“No! No! It just took us a minute to recognize you without the beard,” Darcy said quickly. “Mina, get him a drink and Naomi, scoot over and give him more room…”
“Please, don’t make any special effort for me,” Tom said, halting them with open hands. “You know who I am, don’t you?”
Darcy bit her lower lip. “Well, there was a reason why they put you in a cell guarded by two guards.”
Sally picked at a piece of meat on her plate. “And McRando did call you a prince before he died.”
“It was not my wish to hide my true identity from you, but I could not be certain if I could trust you at first,” he said, casting a glance at Sally and then at Naomi. “For all I knew, you would have kept me as your own prisoner for ransom or to use as a hostage against my father.”
“It’s alright,” Naomi said reassuringly. “We still like you.”
He smiled at the girl and even ruffled her hair. “You remind me so much of my sister, Maureen. She would have been your age if she had lived.”
So surprised that she dropped her spoon, Darcy said, “You had a sister? I didn’t know that Farron had a princess.”
“She was only my half-sister, a child by my father’s mistress, so she didn’t warrant the title of Princess. She lived with me at my mother’s estate until she died of the Poxy when she was nine.” The prince’s face softened in a manner Sally hadn’t seen from him before. “She is one of the reasons why I undertook a diplomatic mission to Saige. Maureen was a half-elf.”
“Oh, I see.” Understanding had dawned on Darcy’s face, but Sally knew her own face would be showing confusion.
“I want to ease the discrimination against non-humans in Farron. The first step towards that is brokering a peace treaty with Saige and opening diplomatic ties. Maureen might have lived a happier life if my country wasn’t so intolerant of her.”
Sally realized he was genuinely regretful for his sister’s hard life. Was this her empathizing with him or was this her +4 in Perception? “I’m sorry for your loss. And I hate that you got kidnapped before you could make it to Saige.”
“The Cut Throats kidnapped me on my way back from Saige,” the prince said with a small smile. “I met with the Council, and they seemed agreeable on the idea of a peace treaty. That’s why I must return to the Capital as soon as possible before my father suspects foul play on Saige’s part. There will be no peace if the Kingdom of Farron accuses the Republic of Saige of kidnapping me.”
“How do you intend to return?” Darcy asked, taking more interest in the conversation now that she had eaten. She pushed aside her clean plate and refilled her cup.
“I shall have to go to Everguard. I have an uncle from my mother’s side that operates a trading company. He can arrange safe passage for me to the Capital.”
“Why not go with a trade caravan? You could hide your identity and be a guard.” Darcy asked.
“Unfortunately, the caravans have stopped,” The prince said in a low voice. “While you were bathing, I’ve been talking with the other patrons. They say there are fiends attacking caravans.”
Mina shrugged, “We already took care of the Cut Throats, so it should be safer to travel.”
The prince shook his head, “No, it was not them. All the travelers were killed, but none of the cargo nor valuables were taken. Nothing. And they were all killed with white arrows, like the ones that killed that poor soul in the forest.”
Sally” felt her stomach flip, and she looked at Darcy, whose mouth was set in a grim line. The colour of her face was fading to a pale brown, but she maintained eye contact with the prince. “It must have been the same fiends who killed the bandit in the forest then.”
Sally glanced at Mina, who had noticed Darcy’s reaction, but was ignorant of the implication and Naomi was too engaged with eating a pastry to pay any attention. Good, that way they wouldn’t blurt out the sinking suspicion that Sally had about the source of the white arrows and the “fiends.” Then an unbidden memory rose of her standing frightened in the woods with an armful of berries and a knife. Now she intuited who was watching her that night and how close she had come to being killed.
“Is something wrong?” The prince said, breaking into her cold thoughts. “You seem stricken.”
“No, I’m fine. I’m just shocked by how someone could do that,” she said and tried to change the subject. “It’s a shame about the caravans. How do you intend to get to Everguard?”
“He can come with us!” Naomi cried, jumping into the conversation. “We’re going to Everguard too.”
