Chapter Thirty

“This is great, I bet even Ralisdor won’t have anything bad to say about this.”

Xorvos was obviously ecstatic at the new information, but Maryam didn’t share his excitement.

“Hold on Xorvos, I don’t think we should tell Ralisdor.”

“What? Why?”

“You know why, he’s suspicious as fuck.”

“I know he can be a bit mean, and obviously he’s lied to us about some things, but I do think he wants the best for Shuka. If this is it, then I don’t think he would get in the way of it.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that. Something about all of this isn’t adding up, and he is a part of it. He might not be an enemy, but if he is and we did nothing, we would only have ourselves to blame. I say we get Shuka and head to my mother without him.”

Maryam was dead serious, and that almost surprised Xorvos more than what she was proposing.

“You want to ditch him? over what, a hunch he might be bad? We need him Maryam, we would have died already without him. I want him to be more honest with us too, but don’t you think you are taking this too far?”

“I think you’re not taking it far enough. What reason does an archmage have to hide his identity in a small town like Rainsburg? And I doubt he got Visia hunting him because he was being too good of a person.”

“We don’t even know if he’s an archmage or not. I mean, we saw his blood yesterday and it was red.”

“That was an illusion, it must have been. I saw the magic all over him, and even without being an archmage that is something any decent illusionist can do.”

What she didn’t say was that she couldn’t tell what kind of magic she saw. Her draconic eyes could only tell her when magic was present, not what it did. For all she knew it could have been residue from a spell Visia had cast. Considering how scorched Ralisdor was, he definitely got hit by a few.

“So he might be an archmage, doesn’t that mean having him help us is even better then?”

“Not if he’s who I think he is.”

“And who’s that?”

“Sandrin, the previous archmage of illusion. Ralisdors skill with illusions is legit, even if I haven’t seen him do anything archmage worthy. Only a few of the other archmages are even human, and people would have noticed if any of then decided to play pretend in a nowhere village for three years. The only archmage that could afford to do that is one that everyone thinks is dead.”

“Okay, and what’s so bad about that? Was he a criminal, because you didn’t seem to have a problem getting help from Visia.”

“He wasn’t a criminal, or at least not as far as I know. But that’s not the problem, the problem is how he died. The Grand Priest raided his home out of the blue with a kill squad of the holy orders most elite fighters, including Validus and another archmage. They never said why, but whatever it was must have been serious since they didn’t even arrest him or hold a trial or anything. They don’t just do that for tax evasion Xorvos.”

The thought of the holy order just walking into someone’s house and murdering them disturbed Xorvos, but then he realised that Validus was doing something similar with Shuka. When there was justice to be done, they did it. Almost seemed virtuous until you remember that they were killing people in the process.

“If the order went so far as to kill him without a trial, how do you know the raid was even justified in the first place? The Grand priest might have had ulterior motives and Validus could have been tricked like with Shuka. It would also make Ralisdor justified in hiding his identity if revealing it meant getting hunted by the Grand Priest again.”

“Well… alright that’s possible I will admit, but what if it was justified? The consequences for doing nothing when he is secretly evil are a lot more dire than the consequences ditching him when he’s actually good. And we haven’t even gotten to the fact that he might have been the one to curse Shuka yet.”

“What? Why do you think he cursed Shuka?”

“The book we read yesterday described curses in a way that made how the witch did it impossible. But Ralisdor could have just made an illusion of that witch and actually cursed her before or afterwards.”

“But then why would he help Shuka lift a curse that he put on her? What reason would he even have for cursing her in the first place? And would he even be able to put this curse on Shuka? If it’s an advanced enough curse that even Visia cant lift it then an illusionist shouldn’t be able to cast it even if he is an archmage. Besides, weren’t you the one that said Visia could just fabricate whatever’s in the book she gave us, that information might not even be accurate. I find it more likely that either the witch is tricking us, or Visia gave us false information.”

Damn, that’s actually a good argument. I still think Ralisdor is behind it all, but I don’t think I can convince him of that if I can’t disprove his theories. If neither of us can prove we are right then this argument is just going to keep going around in circles and we won’t get anywhere. I guess I just can’t leave it up to an argument then.

“Alright Xorvos, how about this. You want to tell Ralisdor and I want to ditch him. We can argue about this all day but we simply don’t have the time. So instead, lets fight. The loser has to follow the winners plan and we don’t have to spend any more time on this.”

“You want a duel?”

“Yes.”

“And if I win you will trust Ralisdor?”

“No. But I will trust you.”

Xorvos thought for a moment, but then nodded his head in agreement.

“Then I accept.”

*

The two friends found a nearby park for their fight. The soft grass and open space lent itself well to an impromptu duel, although it was a little too public for Xorvos’ tastes. Still, it didn’t look like anyone was going to get in their way.

