M.D.Syl
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Chapter 49 colorless
🕑 Added 2023-01-28 16:26:08 +0000 UTCChapter 49 If a Pixie Could Fly.
A smile doesn’t cost you money.
But a laugh may kill you.
Rakisha, Mother of all Demons.
We enter the inn and rent a room in order to split up the money, everyone receives five percent. Considering a meal is a couple of coppers, they indeed had a good day. Salik himself takes ten percent and the rest of the money goes to their basic needs like the inn rent and food for everyone.
When we are done with counting and splitting money, Salik announces that we’ll be meeting again at the south gate at dawn three days from now, and sends everyone on their way.
Salik catches my arm when I am about to join Sorer for the appraisal. Sorer notices I get held up and gestures that he’s going to wait for me.
“Marisha. Would you consider joining the Golden Thrill Company on a regular basis?” The question isn’t a big surprise for me, nevertheless, it’s still satisfying. I know I had impressed him with my competence, and even if he didn’t say it directly, asking me to join them is a compliment.
It was also my aim when I helped them construct the camp each night. Getting him impressed enough so he’ll suggest such a thing, and create a working bond between us. Such a bond would let me join them each time they go out toward these mountains or the swamps.
“Gladly, but I’ll stick to only coming with you each time you head for the shimmering tops or the Sha’ashbash swamps. I need to hunt magical beasts, and if I can have Berthold’s help it’d be great. I don’t think I can come on other jobs. I have other obligations back in Axero.” Like assassinations, cleaning the hag’s cauldron, and spreading her toxic glitter around the city… but more importantly my magical studies and meditations. Becoming a mage is my only way home, my only way to help Kolag and Lezere out of the tower...
He nods solemnly. “Very well. I’ll send one of the boys to pick you up every time we head for the mountains or Sha’ashbash. And if you want to join on other jobs, we’ll be happy to have you any time! You’re not the only one who’ll show up for specific jobs. Our company has nearly sixty members, and we only have everyone come along for the big jobs or the wars.
Satisfied, I join Sorer and we head to the inn’s entrance together. “Boss, are you coming with us?” only now do I notice that Salik follows me. It’s unsettling. The man moves so quietly that I don't even hear his footsteps.
“Yeah. Marisha is now a part of The Golden Thrill. I am going to oversee this, I hope you don’t mind…”
“Not at all boss!”
We spend the rest of the day at the temple of Kilako, showing the pixie to every interested Safid and merchant who might know anything about it. But none of them has any clue about this creature’s worth. Many of them suggest that we should find a mage who specializes in such things or head to Sapphire Tower. Which is a horrible idea. The mages at the Sapphire Tower could just take it off our hands if they wanted to. Not to mention I am wanted by the Sapphire Tower’s authorities.
It’s evening when we take a seat around the table at the inn. The stone walls are gray with a touch of brown, displaying an unorderly series of bricks of different shapes and hues piled up on one another. There’s a large head of a stag above the fire place, and under it the statue of Tonisha, the Goddess of Venture.
The hall is loud. Shouts, laughter, music, games of chance and skill. A group of Salik’s mercenaries to our left compete by throwing daggers at a target on the wall, laughing and teasing each other. Elitar gets pulled by a good looking barmaid as they go upstairs together.
The Pixie is still tied to the iron dagger which is stabbed into the table. We took her out of the jar in order to appraise her and never put her back. It seems like she couldn’t fly and I was worried for naught. Berthold hangs around, eyeing the creature. He robs his eyes multiple times and keeps his undivided attention on the little pixie.
The pixie is in a rather bad shape. Her features are now sharper, wilder. She had lost her cute good looking appearance, and appears almost like a different creature entirely. Her skin is now purple. Her originally green hair is currently raven black, along with her formerly colorful wings. And her eyes turns darker, smaller, and beady, similar to crows. She grew a row of sharp teeth which keep showing when she hisses toward us.
I guess she no longer has the energy to maintain her fake form… But it just proves my point, her looks were only a defensive mechanism that targeted humans.
“Haaahh… that was a long day. Hey lassie with the blond hair! Get us some ale!” Sorer shouts at the nearby barmaid. “So we don’t know how much this thing is worth eh?”
“Seems that way…” Salik murmur.
“We could always go to the hag… I mean, the Maven of Mysteries…”
Salik gives me a horrified look. Whoops… He blinks and regains his wits. “That’s… not a good idea and it is unfair to Sorer. She would back you up. Or like you said about the tower mages; she could just take the creature for herself and we won’t be able to stop her.”
