It seemed natural to celebrate after Ward’s death. He was the reason I was tricked into my pact with The Aeon, and the reason The Aeon was tricked into making someone like me his champion. I meditated in my room before cracking the bottles open, still not used to wanting to speak with my god. It was a short conversation, he of course already knew about Ward’s death– he was the god that oversaw that domain after all. He asked me for a favor, someone he cared about needed help. I promised to go assist them after we had finished aiding the people of Thornwall, and that seemed to sate him.
With that uneasy conversation over, I left our home to rejoin the others in the bar. In my short absence, Olaf had already decided to show the children his own methods of combat. Unlike the brave paladins, his methods were…. Questionable at best. All the children were drunk to a point where I was confident that giving them any more booze would lead to alcohol poisoning. I was nearly impressed.
The paladins and Slender were watching from across the room– a mixture of amusement and disgust on their faces. I came over to Olaf and he tossed me a bottle. I snatched it out of the air like it was second nature, and perhaps it was. Alcohol was something we both understood. I pulled down my mask and threw back the bottle in a few long swallows. One of the kids watched me do it before gagging.
“My friend,” I called to Olaf. “Do you think this is what the townspeople were thinking when you said you would teach the kids how to fight?”
One of the kids behind me giggled, and I turned to see Juno stepping out of our house. She made a face almost immediately. I quickly clambered over the bar and chugged a second bottle. I didn’t know how to talk to her sober right now.
“You’re really pretty,” the young teenager slurred. Juno raised an eyebrow and looked over at Olaf and I. Slender burst out laughing across the room, and Matanza buried their face in their hands. “Can I get your rune?”
“What did you idiots do while I was starting a potion? We’re supposed to be handling the wolves with them, not day drinking!” Juno brushed past the hammered kid and marched over to Olaf and I. She was really pretty when she was angry, which hardly seemed fair.
“They can still fight!” Olaf said and gestured out to the sad band of children stumbling around the bar. “This is how I learned not to be afraid in combat. It works. Watch. Recruits, what are you afraid of?” They all spun around from his commanding voice. One spun too quickly and fell onto the ground. Juno sighed.
“Nothing!” They all chimed in what seemed like would have been unison if they weren’t so trashed. The child on the floor groaned.
“No, not happening. We can’t take them near the wolves like this,” Juno said, shaking her head. The child that had failed to get her ‘rune’ made a face. “They’re going to die.” I nodded in agreement, but she narrowed her eyes at me. I realized I may have not been standing up super straight.
“I can handle the wolves all on my own!” The one kid said triumphantly. Before any of us could stop him, he ran out the door. Slender and the paladins all stood up, and Juno turned to Olaf.
“You see, this is why you don’t get children drunk. Jadeth, come on, we need to get to him before he gets eaten.” I tried to climb over the counter again, but this time I fell onto my mask. She pulled me up and gestured for Olaf to follow. He turned back to his recruits and demanded they all stay put, but it didn’t really look like any of them were fit to go anywhere.
We reached the wolves before they noticed the kid, and thank the stars for that. It was a whole pack of massive dogs, bigger than any I had ever seen. I didn’t slow down, wary about how close the child was getting to them. He could have been eaten in a single chomp. A chorus of howls filled the air as I was spotted between bushes, but I tackled the child through a dimensional door before he could get hurt. He thanked me when we got back to the inn.
Olaf brought all the kids into their rooms and tucked them in for bed. It would have been sweet, had his tactics not nearly killed one of them. Everyone sat down at the bar and began drinking. Even Juno, who typically avoided booze, poured herself a cup of wine. My tail flicked back and forth as I considered what fun activity we could do to unwind. Mole watched it, and slowly began to wag their own tail.
“Rollies, who wants to play? We all roll a dice and the highest number gets to ask the lowest number a question.” Everyone seemed to like that idea, but right before we could begin, a strike of lightning happened just outside the tavern. I fell off my stool and winced when I hit the ground. When I looked back up, death was looking down at me. “Ukko?” I whispered in a frantic hush and quickly got back to my feet. The pale man looking down at me made a face when I hid behind Juno.
“You’re playing a game?” He asked, and I shrunk down even further. I had to keep reminding myself: last time you saw him was a dream and a misunderstanding. He’s a good person– a good, lightning-wielding, super mage that nearly killed me in a single strike.
