Previous – Next

Side A – Yasgrid

Yasgrid had expected the Fate Dancers to have some level of animosity towards her. It would have been quite mutual given her feelings about how they’d treated Kyra. 

Had she expected it to be enough animosity for them to send assassins after her? Not necessarily but the appearance of a small number of would-be killers wasn’t particularly outside the bounds of possibility either.

“You want me to undo what I’ve done? What sort of damage have you suffered that you think that’s even possible?” Yasgrid asked striving to understand what the Fate Dancer was really asking for.

“That is why we had to take hostages,” the assassin said. “They said you would refuse.”

“Refuse? How can I refuse to do something that I couldn’t do even if I wanted to? Though, I also don’t want to, so your handler wasn’t entirely wrong.”

“That raises the interesting questions of what exactly they expected you to undo and why they thought it would be possible,” Marianne said.

“I’m presuming they’re unhappy with the breaking of fate by the song that opened the portals here and in the Darkwood?” Yasgrid had known that would not only put an end to the Troubles in the Darkwood but also fundamentally alter the nature of realm such that the Fate Dancer’s rituals would no long work as they once had.

“That was not your handiwork, or at least, not your handiwork alone.” Marianne didn’t need to fiddle with her knife to incentivize the assassin to continue speaking, the fiddling could have been purely for her own benefit.

“That’s right,” the assassin said. “That’s not what you must amend!”

“I’m reasonably sure I don’t need to amend anything. Especially anything the Fate Dancers object to,” Yasgrid said.

“But they’re going to destroy the Darkwood!” 

“The Fate Dancers would rather destroy their home than live in one which is growing beyond them?” Marianne asked, seemingly uninterested in the reply, but she was testing the dagger exactly as one might before hurling it with great force.

“No. not the Fate Dancers, the horrors she unleashed!” The assassin was starting to slur his words as the bloodloss from four puncture wounds drained his strength away towards unconsciousness.

“Horrors?” Marianne asked, which Yasgrid could only offer a small wince of guilt in response to.

“That’s enough from him for now I think,” Kyra said and tapped the assassin on the side of head.

It was only a light brush with her finders but it dropped the assassin in a boneless, slumbering heap.

“He didn’t have any cogent arguments left to make, and he does need some medical assistance,” Kyra said as she produced a roll of bandages and began to bind up the knife wounds.

“What did he mean about horrors?” Marianne asked.

“I might have woken up some slumbering of the Darkwood spirits as part of my effort to rescue you and Naosha,” Yasgrid said. “Nightmare spirits to be exact.”

“And how many of the Darkwood’s nightmares did you awaken?” Marianne asked.

“Umm, all of them I think?”

Side B – Nia

Nia almost spit out the second gulp of Rotgut she’d drunk. The only things that stopped her were the evil grins plastered on Grash and Horgi’s faces.

If she let so much as a drop spill, they’d never let her forget it.

“I thought you said the booze her was a crime your mouth inflicted on your stomach?” Belhelen said, taking a deep pull of her Winter Wheat beer. “This stuff’s amazing though.”

“Thank you, it’s nice that someone can appreciate the hard work we put into our beverage selection,” Grash said.

“What’ve you got for me?” Gossma asked, clearly suspicious though Nia was sure who that mistrust was directed at.

“Your choice of Greenevers Dark if you’re in the mood to start with something hard or a mellow Goldenrim Pale if you’d like to begin with a smoother beverage?” Horgi offered, indicating two mugs for Gossma’s choosing.

The look of surprise on Gossma’s face was replaced with one of honest appreciation after she took her first swig of the Greenevers.

“Shoulda done this sooner,” she said, and stepped aside to allow Margrada to make a choice.

“I’ll take the Rotgut,” Margrada said with a challenging smile.

“Are you sure?” Grash asked.

“You think she’d let me live it down if I didn’t?” Margrada asked, nodding towards Nia.

Which was totally unfair.

Also true, but still…

Nia’s revenge came quickly though as no matter how bad Margrada had expected the Rotgut to be, it was substantially worse. To her credit though, she managed not to spill a drop either.

“Want another?” Horgi asked, with a familiar spark of deviltry in his eyes.

“No, no,” Margrada croaked out. “Still working on this one.”

“That’s good. Just tell me when you’re ready for a refill.”

Belhelen cast a look at Nia as though inquiring what sort of insanity was going on, to which Nia could only shrug. However the night was going to go, the only option they had was to play along with it.

“So, you all probably want to join the real party, I imagine?” Grash asked.

“That’s not what this is?” Gossma asked, pointing at the other fires where Roadies were still huddled in quiet conversation.

“I thought you would tell them what our parties are like?” Horgi asked Nia.

“I did,” Nia said. “What the hell is up with this?”

“This is the Night’s Guard,” Grash said. “You didn’t think we all got blind drunk at the same time did you? Who would look after the drums if we did that?”

“What…but…I…” Nia was certain she’d never heard or seen any ‘Night Guards’ among the Roadies.

“Were never allowed near a drum during a party? Wow, I can’t imagine why that would be?” Horgi said.

“We set the real party camp up outside of town. We’ve got a lot more than just the Grayfalls and Frost Harbor Roadies here and the town needs a bit too much rebuilding for any of us to feel good about the state we’d leave it in,” Grash said.

In the distance a small explosion sounded and the sky lit briefly with a fireball rising to the clouds above.

“Oh damn! They started without us!” Horgi said.

Previous – Next