Chapter 273: The Magician 31
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The man immediately turned to walk away, run if he had to.
"It's not for consorting with unclean spirits. It's not even something particularly hated for the reasons that most are. It was the Earth Mother church that added it to the list, not the Sun Lord church. I only asked for two minutes," she cried out.
From a little over twenty feet away, he turned back towards her and said, "Come no closer."
Held together by Orison's influence alone, as tears made fresh tracks down her face, she said, "I woke up from my first moon blood and it hurt so bad that I went for help. The nun who answered my call convinced me that something was wrong with me and that my life was in danger. She said she had a way to save my life but I'd have to give up my ability to have children. She needed me to be willing and just informed enough to complete the ritual while she lied about everything else.
"It was an old 'Barren Mother' ritual from the early shamanistic days of the church. It's true that I'll never bleed again and I'll never be able to have children. That's because my nature given powers of procreation are tied up into a sigil buried within me.
She took another shaky breath and held back her humiliation long enough to say, "As long a-as my v-virtue stays intact, I can spend that power to raise someone from the dead. F-for as long as my fertile years last, the person who was raised that way can keep.. can keep v-visiting..."
She sat on the ground and pulled her knees up to her face, feeling just about as miserable as a person can. The two minutes elapsed and he still stood there like a frozen statue.
Eventually, he said, "Why?"
Not sure which 'why' he was referring to, she marshaled her courage to cover the big ones. "Why wasn't I sold? The original buyer died before he could complete the transaction. The Nun was caught trying to find another. The mother superior who discovered it, hid the truth out of kindness and let me choose what I wanted to do.
"Why did I decide to keep on holding it? It can save someone's life. It's a gamble but I've already paid the price. I don't want to throw away the only good thing that can come from it.
"Why did I tell you? I don't have any real logical reason. I guess I feel like you might be the one I was meant to save? It's going to sound crazy but I feel like something bad is going to happen if I leave your side. Whether it's real intuition or something my mind cooked up because I was scared to death and you saved me, I'll leave that up to you.
"Either way, you did save me. Even though you're harsh and have the emotional intelligence of a child, I think you're a good person. You have the skill and ability to do much better than some village request. Whatever the motivation is, I admire the action.
After some more silence passed by, he said, "You could be lying."
Too wrung out to get angry again, she replied, "If you know someone you can trust to verify it, then I'll agree. Like I said, if it turns out to be a mistake, I'll be able to move forward. Living with some regrets is almost inevitable, isn't it?"
He faced the town ahead but didn't start walking. After a moment, she stood up and hesitantly moved a little his way. His sudden sharp head turn made her suck her breath in but he only nodded at her. Once she caught up with him, they started walking to town again.
"Forget children cartoons with overly serious love story plots, this is more like a Lifetimes cautionary movie if they did grimdark fantasy..." Orison muttered from within Wren.
The rest of the day was spent in a fairly busy stream of activity. Defrocked, Wren had to report to the church and turn her articles of office in. Before she could take a new name, the church made her report what taboo was broken under magic oath.
Luckily, she was from a fairly distant city and had came here less than a week ago. No one really didn't notice or possibly care why she looked different. Her spiritual signature was all that they cared about and that was within an acceptable range of difference, if barely.
After that, it was necessary to re-outfit, re-register under her new alias and re-meet up with her new party leader. There was almost a shy and nervous quality to the way he treated the whole affair of filling out the party form. To the untrained eye, or a very astute one, it looked more like a man filling out a marriage license at the court house.
When she filled in her portion, he kept his hand over the signature part of the form. "You don't want me to see your name?"
He nodded.
Giving him a ghost of a smile, she said, "Looks like we have something in common after all... What should I call you? I need some way to get your attention in a crowd."
He stood there, silently contemplating when the lady behind the counter said, "He's got a lot of nicknames. I'll stick with the decent ones. There's Janitor and Mob Hunter. The nicer of us call him Mob Hunter. He has others but they aren't that nice."
The armored man looked at Wren and shrugged.
Drawing to the end of another nerve wracking day, the cleric chuckled wearily. "How about Steel? Raking it over coals and beating it only makes it stronger. It's hard and cold but dependable."
He nodded. It was hard to tell but she sensed a subtle difference about the way he held himself when she said it. Wren was pretty sure that she'd accidentally managed to make him happy for a second. The moment was ruined by a bit of heckling around them.
The guild registrar behind the counter shook her head as she said, "I thought your springtime had finally come, Mob Hunter. That's not a pet name a girl gives to the man she likes."
