14 - Death to the Flightless Bird

Anilith sat apart from the pair, her body posture tense.

“Oh, come on. You should have seen your face, miss, ‘that is a death I choose willingly.’ You gotta be able to back up big words like that.” Orion sat reclined against Razhik’s exposed belly, scratching a scale, to the creature’s evident pleasure. “Better you learn some lessons in a safe setting than out there, where split-second decisions separate the living from the dead. Tell me, what did you learn?”

“That you’re an ass,” Anilith replied, nonplussed.

“Ask anybody, that ain’t news.” Orion laughed, although it was the laughter of a child compared to his earlier display. “I think it’ll go better if you tell me what you think you should have learned, then I can tell you what I was aiming for, and, no, it wasn’t only for the laughs.”

The scowl on Anilith’s face softened, likely less from forgiveness than thoughtfulness. Moments hung between them, tangible as dust in a beam of light, before she spoke.

“I’m sure there are any number of lessons I might have been supposed to learn from that last trick, but one strikes me most soundly. Overconfidence is death, and the Tower is more dangerous than I imagined. Where did you even find this beast? Why is it…”

“My name,” Razhik interjected, “Thank you very much, is Razhik’issala Khash’dhrissa, and you may call me Razhik’issala Khash’dhrissa, if you’re gonna be so polite and cheery about everything.”

The creature let out a massive breath. It took Anilith a moment to realize it was scoffing at her. “Lighten up, it was just a bit of fun. I only slightly wounded you. Do you know how hard it is to not puncture you soft-squishies? Do you?!” He raised a claw, indicating the gash in the side of her armor, where he had gotten a little carried away in his role, making a rolling gesture with his paw as he did. “I was even kind enough to neutralize my venom with my priceless slobber. You have no idea how much people would pay for that stuff. Ungrateful, really.” The beast was, in Anilith’s opinion, surprisingly animated and adept at communicating with body language.

The creature turned his head away, not for the first time, and stared off into the waves of wheat, decidedly ignoring Anilith again.

“Yeah, sorry about Razh. He’s like a puppy, really.” Orion scratched behind Razhik’s ear in a pantomime of his words.

Razhik pulled away in a huff. “I am no puppy, and I said she can call me…”

“Yeah, yeah. We heard you, buddy, but ain’t nobody got time for that.” Orion shook his head in dismay at his friend’s antics.

Without turning back, the King muttered, barely audibly, “Lord Razhik will do then, I suppose.”

“Great, anyway. Moving on. That’s part of the lesson, sure, but dig deeper, kid. Think about why you felt so overconfident.”

Orion held his hand up and started raising fingers as he listed off points. “Surely, it couldn’t be as simple as, A, you fooling yourself into thinking the Plains couldn’t hold any danger. B, That you, on your second day here, could handle anything the Tower might throw at you, just ‘cause you stuck to where someone said it was safer. Or, C, that nothing could ever stray from its habitat. No, you certainly considered all of these factors, and more I won’t point out, when we set out this afternoon.” He paused to take a quick, dramatic breath. “Anything else you may have noticed?”

Anilith chewed on her lip while she thought, not refuting the validity of Orion’s statements. “You’re right, I don’t know what’s out there. I have never, in my wildest dreams, imagined a creature like Razhik.”

“Lord Razhik, but thank you!” the creature said, whipping his head around in a blur. “We’re actually not uncommon, we just don’t like…”

“Yeah, now’s not the time, Razh.” Orion bopped him on the head, knocking the unnatural smile off his face. Turning his attention back towards Anilith, Orion nodded, saying, “Continue.”

Anilith watched the display between the two, clearly uneasy at the way the man disciplined a beast who could swallow him whole. “Um, well, yeah. If he, and I guess even more like him…”

“Oh, there’s nobody like me.” Razhik interrupted, as certain of the fact as he was that the sun would rise tomorrow.

“…are out there, I don’t have the first guess what else the Tower has in store.”

“Good. Me neither. I’ve seen a lot, but people who think they’ve seen it all wind up dead sooner than later. Makes ‘em easy to surprise, see? Don’t be easy to surprise.” The Wanderer waggled his finger at her for emphasis.

“I also noticed that quests aren’t always as straightforward as you might think. Tell me. Will I fail the fourth quest because I didn’t just ‘eliminate’ the threat?”

“No, no you wouldn’t, and I was damn surprised you picked up on that so quick. Most folks make a mistake or two they can’t forget ‘fore learnin’ that one. Can’t say it ain’t pleasing.”

