Weiss, Arc 3: A Narcos Rise
…
Chapter 2: Foresight
…
...
Part 1: Good Food, Good Conversation, Good Company
...
A soft whistle flew across the wind, her wide-brimmed white hat down. Her scarf shied the chin and most of her facial in between were hidden by a book as big as a masquerade mask.
Sally sat uncomfortably on a small tree stump, sketching her mind away in her journal. For every sketch she landed on that page, an unexplainable frustration within her grow. For every word she jotted down about her experience, a gnawing hypocrisy ate her more within. Yet like a moth to a flame, the Amnesiac Vampire was compelled to lose herself further into her cursed unmagical little book.
Behind and above her, the sky had long gone dark with the cold moon. Before and below her, was a scorching bonfire shared by her companion Eferdora and strangers from the other party they were working with:
Hekkeran Termite, their leader, were busy hitching their horses to a dead tree, the job wasn't that tedious as everyone opted to travel light. All their belongings were tied to the horse and their saddlebags. Despite the negative memories tied to it, a major part of her was beginning to miss the utility of their old humble Slaver Caravan she robbed from the late Dolls.
Imina, the purple-haired lady with ears no different to Eferdoras, greedily downed her flask of wine she brought with her. She, however, lacked the disposition of the meeker elf.
Arche Eeb Rile Furt, the young mage from the Empire, stirred quietly over their hanging cauldron of stew. The crude black cast iron reminds her of the very same one that Weiss introduced her and Eferdora to the foreign art of "Chemistry". The same one that downed a man-eating toad and a child despite its apparent lack of magical spectacle.
And finally, there was Roberdyck, the clergyman who was making a prayer to a tall slab of stone native to the ruins where they chose to set camp. And surrounding the camp was the wide desert wilderness of the Katze Plains.
"Hey."
The cold-blooded vampire felt something warm thrust towards her. Challenging her presence, was a steamy hot bowl of stew, by Arche's hand.
"Dinner's ready."
Sally lowered her book slightly and glared at her.
"I am not hungry, thank you."
"Really? We rode across the plains for hours, and now that I think about it, I never saw you eat. Even your partner here took a few pieces of salted offals."
Eferdora gave the two an awkward look, before quietly returning to her stew.
"I said, I am not hungry."
Sally said, the book still covering her face.
"Fine, Suit yourself."
This she has isolated herself back with her memories.
" Psst!"
A few short hours before the sun rises back up, to someone like her, she can't wait for everyone to get their mandatory sleep to leave this place. Roberdyck mentioned that this place used to be some holy temple dedicated to some god the Cleric probably worshipped, some of its holy aura remained, enough to repel the weak feral undead wandering around this place, which was the only threat around this patch of this cursed plains. Could it be that this place is rejecting someone like her as well?
" Psst!"
"Dangit *hick!* Hekkeran why are you 'pssting' her? She is just a few feet away from us and we can all hear you!"
Sally lowered her book slightly, the brim of her hat still tilted low enough the cover her blood-red eyes.
"What do you want?"
"Well, I had good food, now I want good conversation. Seems like you are missing both."
"I swear partner, your talking... will be the end of you."
"Perhaps, but unless you are a Vampire who are dead inside and needs not for food, I think we should get to know each other better."
Sally put lay down her book and pen slowly, her knuckle resting on the curved grip of her. Behind the scarf that concealed her sharp fangs.
"We are here just to make coins, not friends. Nothing more, nothing less."
"Ain't we all, I like saving money but sometimes I like making more than mere coins, like the thrill of exploration and friendship! Which is a nice thing, because I hate to wander the world without someone I can trust and annoy, in a friendly way, no pun intended."
Eferdora turned towards the two, chewing slowly and awkwardly. Yet things seem normal to the other side.
"Speak plainly."
She growled.
"What I am saying, is that we are diving all together in a really dangerous dungeon a few hours later, probably. So it's best if we know each other better when that happens."
