I took a look across the room. There were two charred skeletons, a burned mass, and another dead body. The wall opposite the beds was cracked, and one shutter was, too. At least it looks like we were attacked.
“We heard a commotion, miss.” A tall human woman wearing a hastily-strapped-on chestpiece addressed Seyari. She looked over Seyari’s shoulder despite how Seyari kept the door mostly closed. “Is everything all…” she trailed off, eyes wide.
“We were attacked,” Seyari responded plainly, keeping the door mostly closed. “We’ve handled the problem.”
Back on her bed by the window, Taava finished pulling a shirt over her head, flicking her ears as she tried to calm her tangle of hair. Salvador sat quietly on the edge of Seyari’s bed, listening intently.
“Attacked by what? We heard an explosion!” said a light, masculine-sounding voice from behind the tall, partially-armored woman. “Move out of the way, Drin!”
“How about you open the door, miss…?” The tall woman, Drin seed to search for Seyari’s na.
“It’s Seyari,” she replied. “And you’ll forgive for not wanting to open the door after what we’ve just been through.”
“Miss, I can see the bodies. Will—”
“Are you town militia?” Seyari asked curtly and Drin shook her head. “Ordian guard?” Drin shook her head again.
Seyari pushed the door as if to close it, but it was stuck on Drin’s booted foot.
“There are bodies?” The sa high masculine voice called out from sowhere in the hall.
Drin’s eye’s narrowed, and she spoke to the voice without moving her gaze away from Seyari. “Keep quiet for now, Tren.”
There was a light grumble behind the large woman.
Before the situation could devolve further, Taava stepped in, tapping Seyari on the shoulder. “Hey, co on Seyari, we can talk ta them, yeah? They’re not guard and they’re not with the assassins.” She flashed a winning smile and flicked her ears at Drin. “Right guys?” Taava turned to us and winked.
“Right,” Salvador said with a sharp nod.
“Yeah, I guess…” I trailed off and rubbed the back of my head.
Seyari reluctantly opened the door for Drin and the tall woman walked into the room. A thin, robed man glided in behind her, eyes darting around the scene: Tren, presumably.
Drin moved to a clear spot on the floor and took keen interest in the blackened skeletons, her face briefly showing shock. “You ntioned—"
“Assassins?” Tren interrupted. “What were they after you for? You know, we could maybe get you a contract for protection if you’ve got the money!” He looked down, seeming to just notice the charred bones. “If you need it? Who the heck would send soone after soone who could do that!?”
Taava shrugged exaggeratedly. “Idiots?”
Drin gave the man a reproachful glare. “Tren, enough—”
“Is this just about money? We don’t need protection, and we’re not going to be extorted.” Seyari interrupted angrily.
I felt Drin’s anger spike to match what had been burning in Seyari. I spoke up quickly. “Let Drin talk please.”
The partly-armored woman turned to and nodded gratefully. “As I was trying to say, we simply ca over to see if we could help after we heard the sounds of a fight, and then we heard the explosion. Tren and I are with the Gelles Company and in this town on an assignnt.”
“While we do provide protection services—” Drin looked at the bodies around the room, then scanned across our faces. “We vet our clients first. Now, I may not be with the law in this town, but I want to know what happened here, and I will be reporting this.”
Seyari looked like she’d bitten a li, but held her tongue. I knew what she’d want to say, but we both knew any further stalling would paint us guiltier and guiltier.
“Assassins!” Taava exclaid confidently. “They broke in, used so magic ta make things real quiet, and tried ta kill us! Check their outfits and what they’ve got on ‘em.”
Taava hadn’t been awake because of the lack of sound and the poison gas, but even if she wasn’t forrly one of their mbers, I could see it wouldn’t be difficult to assu they’d used magic to conceal themselves.
“There’s also one who got away.” I inclined my head toward the window. “I caught their leg with a shot of fire, and I know which alley they fell into, but I’d assu they’re gone by now.”
“And that would prove?” Drin cocked an eyebrow.
Behind her, Tren had moved on to inspecting the other bodies, but he kept glancing back at the two blackened skeletons.
I rubbed the back of my neck, barely keeping my hand from moving to tap a horn that wasn’t there. “Only that soone was trying to run away over the rooftops—if we can find evidence of their passing, that is.”
“Are you the mage?” Tren looked over at , and his brown eyes glowed before he frowned. “You don’t have much of an aura.”
