The elf’s eyes shifted away from serpents for a moment to find her in the dark. He didn’t say anything, but his free hand hovered by the goblin. The threat was clear. She lowered the crossbow.
“What’s an elf doing here?” said Fulgora. Ratface blinked.
She had the surreal moment of knowing that Fulgora had no context for any of this. For all the other woman knew, the elf was part of the trial. Her guard was up still, because he was an elf in a human city, but it’s not like she had been ready to shoot him on sight. Half of her concern was directed towards Ratface’s villager.
The elf said something to the serpent, and it screamed. It raised its head towards the sky and let out a jet of water.
Another breach broke from the sky and something tumbled down. It looked like a big slug and writhed towards the serpent.
When it hit into the serpent it revealed why it had been summoned. It slammed the serpent down into the ground and wrapped around it. The two writhed around as they desperately fought.
The slug got around the serpent’s neck and squeezed. The serpent let out a pained rasp and the dregs of water around it floated into the air. They froze over and it impaled the slug. It wasn’t enough to kill it, but it still loosened long enough for the serpent to wriggle out. It twisted around and ripped out the slug’s neck, leaving it twitching dead on the floor.
The elf looked down at the obelisk in front of him and muttered something. Ratface frowned.
“What’s he doing?” she asked.
“Experimenting,” said Fulgora. She tapped their own obelisk in front of them. The coordinates were still relatively random, but they were getting closer. Ratface thought back to the creatures that had appeared around Fulgora. They’d all been different but towards the end it had given something to combat her. Did the breaches adapt to hostile mana to send something that could defeat them? And if it did, what would it send to combat a serpent?
Ratface’s instincts whispered it would be a dragon. The elf wanted much the same as what she did.
So how did she get what she wanted without letting him get it.
Her eyes fell on Fulgora, who was still reading through the obelisk. The girl was already a counter to the serpent.
“Fulgora, I need you to help that serpent. It’ll help with getting the Lady’s favour,” she added when the woman looked at her in confusion. The lightning woman sighed.
“I suppose this can be repentance for the other one,” she said. She zipped down the building and joined the serpent. It looked at her warily at first but stopped as the elf shouted at it again. It shot more water into the sky and something began to form.
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A bolt formed first and erased whatever had been there. There was a harsh smile on Fulgora’s face as she looked at the elf. His face was still calm.
Ratface hadn’t let this opportunity slip by of course. The thing about lightning is it left very little time to look at anything else. She’d climbed down away from the two of them so she was out of sight.
Her mind raced as she searched through the sky. Her little stunt hadn’t upset the elf, so his plan wasn’t just calling something specific down. Her only guess was he wanted something with the favour. But how did it even work?
So far, she was drawing a blank. The truth was, she didn’t know much about these peoples Lady. Goblins didn’t really have anything they revered like humans and elves did. The closest they had been elves and that was more fear than anything.
Her heart clenched as she thought about her own goblin. She’d just left them next to the elf. She couldn’t even recognise who it was, just knew it was one of them. Had it been so long or had the kid just changed that much? Had she changed?
A breach in the sky a few streets away interrupted her. It was followed a moment later by another one in the area. She grinned and started to run over.
If she didn’t know what it was about, she just had to find someone who was. Those creatures were all attracted to magic. Of the two trial takers left, only one of them needed magic to take down the creatures.
Her gamble paid off when she rounded the corner. Anna was just finishing off one of the creatures. She whirled around and pointed her wand at Ratface.
Unlike Fulgora, she didn’t point away. A bolt of force came for Ratface and her armour came alive.
Kryssa zipped her out of the way and Ratface felt herself fade. She looked down at her hands and noticed she was less visible. Where she’d just been, an image of her was sent flying back.
Ratface didn’t waste the opportunity. She pulled out her knife and snuck up on Anna. With one arm she restrained the woman and Anna began to try to wriggle free.
She stilled as she felt Ratface’s dagger against her neck.
Kryssa released the glamour and Ratface came back into view.
“I’m not here to kill you,” she said.
“The knife is just decoration then?”
“It’s because someone doesn’t believe in asking questions apparently. If I let go of you, will you talk to me first?”
Anna went to nod, then thought better of it. Ratface had already let go and stepped back. The half-gesture enough. Anna rubbed at her neck and frowned at Ratface. That’s what she got for not wearing head armour.
“What do you want?” she asked.
“There’s an elf trying to get your Lady’s favour,” she said, cutting through the preamble. They didn’t really have time for pleasantries. Anna seemed to agree.
“It found something the Lady would like?” she asked.
“He’s trying. How does the favour work?”
The girl frowned.
“I don’t know exactly but I know the Lady. She rewards effort, not the prize.”
Ratface chuckled. Most of the effort so far had been the serpent and Fulgora. She said as much to Anna, but Anna shook her head.
“She also rewards intelligence. A plan like this would be rewarded whether he’s there or not.”
But his plan didn’t centre around the favour.
It didn’t take a genius to work out what it was centred around. He’d spent too much effort on the serpent for it not to be important.
“We need to get rid of his bargaining chips,” said Ratface, “I don’t suppose you can fight an elf?”
“If they were a child,” said Anna dismissively. Yeah, that was about what Ratface had expected.
“I can,” said a harsh voice behind them.
Mathilde had snuck up on them. The orc was covered in blood, and it looked like she’d fought her way through. Her sneaking was even more impressive given that she was dragging a body of one of the strange creatures from the breaches. It was like the bear Ratface had seen. Given the way she suspected the orc’s armour worked, that’d be quite a boon later.
“I have yet to find anything that would be of interest to the Lady,” she said, “this sounds like it would do, and I’ve always wanted to fight an elf.”
Ratface grinned. She still didn’t know exactly what his plan was, but she thought she knew enough to disrupt it.
An orc attacking you seemed disruptive though. She’d start with that.