Hertha looked apprehensive about answering and Ehlissa could not blame her. Spellbooks were extremely valuable – maybe more so than human life sometimes. To protect their homes from inviting burglary or worse, most novices kept their spellbooks under lock and key at the guildhall anyway.
"Do you want to go for a walk?" Hertha asked abruptly.
It was not an unpleasant proposition. Hertha and Welmer were the children of the Parstiche family that owned several butchers' shops and a tavern in the Artisans' Quarter. While it was unglamorous work, it apparently paid off handsomely for Hertha's home was nicer than Ehlissa's and was in the nicest neighborhood in that quarter. Advantageously located, their home was spared the scent of blood and offal that went with their profession and benefited instead from a small bakery down at the end of the street. The wind was blowing just right so that Ehlissa had a whiff of freshly-baked bread that temporarily overpowered the stench from the gutters. The two ladies had exited the house quickly without further encounter with Welmer, though he and Joyhdee had surely heard the door open and shut from the sitting room. No doubt she would hear from Joyhdee for this further abandonment, Ehlissa knew, but she also sensed that Hertha wanted to tell her something important and that it might have to do with spells.
Initially, Ehlissa began to doubt her intuition as Hertha began making small talk again, but as they walked down toward the bakery, Ehlissa had the feeling that Hertha was simply dancing around the subject she really wanted to discuss. When Hertha grabbed Ehlissa's arm, she thought this might be the moment Hertha finally opened up, but instead Hertha was focused on some people ahead of them.
At the bakery was a good-looking man in a leather jerkin, hose pinned tight to his legs, a sword sheathed at his side, and his head brazenly uncovered. His smooth chin reminded Ehlissa of Tenser's, but his face was narrower and his hair lighter. Next to him was a halfling, a round-looking fellow no larger than a child, wearing a dagger like a sword and chewing on a piece of bread. "What ho! Gorgeous ladies!" the man called out.
Hertha started to tug on Ehlissa's arm. "Come, let's go back," Hertha said, but turning around, Ehlissa and Hertha saw their way back blocked by a more darkly-tanned fellow with a bristly black beard, crooked nose, and fat lips. This man wore a short shirt of quilted armor and had a hand resting on the hilt of his sheathed dagger. The man said nothing, but shook his head menacingly.
"Don't leave already, ladies!" the first man called out sarcastically as he and his small companion caught up. "Hertha, I'll think you don't like me, turning your back like that."
"I'm not interested in you, Ham," Hertha said without looking at him. "Leave us alone."
"But I'm interested in you," Ham persisted, "and my friends Balgo and Hermon are interested in your friend, aren't you, boys?"
"Very interested," Balgo chirped in. Hermon, behind them, just grunted approvingly.
"This is a very public thoroughfare," Ehlissa protested. "You can't talk to us this way. We shall scream for the town watch."
Hermon responded by lifting his dagger halfway from its scabbard.
"It will go worse for you both if you do," Ham suggested with mocking sweetness. "Hertha, you don't want to see your friend get hurt, do you?"
Now, every girl growing up in the City of Greyhawk knew all about fates worse than death. One of the more fanciful "fates worse than death" was being taken in the night by the evil wizard Murq or his fearful mist golem. Even 15 years after it happened, parents still used that to scare their children. Ehlissa had long since stopped worrying about Murq and golems, but still held onto the very real fear of being dragged into a dark alley by evil men for nefarious purposes. It was typically said, though, that such misdeeds were only commonplace in the Old City, swarming as it was with beggars and thieves. The newer quarters were supposed to be much safer. Ehlissa had walked safely to and from the guildhall countless times, never needing to rely on the dagger she wore at her side for protection.
The dagger at her side. She could draw it and defend them, she realized.
But Hertha had her own answer prepared and gave it by starting to speak a magical incantation. She wove her hands in a swift, arcane pattern.
"Here, what's this?" Ham asked, only starting to realize what she was doing.
