by Stone Thomas
“Why don’t you tell me a little more about that mage, Mercifer?” I asked.
“Mercifer is a gentle old elf,” Cindra said, stepping over a fallen tree as we made our way through the forest. “With fair white hair and a powerful jaw. He was shorter than me, and rail thin. Perhaps that was the problem. I was made with hips too wide and legs too long. I overshadowed his stature.”
Elves were notoriously short. I suspected even a human toddler would overshadow Mercifer’s stature.
“At least,” Cindra continued, “that’s my best guess. Otherwise, there’s something wrong with me that you and Vix will realize soon too. And then you’ll leave me somewhere in the forest or shut me back up in that cave.”
“Cindra,” I said, “I know something about being left behind. My parents left me at an orphanage when I was a week old. That means they kept me, fed me, held me for a whole week and still didn’t want me. I always wondered why I didn’t deserve the same love other children got. In some ways, I still wonder that.
“I’ll make you a promise. I’ll never leave you behind. You’re free to set out on your own, or travel with Vix, but as long as I run Nola’s temple, there will always be a home for you there.”
Cindra reached over and hugged me. My skin molded to hers in a warm and tight embrace. “You’re a good man, Arden Hochbright.”
As I held her, I saw something move over her shoulder. The leaves rustled in a slight, secretive way entirely different from the way gi-ants moved. Those insects were hulking, indelicate fiends. Whatever this was, it was lithe and careful.
Cindra pulled away from my embrace. “What was your home before the temple?”
“Meadowdale was a small, quiet town,” I said. I glanced over my shoulder, nervous at the sounds of wind slithering through leaves. “Things only got interesting when one of two things happened. First, when adventurers showed up.
“They would strut through the town gates, cheerful and proud. Their armor gleaming, their leathers revealing the strong, able bodies beneath. Sacks of gold coins, ancient relics, and rare foods hung from their horses’ sides. They would start to sell off their goods, and then our economy would pick up again.
“They also, invariably, came to the temple. I don’t know what they paid Head Priest Cahn for their skills, but it was a lot. He lusted after it. I’d watch as he scrutinized their faces and helped hone their bodies and minds for their next adventure.
“And the other thing?” Cindra asked.
“Laranj’s feast day,” I said. Something shook in the bushes and I lifted my spear, squinting at the leaves. Maybe something had fallen from the tree.
“Laranj was the goddess of harmonic sound. On her feast day, everyone gathered in her temple to give alms and listen to her sing. It was the only day of the year she sang for us like that, and it brought us all together.”
“Laranj sounds lovely,” Cindra said.
“She was,” I said. “Duul took her away from us.”
Something suddenly bit my neck. I reached behind me and curled my fingers around a viper, yanking it from my body and throwing it twenty feet from me. More snakes emerged from the bushes now. They had followed and waited until there were enough of them to attack.
“Dammit,” I said. “You’re not even armed yet. Let me handle this.”
A snake whipped its body along the ground toward me, then sprang up. Its body was black and white like marble, unlike any snake I had ever seen. I wasn’t sure if it was magically enhanced, and if so, what types of properties it had. Would it poison me? Stun me? Turn me into a mouse and eat me? There were many classes of magic, and so many skills in the world, I just couldn’t be sure.
I swiped my spear at the snake, hoping to knock it away, but it curled around my pole and started to slither up. I turned the weapon on its head, stabbing into the dirt and leaving it there while the snake crawled its way up the wooden shaft.
More snakes emerged on tree branches and from under bushes. I kicked the snake that wound around my spear, forcing its body to recoil and drop from the weapon. With my spear back in my hand, I started stabbing downward at the creepy animals. I hadn’t stabbed a single one.
Snakes are hard to stab.
One curled up my leg while another leapt from a low tree branch and landed on me. I had no idea how much damage they were doing as they sank their fangs into my skin, but the pain was awful.
So far, I wasn’t turning to stone or anything, so at least there was that.
