Chapter 10
"You met Joe?"
Phoenix nodded before taking a long drink of water, wishing that it was gin, as she finished recounting the story of how they ended up returning with nothing but bruised egos. Bamf and Dovahkiin were speaking with Decs in the corner of the bar that had been empty for hours now. Despite it being fairly early in the night, Darius and Tibul had taken one look at the worn and remarkably irritable adventurers and had ushered out their patrons. And now Tibul and Kiligana shared whispers a few feet down the bar, grins on their faces and rough chortles breaking the otherwise hushed establishment.
"And you're associated with him...how?" Phoenix didn't have the energy to be suspicious or curious, at this point wanting to just get enough information to get to bed and leave actually processing it for the morning.
"We worked together before Tibul and I-" He waved at the bar around him, dark eyes glimmering with memories from long ago, "had all of this."
"Adventuring? Thieving?" She inquired, only half listening as her gaze caught on the figure of Damian as he sharpened a set of arrows at one of the many abandoned tables. There was nothing particularly threatening about the action, he wasn't even looking in her direction, but there was still something that unsettled her about the steady rhythm.
The steps that would always approach the bedroom at ungodly hours of the night were always slow. Methodical. She could still taste the coppery tang of fear as she heard them, curling in on herself underneath of the silk sheets as she wondered if his hands would be soaked in blood again when he laid them on her body.
"-a story for another day."
Phoenix blinked slowly and looked up as she caught the tail end of Darius' response. He's gaze was knowing as he watched her tired eyes blink at him before she responded.
"Ah...yes. Another day." She said, her mind clearly absent from the conversation. He snorted and gestured at the stairs.
"Go, Phoenix. Rest. We'll talk about meeting with Joe in the morning."
Phoenix's head bobbed in response as she somehow managed to push her stool away from the bar and stand on steady legs, leaving her drink half-full and her food only picked at. This weariness was past physical and had become something mental instead. Even if she were to get a full night of sleep, she wasn't sure if the ache in her bones would ever disappear.
"How about a round of cards, darling?" Decs called as she passed. She waved him off and trudged passed them, up the stairs and into her room. The room had begun to accumulate different trinkets over the past few weeks. Her old crossbow, which had broken a few days into their adventuring, was gathering dust on one of the two shelves in the room alongside a couple of hair combs and pins. Nothing too precious to her or anything that she would be sad to leave behind, but just enough to make a bit of warmth flicker in her chest when she saw them.
She almost fell on the bed and slept in her armor, but forced herself to let the heavy leather fall to the ground, followed soon by her thick woolen dress and sturdy boots. It wasn't long after she slipped into her silk nightgown that she heard a knock at her door.
"Damian, I'm really not in the mood to…" She trailed off at the sight of Bamf standing awkwardly in the hallway. "Oh."
"Can we...talk?" He shifted from foot to foot, looking as uncomfortable as she was. She made no move to open the door, but gave a nod. With her companion's rooms flanking her own, there was little worry of being overheard by anyone while speaking in the hall.
"What did you want to talk about?"
Bamf hesitated for a second.
"My brother and you are...very similar."
"Not something that I wanted to hear, but I assume you have a point." Phoenix said dryly, her hand gripping the edge of the door. He looked at her hand for a moment before he focused back on her.
"You're both headstrong. Stubborn. You both know what you want." He inched backwards a little bit, moving to lean against the wall opposite of her door. Taking in her unimpressed expression, his next words were a bit rushed. "I'm not saying that these are inherently bad traits, nor does it excuse what you said to him-"
"You've said a lot of words, but are no closer to making a point. Impressive, honestly."
Bamf pressed his lips together and looked up at the ceiling, appearing to be praying to whatever deity he believed in. Despite being exhausted, the ghost of a satisfied smile played on her lips.
"My point is that we cannot succeed if we continue on like this." He said, rubbing his temple with one hand. "If we keep going at each other's throats, we won't be able to work effectively against the people who are after us."
"I'm not apologizing, if that's what you want."
"There is no scenario in which I expected you to apologize." He shook his head. "I'm just asking for you to be civil. You know just what to say to piss him off, all I'm asking is that you refrain from doing so."
Phoenix pressed her lips together as she stared at Bamf in silence. Finally she exhaled and loosened her grip on the door, sagging against the frame.
