“Hah! I wish you would’ve done more. Or rather, that he would’ve done something, the coward!” The muscled, albeit pot-bellied man across from Aethel exclaimed loudly and took a swig of his mug. Beer dripped down his dark brown beard as he did.

“Yeah, I bet you would.” Aethel sighed.

“I say, strike first!” Aethel flinched a little at Teddy’s booming voice.

“At least when someone’s barking like a dog. Don’t let them get away consequence-free.” Teddy nodded seriously at Aethel. Teddy was a big loud man. A part of his charm, Aethel often thought, but what he never got used to, however, was Teddy’s constant attraction to violence. Aethel liked to think that he was the bigger man in that situation, no matter how much he wanted to throw a chair at his boss.

“What am I gonna do now…” Aethel mumbled and put his head firmly in his hand, exasperated.

“You’re being a bitch, Aethel. Cheer up!” Teddy slapped Aethel’s hands away from his face.

“I’ve barely seen you as of late. You’ve earned yourself a little vacation.” He brushed his long dark hair to the side as he spoke. Some of it had landed in his mug of beer, where the tip of his beard had already been, by the looks of it.

“Yeah, I guess. It’s just that, the longer I take to find a new job now, the more of my savings are getting blown. And Thavion knows I won’t be getting a letter of recommendation from Quartzlight.” Aethel countered and took another big swig from his mug.

“Thavion can suck my cock!” Teddy practically shouted and downed the rest of his beer. Aethel chuckled. No matter how brazen the great bear of a man was, he always found a way to make Aethel laugh.

“Tell you what…” Teddy began and took a gander across the room. Once he had turned almost all the way around, he stopped abruptly. Seeming satisfied with his findings, he turned back to Aethel with a roguish spark.

“Notice anything out of the ordinary in this here fine establishment?” He inquired, with a mock upper class accent. Aethel gave him an annoyed glance, but he decided to humour him, nonetheless. They were sitting in a dank dockside pub, which was not a particularly nice part of town, so the people looked scruffy, and the place was filthy. The drinks, however, were dirt cheap and they knew the staff well, so Aethel and Teddy used to come here quite often.

“I don’t know. People? A lot more than usual actually.” Aethel replied.

“Exactly. And do you notice anything in particular about the jolly gang behind us?” Teddy smirked. Aethel did not like where he was going with this. The people sitting in the corner behind Teddy all donned darker clothes than the rest of the clientele and had knives and machetes hanging from their belts. Aethel shifted his gaze seriously towards Teddy.

“You better fucking not.” He said, but Teddy shrugged and smiled clumsily at him.

“Whoops.” He blurted as he threw his wooden mug behind him. It hit one of the bigger guys right in the middle of his bald head.

“Aethel what are you doing man!?” Teddy said loud enough for everyone to hear.

“I know you hate bald people but it’s not okay to throw stuff at them!” He continued. Aethel sat there with his mouth gaping, dumbstruck at the spectacle. The bald man slammed his hand against the table loud enough to quiet the entire pub.

“I’ll break your fucking nose!” He yelled with a country twang and pointed towards Aethel, as he began shuffling towards their table. Aethel got up to his feet in a panic. The bald man was huge, and there was no way he was beating him in a fistfight. He was coming at him fast, so he didn’t have much time to mould a surge bolt or a shield. He looked around frantically for something to defend himself with and before he knew what was happening, his instincts took over. He reached into the surge contained within the table they sat at, and simply shoved it sideways. Teddy noticed what was happening and quickly snatched up Aethel’s mug before it could spill. The bald man stumbled clumsily into the suddenly animated piece of furniture.

“Shit!” He exclaimed in a drunken rage as he rolled over the table.

“A fucking wizard?” He continued and drew his machete as he stood. Its huge blade gleamed in the lamplight. It was much larger than most machetes Aethel had ever seen, but he couldn’t help but roll his eyes. Pulling out that big of a weapon was probably the stupidest thing he could’ve done against a surge manipulator. He would’ve been much better off just using his fists. Aethel reached into the surge within the tip of the blade and with a flick of his wrists, pulled it right out of the bald man's hand. It was left floating between them. The bald man paled at the sight of it.

“Listen. It was just a misunderstanding. I didn’t mean to hit you with that beer mug, and I don’t hate bald people.” Aethel began and shot a mean look at Teddy, who was struggling to contain his laughter. He thought it would be easier to just take the blame for the mug himself instead of pointing fingers.

“I’m sorry. Can we just go back to drinking and leave this behind us?” The bald man looked tense, but tried to keep his mask of confidence.

