A Price Paid Ch. 11

Until they walked him back to the ship, he would be forced to mark time with each of these people close to him, surrounding him in the adjoining tables in a triangle of protection. He would be forced to sit here without peers.

Then the door opened and in stepped a peer. She commanded the room as she took two slow steps inward with a smaller woman behind her. All there took note of her presence, even if it was only for a moment. Some stared. Some looked in fear or in awe. Some looked quickly and then looked away to resume whatever it was they were doing in the hopes that they wouldn't catch her notice as she had caught theirs.

Mages congregated in this place often and there was no shortage of them here. Indeed, it was not unlike the place where this journey started for Strannix. Those in this place that were not knew enough to know that anyone a mage didn't want to deal with was someone that they certainly did not, with some finding their nicked and gnarled, painted black tables incredibly interesting.

Bryana maintained her deliberately casual gait, even as she kept her senses aware, ready for anything that might come. She didn't have to wonder how Vale was feeling, asshe could feel the tension ripple from the woman, but she knew Vale would not act rashly. The guild mistress gauged the mages that surrounded Strannix before she sat down across the table from him while Vale stood to her right with the immovability of a rooted tree.

He had dreamed of this moment for quite some time. While it had not unfolded in the way he had envisioned, he wasn't going to waste the opportunity that presented. "Where's my wife?"

"You were very difficult to find, Etan. May I call you Etan? It is a bit of an intimacy, I admit, but you insinuated yourself in my life in a very intimate way, so we seem close somehow."

"Of course, Bryana," he said with a dark grin. "I have been wanting to make your personal acquaintance for quite some time and this seems like a lovely opportunity for us to spend time together." His voice flattened. "Now, Bryana, where's my wife?"

"I have a question first, if you don't mind. How did you think I would respond? You could not have believed that I would simply tell you."

"I knew you wouldn't. That's why I found something that you value. Often in business, in order to make the best deal, you have to find something the other side values and leverage that to get what you want."

It genuinely puzzled her. "After that? Let's assume you get what you want, then...what? Do you think I do not come and kill you? I would burn through everyone and everything between us to kill you. Do you think you can attack a child that calls the queen 'Auntie Evaline' and nothing would come of it? You attack that child in an affront to the two women in this kingdom who control the army and think you can just go on about your day? That would not happen. It seems that you haven't thought much past your own immediate needs."

He smiled knowingly, "Oh, but I did, my dear. You would have given me what I wanted. And, once you had, I would know that you you would be someone with a sense of practicality that I can work with."

Vale wanted him dead then and there and it was all over her face.

"So I essentially live as a slave in fear that you will come for people I love. That would give you a direct line into the guilds as well, but I'm sure that's just a happy coincidence."

"It is." He agreed, appearing thoughtful. "And I still could."

She matched the coldness she heard. "No, you can't. If you could, I believe you would have before now. You wouldn't have gone on the run as you have. You have far fewer resources as we sit here today, and there will be fewer still tomorrow. Then there's the simple fact that I am prepared now. We are prepared. Your best chance came and went."

"Also, I think anyone that might act on your behalf is waiting to see what becomes of you."

"I'd certainly wait to see what I was risking before I stuck my neck out," Vale offered casually.

Sylanna eyed her and spoke to Bryana without looking at her, "The dog you brought in with you speaks? Tell me, does it sit and do tricks, too?"

"Enough of that, Sylanna," he chided. "Bryana and I are having a pleasant conversation." He shifted his focus back to guild mistress. "I apologize for the behavior of my contractors."

"Don't mention it. Good help is always difficult to come by."

"Quite true. You and I are very much alike, Bryana. We are intelligent. We are powerful in our own rights." He let the next words fall in such a way that the menace would fall softly. "And, for people in our position, there is never truly a shortage of resources."

"I know. And that's why I'm here. That's why I had to find you, because we are much alike. You would not stop, so I had to find you in order to resolve this situation in the only way it can be."

He understood that as well as she, "Now where is my wife?"

