Luceras Letos and the Library of Shadows

CHAPTER 1: The Ring of Companionship

(Luceras)

It's hard to relax when you already have a long day of designing under your belt just a few hours in. Not actual designing, exactly. More-so just in my own head, you know? The creative juices are flowing and my head is buzzing with the ideas I have, not for future clients, but for ones I've already finished jobs for. Thinking about things I did great but then also things I could've done better. A few more banners here, a few less mounted swords there. Always more braziers. You can't have enough braziers, really, they just tie every room together.

With all that swirling in my head I've only got one client today, and it's not an entire room's worth of decorating. Just one item. But it's just one item for the most famous man in town. Scratch that. Possibly the most famous man in the world.

It's a bright, sunny day in Cottlehurst. I'm seated by the worn-down welcome sign for the village, which once held the information of all of our town's greatest accomplishments and now simply reads, "COTTLEHURST. TEKRUM CITY IS THE ONE AFTER THIS." I've got my arms spread across the top of the bench, awaiting any new friends to sit down and join me, but strangely no one does. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I see her.

"My greatest friend!" I shout. From the tip of her helmet to the mud (I think? I hope.) on her boots, it's impossible to mistake that the dwarf across the fountain is Donordia. I jump up from my bench and wave to her. Her eyes dart side to side and she nearly trips over herself walking in the opposite direction. She must not have seen me and is confused about my whereabouts. I yell louder. "DONORDIA! I'M OVER HERE!" She's now at a full sprint towards the nearest inn, but a wagon rolls in front of her, blocking her path. She stops short a little too late, the wheel of the wagon knocking her on her soft, round bottom. I stand over her, peering down. "Donordia! So good to see my best friend."

"WE AINT FRIENDS!" She jokes, sillily reaching for her axe.

"Oh, Donordia. Always the jester!" I grab the axe, which is clearly in the way, and toss it to the side before helping her to her feet. I wrap one arm around her shoulders and send the other arm gesturing to the sky. "Say, do you ever feel like we're not doing enough in this world?"

"I dunno, I feel like yer doin' a whole LOT right now." She brushes some dirt off her pants.

"Yes, but don't you think you and I are destined for something greater?"

"Ye and I aint destined for nothin'. Now ye, me, and me axe, that might just be another story!"

"Oh, Donordia, you slay me!" I laugh.

"... Uh, yeah... Tha's the plan."

"But what if I told you that we could be known far and wide? That we could be household names? Luceras and Donordia, an inseparable duo!"

"Sounds like I'm gettin' deja vu from a nightmare I had last week." Donordia bucks my arm off her shoulder and begins to walk away. She grunts at the wagon driver that hit her before taking down his wagon-plate number in a notebook she keeps tucked in her boot. "Gonna call the guards on this one. Damn reckless drivers," she mutters under her eggy breath. "Ye' hear that!" This time she's shouting. "Yer gonna pay for me healing bills!"

"Yeah, good luck!" The driver of the wagon peeks his head out. "The town cleric is my broth-" He tucks his head back into the wagon just as Donordia's axe whizzes by. Within seconds the wagon is speeding down the road, knocking barrels and boxes over in the marketplace as it goes.

"YEAH, AND STAY GONE!" Donordia shouts after him, going to collect her axe from the wall of a nearby hut. As she places one foot on the wall and yanks the axe out, I can see, through the gash in the wall, a family inside sitting down for a nice bit of lunch. They all stare in our direction, wide-eyed and mid-chew. I smile brightly and wave.