Clint
There was no way Clint could have pictured a more odd way for Sara to meet Seth and his new friends. They found them in the courtyard of the capitol’s Gilded Keep, where the Festival of Ragos was in full swing. Amidst the vendors peddling chilled beverages, sausages, and firecrab, a crowd had formed in the middle of the wide footpath leading up to the castle. Clint glanced toward Sara, whose gaze appeared to be set on a man pulling a piece of fried crab out of a large pot of boiling oil. I hope she doesn’t mind spicy food, he thought with a smirk.
Clint glanced back at the crowd as it began to move outward. Through growing gaps in the crowd, he was able to see his friend standing in the center with both Maya and an exhilarated grin. The latter had her eyes closed and her hands extended in front of her. Standing on the beneath her hands were a dozen cloudy apparitions that took the shape of men the size of dolls who were holding what appeared to be large stones slung to their shoulders. What’s going on?
Clint nudged Sara, causing her to look ahead. She glanced curiously toward the pair in the center of the crowd and murmured. “That’s them?”
Clint nodded, his eyes still transfixed on the clouds. Sara finally followed his gaze to the apparitions and gasped excitedly. “That’s storm magic!”
The crowd whooped excitedly as the cloud-men raised their round weapons and pulled something from them that might have been lids. Not rocks. Some sort of urn? Steams of mist began to trail from these objects and began to swirl around him. Seth began to laugh before shouting, “Dala kayan!”
Seth raised his hands and unleashed a stream of flames which twisted themselves into the form of a life-sized phoenix. The crowd began to cheer as the tendrils of mist surrounding the spellwarrior evaporated. Then, with a furious flapping of its wings, it began to bombard the cloudy apparitions with a shower of embers. The soldiers began to evaporate with a hiss, drawing an even greater reaction from the audience. But suddenly, the thick steam which rose from the defeated men began shift into another shape. The crowd gasped as a kraken grew out of the ground as if it were rising to the surface of the water.
Clint glanced to Sara once more to find her face set with a look that he could only describe as determined. He turned back to the show to find that the Kraken had wrapped Seth in tendrils of steam once more. Seth began to wave his arm wildly in warding warding gesture, in response to which the crowd moved back once more. Once he had the cleared out about fifty feet worth of space, he raised his arm, then thrust it downward while crying, “Kayan braka!”
Maya leaped into the air and hovered above the ground with a grin as the phoenix Seth had conjured dove into the steamy kraken effigy. It collided forcefully with the ground and dispersed widely enough to bathe most of the space they had cleared in flames. Seth waved his arms wildly to keep the flames from touching him until they dispersed without any fuel on the cobblestone to sustain them. With both the flames and steam fully dissipated, Maya set herself down on the ground to a roar of approval from the crowd.
Just then, Sam materialized from within the crowd, holding a leather satchel full of royal chips. When she saw Clint, she closed the bag and approached the two of them. Clint raised his eyebrows as she did so, but waited until she got closer to greet her.
“I’m glad you guys are making good use of your downtime, but couldn’t you have gone for a swim or something?”
Sam shrugged and glanced back toward the others, who appeared to be greeting members of the crowd. “What’s the big deal? We’re going to be here for a while, right? Why not have as much fun as possible?”
Clint shook his head and scoffed. “Most people manage to have a great time at this festival without drawing loads of attention.”
Sara looked impatiently into the crowd. “Excuse me, but we need to speak with them immediately. I have so many questions!”
Clint nodded and said, “Sam, could you see if you can pull your master and his girlfriend away from their adoring audience? Tell him we have a very time-sensitive plan.”
As Sam sighed and slipped back into the crowd, Clint found Sara staring at the spot in which she had disappeared, looking anxious. He quickly recalled that her demeanor had changed when she had seen the other woman’s display of storm magic. He smirked and watched her simmer in her excitement until Sam returned with Seth and Maya in tow. Immediately, Sara pounced on Maya. With her shoulders firmly in her clutches, she exclaimed. “You’re a storm mage! This must be fate! Well, well met!”
Clint smirked at the bemused expressions that had spread across the faces of both new arrivals. “Nice show, mate.”
Seth smiled at Clint’s compliment, but his attention was quickly stolen by Sara’s giddy reception of Maya.
“At first I questioned the point of bringing extra people on our quest, but then I saw that you were able to use storm magic and I understood! I need to understand what you just did!”
Maya looked down into Sara’s face with a puzzled look. “I could definitely show you how clouds work right now.”
