The Enchantress

Chapter Four

They stopped at the watch post, entering the gates right as a storm broke out. “I take it this is your first time dealing with mountain weather?” Constantine asked them as they wiped water from their faces. “First time for me… May I get a room to change into clothes that are not soaked?” Kalia asked, wringing out water from her cloak. “Right this way, miss.” A soldier replied, motioning Kalia to follow him.

“Why is she on this mission? If she gets sick from the weather, we’ll be compromised.” Constantine asked, his steel-grey eyes looking at Aldo. “She didn’t have time to change due to having to deal with a merchant who was a pain in the ass. Kalia did bring appropriate clothes and tools for the weather and the mission. With her skills being in high demand, it was hard to pull her away. Even the dwarves that Lord Markus hired could not persuade this merchant to let Kalia go until she had made the damned trinket he wanted. She was cursing under her breath until we got three miles from the city.” Aldo explained, running a hand through his brown hair. “Indeed, she has a very colorful vocabulary,” Zorina remarked, amused at the number of swear words Kalia knew. “How do we know that she won’t accidentally cause an explosion?” Flit asked, adjusting the tiny hairpin in her red hair. “Because I was told to bring only gear and items that had been tested,” Kalia replied, coming back into the room with warmer clothes. Before she sat at the table, she hoped there was something she could eat.

Thankfully, the cook knew that gnomes did not eat meat and had some hearty vegetarian options available. As they ate, they got to know each other a little bit. While planning the next phase of their mission, Kalia pulled out a device that would help mark potential military targets for their visit. It could also mark a friendly location or a neutral area.

Flit explained that while the Inquisition used items blessed by their god to hunt out mages, it was possible to hide from those items. “There is one thing I do not understand, how were you able to meet this enchantress?” Zorina inquired, considering Flit was a magical creature. “I can suppress my presence from magical detection items, but that prevents me from using any invisibility spells. Someone spotted me, so I had to hide quickly, causing me to go into the attic where she resided. She then told me her name, which is Daniella, and that her stepfamily made her a servant. It does not help that she’s pretty. Only the gods can say why she has not been targeted yet.” Flit explained, hoping that they would not be too late.

The next day, after they had eaten breakfast, the group continued their journey. Flit guided them to a path into Mordia. As they started their trek, everyone’s guard went up. Flit stayed close to Constantine so she could hide in his hood. He surprised everyone by being quiet and nimble in the forest, even though he was tall and broad in the shoulders.

Flit led them to a village on the edge of a lake, causing speculation among the villagers. The gear the outsiders had made the villagers nervous, as there were rumors that the Inquisition had arrested many of the upper class of other countries and sold them as slaves. The villagers were worried that the visitors were mercenaries hired to take over the village as a staging point for raids. When they saw Flit, they calmed down, as they knew the fairy would never bring anyone to the village with the intent to harm.

Flit led them to an inn that looked like it had been made from a barn, though the innkeeper kept it clean, and the food smelled good. They went down to the cellar to a room where they met a woman with black hair streaked with grey. Her face was careworn, and her clothes were made of the rough, homespun fabric that all farmers in this region wore. “Flit, who are your friends?” Demeter asked, warily looking at the group. “The man with the silver hair is Constantine, a Blood Hawk and a customer of mine, the ranger is Zorina, a retainer of Lord Markus, the halfling is Aldo, and finally, the tinker gnome is Kalia.” “Kalia only brought items and inventions that would not cause unexpected chaos.” Flit quickly explained, noting the raised eyebrow from Demeter after hearing that Kalia was a tinker gnome, and was concerned about whether Kalia would draw any attention to the village. “I see, in that case, I will help as much as I can, though it’s not much. As we have just enough to survive the winter, assuming there isn’t another damn tax for us to pay.” Demeter's anger tinted her voice as she thought of the villagers who had been carted away due to their inability to pay the taxes.

“We have enough supplies; all we need is a place to sleep for the night where we will not be discovered”. Zorina replied, pulling out one of the bags of coins that Markus had given her to help the party on their mission. She handed it to Demeter, stunning the older woman with the amount of money in the bag. “This will make sure that we can make it through the winter,” Demeter replied. Planning out the details on how to make the extra coin stretch.

She then showed them to a concealed room with several beds, as well as another room with a toilet and a bathtub. “It may not be much, but it’s the best hidden room we have”. Demeter told them to keep an ear out for anyone coming down. “Thank you, we won’t be leaving this room until it’s time for us to leave, and that’ll be before sunrise,” Constantine replied, putting his bag down by a bed. Demeter nodded in acknowledgement as she closed the door. She then went to the innkeeper and quietly told him about the bag of coins, causing him to sigh with relief, as he had been concerned about how low the food supplies were for feeding the village. Most of the villagers were elderly or children. Most of the physically capable adults were taken by the Inquisition. So, Demeter, the innkeeper, and a few others had taken it upon themselves to take care of the more infirm villagers. The bag of coins that Zorina gave Demeter was a welcome boon. They wondered how Zorina could afford to give away so much money. The innkeeper hid the coin, then went to make a list of the critically low supplies.

Daniella sighed as she cleaned up after the party her stepmother had hosted, hoping to get her stepsisters engaged. However, it had not worked, given the rumors circulating about her stepmother being too poor to afford more than one servant. Which was true, but her stepmother denied it and always made Daniella do most of her chores out of sight of other people, which was hard to do when a party was hosted at the manor. Daniella was also only allowed to wear something relatively nice, though once everything was done, she would have to put it away and wash it first. Her stepmother did not want Daniella to attract any suitors, as she would have to leave the manor if she ever married, which would cause her to hire servants and no longer enjoy the free labor that she received from having Daniella as a servant