by Pirateaba
“Hitting my windows. With this.”
“Yes. Why?”
“Stress test.”
Erin grunted, and then turned her hammer. With the claw end of the hammer she swung it at the window. Hard. Lyonette braced herself, but rather than break, the hammer’s edge skated across the glass. Erin eyed the undamaged window, and then punched it.
“Ow. That’s tough.”
“What’s all this about?”
“I’m seeing how tough my inn is now. I didn’t tell you—the other day I got [Reinforced Structure].”
“Oh. Oh! So that’s why the inn wasn’t damaged when the Goblin Lord—”
“Yeah. But I want to know exactly how strong my inn is.”
Erin studied the window again, and then balled a fist. She took a breath.
“[Minotaur Punch]!”
The impact this time was loud and sharp. Lyonette saw Erin pull back her hand, wincing.
“Are you—”
Erin showed her hand to Lyonette. There was no blood. But there was a definite fracture in the glass where she’d hit. It was small, but it was there.
“Not that strong, then.”
She shook her head. Lyonette stared at her. She stared at the window.
“It looks strong to me. You couldn’t break it, and the glass is pretty thin!”
“Yeah. But if I can fracture it, anyone with more than twenty levels in a combat class can probably break it. And someone like Regrika could probably still put a hole in my walls.”
Regrika. Lyonette felt a cold surge of fear and anger in her stomach when she heard the name. She looked at Erin.
“Do you think she’s going to come back…?”
“No.”
Erin shook her head. She looked at her window, and then turned away. She trudged around to the front of the inn.
“I don’t. But even if I never see her again, what about next time?”
“What do you mean, next time?”
“A Rock Crab. The Goblin Lord’s army. Or another adventurer. Another Skinner. Or…”
Erin shook her head. She looked so tired. Lyonette stared at a boarded-up wall in Erin’s inn, where Moore had smashed through to run from Regrika. That had been before Erin’s new Skill. Now, she wondered if the half-Giant would have been able to manage the feat.
The [Innkeeper] was clearly thinking the same thing.
“Next time, I won’t be able to rely on luck. And that was what it was. Luck saved everyone but Ulrien. Revi still got cut up, Moore needed healing, and Jelaqua…I can’t keep doing what I’ve been doing. I thought I was prepared. I was wrong.”
Lyonette shook her head adamantly.
“You did everything you could! You got two Gold-rank teams and Zel Shivertail and a Wall Lord to help you. You made sure Mrsha and I—and Apista—were safely out of the inn. What else could you have done?”
“Something. Anything. When she was fighting, Regrika—I couldn’t scratch her. I bought healing potions, magical items from Octavia—do you know I didn’t think to use any of them? It wouldn’t have mattered if I had, anyways. I need something more. More protection. More power. More…”
She shook her head. Erin glanced towards the open door to her inn, leaking warm air. She went to close it and paused.
“Are you okay? Is Mrsha?”
“I’ll be—”
Lyonette’s throat closed up before she could say she was fine. She wasn’t. Erin looked at her. She had a haunted look in her eyes. And Lyonette remembered that Erin had seen people die before as well.
“Take the day off if you need to. Keep Mrsha company.”
“It’s okay. I can manage. But are you alright? You look…”
“I’m fine. I’ve been through this before.”
“Oh?”
Erin nodded. She stared into her inn, and then turned away. There was something quiet about her today. Quiet, and intense. She wasn’t smiling. She wasn’t frowning or visibly upset, either. She was just…present.
“It doesn’t get better. But I can work without crying this time. Because I have to. It’s easier to have something to do. And so much has happened. Ryoka’s gone. Ivolethe’s gone. Brunkr and Ulrien…the Goblin Lord. I need to…”
She stared up at the blue sky without finishing her sentence. Lyonette looked around. The snow was still thick everywhere she looked. But it was wet. Melting. It would take a week at least for the warming weather to melt the snow. When it did…Lyonette foresaw a lot of mud and water.
“Come on. I’ve got food and Drassi is here. You should have breakfast if you haven’t already. And I’d bet the others will wake up any time soon.”