"I think it's better if we go in without feelings, so when one of us died or messed up, we come out with no hard feelings. No trust would be given nor betrayed."
To this, Hekkeran chucked, the histrionic fencer either not taking the hint or giving up that easily.
"Well Sally-san, ain't you a barrel of laughs? Well, I swear I will make you warm up to me. Let's start with something simple, why are you both even in this trade anyways?"
"Excuse me?"
"You could be adventurers or do something else, not everyone wants to be workers and it's for good reasons. Sometimes being Adventurers might be more profitable and less risky. So there are more reasons beyond gold that you are sitting with us right now on this very night."
"..."
Hekkeran hopped onto his two feet and struck a silly pose as he raised his bowl of stew towards to moon with a dumb look on his face.
"Well, I will take the lead then, You already knew my name...But Hekkeran Termite here! A man with great distaste for the rigidness of the Guild System. So I decided to go my way to adventure instead of being an Adventurer, also it pays better and I like to save."
The Fencer sat back down after his goofy performance.
"I...I just want to earn some pieces, so I can return to my family..."
"Hey don't entertain him Eferdora!"
"S...Sorry."
"I am uh just suggesting."Sally reassured her.
"There's no shame in that."Roberdyck, the clergyman chimed in with a kind smile.
"Everyone loves coins, but it's how they use it and earn it matters. It could be as mundane as buying the next meal or something greater. All is justified."
"So what are you all spending it on? Preacher?"
Sally inquired and the Cleric obliged.
"I earn to use my coin to help the have-nots in the name of god. Unfortunately, my Order's bureaucracy and its rather violent regulations..."
Roberdyck sighed.
"...made this difficult."
"W...What order is that?"
"The Temple of the Four Gods."
"F...Four? N...Not S...Six?"
Eferdora asked with a shaky voice.
"Six?"
"S...Sorry."
A gentle hand was placed on her shoulder.
"There's nothing to apologise for my child for...Whatever you are apologizing for. Keep your chin up Eferdora San."
"Ok."
"You mentioned six, I assume you are a pure Elf from the Elf Country?"
Arche asked, and Eferdora nodded.
"My family immigrated from Evasha to the City States somewhere during the war, I wasn't so sure but is she also...?"
The gang turned to Imina, who was already snoring peacefully from her drink. Hekkeran, who sat next to her, weaved and cover her with a blanket, shielding her from the desert winds.
"No, shes half Elf. Her dad is from the country, while her mother is a human. But from what I heard, it's a mess there with the situation with the Theocracy, must be hard for you?"
"Y...yea."
"I am sorry to hear that, but we are all misfits here making us all equal. I believe god intends all of us to be equal, I despise those who abuse the name of god to commit sins."
Roberdyck commented.
"I...Its more ... Com...complicated, the war from w...What I remember hearing from the...awful people, was that the king did something s...Something to their people, which made them awful. I am s...Sure there are some people amongst them who are nice?"
"That is indeed true but don't you feel even an ounce of anger towards them?"
"N...no."
"Forgive me but I have to ask, why?"
"I...I don't know, I just can't bring myself to hate anyone."
The Cleric, the oldest of the group, had the most life experience and was taken off guard by her answer. Sally, who tried to remain taciturn can't help but turn to her companion and say.
"Listen Eferdora, people can't get angry for you all the time. Sometimes, you just have to stand up for yourself or you will find yourself fleeced."
"Your Friend Sally is right. Keeping your head down too much do no one any flavours, besides those who wished to stab you in the back, especially in our trade as Workers."
Arche commented while nonchalantly stirring her pot.
Eferdora sighed.
"I...I don't plan to stick in this trade forever, I just want to earn enough money, return home to pick my siblings up and run with them elsewhere. A...Away from here, the homeland and everything. Even if they both are far stronger than me."
"Listen, girl, the fact you went all the way from the Elf Country to this wasteland and still breathing, that shows there's something more to you."
