Chapter Eight

Shuka felt a sharp pain as the sword struck her body once more. Pain wracked her body, and her limbs were heavy from exhaustion. She wasn’t going to last much longer, but her opponent showed no mercy for this was not a battle where mercy was an option. Shuka attempted to parry an oncoming blow but only found her sword knocked out of her hands leaving her entirely defenceless. As the sword came down upon her one final time Shuka abandoned all hope, for she knew now that since the beginning she had no chance of winning this fight. Xorvos bopped her lightly on the head with his practice sword then stepped back with a proud smirk on his face.

“I believe the score is now 10-0. Pretty good considering I’m not even a swordsman.”

“Not a swordsman my ass.” Shuka retorted “I haven’t hit you once, but you’ve hit me enough times that I’ve gotten more bruises today than the rest of my life combined.”

“Sorry but sparring is important, although I think it might still be a bit too advanced for you. Since you’re looking pretty sore and you haven’t quite learned the basics yet I think we will skip sparring tomorrow and focus on getting you used to your sword.”

Shuka dropped to the ground with relief and looked to Xorvos with utter gratitude.

“Thank Humanus for that, my body wouldn’t last long if I had to do this every day.”

“Don’t thank Humanus, he would tell you to get up and not stop training until you collapse. The god of ambition isn’t a very big fan of breaks.” Xorvos told her.

“Well then who am I supposed to thank then? None of the other gods really appeal to me but at least Humanus created humans. That’s got to count for something right?”

“You could thank me for giving you the break in the first place.” Xorvos replied, slightly peeved. “And shouldn’t you worship Vondoom? You grew up in one of his orphanages and they count as temples, right?”

Shuka’s reply came with a chuckle. “Just because I’m an orphan doesn’t mean I need to worship the god of orphans. I’m grateful I didn’t have to live on the street but I’m not going devote my life to him because of it. They didn’t even try that hard to convert me, all they said was worship him if you want but if you don’t that’s fine too.”

At this point Xorvos had sat down too and was enjoying the moment with his friend. Shuka was enjoying it too, but she was sitting because standing hurt too much.

“that seems oddly casual for a religious group.”

“Yeah, well apparently Vondoom is a pretty casual guy. I’ve never met him though so I wouldn’t know. And besides, it was also technically a shrine to Margaret with Not-Margaret being there.”

Xorvos had to supress a shudder as he remembered the golem that had acted as the secretary to the orphanage. It was said that each Not-Margaret golem was hand crafted by Margaret herself but the fact that it was made by a demi-god didn’t make it any less unsettling.

“I always hated that thing. it’s one of the most advanced golems in the world and all it does is stare at kids all day while doing paperwork.” Xorvos grumbled. This wasn’t the first time he had expressed his displeasure of Not-Margaret. “Why would Margaret even become the demi-god of secretaries if she is so good at golemancy anyway? Shouldn’t she have become the demi-god of golems instead?”

“I guess she just liked being a secretary more. And besides, even with her ascension she’s still only the second best golemancer in the world.”

“I guess.”

There was a break in the conversation. Xorvos didn’t want to even think about Margaret’s creepy golems and Shuka was just too tired to continue.

It’s nice that I can still just chat with Xorvos. I was worried that the curse was going to make every conversation turn into an argument like what happened before. Maybe he’s getting used to it or the curse is losing its effectiveness, after all it doesn’t seem to be affecting Ralisdor that much either.

“So what about you then Xorvos? Why don’t you worship any gods? I mean you’re the most honourable guy I know, surely you should worship Quansonax. All the other times I asked this you just said, ‘it’s a Quanso thing’ but you never really gave me a solid answer.”

Xorvos looked a little uncomfortable at the question as he did all of the other times Shuka asked him this question. Unlike the other times however, he actually answered this time.

“Honour in the eyes of Quansonax just means you should follow a set of rules and not break them. For the Quanso those rules are things like no killing, lying, or stealing but for other people those rules could be anything. To Quansonax a tyrannical slaver can be just as honourable as a virtuous hero as long as they don’t break any of the rules they decided to follow.” There was a hint of annoyance in his voice “I simply can’t bring myself to worship a god who freely gives his blessings to murderers, slavers and other despicable people. There are many other Quanso who share my beliefs and stay true to the Quanso code of honour without giving worship to an uncaring god.”

Well this is a surprise. I had always thought the reason Quanso never killed people was because of Quansonax but from what Xorvos is saying he doesn’t even care. It’s still kind of hard imagining an evil person worshipping the God of Honour though.

