Chapter 11: a game for two
Despite the cheer everyone had shown at being able to sleep in, the entire party was awake at sunrise and downstairs eating breakfast together. I was glad to have the opportunity to see them one more time, and their nonstop banter left me with a great memory of them to hold on to.
Like the past few nights, my dreams were vague and peaceful. Schools. Friends. Hiking down forest paths. Mundane things that somehow felt important. I knew they were the reason that, when I woke and found Lina still there, I understood why the sight of her made me happy.
She stayed with me while the others prepared for the road, helping me find the shops I needed and guiding me through what to buy. We started with a new dress. My old one had been patched well enough to wear, but it would need proper work to replace some of the damaged panels. The new dress was made for travel like my others, but styled more like a proper day dress. It was just as durable and even carried a charm to repel dust and dirt. The only price I hadn't expected was having to model it for Lina's entertainment while the seamstress adjusted the fit. When we were done, I ended up just wearing it out of the shop to save time.
From there, she dragged me through several more stops. I picked up a small mirror, a comb, hairpins, a brush, a sewing kit, handkerchiefs, soft washcloths, a towel, two nightgowns, and a coin pouch. Lina kept pointing out small things I would have forgotten, and I was glad she did. She even bought me a bundle of hair ribbons as a gift. By the time we finished, I'd spent fifty-six gold.
We were already running late when we passed a spellmonger's shop. I slipped inside long enough to buy a new spellbook and a vial of magically infused ink, which cost me another sixty gold. I'd wanted to look for a new sword as well, but there simply wasn't time.
The area inside the gates was an open lot where incoming wagons and carriages unloaded, and those departing prepared for their journeys. I walked with Lina to where the others were helping a merchant and his crew load up to leave. They each shook my hand or gave me a brief hug, offering well wishes and the traditional, "May the gods bless your journey."
As I watched them leave, I felt an odd pulling, like I should be going with them. It only grew worse as I felt the party dissolve. For a moment, I worried I had somehow formed a bond with them that lingered longer than it should. It took me time to understand what it really was. I was sad to see them go. I already missed them. It wasn't anything serious, I told myself. But it was there.
I stood there for a while before someone stepped up beside me.
"I hate goodbyes, too," Laurent said. I looked over to see him watching the wagons in the distance.
"Do you have to deal with them often?" I asked.
He turned to face me. "Not so much. My brothers are sometimes sent away for political reasons or training. It bothered me when I was younger, but I got used to it. It was harder to leave home for this trip, but I'm not a child anymore."
"I have no siblings," I said quietly. "It is an unfamiliar feeling. I do not enjoy it."
He gave a small chuckle and nodded. "No, I imagine not. No one does. It's best to occupy your mind with something else." He gestured toward the road. "We're ready to go if you are. We can play a game of Conquest along the way."
"I don't think I'm allowed to participate in warfare," I said. "Father would be displeased."
He laughed. "The tabletop game. Do you play?"
I shook my head. "I've never heard of it."
He picked up my satchel and turned toward his carriage, offering me his arm. "Then I'll be happy to teach you. It's a good way to pass the time."
I stared at his gesture for a moment before nodding, picking up my alchemy bag, and accepting his offered arm. His carriage was a large white affair, easily as big as the merchant wagons I had traveled in. Several armed men on horseback gathered nearby, including Sir Cedric, who was deep in serious discussion with the others.
Two valets watched us as we approached with carefully neutral expressions, though for some reason I didn't understand, I thought I detected faint amusement in their eyes. One stepped forward to take my bags, carrying them behind the carriage to stow in a trunk, while the other opened the door and offered me a hand up. I nodded my thanks and climbed inside.
The interior was more opulent than I'd expected. Its pristine interior matched the outside. There were several books scattered across one of the seats, however, and a game board sitting on a fold-out table next to the empty bench. I sat on the empty bench rather than disturb his books.
He followed me inside and sat beside me. I had expected him to take the far bench, but it was several feet from the table, and playing the game from there would have been impossible.
"I apologize for the mess. I left it like this before we stopped," he said with a sheepish grin.
I shrugged, "I don't mind. I appreciate you bringing me with you."
"We will leave as soon as they're all onboard. Here, let's begin. I'll show you the pieces."
And so, he did. There were two versions of the game: Skirmish and Warfare. The Skirmish board we had was built for travel and smaller matches. It was twelve spaces across and twelve spaces long. Dice were rolled first to determine obstacles scattered across the field. After that, each player chose their side.
