Hope

It turned out to be surprisingly difficult to find food in the inner city. Irwyn and Elizabeth had taken off their masks in the pursuit of a midnight snack or two but had so far been thwarted. The main streets did not really have dedicated vendor stands on account of being made to accommodate large traffic, rather, there would be at most windows facing the street and offering a quick to-go meal to the passerby. The issue was, there were few of those on this street and each of them was closed. Yet going much further out was not an option either. Elizabeth had suggested it, however, Irwyn was unwilling to stray too far. She seemed slightly irked, though was clearly trying not to show it; which was curious in itself given that she had not retched out her dinner. Irwyn, on the other hand, had to admit he was feeling rather starved, especially after his stomach gave it away with a low growl.

The conversation had stalled a bit as Elizabeth seemed determined to get them something to eat though. She walked down the long, wide street, looking inside any storefront that both had windows and did not cover them up after closing. Normally passersby might dissuade that, however, the local traffic was in general rather light here given how lively Abonisle could be even late into the night; though that was probably why Desir opted to go for hideout around here. Irwyn did not know Abonisle well enough to know why this particular street was not popular.

“Aha!” Elizabeth exclaimed. It had been maybe five minutes of going from shopfront to shopfront which Irwyn had joined in eventually; mostly just to humor her sudden obsession than because he thought it might work. However, they did indeed find someone still at work. It was some kind of… restaurant? Irwyn found it hard to tell given he had little to go off except the drawing of a chicken inside which he could barely make out in the dim light. In the meantime, Elizabeth urgently tapped on the window.

Irwyn was pretty sure the older woman inside who was looking at something beneath a low-output light source was intentionally ignoring them or maybe just didn’t even notice it. Elizabeth was exceptionally persistent though and just kept knocking against the windows with her knuckles.

“You know, she might be too far away to hear this…” Irwyn suggested after a solid and futile minute.

“Nonsense, it’s the middle of the night. Sound echoes in silence,” she just kept rapping.

“Then she is just pretending not to notice,” Irwyn shrugged.

“In which case, this has been made into a contest of willpower,” she grinned. “Her ability to ignore it against mine to keep going. And you cannot possibly think she could match up against me.”

“You know what?” Irwyn glanced at the woman - who seemed to be working on some paperwork at a second glance - and then back at Elizabeth’s knuckles repeatedly hitting the glass. “We do have an hour to kill.”

“That’s the spirit,” she was smiling. “I am sure it will go along faster when we do it in two.”

“Now I am joining?”

“Of course,” she grinned with mischief. “Or would you leave me here to just hit glass alone like an idiot?”

“Well, if the desired effect is provoking a reaction,” Irwyn shrugged, then manifested three finger-like constructs made of solid light. So close to the street lamps, they were mostly translucent though they did shine slightly. He began rapping with them on the window. “No need to use my own hands.”

“Is that so?” she inclined her head, then pulled up her dress’ long sleeve a bit. Irwyn had never noticed that her arm muscles were so well-developed; trained. Not something most would expect from a dedicated mage. Then black veins sprung through those muscles beneath the elbow as they flexed in ways Irwyn was confident they usually couldn’t. Elizabeth showed no trace of pain though, instead she manifested four copies of her wrist and below which she then showcased perfectly mirroring the movements of her own hand. When she began to strike the glass window again it was faster. Incredibly faster. So fast that the droning now suddenly almost sounded like one continuous tone while her hand visibly blurred in the street’s nightlights.

Irwyn could probably do that with his magic… if he had some time to practice. He had never really considered just vibrating his spells in place or otherwise moving them back and forth really fast over minuscule distances. But if he could not really catch up in speed, perhaps he could make up for that in quantity.

Several hundred knuckled fingers of light spread out in from him, then each began to rap against the glass. He was trying to go as fast as he could, though as he had suspected, his best was far from what Elizabeth was doing… physically of all ways. However, he was quickly improving. Learning better to implement the chorus of motion and raps.

Then Elizabeth reminded him that he would not win a battle of quantity on any reasonable scale. Two hundred palms of void magic spread from her rapidly moving hand and spread out. They still copied her hand’s motions perfectly though which meant doing that same incredibly fast motion as she was.