Olaf patted a barstool and Slender poured him a drink. He brushed his static-y white hair back, and as he drank, lightning seemed to course under his skin. Juno looked between the two of us, but I shook my head. No way I was calming down or getting any closer. A magic wielder was bad enough when I wasn’t convinced he was a god.
Everyone rolled their first dice, and Juno scored highest against Ukko. She took a long swig of her wine as she considered her question. In the meantime, Ukko cast a spell that sent a gleaming wave of light out from his person. He informed us it was a zone of truth, so none of us could lie. That made me even more nervous. Half my life seemed to be lies anymore.
“Why were you in the dream world as a physical person? The rest of us were safely sleeping without any real danger,” Juno said, and Ukko smiled.
“Well, Catbot told me you needed help.”
We all waited to see if he was going to elaborate more, but he went back to sipping his ale. Shade walked in, and Ukko turned and held his mug up. I didn’t realize they were friends, but I suppose I didn’t really know much about what happened in the dream world.
We rolled again, and my greatest fear happened. Ukko looked at me as he considered his question.
“Jadeth, right?” He asked, and I nodded. “Why are you afraid of me?”
I would have begun drinking more heavily if I wasn’t scared to move.
“I– I woke up with people that I was introduced to as friends of my friends, and before I knew what was happening, you showed up. Your magic tore apart the battlefield and nearly killed all of us in an instant. When I tried to stop you from hurting them, you approached me. I tried to run away and hide, but you did that thing that made me surrender.” I pulled my hood forward. “I don’t trust magic, okay?”
“You don’t trust… You’re a warlock?” Ukko raised an eyebrow, and he turned to Juno and muttered something I didn’t catch. Juno laughed and clinked her glass into his. I’m sure I turned pink under my mask.
We all rolled again. Shade rolled lowest that time, which meant I got to ask him a question. It was hard to narrow down what to ask Shade. He was sort of an enigma. He tagged along with us because he liked stories, not to gain riches, revenge, or even to save the world. My eyes drifted down to his bag, and I thought about the contents within.
“Shade… How do you know Dragonbait?” I tried to say it without any sort of inflection, but by the way Ukko leaned into his palm, I knew I failed at that. Damn alcohol. Shade’s whiskers twitched.
“Ah see, well, Dragonbait and I go way back. It was a funny story actually– we were in prison together, about to get eaten. He’s such a kind-hearted soul.” He paused and his eyes narrowed as he took a drink. “You know, I never really thought about it, but how do you guys know Dragonbait? Certainly odd that you have his arm with you.”
“Oh,” I laughed– too high pitched of a laugh. Juno elbowed me in the ribs, but it was too late at that point. “We, uh, well it was a funny story as well. It was totally an accident and I– We– uh.”
“Jadeth. Please. Stop. Talking,” Slender hissed across the bar from me. His eyes darted down to the glow around us– the zone of truth. I cut myself off, slapping a hand over my mask. Ukko was looking at me curiously, even though Shade had already shrugged and gone back to drinking.
We played a bit longer, asking each other questions and trying to pry into the lives of those around us. Ukko asked if we felt like dropping the lowest rolling rule, instead just letting the highest roller ask whoever they wanted a question. Everyone was okay with it. We rolled again, and Ukko smirked when he got the highest number. He looked at me, those silver eyes glittering like sparks of energy.
“Tell me everything about what happened between you and Dragonbait.”
My heart stopped. I looked over to Shade, and he smiled at me with a warmth I didn’t expect to last. I wished I could have lied– I had gotten to be exceptionally good at lying. I hate magic. Everyone that already knew the truth looked away and pretended to engage in other conversations or drink more alcohol. I swallowed and adjusted my goggles.
“Shade, Dragonbait attacked us in the woods. Some bounty hunters were after us for things we didn’t exactly do, and he was with them. I… I accidentally blew his arm off with my magic.” I held out a hand and pretended to blast something. “I really, really, didn’t mean for it to happen. It was so sudden, and we didn’t get a chance to talk about it. I’m sorry we haven’t been honest with you.”
“Sounds like it was just a big misunderstanding. Besides, we have his arm preserved. We can fix him up.” Shade shook his head and kept smiling. I greatly envied his optimism, and hoped that Dragonbait would be so forgiving if we ever found him again.
Slender rolled highest on the next dice, and he looked between Ukko and I, no doubt considering who was a better target. He gestured to his mask.
“Jadeth, why do you always wear that mask?” He said it gently, not really having much room to speak since his own face had nearly always been obscured by the steel lion mask he wore.
