Ash

  They claimed a corner table, the rough wood, polished smooth by countless hands. A barmaid with bright eyes and a quick wit walked up to them smiling, her dark blonde pigtails bouncing behind her. Ash was still getting used to seeing people with a variety of hair colors and blue eyes. She found it fascinating but tried not to stare too much.

  They made their orders and soon, tankards of ale and plates piled high with roasted meats, steaming vegetables, and thick slices of crusty bread, were spread out on their table.

  “Water for her,” Sheela said, pointing at her.

  “Of course,” the barmaid said with a smile.

  “Who’s gonna eat all of this?”

  “I am, why?” Sheela asked.

  Ash shrugged, looking around. The tavern was dirt-ridden with the permanent odor of stale ale and rotten wood, but Sheela seemed to not mind. She on the other hand tried to avoid touching anything as much as possible. The patrons reminded her of her time in the slums of Farryn. Dirty and downtrodden, ignorant of their suffering while fighting for scraps, and getting elated at their harvest of crumbs. She had come a long way from the skinny, haggard-looking girl she once was; it made her pity the inhabitants of the town.

  “Why are we here again?” she asked.

  “For information,” Sheela said before stuffing her mouth full with meat. “If you’ve been listening to the pod, you’d have heard of the—” she swallowed and cleared her throat, “of the rumors about a monster the Alvrics unleashed on Alvion.”

  Ash cringed at that. She didn’t need the reminder. They’d had to fly for thirteen days to get ahead of the rumors.

  “They say it was over ten feet tall with arms as thick as a tree. Its claws were huge! And sharp enough to cut down trees with one swipe. And its roar killed a thousand people in an instant.” Sheela was chuckling at the rumors now. “Jerome also said there was most likely a mine around here. He wants us to check it out and bring back soil and rock samples.”

  “This…” Ash pointed down at the table, “...isn’t a mine.”

  Sheela shrugged. “I’m hungry. Besides we can listen in on the denizens of, what is it called…”

  “Dan,” Ash said. “The town of Dan.”

  “Simple name,” her hungry teammate said. “I like it.” And went back to stuffing her face and snuffing down the food like it was air.

  Ash sighed and took a few bites herself. She wanted to visit the mine as quickly as possible and get back in the air. Something about flying was just so freeing.

  “Well, let’s be fast. The people are beginning to stare.”

  Sheela looked up with her mouth stuffed full. She swallowed. “Let them stare. We may as well be the only piece of gossip this town has seen in years. Thankfully, we are being inconspicuous.”

  She gestured at the dust-brown colored cloaks they were wearing. They had also taken off their flying boots, which Jerome hadn’t come up with a name for.

  “Are we?” Ash asked, smiling. “Doesn’t look like it with you stuffing your face like that.”

  Sheela flicked her forehead with a finger of essence from her side of the table.

  “Ouch! That hurt!” Ash rubbed the spot. Her eyes had seen Sheela command a tiny stream of essence but it felt like she had been hit by a rock moving with the speed of a bullet.

  “That’s no way to talk to your mentor.” Sheela gestured with her eyes behind her. “Don’t look. I forget sometimes that you’re still Blank and can’t extend your perception. You’re just as powerful as a Sprout.”

  Ash smiled proudly, thumbing her ring. “Soon, I’ll be Sprout…” She leaned forward conspiratorially. “And I’ll kick your butt for all your reproach.”

  “Hmm hmm,” her glutton of a friend said with a smile. “Well, while you’re doing that. The men behind me just came from the mines.”

  “How can you tell?” Ash asked, widening her vision to take in more light, and hence more of the room. She had no idea how she was able to do this but Jerome had said it was probably a reflex that was unique to her. She did this so she wouldn’t appear to be looking directly at the men. “While they look like they’ve been rolling in the dirt for a while, it doesn’t mean they just came from the mines.”

  “Their bodies are heavy with the smell of sweat and copper.” Sheela smirked at her but her look immediately changed to one of concern. “Can’t you smell it?”

  Ash raised her nose and took a deep breath, but shook her head a moment later.

  “Well, just as you’ve got keen eyes, I’ve got a keen sense of smell. And I can see your irises expand from here. It’s…freaky.”

  Ash shrunk the muscles in her eyes, relaxing her grip on her vision. She shrugged. “Mine’s more awesome,” she muttered.

  “I heard that,” Sheela said with her mouth full. She gulped it down again. “But seriously, a mortal would be able to catch a whiff of the copper oozing off those miners from your position. It isn’t that far away.”

