As soon as my class ended, I spoke with my Professor about taking on extra responsibilities. Professor Viganne was a well educated man, but he took on far too many tasks and his class flow suffered because of it. I offered to organize his ntes for him on my off days once a week so that he could retain class attention better, and he refused on the grounds that he didn’t want to burden the Third Princess with a menial task. I recalled this being a nonissue for the soldiers I assisted, and left those words hanging over his head as I departed class. I would be home later than anyone else, or so I’d thought I would be. In reality, I was home first – Just as the sun was setting, even – and so I made a priority to prepare coffee for the other two as they arrived. A simple blend of lavender honey coffee to celebrate everyone completing their first day of school was something I’d thought about during the previous week, and it was a simple task to do so despite my magical restriction. Simple heating was not beyond me, even in this state, which I found worrying at first but slowly grew to accept. I knew there was a rune for this, but I chose to do it myself anyway.
First, I’d activate our flat top stove and let it accumulate heat on the surface. While it did that, I ran the coffee blend through a thin cloth to remove pulp and impurities from the lavender petals, and wrung it out into the filter. Once that was done, the filter was placed atop the coffee container and left to air dry for the moment, directly above the stove. The next step was to fill a pitcher of water and place it atop the stove, letting it come to a boil. All of this took only a few minutes, and in that time I remember hearing the door creak open, and a shuffling that was light in step.
“Is that you, Ragnis?” I called from the kitchen, grabbing a collection of honey and pepper from the cabinet I stored my coffee supplies in. I heard her respond, but couldn’t make out what she said as I lightly tapped out just three shakes of my pepper shaker atop a spoonful of honey. At this step, the water should be plenty boiled, and so I turned the heat off and began to stir my honey pepper concoction into the water, watching the honey dissolve into it with the heat.
“How could you tell it was me?” I heard Ragnis say, finally seeing her physical form enter the kitchen in her more expected school uniform.
“You have a very soft step.” I told her. “If it was June the door would’ve swung open quickly and I wouldn’t have heard a thing.” I replied, taking the water off the stove and pouring it very gently through the filter I’d constructed. The beans and petals mixed with the water to turn a honeyed brown as they sifted through into the container below. It was enough for three mugs total, and the muddy remainder left in the filter was discarded economically by drying it out above the still-warm stove while I continued my conversation with Ragnis.
“Sort of defeats the purpose of her silent steps if she just bursts through every door she’s opening, don’t you think?” I laughed. “Anyway, how was class?”
“It went about as I’d have expected.” she remarked, reaching behind her to pull her longer hair forward to show me that her beautiful blond was now turning a light red alongside it, small streaks here and there. “Professor Yormun awakened my potential, and…”
“You don’t like the color, do you?’ I joked. “We can dye it back to your natural color later. It won’t remove the glow you get when you cast, but it’ll keep you looking how you like.”
“Thanks…” she sighed heavily. “Red is just such an aggressive color to me, I don’t want to come off that way.”
“You’re a knight, though.” I reached for the now-dried coffee filter, and placed it in an empty jar we had in our baking supplies, priming it to be used for baking coffee cake later. “Aggression is kind of your job.”
“I mean-” she was cut off as the door flung open with force, followed by me putting a finger to my lips to hush Ragnis. We both heard no footsteps whatsoever, just as I’d said, and June popped her head into the kitchen. It was immediately apparent that all of her hair had turned to match her Affinity now, which told me her class experience was visceral in the nicest way possible.
“There you two are. Sorry I’m late!”
“Told you.” I said. Ragnis nodded.
“What?” June asked. I shook my head.
“Just caught us at the end of a chat. You went through one Hell of an awakening didn’t you?” I poked at her hair to change subjects.
“Apparently, yes. But after I tried to do it again all I made was a cinnamon light.”
“…Right.” I wasn’t sure how to respond to that.
“Anyway! Who wants to make some money? I got a bounty worth three hundred Petals and I don’t need that much.”
