As the tavern door closed behind him, Jack folded his arms and glowered at the now empty road beyond the tavern drive. Because of course Geoff the Elder and Youngest both had the sense to get out of dodge as fast as they damn well could, with mad officers possessing way too much power suddenly going homicidal, and, for all anyone knew, would think nothing of killing peasants after drawing an adventurer's blood.

Jack didn't blame them a bit, even as he gave a frustrated shake of his head.

He already knew what the quest almost had to be. Pure retribution, and one he had no doubt the captain would be all too eager to take on himself. For his own personal redemption, or perhaps just to earn the esteem of his men, if nothing else. Or perhaps use success to mitigate a scathing report made by a certain witch that might be seen as nothing more than interpersonal differences... but only if the mission was a success. For conquest and victory forgave so many shortcomings, just as failure bred only contempt.

Either way, Jack had absolutely no doubt the quest shimmering in the air that he deliberately ignored involved going back to that den, taking out the alpha shadow wolf, and wiping that pack from the face of existence.

It was a quest Jack had no doubt the rifle company was about to take on for themselves. And the poor sods had no idea just how deadly and clever those wolves truly were.

Worse, they were being led by a sadistic fool, without the advantages of Infravision, Mage Sight, or the ability to pivot quickly and blast things with fire and acid with a nice wide spread.

Jack would think the soldiers were heading for certain death.

Except, of course, this time the men were armed with rifles.

And even if they were revolver rifles that were a pain in the butt to reload, even if the witch in their group was spending all her energies keeping all the charges from spontaneously exploding, it was still a game-changer. And a massive one at that.

But if those wolves successfully flanked the men who could all too easily be ambushed and butchered, even with the armor that was being worn. Armor that was critically absent in face and throat and light on the shoulders, allowing for riflemen's unhampered shots... would be like targets painted that wolves would happily strike. Assuming they didn't just hamstring the soldiers, or tear out their crotches and rip out femoral arteries first.

A horrid way to go, but a tried and true tactic of predators embracing the savage code of survival in forest or jungle. And Jack already knew just how well those beasts could rend and tear.

Jack glared at the horse-cropped grass, wavering in the slight breeze.

It would be so easy just to let nature take its course.

Either that damned alpha wolf would die, or a certain obnoxious captain who had so casually threatened Jacks' life would spend his final moments writhing in agony as those monsters ate him alive.

A win either way, as far as Jack was concerned.

But as for the dozen soldiers who had looked increasingly uncomfortable as the captain lost himself in his mad flight of fancy... and most especially for a certain dusky-skinned beauty whose almond eyes had caught his own so intently... who actually seemed to worry about the innocent Delver Jack seemed to be, at least in her eyes...

He shook his head as the pair of soldiers tending their horses cast curious glances his way, cursing himself for a fool.

Especially when one, brows furrowed, went inside.

Only then did Jack shake himself out of his momentary flight of idiocy, and begin to walk away.

"Jack?"

He froze as a certain husky voice caressed his spine.

Slowly turning around.

Breath locking in his chest when a strikingly beautiful woman's gaze caught his own.

"Why are you still here?" asked the young witch wearing the duke's tabard.

Jack swallowed, shaking his head. "How do you even know my... it doesn't matter." He felt his cheeks flush under her measuring gaze, first looking away, then forcing them up to meet her own. "I know what you're going to do."

Lush lips curved in a bemused smile. "Do you, lad? That would be a first. Because half the time I have no idea what they hell I'm doing, or why I'm putting my life on the line and daring to care so much about a unit whose commanding officer would love any excuse at all for our cause to fail and to be reassigned back north, back over the river, where magic is a far more docile thing, technology is worshiped as a god, and a rifleman has far less worries and cares."

Jack blinked at this. "What river?" He shivered and shook his head. "I'm beginning to think that there is far more to this world than I first realized."

This earned him a sultry chuckle. "Isn't that the truth? Unless you have some power in your chosen schools, or have mastered your spells to at least Journeyman proficiency, a feat few mages can claim even with their favorite spells, lest they've completed at least 4 years at the academy, you won't be casting anything at all, south of the river Styx. Just the way a certain captain prefers things. Where everyone, including the rare unfortunate Delver to cross his path, knows to tremble and lower their gaze." The beautiful witch flashed a bleak smile. "Of course, Delvers aren't fools, so unless they grew up there, they won't force themselves to live amongst people who could shoot them dead on a whim. And with fewer and fewer adventurers daring the delves this far north in any case, that means no one's left to clear any wild pustules of Shadow that form. Only loyal soldiers who would never dare to enter the main infestation, right where the mana surges just as wildly as it does here during the worst storms."

