Book of Fire Ch. 02

Following the servant, Katriana and I wove our way around uniformed serving girls and chattering guests enjoying their dinners. The scrawny older man led us to the back of the inn, where there were private dining rooms for more exclusive and richer guests all along against the back wall, most of them barely large enough for the table and chairs they contained. He opened one of the polished wooden doors for us, holding it so we could duck into the more intimate space.

A glowing fireplace lit the small room, which was dominated by a round table. A mountain landscape decorated the back wall, drawing the eye, but I put my focus on the eclectic group that were sitting for their meal. Seated in a semicircle at the back of the room were three other people- a pretty, pale-haired elf woman in flowing white and silver robes, a dwarf in furs and leathers with a big, bright red mohawk, and an older man in a finely tailored silver and green coat, a shirt with a ruffle of lace at his throat, and riding leathers.

The servant brushed by me to stand next to the human man. "May I present my lord, Ricard Parett," he said with a small bow in our direction, "And his lifelong companions, Abbess Mariska of the Starlit Order and Lord Gogol the Giant-Slayer."

The elf gave us a serene nod, but even that was enough to make my cheeks feel a little hot. She was soft-featured and pale, with a small, pouty mouth, giving the overall impression of a porcelain doll come to life. The dwarf, coarse-featured and rumpled like he just got out of bed, gave a brief grunt and went back to tearing apart the whole chicken he was in the middle of devouring. Only the human man, Lord Ricard, stood and greeted us with open arms.

"Welcome, welcome!" he said cheerily. The man was old enough to be cresting the hill if not already over it, his close-cropped beard more salt than pepper, though he still had all his hair. With the wings of white at his temples, the fine lines of his face and a strong jaw, it was enough to make me worry if Katriana was into "silver foxes". "Although I suppose it's not my room to welcome you to," the man corrected himself as he went on, giving a good-natured laugh, "All the same, I am glad you accepted my invitation. Ignore what my servant says, I'm no real lord. Please, just call me Ricard. I am something of a vagabond and adventurer, you see, just like you."

A silence feel over the table, stretching long enough for it become awkward. I realized with a start that they were waiting for us to introduce ourselves, and Katriana was automatically deferring to me for that. I was the prince-in-exile, after all.

"Uh, right. I'm Theodore, and this is my partner, Katriana," I said, keeping it simple. I doubted they were all that interested in our backstory. "We're adventurers, too, although we're just starting out. Uh, nice to meet you." Silently, I cursed myself for being so awkward and lame. So much for that Etiquette skill sharpening my social abilities.

"Of course, of course, just the adventurers I need!" Ricard went on, gesturing expansively, as if he was on stage, "You see, I'm in town for the tournament. One last hurrah for me with the old party before I settle down to run my vineyard and enjoy my retirement with my wife." My eyes went over to the elven woman, who was simply staring dispassionately back. Was she the wife he was referring to? "However, during our travels, a very important item belonging to me went missing, shortly before we arrived in Tresens. I would seek it out myself, but unfortunately, I am booked solid with appearances at parties, visiting old friends, and preparing for the tilt, all the way up to the beginning of the tournament. I can't spare hours, nevermind the days it might take to follow our backtrail and search."

There was another long pause. The elven woman's gaze was beginning to make me uncomfortable, and I shifted my feet. Something felt odd about this group of old friends. Only Ricard seemed to be the kind of person to hang out with, well, anyone. The silent, watchful elf and the grumpy-looking dwarf chowing down appeared to be entirely disengaged with the genial old man speaking to us.

"What I'd like out of you and your partner," Ricard continued, pulling my attention back to him, "Is to journey back into the mountain pass that we traversed to get here from my home in the Lakelands, and search for this item. Find it and bring it back to me, and you will be suitably rewarded."

I paused in thought a moment, gathering myself in the face of the elf's unsettling eyes. "Alright, that's doable for us," I replied carefully, "Although we will need more information. What kind of a reward, what item are we looking for, and where do you think you lost it?"