Hermon realized too late what would happen and tried to pin Hertha's arms, but Ehlissa had her dagger out of its sheath in a flash and held it between Hermon and Hertha to ward the brute away. Before Ehlissa could do anything else (though she was not even sure yet what that would be), Hertha had cast a spell that made a glowing arrow appear in the air before her. She made a violent motion of her hand that seemed to propel the arrow straight into Ham's bowels. Ham doubled over and fell to the ground, clutching his stomach like he had to hold it in.
"Hertha!" Ehlissa cried, stunned by what she had just seen.
Luckily, Hermon was equally stunned. The first one to recover seemed to be Balgo, who did not acquit himself well in the following moments. He screamed out "sorceress!" but everything else he said was a curse or profanity in his native tongue.
Although the street had been otherwise deserted just a moment before, the raised voices were quickly attracting witnesses. Shutters flew open that had been closed and people peeked through shutters that had already been open. Two respectably-dressed gentlemen exited a house, saw the scene practically outside their doorstep, and turned around to run back in. Others took a more civic-minded approach, calling out for the town guard. That was all Hermon had to hear before he too broke rank from his fallen comrade and beat a hasty retreat. Hertha, apparently, was of a similar bent of mind. "Come on!" she said as she took Ehlissa by the arm again and pulled hard on it.
Ehlissa, who had never witnessed someone almost murdered in front of her, was too shocked to do anything but dumbly comply. She felt like she should say something to Hertha about it, but her lips protested and did not wish to do anything so productive. Finally, Ehlissa found she was back in Hertha's home. She leaned against the foyer wall for support as she listened to Hertha go into the sitting room and fetch Welmer. She saw Joyhdee emerge, puzzled and concerned, from the sitting room and barely felt her sister touch her hand, as it felt numb. Joyhdee was saying something, but Ehlissa ignored it and strained to hear what Hertha was telling Welmer. When Welmer emerged from the sitting room, he seemed to give Ehlissa a hard glare, apologized gravely to Joyhdee for the interruption, and announced that he was "going out to deal with this before it reached their parents." Ehlissa started to cry.
Once Welmer was gone, Hertha joined Ehlissa and Joyhdee out in the foyer. Hertha looked sad, or maybe just depressed, but not nearly as distraught as Ehlissa felt. Ehlissa had finally recovered enough that she could speak. "You could have killed him, Hertha."
Hertha shrugged coldly. "He deserves it," she said calmly. "You don't know how long I've been dealing with him and his friends."
"But to do that—" Ehlissa began to protest.
"How can you not know what they intended to do to us?" Hertha said, her voice trembling for the first time. "It was because of them that I had to learn that spell in the first place!" Hertha then forced herself calm again and said quietly, "you two should both go. Out the back door in case the Town Watch is coming to question me."
The serious is her gaze made both sisters feel obligated to comply. Mechanically, they made their way towards the kitchen. But before leaving the hallway, Ehlissa turned back and asked the question she had wanted to ask this whole time. "Who taught you that spell?"
Hertha crossed her arms and looked down at them. She might have finally been holding back tears, but Ehlissa could not be sure. "Ask Felgosh. Bastro Felgosh," she said, and that was all she would say.
The flight from Hertha and Welmer's home was frightening for the two sisters. Ehlissa in particular could not stop looking back and watching for pursuers for the first four blocks. Ehlissa's explanation of what happened came in fits and starts whenever she felt there was no one near enough to eavesdrop. Joyhdee reacted with shock at all the appropriate passages of the story. The more Joyhdee heard, though, the more she shook her head. "You're not planning to talk to this man, are you?" she asked at last. By the look on Ehlissa's face, she knew the answer. "Holy Ralishaz! You are! And what are you planning to say? 'Hi, a friend of mine used your spell to almost kill a man. Will you teach me it too'?" she asked mockingly.
"No. I don't know!" Ehlissa said. "I have to find him first and then I will figure out something. In the meanwhile -- please, please keep secret what happened today!"
