All Boozed Up

"Character counts most when duty calls."

What is he playing at here? Serilda wondered as Mythal paused the fight and looked back at her. It was the longest they’d held eye contact since they’d met, and the first time she consciously took note of the fact that his irises were crimson colored. Her expression did not change, but a slight twitch in her brow betrayed her churning mind.

She kept her piercing gaze on him as he went on to explain that he wasn’t getting paid enough to deal with this attack. Jack’s words itched at the back of her mind, asking her to protect his cargo not just from strangers like this three but also, specifically, from Mythal. Perhaps the nightclub owner’s concerns had been merited after all. Then again, his sentiments weren’t the only thing itching at her mind. Mythal had made no effort to be honest about his nature and why Jack was upset with him. Did that make Mythal an honorable person, or was he simply giving her fair warning about what to expect should a situation like this arise?

These were the thoughts running through her mind as Mythal seemingly struck a deal and positioned himself among them to turn on her. Serilda decided she didn’t know her current partner well enough to make a judgement call on him. However, she was educated enough to take note that he had placed himself perfectly to get a jump on the rest of them. She decided he’d show his true hand momentarily, one way or another.

“Very well,” was the cool reply. “I guess I’ll just have to collect my payment, as well as your share, once I’m done.” Her calm facade hid the tension that had sparked inside of her. The three muggers she could deal with, but Mythal was both a wizard and a wild card. That merited caution.

She shifted her stance to accommodate the change in battle structure, the tip of her sword lowering slightly. The smelly man leered at her, promising her pain that he seemed to think would be worse than what his odor was already delivering. And then, in the blink of an eye, it was over. Mythal capitalized on his position perfectly and executed a handful of quick strikes that rendered the entire trio useless.

As he checked his work and made sure none of them were going to get back up, Serilda considered the other wizard once more. He continued to be a bit of an enigma, and she couldn’t say that she necessarily liked the fact that he was a heavy drinker with no care for his appearance. Indeed, she would never have approached him of her own volition if given the choice. He looked about as filthy as the men he’d knocked out. However, he had proven himself a reliable and worthy wizard.

That would do for now.

She slipped her weapon back in its sheath. “Onward,” Serilda agreed. There was no point in conjecturing over what just happened, and neither of them seemed to be the type for those kind of conversations anyway.

When they arrived back at the nightclub, they still had every barrel they’d arrived with fully intact. A miracle, given the state of the carts they carried them in. The bouncer pointed out where they could drop the load and said that Jack was in the manager’s office. Once at the office, however, they discovered that not only was the door locked but Jack had fallen asleep inside.

They tried knocking a couple times and calling out to him, but Jack couldn’t hear him over the music thumping through the walls from the main stage. Neither of them intended on leaving without being paid first. Luckily, this was not a difficult hurdle to jump. With little more than a passive focus on her intent, Serilda stepped up to the door and then simply walked right through it, the particles of emptiness in her body shifting themselves to align with those that existed in the door so she could pass without resistance. Once inside, she turned and unlocked the handle so Mythal could come inside as well.

“Jack.” Her stern, commanding voice, now much louder and clearer without a wall to muffle it, woke the manager up with a visible start. “We have returned with your delivery.”