Being a great deal thinner skinned and looking to get a little good natured revenge for the hell he'd put her through earlier in the day, Wren said, "And yet, we'll probably be sharing a room tonight. At least, I hope we will... Is that alright, Steel? Re-outfitting today took the last of my savings."
Turning to the registrar, she said, "Something cold can be warmed up but it's not so easy to turn something soft and unreliable into hard and dependable."
It wasn't so much that Orison wanted Wren to be seen as an easy girl but there were many logical reasons for wanting to cement the impression that they were together. On the surface, adventurers seemed fairly upstanding but there was a lot of dark and shady people within their ranks. The people may not have had much respect for the armored man but they did have respect enough for his skill to keep their harassment to words only.
Oblivious to finer points of the situation, Steel said, "I already paid for two rooms."
Everyone in the place looked at him like he'd lost his mind as Wren flushed red in humiliation. She went to stomp upstairs when the armored man added, "I'll be to your room after dinner."
Immediately after hearing that, a man asked how much an after dinner visit would cost. She was willing to be mistaken as intimate but she was far from willing to be seen a stress relief toy. Orison wasn't willing to let such a misconception stand either. It was too dangerous.
Angry, not so much at the clueless Steel as the nature of people, she said, "I'll come to YOUR room after dinner to discuss tomorrow's business. Make sure to ask around and figure out what you just said sounded like. It's the kind of thoughtlessness that will give me needless problems... As for the rest of you, the only way I'll be opening my door tonight is if the building's on fire. If you can't take no for an answer, there are ways to hurt a person THROUGH a door."
The registrar sympathetically added, "You'll be responsible for property damages but a filed complaint will be taken seriously."
An hour later in his room, the man gave a terse apology and voiced a single 'annoying' before moving on with showing her the request he picked up. It was for Kobalds and he strained his underused voice to the point of nearly losing it trying to prepare her as best he could for what they'd encounter. Because of that, Orison had no trouble devising a way to make their two party adventure run through the challenge like the easy mode it should have been. Sadly, it was just the beginning.
As spring slid into summer, local requests became far more frequent. Newer members were dying or disappearing left and right but the rewards for going after things like goblins and kobalds were simply too little to attract more seasoned adventurers. That really only left the poor two person team of Ice and Steel to make up the difference.
Between Steel's dedication to keeping the local villages safe from the monsters and his growing affections for Wren threatening to cause him to bench her and run off to death on his own, the nature of the secret nightmare mode revealed itself. Juggling survival from both bad ends was a constant struggle that was only getting worse for Orison.
Wren slammed her hand down on the counter and barely kept herself from screaming at the registrar. "What is the guild master thinking!? A silver sign up bonus for orphans fifteen to seventeen is a death march! Are we trying to kill local threats or give them a steady supply of fresh food, weapons and breeders!?"
In as understanding a voice as she could, the registrar said, "I realize that the situation is abnormal but this is an order from the king not the guild master. It's ugly and cruel but it's a tactic to buy time until the summer campaigns are over. After that, the most in danger areas will have kingdom soldiers to pick up the slack."
Nearly in tears, the cleric said, "So, you know, the guild master knows. At least give them a fighting chance. Lure some retired adventurers to offer some training and organization resources to these... children!"
After trying to explain calmly only to be rebutted with harder to counter arguments that she was unable to do anything about, the registrar finally snapped. "You've been with Mo-Steel too long. You're trapped in the same small bubble he's put himself in. There is a bigger world around us with bigger problems. You have the skills and abilities to help solve those but you're still HERE!
"He might be dense but even he's starting to catch on to your little hot and cold routine to keep him from doing what's best for you and not drag you to your death with him. You can't save him from himself! Take one of the offers you've been hiding from him and let the man kill himself as he pleases."
Whether it was the girl's heart sick feelings or the young mage's frustrated ones, they could agree on one point.
Choking back a sob, the cleric said, "I can't! I can't leave him."
The woman would have said more but she noticed that Steel was behind Wren. Orison had been too focused on keeping emotions in check and there had been enough randoms to provide life signature cover. The young mage was resigned. In truth, he wasn't surprised such a situation hadn't happened sooner, considering the strain they were under.
What he didn't expect was that Steel was still carrying a rag soaked in the inhalant sedative they used to safely and silently transport survivors while they were on mission. Nor would he have anticipated that Steel would use it on Wren without hesitation. The cleric's last conscious thought for some time was disbelief as echoes of Steel asking for understanding while dissolving their party played in the background.
The young mage within cursed up a storm. "What a sh*t show! F*ck your 'I'd never party with someone I care about'. What a noble f*cking gesture! What's your next move, jack*ss?