“Okay slow down, first of all.” I gestured to the coffee I’d just made. “Tell me what this is about while we enjoy this, I spent a lot of time on it.” I lied. It took me ten minutes. “Second, are you going to stop hiding behind the door?”
As I said this, she entered the kitchen wearing a half suit of armor – a breastplate, some gauntlets, and boot coverings over her school uniform with what looked like chain mail and gambeson underneath the vest. This alarmed me both because she looked like she was ready to go and do this bounty right away and also because I realized that she had somehow masked her footsteps even in all of that armor.
“How did you-” she cut me off. That also never happens.
“It’s loaner gear from the Peacemakers for the bounty.” she responded, pumping her fist into the breastplate for emphasis with a loud clunk. “How do I look?”
“Like Ragnis when she’s at work.” I joked. “It suits you. But what’s gotten into you today?”
“I’m not sure. But I feel really good today. Is it obvious?”
“Very.” Ragnis said, finally rejoining the conversation. “What’s this bounty all about?”
“Hang on, hang on.” I gestured to the coffee container again in protest, and they both stayed quiet as I poured them mugs. “Alright, carry on.
“Three hundred Petals to investigate, chase away, or exterminate a pack of wolves causing trouble outside the city wall.”
“Three hundred. For wolves?” Ragnis shook her head. “That’s not right.”
“That’s what I said.” June shrugged. “My guess is that the person who posted the bounty lied about what the animal was, or didn’t know what it was, but if it’s worth that much to them it must be doing a lot of damage to their farm.”
“And you’re just… Going to do it?” I asked. “You know it’s probably a huge risk, and you’re just okay with it?”
“Yep.” she replied. “Someone needs help, and I need money. It works out for both of us in the end.”
We all stood in silence for a moment, sipping our coffee which I will say was delicious and perfect in every way, before I decided I’d respond.
“Alright, well someone has to make sure you don’t die. I’m in.”
“I’m the only one here with formal combat experience, so it would be blood on my hands if I let you do this yourself.” Ragnis responded too. “I’ll unpack my gear.”
“I’ll borrow something from my sister.” I said. “When are we doing this?”
“Tonight, I was hoping.” June finished her coffee, which was an admittedly hilarious sight while she was kitted out in plate armor, and set the mug down. “At least staking the area out, anyway.”
“Alright, fine.” I set my own mug down now, and retreated to my room without a word. Underneath my bed, I kept a specific tool for self defense in the form of a dagger, which I strapped to my belt. I decided there was no need to change clothes if I was going to ask my sister for her assistance, and returned to find that June had left a claymore against the door.
“Two handed swords? I wouldn’t have thought.” I remarked, to which she seemed relatively excited about.
“Me either but isn’t it cool? We tested a few options, and I worked the best with this.”
“Well, I guess we have a fully rounded group then.” Ragnis spoke up, and I heard the setting down of her mug. Pride in my coffee came to me again. “My specialty is shield and axe.”
“I don’t really have a specialty,” I began, stretching my arms to force the caffeine in my system to move faster like a poison, “But I have a dagger in case anyone gets too close, and I’m light on my feet.”
“I guess, that’s it then. Anybody need the bathroom before we go? Well rested? Had dinner?” Ragnis asked, seemingly sarcastic but since it was Ragnis it was obvious to us that they were genuine questions.
“I’m all set, I’ll have my sister meet us at the gate. Which gate is it?”
“Northeast wall, so the closest gate to us is North I believe.”
“Perfect, we can meet up on the way.” I grabbed my Imperial cloak from the wall and retrieved my own Sending Heart from it, and concentrated. I could hear my sister on the other side responding, and communicated that I wanted to meet her by the north gate to pick up something. When she refused, I instead offered to swing by her temporary apartment to pick up one of her tomes. After I was specific enough and made it more convenient for her, she agreed and asked which one, and I told her to grab the one with the spell runes. She asked if I actually agreed to help June, to which I said yes, and we disconnected.
