Chapter Text
Though there was still a few hours of daylight left, the raven haired girl with golden eyes decided to set up camp for the night. The clearing just off the crossroad looked like it hosted many travelers over the years. She placed her three stringed guitar down against a stump by the pre-dug fire pit, started a fire, and set out a kettle for tea.
When she heard the whistle, she prepared her tea, placed it off to the side on the stump, and sat cross legged next to it, her porcelain skin glowing in the fire light. She brought out of her bag a leather bound deck of cards and placed it on the makeshift table in front of her. Then unwrapped the bundle and smoothed it out in front of her with the deck in the center. She grabbed two hair sticks from her bag and closed her eyes. She took a deep breath as she put her hair in a bun, revealing her pointed ears, and exhaled staring at the cards. She rolled up the sleeves on her black kimono, shook out her arms to amp herself up, and picked up the deck.
The first card she flipped over and placed on the leather was the Magician. No surprise there she thought. Next was the Wheel of Fortune, again as expected; she placed it side by side with the first card. Her hand hovered over the deck for a moment while she waited to see if another card was needed; ultimately, she shook her head and moved on to the next row.
She placed the King of Wands and the Queen of Swords next to each other. She paused and pondered who this might be. The girl tapped the top of the deck with her fingers, lost in thought for a moment, looking at the two rows. The party and the client; now onto the adventure she told herself.
She flipped over four cards: Two of Cups, Three of Cups, Three of Swords, and Ten of Swords. She placed the deck down and had her tea as she meditated on the reading.
When finished, she turned herself around so her back was resting against the stump and stared off into the horizon, plucking at her guitar.
**********
Mid day was turning to evening as the two adventurers traveled down the road. It had been a nice cool day that promised to be the same come nightfall. The road stretched beyond the horizon in front of them as well as behind and fields of lush grass did the same at their sides. The pair were returning to the city of Ivlon after completing a job for a small village called Saltmeadow, they took on a contract to clear out a camp of bandits that had set up shop not far from the village. When they got there, they found that “camp of bandits” meant five highwaymen with a single sword among them.
Rayne, the half-elf, picked up her pace to get ahead of her human companion. Spinning around, the orange sash that wrapped over her dark green pants and down her left side spun with her. She started dancing around the man like a boxer, throwing air punches as they walked. Her delicate looking white embroidered shirt hid its true nature. “I can’t believe we were asked to trek out to the middle of nowhere to deal with a few moderately mean looking bums.”
Nemo, the young man, shrugged his shoulders observing her. “You wanted the glamorous life of an adventurer.” He adjusted the armor he had strapped over the arms of his brown leather jacket and tugged on its hood to make sure it wasn’t caught under the sheathed sword. Where Rayne went for a deceptive elegant look, Nemo prefered a rugged practical look. At least that’s what he liked to think, Rayne was always quick to point out how neat and clean he kept his armor and clothing. How his short brown hair was always fresh and kempt.
“ No . You wanted to be an adventurer. I wanted to be a pirate.”
“You hate the water.”
“A forest pirate.” She unsheathed the sickle-sword from her waist and pointed it at Nemo smiling. “I was one. I was a great one. Then I met you and you ruined all of that for me.” she said squinting her bright hazel eyes at him.
“ I ruined that life for you?” he laughed, “Are you sure that career wasn’t ruined when your men betrayed you and tried to sell you out?”
“That was definitely a factor to be sure.” she twirled the khopesh and resheathed it. She stopped walking and started stretching exaggeratedly as Nemo kept walking.
“You could always quit adventuring and go back to that life.”
“And leave the farm boy all alone in the big scary world?” she called out after him.
