Missteps V.2

Chapter 19 – Definitions

Lia sat at the scarred wooden table, her hair pulled up high in a messy ponytail. She scanned the faces of her opponents as she took a long sip of her ale.

"Well, you gonna bet?" The bearded dwarven woman asked from across the table. A modest pile of coins laid in the center of the table, a good portion of it Lia's.

Lia glanced down at the cards in her hand, and smirked. "I'll match your bet, and raise you a silver." Lia pushed five silver into the middle. The old man next to her chuckled as he folded.

"Alright then, let's see what you got." The dwarven woman fanned her cards out on the table, revealing three jacks and a two.

Her companion, another dwarven woman with black hair that was sitting at the table next to Lia, gave a holler. "Not much beat that." She said in a thick accent.

"How about this?" Lia confidently fanned out her own cards…two queens, a jack, and a three. All of them red. "I win, right?"

"No," The woman, and winner across the table, gave a huge sigh. The other two occupants of the table both held similar dejected looks.

Lia's face screwed up in confusion. "Why not? Don't my cards rank higher than yours?"

"Technically yes," The old man reached out and arranged the cards as he explained, again. "She has three jacks, and you have two queens. A three-of-a-kind beats your pair."

"But my pair are of a higher rank than the jacks. Last game I lost because I had the lesser ranked cards."

"No, you lost because I had a royal flush." The black-haired Dwarf answered without any enthusiasm. Lia looked at her with even more confusion.

The bearded dwarf turned towards the bar. "Iados, I think we broke your girl!" Standing at the bar nursing his own mug was Iados, deep in conversation with another group of Dwarfs. Hearing the announcement, he excused himself and made his way over to the table.

"What do you mean you broke her, Torgga?" He asked as he pulled up a chair.

Torgga shook her head. "Your girlfriend here cannot play cards to save her life." She sighed as she raked the full pot towards her. "She's so bad, I feel bad for taking her money."

"First, she's not my girlfriend, and second, come on, she can't be that bad." Iados chuckled and glanced at the pot, which was primarily all gold with a few silver pieces. "Pot looks healthy."

The old man had pulled out a pipe and used it to point to Lia. "Because of her."

Iados turned his gaze towards the elf. "Lia, how much have you lost today?" Lia didn't answer him as she fiddled with the few cards in her hands. Iados leant down next to her ear. "Do you have any money left?"

Lia looked up sheepishly. "About four gold pieces. I really thought I had a winning hand."

Iados gave a deep sigh and stood up. "Come outside with me real quick?" He waited for her to nod before he led the way out of The Lonely Spider.

For the past month, the two of them had been taking it easy in Rocklyn. Elaine, Kerri, and Carric had stayed in the small village for only a few days before they'd headed south with a caravan bound for Silverbank. The plan was to lie low and relax until it was time to meet up in Esterwill.

When they were a few yards from the door of the inn, Iados rounded on the elf. "How could you gamble all your money like that?" His voice held more than a few notes of exasperation.

"I didn't meant to! I was having a lot of fun, and it lasted longer the more I bet." Lia bit her lip. This was a new situation for her, being broke, and she didn't like it. "I admit it, I got carried away. I'm sorry."

The akudaem groaned as he massaged his temples. "How are we going to cover our room now? I'm tapped out, and the agreement was I'd cover this month, and you'd cover next month."

"I'm really sorry Iados." Lia's mind began to race. "Back home my Uncle paid for everything and money wasn't something I had to worry about."

Iados gave a loud groan and crouched on the ground. "Well you had better start worrying now!" There was silence between the two of them as Iados softly muttered to himself, and Lia beat herself up.

The more she was away from home, the more she realized just how coddled and privileged she'd grown up. After a few minutes and Iados still hadn't moved from his spot, Lia turned and walked back into the inn. She sat down at the bar and buried her head in her arms.

"Rough night?" The middle-aged bartender chuckled. "I overheard the dwarves talking about your card skills."

Lia groaned. "How could I be that bad?" Her voice was muffled as she kept her head buried.

He shrugged. "It happens, some people just don't have the knack for it." The bartender reached out and started to load empty mugs into a crate. "Out of curiosity, you and the boyfriend still planning to stay another month?"

"According to him he's not my boyfriend." Lia finally unburied her head. "And to be honest Steffan, I don't know."

"Well, let me know when you've got it figured out." Steffan nodded and took his crate into the kitchen.

Lia sat at the bar for a few more minutes, waiting to see if Iados would come back in. Finally she gave up and headed up to the room. Once in, she wrapped a blanket around her shoulders, grabbed her pack, and settled down on the floor in front of the window. She took out her ink, quill, sand, and parchment and arranged them out on the floor in front of her.