I blinked a few times, realizing it had been quite some time since anyone had seen me without it on. Sometimes, it admittedly felt like it was an extension of my own face.
“I’m wanted by the law,” was what my gut reaction said. “It’s far safer to hide my face.” Slender didn’t look like it was the answer he wanted. Though it was the truth, perhaps it wasn’t all of it. The truth was going to take a hell of a lot more booze to get to. I pulled out a tower of glasses and spread them out away from everyone. Five shots later, I was having difficulty standing, but it made the next part easier. “I also don’t like how I look anymore.”
I pulled my mask down to my neck and moved the goggles onto my forehead. All eyes were on me, but I was too drunk to care. I traced the deep pinkish gash in my cheek with a finger. “I received this scar the night I killed my family, and I know it’ll never fade. So every time I look in the mirror without my mask on, I’m reminded of the monster I’ve become.”
“Edgy!” Slender exclaimed first. Everyone turned to look at him, aghast, like they expected me to turn him into a pile of goo. I only laughed and nodded. I was incredible at brooding– I knew that already. He pulled off his own mask and set it on the bar counter. “Look at us, we’re scar buddies,” the changeling said. I ignored to mention that he could at least make his scar vanish whenever he wanted.
The only time we had seen Slender’s face was in the orc village, and he was shapeshifted at the time. This time he was fully embracing his changeling identity. His skin and hair were both pale white, with startling dark eyes and a mischievous grin on his face. The stoic metal lion hid all of the devilish thoughts that crossed his mind– his face would have been too much of an open book without it.
After that was when the game really started to get interesting, but maybe not in a good way. Slender and I put our masks back on, and the next roll resulted in Olaf getting to ask Ukko a question. He held out Talon and asked Ukko if he knew what it was. Ukko smiled a coy smile, flashing the most innocent eyes at the dwarf.
“Why, it’s a warpick, of course.”
That ruffled feathers, but it didn’t break any rules. Truth be told, it was actually sort of funny to watch everyone’s thought process begin to work to get the answers they really wanted about the warpick. Juno stood up and went back into our house, and I thought about tagging along, but I didn’t want to miss the show.
Shade rolled again, trying to phrase his question in a less vague way. Ukko dodged it again. I asked if he knew what it was made of, and he answered, “some sort of bone.” When Slender got his chance, he had considered the perfect phrasing.
“What is everything you know about this warpick, Talon?”
Ukko made a face as he looked between Slender and the warpick. He swayed slightly. I didn’t even think someone like him could get drunk. I definitely didn’t think he could be scared, but there it was, deep in his eyes. Fear. What could scare a demigod?
“I think if I tell you everything I know, I will no longer exist.” The way Ukko said it made my hair stand on end. I took a step back. I didn’t want to push. I swear, I didn’t want to push him. I never wanted him to–
“That isn’t an answer,” Shade purred and passed Ukko another drink.
“He’s right. It’s not how the game works,” Slender added on, and Olaf backed him up. I could almost feel the room become warmer, like the heat of tension was a flame. A bead of sweat ran down Ukko’s cheek.
“Guys–” I began, but Ukko cut me off.
“No, no. You’re right. I respect the rules of your mortal game. Talon is–” He didn’t get to finish that thought before Talon pried apart like a huge set of jaws to swallow Ukko whole.
He was gone in an instant. I backed away so quickly I tripped on a stool and landed on my back. Everyone began yelling about the pick, but they were quickly drowned out by a thunderous booming voice.
“MY SON!” It roared. Lightning ripped across the sky to split it into two halves. The boom was so loud that it shook the tavern, knocking glasses and booze to the floor. I scrambled under the nearest table like it could protect me from the wrath of storms. The wind outside was howling, and a splitting headache felt like someone had driven Talon into my own head.
“What’s happening?” I grabbed at my head, unable to stop the spreading pain. A voice answered me in a furious hiss.
What did you do?! I had heard the voice before– my god, The Aeon. I tried to focus on what was infuriating him so badly, and another flash of lightning revealed it to me. The God of Storms was trying to reclaim Ukko’s soul. It may have worked, Gruumsh was also the god of war. However, I wasn’t sure what would happen to me if he succeeded. Already, the pain was excruciating.