I need to focus. I don’t think Maryam is going to care about spectators, so I can’t either. Just focus on the fight and everything will go well.

They took their places with about twenty feet between them. Maryam took out a coin and placed it on her thumb, ready to flick it into the air.

“We start when the coin hits the ground, got it?”

“Yes. And no magic before the fight starts.”

“Yeah, I know. Don’t expect me to hold back though.”

And with that Maryam flicked up the coin. She quickly got back into a readied position before the coin landed, but when it did, it was Xorvos who acted first. As soon as the duel had officially commenced he activated the grieves he got from the dungeon and shot towards Maryam in an instant. The last time he used that ability in a fight it ended badly, but he had practised since then. This time he got the distance just right to where he stopped right before impacting Maryam. Taking her by surprise, Xorvos grabbed her, before taking her to the ground with a practised grapple. During the fall, he activated his gauntlets to send electricity racing through his friends body. For the first time in a long time, this trick of his actually had an effect. Validus always seemed to tough his way through it without caring, and Videon never even got hit. This time however, he saw Maryam convulse and wince in pain.

Can I actually do this? As long as I hold this grapple for long enough, she should surrender right? Theres no way she can get out now that I’ve got her.

What Xorvos forgot was that he was fighting a mage. While at first he easily had enough strength to keep Maryam trapped all day, she was getting stronger by the second. Soon enough, she managed to break free of his hold on her and put her newly clawed hands on Xorvos’ breastplate. A moment later she launched him flying straight up with a purple blast of raw magical force. Now fifteen feet in the air and starting to fall, Xorvos watched his opponent get up from the ground and do something that worried him. She drew back her fist for a punch. Xorvos was caught between trying to soften his fall and blocking the incoming attack, and in his indecision did neither. Maryams fist, now covered in scales, landed square in Xorvos’ chest, hurting even through the armour and sending him into the ground at an angle instead of straight down. The Quanso wasn’t the only one in pain though.

“Ow, fuck! How can punching through armour hurt so much?”

Xorvos couldn’t find it in himself to feel too sympathetic considering he was currently in much more pain than her. She was shaking her hand in pain which gave Xorvos enough time to get off the ground and create some distance. He knew he wasn’t in a good position though, with how much everything hurt. His armour saved him from the worst of it, but he knew he was the worse one off between the two of them.

If she’s stronger than me now, then how am I supposed to grapple her? I might have better technique, but with her magic that won’t really matter much. Should I switch to striking to try to take her out quickly? But I don’t want to hurt her too much, and I don’t know how much is too much for a human. I don’t have much of a choice though, I will just avoid her head.

He approached again; this time much slower than before. His boots took an hour before they could be used again. Without his previous speed and surprise Xorvos was a lot more careful. Still, with both of them fighting unarmed, but Xorvos being almost two feet taller, he had the rare advantage in reach. He stopped just outside his own reach and waited for Maryam to enter it. Maryam took the bait, dodging the first punch, but having to block the second. What she couldn’t block though was the pulse of electricity Xorvos sent through his gauntlet the moment he hit. It caused her to abort her assault and back off before Xorvos could press his advantage. It almost seemed like she was reconsidering her approach. Instead she got a crazed look in her eyes and charged, smiling like a madman. It freaked Xorvos out so much he punched purely on reflex, forgetting he was meant to not be aiming for the head. This time she didn’t even bother dodging though, instead covering her body with magical armour. Fist met face, and magic or not it still hurt and the sickening crunch that came from her told Xorvos he probably broke her nose. He had a moment of panic for her safety, until he felt her claws dig into the flesh of his outstretched arm. Broken nose or not, Maryam was still smiling. She turned, and then heaved and Xorvos found himself in the air again as Maryam used all of her magically enhanced strength to throw him in an arc and straight into the ground. With the wind very much knocked out of him, Xorvos was helpless as his opponent put one claw against his throat.

“Looks like I win Xorvos. Wanna go again after a break?”

Going again was just about the last thing Xorvos wanted to do. It took him a moment to recover enough to say as much though.

“How… how can you want to go again after that?”

“Well it was fun so why wouldn’t I want to go again? I still have plenty of mana left, and I can afford to buy some potions to heal us up.”

Even with potions it seemed like insanity to Xorvos. He was used to sparring, but this went a little past that. He was still laying on the ground where he was thrown and Maryam was offering him her hand to help him up. Her arms were covered in scales up to the elbow, but he didn’t let that discourage him and took her hand.

“Thanks. I think I’m still going to say no to round two though. I’ve had enough fighting for one day.”

“Aw man, but I’m still itching to go.”

“Is it really that fun for you? Your nose is broken, that can’t be pleasant.”

