The Combat Artificer Interlude 1

Interlude

(Sienna Khan)

March 6th, 1980
Brook Town
Just after passing Alexandre’s portal…

She watched the portal close up with the attractive older boy looking down at her. His crystal blue eyes boring into her… and she felt inadequate somehow. Her hands tightened on the bag full of food and money that he had given her.

It wasn't pity that had driven him to give it to her, but compassion and the fact that she didn't attack him earlier. She decided that she would keep the money for herself, but share the food as Lyle, Drue and Cameron were still on the ground,

The rat boys were her companions for now, but their willingness to hurt someone so readily didn't sit well with her. She waited for them to wake up in turn after pulling them further into the alley between the shop and adventurer guild. No one bothered them, street urchins were plentiful in this town after all. When she put the biggest boy against an empty barrel that was used as a trashcan, she noticed that he was waking up.

The boy drowsily opened his eyes and when he saw her, his voice broke as he called her name. "Sienn…a?"

Sienna’s ear perked up and she shouted, "Lyle, you're awake. Finally!"

The boys were heavy and she didn’t want to do more than necessary to get them home. They were close, but not that close as it has only been three months since she met them. They had grouped up because they were safer that way.

"What happened? I remember going to that humie's camp by following his old scent and…" The boy’s black eyes glazed over as he was drawing a blank.

*Wow, that red haired boy’s lightning magic sure did a number on Lyle.* Sienna thought.

Then she continued Lyle’s sentence and said, “...Got your ass kicked, the guy was a magi and he threw lightning at you.”

Sienna recalled the moment she saw that magic circle appear and then shooting lightning, this was the sign that they were fighting a magister magi. It was strange that the red haired boy was one this young. Sienna was still impressed by how strong the older boy had been; she desired that power for herself…

"Ah Dragonspit, that fucking nobody was a magi?" Lyle, slicked back his messy black hair; she used to find him attractive, but after seeing the redhead guy who kicked his ass, she discovered a new standard of beauty.

The cat girl frowned and became quite defensive of the stranger, after all he had given her food and money out of compassion. "You have short term memory loss… that fucking nobody took you and your two brothers out as if you were mere children."

Lyle glared at her. "How come you're fine then?"

"I didn't attack him, and he likes cat girls." Sienna smiled at that, humies were so easy to manipulate. Just cry a bit and play defenseless and they often stop attacking you. But it was the first time any of them gave her food for a month and five hundred Drachmas.

Lyle had to ruin her good mood though; he scoffed while rubbing his temples. "I'm not surprised, humies are fucking pervert and want to fuck everything… ah!"

Sienna pinched him, she had had enough of his racism, he had ruined many opportunities for her because of his usual comments when she had been in the market. "We need to talk."

Lyle flinched. "Oh boy, I don't like this already." He lowered his head and closed his eyes in frustration.

The rat boy stood up, dusting his hoodie and pants; Sienna stepped back, making some distance between her and Lyle. "That depends on how you’ll take my next words. Lyle, I am going to have to go my separate way from your group."

Lyle jumped up in surprise, his eyes widening. "Wait, wait, wait, why?" He raised his hands in panic.

Crossing her arms under her breasts, Sienna said, "You've changed, Lyle, normally you don't take risks like you did today. But your blind hatred for humies clouded your judgment and we almost all got killed."

This was the main grip she had toward Lyle. The boy shook his head vehemently and  cried out, "No, it's not like that…!"

Sienna raised an eyebrow at that, her eyes glowed with anger. "Really? Then tell me why did you try to attack the magi? Do you know that I had to beg him to not kill you and the other two?”

Lyle didn't say anything. He couldn't, as Sienna was right. She understood why he was angry at humans in general, his mother was captured by human bandits and sold into slavery in one of the southern kingdoms which are human centric. Lyle has been taking care of his brothers alone for the past six years and it made him a protective, yet bitter boy, bent on revenge and full of prejudice.

