Darkness and Hellfire

Chapter 28 Dragon Fear.

Lenna was enjoying a relaxing soak when something unfortunate happened. The laundry boy was returning with her clothes and armor, now hopefully blood free. She heard the first door open and the basket be heaved into place. Then a moment later she saw light start leaking in through the inner hatch door. Not a lot but enough.

‘A peeping Tom? Really?’ Was her first thought. Then immediately after was pure panic. The tub was deep enough that even if he looked inside he wouldn’t see anything he shouldn’t see. Well, except for the fact that she was a drow that had been snuck into town and would likely be chased out with swords drawn if anyone found out.

She panicked and did the only thing she could think of. She blasted her aura out at him. The boy froze. His hand on the hatch door. A cold sweat poured down his body. His pulse spiked. His knees started to shake. He stopped breathing for a moment. When the lack of air forced his body to move on its own and he took a sharp inhale he regained enough of his faculties to run. He took off down the hall.

‘Shit.’ Lenna cursed to herself. Either way this was not going to end well. If he had seen her there would most likely have been a blood bath of her fighting her way out of town. That’s not even considering how that would affect her Lord. Now, however, she was probably going to be accused of casting magic on the poor boy. Granted he deserved it for trying to peep at her in the first place but that might be a hard sell to the owner or the boy’s parents.

Lenna got out and crept up to the hatch. She looked through the slit and, upon not seeing anyone on the other side, quickly opened her side and pulled in the basket before quickly shutting her side’s door again. She dried herself and armored up. The boy had done a good job of cleaning everything she had to give him that.

Once she was dressed and armored she packed her now clean clothes and gear into her backpack and waited with her back against the wall for a while. She was going to have to get close enough to the boy to touch him in order to end the fear effect on him. The fear effect brought on by her aura was a powerful one. Even more so when the being affected by it was already weaker than her.

A little while later she heard Isaac open the door to leave his bath room. She opened her door and met his gaze. Well her one visible eye met his gaze. “We need to talk.” She told him.

His face turned serious and he quickly closed the gap between them. He leaned in and whispered: “What happened?”

“I panicked. The boy tried to sneak a peek. I suppressed him with my aura but now I need to be able to touch him to end the effect.” She explained.

“What effect?” Isaac asked concerned.

“Magically induced fear. Humans have a term for it though the term is not entirely accurate. They call it Dragon Fear.” She delineated.

“Huh. I didn’t know you could do that. You did it with your aura? Like without a spell?” Isaac questioned.

“Yes. Aura’s are a paladin’s expression of their divine oath. Mine is the opposite.” She continued. Isaac was glad that she was actually giving him useful information without him having to dig for it like mining for gold for once.

“Alright… So we just need to get you close enough to touch him without him yelling and screaming dragon at the top of his lungs?” Isaac postulated.

“Yes.” Lenna replied.

Isaac noticed her backpack on her shoulder and turned to leave. “Let’s ambush him at the entrance or hope we don’t see him. I wasn’t planning on staying here long either way. I have friends at the outpost and apparently there is an actual city in the other direction.”

“Understood.” Lenna concurred.

The two of them headed out. As they reached the front desk they saw the boy sitting in a chair shaking and the woman leaning over him. “Now what happened to you boy?” The stout woman asked.

He just kept shaking and stuttering incoherently. Lenna and Isaac shared a look and then Isaac nodded towards the boy. Lenna walked over and put her hand on his shoulder. He hadn’t noticed her come in as his eyes were boring holes in the floor. As she extended her hand a soft golden glow emerged from it. As soon as she touched him he stopped shaking and his head snapped up.

“W-What? H-Happened?” The boy stammered out.

The shorter woman spun around and glared daggers at Lenna. “What did you do to him?” She accused.

“A little Dragon Fear for our peeping Tom.” Isaac replied and nodded towards the boy. “I warned you.”

The boy looked relieved for a moment from the fear effect being removed and then immediately terrified at the words ‘peeping tom’ and ‘dragon fear’. The owner turned to glare down at him and he wilted under her gaze.