I glanced at Seyari who nodded her assent to .
“Yeah, she is!” Taava jumped up right as I was about to demonstrate my fire magic. “Renna’s a really, really strong fire mage! But seriously, let’s just prove these people are assassins so we can stop bein’ all suspicious at each other!”
I shrugged, then lit a fla at the tip of a finger, white-hot and precisely crafted. Tren watched it, srized. I’d taken well to the lessons Seyari had given back in the mountains above Navanaea. My precision and efficiency with my magic were both still improving, but I tried to show off a little with how hot and precise I made the fla dancing just above my fingertip.
I hadn’t burned the two assassins to the bone with any magic a human would be capable of. But I needed to exude the confidence that I had done so as a capable human.
Taava’s deflection had been obvious and clumsy enough to where I took notice of it. But, I thought to myself, that had been the point. She deflects, I show my magic anyway, and now I’ve built so asure of trust between myself and Drin. I’ve shown that the four of us who’d killed these people were not acting out a script.
And the tension that had been building in the room lost its head of steam. Now wasn’t the place or ti for my mind to wander, but, for a mont, I considered whether I’d ever seen the real Taava. Or if there even was a “real” Taava.
Drin and Tren searched the bodies and we made small talk. Tense, at first, but with each hidden blade coated in burned poison and each smoke ball and each lockpick and each throwing dagger, the ice in the room lted.
Drin’s anger had ebbed after Taava’s little trick, but it drained further as we all talked, simring low enough to where I couldn’t possibly guess at its origin.
Outside in the street, a crowd had gathered, chattering, but without any notable damage and no clear evidence of what had happened, few people lingered long. I wasn’t really able to see the street from out our window which Seyari had closed at so point to dull the chatter.
Taava leaned by the sill, watching for sothing. Militia, probably. A town this size and far from any border or internal conflict wouldn’t have a dedicated town guard. It was still the middle of the night, but they’d be around—an explosion was hard to ignore.
I kept my seat at the foot of Taava’s bed by the window. Salvador sat at the foot of the other bed, and Seyari moved around the room, watching.
“So.” Drin tossed the last blade onto the pile of damaged sneaking and killing implents. “A group of assassins attacked you in an inn room off the main street in a sleepy fishing town.”
“Yep!” Taava nodded excitedly.
“And one of you is a master fire mage.” Tren looked at with a mixture of emotions I couldn’t place. No anger, though.
“I wouldn’t say master fire mage,” I replied, trying to wave off so of the formality, “and my na is Zarenna.”
Tren’s eyes glowed again. “You’re concealing your aura, Miss Zarenna.”
“If you had assassins after you, wouldn’t you do the sa?” I asked, then after a short paused added, “If you could?”
“I suppose, but there are few mages of your strength in Ordia, and none I know of who match your description.” Tren kept his eyes fixed on with a kind of fascination that spoke of categorical obsession.
“All this begs the question…” Drin looked around, eyes lingering on everyone in the group before landing on Salvador. “What is a group like your own doing in a place like this? Why would a master fire mage travel with you lot? And, most importantly, why are there assassins after you?”
Salvador answered. “Zarenna has always chosen to help her friends, regardless of station. She is journeying to her childhood ho to seek answers, and I am following because I feel I might find so of my own.”
“And the assassins are after ‘cause I helped get a bunch of ‘em caught a while ago and they want revenge! These three agreed ta protect , and they did!” Taava concluded energetically.
I saw Seyari cock an eyebrow at Taava’s statent. How truthful was that?
Obviously not entirely, since Taava clearly wasn’t going to tell the two rcs that she used to belong to the dead assassins’ order.
Drin narrowed her eyes, seemingly trying to gauge Salvador’s authenticity. She didn’t react to Taava. Ever the consummate professional, Salvador’s face was as unreadable to as ever.
I suppose it didn’t hurt he was telling the truth.
Behind the partially-armored woman, Tren whispered sothing to Taava—I caught my na. Taava whispered back conspiratorially, and I watched Seyari drift closer by a step to listen in. I turned back and regarded Drin.
She eventually replied, “That’s… comndable, Mister…”
“Salvador, Miss Drin.”
She nodded.
I heard booted footfalls coming up the stairs again.
Taava’s ears twitched and she leaned past Tren to speak to Drin. “Are we good now?” She turned to the small robed man. “We’re good now, yeah? Just gotta report so dead assassins?”