“Why were you so reluctant to say that? It sounds like a pretty reasonable reason to not worship gods to me.”

“Well isn’t saying bad things about the gods blasphemy? The Celestial Empire is a pretty religious place, so I don’t want people to think I hate gods or anything like that.”

He’s got a point there. I know a couple people in Rainsburg who would take that the wrong way.

It was true that it probably wasn’t a very good idea to say things like that in public around here. Most people in the empire worship one or more gods. While it wouldn’t get him in any real trouble it certainly wouldn’t make him any friends.

“Y’know its kinda funny that the only religious person in our group is the wizard.” Shuka said.

“Ralisdor? I didn’t know he followed any gods.”

“Well, he’s not super into it like some other people but he’s got a symbol of Humanus and Xyloth in his house.”

“Xyloth I can understand, he is the god of magic after all but Humanus? If he’s really that ambitious, then why did he move to Rainsburg?”

“I asked him the exact same thing. Apparently, those old ruins near the town was once home to a very magically advanced civilisation. Of course, there were a bunch of other mages who came and studied the ruins before him, but they left copies of all of their notes in the Rainsburg library. Ralisdor seems to think that some of those notes can help him learn how to use True Illusions.”

Xorvos thought about the night Ralisdor told him about True Illusions and his choice in gods started making a little more sense to him. Followers of Humanus often have grand, almost impossible goals and if Ralisdor was trying to learn magic that is beyond what most archmages are capable of, then he certainly fit in.

“Well that’s enough about gods, it’s getting late and we need to get you everything you need to maintain your sword.”

“Maintain my sword? What do you mean?”

Xorvos gave Shuka a look and let out a heavy sigh.

“Swords rust if you don’t take care of them. You will also need to get a whetstone to keep it sharp.”

“I uh, don’t really have much money left. I’ve only got a couple silver left and I want to have at least something on me in case I find something I want to buy.”

Xorvos let an even deeper sigh than before. He was trying not to let his negative feelings for her get to him again, but she was not making it easy for him.

“I will pay for it but between this and the training you owe me.”

“Thanks. And don’t worry, I will repay you. I might even be able to pay you back tomorrow if I’m lucky.”

“Why? What’s happening tomorrow?” He asked.

“I’m gonna head over to the adventurer’s guild for some work. I will avoid anything dangerous but there should be a job or two within my skill level. I only need a few gold after all.”

That put a nervous look on Xorvos’s face. He’s seen Shuka’s poor swordsman so he knew if something did happen, she would be ill prepared to deal with it.

“You don’t need to pay me back immediately. If there aren’t any safe jobs then don’t take a job at all. And if you do take a job you should tell me about it before you do it. Ralisdor too just to be safe.”

The longer he talked to more annoyed Shuka became.

Goddammit I’m not a child. Even if my swordsmanship is trash I can still defend myself. Just because I’m not seven feet tall and don’t have the skin of a rhino doesn’t mean I will fall over and die at the slightest threat.

“I will be fine, it’s not like I’m going to a dungeon or anything. The most dangerous job I would take would be gathering herbs outside the city and the only reason that would be dangerous is because it’s in the wilderness. I’ve spent the last four years living in the wilderness and I’ve never gotten anything worse than a few scrapes and bruises.”

Despite her assurances, Xorvos didn’t look any less worried.

“I’m not saying you can’t go just be careful. Ralisdor still has healing potions so make sure you go to him if you get injured.”

“I’m doing this so I don’t have to rely on Ralisdor for money and using up one of his expensive potions would defeat the purpose. And I already told you I won’t be doing anything dangerous.”

“Fine I will stop pestering you about this, but you better not come back to the inn tomorrow bleeding.”

“Don’t worry, I will make sure to bandage all of my wounds before entering.”

Xorvos smacked the back of Shuka’s head lightly for the snarky comment.

“Well we have wasted enough time. Let’s go get you those supplies.”

And with that Xorvos got up and started walking towards the front gate of Rockmarsh. Shuka followed behind and they went on one last shopping trip before the end of the day.

*

Shuka woke up even more sore than when she had gone to bed.

How did Xorvos grow up sparring with his father every day if this is what it feels like? I’ve only done it once and I already want to quit.