It was all Sally could do to maintain a calm demeanor and not wince, but Darcy was nodding, “That’s a good idea, Naomi. We’re leaving tomorrow morning. You should come with us.”
Tom’s face brightened with a smile. “Yes, I would like that. I enjoy our time together, and sharing the road with you will be safer. All I ask is that you continue to call me Tom. It’ll be safer if my identity is kept a secret.”
“Good idea,” Darcy said, pushing her plate away and rising. “I’m going to give Stinky Pete a list of what we need for tomorrow. Sally, I’ll meet you upstairs in our room.”
“Sure,” Sally set down her cup and rose. “I was about to turn in early anyway. I think the less seen, the better.”
A hand touched her wrist before she could step away from the table. “Sally,” Tom said quietly, “I was hoping you would speak with me a moment.”
Sally looked back at Darcy, who was looking between them with large eyes. “Turning in early is a good idea. Alright, everyone, let’s go to bed.”
“But I’m still eating,” Naomi whined despite Mina lifting her from the table.
“We’ll take it to go then,” Mina said as she easily tucked Naomi into her armpit and grabbed the plate of pastries in her other hand. The Monk waved goodbye as she was carried upstairs and Mina looked back at Sally with an expression the Rogue couldn’t read.
“I’ll see you later,” Darcy said before departing.
Sally sat down, nervous about whatever it was that Tom needed to talk about. Maybe Darcy should have remained to take part in this discussion. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong, or, I hope everything is well.” He reached for a bottle of mulled wine and filled an empty cup. It was offered it to her, and she accepted it. “There’s something that has been bothering me. Ever since I met you.”
Sally knitted her eyebrows. “And what’s that?”
“I know your sister is not truly a cleric of Shantra,” Tom said, chilling Sally’s blood. “She doesn’t know how to give last rites, and she has gone for hours without praising Shantra’s name, a feat I have never seen anyone of the order accomplish before.”
She had a feeling that Darcy’s half-assed prayer over the funeral would rouse Tom’s suspicions. Thinking quickly, she said, “She hasn’t been a cleric very long.” That was technically true.
“If she’s an acolyte, then why is she without her mentor so far away from a Shantra temple? I won’t deny she has divine magic, I saw it for myself, but her manner is quite strange for a cleric. And she is not the only one with a strangeness about her.”
Sally set the cup down, losing her taste for mulled wine. “If you don’t want to travel with us…”
“I do, I’ve become quite fond of you all.” His eyes peered into hers, and she swallowed despite her throat feeling tight. “But there’s something so strange about all of you. The way you speak, act and even think. You barely reacted when you learned I was a prince, and I hear you whispering when you think I won’t notice or hear.”
“Maybe it’s better if you don’t travel with us after all…” She didn’t know what else she could say to deter his reasoning.
“Do you not want me to travel with you?” There was a trace of hurt behind his eyes that made her feel guilty. “Or are you deflecting my questions?”
“I don’t understand why you want to travel with us since you don’t trust us.” Maybe she was deflecting the question as she
wasn’t good with confrontations like this. Sally would much rather be upstairs right now with Darcy and not having this discussion where she felt out of her depth. Darcy would know what to tell Tom and how to ease his suspicions as she knew this world and this NPC far better.
Now he was the one offended. “We fought a werewolf, the Cut Throats, and their leader together, and you believe I don’t trust you? My dear, I trust you with my life, but it is you who do not trust me.”
“It’s not a matter of trust. You…you wouldn’t understand, you wouldn’t want to understand if I told you.”
“I can try. Are you foreigners from a land across the sea?”
“Think whatever you like,” Sally said, standing up, determined to leave whether this conversation was finished or not. “I’m going upstairs. If you trust us enough to travel with us, then please trust us enough to understand that while you may feel comfortable sharing your personal history with us, we would rather keep our personal history to ourselves. Goodnight.”
Her wrist was caught as she turned away and she had to fight down a reflexive desire to swing around with a punch. Instead, she stood still and ground her teeth.