"Let me guess. You're going to pick the hardest request available in your obsessive wheelhouse. There's probably a stupid thought running in that pea brain of yours that if you manage to somehow survive, you can finally let go of the past, be the hero she deserves or some other tripe. For all I know, you probably realize what a basket case you are and you're heading out to commit suicide in the only way you can justify to set her free.
"...God, I'm such a hypocrite. How many times have I pushed people away or 'hooked them up' with someone else so they wouldn't get dragged into my bullsh*t? A great deal more than I can remember, I can guarantee that. But damn it, I could save both of you and more besides if you'd just..."
Orison mentally sighed. What was really eating at him was the realization that he was trying unsuccessfully to herd two hyper expressions of his own personality. His anger and chastisements were aimed at himself more than it was at them.
Instead of wasting more time on venting, he busied himself trying to find a way to turn the disastrously close to 'game over' scenario into something manageable. By the time Wren started coming to, he felt like there was a decent chance of turning it into a positive thing if they could reach Steel fast enough. He didn't like games of chance but there wasn't much option.
As soon as Wren's eyes opened, she cast a healing to remove the worst of the after effects of being knocked out with nearly toxic vapors. After that, she flew downstairs. Luckily, the registrar was still at her window. As low as the sun was sitting in the afternoon sky, the woman's shift would be over fairly soon.
Spotting the wild eyed Wren, she stood up to flip her sign. "Do that and you'll be partially responsible for what I do next. Where did he go?"
Slapping on the coldest resting b*tch face she had in her arsenal, the woman said, "I can't give that information to a non-party member. Even a spouse would have to-"
Wren said, "I don't give a damn about the rules right now. I've been holding back my true ability for quite some time. If I have to, I'll TEAR my way through those enchanted bars and read it myself."
Practiced at hiding her nervousness, the registrar did her best to ignore the ocean blue spectral fire dancing around the cleric's left eye. "Don't ruin your future over this. He made the only choice he felt-"
"Don't ruin YOUR future over this. I like you but I'll make a hole through you too if it's necessary," Wren growled.
The woman hesitated before reaching under her desk for emergency single use magic items.
"Crack a single one of those and your fate is sealed," the cleric added as reality began to slightly buckle and ripple around her 'realer than real' presence.
The woman sighed and put them down, reaching for the form drawer instead. Wren barely managed to pack away the extra power of existence before she got herself and Orison kicked out of it. The sweeping sensation of the world will lazily trying to find the source of disturbance before ceasing to care put goosebumps on everyone nearby.
As Wren read the information, she absentmindedly said, "I won't blame him for doing what he has to do. I'll make sure to go easy on him. He'll be able to walk again some day."
As if saying his title summoned him like a devil, the man in question came lumbering down, summoned by the woman pushing her panic button. When he saw who was causing the ruckus, the bear of a man chuckled.
"You, little girl, know how to run your mouth. Let's hope you can back it up or you're going to the holding cell to sleep off your delusions," he said as multiple buff enchantments fired off.
She didn't even look at him as he collapsed to floor with no feeling below the waste. He tried to run a healing from a magic ring before a tiny explosion issued from his back, taking a small section of spinal cord with it.
"Sorry. I don't have any silver needles on me at the moment and steel conducts magic poorly," Wren said as she stepped outside.
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The man immediately turned to walk away, run if he had to.
"It's not for consorting with unclean spirits. It's not even something particularly hated for the reasons that most are. It was the Earth Mother church that added it to the list, not the Sun Lord church. I only asked for two minutes," she cried out.
From a little over twenty feet away, he turned back towards her and said, "Come no closer."
Held together by Orison's influence alone, as tears made fresh tracks down her face, she said, "I woke up from my first moon blood and it hurt so bad that I went for help. The nun who answered my call convinced me that something was wrong with me and that my life was in danger. She said she had a way to save my life but I'd have to give up my ability to have children. She needed me to be willing and just informed enough to complete the ritual while she lied about everything else.
"It was an old 'Barren Mother' ritual from the early shamanistic days of the church. It's true that I'll never bleed again and I'll never be able to have children. That's because my nature given powers of procreation are tied up into a sigil buried within me.
She took another shaky breath and held back her humiliation long enough to say, "As long a-as my v-virtue stays intact, I can spend that power to raise someone from the dead. F-for as long as my fertile years last, the person who was raised that way can keep.. can keep v-visiting..."
She sat on the ground and pulled her knees up to her face, feeling just about as miserable as a person can. The two minutes elapsed and he still stood there like a frozen statue.
Eventually, he said, "Why?"
Not sure which 'why' he was referring to, she marshaled her courage to cover the big ones. "Why wasn't I sold? The original buyer died before he could complete the transaction. The Nun was caught trying to find another. The mother superior who discovered it, hid the truth out of kindness and let me choose what I wanted to do.
