"I have missed you so, father!" she finally called out, with a voice that matched the sweet purity of her appearance. It almost gave Tehra cold shivers, like something seemingly so pure could not be natural, or honestly as it appeared.
Shit, Tehra thought in that short moment. Something about the way Benevic's apparently unexpected daughter was standing there, almost glowing, suddenly made sense. It was possible none of the humans in that room, and most likely not the dwarf either, was picking up on that. It wasn't just the light hitting the airy white clothing in a certain way. It was an aura of very low-powered magic. Either that, or it was so carefully concealed that only someone with an intrinsic or carefully practiced ability of detecting magic could possibly pick it up.
And Tehra felt uneasy about it. She wanted to ask someone about it but had a sinking feeling that they wouldn't believe her. Maybe she was just too inexperienced with her ability to be able to use it properly. If Benevic found out she was an elf who couldn't even detect basic magical auras properly, he might change his mind about her training with the company.
Benevic rushed down to meet his daughter at the door, and it was instantly apparent that he truly loved her. "You have grown even more beautiful than when I last visited you!”
"Well, that was nearly a full year ago, but I know how busy you are with work,” replied Gaynor with a smirk. Seeing that her father was lost for words, she tilted her head to the side and grinned. "I am only playing, of course." She leaned up and kissed him on the cheek as he held her hands.
Benevic seemed completely unsure about how to act when faced with physical intimacy like this, even from his own flesh and blood. Then, seemingly totally out of character, he swept her up in powerful arms and hugged her tightly. "Please, you must be hungry after your journey. Let us go and have an early dinner. Jillis, you're taking the lead on this quest, and keep your new trainee safe. Yuri! You're in charge of the fighters. Get yourselves ready. You’re going after this ogre at first light!"
"Yes, sir. I won't come back without her still breathing," said the human rogue.
"Aye, aye, sir!" added the dwarf.
21
Benevic took his daughter Gaynor to a hearty restaurant that did not serve as an inn or tavern as well. Not only was it free of the types of reprobate who tended to frequent such places in the busy business district of the city. It was also a private place where people could meet and talk without prying eyes and ears monitoring what was said and done. When the waitress came to their table off in the corner of the large dining room ask what they would like to eat, Benevic ordered a broiled pig's hock with potatoes and ale for himself.
"And for you, young lady?" asked the waitress, an old woman with a soft face and bright, clean clothing of sturdy material, fitted for working in a fine establishment such as this.
"I'm not hungry, thank you," Gaynor said. "However, to avoid being rude, may I have your soup of the day?"
"Of course, thank you, milady, sir."
"Daughter, you must eat something more substantial."
Gaynor shook her head and smiled, first at the waitress who then walked away, then at her father. It was in her eyes, a slight hint of what might be lurking beneath that charming smile. Was she cross with her father for not visiting her more often?
Now alone again at their cozy table in the room of polished wood and bright red carpeting, Benevic asked, "Have the sisters of Fate's Mercy not been building a healthy appetite in you?"
"Of course, father. Do you not trust them?"
Taken aback by the terseness of the questions, Benevic fumbled for a suitable reply. "I would not have sent you to stay with them if I did not trust them." He wanted to say that she seemed somewhat confrontational, as though hiding behind a veil of false niceties. He wanted to take the time to find the right words to use in questioning her sudden return without word sent ahead. These things, he did not have the heart to breach in their amiable discourse, for his daughter was finally home, and the guilt of having sent her away was near the point of crushing his heart.
"I am sorry," Gaynor said. "My emotions must be getting the better of me, and I suppose I do not always know what to do with them. The sisters have made me realize much about self-awareness and inner peace."
"Really? That is wonderful. I must tell you something while we have time to talk. It was a shock when I learned from you that the sisters sent you home. I had honestly expected you to become a part of their order after spending these years among them.”
“Well, luckily for me, that is a pledge that must come voluntarily,” Gaynor replied.
“Yes, well.” He felt nervous. “I wanted to say, I love you more than anything in the world, darling. I am glad to have you back. It is difficult for a man to speak of things like this, for me, at least."
"For an adventurer? I understand. And I am your daughter, so the ways of intimacy are somewhat lost on me, just not nearly as much as they are for you. But you are a man, and I think I might have inherited some of my mother's grace, which is a saving grace for me, no offense intended." She laughed a little, her face warming as Benevic's heart was. This truly felt like having his daughter back, just as things had been in the first place, before...
"Before our food arrives, I think we both need to know there is nothing left unsaid. It is important that we acknowledge what happened. When you went to stay with the nuns, what happened. That, that wizard who, what he did to you, I—" Benevic could feel that invisible slab crushing him again, working slowly toward the floor even though his heart was in its way, crushing, making it hard for him to breathe or keep his head about him.
"Nothing happened, father."