But he refused to acknowledge his fault and simply doubled down, like Sienna had expected from him. He glared back at the cat girl. "I see how it is, then alright leave!"

Just like Sienna thought, Lyle’s pigheadedness and pride flared, she had an excellent excuse to leave now. But she wanted to give him part of the food she obtained. "Before that, I have-"

Sienna began rifling through the magic bag she had at her side. However, Lyle seemed to be more of a hotheaded idiot than she thought, not letting her finish what she wanted to say. "No, you want to leave?! Then get out of here, you traitor!" He said as he pointed to the closest exit in the alley, where the stairs and ramp led up.

She took her hands out of her bag and primly said, "I see, we’re done for good, goodbye then."

The tanned cat girl turned her back, not even looking back and sashayed as she went up the stairs. She disappeared from the alley and found herself next to the Library. Sienna wasn't sad exactly, she had thought that something could have been between herself and Lyle; but the older rat boy was too lost in his pain to make a good mate for her.

Sienna smelled the air and looked for the closest tannery, there were things she wanted to buy. She had just enough money to buy herself a tent and some camping gear… she was going to look for that Magi again and ask him to teach her magic.

***

2 hours later

Sienna was out of Brook town and walked toward the forest where the young magi was at. It was a bit foolhardy, she might get eaten by monsters, but it was a good training for herself; she’s been too cozy with Lyle and the others in the abandoned house at the edge of town they have been squatting in.

Sienna was used to a nomadic lifestyle since she could walk. Her tribe was originally from the Nyandom's plains; remembering this part of her life was still painful. Her parents, siblings and family were no more, they got killed by a dragon while she went hunting alone. All their belongings, yurts and food stores were burned to a crisp. The bodies she had found were often calcified or half eaten…

She stopped walking and breathed in and out. The memories were still taking their toll on her; she stopped her trembling right hand with her left one. This was why she needed power, to not feel afraid anymore, especially of dragon type monsters.

She resumed her march, this time entering the forest proper. She quickly noticed that some animals started to flee or scurry away because of her. It was mainly small animals or monsters; just in case, she armed herself with her dagger, ready to swing it at anyone or anything. She avoided the biggest creatures such as the deer with crystal antlers or the flying koalas.

The day was slowly turning into evening when she reached the Magi’s camp, or should she say previous one. The man has left, there were signs that he moved away fairly recently as well. Sienna used her nose to track him; he smelled like fire and earth and cinnamon, it was fairly easy to follow.

It all started with the fire pit and the tracks left by the heavy wooden cart the magi was lugging around. She followed the scent and tracks and was inevitably led to another campsite five hundred meters away from the previous one.

However, she felt that she couldn't enter the young man's new campsite because something stopped her from doing it. It was some kind of field of energy that raised the hair at the back of her neck. *This must be some kind of shield spell, us coming to steal his stuff must have really annoyed him.*

Then she saw him start projecting mana around and changing the landscape around him. It was frightening to see the trees around the new clearing simply… be moved away to form a perfect circle, eight hundred meters or more in diameter. Sienna was relieved that he hadn’t used this magic against them to… entomb them.

*Yeah, leaving Lyle’s group is the best thing I've done so far.* She thought as she knew that the rat boys will want revenge and get killed for it.

Continuing to observe the humie, Sienna guessed that the man had decided to build a more permanent construction or something. Then he opened a rectangular hole in the ground and began conjuring bales of boards by the dozens out of thin air, making Sienna’s eyes goggle out of her sockets.

The red haired humie was definitely a strange person and a powerful magi; Sienna asked herself if he was the disciple of someone known or an ex-gladiator. It would explain why he was so strong…

Night was falling and she hadn’t made camp yet. Sienna decided to go do that and come back to watch the older boy work later.

***

3 days later

Sienna was right, the redhead was building a house; she could see the skeleton of the house spring up after the magi conjured some kind of concrete that he started to pour in the basement he excavated, then covered it with the flooring made of that tough as hell reddish wood. Each time the redhead worked on it, the wood sounded like he was beating on metal with his hammer.

