Kiri sat back in her chair, regarding the shadowy figure - Midas - with new respect. It wasn’t entirely a surprise - she’d figured he either was Midas, or knew him very well - but it was still a shock to realize that her mission might just be this easy. After all, Black Diamond had never said she had to hurt him, or incapacitate him. Just bring him back. If Midas would go willingly, all the better.
“So… what happens now?” She would let him make the “first move,” as it was, and go from there.
He smiled, but it struck Kiri as a not entirely pleasant expression. “I leave. You don’t follow.” Kiri made as if to protest, but he shook his head and lifted one hand, a small flame bursting into life above one finger. “You don’t want to cross me.”
She quieted, contenting herself with a glare. Really, when did things ever go easily? At least she knew what he looked like now. The follow, the chase, the endgame, those were always her favorite parts anyways. The mindless, boring casting of the net, trying to snag any little piece of information that would start her on a path was miserable, hence why she’d hated her past two days.
Midas pushed his chair back from the table and stood, taking his cloak and swinging it around his shoulders. He took his cane from where it was leaning against the wall and tapped it a few times on the ground, as if testing it. “Well, Kiri, as much fun as our little chat has been, I must be going now. I hope for your sake that we do not meet again. Farewell.” With that, he was gone. Afterwards, Kiri could never be sure she’d actually seen him cross the room and walk through the door.
Kiri lifted her drink to her lips. Or, she tried to, but found that her muscles did not respond. Nothing did. For all intents and purposes, she was frozen in place. No matter what she tried to do, she couldn’t move. There was a moment of panic, before she realized that her heart was still beating, and she was still breathing. Other than that, she was stuck.
This was why she hated wizards!
Then again, they were also the reason she might be able to get out of this. In the course of her travels and various jobs, she picked up a number of miscellaneous skills. One of them was a minor little spell that wasn’t much use as far as battle, but had served her well in the past. Drawing on the small pool of magic she always felt floating at the back of her mind, she cast the spell with a breath.
Across the room, Renee jerked as the spell hit her. It didn’t hurt, it just… prodded. Right in the side. Kiri watched out of the corner of her eye as Renee looked around. Carefully timing it, as soon as Renee looked at her, she cast the prodding spell again. Despite her obvious inebriation, somehow, the angel got the hint and swayed over to her.
“Somethin’ wrong, Kiri?”
Kiri could only make a muffled noise of protest. To her horror, Renee cracked up laughing. “Ya stuck? S’what happens when y’mess with a wizard!” She plopped down in the chair next to Kiri and took a swig of beer from her mug. Then, she poked Kiri in the nose. Kiri prodded her with the spell again, making her yelp and nearly spill her mug. “Quit that, silly! S’not like I can help you. I’m not a wizard, I’m an archeologist.”
Of all the people in the world she could have run into and befriended, it had to be a damn academic, more interested in what happened a hundred years ago than today. She started to really get mad. Before her anger could fully develop, though, her finger twitched. Focusing, she made it twitch again. That was good!
Slowly but surely, over the course of ten minutes, movement returned to her arms, up to her shoulders, and into her head. Shaking her upper body out, she shot a glare at Renee. “Lotta use you are, drunkard.” Renee just giggled.
It took another half hour before movement returned to the rest of her body, by which time she’d determined to catch Midas, no matter what. He’d messed with her pride now, and no one did that and got away with it. For now, though, she’d get something to eat and wile the night away with drink and friends. She needed to unwind. So she stood and stalked back over to the main table of her newfound friends, specifically ignoring Renee as she did, although the drunk angel followed her anyways.
Destiny stepped back from the wall where she’d had her ear pressed. All of the conversation that had passed between Kiri and Midas, she’d relayed to Kida. Now both of them looked at each other with wide eyes, both of their minds in the same place. A powerful wizard, with powerful enemies, who seemed to be a mysterious character. The one responsible for the house burning… Perhaps. Needless to say, when they saw a cloaked, hooded man with a black cane with a silver dragon’s head leave, they followed him. It was clearly the same man they’d spoken to earlier, but he’d been entirely useless when it came to getting information.
Making use of her years of training as a ninja, Destiny slipped into the shadows and disappeared from sight. Kida was left to follow in a more mundane manner, simply trying to blend in with the crowds and keep an eye on Midas at the same time. They kept pace with him down the wide road until he turned off into a small street. Destiny followed directly, but Kida paused to let him get a ways ahead, then followed as well. After another few minutes, he turned into a small alley. When Destiny edged around the corner, she found the alley standing empty, with a brick wall serving as a dead end a few yards away. Kida joined her a few seconds later, and they both walked to the end of the remarkably clean alley silently. There were a few doors, all securely locked, and one stray cat curled up in a nest of newspapers in the corner. Other than that, it was entirely empty.
