Valor and Violence

Ferez opened his eyes, enjoying the soft bed beneath him, and Ingrid’s warm body beside him, as the early morning light streamed through the window. He rolled over, drinking in the sight of his lover. She was stunning, a beautiful force of nature, even in the soft repose of sleep. The vibrant, bright blue woad around her eyes slid across her temples and disappeared into the snow-white hair splayed chaotically across the pillow, giving her the appearance of some wild maned creature from fantasy. Even in sleep, she looked every bit the formidable warrior.

Partly because her face always defaulted to an angry expression. Even when unconscious, her brows furrowed and lips scrunched into a scowl. But she was beautiful all the same.

Carefully, so as to not wake her, he peeled back the quilt and eased himself out of the bed, slipping his robes on and stealing out the door. He stretched once he was outside in the cool morning air and stifled a yawn. It was spring, but they were far enough north that the hint of winter’s chill lingered in the crisp morning breeze and the cold light from the rising sun. Here, in the furthest extremity of Aderath, he was as far removed from his homeland as he could be.

And he revelled in it. The surrounds were too beautiful not to; the sky a shade of brilliant blue only seen in the northern reaches of the continent, the snow-capped, red stone mountain peaks piercing the sky in the east. Just beyond the walls of the fort were endless forests of ice encrusted trees and pristine rivers.

There are, he decided, few places in the world as romantic.

The sound of water hitting the ground nearby snapped him from his reverie, and he turned to find Leo pissing in the castle courtyard, his head strained forward slightly to see over his belly. Ferez walked over to say good morning.

“I must say, Leo. It never ceases to amaze me how you can do that standing up.”

Leo’s blue-black eyebrows scrunched together. “Why?”

“Most people of your stature need to sit down.”

“Ha. Ha,” Leo replied, making a gesture with his free hand. The stream immediately changed course, flying at Ferez’s face. He chuckled and waved his hand, and a gout of flame evaporating the urine before it could reach him. When the fire cleared, he found Leo with a smirk on his face, ringing out the last few drops.

“Worth a shot,” he said, re-adjusting his robes. They were cut in the style of the Aquis college, but a dull brown knock off instead of the official deep blue, given he technically wasn’t a member of the organisation anymore. When his waterspout was snuggly tucked away, he strolled over to the nearest fire and held his hands out. One of them was freshly mangled, and Ferez couldn’t help but stare. He had known the man for years as Four Fingered Leo, the infamous smuggler, but now only the second and third fingers and thumb were left.

They had drifted apart in the years since they stopped adventuring together, so Ferez had felt it might have been a tad rude to ask right away. Now that they were standing in the burnt-out wreckage of the bandit stronghold, he felt enough time had passed.

“So, Leo. The hand?”

The Aquis mage shook his head. “Not ready to talk about it.”

“Would a coffee change that, or?…”

“You burned down the kitchen, Ferez. The coffee’s gone.”

“Oh, dear,” Ferez said with genuine annoyance. He had been excited to start his day with a strong cup. “What about taking a walk? Find some breakfast? I wouldn’t mind surprising Ingrid with venison.”

“Fine, but I’m still not talking about the hand.”

They turned away from the smouldering wreckage of the barracks and set off for the remnants of the gate. They daintily picked their way through the carnage, the splintered ruins of the heavy wooden portal strewn about the courtyard between bandit corpses in various states of disassembly.

“We’ll need to do something about this mess when we get back,” Ferez sighed. The contract had been explicit, leaving the fort full of decomposing bodies would result in a hefty deduction from their fee.

“Urgh, that’ll take us all day!” Leo protested, throwing a hand and a half in the air.

“At least the weather is cool,” Ferez replied, tilting his head to better feel the delicate rays on his face as he stepped over a headless corpse. “What a beautiful day.”

*

This far removed from civilisation, the deer were plentiful and not as scared of humans as they should be. The men were strolling back through the gate within a half hour.

