Arryn

I awoke in some kind of workshop, my head pounding and little memory of the night before. I recalled some kind of fight and…

I sat up suddenly, and looked around. The memories came rushing back to me all at once. Getting ambushed by those thugs, Wyll… exploding? Then a blur of trying to get a wounded and bleeding Medea back to her home. I looked around the room, and noticed an elven woman who wasn’t Medea standing by a kitchenette, humming as she poured three cups of coffee. She was tall and muscular, wearing a set of overalls and a tool belt. Aside from the pointed ears, they really looked nothing alike. She picked up one of the mugs and started walking over to me, then noticed I was awake.

“Oh! He lives. You must be Arryn.” she said, setting the steaming mug down on a side table next to the beat-up sofa I’d apparently been sleeping on. How long have I been here? There were no windows in this place, just the warm glow of a furnace near the center of the room and various tablets and tools that glowed with different runes.

“Uh, yeah. Are you Aniya?” I said, my voice croakier than I’d expected.

She smiled “Aw, she talks about me? Yes, I am. Nice to meet you”. Aniya went back to the small kitchen to grab her mug and sat down next to me. “You’re terrible at first-aid, by the way.”

“...I didn’t really know what I was doing, to be honest. There was a lot of blood.” The memory was a frantic one. I remember rummaging through cupboards to find anything I could as makeshift bandages or a tourniquet. I think I ended up using some kind of towel, but my head was pounding so hard I could barely think straight.

“Hm.” She gave a disapproving note. “I am very curious about what happened. Medea gave me bits and pieces, but she has a habit of downplaying things.”

Crap, what had Medea told her? I didn’t want to share anything about Wild Magic or Wyll… “It was a bit of a blur. Did another person come here? A human with burn scars.”

“Hmm, nope. I came in this morning to work and found you two passed out in my workshop. Is someone else hurt?”

“No… I don’t think so. Just another friend who was involved.” I had to hope Wyll was okay. I didn’t see him after the explosion, but the spot he was standing on was strangely untouched. But could he be okay, after doing something like that? He’d turned at least four people into mist. That has to be a heavy burden for someone already fearful of magic. I had to find him soon.

Aniya looked apologetic. “You look like hell. I’m sorry that you went through all that. Medea is a good kid, but she often gets involved with some bad people. Made it hard for her to make friends going up, that’s for-”

“Ani, let’s not get into my childhood, yeah?” A voice shouted from a loft above the workshop. Medea.

“Ah, good morning! How’s the potion doing?” replied Aniya.

“Wasteful, you should have just let it heal naturally. I was fine.”

“Dee, you had a hole in your shoulder and a cracked femur. You weren’t fine. Were you planning on boxing like that next week? Not that I think you should be boxing anyway, but who listens to me..” Aniya sighed. “Besides, we agreed the potion was for emergencies, and this certainly felt like one.”

Medea didn’t reply to that. Aniya grabbed the third cup of coffee over to me and said “Be a dear, Arryn. Take this up to her majesty. I have some work that needs doing and she’s probably sick of me fussing over her.”

I nodded, and made my way over to the loft. The way up was a sturdy looking ladder, which was a real challenge to climb with one hand holding the mug. Reaching the top, I found the place to be… surprisingly girly. There were plushies everywhere, of all different kinds of creatures from animals to monsters to some I couldn’t even identify. The wooden floorboards were covered in colourful rugs, and there were some pretty strings of lights hung around the sloped ceilings. The parts that were more expected were the multitude of gadgets and gizmos also hung around the room, including some prototype gauntlets in various designs. One seemed to incorporate some kind of bladed whip, which I was sure wasn’t legal for use in mage boxing. To the side of the room, in a small bed and half-buried in stuffed animals, was Medea. She was more bandaged up now than when I’d last seen her, and her skin faintly glowed with a pink-ish light.

“Hey. Can you help me sit up? Don’t have my hands.” She said.

“Uh, yeah. Sure thing.” I set the mug down and awkwardly put my arm under her shoulders to lift her up to a sitting position.

“Relax, I’m fine. You don’t have to treat me like a glass doll. The health potion Ari had stored away was a reward from an alchemist friend she did a commission for, and a damn expensive one. I feel great right now, but a bit… floppy.”

“Do you mind if I ask what happened last night? I don’t remember much after I got knocked out.”

She sighed. “Yeah, sorry about that. Those guys work for this gangster, Alabaster, who put a lot of money on his fighter winning the boxing match I have coming up. I think they were planning on offing me before then, or at least hurting me badly enough to not be able to fight any more.”

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“You’ve had run-ins with these people before?”

“Nah, not like this. Couple vague threats but nothing so… concrete. Do you know what happened to Wyll?”

“No, I hoped you would. I remember he screamed, and I tried to grab you and run while the other guys were distracted, but then the world just exploded.”

“Yeah, uh. Thanks for that, by the way.” she looked a bit embarrassed. “I wasn’t in much of a state to get out of the way. Not sure how you did it, but I think you saved my ass.”

“I did? I don’t really remember doing anything, I just remember wanting to protect us from the blast.”

