Chapter 1: Unexpected Results
"Dust, do you not desire this power for yourself as well?" Althadrien was less curious about the answer and more nervous about what his answer could mean.
"Truthfully, my dear, what need would I have of it? I already have all the star magic I could ever want." Dust looked at her with too passive a look on his face for her liking.
"But star magic is basically shit. How could you not want something better?"
"Star magic is all I have need for."
He looked away, back to the book he was reading, seemingly not caring about Althadrien's continued study of him. He was a vampire, she supposed, and vampires were tricky. They never quite said what they meant. The power she was referring to was, of course, moon magic, which she had recently discovered in the annals that she and Dust found themselves perusing, day after day. Entirely different than sun magic, earth magic, or even aether magic, it allowed one to steal the magic from another mage, through the use of some complicated rituals that she hadn't quite figured out. Then there was the question of actually using the stolen magic once acquired. No one quite knew what form it took, only that moon mages became incredibly powerful by killing other mages.
The problem that this presented to her, in the form of the vampire sitting nearby, was that should he want, and supposing he could figure it out as well (because Althadrien sure as fuck wasn't going to just tell him), he could be in complete competition to her own quest for power, even going so far as to try to kill her for her own magic. Once she had some, at the very least. And he was a vampire, she remembered, and he was clever. One could never be sure what a vampire was really after.
"Hmph," was all she said after her contemplations.
"Besides, so what if I do? Do you not also desire to be a vampire? I don't feel threatened by that. I'll make you into a vampire right now. No strings attached. Promise."
Althadrien blushed deeply. What was he getting at? He may as well suggest they just have sex. He knew she wasn't into men. And what did he even mean by that last part? "No strings attached"? "Promise"? Did he think she was dumb? Everyone knew not to trust a vampire. Especially when they wanted to fuck you. And she knew Dust wanted to fuck her.
Dust, seemingly unperturbed by their exchange, was already back to studying the book in front of him. "Why did you even want to come with me?" Althadrien asked. "What do you think is here that's so important for you to actually come this far with me?"
"I simply seek stories of ages past so that I may regale others with the tales." Althadrien narrowed her eyes in his direction.
"Like, what kind of stories?" she asked, suspicious.
"Oh all kinds."
"Who do you tell them to?"
"Kings, gods, captains, leaders of revolutions, princesses married to gods."
"There aren't any gods…"
"Perhaps not here, but elsewhere there are. Or at least people that others consider to be gods, which is close enough so as not to even need distinction. I think you would believe all gods to be constructs of mankind, and perhaps they are, but a god is a god and a king is a king."
"What is that supposed to mean? Kings are granted power-"
"By whom?"Dust countered.
"People, I suppose."
"And who grants a god their power? What god has ever had any power over their followers that was not strictly given by the followers themselves?"
Althadrien glared at him for a minute, though he didn't see it, absorbed in his book as he was. Vampires were too smart for their own good. And Dust fancied himself witty in addition. A truly terrible combination in Althadrien's opinion. She turned back to the book she was reading. She still needed to figure out what the rituals that were involved actually were. The problem is that she was mostly reading histories. The exact details, if they even existed, probably wouldn't be found outside of a wizard's personal library. Wouldn't be easy to get into one of those uninvited, though it shouldn't be too much of a problem for her.
"I need to get into a wizard's library to find what I'm looking for," she said, setting her book down.
"How are you going to manage that? Doesn't seem like most wizards would just let you into their libraries. Kind of secretive and all that. Furthermore, which one is going to have what you're looking for?"
"I'll just break into it. As to which one, why wouldn't they all have it?"
"They won't all have the same things. It's not like they really share anything between each other."
"We'll just have to break into a bunch of different ones. Assuming you're coming with me..?" She didn't want to admit it, but Althadrien kind of worried that he would leave her on her own. As annoying as he could be, he was a good travel companion.
Dust, much to her dismay, didn't even look at her. Though, she supposed, he was a vampire, and vampires were secretive. "Regardless, I think I've learned just about all I'm going to here. I'm going to head back to the inn and decide which wizard to visit first."
Dust grunted and stood up. "I think I'm done here too. Convenient timing for you to finish at the same time as me so that you may accompany back to the inn."
Althadrien narrowed her eyes at him. "But I already…" she trailed off. "If anyone here is accompanying someone else, it's you accompanying me. I said I was going back first."
"Well I can't help it if your sense of time is off. Regardless, let us be off. I want to get some sleep before you announce which wizard you will burgle first."
"It's not burglary if I don't take anything. I'm just letting myself in so I can read a few books."
"Are you not taking knowledge?" Dust asked poignantly.
Althadrien walked to the door, deciding it would be better to stop talking to him before she got a headache. "Well I'm going back. You can come with me, but I'm not going with you."
"Coming, going. Hardly matters. We're following each other."
Right, that's why she was going to stop talking to him. "Can you stop being esoteric for five minutes? Like, would that just literally kill you?"
