The Witch

by V. A. Lewis

  Gennady grinned in response, gesturing past the barkeep. "I want your best whiskey in the house— no, the cellar. And add in a nice strawberry on top. With one of those little pink umbrellas. Make sure to mix it with a good dose of nylos, I want it as bitter as possible."

  The barkeep raised an eyebrow, and slowly said, "That’s… a long way to order our special drink. But I do believe that’s not a problem." He lifted the small wooden barrier separating us from the bar counter, and ushered us towards a door. "You can find someone able to set you up with your drink inside," he said.

  "Thanks, lad."

  Gennady stepped in first, almost too nonchalantly, as I kept two paces behind him. Isn’t he worried at all? I thought, narrowing my eyes.

  We entered a dimly lit hallway, leading to a kitchen with cooks busy preparing more meals than they should have; a roughly dressed man stopped us in the middle of the corridor, and folded his arms. "What are you looking for, Dwarf?"

  "Just a Merlion’s special— a nice bitter drink from below."

  The man seemed to accept Gennady’s answer, and he gestured for us to follow him. He led us into a corner of the kitchen, and opened up what appeared to be a cellar door. He lifted the latch, revealing a stairway leading down into a hidden basement.

  "There’s only one rule down there, and it’s ‘don’t cause any trouble’, got it?"

  "‘Course," Gennady said, nodding. The man seemed unconvinced until Gennady nudged me.

  "Oh— yeah." I nodded curtly, catching myself from stumbling over my words.

  With my affirmation, the man stepped aside and let us enter; we went down the stairs— it wasn’t a long way down, only two flights at most— and reached a doorway. It was far easier to open than the front door of the Merlion’s Alcove, probably because they didn’t worry as much about noise escaping due to the rambunctious cover they had at the top.

  I found my nose wrinkling as the door opened; an eclectic of scents ranging from food, to drinks, to drugs, to sex wafted in my direction, with an incredibly pungent smell leading the assault. I reached up to pinch my nose to protect it from the terrible stench, but only heard the clacking of my gloved nails striking my mask.

  I cast my gaze around the room and was greeted by a far more naturally raucous crowd than before, with many of the individuals in it partaking in illicit activities. In addition to being set up like a regular tavern with tables and chairs strewn about with men and women consuming various foods and drinks, there were also various other forms of… entertainment available here.

  There were men lounging in violet couches creased with golden lines at its edges, indulging in various kinds of substances: I recognized the smell and smoke of tobacco coming from most of these men, yet a few of them inhaled a colorless gas from a pipe which a hunch told me was the source of the pungent smell.

  There was also a gambling area set up in the corner of the room, with scantily dressed women serving alcoholic beverages to the men dressed in robes playing with their gold and silver. While this might not seem like an unusual sight, it was, in fact, quite an uncommon one here in Laxis due to the laws banning any acts of gambling.

  I conveniently ignored the corner of the room where moans and grunts were coming from, and followed Gennady as he strode forwards without even blinking. I stepped up beside him, and spoke quietly.

  "Do you go to places like this often?"

  "Yes," he said, continuing past a table of where an argument just broke out. A man stood up to throw a punch, and bouncers immediately swarmed him and dragged him out of the room. Gennady didn’t bat an eye. "But not for any of the reasons most come here for.

  "Ever since I left the Taw Kingdom, I’ve been trying to widen my worldview. They thought I was crazy, but they also praised me as their best, and at the time, I thought that was a compliment. But when they went ahead with replacing me with that Scientist from Xan? I realized perhaps they truly thought me mad."

  "Didn’t you say that your King pleaded for you to stay?" I asked, cocking my head.

  "He did." Gennady nodded as he sat at the now vacated table. "Him and half of the other Dwarves I knew. But the other half? They’re glad I’m gone, and they’re willing to embrace that madman Bertrand to get it."

  I pulled out the chair opposite to him, and took a seat as well. "And what exactly have you been doing to… widen your worldview?"

  "For starters," he said leaning in, "I learned magic."

  I frowned. "What does that have to do with any of this?"

