Brin got to Sion’s place early, and to his surprise he saw Jeffrey waiting out in the courtyard. He hadn’t expected the older [Bard] to show up for Zilly’s duel. Hogg hadn’t decided to come, and if he’d put a Visible Eye in place somewhere around here to watch, Brin hadn’t spotted it yet.
Jeffrey leaned against a stone fence separating the open circle where they’d have the fight from the new and thriving Spice of Heart bushes. It almost seemed like too nice of an area to have a duel, but there weren’t really any trashy places on the Wogan estate, and this was an area where they could get rough without messing up the lawn.
Brin marched over and got straight to the point. “Davi doesn’t want to get drafted for the war.”
Jeffrey strummed his lute. “Neither do I want that for him. And if he is careful with his music and craft, he won’t be.”
“What’s your game, Jeffrey? Why are you still in Blackcliff?”
“Do you think I would tell you after I refused to tell Davi himself?” Jeffrey asked with an easy grin.
It was a disarming answer and Brin didn’t feel even a bit of irritation. He didn’t even feel the tell-tale signs of some Skill brushing up against his Mental Resistance, but that was a testament to how subtle Jeffrey’s mental manipulation could be.
Brin had been ready for this, so he scowled and folded his arms, forcing his body to mime the extreme irritation he should be feeling like that. “That’s because he’s too nice, and he trusts you. But you’re just one [Bard], Jeffrey, and the kingdom will have plans for [Bards]. If you’re still in town when the impressment happens, there’s no guarantee you won’t get caught.”
Jeffrey shrugged. “You’ve got me there.”
“Then why do this? You helped us against Aberfa, too, and a hundred other times. I’ve never really thanked you for it, but I also never really understood why.”
“That creature sang a song that had never touched human ears, a new song, and I was among the first to hear it.” Jeffrey smiled wistfully.
From what Brin remembered, Jeffrey hadn’t even been at the beach during that last fight with Aberfa; he’d been all the way back at the caravan guarding the wagon. What exactly was this man capable of? He waited for Jeffrey to continue.
“Hopefully I won’t upset you if you thought I had some sort of complicated scheme. I’m really just in this for the music. And as for Davi? He has one more song to sing before we can leave Blackcliff.”
Not too long after, his friends filtered out of the Wogan building. Sion greeted him with his usual enthusiasm, but he was the only one who looked to be his normal self. Davi and Zilly looked worn and withdrawn, no doubt from the seven days of constantly looking over their shoulders. Rhun, on the other hand, practically vibrated with energy. He grinned widely when he saw Brin already waiting in the courtyard, and had a skip in his step when he walked to his place.
Zilly reluctantly took her place opposite him, doing her best to summon up her trademark cocky grin. “Are you really that sure you can beat me?”
“Not at all!” said Rhun. “The exciting thing is to try.”
“I can respect that, I guess,” Zilly admitted.
They all waited for a bit, until they realized that Myra wasn’t going to referee.
“I’ll do it,” said Davi. “Rules are the same as last time. The duel ends with first blood, ring out, or surrender.”
Both Zilly and Rhun nodded. Davi said, “Begin.”
Zilly used [Dash] to cover the ground between them in a flash, but then bailed on it halfway through, jumping to the side. No doubt she’d been expecting Rhun to use [Charge], but he stayed in place, sword up in the guard position.
Zilly [Dashed] back to giver herself some space, then used two more in quick succession to zip towards Rhun from an unexpected direction.
At the very last second, he stepped towards her. He caught her blade on her forearm, and then dropped his sword to catch her leg as she tried to [Kick] him. Suddenly, she was pinned.
It took Brin just a moment to figure out what had just happened. Rhun had anticipated that Zilly would try to [Kick] him to disrupt his [Iron Body], and then a quick slice with her sword would end the fight. He’d caught the sword first, and then absorbed the [Kick] afterwards once her sword didn’t have any more leverage.