Erin blinked. She looked at Lyonette.
“Yeah. Let’s do that.”
—-
Quietus. That was what followed death. In the moments between grief and anger, reconciliation, regret, denial, and perhaps, peace, there was silence. It was not always the same.
Some wept. Some mourned out loud. Others retreated inwards or found places to go to be alone. Some just…left.
It was the same across the world. In Rhir, a [Clown] sat in a room full of broken mirrors, too full of grief and horror to shed any more tears. A [Princess] wept alone in her bedroom, because she could not show her sadness outside. A kingdom was full of drums, and the people swore vengeance over pyres. Hatred stems from grief.
Silence in that place was loud. It was men and women crying out for vengeance, a [King] sitting on his throne, loudly praising those who fought and denouncing traitors. It was the sound of drums, beating to a mourning city. But in the fractured moments of time between each thump of a drum was that moment of silence. Of numb loss.
In a small inn outside of Liscor, the silence was different. It was pure quiet. Hushed voices. A talkative Drake who chattered quietly, trying to make a Gnoll smile. It was adventurers walking downstairs.
The Horns of Hammerad barely spoke. And they left early. Their silence was another contract; hunting down a large nest of Shield Spiders that had infested a section of Liscor’s sewers, burrowing through stone and dirt. Or maybe their eggs had been carried into the tunnels somehow? Either way, it was a job for a Silver-rank team, not Bronze. It was dirty, but it was work to keep them occupied.
They left. But carried silence with them. Silence was Pisces slipping Mrsha a piece of oily bacon, Ksmvr talking about the mission by himself since no one would join in. Yvlon thanking Lyonette and the two staring at each other for a moment before turning away. Ceria putting a hand on Erin’s shoulder.
The Halfseekers were different. Jelaqua was loud, drinking early in the day. Moore and Seborn were naturally quiet, but they filled the air today with sound.
“Now it’s just one Gold-rank team in here. At least until the Horns get certified. That means we’d better act the part. Moore, cause some trouble.”
“How?”
“Knock over a chair or something. Start a fight.”
The half-Giant obligingly turned over a chair. Seborn knocked over his empty cup. Jelaqua looked disgusted. Lyonette giggled a bit, and Mrsha’s tail wagged a bit more.
“You two are disgusting, you know that? Looks like I have to cause all the trouble myself. Hey Erin, got anything I can smash?”
“How about a window?”
“What?”
When they heard about Erin’s tests on her inn, the Halfseekers all went outside to test the durability of Erin’s inn. They argued, kept themselves busy. Jelaqua rapped on the window, first hard, and then punched it.
“Right. Looks like I could break this with my flail, but it might take two swings. Maybe three, depending on how much space I had. Moore could probably put his fist through it as well, but I’d hate to imagine what that’d do to his hand. Seborn…it would be pretty hard.”
Moore sighed.
“I would probably put an enchantment over my hand, Jelaqua. Cover it with vines. Or thorns. I’m not a savage.”
“Good point. Seborn, you think you could bre
ak it?”
The Drowned Man shrugged.
“I don’t feel the need. I’d rather just unlatch the window and jump in, or find another route. But I could probably break it with my daggers. It would slow me down, though.”
“Go ahead. I don’t mind.”
Erin stepped back from the window and invited Seborn to use his daggers on it. The Halfseekers eyed her. Jelaqua paused and shook her head.
“Nah. Glass is expensive. It’s good you got the Skill, though. A bit more protection’s always good.”
“You should look into some spells. I know a decent [Enchanter] who does warding spells.”
Moore nodded to Erin. She looked at him.
“Really? How much do they cost? And how strong are they? Would they stop someone like Regrika?”
The Gold-rank adventurers looked at each other. Jelaqua sighed. She scratched at the black stitches around her forehead.
“No. Never mind.”
Erin looked at the stitches. They were holding together the top of Jelaqua’s head, the bit Regrika had sliced off with the rest of her body, but the severed bit was already looking slightly…decomposed.