The pieces were divided into light and dark factions. Once you chose a captain, every other piece had to match. Each of us picked a captain and five additional units. Every piece moved and attacked differently, and any real strategy had to be built around its strengths and weaknesses.
He chose a Knight Templar as his captain. Naturally, I chose the Vampire Lord as mine.
He was going easy on me the first game so I could learn, but after that, he had no mercy. He won the first two real games, and then I had a handle on the game and strategy. The objective was to either kill or capture the enemy captain. Killing them was straightforward, but capturing them required getting them alone and surrounded by two or more of your own pieces, where they couldn't move.
In our third game, I killed his captain. In the fourth, I captured it. In the fifth, he surrendered when he realized I was about to capture it again.
I grinned.
"How are you so good at this? Do you have an intelligence of eighteen or something?"
I gave him a coy smile, "Something like that. Besides, you did a great job teaching me. You were your own downfall."
His hand went to his heart, and he sighed dramatically. "Defeated by my own chivalry! I should have known better than to try and play fair against a ruthless maiden such as you."
I nodded solemnly. "So long as you've learned from your mistake."
He laughed just as someone pounded on the door. We both looked in that direction just in time to hear Sir Cedric's voice carry through.
"Lord Laurent, we will be stopping to rest and water the horses shortly."
"Thank you, Sir Cedric!" he called back.
I looked down at the scattered board and pieces. "Perhaps we should pack this away for now?"
He sighed but nodded, "Yes, I suppose so. We can take it out later if you need to trounce me again."
The familiar rhythm of the road turned uneven as the carriage rolled into a clearing. We all climbed out, and several of the men immediately set to work preparing an afternoon meal. The smell of cooking food made my stomach rumble, but it also dragged the growing thirst to the front of my thoughts. It was frustrating how often I felt the need to feed while my body struggled to repair itself. It wasn't urgent yet, and I knew I could last a few more days.
They set up a small table, and everyone sat together to eat. Laurent spent most of the meal entertaining the group with the story of how he'd taught me to play Conquest, proudly recounting his early victories before dramatically lamenting the injustice of playing against a "genius." I wasn't the only one amused.
When we finished, everyone stood, and his retinue began packing things away. I moved to help, but a light hand on my shoulder stopped me.
I turned to see Sir Cedric.
"Let the men do their job. Best not to forget who you are after traveling with adventurers for a few days."
I paused to consider what he said, but then I felt the familiar pull of a party invitation at the back of my mind, and he went on, "If you're going to travel with us, you should join our party. It's best for everyone."
The surprise must have shown on my face because he rolled his eyes before turning to walk away. He was the last person I'd expected to receive that from. I quickly accepted, and it was different than before. One of the other guards traveling with us had an aura that hit me at the same time mine hit him. I was suddenly even more aware of everything around me, like the startled gasps and shocked looks being turned in my direction.
"Lady Mirela," Cedric started, sounding exasperated, "Why do you have a Holy Aura?"
I gave him my best innocent look. "I'm secretly an Angel. Please don't tell anyone."
I couldn't tell if he was annoyed or amused, but Laurent cut in before he could answer.
"We agreed not to question her. She'll tell us if she decides she wants to," he said easily. "And I'm certainly not going to complain about a boost to my defenses."
He looked back to me, curiosity slipping through despite himself.
"You're not really an Angel, are you?"
I couldn't keep the grin from my face as I shrugged. He slowly shook his head and turned away, leading us back to the carriage.
When we climbed aboard this time, I browsed through his collection of books. They were a mix of history and fiction. Not knowing what I'd like, I took the book at the top of the stack. It was a work of fiction, unlike anything I'd read before. It followed the story of a young man who was unknowingly sent on a quest to prove his courage and integrity. Each trial pushed him to his limits, with a repeating theme of how his promise to return to the girl he loved and his devotion to honor carried him through impossible odds. It was fanciful, but strangely engaging. I was nearly halfway through when Laurent noticed what I was reading and, with a deep blush, tried to snatch it away.
"My mother would kill me if I let you finish that!" he said, trying and failing to catch it as I pulled the book out of reach.
"It seems innocent enough. Should I flip to the end?" I asked, sidestepping him again.
"How are you so fast? No! You should absolutely not!"
Of course, I flipped to the end. I managed a paragraph while dancing around the cramped space before I froze. Shock rolled over my face as I looked up at him.
"…While riding a dire panther?" I dropped the book, hands flying to my face as heat flared hot across my cheeks. "Am I blushing?"