I realized I could look at my skillmeister menu to see my skills and attributes, which would tell me how much HP I had left. It was a rare benefit of my class, to see with numeric specificity how much life was left in me, or any other person, so I might as well make the most of it.
I was already down to 253 of my 500 HP. Yikes.
I thrashed and whipped my spear around like a lunatic, but I was helpless against these slithery monsters. I looked back at Cindra, and she was faring no better. She had a snake in her hands, peering into its ophidian eyes, while other snakes traveled around her torso and neck.
Then she hissed. Cindra closed her eyes and tilted her head back, erupting in a loud, high-pitched sound like a snake being squished under a massive boot.
When she finished, she stuck her tongue out as far as she could. The instant she did that the other snakes fell from her body and mine, retreating to the bushes and the shadows.
“What the hell did you do?” I asked.
“I didn’t Flirt, I’ll tell you that,” she said. “I gave my new negotiatrix skill a shot. Thirty seconds is a long time to sustain snake wounds, but I did learn a thing or two. They respond to power, and the way to show your power is to hiss louder and longer than they can. I convinced them that I was a snake queen and you were my slave. It really is amazing what one can accomplish with the flick of a tongue.”
“Slave, huh?” I asked. “Was that part really necessary?”
“Perhaps not,” she said. “But it was fun.”
The feeling of snakes against my skin took a long time to wear off. Even though the forest’s strange infestation kept its distance from us, the snakes continued to follow. Maybe they wanted an audience with their queen. Or maybe we were headed toward their source.
We kept an eye out as we traveled, just in case any other creatures wanted to ambush us. Before long, we heard humming. It took some extra care to creep toward that melody without making much noise, but then we saw her. A woman, covered from head to toe in snakes.
+10
“Don’t move!” I said to the woman. Nonetheless, she continued to move. She rolled her hips in slow gyration while she waved outstretched arms at her sides. Her bare arms were the only part of her not crawling with snakes.
Each time one of the creatures started to slither away, her fingers flicked toward it and the snake would climb back up her leg. It was mystifying.
I took a step closer. It would be easy to run, and the gods knew that’s what I wanted to do, but I felt guilty not at least trying to help.
Then the woman stopped dancing. The snakes fell to the ground and dispersed, sliding under bushes and up trees. In a matter of seconds they had all hidden themselves from view.
“I thought I heard someone,” she said. “But mostly when I think that I’m wrong. I’m Mamba.”
“I’m Arden, and this is Cindra,” I said. “Why were those snakes attacking you?”
“What snakes?” she asked.
“Are you kidding?” I said. “You were just covered in snakes.”
“Yes, but those weren’t attacking me. We were dancing. I’m a snake charmer, they wouldn’t hurt me.”
Now that she wasn’t covered in snakes, the woman before us was visible. Very visible. As in, almost not wearing clothing. A small piece of cloth wrapped around her small, firm breasts. Her flat stomach was completely exposed, with a short wrap tied across her hip where a skirt should be. Where the wrap tied into a knot at one side, her leg was bare all the way up to her hip.<
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Long black hair fell in waves down her back, with two pointy ears poking through. Her skin was reddish brown, and her eyes the color of dark chocolate.
“So those snakes were what, your pets?” I asked.
“I summoned them from the earth to come dance with me,” she said. “The problem is, I always summon more than I can charm, so they eventually try to slide away into the forest.”
“You don’t live here in the forest, do you?” I asked.
“Right now I do,” she said.
“But you’re an elf,” Cindra said. “Why live in a forest in the human lands?”
“Half elf,” Mamba said. “Half gypsy.”
“Well, whatever you are, you should get out of the forest,” I said. “It’s not safe here. Duul has scouts all over now looking for men to conscript into some evil war, and women to kidnap to holding pens until he decides what to do with them.”
“If it’s not safe here,” Mamba asked, “why are you here?”
“We’re on our way to Valleyvale,” I said.
