Thinner - 1.4

"The term will start on Monday," the stranger rasped.  "I want to create a party."

Ann peered into his hood, trying to see his face, as Lex leaned forward and responded.  "We're mages.  What would you bring to a party?"

He idly drew one finger along what would be the top half of the war scythe if it were unfolded.  "I fight.  I fight very well and I'm intimidating."

The two girls looked at each other and Lex shrugged.  "We could use a fighter," Ann said.  "We could also use someone more, well more dexterous if you have any suggestions?"

The figure nodded.  "You wouldn't want to follow a stranger through dark streets," he rasped.  "Meet me here tomorrow, at morning bell.

"That's an excellent suggestion," Ann drawled, thinking about his dark streets comment and how late it was getting.  "We already have to meet someone at morning bells.  We could meet you at forenoon?  Also, what's your name?"

"Forenoon would work fine," he rasped.  "My friend Is Miles.  They call me Red," he said, gesturing at his robe.

"Just the robe?"

"I told you, I fight very well," he rasped.  "Things bleed.  It doesn't show as much with this color."

"Ok, then forenoon we'll meet you here."  Ann looked over at Lex, who nodded in agreement, and the two stood up and exited.

"That was a waste of time," Lex said as they stepped outside the tavern.  "Only one person and he 'fights, very well'?  Maybe we should have gone in separately or gone to the school first or put up an ad."  As they turned down the sidewalk to to head back to more reputable parts of town and The Middle Court, a brown-haired man in shining plate armor raised his sword in front of them, blocking their path.

"Ladies," he said, waggling his eyebrows at them and raising his other arm to show his armored bicep.  "If you're looking for muscle… you don't have to look much farther than… Sir Kade," he said reverently as though his name was something to be prized.  "Don't worry," he said confidently, "I'll escort you, keep you safe."

The girls looked at each other, dumbfounded.  This was how he was introducing himself to them?  Like that?  And at sword point?  Lex raised her arm to begin casting as Ann dropped a hand onto a dagger, but a sound of wood sliding against wood and some metal clicks came from behind them and they spun around to see the man in the red cloak, his war scythe standing ready at his side.

The knight snarled at him.  "Stay out of this, Red!" he yelled, letting his sword arm drop.

The man in the cloak ignored him and said to the girls, "You should be fine heading home by yourselves.  I'll meet you here at forenoon, then?"

"Yes, thank you," Ann said as they hurried around Sir Kade, who stood there looking frustrated as they hurried down the pavement.

Kade walked forward while Red folded his scythe back up and snarled, "When will you learn to stop poking your nose into business that doesn't concern you?"

Red didn't say anything but merely stepped backward then turned and walked off into the night.

The next day found the two girls waking with a smile on their face, having enjoying a mattress much softer than the ground they'd been sleeping on for the past couple weeks.  "Thanks for coming with me, Lex," Ann said, looking over at her friend.  "I'm glad you came with me."

"When your father first assigned me to you," Lex said, "It didn't take long to learn that you were the type of master I wanted.  As if I would have let you go off and adventure and leave me behind with them."

"I'm not your master," Ann hurriedly interjected.  "I freed you before you made your Pact.  You can go anywhere.  But I'm glad I have a friend here with me."

"I couldn't have asked for a better friend," Lex said.  "I want to hitch my wagon to yours."

"All the way to the stars," they finished in unison.

They reluctantly got out of the comfortable bed, put their robes on and used the water closet, then cast a quick cleaning spell on themselves to freshen up for the day.

Stopping to grab some fruit and bread for breakfast, and to refill their waterskins, they found Torin outside.  He guided them to the college, then back home, pointing out several landmarks and mentioning how different sections of town that they passed changed at different times of the day.  Ann paid him his coin and he ran off as they headed back towards the tavern, only to find Sir Kade standing outside as though he'd never left.

"Ah, there you are," he said smugly, his eyes roaming up and down their robes, "I was beginning to think that you weren't going to show.  And I knew you didn't want to miss… this show."  He took up a pose again, displaying his physique, as Red stepped out of the tavern behind him, his scythe folded up.