  Ash watched her bite into a loaf of bread, chewed on it faster than she could say ‘ah’, and swallowed it instantly.

  “And how do you have the reflexes to do that so easily?” Ash asked.

  “Shh, listen,” Sheela commanded.

  “How I wish the food would get lodged in your—”

  “Listen!” Sheela hissed a little more forcefully. Her eyes suddenly glowed gold for a split moment before going back to their normal black.

  Clamping down on her frustration, she closed her eyes and stirred up her core. Ash sent essence to her eardrums to sharpen her hearing. Her sight was so sharp that she felt it suppressed the rest of her senses. She had to put extra effort into hearing things said in secret, or from a distance.

  The sound of boots intensified in the basement as workers shuffled about, stumping lightly on the wood planks of the floor. It sounded like loud thumps to her ear though, and she had to slim down the threads of essence flowing to her eardrums. The clatter of pots and pans assaulted her ears from the outside next. Ash hissed lightly, frowning. She quickly slowed down the essence she was transmitting to her ears. A few people gulped down ale and it sounded like water forcing itself through tunnels to reach her. Just a little bit more easing of the essence like Jerome had taught her and the noise balanced out, into sound that was audible enough but not too intense for her ears. And she could now hone in on a few sounds without interference from others.

  She felt a tingling sensation at the back of her head and relaxed into it. Sheela’s head voice filled her mind next.

  “We use ‘mindspeak’ from here on out. And you’ll also spend some time inside the noosphere, since Jerome has modified your ring to grant you access.”

  The miners slammed their rough-hewn mugs down in unison, spilling a little frothy ale over the edges.

  “Ahhh,” one of the miners exclaimed and they focused on his words, “this’s what I dig fer, lads. Copper in the day and ale in the night. Got enough today to bury meself in actually. Ain’t complainin’, but I’s hopin’ for somethin’ shinier down there, y’know?” He took a long swig, wiping foam from his beard. “So, who’s got the biggest haul this time, eh?”

  Ash closed her eyes and felt the sensation she had come to connect with her computation ring pulling her mind ‘upwards’. Upwards was the only way she could describe the sensation. Still with her eyes closed, the tavern opened up in her mind’s eyes and she shut her eyes tighter, not wanting to experience the disorientation of the out-of-body experience.

  Another miner grinned. “Biggest haul? That’d be yer belly, Ten. could fit a whole vein o’ copper in there.”

  Ash cringed in irritation as she saw the inside of his mouth. His teeth were yellowing and covered in a dark substance that looked like it had hardened on it.

  “Calculus,” Achilleia supplied.

  “Huh?” She hadn’t expected that.

  “That’s what the brownish yellow substance is. It’s caused by—”

  “You can tell me about it later,” she interjected.

  “Sure,” Achilleia said.

  Ash went back to the miners’ conversation. It was a freaky sensation seeing things even with your eyes closed but she focused her eyes on their table instead, not wanting to see more.

  “But shiny?” The miner speaking continued after taking a big gulp of ale. “Bah, you’ll settle fer what the earth gives ya. ‘Sides, not like any o’ us struck gold. Or did ya, Four?”

  The miner he looked at snorted. “Gold? Nah.” — he leaned in to whisper — “But I did find somethin’ odd in me pile — a lump o’ green rock. Looked like some… sort o’ crystal, it did.”

  “Green, you say?” the youngest looking of the lot perked up. “Could means you’re nears a fat vein o’ copper. I seens some near the birch grove meself.”

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “Aye, green’s a good sign,” the first said. “But green rocks don’t fill mugs, do they? Anyone find somethin’ better than fancy stones?”

  Ash looked at Sheela and was immediately disorientated. She blinked a few times to get rid of the effect of the noosphere in her mind, but this effectively cancelled the connection. “Can we assume this is some kind of crystal stone?”

  “I don’t sense any essence coming from their bags, so no. But we should still check.” She stood up. “Give me a moment.”

  Ash held her back. “What about being inconspicuous?”

  “What do you think I’m about to do?”

  “Go kick ass? That wouldn’t be very stealthy,” she pointed out.

  Sheela smirked at her. “Just watch the show.”

  There was no show.

  Her mentor just walked out and walked back in exactly one minute and five seconds later. She knew this thanks to Achilleia’s teachings on the timekeeper. Sheela sat down with a long sigh, like she just went out to milk her bladder, and then continued eating in silence.

  Ash sat there fuming in silence for a long time.

  “So?” she asked after a while.

