Chapter Four

It had been several hours since Shuka and her friends had escaped the paladin pursuing them and none of them were having fun. They were trekking through the woods, as the road was still too dangerous. No one but Shuka were very experienced in woodland hikes and the two horses they had to drag through the thick underbrush wasn’t helping either. The young hunter was unhappy for an entirely different reason though. It mostly had to do with the fact that she almost died and was entirely helpless in stopping it. Admittedly, she wasn’t the only one who felt that way, but it still wasn’t a nice thing to think about.

Ralisdor left for two minutes and look what happened. Am I really that defenceless? Or maybe its just that my opponent was too strong. I mean, he took out Xorvos with one attack, what am I supposed to do against that?

She kept thinking back to the fight she just barely survived and couldn’t think of anything she could have done better. Every possibility she thought of just ended with the same result, or a worse one. There didn’t seem to be much hope for a second encounter unless things changed significantly.

I guess I better just stick to Ralisdor a bit closer from now on. I don’t like having to rely on him so much, but my life is more important than my pride. With any luck, we won’t even have to deal with that paladin again anyway. I mean as soon as I get this curse removed, I can just explain everything and put this all behind us. Although I don’t really know how long that’s going to take.

“Hey Ralisdor.”

“Yes Shuka?”

“How long do you think it will take to get this curse removed?”

Ralisdor took a moment to think about her question. It didn’t take him long to find his answer though.

“Perhaps one or two months. Maybe longer.”

It didn’t seem that long until you considered that every day might be as filled with danger as today. She had already had two near death experiences and that’s not even including the encounter with the witch.

“I’m not sure I can survive two months of this. Is there any way to help me faster?”

“Not without increasing the danger we put you in. I do not have the expertise necessary to purge the curse from your body, so we must find someone who does. The closest place that would have a person who might help us is the city Lancrin, which is at least months travel away even on horseback. We could head back to Rainsburg to attempt to find the book we were looking for before, but I believe that to be a lost cause now.”

I don’t like it, but I have to agree on Rainsburg being a lost cause. Even if the book wasn’t stolen by that thief, they must have increased their security by a lot. Its too big of a risk for something that might not even be there. But is Lancrin really the closest option? That’s halfway up the Empire.

“What if we found another book somewhere else? I mean Rockmarsh is pretty close, why don’t we check their library for something useful? It’s a city just as big as Lancrin right?”

“You have been a bit spoiled by the library in Rainsburg, so I don’t blame you for not knowing this, but books on magic are not common. Rockmarsh has a library, and it is even a large one, but it has far fewer magical tomes than you are used to. The few spellcasters that do reside in that city are diviners and geomancers, and they have little use for books on curses.”

Is there really no chance of a useful book being there? I guess I’ve never actually been there so I wouldn’t know, but cities are supposed to have everything aren’t they?

“Well…” Ralisdor started. “We are passing through Rockmarsh anyway. I suppose it would not hurt to at least check their library. Just don’t get your hopes up.”

It was a good enough answer for Shuka. She knew Rainsburg did most of its trading with the city so it shouldn’t be too far away. At least not compared to somewhere like Lancrin.

“So how long until we reach Rockmarsh then?”

“About a week, give or take a few days.”

Just one week huh? I wonder how much can go wrong in that much time.

*

They left the forest early the next day. By noon they reached a small farming village. It was a small place, much smaller than even Rainsburg. It was so small Xorvos doubted it even had a name. At the very least, neither him nor the rest of the group had ever heard of it before. It didn’t take long to see that they weren’t welcome. There wasn’t very many buildings in the village, but almost all of them had suspicious eyes looking out the windows. What few people were in the streets didn’t look all that happy either.

Whats going on? Did they already hear about the incident at the library? Maybe it was a mistake to come here.

Before long a man approached the group. He was a rough looking man with an even rougher scowl. He strode right up to Ralisdor, who was leading the group and spat onto the ground.