"You think I want everyone to think Welmer comes from a family of killers?" Joyhdee asked earnestly.
Home never looked so good as when the sisters finally reached it. The family only employed a servant to answer the door when expecting company, so the girls let themselves inside, discarded their muddy boots, and hung up their hoods. Safe at home, their horrible secret slowly changed into an exciting secret and they delighted in remaining silent about it at supper and throughout the evening. As Ehlissa went to bed that night, she even imagined whether she would ever have to kill someone in her future life of adventure.
Ehlissa woke the next day with no immediate plan other than to inquire at the guildhall if anyone knew of this Bastro. It seemed unlikely that she would find him right away, but any lead would be helpful. Perhaps, she hoped, Tenser would be there and help her track this man down. This made her impatient and she spoke so to Johydee as her sister helped braid her hair.
"I cannot believe you sometimes," Joyhdee said, pulling her sister's hair on purpose. "All I have done for you and you have the gall to complain that I'm not braiding fast enough."
"I'm sorry," Ehlissa said with earnest. "I know you've been a dear sister through all this. But I don't think you have faired so poorly if Welmer works out for you. He really did seem sweet on you."
"He was sweet enough..." Joydhee said, blushing.
"Oho! You do like him!" Ehlissa cried as she rose from her stool.
"Well, why not?" Joydhee shot back, her face now bright red. "He may not be so handsome, but he is soft in speech and manner. He said the sweetest things."
"Oh, what a bad sister I've been!" Ehlissa cried, clutching Joyhdee's hand. "I have been thinking only of myself and not of your news. Tell all! What things did Welmer say?"
"I...all right!" Joyhdee cried, and she began to betray Welmer's trust with the speed that only a woman's wagging tongue could accomplish.
To all these things Ehlissa bent her ear, but though she did so at first with glee, her mood gradually changed and darkened so that she was barely listening to Joyhdee at all. Deep in thought, Ehlissa stepped away from her sister.
"What is the matter?" Joyhdee asked. When no answer came, she guessed, "Is it because Tenser has not said such things to you?"
Ehlissa laughed, but it was an angry, jealous laugh that hid nothing of the truth in Joyhdee's guess. "You are still young, Joydhee," Ehlissa said. "Things have passed unsaid between Tenser and me far deeper than any whispered, honeyed words of dear Welmer!"
Of course, just because she said it did not mean she felt it and the worry that Joyhdee was right gnawed at her as she walked to the guildhall. It consumed her thoughts so much that she was about halfway there when she remembered the dangerous encounter of the previous day and wished she had asked for one of the servants to escort her. She made sure she was clutching the hilt of her dagger the rest of the way, wary of every stranger she passed. She released it only when she reached the normalcy of the magic guildhall. The gates at the street stood open, as they always were when members were coming or going. The wide path to the main entrance was free of members, but some had just left and were out talking to the street vendors. Ehlissa walked alone up to the main entrance, its large doors standing open. She could hear the din from the crowded, echoing halls inside, but the only person at the entrance was the very dwarf who had separated Tenser and Gleed when Ehlissa first met them.
"Good day to you, lady," the dwarf, Farin, said with a polite nod.
"And good day to you too," Ehlissa said with a curtsey. It was not customary to talk to the help, but Ehlissa had a hunch that a servant with good ears might have heard the name Bastro before, so she asked him.
"I have," Farin said so matter-of-factly it surprised her. Then he pointed to the opposite wall of the foyer.
Ehlissa followed his finger to the plaques of instructors names displayed there. She knew what she would see before she spotted his plaque.
"His office is in the Hall of Many-Colored Panes...I believe on the right side," Farin offered helpfully.
Ehlissa stepped into the cloak room, took a deep breath, hung up her cloak, and took off her boots. She produced her ceremonial hood and gown from a sack to wear inside, replacing them with her regular hood and concealing her mud-stained hose with the gown. The dwarf gave her another polite nod as she emerged.