Dave's hand jumped up, as though to drag the dagger from his skull, but Mila had already withdrawn it and, to Shion's shock, there was no injury. None that she could see, but something inside her told her that the man stood at the very brink of death. He didn't look it, no-one within the tavern appeared to care, but Shion knew that if she didn't do something, Dave would die.
"No." Mila batted Shion's hand away as she reached toward Dave, to offer him her healing energies. "Can you heal him without touching him? If you can't do that, you're useless to us."
"I ... I think I can, but it won't heal as well. It'll take longer." She frowned, trying to wrench her hand away from Mila. "I think."
"Don't think. Do." Releasing Shion's hand, Mila stepped back, sweeping her hands out as though presenting Dave to her. "Show me what you've got, NPC."
"Go, Shion!" Jova laughed and clapped before resting her elbows on the table and her chin on her hands in barely restrained anticipation.
This was all very strange. Adventurers were nothing like how she had expected them to be. They didn't act with honour, or chivalry. In fact, they appeared to be nothing but gamblers, brawlers and drunkards and she began to doubt any of these people could help her, no matter how much she paid them. Still, her innate sense that someone required her attention almost screamed at her to perform her duty.
Without touching him, Mila had said, and Shion didn't doubt that if she tried to touch the old man, Mila would blockade her attempt and she looked strong enough to stop Shion no matter how hard she tried to pass her. All Shion could do was to try. She reached down, deep into her soul and imagined gathering up her healing energies. She could feel them within herself and, as she thought about it, she could also feel those energies in her hand.
Strong, powerful healing energies that required release but, instead of laying her hands upon an unfortunate soul that needed her help, she needed to release it in a different way. Before the energies became too much for her, she raised her hand toward the ceiling, fingers wide, her palm flat, pointing upward and allowed the energy its freedom.
A ring of brilliant, coruscating yellow light pulsed out from Shion's palm, rolling like a wave in all directions. Where it touched a wall, it passed through as though there were nothing there. When it touched a person, it enveloped them, covering them with the same, rippling yellow light. Several rings pulsed out from her hand until Shion could feel the magical energies receding and she dropped to the bench, exhausted, her head drooping toward the surface, her braid falling across her shoulder.
"Woah." Mila's voice came in an awestruck whisper. "Fuck me."
"You curse an awful lot. Perhaps you should attempt to speak like a lady?" Shion had realised what that 'f' word was. The exhaustion did not last long and Shion could already feel her magical reserves filling up within her body once more. "Was that sufficient?"
"It was wonderful!" Jova tilted up Shion's head, her finger beneath her chin, and kissed Shion on the lips before jerking backward. "Oh! I'm sorry! That was inappropriate. Do you like girls? I'm easy on that score, but, you know, you're so cute and oh, forget it, I'm going to kiss you again anyway."
"Jova! Not the time! And not with an NPC!" Mila scowled at her sister before sitting down to stare at Shion. "Alright. That'll do. Fifty thousand gold to find this sorcerer. Yeah, we can do that. Though I think we should all retire to our group house. You've caught a lot of attention with that display."
Mila pointed behind Shion and Shion could see the face of every adventurer turned her way. The others in the tavern, the normal people, all continued as they had before, as though nothing had happened. Which was a little odd, because she had seen that one, particular serving wench walk past with the exact same drinks upon the tray she held upon the flat of her hand at the shoulder.
As she watched the girl, she waved a hand in the general direction of a table, and fresh mugs appeared, filled with beer, or cider, bitter or mead, the empty mugs disappearing. Shion had never known that magic had become so prevalent that even servers in taverns used it for such mundane tasks. It wasn't only the serving girl that followed the same routine, though. Others did, too, but no-one else appeared to notice. Or pretended not to.
"I'm fine, by the way. Thanks f'r askin'." None the worse for wear, after taking a dagger to the face, Dave sat back down upon the bench. He started patting his clothing before finding his tobacco pouch. "An', for future ref'rence, I'd prefer bein' stabbed in the ches' nex' time, yeah. All I saw was you're 'and in fron'a my eyes."