“Look, I’ll even give you your weapon back.” He floated the machete towards the man, handle side first. He grabbed it in a swift motion.

“Just watch your back, Aethel.” He said, emphasising his name in a threatening manner, and sheathed his blade. Brawls weren’t uncommon in this part of town, so as soon as it looked like nothing was going to happen, people slowly went back to their conversations. As the man walked back to his comrades, Aethel moved the table back in place, with his hands this time, and sat down. Teddy’s eyebrows were practically pointing upwards, and his body convulsed as he struggled to contain his laughter.

“A fucking wizard?!” He mimicked the bald man’s dialect.

“I hoped it would go a little further than that, but I bet your heart’s pumping now, man!” Teddy giggled.

“You’re a cock.” Aethel replied, but he couldn’t help but chuckle a little as well. He was an idiot, but also the kind of guy it was hard to be mad at. Teddy wiped a tear away and continued, seriously this time.

“Look man, don’t beat yourself up about a stupid café job. A nomad knows no peace, after all.” Teddy winked at him.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” Aethel said as he stood.

“I’m gonna go get a couple new beers for us.” Aethel continued.

“Halfway done with the first and already getting another?” Teddy questioned.

“Oh, yeah it spilled.” He smirked.

“Spilled? No, I grabbed it before you-” Teddy began as he looked into Aethel’s mug sitting across from him. As he did, Aethel flicked his wrist and the mug shot up into Teddy’s face, dousing him in the liquid. Teddy closed his eyes, slowly nodded and smiled a sheepish smile.

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“I should have seen that coming.” He proclaimed. Aethel laughed mischievously and walked towards the bar.

The place was usually pretty empty, but Reconciliation Day being what it was, almost every table and barstool was taken. He got a few curious looks as he went, no doubt because of his little magic show earlier. It didn’t bother him at all, however. Quite the contrary. The attention was actually somewhat satisfying. As he approached the bar, he noticed that one of the onlookers stared a little longer than the others. Sitting on a tall chair was a woman of small stature, with a dark complexion and curly hair. She was smiling at him.

“Quite the show for a server.” She remarked slyly, in a cute rural accent. Aethel walked up to her.

“For someone who used to be a server.” Aethel corrected. The girl raised an eyebrow.

“Did you quit?” She asked.

“I got fired actually. Was working another show to clean up the mess and my boss caught me in the act.” He looked lamely at her.

“Ah, that explains the blinds.” The girl remarked.

“That was rude, by the way!” She exclaimed and smacked him playfully on the shoulder. Aethel just laughed.

“Yeah well, sorry that I didn’t have time to admire your phallic drawings.” He continued before he got the attention of the bartender. He pulled two copper jacks out of his pocket and put one of them on the bar. He snapped the other in half and put a half penny on the bar as well.

“Two Waeterholts.” He declared to the bartender with a friendly expression.

“Keep the half penny, Aethel.” The bartender winked back at him and got to work. Aethel pocketed the half and turned his attention back to the girl.

“What a friendly price…” The girl commented before she continued.

“Agatha, by the way.” She said and held out her hand.

“Aethel. Pleasure.” He said as he shook it. When he did, however, he could swear he saw a slight purple shine to her eyes, but before he could think much about it, the bartender returned with the drinks. He sat them on the bar in front of them and ran off hastily towards another customer trying to get his attention.

“It was nice meeting you, but I better get back to…” Aethel began before the girl grabbed one of the mugs and downed almost half of it in one big gulp. She let out a satisfied sigh.

“Your friend? He’s a little busy at the moment.” She stated and pointed her mug towards the table where Aethel had been sitting. Across from Teddy sat one of the older men who had been in the same corner where he had thrown his mug. His grey hair was neatly trimmed, like his beard. He was also wearing dark clothes, like the rest of the people in the corner of the pub, and Agatha.

“So, you’re a gang? If this is about the whole beer mug thing-” Aethel began, growing a little tense.

“Oh, no nothing like that.” She said casually and took another sip. Aethel gave her a scrutinising look.

“Look, I’d be happy to answer any question you have, as soon as you’ve answered some of mine. But we’re not common street trash, robbing people in alleyways if that’s what you’re wondering.” She was talking rather fast, and Aethel hoped she was just eccentric, rather than wild and unpredictable. Just then he noticed that she had two daggers sheathed in her belt. He considered this for a moment and looked back at Teddy on the other side of the room. To his surprise, he managed to make eye contact with him. When you’ve known someone as long as Aethel had known Teddy, you could easily communicate silently with gestures and expressions across a crowded room. So when Aethel gave him a questioning lift of his eyebrow, and Teddy responded with an affirming expression, he lowered his shoulders slightly and returned to his conversation with Agatha.