Hekkeran reassured her with his trademark smile and a pat on her shoulder.
"I...I would still be in a cage if it wasn't for Sally and ...Another friendwe met."
"Sure, some " Friend"she was."
"Well, don't sell yourself short, you know, remind me a lot of our little Arche here! She had sisters in a ... difficult situation too, earning enough to run away with them. Or at least out of, whatever they were in right now."
"I...I see."
Eferdora gave Arche a look, she merely continued to maintain the flame diligently and quietly.
"This is indeed the age of problems and running away from them."
Sally lamented and kept her head down.
"That said Sally-san, what's your story?"
"What?"
"Come on now, you must have something up your sleeve. I bet Sally isn't even your real name, I mean it doesn't sound like a name from anywhere I heard of and I've been to a lot of places."
"What are you implying?"
"I am guessing you are one of the cool and mysterious types, the Ones with no name or you are just a brooder... Or both. I don't mean to pry and you are free to keep secrets, but you must have some good conversational pieces up there somewhere."
"Why do you feel the need to talk so much?"
"Well, we all have different diets, Sally san."
Hekkeran said with a smile.
"I lost all memories when I found Eferdora, been riding for a few weeks by now."
"Apparently lots had happened in those weeks that you can write a book about it."
Hekkeran mischievously pointed Sallys journal on her lap, and Sally gave her silence in return as she held tightly to her little possession.
"Ah must be some journey you had..."
To that, Sally became more generous with him.
"Yeah."
Was what she gave him, ever a grateful man, Hekkeran smiled back.
"Well, there's that. So where are you going after this? You too don't look like you are sticking here for long."
"I...I don't know, wherever she goes I guess?"
Sally gestured towards a confused Eferdora.
"You don't have a plan?"
"Yeah..."
The same word was once spoken, but this time softer.
"Huh, well I think you eventually find your way. But first, one beautiful similarity between Workers and Adventurers, is that we can set our own journeys. Maybe one day you will set yours, remember you always have a choice."
Sally looked down at the flames which had gotten warmer, but more comfortable.
"Guys, who wanted seconds?"
After a brief pause, Sally spoke up.
"I would want one thank you."
Sally accepted the bowl and spoon from the mage. She lowered her scarf slightly so that she can scoop the warm blend of tomato and beef into her mouth. It was the best thing she ever tasted in her life.
Then she realized her hands were away from her pistol grip as both her hands were clasped on her bowl while her fangs were bare for all to see.
They caught her off guard...
Arche was cleaning up the camp dutifully, the ever-chatty Hekkeran indulging himself in a conversation with Roberdyck.
They caught her off guard and didn't even realise it.
She felt a small bump on her shoulder, a sleepy Eferdora bewitched by the calmness of the night used her partners shoulder as an improvised pillow and made gentle snores into the night.
The white-hatted amnesiac wiped her mouth, tipped her hat down and pulled up her scarf, hiding a small smile behind the thick woolly fabric.
Sally vouched to Hekkeran to stay guard for the night. She kept her eyes open, as the only one awake, she was the only one who watched the sky glow into a warm hue and the wilderness around her change as a new sun rises.
Shining its ray down on her opened small book, an immortal scene perfectly reenacted by a perfect economy of grey graphite and lines, of the Foresight Crew and Eferdora gathered around the warm hue of a campfire.
...
...
...
Part II: The Fastest and Meekest Gun from Evasha
...
As the sun dominated the skies, everybody rode in a loose formation across the desert prairie and to their destination. The hooves of their steeds kicking up dust.
They passed by dead trees, a few ruins and some abandoned battlefields.
Hekkeran then whistled and cry for everyone to halt.
A migrating dozen of zombies and skeletons wandered mindlessly across the plains. They don't seem to notice the riders, just shambling slowly across the desert road. Most of them were clad in some form of uniform armour.
"Poor bastards."
"Who are they?"Eferdora asked Roberdyck.
