Kallaster Poe, Lady Adventurer
“Oh... oh my...” Kall closed her eyes, losing herself in the pleasure of the moment. “Oh, I have missed hot food... this is really delicious...” Kall sipped again from her bowl, relishing the warmth of the thick stew as it went down her throat.
“I still can't get my head around why you ladies didn't bring any cooking-ware,” said Sly, shaking his head. “A whole kitchen, fit for cooking for a dozen watchmen, and you didn't take a thing.”
Kall sipped some more stew, savoring the bits of rabbit-meat floating around in her mouth. She watched Kara wipe her corners of her mouth with a handkerchief. The noble was adjusting well to the outdoors life, but there were still the little things.
“Well,” said Kara, “We didn't expect to be out here this long. Pots and bowls are heavy, so we thought we'd pack only dried goods.”
Kall licked her lips. “If I'd known they would taste so good in a stew, I would have brought a pot, and not minded the extra weight!”
“Well, I suppose water would be more of an issue for you, not knowing the streams like I do. I picked this stream because it flows from a small lake in the foothills to the west. I don't know if that plague taints the water, but you can't ever be too sure.”
“And you boil it.”
“Yes, there is that. I suppose fires near Warrior's Path would be a problem.”
Lore passed the cup back to Kara. “I suppose we're lucky we met you.”
“Well, I'm glad you think so. Does that mean you're not going to be shooting me?”
Lore smiled, but the expression didn't quite reach her eyes. “Depends on what you do, Sly Fox.”
The man shrugged. “Fair enough.” He stood up. “We need to get more wood for the fire before it gets dark. Will one of you ladies be so kind as to escort me, or do I get to be out from under your watchful gaze for a moment?”
“I'll go,” said Lore. “Kallaster seems a bit occupied.”
Kall grinned, and dipped the bowl in the pot. “Blame Sly, not me! I'm but a humble adventurer, while he's the chef who has mastered fire.”
Sly shook his head. “I’m not going to get my bowl back tonight, am I?” He hefted his axe up onto his shoulder. “C'mon, Lore, I'll show you how to find dry wood in a forest.” The two disappeared into the trees.
“Kara,” said Kall, sipping some soup. “What do you think of yonder woodsman?”
“He seems alright. He knows what he's doing, and I can't say we aren't doing a lot better now than we were.”
“He's a lot more friendly than I expected of a former bandit. Who would have thought bandits could be nice?”
“I suppose. I don't know how much of that is a show for us. But I guess being a bandit isn't all looting and ambushing. Most of the time must be with the other bandits.”
“Like a band of brothers, hm? So you think there actually was a bandit band, and he was the leader?”
“Yes.” Kara smiled. “He doesn't talk about them at all, but with his personality, I can't see him not being part of a band. He's not a loner.”
“And yet he doesn't plan on sticking with us when we get to Parveno. He plans on living by himself in the forest.” Kallaster swirled the stew around in her bowl, watching the dried meat and fruit swish around.
“Well, I wouldn't be surprised if he's just keeping quiet on that front, at least until we know him more, trust him more. He's watching, you know – he's been paying a lot of attention as to how much we trust him, how we act. Trying to get us to trust him more, too.” Kara shook her head. “It's a bit suspicious, but I'm starting to think it's not for some nefarious goal – he just wants to make friends with us so he won't be alone.”
Kallaster quaffed the rest of her stew. “If that's what you think.... well, okay. If he wants to stay, he's won me over. Glynn is a lousy cook compared to him, and can't catch rabbits out of thin air.” Kallaster paused for a moment. Glynn. Where was he now? Probably in Parveno already, waiting for her with that look of annoyance on his face. Kall smirked.
“Kallaster?” Kara had raised an eyebrow.
“Oh, it's nothing. Just thinking.” Kall glanced around, then listened, enhancing her senses with a touch of magic. Lore and Sly weren't anywhere in earshot. “Kara, time for exercises. Suppress the heat of the fire, then add to it, then suppress it, and so forth. Keep going until I tell you to stop.”
