“…and that’s why I sought out an alchemist. So, is there any way you can help me break the locks?” Neeku asked, trying her best to stay balanced in a wobbly wooden chair as she put down the cup of weak tea that Bip had made. He really was running out of supplies, barely having enough tea leaves to brew a pot and with only a few drops of honey coming off of the comb, she thought sadly. But, beggars can’t be choosers, and I should appreciate his attempts at being a gracious host, she reminded herself. Sheeba agreed with her, giving her the mental equivalent of a pat on the shoulder.
Bip sat across from her, his hands wrapped around his own cup of tea -I noticed HE took the balanced chair, Neeku thought bemusedly- and hummed to himself. He took another sip, made a grimace, put down the cup and hopped down before retrieving it and making his way over to the sink.
“Always hate the dregs at the bottom of a cup,” he grumbled as he quickly washed out his cup, and Neeku nodded in agreement. “Are you done with yours?” Neeku stood up, tossed back the last of the tea -shuddering just as Bip had done- before bringing him her cup so he could wash that as well. He finished washing their cups and took a small grey towel off of the oven door to dry them before putting them away on a rack above the sink, using a stepladder he unfolded to reach that high.
“Your former master must’ve done well for herself if she was able to afford one of these fancy new ovens,” Neeku noticed. “And it’s a good size, too; I think both you and I could fit inside at the same time.” Bip raised an eyebrow at that, so Neeku rushed to change the subject. “Is it true that the wood goes underneath in a specially lined tray, and that it’s sealed when shut so no smoke comes out?”
“The smoke comes out through a pipe that exits out of the back of the house,” Bip said, gesturing to the pipe that stuck up from behind and on top of the oven before bending and going through the wall. “The pipe is coated in everfrost on the outside, to keep it cool no matter how hot the pipe is, same as the outside of the oven. This way, the only outside flame in the kitchen is the small firepit that I use to heat the kettle, and since that’s surrounded by rock the flame never gets out of control. And yes,” the Goblin said with a wistful sigh, “she was an amazing alchemist, she taught me a lot in the few years I knew her.” He sighed once more, then hung the towel back on the oven door.
As they both went back to the table, Neeku asked Bip again. “So, about the lock…?”
Climbing back up onto his chair, Bip frowned and looked up, drumming his left hand’s fingers on the table. “I’ve heard about something like that,” he drawled out. “Thankfully, Yuna spent the last month of her life committing all she knew to a memory stone, so I can consult that. Plus, it would definitely count as my journeyman project.”
Neeku cocked her head to the side. “I have so many questions.”
“Of course you do,” Bip replied sarcastically, still looking up. “First off, a memory stone is a stone that a person can use to commit their memories into, and that others can use to draw upon after they’re gone. It’s a type of blood magic to put the memories in, but thankfully you don’t have to use blood magic to access them; you just have to know the command words. Which is good; blood makes me squeamish.”
I always forget that for a lot of people, blood and death are not things they see all the time or feel comfortable around, Sheeba thought to Neeku.
“I never really had a problem around it,” Neeku thought back. “Wait a minute, does that make me some sort of monster or something, that I’m that comfortable around blood and death?”
In this case, that’s a good thing my dear, Sheeba reassured her about the first part. And as for the latter, I wouldn’t say ‘monster’, just that you’re unique and thankfully so, otherwise this whole endeavor would’ve fallen apart a long time ago.
“Secondly,” Bip continued as Neeku recalled herself to their conversation. “A journeyman project is something a lot of professions have to do, to show that they’re no longer an apprentice but an experienced member. Did you have to do anything like that for your line of work?” he asked as he brought his head back down and looked at Neeku.
“I did, but I’m sure you don’t want to hear the details,” the young assassin told Bip, and he shuddered in agreement. The funny part was, on that mission where Jonah told her afterwards that she was allowed to take on her own clients and didn’t need to wait for his approval, there had been no deaths; it was his way of testing that she understood that just because they were more than capable of taking life didn’t mean they had to at every opportunity. It’s what gave her Bloodmoon, she thought fondly, resisting the urge to pat her weapon in its sheath.