Ricard barked another laugh. Again, in contrast to his companions he seemed pretty genuine, and his manner put me at ease. "Straight to the point, eh? That's a good quality in a party leader, being able to cut through the bullshit of old windbags like me," he said, coming over to clap me on the shoulder, "Well, my boy, I can offer you one hundred gold pieces if you find and return the item to me. It's extremely important that I have it back before the tournament begins in three day's time."

I considered it. It must be pretty important if we was willing to pay that much. Maybe some kind of minor magic item? "Alright, we can do that," I replied, taking a half-step back so I was out of his grip. As much as I was slowly warming up to Ricard, I still didn't like a stranger suddenly coming into my personal space like that. "Uh, so, what can you tell me about the item, and where did you last remember having it?" I asked.

"It's a magical ring," the older man replied as he resumed his seat, confirming my suspicions, "Sized for a man's hand. The band is made of gold, and it's set with a few stones. I'm sure, as a magic-user, you can detect it's presence, can't you?"

As it stood, I couldn't, or at least I didn't think so, but I held my tongue. Without that gold, Katriana and I had one more night's stay in the inn between us. We couldn't afford to lose this job because I was overly honest about my capabilities as a mage.

"I know I had it on my person before going to sleep the previous night, before we arrived in the city," Ricard explained as he meandered on, "It had gotten dark on us before we could make it to Tresens, and rather than risk our horses on the descent with only lantern-light, we chose to camp in the pass. When I awoke, the ring was gone. We searched the camp for over an hour, and couldn't find a trace."

I glanced over at Katriana, who shrugged at me with a small smile. I appreciated her confidence in my ability to choose quests and question questgivers, but some indication of what she thought about the job would have been nice. "A thief of some kind took it, then?" I asked, frowning as I turned back to Ricard, "It's hard to imagine a cat burglar in a mountain pass."

Finally the elf spoke up, her voice breathy and ethereal. "We were not foolish enough to rest without a guard rotation," she explained with some amount of disdain, which I guess I earned with my doubt about the possibility of a thief, "However, my divinations lead me to believe that we had been visited by a pictsy. One had been following us for some of the previous day, staying out of sight but peering at us from behind rocks and bushes. It may have infiltrated into our camp at night when one of my more mundane companions was on watch, and was simply drawn to something shiny it could take for it's nest."

The difference in pronunciation wasn't lost on me, although I didn't know the difference between a pixie and pictsy. I tried to "remember" what I already knew about pictsies from magical school, but I could come up with almost nothing. They're flying, mischievous humanoid fae creatures of some kind. They have some illusion magic and like playing pranks. Useful, but I was hardly an expert on the creatures.

The elf woman sighed, noting my puzzlement. "A pictsy is a small, mischievous type of fae creature," she explained with a vaguely annoyed expression, "They can go invisible at will, usually know a bit of magic, and some can even inflict a kind of short term insanity on people. They're about one or two feet high, and have wings like a butterfly's or insect's, although some of them lack wings and instead have strong legs like a cricket."

I nodded as I followed along with her lesson. At-will invisibility might make this difficult, invisible creatures were a pain in the ass as a rule, but we don't need to kill the thing. Our objective was simply to get the ring back. "Alright, we'll return your ring in a couple days. We shouldn't need more than that," I nodded, accepting their quest, "You can trust us to handle this."

I had a few more questions for our employers from there, mostly concerning where they saw the pictsy and details on where they had camped for the night. Once I had the directions firmly nailed down in my mind, we said our goodbyes and departed the private room.

"Do you really think we can handle this on our own?" Katriana asked, once we were back in the noisy common room, "Searching for a missing ring in an entire mountain pass with just the two of us, and returning in a few days... it doesn't sound possible."

"Probably. At least I think so," I replied over my shoulder as we returned to our seats, "A gold ring is very large and heavy for such a small creature. Imagine having a wheel made of gold in your backpack. You wouldn't be able to move it very far, at least not all at once. I'd imagine the pictsy stashed the ring nearby where it was stolen, or that it has a lair in the area. Probably this is just a prank or the pictsy was just attracted by the shiny jewelry."

