MeasurePebbles: Wizards or Some Shit | Chapter 16 | Hangover

[CW: CSA mentioned, abuse of power, general dumbassery]    Yuri Mor bellowed down at Terri Lurien, “You were utterly useless back there!”    “I do not know what you expected, sir."  The half elf's cold tenor was smooth and even, but still held audible contempt.  "I am practiced at all things related to marksmanship.  My melee work is with rapiers and daggers.”    “I don’t have room for worthless pricks in my ranks!  You were brought because of your supposed strength against undead.”    “Sir, they were skeletons.”    “Don’t backtalk me, boy.”[READ-MORE]    “Sir, I’m older than you, and all I have done is point out the obvious.  What did you wish for me to do?  Play the xylophone upon their rib cages?”  Terri’s gaze fell and he quickly added, “Sir.”    Yelling was not what Nero wanted to wake up to.  He sat up and clutched his head, pulling his knees in close, and tried to block it out.  He was vaguely aware the loudest voice was someone he hated.  He squinted into the magically cooled pop-up tent.  Yep.  That was Yuri.    “I can have the coating on your bonds dissolved, you pathetic excuse for a monster!”    “Yes, you very well could, Sir,” Terri replied.  The rest of his squad stood at attention for this idiotic argument.  Nero rolled his eyes, and caught a smirk from a couple of them before he put his head down on his knees.    “What are you morons smiling about?”    “Uh, sir, the focus is awake,” Mike offered.    “About damned time.”  Yuri picked up a dirty cup and stomped over to Nero.  “Drink this.”    Nero hesitated, but knew better than to piss off Yuri when he was in one of his moods.  He took it and wiped the rim with his thumb, then downed all of it.  It tasted awful.  His face screwed up as he lowered the cup.  He had no idea what to do with the cup after that, so he just stared at it, tongue peeking out between his teeth.  The aftertaste was somehow worse.  He was going to have to make sure he wasn’t anywhere where anyone could order him to drink anything for a long damned time.    “Good.”  Yuri snatched the gross cup back.  “Hurry and recover.  We are using you to return home.”  He stomped out of the tent, leaving Nero to wince with each receding step.    “Da hell were dat ‘bout?” Nero asked, then cringed and wiped his tongue on the hem of his shirt.  “Dat were gross.”    “Yuri’s own hangover cure,” Mike said.  “He made me drink it, too, even though I had actual healing.  It’s ass-nasty shit.”    “Fer serious woul’ rather eat ass,” Nero mumbled and rubbed his forehead.  “I’z mean, uh, dat tin ‘bout ‘im usin’ me ta gets home.”    “Sorry,” Vince said.  “Uh, it was the only way we could let you rest.  Ivan and I told him we could use you to make the timeshift tunnel sooner.”    “Oh.”  It was a good thing Yuri took the cup, or Nero would have smashed it.    “Do not fret.  We have a plan,” Mack said.  “Ivan had a plan.  We hung a vessel crystal around your neck while you slept.  It was easy to do while we were moving you.”    Nero patted around his throat and followed the chain to a pendant under his shirt, picking it out to stare at it blankly.  He zoned out, sitting there on the floor of the tent, looking at the tiny bit of glass or quartz or whatever that any number of assholes could have used instead of him.  A blue light swirled inside, if he held it right and the light caught it just perfectly.    “Terr, you really older than the commander?” Mike asked.  “I thought you were the youngest of us all.”    “Yes, I am older than him,” Terri said.  “I was born on the other side of the veil, where time moves differently, but even accounting for that, I am older.  Sorry for being a short half breed with an unaging face.”  His sarcasm was thick.    “You should be sorry that you didn’t help with the damned sarcophagus.  Fucking thing was heavy,” Vince said.  