Benevic almost let out a billowing laugh, but he held himself back and made a near-coughing sound instead. "You and I know that isn't true, Gaynor. Whatever he was in your eyes, I have wanted to tell you since you left that I understand the ways of the heart more than you might believe. After all, what child wants to see that their parent is made of flesh and blood, with the types of thoughts that—"
"Please, you really do not have to go into such things. We were courting, that much is true. I was foolish and had missed his attentions when he receded into a bout of his study.” She went quiet and looked off at nothing in particular.
Something in his daughter had certainly changed, as though being away at the convent had turned her into an adult, a woman, and not just the girl who he'd said goodbye to with a secret tear in his eye. "You know, you remind me of your mother even more now than ever. She would have been eternally proud of how graceful and mature you have become."
"Thank you," said Gaynor, the young girl returning to her as her cheeks went slightly red. "In that case, you must understand that I thought I was in love, and I only wanted to see that he was alright. His books were fascinating to me, and the late hours crept by without my noticing the time."
"If only I could find out what kind of dark magic had caused that... well, we don't need to go into the details of what we both witnessed with our own eyes."
"And a good thing that is, because look, father! Your pig and ale are here." Gaynor almost cheered and it did pick up her father's spirits, as she'd most likely intended. But Benevic knew she was also trying to change the subject as quickly as possible, and the coming of the waitress had saved her from discussing something she'd rather keep in the past.
22
Tehra was so excited that she had trouble getting to sleep, even though her bed was more than comfortable. Company members were, from time to time, given the use of one of the rooms in a nearby inn, and her room was more than acceptable to her.
By the morning, Tehra felt like a different person. Just to be a part of an official adventuring party was uplifting. She'd gone from a common criminal on the run, to someone who had the propensity to actually make a difference in the world, to right wrongs and defeat some of the evil lurking out in the world.
They each took a steed from the company stables, situated at the back of Benevic's
company building, and rode out to the docks by the river. "That animal acts as though it's known you its whole life. Have you ever had a horse of your own?" asked Yuri.
Tehra shook her head, stroking her borrowed mount's neck and patting his head with gentle grace. "No, I never have. Of course, I have enough experience riding them, but mostly shoveling their shit for coin."
"Ah, and what a lucrative trade that is." Yuri laughed. "You'd be better off stealing and selling the shit than moving it around." He looked around at the others, pretending to be hushing himself down to avoid being heard. "But that sort of thing would be illegal, wouldn't it?" He laughed once more, and the other eight adventurers largely joined in.
Jillis was there with them, of course, shaking her head at Yuri's constant banter and staring out at the edge of the water across the other side. She was always watching out for something, anything. Since the moment they had left the company building, her entire demeanor shifted from standoffish and brusque to sentry-like, almost peacefully stoic in that regard. "She's an elf," she said, speaking for the first time since they'd departed, "of course she's good with horses. For the opposite of the reasons that they hate you, along with everyone else."
"You'd better watch what you say to me, slim. A rogue can get herself into trouble if she doesn't have the favor of a good warrior."
"Well then, it's in my favor that there are many better warriors to choose from in this group." She was smiling a little. "Enough chatter now, alright? The path to that thing's lair is up in the hills, and we could be coming into earshot soon enough."
The waters of the river were still, the sky unmoving and without the emotion of shifting clouds nor sun or rain. It could have been an oil painting and moved almost as much. Something was reaching to Tehra and making her want to shiver from the cold, but the afternoon was fairly mild. She went to speak and found phlegm had built up in her throat, so she cleared it. "I noticed there were no magic users back at the company building. I understand why we might not need one for one monster in some cave though," said Tehra.
"We don't need 'em," said one of the other men, a sharp-nosed blond man of considerable height, with a careless accent that indicated he'd grown up in a rural area not far from the city.
"It was a fucking wizard killed my only brother, only family I had, who used to work in this very company. Benevic's been like a dad to me since," said another of the men. They were both warriors from the looks of them, donning steel mail armor and iron helms, with polearm weapons resting upon their shoulders and swords on their belts. Most of the adventurers seemed to be of the warrior class of adventurer. Some of them also hefted bows or crossbows.
"Are you talking about the old tale of the dark wizard's vanishing tower?" Her elven skin was taught already, but felt as though it had begun to shrink and tighten over her flesh, drawing around the vital organs within and condensing her bones into an awkward upright position. Tehra was certain that she was afraid now.
"You've heard it then? I'm not surprised though. Everyone our age would've heard the horror stories." The man seemed to be not much older than Tehra, maybe five or so years her elder. There weren’t many professional adventurers who still went out on monster hunts after their mid-thirties, or forties at the latest. They were just a liability then, or they were successful enough to be done with that sort of bloody mess.
"You lot will have to keep quiet now," Jillis said with a hand raised up to them. "Not even a word unless it's life-or-death, you got me?"
The group very quietly confirmed that they all understood. When they got to the other side of the river, they all remounted and the ferry headed back toward the city. The ferryman had other business to take care of, no time to waste waiting for them to come back.
"Are you sure you won't wait if there are some gold coins in it for you?" asked Yuri.