One thing Brin hadn’t known in his old life was how different real fights were from the ones on TV. His high school hadn’t had a lot of fistfights, so he hadn’t really understood until he got to Hammon’s Bog and was surrounded by boys who’d fight for any reason or no reason at all. The biggest thing he’d learned was that fights always went to the ground. Growing up on television, he’d sort of expected fistfights to be closer to an eight-round boxing match. In real life, you got one, maybe two good punches in before it became a wrestling match.
Clearly, Zilly’s expectations went the same direction, because her eyes went wide in shock when Rhun pushed her forward and brought her to the ground.
She struggled like an eel in a net, but once they hit the floor the fight was over. With a sword, she’d practiced as much as anyone Brin had ever met, but when it came to wrestling it was clear she was a novice. She flailed, panicked, while Rhun’s movements had the firm control of someone who’d been here a thousand times. In seconds, he had her pinned against the ground. ℟�
They waited for a long moment, too long, for Zilly to come up with some trick to get out of the hold, but despite her writhing and straining, she couldn’t escape. All her best Skills needed some space to work in and with Rhun on top of her there was nowhere to go. She was stuck.
“That... that’s the match!” Davi called out.
Rhun rolled to the side and stood up. He pumped his fist in the air in triumph, pacing in place but restraining himself from cheering out loud. Brin could see why he was happy; [Inspect] showed that Rhun had just gained two levels. No one celebrated with him. Even Sion couldn’t bring himself to clap.
Zilly shot up and stalked to the edge of the circle where no one could see her face, though Brin didn’t miss her red cheeks and watery eyes. One thing he had learned from high school was how often the guys on the wrestling team cried after a match. The sudden intense spike in adrenaline, followed by the frustration of failure created a sensation of such extreme loss that it was impossible to resist, especially if it was your first time.
Somehow, even after all the times Brin had beaten her, Rhun had been the one to deliver the reality check that Zilly so obviously needed. It wasn’t as satisfying as Brin thought it would be.
Eventually, Zilly got her emotions under control, wiped her face, and turned around. “Again.”
“Yes, naturally,” Rhun said.
Their second fight was close to the same as their first one the week before had been. Zilly used [Dash] to move in and out of combat, and this time was careful never to get close enough for Rhun to grab her again.
She fought tactically, using testing strikes and waiting for her moment, until finally Rhun left enough of an opening for her to knick his shoulder with an [Overload] swing, even without a [Kick] to soften him up.
Everyone clapped and cheered enthusiastically after her victory, but Zilly barely noticed. She stalked away from the circle, headed back to the house, and gave Davi a firm “No” when he tried to follow her.
Rhun was still grinning, unbothered. “Now you!” he said, pointed at Brin.
“Sure,” Brin said. He noticed Zilly pause at the doors to the house, looking back.
He picked up his Bog Standard spear and moved to the opposite side of the circle from Rhun. “Is it ok that I have a spear? It’s my weapon of choice, but I know it might not be fair in a duel like this.”
“A spear is fine,” said Rhun. “Use everything you have; I want a proper victory.”
“What’s wrong? What’s going on?” Brin asked.
“I think it’s going to be tonight,” said Hogg. “I already sent a Mirror Image to tell Jeffrey to get out of town. For my part, I thought a bit of a disguise was in order.”
“No one will ever recognize you,” said Brin seriously.
“But this isn’t all!”
A mask of hard light appeared on Hogg’s face, first black, but then it separated into a muddy mess of swirling color before finally resolving into the shape of a fatter, wider and completely unknown face. Hogg suddenly appeared to be a much older man with sagging jowls and a soft brow that made him look ordinary and a little dumb. Brin only saw the fierce intelligence still smoldering in Hogg’s eyes because he knew to look for it.
Hogg made some faces to show off his new mask’s flexibility. “It’s the exact same spell as if I used light magic. The only problem is how uncomfortable it is. It feels like my face has been wrapped in marble. Oh well, it’s just one night.”
