Curselock

Chapter 240: Halt

Gelo’s step into the outside world wasn’t her first by any means. Many times, over the months, she exited her dungeon home and explored the secluded island. She never strayed far, not since the day she met Jude and the others. She shivered at the thought of the poachers who attempted to take her pelt.

But now? Now, she wasn’t just leaving home to explore. No, she was leaving it for good. She stared long and hard at the dungeon entrance, her paws waterlogged within the pool of serene mushroom-lit water that surrounded it.

“Feels like a lifetime ago that we all fought here,” she muttered to herself, remembering the battle to enter the dungeon.

Jude stepped up next to her. “We’ll have plenty of time to fight together again. Knowing us, there will be a battle before we leave Frostford.”

“Dude!” Leland and Glenny both screeched at the same time, before yelling together, “Don’t jinx it!”

The Legacy of the Berserker held up his hands in surrender. “I’m not wishing for battle. But we have a track record.”

“One that will hopefully be broken,” Leland snidely said. “This is going to be a perfectly relaxed quest.”

“Dude!” Glenny seethed. “Stop doing that!”

Leland shrugged. “Jude already jinxed it. Not my fault by this point.”

“For Sybil and Aunty P,” Jude answered. “They want us to stand guard around a few Tears until a proper bastion is set up.”

“Tears?”

“Oh right. Leland met some alien creature thing and inadvertently made our world collide with a few others. Tears are places in space where other worlds start to appear. It’s a big mess, as far as we’ve been told.”

Gelo looked from Jude to Leland, her snout scrunched back like she had smelt something bad. “He did what?”

“Exactly as I said. The little trouble maker.”

“Jude you’re not being helpful—”

“Guilty as charged!”

“—And to answer your question, Gelo, the Lord of the Void said to do it. And it wasn’t as if I started all of this, but rather I helped the alien creature get home so that she could report about our world to her hive-mind family.”

“Oh. Right.” Gelo looked toward the exit of the cave. “Can we go? I want to try pancakes for my first meal on the outside, and I’m already hungr—”

Before she could finish, Jude held out a hand carrying a plate full of steaming pancakes. “Here, they’re still hot!”

Glenny and Leland both stared incredulously at Jude despite Gelo eating all of the cakes in a few bites. She looked pleasantly content.

“Glenny, I’ll leave this one up to you,” Leland muttered.

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With pleasure, Glenny then said, “Jude? Um. Why do you have pancakes in your inventory ring? Those aren’t really traveling food.”

“Well yeah, no duh. But that’s the beauty of inventory rings,” he held his ringed finger out. “I can store plenty of awkwardly sized food. I’ve got a whole smoked brisket, a few grilled fish, even a coconut.”

Glenny mirrored Leland by rubbing the bridge of his nose. He then said, “You were supposed to pack jerky, pickled jarred things, travel rations. Not whole briskets!”

“Well why not? I mean, I have plenty of space for other useful things.”

“Like what?”

“I’ve got some rope in here. And some toilet paper.”

“Okay, good. Spare change of clothes? Maybe a bandage kit?”

“No, and no.”

Even Gelo looked aghast. “You didn’t bring a spare change of clothes?” She sniffed the open air, retreating back a step. “How long have you been wearing those pants?”

Recounting the last few days, Jude, with a finger on his chin, said, “I put these on yesterday morning.”

“Y-you’ve only been wearing those clothes for a day and they already smell that bad?”

Jude lifted an arm, sniffing himself. “They’re not bad…”

“Jude,” Leland asked. “Were they clean before you put them on?”

“Of course,” he answered after recoiling in disdain. “I resent that. I’m not a heathen.”

“But you are a brute.”

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“Well that’s true.”

Glenny sighed, long, loud, and hard. “We’ll stop in Frostford to get some scented perfumes.”

“Why not just more clothes?”

“Because I don’t want his dirty clothes to stink up the whole brisket in his ring. That would be a travesty.”

Jude beamed at that. “See? It was a good idea!”

“Halt!”

The ever familiar shling of unsheathing metal met the boys and Gelo. They stopped in their tracks as a rush of movement encircled them. All around, swords, spears, and even a few drawn bows were pointed at them.

Frostford’s guard, obviously, but among the terrified faces were a few level-headed individuals. Adventurers were easily recognizable within a sea of soldiers. Their lack of decorum and uniform was almost as much of a signal fire as their expensive weapons.

Leland, Gelo, and Glenny glared at Jude.

He sighed, taking a step ahead. “Fine, fine. I’ll take care of this.”

At his words, everyone tensed. Guards readjusted their grips, the adventurers maneuvered into better positions.

“What’s this?” Jude asked, finding no reason not to hide his annoyance or maintain a low volume.

“Who goes there!?” The voice came from the town’s walls, a few dozen feet in the air.

