The Endless Solvent

They walked for the better part of the day. The leader of the group of ‘traveling entrepreneurs’ that rescued Camaz from being murdered by a Yscian chasing them through the Caelisian forests introduced himself as Delnnir and thoroughly insisted that although he refused to sheathe his sword, Camaz, Laell and Verne were their esteemed guests.

“You must make your way to our camp,” Delnnir said. Camaz watched the glint of sunlight bounce off his blade. “’S the only place we can assure your safety against these blue savages.”

Then the entire walk had Delnnir’s men surround Camaz and his students in such a way that they would not hope to be able to escape - men who also had their weapons drawn. But no, they were totally not prisoners. Camaz sighed. This was almost exactly the way it was with Moulu except now with more walking.

At the very least Camaz didn’t know this Delnnir. He didn’t need to struggle with the sting of betrayal of a peer.

“You disposed of the Yscians quite easily,” Camaz said in a conversational tone. He saw the traveling entrepreneur’s chest puff up in pride. “You and your men must be very skilled indeed.”

“We train every day!” Delnnir said proudly. “Running, sparring, the like. If we’re to do business here, self defense is a must. We’ve been here for the better part of a year, aye, we know all their tricks. The arrows, the hiding places. Those Ysican’s aren’t hard to beat.”

From what Camaz could tell from the direction they were heading, it was in a direction away from Yscian territory - as the Yscians are not known to travel far from the border, it could be their ‘success’ at thwarting the Yscians was simply because of distance. Would Delnnir and his men count running away as winning a skirmish? Camaz didn’t ask the sarcastic question out loud.

Besides, this man did save his life.

“I daresay we are far enough,” Camaz said, testing the waters. “Perhaps this would be a good time to part ways?”

“Oh nay, we must reach the camp first,” Delnnir said, continuing the rapid hike deeper into the forest. “That’s where we can talk.”

Talk. Camaz gave Verne a look. The young man's lips were drawn into a stiff line, obviously not liking any of this. It wasn’t too hard to figure out why they were headed to ‘camp’ - there would be more of Delnnir’s men and they would be forced to do something for them. He shifted his gaze back to Sharp, the Shade still fluttering around Delnnir’s head like some entranced moth. If it wasn’t for that, Camaz would have started fighting.

Parts damn it, that shade was going to be the death of him, wasn’t it?

An hour later, the trees started to thin and they arrived at a clearing where several small houses stood. It was much too small to be considered a village, perhaps the old lodgings of a hunter that frequented the forests for game. Indeed what looked like a tanning rack stood in disarray next to one of the houses. Except the area was now swarming with Delnnir’s men, all of them armed with at least one weapon and none of them looking anything like entrepreneurs.

“What exactly was it that you wanted to talk about?” Camaz finally said when they were cordially invited via the guidance of naked blades to the center of the little houses and a veritable crowd of men appeared around them.

“Interesting that you drew the ire of those blue folk,” Delnnir said, examining his drawn sword. “With only three of you too. I think as your savior you owe me some kind of explanation.”

Camaz studied the man for a long time. Would someone like him work for the Bringers? No, they would have joined Moulu long before the Yscians got to them. “We are a research team from the Academy,” Camaz finally said. “To study the Yscians. These two are my students. We had no intention of drawing their attention, but alas…”

“Research on the blue folk?” Delnnir sounded surprised. He eyed Laell and Verne, then at Camaz’s black robes. “Dangerous work, that is. Know sometimes those savages take hostages, do horrible things to them.”

“Hostages?”

He cast a leering look at Laell who shrank back to hide behind Camaz. “Who knows what those blue fucks would do to a girl like you. You’re much safer here, little lady.”

“We decline your offer,” Camaz said. “Perhaps we should dispose of the pretense and you can tell me what you want from us.”

“Bit rude, don’t you think,” Delnnir said. He rubbed his big bulbous nose and raked back dark, greasy hair from his face. “Towards someone who saved your life? I say, It doesn’t sound like you value your life much at all. Insulting me and waltzing into Yscian territory like some Parts-damned walk in the park.”

“It’s just as egregious as you calling yourselves entrepreneurs,” Camaz agreed dryly. “You obviously want something from us, stop wasting time.”

“That sword,” Delnnir said, pointing at Verne’s weapon, then turned his gaze at Laell, still cowering behind Camaz. “And the girl.”

“I’m not giving you one of my students.”

“Then we’ll return you to the Yscians,” Delnnir shrugged as if that was the obvious outcome for not handing Laell over. “And I’ll tell you, girl, you much rather stay with us. We have seen proof of their savagery.”

Camaz stared at the bandit. Then he realized Sharp was no longer floating around the man’s head. In fact, there were no traces of Shades anywhere - while Sharp was the one shade that appeared the clearest to him as they had built some sort of rapport over the years, Camaz would frequently see faint signs of Shades everywhere. None of them would listen to him of course.

But now even focusing on the dark shadowy corners where they liked to hide, there was no trace of shades anywhere. It was like when Aris had killed that shade and the Academy was devoid of them for a time, as if they avoided her.

Careful not to show his expression, he turned to Delnnir and chose his next words carefully. “Proof of their savagery? I don’t think it would be that bad.”

The bandit gave a nasty chuckle, then spat on the floor. “Oh, let me show you, Academy man,” he said gleefully. “Let me fucking show you.”