“You’re right. I was prying into your affairs, and that was not my intention. Please, stay, let’s not part with crossed words.”
He sounded so remorseful that she relented. A little. She would still rather be upstairs, but she turned around. “Alright, I’m not mad anymore. I’ll stay for a few minutes, but let’s talk about something else, okay?”
“O-kay? You use such strange vernacular. What does it mean?”
She sat down again, a bit more relaxed and lenient. “It’s a different way of saying yes or something is acceptable. What does vernacular means?”
A small tugged at the corner of his lips. “It means words used by people from a specific area or region.”
“Oh. Have you ever been to Everguard?” It was better to move the topic onto safer ground and gain some information too.
“Once, when I was a boy,” Tom said, collecting a second cup and pouring mulled wine for himself. “I accompanied my mother to visit her brother, the uncle I spoke of earlier. It was my first time leaving the Capital, and I must have been six or seven back then, so it was quite an adventure for me. I didn’t see much of Everguard as I was kept safely away in my uncle’s manor. What I did see was the wealthier side of the city; they call it the Golden Quarter. It was well protected by the city watch. Perhaps that’s even more the case now since Everguard has become rife with crime in recent years.”
The mulled wine had a spicy taste that pinched Sally’s nose. It rolled over her tongue and made her feel warm inside. “How bad is it?”
Tom took a long pull from his cup and licked his lips, as if unaccustomed to no longer having a moustache and beard. “There has always been crime in Everguard as there would be in any large city, but recently a gang has become quite daring. They’ve raided warehouses, robbed noble houses, and even attacked a nobleman’s carriage in broad daylight. Not much is known about them except for the name of their leader. Riker.”
Sally’s felt the mulled wine turned to ice in her stomach. Riker. That name sounded very familiar. Where she heard it before?
Tom was looking into his cup, his fingers flexing slightly around it. As if hearing her thoughts, he added, “It’s the same name that McRando mentioned before he died.”
Ye’ve no idea what is waiting for you when Riker finds out what ye’ve done. When he finds out, you’ll wish I had sold you down the river.
“Oh shit…” Sally moaned. They were going to Everguard where this Riker was operating. They already brought down one crime boss, and now they were about to go into the territory of another. “Then, we shouldn’t go Everguard if Riker is there.”
“I wouldn’t let the last words of a murdering thief dissuade us from going where we must,” Tom said, draining his cup and set it down and pushed it away with a gentle touch of his fingers. “We have no reason to believe his words were anything more than the final curses of his violent life. And we won’t be the only travelers going to Everguard. It’s the largest trading port on the western coast where thousands of people make their home. As long as we don’t march into the city declaring ourselves as the killers of McRando of the Cut Throats, I doubt they will raise so much as a hair at our arrival.”
“But still…” Sally sighed, finding little comfort in his words. “There’s avoiding trouble, and there’s walking right into the lion’s den.”
“It amazes me how quickly you can go from bravery to fear so quickly. And the opposite is true as well. As if you can’t make up your mind of what you want to be. Or maybe, you don’t know yet what you are.”
Sally raised her eyes as his hand caressed her cheek, fingers pushing through her hair. It was like a weak electrical current brushing her skin. Then his face drew close to hers and she flinched, uncertain if she liked what she felt or not.
Tom withdrew his hand and looked away. “Forgive me. The wine has addled my head. It was not my intention to approach you like this.”
“It’s—uh—okay,” Sally said, feeling the heat rise to her face.
“When you say okay, do you mean…?” There was a hope behind his eyes that almost made her panic.
“I meant that I’m not angry or offended,” she said quickly.
“Is there someone else?”
“No, but that doesn’t mean—I—I really need to go before Darcy starts to worry.”
“Goodnight, Sally. I look forward to our journey together.”
She felt his eyes on her as she walked upstairs. It was a struggle not to flee up the steps, and she didn’t dare look back.