"They're not interested, Kade."

"That's Sir Kade," he said, whipping his sword out as he turned.  "And I'll be the judge of whether they're interested.  Ladies," he said, turning to look over his shoulder at them then directing his attention back to Red.  "Take a look at him!" he called out loudly, "And decide who you'd rather be with."  Two squires stepped out of the tavern at his shouted words and quickly pulled back Red's hood, showing his face for the first time then just as quickly stepped back out of reach, giving him a wide berth and rejoining Sir Kade.

Red didn't seem to have an ounce of fat on him.  Lank grey hair fell limply over his seemingly over-large cranium.  His eyes bugged out of hollow sockets.  His cheekbones looked as though they could cut and his paper thin lips barely seemed to meet over his too-large teeth.  "I made the mistake," he clearly rasped, "Of acting like you when I asked a witch to make me thinner."  His eyes burned with fury as he looked at Sir Kade and the squires before he reached up and pulled his hood back into place.

Stopped - 1.3

Gavin led them up a square staircase which wound its way around the center of the building.  Puffing slightly as the stairs ended on the third floor, he led them to the first of the two doors there and motioned to them to follow him in.  Like the stairs, it was carpeted with a red repeating flower motif with oak paneling on each wall.  The room was perhaps 20 feet by 20 feet, with plenty of room for the large bed, roll-top desk, and large wardrobe.  "I could have a second desk brought in, presuming that you wanted to room together to save costs.  There is one water closet, that other door that you saw in the hall."

"How much is it?" Ann asked.

"Normally," he said, "I'd charge a gold a day apiece for your own rooms, but seeing as how you want to be mages, I presume you understand an elementary cleaning spell and I won't have to provide laundry services or clean the water closet, and neither of you look like you eat very much.  You don't have pets other than any possible familiar you have tucked away, and you're students so you'll be gone during the day and won't make any noise for my neighbors.  This semester, I'll charge you both together four silver pieces a day, payable in advance, and that's a lower fee for the two of you together than you'll find in any place that doesn't leak."

"How about three silver pieces a day with an extra coin every week," Ann countered.

He thought about the offer for a moment then shook his head.  "The school starts on Merday, so most places are full, which limits your options, but then there aren't many more students who will be coming which limits my options.  How about three silver pieces a day with three extra every week, which comes to 78 gold and seven silver."

"That seems fair," Ann said, pulling out her coin bag, "That will take most of what I have, although I plan on getting more by next semester."

Gavin tactfully turned his head as she poured gold coins out on the table and counted out 79.  She handed them over and he made them disappear then handed her three silver coins.   "I'm sure you'll come to love The Middle Court," he said with a smile, "I'll get that desk up here by tomorrow evening, possibly tonight.  Just give me a moment downstairs to get the door key."

"Torin," Gavin puffed out when he reached the bottom level, "If you come back with two quiet men to carry a desk to the third floor, there's a copper in it for each of them and one for you."

Torin nodded his head and asked, pointing to the women, "They'll be here, right?"

"For this semester at least, Torin.  Thank you."  Gavin held out his hand with a smile and Torin smilingly did a fairly decent job of palming the coin Gavin had been holding.

As Torin turned to go, Ann called out to him.  "Torin, for a copper, would you show us the best route to the school in the morning."

"Certainly, milady," he said, bowing.  "I can take you there this evening if you'd like, or at morning bells."

"In the morning," she drawled, "But first will you take us to a tavern?  Not to drink," she said, turning to Gavin, "But to form an adventuring party."

"It's none of my business," Gavin said, with a shake of his head and a pleasant expression, "But please remember the rules.  I'll have that key for you in a moment if you want to take your packs upstairs."

"Certainly," Ann said as Lex nodded and they both bent to pick up their packs.

Their next stop was a tavern, the traditional place to go find a new person to join an adventuring party, or to pick up a quest.  Everyone knew that Arrowhead University, like the other two Hero schools, only allowed 20 Heroes to graduate from its walls each year, and that only Heroes, members of the King's Guard, or older influential people who were also able to pay the hefty tax were allowed to gain any levels.  Most people didn't even have a level, and anyone else found with a level higher than one was either taken to the King to be forcibly deleveled or branded a villain and hunted down.

