Chapter 3: Power

Shaia cleared a space on the top of a crate, from the smell it was likely charcoal for the stoves, and sat down on top. Her leathers slapped wetly onto the wood and she hissed at the sudden press of cold. She didn't like being in wet clothes, they were cold and stuck to her and started to go moldy far too quickly. Sometimes they felt too much like wet fur, which she also really didn't like. She didn't mind being wet when she was naked, or when she had assumed a form more appropriate to water, but most times she had neither luxury. Another thing she didn't like was mud, and though most of the townfolk she met with assumed that someone who lived out in the forest with no wood-and-stone house to surround them liked being dirty, she had always liked to imagine that she defied convention. She carefully undid the laces that held her soft boots on and pulled the mud-slick leather from her feet, setting the shoes by the crate to dry.

Then she pulled her legs up and settled into a patient crouch, waiting for the innkeeper to make his appearance. After a time it became obvious that Kale was too busy entertaining these unlikely guests to see to her immediately. A sly smile crept onto her face, and her bright eyes slid from the kitchen door to the wheelbarrow of cloth-wrapped bundles. She knew that going through other people's things was wrong, her parents had made that very clear to her several times when she was young, but she hadn't lived by the codes and mores of humanity for years now. There was no right and no wrong to consider with taking a look, and she certainly didn't intend to steal anything.

She had known some Druids who wouldn't have even stopped there. There were no laws in nature, no possessions other than what you took and what you could defend. Shiny objects left untended were liable to be taken by any passing creature, from a magpie to a raccoon and more. Shaia was of the school of Druidic thought that said such behavior was wrong, at least for Druids. They might be the representatives of nature, the caretakers, brothers and sisters to the great mother and father of earth and sun, but they were each also representatives of their own race, and as such should be as much of that civilized world as apart from it.

Still, nothing said she shouldn't take a look, and so she carefully picked her way across the dirt floor to the wheelbarrow. She considered the bundles, large and small, long or wide, they were piled high and precarious, and several were sticking out so far that they threatened to fall out of the cart. Shaia spent a moment smiling over the minor miracle of the whole thing not falling over and spilling everything when Rab had tripped. She grabbed one, pulling it free from the rest. The weight of it gave her some pause, but it wasn't more than she could handle, and so she pulled the cloth open, and took a look underneath. It was a greatsword, the massive two-handed weapon sheathed in a heavy leather harness that strapped to the back and still allowed the sword to be drawn quickly. The sword itself tingled to her touch, obviously magical, and strongly so if she wasn't wrong. Just running her hands along the rest of the bundles told her that there was a great deal more magic in them, though she wouldn't really know what their enchantments were without some time to study them and perhaps apply a bit of her own magic to aid her understanding.

"What are you doing there?" Kale's voice cut through her thoughts, and she winced at the sound. She hadn't heard him coming, or the door opening. Being so wet had really thrown her off, and the distraction of all this nifty magical adventurer's gear hadn't helped.

"I was looking at all this stuff," she answered, no reason to lie, especially when caught in the act.

"That's the property of my guests," the innkeeper growled at her, and Shaia frowned at him. She had expected the custom of travelers with a storm on top of them would put him in a better mood, but he was obviously irritated by something.

"I know, but I wanted to look anyways."

"You don't touch their property, do you hear me you damned wood-witch," Kale snarled, and Shaia saw actual violence spark in his eyes.

"As you wish," she said carefully, putting the sword on top of the pile with enough care to keep the whole mess from collapsing. She had never gotten a reaction like this from Kale Sharnan, not even when he knew that his children were infatuated with her. There had been a subtle, repressed hostility there, for sure, but never anything overt. She had even laughed with him over drinks a few times, listening to the stories told by the other villagers, and had saved half of the inn from collapsing due to an infestation of wood-eating bugs. He might not have liked the affect she had on the young men and women of the village, a concern she shared even if no one believed her about it, but he had respected her, perhaps even liked her. "There," she said, taking a couple steps away from the cart. "I won't even go near it."