“Let me go up and get it from my room,” the Goblin alchemist said as he hopped down from his chair again, letting out a groan and putting his left hand on the small of his back. “I forgot how much I miss chairs sized for me,” he complained, pushing forward with his left arm as he arched his back, only stopping when it gave a loud crack that startled Neeku. Moaning in satisfaction, Bip went up the small set of stairs around the corner towards what Neeku guessed was his room. The house itself was quite small but cozy; Neeku could see why the Goblin didn’t want to give it up.
A few minutes later, he stomped down the stairs. “Sorry for taking so long, I made sure I’ve got my alchemist’s kit, just in case anything in the memory stone sparks an idea, so I can tinker with it,” Bip told Neeku, grinning up at her with barely contained excitement. It was nice to see the curmudgeonly Goblin excited, and she couldn’t help but grin back. A loud repeated pounding at the door wiped the grins off both of their faces. “Are they here for you or for me?” Bip whispered to Neeku.
“Bip! Open up, by order of the City Council!” an angry voice barked out.
“Do you want me to get rid of them?” Neeku whispered, familiar with how aggressive some of the city guards could be in their pursuit of “orders”. Bip shook his head violently no, so the young assassin leapt up the stairs without a sound. Finding a spot where she could see downstairs without being spotted, Neeku crouched down to observe.
“I’m coming, give me a second,” Bip shouted out as he walked over to the door, lifted the bar over the middle of the door, and unlocked the bolt. No sooner had he done so than the door was shoved violently open, barely missing the Goblin as he stepped back quickly. In marched five human city guardsman and one burly sergeant, who had to crouch slightly to step in through the door. Neeku would’ve guessed that he probably had some Orc in his family tree, especially considering the slight greenish tint to his skin and a nose that looked like it had been pushed into his face.
“So, Erik, what can I do for you today? Do you need a potion of some kind?” Bip asked, hands clasped behind his back; only Neeku from her hiding spot could see that he did that to stop from visibly shaking.
“Like I would take anything from you,” the sergeant snorted, and Neeku revised her opinion of having Orc in him from a possibility to a certainty. “Wouldn’t trust you not to poison it or screw it up somehow. You know how Goblins are,” he said, elbowing one of his subordinates in the side. That guard just grunted, whether in agreement or just to shift Erik’s attention back to Bip Neeku couldn’t say.
Clenching his jaw and swallowing his retort, Neeku watched Bip regain his composure. “Then what DO you want? I’ve already told you -and the Council, through you- that I’m not selling this building. Yuna left it to me, she filed the transfer of deed with the Council before she passed, and my owning it is legitimate. My neighbors will come around and change their minds about a Goblin alchemist, you’ll see.”
Erik chuckled. “Yeah, here’s the thing. The Council has decided that they don’t want a Goblin living in Onimod, and they don’t think anyone is gonna want to live in a place where a Goblin stank it up. You should’ve taken the money when you had the chance.”
Neeku watched Bip swallow, hearing his loud gulp as clearly as if she was next to him. “Erik, what are you saying?”
“I’m saying that the boys and I are going to kill you and burn the building down. There’s nothing of value in here anyway; if there was, you’d have sold it to buy yourself some food. Not that anyone here was going to sell you even one rotten vegetable,” Erik laughed, and his guards joined in. “And if some of the nearby buildings also burn down, well, it’s just 2nd Circle; nobody important lives this far down anyway. Goodbye Bip, can’t say it was nice knowing you.” Erik reached down and picked Bip up by the front of his vest, grinning savagely.
Now? Sheeba asked as Neeku drew Bloodmoon and prepared her spell.
“Now,” Neeku thought back, drawing on her Goddess’s power and generating a sphere of darkness down at the entrance to the house. It wouldn’t last more than a minute, but that was all the time she needed. Plus, she figured that Bip would be capable of seeing in the dark, just like she could, so he’d be able to hide once she freed him from Erik’s grip. Jumping down the stairs, she ignored the cries of the humans who now couldn’t see and used Bloodmoon to separate Erik’s hand from his wrist. Bip fell down as the sergeant roared in pain. “Run Bip!” she shouted out, and the Goblin quickly scurried under the stairs.
