Feral Mage Book 2: Chapter 27

As soon as Bryce entered the guildhall, he saw Vex and Janna rushing from the door back to the table under which Omelet was licking his plate clean. Given the girls’ hearing, he was willing to bet they had heard his and Bellamy’s entire conversation. He didn’t say anything or even head to their table. Instead, he started walking toward the bar, his nerves still rattled.

Alice, who was behind the bar, looked from the girls’ table to him as he approached.

“Everything alright, Bryce?” she asked as he took a seat on one of the stools.

He gave her a half-hearted smile, which Alice saw was forced, and frowned.

“I’m okay. Just reliving some old memories I’d rather forget,” he sighed and put a copper on the table. “Can I get a whiskey, Alice?”

Alice pulled a glass and bottle from under the bar and poured, sliding the half-full glass to him. He paused as she then slid the copper back to him as well.

“On the house,” Alice said as she leaned against the bar. “As long as you talk to me about it.”

Bryce shook his head and slid the copper back toward Alice.

The snow elf barmaid looked at the coin and clicked her tongue.

“That was top-shelf whiskey. A silver per glass,” Alice stated.

Bryce almost choked as he took a sip.

“A silver?”

Alice nodded.

“Or you can talk to me.”

Bryce sighed.

“Bellamy wants me to do a job for her,” he answered.

Alice bit her lip.

“That’s your old master, right? The one who taught you to become an Aspect Mage?”

Bryce lifted the glass and took a deep swig. Alice’s blue eyes searched him, and for a moment, he stared into them.

“She is, and also my ex-lover,” he answered.

Her eyes widened, and she pulled out another glass, filling it before taking a big sip.

“So,” Alice said, clearing her throat. “That sounds…awkward.”

Bryce laughed.

“Yeah… awkward sums it up well. It’ll be even more awkward when we travel with her for the job,” Bryce said, lifting the glass again. “I’m not looking forward to Vex’s reaction.”

Alice tapped the side of her glass in thought, as Bryce was left to his.

“Is the job dangerous?” she asked.

“It will be, if we can find the target. We’re hunting down a chimera,” Bryce rolled the glass of whiskey in his hand. “I told Bellamy to give me a day, and we’d head out. She’ll probably come by tomorrow and put in the contract.”

Alice looked at him nervously, then threw back her glass of whiskey.

“Do… do you still like her?” she asked.

Bryce finished his whiskey. Anyone else ask him that question, he would have told them to fuck off, but Alice was Alice and he had a soft spot for the girl.

“I like the memories. The good ones, though I try not to think about them too much. I’m a different person now than I was when we were together,” Bryce stood from the bar stool. “The past is the past, and I have enough shit trying to kill me in the present to dwell on it.”

He waved thanks to Alice before making his way to the girls’ table. He needed to tell them about the contract he just took.

“So, how much did you hear?” Bryce asked as he sat down.

Janna looked to Vex, who quickly stuffed a big bite of her steak in her mouth and started chewing. The kitsune’s eyes narrowed at the wolfgirl before turning back to Bryce.

“We… ummm… We heard you took a job,” Janna said, a nervous smile on her face.

He saw her tails swishing around in the manner they usually did when she was agitated. He wondered if it was from Vex putting this conversation onto her, or if it was connected to what Vex said about Janna being interested in him.

“Bellamy and I have history, but I know she’ll pay well, and we could use the work,” Bryce said. “We’ll have tomorrow to get ready before heading out. Given the assassins’ attack, it’s probably best we leave Witchbrook for a bit.”

Janna nodded as her tails lashed about.

“Can we visit my mother tonight?” she asked with a hopeful look.

Bryce’s gaze drifted to her gloved hands, a faint red glow already forming on the mana crystals sewn to the fabric.

“Of course, Janna. We can head there when you’re ready.”

***

Bryce and Janna walked along the streets of Witchbrook toward the port as the sun started to set. It was just the two of them since Vex decided it was nap time after finishing her massive steak. She and Omelet were staying back at the guildhall and hopefully out of trouble.

The kitsune tails flicked behind her, showing her stress as they drew near the port. Occasionally, she would look up at the blue sails of her clan ship growing in the distance.

“That bad, huh?” Bryce asked.

Janna looked at him with a nervous smile.

“You can tell that easily?”

Bryce nodded.

“I’ve always been the runt of my family,” Janna said with a sigh. “Everyone is expected to pull their weight on the clan ship, even the children. Early on, I was labeled a daydreamer, someone who would often slack off in her duties to play or read a book. When I got older, I was still viewed that way. Even when I demonstrated that I could use pyromancy, my mother only trained me a little on how to incorporate it into my knife-throwing act. I’ve honestly learned more traveling with you than I ever did all those years on the ship.

“I felt stuck with the reputation, no matter what I did. So I started saving my coins I earned,” Janna’s lips thinned. “Then, when the ship was in Witchbrook, I told mother I was leaving to become a monster hunter, and… and she laughed at me.”

Janna chuckled and shook her head.

“In hindsight, for good reason. I did almost die doing it.”

She smiled at him, and he felt her tails brush against his back.