Laurent looked torn between horror and hysterical laughter. "I am so sorry, Lady Mirela."
I stared at him for a long moment before slowly bending to pick the book back up, but he snatched it away before I could finish a single line.
"Hey!"
"My lady, that is not appropriate for you to read," he said, forcing his voice back into something proper.
I scoffed. "And it is appropriate for you? Give it back. I want to know what happens!"
"Absolutely not." He opened a small access hatch to the storage trunk and tossed the book through without hesitation.
My face fell as I glared at him. "Fine. Then you tell me. When the princess was lying there and yelling about the surging—"
"Mirela!" he said loudly, his face turning an even deeper red.
I sat down and crossed my arms. "It was ridiculous, anyway. The book made it seem like just because they were alone, suddenly they couldn't keep their hands off each other. And they weren't even alone. There was a panther."
Laurent sighed in resignation and gave a small, defeated shake of his head. "They were in love. Of course it was like that."
"And what does that mean? Do you think if you were in love, you wouldn't be able to control yourself?" I asked.
"It means… I don't know," he said, floundering. "It means they made each other happy and wanted to be together. They trusted each other."
I nodded slowly. "Well, I can tell I make you happy. You trust me enough to keep me in this carriage alone with you. And with how much you drag me everywhere, I think you want us to be together. Does that mean you love me? Is that what this is about? Wait, there isn't a dire panther around I should know about, is there?"
His eyes went wide, and I thought his head was genuinely about to explode before I finally broke and started laughing. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. That was too much, even for me. I'll stop."
His mouth fell open. I could see the accusation in his eyes. "You're messing with me. Did you know what that book was the whole time? Why would you do that?"
I gave him an embarrassed smirk. "I'm not really sure. It's not like me. I'm sorry. And no, I had no idea what the book was before I picked it up. But I would like it back. I won't tell anyone if you don't. I'm curious. I don't have any books like that. I didn't even know there were books like that."
He stared at me. "You didn't? I just assumed everyone knew about… that… and tried to keep it to themselves."
I slumped a little in my seat. "I had a sheltered upbringing."
He studied me for a few long seconds, then shook his head. "You should discuss this with your mother, not learn about it from a random book."
"My mother is dead. I was raised by an adoptive father who would sooner die than admit the subject exists. I don't have that luxury."
He went still. "Oh. I'm sorry, Mirela. I didn't mean anything by it."
"I'm not offended," I said quietly. "She died when I was very young. I have no memories of her. But as you can see, books are my best option."
He sat up straighter, giving me a flat look. "Are you trying to use my guilt over bringing up your dead mother to get me to give you a smut novel?"
"Is it working?" I asked.
"No."
"Fine," I said, staring him in the eyes as I slowly unfolded my arms and reached down to grab another book. "Keep that one. I'm sure there are more in here."
His eyes went wide. He lunged for the pile, trying to scoop them up as fast as he could while I laughed and casually flipped through my new novel.
Hours later, we stopped for the evening, and the group began to set up camp. We climbed out and stretched, and I finally returned the book I'd snatched. Laurent tried to look nonchalant as he tucked it back with the others, but his relief was obvious. It was almost sweet that he didn't realize I could simply sneak in later and take another one. I grinned to myself and skipped over to where the firepit was being assembled, lighting it quickly with a small cantrip before casting the anti-vermin charm to keep the bugs away.
When I turned back, Laurent was staring at me, wide-eyed and openly stunned by what I'd done.
I gave him a quick curtsy and said, "That is what studying your entire life without knowing about that eighteen-year-old rule will get you."
"That was very impressive. How did you learn sorcery without a class?"
I held my smile as I shrugged. "Hard work."
Sir Cedric joined us, dismounting his horse. "Hard work or not, I've never seen someone use sorcery without a class for it, nor anyone so young using magic without incantations."
I huffed at him. "They're just cantrips. Let me have my moment."
"I'll let you have some advice," he said, humorless. "Lord Laurent has been betrothed since before his birth. As much fun as you two might be having, you should stop trying to impress him. There is no chance of winning him over."
I could see on his face that he fully expected this to crush me, but I only raised an eyebrow at his nonsense. "Win him over for what? I see no reason that should mean he would reject my friendship."
Laurent cleared his throat. "Sir Cedric, could I speak with you privately?"
The knight nodded, and they stepped away together, though not as far as they thought. I could still hear them clearly.
"Cedric, is there some reason that you've brought this up? Are you trying to insult her or embarrass me?"