"Why did I decide to keep on holding it? It can save someone's life. It's a gamble but I've already paid the price. I don't want to throw away the only good thing that can come from it.
"Why did I tell you? I don't have any real logical reason. I guess I feel like you might be the one I was meant to save? It's going to sound crazy but I feel like something bad is going to happen if I leave your side. Whether it's real intuition or something my mind cooked up because I was scared to death and you saved me, I'll leave that up to you.
"Either way, you did save me. Even though you're harsh and have the emotional intelligence of a child, I think you're a good person. You have the skill and ability to do much better than some village request. Whatever the motivation is, I admire the action.
After some more silence passed by, he said, "You could be lying."
Too wrung out to get angry again, she replied, "If you know someone you can trust to verify it, then I'll agree. Like I said, if it turns out to be a mistake, I'll be able to move forward. Living with some regrets is almost inevitable, isn't it?"
He faced the town ahead but didn't start walking. After a moment, she stood up and hesitantly moved a little his way. His sudden sharp head turn made her suck her breath in but he only nodded at her. Once she caught up with him, they started walking to town again.
"Forget children cartoons with overly serious love story plots, this is more like a Lifetimes cautionary movie if they did grimdark fantasy..." Orison muttered from within Wren.
The rest of the day was spent in a fairly busy stream of activity. Defrocked, Wren had to report to the church and turn her articles of office in. Before she could take a new name, the church made her report what taboo was broken under magic oath.
Luckily, she was from a fairly distant city and had came here less than a week ago. No one really didn't notice or possibly care why she looked different. Her spiritual signature was all that they cared about and that was within an acceptable range of difference, if barely.
After that, it was necessary to re-outfit, re-register under her new alias and re-meet up with her new party leader. There was almost a shy and nervous quality to the way he treated the whole affair of filling out the party form. To the untrained eye, or a very astute one, it looked more like a man filling out a marriage license at the court house.
When she filled in her portion, he kept his hand over the signature part of the form. "You don't want me to see your name?"
He nodded.
Giving him a ghost of a smile, she said, "Looks like we have something in common after all... What should I call you? I need some way to get your attention in a crowd."
He stood there, silently contemplating when the lady behind the counter said, "He's got a lot of nicknames. I'll stick with the decent ones. There's Janitor and Mob Hunter. The nicer of us call him Mob Hunter. He has others but they aren't that nice."
The armored man looked at Wren and shrugged.
Drawing to the end of another nerve wracking day, the cleric chuckled wearily. "How about Steel? Raking it over coals and beating it only makes it stronger. It's hard and cold but dependable."
He nodded. It was hard to tell but she sensed a subtle difference about the way he held himself when she said it. Wren was pretty sure that she'd accidentally managed to make him happy for a second. The moment was ruined by a bit of heckling around them.
The guild registrar behind the counter shook her head as she said, "I thought your springtime had finally come, Mob Hunter. That's not a pet name a girl gives to the man she likes."
Being a great deal thinner skinned and looking to get a little good natured revenge for the hell he'd put her through earlier in the day, Wren said, "And yet, we'll probably be sharing a room tonight. At least, I hope we will... Is that alright, Steel? Re-outfitting today took the last of my savings."
Turning to the registrar, she said, "Something cold can be warmed up but it's not so easy to turn something soft and unreliable into hard and dependable."
It wasn't so much that Orison wanted Wren to be seen as an easy girl but there were many logical reasons for wanting to cement the impression that they were together. On the surface, adventurers seemed fairly upstanding but there was a lot of dark and shady people within their ranks. The people may not have had much respect for the armored man but they did have respect enough for his skill to keep their harassment to words only.
Oblivious to finer points of the situation, Steel said, "I already paid for two rooms."
Everyone in the place looked at him like he'd lost his mind as Wren flushed red in humiliation. She went to stomp upstairs when the armored man added, "I'll be to your room after dinner."
Immediately after hearing that, a man asked how much an after dinner visit would cost. She was willing to be mistaken as intimate but she was far from willing to be seen a stress relief toy. Orison wasn't willing to let such a misconception stand either. It was too dangerous.
Angry, not so much at the clueless Steel as the nature of people, she said, "I'll come to YOUR room after dinner to discuss tomorrow's business. Make sure to ask around and figure out what you just said sounded like. It's the kind of thoughtlessness that will give me needless problems... As for the rest of you, the only way I'll be opening my door tonight is if the building's on fire. If you can't take no for an answer, there are ways to hurt a person THROUGH a door."