Nemo walked a few more paces thinking about how it had been a few days since Saltmeadow and how there was another three, at least, in front of them before Ivlon, when he felt a fist tap his shoulder and heard the jangle of way too many bracelets, the half-elf was at his side. “Hey, look at that.” she said, gesturing ahead of them. Nemo looked at the dark olive skinned arm and hand. He could see the tattoo she had of a meditating Ilo, the goddess of the hunt, on her forearm. His eyes shifted in the direction she was pointing. There was a person laying in the grass, off the side of the road, about a hundred yards away near where their road forked. “Think they’re dead?” She tossed the black braid that had been resting on her shoulder behind her and it fell to her waist.
“Maybe. Could be more bandits.” Nemo replied, scratching his scruffy beard. He drew his sword and scanned the field to the right of them, keeping an eye out for any place that could conceal someone. Synchronized, Rayne drew the bow from the scabbard on her back, readied an arrow, and scanned the left field. They approached the body, switching positions every few yards on alert for any sign of an ambush. When they reached their target, Nemo looked down and saw it was a girl lying on her side. She had amber skin and medium curly brown hair, dyed red at the ends, that was covering her face. She was wearing a Tyrian purple hoodie, as well as long shorts and boots that looked made for hiking. There was a camping pack lying on the ground next to her. The pack had something roughly three feet long, wrapped up in a blanket tied to its side. Nemo tilted his head over his shoulder, “Don’t think he was robbed, she still has her stuff.” He bent down to check her pulse.
Nemo’s hand made it halfway to the girl when she looked up and saw him standing over her. Their eyes met and she screamed, kicking her feet in his direction. Startled, he let out a small cry and fell over backwards shielding his face from her boots. Rayne whipped around and fired off an arrow narrowly missing the girl’s head. The girl grabbed a handful of dirt and threw it in Rayne’s face, picked her pack off the ground, and started swinging it at both of the adventurers, using the momentum to get herself on her feet. As Nemo was trying to get to his, she caught him on the side of his head. The girl spun around to look for Rayne when the half-elf was suddenly at her waist tackling her to the ground; pinning her arms. “Calm down! We’re not robbing you. We were checking if you were alive.”
The girl’s demeanor instantly softened. “Oh wait, really?” she turned her head to Nemo.
He was lying on his back, one hand over his face pinching the bridge of his nose in between his eyes. “Yeah kid, we were looking to help.” He groaned and sat up.
The girl looked back at Rayne. “Hey are you an elf?”
Rayne looked dumbfounded over at Nemo, then back at the girl and shook her head as she got up. “Half, what’s it to you?”
“Not much to me but I have a friend who would love to meet you, she’s a half-elf too, but she is the only anything elf where we live so she gets lonely a lot.”
Nemo brushed himself off as he stood up. “Okay you really need to take a breath. What are you doing out here by yourself… sleeping by the side of the road?”
“I’m running away from home. I got tired. I decided to rest a little. What are you doing here?” she replied, taking a breath between each sentence.
“First off: no, don’t do either of those things. Don’t run away from home, what are you twelve? And if you do, don't take a nap right by the road where anyone can see you.”
“ First , I’m sixteen. And I was able to defend myself against you two.” She shot back pointing at the two of them.
“Yeah, kid. You sure were able to handle yourself against two people who were trying to help you.” Rayne replied.
“Can you two stop calling me kid? My name is Ri.”
“Rayne.”
“Nemo.”
Ri picked up her pack,“Cool now we’re all friends. I’m going to get going. You just let me know which direction you’re heading so I can head the opposite way.”
Rayne threw up her hands and started back on the road towards Ilvoln. “Yeah, I’m good with that.”
Ri headed off in the opposite direction but Nemo grabbed the pack on her back. “Hold up. What are you running from?”
Rayne turned around. “What? No! Let her go. She’s not our problem. She––” gesturing towards Ri, “is not going to be paying us.”
“Wait… are you guys mercenaries?” Ri asked, wrenching herself free from Nemo.
“No.”, “Yes.” Nemo and Rayne said in sync.
Rayne looked at Nemo and shrugged.
“I mean… aren’t we?” she asked, eyebrows raised.
