After the initial dose of adrenaline had settled within his body, Aethel found another creeping ache making its way into his brain. ‘Why do I keep getting headaches?’ he thought to himself. He had done techniques like the one he’d used on the ambushers many times before without issue. He quickly dismissed the thought, however, as the horrifying sound of the dying men, and the idea of Agatha getting seriously injured from his reckless use of magic entered his mind without permission.

When Aethel entered the village of Greenshire, the sky had turned into an orange display, declaring evening. He was tired, and his stomach was begging for food. He had tried to run parts of the way, but that had shown itself to be a bad idea. Not only did he not have any augmentor powers like Teddy, but his physical prowess otherwise, was lacking.

The village was small, with scattered houses along a main road ending at an old abandoned-looking watchtower, just like most Elysian settlements. There were only a couple of people walking about in the street, as most were probably having supper at this point. Aethel did manage to get some information from one of the villagers, nonetheless. Apparently the hulking brute carrying a bleeding girl into the village had been the talk of the town for a couple of hours now. The villager sent Aethel to one of the buildings in the centre of the town, a church of Thavion. Even though its size trumped all surrounding buildings, it was the smallest such church he had ever seen.

“Excuse me, did—” Aethel began to ask one of the servants of the church.

“You must be Aethel.” The old woman interrupted him, which sent a pang of adrenaline through his body.

“Yes, mum.” He answered, trying not to let his worry show. The gray haired servant put on a smile so warm and motherly it felt like his heart was being hugged.

“Don’t you worry, Aethel. They’re all fine.” She continued as she began to walk.

“Right this way.” She led him into a room fit with a dozen beds and symmetrically shaped shelves, fit with various equipment. There wasn’t so much as a single item out of order in the room. Not one crooked painting on the wall. ‘Order’ Aethel thought. He had seldom been to a church of Thavion, and wasn’t very religious himself, but if there’s one thing everyone knows about the Thavionistic church, it’s that everything needs to follow order.

Even the beds were placed with the exact same space between them, and on the two beds closest to the door lay Agatha and Teddy. Agatha was sound asleep with bandages covering the top of her hair, and Teddy lay on his side, elbow propped, holding his head up.

“OH!” Teddy practically shouted as he saw Aethel. The servant quickly shushed him and gave him a stern look. Teddy raised his shoulders and held a hand in front of his mouth.

“Sorry!” He whispered. Agatha didn’t seem to notice at all.

“The wound on her scalp wasn’t all that severe luckily, and she had no broken bones.” The servant began. Aethel could feel a ‘but’ coming, and gave her a look that said as much.

“But,” She continued. “She took quite the blow to her head, and definitely has a concussion.” Aethel’s eyes widened.

“Not to worry, Aethel. She just needs some time to rest. She should be staying here for a couple of days at the very least.” It seemed as though the old woman had decided on the matter, and Aethel wasn’t about to argue.

“Let’s go eat, Aethel!” Teddy whisper-shouted. Being silent was not one of the man’s talents. Teddy rose from the bed, and his large stature pushed it slightly across the floor. A flicker of irritation showed on the servant’s face.

“I’ve been bored out of my mind and a starving dog since I woke up, but I thought I’d wait to eat until you showed up.” He smiled excitedly. Aethel gave him a friendly smile in return, and dropped off his backpack beside Teddy’s in the corner. The servant quickly aligned the bag to sit in a more orderly fashion.

“As long as she's fine, I guess it wouldn’t hurt to check out the local tavern.” Aethel said as he looked at Agatha, who was sleeping soundly. The old servant spoke up.

“Yes, please do, before you bring any more wretched chaos into this place.” She scolded as she nudged the bed Teddy had been laying on, so it was perfectly aligned with the rest of the room again.

