Heroes of Veritas: Bardic Inspiration (Book 2)

Chapter Twenty-One: Mint Coconut

Ian fully intended to make good on his promise to reconcile his memory, but he wanted to do so after blowing off some steam. In his mind, stress was as bad for his mental health as his fractured memory. At least, that’s what he told himself as he put off the inevitable.

He distracted himself by convincing Moltar to spar for a few rounds before dinner, after which they hit the only bar in their guild base. The grouchy dark knight had always been fond of a drink after a fight, and even though he gave Astredian a bit of the side-eye at the suggestion, he went along with him without a word. Unlike his tight-lipped friend, Ian tended to loose up after a few tankards of ale, and tonight he loosened up enough to enjoy a little flirting with the barmaid. She was a busty blonde, who fluttered her hazel eyes at him every time she refilled his tankard.

Moltar said nothing, but the paladin could tell from the way his friend refused to look at him when he chatted with the girl that his openly flirtatious behavior bothered him. It seemed kind of rich for a himbo like Moltar to judge Ian for a little harmless flirting, so the commander kept doing it just to annoy him. Annoying Moltar in harmless ways was one of his favorite past times; his little way of balancing the scales for every time Moltar took things too far.

Eventually the oathbreaker left and as the alcohol started wearing off, and his better sense returned to him, Ian felt a little bad. He was always a bit of an ass when he drank, and from the way he saw some of the guildies staring at him with hard looks in their eyes, he realized that perhaps his flirting was not as harmless as he believed it to be. Most people considered the maintaining of one’s reputation to be a game for the nobility, but it mattered just as much within the structure of a guild as it did in the upper echelons of high society. 

The commander returned to the guild hall not long after the oathbreaker, not wanting to tarnish his sterling reputation any more than he already had, and headed upstairs to his quarters. He sat down in his desk chair, and reached for the box that Elise left him, hoping that whatever she made would trigger something for him. He’d heard that memories were often tied to sensory stimuli, and he suspected that the box had some kind of candy in it. She’d told him to think of her while eating them so...maybe they were some kind of reminder?

He pulled the ribbon away, then lifted the lid of the box. Inside were clusters of chocolate. The scent of mint and coconut wafted from the box, and he shivered a little, licking his lips. The fragrance was so familiar; hadn’t her hair smelled faintly of coconut? He reached for one of the chocolates, and popped it into his mouth.

As soon as he bit into the chocolate, and the delectable mix of toasted coconut, mint and milk chocolate flooded his mouth, his mind started filling with memories of Elise.

Meanwhile, the chocolate maker was knee deep in a fountain of disgusting, black blood. Even for Elise, an experienced murder hobo, this was a bit much.

“Nnggghh… I hate this f*****g dungeon,” she said, struggling to pull her feet out of the sludgy substance without losing her boots.

Mercenades had shoved her out of the way of a blade trap that had swung down from the ceiling and nearly bisected the troubadour. Echo had dealt with the remaining traps in their current room, but missed this particular one.

“We’ll leave after we get a peek at the boss.” Ichigo said, making a command decision. 

Their run had not been a very clean one, in more ways than one. Ichigo hadn’t been expecting the run to go smoothly, but he also hadn’t expected the huge number of traps that the necromancers had rigged the place with. He’d already blown a huge chunk of mana reviving Mercenades after she got one shot by a nasty ghost that had surprised them, and the party leader could tell that the rest of his people were equally exhausted.

“Fine, but it better be in the next room.” Merc grumbled. 

The party trudged over to the door leading into the next room. It certainly had the feel of a boss room. Before Mercenades could reach out to push the door open, Echo grabbed her hand.

“Non, ma chouchouette. Let me.” he said, tsking softly at her hastiness. “Did you learn nothing?”

Mercenades stepped back, crossing her arms over her chest, grumbling a little as the rogue looked the door over carefully. After a moment, he stepped back as well, and motioned to the door, bowing slightly. Merc snorted, picked up her foot, and kicked the door open with a crushing blow.

The creature in the final room was floating in mid air, though there were chains wrapped all around it that were attached to pegs driven deep into the stone walls. The creature turned slowly to face the party, chains creaking and snapping as it turned. It was an enormous, mutated black and grey mottled fetus with half formed skeletal wings emerging from its back. When it fixed its grey eyes on the, they lit up red - and then it screeched.

“RETREAT!” Ichigo bellowed, his tail lashing straight out, ears flattening instantly against his hair.

One look at that thing was enough for Elise, who struggled to keep her breakfast from coming up as she started playing a retreat march. Everyone started running...well, almost everyone. Jasper stood, stunned, staring up at the fetus in wonder.

“It’s...it’s incredible…” Elise heard the wizard exclaim.

“Jasper!” Ichigo shouted at the young wizard as the boss’s eyes began glowing stronger. “RUN!”

Without a word, Echo dashed back toward the wizard, threw her over his shoulder, and started running back toward the rest of the party - though he was considerably slower, overburdened as he was.

“NO!” Jasper wailed, thrashing most uncooperatively as the party ran for it. “I need it! It needs me!” 

The creature tried to follow them, sending silent rays of disintegrating light after them. Luckily for them it was too big to fit through normal doorways, and its aim was no better than the necromancers who had harried them at the entrance. All around them chunks of wall and floor were vaporized until they got far enough away to escape the creature’s range. 

Once outside the temple, the dark charisma that the creature had used to charm Jasper finally faded. While the wizard was recovering, Elise found an out of the way spot to heave up her breakfast, the nausea becoming overwhelming now that the adrenaline was starting to fade.

Mercenades, who had never seen the troubadour so overcome before, came over to check on her.

“Hey, are you all right?” Merc asked, rubbing little circles on the troubadour’s lower back.

Ellie wiped the bile from her mouth with the back of her hand, and grimaced when she realized her hand was still covered in some foul sludge. “Yeah...just...that thing was really f*****g with my head.”

Elise and Mercenades returned to the party in time to see Jasper hide her face with her hands, shoulders shaking slightly as she cried. The little wizard was sitting on the ashy ground with her knees pulled up to her chest.

“I’m...I’m so sorry,”  Jasper whimpered. “I...I almost got you all killed! We could have wiped!”

Ichigo shook his head, his earring chiming softly as he did. “It could have happened to any of us. Like Elise said the other day, charm effects are insidious stuff.”

“It is not all bad, ma choupinette.” Echo said, ruffling the little wizard’s hair. “At least now you have another badass creature to transform into.”

Jasper’s bottom lip wobbled a little as she looked up at the rogue, who was standing next to her. Then, her face split into a sweet smile and she said, “That...that’s true! Should I try it out now?”

“No!” the rest of the party said as one.

“I think we had enough of that creature for one day.” Ichigo said. Then, he looked up at the sky, taking in how low the sun was in the sky. It was already sunset. “Why don’t we get away from here. Find somewhere to camp for the night before it gets too dark.”