  "Magic itself is against the law. Even in the criminal world, it’s not exactly commonplace to find a spellcaster. But that’s the only place you can find spellcasters. The Dark Crusaders have many connections in the underground, and that’s how I first contacted them."

  I drew in a sharp breath, and remembered why I had good reason to not fully trust Gennady just yet; I did not know what his motives were— he told me he just wanted to help me out and return to his Kingdom because of the Abominations, but how much of that was true? What if he was fully aligned with the Dark Crusaders? Could this have all been a trap for me because I killed Victor—

  A voice broke me out of my thoughts, stifling my paranoia for just a moment. "Ah, I was told to expect a rather rotund looking man tonight, but I never suspected it to be a Dwarf."

  A rough, older looking man approached the table accompanied by a delicate, young woman. The juxtaposition between the two was immediately visible; the man was dressed in rough leather clothing, giving his already tough exterior emphasized by his scowl an even more weathered look. Meanwhile, the young woman wore more of the fashion I had seen in Laxis, wearing pure, white robes that covered everything but her smiling face. Looking between the two was like looking between the fragile bud of a flower and its sharp thorns.

  "Oh, uh, Mr Jack and Ms Lisa?" Gennady greeted them.

  "No need for formalities, Dwarf. Hearing it from your kind just doesn’t sound right. I’m assuming you’re Gen?"

  "Yes, and this is my companion, Aria."

  I nodded my head slightly at the two smugglers. Jack ignored it, and joined our table without any invitation by taking a seat and throwing his feet up onto the table.

  "So," he started, "what do you two want?"

  "We heard you two are the best smugglers in all of Laxis, and we’d like your help to get us out of this city."

  "We don’t smuggle people, Dwarf. It’s too hard, and if you’re wanted by one of the gangs or pirates here, we’d be burning a lot of bridges."

  "Of course. But that’s not a problem with us," Gennady said, waving a hand dismissively. "We arrived in Luke just the other day. Ain’t got problems with any of the groups in the city."

  "A few days is a lot of time." Jack stared at us as his brows arched darkly over his forehead. "Or did you think I didn’t hear about what you did at the harbor just the other day?"

  I saw Gennady gulp, hesitating.

  "That was a minor incident," he said. Then he glanced down at the table. "Y’know, we haven’t even had anything to drink just yet." He turned to a passing server and waved them down. "Get me and this lad a drink—"

  "I’m not a lad, Dwarf," Jack spat, cutting him off. "And I don’t have time for this. We’ll be leaving—"

  "I think we should at least stay for a bit, Jack," a soft voice spoke over him. Lisa glanced at her companion with her smile still plastered onto her face. "It would not be wise to turn down a free meal."

  The man hesitated, eyes darting between Lisa and Gennady, then he acquiesced. "Fine," he said. "But I’m only staying because you asked me to, Lisa. The Dwarf better not get his hopes up that we’ll do this job for him."

  "Hah," Gennady laughed, "is that a challenge? Ye don’t know how friendly us Dwarves get over drinks."

  "I know all too well, little man."

  Gennady ignored the provocation; he continued his negotiation with Jack as drinks were served to the table. I just sat in my chair, neither contributing to the conversation nor
consuming any of the beverages in front of me.

  I watched on as both men got drunker and drunker, while the young woman simply sat there, sipping on a glass of wine. I would have thought that getting inebriated would make Jack more amicable to striking up a deal, but it seemed to have only affirmed his resolve.

  "—I don’t care about who you are or if you’re a damned Hunter or the King of this country. I told you, I’m not bringing you to that damned Dwarven Kingdom!"

  "C’mon, lad—"

  "Don’t call me that! The only reason I’m sitting here, listening to you yap your mouth off is because my partner of six years— who usually has a good intuition— thinks you would be worth our time! But now I’m starting to doubt that even is the case anymore."

