Curse and Fortune Ch. 02

To her right, Gabriel was being flanked by two Pitchcloaks while two more started homing in on Pris and Millie as Zula quickly scrambled to her feet, her hood drawn back to reveal an angry version of the girl from the night before.

"Oh, I will take my sweet time with you, bitch!!" Zula snapped her fingers and her two companions rushed in towards them, glee on her face.

A glee that was washed away quickly as Millie swung her lute up front and strummed three sharp notes. As the third reverberated, it didn't stop, but grew to a loud, thunderous boom as the two assailants where forced back by the sound and they collapsed.

Zula's expression grew from shock to cold anger to shock again, just as something swished in front of her face. Looking to her left, a dark shadow rushed in towards her, daggers flared and she was forced to go on the defensive as Kaiser's daggers met her blade.

"Zula, love." His bravado was certainly not asleep. "Couldn't help yourself, could you?"

"You!" The Pitchcloaked girl met each of his hits with deft skill as they clashed. With a swish of her blade, Kaiser was forced back and the rogue did a quick backflip before catching himself.

The sound of steel on steel resounded towards Gabriel's location, and looking over, Pris could see Rickhart's red armor has he stood back-to-back with the cleric, each holding their own. Rick easily parried the meek attempts at him, yet his opponent blocked and dodged his attacks in turn. Gabriel had been forced to bring his summoned staff around to fend off his own opponent, trying his best not to let him get within arm's reach.

"Shit!!" Zula snapped. "Archers!!"

Pris hurriedly prepared to cast her shielding spell, charging a minor mote into her hand... But nothing came.

A brief pause followed where all participants waited in unison... Before a roar akin to a bear resounded from where Pris had seen the first crossbow. A loud scream, followed by the sound of metal hitting flesh rang through the night as three bodies flew over their heads, landing with loud thuds.

It was an interesting sight how quickly blood could drain from a person's face, especially when the catalyst was six hundred pounds of pure goliath muscle waving a massive great-axe around like a garden rake. Zula could only look in horror at the mangled corpse of one chest-to-groin cleave-split former ally landing mere inches from her feet as Norrin came charging straight at her.

For a moment, elation swelled up in Pris ... until she saw the smirk spreading on Zula's face as the Pitchcloak traced lines in the air with her fingers, muttering under her breath.

"Norrin, wait!!" She shouted, snapping her fingers towards Zula who deftly waved her hand in Pris's direction, cutting off her attempt at countering the spell. "Shit!"

"Begone!" Zula snapped and closed her hands as if to catch a moth, a ring on her finger sparkling and, in the beat of a heart, Norrin disappeared in a flash of green light.

"Norrin!!" Kaiser and Millie shouted in horror.

"That should do it. Now, where were w-" Zula started confidently before having to snap her sword up to block a dagger aimed straight for her face. "There you go again, Master Thief. Trying to shoot at my face, still as pathetically."

"Can't help it, your ugly mug is making it difficult to aim." Kaiser jabbed. Though his smile was flirting, his eyes were cold as iron and set on killing.

Narrowing her eyes, Zula readied herself for another attack just as Milliana shot towards her, rapier streaming smooth as silk and quick as a swallow straight towards her and she was forced on the defensive. Twice, Milliana drew blood and twice Pris could see Zula straining to hold onto a spell with her off hand.

She's concentrating. If we can break it.

She quickly scoped the area. Rickhart had just dispatched his opponent and was moving to help Gabe. The wagons and tents were clear too. All she needed was...

"Kai! Millie! Red alert!!" She bellowed. With deft movement, Kaiser jumped back as Milliana pushed off of Zula's blade with her sword and retreated as Pris fumbled into her pouch.

"Almost had me there." Zula smirked and raised her hand, crackling energy streaming from her elbow into her palm as two bolts shot towards Pris. One missed her by a few inches, the other catching her in the shoulder and she fell over, coughing.

"There's. No. Almost!" Pris spat out as she slapped her hands together around a small bead of rolled up bat droppings mixed with sulfur. She reached within herself and expended one of her greater motes and infused it into the bead. The texture immediately went from dirt black to streaming scarlet as Pris threw it towards Zula who had a curious expression on her face before, all too late, realizing what she was seeing.

"Sh-" She never finished the word before the ball erupted. A boom like a powder keg going off resounded in the quiet of the night as a ball of roaring flame sprang up where Zula had stood mere moments before, engulfing the entire area on flames.