The registrar sympathetically added, "You'll be responsible for property damages but a filed complaint will be taken seriously."
An hour later in his room, the man gave a terse apology and voiced a single 'annoying' before moving on with showing her the request he picked up. It was for Kobalds and he strained his underused voice to the point of nearly losing it trying to prepare her as best he could for what they'd encounter. Because of that, Orison had no trouble devising a way to make their two party adventure run through the challenge like the easy mode it should have been. Sadly, it was just the beginning.
As spring slid into summer, local requests became far more frequent. Newer members were dying or disappearing left and right but the rewards for going after things like goblins and kobalds were simply too little to attract more seasoned adventurers. That really only left the poor two person team of Ice and Steel to make up the difference.
Between Steel's dedication to keeping the local villages safe from the monsters and his growing affections for Wren threatening to cause him to bench her and run off to death on his own, the nature of the secret nightmare mode revealed itself. Juggling survival from both bad ends was a constant struggle that was only getting worse for Orison.
Wren slammed her hand down on the counter and barely kept herself from screaming at the registrar. "What is the guild master thinking!? A silver sign up bonus for orphans fifteen to seventeen is a death march! Are we trying to kill local threats or give them a steady supply of fresh food, weapons and breeders!?"
In as understanding a voice as she could, the registrar said, "I realize that the situation is abnormal but this is an order from the king not the guild master. It's ugly and cruel but it's a tactic to buy time until the summer campaigns are over. After that, the most in danger areas will have kingdom soldiers to pick up the slack."
Nearly in tears, the cleric said, "So, you know, the guild master knows. At least give them a fighting chance. Lure some retired adventurers to offer some training and organization resources to these... children!"
After trying to explain calmly only to be rebutted with harder to counter arguments that she was unable to do anything about, the registrar finally snapped. "You've been with Mo-Steel too long. You're trapped in the same small bubble he's put himself in. There is a bigger world around us with bigger problems. You have the skills and abilities to help solve those but you're still HERE!
"He might be dense but even he's starting to catch on to your little hot and cold routine to keep him from doing what's best for you and not drag you to your death with him. You can't save him from himself! Take one of the offers you've been hiding from him and let the man kill himself as he pleases."
Whether it was the girl's heart sick feelings or the young mage's frustrated ones, they could agree on one point.
Choking back a sob, the cleric said, "I can't! I can't leave him."
The woman would have said more but she noticed that Steel was behind Wren. Orison had been too focused on keeping emotions in check and there had been enough randoms to provide life signature cover. The young mage was resigned. In truth, he wasn't surprised such a situation hadn't happened sooner, considering the strain they were under.
What he didn't expect was that Steel was still carrying a rag soaked in the inhalant sedative they used to safely and silently transport survivors while they were on mission. Nor would he have anticipated that Steel would use it on Wren without hesitation. The cleric's last conscious thought for some time was disbelief as echoes of Steel asking for understanding while dissolving their party played in the background.
The young mage within cursed up a storm. "What a sh*t show! F*ck your 'I'd never party with someone I care about'. What a noble f*cking gesture! What's your next move, jack*ss?
"Let me guess. You're going to pick the hardest request available in your obsessive wheelhouse. There's probably a stupid thought running in that pea brain of yours that if you manage to somehow survive, you can finally let go of the past, be the hero she deserves or some other tripe. For all I know, you probably realize what a basket case you are and you're heading out to commit suicide in the only way you can justify to set her free.
"...God, I'm such a hypocrite. How many times have I pushed people away or 'hooked them up' with someone else so they wouldn't get dragged into my bullsh*t? A great deal more than I can remember, I can guarantee that. But damn it, I could save both of you and more besides if you'd just..."
Orison mentally sighed. What was really eating at him was the realization that he was trying unsuccessfully to herd two hyper expressions of his own personality. His anger and chastisements were aimed at himself more than it was at them.
Instead of wasting more time on venting, he busied himself trying to find a way to turn the disastrously close to 'game over' scenario into something manageable. By the time Wren started coming to, he felt like there was a decent chance of turning it into a positive thing if they could reach Steel fast enough. He didn't like games of chance but there wasn't much option.
As soon as Wren's eyes opened, she cast a healing to remove the worst of the after effects of being knocked out with nearly toxic vapors. After that, she flew downstairs. Luckily, the registrar was still at her window. As low as the sun was sitting in the afternoon sky, the woman's shift would be over fairly soon.
Spotting the wild eyed Wren, she stood up to flip her sign. "Do that and you'll be partially responsible for what I do next. Where did he go?"
