SPIRIT BLOOD

Chapter 1

Thunder cracked and lightning split the sky as Lira trudged up to the front door of the inn, cursing everyone and everything that had ever brought her to this point in her life.

She stepped under the slim cover of roof above the door and pulled her cloak tight around her, like it was going to do anything to protect her already soaked clothes. Waterproof, they'd promised--though against the full force of a Wild's storm, she supposed it'd held out as well as could be expected.

Lira pinned her eyes to the faint, blue glimmer on the horizon visible between flashes of lightning and pointed a finger at it accusingly.

"I'm gonna come in there tomorrow and sort you right out," she muttered.

With a huff, Lira pushed open the door of the inn and stepped inside, leaving the door open behind her.

Heads turned as she entered, but as she'd hoped, the homely little inn wasn't busy. Aside from a few patrons tucked into the corners of the room, there were only two serving girls in matching dresses weaving around the mostly empty tables and an angry little man behind the bar. He glared at her while screaming something about closing the door and not serving her kind here while doing his best to rub a hole in a glass jug with his rag.

Lira didn't bother trying to yell over the storm, continuing to hold the door open with her shoulder as she waited for someone to come to her. A large, muddy puddle was forming beneath her feet as her cloak dripped onto the floor, but given the state of it, it seemed like an improvement on the spilled ale they apparently cleaned it with.

After a quick argument at the bar, the man sent one of the serving girls over to deal with Lira's arrival. The girl didn't look happy as she approached Lira with a cautiously stiff smile. She had enough sense to keep a chair between them, though not enough to realise that the thunder was a whole lot louder than her mouse-squeak of a voice and whatever she said was drowned out by the storm.

Lira waited for the thunder outside to cease before she spoke. "I need a room for the night."

The girl clenched the chair in front of her, throwing a nervous glance back to the man behind the bar. "I, ah, I'm not sure we have any rooms free right now."

Lira narrowed her eyes. "There's exactly two horses outside, at least one of which I'm assuming belongs to the inn, and anyone else with sense is getting as far away from the Wilds as they can until the Rupture is closed."

The man behind the bar thumped the jug he'd been cleaning on the top of the bar and started making his way over, wagging his finger towards Lira like she was some kind of child.

"You heard the girl!" he said. "No rooms for people like you! We're running a respectable business here, so you can--"

Lira glanced outside as he spoke, not particularly paying attention as she squinted out into the darkness, trying to catch a glimpse of her useless companion so she could finally close the door.

"Look," said Lira, cutting him off as she realised he wasn't going to stop on his own. "I'm just as unhappy about this as you are, but you're literally the only inn on this side of the Wilds within a day's run that hasn't already been overtaken. Either you give me a room so I can look at my maps without the ink running off the page, or I have to wait a few more days before I go in there and fix it, in which time, the Wilds will likely have overgrown this area too. What's it gonna be?"

He was quiet for a record thirty seconds as he reassessed her. Lira took the chance to slide the sleek bow off her back and lean it against the wall. She released the straps of her cloak and gathered up the soaked fabric in her arms, making sure the man had a good view of the various belts with their accompanying spiritsteel knives.