Quick Change Volume 1: Slyborn

by C. T. O'Leary

  Seth saw one stall where a gruff looking older man had an array of bladed weapons laid out on his table. Seth motioned to Aurora, and they walked over to the man’s stall. They waited a few moments as the man finished a transaction with another customer, and then asked what they were looking for. Seth said, “I’m interested in buying the longest sword you have.”

  The man’s eyes quickly flicked down to the sword sheathed at Seth’s side before returning to his face. The merchant said, “That looks to be quite a nice blade you have there, son. I’d be happy to trade you a longsword for it.” The man reached under the counter and pulled out what Seth could only describe as a claymore in a leather sheath. The sword was huge, it had to be five feet long. Seth’s gut told him he’d struggle to lift it, but then he remembered lifting the huge boulder in the Mistwood the day before and realized he could probably manhandle the sword just fine.

  The man’s eyes raised at Seth expectantly, and Seth said, “Well, actually, I need to keep this one, too. I just need a second sword for…” Seth struggled to think up a believable reason why he needed two swords, before he gave up and settled on, “for reasons. How much would that longsword cost me?”

  The man eyed the pommel of Enrique’s sword, Fearless, one more time before saying, “I could part with it for two gold.” Seth realized he had absolutely no benchmark for how much money was worth in Morgenheim, but Aurora came to his rescue again.

  She patted him on the shoulder and cleared her throat before saying to the man, “Surely you could do better than that for a friend of the guild.”

  The man’s eyebrows raised, and he quickly backpedaled, suggesting they pay him five silver instead, one fourth the previous price. Aurora subtly nodded to Seth, so he pulled out a gold coin from his pouch and the man returned five silver in change, and handed him the huge claymore. Seth checked out the stats as they walked away.

  Hardened Iron Longsword 2-Handed Sword Requirements: 25 Strength 120 damage

  Seth marveled out loud at how much higher the damage on the weapon was compared to Fearless, but Aurora explained that damage was only part of the equation, and that enormous damage often came at the expense of very slow attack rate, since it was harder to swing such a large weapon around quickly and accurately.

  Seth explained that he’d wanted to buy the longsword for use with his new Quick Change Pierce skill, and when they found an empty alley between buildings, he quickly stepped into it, swapped to his royal blue clothing, what he considered his second outfit, unequipped the starter sword he’d begun his time in Morgenheim with, and strapped on the massive longsword. It very much dragged the ground when strapped to his waist, so after some jostling, he strapped it around his torso so the hilt peaked out over his right shoulder. He swapped back to his main outfit with Enrique’s armor, drew Fearless, pointed it at the empty air, and activated Quick Change Pierce just to confirm it worked.

  The longsword and his second outfit flashed into existence for less than a second, with the tip of the sword reaching at least two feet farther in front of Seth than Fearless, then the first outfit reappeared again.

  Aurora said, “I don’t know that I will ever get used to that, but it sure seems useful.”

  Seth picked his starter sword and sheath up off the ground where he’d set them and said, “I’m not quite sure what to do with this. Do you think your guild would want it?”

  She said, “I can donate it to the armory, perhaps someone learning to smith could practice on it.”

  Aurora led the way back out of the skinny alley they’d entered, and for a split second, Seth thought he saw a man in his peripheral vision. He whipped his head to where the man had been, but there was no one. The man had on a small black masquerade mask, a black bandana, and a loose-fitting black shirt that cinched around his wrists. Aurora noticed Seth had stopped. She said, “What is it?”

  He said, “I…could’ve sworn I saw someone there…”

  Aurora shouldered past him and drew her sword. She stared at the empty alley menacingly for around half a minute. When no one appeared, she turned, sheathed her sword, and said, “Probably just some rogue trying to steal your money.” Seth checked his pocket. His coins were still there. Aurora continued, “Rogues can hide in plain sight unless you’re right on top of them. Always make sure to keep watch over your items.”