Orion went on with a warning. “Only a broken soul goes around slaughterin’ things just ‘cause a piece of paper says to. Sure, sometimes that’s the proper course of action, but people as turn to violence too quickly, well, let’s just say they don’t run in good crowds, here. People take note of that kinda thing before long, and trust me when I say, someone is always watchin’ the Guild.”

“The Guild?”

“Ah, right,” Orion replied, scratching his cheek, “You likely wouldn’t know about that yet. The Hall at the center of town, where you turn your quests in. They’ve got a branch in each outpost, but that’s not important right now.”

“I know a guy who’d be happy to take all these buggers off our hands for us, an’ he’ll be particularly pleased they’re alive.” He paused and looked at Razhik. “Well, most of ‘em anyway. Price of doin’ business. Anything else?”

“Well, I actually didn’t hate the mundane requests as much as I thought. I could probably work some in as training aids, here and there, I’m never collecting those birds again, though.”

“Oh, they aren’t that bad,” Orion started, “You’ll find their ingenuity's pretty lacking, after a while. They’re actually one of the faster quests once you…”

“NEVER. Again.” There was a finality in her voice that offered no room for compromise.

“Alright, sheesh, ain’t gotta tella me thrice.” The Wanderer blew a raspberry. “Anything else you care to mention?”

Approaching her most shameful realization of the day, Anilith sat silently. It wasn’t a complicated thing to say, but she found herself struggling to get the words out. Finally, they came out in a jumble, racing to escape before she changed her mind.

“I realize I’m not as brave as I thought.”

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“What was that?” Orion smirked as he asked the question.

“Gods, Razhik…”

“Lord Razhik.”

“…you nearly scared the piss out of me. I felt like I was a child with no training again, hardly any better than the rabbit. My heart felt like it was gonna burst from the fear. How do you get past that? How do you keep going out knowing something like that,” she gestured dramatically at Razhik, “might be lurking around the corner?”

The smirk slid off his face as Orion replied, “Can’t say as you do, kid. That fear doesn’t just disappear because you’re so brave and mighty. Let me tell you, there’s always something more to fear, unless you’re too stupid to think it through. Fear’s what keeps our edge as adventurers, and you’d do best to remember it. Remember that fear, and it may save your life one day, may save someone you care about.”

Anilith listened, simply sat in the amber waves, and listened. She nodded, understanding his point.

“Nobody lives without a weakness. For some, it’s their heart, other’s their wallet, and others yet something far harder to identify, but it’s always there. Remember that, kid. Now, anything else?”

“I mean, aside from how infuriating being used by you two for your own entertainment was, not to get into how ridiculous it is that you're friends with this…Razhik.”

“Lord Razhik.”

“Ugh, alright, Lord Razhik.” She shook her head, flustered. “I can’t think of much else, no.” Almost as an afterthought, she added, “I wish I had a little more control over my skills, though.”

“Skills? This squishy has skills? Wouldn’t know it after she just stood there and challenged me, genius that she is.” The smug look on Razhik’s face sat more fittingly than any expression Anilith had seen him wear. She took the insult in stride, not very well able to refute the idiocy of her actions. If the stakes had been real, she was certain she wouldn’t be having any conversation anymore.

“Well, there are a few things I haven’t shared. I can’t tell you without an Oath, though. Secrets and all, you understand.” Anilith nodded sagely, appearing more mocking than anything. “We might be working together now, but better safe than sorry. Not every secret is my own to share, after all.”

Orion threw his hands in the air. “Ugh, this again. Alright, fine. I swear to hold the secrets of Anilith until such time as she releases me from this Oath, bids me share them, or perishes.” As sarcastic as his tone was, he said the words with conviction. He looked uncomfortable for a moment, although Anilith felt nothing, as if an invisible weight settled over him. He squared his shoulders again after a breath and looked at his beastly friend. “Razh, your turn.”

“Gods, you humans and your secrets. If someone you don’t like finds out something they shouldn’t, just eat them! Always overcomplicating everything with Oaths and whatnot.”

“Razh,” Orion said with an edge of warning in his tone.

“Fine. I swear to not intentionally…”

The Wanderer leveled a scowl at the creature that could have leveled Anilith’s house back in her village. “Razhik, if you don’t word this Oath proper, so help me gods, I’ll make you regret it. No loopholes. Your mouth is, by far, your biggest feature.”

“Well, I could prove you wrong, there, but you wouldn’t like it.” The creature chuckled to itself, clearly amused by its subtle insinuation. “I, Razhik’issala Khash’dhrissa, swear to uphold Anilith’s Oath of secrets until she frees me from its bonds.” His shoulders sagged. Anilith may not have noticed it, had she not just witnessed a similar reaction in Orion. That, and Razhik made no attempt to hide it.