“What the fuck?” Erik shouted out, cradling his stump as blood spurted out. Neeku ignored him as she spun around and made short work of his men. They spent more time crying out and being incompetent than threatening her. The closest one came was when he drew his short sword but ended up stabbing one of his companions in the chest as she ducked under his thrust; he didn’t even realize he’d killed his fellow guard before she stabbed him up through the jaw. And just like that, all five guardsmen were dead. Then, Neeku felt a torch being lit behind her and smelled sizzling flesh before a wordless scream sounded out and she was grabbed from behind and thrown to the side. She hit the wall and fell to the floor, not having time to do anything before a large hand grabbed her wrist and squeezed until she dropped Bloodmoon. She yelled once, gazing up at her attacker.
Now that she was disarmed from her only visible weapon, Erik scowled down at her. Of course, Neeku thought, if he does have some Orc in him he also has their natural Darkvision. That was all she had time to think before he used his one remaining hand to grab her by the throat and lift her up, crushing her windpipe. “I’m going to enjoy killing you, bitch, and then I’ll kill that runt the same way,” he snarled, and if she hadn’t been being strangled Neeku would’ve gagged on how horrendous Erik’s breath smelled. “Don’t know who you are or where you came from, and I don’t care. You’ll die all the same.” Her legs kicked and she pounded on his arm, but the sergeant was too strong, and Neeku felt her vision growing darker. She wanted to draw Nightblade, but the angle was wrong for it to be effective. She could feel Sheeba’s panic but couldn’t think how to get herself out of this before dying.
Suddenly, Erik let out a yowl of agony, and Neeku could smell burning flesh again. He dropped her to the ground, and she rolled away, gasping for breath around her bruised throat. Neeku couldn’t believe her eyes; there was Bip, holding the lit torch to Erik’s crotch with both hands. Even after Erik dropped to his knees and tried to turn away, Bip matched his movements. In desperation, the sergeant lashed out with his good arm, knocking both Bip and the torch to the side. Before he had the chance to regain his feet, Neeku summoned the Nightblade and lunged forward, driving it right between his eyes. As the light fading from them, she spit in his face before pulling the blade out, letting it dissipate from her hand.
A loud roar jolted her back to the moment, and as the globe of darkness vanished, Neeku spotted Bip face down on the ground, the lit torch turning the entryway into an inferno. She managed to pull Bip away from the rapidly growing flames, along with picking Bloodmoon back up. “Of course, an alchemist’s house would be extremely flammable,” she grumbled out loud. “Just my luck.” The Goblin didn’t stir, so she took the time to check his pulse, Faint, but alive, which was good. “He’s too heavy, I won’t be able to lift him and run out the back door.”
What are you going to do? Sheeba asked, and her quiet confidence that her acolyte would find a way out of this mess gave Neeku the boost she needed.
“Something risky, something stupid, but sometimes stupid and risky are all the options we have,” she said out loud, coughing from the smoke billowing upwards.
Jonah would be proud, the Goddess of the Night exclaimed, and Neeku smiled. Dragging the Goblin, trying her best not to hurt him any more than he already was, the young assassin made their way back into the kitchen. That IS risky and stupid, Sheeba said to Neeku.
“If you…have a better idea…I’m all ears,” Neeku panted out. As none was forthcoming, she continued on with her plan. The heat from the front room was now so intense, it felt like she was dripping out every bit of moisture she’d ever had in her body. But stopping wasn’t an option, so she opened the oven, used Bloodmoon to puncture the pipe in the back that led outside, and manhandled Bip inside. Once he was in, Neeku wedged herself in as well.
Why is there a handle on the inside of the door? Sheeba asked.
“I imagine that some children used to climb in playing around,” Neeku thought, too tired to speak, “and after a few unfortunate deaths they came up with this safety measure. The pipe in the back will give us some fresh air from outside, and all we have to do now is wait out the fire.” Not wanting to consider the alternative, Neeku grabbed the handle on the inside of the oven door and pulled it shut behind her and Bip. Not wanting to pass out, the events caught up to her and she found herself drifting off anyway, hoping that her decision hadn’t doomed them both. And then, all went black.