“Is that true? Did you try to peep on a patron again?!” The woman started going off on the boy and Isaac waved Lenna out the door. It was best if they left while they were ahead and before the woman remembered that Lenna had slammed the boy’s mind with enough magical fear to all but paralyze him permanently.

Once outside Isaac looked down the street towards the general store sign and said: “Lets get what we need and to the guild hall. I wanna get signed up and out of here before any more problems arise.” He started walking and Lenna dutifully followed just behind him. “That was a nice bath though. I wonder how they get the water to have healing properties?”

“It’s the spring. It used to feed into a drow city before this town was made.” Lenna enlightened him.

“So the water itself has natural healing properties? How?” Isaac asked curiously as they continued down the street.

“Mushrooms.” Lenna replied without going into any kind of detail. She was back to her normal complete lack of extrapolation.

“If we come across those mushrooms you’ll have to point them out to me.” Isaac told her.

“As you wish.” She replied.

Entering the guild hall they were met with what amounted to a tavern with two bars instead of one. The one didn’t serve alcohol, instead it served paperwork by the looks of it. Next to that one was a cork pegboard with a handful of sheets of paper pegged to it with large tacks.

There were only a handful of patrons scattered about and most of them looked dead on their feet. The place was honestly quite depressing. Isaac walked up the front desk and leaned on it. There was a small woman about four feet tall with black hair and brown eyes scribbling something on a sheet of paper.

She looked up. “You look new. How can I help you?” She said in a squirrely voice while squinting at him. “You have a badge?”

Isaac pulled out the badge he had gotten from the guard the day before and ran mana through it. The runic letters lit up in a soft but bright blue. “This?” He asked.

She shook her head. “No, an adventurer’s badge.”

“No I don’t.” Isaac responded. “That’s why I’m here.”

“A new adventurer? Out here?” She asked with a raised eyebrow, taking him in in a new light.

“Yeah but we can handle ourselves. We wouldn’t have made it this far otherwise.” Isaac assured her.

“I see.” She nodded her head. She dug through her desk for a pair of applications and handed them to him. “Once you finish this I’ll get that bum in the corner to cast Identify on you and then get you your badges.”

Isaac just stared at her for a second then looked down at the application. The questions were simple but he couldn’t answer most of them. Questions like; Address of closest relative in case of death, date of birth, full given name, were off the table. Isaac didn’t even know if he had a middle name let alone his date of birth. Some of them were easier but complicated and he assumed they were from the Identify spell. They were; Race, Gender, Age, Class, and Level.

He looked back at the girl at the desk. “What if I can’t answer some of these? Or don’t want to be Identified?”

“Well, in that case you will have to go to the guild hall in Safeharbor. We don’t have anyone capable of testing you the old fashioned way here.” She apologized. “I understand that many adventurers have hidden pasts and that you might not want your real name to come out but I assure you guild records are private. Mostly.”

Isaac turned to face Lenna. “I guess we are off to Safeharbor. Do you know the way?” He asked her.

“Not well my Lord.” Lenna responded honestly.

“Is there a map for sale?” Isaac asked the receptionist.

“The general store will have one, yes. That is a seven day journey. Are you sure you don’t just want to have Keith cast Identify on you? He probably won’t even remember doing it.” The receptionist proposed.

Isaac looked at the old wizard asleep on a table with a half full mug in his hand. His head was bald and his white beard shone in stark contrast to his dark chocolate skin. “No. It’s not just that. There are some things on the application I don’t want to fill in.” Isaac explained to her.

“Alright. Well, good luck and safe travels.” She replied and then went back to working on whatever form she had been elbows deep in before Isaac and Lenna had arrived.

Leaving the guild hall Isaac stopped right outside the doors. “That’s unfortunate.” He stated to the streets and lamps that were listening. “Let’s stock up and then get some rest.” He looked at Lenna’s busted helm and then down at his severed straps and buckle. “And get our gear fixed. Don’t want to forget about that.”

“Agreed.” Lenna replied.