Slapping on the coldest resting b*tch face she had in her arsenal, the woman said, "I can't give that information to a non-party member. Even a spouse would have to-"
Wren said, "I don't give a damn about the rules right now. I've been holding back my true ability for quite some time. If I have to, I'll TEAR my way through those enchanted bars and read it myself."
Practiced at hiding her nervousness, the registrar did her best to ignore the ocean blue spectral fire dancing around the cleric's left eye. "Don't ruin your future over this. He made the only choice he felt-"
"Don't ruin YOUR future over this. I like you but I'll make a hole through you too if it's necessary," Wren growled.
The woman hesitated before reaching under her desk for emergency single use magic items.
"Crack a single one of those and your fate is sealed," the cleric added as reality began to slightly buckle and ripple around her 'realer than real' presence.
The woman sighed and put them down, reaching for the form drawer instead. Wren barely managed to pack away the extra power of existence before she got herself and Orison kicked out of it. The sweeping sensation of the world will lazily trying to find the source of disturbance before ceasing to care put goosebumps on everyone nearby.
As Wren read the information, she absentmindedly said, "I won't blame him for doing what he has to do. I'll make sure to go easy on him. He'll be able to walk again some day."
As if saying his title summoned him like a devil, the man in question came lumbering down, summoned by the woman pushing her panic button. When he saw who was causing the ruckus, the bear of a man chuckled.
"You, little girl, know how to run your mouth. Let's hope you can back it up or you're going to the holding cell to sleep off your delusions," he said as multiple buff enchantments fired off.
She didn't even look at him as he collapsed to floor with no feeling below the waste. He tried to run a healing from a magic ring before a tiny explosion issued from his back, taking a small section of spinal cord with it.
"Sorry. I don't have any silver needles on me at the moment and steel conducts magic poorly," Wren said as she stepped outside.
The man immediately turned to walk away, run if he had to."It's not for consorting with unclean spirits. It's not even something particularly hated for the reasons that most are. It was the Earth Mother church that added it to the list, not the Sun Lord church. I only asked for two minutes," she cried out.From a little over twenty feet away, he turned back towards her and said, "Come no closer."Held together by Orison's influence alone, as tears made fresh tracks down her face, she said, "I woke up from my first moon blood and it hurt so bad that I went for help. The nun who answered my call convinced me that something was wrong with me and that my life was in danger. She said she had a way to save my life but I'd have to give up my ability to have children. She needed me to be willing and just informed enough to complete the ritual while she lied about everything else."It was an old 'Barren Mother' ritual from the early shamanistic days of the church. It's true that I'll never bleed again and I'll never be able to have children. That's because my nature given powers of procreation are tied up into a sigil buried within me.She took another shaky breath and held back her humiliation long enough to say, "As long a-as my v-virtue stays intact, I can spend that power to raise someone from the dead. F-for as long as my fertile years last, the person who was raised that way can keep.. can keep v-visiting..."She sat on the ground and pulled her knees up to her face, feeling just about as miserable as a person can. The two minutes elapsed and he still stood there like a frozen statue.Eventually, he said, "Why?"Not sure which 'why' he was referring to, she marshaled her courage to cover the big ones. "Why wasn't I sold? The original buyer died before he could complete the transaction. The Nun was caught trying to find another. The mother superior who discovered it, hid the truth out of kindness and let me choose what I wanted to do."Why did I decide to keep on holding it? It can save someone's life. It's a gamble but I've already paid the price. I don't want to throw away the only good thing that can come from it."Why did I tell you? I don't have any real logical reason. I guess I feel like you might be the one I was meant to save? It's going to sound crazy but I feel like something bad is going to happen if I leave your side. Whether it's real intuition or something my mind cooked up because I was scared to death and you saved me, I'll leave that up to you."Either way, you did save me. Even though you're harsh and have the emotional intelligence of a child, I think you're a good person. You have the skill and ability to do much better than some village request. Whatever the motivation is, I admire the action.After some more silence passed by, he said, "You could be lying."Too wrung out to get angry again, she replied, "If you know someone you can trust to verify it, then I'll agree. Like I said, if it turns out to be a mistake, I'll be able to move forward. Living with some regrets is almost inevitable, isn't it?"He faced the town ahead but didn't start walking. After a moment, she stood up and hesitantly moved a little his way. His sudden sharp head turn made her suck her breath in but he only nodded at her. Once she caught up with him, they started walking to town again."Forget children cartoons with overly serious love story plots, this is more like a Lifetimes cautionary movie if they did grimdark fantasy..." Orison muttered from within Wren.The rest of the day was spent in a fairly busy stream of activity. Defrocked, Wren had to report to the church and turn her articles of office in. Before she could take a new name, the