Shadow Heros

The Witch in the Market

After three long days, and a near-death experience with a forst-moss boar, I had helped all three families. But I realized something major. I needed muscle. Someone who could watch my back while I worked, handle the threats I couldn't fight. and not ask too many questions about why a fail hero was crawling through burned fields with herb books. The problem was money. Or rather the lack of it.

I stood outside the Mercenary Hall three streets South of my Tavern, studying the board where contracts and offers got posted. Most of the notices were jobs: clear bandits from trade routes, escort merchants through monster territory, guard caravans. But a few advertised services for hire .

Experienced swordsman, 20 years service, 5 silver per day.

Combat mage specializing in protective barriers 10 silver per day, three-day minimum.

Former midnight, discrete work only, negotiable rates.

I had fourteen copper and one silver left after buying supplies that morning. At these prices, I could afford maybe 3 hours of protection. Four if I skipped meals. A broad shouldered woman in leather armor notice me staring at the board.

"Looking to hire?"

"Considering it," I said carefully.

"What's the job?"

"Travelling to villages. Helping with problems the official heroes don't handle. Could be dangerous." She snorted.

"Could be? Boy if you're following after those castle brats, it will be dangerous. They're leaving messes everywhere." she crossed her arms. "My rate's three silver a day. Two meals included, You cover lodging and any healing supplies." Three silver I'd be broken hours.

"I'll think about it," I said, already knowing I couldn't afford anyone here. She shrugged and walked off.I left the mercenary hall feeling the weight of inadequacy settle heavier on my shoulders. I couldn't protect people alone, but I couldn't pay for help either.

The market district sprawled in every direction, stalls selling everything from fresh bread to questionable magical trinkets. I wandered through the chaos, half looking for cheaper options, half just delaying the moment I'd have to admit I was stuck. That's when I heard the shouting.

"Thief! stop her!"

A flash of blue darted between stalls. I caught a glimpse of long hair streaming behind someone moving fast, pursued by a red-faced merchant waving what looked like a loaf of bread. The crowd scattered as the chase careened through the marke. The girl with blue hair vaulted over a cart of apples with impossible grace, but her foot caught a loose board on the landing. She stumbled, and the merchant closed the distance grabbing her arm.

"Thought you could steal from me?" He yanked her around hard enough that she gasped. "I'll have the guards throw you in the stocks!"

"I didn't steal anything!" she tried to pull free, but he was twice her size. "You knocked it into my bag yourself when you weren't watching where you-" he raised his other hand to strike her, I moved without thinking. Again. Apparently dying once hadn't taught me to mind my own business. I caught his wrist mid-swing.

"Stop." the merchant world on me, fury in his eyes.

"This doesn't concern you!"

"You were about to hit someone half your size over bread." I said keeping my voice level despite my heart hammering. "That concerns me."

"She's a thief!"

"Then call the guards. Let them handle it. You don't get to beat people in the street." For a moment I thought he'd swing at me instead. But a small crowd had gathered, watching, and whatever he saw in their faces made him reconsider. He shoved the girl away hard enough that she stumbled .

"Keep your trash" he spat and stormed back to his stall.

The girl straightened, rubbing her arm where he grabbed her. she was younger than I first thought, maybe eighteen, with the longest blue hair I'd ever seen and startlingly green eyes that fixed on me with unnerving intensity.

"thanks," she said then, quieter, "Though I really didn't steal it." she reached into her bag and pulled out the bread, holding it up before tossing it back toward the merchant stall. It landed perfectly in his display basket.

"see?" she grinned at me. "Returned. not to thief."

"Then why did you run?"

"Because he was already yelling, and I've learned that explaining things to angry men rarely goes well." she studied me with those unsettling green eyes. "you're the one they threw out of the castle, aren't you? the hero with the pathetic assessment score." I stiffened.

"Word travels fast."

"I have good sources." she tilted her head, and her expression shifted to something I couldn't quite read. curiosity mixed with surprise. "although, those sources didn't mention that your power level is that unstable."

"my what?"

"Your magical output." she waved her hand vaguely in my direction. "I can see it. Sort of my specialty. and yours is.... wow. it's huge, but it's fluctuating like crazy. Like a dam with cracks in it, leaking power everywhere." she stepped closer peering at me like I was a particularly interesting specimen.

"the assessment stone must have caught you at a low point. Or maybe it couldn't measure properly because everything so chaotic." I stared at her.

"You can see magical power?"

"Among other things. Wind affinity, see-through lies detection, general witchiness." She grinned. "I'm Zeena and you desperately need someone to teach you control before you either explode or waste all that potential doing basic herb crushing."

"Kai. And how did you know about the herbs?"

"Your hands are still stained green. Plus, you smell like comfrey and thyme." She crossed her arms, "So here's my offer. I'll teach you magic control, elemental basics, how to actually use what you've got instead of stumbling around with books. In exchange, you let me study your power fluctuations and help me practice my teaching skills."

"why would you teach me?"

"Because you just stopped a grown man from hitting me over bread, which means you're either stupidly brave or actually decent. Either way, more interesting than the usual self-important adventures." Her grin widened. "Plus someone with your power level running around under trained is basically a disaster waiting to happen. Consider me invested in preventing that disaster."

I thought about the mercenary hall, the prices I couldn't afford, my need for someone who could help me actually do something in this world.

"I can't pay you." I said honestly

"Don't want your money. I want to figure out why your power acts like this and maybe keep you from accidentally setting yourself on fire." she stuck out her hand. "deal?" I looked at her outstretched hand. At the mischievous glint in her green eyes. At the possibility that maybe, just maybe, basic didn't have to be my ceiling. I shook her hand

"Deal."