Kara put down the cup, and stared into the flames. She breathed in, and the flames shrunk. Then she breathed out, and the flames sprung back, even brighter than before. Kallaster took another sip from the bowl, smiling. Who ever knew that having an apprentice could be so satisfying?
* * * * * * *
Lorelei
“Have... have you ever killed anyone?” asked Lore.
Sly put down his axe, and wrapped both his arms around the branch he had been hacking at. With a little jump up, he dragged downwards on the branch. It broke off with a dry snap.
“I take that to mean the living, not those troublesome dead?” He leaned the branch against the dead tree.
“Yes.”
“Do you think I have?” Sly leaned back against the tree.
“I... I think so.”
“Does that scare you?”
Lore pondered this. It wasn't really fear... it was more... disgust? “No, I don't think it does?”
“Of course not.”
Sly hefted his axe and swung at another branch. It snapped off from the heavy stroke. He positioned himself to strike at another.
“Are you going to tell me?”
“Would you believe any answer other than the one you already have?” Sly put down the axe. “I know you. I can see it in your eyes, the way you look at people, the way you hold yourself. You're an outlaw too, you see.”
“Excuse me?”
“Back before all this mess, or, rather, back before you met the Lady Adventurer, could you openly walk into the local constable's office, and have a friendly chat with him? I think not; you're on the run. You have to stay outside the law. Thus: Outlaw.”
Lore stared at him in disgust. He was right, that was the troublesome thing. She couldn't just walk into the Watchmen's building, she had proven that just a few days ago.
Sly's brown eyes were watching her carefully. Lore looked away. “So correct me if I'm wrong here, but I think I can tell your story. After a life of weaseling around, staying away from an open, lawful life, you met the Lady Adventurer. You were swept away on an adventure, where your hard-earned practicality worked well with the Lady Adventurer's enthusiasm. You traveled far away from your homeland, up north to here, where you don't have to worry about the law.” He smiled, smugly, and leaned back on the dead tree. “And then you met me.”
“So there you are, with a common bandit. You're better than him, of course. You've been lifted out of the life of an outlaw. Except it still gnaws at you, that's what I think. You want to think that you are better, and you want to prove it to yourself. So you hit upon a different. You never killed anyone. You were just a common thief, maybe a big-city street kid, judging from your age. I've been to Bluewater and even Archimeridies – I know that type. But you're only better than me if you can know that I'm a violent murderer, who kills people for no other reason than to make myself rich.”
Lore turned away from him. He was wrong, but she couldn't correct him, not without giving away that she wasn't Kallaster's real partner, the one called Glynn. And yet... there were parts that rang worrisomely true. She was just a common thief, uplifted by Jack Sunder, and now free of the law, due to the plague. Was that why she wanted to hate Sly?
Lore looked back at the former bandit. Sly mutely continued to chop at branches, the pile at the side of the tree growing, piece by piece. At length, he stopped and leaned back upon the tree. “I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings with that little speech. Let's talk about something else. The Lady Adventurer and you were in Archimeridies when this madness began. How long does it take for the plague to kill people? How long can it lay silent?”
Lore shook her head. “I can't say for sure.” The people Sunder had rescued from the cultists died within the day, but they were already weak. Of course, Sly didn't need to know about her involvement in that whole mess. “I've seen people get sick and die within a matter of tolls, but it varies. I didn't stick around to find out, you know.”
“Less than a day, huh? But you don't know what's the longest someone can survive while infected?”
Lore frowned. She didn't like this line of questions. “What does it matter?”
“Well, for all of you, of course! I don't want you turning on me in the night. I just wonder how long I have to wait before I can be sure.”
“Oh. I see.” It made sense, Lore supposed, at least from his perspective. “Well, sorry I don't know.”
“Yes. Indeed.” Sly frowned as he picked up the bundle of branches. “We have enough for the night. let's... let's head back.”
* * * * * * *
Kara Varnya
“You know, I heard that there were monstrous beasts in this forest,” said Kara. “Is that true?”
Sly glanced back over his shoulder at her, and kept walking. “Beasts, you say!”
“Yes.”
“Horrible monsters, that could kill a man such as I, or a lady such as yourself!”