“She has it ready for me. I’ll break off to grab it the closer to the gate we get instead of making her walk there, alright?’
“You don’t want us to come with you?” Ragnis asked. I shrugged.
“You can, I just didn’t think you’d want to.”
“No, it’s better if we stick together.” June said. “Especially if we’re going to walk around with weapons, which is already sketchy enough and we already will have to stop and explain ourselves a lot. Less so if we stay with you, since we could easily be brushed off as escorts.”
“Did you think of that yourself?” I asked, to which I saw her face flush red and she crossed her arms.
“Sir Mirroheart suggested it, actually. I didn’t claim credit.”
“But you would have, if I hadn’t said something.” I teased, and saw her red cheeks turn brighter as she turned away. In the time I’ve spent with June, I have picked up on the fact that she is not very bright. There was no way someone with her way of thinking would have had a plan like that by herself. It was cute, the way she tried to act cool sometimes only to be shut down again.
“Anyway!” June insisted. I giggled a bit. “We should get moving if we’re all ready. And, thank you both. I couldn’t do this without you.”
“As long as you’re aware of that.” I teased again, nudging her with my elbow. “Now, I agree. I need both of my beautiful escorts to take me to see my sister at once.”
If her idea was to act as an escort, I was sure going to milk it.
Rather than boring you with the description of the city you already know, I’ll trust you to remember how things look and not insult your intelligence with repetition. The walk to get to Tariah took us an hour, and the sun had totally set by the time we arrived in front of her temporary place. It was a quick meeting, with little to mention besides Tariah teasing June a bit, which led to me teasing her in unison. It was cute, and I’d like to keep that moment for my own recollection, if you don’t mind. Directly after finishing that task, we took ourselves toward the North gate and presented our paperwork. The guard let us through, but I could tell right away that I knew them.
“Thanks, Zephyra.” I called back. She responded to me as we made our way out of the gate, but I didn’t hear what she said. Instead, I was focused on the trail ahead, which was probably new territory for June. She was probably thinking about how beautiful the irises and tulips along the entry were and how properly sectioned the lanes for traffic were because of them. It likely also occurred to her that the trees here were all somewhat lit as well, thanks to the Flux lights hanging from their trunks just a small distance above our heads.
She would bore you with those details, but not me. I instead noticed an unusual lack of people, even for this hour. It was just us along the road, not even a soldier on patrol. The lights in the trees also ended at a certain point, due east – of course it was directly where we were going. I nudged Ragnis and mentioned it to her, and she agreed with a nod. Both of us figured it was easier to stay quiet the moment we saw that, but we had to mention it to June too, which sort of defeated the purpose.
“June,” I whispered, grabbing her shoulder. “It’s eerily quiet out here. That usually means something dangerous is prowling and those weaker than it went to hide. Do your best to stay quiet.”
“Got it.” she whispered back. I could tell she was taking me seriously, as she was too blunt a person to hide any annoyance or disagreement in her words. I appreciated someone who could wear their heart on their sleeve that way. Still, between the three of us I knew that it came down to Ragnis to have the most experience, and I deferred to following her lead. She seemed to understand as she stepped in front of us, with me behind and June at the back. For a ragtag, we had some wordless understanding about us.
It took us a little more time to reach the northeast wall, marked clearly to us by the battlement that jetted out from the wall at the corner to mark the end of each section. The entire way there, we heard nothing – No animals, no rustling leaves from the wind, not even each other’s footsteps save for Ragnis, and hers were soft enough that we wouldn’t have heard them if there had been anything else happening.
We followed a dirt road dug into the grass and outlined by gravel as our only guidance, with the trees glowing as our only light. Staying on the path would prove to be the correct choice, as it led us directly to a large open field with crops dotting the area around it, surrounded by wooden fences with similar lights along the edges. A single building sat in the distance, lights on inside but otherwise silent. Our approach revealed that the crops were a mixture of potatoes, carrots, and cabbage, none of which I believed a wolf would be scavenging for, especially a whole pack and more so a pack that was dangerous enough to warrant this large sum. This was my final clue that we were not dealing with a common animal, and I addressed this concern immediately.