  Sheela gave her a thumbs up and continued with her meal. Ash couldn’t take it anymore. She slammed her palms on the table, stood up, and walked out of the tavern. The mine was just a few miles west of the town. A short distance, considering she could just fly there, once she found a hidden spot to summon her boots.

  She walked for quite a while, taking in the sights of the little town of Dan. It wasn’t a flourishing town by any means, but the people were surviving, and that was good. Her senses flared all of a sudden and she noticed eyes on her. More than one, from her estimation. She was being followed. The warning she had received didn’t indicate danger. If she was in danger, the feeling of it would be different, intense, ominous… it was hard to explain.

  She couldn’t see those stalking her and unfortunately, she couldn’t sense them; only sense their eyes on her. Ash sighed. She couldn’t wait until she was Sprout. She turned a quiet corner that led to a dead end — a palisade wall that was only as tall as her shoulders — and walked on until she reached the end, looking around like she was lost. The smell of piss and rotten food was almost unbearable, but this was a suitable place to lose her stalkers and take off.

  Her stalkers’ got closer and Ash could finally sense them. She turned around fighting the smile off her face. They were humans, and they reeked of ale. Five of them.

  “Now look what we have here, fellas,” the one in the lead spoke with a wide toothy grin. He was surprisingly able to speak the common tongue fluently. Even dressed a bit more decent than the rest, who were covered in what she could only call rags. He whistled in awe. “She’s tall… and shapely.” He used his hands to gesture at the shape of her body.

  Ash knew she was tall — taller than all five of them trying to take her in fact. Despite the broad material of her cloak, she was unable to hide the curves of her body. It was a perk of being tall, buxom, and beautifully curvy, but in times like these, she wished she could be like Layla, who could hide in plain sight and not be leered at.

  “This one looks too good for the farm, boss,” another said, hunched slightly behind the first. Ash had never seen someone so ugly before. “We should take her to—”

  “I keep her myself, five. Besides, the boss would just fuck her until she’s dead.” He turned to her, leering at her. “I, on the other hand, will make sure to treat you right. Not everyday I come across a lass whose tits are big enough for me to rub my face into. I will suck on ‘em forever, eh eh eh…”

  He reached for her. The moment his hand came close, the second held him back. “Boss! The big boss would let loose the whisper on ya! You don’t want him kicking your nuts in, do ya?”

  The name caught her off guard. She pushed her sword, which was already halfway out of her storage bag, back into the bag behind her. The whisper; the name made her curious to know who this was. If it was who she was thinking it was…

  Ash held back her hopes, clamping down on the thought. She focused on what was happening before her and waited to see what these hoodlums would do. She would try not to kill any of them and just beat them up, letting them lead her to this big boss of hers.

  The boss tisked in irritation, jerking his arm out of his subordinate’s hand, and calmed down. He faced her once again. “Take off your hood, let me see that beautiful face of yours.”

  Ash tilted her head sideways to express curiosity. She knew that from his point of view, he could only see the lower half of her face, and her lush black hair spilling out of her hood. And he liked what he saw. The thought made her blush, but she quickly pushed it down. Only Jerome was worthy of her. Every other person was trash.

  The boss got angry. “I said take off that fucking hood!”

  He reached for her hood and she caught his hand. She had moved so fast that his face showed he couldn’t comprehend how she was able to do it. And when it dawned on him, he tried to remove his arm from her grip. His goons saw what was happening and tried to bolt. Ash spun the boss around easily for momentum and threw him at the fleeing four.

  He knocked them all down in a tangle of limbs, grunting from the pain. Ash was on them the next moment. She moved like a blur, hiding her kicks and punches with the flowing cloak she wore. One of the men became stupidly brave, pulling out a small rusted knife.

  Alarmed, she smacked it out of his hand. She heard the bones in his wrist shatter and cringed. The man screamed in pain, his voice high-pitched and full of fear. She knife-handed him in the side of the neck and he collapsed to the floor, passing out instantly. The rest of them backed up away from her. When they saw she did nothing more, they took off, leaving their gang member on the floor to his fate.

  She snorted. “Typical.”

  She cycled essence around her body and her ring read her intent. Light bent around her and in an instant, she became invisible.

  “This is so cool!” She couldn’t help her excitement as she held her hands in front of her but couldn’t see them. She had never experienced anything like this before.

  She looked up at the building beside her, jumped twenty feet in the air, and grabbed hold of a railing before scaling the rest of the building. She followed the goons from there, wanting to see their hideout. They headed farther west, going at a very slow pace, due to the fact they were on the road and had to weave through streets.

