Vern felt familiar dizziness as he was pulled roughly backwards. The speed at which he'd been pulled through had made pressure build up in his ears. It was far more disorienting than his trip with Thandre had been. It had objectively been a smoother journey but being dragged backwards through a fold in space unexpectedly wasn't ever going to be better than stepping willingly into the fold.
His vision had also gone dark as if he'd stood up too quickly as he recovered his footing. He swallowed in an attempt to pop his ears back and blinked a few times until his sight returned. Vern felt extremely relieved he wasn't Shae at that moment. He looked around still feeling somewhat disorientated and understood he was now in a fairly large room. He felt drunk severely so and the room was spinning around him. A hand pushed his shoulder down and he found his knees buckling beneath him, to his surprise he landed on a rather comfortable chair.
" You didn't give him anything did you?" A female voice sounded concerned and somewhat accusatory. He turned to look at the speaking woman and noticed that she was possibly the tidiest looking person he'd ever laid eyes upon. There was something about her that was almost hypnotic. Her brown eyes had this strange lustre to them. No, they weren't brown at all. Her eyes were too brown what Thandre's were too grey. Bronze, they were like the old bronze coins. He's never seen eyes quite like hers before.
He dragged himself out of his daydream and forced himself to face the other way. Stood to one side was a bald man who Vern didn't recognise. A wizard. The man looked fairly calm considering the fires going on outside.
" I didn't drug him, Miss Primm. What would the point of that be?" The man asked, he sounded bored and perhaps a touch offended.
" I'm not sure why he's here at all Prebble." She sighed. " We already have one deadweight, the warlocks aren't our problem."
Vern felt like a bucket of ice water had been poured over him. In reality, the water was merely tepid.
He didn't feel quite so disoriented anymore but his ears still weren't popping back and now he was soaking wet. Some rescue mission this was turning out to be. He felt like he should say something but didn't know exactly what. Where am I? didn't seem to cut it since he already knew that. Who are you? also seemed a bit pointless since he had just heard their names.
Vern decided to go with the final classic of "What's going on." In a broader term, he knew what was going on, the guild was under attack. However, these people might have some finer details to try and work with.
" We're under attack," Prebble responded and Vern felt a bit thick for having asked at all. The way Miss Primm was staring him down wasn't helping much either. Prebble had a look in his eyes that scared Vern. Something about the man wasn't quite right. He wasn't sure he'd ever met someone like him before. Vern wanted to get up and run, but his legs had decided that would be a very bad idea.
Prebble wondered if he pulled the warlock through too fast. He'd heard rumours that wild magic users struggled with the trips but had dismissed it as something the other wizards liked to say to make themselves feel superior. Perhaps he should pay more attention to their gossip.
" What's your name?" Prebble was finding the boy to be a bit frustrating. He kept gawking at Abigail.
" Vern." The young man replied. Prebble nodded. Odd name Vern, not very common anymore. Still, at least that would make it easier to remember.
" I'm going to get straight to the point. Can you make a barrier? We have a lad but he's taking a break." Vern blinked in surprise. Was his entire life going to be about barriers? Still, he felt like he might have some kind of leverage now. He had something they wanted.
" Yes," Vern replied confidently. Prebble seemed slightly more relaxed. Not that Vern would have noticed if the other man were tense.
" Can you cover the guild? How long can you hold it for?" He quizzed. Vern's mouth felt a bit dry.
" Yes and a few hours maybe." He replied feeling less certain of himself. Prebble looked over his shoulder at the still sleeping Donnie. A few hours was better than nothing. He'd just have to hope it would be enough.
" Do it. Miss Primm bring our guest anything he needs." Prebble ordered. Vern swallowed nervously and began expanding out the barrier. It shook a little, to begin with partly because his nerves were feeling a bit shot and partly because he still hadn't recovered from being bought to the room.
" Can I have some dry clothes?" Vern ventured. Abigail nodded and left the room.