“So, since we’re sharing, can I ask you what happened with your master?”

Bryce sighed. He figured either Janna or Vex would ask after Bellamy showed up at the guildhall.

“For that, I need to tell you how we met,” Bryce said. “I grew up in a farming community near Havenport. One year, a bad drought hit the area. Crops and livestock were lost, and food became scarce. Still, the Baron demanded his cut.”

Bryce gritted his teeth, the anger still there after all these years. Even after he killed the bastard, he still felt hollow, still felt the pain.

“I learned years later that his daughter was marrying up, the son of some Count, and he didn’t want to lose face by cutting back on the feasts for her wedding. So, despite the drought, he collected the usual amount of our harvest as tax. Our donations to the goddess of the harvest were gathered by his priest and used for the wedding, instead of aid. His soldiers worked to quell any unrest in the villages so as not to disturb the festivities. My family died, all so he could host a grand wedding.”

Janna’s hand rested on his arm, and he looked over to see her green eyes gazing into his.

“Bryce, I’m sorry,” she said. “We can talk about something else.”

He shook his head.

“It was years ago, Janna.”

Her hand slid down his arm until it reached his hand. Bryce interlocked his fingers with hers, and he felt her lean against him as they walked holding hands.

“Bellamy came to the farming community not long after my family passed. She had heard rumors of a manticore in the area. The drought had driven it from the hills to more populated areas for food and water,” Bryce sighed. “When we met, I begged her to take me as her pupil, and you know what she told me?”

Janna’s ears were perked as she looked up at him with an arched eyebrow.

“Obviously, it was a yes.”

Bryce smiled at her.

“She told me to kill a monster. I think she said it more to shut me up, but I was desperate. So I set a trap for the manticore in a cave and used myself as bait. Bellamy kept her word and took me as her pupil. As she trained me, we became very close.”

They arrived at the pier, the large clan ship fully visible now. The design was far different from the ships used on the continent by elves or humans. Bryce wondered if all ships from the Ember Islands were as large or if these had been specially built for the wandering lifestyle of the Horo-kitsune.

“Years later, we passed through my old farming community on our way to Havenport. Only this time the Baron had pissed off enough people he was embroiled in a war and had a bounty on his head.

When we arrived at Havenport, I talked to a merc at our tavern about it. He told me the Baron had tried to cheat a merchant, then had them killed when they protested. Only the merchant was the bastard son of a Count.”

He remembered asking the mercenary if the bounty was because of what the Baron had done during the drought, a faint hope of justice. The man had laughed.

The nobles don’t give a shit about us peasants, lad. They see no difference between what he did to the small folk during the drought and slaughtering cattle for the feast. No one cares, no one with power at least.

“I saw the chance at revenge and took a copper dog tag. That started my life as a merc and ended everything between Bellamy and me.”

He thought back to that day. How he felt justified in killing the priest who denied the villagers aid, hacking away at the statue of the goddess who was powerless to help them. Righteous in cutting down the tax collector who took from those who were starving. Powerful when the Baron’s soldiers, who killed his father, ran in fear from him as he hunted them in the castle’s halls, and how empty he felt as the Baron drew his last breath in the puddle of his own filth. When Bellamy had looked at him sitting in the lord’s seat, he could see in her eyes that she saw him as a monster.

The feeling of something fluffy brushing against his arm broke him from the thought, and he turned to see Janna watching him.

“You regret it?” she asked.

Bryce shrugged.

“It was a lesson not to make things personal. I was at my worst that day, but there’s no changing what I did.”

Silence fell over them as they walked together holding each other’s hands. The silence was broken when he heard Janna draw a deep breath as they made it to the gangway for the ship.

“I’ll be right beside you,” Bryce reassured.

She smiled at him before leading the way up it. They arrived on the deck of the ship, which had a large two-story building built on top of it. The same one Bryce and Isabelle were ushered toward when they watched the show.

Unlike then, the deck was completely empty of people, just a few paper lanterns providing light. Janna led him to a small door on the side of the building, instead of the large one that led to the hull where the performance had been. She raised her hand and knocked loudly on the door, then they waited. Janna knocked twice more before a silver-haired kitsune answered, her three tails lashing about in irritation.

“I’m sorry, we’re closed for the night. Come back tomorrow and we’ll have another show— Janna!” the silver-tailed kitsune exclaimed.

Janna smiled.

“Hey, Sansa. I’m here to see Mom.”

The silver-tailed kitsune stared at her for a second before rushing to her and wrapping Janna in a hug.

“I missed you, sis!” she said.

Janna froze for a second, then returned the hug.

“I missed you, too,” she said, a small crack in her voice.

So this is Janna’s sister.

Bryce watched the two women hug as seven tails fluttered about. When they broke apart, Sansa looked at him and he saw her nose twitch, then smirk at him.

“Who’s your friend?” she asked.

Janna gestured to him.

“This is Bryce, he’s my—“

Bryce cut her off, knowing already what she was going to say.

“Partner. We work the same trade.”

He really wished Janna would stop calling him master.

“Dinner is about to start,” Sansa said, her smirk growing. “I’m sure we can find room at the table for you and your partner.”