried,” Chrys said. After a few moments of awkward staring and no response from Eana she asked, “Did you finish your quest?” she smiled though it didn’t reach her bleary, half closed eyes.

Eana, for her part, only offered a shake of her head and continued avoiding eye contact. Maybe if she ignored Chrys long enough she would just go away. All of this would just go away. But of course, Idris couldn’t let it go.

“That’s what you’ve been doing here all night?” Idris asked, getting annoyed, “Worrying?” He gestured to the half empty beer mug in her hands and then at the empty table she had left, “And what about the rest of the band? Did they ‘worry’ so much that they’re still sleeping?”

The woman had the good grace to look ashamed as she searched for words. Their silence was broken by the server arriving and placing the two plates of steaming breakfast on the table. Eana seized the opportunity to shove a strip of bacon into her mouth and focus on her food.

They could get rid of the woman if Idris started to eat too. She would see that it was rude to interrupt two people over breakfast and she would walk away.

Instead, Idris ignored his food and kept at it, “I asked my sister this morning how a band of adventurers managed to lose track of their Healer in, from what I gather, was a life or death fight,” he said, “What’s your take?”

OK, that was an interesting question. Idris was backing somebody into a corner but Eana wasn’t sure if it was her or the adventurer woman, Chrys.

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She snuck a glance from under her bangs and watched for a reaction.

Chrys, despite having been at the inn all night, had clearly not prepared for this conversation. She looked back and forth between the brother and sister, mouth trying to form words before Eana saw an opportunity for escape and came to her rescue. If she could cut this off now, they wouldn’t need to get any deeper.

“I told you, Idris,” she said, focusing back on her food as if the conversation wasn’t a big deal, “It was my fault. I ran the wrong way.”

The woman nodded, seizing the life line cast out to her, “Right! I told you to run, to get out of there. You should have run down the road with the rest of us but you… you didn’t.”

The look of righteous fury that Idris had been forming suddenly gave way to confusion. It was better that he thought she was serious. Better that he thought she was as foolish as any other twelve year old girl. Eana didn’t want to blame Chrys for what had happened, and she definitely didn’t want Idris to get the idea that she did.

If the anger she could see building in him a moment before was any indication, then things could get out of hand.

And quickly.

Just let Idris accept that things had gone wrong, Eana had been the cause of her own problems, and Chrys the Shieldmaiden could get back to anything at all that wasn’t talking to the two of them about what happened.

A voice spoke up above the low din of the breakfast crowd, “Oi, Chrys. You get anything to eat yet?”

A lean, bearded man in a leather jerkin was moving aside empty mugs on the woman’s table and making room for himself. He was obviously hungover but had had the benefit of some sleep.

“Who’s that you’re talkin’ to over there? Conrad up and about is he?” the man said as the woman turned, giving him a full view of the table.

“Oh Chaos take it all,” he said when he saw Eana’s unnatural red hair.

“She made it out OK, Tomme,” Chrys said with awkward cheer.

The man looked non-plussed.

Eana stopped eating entirely.

She didn’t need to cast Assess to get his name.

“Idris. I want to go home,” she said.

“What’s that, girl?” the man said, suddenly sounding hostile, “You tell this lot what happened then? Come all the way down here from whatever piss pot you call home to tell on me?”

“Piss pot?” Idris asked, as perplexed as he was annoyed, “What’s this guy’s problem?” He looked at Chrys who was doing her best to look placating and apologetic.

Eana made to move for the door but Idris gently put a hand on her shoulder. Well, gentle for him but Eana couldn’t stand to save her life.

She was stuck.

In her head she raged for Idris to take a hint! This was not the place she wanted to be and if leaving meant spoiling whatever surprise Idris had set up for her then let Order try to put it back in her path next year.

As usual, Order gave no response to Eana’s mental plea and Idris, stubborn as always, pressed onward.

“She did,” he said levelly, betraying nothing about the fact that she hadn’t said anything he didn’t already think he knew.

The man scoffed and looked around the room, trying to appear nonchalant, “Great. Fine. I did what I had to, and because I did, the rest of us are all still here.”