"So, then, we're not really looking for the pictsy, but the pictsy's cache or lair. Got it," she said, then paused and chewed her lip for a moment. "I can't help but feel something is up with this, so please be careful, Theodore."

"What do you mean?" I asked, puzzled.

"Did you notice the dwarf and the elf?" Katriana explained, "Every time the ring was mentioned, they'd share a glance, and the elf lady was rolling her eyes sometimes."

I hadn't noticed that, although the three didn't give the impression that they were as good friends as Ricard seemed to think they were. "Well, I doubt that they're playing a trick or something, just to be cruel," I mused, "But they did have an odd, distant manner compared to Lord Ricard."

"I don't want to think badly about them, either," Katriana sighed, "But still, I think we might need help. I'd feel a lot better about this search if we had an extra pair of eyes or two."

Immediately my mood soured. I knew who she was going to ask to invite along, too. "What do you mean?" I asked, deliberately playing dumb in the vain hope that she's drop it.

"Well, think about it," Katriana said as she touched my shoulder, getting me to stop and listen to her in the crowded common room. "We might not be the only adventurers they spoke to about this, and if pictsies are as tricky and troublesome as that elf lady implied, we could use an extra body to help corner it." She shrugged, and I was briefly distract by how Katriana's hair followed the motion of her head. "Besides, we don't know the area that well, and we could use a guide."

I sighed heavily. She wasn't wrong, I just didn't like inviting some nosy dude to come with us and potentially get between me and my lovely meat shield. "Fine," I replied, leaving it at that.

We approached our table, where Voss was still sitting, toying with his beer mug and chatting easily with the group of performers of some kind next to where we were sitting. I felt jealousy for him spike through me again, not because of anything to do with Katriana, but because of how easily he struck up a conversation with complete strangers. When we resumed our seats across from him, he broke off the other conversation, returning a confident smile to us. "How'd your meeting go?" he asked, not mincing any words, "Did you accept the job?"

"Yeah, well, it's a pretty simple quest," Katriana explained, "A group of more experienced adventurers lost a magic ring up in the passes, and they want us to go find it for them. Maybe a pictsy was involved, maybe not." She frowned, running her finger over a knot in the tabletop. "But there's also something that our employers aren't telling us. So, Theodore and I were hoping that we could recruit you to help us on the search."

Voss' grin widened. "What is the reward like?" he asked.

"One hundred gold coins, plus whatever we loot on our search," I replied, shrugging. Katriana piped up after me. "So, do you want to join us on this?" she offered, "There's a time limit, so it's really just a couple days up in the mountains looking around and back."

"Yeah, sure," he said, waving for another mug of ale, "It does seem like you two could use someone to watch your back. So, we split everything three ways?"

I thought about it- one hundred gold doesn't divide evenly by three and I don't want to be making change. "No, we'll spend four gold on a bit of a feast to celebrate our first quest as adventurers, and discuss if we're going to work together in the future," I said, adding the last as a sop to Katriana, even though I couldn't wait to see the back of this guy, "Then, we divide what's left, which would be 32 gold pieces each."

Voss barked a laugh in response to my offer. "I like how you think, magic man," he said as he extended his hand across the table, "Let's get to the bottom of this, get the people their ring back, and make a tiny sum of money, right?" Katriana reached across the table and took Voss' hand, giving him a brief, profession shake. Hesitantly, I followed suit, and we shook on it.

"Well, I have an apartment not far from here, really I was just in for a meal and to make connections with other beginning adventurers," Voss explained with a gesture, "And it's getting late anyway. If it's alright with both of you, why don't we meet up tomorrow at dawn, and head out nice and early?"

I nodded and replied with a brief "Sure", and we said our goodbyes as there wasn't much else to talk about. He was a fighter and we were a fighter and a mage, it was a pretty usual if basic adventuring party, and we had all day tomorrow to learn how to work together. Shortly after, Katriana and I, not being big drinkers, headed upstairs for an early rest.

Sitting down on my bed and slipping my feet out of my shoes gratefully, I took a slow breath and glanced over at my sworn protector. I had something on my mind and wanted to be blunt about it, so while she barred the door behind her, I tried to get her attention with a soft "Katriana...."