The only real difference was that it was getting louder. Turns out, competitively rapping on a window with magic would lead to some noise. Irwyn was considering whether it was wise to escalate further when the business’s door opened.

“Do you have any idea what time…” the woman, who up close was clearly older than Irwyn had thought, yelled at first, then quieted down and turned silent before even finishing her first sentence. Irwyn followed her eyes and noticed that Elizabeth had manifested money in her outstretched hand. A lot of it. Probably as much as the whole business earned in a week.

“We would like something to eat,” Elizabeth confidently walked past the woman. Irwyn was feeling a bit more sheepish about this kind of high handedness but followed her silently.

“I can fry something for you,” the older woman gave them a very strained smile. Instead of answering, Elizabeth looked at Irwyn. After a moment he realized she was waiting for him to answer.

“Y-yes, thank you,” Irwyn said after an awkward second, embarrassingly stammering. Well, it had been a while since that happened. Didn’t make it any less unpleasant.

“Just something small for me,” Elizabeth added before the woman left. They unstacked the chairs stored upside down on the nearest table and sat down. It was hard to tell much about the decor of the restaurant given the dim light.

“Honestly, this feels strange,” Irwyn admitted.

“Have you never been to a restaurant after closing?” Elizabeth raised an eyebrow.

“Not with the owner still inside,” he lowered his voice slightly. “Much less to eat. It’s just… unfamiliar I suppose. Uncomfortable. Are you used to doing this?”

“Not really but the same principles apply,” she shrugged. “Most people just do whatever you ask if you give them money. Especially non-mages.”

“I suppose,” Irwyn sighed. “Usually, we would reserve bribes for more important things.”

“You would call this a bribe?” she asked doubtfully.

“You are paying someone to do something they usually wouldn’t do,” Irwyn shrugged. “What else could it be?”

“I imagine bribes as something more valuable than just money,” she explained. "For something more meaningful than just convenience."

“I suppose I was never in the business of dealing with priceless items or political feats,” Irwyn shrugged. “It might be pointless to talk about this in the first place. Our frames of reference are completely different.”

“Maybe after you had something to eat,” she smiled. “You will be easier to convince.”

“You are welcome to try and sway me with logic,” Irwyn nodded.

That being said Irwyn was hungry. And maybe this was now something he could do... if he ever was hungry enough to make it worth an awkward conversation with a stranger… Perhaps it would be easier to just break into a pantry next time. He had never been great at conventional lockpicking but mundane locks were easy to force with magic. And he did not need to hide that anymore. But he had habits and subconscious blocks built over the years that he would probably need to encounter and then dismiss one at a time to realize there was no longer any real reason why he shouldn’t do some things.

Then he almost flinched as he heard steps right behind him. It took him half a second to process that it was the owner and another half to figure out that Elizabeth must have deployed some kind of magic to isolate the sound around them.

“Here, chicken wings and sauce,” she presented a… paper bucket? placing it in between them. Well there was certainly a lot of meat in it. “Enough for you both,” then she quickly left. Irwyn glanced at her returning to whatever paperwork she had been doing before and put the woman out of his mind.

“This is not bad,” Elizabeth was already having a taste. The wings were deep fried in a breaded blanket which was honestly rather novel to Irwyn. He gave it a bite of course. It was oily and probably scalding hot. But Irwyn did not burn so that ended up enhancing the taste rather than diminishing from it. Yes, it was indeed rather good, especially given he had been feeling ravenous.

“There is one thing I wanted to ask you,” Elizabeth broached then. Irwyn looked down at the next wing in his hand. Getting him down to sit and get pleasant with food before carefully asking about something uncomfortable? That was almost textbook.

“You are supposed to wait until I am at least halfway full,” he gave her a grin.

“It clearly wouldn’t have worked anyway,” she rolled her eyes.

“It might have,” he shrugged. “The problem is you started broaching it so carefully not to mention you joked about ‘getting me fed first’ just a minute ago. It makes alarm bells ring. Is it something bad?”

“Maybe,” she took a deep breath. “I had been thinking and wanted to ask you about your time in Abonisle.”