  Gennady sighed, taking a swig of ale. "Listen," he said, slamming the mug down. "I can offer you twice whatever the usual cost you charge for smuggling goods our size over the same distance we’re asking you. In fact, you don’t even have to bring us all the way to Taw— you can stop at Puer… no, before Puer, and we can depart from there. I’ll even throw in a good enchanted sword to replace that rusty, old blade there." He pointed a tired arm at the man’s waist.

  Jack’s eyes flashed, looking down at his sword. I looked at his furious gaze, and I also remembered Gennady’s talk of a Dwarf’s craft; I could almost predict what would happen next.

  And I did not like it one bit.

  The smuggler opened his mouth, spit already coming out—

  "You boys are intolerable," Lisa said, cutting him off once again. This time, Jack looked irritated at his partner’s casual interruption of when he was speaking. But she ignored him, and stared at me. "You haven’t spoken all this time, what do you have to say, little girl?"

  I raised an eyebrow at that, but did not comment on how she knew I was a girl. She probably heard about it being mentioned in the same breath as Gennady fighting with sailors in the harbor. A simple extrapolation of events and their associated characters.

  "What do you mean by that?" I replied with a question.

  "I’m curious," she said, lowering her wine glass. "You and your companion want to leave this country, and we’re not going to do this for you: what do you have to say?"

  "If you reject us, we’ll just have to find others to do this for us." I shrugged.

  "Interesting." Lisa played with her wine glass, rocking it back and forth on the wooden table, causing a swirl in the lavender liquid inside of it. "And what happens if they all reject you? Suppose we’re the last possible person you could approach to bring us to your destination: what would you do now?"

  "Oi, Lisa, what are you doing?" Jack asked, annoyance clearly written across his face.

  I peered into the young woman’s eyes, and looked past her smile. "You want us to win you over," I stated simply.

  She did not look away. "...perhaps."

  Gennady, in his drunken stupor, just seemed confused and could not help me. So I drew in a deep breath, and reached for my sides.

  "If you were indeed the last people I could approach," I said softly, "then I would be desperate. If that were the case, I’d offer you this."

  I pulled the coin pouch, slightly loosening its string, and slid it across the table. The yellow glitter of gold coins barely escaped the small opening, but it was enough to get a reaction out of the two.

  "A platinum and a half," I said. "That’s all I have to offer, yet it is more than you’ve made in a job as simple as this, no?"

  I saw Jack’s eyes cloud over with greed and Lisa’s smile widen even further. "That is quite the offer," the young woman commented.

  "It is." I nodded my head.

  "We’ll take it—" Jack began, his speech still slightly slurred.

  Then I scooped the pouch back up and placed it. "But since this isn’t that kind of a situation, I think my friend and I will be taking our leave."

  "Wait, but…" Jack exchanged a glance with Lisa, and he quickly straightened. His tone of voice changed when he spoke up again. "We’ll do it for… three quarters the price?"

  I stood up, but Lisa put up a hand to stop me.

  "A half," she said. "Give us a half of that, and you’ll soon find yourself on a ship heading straight to Jahar’taw."

  I paused to consider this for a second, then I nodded. "Deal." I brought a hand forward and shook with the young woman.

  And with that, it was over. We decided to meet two days from now at the docks, just before dawn. We agreed to pay half of the cost upon our next meeting, and the rest when we arrived in the Taw Kingdom.

  Then Lisa grabbed her drunken companion by the arm and left the table. As they did, I could hear Jack whispering angrily at Lisa about how she lowered the price so quickly; he seemed like a man who only cared about money once it was a large enough sum, and I was right.

  "Lass, are you sure you should’ve paid them so much?" Gennady quickly asked once they left. "That’s over 70 gold!" he exclaimed.

  I rolled my eyes. "I paid you half as much just to escort me to Taw, don’t act like it’s a ridiculous sum now that I’m paying someone else the same amount."

  "Well yeah." The Dwarf scratched the side of his head, frowning. "But you’re paying more than two times what I was offering to pay them. Don’t you think you jumped the gun a bit?"

  "No." I shook my head. "This is the reason why I save my money, Gennady: money is to be spent, and I’m spending it to guarantee my safety. We’re not just buying passage through the sea with that, we’re also buying their loyalty. If they know we can pay them more, they would be all the more incentivized to make sure nothing happens to us."