Now all she needed were the words to the letter she'd been trying to write for a month. The letter was to her uncle Himo. It was her official report of the settlement venture. It was just another report like the dozens of reports she'd written during her training. The hard part was the personal observation and conclusions part. The part where she'd talk about the conclusions of her Uncle's name being mentioned in the journal of a man who brought the dead back to life. A man who'd been instructed by that same Uncle to not only guard, but to use a very dangerous book that was now out in the world. A report that would be ready by the Uncle in question.

Lia groaned and buried her head in her hands, her mind swimming. She'd read the journal over and over again in the past month, trying to reconcile the information there with the man she knew. At first she'd tried to convince herself that it was someone else named Himo, but finally she had to admit that it wasn't likely. As far as she knew, her Himo was the only Himo involved in the Sanctum, or the Order.

She sighed and leaned her head back against the wooden wall. Before, she wouldn't have thought twice about just asking Himo her questions. Now that she knew what was behind the tapestry in the Sanctum's basement, she found her second-guessing him.

Iados walked in. "Made any progress?" He asked as he flopped down on the bed.

Lia shook her head. "No. You?"

"No." Silence stretched on between the two of them.

Finally, Lia took a large breath. "Iados, can I ask you something?"

The akudaem turned over till he faced her. "Sure, what do you wanna know?"

"Will you be my boyfriend?"

Iados chuckled. "What happened to keeping things casual?"

"This doesn't feel very 'casual' right now." Lia stood up. "We've been living together for a month now, and three times tonight we've been called a couple. Can't we just screw 'casual' and make it official?"

"What's wrong with how things are now?" Iados sat up and crossed his legs. "I like how things are going right now. It's easy"

"It was fine for the first few weeks, but it's been a month. 'Casual' implies that we still both have our separate lives and we occasionally hook up. What we've been doing feels more like relationship territory." She sat on the edge of the bed. "I just want to know what this."

Iados groaned and fell back on the bed. "Why do you feel the need to put a label on this? What is there to gain by saying I'm your boyfriend?"

The elf's eyes narrowed. "A feeling that this relationship is actually moving forward for one."

"Why do you keep calling what we have a 'relationship'?"

Lia stood up, her shoulders rigid. "What would you call it then?"

The akudaem rolled off the bed and to his feet. "Casual, I call it casual. I call it sex without the hang-ups of a relationship." He ran a hand down his face. "We have a good thing going, why change it?"

"Because I want more than just sex, I want a relationship!" Lia admitted.

He groaned and walked to the end of the bed. "In your mind, how is a relationship different from what we have now?"

"In a relationship, two people work together to solve problems. They have each other's back, they support each other, and they enjoy each other's company." Lia counted off on her fingers.

"They give up on their dreams, retire to boring jobs, and slowly die of boredom." Iados countered.

Lia was struck speechless for a few moments. "'Give up on their dreams and slowly die', that's how you view relationships?"

"I've seen it happen a dozen times. Happened to my parents. They were soldiers, but once they got together they both retired." He stalked over towards the window. "I've seen old crew members meet the love of their lives and just walk away from piracy. Once you enter a 'relationship', your life is over."

Lia scoffed. "So what, the plan was for the two of us to join this new party, adventure together, and just keeping sleeping together for the heck of it. You never once considered taking it further because apparently being in a relationship is akin to death."

The akudaem nodded. "Exactly."

Lia was at a loss for words. This was not the direction she'd imagined this conversation going.

Iados grinned, walked over, and clapped Lia on the shoulder. "Now that that's settled, we should get some sleep. We've got some serious work to do tomorrow." He stripped off his shirt and climbed into bed. Lia let him grab her arm and pull her down next to him. She listened as his breathing slowly evened out over the next few minutes.

Once she was sure he was asleep, she carefully crawled out and settled herself on the floor in front of the window. For the rest of the night, she thought of what had been revealed. She thought back to all of her past relationships, and what she wanted out of them. By the time the morning sun streaked through the window, she had her answer.

She wrote a short message on the parchment she still had out and laid it on the bed next to Iados. Quietly she gathered her things and went downstairs.

An hour later, Iados rushed down the stairs, the note clenched in his fist. He went straight up to Helena, the bartender's wife.

"Good morning Iados." Helena said as she looked up from the loaf of bread she was slicing.

"Have you seen Lia?" Iados asked, not bothering to return the greeting.

Helena pointed behind him. "She came down about an hour ago, asked if there was any work she could do. Just so happened one of the girls couldn't make it, so I had her fill in." Behind him Lia rushed around the room with a half-empty tray and an apron.

Iados stalked over to Lia, grabbed her arm, and pulled her away off towards an unoccupied corner of the room. "What is this?" He held up the crinkled note.

"A piece of parchment." Lia jerked her arm out of his grasp.

"What do you mean by 'I need more than casual, we're over.'?" He read aloud.