Eventually she managed to get up and get dressed. She had to eat alone though as yesterday’s training made her sleep in an hour past breakfast. The events of the day before made Shuka want to go back to bed and lay there for a while but she knew that if she did that, she wouldn’t get up all day. Instead she got her bow and sword and went to find some work. Moving through the crowded streets Shuka found she hated how loud cities were even more now. Luckily things became a lot more peaceful after she made it to the mining district. There were still people around but much less and they tended to mind their own business as they worked in silence. Well, not quite silence but the noise they made working was much less annoying than the noise made by the people in the marketplace. There was also a lot less variety in the mining district. The marketplace had people of most races with the biggest demographics being humans and dwarves but here it was almost entirely dwarves with a few humans and Quanso mixed in. after a little wandering Shuka found the building the merchant from before told her about. Ashrock Bellows didn’t look much like what Shuka thought an adventurer’s guild would look like but she had never seen one before so what would she know. Still though, Ashrock Bellows was almost identical to all of the other industrial looking buildings the littered the streets of the mining district. Well it would be a waste to leave after coming this far so Shuka knocked on the solid wooden door and waited for an answer. It didn’t take long until the door was opened by a tall human man with a bald head. He was wearing leather armour and had several knives sheathed in various places. He looked down on Shuka with a scowl and spoke with contempt.

“What do you want? And don’t waste my time or you’re gonna regret it.”

Well this isn’t the greeting I was expecting. I hope this is just a particularly rude adventurer and there are much nicer people inside.

“I’m here looking for work. I was told to come here by the man at the Vagrants Blade.”

“Old Wilbur sent you? Fine you can come in, but I’m not gonna trust you until you’ve got the mark.”

Mark? What is he talking about? I want to ask but maybe I will wait until I find someone a little more open to questions first.

Shuka nodded and followed the man into the building, trying not to annoy him further. If she was paying a bit more attention to where she was going instead of the man she was following Shuka might have noticed she wasn’t entering a adventurers guild. Sadly she didn’t notice anything was off until after the door had closed behind her. Shuka had expected a well lit and jovial common room full of all sorts of adventurous folk. Instead, the lighting was dim, the mood was dour, and it was full of only one type of folk, the criminal kind. Everywhere she looked Shuka saw shifty looking men and women in leather armor or dark clothing chatting in hushed tones or surveying the room warily. Shuka felt her heart skip a beat in fear as several of those eyes locked onto her and stayed there with a cold intensity. There was no denying it anymore, this wasn’t the adventurers guild, it was the thieves guild. The thought of it gripped Shuka with terror as she realised how much danger she was in.

“Oi! You coming or what?”

Shuka jumped so hard her feet left the ground. The man from before had already closed the door behind her and was a third of the way across the room before he noticed she wasn’t following him.

Shit, I need to get out of here. But the door is already closed and I don’t know if it’s locked or not. Trying to run and failing would be pretty bad, they might think I’m some sort of spy or snitch. And even if the door isn’t locked how do I know they wont chase me after I leave. Fuck, it looks the only way out is forwards.

Going a little deeper into Ashrock Bellows Shuka found that not everyone in the thieves guild looked like a thief or a thug. Around a third of them looked outright normal although the company they were keeping alluded otherwise. She even saw a rather cheery looking halfling drinking at the bar chatting with what looked like a group of cutthroats.

Wait… isn’t that the kid who tried robbing me yesterday? He isn’t a kid at all! He must have been trying to get out of a harsher punishment by pretending to be a child.

If she was in any other situation Shuka would’ve clocked him over the head for tricking her, but this probably wasn’t the best place to get her vengeance. Finally, after what felt like eternity Shuka and her guide reached a nondescript wooden door that the thieves guild member proceeded to knock on it.

“Hey boss, there’s a freelancer here looking for work. She says Wilbur sent her.”

A deep, muffled voice came from the other side of the door.

“Well let her in then. I’m just doing some paperwork so she’s not interrupting anything.”

The door opened and Shuka was ushered in. Inside was a utilitarian office with several bookshelves lining the walls and a massive desk filled with paperwork in its center. Behind the desk was a middle-aged dwarf with a thick black beard that had gold hair ornaments at the end of braids. His hair was similarly thick and braided with matching ornaments at the ends. He was dressed in expensive clothing and had a pair of reading glasses which he took off to look at Shuka. All in all, Shuka thought he looked like a particularly well of merchant instead of the savage gang leader she was expecting. It was almost enough to make Shuka forget her situation, but as much as her fear had subsided, it had never left.

“Well miss Shuka, I’ve heard so much about you it’s a pleasure finally seeing you face to face.”