59 – Kindred Bonding

“Darcent, wait,”

Just what I needed. Still, I slowed so that Quinn could catch up. He fell into step beside me. “So... you’ve bonded more cards,” he said.

“If this conversation has a point, you should get to it, Quinnith. I have a lot to do tonight.”

He raised his hands. “Woah, woah. I’m just curious, you know? Look, how about I buy you a beer.”

As much as I wanted to get back to the lower city, I was parched. Hawkley’s dusty shop hadn’t helped matters any. I didn’t want to pay inflated upper-city prices just to sate my own discomfort when I’d just spent more than was wise on materials for a new deck. “Just one.”

Quin clapped me on the back of the shoulder and grinned. “That’s more like it.”

We found a pub nearby and I have to admit, I was caught off guard by the lack of shadowed corners and knife-gouges in the bar top. A lutist strummed a mellow ditty while fops in crossed stockings sipped at clear spirits. The whole thing made me pine for the lower city, but I slid onto a stool while Quinnith ordered us a couple of pints.

“I wanted to ask if there was any truth to what Drella was saying,” said Quinnith.

I took a long pull of my drink and practically gasped with relief. “You mean if I’m the Barrow Knave? Ask your cards.”

“No, I don’t believe that. But did you actually get all four of your suits?”

I thought carefully about my answer. “Barely. Towers and storms.”

“Ouch.”

“Tell me about it,” I said. Storms was notoriously one of the most difficult suits to master, and thus far I’d still only bonded with the two. I wasn’t much better off with Towers, but at least Storms hadn’t left me bedridden for days. “What about you? Find your fourth?”

“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about,” said Quinnith. “It’s knaves. I haven’t told anyone.”

“Mmm... Demons and knaves. Bet that’ll be great for your reputation.”

“Yeah,” he scoffed. “Aside the fact that Guifoyle’s been on the warpath for a new training dummy? He already hated me because I was quarter-gold. But just my luck, I snuck the answers for a Will Theory exam out of Master Bluthard’s attaché. Next thing you know, he’s walking in and the three of knaves turns me into a walking shadow. Almost gave him a conniption fit, but I got away.”

“Hmm. Interesting,” I said. There was always some variation in what cards did between different Soul Seekers. A living shadow disguise was almost as interesting as a discrete decoy.

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“Yeah, but that still makes me demon-courted. It’s not dragon-courted, but...” he held his hands up above the bar, as if weighing two terrible options, and then let them drop. “Almost better to not have a fourth suit at all. I already couldn’t get anywhere with demons. Now? I’m barely half a seeker.”

“At the academy, maybe” I tapped my finger against the bar. Demons and Knaves. I had uses for someone with those talents. The dragons rumbled in what remained of my deck. “I will tell you one thing. I didn’t really start to understand what kind of seeker I was until I left.”

Quinnith narrowed his eyes. “I’m not leaving the academy, Darcent. I’ve only got two years left before I go guild. All I’m asking for is advice on knaves.”

“I’m not telling you to leave,” I said. “I’m telling you that secrets to demons and knaves aren’t in lectures and coursework. And neither is silver. Come find me at the Mop and Bucket in the lower city in a week or so if you’re interested in either. I’ve got a... call it an excursion that keeps getting put off that I need to attend to before I can help you.”

Quin pulled out his deck and did a single card reading. I didn’t look at the result. He dropped a couple coins on the bar and left without another word. I stayed long enough to finish his untouched ale. No sense letting posh upper city drinks go to waste.

Still, I couldn’t help thinking more on the encounter with my former schoolmates as I made my way back down to the lower city under the wane light. I had to do what I could to diffuse this whole barrow knave thing. But it’s not exactly easy to pull over a ruse on folks who make a living sussing the truths of the universe.

I had almost made it back to barrowdown when a shaded figure detatched itself from the wall and pulled a length of steel. He had a bronze adventurers badge on his lapel and a crumpled parchment in his other hand with my portrait on it.

“Found you, Barrow Knave! You’re under arreghgh—“

The two of knaves clipped his throat and he pushed his hands to his throat as he fell to the gutter. I called the card back to my outstretched hand and replaced it in my pocket, also briefly tapping the four of dragons to see if the would-be bounty hunter had any magic items as I passed. He didn’t, so I never even broke stride.

Finding the sloshing muck of Barrowdown once again beneath my feet, I trudged back to the Mop, only to find it in its usual disarray. The talent plied their trade on a wide array of drunks and those who had winnings from the local fighting pits. Annalisa was on a table, dancing to a rowdy jig the red-coated lutist strummed while Miss Trundi shouted for her to get down.

Instead, Annalisa conjured an obsidian portal, parallel to the ground, and began to dance on that, which got yet another round of cheers and applause (and more than a few spilled drinks). Our red-coated friend strummed faster, his fingers a blur on the strings. Annalisa huffed and puffed, trying to keep up with the tempo, until she finally tripped on her own tail. She toppled sideways and crashed through the table Miss Trundi was trying to wipe the boot-prints from.

I headed over hauling the cackling devilborn up to her feet. She raised both her hands in the air to the cheers and whistles.

“Darcent!” she shouted. “Want me to teach you how to dance? I’m really good at it!”

“I don’t think the furniture can take much more of your dancing, Annalisa!” I shouted. Despite my protestations, she pulled me into a spinning dance, and it was all I could do to keep up with her fighter’s footwork. Oddly enough, the storms in my broken deck seemed particularly interested in the chaotic jig, which I filed away for later.

Eventually, Annalisa handed me off to Mithra as she switched to a new partner of her own. Mithra let me spin her around for a few minutes before another girl replaced her, and I even found my toes getting stepped on by Miss Trundi’s heavy boots at one point as she hiked up her dress and rattled some floor boards.

Foe Skull had been right about one thing. I hadn’t won the Mop. Or Barrowdown, for that matter. Not until I’d gone down into the pit with her and come out still breathing. Now? This was our town. And gods help Kridick, or Daggertongue, or Mother Mayaz, or anyone else who came to take it away.

End of Arc 4