"She is happy, Etan. Your wife is happy. When she and Hanah left they were as in love as I have seen any two people be. Your wife was thrilled at the prospect of being away from you and she openly sobbed when I told her that I would make it so while she was still recovering from the nearly dead state you left her in. She burst into tears. She clutched my hand and praised me as an angel from the Goddess. Never in my life have I heard praise like that directed at me, and all I had to do was promise to take her to a place where she could live her life free of you."

"I know where she is. I know she is happy and living her life, but you will live the rest of yours never knowing where. That's all that matters. That's what brought us here. You cannot handle her away from you, and beyond your control. You cannot handle her happy in spite of your best efforts. That's what brought us here and that's why what has to happen will happen."

He was resigned to it. "What has to happen will. I just don't think it's going to come out the way you believe." His voice rose to be heard over the murmured conversations. "Anyone that chooses to assist in my protection will be well rewarded."

The room was silent and even the barmaids had stopped working and found other places to be. It wasn't the first time trouble had brewed here. Vale's eyes scanned carefully and Bryana pulled a silver amulet from her cloak and extended her arm overhead, letting all see. She spoke in a tone that demanded attention of all, her eyes issuing challenge to anyone that might dare. "I am here for one purpose. Look upon this symbol of the conclave and know that that purpose is one blessed by all the guilds."

When the silence continued and no one moved, she tossed the silver, six-pointed star, with each point flaring in its own starburst between them. "None of the guild mages here will help you, not when their masters and mistresses have pronounced you dead."

"The freelancers and outlaws here will not help you because they are already on the outs with the guilds, but that's different from being sought out by them for interfering with us. And I suspect some will not help you just because they want to see if a guild mistress dies today."

Strannix leaned forward, "They might, don't you think? I have three skilled mages sworn to protect me. You? All I see is you and a whelp." Glancing at her, Strannix gave Vale a dismissive, "No offense."

"Don't concern yourself. It's impossible for you to offend me more than you already have."

Sylanna was indifferent. "I never had much use for the guilds either way, so I don't much care if they're after me directly or not." She did thrill at one aspect and it showed. "Besides, killing a guild mistress would substantially up my fee by itself."

Nax had been spending his third of the chest since he saw it and he didn't want to lose it. He didn't want to be hurt or die, of course, but that came with the territory. "I've been paid already, so it's done."

Arik looked a bit world-weary in that moment, seeing within himself another regret to add to pile. "He's right. A contract is a contract. No offense, Mistress Lia."

She sincerely understood. "None taken. It's a matter of principle, no matter what others think of a mage."

She rose and the people that surrounded them scattered, finding the corners, fusing themselves to the wall, or making for the door. The barmaids chose the latter and the bartender remained. He was old and grizzled enough to not care beyond liking a good show. If he died accidentally here, he'd lived plenty and it promised to be more spectacular an end than dying in his sleep a grizzled old bartender.

The three rose with her as she stepped away to gain room to maneuver, Vale following, preparing herself for what would come, and preparing herself to defend her mistress in the event any of the audience chose to do more than watch.

The three stood before the two. Bryana could see Strannix in a place behind Arik, looking upon the event with excitement. He was already positioning himself a couple of steps closer to one of the side doors in the event that the tide of battle was not favoring him. "Standing behind others, still, I see."

"That is all right. We all have to be who we are. I stand here today because I am the person that I am. I'm here because, for so many reasons, your wrongs cannot be allowed to stand, and you cannot be allowed escape. I'm here in this way because others will do as you have done unless the price to be paid chills their blood."

"Oddly, I am reminded now of one of a guild's lesser known charges: to acquire and protect, not only our history, but the history of the world. One of the first things my first master taught me were the old languages. These are languages that are older than the world. Some even say that they are older than any world and the bits and pieces that we have were left to us by the Goddess to teach us humility; that were are nothing but stitches in Her infinite tapestry."

"They are taught because we even use some of the ways the tongues roll to them in casting and because of history. My first master used that to impart the message that has more value to me with every passing day. He taught me that I should know myself, so I demand those before me do the same."