Another boom rattled the tavern. I screamed that I was sorry, not that it mattered. Neither my god nor Ukko’s father were the forgiving type. Everyone else began to bunker down for the evening to wait out the storm. Thank the gods the booze was plentiful. Olaf kept it coming when he realized that the storm was linked to my headache. I thought about retreating into my room rather than letting everyone see me weakened like that, but I was grateful to be with my friends instead of alone.
Eventually, the storm passed and the morning came. The clouds didn’t disappear. More than likely, we were seeing a stalemate. Juno came out of our house in the morning and found us all grouped together on the floor of the tavern in a barricade of tables. It must have been an interesting sight for someone that had no idea what happened. She woke us by dragging a table aside, breaking the defensive line of Blackberry Inn’s fortress.
Everyone was startled and drew their weapons. She shook her head at the mess of booze bottles and glass.
“I thought you didn’t come home last night,” Juno said to me first. It wasn’t too unusual, but it meant a part of her was worried even after what I did to her yesterday. “What did you all get up to after I left?”
“Oh, not a whole lot…” Slender trailed off and coughed out a burp that sounded particularly sick. He was somehow one of the best of us at handling his booze, which I guess was saying something for how the rest of us were doing. “Some drinking, some goofing–”
“We killed Ukko.” Olaf interrupted with a hollow voice, and Juno scowled.
“What? No you didn’t.” Olaf held his pick out. As soon as he did, it must have clicked. “Oh my gods. What did– How– What happened?”
We tried to explain it on the way back to the wolf den, but it wasn’t exactly easy to explain: oh, yeah, our friend’s warpick grew a mouth with teeth and swallowed our otherworldly friend causing a temporary battle of the domains of war and storms versus death and reincarnation. Those weren’t things normal people had to say. We were growing further and further from normal by the day.
The wolf encounter should have been normal. Olaf and I ran in together, dealing a massive amount of damage before I needed to retreat back into a tree. He was able to keep fighting without much of an issue. Talon was letting him slaughter through anything that came his way. Suddenly, however, one of the wolves grabbed Matanza in its jaw and vanished with them.
I looked at Juno in the branch on the opposite side of the tree as me. She looked as stunned as I did, but I followed her gaze up into the clouds. Something was falling. The wolf reappeared where it was before, and Matanza slammed into the earth from orbit. They let out a miserable peep. Slender and I stabilized their condition, but we were all looking pretty beat up. Olaf did manage to finish off the remaining magical wolves, and good timing too.
“Juno,” a voice called out through the distant forest. She landed next to Olaf and Matanza and looked around the clearing. I started to climb down from the tree, but my hands were shaking. We were too weak to fight anything right now, and too spread out for a coordinated retreat. Shade was in a tree 40 meters away, and Olaf and I weren’t exactly close to everyone else. My first thoughts were that it was Virgil again, here to finish the job with his cursed bow. Honestly, he may have been preferable.
The first figure emerged from the treeline at the top of the cliffs. As soon as I saw it, my breath caught in my throat. Juno had told us about her past, but nothing could have prepared me to see the consequences of Ivander’s work at request of her former king. It was a tiefling, but it wasn’t. Not anymore. Not really.
Its arms faded into ghostly tendrils, its feet had become devilish hooves, and its horns had grown out so much that they obscured most of its face. I think it was a woman once, and I didn’t like that either. It was like staring into a really fucked up mirror. Was that what we were to Juno’s people? Did they really turn us into that?
Slender yelled for us to retreat, but as soon as Juno tried to take off, her wings vanished back into a cape. A million thoughts were racing through my head, but Slender’s voice echoed through it all: “run!”
Two more assassin’s appeared out of thin air next to Juno and Olaf. One of them turned and swung at what I thought was nothing, but Slender shouted like he was hit. He tripped back and his invisibility ended. I climbed down onto the lowest branch, eyes darting between all my friends. Matanza misty stepped away, but everyone else was still in danger. The other assassin struck Juno in the stomach, and she gasped. I felt dizzy when I saw the blood splatter. Blood never made me feel sick, but paired with my magical drain and terror of the tieflings, I felt like I could pass out.
Slender grabbed Juno and pushed her through an escape dimensional door. I looked at Olaf, but Shade was still so far from us. He ran over like he was carrying something in his arms, but there was nothing there.
“Shade, what do you have?” I asked, horrified as he set it down next to himself. The other tieflings started to close in on us. We were outnumbered and outmatched.
“It didn’t attack me!” He exclaimed and patted what must have been another invisible tiefling on the head. We needed to be careful here. One wrong move, and we were in trouble.
