Seekers of the Stone Maker

Though Lyrical Lute was a comfortable inn, Lyla couldn’t find herself comfortable. Over four days, she watched as her friends ran errands and kept busy. During the mornings, she saw Leaf pouring himself over a stack of papers that detailed his next five weeks. Schedules and classes, tests and practicals. After some time, he finally told her that he had written Gisela. He felt terrible about having to give Bruna’s soul to Helena and wanted her to know as soon as he had the chance.

In the late morning, Rhokhishi and Lyla would head to The Smiling Note and have a quick lunch, followed by a quick drink. Rhokhishi was interested in doing so much at once that her time was quickly filled. In mentioning each day, she had met with Dalia, one of the teachers, at Teacup’s Nook. They talked about Rhokhishi’s recent dreams, and Dalia sent her a list of new books to read at the library.

The afternoon was spent with Myla, relaxing and having a drink. Her sister had changed so much since her first run-in with Odin. She was more relaxed, with no more migraines. She could casually join the conversation and not get tied down by the thoughts of others anymore. She even took some of the gold she had received from Zidingris’ hoard and completely paid off her guild dues. Lyla was happy to see such a change in her sister.

Going into the evening, Mr. Muffins would stop by Lyrical Lute with a handful of students he hired. Usually, he would grab a few items he needed or had forgotten before running back to the school, talking away to the students who eagerly followed him for his coin and experience. Lyla tried to listen in occasionally and heard him rant about the difference between a good recipe and a bad one for fish pastries. The students would write away in their books, entranced by everything he said. She was sure he was loving it.

Each evening, she ended at The Nightingale. Here, Lyla felt the most comfortable. She would normally get there before everyone else and watch the crowd enter. The owner, a bartender named Nazira, was an older woman with white hair and an eyepatch. Nazira would often point to the suit of armor hanging above her liquor shelves and tell stories of her and her traveling partner, Wren. It wasn’t until the third night that Lyla noticed the eyepatch was on her other eye, and when listening to the story of how she lost her sight, the story had changed entirely from an owlbear to a troll. She laughed silently to herself, realizing that it was just a ruse. While the armor looked used, she was sure that the eyepatch was just a way to keep tourists returning.

She couldn’t explain it, but something dug inside her, and she tried her best to drink, eat, and play it away. She watched her friends run around, thinking back on Cecille’s weapons slashing into her just a few days before, when they were back in Aramore. So much had happened, and too many risks were being taken. It scared her. It had gotten so bad, so fast, that Ana died.

Ana…

She could feel the heat rise to her ears quickly. Her stomach became tighter and twisted into knots. It had only been a few days, but it still angered Lyla whenever Ana came by, and she had come by often lately. It seemed that wherever Rhokhishi went, Ana was always trailing close behind, like a sick street animal. They had wanted a quiet time together a few times, only to be interrupted by Ana’s coughing or the need to be involved in each conversation.

It was on the fourth night that her anger finally erupted. Sitting at The Nightingale in the evening, everyone was at their own tables nearby. Mr. Muffins with the students, making some makeshift game on the table using food, Myla with some of the younger members of VerdantKnoll, and Leaf sitting by himself, stacks of books surrounding him. Lyla and Rhokhishi had just ordered some food, and Lyla opened the window next to them, letting some of the cold air come in and cool down the packed building. Across the room, a group played a card game loudly, money being thrown into the center of the table as they gambled their day’s pay.

“You know, the food here is good, but if you wanted, I could make something,” Ana stated.

“We’re good, Ana.”

“Okay,” Ana said while looking down at the table sadly. “Just thought I’d offer. We still have a ton of dragon meat.”

Ana tipped the bag to the side and pulled out a handful of jerky she had made. As she turned to show Lyla and Rhokhishi, other bag contents spilled. She reached forward and tried to grab them, causing herself to tilt out of her chair and tumble onto the table. The drinks that Lyla and Rhokhishi had just paid for crashed to the ground as Ana tried to get up from the floor hastily.

“Fuck this. You’re coming outside with me.”

Lyla grabbed onto Ana’s cloak and pulled, practically dragging her outside. The snow fell, but the heat from her made the snowflakes melt immediately, steaming as it touched her skin.