church made her report what taboo was broken under magic oath. Luckily, she was from a fairly distant city and had came here less than a week ago. No one really didn't notice or possibly care why she looked different. Her spiritual signature was all that they cared about and that was within an acceptable range of difference, if barely.After that, it was necessary to re-outfit, re-register under her new alias and re-meet up with her new party leader. There was almost a shy and nervous quality to the way he treated the whole affair of filling out the party form. To the untrained eye, or a very astute one, it looked more like a man filling out a marriage license at the court house. When she filled in her portion, he kept his hand over the signature part of the form. "You don't want me to see your name?"He nodded.Giving him a ghost of a smile, she said, "Looks like we have something in common after all... What should I call you? I need some way to get your attention in a crowd."He stood there, silently contemplating when the lady behind the counter said, "He's got a lot of nicknames. I'll stick with the decent ones. There's Janitor and Mob Hunter. The nicer of us call him Mob Hunter. He has others but they aren't that nice."The armored man looked at Wren and shrugged.Drawing to the end of another nerve wracking day, the cleric chuckled wearily. "How about Steel? Raking it over coals and beating it only makes it stronger. It's hard and cold but dependable."He nodded. It was hard to tell but she sensed a subtle difference about the way he held himself when she said it. Wren was pretty sure that she'd accidentally managed to make him happy for a second. The moment was ruined by a bit of heckling around them.The guild registrar behind the counter shook her head as she said, "I thought your springtime had finally come, Mob Hunter. That's not a pet name a girl gives to the man she likes."Being a great deal thinner skinned and looking to get a little good natured revenge for the hell he'd put her through earlier in the day, Wren said, "And yet, we'll probably be sharing a room tonight. At least, I hope we will... Is that alright, Steel? Re-outfitting today took the last of my savings."Turning to the registrar, she said, "Something cold can be warmed up but it's not so easy to turn something soft and unreliable into hard and dependable."It wasn't so much that Orison wanted Wren to be seen as an easy girl but there were many logical reasons for wanting to cement the impression that they were together. On the surface, adventurers seemed fairly upstanding but there was a lot of dark and shady people within their ranks. The people may not have had much respect for the armored man but they did have respect enough for his skill to keep their harassment to words only.Oblivious to finer points of the situation, Steel said, "I already paid for two rooms."Everyone in the place looked at him like he'd lost his mind as Wren flushed red in humiliation. She went to stomp upstairs when the armored man added, "I'll be to your room after dinner."Immediately after hearing that, a man asked how much an after dinner visit would cost. She was willing to be mistaken as intimate but she was far from willing to be seen a stress relief toy. Orison wasn't willing to let such a misconception stand either. It was too dangerous.Angry, not so much at the clueless Steel as the nature of people, she said, "I'll come to YOUR room after dinner to discuss tomorrow's business. Make sure to ask around and figure out what you just said sounded like. It's the kind of thoughtlessness that will give me needless problems... As for the rest of you, the only way I'll be opening my door tonight is if the building's on fire. If you can't take no for an answer, there are ways to hurt a person THROUGH a door."The registrar sympathetically added, "You'll be responsible for property damages but a filed complaint will be taken seriously."An hour later in his room, the man gave a terse apology and voiced a single 'annoying' before moving on with showing her the request he picked up. It was for Kobalds and he strained his underused voice to the point of nearly losing it trying to prepare her as best he could for what they'd encounter. Because of that, Orison had no trouble devising a way to make their two party adventure run through the challenge like the easy mode it should have been. Sadly, it was just the beginning.As spring slid into summer, local requests became far more frequent. Newer members were dying or disappearing left and right but the rewards for going after things like goblins and kobalds were simply too little to attract more seasoned adventurers. That really only left the poor two person team of Ice and Steel to make up the difference.Between Steel's dedication to keeping the local villages safe from the monsters and his growing affections for Wren threatening to cause him to bench her and run off to death on his own, the nature of the secret nightmare mode revealed itself. Juggling survival from both bad ends was a constant struggle that was only getting worse for Orison.Wren slammed her hand down on the counter and barely kept herself from screaming at the registrar. "What is the guild master thinking!? A silver sign up bonus for orphans fifteen to seventeen is a death march! Are we trying to kill local threats or give them a steady supply of fresh food, weapons and breeders!?"In as understanding a voice as she could, the registrar said, "I realize that the situation is abnormal but this is an order from the king not the guild master. It's ugly and cruel but it's a tactic to buy time until the summer campaigns are over. After that, the most in danger areas will have kingdom soldiers to pick up the slack."Nearly in tears, the cleric said, "So, you know, the guild master knows. At least give them a fighting chance. Lure