“Yes, that is what I am asking about. You don't need to be so theatrical, so... showy about it.”
“Theatrical, hm?” Sly shook his head. “I'm just amused at the way you put these things. 'Monstrous beasts'! 'Things that could kill a man'!”
“Well, you said that last one yourself.”
“So I did, m'lady.” Sly examined a tree. “But that's the real question, now isn't it? Not how big, or how monstrous a creature is, but how dangerous it might be. A cow, and I'm sure you've seen one of those, is far larger than a wolf, or the largest of dogs, and yet it is less dangerous.”
“Oh, that is true,” Kara smiled. “I see what you mean.”
Sly looked past Kara, to where Lore and Kall were making their way along the deertrail. “Lady Adventurer, I ask you: During your travels, what is the most dangerous creature you have seen?”
“Most dangerous?” Kall raised an eyebrow. “I've seen no natural beast that could survive an arrow through the eye, or in the heart.”
“Oh, of course, silly of me to ask.” Sly shook his head, and started down the trail again. “Let me put that another way. What animal have you seen that would be the most dangerous to the Lady Kara, here?”
“Oh... many things. Wolves spring to mind in particular.”
“Wolves, not bears?”
“I haven't yet seen a bear for myself.”
“Fair enough. And see, Kara, now you know that there are monstrous, deadly beasts in these woods.” Sly glanced back at Kallaster, who was handing something to Lore. “But let me tell you something. Even the smallest of creatures can kill. I've seen a man get bit by a crazed little fox, only for the wound to fester, and for him to die. I've seen a man die from a single sting from a bumblebee; I cannot see even the Lady Adventurer put an arrow through the eye of a bumblebee. But it's true of the big animals, too – you may not be afraid of cows, or of horses, but they can do considerable damage when provoked, and we humans are fragile creatures.”
“We are indeed...” Kara thought back to that horrible night in the city, of that chase where she could barely keep up with the others, her lungs screaming, and then the blast of dust. The feeling of being unable to breathe, the panic... Kara shuddered.
“Oh, fear not, fair lady.” Sly was watching her, with an apologetic look on his face. “Let me tell you something. It's true of bandits, it's true of travelers, and it's true of most wild beasts.”
“Oh?”
“Nobody really wants to fight. When I was a bandit, we would rob a coach, and take enough to live off of for a few weeks, if we weren't too greedy. But we didn't want to fight. What is money compared to lives? It's nothing. Sure, if we didn't steal, not all of us could manage, myself being an exception, not the rule, but try and steal from someone who fights back and... well... even the smallest wound can fester.”
“And that's the same with animals?”
“It is. Take a predator. A wolf, for example. A wolf has to hunt to kill, kill to eat, eat to live. But say its prey fought back, injured an ankle. Then the wolf cannot hunt, cannot kill, cannot live. And so wolves go after the smaller and weaker animals in a herd. Panic them, chase them, carefully nip them until they are in no condition to fight back... and only then do they go for the kill. But a wolf never gets in a fight with a buck, even if he would win.”
“So... if I make like I'm going to fight, they won't attack me?”
“Almost. But you must remember: Wolves are not men. They don't read the same signals. What for a man might be a tight, well-guarded boxing stance might look like shrinking and cowering to a wolf. But they do recognize size, so make yourself bigger, make some noise, work with your friends to provide a front, a herd that you are too wise to leave.”
Kara considered this. “So we should not be afraid of predators.”
“Be afraid, but don't show it – that's my advice. And... well, don't threaten. Because if they feel threatened then they might have to fight, and nobody wants that.”
Kara nodded. “Well, I don't feel very threatening.”
Sly laughed, and turned to face her. He eyed her, looking her up and down. Then shook his head. “True, you might only be as scary as a doe deer, but you do have a herd that nobody would want to fight.” He smiled. “And that makes a big difference.”
Kara smiled back. “I suppose it does make a difference.”
Sly grinned, then his expression soured, and he turned and started on down the trail. “If only the dead were like beasts, bandits, and men.”
Kara pondered this as they walked. What exactly had happened?
* * * * * * *
Lorelei
“So all those tales are wrong, huh? You don't shoot flames from your hands, that's just tales that sprung up around that device.”
