[87.0%]

[31]

Corvayne Croaked. “Urrrrrr.”

Nyxion groaned. “Uoooo.”

Gary moaned. “Uuuuuu.”

Corvayne had learned something important while fighting Argyle: using gravity and shadow hands over, and over, and over again past the point that his body asked him to please sit down and rest actually borrowed against his future self. He could barely move after the fight, and needed help to get down the station and over to Mister I's side of the apartments. Which is where he was now, in a wood panel room with plain metal frame beds and yellowed stiff plastic partitions. The three beds had a pretty good view of the TV ahead of them, somewhat diminished by the rare sunlight peeking in through the blinds and washing out the screen.

It wouldn't be so bad if he was just tired but gravity gave him feedback, both feeling like he was made of lead and a sort of queasy swishy feeling, not like getting physically sick but still just a feeling that something was not right, like there was a weight in him that was rolling back and forth in a container he was stuck to, wobbling. Corvayne was tiring himself out breathing, enough that Mister I kept someone sitting next to him to make sure that he didn't stop when he fell asleep. The extra person might also have been to keep him from 'immediately picking a fight with a worse monster' in Wick's words.

Corvayne breathed out, the weight of his chest forcing the air of his mouth with a croak. “Urrrrr.”

Nyxion groaned. “Uooooo.”

Gary moaned. “Uuuuuu.”

Nyxion had made a fake core out of a thrift store coffee table knick-knack and lured a pair of clones to the top of a six story building, likely saving Corvayne's life given the 'good' clones were much more lethal. What Corvayne hadn't seen was the two clones bashing their way through the locked door, forcing Nyxion to toss the fake core at them then jump off the roof into a dumpster. His shield belt had taken a stave hit right before he hit the garbage, which overloaded the device, leaving him with a badly broken leg and arm. Grunt didn't find it amusing that he had been drafted to hose Nyxion off since the noble reeked of garbage.

Nyxion made a pretty good choice, as it seemed like Seru had been calling in the calvary and thus the clones got mobbed by newly leveled up residents and police before they could reach Nyxion.

Corvayne croaked. “Urrrr.”

Nyxion, who probably needed a fresh batch of pain killers, groaned. “Uooooo.”

Gary moaned. “Uuuuu.”

Gary got hit by Argyle prime and somehow lived. Possibly because it's wasn't a direct swing that sent him flying into a wall. The indirect attack was enough where he had broken a few ribs, his hand, and his hip. If not for mend he'd be bed ridden for at least a few weeks. According to Hari, Gary hurt himself even more when he saw Mosh coming for him and started trying to scream and drag himself away, even though Mosh, in perfect Cascadian, told him that he was going to help. The goblin was upset but after a day turned it into a source of amusement.

Mosh came back into the room, carrying a comically large sandwich. He chewed and talked at the same time. “Hey Boss, feeling any better?”

“Ruuur.” Corvayne croaked, moving his head a little up and down, tiring himself out by nodding.

Mosh turned to the second bed. “Hey dumpster eagle, you think you're ready for another mend?”

“Uooooo” Nyx groaned.

Mosh looked over at the third bed. “How's my big chicken?”

“Uuuuuu.” Gary moaned.

“Great, let's see what's on T.V!” Mosh hopped up on a stool next to Corvayne's bed and turned the volume up, happily munching on his sandwich.

Hari relieved Mosh a few hours later as the sun was setting and by then Corvayne was well enough to sit up and talk to her. Her olive dress looked a little more plain then the green barmaid's outfit she had worn before but far more comfortable. Just seeing her there and happy made him feel better. He hadn't had a spare moment since she popped up to talk to her or reflect on how glad he was that she was okay, nor how glad he was that she came back.

“Thanks for the save Hari.” he said as she settled down onto the same stool next to him, placing a tray with steaming oatmeal bowls down while she sat.

“I'd call us even but only if you agree you won't squirm away next time I want to cuddle.” Hari smiled, then took a bowl and blew on it, handing it over. It was still a little too hot, but Corvayne needed to move before he got stiff and pulled something.

He looked at the red sky out the window. “I missed you these past few weeks. I was worried.”

Hari looked away embarrassed, curling her finger around her hair before looking back at Corvayne. “Aww! Me too. I told my party all about you! And the time loop thing.”

“I saw you die, and it really hurt.”