It had been fun to see him use his magic to cut the wood, the wave of green mana emitted from the staff cut the metallic wood so easily; Sienna didn’t want to think what would have happened if he had used that one too…

The cat girl held onto her neck as she watched the boy work, not even noticing that she was there; he worked day and night, buffing himself with spells to stay awake longer. He didn’t eat much as well, this was worrying. But slowly the house was being built and it was a big one, with at least three floors. The redhead kept conjuring material out of thin air, sometimes it was already processed or ready to be installed. Sienna asked herself if the boy had something like a dimensional pocket with stuff stashed in it at this point.

***

1 week later
Khan’s camp

Sienna started this day by going hunting for crystal deers and blooding it for transport, then dismantling the carcass for meat that she sold on the market in Brook town. She won herself two hundred silver Drachmas for it, enough to help get more clothes and a cheap magic bow with enchanted arrows. Though she didn’t imagine that she would be spied on by the rat boys today, they had followed her in the market place the entire time.

But she threatened them by taking out her blade and disappearing into the crowd and moving behind them. She took Cameron hostage and told the two boys to not follow her anymore or else…

Now she was back at camp and started organizing her things for summer. There were only two seasons on Mundus Magicus, the planet had mostly a tropical climate and a rain season. They had hurricane season every four months and Sienna would be damned if she was caught flat footed in the trajectory of one.

She decided to camp further from the river and pool in her vicinity, but Sienna will have to go scout the place first. A shimmering light attracted Sienna’s attention, it came from the redhead magi’s camp, she let her bag fall on the ground and ran toward the impenetrable field.

When she arrived at the border of the camp, she saw that the house was now complete! *The roof is completely done! But why is it shimmering red?*

The red tiles on the roof were shimmering with a white inner glow, the cat girl also noticed that the lampposts around the house were flickering; the lights in the house as well were doing the same, until they settled on a lit up state.

It was at this moment that the redheaded magi’s voice rang into the clearing. “Hahahahahahaha!! YES! UNLIMITED POWEEEEEEER!!!!!”

The older boy was standing on the balcony at the third floor, he began shooting lightning bolts from his hands into the sky.

CRACKOMMM!!! The thunder rang out almost instantly after he shot the first two bolts.

Sienna shook her head, boys were stupid.

***

March 25th, 1980
Magi’s house
09:11 AM

Sienna recently discovered that she can enter the magi’s camp. It had been accidental, she stumbled into the barrier while the magi was out in town to get more books or food; and before she knew it, she felt a terrible itch all over her skin and then… nothing more happened. Since then, she braved entering and exiting as an experiment when the redhead wasn’t there.

She discovered that she wouldn’t be harmed by it and decided that she would eventually enter in contact with the boy and ask him to train her.

The Cat girl didn’t come with her dagger, from one of her experiments she discovered that she couldn’t pull the blade out of its sheath when in the barrier. Weapons were banned from being used somehow. Sienna walked into the barrier, her feet landing echoing on the cobbled patio leading to the house. A small pool of water was still being dug up, the garden was still under construction by the redhead.

Far from the house where the river was running, there was a wooden bridge; this house was still coming together, she couldn’t wait to see the final result. Sienna didn’t doubt one second that she was going to be accepted; she knew how men worked and this one seemed to be partial to beastwomen. Though it’s a recent craze coming from the south of Mundus Magicus.

Sienna arrived before the house’s doors; they were beautifully carved and showed some mystical beasts protecting the house.

Knock. Knock.

Sienna rapped her knuckles against the door and waited. Not for long, as she heard with her keen ears that someone was descending stairs, there was a swear when the person stumbled. The door opened, showing a shirtless muscular older boy with red hair and crystal blue eyes. Sienna was lost in the boy’s eyes for a moment; he looked at her in surprise, as if she shouldn’t be there.

Sienna raised a delicate looking tanned hand and said, “Um, hello?”