Everyone also knew that the members in your registered adventuring party would, at the beginning and end of each semester, apply additional bonuses or penalties to your own grade, so there was always some competition to try to form the "best" party possible with the correct number of friends, three to six in total.  There hadn't been anyone else from their small hometown who had been interested in traveling so far and so they hoped to find someone else here that they could group with, someone else that was similarly unattached.  The semester was about to start, so most people would be in a group already, but hopefully they could find some good people.

The default meeting place for adventurers was a tavern, particularly dark, smoky taverns.  The more foul-looking, the better.  Only someone more confident in their skills, or who was looking for someone more confident, would patronize such a place.  Naturally Torin took them straight towards where the main ramps from the docks reached the top of the cliff, pointing out landmarks that they could use to get back on their own as he had other errands to run, and they soon arrived at a particularly foul tavern that looked promising.  With weapons prominently displayed and their hoods up, the two girls blended right in with the general clientele.  The corners were already full when they entered, as usual, so Ann ordered two bowls of soup for them and they joined the crowd at the tables in the middle.  Ann then pushed her hood back, exposing her face to view and gave a sharp head nod, letting her red hair flip out from around her shoulder and hang down over the back of her green cloak.

It wasn't too long until a more drunken man wandered over to their table and thumped a hand down on it near Ann.  "You outta," he lurched out, reaching for her, only to stop as the sound of least six swords clearing a scabbard rasped out from around the room as several excited young men concluded that this was their opportunity to come to the pretty young woman's rescue.  As he slowly looked around him, he carefully pulled his hand off the table and stepped back, saying, "Never, hic, never mind," and wended his way back to the bar where he slumped onto a stool.  The young men shamefacedly looked at each other, sheathed their swords, and all but one sat back down, none wanting to be the one to make the first move to approach the woman and face possible rejection in front of the others.  The lone man on his feet performed a military about face and walked out of the tavern.

After almost an hour's wait, with everything else in the tavern going on as usual but nobody seeming to want to make the first move to approach their table again, a figure in a hooded red cloak walked up, his face as deeply shrouded in shadow as Lex's.  He pulled back a chair and sat down, setting a folding war scythe down on the table in front of him, his hands casually resting on top of it.  It seemed from the way his robe fell that he was wearing some sort of armor beneath it.  His large hands were paper thin, skin stretched tightly over bone, his knuckles clearly evident.  "Students?" he rasped, his voice sounding like a pole being dragged through gravel.

The arrival - 1.1

A squad of King's Guards trotted along the road to Harper, the city on the cliffs, then spurred their horses into a gallop as they neared the gates.  The city had long been famous for its harbor, set within foreboding cliffs in the shape of an arrowhead, with the tip pointing to the West, towards the ocean.  The city was arranged in a vast crescent shape around the harbor.  Docks, ramps, and ladders clung to the cliff wall, making eerie sounds as the wood continually flexed, expanded, contracted, and shifted as it healed and cooled from the sun, wind, and moisture, giving the city its name.

The people in line for the central gate door stepped back and gave the squad room as the squad dismounted and the horses paced around, stirring up a small dust cloud which drifted down on those near.  The town of Harper was home to Arrowhead University, one of the three Hero schools in the kingdom and consequently took security very seriously.  The gate was only opened wide on occasions of grand state visits.  Normally, the pass door was the only way in and out.  Everyone who entered was required to have their appearance noted, a name recorded, and their power level checked.

"Sir Kade," the last King's Guard gentlemen ahead of them said, placing his hand on the power stone, a one foot in diamater polished granite rock, set in a round base.

"Yeah, yeah," the guard said, "Let me just write you down here, Isaac, and put your hand on the, oh, you already did.  You know how it is, repeat the same thing to everyone and it just becomes a habit.  So you're level 3 now?" he said, looking at the glowing rune on the base.  "Congratulations!"