“Yeah, I didn't know what happened at first. I woke up on the first day of my excursion with the party. I told them that it was a dream I had because, I mean, it seemed like it? So they wanted to see if the portal was there, and it was, so we went back to town and put some money down for tools to handle a swarm of goblins. I figured we go in a day or two earlier, handle the first ambush, and fight in a solid defensible position. Instead of that, there was a lone giant goblin with four helpers eating armadillos that were everywhere, along with goblin skeletons! Well, we also found Mosh, who had been using his mud to trap armadillos and stab them with a goblin spear, as well as two Cascadian girls Varia and Caala who Mosh had been helping. The three of them had a regular Sir Blackcherry fortress made of wood and armadillo sinew!”

“Don't get the reference.”

“Oh, he was a knight in a story who was stranded on island after a sea voyage and built himself a little fortress out of what he found.” Hari leaned forward. “Shoot, I should have brought you a copy!”

“We have stories like that, but I'd be happy to read something you liked. I mean, if you have the time before you go home.”

She leaned over the bed and gave him a lingering chaste kiss, then pulled back a little. “I'm not going back. Alone, at least. If I go, it's with my new party. I mean... if, if you'll have me!”

He nodded at her. “I have to share you with Wick, I think is the deal. Unless she decides she'd rather be with your... what was your priests race called?”

“Sissl is Khitoran. He doesn't think humans or elves look right, so he'll decline. Anyway, we cleared more of the dungeon, ah, I mean tower! We spent extra time since we couldn't really avoid training the girls, and I promised them treasure, and we had to leave the first floor and do a bit of side-tracking to reach the town since the monk was spotted wandering around. That was ALSO complicated by looking for treasure.” She rolled her eyes but Corvayne caught a hint of a gold necklace around her neck, as well as the shiny blue knives she had sheathed at her side.

“There was also an issue where Floowine got jealous of Varia because Khorkos was hitting on her, and Caala and her were also sort of fighting over Mosh then got mad at him because we stopped in town and he slept with June, then Khorkos got caught with July so Floowine was pissed at him, and that delayed us another three days at the town where she shut herself in a room, and June started acting odd and following Mosh when he went with the girls to train out in the woods and Mister Banner, the innkeeper, got mad at the girls when Mosh agreed to handle it and they complained... it was a whole big briar patch of trouble and I ended up pretending I was you to lead everyone and patch things up so we could get out of the damn town.” She huffed. “Was trying to herd us that bad?”

Maybe. “Probably not. It sounds rough.”

“Well, we went up a floor that was very hot and had to backtrack and buy stuff we could wear that was cooler, then arrived at a floor that was really cold, and we had to backtrack to go buy warm winter gear and we ended up running into then having to kill the monk guy, but it was weirdly easy and he turned into a pile of garbage. Then we fought the boss which was a bunch of bears. The treasure chest just gave us a bunch of food. Like, a cake made of meat.”

Corvayne nodded. “I thought Mister I was in a suspiciously good mood.“

“Perhaps it was that he forgot his truck at the park? Mosh used that to get us here, in time to follow the fighting to you!” She smiled.

“I owe you guys my life.” He heard someone opening the door and saw Seru coming in.

She looked a little confused as Hari turned around, and there was a weird moment where Corvayne saw Seru's expression shifting through surprise then jealousy then slowly to excitement and joy.

“YOU!” She pointed, and practically charged up to Hari. “Sorry Corvayne, I'm making her a STAR. NOW!”

Hari looked confused and turned to Corvayne while Seru was gripping her hand and starting to drag Hari away. Corvayne nodded. “It's fine, she's like a painter with pictures basically.”

Hari's ears perked up. “I might get a really nice portrait?! Wait, I don't have credits. How would I pay her?”

Seru kept tugging while looking at Corvayne “What's she saying? Does she speak Cascadian?”

Hari turned to Seru. “Sometimes.”

“She'd pay you to take your picture. You might find it fun, otherwise we'll come rescue you.”

Hari pulled Seru back over to Corvayne and planted a kiss on his lips and gave him an intense look while she spoke in breathy Elvish “I'll properly accept a welcome back when you're feeling better, then.” Then let herself be dragged off by Seru.

Corvayne felt his body shifting back to it's normal weight and took a nap, waking up well into night. Both Nyxion and Gary were snoring. Mosh was sitting at the desk in the room, sketching something by lamplight. Next to him was June, the girl from that third floor village. The millers daughter scratched the goblin's head. Corvayne could see that there was a little bit of... oddness... to her, but she seemed to genuinely like Mosh. So, good on them.

The goblin closed his eyes and pushed into it a little, green ears wigging a little. “Thanks toots. Woah he's alive! Boss you up?”