Everyone, other than the town’s defenders, looked up. A Captain of some sort stood beside a robed woman holding a silver globe. Individually, the pair was nothing much. A stronger guard and a potential mage, sure, but that was about it. Nothing from their posture, or what little magic leaked from the mage, felt threatening to the boys and Gelo.

They were no Harbinger Ashford or Sightless King, but instead, average, normal people.

“My name’s Jude!” Jude yelled back.

“Okay, Jude!” the Captain plainly said. “State your business!”

“Uh. Well, my friend back here with the white hair is looking to buy me some perfume! Can we come in!?”

That got an annoyed look from Glenny, but many more worried looks from the guards. The younger few shifted on their feet, while the older ones silently analyzed the situation. One of the adventurers cursed loudly before turning tail and sprinting away.

Everyone watched him run.

“What’s up with him!?” Jude then yelled at the Captain.

“We don’t want any trouble!”

“What’s that supposed to mean? Do we look like trouble!?”

The robed woman whispered something to the man. When she finished, he looked as if someone had kicked him in the shin.

Blinking rapidly a few times, the Captain’s voice turned heavy. “We don’t want any trouble.”

“Neither do we?” Jude asked, turning back to gauge his friends’ reactions. They shrugged at him. “Look man, I don’t know what’s going on. We literally just want to buy a few things then leave. No trouble.”

Leland cut in, “If it helps, we are on a quest from the Royals of the Palemarrow Kingdom.” He fiddled with a badge, holding it out and up so that everyone could see. “I’m Leland Silver, Vagrant Warden.”

“A-are you a summoner?” the robbed woman asked.

The question made Leland pause. Technically he was, but not really. “I can summon crows.”

“Then who summoned the bear?”

The friend group slowly looked to Gelo, who stared impishly back at them. Jude gave her a shrug.

“Hello! My name is Gelo! I’m not a summoned creature!”

At her sudden human speech, a wave of tension exploded through the defenders. To say they flinched would be incorrect. They balked. Then the moment passed, and they lost a few shades of pigment. One even started praying after laying down her sword.

The boys stared at her.

“Uh, what’s going on?” Leland asked. “This is not typical guard behavior…”

“No, no it’s not.” The Captain suddenly had thick bags under his eyes. “Did you four cause that insane flux of magic a few hours ago?”

“Flux of magic?”

The robed woman shifted her silver globe to the side, the color changing to more of a yellow. She almost growled, then said, “That explosion of divine magic! You must have felt it, it was like nothing I’ve ever seen! And I studied at Brimstone Mystic’s School!”

The boys and Gelo shared a look, silently agreeing to stay quiet about the truth of what the flux of magic most likely was.

Leland, however, had had enough of the conversation. With a press of his palm into his grimoire, and the manipulation of an invisible-casting cantrip, a set of four dark wings appeared behind his back. No halo hung over his head, as that would be too telling.

With a single flap, he rocketed into the air, closing the distance between himself, the Captain, and the robed woman. He then hovered just before them.

“We didn’t feel anything,” he lied before gesturing to his wings. “We can travel rather fast, see? So if there was some oddity out there, its field of effect didn’t go very far.”

The Captain turned to the woman, who was staring wide-eyed at Leland. She tore herself away from him, finding her globe. It transitioned from yellow to silver.

“I have to agree… The divine magic is faded now, I can hardly pick up a trace.”

Leland gravely nodded. “Trust me, divine magic doesn’t stay around long. Not if the Lords meant it to be a quick thing. But if you want to get a second opinion, I suggest you contact the Inquisitors. ‘The Huntress’ is rather skilled at hunting oddities. Ask for her.”

“Y-you know a lot about the Inquisitors?” the Captain asked.

Leland just shrugged, his four black wings flapping rhythmically. “I am a Vagrant Warden, so yeah… and my parents are Inquisitors, actually. Well, former Inquisitors.”

“I… see. Is it true you only wish to buy… perfume?”

“That and maybe some other stuff. Meat and the like.”

The Captain turned his eyes to Gelo, distantly thinking of the long told legend of Frostford and the Guardian Spirit Beast that protects it. He shivered.

“Y-yes. You four can have a day pass if you muzzle the beast.”

Leland almost laughed. “If any of you can get a muzzle on her, be my guest. But don’t come crying to me when she freezes your arm off.” He looked at the woman. “She’s a mage, by the way. Maybe you two could compare notes?”

The duo standing on the wall gave the bear another look over. What was there to do when so obviously outmatched? A talking bear? What kind of monster…?

“Perfume and then please leave,” the Captain said quietly. “Please.”

“We’ll see about that. The bear wants to try chocolate. Do you know of any shops that might sell such a treat?”

Sweat began to fill the man’s brow. There wasn’t a doubt in his mind, these four before him were the source of the divine magic. Though, if they were trying to hide and ignore it, so would he.

That was best, right? Best for Frostford and his men. No one was dying today, right?