Nemo stared blankly at Rayne. “No. We’re adventurers. Part of the Adventurers Guild. When people need help, they reach out and we help them.”
Rayne and Ri looked at each other, then back at Nemo. “Buddy. For money.” Rayne said with a smirk.
“Yeah, it sounds like you’re hired muscle but with a fancy name to help you sleep at night.”
Nemo closed his eyes, breathed in deep, and exhaled heavily. “Okay. We’re leaving.” he started walking in Rayne’s direction.
Ri ran in front of Nemo with her hands out stopping him. “Wait, please. I know what the Adventurers Guild is. I’m fucking with you. Please.” she took a deep breath, “My friends and I have this secret place in the woods, there was a sword in the forest, and there’s a prophecy that comes with the sword, and apparently , I’m a part of the prophecy and part of that prophecy is all of my friends are going to be killed by––”
“No!” Rayne was standing behind Ri, pointing over the girl’s shoulder at Nemo, “No!” she moved to Ri’s, gesturing at her, “No, no, no. No .” She turned back towards Nemo, pointing a finger in his face, “No! We don’t fuck with prophecies, ancient evils, curses that can’t be stabbed to death, or mermaids.”
“––an ancient evil.” Ri finished
“Oh, well in that case: No! Tell me you’re not considering this, Nemo?”
Ri held up a hand. “I’m sorry, did you say mermaids?”
Nemo and Rayne both look at her, “Mermaids are dicks.”
Nemo turned to Rayne, “We can at least check it out. If it turns out to be too much we’ll walk away.”
Ri pleaded with Rayne, “I can pay.”
Rayne made several hand gestures to convey her frustration. “ Fine . How far is your town kid?”
“Less than an hour’s walk.”
“You walked less than an hour and had to take a nap?”
“I haven't slept in like two days, leave me alone.” she replied and started down the branching road.
As promised, after less than an hour the trio were stepping foot into a decent sized mining town nestled at the base of a small mountain. As they entered the town Ri skipped ahead of them, spun around, and started walking backwards as she talked. “Welcome to Steepwick. A not quite small, not quite large town of no real significance more than what we mine from that mountain over yonder. If you’ll follow me, we can search for my friends and then head off.”
She started to turn back around when Rayne stopped her. “Wait. Why do we need your friends?”
“Well…” she trailed off for a second, “in order for me to take you where I need to, we need to get special permissions.”
Rayne glared at Nemo.
He sighed. “I know, I know.”
The group made it a bit farther into town when they heard someone calling out Ri’s name. “Where the hell have you been?” A girl about Ri’s age came running up to them. She had black hair cut as short as possible without her being completely bald. She was a bit shorter than Ri, pale, and was wearing tight black pants and a black hoodie cut into a tank top. Her ears made it apparent that this was the half-elf friend Ri had talked about. “We’ve been looking for you all day.” the light skin girl stated.
“Sorry I disappeared.” Ri replied sheepishly “Some stuff happened that I have to tell you guys about. But I brought some friends to help. Ace, this is Rayne and Nemo. Rayne, Nemo, this is Ace.”
“Why do we need…” Ace stopped and did a double take upon seeing Rayne. She looked her up and down but quickly realized she was staring. “Sorry, I’ve never met another non-human. Let alone anyone elvish.”
Rayne gave a half hearted shrug not knowing how to respond. “Well, I’m not full blooded. Only half, like you.” Rayne noticed that the girl’s right ear was covered in piercings while her left ear only had a single lobe piercing. She pointed to her own right ear; it too had several piercings including three helix and three dangling lobe piercings, and then her left that had a single tragus piercing. “Good to know you’re full badass though.” This comment made Ace beam, and Ri as well, seeing how happy her friend was.
The happiness on their faces was short lived however as a male voice called out to them. “Brianna, Chayse. What are you two doing here?” A man dressed in simple plate armor, chainmail, and a brimmed metal hat approached them. He was accompanied by two boys, around the same age as the girls, who were similarly dressed as he was. The man had a short sword on his belt while the boys carried spears.
