Chapter 61. Intervention

  The night before their departure for Dramir, Jeremiah paced in front of Allison’s door. Bruno and Delilah were out on errands, and there was one more crucial question that he needed answering. He highly suspected it was going to get ugly, but he had learned that sometimes ugly things needed to get done.

  After strengthening his resolve one last time, he rapped quickly on Allison’s door. She answered.

  “Hey J-”

  “What did you give me?” Jeremiah asked, his voice steady and strong.

  “A combat drug, one we used in the military,” Allison answered right away.

  “Is it permanent? Did it make me do what I did?” asked Jeremiah.

  “No. It doesn’t last long, least not with the amount I gave you. It only gave you a little edge to do what you needed to do with Monty, it would have long worn off by the time you were underground,” said Allison. She leaned away from Jeremiah.

  “You use it, don’t you?” asked Jeremiah.

  “I have. And, maybe, yes I use it from time to time,” said Allison.

  “I need you to promise me you won’t use it again,” said Jeremiah.

  Allison’s look of confusion broke into a half smile, waiting to see if Jeremiah was going to reveal what he was saying as a joke, “I’m not going to do that Jay. Sometimes it’s something I need.”

  “It’s cowardly,” said Jeremiah.

  Allison’s eyebrows raised and her jaw set, “I understand that you’ve been through a lot, Jay, so I’m not going to dignify that with the response typical of calling a fighter a coward.”

  “I need to know that people matter to you,” said Jeremiah, “I need to know that we’re not just a resource to you.”

  “Jay, how can you say that?” said Allison. The chair screeched as she stood.

  “You’ve done black ops before. You told Bruno that you’ve killed people in their sleep, back when we attacked the bandit camp-”

  “Jay, stop,” said Allison.

  “and that you could do it again. You kicked a man off the wall in Dramir for refusing to fight, to set an example. Were you on that drug then? Answer me, now.”

  “That is none of your business!” Allison shouted at him.

  Jeremiah didn’t wilt in the face of her anger, “I need to know if you keep that stuff on you! Do you have some on you right now? I need to know if you’re just a fist full of that stuff from becoming like the cultists, capable of anything without remorse!”

  “You’re a civilian Jay! You don’t know what it means to serve, okay?! To do the work that needs to be done for something greater than yourself! Just stop!” Allison shouted. She was loud, damn loud when she wanted to be.

  Jeremiah stepped around her and went into Delilah and Allison’s room, grabbing the Giant’s Bag.

  “What are you doing? Put that down!” Allison yelled.

  But before she could stop him, he stuck his hand in the bag, and pulled out a fist full of the same resiny weed that Allison had given him. It was at least thrice as much as she had given him.

  Allison clenched her fists at him and growled, “Jay, of course I have some! And it was in a box!”

  “I don’t want you to have this,” said Jeremiah, “I barely remember killing Monty. Am I wrong to assume it helps you not remember what you do as well?”

  Allison’s face of rage fractured and downgraded into frustration, “Yes, that is another thing that it’s good for. Better than trying to forget with booze.”

  “I need you to remember. I need you to be able to face what you’ve done. With a face full of tears. Till you can’t do it anymore, if that’s what happens,” said Jeremiah.

  “Jay, you are not going to lecture me on this,” said Allison. She stepped into the room and began advancing on him as she spoke, “Congrats on killing your first child, but until you've walked the path of service you do not get to tell what I need to do! I have fought, and killed, and butchered, and sabotaged, and terrorized, all in the name of my kingdom. I do what I need to do to survive. Do you understand me?!”

  “What's the name of the drug?” asked Jeremiah, unflinching in the face of her wrath.

  “What?” asked Allison, surprised at the sudden question.

  “What. Is the name. Of the drug,” Jeremiah asked again.

  Allison's nostrils flared and she stopped her advance. A hand went up to fiddle with her hair, and was quickly put down again.

  “S-Soulrot. It's called Soulrot,” said Allison, deflating.

  “Are the effects permanent if you abuse it?” asked Jeremiah.

  “It gets…Jay this isn't-” she stopped when she met his gaze, unflinching but sympathetic, “it can take a long time to get back to normal. After a while. Maybe the ceiling lowers a little. Just a little,” said Allison.

  “Enough that you've noticed,” said Jeremiah. He put the clump of weed back in the bag.

  “Yeah, maybe,” said Allison.

  Jeremiah cautiously approached her and took her hands in his, “Listen, Al, I’m not saying this because I’m angry. I’m saying this because I want what’s best for you okay? And that stuff isn’t what’s best for you.”

  She yanked her hands away and sat down on the bed with a thump, “You don’t know what’s best for me Jay. I chose a life of sacrifice and service when I joined the military. I believed in it so much that I was chosen for certain missions. Ones normal soldiers can’t handle.”

  “The black ops,” said Jeremiah.

  “Well, we’d call them special operations, but yeah,” said Allison, “it was an honor to be trusted by my kingdom for such duties.”

  Jeremiah let the conversation rest for a moment. He sat down next to her and leaned against her a little, she returned the lean.

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  “You’ve done some stuff, huh?” said Jeremiah.

  “Yeah,” whispered Allison.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be. I made choices, same as you.”

  “But were they? Were they the same choices?” thought Jeremiah. He dashed the thoughts away, that way lay judgment.