"You know that he makes it easy, don't you?" She snorted and took a few steps back into her room.
"I know more than anyone, Phoenix. Trust me."
They shared a long suffering look.
"Goodnight, Bamf."
He gave a short wave right before she shut the door, leaving her just a little less tired than before.
"Joetonia Filitonia. A tiefling of many secrets." Darius mused from his position in front of the stage, his hands clasped together in front of him. The rest of the adventurers sat in chairs in a messy semi-circle around him, listening with varying degrees of interest. The mid morning light cast a warm glow on the bar, while it also irritated the eyes of its inhabitants. "He is complex, skilled with a dagger and-"
"He stole our loot." Dovahkiin grumbled, putting his head down on his arms as a dark cloud fell across his features. Phoenix gestured for Darius to continue before Dovahkiin remembered that she had practically given it away.
"What I'm trying to say is that Joe does not meet with just anyone." Darius sighed, leaning back on his elbows as he addressed the group. "Those who meet with him must prove to be worthy."
"Worthy?" Phoenix snorted, looking around at her companions. She would describe them, herself included, as many things, but not worthy of much.
"He isn't a man who wastes his time." He responded, giving a slight shrug. "He's a bit more high profile than me and Tibul. So there will be a series of challenges that you must face before you can meet him."
There was a collective groan from the group that Darius waved off.
"Nothing too serious. Just a few things to test your abilities."
A few things turned into an afternoon testing their agility, stamina, and strength. Phoenix found the prospect of speaking with Joe much less appealing after doing a full lap around the city. They returned to the bar hours later, sweaty and exhausted. So when Darius asked them to all throw daggers with precision akin with Decs', all of them were ready to give up and return to their rooms.
"Just throw it closer to the bullseye than Decs." Darius gestured to the target that was set up across the bar. Decs stepped forward, one hand brushing back his unruly red curls while the other made a glowing card appear with a slight flick of his wrist. "And Decs? Go easy on them."
"No promises." He snorted, drawing his hand back and flinging the card at the target. It sank deep into the worn wood, only a finger's width away from the center.
"We really appreciate you taking it easy on us." Phoenix said dryly, unsheathing her one of her shining daggers and taking a throwing stance. She wasn't great at throwing daggers, but her old crossbow was broken and she had a feeling that Damian wouldn't let her borrow his bow. Just as she was taught long ago, she inhaled as she drew back her arm and exhaled as she released. It cut through the air and wobbled as it stuck in the wood just a bit closer to the center than Decs' card.
The corners of her lips quirked upward as she went to retrieve her dagger.
Damian was next, silent as he carefully aimed and let an arrow loose. It drove into the center of the target with a muffled thump.
"There's the deadshot that you're always bragging about." Phoenix snorted, earning a laugh from Dovahkiin and Bamf. Damian looked disarmed for a moment, clearly expecting a cynical comment instead of something akin to a compliment.
"I, ah, don't know why you doubted me." His tone still had a sour edge to it, but the open hostility from the day before was gone.
"Thanatos, you're up next."
The cleric nodded and stepped forward, withdrawing a crossbow. Both he and Bamf eventually hit close in the center, although it took them a couple of tries. Unfortunately it seemed that Dovahkiin was unable to get his dagger to stick in the wood, let alone hit the center of the target. With a long groan, he threw his hands into the air and glared at the target.
"This is an idiotic task and doesn't prove anything." He rumbled, his broad shoulders rolling back as he turned to Darius and Tibul. Kiligana chortled at his expression, only frustrating him further. "Phoenix barely even made it around the city!"
"Hey, this isn't about me." Phoenix pointed a finger at him with a raised eyebrow. "I vomited at the end, but I made it."
"There is one alternative to this task but…" Darius made a show of looking at Tibul with a shake of his head, "it isn't exactly pleasant."
"Just tell me what to do already."
And as Phoenix covered her eyes while Dovahkiin ran through the streets of the city, devoid of any clothing, she wondered if these tasks were real. The cackling she heard from Darius and Tibul hinted that they weren't.
"One lap through the brothel and you can come back!" Darius called before shutting the door and turning to the others with mirthful tears in his eyes. "As for the rest of you, are you ready to meet your thief?"