As they passed beneath the structure’s shadow, a doe across his shoulders, Ferez reflected on how much he had changed over the years. When he first met Leo and Ingrid, he’d been a pompous arse, sporting ludicrously impractical armour he could barely move in, and without the slightest idea how to actually fight. Now, his frame was covered in hard muscle, and the sword strapped to his hip was anything but for show. His peers back in The Six Cities sneered at it the few times he found himself back there, but it had saved his life on more than one occasion.

One couldn’t grow complacent and rely on magic. You never knew how far you might need to stretch your Talent pool… or when a psychopath might attack you with an ancient, schizophrenia inducing, magic absorbing artefact.

He shook his head at the memory. His first battlemage contract, and it had nearly been his last. The whole experience had left a sour taste in his mouth. If he hadn’t stumbled into Leo and Ingrid, DuBois would have killed him. What was worse, the college officials who had given him the task had known it. They were content to throw fresh mages at the problem until one of them had gotten lucky. That way, they didn’t need to pay an entire team.

Devious, greedy bastards. He had made it a point to avoid the college and its affiliated rubbish ever since.

“What’s that look on your face?” Leo asked beside him.

“Just reflecting on how much I’ve grown and matured over the years, my friend,” he said, a faraway gaze in his eyes. “And how strong I’ve gotten.” He looked at Leo and saw the chubby water mage cock an eyebrow.

“No, seriously!” Ferez continued. “Look at these arms! You’ll be cooking the deer by yourself; no doubt Ingrid will drag me right back to bed when she sees me strutting in like this.” He quickened his pace, aiming to be first in Ingrid’s line of sight.

“It’s quite incredible,” Leo said, trailing behind. “Even after all these years, you’re still every bit as arrogant a bastard as when we met.”

Ferez dropped the deer. “You take that back!” he said, rounding on his friend.

Leo’s eyes narrowed dangerously in return. “Make me, fire dandy!”

The men glowered at each other for a few seconds before Leo’s gaze flickered over Ferez’s shoulder, and his eyes widened in fear. Knowing Leo well enough to suspect a ruse followed by a cheap shot, but too concerned for Ingrid to care, Ferez spun. He found his beloved standing in the courtyard before a pair of very large, heavily armed men. Her back was to Ferez, but he could tell from her stance that she was tense.

The men towered over the wind mage, warriors from the look of them. They were covered in ornate steel armour from their boots to their horned helms. Bear fur cloaks hung from their shoulders, and giant bearded axes were fixed to their waists.

“Leo, let’s go- Leo?”

The smuggler was nowhere to be seen.

“Stupid, cowardly, criminal, bastard!” Ferez spat as he turned and charged the men. They noticed him coming and immediately drew their weapons and bellowed a challenge. The fire mage returned with one of his own as fire sprang into life around his arms, pooling in his fists, burning hotter and hotter as he fed Talent into the infernos. He would melt right through their armour and turn them to ash!

That was the plan, at least. Ingrid looked over her shoulder, waved a hand, and a gust of wind picked Ferez up, dangling him in the air. His arms windmilled in an undignified manner as he tried to find his balance and right himself.

“Settle down, Ferez,” Ingrid called, her palm outstretched towards him. “I’ll let you down, but you have to promise to play nice.”

Gritting his teeth, he finally spun himself into an almost upright position, and nodded. The wind died instantly, and he dropped to his feet, landing in a crouch. He straightened up as Ingrid sauntered over, wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him, heading off his angry tirade.

He still made a point of looking annoyed when she finally pulled away.

“Oh, don’t give me that,” she said. “We both know what your temper is like, and although I could kick your arse with my eyes closed, you’re insultingly protective. These two aren’t here to harm me.”

Ferez eyed the men off, noting they still had their axes drawn. “They’re friends of yours?” He tried, and failed, to keep the tinge of jealousy from his voice.