For a brief moment, night had been turned to day as the small camp was bathed in light from the fireball. As it subsided, three charred corpses dropped from behind burned bushes. Zula, covered in soot, staggered to her feet from where she was kneeling, her cloak burned to cinders and small wisps of her hair curling from charring as her eyes met Pris's.

"You." Her eyes seethed with hatred.

There was a shout of guttural pain as Gabe's opponent ended his life with Rickhart's sword through his throat and Zula looked about, seemingly only now realizing she was the only one left standing.

"This is not the e-"

pop

Came the sound directly behind her as Norrin's frame magically apparated behind her, casting a massive shadow over her from the lingering flames licking over the trees behind him, his axe rising to the occasion it was forged for.

"We'll resume this another time then." She snapped in anger as she reached quickly into a satchel at her hip, pulling out a scroll. The parchment rolled out on its own and burned quickly up into cinders and, just as Norrin's axe hit the spot she had been standing, Zula was gone without a trace.

Gone.

Kaiser cursed loudly, kicking dirt as Pris and Gabriel started to hurriedly douse the flames that were, thankfully, not spreading much due to the damp air.

And silence sank over the camp and as Pris sat down on the log she had occupied just a few minutes earlier, she breathed out. She looked out over the carnage they had just been a part of and tried not to think about the implications of what had transpired.

They were evil men. All of them. She told herself, swallowing. They would have killed me... us, if we hadn't killed them first. A stupid little mantra that, though helping in a sense, did little to alleviate the guilt that always followed these instances.

She didn't look up as Millie sat down next to her.

"Monsters and beasts are one thing." Pris said and leaned her head on her lover's shoulder as she had so many times before, leaving the rest of the sentence unsaid.

"We should count ourselves fortunate that we think that way." Gabriel's voice came from behind along with the sound of shuffling of clothes and bodies. "Norrin. Help a man out, would you? Can you dig me a hole about five or six feet deep? Wide as it need be."

"Easy enough." Came the excited voice of the group's muscle.

Pris wordlessly shuffled to her feet as she turned to see Norrin digging up a shovel from the back of the cart. Silently, Pris pulled miniature hand sculpted from brown and gray clay out of her pouch and muttered an incantation under her breath, fueling the spell with a mote of magic from within.

The earth under her feet began to quake as a large hand of earth and stone, roughly as large as Norrin, rose from the ground by the tree line and started to, far more efficiently than any shovel ever could, dig like a child in a sandbox until she had a large hole enough for the bodies they had dispatched.

Blinking, she looked over at Norrin who stood with the shovel in his hands, looking sorely disappointed as the shovel slid from his hand.

"Oh, Norrin... I... Sorry." Pris said, blinking, looking up at a pair of sad, puppy eyes that did not fit the tank of a man they were fitted to.

"No. No, it's fine." The big man sniffed and straightened up, blinking as he turned away. "I'm good. It was the better choice." He gave a loud sniff and she could swear she saw a tear in his eyes.

"Stop sulking. You can fill the hole, if you wish." Rickhart snapped as he and Kaiser, having looted the bodies of any apparent worth, started to throw them into the hole unceremoniously as Gabriel, holy emblem in hand, was chanting a prayer to the departed he himself had helped on their way.

Looking up with a look of "Can I?" Norrin hurriedly helped them with the bodies before he happily started to fill it up with the pile Pris had made.

"That ... did not help me feeling better." Pris sighed and sat down again, shoving the clay hand back into her pouch after resisting the urge to throw it away.

"Never mess with a boy and his prospects of digging a hole." Milliana hugged Pris from behind, and Pris could practically feel her amusement, much to her own chagrin.

"Shut up." She said and leaned into the hug.

--

As the makeshift grave was filled and the sun was starting to stream up over the treetops, Rickhart called a meeting. The kettle, while having been dented by Pris's catapult spell, had been mended with magic and was now puttering merrily over the bonfire as Gabriel prepared coffee and breakfast for all.

"Well, that could most certainly have gone worse."

"Luckily, we knew they were coming." Kaiser said, tying up his leather armor again after checking his body for wounds. After all, no one wanted to have accidentally been poisoned and finding out three days later when they were dead or dying.

"And we know they'll be coming again." Priscilla noted, accepting a cup from Gabriel.