Seth glared imperiously to Clint, who understood his cue immediately. Good that he’s gotten better at catching himself. The poor man. Clint stepped up to the two women and placed his hands on Sara’s shoulders.
“Calm down, Sara. This is only a lucky break for us as long as you don’t scare her away.”
Sara sighed and backed away while clearing her throat awkwardly. “My apologies. I got a little carried away. I’ve encountered another user of storm magic recently and it is simply serendipitous that I can now call a storm mage an ally. I could really use some insight into how it works before I confront her again.”
Maya frowned and shook her head. “Oh. I’m sorry, but I don’t think I’ll be much help. I’ve dabbled in it, but I can only do two spells.”
“She’s been sheltered for most of her life,” Seth grunted with an edge of irritation in his voice. “So she doesn’t really have enough emotional intelligence to master storm magic yet.”
Sara looked at Seth for the first time and said, “I’m sorry. Are you a storm mage too?”
Seth shook his head. “I’m not interested in that Salican crap, but we had a class on Storm Magic theory at the academy. Because, you know, a spellwarrior might need the training to resist a storm mage at some point.”
Sara frowned. “Oh. I should have known! Well, I would take any help I can get. First, I should remedy my rudeness with an introduction. I am Sara Marle, and I’m an acolyte of the Blackstone Order.”
Seth nodded coolly. “Seth Midas. Peacekeeper of the Hem Order. Pleasure to meet you, fellow champion.”
This time, Clint visibly winced at the edge in his friend’s voice. “H-hey! So, we’re almost all together and guess what? We have a plan to get the second artifact!”
Seth sighed and turned to Clint. “We know someone in the royal family, don’t we? Let’s just ask for it! Doctor Clark will believe us!”
Clint shook his head, but it was Sara who replied. “He’s hiding from the assassin that killed the rest of the Royal Family. The easiest way to get Helen’s spear is through the Royal Boon.”
Seth suddenly went ghost white. “You mean you want us to compete in the RGT?”
Clint took note of his unusual reaction, leading him to reply, “What’s the matter with that? You enter the tournament every year! The only difference now is that we have to win it!”
Seth shook his head vigorously. “I can’t fight! I might accidentally graze someone!”
Clint shook his head and said, “Would you ladies mind giving us a minute alone? You can pick each other’s minds about storm magic.”
Sara stared at the two men for a moment before nodding in understanding. “Come on, let’s go get some crab.”
As the women walked away, Clint moved a little closer to Seth so he could speak in a lowered voice, but Seth backed away in recoil. Clint sighed. He’s terrified.
“Look. I get it, mate. This curse Maula’s got on you is dangerous, but you realize that this is part of why you were chosen, right? You’re supposed to fight!”
Seth looked at Clint in disbelief. “How can you be so flippant about this! I’m a walking disaster that’s definitely going to kill somebody if they get ahold of me!”
Clint sighed and shook his head. “My friend, this curse only kills people if they touch your skin, right? We can just cover it all up!”
Seth scoffed. “Oh, sure! Let’s just go back home to pick up my winter clothes! I’ll dazzle our opponents with my scarf and snow mask!”
Clint grinned. “Now, except the long flight home, you’ve almost got the right idea! There’s nowhere to get a scarf around here in the middle of summer, so We’ll have to come up with something else to cover your neck. But come on! You’re already wearing gloves and the world’s hottest shirt!” He grabbed the cuff of his black, long-sleeved shirt to prove his point.
Seth rolled his eyes and threw his hands up. “Well, I know this is too important for you to let go. Fine, we’re doing this, but I want Sam to be our third.”
Clint glanced toward the nearest crab table, where Sam could be seen dropping a piping hot crab. “I thought she wasn’t that experienced.”
Seth nodded and replied, “Neither are the others. But she’s the only one among them who actually wants the experience. She’ll be fine. She’s a Desmond.”
Clint frowned and considered Seth’s words. He thought it was foolish for Seth to place his faith in Sam because of her last name. Among his family, only his sister Elvira had ever really set much store in the stereotypes that Restans associated with its most common names. As far as he was concerned, the legend of every Desmond being a prodigal warrior was no reason to assume Sam was ready to help them win the RGT. But Clint couldn’t think of any reason to argue. They didn’t have the time to find anyone else anyway.
“Fine, but we need to go and register before they close the rolls,” Clint muttered.
Seth smirked in return. “Go on and fill out the paperwork, then. We’ll catch up!”
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