" Will she be okay?" He asked suddenly remembering the place was under siege.
" Miss Primm isn't magically inclined. You should be more worried about any intruders who cross her path." Prebble didn't offer any further explanation but Vern could believe that the sharply dressed woman was dangerous. He pushed a little harder and swallowed the entire guild within the barrier.
" It's up and I think the intruders should leave on their own but I've never made one over an area that already had unwanted individuals in it." Prebble scowled but couldn't blame the lad, after all, none of the Guild had bothered with barriers at all.
" We should be able to handle them. It's stopping more damage being done that matters now." Prebble was tired but still maintained the calmness that kept the wizards in the room on edge. Vern had noticed that the others in the room were keeping far, far away from their section of the room. Only one slumped figure in the corner seemed to have let their guard down. Vern stood up, still feeling a little wobbly in the legs. He had found that doing small and repetitive tasks helped him maintain the barrier and so decided to walk around the room a bit.
Prebble was wondering if perhaps he could convince the young warlock to stay in the guild but be doubted it. Normally the guild would apply somewhat more forceful methods to encourage warlocks to stay, but with the amount of work ahead of them in there just wasn't going to be the time. He also knew that several young wizards had used to confusion to venture out into the world knowing that Prebble or a member of his department wouldn't have the time to follow them.
It bothered him.
Not having absolute control bothered him. Although Prebble wasn't the official leader of the guild, it was very much his kingdom. Now and then over the years, a leader elect would try to 'bring him to heel' like the rest of the masters but it never ended well. They had so often expired in the night. The current one, Master Liffup, was happy to let Prebble do the running of things, He'd realised that it meant he didn't actually have to do anything and everyone else would do as he said outside Prebble's orders. Moreover, as long as he kept the man he considered secretly to be a demon from the back of the whale happy, he was kept very much safe and alive from the rather inventive attempts on his life made by somewhat more ambitious colleagues.
Not so very far away down a series of twists and turns in the cobbled-together stone corridor of the guild Abigail Primm was feeling rather annoyed for much the same reason. She was fetching the fresh clothes when she needed to be rescheduling the appointments in her ledgers. This mess was the last thing they needed. The department had already been booked up a week in advance, barring emergency appointments and the longer this went on the bigger the mess. Not only that but there was no doubt in her mind that some of the journeymen had died or runaway on the fighting, it was all a complete nightmare, one made worse by the fact an interloper had been rummaging through her desk and the papers were everywhere. She knew she wasn't supposed to come down this far but there was more likely to be something the lad's size hanging around in the office than in Prebble's own rooms. She looked over the scene of devastation and looked around wearily then mumbled something under her breath. Her bronze eyes glinted and she left the room at a brisk walk.
Her return clearly bought some relief to the warlock who was starting to look rather miserable and cold as he paced by the fire. She handed him the clothes and went to check on the other lad, Donnie.
He was a slumped mess and was still completely drained, she checked his pulse and wondered if moving him closer to the fire would help. She grabbed some rugs and piled them next to the gently flickering flames before leveraging the lad out of his chair and onto the makeshift bed. Donnie groaned in his sleep but didn't wake up.
Vern was looking for somewhere in the room he could change, he had the distinct feeling that the occupants of the guild wouldn't be happy to find out that his body didn't exactly match his mind or magic. In the end, the best he could manage was propping up one of the tables and crouching behind it like a makeshift screen. He could hear a derisive snort or two from the older wizards but that was better than the alternative. Warm, dry and fully dressed Vern felt a lot better as he wandered over to the fire, only to find Donnie lying there like a dead man, all the colour gone from his face.
***
This Ricci speaking now we have reached the end of the chapter please remember to vote and/or comment before you depart from this story :P
Thank you
On another note, I have officially moved... Did I tell my Partner I'd mostly live at my parent's till November? Yes. Do I spend 99% of my time at his? Also yes. The new job is going pretty well. Now I just have to find some time to do some writing again.