At Large

by Andrew Seiple

  And though she couldn’t hear them, she saw a ghostly outline lean out from Nonno tilt its head, considering her. Then it laughed and slapped the table. Chase caught motion below and saw one of her ghostly outline’s hands turn slightly, with its thumb up.

  And then, in a rush of sound and sensation, time unfroze.

  Your Foresight skill is now level 22!

  This was the Oracle’s greatest advantage. This was Foresight. And while it had its disadvantages, it had the very big benefit of letting her try a course of action without committing to it.

  But commit she did, as she leaned forward slightly. “If Tom is at fault on my behalf, then I too am at fault. I take full responsibility for his mistakes, Nonno.”

  And with relief, she saw the old man tilt his head, consider, then laugh and slap the table. “Good, good! You are a good girl! You do your family proud.”

  Slowly, she turned one hand up on the table, giving as large a thumbs up as she dared before turning the motion into another grab for biscotti.

  “Responsibility, Cagna, that’s always good to see in the young. Would that my boy had such, hm?”

  “He’s young still sir, he will learn,” the dog-woman said, breaking her silence for the first time since she’d entered the room.

  “Bah! He’s thirty, he’s a man.” Nonno smiled. “This girl is half his age and has twice the coglioni. Try the vin de santo, child, it’s quite good.”

  The sweet, sweet wine was indeed everything she’d been told it was… but the slight tingle in the aftertaste told her she shouldn’t drink too much. Not now.

  “What to do…” Nonno mused, while she drank. “You must understand, I have to discourage people spreading the Grifter’s gold among the good, honest businessmen I support. If I didn’t, then everyone would go broke overnight. It would be chaos.”

  “I understand completely. What can we do to make it right?”

  “I’m open to suggestions. And I do like gifts. Please, surprise me.” His smile was bright, but his eyes were shining, again.

  This is another test, Chase thought, irritated. It wasn’t enough that Thomasi was testing her, now ancient, oddly-paternal gangsters were trying to put her through the wringer. Damn it! I bargained with a god, why do I have to go through this?

  And with that memory, came inspiration.

  “As a matter of fact, I think I can offer you a gift, Nonno.” She reached into her pack and pulled out a well-worn wooden case.

  “Oh?”

  “I can tell you your future. It’s all in the cards,” she said, smiling widely… only to have the smile falter and die, as the old man’s face turned to stone.

  “This is what you offer me? Arretzi’s got plenty of fortune tellers, with their crystal balls and cards and runes and crystals and cazza. They tell me they call up my grandfather’s ghost and use ropes to levitate the table, and stuff like that. This is worthless.”

  “It’s not!” Chase said, glaring at him. “Every time I’ve thrown the cards, every time they’ve come true!” Granted, she had only thrown them once, but still, it counted. “I bargained with a god to get this skill!”

  Nonno laughed, harsh and barking, completely at odds with his previous manner. He leaned forward, sneering…

  …and that sneer broke in the face of Chase’s stubborn glare. “Child,” he asked, his voice without emotion. “What is your business?”

  “I am an Oracle of Hoon. All else is secondary.”

  That was a gamble.

  But he’d called himself a Merchant, he was into shady business… from what she’d gleaned from her meeting with the god, it was worth the risk of mentioning it.

  “All right,” Nonno nodded, eyes fixed on hers. “Tell me my fortuna. And we’ll see if it’s a good enough gift.”

  Chase nodded. “Shuffle the cards and think of your question while you do so. Do not tell me the question.”

  The old man complied. Several times he dropped cards as his hands shook, their joints knobby in their cages of flesh. But eventually he handed them over once more.

  Chase nodded, and took the top card, placing it into the center of the table between them. “This card represents you, as you are now.”

  It was a man in bloodstained leather armor sitting on a throne, while all around him disreputable sorts prostrated themselves. The King of Rogues, upside down, and Chase wasn’t surprised to see it. But reversed… that wasn’t good. As soon as he glanced down she mouthed “Silent Activation, Foresight,” and tested out the results of telling him honestly what the card signified. Her face paled as she saw the results. No, no. That’s bad. Time returned, and she felt the pressure building in her chest, the pressure that signified the possibility of a backlash if she deviated too far from her predicted action.