I jumped out of the tree and very slowly lowered my hood to reveal my own horns. I then gestured back to my tail. If they didn’t outright attack Shade, there had to be a piece of their minds still in there, right?
“Look,” I said quietly, trying not to spark alarm or anger. “I’m like you, see? We don’t have to fight.” I was acutely aware that we were being surrounded. Olaf was to my left, Shade right in front of me. Closest tiefling was a few feet from him. I couldn’t get everyone away with a single dimensional door, and if they had countered Juno’s wings, who’s to say they couldn’t counter that. I kept going through the motion of what I needed to do in my head. The one tiefling very slightly tilted its head as it sized me up, and that was our chance.
I grabbed Shade and Olaf and shoved them as hard as I could just as I made the magic door to our house appear. I slammed it behind myself and slid down the wood to the cold cobblestone floor. We were safe. Another thought was gnawing at my mind: were Slender, Matanza, and Juno safe? Did they get away? What if I never saw them again?
If they did get away, they’d be worried about us. We all would have thought to regroup at Blackberry Inn, but what would they think if we didn’t show up?
Shade sat at the door next to me and began to meow at it, worried about his tiefling “friend.” I was worried too, though, for a different reason. I wanted to know what Ivander had done to those tieflings, and if it could be reversed.
I didn’t know if everyone else would let me try to talk to them, but if they had found Juno while we were in the middle of the forest, I didn’t expect to lose them for long. They weren’t our enemies. They were confused. They could still be saved– and maybe I was lying to myself about that. I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t give them a chance. I hoped if I ever found myself in their place, my friends would still give me a chance.
I paced around in my gilded room, feeling so unfair for lying like royalty in Caldra while elsewhere there were tieflings being treated like lab rats. Exhaustion from my magical drain finally forced me to sleep. Olaf and Shade also got some rest in, and we regrouped in the dining hall after a few hours passed. The handle on the front door rattled, and even though only Juno and I could open it, I readied my sword. Olaf pulled out Talon, and Shade swung both of his pens around.
When Juno opened the door I nearly fell to my knees. I didn’t let myself admit how scared for my friends I was until they were in front of me. Slender and Mole were flanking her, standing on partial lookout. I ran forward and threw my arms around Juno, nearly knocking her to the ground from the full force of my weight.
“Oh, thank the gods. We weren’t sure what happened to you all,” Juno said softly. “You never showed up at the inn, and it was getting late. We weren’t sure what we were going to find back here– if anything. I’m so glad you’re okay.”
I let go of Juno and faked a cough to cover a sniffle. Slender gave me a coy smile, and I patted his shoulder.
“Thank you for getting yourself and Juno to safety.”
“Don’t get too emotional on me here. You’re supposed to be the ungrateful bitch, remember?” Slender laughed. “Glad to see you still haven’t killed yourself. Losing you three would really turn the odds towards our group being made up of responsible people only, and where’s the fun in that?” Slender walked over to chat with Shade as the tabaxi looked around for his tiefling friend.
We started back towards town as the sun began to turn the sky red. The sun would be setting soon, and who knew where the mutant tieflings had disappeared to. The forest was thick, and danger could be behind any bush, rock, or tree. The dappled light coming through the leaves was slowly thinning, and the air around us was cooling down.
The further we went into the woods, the less things looked like the path we came from. I noticed the change in bird sounds first. The steady hoot of evening owls was replaced by a chittering of noises I had never heard before. After the birds was the flora. Slowly, the dense green brush and autumn leaves were turning into hues of blues and teals. I paused as a strange glittery gold insect twinkled past. I reached out for it, but Slender grabbed my arm.
“Something’s wrong,” he muttered. “This looks like home– like the Feywild.”
I bit my tongue so I wouldn’t blurt out that it did indeed look beautiful. I walked forward on the path, nearly dancing as I looked up into colorful treetops for a chance to see the glittering stars of another world. Slender was glancing around warily, and everyone but Mole was staying close to him. If he was from here, he must have known more than I did, but that didn’t stop me from taking in as much of it as I could. It was breathtaking. Nothing on Par’Adeus could compare.
I came around a big tree trunk and spotted two brown dog-like creatures snarling at a strange looking black cat. I paused and ducked backwards– nearly crashing into Slender.
“Do you know of any dogs with human faces and panthers with tentacles and extra limbs?” I asked him. He raised an eyebrow and peeked out from behind some ferns. I poked my head back out below him. In the distance, I saw our favorite dwarven merchant pushing his cart along. “Kromrak!” I exclaimed without thinking, and suddenly all eyes were on us.
