Anything ~ 5!

“So there he was, first step out of his training, and Luke punched Archmage in the face!” Zed’s story made the patrons of the tavern howl with laughter, even more so when he recounted what the Archmage had done to Luke directly after he got over his initial surprise.

He would have left off the second part, but that might be mistaken as going out of his way to damage the reputation of an official. People kept tossing glances at Luke, who was taking up an entire bench at a long table by himself. Not a single one of them doubted the fact that this glaring beast in their midst would be happy to break them in half if given the chance; lending credibility to the Bard’s tale.

Luke wasn’t happy to be the center of attention. His glare was entirely directed at Zed, who had terrible goose flesh and shivers running up and down his spine constantly because of the rage contained in that stare. He looked to Andre, “Can I leave yet?”

They’d been in the capital a full week already, and every morning needed to appear at the King’s court to see if he would have time to see them after the ‘important affairs of state’ that regularly went on during the day. Luke was getting restless. Every day that he couldn’t get back to Murder World was another fifteen days that Cookie needed to wait for him to find her.

“Soon.” Andre promised him as he ordered another plate of food for each of them. He had discovered quite by accident that he was able to entice his friend with food; the tastier, the better. So far, he had been completely unable to get Luke to a point that he couldn’t eat more. “Today I’m having them bring in an entire cow plate by plate for you. Think you’re up for it?”

Luke’s glare lessened fractionally, and he even snuck a quick glance at the door that the food had been coming out of. His eyes whisked back to Andre a moment later, “Don’t know what kind of game you’re playing. I once ate an entire berry bush, roots and all, just to try something new. Goats were working together too well for me to eat meat that day.”

“I have no idea how those sentences relate to each other.” Andre brightly exclaimed as a trickle of sweat started running down his forehead. He had coin to spend, but he really didn’t actually want to buy an entire cooked cow for Luke. Zed swung over to their table a moment later, winking furiously at the Druid.

“I need that special flower.” Zed whispered, nodding his head to the side to point out a local lass that had been giving him her full attention. Andre shook his head and pulled out a seed of the Mountain Willow Wind flower. He accessed his mana, and handed over a softly chiming flower a moment later. “Thanks, buddy!”

Zed moved to the table confidently, engaging the woman in conversation for a short while before suddenly presenting her with the flower with a flourish. Luke watched the entire process while chewing on some overly-cooked steak, snorting in agitation when the two vanished to some dark corner. “You shouldn’t eat that.”

Luke reached over and grabbed the meat off Andre’s plate, then chomped down mercilessly as Andre looked on in shock. He collected himself with a deep inhalation, then asked, “Why did you just steal my food?”

“I’m overhealing.” Luke informed the other man as if his words meant something profound, motioning for another cut of steak from the dumbfounded server. “You should probably go save Zed.”

“Pretty sure he doesn’t want to be saved right now.” Andre muttered and waved for more food as well.

“Okay.” Luke agreed strangely amiably. “Taylor’s back.”

The door to the tavern nearly shattered as the Namer sprinted into the room. “Let’s go! Our appointment is now, it got moved up suddenly! If we aren’t there in ten minutes - where’s Zed?”

“He was led away by some kind of assassin.” Luke informed her as he chewed through his steak. “Probably the same one that dosed this food with hallucinogens.”

“What?” Andre yelped and leapt to his feet. “Why didn’t you stop her?”

“You told me not to save him.” Luke paused in his chewing and looked up at the Druid. “You mean to tell me you couldn’t smell the poisons she was carrying? They’re mostly plant-based, so I figured you had a handle on it.”

Andre closed his eyes and concentrated on the upper floors. He felt one presence that had dozens of tiny plants on them, and focused on controlling the plants at a distance. There was a scream of pain and rage a moment later. The three of them rushed up the stairs, following the noise. Luke kicked in the door, shattering it entirely, and they looked on as foam bubbled out of a corpse’s mouth.

Zed was unconscious, but a moment later Andre managed to clear the plant byproducts out of his body, and the Bard woke up. “Trisha? Where’d you…?”

He looked up and saw the remainder of his party hovering over him. “Oh, not cool, guys!”

“How could a Bard fall for this?” Taylor scathingly gave the half-naked man a once over. “I bet we were the last to know about our appointment with the King, this is clearly someone specialized in discrediting political opponents. You would have been drugged up and out of your mind, and still forced to go in front of the nobility. Get dressed, we need to go right now.”

She swept out of the room, still fuming. Luke turned to go with her, still munching on a steak, which Andre looked at with concern before stopping him, “When you said that was bad for me and good for you…?”

“Poisoned. Just something that would make your innards turn to liquid and run out your pants.” Luke took a deep bite and let out a refreshed burp. “Just spicy meat to me.”

“Immune to poisons? Overheal, does that mean…” Andre trailed off even as his guess got him a cold stare for his troubles, which reminded him how rude it was to ask someone else about the powers to which they had access: it was the same as sussing out their weaknesses. “I thought we were past the suspicions and cold shoulders.”

“Maybe after we kill a few hundred more things as a group, we’ll all feel better.” Zed hopped out of bed and swayed woozily. “Mostly okay… no lingering mental dizziness, just balance issues.”

Andre looked at Luke’s retreating form, feeling resignation just as he grabbed Zed and tossed him over his shoulder. “Do you really think that’s all it’s gonna take? Some more time together?”

“That’s what all the stories say. The power of friendship grows through shared suffering.” Zed shifted around to get as comfortable as possible, already used to this form of undignified travel. “Wouldn’t be a cliche unless there was some truth to it, right?”

“I guess?” The group warned the staff on the way out that the food was poisoned, and left the stricken tavern-goers to worry for their lives on their own. There was an important meeting The Four were going to be late for.