  "But—"

  "And don’t pretend that I’m paying it all," I said, cutting him off. "We’ll be splitting the bill since it’s for the both of us."

  Gennady’s jaw dropped.

  "That’s just for the payment to go to Taw, not for the drinks tonight. That’s on you."

  After all, while we were both going to Taw together, he was the only one to have consumed all those drinks.

  Chapter 24: Smuggling Job

  "You’re spending more money?" Gennady asked me, frowning.

  "Yes," I said, turning back to face him. I raised an eyebrow. "Is something wrong with that?"

  "No." He shook his head and sighed. "But you barely spent any gold since I met you other than the time you paid me, and now you’re throwing it all around. I was just curious why the sudden change."

  "I told you didn’t I? Money is supposed to be spent, not hoarded." I raised a hand up, cutting the Dwarf off from pointing out the obvious. "And," I added, wagging a finger, "this is all for my safety and protection."

  After all, what was the point of money if you were dead? That was simple logic— at least, to me. Gennady didn’t argue, and he simply followed me as I entered the Alchemist shop.

  It wasn’t the biggest shop in the world; there weren’t a vast array of potions available for me to pick out, nor were there anything truly high quality being sold here. I had seen powerful alchemical potions back when I was with the Dark Crusaders and back when I briefly met Felix: the potions here were relatively unimpressive.

  I glanced past a glowing green vial of acid that seemed incredibly dangerous. I’m not getting close to that, I told myself, fearing that I might accidentally drop it due to some clumsy mistake.

  I took a look through the selection of healing potions they had available; I remembered being informed of how their potency was determined by the brilliance of their glow. I narrowed my eyes as I carefully inspected one, finding there to be nothing more than a weak dim coming off of one of the more expensive vials on the shelf.

  Seven and a half gold. I shook my head. That was expensive, but I needed some reassurance that if anything happened to me, I could at least try to undo the damage. This healing potion probably wouldn’t regrow a lost arm or anything of the like, but it could at least stop the bleeding. And that was better than cauterizing whatever wounds I could possibly suffer from. />
  I grabbed a few more potions of the shelves— I took mostly healing potions, but I found the concept of a stamina potion interesting and snatched one as well— before heading to the counter and paying it for it all. When I asked Gennady if he wanted to get any, he gestured at a pouch around his waist.

  "Already got some," he said. "Always gotta be prepared in case something bad happens. I’m surprised you didn’t already own a few given how paranoid you can sometimes get."

  "I’m not paranoid." I rolled my eyes. "And I did buy some back when I was still in the Free Lands. I only ever got to use one vial after… an incident there. I have another packed away in my bag which I always have with me on dangerous outings."

  The Dwarf snorted. "She says she’s not paranoid as she walks out of an Alchemist shop with four healing potions."

  I shrugged. "I’m just being cautious."

  "And I’m just your any, old Tinkerer, ain’t I?"

  I gave him a mock glare, but did not comment further. We headed our way back to the inn to finish our preparation for tomorrow night; we were finally leaving Laxis. Personally, I did not have much to pack, but Gennady was a different story.

  "So," I started, staring at the bike. "How are we going to sneak that into the docks?"

  "Good question," he said, scratching his beard. "I could drive it to the docks now and stow it away somewhere nearby our meeting location ahead of time, that way we can just push it along the rest of the way on the night itself."

  "Sounds good to me." I nodded.

  "I’ll do that now, actually. Here,"— I stumbled back as Gennady placed his large backpack on my arms and got on his bike— "take care of that for a bit, will ya?"

  "Wait—"

  The Dwarf started up the bike, turning on its engine; white gas puffed out sounding like quick, short breaths and filling the air with noise and fumes.

  "Sorry, can’t hear you!" he called out to me as he drove off.

  I stared at his figure as it disappeared down the street, still holding his mountainous bag on my arms.

  "...did he really just do that to me?" I paused, then corrected myself. "Did I just allow him to do that to me?"