“What are a couple of outsiders doing in my town? You better give me a good reason quick or I will have you arrested for disturbing the peace.”

“Disturbing the peace? But we haven’t even done anything.”

The man glared at Xorvos at his words. The effect was slightly diminished since he had to look up, but it still made the Quanso nervous.

“You’re disturbing the peace just by being here! We don’t need any outsiders and we definitely don’t need any non-humans around here, so just scram!”

The man looked like he was about to burst with anger, but before he could do anything rash Ralisdor stepped in to calm him down.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

“Now why don’t you just calm down a bit there we are only passing through. If you could just direct us to any sort of general store where we can restock our supplies and get directions to Rockmarsh we will be on our way. I swear we will be out of your town in half an hour or less.”

Surprisingly enough it actually seemed to work. The more Ralisdor talked the more the man seemed to calm down and actually listen. By the end of it he was begrudgingly nodding his head. He still didn’t seem happy, but at least he was hearing them out.

“Alright fine. The general store is on the other end of the town right next to the prison. Get what you need and then leave. If you are still here after thirty minutes then you will be spending the rest of your days staring at the store from out your cell window, got it?”

“Perfectly. I assure you all you will get from us is a bit of business.”

What happened there? He looked ready to arrest us just for existing, but now he’s just letting us go? Something seems a bit weird here.

The man stepped aside to let them head to the general store, but never took his eyes off them. Still, they reached the general store without any problem. Being on the ‘other end of town’ didn’t really mean much when it only took a few minutes to reach the other end. Ralisdor stopped at the door though.

“Perhaps it would be best if I went in alone. I do not mean to be rude and it is neither of your faults, but either of you entering may cause an incident.”

As much as I hate to admit it, Ralisdor is right. Shuka is cursed and if the shopkeeper is anything like the man from before they probably won’t like me much either.

“Go ahead, we will wait out here for you.”

They had been walking for several hours before they reached the town, so Xorvos decided to wait for Ralisdor sitting down with his back against the store. None of the ground was paved so he was going to get a bit dirty, but he didn’t mind. Shuka didn’t either so she sat down next to him. She had a scowl on her face that seemed to rival that of the man from before. It looked like she was just barely holding inn the urge to kill someone. It was not a look Xorvos was used to seeing on her.

I don’t think I have ever seen her so mad before. What’s got her so riled up? The people in this town aren’t very pleasant, but it’s nothing that bad.

“Hey Shuka. Is everything alright?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah, I’m fine. Why?”

“You… don’t look fine.”

She looked almost confused at that. Like she really did think nothing was wrong.

“I mean… I’m a little mad at that guy from before, but I’ll get over it. It’s not like we are staying her for very long anyway.”

That was exactly what Xorvos would expect Shuka to say given how well he knows her, and yet… for some reason he didn’t believe her. Everything she said sounded angry or bitterly sarcastic even if the words she was saying didn’t match that.

Is this all the curse? Or do I not know her as well as I thought I did? Maybe I should change the subject.

“So, uh… that was pretty impressive. What Ralisdor did, I mean. I didn’t think he would be able to convince him to let us go.”

“Yeah, I think he used a spell. I didn’t notice him casting anything though so it was pretty subtle.”

“A spell? You mean like one of those mind control spells? Those are illegal.”

Xorvos was aghast at the thought of mind control and even more horrified at the casualness at which Shuka mentioned it.

“It’s not mind control. I don’t know what spell exactly he used but I don’t think he would go that extreme. I think he just altered his emotions a little so he would calm down.”

“But how does he even know a spell like that? I thought he was a illusionist.”

“He is, but there are plenty of illusion spells that mess with the head so its not that surprising.”

Xorvos thought back to the day before when Validus started swinging at nothing. Or more accurately, swinging at an illusion that only he could see. Knowing he had that power did not comfort him, despite it having saved his life.

“Aren’t you afraid he’s going to mess with your head or read your mind or something? It seems like a dangerous kind of magic for him to have.”