"Let them come. I will tear them apart!" Norrin snarled and pounded his knuckles together, his issue with Pris over the hole seemingly forgotten.

"You bet your ass we will." Kaiser said and offered a high five which nearly sent him flying backwards.

"While the candor is appreciated, I think for now, we'll focus on getting to Oreburrow." Rickhart sat down along with the rest and pulled up a map from his satchel. "There's still another five to six days of travel left and I'm not keen on sleeping in my armor more than necessary."

"I sincerely doubt Zula will even be in the proper state to follow us at this rate. And even if she did, she's out of ammo." Kaiser said, throwing his arms up. "We'll be far north before she can catch up. Or anyone else for that matter. Not to mention, I doubt we'll see any of them once we're in Oreburrow."

"What makes you so sure?" Milliana looked surprised. She had finished tending to Pris's wounds and, after making sure she was neither bleeding nor poisoned, had kissed her cheek and gone to practicing a new tune.

"Other gangs." Kaiser explained. "You don't step on another crew's turf without consequences and as far as I know, I've never heard of Pitchcloaks sighted anywhere outside of Rondel, at least not openly."

"This was open enough." Rickhart said as he folded up the map. "I think it's fair to assume we should expect another attack, but as you said, I doubt we'll be in trouble for another couple of days at least."

"Once we get into contact with our next employer, maybe we should seek some help on that part." Pris said, happy for the comfort of a girl's arm around her neck and a cat in her lap.

"You think he's okay though?" Milliana looked concerned as Pris looked up at her. In the breaking of the dawn, Millie's silver hair shone like polished strands of precious metal and she had to snap herself out of it not to stare too much.

"Who?" Rickhart cocked an eyebrow. "Our employer?"

"No, his cousin. Mr. Bordan." At Millie's words, everyone exchanged looks of shock and horror.

"He was there too." Kaiser sucked in his lips and looked dumbstruck from person to person.

"And she knows his name." Pris said, feeling her stomach sink. "Which means he can be located. And us through him again."

A heavy feeling fell over the group as they realized their own blunder. Could they really have been this stupid?!

"No, I don't think she does, actually."

Pris and the rest looked up at Gabriel as he was flipping sizzling bacon on the frying pan he had bluntly shoved onto the coals.

"Really? No one?" He looked incredulous at the others, smiling. "Okay, let me ask you this." He inhaled from his pipe and stroked his goatee, letting the others wait for him; an annoying habit he had when he just knew he was right. "Who, in their right mind, would offer up their real name to a bunch of thieves? More-so, thieves that are, on their demand, going to rob the biggest thief guild in town."

He paused for effect and, sure enough, the logic seemed sound. Mr. Bordan had seemed a bit surprised at the amount of money they had stolen, true, but he hadn't seemed worried at all or even asked if they had been followed or if his name had leaked.

"Sure, he didn't seem too bright for his own good, but I can tell you one thing I do know." He leaned in closer and smiled knowingly as he blew orange smoke up into the air. "'Bordan' is the dwarven word for 'someone'."

Pris blinked.

Looking around at the others she saw them just as perplexed. Norrin looked completely lost.

"... Just 'someone'?" Pris noted. She didn't speak dwarven, but she knew Gabe did. The cleric nodded.

"Just so. So I doubt he's in any real danger unless he's been dumb enough to remain at the inn. Dwarfs are paranoid like that."

"That's a relief." Rickhart said. "Luckily I got an address out of him to where we might find his cousin, otherwise we'd be grasping at straws here."

Pris rolled her eyes at herself as she and the others went to pack up the tents and break camp. She felt stupid for not having noticed the dwarf's pseudonym earlier.

"Don't feel bad, neither did we." Millie comforted her as they sat in the wagon a few hours later after Pris had vented most of her frustration. Currently, only the two of them occupied the small enclosed space of the canvass, with Kaiser sitting next to Gabriel at the front, chatting lively.

"Never mind any dwarfs. What about you?"

Pris was sitting with Milliana's head in her lap, the bard laying on her back and absentmindedly twiddling four small magical light up under the ceiling.

"What about me?" Pris said, shaking herself out of her lazy trance. "What?" She continued as Millie stared straight through her. Those silver eyes felt like they were shooting straight through her soul.

"Your dream, you doofus." She said and booped Pris on the nose. "You said you weren't feeling well."