“Ask away,” Irwyn nodded. “I cannot say it was all an easy stride but I wasn’t miserable.”

“I wanted to ask about… your friends. Close acquaintances.”

“What has you so worried about that?” Irwyn had to raise an eyebrow.

“I know that there have been some… vindictive actions taken by House Blackburg some half a year ago.”

“Ah, that,” Irwyn quickly connected the dots. “We were honestly lucky and the Tears got out of that basically uninjured. No dead or crippled loved ones there,” he reassured. “A man calling themselves Calm went after our hideout and was merciful. Maybe you are familiar.”

“Yes… I have read Calm’s less official report. He had been impressed by you somewhat despite not even knowing about your magic. He also mentioned you were accompanied by someone both times you met him. Would you… tell me about them”

“Waylan,” Irwyn nodded, smiling. “Serial murderer of idioms and an incredible sneak. We had joined the Tears together and ended up pairing up forever.”

“How did he end up there?”

“He was better off than most. Had an older sister to look out after him. They were orphaned before he could remember and gradually ran out of their meager inheritance. When they couldn’t afford their small apartment anymore his sister ended up at a brothel and the Madame there recognized the talent, sending Waylan towards us.”

“So, you have been working together for years?” she continued inquiring.

“Pretty much since I could remember,” Irwyn grinned fondly. “He could be damn annoying at times - and kept calling me by that nickname I despise - but I knew that I could always count on him to have my back. Certainly saved my life a few times.”

“What is that like?”

“What is what like?” Irwyn was slightly confused by that. “Having my life saved? Relieving I supp…”

“No, not that,” she shook her head. “To have a peer like that. Someone to talk to. Someone you know you can just trust.”

“Elizabeth…” Irwyn stared at her for a moment. But she was serious. She stared him straight in the eyes and he thought she was suppressing a tremble. “Did you never have someone like that? Someone to confide in.”

“It’s mostly because I was so sick while young,” she shook her head. “By the time I got better everyone around my age had already long made up their groups and would not let anyone new in. And it would be… heavily frowned upon to go looking too far down.”

“Still, really no one?” Irwyn was paying full attention now. To the slight quiver of her lip.

“I suppose there had been the old maid who looked after me when my illness was at its worst,” she said after a few moments. “She was nice. But she died not long after I mostly recovered. Well, there are two more I suppose… I would trust with my life. But one is so busy we barely ever talk nowadays while…” she hesitated for a moment, sighed and continued. “While Dervish is not exactly a conversationalist.”

“I see,” and for the first time Irwyn tried to imagine how lonely she must have actually been. “What about your parents, do they not make any time? You have ocasionally hinted that there are some disagreements between you.”

“Disagreements… I would not word it like that. My lord father is always so exceedingly busy,” she outright bit her lip. “He cares. But there is only so much space in his heart and he cares about others much more than me - duty included. My mother… I don’t know how to say this…” she trembled.

“Take your time,” Irwyn tried to be reassuring. “You can stop if you want to.”

“Thank you,” she took a deep breath and calmed down before she spoke again. “I think my mother really truly loves me. A mother’s obsessive love. And it scares me. Her love is the most frightening thing I can imagine. It haunts me in my dreams and pursues me through my waking hours. Like a relentless nightmare that crawls in my shadow every step I take, waiting for a chance to rear its head. And worst of all, I am so scared,” tears gathered in the corner of her eyes. “I am so terrified she will notice that dread and decide to do something about it.”

there was silence for a few seconds but Irwyn spoke again before it grew too oppressive. “You know, if you want to hear stories, I have plenty. Not just Waylan, either. There was Aaron who could always see the bigger picture. Maxim who was the tallest person I knew but could pass off as a midget if he damn wanted to. Then Rainer and Kalista who refused to be separated no matter what. Also managed to nearly burn our house down.”

“Yeah… I would like that,” she smiled weakly. So Irwyn started…

“I thought I had him there… well, I wasn’t really thinking in all the panic. But he got hit straight on and some stands half a street away got incinerated in moments from just the after-blast. I was sure that Rage – or rather Frederick - was dead.”

