Runelords 09.4 - Still Not a Thing

Shadliss walked around the crowded tavern, the sound of Khyrralien's sitar blending in with the cheerful cacophony of chattering voices. It didn't take long to find Virgil, as he animatedly spun the tale of the Howly Hole to his excited audience at the bar. Shadliss sidled up to join them, and listened to the end of the story. Thanking him again for his help saving the town, the patrons meandered away, as party-goers do, leaving Shadliss to grin at the man. "So, I heard you were a hero."
Virgil shrugged, returning the grin, "Well, the important thing is that the town is safe." He turned to the barkeep and ordered another beer, pausing to ask Shadliss if she wanted anything, and adding her drink to his tab. "Honestly, it turned out better than we could have hoped: left to find a bugbear and maybe some information, capture the man himself."
She giggled, "So, tell me what happened."
Grinning, Virgil replied, "Gladly," before launching into the dramatized, edited version of the story of how they captured Tsuto. It had been agreed earlier, by the declaration of the mayor, that the town needed not know about Nualia or any sort of cult-like activity, so it was to be that Tsuto would take the full blame for the events that had transpired. As Virgil spun his tale, it was missing a few parts: there was no shrine to Fierna, no wizard who escaped, no secret tunnels or murderous assimar fiends. They had found Bruthazmus, Ilsa and Tsuto; Ilsa had not been paid enough to stand against the adventurers and Bruthazmus, who all wanted Tsuto's blood. He had been apprehended, and the group had escaped as Chief Ripnugget returned. Their lost time, actually spent camping at the fort, was accounted for as a long day trapped in the sticker bushes. For his part, it would never be claimed that Virgil told a poor or boring story.
Shadliss played with her glass, watching intently as he finished. When he did, she asked, "And was it really all that dangerous, after all that?"
"Oh, yeah, definitely." She raised her eyebrow, not quite believing him. "Honestly. Bugbear hit me in the head with a flail. If it was a bit more to the left, would have caved my head right in, as opposed to the massive head trauma I got instead." This elicited something of a shock from her, and he added, "It's fine. Took a lot of healing magic since then. Good as new."
She leaned forwards, "Let me see," and brushed through his hair, inspecting his scalp for damage. "...You're right. Can barely tell," she said, before quickly pecking the top of his head.
"Hey!" Virgil snapped good-naturedly and recoiling, "I do not need your father coming in here and punching me in the face."
She sulked a bit, "Yeah...we'll keep it more discrete."
"We can talk, we can be friends..."
Shadliss cut him off, "And everything else is under wraps, not a thing, blah blah, I know." Virgil frowned and shook his head, taking a drink. "Ugh. I wish he'd focus more on my sister...but I guess it's worse for her anyways."
"How is that going, by the way?"
"Good. To the point where it's stupid that they have to sneak out every night." She rolled her eyes and amended, "Well, not every night. You know."
Virgil raised an eyebrow, "What is your father's end-game, anyways?"
She shrugged, "He's just protective. We get by."
"He does know that eventually you're both going to get married and move out, right? Is he planning on arranging that or what?"
Shadliss brought a dramatic wrist to her forehead as she said, "No noble man has come to him with chaste intent for the hands of his pure and sacred daughters."
Virgil snorted, "Good luck with that, Mr. Vinder." A couple other townsfolk came by, congratulating him and asking for the tale, which he gladly obliged them with. Shadliss finished her drink and waved good-bye, her expression saying that she'd see him again soon. Virgil acknowledged her departure and carried on talking, as he did for several hours more. Each minute was an annoyance and frustration: keeping up the social banter that, until now, he had enjoyed and found satisfying above near all other things, now felt pointless and empty, and the knowledge that he had been altered and couldn't fix it immediately gnawed at him. It would be so easy to make anyone, everyone, just as angry as him, and the knowledge that it would taste so sweet did nothing to help his mood. He was glad he was a good liar.
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Virgil spent much of the next few days on the outskirts of town. On the surface, he was training his ravens to fly to locations and report information back to him, but really, he had found it much easier to keep his temper down by not being near anyone. This afternoon, he sat on the beach with his hat pulled low over his eyes, only looking up slightly when the ravens returned to exchange the knowledge of what they had seen for delicious snacks. As they flew back towards town to try and count again, Shadliss' voice caught his attention, and he pulled his hat back to see her standing there, one of the birds sitting on her shoulder. "Hey."
"Well, good afternoon," he said, "What brings you out here?"
"You sent your birds to get me?" she asked, smiling.
"Oh. Um, no," he fumbled, "I've been training them to scout. I've been sending them back and forth all day," he explained.
The woman pouted a bit, "So, you don't want to see me?"
"Ehh, no, it's not that..." he started, then sighed and sat back further, "I'm just in an awful mood, and didn't want to take it out on anyone."
"Oh?"
He shrugged slightly, "It's...you ever have one of those bad moods, and the only thing you think is going to make it better is to just make everyone else as miserable as you? One of those."
"Aww," Shadliss said, moving to sit down beside him, "I know what will make it better." The raven hopped off her shoulder and flitted a short distance away.