The tavern was almost as centrally located as the church was, so they didn’t have to walk long to spot it. When they entered, they found that there were only two tables occupied, which was abnormally empty compared to what they were used to in the city. One corner table was taken by what looked like a trio of farmers, chatting away about their day’s work. The table right beside the entry, however, only carried one lone woman, who was shovelling stew into her face. She poked her head up at them as soon as they entered.

“Schity folk?” She asked through a mouthful.

“Who are you calling shitty?” Teddy responded aggressively. The woman coughed a laugh and held her hand in front of her face as she swallowed, before she continued.

“City folk! You’re certainly not a couple of boring farmers!” She explained. She had a deep voice for a woman, and it carried through the room with little subtlety. Aethel looked over to the farmers in the corner who scowled at them, not too pleased by the woman’s remark. He gave them an apologetic look.

“Oh!” Teddy let out in a laugh, and slapped his plump belly.

“Sorry, when this beast is empty I become a bit of a beast myself.” He continued, and Aethel rolled his eyes at him. The woman laughed as she raised herself from the table. She was big. Almost as big as Teddy. She stretched out one muscular arm.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

“I’m Rimilda, and I would very much like to buy your company for some stew and beer.” Teddy shook her hand.

“I never turn down a free meal.” The big man’s voice boomed in response to hers. He looked back at Aethel, who made his introductions as well. As he did, he noticed that there was something odd about her hair, which was strung back in a tight ponytail. The ends of it seemed to… ‘Move?’ He thought. ‘No. That’s the wrong word for it. It's flowing...’

“How about it, Aethel?” Teddy asked him. He realised he had been shaking her hand a little too long.

“Of course.” He responded politely, as he dropped her hand.

The innkeeper had brought them steaming bowls of stew, along with bread and tall beer mugs to wash it all down. Aethel mostly ate and listened to the two loud giants, as he quickly learned that getting a word in between them turned out to be an impossible task.

“The Dalen Dockside orphanage? So you’re sort of like brothers?” Rimilda asked.

“Yeah. We were even given to the orphanage on the same day, at the same age, no less.” Teddy pointed out.

“Hadn’t you looked so incredibly different, it’s almost like one could entertain the possibility that you’re related.” She said, bemused. Aethel grew unreasonably angry at her speculation. He absolutely despised when people said something along that notion. What’s worse, is that they always prefaced it with something like ‘You look so different, so of course you aren’t related, buuut…’.

“That’s what I’m saying!” Teddy blurted out. Aethel scoffed.

“I mean we could have different fathers, or maybe we’re cousins! Aethel, however, gets a little pissy when I talk about that possibility.” Teddy looked over at him.

“I mean, maybe. Maybe a one in a million chance occurred which—” Aethel began, frustrated, before he stopped to think about the possibility.

“Actually, nevermind. It’s just literally impossible.” He continued and shook his head. From the corner of his eye he noticed Teddy giving Rimilda a look that said ‘See?’. He ignored it. ‘Let them have their stupid fantasies.’ He thought. Rimilda changed the subject.

“So what could possibly make two city boys like you crawl out into the wilds?” She inquired with a teasing spark to her eyes. Teddy looked over at Aethel, as if asking permission to tell about their little adventure so far. Of course he wanted to show off. She was practically his ultimate match.

“We have friends in Pipervill. We’re on our way to visit.” Aethel said nonchalantly. For all he knew she was a countryman, who would definitely arrest them the second they mentioned that they were wanted in Dalen. Bringing up the gang wouldn’t be so wise either, most likely.

“You’re a good liar, I’ll give you that.” She replied with a grin. Aethel raised his eyebrow, still playing into the false story. Teddy sat in complete silence.

“Oh come on!” She said, giving them an unbelieving look.

“Teddy couldn’t keep his mouth shut for more than a second before I asked that.” She laughed. Aethel sighed.

“But I won’t push you about your business, I certainly won’t tell you mine.” She winked at Aethel, who shrugged. A short silence fell upon the group after that, and Teddy seemed to suddenly grow restless, looking around as if searching for something.