“Yeth hounds and displacer beasts!” Slender called out as we all got in formation. Shade jumped over our heads with his feline agility and swung a few fists into the displacer beast to stun it. He backed away, but one of the yeth hounds charged forward and chomped down hard on the beast’s neck. Shade’s tail swished a few times, and he turned his attention to the cry of a smaller animal.
Olaf and I both ran towards the yeth hounds. Olaf took out the first with some help from Juno. I cast a spell on the other– it didn’t seem to do anything, except now I knew, deep in my mind, that the hound’s name was Fungus. I didn’t quite understand what strange working had distorted my spell, but it definitely could have gone worse. I shook off the feeling after Slender hit it with a faerie fire, and I sent him flying at Olaf. He plunged Talon into its neck, and just like that the threat was gone. For being our first encounter with creatures from the feywild, I wouldn’t say they were particularly scary. Though that sort of thinking was exactly how I let my guard down.
“It’s odd,” Slender muttered as he kicked at one of the strange hound’s bodies. “Yeth hounds are often in the presence of powerful fey, but these ones seemed to be alone.”
Shade had climbed into a tree, and was cradling a small animal in his arms. He slowly slid down to present a tiny kitten out towards us.
“This is Sellen,” Shade said and held her out towards us. She was a tiny kitten with dark gray tabby markings and a lighter belly. Her ears were laying flat and her eyes seemed unsure about the fuss everyone was making.
Juno reached out, and she flinched away, likely traumatized after what happened to her mother. I kept my distance at first– animals didn’t trust me, and I couldn’t say I blamed them. All the others wanted to say hello, and in the panic of everyone approaching, the displacer kitten nuzzled further into Shade and let out a soft cry. It was quickly followed by a series of “awwww’s.”
I began to make my way towards Kromrak, wondering why he wasn’t with his brother, but not really paying it much mind. In hindsight, the deity of things found losing his brother felt… Ironic. I waved as I approached, and he seemed genuinely excited to see me. Very few people ever seemed genuinely excited to see me. My guard was dropped entirely. Bad move.
“Kromrak, it’s so good to see you,” I made a point of looking around. “Where’s Kormrak?” The dwarf’s eyebrows furrowed when I asked. He said he lost him somewhere in between dimensions, and I offered to search for him if he owned an item of his. He pulled out a shirt, so I took it and went over to meditate next to a glowing orange mushroom.
As I did, I passed Slender leading the trail of my friends over to the cart full of magical items. I didn’t have too much shopping I felt that I needed to do, so I sat in the grass and closed my eyes. I focused on the energy of the shirt, but it didn’t feel like it was getting me anywhere. I had never attempted the spell before, so I thought it was more than likely I was doing something wrong. I gave up after a few fruitless minutes, feeling guilty for wasting the time of a god.
Kromrak didn’t seem upset, and he thanked me for trying. I joined up with everyone at the cart. Slender was already looking between two dragon eggs, and I knew Juno was considering swiping something from the twinkle in her eye. Shade was weighing dragon steaks as meals for Sellen, and either him or the kitten was purring wildly as he did so. Olaf walked away holding some throwing axes, and Mole was trying out a new pair of goggles.
“Black or blue dragon, Jadeth?” Slender asked as I approached. I scowled. Those were both types of chromatic dragons– the kinds that were known for burning down villages and hoarding their wealth in treacherous lairs. “I’m leaning towards blue, but–”
“I think either one is a terrible idea,” I retorted. “How do we know it won’t grow up and eat us?” I lit a tiny fire in my hand to emphasize my next threat. “I’m not above… taking it out, if I think it will cause a problem.” Everyone looked at me like I was crazy except Mole.
“Well, I’ll make a deal with it! Aren’t you at all curious on how it would turn out if we raised it? Nature versus nurture.”
“I’m not going to stop you.” I also wasn’t going to help deal with it when it inevitably stops listening to him.
Juno tried to grab something while Kromrak was helping Shade with the dragon steaks, but the cart slammed shut on her arm. She pulled away and hissed a swear word quietly under her breath. Kromrak laughed and told her to be careful with Reginald. She stepped behind me and shook her head.