"Truthfully, I've never tried." Dust walked ahead of her while she stood still. "It appears that you are now following me, whether you like it or not."
Althadrien clamped her mouth shut, determined to stay silent this time. "You may be in front of me, but I'm not following you, we just happen to be going to same way," she said.
"You seem to be having a hard time not talking,"Dust said as Althadrien caught up to him.
How did he know? Well. He was a vampire. And vampires, it was said, were good at guessing people's thoughts. "Nothing of the sort. I just...say what I mean to say. No less."
"Indeed," Dust said. "What about at that one inn where you just babbled for five minutes at a barmaid? What were you talking about again?"
"Sheep."
"Ah yes, that's right. Sheep."
"She was interested!"
"I think you misequate 'interested' with 'desiring a tip from you.'"
Althadrien crossed her arms. "Hmph. What do you know about women anyway?"
"Enough to know that most, interested in other women or not, are not interested in the finer points of managing a flock of sheep with trained dogs."
"Well then. Why don't you try to bring a man into your bed and see how well that goes for you," Althadrien countered. It was mostly rhetorical, but she was legitimately curious to see if he could do it.
"And if I can..?"
"What do you mean?"
"What are you betting that I can't do it?"
Althadrien considered, for a moment, how much she wanted to see him try. "I'll pay for your room. What are you betting that you can?"
"I find you a woman to spend the night with you."
"Deal." Althadrien was terrible at finding other women to sleep with. Getting Dust to do it for her… Well that would be far easier. Plus, what were the chances he'd actually win?
Dust stuck his hand out and Althadrien shook it as they reached the inn. Immediately upon entering, Dust walked across the room and approached a man sitting alone at a table. He sat down and talked to him for a couple of minutes before they both stood up and walked to the stairs at the back of the inn, Dust offering a short wave back to Althadrien. All of this she watched unfold, dumbfounded. "Fuck me…" she muttered.
"I'd fuck you," said a man at a table next to her, the other men at the table whistling.
"I'm not into dicks," she said, walking away and sitting at her own table. A barmaid came up to her and she ordered some wine and food.
Another woman, a good looking one, Althadrien noted, sat down across from her. "When you say 'dicks', do you mean 'penises' or 'assholes'?" the woman asked before Althadrien could say anything.
"...Both," Althadrien said, unsure of what the woman was getting at.
"Well do you want to...you know," the woman said, cryptically.
"What?" Althadrien asked.
"You like women, right?" She was kind of turning Althadrien on, but Althadrien had no idea what she was getting at.
"Yeah…?"
The woman looked at her funny for a second. "Well, so am I."
"OHHH! Sorry, I'm kind of clueless when it comes to women, apparently. And usually when I try to hit on another woman, they're not into women."
"Well I can certainly relate. I'm Seva, by the way."
"Althadrien. Adry for short."
"Nice to meet you, Adry. My offer still stands, by the way"
"For… Oh, that's what you meant. I have some food and wine on the way, care to join me for dinner? You know, beforehand?"
Conveniently, the barmaid arrived with Althadrien's meal as Seva nodded. "Sorry, one more for my friend, please," Althadrien said. "I didn't realize I wasn't going to be eating alone." She handed the barmaid a few extra coppers to make up for it.
"Not a problem. Wine for you too?" she asked Seva.
"Sure, that's fine," Seva said.
"I'll be right back with that," said the barmaid before turning and leaving. True to her word, she was back in only a few seconds. Althadrien again gave her a few extra coppers.
"You didn't have to pay for my meal," Seva said.
"Consider it me making up for earlier. I made an ass of myself."
"Perish the thought," the other woman replied as they began to eat. "So who was that that you came in with? You seemed kind of upset."
"Dust? My travelling companion. I bet him the cost of his room that he couldn't seduce a man after he made fun of me failing to seduce women. Which I now owe him."
"Huh," Seva said. "It's just that he seemed...odd."
Well, Althadrien though, he was a vampire. Vampires certainly were odd. "Odd is one word for him. Infuriating is another."
"If he's infuriating, why travel with him?"
"It's convenient, I suppose. We're both travelling around to libraries, and he can take care of himself. He just has too much snark. What about you, any companions to worry about where you are?"
"Nope. Just me. I'm headed back to Ankynhold. Business in the court."
"You're...part of the court in Ankynhold?"
"I work in it, sure."
Althadrien couldn't believe her luck. "If we traveled with you, do you think you might be able to get us into Jynad's library?"
"Maybe…" Seva said. "I might be able to pull a few strings. And I could always use the company on the road. I can try, but I can't guarantee anything. Though, at the very least, it seems as if you'll get some company other than… Dust, did you say his name was?"
"That alone would be worth it."
They finished eating and decided on Althadrien's room. Despite their serious conversation, surreptitious glances had been exchanged throughout their meal, and Althadrien had caught Seva admiring her chest more than once. Though Seva had caught her staring a couple of times too. They barely made it through the door to Althadrien's room with their clothes on.