COP S1.2 It’s all wrong
Love magic is always strong in those. So strong that you’re still smiling as they tear your throat out.
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Previously on…
Lyn, faced with an unknown whooshing sound used her sensory magic to suss out what was making it. After getting knocked out, she discovered that the entire place was protected against magical detection using sensory magic. She was about to try to get past the whooshing obstacle (a razor sharp pendulum) when an evil doll with razor-like teeth appeared.
A doll. Hell if a sense of dread didn’t seep into me.
At least it wasn’t one of those innocent-looking dolls that are so cute you just have to hug them. Love magic is always strong in those. So strong that you’re still smiling as they tear your throat out.
No, this one was an obviously evil doll. That meant there were two possibilities. Despite its small size, it would have tremendous power or it was a distraction for something else with tremendous power. I had to figure out which it was.
Whatever magic detection blocking had been done on the pendulums also seemed to apply to the doll. Normally I could feel, sometimes even see, the magic swirling around people and objects from a distance. The doll was just at the edge of the light the orbs hovering above me generated. That made it close enough I should have been able to dissect whatever magic made it move and counter it easily.
I stood up straighter and banged my staff on the ground.
Harry had been horribly wrong. I wasn’t the exact right person for this job. I was the exact wrong one.
Someone with no magic would have to overcome the physical obstacles. Someone with user magic would be blocked from seeing the physical obstacles and face the same trial.
Someone like me, with sensory magic, would be hunted, pursued and pushed out. Or killed.
I needed to get out.
The doll’s mouth closed. It sidled the wall away from me, beyond the reach of my light. There was a grinding of stone on stone, then nothing.
The darkness subsided, almost imperceptibly. At the end of the hallway, a dim light cascaded down the stairwell I’d used to enter the chamber. It appeared the place responded to my thoughts. That was frightening. Mind reading was as rare a power as my sensory magic. But as I thought about it reading my mind, I got hit with a vision of what was behind the magic. The source of the magic. Just for a fraction of a second before it disappeared, like a door slammed shut. I ran up the stairs and through the mini-labyrinth to the exit outdoors, all the while trying not to think of what I’d seen. Even outside, I didn’t dare focus on it. I wasn’t sure how far its magic would reach, but the potential was it could for a very long way.
Instead, I mounted Spiri and made for Kenuport, just a few miles away. There I’d catch the next ship leaving for Isig. Normally I abhorred ocean travel, but I needed to get far away from that place. Only then would I feel safe enough to formulate a plan. And decide if it was worth the risk of going back.
***
The room at the Kenuport Inn smelled of fish. Everything in the town smelled like fish. I think I smelled like fish despite having had a bath. Even more reasons to get far, far away from the town. And the chamber. What I’d seen in those fleeting seconds was burning a spot into my brain. I wanted to analyze it, write it down, sketch it so it wouldn’t fade in time. But I didn’t dare focus on it. The way it had been thrust on me, then yanked, left me feeling uneasy. Like I wasn’t supposed to see it, and the fact that I did…wasn’t good. If I didn’t keep busy, my mind circled back round to it.
Needing a distraction, I made my way downstairs towards the inn’s minuscule lending library, hoping to find something I hadn’t ever read. Raised voices drifted from the dining room, and something prickled my skin. Though I’d had my evening meal, I followed the sounds. Any entertainment would do as a distraction. Someone using magic to cheat, and failing, certainly promised to be entertaining.
At least that’s what my senses were telling me—prickles always meant the magic being used was off somehow. And the voices seemed to confirm it. I made why way down the short hallway over a creaky wooden floor and strolled through the door.
The tension was palpable. The barman on my left stood motionless, but his dark eyes darted back and forth between two people standing at a table near the middle of the room. I tossed a coin onto the wooden countertop in front of him, and he managed to give me a weak smile. Pointing toward an empty seat in the corner just past the bar, I made sure he would bring my ale over.
Sauntering to the table, I pretended not to notice the scene the two yelling fiends had been making. The chair was made of a typical utilitarian wood designed to discourage sitting too long, but I leaned back against the wall behind me and took the scene in.