  But she’d used Foresight enough to know how far she could push it. So long as her action wasn’t TOO off course from her original test, the paradox would fade. Well, either that or it would disable her Foresight for a day. Then she’d be stuck with an irate crime lord and her best weapon would be useless.

  So instead of telling him how the reversed King of Rogues represented a financially inept figure who was obsessed with material wealth, or a fantastically, stupidly, stubborn man, she took a pull of her wine and mouthed “Silent Activation, Silver Tongue.” Instantly the pain in her chest peaked… and ebbed. She hadn’t lost Foresight to paradox yet.

  “The King of Rogues is a man of wealth and power, very respected.”

  “Nothing I don’t know already,” Nonno grunted.

  Your Silver Tongue skill is now level 4!

  Chase blinked away her relief and drew the next card with a shaking hand. “This card signifies the problem at hand.” Then she deposited the card above the King of Rogues. It showed a blazing wall of fire with eyes, sweeping through a forest. “The Elemental,” Chase whispered. She’d seen this one before. In exactly the same spot, come to think of it. Did that mean... no, what were the odds this was another problem with Vaffanculo, or undead, or something on his scale?

  “What? What is this crap?” The old man asked.

  She used another silent activation, and foresight combination, and found the old man’s ghostly projection receptive to an honest answer. So she told the truth.

  “This signifies a powerful and dangerous entity, but a neutral one. Something that’s just acting according to its nature.”

  “And this is my problem right now?” The old man asked, exchanging a significant look with Cagna. “You’re sure of this?”

  “It’s what the cards say so far.”

  “Continue,” he grunted. But now the sneer was off his face.

  “This card represents your ally in the face of this trouble...” she said, and laid down the third card, to the left of the King of Rogues. It was a wise-looking sage, lecturing a class of students. But it was upside-down. “The Trainer…” Another gulp of wine, another silent foresight, and another ten moxie and fortune goodbye. She was getting nervous and lightheaded, now. But the skill worked, and she confirmed it was safe to say the truth. “Normally the trainer is a good ally to have. But a reversed trainer means a person who has poor planning skills, or untried talents. Someone who can’t teach you much about your primary skillset.”

  “Hmm… Go on.” Now the old man was rubbing his face. Using Silent Activation? Maybe. He HAD to have some Grifter levels.

  “The next card is the crux of the choice, the decision that you’ll make that most affects the problem.” It was the Trainer again! She blinked. How… no, wait. She’d used some of the better-preserved cards from the older deck as models for the new art. This was the older one. Somehow it must have gotten mixed in with the newer cards.

  “That’s the same card!” Nonno said, staring. “I shuffled the deck. I was watching your hands. No way you fixed that.”

  “I didn’t,” Chase said. “This… we can flip another card. This card shouldn’t be in here—”

  “No. Tell me what it means.”
<
br />   “Well... this is right side up. The Trainer right side up represents resourcefulness, power, and inspired action. Someone who knows what they’re doing.”

  “And what does it mean when my ally is my choice?”

  Chase gnawed her lip. “It means that choosing to work with a seemingly unreliable ally to resolve your problem will prove your ally’s worth.”

  “Interesting. Very interesting.”

  “There’s one more card,” Chase said, quickly. “This represents your greatest enemy, the biggest obstacle to resolving the problem.” And as she flipped it to the right of the King of Rogues, her breath caught in her throat. “Oh my gods…”

  The thing on the card glared up from the table, green scales filled with innumerable broken arrow shafts, red eyes shining hatred. Fire gouted forth from jaws that could swallow a horse without opening fully, as the great dragon declared itself the King’s enemy. And what’s more, it was reversed.

  The old man swore.

  “Yeah,” Chase whispered, and used another silently activated foresight. Skills climbed again, but she barely paid attention. “The dragon’s bad enough. But reversed, it represents a powerful and smart monster. Something that’s almost impossible to defeat, that wants you gone. In this spot… Oh my. Oh my.”