“But he wasn’t?” Elizabeth asked, raising an eyebrow. They had been talking… for a while; Irwyn had lost track of time. But at least the mood was far lighter. The much fuller stomach didn’t hurt either. Eventually, the storytelling drifted to that encounter.

“I was so sure he was. But then something happened. I was not as good back then but felt like… magic weakened I suppose? Like the very laws of it were loosened as even the magical flames got immediately put out. I was then suddenly unable to manifest any magic. I thought it was the strange amulet, maybe you know what I mean: There were all nine elements represented in a circle with flame alone right in the middle.”

“And you are saying he of all people had one of those?” Elizabeth frowned deeply.

“Do you know what it actually was?”

“A strategic resource if I am getting the right impression,” she seemed rather unhappy about it too. “They impose an angle of Truth over an area. And allow nothing but that Truth to exist; it is incredibly effective at killing anyone but the strongest of mages; and can instantly vanquish most undead. The issue is that creating such items is beyond difficult. It requires a master artisan on the verge of being eligible to claim a Name. I know the one you have described and as far as I am aware there are less than a dozen like that left even in the ancestral vaults of house Blackburg, made by the last craftsman in our duchy who could, well over two centuries ago. They are also single-use. Which begs the question of how Frederick even got his hands on one.”

“Well, he was furious when it triggered, outright raging,” Irwyn shrugged with a slight smile. “It was also cracking at a visible rate.”

“That fast?” Elizabeth’s frown did not relent. “They should each last minutes… Maybe Frederic’s amulet was improperly stored and eventually damaged. If his House Blackmaw had been hiding one for centuries, perhaps the two are related,” then she looked at him. “Even then, how did you make it out of that?”

“He was definitely going to kill me,” Irwyn recalled. “I couldn’t do anything. He was chanting this long spell, 'Jawed legions of ebony' if I remember it right. Then, he got a rock to the temple.”

“A rock?” Elizabeth raised an eyebrow in doubt.

“Yep,” Irwyn grinned. “Waylan sneaked around unnoticed and nailed the villain with a sling. Then the interrupted spell literally ate Frederick alive.”

“He did not remake a barrier!” Elizabeth laughed at the realization. “If that isn’t a stereotypical noble’s death in this Duchy I don’t know what is. Oh, the fallings of Pride and Wrath.”

“And a way to end a bloodline,” Irwyn nodded along.

“Well, arguably ending a bloodline,” Elizabeth corrected.

“He introduced himself as last of his house,” Irwyn frowned.

“He was. But he does have a nephew and a niece,” Elizabeth frowned. “Frederic’s sister married out of their house into a significantly more influential family before the last Lich war which had… thinned House Blackmaw down to just him. His nephew is a few years younger than us but very talented and hailed as the banner of resurgence to many of the branch families of House Blackburg. That has a lot of weight… which causes issues for you.”

“Because there is suspicion on me for Frederick’s death.”

“No. At least, that’s the smallest part of it,” she sighed. “The real issue is that you have met his niece.”

“Alira,” Irwyn realized.

“Yes,” she nodded. “Someone of her talent would not warrant the degree of escort and protection she used to enjoy before you - intentionally or not - put her on a permanent stretcher. Alira’s value had lied in her closeness to her younger brother. The crippling experience she had gone through had led to… turbulence. Far more than Frederick who had far less favor and influence on account of his more distant bloodline and straight-up incompetence.”

“That’s why she was trying to figure out what happened to Frederick,” Irwyn nodded. He had been her uncle. “Well, now I have more worries on my plate.”

“You will be fine as long as they don’t find you,” Elizabeth reassured. “And they will not find you here in Abonisle.”

“I certainly hope so,” Irwyn nodded.

And just then, a small burst of magic passed through the air. Irwyn would not have usually even noticed it in the mana dense environment had it not circled around them twice before homing in. He was confused for a short moment, however, Elizabeth was already looking at the small conjoined gem Desir had given them. And it was glowing red again.

“That does not look just like ‘I am done’,” she frowned, uncertain.

“Let’s run,” Irwyn on the other hand was sure. Those things were meant for emergencies.