I sigh. He’s not wrong… the hag treats humans like cattle… you don’t negotiate with cattle… “Then what do you suggest?”
“You two negotiate a price. Try to guess how much you think this creature is worth alive, and come to an agreement. I will oversee you two. I’m the most impartial mediator you can find since I need to keep the both of you happy.”
Salik wants to get on my good side as much as he wants to keep his man happy, he’s not wrong… “Acceptable.”
“Here you go.” The barmaid put three mugs of ale on the table. I push my mug to Sorer, I don’t like the taste of ale very much. “Ewwwww! What is that thing?” The barmaid points at the bound pixie.
“Ha! A fairy! I think it’s worth at least ten thousand gold! Maybe even more!” Sorer boasts happily.
I glare angrily at him. What an idiot! Does he want to attract robbers?!
“That’s a fairy?! Ewww!”
I hold the girl’s wrist when she’s about to poke the creature. “You really don’t want to lose that hand…”
She jumps back and pull her hand. “Eeeeep! No ma’am! Sorry ma’am! Anything I can get you to drink?”
“Something sweet.”
“Yes ma’am!” The blond teenager runs off.
Being called ma’am is weird… it’s the authority… it’s nice…
Or age…
I’m the last person here who should be worried about age… I have twenty seven springs behind me but that's like a human of eighteen springs… I’ll probably live past hundred if I don't meet an untimely death…
No… it's possible that mages live longer than usual, I'm sure someone found a way to cheat age...
I probably just look bad from traveling for a week without taking care of my hair and face… I wish I had a mirror… Can’t have everything… I've got to make some sacrifices for my goals… and this one is the smallest of them…
“Ten thousand golden peas is Sorer’s price. How much do you think it’s worth Marisha?” Salik gets back to the topic at hand and wakes me up from my daze.
“I honestly don’t know…” I say trying to keep my pondering face. I am sure it’s way more than ten thousand. If it’s something mages traded it’d be done in magical gems, and there’s no way it’s only worth a hundred gems. Then again, I am not stupid enough to say it out loud.
“Do you think it’s worth less Marisha?” Salik asks me with furrowed eyebrows.
“I didn’t say that. I simply have no idea how much it’s worth. Could be less, could be more. I really got no clue here. It’s the first time I’ve encountered such a creature, but it’s not like I have a lot of experience with the fae, I barely started learning magic.” All of it true. If I claim right away that I think it’s worth less, they’d both claim that I’m probably lying and double the price. If I agree to fast, they'll try and raise the price as well... Acting lost and unsure makes this into a giant unknown that we all have to figure out…
“I understand…” Salik nod. “May I ask, what do you need the creature for? Maybe it’ll help us figure out its worth.”
“I mainly need it for its soul. But I am sure the hag will have uses for its other parts…”
Salik grimaces when I mention the hag. Sorer puts his mug on the table, splattering some ale around. The pixie hisses at Sorer when stray drops of the ale hit her. “What do you need its soul for?” he asks in his gruff voice.
“I eat it.” The truth is the best in such cases, no one will believe it anyway. The look on his face makes me laugh. The thought of this huge bear-like man being scared of me is just way too funny. Why funny? He saw me killing a man with three words today, isn’t it natural for him to be scared? Isn’t that what I want? Power?
I don’t want them to be scared of me… I only want to find my way home and my family… and I only killed that man to scare that bitch… it’ll be very lonely if everyone in this company is scared of me…
“For real now!” Due to my giggles, the bear-like man dismisses it as a joke.
“It’s an ingredient for some kind of bath that helps me get more magic. Mage stuff. It’s also why I hunt these magical animals. But I believe I can extract more from the fairy. I won’t know how much I can extract from her until I kill it, and I can’t kill it here because all of my ectoplasm containers are full. Does that answer your question?”
“So you need it in order to kill it? I thought you wanted this thing as a pet or something… poor little harpy bug, you don't get to live after all…” Sorer pats the head of the little creature. The pixie hisses and attempts to bite Sorer’s finger without much success.
“Is it ok if we treat it like a large magical animal’s price on the market?” Salik asks us, trying to reach the middle ground again.
“Oh yeah! Like a Trinag!” Sorer grins widely, greedily.
