Demonic Magician

I stood over the hole dug by large paws. The earth upturned and grass roots torn from where they had grown. With a grunt, I slid the body of Rolo across the ground and into the shallow pit. The cracked face and split eyeball slowly turned toward me as I stared down at what we had done.

Don’t you want to know my secrets?

My head slowly shook at the whispered words his broken mouth somehow spoke. I did not.

Don’t you feel like a demon too?

I wanted to say no, but my tongue caught in my mouth. My vision was dimming, and I couldn’t look away. Perhaps he was right. If he moved over, then there would be room for both of us. Safety and peace.

Safety and peace.

“Max?”

Light bloomed in my eyes as I blinked, the soft breeze and glow of mid afternoon washing away the focused gloom that had been clouding my vision. I turned my head away from the corpse to look at the elf. “Yeah?”

“I’m honestly worried about you. You need a rest.” Concern painted over her usual scowl. “You were just ignoring us and staring at the body in silence.”

“Just paying my respects,” I murmured, wondering what secrets the talking dead body could have wanted me to know. “But,” I held my hands up, “I admit you are right.”

She rolled her eyes. “Obviously. Quinn help Wolf with the body, I’m going to discuss things with Max.” The fencer looked as though he might argue why he had to get involved with a corpse he didn’t help create, but one glare from the elf and he was straight into it.

I stood, and we walked a little further across the field that flanked the campsite. After removing my hat and rubbing my eyes, we found a fallen log to sit at under the shade of a couple of trees. The other two were still in view, but I tried not to stare and see how well they were getting along.

“What a fucking day,” Ren sighed and kicked her boots off. “We’ll die of stress at this rate.”

“You’re telling me.” I closed my eyes and deflated. Wrinkled my face up when she pressed a hand on my forehead. “People seem to like doing this to me.”

She grunted and swiveled around closer so that she could get a better grip on me. I wondered if she was about to crush my head in or twist it around on my neck. Either way, I wasn’t going to resist it. She removed it after a few more seconds and pressed her own forehead against my shoulder.

“I thought I’d be able to tell if something was up,” she said and sighed. “But there’s no evil energy or anything. You don’t feel like you’re in trouble.”

“Maybe that’s because you’re here,” I said, opening my eyes back up.

Ren sat back up straight, removing her head from me. She looked tired now, some amount of exhausted calm on her face for a change. “You still have a good handful of hours before I’ll be swayed by that.” She prodded my arm with a finger. “Back to business if you have the sanity for it.”

“Camp drama, and Quinn’s proposal?”

She nodded.

“I’m… willing to stay at the camp tonight if you’re fine with it.” I tilted my head from side to side. “It’s a place of relative safety, and as much as Fiona would like to snap me in half, I don’t feel like the majority of people are hostile toward us.”

“She holds a lot of sway, though.” Ren moved back around to be sitting beside me. “I think what you didn’t say was true though, if they can’t fight back against the real threat of the Shadows, they’d stand no chance against us.”

I smiled and relaxed. Not that it would be that easy, of course. But I admired the confidence she had in our group - me especially. She had no reservations about me dueling Quinn, not knowing anything he was capable of. “I really like how you can read me so well.”

Her head tilted as she looked at me, her expression impassive but soft around the edges. “Something about you just clicks, Max. It wasn’t easy at first, but things just feel… natural now.” She placed her hand atop mine and held it.

“We met halfway, right?” She still had some way to go to being a natural magician, just as I needed to work on my leadership skills, but the efforts so far pushed us together to be stronger.

“Yeah.”

Although her answer was simple, she gave away a lot more with her face. Both of us books that the other could read where others would struggle. She was fighting the urge to be soft, despite the time of day. It seemed like she was losing that battle, as her other hand came up to cup along my jaw and run through the hair at the side of my head.

I leaned forward, ready to kiss her - when she moved away.

“What’s this?” Her frown couldn’t hide the amusement in her eyes as she withdrew her hand from behind my ear, now holding a gold coin.

“Very good.” I grinned. It was a shame we didn’t have more downtime to practice things, but that was just the nature of our current adventure. Maybe one day, once things were normal, we could become quite the duo. Magically.

She flicked it into the air, and my eyes followed it. I stole it from the air without moving, just before it landed back in her hand, which she still closed as if she had caught it. With an eyebrow raised, she opened up her hand to reveal a Sweet Cake.

“Extremely good,” I said, and also considered giving her some applause.

“You ass,” she began, putting the treasure straight into her mouth. “Isn’t it a rule that you’re not meant to mess with another magician’s trick?”

I feigned a shocked face. “Mess with? That was merely a collaboration. If we had an audience, it would have looked as though it had been all you.”

Her eyes rolled, but I saw the glimmer of excitement in them. Cake already eaten, her face then wrinkled up. “Do we want an audience?” She was looking over to Quinn, who had been complaining to the bear about getting mud on his sleeves. Wolf had not eaten him, so perhaps our large companion was meeting us halfway, too.

I mean, we didn’t eat people.

