The Tale of Five Heirs

Epilogue III

"See you later." Skeena pulled open the window of the queen's personal dining room and leaped out. Spinning in mid air she unwound the invisible twine from around her waist and casually lassoed a small gargoyle that was jutting out of the outer palace wall. Still hanging on to the other end of the twine she swung low over the river and up towards the northern bank. She let go of the twine and flew through the air for a few units before catching the edge of a riverside rooftop with her fingers. She pulled herself up in a graceful motion and flipped onto the roof.

Skeena paused for a moment and looked over the city. The sun had just set and it was still casting a red glow over the wooden, thatched, and metal rooftops. Skeena sighed. She loved this city. But enough appreciating, she had an entire city to spy on and no Imp to do it for her. She wasn't even sure if she was even a good spymaster at all without that Imp. She'd see how tonight went.

She bounded across to the next roof and slid down it onto the street. As she dropped her hat slid off for a second but she caught it and pulled it back down with a smooth flick of her fingers.

The streets were still crowded this time of night, with many people on their way home from work, and others on their way out to a pub. Skeena slipped into the crowd and headed downtown, her eyes peeled for trouble.

Presently she became aware of a commotion coming from a nearby tavern. Skeena strutted over and opened the door. The commotion she had heard was what appeared to be a full scale bar fight. There were maybe forty people in the room but the punching seemed to be centered around a burly guy in the middle of the room.

"How'd this one start?" Skeena asked softly.

Nobody answered.

Right, Skeena thought, scowling, No Imp, Nomdamnit. She'd have to ask a person.

Skeena pulled the collapsible crossbow out of her boot, loaded it, and hung it at her hip. Things could get messy here.

She grabbed a scrawny fellow from the outskirts of the brawl by the shoulder and pulled him aside. "How'd this fight start?" she asked.

The scrawny man wiped a bit of blood off his nose. "This blacksmith from out of town came in here and was insulting the work of our local guy, Mack Janiels. Mack punched him and the guy got out brass knuckles, and then things got dirty."

"Ug, haven't people had enough of fighting?" Skeena groaned.

"Can you let me go now?" said the scrawny man.

Skeena rolled her eyes and let the guy go. He immediately ran back into the frey.

Skeena surveyed the room. It didn't take long for her to spot a small chandelier hanging from the ceiling in the middle of the tavern, right above the man in the middle of the fight, the foreign blacksmith she presumed, whom most people were attacking. "Yes!" whispered Skeena. It wasn't every day you got to deal with a bar fight with a chandelier above it. She ran forward, jumped up on a table, planted one boot on the shoulder of the conveniently located scrawny man, and leaped up to hang on the chandelier. Skeena pulled her knees up as she swung to avoid kicking anyone.

The foreign blacksmith, who was now directly below where Skeena was dangling, looked up at her with confusion, and, was that... recognition? Suddenly Skeena realized who it was. It was Zelliot, the blacksmith from Noremont who made Tamara's new sword.

"Officer?" said Zelliot.

Just then somebody finally landed a solid punch on the head of the distracted Zelliot, who fell to the ground unconscious. There were various cheers from the crowd, and they all moved in to start kicking the unconscious blacksmith. Before they could, Skeena dropped to the ground and landed standing over Zelliot. She whipped out her badge and held it up. "Enough!" she shouted.

There was silence for a moment, and many of the pub goers stepped back.

"Hang on, ya little copper," came the voice of local blacksmith Mack Janiels. He was standing about six units away from Skeena, holding a sword shakily, obviously drunk. "Let me have my fun. I don't want the likes of him around." He pointed his sword at the fallen Zelliot.

"I'd put that sword away and go home if I were you,'' said Skeena.

Somehow at this point everyone in the tavern had made a circle around Skeena, Zelliot, and Mack, and were shouting "Fight! Fight! Fight!"

Mack was very riled up at this point and he began to charge at Skeena, who snatched her crossbow from where it was hanging at her hip, and shot Mack in the foot before he could take another step. He fell forward and face planted in a puddle of mead on the tavern floor.

Skeena smiled. She collapsed her crossbow, picked up a nearby flagon of some kind of cold beverage, and splashed it on Zelliot's face.

"Blech," said Zelliot.

"Go home before they start trying to punch you again." said Skeena.

"Alright, alright," said Zelliot, holding his hands up and walking to the door. "I was right about the folded steel though!" He disappeared out onto the street.

The bartender approached Skeena and reached out a hand. She shook it.

"Thanks for dealing with that," he said. "You're very good at your job."

Skeena smiled from ear to ear and nodded. "I am very good at my job."

A few minutes later Skeena was out in the night again, bounding across the rooftops. It was very dark out now, but Skeena knew these rooftops like the back of her hand. As the row of houses came to an end, she leaped into a forward flip and landed easily on the front stoop of the Church of Nom.

Skeena stood up. She was standing in a beam of multicolored light coming from the stained glass windows of the church. There were monks inside, singing a chantlike song, and Skeena could just make out the lyrics.

"Nom my teacher, Nom my lord, how I long to hear your voice."

Skeena chuckled. "Really? It's not a pretty voice," she said, to no one in particular. "Very high pitched and nasally. I do long to hear it though, I suppose." Skeena looked up at the sky, "Only now and then though. I get along fine without you. Or with you farther away. I don't really know where you are."

Skeena sighed. It had been a very normal night for her. She'd had some fun action, some exciting acrobatics, and yet, it wasn't normal at all. How could it be? Tamara, who used to hate her, was now her friend, and also the Queen. They'd eaten dinner together. Kelvin was away in Everwinter, which seemed strange, although it was also strange that it seemed strange. The fact that Kelvin was from Everwinter was about the first thing she had known about him. And even those two paled in comparison to the strangeness of the fact that her Imp was the God Nom.

Skenna looked up at the sky again. "How did all this happen?" she asked. Nom didn't seem to be answering so Skeena went on. "You know, some people think things will get better, and some people think things will get worse, but I think things just get different." She pulled a dagger out of her boot and spun in on her finger. "Then again, some things stay the same."

The dagger spun on her finger for a moment, and then clattered to the ground.

"Stop him! Stop him!" came a sudden shout from the street, bringing a sudden end to Skeena's poignant moment, "he stole my grandfather's watch!"

"Here we go again," said Skeena, scooping up her dagger and sprinting off after the thief.

The End.

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Here we are!! Finally at the very end!!! What do you think? Comment away! Should we try and publish it for real? 

Thanks for sticking with us and sorry this last chapter is so late, and stay tuned for our next book, it's going to be a good one.

Thank you thank you thank you

--Q.B.