"Good, good." Kale said, the dangerous light leaving his eyes. "Just don't, don't do anything that'll upset them, okay?" He had passed from sudden rage to cowering worry in the space of a few words. Shaia's eyes narrowed, something was up, and she had no doubt the traveling adventurers were at the heart of it. Visibly relaxing against the doorframe the innkeeper rubbed at his neatly trimmed beard. "So you'll be wanting to stay here for the storm."

"I will," she said, even though it had not been a question. "I don't want to be out in a storm like this any more than you do. Or your guests."

His eyes flashed at her. "You won't be getting one of their rooms!"

"Didn't even imagine it," she said, turning her suspicions over in her mind. "I know you've got beds set up for the farmers who'll be finding their way here soon enough, if there's enough free I'll take one of them. If not, then I'm sure Rinni won't mind if she had to share her bed again."

"No, no I suppose she won't," Kale said, his gaze unfocusing. "Ah my little heart, my poor sweet little heart," the whispered words were full of a pain that she had never before heard in the innkeeper's voice, and immediately she began to call to mind all the magic her connection with nature offered her. Something was very wrong here, the Adventurers at the heart of it. She would need to be exceptionally wary.

"Tell me, please," she began, carefully leaning against the crate she had crouched atop earlier. "What are these travelers like? I haven't met someone from outside the Hollow since I first came here."

"They're," Kale paused, and his mouth quivered for a moment, the look on his face caught somewhere between sadness and awe. "They're amazing," he breathed. "So beautiful, so perfect. He's just so perfect," Shaia perked up in interest. Unless there was more than one like him in the party, he was talking of the Half-Elf she had seen on the road. "His eyes, so blue, like the colour of the sky in your dreams. And his voice, ah, his voice like a warm purr in your head, so you're moving to do what he wants before you even know what it is!"

That was it, and quick as she could Shaia pulled to mind a spell that would aid in resisting such charms woven against her. The stranger had caught her attention on the road, but if he was ensorcelling Kale Sharnan then he was no longer a curiosity and had become a threat. "What is his name?"

"His name is Daevock," Kale said. "Have you ever heard the like of that name?"

"Yes," Shaia admitted, thinking as fast as she could about how she would confront this stranger. "It's Draconic. It's more a title than a name though, it means something like 'one who gathers only unique things'. The Dragons use it to refer to members of their kind who hoard things that are far rarer than gold, magic and other treasures. A term for a kind of specialized collector."

"A man who appreciates fine things, far finer than I've ever known. Yes, that's right," Kale said, nodding in agreement to the imagined compliment to his guest.

"Can I stay then?"

"You promise not to bother my guests in any way? I'll not have you under my roof if you're going to make trouble with them. I'll even tolerate you making eyes at my boy if you swear to stay out of their path!"

Shaia couldn't hold back an astounded blink. He thought she was the one making eyes at Rab? That had to be the charm magic talking. So was the promise he was trying to pull from her, and so she had no reluctance about lying. "Yes, I swear to that," she said.

"Good, good," the innkeeper said, and pulled himself straight. "Well then, follow me and I'll tell Rinni she's to have a bed-mate for the next few days."

She padded after him as he moved into the inn. Even as she was stepping onto the wooden floor of the kitchen she was casting the small spell that would bolster her will against any magic this Daevock would weave against her mind. She was confident in her ability to shake off any such manipulation he might try, as it had often been remarked on just how strong her force of will could be when she set her mind to something. It had been what had seen her through the many trials she needed to pass before being accepted as a Druid. It had been that strength that had allowed her to leave her friends, her family, her entire way of life behind to seek the path of balance and harmony. She had every right to be confident now, though it was a wary confidence.

Kale pushed his way through the door from the kitchen to the common room and she ghosted after him. The floorboards that creaked and groaned with his passing loud enough to be heard over the wind didn't so much as squeak as her feet touched them. They were old boards, but they still remembered the great trees they had come from, and honored the passage of a Druid.