“That’s a tough call.” I rubbed at my eyes. “The downsides being that he is annoying and might constantly try to flirt with you.”

“He wouldn’t dare.” Ren kicked the side of my boot gently. “You’d fuckin’ tear him in half, trickster.”

Something about the light in her eyes and choice language used told me that she quite liked it when I used my overwhelming power to show off how strongly I felt about her. A potentially deadly hobby, yet… I did like to see her happy.

“Well…” I tilted my head from side to side. “If he doesn’t make you uncomfortable, then having the knowledge to level us quicker would be nice. Can kill the Shadows quicker.”

She nodded. “I’m willing to give him a chance, with the threat of violence if he misbehaves.”

I looked back over to the man as he seemed to now be regaling Wolf with a tale that the bear could not care less for. “He’s not the sort of person I’d usually associate with, but he seems to wear his heart on his sleeve. He’s perhaps the most trustworthy Player we’ve met.”

“You get that impression as you broke your skull on his face?” She raised an eyebrow. “That said, I do agree with you. It could be an act to appear harmless, but I’ve been trying to read him and he mostly comes off as lost and misguided.”

I’d certainly say that. He came at me while still suffering from the Trauma status, something that hit close to home. “Maybe when he is fully recovered, we could have another duel.”

Ren didn’t respond. She knew I didn’t mean I was putting her hand on the line again. Quinn seemed to take things to heart easily, and my humbling of him could turn him towards something destructive in the future. Having my demons be subservient was one thing, but if we were to trust him as an equal, then he deserved to squirm out from beneath my boot. He’d have to earn it, of course.

“Hey, Wolf.” I called out to the bear and waved him over. Quinn looked our way and deflated. Now he stood, awkwardly shuffling some last remnants of dirt over the grave.

“Thank you,” Wolf said as he reached us. “I felt like my brain was becoming some kind of mashed food that I would need to eat.”

“Not a fan, then?” I tilted my head.

“I feel like eating Quinn would give me a stomach ache.” He lazily looked back toward the man. “But other than being a bore, he isn't like the bad people.”

Ren nodded. “Any disagreements to letting him guide our next couple of levels?”

Wolf shook his head. “On the condition that I don’t have to engage him in conversation.”

“I’ll probably hold the short straw in that regard.” I sighed, but then smiled to them both. “Trust doesn’t come easily to us all, I know, and we still have an ache over what happened to Hannah. Having some normal connections would be nice, for when this is all over, though. We don’t want to be friendless mass-murderers.”

The bear grunted and laid down. “I forgot how much you talk as well.”

Ren patted me on the arm. “Go give the good news then, Mr. Speech-giving-leader.”

I rolled my eyes, but stood. “Equal partnership,” I reminded them, pointing my index finger between them both.

Although I had accepted being the face of the group, and using what charisma—real or imagined—I possessed to talk to the many oddballs on our path, I didn’t want to be seen as the leader. It was not a personal vendetta that drove us, but a shared agreement that our Quest to stop the Lady in Red from making a mess of the System was the most important thing we could do here.

Whether that was true or not was something else entirely. Had we really achieved much? So far, we had tidied up the mess on the starter island and first area, but our true aim was to nip her progress in the bud. How she had gotten so far ahead was something I wondered if we’d ever find out, but the assumption was one of her skills gave her power or experience beyond her level.

“Quinn,” I said, finally reaching him after my mental dialogue ran out of physical space that my legs could buy me time for. “Great shallow grave. I’m sure Rolo appreciates it.”

“I’m…” his face contorted. “Are you mocking me, Max?”

My right eye twitched, and I exhaled. “I’ve had a difficult day, and my sensibilities are rough around the edges. I do hope you can forgive me.”

“Of course,” he gave me a low bow. “Think nothing of it.”

It was partially true, but I also wanted to gauge his reaction. He was taking what I said to heart, either keeping his issues with my attitude to himself, or earnestly allowing it to slide after my reasonable apology.

“We have agreed you can be our guide for a short time,” I managed to say, without walking it back. “With three conditions.”

“Of course, please tell me them.” His eye was practically glowing with excitement.

“You are to guide us to the most efficient way to leveling, nothing more - no side agenda. Do not engage with Wolf with anything not mission critical unless he initiates conversation with you. And last, absolutely no flirting with Ren.”

He opened his mouth to speak, and I held up a finger to silence him.

“Breaking any of our rules gives us discretion in either firing you from your position… or killing you.” I tilted my head to the side, not clocking how loose and fatal the terms of service sounded. “I also have one question for you, should you accept.”

He kneeled down on the muddied grass and held his head low. “I promise to uphold those three rules, on pain of death or humiliation. What is your question, Max?”

I met his eye as he raised his gaze back up at me. A smooth smile crept across my face as I felt nice and cool inside. Calm spread through all the muscles whose aches I had been ignoring. Exhaustion took a brief respite as a bulb of intrigue lit up inside my chest.

“Tell me, Quinn. What weapon do you possess in that side holster?”