some retired adventurers to offer some training and organization resources to these... children!"After trying to explain calmly only to be rebutted with harder to counter arguments that she was unable to do anything about, the registrar finally snapped. "You've been with Mo-Steel too long. You're trapped in the same small bubble he's put himself in. There is a bigger world around us with bigger problems. You have the skills and abilities to help solve those but you're still HERE!"He might be dense but even he's starting to catch on to your little hot and cold routine to keep him from doing what's best for you and not drag you to your death with him. You can't save him from himself! Take one of the offers you've been hiding from him and let the man kill himself as he pleases."Whether it was the girl's heart sick feelings or the young mage's frustrated ones, they could agree on one point.Choking back a sob, the cleric said, "I can't! I can't leave him."The woman would have said more but she noticed that Steel was behind Wren. Orison had been too focused on keeping emotions in check and there had been enough randoms to provide life signature cover. The young mage was resigned. In truth, he wasn't surprised such a situation hadn't happened sooner, considering the strain they were under.What he didn't expect was that Steel was still carrying a rag soaked in the inhalant sedative they used to safely and silently transport survivors while they were on mission. Nor would he have anticipated that Steel would use it on Wren without hesitation. The cleric's last conscious thought for some time was disbelief as echoes of Steel asking for understanding while dissolving their party played in the background.The young mage within cursed up a storm. "What a sh*t show! F*ck your 'I'd never party with someone I care about'. What a noble f*cking gesture! What's your next move, jack*ss?"Let me guess. You're going to pick the hardest request available in your obsessive wheelhouse. There's probably a stupid thought running in that pea brain of yours that if you manage to somehow survive, you can finally let go of the past, be the hero she deserves or some other tripe. For all I know, you probably realize what a basket case you are and you're heading out to commit suicide in the only way you can justify to set her free."...God, I'm such a hypocrite. How many times have I pushed people away or 'hooked them up' with someone else so they wouldn't get dragged into my bullsh*t? A great deal more than I can remember, I can guarantee that. But damn it, I could save both of you and more besides if you'd just..."Orison mentally sighed. What was really eating at him was the realization that he was trying unsuccessfully to herd two hyper expressions of his own personality. His anger and chastisements were aimed at himself more than it was at them.Instead of wasting more time on venting, he busied himself trying to find a way to turn the disastrously close to 'game over' scenario into something manageable. By the time Wren started coming to, he felt like there was a decent chance of turning it into a positive thing if they could reach Steel fast enough. He didn't like games of chance but there wasn't much option.As soon as Wren's eyes opened, she cast a healing to remove the worst of the after effects of being knocked out with nearly toxic vapors. After that, she flew downstairs. Luckily, the registrar was still at her window. As low as the sun was sitting in the afternoon sky, the woman's shift would be over fairly soon.Spotting the wild eyed Wren, she stood up to flip her sign. "Do that and you'll be partially responsible for what I do next. Where did he go?"Slapping on the coldest resting b*tch face she had in her arsenal, the woman said, "I can't give that information to a non-party member. Even a spouse would have to-"Wren said, "I don't give a damn about the rules right now. I've been holding back my true ability for quite some time. If I have to, I'll TEAR my way through those enchanted bars and read it myself."Practiced at hiding her nervousness, the registrar did her best to ignore the ocean blue spectral fire dancing around the cleric's left eye. "Don't ruin your future over this. He made the only choice he felt-""Don't ruin YOUR future over this. I like you but I'll make a hole through you too if it's necessary," Wren growled.The woman hesitated before reaching under her desk for emergency single use magic items. "Crack a single one of those and your fate is sealed," the cleric added as reality began to slightly buckle and ripple around her 'realer than real' presence.The woman sighed and put them down, reaching for the form drawer instead. Wren barely managed to pack away the extra power of existence before she got herself and Orison kicked out of it. The sweeping sensation of the world will lazily trying to find the source of disturbance before ceasing to care put goosebumps on everyone nearby.As Wren read the information, she absentmindedly said, "I won't blame him for doing what he has to do. I'll make sure to go easy on him. He'll be able to walk again some day."As if saying his title summoned him like a devil, the man in question came lumbering down, summoned by the woman pushing her panic button. When he saw who was causing the ruckus, the bear of a man chuckled."You, little girl, know how to run your mouth. Let's hope you can back it up or you're going to the holding cell to sleep off your delusions," he said as multiple buff enchantments fired off.She didn't even look at him as he collapsed to floor with no feeling below the waste. He tried to run a healing from a magic ring before a tiny explosion issued from his back, taking a small section of spinal cord with it."Sorry. I don't have any silver needles on me at the moment and steel conducts magic poorly," Wren said as she stepped outside.
