“So what’s with the black powder things?” Ink asked Baltran as they walked. It had been four days since they’d left Yarko Village. They’d kept to the backcountry, traveling southeast toward where Ardos said a spell shrine was located.

“What do ye’ mean?” the dwarf asked. He had been largely silent since they’d left the village. Eldren suspected that the acrobat’s death in the tavern had impacted him a lot more than he let on.

“I’m just asking! Not many people have them. They’re rare. Did you make them?” Ink asked.

“Are ye’ asking me that just because they’re made of metal and I’m a dwarf?”

“Obviously,” she replied. Baltran chuckled.

“Yeah, I made ‘em. My own design. Pure orchanite so the black powder won’t corrode them. They’ve got a space for six lead balls back here. Ye’ load the powder in first.”

Despite his gruff exterior, Baltran seemed happy to tell anyone who would listen about his revolvers.

“Why are they named Twister and Fang?” Eldren asked as she stepped over a fallen log.

“Mind yer own business on their names, lad. Some things are private,” Baltran growled.

He didn’t press further.

“What’s the plan when we get to the shrine?” Ink asked after a little more time had passed, trying to fill the awkward silence as they walked.

“Complete the challenge and learn the spell,” Eldren said.

“Is the challenge hard?”

“How would I know? Ask Ardos.” The tortoise’s head was sticking out of the backpack on Eldren’s back.

“It will be… a challenge,” he said.

“Wow so informative,” Ink said, rolling her eyes. “Bloody wizards.”

“The Iron Square changes the challenges at the shrines every so often to prevent apprentices from studying in advance,” Ardos said. “Is that a better explanation? I have no idea what challenge Eldren will face.”

“Then how do you know the shrine is still here, even?” Eldren asked.

“You all ask too many damned questions,” grumbled Baltran. “I’m beginning to think nobody knows where we’re going.”

Ardos ignored him. “This shrine is a novice-level shrine. I discovered its location from an acquaintance of mine from the Assembly of Magi who was visiting Nottengrad Keep shortly after the assassination attempt. It was always my plan to come here first.”

“Once you possessed my body,” Eldren added. He thought for a moment as they walked. “How do we find the other shrines?”

“We’ll need to steal an aetherfind.”

“A what-find?”

“Like a compass, except it points in the direction of the next spell shrine. They’re enchanted devices that the Assembly of Magi produces and gives each mage who begins the pilgrimage,” Ardos explained. “Part of why I asked Ink to join us.”

“Woah, wait a second,” Ink said, halting her march. “You didn’t say anything about stealing anything. You said if I helped you get the kid out of the dungeon, I’d be able to tag along and map the shrines. I also figured that meant you knew where the shrines were.”

Eldren bristled at being called ‘kid’ by someone younger than him.

“We can sort out the aetherfind once we get the next spell,” Eldren said, taking charge of the conversation. “No use arguing about it now.”

They continued in silence for another few hours. The Bakavian terrain was a constant drudge of fallow farm fields, thin grain fields, copses of knotty pines, and craggy hills. They pushed on until the growling of their stomachs forced them to take a break.

“Running a bit low on provisions,” Ink said as she pulled an apple out of her bag and cut it into thirds. She passed each of them one of the slices. “But I reckon we’ve made good time.”

“Could’ve made better time on the road,” Baltran grumbled, eating his apple in two bites.

“Gray cloaks are on the road,” Eldren said. “How low on provisions, Ink?”

“Counting this apple?” she asked.

“Sure,” Eldren said.

“One apple.”

Perfect. We have to be nearing the village she mentioned, he thought.

“Ink can we see the map again?” Eldren asked, finishing his apple. Ink had listened carefully to Ardos’ explanation of where the shrine should be located and had expertly mapped a path. Eldren was amazed by her photographic memory for terrain, elevation, roads, and distances which she could instantaneously scale up or down in her head and translate to parchment. They had talked through the plan several times but going over it boosted Eldren’s confidence, which was especially important now that they were so close.

“I don’t know why they’d put this thing in the middle of nowhere,” she said as she unrolled the map on a nearby rock.

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

“Not all the shrines are so remote,” Ardos said as Eldren carried him over to the map. “Some are in cities. Others in towns. But they are all hidden.”

“So, up ahead, we should come across a small farming village. What’s it called?” Eldren asked.

“Valenka’s Reach,” Ink said. “Much smaller than Yarko Village. Probably seventy-five or maybe a hundred people? No walls.”

“Right, Valenka’s Reach,” Eldren said. “So we’ll pass through the village. They have a shop?”

“Yep, we’ll resupply,” Ink said.

“Good, I’m sick and tired of fruit,” Baltran said. He was polishing Twister, leaning against a tree nearby rather than hovering over the map with them.

“After that, we head out of town to the shrine,” Ardos said. “My source told me that it’s hidden at the bottom of an abandoned well, in a small stand of trees off the road.”

Ink rolled up the map and they continued for another hour or until they came to a field. On the far side, they could see a handful of small, wooden buildings. Maybe a dozen in total.

“Welcome to Valenka’s Reach,” Ink said, sweeping her arm and gesturing at the houses.

They approached the town cautiously. Ink scouted ahead and came back. There were no gray cloaks in sight and the town was too small to field its own guards, relying instead on the honor system and a collective distrust of outsiders.

As they entered the town, however, nobody paid them much attention. If anything, the few villagers out feeding chickens seemed to directly avoid eye contact and hurriedly made their way inside as they passed.

“Ink, how close is this to the war front with the Coven,” Eldren whispered. “These people seem intent on avoiding us.”

“They’ve seen battles nearby,” she said. Her tone was more somber than usual. “We’re close to where fighting was focused last summer. The Bakavian Army made a push to reclaim part of the south. It was a bloody mess.”

