Heart of Dorkness

Scourge Nine - Tournament

Morning happens as it usually does, with fights over who gets to use the bathroom first, and Felix urging everyone to move faster so that she can get to breakfast a couple of minutes sooner. Bianca, whose whole ice-princess attitude doesn’t hold up quite as well at this hour, watches us all with detached curiosity, as if we’re a bunch of animals that have snuck into her living room and are making a mess of things.

“So!” I say as I toss on my cloak. It wouldn’t do to be seen as some sort of monster. “Make sure you’re not leaving anything behind, because we’re heading out today.”

“We don’t even know if the city’s still standing,” Esme says.

“We’re in the city,” Felix says.

Esme rolls her eyes. “You know what I meant. We spent the evening hidden in here, we don’t know how bad the city got hit. It’s entirely possible that there won’t be any caravans heading out at all.”

“If that’s the case, then we can head out on foot,” I say. “This mission doesn’t exactly have a strict timeline tied to it.”

“Your part might not, but mine does,” Esme says.

Bianca coughs lightly to clear her throat. “Forgive me for asking, but I don’t think I was entirely informed about Lady Esme’s mission.”

“I’m not a lady,” Esme says. “And I was sent here to discover who broke into one of Semper’s vaults.”

“This is something that the Dark Goddess wants to know about?” Bianca asks. I have the impression that she’s stepping very carefully, as if she might ask something that’ll offend us, or more likely Mom.

“Nah, Esme wants to be an archivist, you know, those people that work with Semper,” I say.

“I was given the mission by Semper herself, I can’t mess it up,” Esme says. Her absolute determination is somewhat undermined by the huge yawn she lets out a moment after speaking.

Eventually none of us need the washroom anymore, and as a group we grab our things and head downstairs. The innkeeper, an older gentlemen, greets us with apologies. “I’m sorry, Lady Malicieau, but my chef hasn’t appeared this morning, and neither has half of my staff. I don’t have anything fresh to serve you, which I know is a terrible sin, but please accept my sincere apologies.”

Bianca glances at us, then back to the innkeeper. “It’s fine. Could you perhaps provide us with non-perishables for the road then? We will be cutting our stay off early, and we might need some supplies for the road.”

The innkeeper agrees and runs off to the kitchens. We don’t have to wait long before he returns with a bunch of things. Bread wrapped up in cloth, some jars of preserves, and a few precious sausage links. That’s a big concession with how much of a luxury good meat is.

Bianca thanks him, and we take a moment to spread the food out between us and our packs, just so that we all have a more or less even amount of weight between us.

“The caravan place will probably be busy,” I say as we start heading out.

“That’s likely,” Bianca says. “Different cities have different responses to disasters like this. I don’t know what Vizeda has planned, but I imagine that they have something in place to take care of things now, and the south gate is a wide open space with easy access to the rest of the city. It’s likely a rallying point.”

“Oh, great,” Felix says. “So we’re heading right into the trouble ourselves then.”

“I wouldn’t say that so soon,” Bianca says.

The city hasn’t changed too much overnight. Then again, I haven’t been here long enough to really get used to it. There are a lot of homes with planks over their windows, and there are definitely fewer people out now than yesterday morning.

The south gate and the area around it, unlike the rest of Vizeda, is filled with people. There are guards all over, some of them looking grimey and tired. I guess some of them have been up all night. There’s an even larger number of adventuring sorts spread out across the courtyard. It’s easy to tell which ones have been working to defend the city at a glance.

Bianca gestures to the building where we reserved our spot on today’s convoy yesterday. “I think we should start there,” she says.

“Sounds good to me,” I say.

“What are they doing?” Felix asks.

She’s looking to the centre of the courtyard where a ring of men are surrounding a sort of mini-arena. The walls are little more than fences, with overlapping shields inside them. In the arena itself are two boys, about our age and shirtless, both with long practice swords.

[Pol Zaragoza – Son of Vizeda]

Initiate Swordfighter

[Markus – The Gutter Rat]

Novice Dirty Fighter

“It’s a fight,” Esme says.

We watch as the two boys go at each other. Pol, who is older and has nicer clothes, obviously has better technique, but it’s also clear that he doesn’t have any real experience.

The other boy, Markus, soon grapples and throws him to the ground before grabbing his own sword mid-shaft and pressing it down over Pol’s neck.

The fight’s called by this big burly fellow on the side, and the two teens are helped to their feet. They’re both approached by men with extra feathery hats who guide them over to two groups waiting on the side.

“Are they being recruited?” I guess.

“It seems like it,” Esme says. “I’ve read about this kind of thing before, when a mercenary group is recruiting, they’ll have potential recruits fight one of theirs to determine which one’s worth taking on.”

“I bet they've lost a bunch of members,” Felix says.

That was unfortunately likely. I imagine that the defence of Vizeda cost the city something. There are piles of armour next to some of the groups. I guess that some of it belonged to the people that just died.

A bit morbid, but I guess there’s no point in wasting it.

“Lady Valeria,” Bianca says as she exits the caravansary. She has a small bag of jingling coins which she hands to me. “I’m afraid that the caravan has been cancelled. They were willing to repay us in full, with a little more on top.”

I take the bag and weigh it. “That’s not great,” I say. Having the money back is nice, but we’re all packed up and ready to go.

“Well, maybe we can join them?” Felix says. She’s pointing back towards all the mercenaries and adventurers.

One is standing on a box, arms raised as he calls out for people’s attention. “Come! The Swinging Sabers are looking for brave warriors to clear the roads from here to the capital! Good pay, a good reputation, and more glory than you can imagine!”

“They’re heading to the capital,” Felix says.

“That’s a mercenary band, they might be willing to escort us for pay,” Bianca says.

“Or we could join them temporarily and get paid to travel,” I say as I start walking over. There are a few takers who seem interested in joining, mostly locals, I guess, from the way they’re dressed, but there are at least half a dozen in the group who have armour and weapons already.

I nudge my way into the group, then to the front with a few sorries and a couple of strategically placed elbows.

“Hey, what do you need to do to join?” I ask.

The man pauses mid-speech and looks down at me. He smiles. “I’m sorry, child, are you asking for your father?”

“What? No, I mean me and my friends.” I gesture back to where my friends are gathered. Felix waves.

“We don’t accept girls,” he says. “Only strong and capable fighters can become Swinging Sabers.”

I shrug. A glance at the men behind him reveals that none of them have more than two classes. They’re probably not allowed to, not being nobles and all. “What if we’re stronger than your men?” I ask.

He laughs, and so do a few of the others.

I... don’t get it. Just because I’m a girl? Mom’s the scariest person on the planet, and she’s a girl. Heck, half the pantheon are girls. “Well, come on, at least let me prove that I can take on any of you,” I say.

I probably can’t. The stronger members are likely too strong. But the majority of them? I like my odds, especially if it’s a mostly fair fight.

“Girl, go back to your friends, you’re embarrassing yourself,” someone says.

“What’s embarrassing is this guy being too afraid to see his Swinging Swords or whatever get beaten by a girl.”

The man on the box twitches. “Very well then! Let’s see if these girls are worth their salt! Come one, come all, and see the might of the Swinging Sabers!”

I nod to myself. A trip to the capital with an escort, and we’ll get paid for it? All for the cost of beating up a few nobodies? Easy!

***