Lortlebee quickly flipped his frown into a smile. At least, he thought he did. He may have simply been stretching his face in nervously awkward terror. Persuading the villagers of Walton’s End to do simple things such as not actively do him harm had always ended in bitter failures, so attempting to convince Shelby to act against her extremely lucrative personal interest seemed a feat akin to drinking all the water in the ocean.
“Right. Grandpa does hate to be sober. Listen, Shelby...I, uh…” Lortlebee ruffled his blonde hair anxiously.
Shelby gave him a kind look that also let him know she was running out of patience. “Spit it out, Lortelbee. Mac won’t pay me stand here forever, traumatic experience or not.”
“Well, um...I just...uh...did you see how the fire started?” Lortlebee finally asked.
“Nope!” Shelby answered immediately. “Now, excuse me, but I need to get back to work.”
Lortlebee stepped in front of her and looked her in the eye. “Shelby...please tell me what you think you saw.”
Shelby bit her lip and looked away. “It’s nothing. I don’t know how the fire started, just leave me alone, okay?”
“Okay...just...just know that this is my home, crappy as it is and I don’t want to lose the only family I have left. I know that there are...ways you could make money to help your family, but I can help with that. Doing chores for the fishermen and such for some coppers. I just...just please, okay?” Lortlebee turned to go, feeling like an idiot for even trying this.
Shelby caught his hand as he was walking away. She finally looked him in the eye and held his gaze. “I won’t tell anyone. I promise.”
“Thank you,” Lortlebee whispered.
+
Lortlebee woke up four days later to the peculiar sound of rustling in the kitchen. Since Grandpa Yelton never rose before noon and it was at least two hours before dawn, he assumed that they were being robbed. Grabbing the axe he kept by his bedside for just such a predicament, Lortlebee crept out of his tiny room and readied his magic as well as the axe.
Grandpa Yelton nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw Lortlebee emerge from his bedroom with an axe in hand. “Dammit, boy! I nearly shit my britches! What in tarnation are you doing with that implement of destruction held aloft?”
“I thought we were being robbed,” Lortlebee answered bewilderedly. He looked around the kitchen to see that Grandpa Yelton appeared to be packing a bag full of food, booze, and what little money they had on hand. “Are we taking a trip somewhere?”
“Uh...yes! As a matter of fact, we are. And we need to leave immediately, so why don’t you put the axe down, there’s a good lad. Now go grab some clothes from your room, I was just about to wake you.” Grandpa Yelton shooed Lortlebee back towards his room eagerly.
Lortlebee eyed his grandfather warily for a moment before turning around to pack a bag. Grandpa Yelton had never done him any harm before, but he was acting mighty suspicious. As soon as Lortlebee’s back was turned something struck him hard on the back of his head and he collapsed painfully to the ground.
Everything went black.
+
“It’s a sad case all around, really,” Lortlebee heard through the groggy haze of waking up from a sucker punch. The back of his head blazed with pain and he felt nauseous.
“Agreed. You’d be surprised what these rogue sorcerers are capable of,” a different voice commented. This one sounded deeper and older than the first, but they were both definitely women.
Lortlebee decided to pretend he was still asleep and see what else he could learn by listening in. It didn’t seem likely that they would kill him since they hadn’t already done so.
“Mage Karenina, I think he might be awake. Look at how his eye movement has changed.” An observant little twerp, Lortlebee thought, as he heard the younger one speak again.
One of them nudged his ribs gently with the toe of a heavy boot. “Well, little spell-slinger, are you awake?”
Lortlebee opened his eyes and stared up at the two women in his shabby kitchen. For some reason, he had always pictured mages wearing flowing robes, but both of them were dressed in very practical trousers and traveling cloaks to keep the rain and cold from bothering them, though the hoods of the cloaks were currently pushed back to reveal their faces. The older one, presumably Mage Karenina, had dark brown hair that fell to her shoulders. Lortlebee guessed she was in her early thirties. She had a kind, round face and inquisitive green eyes. She was studying Lortlebee cautiously to see what he did next. The younger mage or apprentice or whatever teen mages were called, was probably within a year in age of Lortlebee, definitely no more than sixteen. In stark contrast to Karenina, the apprentice had a harsh, angular face and icy blue eyes. She was much paler than her teacher and had her black hair pulled back in a long tail behind her head. Both women carried staves that Lortlebee suspected would not be used solely to bludgeon him with if he became unruly.
“Good morning to you ladies. Perhaps you wouldn’t mind telling me what you’re doing in my house?” Lortlebee asked politely.
“Don’t be a smartass,” the youner mage said dryly. “You know why we’re here.”
“Be gentle with him, Moira” Karenina chided kindly. “He has nothing to fear from us.” She turned back to Lortlebee. “She is right, though. You do know why we’re here. From what I understand, you’re a smart young man. You’ll do very well for yourself at the Enclave.”
Lortlebee took a deep breath and tried desperately to gather his racing thoughts into some kind of plan. “How did you find me?” he asked to buy some time. What were his options? He could try to run, but he was lying prone on the floor and there were two of them. Maybe if he distracted them then tried to run? He could always agree to go with them. Grandpa Yelton appeared to have betrayed him by knocking him out to secure his own escape. How he had known the mages were coming, Lortlebee had no idea, but all the horrible things he had heard about the Mage Enclave now came from a highly dubious source.
Karenina and Moira exchanged a quick glance. “Perhaps we ought to discuss that on our journey back to the Enclave,” Karenina suggested.
Lortlebee sighed. “Just tell me who sold me out, please. I’d like to know if it was who I think it was.”
“Your grandfather planned to have some girl who saw you use magic split the bounty with him, but he was dumb enough to use magic to send the message to a contact near the Enclave. He was, however, smart enough to figure out we traced it back to him. That’s how we got out here to the far end of nowhere so quickly,” Moira explained. She turned to face Karenina. “What? He asked for the truth and I gave it to him, that’s gentle, right?”
Karenina shook her head slightly and exhaled through her nose. “Come along, Lortlebee. It’s time for us to be gone from here.”
Lortlebee found himself a bit dumbfounded. Grandpa Yelton had sold him out? Shelby he had half expected to break her promise eventually, though not nearly so soon. Why would his only living relative do that to him? How had he even known that Lortlebee had been discovered? He had so many questions, but there was a more pressing decision to make. Should he go peacefully to the Mage Enclave or say to hell with the odds and run like a madman?
- Go peacefully. There’s no way you can escape two mages with way more training than you have. Plus, you have no money, no one to help you if you get away, and nowhere safe to run to. Be smart. You’re smart, right?
- Hell, no! You just found out that the only person you thought you could depend on sold you for a sack of gold coins! Why should you think these strangers aren’t lying to you too? Run for it!