“Are you okay? Is your body…”
She didn’t know how to complete that sentence. The Selphid grinned at her wearily.
“Damaged. Thanks for asking. I tore a lot of muscles and the top of my head’s rotting off. But hey, I’m alive so who cares about my body?”
She grinned. Erin remembered that Jelaqua’s head had been empty when she’d seen inside. The memory made her want to bring up the lasagna she’d had for breakfast.
“Right. No brains. That’s…a bit icky, if you don’t mind me saying so.”
“Not a problem. Nothing looks pretty from the inside. I should know!”
“But how’d your brains—I mean, your body’s brains—how did they uh, disappear? Is that something you have to do when you—”
Terminology was becoming an issue. Jelaqua smiled.
“Brains have nothing to do with how I control a body. I don’t need ‘em. As for how they disappeared, well…it’s this thing, okay? Excess body fat, useless organs—I get snacky, and sometimes—”
Moore elbowed Jelaqua gently.
“That’s disturbing. Even for me, Jelaqua.”
“Sorry, sorry! You did ask. I know you fleshies don’t like talking about it. But Erin did ask, and I want to be open about that.”
The Selphid raised her hands. Erin smiled at her and resolved never to ask about that again. Or at least not after she’d just eaten. She took a second to compose herself, and then gestured at Jelaqua’s head.
“So you need a new body, is that right?”
“Preferably. But I can manage without one if I have to for a month or two. Might get ugly, but I don’t know if I’ll find a new body around here.”
The Selphid grew serious. She nodded towards Liscor.
“Drakes do not like people using their bodies. Neither do Gnolls. They have a thing about it. You know, from the Necromancer? And people don’t like Selphids in general. It’s almost worse than back home because they don’t know about Selphids, so there are all these rumors I have to deal with…I’m willing to pay in gold of course, but I think I’ll have to ask around in Celum and that’s a gamble.”
Erin nodded. The logistics of corpse acquisitions were unfortunately not a new subject to her. Pisces had made similar complaints in the past.
“And I bet you want a good body, right? One with lots of teeth…freshly dead, and probably with muscles, right?”
“She gets it!”
The Selphid turned to Seborn and Moore, looking relieved. They nodded approvingly. Jelaqua walked back inside with the others and sat at a table. Zel was having breakfast. He nodded to Erin, and then winced as Jelaqua began grousing about finding a new host body.
“You would not believe how hard it is. Forget having a specific taste in bodies, finding one that’s not old, infected with some disease and in one piece is hard enough. I’m not one of those elitist types of course—I’ll go for anything without a pulse if it can get the job done. Heck, with all the wear and tear in my profession, that’s mandatory. But I’d like another female body. I mean, the male ones are alright, but let’s be honest—the dangling bits tend to get eaten by bugs before I can enter the corpse, and that’s a pain whenever I have to relieve myself from then on…”
Erin was in a position to regret ever asking about Jelaqua’s woes, but at least it was distracting to hear the Selphid grouse. And that was good. True, Zel lost his appetite and Lyonette had to cover Mrsha’s ears, but it was fun. In a way.
“What about Antinium bodies?”
“Excuse me?”
Jelaqua paused in her rant about having sex, and stared at Erin. The girl shrugged.
“I know a lot of Antinium die. It’s not…good, but if they were willing to give you a body, would you be able to use it?”
Bird paused as he walked downstairs. He had his bow in hand. He nodded.
“Antinium bodies are exceedingly durable.”
Erin jumped. She’d forgotten that Bird was staying here! She was about to apologize when she realized that Bird was agreeing with her. The Antinium sat at a table. He was uninjured, and he requested ‘unborn birds’ for breakfast. As usual. Lyonette gave him a plate of eggs which he began to eat happily.
“Ants? I’d never given it a thought.”
Jelaqua looked troubled as she picked at the stiches on her head. Seborn grabbed her hand. She gave him an annoyed look.
“It itches.”
“It’ll itch more if it fully decomposes.”