  Silence, for a long minute. When Chase dared to look up, the old crime boss was by the window, hands folded behind his back.

  Chase noticed that he’d left the cane at the table. And his hands weren’t shaking at all now.

  “I was going to dispose of you, for causing a fuss in my domain. For trying to insult one of my friends by passing Grifter’s coin. I still may.” Nonno was gone, now. The man speaking was the wicked man she’d been expecting. That he was old made no difference. An old wolf still ate young deer.

  She opened her mouth to respond… and Thomasi’s hand fell on her shoulder. Chase swallowed her words instead.

  It was the right choice, as the old man continued. “But I wonder, Oracle, can you tell me the sort of monster I face, here? Can you tell me what occupies my mind, these last few days? If you can do that, you might be someone I could use, here.”

  Chase licked her lips. She glanced up at Thomasi…

  …and behind him she saw Cagna, looking worried. The dog-woman looked to her, then slowly, deliberately, tapped her nose. She turned it into a scratch, but she was definitely trying to get at something, here.

  Her nose. Something smelled. She’d smelled something. When she came into the room she smelled fox, but she told the old man no wolves.

  And then Chase’s mind clicked over to the cave they’d found. The wolf scent all around, and Thomasi’s conclusion.

  “Nonno?” She said, and the word was alien in her throat now, but she said it anyway. “You have a werewolf problem.”

  LUCK+1

  The old man’s gasp turned into a cough, and she watched his back twist with tension. And after a tense second more, he turned, and Nonno’s genial, blackened smile was gaping wide once more.

  And then her vision was words… including a set that left her staring in surprise.

  You are now a level 7 Grifter!

  CHA+3

  DEX+3

  LUCK+3

  You are now a level 9 Oracle!

  CHA+3

  LUCK+3

  WIS+3

  Congratulations, by combining skillful lies with actual oracular vision, you have unlocked the Medium job! You may not have told the actual fortune, but the customer got the one he needed to hear!

  Would you like to become a Medium at this time? Y/N?

  CHAPTER 5: A PARTING OF THE WAYS

  “It’s bad for business,” the old man said, after they had all gone back to their lunch. Chase was feeling a bit tipsy from the wine, and Thomasi and the two bodyguards had pulled up chairs and joined the feast. A test had been passed, a barrier had been broken, and the crime boss had decided to work with them.

  Even the eyes behind the portrait had withdrawn, replaced by their painted covers. The thin, rangy woman who had first served them water was now the primary server, and she seemed more comfortable now that her domain had been returned.

  Cagna ate with surprising daintiness, taking small bites, and moving her muzzle as little as possible. Lachina, by contrast, gobbled her food with abandon. She was practically hunched over her plate, eyes moving like one of the others would take it if she was too unwary.

  Thomasi ate sparingly, and only of the healthier food. He had removed his gloves for this repast, and now he held up the fork and studied the silver in the light of the window. “A simple werewolf test, yes?”

  “Yes,” The old man admitted. She would call him Nonno to his face, but he would never be Nonno in her mind again. Not after he’d shown his true face, back there. “The touch of silver burns them,” he continued. “A good friend of mine is a Tamer. He confirmed this old legend is true.”

  “I’m a Tamer myself, but I’m not high up enough to know much about werewolves,” Thomasi shrugged. “I know that some Tamer Tier Two jobs will turn you into one if you’re not careful. Maybe some Berserker paths, too.”

  “Tier Two jobs?” Chase asked, putting her desert wine down, and reaching for another biscotti. “What are those?”

  To her surprise, Cagna answered. “They’re jobs that come about as a result of combinations. If someone mixes the right skills from two basic jobs together at the right time in the right way, then you can unlock a Tier Two job.”

  Thomasi nodded to the dog-woman. “They’re powerful but focused. Usually a good idea to nab one if you find it, though. Unlocking one means you’re doing the things that they’re focused on doing anyway, so they’re almost always guaranteed to give you an edge.”

  “Unless it makes you a werewolf,” the old man said. Then he cursed a bit. “—wolfmen all up my rump. City’s locked down because of those stugats.”