“What’cha looking for, big guy?” Rimilda asked. When he didn’t answer right away, she turned to Aethel, who let out an involuntary chuckle.

“Just wait for it. He’s gonna do something stupid.” He assured her. When Teddy’s eyes finally landed on a shelf on the other side of the room with a row of empty bottles on top, he smiled deviously and swung his eyes back at Aethel and Rimilda.

“Do you have a half penny on you, Aethel?” The big man asked smugly.

“Nope.” Aethel answered matter-of-factly, and took a sip of his beer.

“Oh come on! I just wanna show you something cool.” Teddy grinned. Rimilda slapped her hand on the table and revealed half a copper jack, smiling back at Teddy.

“Oh no no no, that’s too expensive. I just need an iron penny. The coin will most likely be… lost somewhere.” He added mysteriously.

“Just use that, I have too much money as it is.” She shot another wink, but at Teddy this time. He looked a little flustered, which was a rare thing to see on him, but he picked the coin up, nonetheless. Before he could begin his little show, however, Aethel reached into the surge of the half jack. He’d make sure it found its place in his pocket after whatever Teddy was about to do.

“Watch.” Teddy whispered mischievously. He held the coin between two of his fingers, with another ready to flick it. He was aiming at the bottles. Rimilda chuckled.

“There’s no way you can—” A swish cut her off short, as the coin flew across the room and annihilated the leftmost bottle on the shelf. The sound made a couple of the farmers in the corner jump, and the innkeeper rushed out of the kitchen.

“What happened?” The red-haired innkeeper asked, obvious confusion written on his face. Teddy spoke up.

“No idea, chief! It just… shattered!” He played the part of confused bystander perfectly. The innkeeper looked over at the farmers, who looked just as confused.

“I suppose it could’ve been…” The red-haired man started, as he peered around the area where the bottle had suddenly been destroyed. But he only continued with a sigh, and got a broom out of the kitchen. Aethel planted a hand on his face, trying to hide his smile.

“You’re such an idiot.” He commented. It was certainly mean, but awkwardly hilarious at the same time. Both Teddy and Rimilda chuckled quietly, trying to hide their laughing faces from the others at the inn. After they had calmed themselves, Rimilda spoke up.

“Impressive.” She began in a conspiratorial tone, and pulled out another half copper jack. She held it the way Teddy had.

“But watch this.” She smirked, and aimed the coin towards the farmers chatting in the corner. Aethel was about to stop her, as she would do nothing but reveal them as the culprits. But before he could do that, the coin flew out of her hand at such an incredible speed, that it completely disappeared. The closest farmer’s chair leg snapped, and he fell back with his hands flailing. The other farmers jumped at the collapsing chair, and the falling man let out a yelp. Rimilda began to laugh silently. Aethel and Teddy didn’t. They both sat in shock, gaping at the display.

“Did you see that?!” One of the farmers yelled over at them. No one answered.

“This place is haunted, I tell you.” Another of the men said.

“By Thavion’s grace, Vothek.” The man on his ass said to the approaching innkeeper.

“You need to get yourself some better chairs!” As the men continued to chatter, Teddy broke out of his stun and spoke up in a hushed tone.

“You’re an augmentor too…” Rimilda gave him a crafty smile, and Teddy visibly brightened. Aethel threw up his hands.

“So much for secrecy.” He sighed. Rimilda gave him a reassuring look.

“Relax, Aethel. I’m no highwayman.” She said earnestly, which calmed him down, but only a little.

“I’m more like you.” She continued. A waterfall of questions rushed into Aethel’s mind, but before a single one could escape his lips, Teddy’s mug crashed down on the table, interrupting him. A satisfied exhale of air followed from the big man, before he spoke up.

“Vothek!” He yelled across the room at the innkeeper, having just learned his name. The red-haired man jumped at the sound, before turning briskly towards the hairy giant with a questioning look.

“Another round!” Teddy declared with a grin.