They continued down the one dirt street until they reached a building that was slightly larger than the others. The sign, dangling from chains on a post, identified it simply as “Slad’s”.

“Inn, tavern, and shop,” Ink said. “Haven’t been through here in a while. Slad is a character, though. Don’t touch anything that isn’t yours.”

“How is this an inn, it looks like it could only have one room?” Eldren asked.

“Didn’t say it was a good inn,” she said. She opened the door and went inside, leaving Eldren and Baltran to follow.

The inside of the building was, if possible, more depressing than the outside. Cam’s memories surfaced for a moment and it reminded him of a pizza parlor in his hometown that was teetering on the edge of going out of business. A handful of empty chairs and tables covered in dust were crammed in the room. A small, u-shaped bar barely large enough for one person was built shoddily against the wall on their left. The bar wasn’t even large enough for one person if that person was Slad.

“Who is this who’s coming into my shop? Oh my. Oh my my. Is that Illia I see with my eye?” A deep voice greeted them from the gloomy room. Slad, it turned out, was an ogre. Nearly twice Eldren’s height with dry, scaly gray skin and probably ten times as old. Wispy strings of white hair hung over his face, which was marred in several places by lengthy scars. An eye patch covered one eye. He flashed Ink a smile. Yellow, jagged teeth were crammed in his mouth with what seemed to be no particular rhyme or reason.

“Hey, Slad,” Ink said. She sauntered to the bar and pulled up a stool. “How’s business?”

“Bad,” the ogre said. “Drink?”

“Would love to, but no time,” she said. “Supplies?”

“What kind?” The ogre raised an eyebrow. “And who are they?” He jerked his chin at Eldren and Baltran. “You brought a dwarf to my bar?”

“Relax,” Ink said. “You gotta let bygones be bygones, Slad.”

“I’ve got too many scares from axes for that,” he growled. “Don’t touch that!” He barked at Baltran, who had wandered over to a shelf with a knife displayed on a dusty pillow.

“I told them not to touch anything,” Ink sighed. “Anyway, supplies. I know you’ve got some food,” she said.

“Not much,” Slad said. “Fighting still hasn’t died down. And what fields got planted were burned out. Can’t grow so much as a cabbage in most of ‘em.”

“We’ll pay double,” Ink said.

Eldren stayed quiet. They had talked about this part. He waited for his cue from Ink. She was supposed to introduce him and then he’d quietly cast Snake Oil — the witch-kind spell he’d learned from the circus ringmaster.

“I’ve got a better idea,” the ogre said. “I’ve stumbled my way into a hunter token. Took it in a trade for a nasty-looking axe from a fellow. But I need a hunter before I can cash it.”

Ink hesitated. Eldren could tell she hadn’t expected this. She had told him that the shopkeeper would negotiate, which is when Eldren’s spell would be useful. Then again, she hadn’t told him that the shopkeeper was an ogre.

“You have a hunter token?” she repeated, an eyebrow raised.

“Aye,” the ogre said.

“You’re joking. Only bounty hunters get those from the Iron Square.”

The ogre reached down under the bar and produced a small golden plate and slid it across the countertop toward Ink.

“I’ll be damned,” she said as she picked it up and examined it.

“I’ve been waiting for the right customer to come in,” Slad said. “You’re just the kind I was hoping for. You bring this bounty in and I’ll resupply you. And split the token. Eighty-twenty.”

“Eighty-twenty!” Ink exclaimed indignantly. “You think I’m a fool, Slad? You want me to go hunt down a bounty for you and only get twenty percent of the Iron Square’s payout? Fifty-fifty.”

The ogre laughed. It was like nails on a chalkboard.

“Seventy-thirty, final offer. Or no supplies,” he said, staring pointedly at Ink. Eldren waited, ready to cast the spell. He caught Ink’s eye and could tell she was weighing her options.

Does the spell work on ogres? he thought

“Alright,” Ink said slowly. “We’ll do your dirty work, Slad. We’ve got some business though, first, nearby. You prep the provisions and give me the details from the token. We’ll take half the supplies now and half when we bring in whoever this criminal is.”

“Deal.” The ogre extended a meaty and calloused hand. Ink shook it.

“Come on boys,” she said to Eldren and Baltran, slipping off the stool. “We’re bounty hunters now.”

“Ink,” Eldren started.

“Don’t worry, don’t worry. We’ll chase down this bounty after the spell shrine. But it’s too good to pass up. A bounty token is worth two thousand gold once it’s claimed from the Iron Square. And we have a built-in middle-man to deal with the church. Right, Slad?”

“Aye,” the ogre said, as he handed her a satchel. “Here you go. You get half of the provisions upfront. And here’s a copy of the token’s information. Last known location. All that.”

Ink nodded as she took the satchel from Slad and stuffed the bounty warrant information into her pocket.

“So what? We hunt down someone for the church and get six hundred gold?” Eldren asked as they stepped back out into the street. “Why do we need that much gold? We just need some food,” Eldren protested. “To last us on the way to the shrines.”

“You always need gold,” Baltran interjected. “Makes the world go round, lad.”

“Listen, Eldren,” Ink said. “We don’t even know where the shrines are after this first one. Ardos said we need to steal an aether-thingy from the Assembly of Magi, right? That’s a big job. I know a guy who can help us, but it won’t be cheap. Right, Ardos?”

“We do need to procure an aetherfind,” the tortoise said quietly.

Eldren sighed.

“Alright,” he said finally. “We can talk about doing the bounty. But after the spell shrine.”

Ink slapped him on the back.

“That a boy! Alright, now, let’s go get this spell.” They headed east out of town, toward the location of the shrine on the map.