“What are they doing here?!” Maryl shrieked, pointing at the two women. Kassadi and Madrona glanced awkwardly at each other and snuffed the spells they had been preparing.
“They are my guests.” Lidya said, walking up to her daughter.
“Oh Mar-mar, what happened to your face?” She asked, reaching out to stroke at
what looked like fresh scar tissue that streaked across her face like a spider’s
web, Maryl pulled away sharply.
“They did it.” She said with a growl, stabbing a finger at
Kassadi and Madrona. “Mom they killed more than three quarters of our people… We’re
less than ten strong now, they killed Bob!”
“Oh no, not Bob.” Lidya said, her face contorting to one of
heartbreak. “He was such a good boy…” She frowned and then shoved Maryl’s
shoulder.
“Hey!” Maryl cried, stepping back.
“Good until he ran off with you to that cursed Labyrinth!” Lidya
shouted at the girl. Kassadi and Madrona both took a step backwards towards the
door.
“I did what I had to do to protect us!” Maryl shot back. “Gods
above knows you weren’t! The town to the north treats us like garbage. I was
going to make them respect us!”
“And such a good job you’ve done!” Lidya frowned deeply. “Thirty
of our friends and family dead!”
“Because of the two women you have invited into your house!”
Maryl cried, pointing at Kassadi and Madrona, who were nearly through the door,
but stopped as they were called out.
“You did try to kill us.” Madrona interjected.
“You stole my key!” Maryl snapped back.
“Which you picked off the corpse of a Elven fellow.” Kassadi
pointed out, peeking out from over Madrona’s shoulder. The visual of Kassadi
trying to hide behind Madrona was quite comical, Kassadi being a much broader
woman than her Inferni friend. “I watched you guys for like a day and a half,
heard one of your guards tell the story of what you did to the guy.”
“That!” Maryl started, but glanced at Liya, who was glaring.
“You’re a murderer, Maryl.” She stated flatly.
“I did what I needed to do. The plan was almost ready! We had
the Labyrinth, all my people knew the layout, control of the traps in our area,
a defensible position! And after the raid of the Halfling’s shop… we had magic.”
She gritted her teeth, baring her small goblin fangs. “Then the fat one stole
the key to the last piece, the bracelets in Valel Hex’s Throne Room!”
“Hey don’t say fat like it’s a bad thing!” Kassadi shouted,
frowning. “I never heard any complaints when I get stripped down to-Wait Valel
Hex’s Throne Room!?”
Madrona
suddenly had a flash of the portrait above Travlona’s fireplace. Valel Hex
sitting in a throne with black banners draped behind her… and then remembered
the room they found the bangles in, the stone walls with tattered black cloth,
the rotting wood chair. She groaned gently and slouched forward, exposing more
of Kassadi. The Wizard put her hands on Madrona’s back, leaning slightly as she
pieced it all together herself.
“Go take a walk and die!” Maryl shouted at Kassadi. “You killed
my friends I don’t have to be nice to you!”
“You little brat!” Kassadi shouted over Madrona’s shoulder,
leaning harder as her thought process was completely broken. “I defended myself!
You stole the key you can’t be mad at me for stealing it from you!” Madrona
grunted as Kassadi shifted a lot of her weight forward.
“Enough!” Lidya barked, rubbing the bridge of her nose. “I
will not have the two of you argue over dead bodies like toddlers shout over
broken toys!” She let out a breath, her body trembling. “Goblins lay dead on
the stone floor of a tyrant’s edifice and you bray on like infants! You are both
brats, so I say enough!” Lidya let out a strained sob and stumbled forward to
the breakfast table, collapsing into the chair.
A
silence followed, broken only by the choked sobs of the goblin woman at the
table. Maryl and Kassadi glanced at each other but couldn’t bare to look and
broke away in shame. Maryl walked to Lidya, raising a hand to comfort the woman
but she couldn’t bring herself to touch her mother. She didn’t know if she deserved
to even try and comfort her. A deep frown was set into her face and her brow furrowed
tightly. The moment was tense, and nobody knew what to say first… Madrona
however couldn’t hold it in any longer.
“Kassadi.” She said with a croak. “If you wish me to walk
out of this house with an intact spine you need to get off me.” Madrona wobbled
slightly, Kassadi’s weight still pressed into her slouched back.
“Oh.” Kassadi jumped back, clearing her throat gently. “Sorry.”
Madrona
and Kassadi eventually left the kitchen, figuring that mother and daughter
needed to have a distinctly difficult conversation. One that it would not just
be inappropriate to be present for, but one that they would be an active
detriment to. Instead they left and found themselves outside the house,
standing by the stoop. As they exited the home, they noticed a couple of goblins
in bedwear peeking from windows and half opened doors trying to figure what was
causing such a racket in the twilight hours. As they saw the human and inferni
step out they quickly closed door and windows alike. They stood there, staring
at the sky, not saying anything. Madrona glanced over to Kassadi and noticed
she had tears in her eyes. Madrona’s heart sank with the sadness she saw in
Kassadi’s eyes and she reached out, almost reflexively, and took Kassadi’s
hand. Kassadi glanced over as she felt fingers intertwine with her own, looking
into Madrona’s eyes, seeing the concern there. Kassadi squeezed the hand and it
all came loose. Once again Kassadi found herself outside of this house crying.