“When do you think they’ll come?”
“No way to know, but they’re suiting up and sharpening their swords, so to speak. It’ll be tonight.”
Brin sat in the living room and waited as long as he could, but doing nothing was driving him crazy, so he busied himself by tinkering around in his shop. The hours went by, and nothing happened.
He checked on the Invisible Eyes he had watching his friends. Davi and Zilly were waiting at the Wogan estate. Maybe that was for the best? Jeffrey and Davi would have a better chance hiding out there than trying to outrun the enlistment officers right at the last minute.
Hours passed. The sun went down. Nothing happened.
Then, he noticed some motion in his Invisible Eyes. Davi and Zilly were leaving the Wogan estate. At first he couldn’t believe what he was seeing, but yes, they were definitely leaving the mansion and walking into town.
How could they be so stupid? He saw Jeffrey tailing them, which was a relief, but he didn’t even know if they knew he was there.
Had they decided to join up with the army without him? That might explain it, but they moved cautiously through the streets. Zilly scouted ahead, using her [Rogue] Dexterity to keep out of view while Davi played softly, singing that he was nothing, he wasn’t there, so look the other way...
They didn’t turn themselves in, but then they also didn’t leave town. They made their way to the dueling grounds near his house, the first one where Zilly had fought Rhun, and then waited there.
That was too much for him. Brin threw Self-Invisibility over himself and then dashed through the street to find them, barely noticing Hogg following and Marksi skittering along behind him as well.
He approached the dueling ground, looked both ways to make sure no one from the army was nearby, and then dropped out of stealth.
“See? I told you he’d know we were here,” said Davi.
“What are you guys doing?” Brin whisper-shouted. “Are you crazy?”
“I to ask you something,” said Zilly.
“We can talk about this later! First, let’s get out of–”
“No,” said Zilly. “I need to know. Do I suck?”
“No!” Brin said, not caring that he was shouting for real. “We just went over this!”
Zilly smiled casually, but Brin knew her well enough to see the burning resentment underneath. “We did, and believe me, I was really grateful for the things you said. You made me feel a lot better. Because you were right, I am good. I beat Rhun three out of four! I’m not some normal kid; I know that. I picked a fight with every tough-looking idiot in the Boglands and I won them all without a sweat. There’s no one like us. I’m not just good. I’m amazing.”
“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you,” said Brin.
“The problem isn’t that I’m weak. The problem is that you’re too strong.”
“I’m only as strong as I have to be to keep up with you three,” Brin said, pleading.
Zilly shook her head. “You never fight me with your full strength. You’ve been going easy on me.”
“It’s not like that,” said Brin.
“It’s fine. I know I can’t beat you on my own, but I still want to see you go all out. That’s why I brought Davi along,” said Zilly, finally beginning to smile in a way that looked real.
Brin ground his teeth in frustration. “You want to do two versus one? You want to do that now?”
Davi gave Brin a weird smile, both parts guilty and proud. “That was my idea. We want to fight you at full strength, but we still chose an arena that benefits us. If you have abilities that you don’t want people to know about...” Davi made a big show of looking around. “...then you’d better be careful. I’m going to be making a lot of noise pretty soon, and it’ll draw some attention.”
Brin shook his head. “Why did you think I would agree to this?”
Zilly’s smile was all teeth. “You’re going to agree. Because you want to see if you can beat us. You understand, right? Why it has to be now?”
“You always have the worst timing,” said Brin.
Because he was listening for it, he heard Jeffrey’s song, nearly silent in the background, and could feel it pressing against his mental resistance. “Stop that!”
“I apologize,” said Jeffrey. “But I’ll admit, I also wish to see how this will go.”
Brin looked over to see Hogg, still in disguise, who just shrugged. It still boggled his mind that Davi was going along with this. Even Marksi chirped in agreement.
Were they really all ok with this? Was there really no one here who would step up and be the voice of reason? There was one person: Brin himself.
“I refuse.”