by Pirateaba
Even from this distance Erin felt the tremendous force in the spell and saw chairs and tables being blown away from the force. For a moment she thought he was going to be blown away. But his claws dug into the ground and the wind howled—
The whirling winds blew apart with a small clap of air that sent the nearest chairs flying. Pisces staggered back, face grey with shock. Erin stared.
Relc on the other hand just twirled his spear in his hand. He spat contemptuously on the floor.
“That’s what I think of your spells. I’m a former soldier of the 1st Wing of the Liscorian Army. I’ve killed more mages than you have levels. Now, are you going to die quiet or will I have to pay for painting the walls green with your blood?”
Pisces stepped back, tripped over a fallen chair and fell on his back. He raised his hands and cried out in a shrill voice.
“I can be ransomed. Quite highly! My school will pay ten—thirty gold coins in whichever denomination you like for my return.”
Relc raised the spear.
“Still don’t care. I don’t need money if I can get rid of a stinking monkey like you.”
Erin raised her voice in horror.
“What? No! No killing! Do you hear me?”
But no one was listening. Klbkch was closing in, swords and daggers at the ready. Relc raised his spear higher.
“Last words, mage?”
“I—I—”
Relc grinned with all his teeth. He raised his spear high. Klbkch watched impassively. Pisces screamed and shielded his face ineffectually. And Erin—
“Hey!”
Erin slammed the pot on the table top as hard as she could. All Relc, Klbkch, and Pisces paused as one to stare at her. She pointed one shaking finger at them.
“No fighting. Not here. And no killing!”
Relc blinked. He lowered his spear a fraction. Erin pointed to it.
“Stop that! Put the weapons away and get out.”
“But he’s—”
“I don’t care! You don’t kill people just because they practice stupid magic! And you don’t kill people just because you don’t like them! And you don’t kill people because killing people is wrong!”
“What?”
Relc pointed down at Pisces angrily.
“He’s a criminal.”
“No, he’s an idiot. But he didn’t do anything wrong enough to die for. All he did was try to scare me.”
“He hit me with lightning!”
“You punched his brains out! That’s not enough to kill him over!”
The Drake lowered his spear.
“I can’t believe this. Are you defending him? Because he’s human? OR do you not want the blood in here? In that case I’ll take him out back and—”
“No!”
Erin shouted at Relc.
“Are you stupid? I don’t want anyone killing anyone! You can’t do it! I forbid it! It’s wrong! It’s illegal.”
“In point of fact, my comrade’s actions are not—”
Erin whirled and pointed at Klbkch.
“I don’t care! No killing, do you hear me?”
Relc hissed angrily.
“Then I’ll arrest him and he’ll be executed tomorrow. Happy?”
Pisces turned pale again. Erin’s mouth replied before her brain caught up.
“I withdraw my testimony.”
“You what?”
“I withdraw it. All of it. I was never attacked yesterday. This mage-guy never visited the inn, and I never saw him until today. So there’s no reason for you to arrest him.”
“You can’t do that!”
Relc turned and looked at Klbkch.
“Can she?”
The ant man nodded reluctantly.
“She is correct. Without her testimony we cannot arrest him.”
Relc faltered. He looked uncertainty at Pisces and then remembered.
“But he’s still a [Necromancer]! That’s a crime no matter what he does!”
Erin crossed her arms.
“Prove it.”
“What?”
“Prove. It. Can you? Is there a way to check his uh, class?”
Relc gritted his teeth.
“…No.”
“Then go. Now.”
Relc gaped at Erin. It was surprisingly frightening. Erin could look right down his throat. He had a lot of teeth.
“Are you serious?”
“Absolutely.”
Erin glared at him. Relc lowered his spear, grabbed at the spines on his head and hissed. He pointed at Pisces.
“You take one step in the city and I’ll—I’ll—you take one step in there, and I’ll do something about it.”
Pisces was still lying on the ground. He raised one hand weakly.
“I assure you—”
Relc’s eye twitched.
“Shut up.”
He stomped towards the door.
“Humans!”
Relc kicked the door as he left. Erin winced as she heard the wood crack. Then he was gone.
Klbkch walked past Erin and nodded to her politely.
“Do not mind him. You are within your rights to enforce law within this establishment as you choose. I apologize for the mess on both our behalves.”
He left. Erin stood around the room, looking at the broken chairs, overturned tables, and general wooded carnage. Behind her Pisces got to his feet. He was still shaking and sweatily pale.
“I don’t know how I can thank you good m—Ms. Erin. Please, accept my humblest—”
Bonk.
Erin tapped him on the head with the pot. Hard.
“Out.”
“What?”
Pisces stared at her in disbelief. Erin raised the pot higher.
“Out.”
He stumbled out. Erin kept staring at the mess in the room. It had to be said. Definitely.
“Males.”
Interlude
It took her a long time to clean up all the broken wood. It was just as well she needed fuel for the fire in the kitchen, but it was still a pain to pick up all the splinters. Especially when one got stuck in her hands. But she’d done it, and now it is late.