I shake my head determinately. “Not really. A large magical animal will have other materials and definitely more meat to sell. It should also be much harder to kill. I bet it’ll cost a lot more than this little creature. Just have…”
“Is that a pixie?! By the princess of dreams! What have you done to her?!” The speaker is a feminine figure wrapped in a brown cloak that covers her head. “Release her at once!” she demands with her hand on the sword hilt at her waist.
Another tall figure covered in cloth leans in and whispers something in the woman’s ear.
She pushes him away. “No! I’ve had enough of tolerating this filth! You! Release that pixie at once!” she demands from us.
I get up from my seat. “We only captured her because she tried to rob us. So…”
“Pixies are peaceful creatures! They’ll never look out for trouble on their own!” The mysterious woman interrupts me before I can finish.
“This one did.” Salik comments in his deep voice.
The second figure in the cloak whispers another line in the woman’s ears. She pushes him away. “No! I want to hear it from her! If she admits that she tried to rob you, I’ll let you do as you please!”
“Pff… Lady! Who are you to let us do anything?!” Sorer stands up. He towers over the hooded figure, waving the dagger with the pixie tied to it like a weapon.
The second figure behind the mysterious woman pulls her back, whispering more in her ear. It’s obvious he’s trying to calm her down.
She shakes him off and points at Sorer. “Give me the pixie you ugly man, or you’ll regret it!” Half of the people in our mercenary group - which were either dining, drinking, or gambling around - circle the two cloaked figures in a threatening manner.
If she’s so confident it means trouble… she could be bluffing, but if she defends a creature she doesn’t know, I doubt she’s the type to bluff her way around… too idealistic... too much like Kolag, and Kolag is deadly...
“Aww! I am so scared. Pissing myself I am! Look around you lady, you’re surrounded. Just leave in peace. It’s none of your snaking business!” The drunk Sorer decides that taunting is a good idea.
Before I can say anything; his head detaches from its body and shoots upward, propelled by a thick stack of vines. The vines grow up from his neck at a rapid pace, replacing the blood that would normally gush out when someone loses their head. Sorer still stands in place for five long seconds, before dropping to the ground, vines squirming all over the floor.
*~*~*
Power level: 2nd stage apprentice.
Mana pools status:
Crown-knot: Affinity 10: formed: 1 gem replenished per five minutes.
Neck-Bridge: Affinity 6: formed: max amount of gems drained per day: 66
Abdomen-storage: Affinity 5: formed: 6 gems. Conversion ratio: 6:1
Air: Affinity 4: formed: 18 gems
Fire: Affinity 2: formed: 9 gems
Light: Affinity 3: formed: 14 gems
Water: Affinity 6: formed: 27 gems
Earth: Affinity 1: opened: 3 gems
Wood: Affinity 2:
Gravity: Affinity 9: formed: 40/41 gems
Cantrip known:
Air: Shavi’s Breeze, Shavi’s Sword. Shavi’s Hair Dryer, Aria’s Enhanced Hearing.
Fire: Nuriss’ Flame. Effrat’s Firefly, Effrat’s Fire Breath. Sorladika's Lesser Heating.
Light: Noxi’s Light, Lako’s Blinding Light.
Water: Water Evocation, Water to Ice, Ice to Water, Water to Vapor, Vapor to Water, Mayan’s Icy Spike, Ayla’s Water Jet.
Earth:
Wood:
Gravity: Lumina’s Kinetic Burst. Tukado’s Repulse. Tukado’s lesser shield. Imari’s Minor Telekinesis. Imari’s Jump. Leo’s Pull. Leo’s Grounding. Alino’s Light Body. Alino’s Heavy Body.
Spells known:
Gravity: Alino’s weightless bodyb.
Focus capability: 10 patterns
Social status: apprentice to the Maven of Mysteries.
Wealth: 909 gems. 1416 gold coins, 13 silvers, 47 coppers.
Items:
1 simple healing potions.
2 potions with unknown effects.
An enchanted belt with eight pouches, the enchantment keep the pouches’ content fresh.
Fresh rose petals, 8g
3 soul containers size 1. (Burrowed item. Ownership: Maven of Mysteries.)
Roll of magical cloth, any carcass wrapped fully in the cloth will not rot. (Burrowed item. Ownership: Maven of Mysteries.)
A magical pouch, any carcass attached to the pouch will shrink in size. (Burrowed item. Ownership: Maven of Mysteries.)
Companions:
Languages:
Toml’a <People’s tongue> Fluent
Sinteo <Speech> 9/10
Myrsha <Gravity> 5/10
Felul <Wind> 1/10
Injuries and scars: Back, lightning scar.