  The pair of them continued deeper into the city, and Seth noticed that the citizens they passed had begun to look richer. At one point, he saw several children, they had to all be under ten, walk out of one of the alleys ahead of him and head toward a man wearing fancy-looking white clothes with gold trimming. Seth looked to Aurora to see if she had noticed, but her eyes were locked on a large man strutting through the crowd several blocks away, bright blue cape strapped to his back.

  Seth looked back to the children just in time to see one of them dart forward, surprisingly fast, and snatch the coin purse from the fancy man’s belt. Before the man could even register the theft, the kids were tearing back toward the alley they’d emerged from, and Seth’s eyes felt like they might jump out of his head as all three of the young boys simply went invisible. He could almost see the outline of where each of them was as they practically jumped back into the alley, but they were completely transparent.

  The man yelled, “Help! Those filthy street rogues stole my money! Guards!” Aurora was looking now but didn’t make to talk to the man, and Seth saw that the Transportation Guild member she’d been eyeing was no longer visible. After a moment, two Vardon guards did appear around a corner and begin talking to the distraught man, and Seth and Aurora continued, one of Seth’s hands pressed firmly onto his coin pouch.

  After several more blocks and no more drama, they rounded a corner, and Seth was momentarily confused as he saw another wall. He didn’t think they’d already made it to the other side of the city, but after examining it for a moment, he realized it was its own wall within the main city wall.

  Red flags hung from several posts on either side of the closed wooden gates, and as Aurora made to head up the street to the gate in the inner wall, she said, “Welcome to the Vardon Adventurers’ Guild regional headquarters.”

  Chapter 16

  Seth and Aurora approached the walls of the Adventurers’ Guild headquarters. Upon further inspection, Seth had realized that the wall wasn’t exactly like the wall that surrounded the city. For one, it was substantially shorter than the Vardon wall, perhaps only three stories tall.

  Secondly, instead of being one continuous wall, it appeared to use the outer walls of the buildings inside its perimeter as part of the wall, only having an actual standalone wall to connect buildings. Seth could see the slightly different color stonework where windows and doors used to be on the outer walls of buildings but had been covered over to make the outer perimeter more secure.

  Seth scanned along the top of the smaller inner wall, but didn’t see any guards looking down at him. They reached the heavy wooden doors and Aurora put her hands on her hips. She mumbled, “Usually, someone’s watching the gate…” She waited several more seconds, and then raised her fist and pounded on the wooden door. Heavy booms resounded with each strike. Almost a minute of tense silence passed.

  Aurora looked at Seth. “Now I am a bit concerned. Can you help me give this door a push? There are big cranks and pulleys to open them from the inside, if they have the crossbars in place inside it will be of no use, but if they’re just pushed shut, you and I can get them open.”

  Seth nodded and sure enough, with both he and Aurora pushing, the big wooden door ground open, scraping along grooves in the hard ground. The two of them entered, Aurora rushing to be first in.

  The dead were piled in a large central courtyard in the center of the walled off district. Seth heard a sharp intake of breath from Aurora. What looked like dozens of men and women, corpses, were haphazardly tossed in a pile. Most of them were wearing red capes just like Aurora’s.

  Seth felt like he was going to throw up. To her
credit, Aurora even when faced with her dead guild members, Aurora acted instantly. She said, “We need to get the city guard. This looks like it happened at least a day ago. How has no one seen this yet?” A note of panic entered her voice. She turned and started walking out, motioning for Seth to follow, and drawing her sword at the same time.

  They exited through the heavy wooden door they’d forced open, and were met with an array of more than a dozen people, weapons raised and pointing at them. Several of them had bows, others swords, and one held two daggers in a reverse grip. Emblazoned in a different place on each of their outfits was a crest made up of a solid gold shield with an open mouth in the center, white canines elongated unnaturally.

  One woman stood out from the rest of the group. She was located near the center of the line of armed people, and wore a long robe. Her hair was a steely gray, with some black mixed in, and was pulled back in a tight bun. Her lips looked stuck in a perpetually pinched state. She looked imposing, and she reminded Seth of his third grade-teacher.