"Duly noted and ignored." Mila jabbed Dave with a finger, causing him to jump, sending his tobacco tumbling onto the table. "Yeah, this could work. And it being an NPC means it's an immortal object, right? It can't die, can it? I think we're ready to tackle this new group dungeon."
Whatever that meant it had, for once, managed to put a smile on Mila's face. In fact, she looked downright ecstatic, knocking back the entire contents of her mug in one gulp, slamming the mug down upon the table. The empty mug became replaced by the magic of the serving wench as she passed. Shion didn't feel immortal, or an object, and she felt a little insulted by that, but it looked as though Mila, at least, had accepted her request for help.
"So, the sorcerer I need can be found in this 'group dungeon'?" Shion lowered her head. Most of the adventurers had stopped watching her after her display of healing magic, but she still felt as though eyes bored into her. "Then we shall leave immediately. My father's ensorcellment must end."
"Now, hold your horses there, NPC." Mila held up her hand before nudging Dave again, his tobacco jumping from the rolling paper. "Let's get back to the group house, get our best gear and you can go over what that map you said you'd found."
"Wha's to go over? Only I c'n read i', you know tha'." Dave gathered his tobacco together, pinching it back onto the paper and rolling it as fast as he could before Mila nudged him again. He licked the paper, finished rolling it and stood to light it against the candle. "Besides, i's jus' directions. And says i's a simple, undiscovered dungeon that needs four players. Simple. In, ou', Bob's your proverbial an' all tha'."
He leaned back, precariously, his head aiming toward the tavern ceiling as though he leaned against something and took a long, deep breath of smoke into his lungs before releasing it upward in a pillar of curling, blue/grey smoke. He seemed in no hurry to continue on with Shion's request and that annoyed her a little. Every minute she spent away from her father was another minute he remained under the spell that had him standing there, outside their farmhouse, repeating the same words.
"I just love elves. They're so etherial and mysterious." Jova reached up, pushing Shion's hair over the top of her ear and Shion threw her hand up to cover the tell-tale pointed part of her body. "Do you think there are more of you? NPC's that have changed? I expect it's a trial for future updates to make the game more realistic."
"The game?" She adjusted her hair back over her ear. Though she and her father had lived in Frenia all her life, the Frenian people were still disinclined to treat elves with kindness. Especially since the Five Realms War had begun. "What do you mean?"
"The game!" Jova leaned back, weaving in her seat and looked around, her hands waving at everything around her. "The game we have to play to earn our right to move on to the next life. Personally, I don't care if I move on, especially when there are so many pretty NPC's like you to meet."
Jova returned her chin to one of her hands and poked Shion's nose with a finger of the other. She winked. An exaggerated wink that made Shion feel a little uncomfortable, but she couldn't say why. Though the twin thought she had explained 'the game' she really hadn't. All this talk of 'moving on' to the next life didn't make much sense to Shion. There was only one life and what came after was in the hands of the gods.
"Don' confuse the gel, Jova. Or try to seduce her, yeah? She's still an NPC, no ma'er 'ow special she is." Dave turned his almost-white eyes back to Shion and touched the material of her dress. "Bu', I think we'll 'ave to ge' her ki'ed ou' afore we tackle the dungeon. She migh' be an immor'al, objec', bu' I be' she c'n still ge' injured. An' she's rich. She c'n afford i'."
"Shopping!" Jova clapped her hands again, jumping to her feet. "I love shopping! I know just the armourer. Come with me, delightful NPC!"
Before Shion could begin to protest, the twin had dragged her to her feet and had already started barging her way through the burgeoning crowd of adventurers. Both Mila and Dave rose from the table to follow and Shion could do nothing but let Jova lead her out of the tavern. She was surprisingly strong for a woman her size.