"That's nonsense. You know me better than that, boy. I brought it up because everyone in the party has listened to the two of you giggling together and acting like lovestruck children."
"We've not behaved inappropriately at all. And now you're bringing up my missing fiancée as if I've committed a crime." Laurent's voice sharpened. "If you've been listening in on us, then you might have noticed other things. Her parents have been missing since she was an infant. She was raised by an adoptive father. She refuses to give her family name or say where she's from, only that it lies to the west. Her skills are markedly impressive, and her attributes are abnormally high. The moment she joined our party, a holy aura washed over us. She's admitted she's a healer. She's classless and approaching her eighteenth birthday, traveling to Valoria for help unlocking her class, and she just happens to run into us along the way. That is too many coincidences to ignore."
Cedric took his time before replying, clearly weighing every word. When he finally spoke, his voice was calm and blunt.
"You are dreaming, boy. Stop looking for hope where there is none. She's an impressive girl, but that is all. She is also a danger. She could be here to lure you into a false sense of security and kill you. You are not considering what it would mean if you were wrong."
Laurent's jaw tightened, but he processed the words instead of reacting to them. I could only assume it was something he had learned from Cedric.
"No. She isn't here to hurt me. She said as much in front of a truth stone. And maybe you're right. Maybe she really is just an impressive girl." He paused. "But I don't think our meeting was a coincidence. She could be a powerful ally and a good friend. If you feel the need to be on your guard, then fine. Do it. But give her a chance while you are."
They talked a bit longer, but not about anything important. Still, I caught the shape of their meaning easily enough. The suggestion that I was someone he was searching for, or even his missing fiancée, was absurd. But he was right about one thing. I could be a powerful ally. I could be a good friend.
And I wanted to be. I liked his company. He was easy to talk to, and far too earnest for his own good. So… we would see.
Before long, they returned. Laurent came to sit beside me at the table, and I passed him a plate. He helped himself to the food, quiet for longer than usual. It was a while before he spoke.
"I'm sorry about earlier. Cedric wasn't trying to upset you."
I nodded. "I understand. He's only looking out for you. I don't mind. I have no expectations beyond the possibility of us building a friendship."
He nodded and ate quietly for a moment before saying, "You seem much more grounded than earlier."
It only took a moment of introspection to realize he was right. "I am. I overheard your conversation with Cedric. I don't know who you're looking for, but it isn't me. I have no betrothed, and I likely never will. My abilities are part of my upbringing, and our meeting really was just chance." I hesitated, then added more softly, "But I won't lie. I had a wonderful time with you today. I appreciate how hard you tried to keep my spirits up. It helped. I think it showed me a lot about who you are. I think we could be good friends."
"That was… very honest," he said. "I think there's more to you than you realize. But I appreciate what you said. I'd like to be friends too." He paused, then frowned slightly. "But how did you hear us? Did you use magic? We were pretty far away."
I shook my head. "No magic. I just have very good hearing."
"That's… frighteningly impressive," he said. "I'll have to be careful."
I shrugged. "I doubt you have much to worry about. At least, other than me stealing your book collection."
His face paled. "You really need to stay out of those!"
"I don't know," I said. "I don't think anything will ever top that dragon-shifter romance I just finished. Which reminds me, I have questions. How—"
He waved his hands in front of my face. "No. Absolutely not. Not a word. Not a single word."
I laughed, and we finished dinner in a much lighter mood.
When it was time to sleep, I asked about getting my bedroll, only to be told I'd be sleeping safely inside the carriage. I was sure I'd misheard until it was explained to me. A divider had been installed in the carriage, and one of the team members, an older priestess named Rose, would be sleeping on my side with me "for propriety."
I didn't mind. I warned her that I was very difficult to wake during the night and not to be alarmed. She only smiled and nodded, and I suspected she was simply happy not to be camping outside. I couldn't blame her for that. She was likely old enough to be my grandmother, even if she hid it well.
I lay down just before sunset, and Rose joined me shortly after. She brought a book, so I took the chance to sneak in some writing of my own in my spellbook. I knew my runes and remembered what many spells did, so rewriting them into my new book wasn't difficult. If I made a mistake, the enchantment on the pages would cause the magical ink to fade harmlessly, so I wasn't worried about backlash.
Fortunately for me, I didn't make any mistakes. By the time the familiar pull settled in, warning me I was out of time and needed to sleep, I had finished transcribing the Sleep spell. Grinning, I targeted myself and cast.
TO BE CONTINUED...