Ri rolled her eyes and turned to greet them. “Lieutenant Seamus. Always a pleasure…” she looked at the two boys, “Gordie. Chris.” The boy, Chris, looked like he was about to reply when Seamus cut him off.
“What trouble are you girls running off too? You know you make your parents sick with worry when you disappear the way you do.”
A look of feigned excitement came over Ace’s face. “My parents? You say you found my parents good sir, and they say they’re worried about me?” she asked, hands clasped together. The Lieutenant became clearly uncomfortable and was at a loss of words. Ace looked back at Rayne and Nemo. “Have to love orphan jokes.”
Rayne smirked, “That’s more his department.” she said gesturing to Nemo.
“I do love a nicely timed orphan joke.” he said smiling.
They heard one of the boys clear their throat. It was Chris, he took a step towards them, apparently finding the words he lost a moment ago, “They’re probably running off into the woods again. They leave the path and into the deep woods where it’s forbidden to go.” The other boy, Gordie, shot him a look that, if Chris had been looking at him, would have clearly sent the message: shut up .
Ri stepped in front of Ace, “And how would you know that?” she asked, squinting her eyes at him.
Ace gently moved her aside and stepped forward. “He knows because he and his friends have tried following us several times. But everytime they do, at least one of them loses their nerve the second the path is out of sight, and they convince the others to turn around. I believe last time…” she glanced at Gordie, “one of you suddenly remembered they didn’t feed their family’s sheep and needed to go back immediately.”
Both Nemo and Rayne were surprised at the look of astonishment that cropped up on the boy’s face. “You could hear that?” Gordie asked.
Ace tapped the tip of one of her ears and smiled. “And it’s probably a good thing that happens.” She looked back at Chris, “We’ve all grown up on stories about the naughty boys who wander into dark woods only to get gobbled up by a witch or two who live in them.”
Chris rolled his eyes. “Please. The closest thing Steepwick or its woods have to a witch is…”
“Is our good friend.” Ace took several steps forward and was now in Chris’s face. “So you might want to take care over who you spy on; lest Steepwick gain stories of its own about little boys going missing in its haunted woods.”
Nemo felt Rayne’s fist bump him on the shoulder. “O’, I fucking like her .” Rayne said quietly, trying not to ruin the girl’s moment.
It was Lieutenant Seamus’s turn to roll his eyes as Gordie let slip a chuckle. “Okay. Okay. Could you not scare off my recruits. Listen, you girls get a lot of leeway because of who your parents are, by birth or adoption. So, if you could…” he let out a heavy sigh, “If you could not be assholes that would be appreciated.”
Ace looked back at Ri as she took a few steps back. They both smiled as Ri nodded, “We can do that for you lawman.”
With Rayne now resting an arm on his shoulder as she watched this unfold, Nemo saw something down the street that caught his eye. He patted Rayne’s arm and pointed to what looked like the market square as three large wagons pulled by white horses crossed through the square. Each caravan had at least four guards on them and there was no way of knowing how many were inside. Every guard was uniformed with a khaki pea coat and matching dress pants; white armor that looked like it was made of porcelain was strapped on their chest, upper arms, forearms, knees, and shins; a round helm made of the same metal encased their heads, hiding their faces; they also had white gloves and a light grey hooded cloak. Red pentagon patches with a black sun adorned the shoulders of their cloaks and one was on either side of the front skirt of their coat.
Rayne saw them too, “Who are those pricks?”
Everyone else in the group turned to see who she was asking about. Seamus turned just in time to see the last of the wagons pass. “They would be soldiers from the Black Star corporation. Black Star owns the mine, they’re probably here with payroll and to pick up their shipments.”
Curious, Nemo asked, “What do you mine here?”
“Mostly coal but Black Star doesn’t really care about that. They only care about the crystals that form in the caves.”