He held his arms out, “What about it, then?”

“Tomme,” Chrys said, “What are you talking about?”

Idris looked to her, then back at Eana who felt like her anxiety might just make her burst into flames on the spot.

Eana was a peacemaker, always had been. It was part of what made her feel that healing should be a good fit. If she could just make her brain work. If she could think of anything but that man’s sudden jerk on her blouse, his deadly seriousness as he pointed his crossbow at her and left her behind. Like she was a sacrifice to the Hive.

And suddenly another emotion blossomed, tentatively, but like a tiny ember in a bed of dry grass it threatened to engulf her. And with it another voice appeared in her thoughts, speaking from corners of her mind she had never dared to acknowledge.

And that voice hoped Idris would tear this mother fucker apart.

She looked to her brother, whose gaze was hardening and unwavering on Tomme. A vein in his temple pulsed and Eana thought of how just the night before he had literally torn the head from a Drone - Drones that made Tomme run like a coward.

“What am I…she told you already,” Tom said, uncertain.

Chrys started, “She told us that-”

“What do you think she told us?” Idris interrupted.

Tomme tried to look uncaring, “I ain’t about to be intimidated by some townie.”

“Answer his question, Tomme,” Chrys said, her voice empty.

The man looked at her, then at the rest of the tavern. All eyes were on him now.

“I did what any of you would have done if’n you had the sense to realize that that girl,” he pointed at Eana, “is a Chaos taken curse. Having her around, even here in our safe little node puts all of us in danger!”

Idris scoffed and looked around at the townspeople expectantly. His derision at Tomme’s proclamation, however, was in complete contrast to the rest of the room.

Mutters had begun all around the dining area and rather than the outrage that could have been expected from the crowd at a grown man, an adventurer, calling out a preteen girl, there were unmistakable notes of agreement.

Eana didn’t know why this surprised her. Always in small groups and with individuals she faced this treatment. But Tomme was basically declaring she could turn the laws of the universe on their head and make unsafe those places literally preserved by Order as defenses against Chaos.

The idea was so unfair, so impossible that she thought just maybe the people of Irondale would finally see reason and that this time, this time at least would be different.

It was not.

And as the murmurs continued she looked around at the faces, many of which she knew and had personally healed, and she knew that fairness was something she should never come to expect. Not from these people.

But one look at her brother made it very clear that for him, nothing could be more confusing.

There was his sister, and then there was this version of his sister - the one the whole town saw and the one that she tried so hard to keep from him and her father.

Momentum temporarily lost, Idris pressed Eana one more time.

“Yahn, please.Tell me. What is he talking about?”

Picking up her fork Eana picked idly at her food. And then the spark inside her ignited and the desire once again to see justice come for these miserable, ungrateful people rose up in her.

Amid the still growing chatter of the early diners she let that feeling overcome her desire to keep her worlds separate.

Eana answered, “He left me.”

Idris squinted at her, “How? That’s what I keep trying to get at. How did he manage to leave you? Chrys was as surprised by you missing from the group when they ran as she was to see you here this morning.”

She looked up at him then, resolve evident in her eyes, and blurted out the rest of the truth. The threat, the things he had said, she gave Idris the entire story.

She watched as the noise of the crowd and everything else faded away to Idris as his face hardened. It was one of his faults - he could be carried away by a strong emotion like a leaf on the wind.

And now he knew this man, this so-called adventurer had forced a twelve year old girl to be bait for the creatures of the dungeon while he tucked tail and ran.

There was no more space in her left for peacemaking today and so, when Idris stood Eana made no motion to stop him. Let Tomme get a taste of what she had felt. Just once let somebody else feel some of her fear and pain.

He looked at Chrys, murder in his eyes, “Did you know?”

The woman, like a coward, sank into the nearest chair and hid her face in her hands.

Idris pulled away from their table. Eana noticed immediately he left his hammer leaning against the wall of the Inn and felt a twinge of disappointment that Tomme would probably survive this.

No matter.