"Is that high?" Lex whispered to Ann, casting a quick cleaning charm on herself as they waited for the guards to finish.

"Not for a Hero," Ann whispered back, casting her own charm, and then it was their turn.  "I'm Aoibheann Mac Cionaoith," she said to the guard as she tossed her hood back and placed her hand on the rock.

'I'm sorry, ma'am," he said in a pleasant voice, looking up and down at Ann, "I'm going to have to ask you to spell that."

Ann did so then said, "Please, call me Ann."

He assented and continued, talking out loud while he wrote.  "Camping backpack, green robe, green eyes, red hair, fair skin, oh uh, some scales," he said looking at Ann's hand and her face for the first time and tensing up.   He quickly glancing at the power stone that Ann's hand rested on then relaxed at the sight of the glowing rune there.  It wasn't the weirdest thing he'd seen by a long shot, and she was cute.  "Level 1," he said with a smile, "Welcome to Harper, Ann."

Ann stepped forward, leaving her hood down, and Lex stepped up, slowly pulling her hood back and placing her hand on the rock.  "Lexia."

"Not a problem," the guard said, a wry expression on his face as he admired her figure.  "How about I put down 'Just Lexie' or maybe 'Lexie Justice'?"

Lexis thought for a moment.  It was somewhat poetic, and certainly better than any of the other names that she and Ann had bandied back and forth over the past few days as they'd brainstormed a new name for Lex.  "Very well, that will do," she said, nodding her assent.

The guard nodded as he wrote that name down – that was the name he usually suggested to those who preferred more anonymity and people usually went with it, either because they liked it or just to speed the process along.  The law required him to write something down and he didn't care what a person said – it's not as though he had any way to verify that it was correct.

His pen scratched along the paper as he noted her physical features.  "Camping backpack, black robe, dark belt pouches, dark hair, fair…" His voice fell off as he watched the lump on Lex's cheekbone wriggle under her skin.  He eyes stayed stuck on it for a moment before he again quickly glanced down and saw the same rune that had displayed with Ann, but his shoulders stayed tense.  Whatever that lump is, he thought, normal people don't have something that moves on its own.

"Fair skin and a bump?" Lex dryly interjected.

"Fair skin and a bump," he slowly repeated, writing that down, "Level 1.  Welcome to Harper."  He swiftly turned his head away, looking at anything but her, obviously purposefully ignoring her.

Lex pulled her hood back up with a jerk and woodenly marched through the passdoor into the town as Ann hurried in after her.  Lex stopped on the other side of the large reinforced wooden gate, looking at the people walking down and across the wide street.

"Don't worry," Ann drawled, putting a hand on Lex's shoulder, "I'm sure there'll be some way to fix that up once we get in with all of the other mages."

Lex shrugged Ann's hand off, not saying anything, her head down.

"Wouldn't it be nice to be able to fly," Ann said, changing the subject and pointing to where the straight road abruptly ended a little over half a mile ahead.  "We could run right over the edge and just keep on going."

"I hope we learn that first," Lex said.  "I've always dreamed of being able to fly."  Her face was still hidden under the hood, but her soft voice told Ann everything she needed to know about how her friend felt.

"Then let's go find a place to live," Ann drawled, "I'm sure tired of carrying these bags around."

Lex laughed, "And next on the list is to learn how to make one of those space-saving bags so we never have to carry bags like these again!"

"Miladies," a nearby boy spoke up, "Did I hear you say that you need a place to live?  I can take you to one of the Courts.  Good food, good bed, good price."

"I don't know where that is," Ann said slowly, examining the boy.  He looked thin and his clothes looked patched.  He probably received money for directing people to stay somewhere specific.  Still, everyone knew, everyone has to make a living.

"No charge, I'll take you there, the owner is a good friend of mine.  Good guy."

"Well," Ann drawled, not sure whether they should follow the boy or not.  "We should probably get our weapons first."

"Oh, I know a good place, just down the main road here, the Blue Goose."

That didn't sound too bad.  If the shop was on the main road, it probably wasn't a trap.