Everyone was staring at me. Even the two doofuses that had been arguing. I smirked and
raised my eyebrows as if to say, “What?”
The patrons’ eyes drifted away from me back towards the pair causing a stir. The one on the left was a big burly man with shaggy black hair. His clothes, thick brown trousers and a vest, gave him away as a fisherman. Glancing around, most of the diners were fishermen. He was the one being cheated, and though my entrance distracted him for a moment, his voice went back at full volume.
“You’re a right swine! Give me my money!”
His opponent, much smaller in stature, had shoulder-length blond hair covered in part by a fine hat with what appeared to be a pattern in gold stitching. His outfit, perhaps intentionally designed to make him look bigger, was maroon with square shoulders and large gold buttons that matched the pattern on the hat. The jacket and pants seemed to be puffed, like he was surrounded deliberately in some sort of insulation.
I had to smile again. It was insulation. The magic in it radiated out softly, probably enchanted to protect them from a hit if their cheating scheme failed. It also did an excellent job of disguising their identity.
He, was a she.
Though the woman wielded magic, I couldn’t help but cheer for her—silently—as the underdog. The outfit might have been chosen to make her look like a wealthy mark for the locals who knew their particular variety of cards better than anyone. But I could tell by the looks and gestures of the other diners that it would be many against one if it came to a fight. It was a dangerous game she was playing. If they discovered she was a woman, it would be much worse.
“My hand won the round,” she said in a calm, gravelly voice that would easily pass for a man. Her eyes narrowed and her jaw set after she said it.
By the way her face moved, I figured her actual face wasn’t as wide, and her chin not nearly as pointy as the one she wore now. Just like her body wasn’t anywhere near as big as it looked in that outfit.
She was using chameleon skills too, on top of the enchanted outfit. At least those were working. Poking and prodding with my sensory magic, I found the source of my prickles. She was using emani magic to manipulate her opponent. My guess was she thought she was good at it, but perhaps had never come across anyone who was resistant to it. Or she realized the danger she was in, but was good at controlling her own emotions. Either way, she’d pushed the man too far.
“You folded,” she said, pointing to a small stack of cards on the table in front of him.
“You tricked me.” He reached down and flipped over his cards.
The patrons standing close enough to see let out a collective “Oooo” sound.
“It’s called bluffing and a perfectly acceptable strategy.” She stood even straighter.
Like a blast of cold air, I sensed her push on him. Undoubtedly, she thought trying to calm him—with enthusiasm—would work.
It didn’t.
He lunged at her.
She was quicker and made it most of the way to the door before a couple of others grabbed her and threw her back toward the man.
A solid punch hit her in the stomach. Though she bent over from the impact, her face didn’t screw up in pain. The insulation worked, at least.
Before he could bring his hands down hard on her again, she slipped to the side, and he swung into empty air. They danced like this for a few minutes, the only exit blocked by three of his sympathizers.
He caught hold of her ridiculously large shoulder pads and tossed her onto the table, their cards scattering, along with their shattered glasses as it broke.
I didn’t like to get involved in these sorts of things. Lessons needed to be learned somehow, but it was clear the barman wouldn’t bring my ale over—he was hunkering down behind the counter. Entertainment without a drink is hardly entertainment at all, and I had to admit this woman made me curious. Everything seemed off about her, particularly why she was here, in this tiny town dressed for a big city shindig as a man. Fisherman don’t make much money and couldn’t have been her original target.
I pulled my staff off my belt and stood up. “Oy!” All eyes turned to me again. I extended my staff to full length and added a bit of fire to the ends for effect. “I think we can solve this without destroying any more of the Kenuport Inn’s fine dining room, eh?”
The hulking fisherman shifted his gaze between me, and his very vulnerable opponent splayed out on the floor.
“I’m offering to mediate a satisfactory solution for everyone,” I added before he jumped to conclusions. Tapping my staff on the floor, the flames went out. “What say you?”
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