"People died from the Annual Wars, a thing that occurs yearly between the Kingdom and Empire started by the Bloody Emperor himself. An unnecessary thing if you ask me, besides the waste of life and time, it turns these plains more unholy every year. This is an offence against god."
The Cleric utter a mutter of prayer.
"We should let them pass, they are no different to hostile wildlife here, we shouldn't waste our strength on them when we have a task in hand."
"I...I agree."
Sally told Hekkeran as they solemnly galloped around the herd of lost souls. Shrivelled husks with empty eyes and no plans in death, and in life followed orders to this wayward state.
The Vampire can't help but trained her own eyes at them at a distance as she rode on.
Eventually, the party reached a mine entrance in a part of the Katze plains that was more desert than plains. Nearby a camp was already set up and two Baharuth Guards in faux gold-plated armour were already standing guard.
A sweaty man in fine robes wearing a headscarf to prevent him from getting further sunbaked, was awaiting them with an ugly expression.
"Took you long enough, I take it that you are Foresight and the other two fools that Shantytown Oaf introduce me to?"
The riders got off their steeds, and Hekkeran greeted the man with his trademark smile.
"Yes sir, I take it you are our client?"
The Sweaty man took a breather to drink from his flask before replying to Hekkeran.
"An Associate of the Count actually, you know what you all are tasked to do right?"
"An archaeological survey if I ain't mistaken."
"Good, save me from wasting my breath in this god-forsaken place."
"So can we proceed or..."
Sally perked her ears as her instinct as she turned to the source of the motion.
A gaudy carriage rides to their sights with two barded horses pulling it at a dangerous speed. Arche and Roberdyck had leapt to their sides to dodge the ramming vehicle due to its irresponsible driver reining in late.
A chorus of thuggish yells exits the vehicle alongside three mean-looking fellers. The leader of the other two was a blurry bald man wearing silk white pants and a sleeveless vest with a hood that had elaborate gems grafted into it, from his brutish Spatha Sword tied to his Waist, he seemed to be the fighter of their group. The other two including the coach driver were too forgettable for Sally to remember beside the fact that they looked like rats despite being humans.
The one vivid detail she does remember out of the three passengers was that they all wore a golden adventurer plate.
"So what do we have here? If it ain't the famous Foresight and their little Lady Furt."
The blurry man did a sloppy bow to the mage, and his friends gave him a nasty laugh, reinforcing Sallys newfound hatred of curtsies.
"Heard your family fallen off the nobility thanks to our glorious Emperor, I also heard that they started borrowing money from mine..."
"The due date is still a week away, why are you here? Drew An Fates."
Arche rebuked, Drew just leaned in, blaring his assortment of golden teeth and missing ones.
"Same as you Lady Furt, doing a good service for our noble Count. Maybe you can hand whatever loot you found to me straight away to cover your debts, no hassle and most importantly no accidents on the way to pay."
"W...Who is he?"Eferdora asked Imina.
"Some High Ranking Merchant Guild Members golden brat. He doesn't only have wealth and connections handed to him on a silver spoon, but the gift of brute strength as well. All this leads to an insufferable gold-plated adventurer who gave all the others a bad name."
"H...He was a...an adventurer? T...Then why was he here?"
"That's because he is a worker, for now at least. From what I heard he used to have some poor girl as his partys spell caster until he beat her up so bad that she lost her life, all because he blamed her for him losing a card game. The most jaw-dropping part was that she wasn't even part of that game, Drew just lost his mind and take it out on her unprovoked. Hence, he was suspended until his daddy use his connections to pull him out...like always."
Imina whispered to the other Elf, trying to avoid the bald brutes attention. Sally remained silent, her eyes merely just observed the whole thing unfolding before her, as a desert wind blew across her face.
"Now who in the four gods are you two?!"
"Eep!"
Eferdora shrank in fear while Sally tipped her hat lower with a small motion.
