Demonic Magician

I kneeled down beside the bear and ran my left hand across the fur on his head. “You okay there, pal?”

He took a couple of heavy breaths before life came back to his eyes and he looked back at me. “Just indigestion.”

With the best scowl I could muster, I waited for him to tell the truth.

It wasn’t something easily given, and after he tried to squirm away from my glare, he eventually sighed. “I suppose eighteen is quite old for a bear,” he said.

“Tell me what you need? We can take a break, or call it quits for the day… if you need to leave us then-”

“Max.”

I stopped my drivel and pulled a glum face at Wolf. Part of my heart aching in seeing the unstoppable force faltering. Maybe we have been pushing him too hard.

“My time is not yet, and I will let you know when it draws close.” He huffed and shook his body. “This place dampens my spirit, and I seek to chew on mightier foes.”

There wasn’t much I could do other than nod and rise back to my feet. “You are my kin, Wolf. Do not hesitate to allow me to protect you, just as you do us.”

He opened and closed his mouth before it upturned into a grin. “You talk too much. Let us continue, brother.”

With a smile, I looked back toward the exit, where Ren was waiting, arms crossed and concern on her brow. Should I talk to her about it? Perhaps not a good thing to worry her after she had just finished being panicked about my safety. Still, it wasn’t a good idea to hide any truths from her, either.

Looking at the bear as we walked over, I doubted he wanted to bring it up right now. Maybe not at all. He seemed fine and back to his usual self, but I’d need to keep an eye on him.

“At risk of this becoming a catchphrase,” Ren said with a sigh. “Everything okay?”

“Too much seafood,” I interjected before the bear could speak. “We were discussing shitting techniques.”

“Max is surprisingly well versed,” Wolf agreed.

Whether Ren believed that or not… ah, who was I kidding? Even as her neutral glare narrowed on me, I knew the game was up. She could read me like a flashing billboard. My name in lights. I’d always wanted that kind of fame.

I blinked a few times, my roving mind trying to settle me in the present. “I’m actually a little off, too. Just needed an ear that had a less charged take on my current predicament.”

Silence followed, as a few different emotions went on behind Ren’s eyes. Wolf seemed content with my falsehoods and didn’t add or dispute anything.

“Go ahead and catch the others up, Wolf.” I nudged him. “Just tell them Ren and I are smooching and we’ll be there in a second.”

He rolled his eyes, but with a grunt, he was off.

After waiting for him to move just beyond earshot, the elf turned back to me. “Max, I’m sorry that-”

I cut her off by pulling her in and kissing her, holding her tight against me despite my slung right arm complaining at being crushed.

“Oh,” she said, as we parted.

“Didn’t want to tell a lie, did I?” I smiled and relaxed my hold on her, but she didn’t move back away. Her eyes were hungry to eat me up, but I had to feed her something less palatable. “Wolf needs a rest soon.”

“Oh?” This time some concern cooled her expression.

“Didn’t want to put him on the spot, but he is tiring. We’ve been through a lot the last few days.”

She nodded and now stepped a little further away. “He weathers a lot during our storms. Is it injury? An illness?”

I shook my head. He had no other icons over him. Although, perhaps turning the one that made him constantly hungry off might help with his energy levels. “Just old and exhausted.”

She gave me a glum pout and looked down the corridor to where his large shape was vanishing into the shadows. “Do I need to worry about two of you now?”

“No. I’m enough burden on your heart, and he’ll be fine with a lighter schedule.” I grimaced at the phrasing. “Let’s get going, before they think we’re getting up to more than kissing.”

“If only,” she sighed, before setting off in front of me. A nice trick to have the last word in a conversation and hide the emotion on her face - which I assumed to be a coy smile.

I hummed to myself, not even distracted by what she was insinuating. Strangely enough, the kiss had been enough to ground me. Focused the shards of my shattered mind so that they resembled something usable.

From my belt, two cards flipped out and into my left hand. “Say, Ren? I was thinking we should work out some kind of signal system using the cards for if ever we can’t communicate or otherwise need to send a message discreetly.”

“Yeah? I can see the use.” She slowed now, to walk beside me. “Do I get to be the Queen of Hearts?”

I grinned and rolled my eyes. “I was going to use the Aces to represent us all. I was going to give you Clubs.”

“Is that because they look like little trees?” She narrowed her eyes at me.

“Wolf is diamonds because of how tough he is. Quinn is hearts because of his romantic nature, and Tanya has spades because… I don’t know, a rebirth thing in joining us? She’s killed people?” I shrugged.

“So that’s a yes on the tree thing?”

The two cards in my hand faded to dust and three more flipped from my holster and into my left. Required a little more concentration in my non-dominant hand, and my right twitched as the muscle memory wanted to kick in.

“If I showed you these three, what would you assume the message is?”