The night is cool. In her inn, Erin Solstice sleeps.
It’s been a rough day. She dreams about disappearing skeletons and obnoxious mages. She dreams about dragons that breathe fire and Goblins, and about giant lizards eating pasta. She sleeps.
However, countless miles away something else is happening.
—-
It is at the brink of dawn in this part of the world. Still, many remain awake. They have not slept for hours. And some remain standing despite their exhaustion. Their places are set. Their energies are necessary for the countless glowing diagrams burning bright on the floor.
The onlookers wait in silence as the man in the center continues to chant. His voice is wavering; cracked from the strain of talking for so long. But his faltering words are imbued with a deeper echo that speaks of magic and power beyond mortality. He is exhausted, but his task is nearly done.
The spell is completed.
It’s not a clap of thunder. It’s not the boom of space time being wrent. Rather, it is a whisper. And in the same way, light does not flash, but an invisible breeze blows and they are suddenly there.
Humans.
Young men and women. They appear in mid-motion, some sitting, some lying down. Many more appear mid-step or looking up from their smartphones in bewilderment. And as bewilderment fades, surprise remains.
“What?”
“Where am I?”
“What’s happening?”
Some of the summoned humans cry out in fear. Others try to run in their panic, but find their legs won’t cooperate with them. A few stare around the room, noting the magic runes by their feet, the robed priests and mages clustered together, and the watching aristocracy. They observe in silence.
The leading priest raised his arms and fell upon his knees. He raised his tear-stained face to the heavens as he crie
d out.
“The [Great Heroes of Prophecy] are here! We are saved!”
The priests around him join in his prayer. Meanwhile the nobility murmur and regard the summoned with calculating eyes.
The humans draw together in fear. But there is no escape for them, and no threat towards them. For now, anyways. They are confused, chosen, summoned, trapped. And they are not the only ones.
—-
The night is old, and dawn is only an hour away. The countryside is full of chirping crickets, owls, the sounds of insects buzzing, and so on. Or at least, on a normal night it would be. Right now all is silent. Unnaturally silent.
An old man stands outside his home, sword drawn. The night is dark, and by all rights he should be in his home enjoying his dinner. But he’s heard something outside, and he’s gone to investigate. This far out in the countryside he can’t rely on militia patrols to keep him safe.
If it’s a monster of course he’ll run. On the other hand, if it’s a lone Goblin or a sneak thief trying to steal from him he’ll run them off. The old man’s levels in the [Swordsman] class aren’t high, but he’s more than strong enough to defend himself. Still, he’s no fool. If there’s any real danger he’ll hide in his sturdy home and report it to the adventurer’s guild the next day.
“Who’s there?”
He calls into the night and hopes for no reply. But he can sense it…them. Something is standing just out of his sight. His hand is tight on his sword.
And slowly, they approach.
Children. That’s the first thing the old man thinks. They are children.
But then, he is old. They are young, true, but still grown. Still, he cannot help but think they are children because of how they look. Lost, afraid, and terribly alone despite their numbers.
Still, they are human and clearly no threat, so he relaxes and calls out to them.
“Oh, are you young’uns lost? Come in, come in. The weather’s far too terrible to be out at a time like this.”
The old man sheathes his sword and opens his door invitingly. But none of the children move. They just stare at him. And slowly, he realizes something is wrong as well.
Their clothes are strange. In all his years the old man has never seen such odd attire. But more than that, they seem…different. He regrets sheathing his sword. Are they some unnatural creatures masquerading as humans? But no, they are human. He senses that instinctively. But why don’t they move?
Their expressions are so terrified the old man knows something is wrong. The hair on his neck tries to stand up. Is it demons? Monsters? But they are staring at him. Is there something wrong with him?
One points a trembling finger at the old man. No; at his belt.
“Is that a sword?”
—-
And a few, a few simply wander in carelessly.
—-
A young woman pauses mid-step. Her hair is matted with sweat, and bound in a ponytail. An ipod is in her hand, but she pauses the blasting music and stares around. Fifteen armed men and a demon wreathed in fire stop their battle and stare back.
—-
Two twins laugh and turn the corner. The boy tosses his smartphone up as his twin sister scolds him in case he drops it. His hand freezes. The phone shatters on the smooth marble floor of the throne room. A king looks up frowns. The royal guards stationed around the room draw their swords at once and charge at the bewildered duo.
—-
A girl laughs as they drag her from her cell. She is shoved forwards, and trips into something hard and flat. She looks up and sees the adventurer staring down at her. He moves his armor-covered body and helps her up. A woman leans over the counter in the adventurer’s guild and others look around. Some are heroes, some are those who seek heroes. Her wardens are gone. She is free.
—-
Rain falls upon the world. Just for a brief moment. A passing shower of souls. But where they land ripples spread. They are not legends, and nor do they have any special powers save for those all humans have. But they are living. They are alive. And with their arrival, the world shifts.
The night is late. Erin sleeps. She rests her head on a smooth wooden table in an inn sitting on a hill in a plain full of grass. Around her is silence. In her dreams she drools a bit and mumbles about pasta.
