Book 3 Chapter 11: Magic, I Assume
Dantes gritted his teeth as his fingers curled and tightened involuntarily from the growing pain. He stumbled off the bar stool and fell backwards onto a table. Looking at his hands he could see no actual damage, but the sensation made it feel as if his skin was sloughing off. The rest of the bar wasn’t faring much better. Jayk was vomiting as he clutched his nose, Zilly was clutching her eyes as she writhed on the bar, and Dantes saw a patron ripping at his own ears with clawed hands.
Dantes tried to focus his mind outside the sensation, he somehow pushed it down long enough to bring himself back to his feet. He stumbled to the front door, stepping over the bouncer clutching his genitals, and pushed his way outside with his shoulder, unable to bring himself to push his way out with his hands.
He’d initially thought it had been some kind of attack on the Viridian Vixen itself, but the view from the street immediately dissuaded him of that notion. He saw a guard yelling for help as he slammed his head into a nearby wall, a woman running full speed down the street screaming, and even a young orc boy doing his damnedest to yank out one of his tusks.
Then, just as suddenly as the burning sensation in his fingers had started, it began to fade. He stared at his fingers, his hands shaking from the memory of the pain, and slowly forced them to open and close until they relaxed enough to be usable again. He walked over to the young orc boy, whose eyes widened as he saw him.
Dantes grabbed him by the chin and checked on his tusk. He focused until he could see that level of life that was smaller than the eye could perceive, and willed some energy into him to heal it a bit.
“Can you make it home?”
“Y...yeah.”
“What’re you waiting for then?” Dantes stood and walked over to the guard. There was a lot of blood on his face, but he recognized him as someone his men bribed regularly. He hauled the man to his feet.
“Go into the club. We’ll clean this and bandage you up.”
The man nodded, too wounded to refuse the aid.
Dantes repeated this for anyone directly in front of the club, then headed back inside of it. His people, without his prompting, had already worked to make sure that everyone inside was taken care of, starting with their own people and the highest paying customers of course. Dantes moved over to Jayk who was holding a pint of beer directly under his nose inhaling the smell deeply.
“Did you know that roses can smell so strongly that they make you vomit?” asked Jayk.
“Can’t say that I did.”
“Now you do.”
He left his audience chamber and found Jayk giving orders to a few men who were quickly scampering away to handle whatever tasks he’d given them. Dantes was grateful he could delegate so much of the work to him, not that he didn’t also check on it constantly.
“Jayk, I need you to send for Hema and Clay. Wane and Felix are injured and in my garden.”
Jayk stood still for a moment as he adjusted to that information. He called over one of the bouncers and gave him the order before returning to Dantes.
“How?”
“Magic, I assume."
Jayk’s expression flattened. “Ah. They’re hurt?”
Dantes nodded, gesturing for him to follow him. Once they were in the audience chamber Jayk leaned down to look at them, grimacing at their wounds.
“So, whatever that was. It had something to do with the Academy?”
Dantes nodded. “The whole place is wrapped in some kind of dark field. I can’t access it, and I would guess that no one in it can leave.”
Jayk rubbed his chin. “That means that magic is about to be at an even higher premium than before.”
“That was the same conclusion I came to. We’re probably already spread thin, but I want you to do everything you can to take advantage of that.”
“Got it, I already have a few ideas. I’ll talk to Vera about clearing a room for those two, and get some of the boys to get something to carry them.”
Dantes nodded, and Jayk left the audience chamber.
Dantes clenched his jaw. They could take advantage of this, but now there was one less deterrent keeping Rendhold safe.