"Oh..." Pris had completely forgotten about the dream thanks to last night's happenings. Now she wished she could forget again, but that wish would not come true, that she knew.

"It was the dream about the stars again." She said, as she had to Gabriel. She looked down and found that Millie's eyes had not left hers. "Except, this time, I, in the dream, that is, I was surrounded by cloaks. Hundreds of them. And I couldn't run, so I... I plucked one of them down, one of the stars, and. It was surreal really. It was like I could feel it in my hand."

"Like when you cast a spell?" Millie lifted an eyebrow. "You know, when you expend a mote of magic."

Pris mulled it over, but found the answer quicker than she thought.

"No, not actually. It was more like... How should I explain it... I felt more like it came from somewhere else. Like, in a similar vein to a mote, but the energy felt different, if you understand."

Milliana didn't say a word, only listened, still staring.

"And last night, when Zula attacked me." Pris had to think hard to remember it. It was like the adrenaline had completely washed her memory of the experience away. "Last night, she attacked me and I... Well, it felt like I was casting Shield as usual. At least, that was my intention, but ... something was off. Something altered the casting of the spell."

Milliana's brow furrowed as she sat up and looked at Pris.

"What do you mean?"

Pris wanted to shrug, but she knew it wouldn't satisfy Millie's curiosity nor worry, so she undid her vest and her shirt and pulled it open.

"Scillla, love, if you think you can distract me with boo-" Millie froze in her tracks as her eyes went wide. "One is..."

Pris nodded. Still staring incredulously, Millie reached out with her hand and Pris had to take a deep breath as she felt Millie's hand running over her, trying not to get needlessly excited. The elf's gentle fingers traced the outline of the four crystals embedded above her heart. Three shone a dim green light, one was...

"One is dark... But you said the casting was altered?" She cocked her eyebrow again. "How so?"

"I don't know, really. It happened too fast." Pris said. "But it looked like I knocked her back, like she was forced back or something." Millie looked even more confused.

"That spell doesn't normally do that, does it?" She asked and Pris shook her head, chuckling.

"Not by a longshot. The only thing it does is making me able to deflect incoming attacks with my hand, though even that isn't perfect." She explained, expending a minor mote from within herself to cast the spell and the palm of her left hand flared up with a dim, silvery glow, radiating outward. "It's like a really sturdy shield, but it only lasts for a few seconds."

"We should test it out then." Millie suggested and Pris nodded.

"Once we have the time. Job's first, then we ca-" As the glow disappeared, Pris become acutely aware of a certain feeling under her shirt.

"Millie..."

"Hm?"

"You're still groping me."

Milliana looked up and met Pris's eyes, then her own drifted down to see her own hand having disappeared into the shirt. "Yes, and?" Her attempt at playing dumb might have worked if Pris didn't know her.

"Milliana, you're being facetious." Pris frowned, feeling a bit indignant.

"..."

"..."

" Fine." She said with nonchalance and sat besides Pris instead. Pris started buttoning up her shirt and vest and tensed up, inhaling sharply as she felt Millie's whisper in her ear. "I'll be having those later then."

Pris didn't have a chance to catch her in the act of teasing before she felt Millie rest her head on hers.

"... Horny dumbass." She muttered and she just knew Millie was smiling.

"You know you love it." Milliana squeezed Pris's arm and, before she could retort, she continued. "Whatever it is that your crystals can do, Scilla sweet."

Pris looked up at her, but saw only bangs of silver.

"I'm sure they are not bad things. New things, yes. But not bad. That I believe."

Pris didn't push the matter, but instead sat in silence as her thoughts began to race through her head, the road rolling beneath the cart.

--

The next few days passed surprisingly quickly for a trip of four days, Pris felt. Though Rickhart had been persuaded to finally sleep without his armor after listening to his pained grunting, not to mention hearing his joints pop every time he moved was enough to have the crew's patience on edge for most of the week.

Pris hadn't had the chance to properly test what her cursed crystals might be up to yet, nor had she been able to repeat the event that had occurred during the battle with Zula and her thugs. She had, however, regained the glow in the dull gem after just a night of sleeping.

"So it must be like your motes of magic then?" Kaiser noted as they sat in the back of the wagon, tossing a small bean bag between themselves to pass time. "Like when you rest up and you're able to cast your spells again, right?"