She projected the tiniest bursts of magic forth. "Gnothi seauton."

As though they were pushed to their knees by the Goddess herself, the three knelt at once, eyes locked on the floor, mind and heart open to her commands, to her needs, and to her whims. She was all. They did not move and scarcely breathed. When they fell, several gasped believing it was the beginning of some grand display of magic...of some combination of powers so epic that the two women would simply disappear. Others murmured to one another wondering what was happening. As nothing continued to happen, snickering could be heard and, as the seconds ticked, the sounds of derision grew.

Strannix was one of those that had anticipated a grand spectacle, and when none came his face flushed with anger. "What are you doing?"

He rushed around the table and slapped his hands onto Arik's shoulders and tried to pull him upward to no avail. "Get on with it." He slapped Sylanna in the back of the head and she didn't flinch. "What are you doing!? What's happened to you?"

"They are awaiting my wishes."

He faced her, seeing himself in her eyes that he had not seen before. He saw the frigid cold. He saw the ruthlessness. He saw who he had heard about and why he'd heard those things in frightened whispers. He saw why people feared her. He began to feel that fear himself. "What have you done?"

"They were responsible for what was done to my family. They have paid for what they have done and will do so for every day of their lives by living in service. That they were all you have in this moment is all the better to me, for I find it somewhat poetic to leave you with literally nothing before I end you. It's certainly just considering what you threatened to take from me."

The door opened and, for an instant, Strannix' heart lifted, believing that perhaps one of the people who fled returned with help, but that hope ended upon seeing Neral Jaye with her rabble spouse. They stood on either side of the door, waiting patiently. "Five minutes," Neral said.

"Time flies," Bryana said, infusing herself with the energy around her, turning it to her ends as she slowly approached him, him taking half a step back without realizing it, brushing against Sylanna who was still as a statue. "Do you not realize what you tried to take from me? I spoke to that girl for hours at a time. I read her stories. I sang to her. And I did all of those things while she was still in her mother's belly."

"I was one of the first in the world to hold her. She is not mine, but there is no difference to me, and there is no difference to her. She calls me mother, and I am her mother, too. This is to avenge her and to protect her." Her next words were somber and weighted down by her past. "I expect that she will understand why I've done what I've done should she ever learn of it, as well as the why of what I am about to do. What I hope she understands the why of without despising me, is that I thoroughly enjoyed it."

He forced air through his throat, the words coming with a quiet rasp. "So what happens now, Bryana? Do you turn me into them?"

More quickly than he could have imagined, her features twisted into a snarl as her hand clamped down on his throat, the shock of it causing him to attempt a sharp intake of breath, but all he managed was a little air and a gurgling wheeze as she lifted him from the floor with no effort. Slamming his body to the floor, the wood beneath him buckled and what air had been in his lungs fled. His wide eyes locked on hers.

"No. They have uses alive. You? You are an example, and you serve that better dead. Healing magic can be turned to rend flesh more easily than heal it. I am going to hurt you, Etan. I am going to cause you so much pain that you will pray for death before I've even really gotten started. Then you will be healed. We will take turns hurting you in any way we wish, then we will undo it. Your screams will be the sounds this town falls asleep to tonight."

"Finally, when we are bored with the sounds you make and your tears of anguish, you will die. Then your body will be staked out before the ocean, your unseeing eyes staring out at the freedom that was once so close...before the birds pluck out those juicy bits."

"You will be left to rot as a testament to what happens to those that threaten me and mine, and to those that would think to bring pain and suffering to countless innocents for their own ends. You will be left to rot to show all those that look upon your carcass that your power and your money and your reach amounted to nothing compared to ours. The people here tonight will tell the story of your death to their grandchildren as a cautionary tale."

"Let us begin."

When his left arm began to tingle, he lifted it to his sight just in time to see his forearm and fingers begin to snap and twist in inhuman directions, the snapping sounds like claws at his ears.

As his screams flooded the room and the people looked on in terror and morbid curiosity, the three mages continued to kneel, heedless to any sound but the next command.

End.