Ingrid rolled her eyes, but there was the faintest whisper of a smile about her lips. “Hardly. They’re two of my father’s retainers. He sent them to deliver a message.”

“Really? Out here? We’re at the end of the world, Ingrid!”

“To you and your tender, supple, southern complexion maybe. But for us this is a summer wonderland.”

Now it was Ferez’s turn to roll his eyes. They had been together, on and off, for a decade now, and she still treated him like he was weak because he came from the desert half of The Continent.

Like she would fare any better on the Emrinthian sands.

“I’ll let that slide this once,” he said, knowing full well he let it slide every time because she actually could kick his arse if she wanted to. “What is the message?”

Ingrid extricated her arms, a slight scowl playing over her face. “I’ve been summoned back to the hall. A cousin is being married off, and the groom is taking over as Jarl. By tradition, all close family has to be in attendance.”

“We’re going back for a wedding? And a cousin at that? How is that ‘close’?”

“Not close to the cousin, fool. Close to the Jarl.”

“Either way, it may as well be the other side of the world! The closest open mountain pass is at least a fortnight’s travel south, and then we would need to traipse all the way back north to Skjar!”

“It’s fine,” she said, waving a dismissive hand. “We’ll just delay our get away by a month or so.”

Ferez fought the urge to pout. They had been planning on using the proceeds from this contract to go on a little holiday, just the two of them. He had been looking forward to it for quite some time, but a journey like this would take the better part of the season, and they would miss all the spring festivals. Which was a problem. Though most in the college dismissed it as superstition, Ferez couldn’t help but feel like a bit of extra grace from the gods might be just what they needed.

Gods knew they had tried everything else.

Ingrid noticed the look on his face and squeezed his shoulders, a sad smile on her lips. He thought she was going to say something comforting, but instead, she turned away.

“You two can go back,” she said to the Skjar warriors. “Tell the bag of bones I’m coming.”

“Fruha Luftfaust, the Jarl was explicit. We were to bring you back with us,” one warrior said, the tone of his voice completely at odds with his use of Ingrid’s honorific title. The wind mage noticed as well, her woad encircled eyes narrowing dangerously at the imposing northerner.

“Hauskarl, while I applaud your dedication to my father’s commands, I am not ready to leave, and I have long since tired of your company. I will first savour a coffee from the fort’s larder. I will then return to our employer to collect the fee for this contract. I may then treat myself to a shopping spree in Ader, if I so choose, and only after that will I return to the hall. At. My. Leisure. My father abdicated his right to tell me what to do a long time ago.”

The Hauskarl stepped forward and seized Ingrid by the wrist. “This is not a negotiation, woman. You are coming with us. Now.”

The warrior turned his head slightly, and through the eye slits, Ferez could see his eyes crinkle up as he grinned. An oafish challenge to the fire mage. Ferez just smiled and shook his head.

“You are looking the wrong way, friend.”

The warrior’s gaze slid back to Ingrid, and he realised his mistake. She was grinding her teeth, eyes bulging in their sockets at the blatant disrespect. She balled her free hand into a fist and slammed it into the giant’s chest. He flew, his steel armour caved by the assault, and thudded to the ground several meters away. A hacking gasp came from under his helm as he flailed, followed by the unmistakable sound of projectile vomit hitting metal. When the man got his breath back, and his solar plexus stopped punishing him for his hubris, he let out a disgusted groan.

Ferez chuckled. That had been entertaining. Surprising, but entertaining. A northerner of all people should have known to exercise caution around a mage with the honorific of Luftfaust.

Wind Fist, in the Common tongue.

The other Hauskarl reached for his axe, and Ingrid slammed him to the ground with a gesture, a jetstream of wind pinning him in the dirt. She advanced on him as he fruitlessly struggled.

“I will say this one more time,” she said as the warrior glared up at her. “Leave. Now. And take that lump of testosterone addled muscle with you.”