***
Darcy was sitting cross-legged on a bed, only wearing a tabard looking over a map spread open across her knees. She looked up as Sally came inside. “So, what did he want to talk about?”
Sally made sure the door was shut and locked before she said, “He tried to kiss me.”
Darcy gasped, her mouth dropping open. It was a familiar sight on a different face. “Oh, my God? Did he? I can name ten fangirls that would give up their left arms to be in your shoes.”
Annoyed, Sally stalked to the opposite bed. The room was large enough for two beds and a short set of drawers and a table between them. She sat down on the bed, fixing Darcy with a hard look. “Did you know he was going to do that?”
“Sally, he likes you,” Darcy said pointedly.
She blinked. “But he likes Naomi.”
Darcy snorted and shook her head. “Naomi’s just a kid and reminds him of his kid sister. You’re the one he’s been making eyes at. You didn’t get the clue when he asked you to hang out with him? Alone?”
“He’s the one with the clue,” Sally retorted. “He knows you’re not really a cleric, and I had to explain what the word ‘okay’ means.”
She shucked off her boots and undressed for bed. God, even after the bath, her feet were still sore. Sitting down on the edge of the bed, she rubbed one foot with the ankle balanced on her knee. A feat in her old body that would have required some maneuvering. “He thinks we’re foreigners.”
Darcy shrugged. “That’s probably for the best. Does he still want to travel with us tomorrow?”
“He almost begged me to let him come along with us,” Sally said as she rubbed her other foot. They were feeling better now, but she wasn’t looking forward to them being stiff in the morning. “Why do you want him to come along anyway?”
“Because we’re going to need all the help we can get. Having a prince owing us a favor won’t be a bad thing, especially if the gold I deposited isn’t there. And the trip to Everguard will be dangerous,” Darcy replied, laying out the map and pointing at a spot. “We’re here in Spring Bell village, and Everguard is way over here.” She drew a finger in a long line across the parchment to a large mark next to the blue water. “It’s roughly a five-day journey by foot in areas that are higher level than we are. Players aren’t supposed
to get to Everguard until level ten. Since Mina isn’t confident as a Barbarian, we can certainly use a high-level fighter with a solid head on his shoulders.”
“What are you going to do about Mina? She did alright against the Cut Throats, but even I can tell she has problems with this world.”
Darcy closed the map and put it away into a bag next to her bed. “She doesn’t want to be the tank for the group anymore.”
“Being the tank is a dangerous job that she didn’t sign up for,” Sally said, settling into her bed, stifling a yawn.
“We’re in the same predicament too, but if we’re going to survive in this world, then we’ve each got to contribute to the group’s dynamic. You caught on pretty quick, and Naomi loves this, but Mina needs to get her head straight.” Darcy picked up a piece of parchment and stylus and stepped off the bed to offer them to Sally. “I know you’re tired, but if you can just jot down a copy of your character screen, so I have an idea where your strengths and weaknesses lie. I already had Mina and Naomi do theirs during your date.”
“It wasn’t a date,” Sally said hotly, before reluctantly leaving her warm bed to take the parchment and stylus. She sat up, yawned into the back of her hand, and began scribbling her stats. “How does the overall group look?”
“Well, both Naomi and I have the highest Wisdom scores believe it or not. Mina is our strongest player, even with her subpar scores. If she had let the game roll her stats, then she might have some decent scores, and she would have better options for multiclassing.”
“I take it that she doesn’t have many options to do so?” Sally said, raising her eyes from the parchment.
“Her only two options were Rogue and Fighter. She’d be better off going with Fighter, but she wants to use healing spells,” Darcy pinched the bridge of her nose, sighing. “But her Wisdom score is too low and she’ll need to level up a few more times before she can increase any of her ability scores. Unless…well, there’s Paladin.”
“Paladin? That’s like a knight or something?”
“A holy knight, but you have to be Lawful-Good to be one. Since Mina chose a default Barbarian, then her alignment is Chaotic-Neutral and the game won’t allow her to choose Paladin.”
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