Demonic Magician

The rest of the walk went by rather quickly, which might be due to the fact my head still felt like it was full of bubbles. Whatever the goblin had cast on me, it allowed me to walk along at a normal pace and keep my thoughts on the right page. The page being the inside of my skull. I traveled alongside Wolf, partially for stability if a wave of vertigo came up by surprise, as Ren walked and talked with Fiona.

As much as I hated being out of the loop, I doubted I was in the right mind to fully participate or keep hold of whatever details they were discussing. It might be important things about the Crimson, or perhaps just gossip as they caught up on whatever had happened since they last saw each other. Ren might feel uncomfortable being around all these people, but she was able to feign that she was fine with it quite well.

Wolf growled at me in reflex as I pulled at his fur while trying not to tip over. “Sorry, Wolf,” I apologized, a sheepish smile across my face.

“It is more the surprise than the pain. I am not angry.” He looked up at me as his expression softened again.

“What do you make of our new pals?” I murmured to him as their attention moved back away from the bear’s growl.

“Not particularly keen,” he raised an eyebrow. “Especially the goat one.”

I gave him a pat on the flank. The assumption was that he meant Magnus, but hadn’t any knowledge of lions in his previous life—which made perfect sense to me. Still, I narrowed my eyes in contemplation, wondering if any of them might secretly be goats, and he could see something that I couldn’t.

My intense look apparently drew the attention of one of them, and Clive slowed down to walk beside us.

“Hello, Max and Wolf, correct?”

I nodded. “Clive. It’s a pleasure.”

“Sure,” he replied. “I find your outfit very interesting. Both of you are, actually.”

While I could definitely agree that my very purple suit was, in fact, spectacular... coming from a man that looked like he was the living equivalent of stale bread, I was a little suspicious. Perhaps unfair for me to judge based on appearances too, I reminded myself. There was definitely a benefit to blending in that I was too stubborn to internalize.

“Thank you,” I managed. “I find it suits my both my Class and personality quite well.”

“I find it garish and unbecoming,” Wolf murmured, “but I’m a team player.”

Clive smiled and scratched at his short brown hair. “System is funny like that, right? Seems to know what you like, how you should progress based on your current goals.”

I nodded at him, but didn’t feel keen to blurt out my thoughts on the matter. Not while the curse was making mashed potatoes of my brain. He did have a point, though. Even our level up abilities had drawn closer together, to becoming influenced by each other as if it was intended all along.

Maybe something to encourage people to work together? That just made me wonder what happened to the Lady and her ever-increasing cult. While the first area was just Shadows or the dead, this second at least had pockets of resistance. Even if they were ineffective at removing the blight from this world. I shouldn’t be eager for the conflict, but I was.

“Camp is just up on the left here,” Clive noted, raising his hand to a figure sitting atop a rock at the split in the road. “That’s Rolo.”

A cloak that made them blend in near seamlessly to the moss-covered stone, I might not have noticed him if he wasn’t pointed out. Clothing a similar color—drab grays and greens. His face was shadowed by the garment covering his head, but a singular eye of pure white sat in the middle, reminding me of the cyclops. An awkward shiver ran through me, but I wasn't sure if that was due to being watched by the odd figure, or my brain had finally given up the ghost.

We circled around the large stone, following the road down to our left, and the camp was immediately visible. Down at the bottom of a valley, hastily constructed wooden walls blocked some of the view of the pale tents and dark browns of crates and the like dotted beyond.

As much as it looked like safety, something within me told me it was anything but. The showman side of me was practically salivating at the potential non-violent audience now before me, but the part of me that killed demons paled at the thought of being around so many unknowns.

Ren slowed to walk beside me. “How you feeling, trickster?”

“Been better,” I shrugged. “But, have been a lot worse.”

She nodded. It didn’t need to be said that the time my head was cracked open was probably my worse day. Either of the times that it had happened, I supposed. She leaned in a little closer.

“This place makes me nervous.”

“Same.” If she was able to readily admit that in the cold light of day, then things had definitely got her danger senses up. As much as that made me happier about my own dislike of current proceedings, it did also further worry me.

Ruby turned around and waved to me. “If you come with me to the med tent, Max, I’ll get you fixed up.”

“Just the curse, or can you do other things?” Ren asked, nudging me with her elbow.

I rolled my eyes, which somehow helped me counterbalance my inner ear, and I didn’t stumble into the bear from her jostling.

“Magnus will find you some tents if you plan to stay,” Fiona offered. “We have empty vacancies, as of yesterday.”

We could read between the lines. Well, Wolf might not be able to, but he was currently preoccupied with staring at the lion-man.

I looked at Ren and she gave me the briefest of nods. The question didn’t need to be asked. Shared tent with Wolf on our doorstep. Together, and safe. Even in the middle of potential allies, we didn’t want to take a risk. If it weren’t for the elf knowing the fighter previously, I doubted we’d even be in this position and we’d be off grinding Quests and looking for our own place to sleep.

