Talyn: Rebirth Ch. 7

Here's another chapter for all of you! I'm working on this story a bit between Adept of Chaos and Soul Bound 2 (I need to decide on a title for it...), but I'll be moving on soon enough. Hopefully while continuing this one.

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Chapter 7

“Well, I feel useless. How many times have you saved my life now?” Talyn said, breathing in slowly, her voice shaking slightly. “I thought that this would be easier, but—”

“Enough of that, Talyn.” Melody interjected firmly, giving Talyn a chiding look. “If you hadn’t blinded and distracted her, I wouldn’t have been able to pull off a shot like that. She was too fast, and her robes must be high quality to blunt the blows it has. I’ve been an opportunist, if anything, and you might have been able to deal with her without me. I’d have been reduced to running, since I couldn’t take even one of those rocks. You did good work.”

That brought Talyn up short, and she paused, her cheeks beginning to heat. After a few seconds she cleared her throat, looking away as she muttered. “I… I guess you might be right. It just doesn’t feel that way. I thought I was about to die.”

“Which is a lesson on why you don’t use obsidian unless you’ve done work to make it less brittle. I wonder why she didn’t use her magic to do that… maybe you distracted her.” Melody said, approaching the woman warily. “Either way, we should check if she has anything important. I’m pretty sure that she’s not a copy, anyway… if she is, the only thing we can do is run. She’s far more powerful than anything I was expecting.”

“I’m not objecting there.” Talyn said, staring at the woman as blood slowly spread beneath her, and a thought occurred to her. Mostly that she was far less upset at the sight than she would’ve thought. Her memories might be vague, but she recalled enough to have a few vague impressions. “I’m guessing that my previous world was rather violent. Because the idea of stripping her body for something useful doesn’t bother me very much. Though for some reason I seem to remember that being more something that happened in alleys…”

“That sounds about right.” Melody confirmed.

“In which case, you keep watch. I need to rebuild my armor anyway.” Talyn said, glancing down and grimacing at the damage it had taken. She thought she might develop a few bruises as well, but there wasn’t much to be done about that.

It took a little while longer to repair her armor than Talyn had expected, and she dissolved her sword for the moment, since it was broken and she didn’t have a sheath for it. Then she turned the woman over and checked to see what she had on her. It was a little disturbing to see the glassy look in her eyes, which reassured Talyn that she wasn’t that jaded. She took a moment to close her eyes, which helped her work, even if a little bile worked its way up her throat.

There were only a few things of note on the woman’s body, those being a wooden amulet of a grinning skull on a simple cord, a pouch with a few dozen coins like the ones in Talyn’s pack, save that some of these were silver instead of copper, a simple curved knife, a ring of keys, and the outfit itself. Attempting to identify it didn’t do anything, but any blood flowed right off it. Talyn left the amulet and took everything else, putting all but the keys in her pack.

“There, done. I suspect these will be useful, and didn’t want to take the amulet. I’m guessing it’s a holy symbol.” Talyn said, holding up the keys.”

“A good guess. I don’t remember enough about how things work with other deities, but I get the impression that damaging anything here too much would be a bad idea. Maybe a priest in this world would know more, but I’d rather not take any chances.” Melody said, inclining her head slightly. She smiled, adding. “Shall we check the next door?”

“Seems like a good idea. I’m not happy with where I was dropped, but I suppose there isn’t much else to be done.” Talyn said, standing up and focusing on making a new sword. This time it took even longer than it had the previous time, and Talyn’s eyebrows rose. This must be the increase caused by destroyed equipment, she realized after a moment. Still, instead of only a couple of seconds it only took three, but it was still noticeable. If she had to change her weapons in combat, that could make all the difference in the world.

Once she had her sword, Talyn poked her head into the hallway, looking around to see if there was anyone in sight. She relaxed when she didn’t see anyone, then carefully made her way down to the next door. She waited for Melody to catch up, listening at the door.

No sound came from this room either, but it did have a lock, and Talyn examined the padlock for a moment, then tried a key. When that didn’t work she tried another. The third managed to turn, and Talyn pushed it open cautiously, then relaxed when she saw that there was a bedroom on the other side. It wasn’t much of a bedroom, with a straw-stuffed mattress on the floor, an embroidered pillow, a couple of dresses and sets of robes hung on hooks driven into a wall, and a basket of what looked like food to Talyn, most of it in boxes.