“Whatever, I didn’t really want that ring anyway,” she whispered, then raised her voice again, “Kromrak, do you have any sort of magical mastiffs? I like a loyal companion.” I could almost hear her finishing the thought with: “one that doesn’t send me into danger when she’s losing at creigball.” My guilt returned just as potent as before. When Kromrak disappeared into the cart and set a hellhound puppy in front of Juno, I knew I had to help her get it. It was out of her budget, and she seemed surprised when I told her I’d split the cost. If it would make her happy, I knew it would make me happy. I just hoped it wouldn’t try to eat me in my sleep.
Kromrak asked us to sign what he called a liability waiver, so Shade, Slender, Juno, and I all did. No questions asked. We put in a few days worth of work orders each too, but he handed those items over and told us he would collect the time later. That felt odd, and it became odder.
Where Kromrak was standing in front of us, there was suddenly a tall beautiful woman. She had dark hair and tattered feathery wings. I was the last to realize something was amiss– honestly, I thought maybe Kromrak was just shifting form, as gods did. If he wanted a rack and the most intimidating form possible, he accomplished it very well. Only when it spoke did I realize it wasn’t actually him. It never was.
“This was almost too simple. Who knew how easily Ashen Cabaret could be tricked into giving away their names and all the power that comes with them,” the woman spoke. I hated everything she was saying. I huddled closer to my friends.
“My name is Samara, Enemy of Titania. I’ll look forward to collecting those days from you all in the near future. We’ll have much work to do together, but not yet. Since you were so kind as to give me your names, it seems I can call on you whenever I have need of your services.” She smiled– it sent a chill down my spine. “For now, you’re free to go.” She snapped her fingers, and a portal appeared in a tree behind us. It let out right into Olaf’s tavern.
We were all dead silent as we stared from her to the portal. All of us except Slender.
“I really fucking hate it here,” he said before he gave the fae a rude gesture and marched out of the portal. We all followed him, still too stunned to say anything. It was easy to summarize in a single sentence: we were fucked! An arch fey stole our names, and was likely plotting to use us in a scheme against Titania, The Queen of the Fae. Doesn’t get much more fucked than that.
No one said it, but I knew we were all thinking it. She knew us because I sent Juno to the feywild during our game. She already knew everything about us, and it made us easy to trick. She knew who we trusted, what we wanted, and how to get us to fall right into her trap. Now we were screwed, and it was my fault. I pulled out the scroll to our houses, but it crumbled into dust instead of summoning the door.
I blinked a few times before dumping it onto the tavern floor. Slender and Juno both pulled theirs out, and they turned to dust just the same. Slender sighed and shook his head.
“We don’t own our names. These aren’t our houses anymore,” he said.
“Shit,” Juno inhaled. “I had a health potion brewing.” She looked into her bag and pulled out another scroll. I walked over, and she handed it out to me. “Spike had a house too. We could add some rooms? I don’t love the idea of us all having to share a single house, but it beats getting hunted by assassins in our sleep.”
“That it does,” I agreed. I pictured a home full of rooms that we could all take turns customizing later. We would be in town for a few weeks finishing up our tasks for the town, so I pictured the home Juno and I originally made. I made sure that our library was stocked with books about arch fey rather than the corny romance novels I actually wanted to read. I owed the team some answers, and I intended to find them.
Days passed without incident again. Olaf, Matanza, and Mole worked on training the guards and fortifying Blackberry Inn. Shade was scouting the woods for any sign of the tieflings. Slender had been tirelessly repairing homes. Juno and I spent a lot of quieter time in our house.
I wished it were possible to forget about all the bad things that had happened since we arrived in Thornwall, but I couldn’t. There were a few good things too. Ward was dead, and I did feel closer with my team from it and our nights of jokes, games, and drinking in the tavern. Still, we lost Spike and Ukko, and nothing I was reading about the feywild was making me feel any more at ease about what happened.
Juno asked if I could help teach her how to speak infernal so she could train her hellhound puppy. She named him Spectre. He was cute, but I still wasn’t sure how I felt about him. Juno liked him though, and that was all that mattered. In between my reading, I spent some nice one-on-one time with her. It was my favorite bit of our downtime, but I made sure to remain as professional with her as possible. We brewed potions and spoke back and forth in a language I was admittedly satisfied commoners wouldn’t be able to understand.
In those weeks, I wished I could have admitted some things to her– like how I felt when we were separated, but that was selfish. I was the reason she was in danger with an arch fey, and even if I wasn’t, these feelings didn’t matter. We had a job to do. The world needed us.