Lore nodded. “Well, there is a bit of magic, but I put the blast of flames inside of the barrel, along with the flash-powder. Gives more oomph to the shot, but doesn't brand me as a Southern, right off. Also saves on energy.”
“Well, the legends have done that for you. The Lady Adventurer isn't exactly quiet about it all. But you know that better than me.” Sly blew on the remains of last night's fire, and frowned.
Lore shook her head. “There is that.”
“You know, I'm lying right here,” said Kall, poking her head out of her blankets.
A smirk twitched onto Sly's face. “We know.” He looked up from the embers to Lore. “You let the fire die. Too much morning dew – must have suffocated the fire.”
“You'll have to start from scratch?”
“I was thinking that you, the great magician, could get it going. You and Kara managed just fine last night, using flint despite a conspicuous lack of char cloth.”
Lore stared at the darkened embers. Well, pretending at knowing a bit of magic had let her dodge a bit of suspicion, but that left her starting a fire by herself. Well, with Kallaster lighting it, probably.
Lore glanced back at Kallaster. The adventurer was still in her blanket, only her hair and eyes visible.
Kallaster nodded. “You should probably wake Kara up. She'd want to see your 'magic of the south' again.”
Okay, so no help from Kall. “Kara, are you awake?”
There was a vaguely feminine grunt, and Kara rolled over to face them. “I am now,” she said, blearily.
“Kallaster thought you'd want to watch me light the fire. Using magic, you know.”
Kara stared at the dead fire. “Using magic.”
Kallaster sat up, and wrapped the blanket around herself, shivering in the morning dew. “Oh, don't be so down about it. Just because you can't use magic doesn't mean you need to get all embarrassed whenever it comes up. I know you're interested in it.”
Sly cocked his head. “She can't use magic?”
“It's an aptitude thing. I could have learnt magic, probably, but I prefer my bow. Lore here isn't great at it, but she know enough to get by. But poor Kara. When we set off she wanted to learn magic, and was enthralled by the idea—yes you were, I could see it—but she doesn't have a mite of potential in her.”
“You're a lousy magician, Lore?” Sly grinned. “So that's why you use the device.”
Lore rolled her eyes, then faced her palms towards the new wood Sly had put on the old fire, mimicking Kara's motions. Immediately it burst into crackling flame, singeing her hands. She pulled away quickly, and shot a glance back at Kallaster.
“Show off,” said Kallaster, shaking her head. The adventurer looked at Sly. “Hey, I didn't say she was bad, just that she wasn't a Great Magician.”
Sly laughed. “Yeah, I definitely caught that. Definitely.” Sly put the roast fowl from last night onto the makeshift spit he had built. “Not long before it starts to snow, I don't think. Winter is coming. You Southerners ever been up here during the winter?”
Kallaster shook her head, sitting down next to Lore, and warming her hands with the fire. “Not yet. We got here this spring.”
Sly shook his head. “Well, Kara here could tell you about the massive snowdrifts, but I tell you that winters are not fun for us folk who wander from place to place. Even me and mine would stop surprising merchants during the winter.”
Kara had scooted her way to the fire, still huddled in her blankets. “What did you do, then?”
“A lot of the boys took off their masks and went home. But those were just the folks who helped with the taxes for a bit of extra coin.” Sly smiled, a bit wistfully. “The rest of us would raise the taxes up a bit, then turn in for the winter, making camp and living off what we had built up all year.” He glanced over at Kara, giving her a look that struck Lore as a bit strange. “We were collecting the last of what we needed for the winter when this whole mess started.”
“What... what happened?”
“Well, our scouts told us about a noble's coach heading down the way, fast as it could. We set to meet them the next morning, a log and everything, but well... heh.” Sly shook his head at the memory. “Us being humble road agents, imagine our surprise when, instead of a coach, comes running two noble ladies, running in slippers from their own coachman and footman. And one of them had a little knife stuck in his chest!”