"Can't help you there, sorry," was all the ferryman said, turning back to face the direction he was heading away from the shore. “I have other things that need doing.”
Tehra took some time after settling on her mount before she was able to bring herself to look up at the rising hills. It was intimidating to know that the wizard, the dungeon core, was sitting up there. Whatever that thing was. If it was even real.
"Hey, what’s wrong with you? Don’t start thinking about running away,” said Jillis.
“What? Oh, I’m alright. It’s just that …” Tehra almost told Jillis about the whole thing with the wizard and his underground lair up in the hills. But that would only sound insane, and they’d be sure to assume the elf was in cahoots with him.
“Well, eyes ahead," replied Jillis as her horse walked up beside her. "You're shadowing me, remember? That means you go where I go, after I go there. And look where I'm looking too, you got it? If you see me making a big effort to be quiet, and you come blundering up behind me and give away my position to this thing—I'll let him rip your head off and suck out all the goo and marrow inside. Got it?"
"Yes," said Tehra emphatically. The sudden change in mood was starting to eat away at her nerves.
"Most importantly, I aim to keep you from getting killed. No one training under me has died so far, and I aim to keep my track record spotless. Take a breath and try to focus."
"I thought we were meant to stay quiet," heckled Yuri, "and here you are talking the poor young elf to death."
"I've called it all clear, for now."
"What? How exactly did you come to that decision without doing any actual scouting?" asked Yuri. The rest of the men, the warriors under the dwarf's command on this quest, grunted and groaned as though agreeing with him, but not wanting to openly defy their leader. At least there seemed to be a high level of discipline in this company.
"Look over there," said Jillis, pointing to the right, at the flatter pasture away from the hills.
"Sheep running. So? Oh..."
Tehra grinned, feeling excited that she'd caught on to what was being implied here, and maybe before the rest of the others had even clued onto it. "They're running from something," she said.
They made their way towards that spot, and there they found a mutilated sheep’s corpse. "Look at the sight of that!" said Yuri. "Men, this is a prime example of how you do not make a swift kill. Is that its—what is that part doing over there? Ugh, it's enough to make a dwarf want to lose his lunch."
"Didn't you have mutton for lunch?" asked one of the warriors, pleased with his humor. "If you vomit, maybe it will match this mess, Yuri."
The dwarf laughed too and slapped the warrior on the shoulder. "Come on, let's see if we can find this thing.”
"Just keep it down now," said Jillis." She led them along a trail of similar fresh carnage, farm animals that were missing heads, ripped off by the looks of them—or more accurately, bitten off by a huge set of jaws. "It’s like the thing's just sampling a bit here, a bit there," said Jillis. "I've never seen this kind of wanton destruction of life. Something like an ogre should be making a kill and then taking the body back to wherever it sleeps so it can eat in peace.
"Maybe something pissed this one off?"
"Or it's been locked up for a long time, and it's getting out all that pent-up frustration, making the most of its new freedom?" suggested Jillis.
Tehra had assumed the rogue was just another bitch with a big head and an even bigger mouth at first. But the human was actually starting to impress her with the calm-headed way she went about deducing things. Still, this was still largely speculation—they couldn't know that much detail for sure just by seeing a few messed up animal bodies. It was still likely though.
That was the only bit of excitement they came across for the remainder of the day. There was plenty of land around the city that needed searching, and all the low hills and rises made it difficult to see very far.
“This is utter shit!” said Yuri. The dwarf was getting impatient with all their riding around. “We’re not going to find the thing, if we haven’t seen any more tracks of it after an entire day! Le
t’s regroup and come back out tomorrow.”
"Stop," the rogue said finally. It was well into the twilight of the evening, and visibility was getting too low for the average human. "Go back behind this rise, get the horses down lower behind this ridge. We shouldn’t even be doing this so late in the day, but I know Benevic will want to get his hands on the reward before anyone else has a chance. Just keep your wits about you, stay down low, and keep still.”
The men did as told and were hopefully out of sight, as well as all the horses. Jillis went down prone and shimmied up to the top of the ridge, with the tall grass on the mound working well to provide cover for her. She motioned for Tehra to follow.
Tehra stayed right beside their party leader, and wanted to ask her what she'd seen in such low light conditions. How was it possible that this human had spotted something, while the young elf was wondering what it was?
"See that?" Jillis whispered deadly quiet, right into Tehra's ear. The warmth instantly created condensation in her ear. As she followed where the woman was pointing, Tehra's eyes widened, and she realized this was her first time seeing any type of monster.
"An ogre..." she uttered, almost too loud. Then, she gasped and snapped her lips shut as though she might accidentally make noise that could get them all killed. It was such a small figure in the distance, light fading and making it into a shadow puppet against the backdrop of hazy blue over the blurred line between land and sky. It moved like a beast but looked like a large man.
"Shh," answered Jillis, placing a firm hand on the elf's shoulder and squeezing.
The dwarf belly-crawled up beside them, which was funny to watch. "I can't see shit. Is it out there."
The Wizard (Dungeon Core Book 1) Page 11