“Is Valleyvale any safer than here?”
“I don’t know,” I said. Mamba’s voice was gentle and kind, but her question was jagged and hard. I didn’t know anything about Valleyvale. I assumed that if Duul had been there, Nola would have told me. She seemed pretty plugged in to which gods have temples where, and whether they’ve fallen to Duul.
“Then why go?” she asked.
This conversation would go nowhere if I didn’t try to play on her turf. “The same reason you stay here,” I said.
“Because the wind that filled your sail is a destiny you can’t ignore,” she said.
“Exactly,” I said. Whatever that means. “If destiny’s wind exhales a word you like, you can join us. Otherwise, we’ll just blow on out of here.”
Mamba tilted her head for a moment. “The wind carries shapes today, but no warm words. Safe travels, Arden and Cindra.” She arched her arms over her head and jerked her hips to one side, then the other as she resumed her dance. Snakes wreathed her legs in no time, covering her body in a writhing bundle of legless creatures.
“I thought she was too tall to be an elf,” Cindra said as we walked away.
“And too loony to come with us,” I said. “I was hoping she’d let us bring her to a healer in the city. They’d know what to do with her.”
“She didn’t seem crazy,” Cindra said. “I locked eyes with her for some time. There was a sense to her, even if it was a unique one.”
The forest was uneventful after that as we marched through the trees. Finally, the city gates of Valleyvale came into view. They were taller than Meadowdale’s by ten feet, and made of a rich, dense wood. The wall surrounding this city was also higher and sturdier than ours had been.
A guard tower sat on either side of the front gate. One had a glowing ball of energy atop it, like it would strike us with lightning if we looked at it sideways. The other held three archers with bows trained on us. I almost wanted to turn around and leave. I wondered if a little more attention to our defenses would have prevented Duul and his army from taking Meadowdale so easily.
A small metal door slid to the side, about eye level. On the other side a person asked, “What business have you in Valleyvale?”
“I’ve come to buy supplies,” I said. “I’m the head priest of—”
The door slid open. “Your grace, you’ll have to pardon this formality. There are men afoot with hate in their eyes, spilling out from Meadowdale. They want a war, and we won’t give it to them. Please, enter with your, um, creature.”
“This is my trusted associate, Cindra,” I said. I was thrilled that my position with Nola’s temple brought some cache, but I wasn’t going to horde it to myself. “I demand only that she receive the same degree of respect I do.”
“Of course,” the man said, bowing and allowing us to pass.
“You’re quite the gentleman,” Cindra said. “I’ll have to repay that kindness later.”
“You still have our gems?” I asked.
She wiggled a bit. “There they are.”
“Good,” I said. “You can repay me by getting us the best price imaginable for those. Then we’ll go on a little shopping spree.”
“Perhaps we should start at the jeweler?” she said.
We walked the streets of Valleyvale. The city was wealthier than my hometown, with cobblestones where we just had dirt roads and evenly sized bricks when our buildings were crude, rough stone. A series of shops welcomed us through the front gates, selling wares I had only dreamed of buying in my old life.
There was a cheese shop, a butcher, a tavern, a clothier, and more. Then, finally, a jeweler.
Inside the jeweler’s shop were glass cases with all sorts of pendants and talismans, amulets and rings. I leaned over the case to look at a ruby the size of an eyeball set in a gold ring with a price tag of 50,000 gold coins.
“I think that would look gorgeous on these long green fingers, don’t you?” Cindra asked. I nearly fainted at the suggestion of it. That’s more money than most people made in their lives. A smile curled up one side of her face.
“You almost got me,” I said.
“Come,” she replied, “we have business.”
We pressed toward the back of the shop. “Excuse me,” I said. The jeweler grimaced. I realized then that my shirt and pants, torn by gi-ants, dirty from a quarry collapse, and dotted with blood after a snake attack, didn’t exactly say, “I can afford nice things.”