“But we do... we did know our business. And as I told you – this mess going on, there aren't bandits and nobles and guards... just people. So we got to be heroes that day. Filled both of the men full of arrows. They went down, and we rescued the ladies, dashing as could be.” Sly grinned. “I have an inkling of why you do what you do, Kall.” He shook his head, still smiling. “But when we went to look after the coachman and the footman... they got right back up.”
Lore watched as the man continued. “Now you might think that it went badly then and there, but it didn't. Like I said when we met, us bandits have certain advantages in times like these. We filled them with arrows a second time, and then hightailed it out of there, the ladies in tow. Didn't stick around to fight, you know. Why would we?” Sly's grin fell then, and for a moment the ladies could see memories playing on his face. “Well... it was good, for a time. But we didn't know it was a disease.”
“I'm sorry,” said Kara. Lore found herself nodding along with the sentiment.
“Well, the past has happened.” Sly turned the duck over, leaving it only slightly burned. “But here's a thing for you all. We already made that camp and we'd nearly stocked it for the winter – enough for a dozen men.”
Kallaster raised an eyebrow. “You're implying that we spend the winter in the camp? Your camp?”
“Well, there's a reason I don't plan on going with you, once you get to Parveno. I don't even know if the dead will still be moving, once the spring thaw comes around. It's safer, really. I just wanted to wait until I knew you folks didn't have the disease before asking. And on your end, I thought you folks might want to get to know me a bit better.”
Lore glanced over to Kallaster, then to Kara. For Lore, the choice was simple enough – she would only find Mr. Sunder if she went to Parveno, and that was enough. Kallaster had to meet up with Glynn, and probably couldn't sit still anyway. But that did leave Kara. Yet... Kara would be by herself if she chose that option. Little wonder that Sly had spent so much time talking to Kara.
“Well, I'm an adventurer, it's what I do. I can't stay at some camp in the middle of nowhere while the whole world goes all wrong. What if the monsters don't mind the cold any more than they mind a sword through their heart? My place is out there saving the world, saving people.” Kallaster turned to Lore. “Are you coming with me?”
Lore nodded. “And it would be irresponsible to leave our friends thinking we are dead.”
Kallaster looked over at Kara. “What about you, though? When we rescued you, I thought I'd get you down South, past the border, and into the protection of the Mageguard. But if getting you to safety means here, well, what kind of heroine would I be, if I insisted in dragging you into danger.”
Kara smiled softly, then looked between Sly Fox and Kallaster. “I... Well, I would like to see things through, at least to Parveno. I have a friend there too, you know.” She looked over to Sly. “My apologies, Sly. But after Parveno... well, I'll see what happens there.”
Sly looked disappointed. “I... I understand. Well, I can't really tell you how to find me, since I'll be on the move, but... I guess I'll check back into Parveno in a few days.”
“You can't stay with us?”
“No... I had a disagreement with the man who I used to trade with there. If he saw me again, I fear what might become of me.” Sly shuddered. “But enough of that. Let's break our fast. We should be at Parveno midday tomorrow, so we should make the best of the trip while we can, before we part ways.”
Kallaster nodded, then took some of the dried fruit out of her pack.
Sly took out his knife and cut pieces from the bird. “You and Lore are both Southerners, right?”
Kallaster nodded again, her mouth full of fruit.
“I heard folks down there like water flavored with the essence of leaves and other herbs, “tea” I believe you call it? I happen to know the process.”
Kallaster's eyes went wide, and she spat out the half-chewed fruit. “Oh please, yes! I haven't had any in ages. Poor Glynn just can't figure it out!” Kallaster glanced at Lore. “And Lore, um, never had the right upbringing! But please, that would be amazing!”
Sly laughed. “Well, I'll pick up the herbs as we walk today, then.” He looked over to Kara. “I don't suppose m'lady will partake of the blend? Suppose it's an acquired taste.”
Kara bowed her head slightly. “I'm afraid not. I've have partaken before, and found it to be overly bitter.”
“Very well,” said Sly. He passed the plate to Kara, then raised a roasted wing into the air. “To safe and pleasant travels, and to friendship.”
Dried fruits and a roasted leg were raised to the sky. “To friendship!”
A moment later Kallaster half raised her fruit again. “And to tea!”