  Chase almost choked on her biscotti at the vulgarity.

  “Ah, THAT’S why,” Thomasi nodded. “We had wondered.”

  “It’s bad for business,” the old man said. “My friends on the river, they come to me and they say Massimo, we have such amazing things for you, and I must tell them no, I am sorry, I have no place to put them. With the gates being checked as they are, I cannot carry enough in to clear out my storage. I have piles of things I do not want scrutinized greatly building up in spaces that were never meant to hold so much for so long. And the money I must pay! It is too much, I tell you.”

  He waved his hands as he spoke, and they did tremble from time to time, but nowhere near how they had earlier in the meal. Chase was certain that had been a con, a ploy to throw her off her guard. And it had damn near worked. There was a lesson there, for the future.

  Thomasi spoke again. “Surely there are other ways besides the gates, to get into the city. And out, of course.”

  “Of course,” Massimo confirmed. “But surely you would not wish to depart so quickly. A business such as yours would do well in this city,” he cast a genial smile over Chase, and she smiled back. “Too many frauds in the quartiere mistico. Not enough of the real deal. And I could be persuaded to talk with some of my friends inside the walls. Help set you up with a store, some starting capital, whatever you need to bring your wisdom from the gods to the ears of us poor sinners.”

  Chase was smart enough to know that saying no at this point would be a very bad idea. “Arretzi does seem like a beautiful city, from what I have heard by those who praise her. But I am worried about these werewolves. They are your enemy. They would then be my enemy, too.”

  “Dogs,” Massimo snarled, his genial mood vanishing. “Not useful ones, either.”

  Cagna shifted and exchanged glances with Lachina but said nothing. Massimo didn’t even notice as he continued. “They hunt in the outer ring here, where the guards don’t come and they think nobody shall be missed. We find the bodies— what’s left of them. And my people, they come to me, and say that I have promised to protect them. Th
ey are afraid. After all I have done for them, they forget who I am! Three stinking days of this, and they forget my name!” Massimo’s loose-skinned face shook, jowls quivering.

  “It’s only been going on for three days?” Thomasi asked, his face the picture of shock. “How are people certain it is werewolves?”

  Surprisingly, it was Lachina who rumbled a reply. “Werewolves terrorized this city decades ago. Everyone learned the signs. But the people weren’t certain this time, not at first.” Her voice was deep, so deep Chase almost spilled her wine in surprise and thought some unseen man had snuck into the room.

  Lachina continued. “Don Coltello disposed of the remains. But then it happened inside the city, too, and the people who quiet such troubling things were not as… efficient...”

  “And there were witnesses,” the old man said, glumly. “One out here that I gave some money and advice to go take a vacation. But my money was wasted, there were more witnesses in the city. And then the damned Bianchi patriarch petitioned Doge Fedelta to do something about it. What’s more, he petitioned in public! And so, our gates have the Doge’s own household servants watching them. His huntsmen, his mages… it will not catch any sort of werewolf worth catching. It is… eh… it is... a thing to appease the masses, ah how to say it.”

  “Bread and circuses,” Thomasi smiled.

  The Don barked laughter, and Chase found herself giggling. Or maybe that was the wine. Was she tipsy? It would be stupid to say status and check. “Yes, bread and circuses,” the old man said. Then his smile disappeared again. “I am the opposite of that. I take care of things without fuss. Without drama. These curs… it is not the first time werewolves have hunted in our city. I have killed them before, but I was too quiet about it, perhaps. Now I wonder if perhaps an example would be better.”

  “You’ve handled werewolves before?” Chase asked, blinking.

  “Eh, me and the other dons, yes. Long ago. A mated pair decided to make this city their hunting ground. We tracked them down, chased them into the river, and filled it with her blood. I was the one to finish the chase and take the trophy. I still have the female’s skin on my wall.” The old man’s grin had no mirth about it; it was a thing of wicked glee. Then it faded. “The male fled and got away. He was the runt, though, not a big threat on his own. Ironic, because he was the taller of the pair.”