“This farm has no livestock.” I whispered. “What pack of wolves would suddenly go vegetarian like that?”
“Maybe it’s the wrong farm?” June asked. I shook my head.
“The northeast wall is nearly entirely unsettled. Most of it is a nature reserve where scholars observe animals in their natural habitat. The only buildings out here are the facility where that observation happens, and-” I hushed myself mid thought, hearing the crops rustling around us in the wind.
“And a few vegetable farms at either end.” Ragnis finished my thought after the wind died down. “They’re not even commercial farms, just civilians that wanted to be off the grid and close to nature. Sometimes they sell in town, but it’s not often. You’re right, I didn’t even think about that.”
“Right, so what sort of creatures are we actually dealing with that a panicked farmer might describe them as wolves and still be so afraid that he thinks they’re worth that much?” June responded, and then her eyes immediately shot open in horror. “We need to move.”
“June what’s–” She cut me off and repeated herself, shooting off toward the farm faster than I’ve ever seen her move. Ragnis followed, and then me right behind, opening the tome along the way and flipping to a page I could use. By the time I’d caught up to them, I was on a page with a rune for warding. In our stopped position, I could see exactly why June rushed into the fray; some form of six legged creature with a tail that had a stinger at the end, and the face of a crocodilian with six eyes was prowling the building. It seemed that it had noticed us, and turned at once, looking to each of us individually before its eyes rested on mine. I could feel intelligence behind its gaze, as it was sizing me up methodically in the interim.
Without warning and at a speed i nearly couldn’t match, it lunged headfirst at me. I was able to duck out of the way, but the stinger whipped around and with tensile strength I wasn’t expecting, the tail of the creature grabbed my ankle and tripped me up as it passed. If not for Ragnis stepping in front with her shield and bashing it in the face as it rounded for another attack, I would have been dead in that instant. It recoiled with a horrific shriek, which seemed to be silenced by the bubbling sounds of its own blood. June had impaled it as Ragnis bashed it.
“W-what-” I tried to ask questions, but was cut off by June again.
“I’m not sure what it’s called, but Sir Mirroheart and I took a few of them on during my trip to the city. We named them Abomination. The good news is, they’re vulnerable to their own stingers if I remember right. The bad news is, they bleed acidic blood and it’ll rot your gear if you let it. The worse news is, the last time I saw one, there were three of them.”
“Hang on, you never mentioned this-” Ragnis was also cut off.
“That’s because I forgot until just now! Sir Mirroheart forgets them too until something jogs our memory that’s why we haven’t reported them yet! But that’s not important, right now we need to keep an eye out for more.”
“Gotcha…” June was taking charge, and I appreciated that. It was a creature she had seen before, but it seemed to have some ridiculous strength, speed and cunning. I would have wondered how she dealt with it if not for Drey being part of the story. Still, she was warning us to stay alert, and so we did. That shriek must have been a call for help, as it didn’t take long to hear the sound of more coming.
I could make out at least seven distinct separate areas where I was able to hear movement. This did give me time to get the ward active, but I also had to warn of how many there were.
“I count seven by ear. Everyone get close.” I urged.We all got into a triangle formation with our backs together, and I pressed my hand to the rune on the page. It wasn’t my magic, but I knew there was no longer a reason for my magic to be sealed either. The monster inside me could come out anyway, so I was going to fight with all my knowledge and the power stored in this tome.
I tore the page out and crushed it in my hand, which ignited it. A large glowing sphere crept around our area and pushed the grass down below us, emitting a low hum and smelling of cinnamon. This would be a flag for those creatures to attack us, but it also kept us safe from magical attacks for a short time while I prepared my next cast. I turned behind me to each of them, and then pushed my hand into the next rune.
“Brace yourselves. This is going to be a long night.”
Magna Varia 