“All right. I’ll humour you. What do you wanna know?” Aethel sat down on the barstool next to Agatha and took a sip of his mug.

“Well, first of all, you’re a surge manipulator and your friend is a surge augmentor, correct?” Aethel didn’t like where this was going, but he nodded and let her continue.

“And now for a more serious question. Are you or your friend involved with law enforcement of any kind, government included?” The way she asked the question sounded almost practised. Aethel was taken a little aback by the straightforwardness of it all.

“Uhm, no?” He answered clumsily. Agatha brightened at the response.

“Fantastic!” She announced loud enough for half the bar to hear her and gave a thumbs up to the table where the other two were sitting. Both the grey haired man and Teddy had been looking their way for a little while now it seemed like, but they returned to their conversation as soon as Agatha had given the sign.

“What was that about…?” Aethel shifted nervously in his seat. He was really starting to question the nature of this whole ordeal.

“Sorry for being so secretive, but you can never be too careful with these things.” She took another sip.

“Long story short, we need someone with surge magic experience for a job. Outside of the law, of course.” She said and blinked innocently at him. Aethel reeled a bit at the sudden confession. He had about a hundred questions for her but decided to start with one of the more obvious ones.

“You're just going to take my word for it that I’m not involved with the law in any way? Just like that?”

“Yep!” She stated matter-of-factly. Aethel grew more confused by the moment, but he let it rest for the time being.

“All right. Can you tell me anything about this job then?” He tried.

“Nope!” She answered as gleefully as she’d done before.

“What!?” Aethel recoiled and was actually starting to get a little angry at the ridiculousness of this whole situation. Agatha seemed to notice.

“I’m sorry, your friend will have to fill you in. I don’t know all of the details. That’s Bael’s job.” She pointed to the grey-haired man sitting across from Teddy. They were still talking.

“But while we wait for them to finish, can you tell me a little bit about surge magic pleaaase?” She inquired and batted her eyelashes at him quite enthusiastically. Aethel gave her a confused look.

“I grew up on a farm outside of Ironweave, so I’ve never really seen anything like it. Only heard about it in stories.” She confessed.

“I see. Well, what do you wanna know?” Although Aethel often found explaining his abilities tiresome, and an annoying reminder of what could have been, he had no problem indulging a pretty lady's curiosity. Agatha beamed at the response.

“Well, you’re a manipulator, so you control the ambient surge, while augmentors control their personal surge right?” She had been speaking quickly before this, but now it seemed as though her mouth barely kept up with what she wanted to say. Aethel couldn’t help but wonder if she was on drugs, but he answered her nonetheless.

“That’s a very simple way of putting it, but yeah, basically. I connect to the surge around me, and Teddy, as an augmentor, connects to the surge within his own body.” She thought about his answer for a while before she continued.

“Ok, so when you had that little rumble with my friend over there earlier, how come you couldn’t just take his machete from the start? Or rip his head off for that matter?” She asked the last question with a little too much excitement, and her eyes gleamed with anticipation. Aethel decided that she was definitely on drugs. Before he could answer she interjected again.

“Or make his heart explode! Or make his blood boil?” Aethel couldn’t help but laugh at her enthusiasm.

“It’s not all that powerful. I can’t interact with soul, which envelops people in a sense. So if you have a weapon dangling along your waist without it sticking out too much, it’s practically impossible for me to get a hold of. “ He explained.

“And those daggers of yours,” he continued and pointed to her waist.

“I wouldn’t be able to get a grip on them at all, even if you were holding them.” She had been watching him intently as he was talking, and he could see new questions were starting to form in her head. Before she had a chance to ask them, a hand landed on Aethel’s shoulder.

“Aethel. Good meeting you, I’m Bael.” The grey haired man held out his other hand for him to shake. Aethel was a little taken aback at the sudden intervention, but he managed to keep his composure.

“And you.” Aethel responded, as he shook it. Up close he could see that every detail of his short hair was trimmed to perfection, and there wasn’t a single empty patch on his close-cut beard. He wore a friendly smile, but his eyes had a calculating look, as if he knew everything Aethel didn’t.

“I’m sorry to interrupt you two, but I need to have a little chat with my daughter, and you need to have a little chat with your friend.” He spoke with a mellow tone, but his voice had an air of command to it, which made it sound like not listening to him would be a very bad idea.