He stopped as he opened the door, the innkeeper's jaw working soundlessly, his eyes rolling back towards her with a blistering mix of emotions flying across his features. She kept a steady gaze on him, knowing that he was fighting the magical compulsions that were forcing him to act out of his nature. He wouldn't be strong enough, she knew, not even a hardy frontier lifestyle could give the common human the mental fortitude needed to repel such spells. She would save him, though. The powers of the Arcane were strong, the strongest of the three magics, but she was a powerful Druid and this was a small town deep in the wilds. This was her territory, and that would give her all the advantage she would need.

Kale held the door open for her, and she obliged by stepping past him. There was a fire blazing in the hearth, making the room uncomfortably warm, but providing more than enough light for her to see the faces turned towards her. Two women sitting at one of the tables, one paused in the midst of flipping through a small leather-bound book and the other arrayed in dark makeup and eyeing her with a viciousness that set the hairs on the back of Shaia's neck standing on end. Two men sat near them, one human, the other Elven, both with the cold gazes of men to whom killing came easily. Standing out from the shadows of the room's corner with hair the colour of flame was another woman, the only one not looking at her.

Shaia tried to examine all of them, to gauge how difficult it would be to incapacitate them, but she found her eyes betraying her. She could no more than glance at the others in the room before she found herself staring at the table where Kale Sharnan's family sat with the last of the travelers. A shiver began deep within her belly, spreading out slowly along her spine until it felt like every hair on her body was at attention. Her eyes found his, and suddenly she was drowning in pools of impossible blue. She couldn't look anywhere else, could barely forcer her mind to think of anything else but him. Blood quickened in her veins, dying her pale skin in shades of lust as the heat that had kindled when she had first seen at a distance on the road burst into a roaring inferno. She scrambled desperately in her mind, pulling together her will to resist the unnatural allure that radiated from the half-elf at the table.

It was so much stronger now that she could see him clearly, now when he was only a few short strides away from her. She wanted him, wanted him so badly that it was difficult to remember that it was magic causing that emotion, that it had to be resisted. She could take him now, her ensorcelled mind was telling her, right here on the swept floorboards of the inn with the fire turning the air into a furnace and the others in the room left to rut, leave or watch as they would. It was a primal desire more intense than anything she had ever experienced. It was vicious, uncaring, animal.

It was an animal impulse, and therefore the realm of the Druid. She could handle the animal in her, knew how to channel it and yoke it to her purpose instead of having it own her. She let the desire in, refusing to fight it as it coursed through her body, letting it fill her. A low growl rose in her throat, and she let it come to the surface. She could already feel her mind clearing, the magic that Daevock used was accomplishing its purpose, magnifying her desire to an intense level, pulling all the deepest impulses to the surface. It did not truly touch her mind. It was a purely emotional manipulation, designed not to usurp the will but to make the victims own mind break itself to him in resisting the feelings the magic enhanced.

"Ah," he said, rising to his feet to greet her. He seemed to fill the entire room, his presence turning him into a giant while reducing her and everyone else to helpless children. "You must be this Shaia I have heard so many delightful things about," he said, moving towards her. His voice slid into her ears like a fine oil, words like caresses that made goosebumps rise on her arms. "My name is Daevock, and I lead this band of simple travelers," he smiled at her and began making introductions. Her mind, above the boiling need of her body, made a note of each of them, though her eyes remained fixed on his face. When he had finished he gestured to the table, where Rinni and Polla stared with rapture at the sorcerer's handsome face. "Please, sit down, I do wish to hear more of your woods."

She was moving before she could think about it, and as she sat down she felt his hand touch lightly on her shoulder. A shock went through her at that touch, followed immediately by a second one as she realized what he had done. He had just dispelled all her protections, every spell she had placed on herself to protect her mind and body from assault had been stripped from her with that one touch, and he had not uttered a single word of power or made any arcane gestures. This was a powerful sorcerer indeed.

"Now, Shaia," he said, sitting down next to her, and she could feel her carefully hoarded will melting away. "Tell me about yourself."