She is lonely. But she is no longer alone.
1.12
Erin woke up. Generally this was an ordeal. Today however, it was fairly easy. Because the real ordeal would come later.
Such as right after breakfast. Erin stared glumly at the three shriveled blue fruits on her plate. She bit the first experimentally and chewed. And chewed. And chewed.
“Rubbery.”
It was incredibly difficult to chew the fruits. The skin on these ones were so tough to bite into, it did remind Erin of eating rubber. Not that she’d ever done that since she was a baby.
Plus, they’d lost their delicious juices and tasted—well, flat. There was no sweetness left in them, and they were quite, quite unappetizing when you put all these qualities together. But Erin ate them, mainly because she had nothing left to eat.
“I’m in trouble. Yup, yup.”
It wasn’t that she was out of blue fruits. There were plenty—well, some—still ready to be harvested from the orchard. But they, like all food, were in limited supply. Besides, the issue wasn’t that. It was her guests.
“Who’d want to eat blue fruits all day? Raise your hand if that sounds like fun.”
Erin didn’t raise her hand. Granted, they were tasty and made a good fruit drink, but when you got down to it, they were still just fruits.
“And I want food. Real food. Not fruit. I want bread! I want pasta! I want pizza and soda and salad and ice cream—actually forget the ice cream. I need meat. Or fish that doesn’t bite back! I want sushi, cheeseburgers and fries, toast, waffles…cereal…”
Erin pressed her hands to her rumbling stomach and tried not to cry.
“Even instant ramen would be nice. Is that too much to ask?”
It was. She knew that. But just thinking about the food made her tear up a bit. She could handle Goblins. She could deal with rude Necromancers and fight off evil rock-crabs. She could even handle giant fish that tried to nibble on her when she took a bath. But she wanted food.
“Plus, I need to feed my guests.”
Erin nodded. The math was simple. No food = no guests = no money = starvation. But the little flaw in the equation was that in order to get the food, she’d need to spend the money. And she had no way of doing that.
“Unless I go to the city.”
Now, that was a thought. She wasn’t sure if that was a good tnought, but it was the only option she had available. The city. Erin went to the window. Relc had shown her where it was…
“There.”
Erin stared at the small buildings in the distance. It looked far. But then, everything looked far around here. And the city would have things. Like food. And clothing. And toothbrushes. Still, Erin didn’t want to go.
“It’s far. But I have to go. Maybe? Yes…no. No? Yes. I need food. And I need to feed my guests. It’s my duty as an innkeeper.”
She paused and thought about that last statement. Erin collapsed into a chair and cradled her head in her hands.
“Am I an innkeeper? Is that what this world is doing to me?”
Maybe. It was probably the [Innkeeper] class.
“Soon I’ll grow a huge beer belly and start hauling around kegs of ale. That’s what innkeepers do, right?”
She didn’t actually know. It wasn’t as if she’d ever paid that much attention to medieval history, at least the parts that were actually history.
“They never mentioned innkeepers in the legend of King Arthur. Or did they?”
There was no Google to help her so Erin abandoned that train of thought. Really, she was distracting herself. The problem she was facing was simple.
“To go to the city or not, that is the question. Actually, there’s n
o question. I need to go to the city. I need to go…shopping.”
Shopping. It would be a lot more appealing if she wasn’t trying to buy things to survive. But it had to be done. She knew it.
Still. Erin really, really didn’t like that idea. She liked people, she really did. But she had a negative reaction to A: leaving her safe inn, and B: travelling to a far off city probably full of giant lizards and insects that walked on two feet.
Glumly, she stared at the three sticky blue fruit cores on her plate. She walked outside and threw them as far as she could. The juices left her hands feeling unpleasantly sticky, but there wasn’t much she could do about it.
“Guess I’ve gotta go to the stream. Who knew washing your hands was so much work?”
Erin grumbled as she wiped her hand on her jeans. Then she paused. And looked down.
Her jeans were blue. The blue fruit juice was blue. But against all odds, the blue stain still showed up quite visibly on her clothing. OR rather, the blue fruit stains. And they weren’t just on her pants.
Erin’s shirt was a nice, commercial t-shirt with a lovely company logo on the front and back. Really, she wasn’t that attached to it, but it was perfect to wear when she was just staying at home. It wasn’t her choice of clothing.
…Which was good, because Erin would have cried if she’d inflicted the same damage on a t-shirt she really liked. She gazed down at the blue stains covering her shirt. She poked at the rips and cuts on the sleeves and the burn marks on one side. She lifted the shirt, sniffed once, and gagged.
For the first time Erin felt at her hair. She raised a hand and smelled her breath. She thought about the last time she’d brushed her teeth, taken a bath, or even used soap. Then she tried to shut down her mind.
“Well, that settles that. I’m off to the city.”
—-
Erin walked through the grass. She wished there was a nice road to follow, but for some reason no one bothered to pave a road through the empty wilderness. Come to that, she wondered again why anyone would build an inn in the middle of nowhere.