“We have no problems, right Tren?” Drin gave the charred remains one last lingering look.
“None!” Tren smiled. “Oh, and if you’re ever in Lockmoth or another big city, we probably have a branch there. If you folks want to join up, we could use a mage like Zarenna!”
“I’ll think about it,” I replied honestly.
“Great!” Tren gave a thumbs up right as a knock sounded at our door.
“Militia. Is everyone alright?” a voice from the other side said tiredly, with a hint of boredom.
“We’re fine!” Seyari called back. “I’ll be there in a mont!”
Seyari paced quickly over to the door and opened it. The man on the other side wore the expression of soone who would really rather be in bed. He gazed around the room, saw five others in the two-person room, then the bodies.
Very quickly, the man went from half-asleep to awake and shocked.
***
We spent until dawn bouncing back and forth between the militia headquarters and the inn, getting questioned, and even helping to remove the bodies without causing an uproar.
Drin and Tren left early on, but I kept their offer in the back of my mind. It wasn’t until we were settling in to sleep at a different inn that I rembered: I hadn’t ever checked where the assassin had fallen off the roof.
Exhaustion had claid the others, but I lay awake on my bedroll on the floor of the inn room, staring up at the underside of my empty cot. When the creaking that was keeping up had been interrupted by a cracking sound, I’d realized I was too heavy and moved to the floor.
The beds here were narrow and probably nearly as frail, but I still had almost crawled in with Seyari. Not that I would’ve fit.
Quietly as I could, I slid the blanket off myself and tiptoed over to my clothes which had been thrown in a pile in the corner. I paused, frozen, when I caught motion. One of Taava’s furred triangular ears flicked, the only part of her visible under the blanket nest she’d made.
I didn’t know if it was reflexive or she’d heard . But she didn’t move or say anything, so I took my clothes, dressed quickly by the door, and crept out into the early morning, locking the door behind .
Salvador had the other key, so I wasn’t worried. I passed a militiaman in the tavern downstairs. He gave a questioning look and I told him I couldn’t sleep, so I was going out for a walk. His gaze held in the room long enough to make realize I was holding my breath before he told to be careful and assented.
I breathed out a sigh, thanked him, and stepped out the door into the brisk morning, salt and gull cries crisp on the air. Behind , I heard “And don’t roast anyone. Call for help instead.”
I winced. I’d gotten an earful for that. Yes, it had been self-defense, but the guards were convinced such fire magic would be a danger to others or to structures. Tren had been the one, in the end, who got them to drop the matter, but I could tell they were antsy around .
How much different would their attitude be if they knew what I was?
I shook my head. Not sothing I was willing to test… yet.
I’d made it a block before the warmth of the inn faded and I felt how truly cold the late autumn morning was. The chill was bitter and unrepentant, worsened by a wind in from the water and a clear, nearly sunless sky. Orange and maroon hues from the east heralded the sun’s arrival.
The town was busy, like I imagined any port would be in the morning. I’d been through two major ports on my journey—three if you counted the pirates’ hideout in Port Princely—but I had yet to really experience one during the morning rush; fishing boats dotted the harbor, dispersing out to sea like ants in search of food.
As I walked toward the main avenue, I heard a catcall from a guy who had the dress of a fisher and it took a mont to realize he’d aid it at . I kept walking, head lower. In the past, my height or Seyari had shielded . In Navanaea, culturally, unwanted advances were kept more intimate in their proximity. Also, I had openly been a demon, and bound, for most of the trip.
The guy called again. I walked faster.
He said he just wanted to talk to . Called pretty.
I kept walking, turning onto the main street probably two blocks from the inn where we’d been attacked. Not that the town had more than six or eight “blocks.” I tried to distract myself with the architecture.
The guy almost had to jog to keep up. Really? How dense can this guy be?
Now, he was getting angry. Asking why I wouldn’t talk to him. His voice was sweet, but I felt his anger bubble up, fetid and cloying.
A dark part of thought briefly about pumping up his anger just to give a chance to—
No. Instead, I pulled and deflated his anger, the mass puddling like lting tar on a hot day.
Anger turned to pleading. So few people were watching.
“Is that man bothering you, miss?” I looked toward the voice and saw a rather burly looking guy set an empty barrel down on the cobbles.
There was a protest from the man who’d been following . A denial, an “I just want to talk and she’s being rude!”
“Yes,” I replied icily, “he is.”