Rayne perked up, “What kind of crystals? Are they valuable?”
Seamus shook his head, “Not to anyone other than whoever runs Black Star. When the town was first settled and the mines opened, we tried selling the crystal but we were told they were worthless. Whatever they are though, Black Star has such an interest in them, that even after buying the mine, they let the town keep the coal mined from it to be sold or used as we wish; that’s on top of the salaries they pay those working for the mine.”
Nemo was still staring off into the market square, “Interesting. Armor definitely stands out.”
“And their swords.” Rayne added. “Did you see them? They looked like broadswords but designed like rapiers.” she smirked, “Equal parts fancy and pretentious.”
“You should see their crossbows.” It was Gordie, as he said this both boys held up their hands mimicking lining up a shot with a crossbow. “They’re some kind of lever operated contraptions that can hold four bolts at a time and shoot rapidly.”
Ace was watching the boys but Ri was looking intently at Rayne. “Why did you call them pricks?” Gordie noticed Seamus waiting for an answer to Ri’s question and stopped goofing around, elbowing Chris to get his intention.
Rayne saw this and stopped leaning on Nemo. Nemo knew she was no stranger to speaking without thinking and ruffling some feathers, but the lieutenant didn’t look insulted. Instead he looked like he was noticing the two of them for the first time and was genuinely interested in any insights they might have.
“Well,” she started, “I might be biased from personal experiences, but based on those experiences, any group that uniformed are bound to be assholes. Add to that, the amount of money you’d need to outfit them as such…” she paused, “Look, just call it a gut feeling.” she was becoming uncomfortable with everyone looking at her. “Hey, Ri? Weren’t we supposed to be looking for your friends?”
Ri snapped back to reality. “Oh shit. Yeah.” she turned to Ace, “Where is everyone?”
“The others are still out in the woods. They’re waiting at the usual spot to see if you’d show up there while I came into town to look for you.”
“Okay. We need to go.” She gestured for Nemo and Rayne to follow, “Come on. This way.”
The two girls rushed on ahead ignoring Seamus as he held up his hands in protest. He looked at the two adventurers, “Go. Just please make sure they’re not in over their heads.”
The girls led Nemo and Rayne through the grid like streets and then into the woods a few miles from Steepwick. They traveled through the woods and just as the sun had fully set, they reached a clearing with four logs arranged around a campfire. Sitting on the makeshift benches were three girls, all of which looked similar in age to Ri and Ace. As the party entered the clearing, one of the girls was standing up to stretch when Ace ran up to her. “Heads up!” she screamed, tackling the girl with short blonde hair to the ground.
The two other girls barely reacted to this but upon seeing Nemo and Rayne walking out of the woods jumped to their feet startled. One girl, a long haired redhead in a sundress, dropped into a defensive stance. Seeing her do this Ri ran up waving her hands. “Wait. It’s just me. I brought some friends.”
The other, a girl with long black hair wearing a white tank top and dark pants, patted the redhead on the shoulder and walked up to Ri. “Where have you been? You vanished.”
“I’m sorry. Some weird stuff happened last night and I didn’t handle it well.” Ri responded.
At this point, the blonde was pinning Ace to the ground with her arm behind her back. The girl’s sleeveless red jacket showed off her muscular arms. “Give up?” she asked.
“No.” Ace responded as she tried pushing herself up with one hand. She lifted herself up slightly but was slammed right back down. “Yes.”
Hearing this, the blonde got up and put her hood up before extending a hand to help Ace up.
Nemo looked around at the group, Ri was being led off to the side by the black haired girl. The blonde and the redhead walked up to Nemo and Rayne.
“So who are you two?” The blonde asked.
“I’m Nemo, this is Rayne. Your friend is trying to hire us to protect you from something that she has yet to fully explain.”
“Well that’s nice of her.” she said with a slight tone of sarcasm. “I’m Gwen and this is Mac.” she stuck her thumb over her shoulder pointing at the redhead.