“Well, that was unpleasant, as always. Hers is a little heavier than I expected, especially from someone so new. These secrets better be worth it.” Razhik sat, looking, for all the world, like a puppy waiting for a treat.

Anilith, pleased with her companions’ determination, decided it best to start with her own secrets. “Now, I don’t exactly know how it works, per se, but I have an ability I recently discovered. My talks with Mingus make me think it’s a form of magic, but for the life of me, I can’t figure what kind it would be.”

The two waited, clearly expecting more information or a demonstration or something, but she just stood there dumbly. Finally, realizing the conversation wasn’t going to go anywhere without her, she continued. “Well, it’s only happened once, and I wasn’t exactly putting a lot of thought into it. It just kinda…happened. One second, this fire-wielding goblin, I didn’t know what it was at the time because I was kinda in the thick of it, was casting a spell, Mingus called it? The next, I kinda…knocked it back at the creature? Honestly, I’m not sure what I did, only that I reacted, and it saved my life.”

Orion shook his head, putting his palm to his face. “And here I thought you were hopeless enough already! Now, you tell me you have a different kinda magic than I’ve ever seen. Gonna take me some time to figure out how to help you train that one, and I can already tell you, it ain’t gonna be fun.”

“You’re gonna help me train?” Anilith looked overjoyed at the proposition. “We’re going back to the Forest already?”

“HAH. Gods, no. No, we’ll find something a bit more tame, more manageable locally first. Life and death situations are great teachers and all, except if you don’t learn the lesson right, you’re kinda dead. Let’s keep the stakes a little lower while we figure out what we’re workin’ with, eh?” Orion tapped his temple three times and gave her a knowing look before he went on. “Somethin’ tells me that ain’t the only secret you’re holdin’ onto though. Spill it.”

Anilith collected herself, unsure how to broach the subject. She’d never spoken of her training with anyone aside from her Master and Temperance. “This secret is a lot bigger than me. Know that I will attempt to kill you…”

“Well, that didn’t go so well for you last…”

“Shut it! Yes, I will try, even if it kills me, Razhik,” the creature made to interrupt, but Orion held up a hand, “should you attempt to share what I’m about to tell you.” After a breath, she continued, “For years before I came to the Tower, I was trained in the art of Blade Weaving.”

A blank look came over the other two, but she pressed on before she lost her nerve. “It’s not something I can explain well, because I’m not honestly that sure how it works, either. Best I can explain it is a state of mind. An awareness that identifies dangers and helps minimize their threat. It’s almost a…” Anilith searched for the right word. “…a trance.”

The two just looked at her, clear confusion on their faces.

“Ori, do you have any idea what she just said?”

“No, Razh, can’t say I do. Mind feels a little fuzzy, you?”

“Yeah, I’d say that’s about right. Caught something about a state of awareness like a trance, though.”

Orion screwed up his face as if thinking very hard. Anilith didn’t really understand why they were both being so rude. She wouldn’t have even said anything if she knew they weren’t going to pay attention.

“Yeah, I can almost feel the truth in those words. It’s almost as if…”

“The Tower’s messing with us?” Razhik finished his thought for him.

“Yeah. Whatever she’s trying to tell us, the thing doesn’t seem to want us to know. Damn secrets.”

“Ori,” Razhik scolded the man, “what have I said about disrespecting the world?”

“Uh, keep it to myself?”

“Damned straight! I’m tired of being caught up in your unlucky horseshit. Comes a point where it’s not bad luck anymore, you know.”

Now, Anilith genuinely did not grasp what the pair was talking about; she hadn’t spoken unclearly and had been sure to speak slowly and intentionally. Still, the feeling seemed to be mutual, so she let it go.

The silence had already grown uncomfortable when Orion spoke up again. “Well, kid, I’m not gonna be able to help you train…whatever you’re talkin’ about, sorry. We can work with the first part. Any other life-changing secrets?”

“Oh, sure,” Anilith shrugged, “but you’re not ready for those, mister. Some things, you just can’t unlearn.”

“Gods, we’ve got our work cut out for us, eh, Razh?”

“With you around, I always do.”

“Why do I feel like you two aren’t just talking about the training here?”

Orion and Razhik threw their heads back and laughed, making no attempt to answer her questions as the sun began to dip in the sky, painting the golden fields a rosy hue. The trio sat there and appreciated the beauty around them, something they agreed that everyone should find more time to do.

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