“I’m the head priest of Nola’s temple,” I said. He didn’t seem impressed. Whatever. As soon as I laid my rocks on the counter he would be.
“Cindra,” I said.
She reached inside her own body, horrifying the jeweler. Her hand sank inside her chest, then reached down, further and further. She seemed upset, and for a moment I was afraid she had lost the jewels. That they had slowly sunk through her gelatinous body until they fell out of her and landed in the forest somewhere.
“This is so embarrassing,” Cindra said. She removed her arm from her chest and reached under her dress instead. After a moment, she had pulled the small bag of jewels free. “That was a strange feeling, but not an entirely unwelcome one.”
She emptied the bag’s contents on the glass counter.
The jeweler, never once looking at the jewels themselves, said, “I assume you have no papers for these… wares.”
“Papers?” I asked. “No, what kind of papers?”
“The kind that proves ownership,” he said. “We don’t deal in stolen property here. Whatever priest you killed to get these, you murdered in vain. No one will buy these, thief. Now get out of my establishment before I call the guards.”
I took the gems, put them back in their bag, and left the store in a hurry.
“Cindra,” I said when we got outside, “what are we supposed to do now?”
“Oh, sweetie, I don’t know. I didn’t see any ownership papers on the shelf with these jewels.”
We stalked through the streets, the excitement draining with each step. We’d head back to Nola’s temple with a handful of precious stones and nothing else. No supplies, no gear, and no way to get them. Cindra was a good sport, letting me wallow in our losses for a bit without trying to cheer me up. Sometimes, you just need a good wallow.
When I looked up, we had wandered in front of Valleyvale’s temple. “Let’s take a peek inside,” I said.
Cindra pushed open one of the temple’s double doors. The carved wood either came from a magical tree or else it had enchantments all over it. Either way, it gleamed with a faint cyan light.
Inside, the temple was bright and cheery. The same cyan color emanated from every pew, every wooden statue that lined the building, and the thick wooden altar. A fireplace behind the altar was the likely source, as it housed a roaring cyan flame in the center.
“Welcome!” called a brightly clad woman with long blonde and gray hair. She looked like she had been pretty in her youth, and she
carried that same self-confidence with her into middle age. “Come to make a generous offering in exchange for a holy boon?”
“No,” I said, “nothing like that. I was just curious to visit a new temple. I’m from Meadowdale.” I didn’t want to let on that I was a head priest, the same as she was. I was a little embarrassed by the state of our temple.
“Ah, well, a gal can get her hopes up once in a while.” She winked at me and turned back toward the altar.
“I was wondering,” I said, perhaps too loudly. Some of the people in the pews looked up at me, peeved. “What would it cost to train my skills with you?”
The head priest turned back. She looked me up and down. “You may have more money than you let on. Or you may come into some one day and afford my services, who knows? I charge 200 gold per attribute point and 500 gold per skill level. I think you’ll find that fair.”
“Fair?” I asked. “How could anyone possibly afford that? How rich are people here?”
“On average, people tend not to improve their skills more than a few times in their lives due to the cost. The exception would be adventurers, who risk their lives protecting the lands from various monsters and scourges the earth bears. After all, it’s not all gods and goddesses that this world gives life to.
“The adventurers that survive bring back items of tremendous value, and they are willing to pay that cost. It brings in the funds that keep the temple running, and keeps the head priest’s workload down to a manageable level. After all, I’m in charge of training the guards that keep the city safe, an endeavor I must provide the city once each month free of charge.”
“What’s to stop someone else from training skills here in Valleyvale and charging less?” Cindra asked. “It seems to me this business is ripe for competition. There must be a lot of people willing to pay a little. In the long run, that could mean more revenue than the few people willing to pay a lot.”
“An astute observation,” the head priest said, “were it not for the law. Every city, from the smallest outpost to the Imperial City, has laws that restrict use of skillmeister abilities. The temple revenue is highly taxed, and the cities rely on their patron gods to attract and reward adventurers.”