She shrugged. "Just what it says. Our causal relationship is over. I'll still join Ander's group with you, because I want to be a part of that group. The part where we sleep together is done."

Iados's eyes went wide. "What happened to your 'give something a year before you call it off' idea?"

Lia scoffed. "Is that what you were banking on? A full year of uncomplicated sex? Those were actual full-fledged relationships. I gave them a year to see if they could be long-term. Iados, I want to settle down. One day I want to be married and have kids. Not right now, but someday. It's pretty obvious you don't, so why should we waste our time on something that was always going to be short-term?"

"There's nothing wrong with short-term." The akudaem hissed.

"There is when you're looking for long-term." Lia sighed and backed off. "I have to get back to work. I have to pay for two rooms."

His brow furrowed. "Why two?"

"We had an agreement, you took care of last month, and I take care of this month. I'm not going to cut you out just because we're not sleeping together." She smiled softly and went back to work.

Iados reached up and scratched the back of his head. "We could still share a room!" He called after. She didn't respond.

Over the next few days, the two of them barely spoke to each other. Lia kept herself busy by taking shifts at the inn and using her healing spells around town to make some extra money. She wasn't sure what Iados did during the day, but whenever she was waitressing at the inn he was there. It wasn't in a creepy way, he mostly just sat at the bar and nursed a tankard. True to her word, the two of them had separate rooms. Steffan was kind enough to give her a discount. It had stung a bit more than she'd thought it would when she saw him take another girl up to his room one night.

A couple of days later, early one morning, Lia was awakened by someone pounding heavily on her door. Groggily she crawled out of bed and opened it.

Iados pushed past her into the room. "Get ready, quickly." He grabbed her boots and lightly tossed them onto her bed.

"Why?" She asked, rapidly becoming more alert.

"I found us some work." He gathered up her ink and quill and stowed them away in her bag. "There's a small merchant caravan about a mile from here. They sent a runner into town for directions. They're headed towards Osthom now, but their next stop after is Esterwill. The runner said they're in the market for some guards. It's perfect, we can earn some money and get a ride to Esterwill. According to the runner they should be in Esterwill at the same time we need to be there anyway."

Lia's jaw dropped. "So you just signed us up without asking me."

He nodded as he picked up a shirt from the floor. "I thought you'd be happy. Now you don't have to work downstairs." He tossed the shirt at her.

"I like working downstairs."

Iados laughed. "You mean you like the attention. You know Steffan's only been letting you work because the customers like how you fill out the apron."

The elf's eyes narrowed. "He's been letting me work because Sherri had a baby and needs to rest." She tossed the shirt onto the bed.

Iados sighed and picked up the shirt again. "Listen, we don't have time for this. I only talked the runner into taking a few minutes longer. We have to go back to the caravan with him, now, or we don't get this job." He held out the piece of clothing.

Lia glared at him as she crossed her arms. "You go, I'm staying. My wages will last longer if I'm not paying for two rooms anyway."

His shoulder's stiffened as the shirt crumpled into a fist. "You're the one who decided on room assignments, and I'm not leaving you here alone."

"Believe it or not Iados, I can handle myself. I'm going to stay here and make some more money. Carric mentioned that the three of them might come back this way on their way to Esterwill, so I'll hook up with them when the time comes."

"And what if they don't come this way?" Iados said loudly.

"Then I am more than capable of making my own way. I did travel alone to get here in the first place." She walked over and pried her shirt out of Iados's hands. "It's not your job to look after me."

"You're right, it's not." Iados said tersely. "Fine. Good luck, I'll see you in Esterwill." He walked out, slamming the door behind him.

The elf sat down heavily on the bed. Truth be told, she wanted to follow him. Guarding a caravan was a more attractive way to earn money than delivering food and drinks every day. She sighed. She knew that with the way things were between her and Iados now, they wouldn't do a very job. The air between them that had once been so free and easy to move in, had turned awkward and hard to navigate. Never before had an atmosphere read 'broken up' like theirs did. More evidence that they'd gone past 'casual'.

That mornings she was in a daze as she brought people their orders. She was worried about how the current state of things between her and Iados would affect their future party. Around noon, just as the lunch rush began to filter in, there was a commotion outside the inn. Everyone, patrons and employees alike, rushed to see what it was.

Two wagons, one with two horses and the other with only one, barreled down the road into town. The wagons were loaded with injured. Men and women with gashes to their torsos, legs, arms, necks. Arrows were embedded in bodies, the wagons, and even one of the horses. The ones able to speak yelled for help.

It was chaos as the village jumped in to help. The injured were carried away, the tables in the inn quickly becoming makeshift beds. Lia jumped in to help and her healing spells were quickly used up. Soon after they ran out of clean water, and Lia was the first to grab the buckets and sprint out of the inn towards the village well.

"Have you heard what happened?" Lia asked as she approached the well.