  The woman spoke first to those around her, “That’s not him. Take these two to the cages, Ybarra will want to interrogate them.” She looked at Seth and Aurora then, as if finally acknowledging their presence, “Unless that is you two feel like putting up a fight. I’d love an excuse to help you join your friends in there.” She nodded her head at the walled compound behind Seth. A small, smug smile was allowed to show on the woman’s face.

  Seth audibly growled and reached for his sword, but Aurora put a hand up and whispered, “No chance, not versus fourteen. There will be a better time.” She sheathed her own sword and said, “I demand to speak to who’s responsible for this.”

  The unpleasant woman responded, “You’ll demand nothing.” She waved her hand and eight of the people around her moved forward, while the remaining few kept bows trained on Aurora and Seth.

  One of the men immediately took Fearless from Seth’s sheath and backed away, admiring the shining sword, and a woman walked behind Seth and kicked him hard in the back of the knee. Seth fell to his knees with a cry, momentarily wondering if the group was going to just kill them after all, but then the woman who’d hit him yelled, “This one’s level 18.”

  Similarly, a man who’d kicked Aurora yelled, “27 here.” Seth stood up, embarrassed that Aurora had barely reacted to the kick. The two of them were led away, a substantially larger chunk of the group surrounding Aurora with their weapons drawn.

  They wound through the streets, a different direction than he and Aurora had taken in, and Seth saw people disappearing into houses and buildings ahead of them. At one point, Seth’s hope jumped when he saw several guards dressed identically to the guards at the city gate, but they, too, just vanished down a side street when they saw the procession of Howlingshields coming. Seth caught a glimpse of the rage painted on Aurora’s face.

  A quarter of an hour later, the two were led through a tall wrought iron fence surrounding what looked like some kind of graveyard and several rundown stone buildings. Seth mumbled to himself, “That's…ominous”

  Their escort shifted and headed towards the largest building in the enclosed area, the architecture reminded Seth of gothic churches in Europe, all intricately detailed spines and spindles stabbing into the sky.

  They were marched past a comically large wooden cage with four guards stationed around it. A single man sat inside. Around his shoulders sat a dirty red cape, almost an exact copy of Aurora’s. Seth thought that the man was probably somewhere in his sixties, with a shiny bald head and an overly large white moustache.

  He watched silently as the two of them were led past. Seth wondered why that man had been captured while others had been killed in their base. He shuddered as the images returned to him.

  The angry woman stopped the entire group before the doors to the building. She entered alone, and then returned several moments later. Seth noticed her face was flushed when she returned. She snapped at one of her men, “Bring the old one!” Seth had to bite his tongue not to make a joke about her not being so young herself.

  The man she’d yelled at ran away and returned quickly with the bald, mustachioed adventurer and the four guards around him in a pentagon formation, weapons drawn and pointed at him. When that group joined with the much larger one surrounding Seth and Aurora, the mob of people was ushered into the building. It was relatively dark inside, it appeared as though any windows had been boarded up and covered with strips of cloth. To Seth, it seemed almost like low budget Halloween decor, as if someone was trying way too hard to be spooky.

  The group of people silently walked through a small entryway and into a large chamber. A fancy chair had been stolen from some dining room and sat at the front of the chamber where some kind of lectern had probably stood before. Rows of ancient pews had been shoved to the sides of the room, leaving the space looking bare.

  Upon the oversized oak chair sat a thin man, his long limbs clothed in a rather tight-fitting dark leather outfit. He looked like some medieval rock star, and long shaggy brown hair hung down around his face.

  He looked up at the as they walked in, his eerily light blue eyes raking first over Aurora before flicking to the old man, and lastly, Seth. Seth grimaced when the man’s eyes barely lingered on him. Apparently, he wasn’t perceived as much of a threat.