The man by the barrel called out to the guy to knock it off. The guy protested but stopped walking after . I kept going at a brisk pace, long legs carrying away down the main street.
I caught so of their conversation; a reprimand, a long silence, then a complaint and an angry assent. I didn’t hear the rest of it, and, quite frankly, I didn’t want to. On one hand, I was happy the other guy was willing to step in, but on the other hand, I shouldn’t be happy the major jerk had been brazen enough to follow across half the damn town.
What if I wasn’t able to fight soone of his size off and no one like the other guy had been around? Perhaps I could have gotten away with the right sort of attention-acknowledging deflection and a quick tongue, willing to flatter for the sake of my own safety. Perhaps not. Perhaps nothing more beyond a creepy, awkward conversation would have happened. Perhaps not.
I was still brooding when I reached the alley where the assassin had fallen. There was a scuff down the side of the damp wall of one of the buildings, and a deep scar surrounded by burned scraps in the muddy dirt of the alley where soone had landed. There were footprints in the mud, but when I followed them, they disappeared on the cobbles of the street one row inland from the main harbor avenue.
I’d hoped, perhaps foolishly, for so kind of clue to have been left behind. The scene had reminded of one in a book Abby had lent years ago. In it, the main character was a princess in hiding, and the situation had been similar. She had found the assassin’s crest on a torn scrap of cloth and it was instruntal in her quest to avenge her father’s killer and take her place on the throne. But that was just a story.
I turned and walked back down the alley, spending ti at the end to check the place where the assassin had landed. The burned bits, I guessed, had been part of their clothing. I kicked the mud around, but didn’t find anything.
Then, when I was about to leave, I looked up. Sothing tallic caught the rising sun, jamd into the eave of the roof. Maybe the stories do have sothing right!
My excitent only lasted a mont before I realized I had no way to get up there. Even if I had my claws, I didn’t trust them to hold to the wall without ruining it, and I wasn’t about to try my luck getting up to and across using the rooftops.
I stared up at the object for a while longer; it was a blade—or part of a blade. I almost risked shifting my eyes to see a bit better, but rembered there was at least one person in this town who, astronomical though the coincidence would be, could catch out.
Tren wasn’t around, but I did hear footsteps turn into the alley. I looked over, brain trying to co up with an excuse as to why I was standing in a muddy alley looking intently up a blank wall.
Taava was the person who walked around the corner, wrapped up in probably everyone’s cloaks all at once. She rubbed her eyes blearily and stretched, yawning. “D’ya normally sneak out in the mornin’ ta go stare at walls? ‘Cause the inn room has four of ‘em, plus a ceilin’ if you’re lyin’ down.”
“That’s not what—I an, no, I normally don’t.”
“You normally don’t? Sothin’ special about this wall?” Taava walked closer to , and made a show of looking around. “Oh hey, wait a minute! Was this the place with the thing? Nice!”
Despite her irreverent comnt, I caught that her cat-eyed gaze had seen the blade stuck up above us. “You think you can climb up there and get it?” I asked quietly.
“Tch. Sure thing,” Taava whispered back. “Just keep an eye out by the main road for a sec, will ya? I’ll look toward the back ta see if there’re any real light sleepers in this place. Though, you think they’d’ve woken up with so jerk bangin’ around all over their roof and fallin’ down the side of their house. Eh, oh well.” The kazzel saluted and turned toward the wall.
I stepped back out onto the road, doing my best to pretend the sunrise was interesting without actually getting distracted by the gorgeous scene.
Not long after, Taava walked up and tapped on the shoulder. “Done! Let’s get back, though. I’m freezin’ my tail off out here! How can ya stand it? Is it a, y’know, thing?”
“I’m cheating and using my magic.” I started walking and Taava followed behind, then to the side, then out in front, orbiting . I tracked her, watching the bundle of coats with cat ears circle . “How did you find where I went? Or did you also rember?”
Taava stopped and I almost walked into her. “Huh? Oh, I totally forgot—I just heard ya sneakin’ out and thought I should follow. Then I found so guy complainin’ to so other guy about bein’ a dick to so girl and figured that might’ve been you. Then I rembered the roof person thing and found ya!”
I noticed she was carefully avoiding saying anything incriminating. “How much is real and how much is training?” I muttered under my breath.
“I dunno!” Taava pretended to answer the question, smiling brightly. The smile didn’t reach her eyes.
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