The man had been stationed there took her buckets from her. "From what I've heard, they're all a part of a merchant caravan. Bandits attacked 'em and stole damn near everything they had. The survivors who could walk loaded up the injured and brought them here, they were only an hour or so away." He grunted as a pulled up a full bucket from the well.

"Is this the group that sent a runner in this morning, asking for directions?" Lia's voice shook as she asked.

"I don't know." The man wasn't even looking at her as he concentrated on hauling the heavy bucket up. "I know there's a couple of the merchants in the mayor's house now giving statements." He looked over at her, but she was gone.

In a small town such as this, the mayor's house looked the same as all the others. Today though it was easy to pick out from the small crowd in front of it as messengers and their horses were readied. Steffan stood out front saddling a horse when Lia ran up to him.

"Steffan, did this group send a runner this morning?" She asked desperately.

Steffan nodded. "Yeah, and Iados went with him." His face was dark as he meticulously attached the saddle. "I've already asked, and no one remembers an akudaem."

Lia gapped. "He has violet skin and horns, how can no one remember him?"

"No idea, but I intend to find out one way or another." Steffan finished putting the saddle on and in one fluid motion had pulled himself up. He reached a hand down towards her. "You coming?" Lia nodded and got on.

The two of them traveled away from the town, towards the direction where the wagons had come from. Both of them kept their eyes peeled for anything. They traveled quickly, and soon came upon the merchant's camp site.

About fifteen or so injured had made it to the town, and the number of dead scattered around the site seemed to be only around half that number. The campfire still burned. The smell of blood was heavy in the air, and already birds circled above them.

Steffan and Lia split up and began to quickly search the bodies. No sign of Iados.

It was Lia who heard the soft cry coming from the bushes. She pushed the foliage aside, and saw a horse. It laid on its side, with an arrow through its neck and its leg broken.

"Steffan, over here!" Lia went over to the horse.

"This looks like what the runner rode in on." Steffan knelt and gently patted the horse. "I was outside mucking out the stable when he rode in. Iados had been helping me. I found the runner a few feet from here, he's dead."

"But no Iados," Lia hung her head. "Where could he be if he's not here or in Rocklyn?"

"I don't know," Steffan's voice was soft. "Take a look around, see if you can find anything, I'll take care of this fellow here." Lia nodded and broke off.

She focused on scouring the ground for any sign, thinking back to how she'd seen Carric look for tracks. She spent a few frantic minutes just crawling around on her hands and knees.

"It's no use!" Lia pounded the ground with her hands. "Steffan, there's nothing here!" Tears that she couldn't hold back began to fall silently down her face. "I should have been here! At least then I'd have known where the hell he was."

Steffan came over and grabbed her roughly by the shoulders. "Lia! Calm down, and think. We haven't found his body so he might still be alive. He could be injured and roaming around in the forest for all we know. You said you're a druid, right? Don't you have a spell or something you can try?"

She shook her head. "I used all my spells healing people back at the village. All I have left are my animal forms."

The bartender's brow furrowed. "What do you mean 'animal forms'?"

Lia wiped her tears as she took a shaky breath. "I can transform into different animals."

His eyes widened. "What kind of animals? A bird?"

Lia shook her head. "Nothing that flies, yet."

"Then how about a dog? Or something else with a good sense of smell?" He suggested.

Lia nodded. "I can transform into a terrier, or a dire wolf."

Steffan chuckled. "I've never actually seen a dire wolf before. Why don't you try it out and see if you can sniff Iados out?"

Lia nodded. "That's a good idea," She grinned shyly. "I guess I'm not very good under pressure."

The bartender clapped her on the shoulder. "You've had a rough week. Now transform! Or whatever it is you druids say."

She smiled and told him to back up. Lia closed her eyes and forced herself to focus back on her training. She pictured the dire wolf in her mind, thought back to when she assumed the form in the mine. She felt the power of the earth under her, and grabbed a hold of it. Pulling it into herself, she willed the magic to change her. Painlessly and seamlessly her body morphed into a large wolf with sleek black fur. Even before she opened her eyes, she could already smell so many more scents than before.

Steffan whistled. "Wow, so that's a dire wolf huh. Now I'm kind of glad I've never met them."

Wolf-Lia turned to look at him. She gave him a toothy grin before she stalked over to the now-dead horse. Almost immediately she found his scent: a faint sulfur smell, mixed with the smell of the salty seas that still clung to him. Almost in a trance she followed it, with Steffan following along behind. It soon became very apparent that the trail was taking them deeper into the woods, away from Rocklyn.

"Lia, stop."

Wolf-Lia stopped and turned to look at Steffan.

"I have to get back to Rocklyn, let them know what we found." He reached up and patted her head. "You keep following the trail. In that form you'll probably catch up with them by nightfall. Good luck."

Wolf-Lia nodded, and ran off into the woods.