It was no tavern, but perhaps we could allow ourselves a little creature comfort before the show truly started.

“How many stay here?” I asked, seeing a couple of figures moving around within as we closed in on the gate.

Fiona wrinkled up her face. “Just… slightly over a dozen now. Fourteen? Sixteen?”

“Three groups and Rolo,” Magnus confirmed. “Sixteen, plus you three, man.”

I didn’t like that. The number of people here, at least. Referring to me as ‘man’ didn’t really move the dial—it was expected when you had talking animals and people from worlds more fantastical than my own.

The gates opened wide as we reached them, a stout dwarf that was more snow-white beard than anything else, apparently on guard duty.

“This way, purple-guy!” The goblin hopped up and down to get my attention as the sight of so many tents and potential Players briefly overwhelmed me.

I turned and started off in her direction as Magnus led Ren and Wolf to the right; the elf catching my eye before our line of sight was obscured. She looked uncomfortable, to say the least. Despite being raised to inherit the responsibilities of watching over her community in her previous world, she was perhaps the least people-person I had ever met.

Being in conflict with nearly every person you met on arriving here certainly hadn’t helped—and even as a natural and insufferable performer, I had my reservations about the campground. Just the one night, maybe, and then we’d forge our own path.

Ruby lead me through a few rows of tents, before arriving at one with a red cross painted on the side. Some things appeared to be universal. Lifting the flap hardly near high enough, she gestured for me to enter—which I did, stooping so that I could push the canvas doorway over myself.

Inside, a simple space with two beds and several cabinets or containers in different shapes and sizes. Drab grays and off-whites, which were reassuringly clinical. I took a seat on one of the beds, mostly just thankful my legs didn’t have to strain to keep the rest of me from toppling over like a tower of cards any more.

“Now then.” She entered behind me and pulled out a stool to stand on before walking over to a cabinet. “This isn’t related to your cure, but I always ask my patients how they are doing—like with the System ‘n’ shit.”

“It… definitely took some getting used to.” I frowned, unsure what my actual thoughts were. It was horrifying and restrictive at times, and the good part was… I had met Ren?

“I’ll say,” she snorted as she withdrew a bottle of something green and slimy. “This icky crap helps me diagnose which other icky crap I can use to remove your curse.” She gave me an apologetic grin.

“It’s all ‘icky crap’?”

“’Fraid so, bud. System determined my years of medical research and training was just good for slapping different kinds of goo on people.” She grinned widely and hopped up on the stool in front of me.

“You didn’t use goo in your previous life?” I removed my hat and placed it beside me.

She popped the corked lid and tilted her head. “Oh, I did, but there was more… nuance and shit, you know?”

I nodded. Same with how my tricks were now just borne from magic and manipulating the tools the System labored us with, rather than manually having to do all the hard work. Energy slowly drained from me as she stuck a finger into the jar and withdrew the sickly-looking paste onto her finger.

She rubbed it across my forehead, and while it was cold and soothing, it was also pretty gross.

“Takes a minute before I can ‘read’ it,” she rolled her eyes, clearly not a fan of how the System viewed how her work should be done. “Wanna tell me more about the first area? Fiona fucking hated the chainsword guy. Had a weird name… Valpor… Velorp… or some shit.”

“Hmm. He was with the Crimson,” I worked my jaw as my fevered brain felt a little calmer. “In the Fort, which we went and destroyed.”

Ruby whistled. “Fiona thought you looked like a right nob, but killing that douche won you some favor with her.”

“Being a leader involves a lot of tough calls.” Like, calling me names was a hard sell, at least in my opinion.

“So does taking a life.” Her eyes observed me for a moment, as if there was more to that sentence, before she changed course. “If you can break the neck of that gangly necromancer, Fiona would be your number one fan.”

I did need more fans, that was true. Another reason to defeat the group keeping these people stuck here. With almost three Parties, however, I wondered why they hadn’t made a play for it.

Ruby licked her finger and then placed it against the muck on my forehead. Her eyes looked off to the peaked ceiling of the tent as she considered… whatever it was that she was doing. A handful of seconds passed before she removed the offending digit. While I was usually put off by people invading my personal space, there was something about the goblin—or perhaps just the medical setting—that didn’t bother me.

“Got some good news, and some bad news.”

“How long have I got to live?” I gave her a grim smile.

“In this world…?” She rolled her eyes. “System allowing, you’re fine. It’s not a curse that I can cure—but the good news is that it goes away after a nice sleep.”

I deflated slightly, unsure whether I was happy about that or not. “Are we talking about a duration of sleep, or it resets after a certain time of the day, or…?”

“Fuck if I know,” she shrugged. “It’s a curse. But hey, I’ve got something that’s not slop that can help take the edge off until you can snooze.”