“I dunno, but I remember feeling real woozy all of a sudden, then the wind or whatever parted around us.”

Did I do magic again? I didn’t feel like it, like I had last time. I didn’t really plan to do anything, it just happened.

“Oh yeah, I did some cool shit too before I got my ass beat.” Medea said, puffing out her chest in pride. “I threw a dumpster like it was nothing. Honestly surprised at how easy it was.”

“Really? I must have been out for that part. I guess we really are wild mages now, huh.”

“Guess so. Speaking of, we need to find Wyll. I’m gonna need another hour or so for my legs to start working again. I want to try and use my new telekinesis powers to get one of my prototype hands working. Hm, actually maybe I don’t need to anymore… I dunno, feels weird without ‘em. I’ll figure that out. Can you go check out the warehouse, see if he went there? We can meet back here at eleven and check some other places.”

“Eleven?”

“Uh, yeah. In an hour?”

“Shit. Fuck. I should be at work like, now.” I panicked.

“Really, man? Work after everything last night?”

“You don’t understand, if I don’t show up they come to get me. Horizon takes employee truancy very seriously. I could lose my apartment.”

“Ugh, okay. I’ll look for Wyll and you get to work. I’ll meet you at the usual spot tonight.”

I hurriedly made my way towards the ladder and stopped at the top. “Feel better soon, yeah?”

A plush chimera flew towards my head on its own. “Get going!” yelled Medea.

I gave a hurried thanks to Aniya before I left, who was piling up ingots of some kind of bluish metal, and burst out the front door. The sun was high in the sky, and I was standing in some kind of run-down side street next to a Well of Wonders Emporium. The city was starting to wake up, and there were commuters making their way down the street on foot and others zipping between buildings on brooms. A large golem stood outside of the Emporium, advertising their newest evoker - some kind of Y-shaped staff that looked like an oversized slingshot with a lens instead of a rubber band.

I tried to figure out where the closest Horizon branch was, when I noticed two people coming my way. They were wearing matching spotless white uniforms, with white gloves, white shoes, and a white flat cap. Each had a long evoker hanging from their belt, in a contrasting bright red. There was a man and a woman, and as the woman began to speak the man blocked my path.

“Good morning Mr. Tarlow. We’re here to take you to work.” she said in a cool, measured tone.

Enforcers. Crap.

“Good morning… Sorry if I am late. I stayed over at a friend’s house, and they don’t have a Port Pod.”

“Please, step this way.” she said, not responding to my excuses in any way. She and the man, who hadn’t said a word yet, flanked me as I was led around the corner to what looked like a small white palanquin being carried on poles by four porcelain golems. The man opened the door and the woman gestured for me to get inside.

I considered running, but that would be foolish. I accepted whatever fate I had in store and stepped inside the small chamber. As soon as I entered and the door closed behind me, the lights flickered on and I realised I was in a miniature Port Pod, like the one in my apartment block. I heard someone inputting a pattern outside, and consoled myself that at least I would get to work faster.

When the lights flashed and the door swung open, I was surprised to see not the crooked glass-paned door of the Scribe Department, but instead a polished oak door with elegant floral carvings and a polished brass doorknob. I hesitated outside the door for a few moments, unsure what to expect on the other side, and it began to creak open on its own.

Inside was far from anything I had expected. The interior, if you could call it that, was a jungle-like haven of plant life. The floor was coated in soft grass speckled with delicate flowers. There were trees of every kind forming a canopy overhead, with each one seeming unique and, curiously, in different seasonal states. The delicate lavender blossoms of one tree mingled with the fiery autumnal shades of another. There was a spindly, crooked looking tree with no leaves but absolutely coated in various different kinds of fruits. Around the edges of the clearing was a small stream that seemed to run continuously in a circle, with a few stepping stones placed within it to serve as a natural bridge across. The place smelled amazing, like a floral meadow and harvest field mixed into one, and gentle birdsong played in the air.

In the center of this idyllic clearing was a desk, which resembles more of a flattened piece of driftwood. Sat behind it was a stern looking woman with greying hair and frown lines on her face. As I took in the surroundings her eyes didn’t leave me, and she pressed a spot on her desk which made a mushroom-like stool sprout from the ground in front of her.

“Sit.” she commanded.

My enchantment by the space suddenly shattered, and I remembered the circumstances that brought me here. I reluctantly but hurriedly made my way to the toadstool and sat down. It was soft, and strangely warm.

“Arryn Tarlow, do you know who I am?”

I swallowed. “I don’t think we’ve had the pleasure, Miss… uh.”

“Tch. Just call me Olivia. I called you here today because I have a job for you to do.”

“...This isn’t because I was late?”

Her eyes narrowed. “You were late?”

“Uh, nevermind that. I’m happy to help with whatever Horizon needs.”

This was very strange. As time went by my job seemed less and less necessary as copying spells became more refined. I was certain that if anything I was more likely to be asked to resign. This was actually going fairly well. It was good to have a bit of a win after yesterday.

“Wonderful.” she said, with the barest hint of what could be called a smile. “I’m sending you to the Scarlet Woods. Pack your bags, you’re leaving tonight.”