  “Do you want to talk about it?” asked Jeremiah.

  Allison chuckled, “You don’t have that kind of time.”

  “I’d make time for you, you know that,” said Jeremiah.

  Allison tilted her head to rest it on Jeremiah’s despite being taller, “Yeah I know. But the legend of The Hungry Dark isn’t something I’m ready to talk about now, if ever.”

  “...The Hungry Dark?” said Jeremiah.

  “Heh, yeah, we don’t get to choose our names,” said Allison.

  They continued to lean against each other for a while, letting the silence and weight of what they had discussed percolate.

  “Will the nightmares come back?” Jeremiah asked Allison. He was really hoping they wouldn’t.

  “Oh yeah,” said Allison, “but they’ll feel different. Usually. Hey Jay?”

  “Yeah?”

  “If you ever imply I’m a coward again, I will actually kick the shit out of you in public. In front of God and everyone.”

  “Yeah, sorry about that. I still want you to stop taking that stuff,” said Jeremiah.

  “The next time I think I need it, I’ll remember that. But no promises, it’s a combat drug, not recreational. A girl’s gotta do,” said Allison.

  “I understand,” said Jeremiah.

  Glad you’re home Jay,”

  “Me too Al.”

  ?

  ?

  ?

  The spires of the palace of Elminia sank out of sight, leaving only her dusky clouds of smoke smeared across the horizon. The scene was in some ways eerily similar to the way they’d arrived, rumbling along the country road towards Dramir in a horse-drawn carriage, but instead of the tension and anticipation of the unknown mission ahead, they were heading home.

  Or at least, whatever counted as home now. “So where exactly are we staying?” asked Jeremiah.

  “I found us a place to stay in the merchant’s quarter,” said Delilah. “It’s just a few blocks from where the house was, hopefully it’ll be a nice place to stay while the empress undoes whatever damage she can.”

  “Still bugs me that we never did find out who was behind it all,” said Bruno.

  “Me too,” said Allison. “What’s to stop them from starting everything back up as soon as the attention from the empress dies down?”

  “Spymaster Ka assures me it will be taken care of in a permanent, non-lethal manner,” said Delilah. “Although she did still seem annoyed about the non-lethal part.”

  Bruno chuckled. “Yeah, well, she’s had a tough week. Probably would have been nice to take out her frustrations on some frumped up foreign nobles.”

  “Speaking of,” said Jeremiah. “What’s up with you and Ka?”

  “What’s up how?” Bruno leaned back and crossed his boots on the bench opposite.

  “You know what I mean! Did anything ever come of all those smoldering looks?”

  “A gentleman never tells,” said Bruno. “Although I will say she did give me some good ideas for getting into her line of work.”

  “Considering becoming a spymaster?” asked Allison.

  “Seems like a cushy job,” said Bruno, “I just run my usual information operation with the biggest strongarm the kingdom has to offer.”

  Delilah beamed at him. “That’s a wonderful idea! You’d have such an important impact as part of King Hector’s cabinet.”

  “It might take a while to achieve, of course,” said Bruno. “I’m not even sure Dramir has a spymaster.”

  “No one’s sure,” said Delilah.

  “Well, I’ve been thinking about creating a training hall,” said Allison, “One specializing in fighting giant monsters. Getting picked up is really frustrating.”

  “Ah, so we’re not exactly going to be raking it in, is what I’m hearing,” said Bruno. “Guess I shouldn’t hang up my adventuring gear just yet.”

  Delilah counted off on her fingers. “A bureaucrat, a teacher, and a newly licensed defense attorney probably won’t be rolling in wealth, even without the conspiracy draining us,” she said. “Unless Jay is about to announce his new career enchanting things for the crown?”

  “I—wait, is that a real job?” Jeremiah asked.

  “Court mage is a job,” said Delilah, “but it’s definitely more about politicking than magicking. You interested?”

  “Hard pass,” said Jeremiah. “I’ve had enough politicking at this point to last several lifetimes. What I was thinking was taking a stab at some real enchanting. Not just working for Thurok and churning out the same diagrams everyone always wants.”

  “Ugh, he’s an artist now,” groaned Bruno. “Glad you got some practice starving, Jay, you’re gonna need it.”

  “You never know, the weather might get nice enough for a stroll,” said Delilah.

  The others looked at her with confusion but she stared out the window and pretended not to notice. Something niggled at the back of Jeremiah’s brain like he was forgetting something.

  “Anyway,” he said, deciding whatever it was could wait til later, “I want to see what I can learn from Lyle’s journal. If he’s right that there’s more circles out there, we may have a much bigger problem on our hands than anyone realizes.”

  “Ah,” said Bruno. “So adventuring gear very much still on, got it.”

  “About that,” said Allison. “We need a crash course in mage killing. I didn’t like how easily Lyle was able to take us out.”

  “Uhh,” said Jeremiah. “My own training didn’t exactly cover how to murder people like me.”

  “Not a problem, we’ll develop a curriculum together,” said Allison.

  “And I don’t suppose it matters how deeply uncomfortable that makes me?”

  “Not at all.”

  Jeremiah leaned his head back against the carriage wall and let his friends’ voices wash over him as they launched into a detailed discussion of how they personally would go about disarming, restraining, dismembering or otherwise incapacitating him. It was good to be home.