“Let me be crystal fucking clear. We met you under really dire circumstances. And as a thank you, my friends gave you enough of their trust to let you stay with us for a night. It wasn’t about being friends. It was about being nice. But one night turned into you sticking around after manipulating my friends into taking pity on you and your Aramore quest.

You know, the last time we were all at a bar like this was in Moonbright, but instead of a fun night out, three people died. At least one of those deaths you caused. I’ll take responsibility for my mistake of being where I shouldn’t have been, but that fight could’ve been resolved without bloodshed. You let people die. You did that to them.”

“Ly-”

“I’M NOT FINISHED.”

Ana stepped back, and Lyla stepped into her space again.

“When I got upset, you ran away crying. I had to find a way to console you later by showing you something important and intimate to me. I hoped that it would build trust and a rapport between us. My highest hope was that nothing like that would happen again.

But despite this way of life clearly not being for you, we end up escorting you to Aramore anyway. Again, you prove within the first moments of arriving that your instinct is to fuck with things that clearly should not be. In doing so, you put every one of us in danger. You had no plan. You didn’t think ahead. You didn’t think at all.

We went there to uncover the source of the basilisk ring and discover who and why they were being smuggled into Moonbright. All of this information we could’ve gotten from that bar fight if you hadn’t killed the person we needed to interrogate. But we never found out any of that information because we were too busy trying to survive your every misstep.”

“I’m sorry, Lyla…”

“Hell, just when we think we are finished with that dangerous town, I almost die, my sister almost died, and you disappear for half a fight. Finding out you are adopted is no excuse for being unprepared for what could’ve happened. You have put us in harm’s way again and again and again.

Then, as if all that wasn’t difficult enough, we have to deal with a fucking Hound of War. We have to face this seemingly hopeless situation by entering a cave to what seems like our doom, and then we find the outcasted townspeople. When that happened, you didn’t seem to give two shits about them. These same people you wanted so desperately to save earlier. But no, you were so focused on finding a ‘hero.’ Who did you think we were in that situation, Ana?”

“I-”

“That was a rhetorical fucking question. I’m nowhere near done.”

Lyla could feel the rage overflowing. Her hands started to glow red as fire filled every inch of her.

“We find the fucking dragon’s lair. You decide to fuck around, and you found out. Not only that, you decided to drag Leaf into this. From everything he has chosen to share with us, he wanted no part in that impulse of yours. When he tried to leave, you forced him to stay. That makes the second thing you have fucked up for the Archmage. The bar, then this.

After all that, you continued to fuck with shit, and you get yourself killed! Leaf had to give away the soul of a person worth saving to get us out of an impossible situation, only to come back and fix your mistakes. The revival didn’t even work correctly. Rho may have permanently damaged her magic because of you. We don’t know. You have cost us alone so much that I’ll be damned if your mistakes cost an entire town of petrified people their lives. Your whole goal when we got there was to help those people. There is not a single choice you made that aided anyone.”

Lyla turned and took a few steps away, trying to calm herself. When she turned back, she could see tears running down Ana’s face, which did nothing but prove Lyla’s belief of her not being ready for this.

“Now we are here. You gave us this half-assed apology, no solutions, and you expect us to just what? Trust that you’ll be ‘better’? I’ve seen you do the same things over and over. It would be insanity to trust you to be different. You’ve been manipulating us from the start, whether you’ve realized it or not. That is what is happening. You convince us to get into shit, you fuck up, and we come back and fix it while you play the victim.”

Lyla walked back up to Ana, looking deep into her eyes.

“Let me be completely and brutally honest, ’cause I don’t think any of MY friends are going to be… We didn’t come back for you. We came back to finish what we started. And if you don’t believe me, you can ask them.”

Lyla turned towards the open window and gestured to her friends, who all sat there silently watching everything transpire. Before waiting for her to say anything, she walked past her, knocking into her shoulder, and made her way up to the bar. Nazira, who had been cleaning a glass and pretending not to notice what was happening, walked over and set the glass down in front of Lyla.

“I need a drink.”

“Of course, Miss. This one’s on the house.”