"I know, I know," she said, turning to face me, wearing a kindly, indulgent smile. "My prince doesn't like anyone who flirts with his precious 'big sister', I can tell," she said with a laugh. "Well, you don't have to worry," she continued, not noticing my inner conflict, "I would never fall for a blunt, overconfident brute like that." She smirked at me. "Also, male fighters are way too muscley. Could you imagine? It'd be like trying to cuddle a brick wall."

I was dumbstruck, and embarrassment shot through me. I looked away and could feel the heat in my cheeks. Did she really see through me so easily? I guess we have lived together our whole lives, but Katriana just casually hit the nail on the head. While I struggled with myself, she had continued.

"I only wanted to recruit Voss because we know nobody else around here and I didn't want to go to the trouble of seeking out other total strangers to talk about it," she explained as she sank down on her own bed, her knees close to my own. "Hopefully he works out, maybe he won't, either way, the sworn guardian of the crown prince has better things to do than fool around with shabby adventurers."

I felt a tension in my shoulders that I didn't realize was there relax. I took another fortifying breath. "Actually... there was something else," I said quietly.

"Oh?" she asked, leaning forward and putting a hand on my knee. I could feel my face colour again, so I kept was head down as I continued, deciding to be as direct as she was. "If I can identify the ring, and if it's powerful enough, we're going to take it for ourselves," I said all in one go, "We will have to flee the city, and we'll have to convince Voss to come with us, or at least not to turn us in, but magical items are precious. A sufficiently powerful magic ring could help us regain our kingdom more easily than a pocketful of gold."

Katriana was silent for awhile, and slowly took her hand back. I raised my eyes to her face, and found her giving me an unreadable look. "Well... whatever you think is best, my prince," she said softly after awhile, her teasing grins all gone, "But please try to keep in mind our reputations, as well, and the kind of enemies we'd be making. You can't win back your throne from jail, or a grave."

I had thought about that stuff, actually, and while I didn't have a perfect plan, for something like a Ring of Free Action, a Ring of Mind Shielding, or a Ring of Spell Storing, I'd be willing to take the chance. I didn't mention what I was specifically looking for, though. Considering what had happened with my spellbook, I had no idea if mentioning an item by it's generic, game master's guide name would break Corgiel's rules.

Things were kind of awkward, though, and I couldn't think of anything else to say to Katriana. After awhile, she busied herself with sorting and checking on her armour, and carefully examining her weaponry. While the light persisted, I took out my spellbook and flicked through, reading over my notes but not really absorbing anything. I felt a little miserable. Just making that suggestion seemed to have thrown up a wall between us. But when the sky was dark enough that I couldn't read the spidery script no matter how I squinted, I said my goodnight to Katriana and curled up on my side, facing the wall.

I was woken partway through the night by a squeaking sound.

I was sleepy and half-aware, as expected for someone who had been sleeping soundly, but there was definitely something creaking in the room. It seemed too rhythmic and regular to be someone sneaking or going through our stuff, or Katriana quietly struggling with a thief. I strained to make out what that sound was, but I didn't dare to make a sound.

I heard a familiar voice make a very hushed whisper, "Please, you don't..." followed by something I couldn't quite make out, then a short, low moan.

Katriana was masturbating. Had to be.

Despite her previous words, jealousy inched into my mind. I could only hope she was thinking about me, and not Voss or even Ricard. But there was no way to tell, and I was frozen, unable to make myself to speak to her. All I could do was lay uncomfortably in bed, with a growing boner, listening to my first harem target, guardian and pseudo-big sister get off.

After the sweetest, most innocent orgasm I'd ever heard- the squeaking stopped as she had a sharp intake of breath, before she slowly moaned it out- I was forced to wait until I heard her roll over. When her breathing became slow and regular again, I lifted up my blanket and, as quietly as I could, took care of myself in turn, wrapping my hand around my stiff cock and slowly, quietly stroked myself to a quick climax, mopping up my cum with the bedsheet before I tried to get back to sleep myself.

Tomorrow was going to be a long day, and I didn't want to be kept up by my horniness, right?