“Yeah, it hurts like a bitch. I’ll probably have to use a potion just for that, I don’t want it healing weird. Nice punch by the way, you’re pretty good.”

“Am I? I still lost. What’s even the point of all this strength if it’s not enough to win?”

“Well if you wanna get better then lets have another go at it. C’mon, if you hit me in the face twice this time I might go down.”

The utter glee with which she said that was throwing Xorvos off a bit. She was still smiling, even as she was wiping blood of her face.

“All right, this nose is starting to get annoying now, potion time!”

She fished a vial of red liquid from a pouch on her belt, uncorked it and took a sip. She didn’t drink much, not nearly the whole potion, but it seemed to be effective enough. There was a unsettling crack as her nose unbroke itself that made Xorvos flinch from the noise, and Maryam from the pain.

“Did that little potion really heal you completely? It must be pretty good.”

“It is good, but not that good. Fully healing after exercising gets rid of all the muscles you would get though, so I try not to do it unless I’m in real bad shape. My nose still hurts a whole lot, but that’s worth being able to throw you even harder next time.”

She is so positive about such a painful endeavour. Whenever I sparred with my father it was never this harsh, but is this how she usually trains?

While they were chatting, the two friends were approached by a man. He seemed to be in his thirties, and had a bald head with a kind face.

“Excuse me, but I couldn’t help but notice your sparring match and I felt I had come by and meet you two. My name is Arlom, I’m a traveling monk.”

“Um, hello? I’m Xorvos and this is Maryam. Sorry if we disturbed you.”

“Oh no, don’t be sorry, I was glad to watch your duel.”

Xorvos normally would have been a bit uncomfortable talking to a stranger, but there was something about this man that was welcoming. Apparently Maryam wasn’t worried about him either because she approached him with a huge smile on her face.

“Hey, wanna fight?”

What is she doing? You can’t just ask strangers if they want to fight you! What if he thinks we’re some kind of battle maniacs? Why would she even want to fight him, he doesn’t look like a mage and he isn’t carrying any weapons.

“Hmm… no, I don’t think I do.”

“Aw, what? Come on, I bet you could kick my ass, lets just go one round.”

“It is not out of fear of losing that I am refusing your offer. Perhaps you should ask yourself why you are propositioning strangers to fight, and if there are things you value more you should be doing instead.”

“What are you going on about? There is nothing more important to me than fighting right now.”

“Maryam, don’t you think that’s going a bit far?” Xorvos interjected. “What about Shuka? And Ralisdor? There was a reason we even had that fight in the first place remember.”

Maryam got a sort of quizzical expression on her face. Not one that didn’t know what he was saying, but one that didn’t know why it mattered.

“I mean, yeah that’s important and all… but I can deal with all that later. I can only fight this guy now though, so that makes it more important right?”

“But why do you need to fight him in the first place?”

“Because fighting is fun.”

It was like talking to a wall. Xorvos knew her dragon blood made her obsess, but he didn’t know it would be this bad. The stranger didn’t seem perturbed by it though.

“Fun as it may be, entertainment should not get in the way of helping your friends. Letting your obsessions interfere with the rest of your life is an unhealthy habit.”

“Ugh, you sound like my mom. Jeez what do you think my elixirs are for?”

“You have medicine for this problem of yours? It seems like a poor solution if you refuse to use it.”

“Hey, the elixers work just fine, I just don’t see the need to use it when my transformation will wear off on its own.”

Maryam was getting mad, and combined with her desire to fight Xorvos was getting worried she was about to turn to violence.

“If you refuse to take your medicine, perhaps what you need is motivation instead. If you spend the rest of the day only focusing on helping your friend, without drinking your elixir, then I will duel you.”

“What kind of deal is that? Are you just going to follow me around all day? Or am I just supposed to trust that I’m even going to meet you again. How about we just fight right now, and then I’ll help Shuka out.”

“If we do that then you will never learn control. Either take your medicine, or control your urges yourself, but this is not sustainable.”

Now Maryam was looking frustrated along with angry. She wanted to fight, but not with an unwilling opponent. She looked an inch away from either punching him or drinking her elixir, but something was holding her back. Perhaps it was a little voice in the back of her head telling her he was right, or maybe just her draconic pride that refused to back down from a challenge.

“Fine, I’ll take your deal, but I better get my fight after this. Come on Xorvos, lets head back to the inn.”

“Actually, I was thinking of having some words with you too.”

“Me?”

What could he want with me? I’m not anything special like Maryam. Maybe he just see’s how many problems I have and wants to help me them like Maryam. The only thing he’s seen from me so far is my fighting and that certainly wasn’t very impressive.

“Yes you. I was wondering if you would like to spar with me?”

“Huh!?”