"Who is this weird short fuck, and who is her slave?"
"She s no ones slave, Drew, now back off."
"Of course, the knife-eared bitch looks out for the other knife-eared bitch. You two belong to a slave market, not with us hardworking men here!"
"THAT'S ENOUGH!"
The usually chippy Hekkeran step forward with his hands on both handles of his twin sheathed weapons with a look in his eyes that kills. Roberdyck too stepped forward with a less than friendly expression and Arche raised a staff with a dangerous glow emanating from it.
"I am just joking, I am just joking. People these days just can't take a joke."
Drew raised both of his palms.
"Now, jokes aside...［Lesser Mana Detection］"
An eye-shaped silver ring on Drews right pinkie glowed in purple, and so were his eyes as he aimed them at Sally and Eferdora.
"Now the short weirdo who dressed like it's winter has decent mana, but her Elven cunt doesn't even have a blaze. And they both didn't even bring proper arms, what do they have? Some weird pipe daggers?"
"W...What are y...you implying?"
"You are dead weight, seems unfair to the rest of us and the Count that he has to pay you. I say we drop her out of this."
The Sweaty man asked Eferdora, "Is that true?"
The meek Elf doesn't have a rebuttal, only more cowering.
"She doesn't even have the balls to bite back, well not unexpected from a woman, much less an elf! You see they only drag you down and you have to put them in their place! Just like..."
And his friends went "Yea!", "Yup!"Or simply "Yes!"
"Eferdora, see that thing that held onto that scumbags sword? Can you work your magic on it?"
Sally whispered to Eferdora, while Drew Fates was engrossed in his rants.
"W...What?"
"You know what I mean."
"B...But"
"You ain't hurting anyone, plus I am asking you to do one thing, and it's for yourself."
She put a hand over her shoulder.
"Get angry for both of us, once."
A teary Eferdora turned to look directly into the ruby fiery eyes of her friend, then at Drew and her crew of yes-men.
"...she got too drunk one day and she threw up in my room. I told her to clean up, but she refused. So, I took her stuff and threw it out the window.
BANG!
A lead ball flew and sliced the single leather strap which was thinner than the slimmest noble ladys pinkie neatly into two. As the sole fabric holding Drews sword to his belt, the blade fell with a clang onto the sand.
"You little bitch! You know how much that sheath cost?!"
"And you are about to cost her her pay."
Sally rebuked.
"Why you short little fuck!"
"HEY, save your strength for whatever monsters within the dungeon. And yea Elf girl, you are in."
The Counts Associate said to Eferdora much to Drews dissatisfaction.
The Bald Brute begrudgingly snatched one of his sad companions sheaths to use as his own. Then, a Pat on her shoulder took Eferdora off guard.
"You did good kid, never knew you are such a good shot. You showed that bastard!"
Imina praised, ruffling the shorter Elfs hair. Sally watched with a sly smile behind her scarf.
"Well, at least those bastards won't be bothering us for a while, come on, lets go."
Hekkeran and the others thus lit their lanterns and delve into the darkness.
Sally took a brief moment to pull out her six-shooter to inspect her own weapon of foreign origins. It was crude, unmagical yet unpredictably deadly, and reminds her of someone that the amnesiac vampire still painfully remembers.
She wondered, what was that woman up to now?
...
End
...
Up next:
Housewarming, An American Tradition
...
"Day 14 or 16?
I should have kept better track of time since I brought this thing.
Anyways these Foresight Workers seemed like nice folk. I think I am too used to dealing with murderers, thieves, Adventurers with sticks up their asses and drug dealers besides dear Eferdora, I think I forgotten how decent people actually acted.
I think we can get along in the future and possibly be friends forever. Seems a bit of wishful thinking, but hey, wishing is never a crime.
So let's see how our mutual enterprise turn out tomorrow when we reached whatever miserable place we are heading to."
...
Attached was a fine sketch of the Foresight crew gathered around the campfire that night.