“You suck. Okay. Antinium…it’s a thought, Erin, but there’s a few issues. Antinium aren’t welcome in most places on the continent. Also, I’m not familiar with their bodies. It would take a while to get up to speed, and that’s not good if we’re going to take on the dungeon again. I don’t know if their insides are different, which might be dangerous. And I mean, four arms? That’s tricky.”
She waved her two arms around and Erin nodded.
“It’s just a thought. If your uh, head gets rotty, I can ask Klbkch about it.”
“Thanks. Yeah, better that than decomposition, right? I mean, I can deal with maggots and flies laying eggs—just a snack when you get down to it. But people complain of the smell, and then I start leaking…”
“Right. Thank you for breakfast. I’ve got to be on my way.”
Zel pushed his plate back. The [General] stood, looking queasy, and Erin saw Jelaqua raise a hand guiltily. Moore covered his face.
“Sorry about that.”
Erin hurried over and cleared the table. Drassi was in the kitchen doing dishes. Zel shook his head.
“Not a problem. I’m in a hurry anyways.”
“Oh? What are you doing?”
The Drake grimaced.
“Sitting with Liscor’s Council, talking, reassuring people and communicating—slowly—with other cities, mainly. We’re in touch with Esthelm via [Message] spell and talking over forming another army with the Walled Cities.”
“Esthelm?”
That was right. Esthelm was right in the Goblin Lord’s path if he was heading north. Erin felt a surge of panic, but Zel gently gripped her arm.
“Don’t worry. Our [Strategists] including young Olesm, say that the Goblin Lord won’t try to take the city. It’s not worth his while and he’s in a hurry. We’ll see what happens, but their walls are rebuilt thanks to the Antinium. And you. I’ll let you know if something happens.”
“Okay.”
He nodded.
“Besides that I have a [Message] spell to send…and while I’m thinking of it, I should give you this.”
He reached for his belt and opened a bag. It must have been a bag of holding, because the small pile of gold coins clinked onto the table in a quick flow. Erin stared at them.
“What’s this? You already paid for the week, and this is way too much—”
“For the
wall. And damaged chairs. Tables and so on.”
Zel looked at Erin, and shifted his gaze towards the hole in the wall. Moore opened his mouth and Jelaqua stepped on his toes. Erin stared at the gold coins and pushed them back.
“I can’t take this. It’s my fault—”
“Please.”
Zel refused to touch the coins. He stood up. Erin tried to offer them back, but he refused.
“I know what you’re trying to say, but you did what I would have done in your shoes. Better. You uncovered a real threat, and…it was not your fault. I was the highest-level warrior on the field that night. The battle was mine to lose. I wasn’t here. This is my way of apologizing.”
“Even so—I don’t need it. I don’t. I have enough money coming in. Lots, actually. And Ryoka left some of her gold—look, I can’t—”
Zel edged around Erin and left the inn before she could block him. Erin stood in the doorway forlornly, watching him march quickly through the snow. Jelaqua sighed and got to her feet.
“We’d probably pay if he didn’t. He’s right, you know. No one blames you for what went down, Erin. You did what you could. It’s just…”
She shrugged. Moore and Seborn were also getting to their feet. She looked at them, shook her head. Mrsha, Lyonette, Erin—Drassi poked her head out of the kitchen. Jelaqua looked tired.
“Sometimes you run into a real monster. Someone invincible. Something. Sometimes you lose. That’s the way this world works, right?”
She turned and looked around, her customary smile gone. She nodded, and the Halfseekers slowly walked out the door.
Erin stood, watching them go as well. A half-Giant, wading through snow that only came up to his ankles. Seborn, quiet as a shadow. Jelaqua, leading with head turned up to the sky. Erin stood in the quiet inn and stared at the spot where Ulrien had died. Mrsha hugged Lyonette and Apista fanned her wings by the fire.
After a while, Drassi poked her head out of the kitchen again.
“We’re out of milk, by the way.”
Life moved on.
—-
It was the goats that saved them. Because of them, the six were granted another day to live. And they were grateful. They had to live. It was that or die, and they were too proud to die. Their friends had sacrificed too much for them to die.