Ace of Clubs, Three of Hearts, Ace of Hearts.

“You… want me to fight the three enemies attacking Quinn?”

I nodded and smiled. In truth, I didn’t have a clue what they’d mean, but now that she told me. It had become the method we would use - easier to go along with whatever made the most sense to her with the least amount of explanation. “We’ll go through more some other time.”

We approached the sound of flowing water as a sheet of the stuff blocked our current passage. I was glad the elf had some clue as to where we were heading. “Ladies first,” I gestured her forward and only partly enjoyed the grimace on her face. Not sure why, as I’d soon be suffering.

She went through, vanishing to the other side, and I stepped in after - immediately shivering as it was ice cold. Certainly woke me up, and my hat did little to stop it going in my eyes. As I wiped them dry, Tanya was standing there with her arms crossed, the others close by, waiting for me.

“Not my place to tell you what to do,” she looked between us. “But you need to focus on the task at hand.”

I glanced between her, the bear, and then Ren. “I suppose I should be honest with you, then. The reason I held Ren back was because my arm is affecting me worse than I am showing. It is both mentally and physically draining. I wanted to bend her ear, as I would like to have a rest day, after knocking the blood courier down.”

An expert lie, even if I did say so myself. Got Wolf the rest he needed without giving away that he was feeling weak. Showed I could be vulnerable and knew when to take a step back. Most importantly - stopped Ren and I looking like horny teenagers.

Tanya exhaled through her nose and unfocused to go through her STAR. “That can still work. There’s a place we can rest to the west for a few hours, then we’d need to head northeast to cut off the courier - if their route hasn’t changed. If we’re still alive after that, we’ll arrange somewhere to spend the night.” Her gaze returned to me. “Separate accommodation if possible.”

“Thank you.” I gave her a bow and ignored the last part.

“If we are being honest,” Quinn added, “I’ve also been struggling to keep up with the amount of conflict thrust upon us.”

She worked her jaw, but nodded. “Alright, point taken. I’m not exactly in a position to dispute that, given I was one of the ones who had attacked you recently.” Tanya shrugged and gestured towards the boss' room. “We have some important gigs in our near future and you all need to be in peak form. That said, I can’t do shit if you don’t tell me shit - so let’s keep open comms on this sort of thing. Okay?”

We nodded and murmured our agreements. Seemed as though I had gotten away with not only a kiss, but had also drawn up a healthier attitude towards our Party’s health and readiness in the process.

“You talk more than Max,” the bear yawned. “What do I have to get attacked by now?”

She certainly did, but that was kind of the point. Our two newer Party members weren't here because they had powerful classes like us original trio. They were here to share the physical and emotional burden that our personal quest was labored with. If Tanya wanted to boss me about toward my goal in the most efficient way, then that saved me a lot of brain power. Less stress. Quinn had a handy utility skill for every occasion, which made existing that bit easier. Other than our bumpy beginnings, he was affable and dependable.

They explained the boss. Some type of giant seahorse than would frequently lay eggs that could spawn smaller versions. There was the occasional environmental danger of waves of water from different sides of the chamber, and sometimes whirlpools between egg waves.

It all seemed so… droll? Sounded like another ten minutes where I would stand at the back of the room casting the occasional single card with my left hand until we eventually clobbered it into mush. Almost something of a torture in itself, for me.

“Hey, Ren. Could you do that bandage thing?”

She raised an eyebrow before clocking what I meant. “We’ll try it and see, but go easy on the bullshit, okay?”

I wondered if she’d look back to get the weaver’s approval, but she didn’t. Good. For all the rambling internal monologues I’d had about Tanya being good for our Party composition, I still felt that Ren had more weight in making decisions. Especially when it came to my personal safety. It wasn’t even because of the romancing on the side - if we had retained the cool companionship from the starter area, then she’d have the same sway due to seniority and trust.

She unslung my arm and I winced as gravity moved it downward. Pain meant it was getting better, surely? It was certainly better than when I emerged from the water with it all but shredded. That said, it could hardly get worse.

Ren held the bandage in her mouth as she raised my arm back up, then wrapped it. With a whispered elven word, a golden glow ran down the object. I’d need to fix my suit at some point - having only one arm on it wasn’t exactly becoming of a great magician.

I furrowed my brow and lifted my arm. It was sluggish to respond - but it did respond. Pain was muted to a constant ache, but for the most part it was acting as expected. We’d need to get stuck into the fight right away to put this to good use.

A flurry of cards burst out from my holster, spinning around into a figure eight around my extended hands. With the click of my fingers, they turned to dust.

“Right,” I said, beaming at my Party. “Let’s see if I can last ten minutes.”

For some reason, they didn’t seem too enthusiastic with my chances of beating the Boss in that amount of time or less. Well, Ren looked like she believed me.

Maybe with a little too much confidence.