Walking out of Ted's tent, we passed through the damaged portion of the city. Above us, the sky was laid bare, its naked clouds lit with the fiery oranges of sunset. It was hard to reconcile the idyllic images of this world's nature with the brutal reality of monsters and the tides. The girls were pensive as well, and Vespera's fingers went to her wound without her noticing, brushing against the bandages and sending little shivers of pain through her body.
Then we were out of the damaged sections. We simply walked through one of the Lithos checkpoints, and the smells and noises of the city slammed into us without warning. Barely a wall between us and we went from the smell of death and the cries of people whose loved ones were still under the rubble to the smells of food, piss, sewage, and the distinct sounds of the hustle and bustle of the city. The noise was as thick as the air, and just like random fragrances from the nearby shops sometimes assaulted our noses, so did the shouting of the merchants assault our ears.
We found Lee at the potions shop, but since the master alchemist was there, he pretended not to recognize us. His boss did, though. As soon as he saw the wound, his eyes became predatory, and he wasted no time before he descended into a sales pitch. Fortunately, our previous deals with the apothecary apprentice allowed me to navigate the various traps and upsells, and we walked out of there with three glass vials.
"Bleh," Vespera complained as she downed one of them. "Bitter."
But it was fast-acting. By the time we reached the guild, her arm was functional and all that was left of the wound was the clotted blood on her otherwise unmarked skin.
"Dayum," she exclaimed through the bond. "Even the scars have faded."
I felt her happiness and a bit of longing. She looked at me expecting something, knowing that I told her I liked her scars, but I reassured her that she was perfect because she was her, not because of her looks. I did not forget to add that her looks were stunning, of course.
"You tease," she said, punching me lightly.
"Speaking of scars, did you see Lee's face when he realized we did not use his salve? It was most amusing."
"Elyra!" The demon pretended to be shocked. "You, having fun at other people's expense?"
The angel did not deign the demon a reply. We entered the guild in silence, with no sign of the telepathic chatter we were having, and I approached Bib to ask about the subscription tiers for the guild token map feature.
"The most expensive goes for ten gold a day and gives you access to all the knowledge the guild has, anywhere in the world, in real time. It does not provide the magic needed to synchronize the map updates, though. It is an addon, just so you know."
"Anything less expensive?" I asked.
The bartender-slash-pretty-much-anything here at the guild squared me up. "What's your budget?" and then he added, "And where's Buck?"
"He's dead."
"Right," the man rumbled. "Tide?"
"Yeah," I said simply.
"But you came back." Before I could reply, he said, "Whatever. The token doesn't mark you as a murderer. Fine by me. Your subscription will make up for the lost revenue from all the drinking he won't do anymore. What's the budget?"
We bartered for a bit, and I ended up spending pretty much all the money left from the wolf cores after buying the potion to get a weekly subscription that included three updates a day about the hostile monsters in a ten-kilometer area around the city. No resources, no points of interest, nothing beyond a simple map and some red dots that gave basic information.
To us, it was gold. We paid it in gold too, so there was that.
"I'm glad you are not a broke-ass anymore," Bib said before I left. "I mean, you ain't rich, but at least with the map you shouldn't die because you get jumped. Then again, people die all the time, don't they? You don't happen to have Buck's token, do you?"
"No, but I know where it is," I said.
"Bring it back, and the guild will pay you ten silver. It's not much to someone like you; you got connections now, don't you? But it is what it is."
I frowned. "Connections?"
Bib shrugged and said nothing, returning to his duties, which consisted of cleaning already-clean mugs and mean-staring everyone around the general guild area. I glanced at the beast tide meter almost without thinking: it showed 22%.
"Well," Vespera whispered in my mind. "That was weird."
"It was," I replied as we walked out. "Do you think he knows we got invited to the club?"
"Either that," Elyra said, "or he did not take Buck's death as well as he pretended to."
"Whatever that might be, we are broke now, aren't we? We spent all the money on potions and the subscription! And I wanted to go eat out tonight!"
"That is a waste of money we should stop partaking in," Elyra said.
Vespera whined.
"At least not that often?" I said, trying to mediate.
The demon looked at me. "Oh yeah? And here I was, thinking that you might enjoy another treatment like the one you got last time."
"Well…" I said.
"And you, Elyra. Don't tell me you didn't like the dessert you ate."
The angel blushed furiously. "I guess, maybe, we could…"
"Ah, but alas," Vespera said with fanfare. "We are indeed broke today. Let's hope the three-letter meeting happens to have refreshments or we shall go to sleep without eating. Speaking of, sleep where?"
"Outside?" I ventured.
She looked at me.
"We do not have alarm runes, Sol. They were in the backpack," Elyra said.
"What the cat said," Vespera added.
"Cat?" the angel hissed.
"See?" the demon laughed. Turning towards her, she stuck out her tongue. "Wanna throw hands, angel?"
Elyra sighed. "We should not sleep without the alarm runes anymore, Sol. I know you can keep watch, but what if we get distracted and…"
She trailed off. Vespera suppressed a laugh at seeing her embarrassed face. "She's thinking naughty things, Sol. She is! That's why she's worried!!!"
"She is also right," I said. Then, I realized something. "But we can go to the dryad's. I mean, we are literally unemployed. No, wait, we are guild workers so we are self-employed. You know what's the best thing about being self-employed? You don't need to conform to normal sleep-wake cycles! We go to this meeting, then we make a beeline for the dryad, and we crash there until whatever time we feel like waking up. It's not like the forest is more dangerous at night than it is during the day, and we have the map now."
Elyra looked at me with exasperation. "That is such a Vespera kind of reasoning. If we oversleep, we waste the money of the subscription! And, during the night, we are tired and less aware of our surroundings. We could get jumped."
The demon, offended she was being dragged in the mud like this, snapped at her. "Got any better ideas, trash raccoon?"
Elyra paused. "I apologize, Vespera. I didn't mean to—"
Then she paused again, feeling the demon's emotions through the bond.
"Got you!" Vespera laughed. "Bah, I'm not offended. It was a Vespera kind of reasoning. In fact, I'm honored I get so much free real estate in your mind you think about me all the time!"
"Vespera," the angel said in all seriousness. Her brown eyes shone in the twilight of the city. "You are in my mind every hour of every day. We share thoughts, feelings, emotions, as well as the same man. There passes no moment in my day when I do not think about you, or Sol. And, I like to think that the same happens during the night. I do not know what I dream of, but if I could choose, then I would choose to dream of you two. Do you understand?"
It was Vespera's turn to blush now. It was one of the rare moments when she didn't know what to say. At least for a moment.
"You're lucky we are in the city, and that my self-control is greater than a Zen master or whatever," she grumbled, looking away from the angel. I wondered how she knew of Zen masters. "Or I'd jump you right now and make out with you until the two of us become a moaning, sweaty, tangled heap of bodies. And don't think that being here saves you, because I am going to do it, just not now. And the more I wait, the more the desire grows."
She licked her lips, and the angel shivered. She wondered, even though she did not voice those thoughts, if she had accidentally just unleashed a true demon, and much more than she could handle.
◈◈◈
Status: Sol Nightguard
General Level 5
[Bound to the Fallen] Level 3
Str: 64
Dex: 14
Vit: 84
Int: 14
Wis: 14
General Skills:
[Matter Reclamation] 2
[Heavy Load Bearing] 2
Class Skills:
[Resonance Castling] 1