The Final Life

by Andrew Mowere

  ***

  When Glint came back to the tavern with his forty eighth claw in hand, Azrael was waiting for him at the bar counter, sipping some ale and looking pale and dark haired as usual.

  Also as usual, he had managed to charm a lady without realizing it, this time the serving girl whom Glint had made a mockery of three days back. He talked to her sweetly, humouring her as she kept showing him her different pouting faces. Glint had been shown a couple of those himself and had smiled awkwardly in response, not having it in him to tell the woman that she looked transparent and rather silly.

  Azrael encouraged her, pretended to drop everything and care only about her every time she puffed her cheeks and looked away in a coy fashion. That seemed to please the woman immensely and she showered the necromancer with giggles, her voice dripping with honey. The wavy haired magician put a coin in her hands and she went away to get him another drink, just as Glint plopped himself down next to him. “Welcome back,” he said, knowing he sounded tired. “How was your trip?”

  “Oh, it went quite well,” answered the necromancer, although his expression was slightly strange. “I said hello to everyone, acquired a few books and logs regarding the politics of current times, and got us a shiny new map, detailing every city and town in Shien, as well as many of the villages.” He showed Glint a rolled up scroll, wrapped in a red velvet thread, and cheerfully added, “It’s enchanted.”

  The tavern went dead silent, everybody stopping whatever they were doing and looking at the necromancer as if he had spouted another head. The barman, Gared, actually dropped the glass he was polishing, and it shattered against the floor.

  In the silence, Glint laughed and said, “Yeah, and my uncle’s a lizard!” That caused those sitting in the tavern to laugh and continue their business of drinking and making merry and eating their dinner. When the bustle returned, Glint motioned the bewildered Azrael up the stairs and into the room they shared. He closed the door, locked it, and rounded on the man.

  “What did you think you were doing!” he whispered angrily, “Why say something like that about the map? You were the one who said you didn’t want people to know we were Ability users!”

  Azrael just looked confused, “But, I didn’t make it myself!” he exclaimed, “This one was just in my friend’s old house, and you could buy them anyway.” Again something flitted across his expression.

  Glint sighed, wondering how someone so smart could do something so stupid. “Not here you can’t, Azrael. At least, not in towns and villages. You would need to go to a large city like Pursingham or Kern or something to buy one of these, and even then it wouldn’t be cheap.”

  Azrael looked crestfallen for but a second, before promptly regaining his cheer. “Thank you for the information, Glint. I assume all that’s needed is to play it off as a stupid joke?”

  Glint thought about it for a second, “About right,” he concluded. Getting curious, he couldn’t help asking, “How expensive is it, anyway?”

  Azrael lazily unfurled the object on his lap, taking a seat on his own bed, “The map? Like I said, this one was in my friend’s house, but one would probably be worth around five gold coins from a well known store.”

  Glint laughed, “You know that much money could get you this tavern, right?” he asked, clapping Azrael on the shoulder. Azrael’s blank look suggested that he didn’t, and Glint left him to his thoughts, shaking his head as he went back downstairs. He couldn’t believe he had let the man do his accounts.

  Glint spent time with Jim and the others, who were speaking of how the border war anticipated a few days before had been foiled explicably by someone robbing the treasuries of both guilds who were going to be a part of it. Apparently all the members of Stingray had gone into a deep sleep simultaneously, as if affected by a cloud of poison, and meanwhile the thief snuck in and emptied them of their belongings. “Ability users,” grumbled Mark, shaking his head. Glint nodded along as the five others shared stories of ability users kidnapping villagers and experimenting on them horribly to further their own knowledge. They were sitting in a corner of the tavern around a round table, enjoying the atmosphere together.