She sighed and shook her head. "So it's a problem, no matter how many riflemen the duke now claims. Because even if the guns didn't blow up thanks to the wild mana surges, mortals who dare travel further than the misty outskirts of Shadow, or any other type of delve who don't walk the Path of Peril, tend to die."

Jack blinked. "So all the soldiers who end up caught in those mana storms around the wild pustules are basically doomed, even if not a single Shadow beast touches them?"

She tilted her head thoughtfully, showcasing caramel shoulders with her half-shrug. "Either that, or they waken something inside their souls and somehow manage find themselves on the Path of Peril, with a mind that might or might not be able to properly generate a character sheet. And then it's months teaching them the very basics, and helping them to forge some kind of class, whatever they can manage. And what a windfall it was the two times a soldier actually managed the feat in our company. Though it cost us two score that succumbed to Shadow, this past year alone."

Jack shook his head. So much he wanted to say. So much he wanted to ask. Forty soldier's lives lost, trying to close a shadow rift? "Why?" he blinked, not even knowing what he meant with that question.

Her gaze turned solemn. "Because we need Delvers north of the river, now more than ever. And the captain should have known better than to threaten you. The duke won't be pleased. It's hard enough encouraging Delvers to cross the Styx to northern Greycliff as it is."

Jack blinked at this. "Wait. The river Styx?"

The witch blinked her kohl lined eyes before her lips widened in a bemused smile. "Heaven's mercy, you get the reference, and you look like nothing more than a country bumkin. You truly are twice-born, aren't you? Not just one of the lucky souls who actually manage to survive their first taste of shadow without discorporating?

Jack flashed a sad smile, not denying it.

She furrowed her pretty brow, a slender hand rubbing her chin. "Of course, that doesn't explain why you're still here, Jack."

Jack smirked. "Maybe I stuck around because I wanted to reward my knight-in-shining-armor for coming to my defense, when the captain was a heartbeat away from gouging my eye out."

This earned a sultry chuckle. "And what reward would that be, Jack?"

Jack grinned, heart pounding in his chest. "How about a kiss?"

Her eyes widened before she burst out in sultry laughter. "Oh what a wily boy you are, Jack! Courting certain peril for the chance of winning the affections of a girl like me."

Jack smirked, ignoring the heat of his own cheeks blazing. "If by a girl like you, you mean a strikingly beautiful woman any man would be lucky to win the heart of, and a girl that I absolutely do not want to see get torn apart by spirit wolves your idiot of a captain will be totally blind to, then yes." He swallowed. "I guess so."

Her smile grew and suddenly she was before him. And no one was more surprised than he to feel her soft lips touch his own, teasing smile still in place as she stepped back from a now speechless Jack whose heart was pounding way too loudly in his chest, wondering what the hell he was doing, suddenly feeling guilty for a life he had been forced to leave behind months ago... and never wanting anything more than to wrap this beautiful mocha-skinned girl in his arms and gently caress her lips with her own.

So he did just that.

Gasping when her lips parted, and a storm roared through his soul.

Breathless, he pulled back a second later, somehow relieved to find the witch looking as confused and bemused as he felt, as if both had no idea what the hell they were doing.

Jack grinned. "So, want to leave the military behind and live a life of adventure by my side?"

She chuckled throatily, his jest somehow breaking the spell between them. The odd tension and hunger and strange confusion turning to comfortable teasing from two chance-met acquaintances who could so easily become lovers or friends.

Soft fingers stroked his cheek. "I already followed the Path of Peril once before, Jack. Got all the way up to level 5 and Tier 3 spells." she bit her lip, looking away. "We thought we were on top of the world, my band and I. And all it took was one bad run..."

"I know," Jack whispered, squeezing her hand. "I know."

She took a deep breath, forcing a bright smile as she took in the now completely empty courtyard, save for a dozen gently nickering horses. "So I joined the military, grateful I'd never have to risk my one life trapped in nightmare again." She smiled back at the inn, receiving a nod from one of the soldiers before turning back around to face Jack. "So now I have a new band. Armed with what is, for this part of the continent, an exotic weapon that's more than a match for anything else out here, so long as I can keep a strong lock on the gunpowder, making sure no arcane surges or stepping too far into realms of living dream or shadowy nightmare will set it off. And I won't even tell you the headaches I sometimes get, keeping their asses safe on this side of the river." She shook her head. "But I get a sweet fat portion of the experience of our kills, and I'd trust my brothers-in-arms with my life."