Mac was examining Rayne. “You look like a woodland pirate.”
“Thank you, that’s the vibe I was going for.” she said earnestly. “I like the dress.” Rayne added with a smile. She then whistled at Ri. “It’s nice meeting your friends and all, but can we get on with this.
Ri and the black haired girl rejoined the group but before Ri could say anything the other girl blurted out: “So, Ri thinks we’re all going to die horrible deaths in the near future and wants to bring these two to the beach house to save us.”
Ace ran her hand over her head. “Em, what are you talking about? Ri?”
Ri let out a heavy sigh, “So, the other night when we were staying at the beach house I woke up in the forest.”
This clearly troubled the three girls. “Were you sleepwalking?” asked Ace.
“I don’t know. I woke up in a part of the forest I hadn’t seen before. It––”
Mac cut her off, “Wait, you were past the scarecrow?” Hearing this question made the other two girls’ eyes go wide with fear.
“Yeah. I didn’t realize it at the time. I woke up in a clearing that had a boulder in the center and five paths leading away from it. And laying against the boulder was this sword. It was glowing.”
Gwen crossed her arms. “You found a glowing sword?”
“I did. Her name is Aotrom. She’s the one who brought me out there.”
Mac took both of Ri’s hands in hers, eyes now full of excitement. “The sword talks?”
“It does. She does. Kind of, after I picked up the sword––”
Rayne sighed loudly. “You picked up the glowing sword?”
“How could you not?”
All of the girls, minus Em, looked at Rayne and each other muttered agreements; Em had wandered away from the group and was sitting on a log, staring into the fire.
“Anyway, I picked up the sword and a voice told me her name was Aotrom. She couldn’t remember where she came from and she was having trouble forming words, but she wanted to warn me of something. I then started having all of these visions. Flashes of kings holding the sword, leading armies and killing monsters. Flashes of the forest by the beach house, creatures coming from somewhere deep within. And then me wielding the sword.”
Gwen leaned on Ace. “That doesn’t sound too bad.”
“Sounds kind of generic.” Ace chimed in.
Ri sighed, “I also saw Steepwick burning and all of you dying.”
Gwen straightened up. “That sounds bad.”
“On top of that, holding the sword, I had this feeling that something was going to be coming for the sword. I don’t know if it’s the same evil she was warning me about or something else entirely. I asked Aotrom and she said she had the same feeling but also couldn’t tell if they were the same threats. I ran away because I wanted to lead whatever is coming as far away from you guys as possible. I know you’re probably mad that I didn’t say anything before leaving.”
Em was suddenly behind her, spinning her around. “I’m mad because you didn’t take me with you. I’m furious that after all this time, you could just walk away from all of us. Good intentions or not.”
Ri put her arms around Em’s shoulders and pressed her forehead against hers whispering: “I’m sorry. I panicked and ran.”
Ace turned to Nemo and Rayne as if to explain something but stopped when she realized they were missing someone. “Hey guys. Where did Mac go?”
Nemo cleared his throat and pointed over to the tree Ri had but her pack against. Mac was sitting next to the pack and it looked like she was whispering to whatever was rolled up in the blanket. She noticed people were staring at her, “I was just telling her everything was going to be okay. That she didn’t need to be afraid, we’d help however we could.”
Em lifted her head off of Ri’s and looked over her shoulder to Mac, “Who were you telling that too?”
Ri released Em and walked over her pack. She unstrapped the rolled up blanket from the pack and started unwrapping it, producing a sword that appeared to be made of light. Everyone gathered around her. The sword was a curious item. Despite appearing to be made of pure light, you could easily look at the weapon without fear of damaging your eyes. In fact, it didn’t seem to radiate light but rather gave off a soft glow. On top of that there was grey shadowing on the hilt showing the details of the crossguard, the leather of the grip, and the pommel.
“Everyone, this is Aotrom. Aotrom, meet my friends.”