“Maybe from someone else, but I trust Ralisdor. And besides, I can’t imagine him using it for anything worse than a prank or two.”

The words were tame, but the tone was accusatory. It felt just ever so slightly wrong though, like there was a disconnect between what she was saying and what she meant. Xorvos clung to that disconnect like a lifeline to reassure him that she was still the same friend he’s always had.

“I still don’t like it, but… if you trust him then I will too. Even if I don’t like him all that much.”

“Really? He’s not that bad. He even reminds me of Maryam sometimes.”

“Maryam? Now that I don’t see at all.”

The comparison shocked Xorvos as Maryam was a childhood friend with more energy in her than every other kid in Rainsburg combined. Ralisdor was… not that.

“Yeah, he doesn’t show it much, but sometimes he will go on these big, long rants on a topic, usually magic, and he becomes the spitting image of her. He may not share much with Maryam, but he definitely shares her love of magic. It’s why I asked him for lessons in the first place.”

“I guess I can understand that. Maryam did love talking about magic. I remember she felt so bad for me when she learned Quanso couldn’t use magic she spent a week trying to cheer me up. I wasn’t even sad about it.”

Shuka smiled at the memories and the bad feeling Xorvos had for her started to lessen. Not disappear completely, her smile still felt a bit malicious, but it was a lot better. But then the smile turned somber.

“You know, I never said goodbye to her properly when she got adopted. I regret that. We were having a childish dispute at the time, and I just wish I could have at least fixed things before she left. Now I don’t even know where she is.”

I remember that well. It was not a happy time. They were both orphans, and when the Orphanage tested their magical aptitudes, they found Maryam couldn’t cast magic at all. She had some sort of condition or birth defect that made her worse at it than even Quanso. It was heartbreaking. And the fact that Shuka had no such problems only made it worse.

“I’m not sure if I ever told you this, but I actually took magic lessons at the Orphanage. Even without Maryam. It ruined my relationship with her, and I felt so guilty after she got adopted that I stopped. Maybe if we had a little more time together it would have all blown over, but instead she left hating me.”

Xorvos didn’t now what to say. This was all old news, but new or old it was still sad. He did have one question though.

“So why did you start learning magic again after all this time?”

“When Ralisdor arrived in Rainsburg, I asked him why he decided to stay. I expected him to just say he wanted to study the ruins like everyone else like him, and he did start with that. But then we got off topic and he started talking about magic. He was a complete stranger at the time, but he was so passionate about it that we ended up talking for hours. Well, he ended up talking for hours, I didn’t really have much to contribute to the conversation. But the point is he reignited the passion for magic that Maryam had given me so many years ago. I almost thought he was going to refuse when I asked to be his apprentice, but he ended up accepting. And now here we are.”

Xorvos had never heard the full story before. As far as he knew she started learning magic on a whim. This made much more sense though. There was a moment of silence as they both contemplated their feelings when they were interrupted by Ralisdor leaving the store in a hurry.

“I have what we need, we are leaving now. Quickly before they decide to kick us out.”

Xorvos didn’t need much convincing and he doubted Shuka did either, so he got up and started following the older mage. During the whole conversation he had with Shuka he kept on see people staring at them out of the corner of his eye, and he knew they weren’t friendly stares. Luckily the store that they were at was close to the edge of the town, so they didn’t need to walk far. In fact, there was only a single building between them and the grassy plains beyond. It was a large, imposing building. Only one floor, wide and made of stone.

What did the man from before say this was? A prison? Well, it certainly looks like one.

They were almost past the building and out of the town when Xorvos took one last look at the prison. There was a window. It had bars in it like any prison or dungeon would, but it also had a face looking out of it. An elven face, with long ears and a thin, gaunt face that only partly comes from his heritage. It was obvious he was starving even from just a glance. He looked Xorvos directly in the eyes and mouthed two words, his voice too weak to even be heard.

“Help me.”