Jack nodded. "I take it the rifleers and you go back a ways?"

She flashed a brilliant, proud smile. "We do."

"But Captain... what was his name?"

"Lindon."

"Yeah. I'm guessing he's a new addition?"

Her expression soured. "He is." Her gaze turned wistful. "Our former captain..." she bit her lip and looked away. "We were close. And we were feared and respected by all the bandits and rogues north of the Styx. Everything was going so well, and I was making progress in my own way, getting close to level six without risking my life or the life of my man in perilous Delves, and I couldn't have been happier." She swallowed, eyes suddenly heavy with unshed tears. "So of course, a month later the worst happens. A major Shadowstorm forms, thanks to a too long ignored wild rift, and my fiance is put in charge of a whole platoon of riflemen, our mission being to keep the abominations pouring out of the rift in check."

Trembling, she lowered her head. "The Shadowstorm washed over all of us. Out of nowhere. My friends, my companions... so many withered and died. Others... changed. And suddenly it was up to me. Up to me to challenge the final boss and close that rift, with no one left standing but the two soldiers transformed to Delvers and now formally the Duke's champions, and the men in the room you saw back there. Still mortal, and perhaps they could even be more if they dared the Academy Delve even once, though they swear they won't embrace that folly. Not unless dire straits compel them to. But either way, they are some of the very few who can survive Shadow without mutating or dying." She flashed a bitter smile. "I blazed past level 6 that day, and transcended to level 7. It was a rush of power unlike anything you can imagine. And I would give it all up in a heartbeat, if I could somehow bring everyone back."

Jack's heart went out to her. He could feel her pain, sense her loss. He swallowed back his growing desire, wrapping her up in his arms with a tender hug. "I am so sorry for your..."

Words abruptly cut off when her lips found his own again and he tasted her hunger, her desperate need to escape the perils of her life in a moment of sweetest bliss. A sudden sharp desire perfectly matching his own.

The need in her eyes left him breathless.

His heart to pounded in his chest as he felt her shudder against him.

Before her soft lips pulled away from his once more and Jack found himself squeezing her tightly to him, armor and shield instantly dispelled, like the fool he was.

"Neat trick, little mage," she said, kissing his neck.

He buried his face in her curls, savoring the tang of woodsmoke, sweat, and her natural musk, suddenly so hungry for her it hurt.

She tilted up her chin, lush full lips tasting his own once more before flashing a wicked smile, her hand now squeezing his own.

"Come over here." Her husky voice sent shivers down his spine as she led him to the stalls.

He thought he saw a flash of copper and sensed someone quickly scurrying off, but at that point, he only had eyes for the strikingly beautiful girl slowly stripping off her gambeson, Jack quickly doing the same.

Left speechless when perfectly shaped teardrop breasts caught his eyes, and all rational thought left him.

But still, for just a heartbeat, he hesitated.

"I don't even..." Words cut off once more when her lips caressed his own, hungry with a desperate need he instantly understood, both having come so close death and bitterest folly, and now here they were, whole, healthy, and with the adrenaline of near fatal peril firing their passions and tearing free their inhibitions. The flask of rum she took a sip from before sharing with a passionate kiss didn't hurt either.

Both knew the other wanted them, and neither would shy away from accepting that offer.

A mutual ember blazing to a red hot flame as Jack lost himself in devouring lush full lips, tasting the sweet salty tang of her neck, delighting in her gasp when his lips quested for infinitely soft and lush pastures, awed that he could be so hungry for a girl he had met less than an hour ago.

Until finally, with a soft gasp, she revealed her greatest treasure, and he cherished it with all the tenderness in the world.

Rapture savored in each other's arms till the lunch hour had well and truly passed, and for the first time in days, Jack slipped into a blissful languor utterly free of tightly wound terror, treasuring the warmth of the beautiful girl beside him. Knowing he was being a complete idiot when she gasped and smiled at his secret, soft fingertips caressing ever-so-slightly pointed ears carefully hidden in artfully arranged locks as he caressed her in ways sweet and wonderful, deciding he didn't care in the least that she knew. Especially when her eyes took on a hungry glint, the sensual rhythm of her body and her throaty laughter carrying him away to places glorious and grand once more.