Just as Destiny was about to give up and tell Kida they might as well leave, she heard footsteps behind her and whirled around. The figure cloaked in black stood at the end, tapping his cane on the ground. This time, oddly, instead of seeming old, he looked young, barely middle aged, under the hood.
“Why are you following me?” he asked.
Destiny looked to Kida. She’d always relied on her friend to be the talkative one, Destiny preferred to keep to the shadows and watch. Like Destiny knew she would, Kida jumped right to the point.
“Were you the one who burned down a house outside of Anaxagoras?”
Midas sighed and moved closer so he could speak in a low voice. “From Anaxagoras, are you? That would explain it. Yes, I did burn that house down, but with good cause. You follow the way of the sword, do you not? You understand honor. Know that the man who lived in that house compromised his own honor, and in doing so put my life in danger. He betrayed me.”
“I see. And so you felt the need to destroy his livelihood, his home?”
“Yes. I was being merciful. For what he did, he deserved to be killed.”
Kida frowned, but did not pursue the issue any further. Instead, she again jumped right to the point. “Who is Black Diamond? We heard you speaking to the mercenary girl about him. What bearing does he have on all of this?”
Now it was Midas’s turn to frown, and his was a far more forboding and ominous expression than Kida’s. “The man whose house I burned down compromised his honor. Black Diamond has no honor. Heed my warning - stay away from Black Diamond. Young warriors such as yourselves have no business associating with the likes of him. Those who have lost their honor.”
“And you have not lost yours?”
“I place my own honor in the highest regard. I understand you have no reason to believe me, but I do speak the truth when I say you can trust me.”
“I believe we will make that decision by ourselves, thank you.”
“I would have thought less of you if you’d simply taken my word. You say you are from Anaxagoras?”
Kida just nodded.
“Well, give my regards to Zadkiel, will you? Farewell.” Destiny knew Zadkiel was the owner of the magic shop in Anaxagoras, but did not know the man very well. He was not a ninja, merely a merchant who had set up shop there, so she did not associate with him much, only on the rare occasions she was running errands to the shop for her father. Kida, on the other hand, knew him quite well. Destiny remembered a time when Kida had even wanted to be apprenticed to the man, back when they were small children.
“You know Zadkiel?” Kida began to ask. Before the words were even fully out of her mouth, there was a puff of smoke that set both of the girls coughing. When it cleared, and they wiped their streaming eyes, Midas was gone without a trace. They exchanged a look. Destiny knew her mind was spinning with all that they had just learned. She could not even begin to process it.
“So… I’m all for going back to the bar. I’m hungry, and I can’t think on an empty stomach,” she said. Kida arched an eyebrow for a moment, then sighed and nodded.
“Sounds good. I don’t… I don’t even know what to think. We need to sit, and talk, and plan. But food first, yes.” Spreading her wings, she flexed her shoulders. “Meet you there,” she said, and took off in a gust of wind and dust. Destiny slipped back into the safety of the shadows and jogged back to the bar, arriving only a few minutes after Kida. She joined the angel at her table, which they had to themselves now that the inn had emptied out a bit. To Kida’s obvious dismay, the mercenary from earlier, Kiri, was still there, laughing and joking with her friends at the same table as before. Ignoring her proved quite easy, though, once the delicious food they ordered arrived.
Several hours later, they finally left the tavern, thoroughly mellowed by alcohol and food. Kiri and a few of her friends left about the same time, but they were all tired and happy enough they didn’t care. As they all headed in the same direction, one of Kiri’s group, a short, very drunk angel, began to sing. Something about the song, and the mood of the evening, had Destiny and Kida both joining in the song. By the time they made it to the inn that they were all apparently staying at, they were all in a line, arms around each other’s neck, singing at the tops of their lungs. Somehow, despite their mutual animosity, Kiri and Kida ended up next to each other. Of course, they’d blame the alcohol later, but at that point they were all enjoying themselves far too much to care.
Once inside, they all separated and managed to make it to their rooms. Kiri invited Derek and Renee to stay with her, and Destiny and Kida had a room to themselves. Thanks to the copious amounts of alcohol, there was drunken slumber all around within ten minutes.
No comments:
Post a Comment