Corvayne nodded, picking up his spear left to the side of the bed, as well as fresh clothes folded in a pile. “Yeah. I gotta talk to Wick. It seems you're on you're way to being the Miller's son?”

Mosh laughed. “Maybe! She always wanted to be a craftswomen you know?”

Corvayne pulled the plastic for some privacy then changed, nodded to Mosh and June, then left them and his wounded friend and disciple. Corvayne made his way down one tower and through the community center hallway to the other side of the apartment buildings. He knocked on Wick's door, and she opened it, saw him, and frowned. What was that reaction?

“You look serious.” Wick said, wearing her robe. Corvayne was for a moment distracted by a sucker sticking out of her mouth.

“I wanted to talk, but there were people in the hospital.” He looked at her, and met her eyes as she stood in the way of the door. “I want to talk about what Argyle told me.”

“He probably made stuff up to distract you.” Wick said, looking back into her room.

Corvayne just gave her an even look. “If you want me to drop it, fine. You'll always be Wick to me. But he called you Anastasia, and that's the name of the woman who collected part of a large bounty on me at the inn at the Tower in our house.

She sighed and swung the door open. Corvayne stopped as he started to step in. “Are you annoyed to see me? I don't care about the bounty.”

Wick threw her hands up. “No! I've been trying to avoid it! The Anastasia thing. Don't give me that look, you'd think you'd be happy to hear your asshole dad's voice? Or get beat up by... what was the name of your axe trainer?”

“Mugs-Already-Empty.” Corvayne added and Wick snapped her fingers at him and pointed.

“Right. It soured your face when you said it! Why do you think I'm out here, hiding from my old life, under a different name?”

Corvayne held a hand up. “I'll put the entire conversation aside if it's that bad. We don't need to do this, I just thought-”

Wick got even madder for some reason. “You can't just ignore everything when it's inconvenient! It's like you don't even fucking care!”

He felt his voice raise a little. “I do care. Wick. Tell me why he kept calling you Anastasia.” He keep his eyes on her and Wick sighed, her whole form slumping as she walked inside.

“Close the damn door!” She barked and Corvayne did so, settling on her couch as Wick rummaged in the fridge and fished out a bottle of wine, then pulled out a wine glass and poured herself a cup. “I'm going to tell you gist of it, since you know the part where I ran away when I was 15.”

She went by the couch and sat on her coffee table, resting the bottle on an already existing circular stain. “I was born Ianasia Leona. Everyone just calls me Anastasia when they talk about me since I ran away. I'm the 12th in line for succession for the position of Empress of the Collective.”

Corvayne blinked. “Okay so you're a princess. Why's that a bad thing? I get you're in hiding.”

Wick “It's bad because people are looking for missing royalty, and they attract people looking to kill me! Look, I don't know how much Argyle blurted out, but there's two overlapping groups who want me dead. First, quite a few of my siblings are murderous sociopaths. They don't know WHY I ran, so they'll assume it's a plot and try to snuff me out. Second! Second, there's a bunch of cultists who think I'm holding some sort of incredible power, and killing me or worse would transfer that power to them.”

Corvanye folded his arms. “Then I guess we have to convince them otherwise, by word or spear.”

Wick sighed. “One agent killed all of us once and took an entire town to actually take down.”

“One down, however many to go.” Corvayne saw Wick was looking away. “I don't care that you're hunted, or your past is that you're secretly really important... I mean, I care. I'll deal with it.”

Wick stared at him. “Are you smirking at this?”

Corvayne nodded. He avoided blurting out the main component, self satisfaction as he realized he had bedded a princess. “The royalty thing. I read a lot of fantasy books, and it always strained the believability that every other girl in them was secretly a princess. I should say it seemed off once I learned about monarchy and how many commoners there were to a member of royalty, of course. So I had spent some time since we met expecting your secret to not be so... on the nose.”

Wick glared at him, wiping the smile off Corvayne's face. “So my life of worrying about not only myself, but the entire Collective is funny to you?”

“No. It was my own expectations of-”

“Out! Get out!” Wick shouted while jabbing her finger at the door, and Corvayne stood up.

He felt frustrated, for a moment wanting to point out that he had just risked his life fighting for her, but Wick looked miserable and just kept pointing at the door and shouting “OUT! Leave me alone!”

Corvayne didn't know what else to do so he bowed and walked out. He turned and saw the door slam, nearly hitting his nose as he said. “Excuse me.”