  The woman who’d led them spoke up then, “Ybarra, the adventurer and her servant I told you about, as well as the old adventurer caught earlier today.” She stared at the ground as she spoke, and Seth wondered what this man had done to inspire such fear in the woman.

  Ybarra said, “I understand. I’ll speak with them alone, Freya.” All of the guards immediately walked back towards the door to the antechamber. The stern woman, Freya, opened her mouth to reply, probably to say something about how it was unsafe to leave him alone with them. Ybarra’s eyes narrowed just fractionally, and she turned on her heel and silently left the room, the big door booming closed behind her.

  Aurora, Seth and the bald man stood in silence, and Seth felt like he was being dissected by a mad scientist every time the man’s cold eyes glanced over him, seeming to inspect every small detail of his appearance. Seth’s heart thundered faster and faster, as if his silence was some ominous sign of what awful things were to come. He wondered if the low budget decor and rockstar outfit were having their intended effect, or if there was something else at play.

  When the man finally spoke, it was to the bald man. He said, “How long have you been in the Adventurers’ Guild?”

  The man’s eyes bulged a bit, and he said, “Over thirty years.”

  Ybarra said, “Before today, who would you have said was the strongest guild member in Vardon?”

  The bald man replied instantly, “Commander Ramses.”

  “He was not present during the attack on the guild headquarters this morning. Where is he?” Ybarra’s gaze was locked onto the old man like a predator closing on its prey.

  “I don’t know, he left for some mission in the last few days. The commander doesn’t run his plans by me.”

  Ybarra snorted like he found that funny, one side of his mouth rising slightly. He looked at Aurora next. “Your leader has fled the city adventurer, where is he hiding?”

  Uncharacteristic fear shone in Aurora’s eyes, and she responded, “I don’t know. I’ve been stationed down south in Bosqovar. I had just met up with this adventurer when a mercenary tried to assassinate me. I found a payment with the Howlingshields’ sigil on it and decided to inform the regional guild leaders myself. If they’ve fled the city, they’ve likely gone to ground at one of our many safehouses in the region, or headed to another major city.”

  Seth cringed when Aurora called him an adventurer, and wondered what was going on with her head. She didn’t strike Seth as the type to spill the beans so easily, but he figured it had something to do with the ever-growing fear he’d been experiencing since entering the same room as Ybarra. It had become almost unbearable. He felt like a trapped wild animal
. He felt like he was seeing things in his peripheral vision, monsters and nightmares. He could feel his heart thundering in his chest.

  Ybarra didn’t even glance in Seth’s direction when Aurora let the cat out of the bag, though, and he silently thanked Utgar for naming his guild after the actual adventurers who had come before, for it seemed the arbitrary naming might keep his secret.

  Ybarra continued drilling his stare into Seth’s party-mate for several more seconds before he seemed to decide that she was telling the truth, and didn’t know where the Adventurers’ Guild leaders might have gone. He slowly swung his gaze to Seth, and Seth felt like his eyes were popping out of his head, his heart beating a mile a minute, as the fear doubled, then tripled.

  Seth felt his muscles go rigid, and knew that he’d tell this man anything he wanted, just to make him look away. Just to end the horrible terror that gripped his heart. Ybarra smiled a wicked smile when he saw Seth’s reaction, and said, “What about you? What’s your name? Do you have anything to add?”

  Seth worked his mouth a few times, gaining a new appreciation for how well Aurora had conducted herself when faced with this hideous fear magic, before finally letting out a decidedly unflattering squeak. He regrouped and was able to say, “I’m Seth.” Then he clamped his jaws shut and felt the veins bulging out of his throat. It felt like his eyes might pop out of his head.

  Ybarra sighed, and said, “I…see.” before raising his voice and calling for Freya to return. The door opened immediately, so Seth figured she’d been loitering on the other side, perhaps even listening in. Ybarra didn’t seem to care as he gave her orders. “Take them to the top of the wall. Toss the old one off and see if they come up with any more useful information. If they do, bring them back to me. Otherwise, just toss them all off.”