“I’m not a bad person, am I?” She asked, lip trembling.
“No.” Madrona said, shaking her head. “You’re not a bad
person, Kassadi.”
“I did take the key though.” She said, softly. “If I had
just left it alone, none of this…”
“Don’t.” Madrona said, interrupting her. “There’s only one
murderer here, Kassadi, and that’s Maryl. How many people did she kill in that
maze? Hm? How many?” She squeezed Kassadi’s hand back. “She dragged those goblins
to that place with plans for war. She brought them there. She’s more
responsible for what happened than anyone. She wanted to lead them, so those deaths
are on her hands.”
“Still feel bad.” Kassadi whispered.
“That’s what makes you good.” Madrona said, recalling the
pleasure she took in towering over the fearful Maryl. “That… definitely makes
you good.” She reached out and placed her other hand on Kassadi’s shoulder.
Kassadi fell forward, wrapping her arm under Madrona’s and clinging to the
inferni woman in a tight hug. She pressed her face into Madrona’s chest and sobbed
gently. Madrona’s stared down sternly, but wrapped her arms around Kassadi and
rubbed her back.
When Lidya
came to the door some twenty minutes later, the two women were still pressed
together, gently rocking. Kassadi had calmed and was just enjoying the embrace,
Madrona’s natural warmth felt good in the cool night air. Madrona found herself
enjoying the hug as well. She tried to remember the last time she felt an embrace
like this, it had been a while. It wasn’t that she never hugged people in the
past, but to feel an embrace with such radiating comfort and acceptance… was it
the last time she hugged her parents? They both glanced to Lidya as the goblin
coughed gently.
“You can come back in now.” She said, her voice was hoarse
due to her own shed tears.
They
eventually all found themselves back in the kitchen with Kassadi, Madrona, and
Maryl all sitting at the small breakfast table. The chairs were a little small
for the tall folk, but they managed. Lidya insisted on this. If they were all
going to be up this late and worked up and tense from the shouting, they she
might as well brew some chamomile. Lidya hunched herself next to the stove, striking
a hunk of flint against a file of iron, trying to ignite the tinder inside to
heat the pot.
“You know, I could light that for you.” Kassadi said,
leaning back in the chair.
“Not everything needs to be done with magic, dear. We got
along just fine for many centuries without it.” She gave one more strike and the
tinder finally caught. Lidya blew into the embers till they roiled into a
flame. “Ah… and many of us still do today as well.”
Maryl stared
at the women, a deep set frown on her face. She may have had a row with the
blond one, but she had even more of her ire for the fiend-born. The horned bitch
was the one who slaughtered the most of her people after all. Conjuring that
hail of daggers that cut them down like stalks of wheat to the scythe. Then she
gloated. This devil snatched the satchel off wands right out of Maryl’s hand and
lorded her power. Maryl drummed her fingers against the table rapidly, trying
to keep herself in check before this woman.
“You know this ones a Warock!” She called out to her mother.
“Yes I do know that, Maryl.” Lidya said without even
turning. She set the teapot on the stove. “And you promised me that you would
behave yourself as long as you were in my home, young lady.”
“What are you even doing here?” Kassadi asked.
“I lived here most of my life, thank you very much. I have
more of a right to be there than you!” Maryl snapped to Kassadi.
“That’s not what I mean!” Kassadi said, feeling exhausted. “I
mean why did you come here now. You know your mom doesn’t approve of your methods,
not like she was gonna help you.”
“Maybe I just wanted to check in on my mom in a dark time,
huh?” Maryl said, crossing her arms. “See someone who loves me when I’m feelin
down, huh? Ever think of that?” Maryl scoffed and turned her head from the
Wizard…
“And…?” Madrona prodded.
“I was also gonna try and steal Dulav’s magic stick.” Maryl
added, throwing her hands up and leaning back into the chair.
“Oh sweet, beautiful Callista.” Kassadi said, rubbing her
forehead. “I’m so annoyed you’re the one we have to turn to.”
“Turn to?” Maryl glanced between the woman, quirking a brow.
“Yes.” Madrona stated. “As much as it might pain us.”
“We need you to tell us everything you know about these
bracelets.” Kassadi added as she revealed the golden bangle around her wrist.
Madrona followed suit and revealed her own.
Maryl glanced at both of them and
smirked, kicking her feet up on the table and clasping her hands behind her
head. Kassadi and Madrona’s stomach’s collectively sank and they both felt ill.
The goblin raider Maryl sniffed and bit her bottom lip, reveling in this
moment.
“That the case?” She said, letting out a chuckle. “Make me.”
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