Virgil rolled his eyes, "So, what have you been doing?"
"Nothing," she said dryly, "Usual things. Working. Chores. Writing."
That piqued his interest slightly, "Oh? Writing what? You've never mentioned writing before."
"Ah. I write letters. Just to my sister, usually. It's stupid, I know; we live together," she explained dismissively.
"No no. I understand. It's not stupid at all."
She changed the subject, "What about you? Any hero things? Daring-do?"
He snorted, "No, nothing right now. Though the mayor paid me today for my last daring-do, so that's something."
"Ooh?!" she asked, pulling herself closer, voice dripping interest.
"Not a whole lot. Honestly, only twice as much as I paid the stables to take care of the horse we found." Her face fell a bit, but he continued, "But it's not really relevant. Pay from the adventure was more than enough."
Her eyes lit up, "You found treasure there? You didn't mention that!"
"Well, it's gauche to talk about your money in public, isn't it," he said as a statement, not a question.
"Well, tell me now!"
He chuckled lightly. "Found a nice pile of change in the basement," he said, as he reached into his jacket pocket. He pulled out one of the uncut gems he had found and passed it to her. "Here, have a souvenir."
She took the crystal and marveled at it, eyes wide. "It's beautiful!" she said, and threw herself on top of him, pressing her lips to his. She cuddled herself up on his lap, looking at the gem.
"We found a bunch. A lot of gold too. It's nothing." He let her sit on him, but his body language was still distant and not particularly inviting. "We're going to go back tomorrow. We left a lot of it."
"Is it not dangerous anymore?" she asked, returning her attention to him and putting the rock in her pocket.
"Oooh, no. Still dangerous. We didn't actually kill any of the goblins there, so it's just as dangerous as before. But remember how I said it was an island? There was a cave, a tunnel or something that connects the basement to the ocean. We're going to use magic and sneak back in, try to collect up all the money we left, and see if I can't find my sword that Tsuto stole. I like that sword, and I didn't see it last time."
"How much money did the goblins have?" she asked, confused as to the apparent wealth of a bunch of forest vermin.
"Tons. I think we left three, four thousand silver lying in a pile there."
The number made her eyes go wide. "How did goblins get all that money?"
"Who knows? They horde and pile all sorts of things so they can roll around in them," he replied dismissively. Shadliss wrinkled her nose, as she pulled the gem back out of her pocket and wiped it vigorously on her skirt. "And that wasn't even the best of it," Virgil continued. Having piqued the girl's interest again, he said, "So, think of a crab. A hermit crab, right?" She nodded. "Now, make it six feet wide." She frowned a bit, but nodded. "Now, it was using, I suppose a piece of a statue, as a shell. A huge helmet, about five feet wide. And it was made of gold." She looked at him with disbelief, but he asserted, "Can you imagine what that would be worth? And it's just wandering around in the ocean on the back of a crab."
"That's..." she whispered, "You'd be rich..."
"Unfortunately, we had no way of moving it, so it's stuck on the ocean floor. So much money..." he said wistfully, "But unless we could convince the crab to walk it back to town, it's gone." He sighed, "Oh well. Easy come, easy go."
Shadliss leaned back onto Virgil's chest, considering the magnitude of riches that he had presented her with, when her eyes fell on his hand. "What's that?" she asked, gesturing with her chin, a slight accusatory note in her voice.
"Hmmn?" he glanced about, until he realized what she was looking at. "Oh." He held up his hand for her, "Another thing I picked up." She investigated the gold ring, with its emblazoned seven-pointed star. "Found it in an abandoned lock-box. It's magic..." he said, as he twisted his arm about and activated the ring's power, manifesting a nearly-transparent shield of force. "It makes a shield. So much better than dragging one around all the time, don't you think?" 
She tapped the shield hesitantly. "...How much is that worth?"
Virgil snickered and deactivated the ring, "Probably more than most of the town."
"Huh..." she murmured distantly, before rolling around to face him, her nose almost touching his. They looked into each other's eyes for a long moment, Shadliss inviting him to close the slight remaining distance. He held where he was, but didn't refuse her when she moved herself, pressing her lips to his.
They kissed for a moment, before Virgil muttered, " 'M still in a mood...so I'm sorry if I snap at you..."
"Well," she whispered into his mouth, "I know what will make you feel better."
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When they finished and Shadliss walked back to town, Virgil remained on the beach. He glared passively over the water for a while, before getting up and pacing restlessly. He wouldn't take his mood out on her. She was a nice woman who didn't deserve that. No matter how lovely her wrathful, self-righteous teenaged fury would surely taste. No matter how easy it would be to upset her, and to get her to glare and yell and storm off in a huff of pure and simple anger. He growled to himself and lashed out, punching the rocky cliff. The shooting pain in his hand gave him something else to fixate on, breaking his tantrum for the moment. Sliding back down to sit where he had been, he cast a healing spell on his hand and pulled his hat back down. There were going to be some very, very unhappy people in a bar tonight. He was glad he had recalled more of his magic; he wouldn't lose face now, over this.
Category:Rise of the Runelords