The goblin hopped down off of the stool and went to a different cabinet to slide out a drawer. After some inaudible grumblings, she returned and held up what looked to be some kind of bark or root from something.

“I realize this looks like I’m bullshitting you,” she wagged it at me. “You just have to trust I take my job very seriously.”

“It’s to chew?” I gingerly received it in my hand. To her credit, it wasn’t slimy at all.

“Won’t lie and say it doesn’t taste like shit, but it’ll keep the symptoms from getting any worse. You’ll just have a little fever and light-headedness until the morn.”

“Thanks, Ruby.” I managed a smile, but hesitated to put the root into my mouth. After a few seconds of her patiently staring at me to complete the act, I started to slowly move it towards my opening maw. Sure, I could Dazzle my way out of this… but I shouldn’t turn down healthcare advice. Ren would disapprove.

As if hearing my panicked woes, a shadow passed over the tent entrance before a figure started to enter. Not my protégé, unfortunately, but Fiona.

“How’s the patient, Rubes?”

The goblin shrugged. “Be back to ‘normal’ tomorrow.” She shot me a grin, apparently finding amusement in the normal that included dressing as I did. “He just has to chew that root and there will be no further complications.”

Now, with both of them starting me down, I had no choice. It crunched as part split off into my mouth resigned to its fate. The shards then became somewhat chewy, like gum. It didn’t actually taste that bad, which was potentially concerning. It was like caramel almost.

“Excellent, if you could give us a few minutes alone?” Fiona smiled warmly toward the short greenskin, who nodded and left with a brief curtsey toward me.

I nodded my thanks to her as she departed, before clocking that the expression on the fighter had cooled dramatically.

“So, got a magic dick on you, huh?”

The helpful root betrayed me, and I coughed, almost choking on my surprise. “Huh?”

“Ren.” The woman crossed her arms across her breastplate. “Even got her dressing up in a similar clown outfit.”

“Magician,” I corrected her. “Sorry, I’m lost on what the question was?” My brow furrowed, and I picked my hat back up to place upon my head.

“The Ren I knew was very aloof, cold, and reluctant to spend time with anyone else. I just wanted to find out what you have going on that could change her so much.”

Her scowl was probably intended to intimidate me, but it had no effect. “Perhaps I just didn’t abandon her.”

“You fuck.” She stepped toward me and leveled a plated fist as a threat. “You don’t know what it was like. What she was so hell-bent on doing.”

“Murdering a gang to seek her revenge?”

Fiona worked her jaw. “It was foolish. There was nothing to be gained and everything to lose.”

A smile ran up my face as I chewed the root. It shouldn’t be a humourous situation, but the fever was warming up my brain something fierce. “Then isn’t it obvious what we did? What I did?”

She deflated slightly, not really relaxing, but just unable to hold that spark of anger within her any longer. “I’m… still struggling to parse that you are both admitting to being mass murders. You killed all the people on the island, and then in the first area too? No bullshit?”

“No bullshit,” I confirmed. “I’m sure you aren’t blind to the join-us-or-die attitude the Lady and Crimson Shadow have. We just chose the third option.”

Now she relaxed, but I could see there was a fuller picture I wasn’t privy to. How long they had known each other, what they had been through, and what caused their split. Clearly Fiona cared for Ren, in some manner, but it was also clear that she wasn’t able to offer the elf the vengeance she sought. Interesting that they had such strong views to differentiate killing Players to killing Monsters. We did one and the same without such hold-ups. Potentially a bad look.

Eventually, she shook whatever thoughts were clouding her mind away. “Fine. Perhaps what we need is people like you three to get us out of this fucking hole. But…” her eyes bore into mine, “you better never let her down. Or we’ll see how magic that dick is when I cut it off.”

She barely gave me a second to acknowledge before she turned and exited the tent.

I chewed for a few seconds, in silence, wondering why my unmentionables had become a necessary part of that conversation. In an attempt to avoid letting my mind wander down adjacent paths, I stepped down and left the tent.

The daylight burned at my eyes, and I wavered for a few seconds before getting my bearings. Ren and Wolf should be roughly straight ahead, maybe to the right a little?

Over on the left, however, was a small grouping of trees just outside of the main camp. Shaded and lush with grass and vegetation. Perhaps I could have a brief nap and shake this curse? Or at least get out of this damnable sunshine.

I stumbled over, stepping out of the camp proper into the edge of the wilderness. They’d be able to find me easily enough with this suit on, and I must have caught some eyes on my journey.

Slowly, I sunk myself down between a couple of trees, hoping that the coolness of the shade would seep into my head and solidify my brain. I chewed like crazy. Nope, still too uncomfortable to nap—it would be better to find Ren and lay in the tent. Maybe she could hold the pieces of my skull together and comfort me.

Smiling at the possibilities, I went to stand—before I was plunged into darkness.

Before I had a chance to fight against the head covering, something weighty struck me in the side of the head, forcefully giving me the desired nap.