“Do you think we should go through it?” Talyn murmured, glancing at Melody.

“I don’t know. That last door has a padlock as well, and it’s built more heavily. It might be that this is our only chance to go through here.” Melody replied, frowning. “Maybe go through it quickly?”

Talyn nodded, and the two of them quickly went through the room, ransacking it as quietly as possible.

Melody found a pouch of other holy symbols among the robes, ones that Talyn suspected were for deities of light, along with a silver lapel pin which was set with a softly glowing sapphire. That was put into Talyn’s backpack, along with another pouch of coins that was inside the mattress. The food didn’t look that good, but there were a couple of bottles that Melody thought were wine, so Talyn took that and the food, since it had to be better than the hardtack. She hoped that this woman was the leader, and prone to keeping all the best food to herself.

In short order they were done, and Talyn shrugged, looking at Melody as she asked. “I’m guessing item identification is a separate skill from identifying people?”

“I think the skills that allow you to get more information allow you to identify items as well, but I could be wrong. I do remember that crafting skills allow you to figure out what items of the associated type do, though.” Melody said, shrugging. “Anyway, we are burning time, you know.”

“True, true…” Talyn said, inhaling, then she made her way out of the room and slowly stalked her way down the room. Her armor didn’t allow her to be terribly quiet, but at least she kept the amount of noise down a bit.

When she came to the intersection, Talyn peered around it, then relaxed a little again. There was another room that looked like a guard room, but there wasn’t any sign of people around. She saw a door to the side with a padlock securing it, and another stairwell on the other side of the room. The lack of anyone else around helped her relax a bit, and she turned back to the locked door. When she stepped up to it to listen, this time she actually heard people talking, though she could only catch a few words here and there.

“…telling you, I heard that crazy cultist screaming. I don’t…” a man was saying, his voice muffled.

“…sure?” a woman replied, and Talyn frowned, looking at the lock, then the door.

It had heavy iron bands on it, and after a moment she realized that the hinges were on the outside. That was really unusual, and she thought for a moment, then turned to Melody, keeping her voice down.

“I’m hearing people in there. They were talking about a crazy cultist. Given the door… you think they’re prisoners?” Talyn asked, a hint of hope welling up inside her.

“That, or they’re so dangerous that someone like that woman doesn’t trust them out on their own. Or it’s the actual way out, though I doubt that.” Melody replied just as quietly, glancing at the door. “I’d be ready for a fight when you open the door, just to be safe.”

“Agreed.” Talyn murmured, pulling out the keyring again.

Testing the keys was a little louder than she liked, and it just figured that the last key she tried was the one that fit the lock. The gears ground a little as she turned the key, prompting her to wince, but then she put the keys away and reformed her sword again before unhooking the lock. After a few seconds she pulled the door open, tense and ready to slam it shut… then paused as she saw the room.

There wasn’t much to the room. A narrow corridor ran down the middle, just wide enough that Talyn could have touched both walls with outstretched hands. In the walls were eight doors, each with hinges on the outside, padlocks, and narrow barred windows. There was a single torch providing illumination, but otherwise the room was bare. Though the stink indicated that someone had been forced to relieve themselves in here, and Talyn’s nose wrinkled. She did see a couple of eyes at the windows nearest to her, though she couldn’t make out many details. One had light skin, and the other dark, which was about as much as Talyn could manage.

“…You don’t look like cultists.” A woman said, sounding a touch hesitant.

“Not at level one. What the hell is a level one doing here, anyway? How’d you get through the cultists?” a man with a melodious voice asked incredulously.

“It’s… complicated. What do you think, Melody? Prisoners?” Talyn asked, glancing over her shoulder at the goddess, who smiled in response.

“Most likely, yes.” Melody agreed.

“Which means we should let them out. One minute, please?” Talyn said, turning her attention back to the doors as she made her sword vanish.

“Believe me, if it means getting out of here intact, waiting a minute isn’t a hassle at all.” Another man said, his voice deeper than the others. He sounded a bit amused as he added. “I’ll even be willing to tell people about it. Getting rescued by a level one mercenary… gods, that’s embarrassing.”

Talyn laughed, but focused on testing the keys instead.