“The Jarl will hear of this- “ he said.

“The Jarl won’t do shit. He sent you two specifically to deliver this message because you’re expendable. I wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t expect you to return at all.”

The warrior stopped struggling. “You lie.”

“I don’t. I almost killed my own brother because he angered me. And the great Jarl knows I despise both him and his hall. He sent you here assuming I might throw a tantrum and kill you.”

The Hauskarl’s eyes widened, but he held his silence, so Ingrid released the stream of magic and allowed him to stand. He wordlessly collected his companion, and they hobbled out of the fort. Ferez placed a comforting hand on Ingrid’s shoulder as they watched them leave.

“Out of curiosity, why didn’t you kill them?”

Ingrid sighed and turned to him, a sad smile on her face. “You’re making me soft, Ferez. Because I really don’t know. I just didn’t want to.”

The sound of someone pretending to throw up behind them announced Leo’s return. Ferez whirled on him, his face contorted.

“Where the Pit did you get to?”

“I, uh. I was flanking them. Yep. Giving them the ol’ flank and spank,” he said, nodding vigorously.

“Bullshit, Leo. I saw you leg it behind the stables when Ferez was distracted,” Ingrid replied.

“I was going to retrieve the water from the drinking trough. You know, to make ice spears and… stuff.”

Ferez pursed his lips as he regarded Leo. He was a nervous, fidgety bastard at the best of times, came with the territory when you became a smuggler, but he had been far more skittish than Ferez remembered. He wasn’t entirely sure why the water mage had even wanted to come. Ingrid hadn’t been happy, but Leo was practically on his knees begging and Ferez hadn’t the heart to turn him away. He opened his mouth to interrogate the smuggler, but Ingrid pre-empted.

“Whatever. If I couldn’t handle them, you wouldn’t have made a lick of difference, anyway.” She paused, craning her head around, looking for something. “Where’s the larder? I need my coffee.”

The blood in Ferez’s veins turned to ice, and he tried to discretely inch away from her. He didn’t get far, as Leo gleefully answered.

“Might want to ask your true love there.”

She turned. Slowly. So horrifyingly slowly, the individual tendons in her neck popping one by one. Her eyes were slits and her teeth bared as she hissed at Ferez.

“What is the idiot talking about, my love?”

“Well, uh… you see, it was chaos! During the battle, and, and, there was a cavalry charge!” he said, backing away. “Yes, a host of heavy cavalry heading right for you but you were preoccupied,” Ingrid begun stalking towards him and he started blubbering, “so I did what I had to do! I, I, interdicted them! Yes! But uh…”

She had closed the distance and was face to face with him now. Noses almost touching.

“But what, Ferez?”

That tone of voice could rout armies by itself.

“Well, they were standing in front of the mess hall, it turns out. It was caught in the conflagration.”

He sensed the Talent surging through her body and closed his eyes, accepting the inevitable. In the distance, Leo laughed.

“Hold up there, Ingrid. Before you murder him, look at what I found while I was ‘flanking’. Turned out the stable master had been squirreling a little away for himself.”

Ferez cracked an eye to see Leo waving a small bag at them.

Thank the Pantheon! He thought, a relieved smile springing to life on his face. As quickly as it started, Ingrid’s Talent dissipated, reabsorbing into her inner reservoir as she stormed over to Leo and snatched the beans. She kept storming towards the fort commander’s house where she and Ferez had spent the night.

“You two get started on cleaning this place out,” she called over her shoulder as she went inside and slammed the door behind her. Leo and Ferez looked from the door to each other, the former still chuckling and the latter glaring at his supposed ally.

“What?” Leo asked, holding his hands up defensively.

“You’re an arse. I never should have let you come.”

Leo snorted. “Please, I just saved your life!”

“She wouldn’t have caused any permanent damage,” Ferez replied. “But just to be safe, let’s clean up before she comes back.”