  Ash was jumping from rooftop to rooftop, making sure not to cause a ruckus. She had to wait for them to catch up sometimes, reminding her that they were just mortal and couldn’t keep up with her. At long last they got to the edge of the town. Here, there was only a palisade wall, built to protect the town from outsiders.

  The buildings around the edge of town were so close to the palisade that one could jump from the closest over the palisade wall. And that was what the four goons did. Ash followed suit, landing in a perfect pose and silently, unlike the men she was following.

  They led her to an abandoned villa — or at least it looked abandoned — a few miles west of the town, very close to the mines. This was a good thing. She could kill two birds with one stone.

  “Boss King!” the boss shouted as he got close to the gates manned by two men with funny looking spears. “Where is King?”

  “He ‘spectin’ ya, boss,” one of the guards said, looking around for others. “You don’t bring anyone for d’ farm?”

  “We were ambushed,” he said, pushing his way through the gates. Ash followed stealthily.

  The compound was large and filled with crates. Lots of wooden crates. But it displeased her that kids were the ones moving the crates. Poorly fed kids who were clearly suffering. Most of them weren’t even fully clothed. Ash’s anger rose and all of a sudden, she felt something, a strange force of some kind, try to penetrate her mind. It felt like a headache, but somehow she knew it wasn’t.

  She paused and looked around. Her ring was glowing green mutely, and giving off a soft sound. The green was the only color she could see on herself — a possible reaction to what just happened. And green meant jade, so something mysterious, beyond the natural essence of the world.

  “Ash,” Jerome’s voice entered her head. “What was that?”

  “I don’t know,” she answered. How did he know something was up? “It felt like something tried to penetrate my head.”

  “Sorry, but I have some level of access to your ring and I’m using it to monitor your situation.”

  “Jerome!” she cried out in her mind. “I can take care of myself!”

  “I know. But it doesn’t mean I wouldn’t worry.”

  She wanted to scream but kept her calm. Someone barged out of the villa soon enough and the men she had followed began walking up to him. She wanted to move but someone grabbed her by the arm. Ash’s heart began beating so loud, her mind screaming at her that the enemy had found her.

  “Shhh. keep quiet!” Sheela’s voice entered her head.

  “What are you doing here, Sheela?”

  “What are ‘you’ doing here?” Sheela asked. “This isn’t the mines.”

  “I was ambushed by those hoodlums and one of them mentioned something that caught my attention.”

  The men reached the new man and began groveling, some even went down on their knees and kowtowed. Ash took a moment to assess the man again. He was handsome, in a way that was unnatural. Lean muscles covered the bare tan flesh of his chest and abs. He was tall, with a finesse and gait that reminded her of Jerome. But not as tall or as handsome as Jerome.

  The strange thing was he was looking at her, or in her general direction. And scanning the area around her with strange gray eyes. She felt that penetrating force again and tried to will it away.

  “What the fuck?!” Sheela said in her head. “He’s using a mental attack of some kind. Ash, this is no ordinary person. We have to get out of here.”

  The man moved. It was like he blinked to their position. Thankfully, Sheela reacted fast enough and lifted them into the air. She wasn’t even wearing her flying boots.

  “Thankfully, I still wear my skysail,” Sheela said with a sigh.

  The man looked around once again. He was right beneath them. But then he looked up, straight at them. Those gray eyes were so beautiful, it felt like she was looking at a storm.

  “I know you’re there,” he said. His voice caught her off guard. It was smooth and silky, slow with a little bit of accent. An accent she couldn’t place.

  “Come down and let us talk. Or do… something a little more… pleasurable,” he said with a sly smile.

  His voice incited feelings she only ever felt for Jerome — and they were such strong feelings. At that moment, he had the whole of her attention. She had to clamp her thighs close and bite her lips to keep from moaning in pleasure. Sheela grunted behind her. She was hugging her so tightly that her ribs were feeling the strain.

  “Get out of there, Ash!” Jerome’s voice reached her again. He began speaking words she couldn’t understand; soft-sounding words that could put someone to sleep. His words sounded as if they were coming from deep within her, seeming to penetrate the haze of pleasure she was feeling. Soon enough, she began to calm down. She took a deep breath and felt like herself once again. Sheela also sighed deeply behind her. She was sure Jerome had been speaking those words to both of them.

  The man was still looking up at them, smiling wickedly to himself with that eerily handsome face of his. But soon, confusion colored his expression. Ash looked away.

  “Let’s get out of here,” Sheela said calmly and flew off.