He looked out the front flaps of the tent again to make sure Yuri wasn’t storming back, then offered Nero his hand.  “Hey, how are you feeling?”    “Hung over,” Nero grumbled and grabbed his hand.  He definitely needed help to get his feet under him.  “Dat glass a green shit din’t do nuttin’.”    “I am not sorry, by the by,” Terri said blandly.    “Ha!  That shit about you deathless assholes is true.  You’re scared of corpses!” Mike taunted, pointing.    “Oh, yes, terrified.  Absolutely.  Never could I wade hip deep through bodies, nor watch someone die.”    “You freak if a drop of blood hits you.”    “Because it hurts, dumbass.”  Terri smacked Mike’s hand out of his face.  “Why do we not spray you down with acid to see if you enjoy it.”    “You did avoid touching anything in the tomb,” Mack mused aloud.  “If you are not afraid of death, then I do not understand those actions.”    “The same reason I gladly stepped aside from being the spell focus,” Terri said.  “I am not a complete idiot.  I do not much enjoy the idea of spending a few hundred years cursed or having part of my soul ripped out.”    “Is dat whut happened?” Nero asked, wide-eyed.  He pressed his fingers over his sternum, trying to find the hollow place where his soul should be.  It wasn’t anything physical, but that didn’t occur to him in his panicked state.    “No.  You are fine,” Terri said dismissively.  “Whatever that was yours, you pulled back.  I checked when we returned.”    “He was unconscious,” Vince said.  “You were unconscious, right?”    Nero nodded, looking uncomfortably confused.  “I dun undahstand.  Whut chu mean, whut were mine?”    “How in the world shall I know?” Terri asked.  “You were missing bits, and now you are not.  I can see that much, but other than that, I haven’t the foggiest.  You are essentially trying to have me explain colour to a blind man.”    “Is it not should?  How in the world should I know?” Mack asked.    “Dun pick on people’s second language, Mack,” Nero said, rubbing his temples.    “This is mine as well.  That is why I asked.”    “It matters not,” Terri said.  “The meaning was clear.”    “Whute’er, jus’, like, stop agruin’.  I’z woke up ta chellin’ an’ shit.  Already gots a headache.  I dun need chu four jackasses makin’ it worse.”  Nero tucked the necklace back in his shirt, then pulled on the toggle keeping the cape on him.  It wasn’t his cape, so he had no idea where it came from.  It was far too hot to wear it, though.    “Sorry.  We’ll tone it down.”  Vince reached behind him and caught the cape.  “Hey, careful.  That’s Ivan’s.”    “Da fuck it doin’ on me?  We’z in da damned desert.”    “Uh, I don’t know.”  Vince held it up, then flipped it in half so he could fold it.  “He put it on you as soon as you were in the tent.  I just assumed it was, uh, helping you somehow.”    “I dun tink it magic,” Nero mumbled.    “It is not,” Terri agreed.  “I did not think it odd, since I cannot feel changes in temperature.”    “Pretty chure dis tin on mi neck is Viktor’s, tambien.”    “You would be correct again.”    “Yeah, Ivan contacted him, using his magic trunk, I think?  Uh, that was after we went after the sword.  It’s just to make it seem like Ivan’s pulling the spells out of you.  You were out for a while.”    “He was out the appropriate time it took to heal.  Are you saying I overcast magic as poorly as you do?” Terri half growled, glaring at Vince.    “Uh, no.  I didn’t …  Last time I tried…  Nevermind.  Fey magic, the fuck do I know about it?”    “Nothing, clearly.”    “Din’t gets rid a mi hango’er.”    “I did not care to.”  Terri crossed his arms.  “You drank too much.  I was under no obligation to remedy it.”    “You could not, is more the point,” Mack cut in.  “We should go.  Yuri is still furious, despite attaining his prize.  I would like to put distance between the two mostly likely to cause an incident.”    “I ain’t goin’ ta start shit,” Nero defended himself.  “Dere no healer ‘round dat coul’ fix me up if I’z did.”    “I doubt very much that either of us shall try at this point, but there is little doubt that Yuri will make up a reason for his own amusement.”  Terri tugged at his leather armor.  “I would like a few quiet moments to prepare for either that or our march back, however.”    Mack scratched at his stomach.  “It is not like you to talk instead of act.  If you wished to leave, you would have done so.”    “He’ll be fine, Terr.  Go on.  I’ll stay here.”    For just a second, the half-elf was taken off guard.  He quickly regained his composure, though his expression said, How-dare-you-accuse-me-of-caring.  “Very well.”  He left in a swirl of cloak and silence.    “Later, loooooosers,” Mike said, making obnoxious gestures suggesting vigorous mating.    Mack grabbed Mike by the back of his uniform like a misbehaving pup.  “Off we go.”  Michael was dragged off unceremoniously.    “‘E still drunk?” Nero asked after they left the tent.    “I wouldn’t be surprised.  He should be as kicked in the brain as you are.”  Vince stared after them.  “Little hair of the dog probably kept him on his feet rather than Yuri’s idea of a cure.”    “Dat shit gross.  I’z like it bettah when ‘e naw tryin’ ta helps me.”  Nero bent down to fetch the blanket he’d been laying on off the ground.  “Why da fuck do ‘e tink it work?”  He shook the bedding out, trying to get the sand off it.    “Uh.  Nero?”    “Ches?”    “Your back.”    Nero turned around and looked at Vince.  “Whut?  Do I gots a bruise dere?  I dun feel nuttin’.”    “Your brand.  It’s… It’s different.”    “Oh.  I’z tol’ chu it shift sumtimes.  Maybe is cuz whute’er Ives did.”    “All the red, it’s faded or something.  Not pink, but greyish?  The rose look dead.”    Nero’s eyes flicked around Vince’s face.  “Okay?”  He flicked the blanket again, making it snap.  “Dis tin goin’ ta be itchy all nigh’.  Is da fire faded, too?”    “Let me see.”  Vince moved around behind him and pushed some of the fabric out of the way.  “No.  I guess it’s just the rose and the, uh, I think it’s a sunflower?  I was always confused about that, but now it’s bright yellow instead of … whatever it was before.  Some of the lines moved, I think, or the whole thing shifted, I dunno.  It looks different.”    “Weird,” Nero said.  “Maybe is when I gets used a a vessel?  O maybe Ivan pulled da magic out of mi brands instead a da stored spells?”    “I can ask.”    Nero folded the blanket and pulled it up to his chest.  “I’z woul’ rather chu din’t.”    “Why not?  Don’t you want to know?”    Nero shook his head slightly after a moment.  “No.  I dun wan’ ta know.”    “He’s, uh…  Ivan is really upset he did that to you.  I’m not sure he knows you’re a person, but he is sorry.”    “I’z naw, naw ta dem anyway.  Is naw really ‘is fault.  ‘Is brothers taut ‘im sum fucked up shit.”    “Uh, if you remember how your eyes were fucked up, I bet he’d be happy to fix them.”    “I’z bet ‘e woul’,” Nero snapped.  He took a breath.  “No, Vince.  Do chu know how wizards undo curses an’ shit?  Dey cast da same shit in da same manner.  I’z mean, is a reverse a da cast, but whute’er.  I’z woul’ need a witch.  A real fuckin’ good one, o a sorcerer o sumtin’.  Naw sum fuckin’ wizard.”    “I do not understand what the hell you’re trying to say,” Vince said slowly, watching Nero carefully for signs that he was about to explode.  “I get that you’re angry, but I don’t get why.”    “Look, it happen a long time ‘go.  I’z coul’n’t e’en talks good chet.  Dere no way I’z coul’ tell ‘im how ta undo it.”    “That’s not what your reaction was.  That was you not wanting to get fucked over.”  It took a minute for Vince’s own words to filter into his thoughts.  “Oh, literally fucked over.  Shit.”    Nero shrugged, blanket still folded over his arms.  “Sumtin like dat.”    “Do you…  I mean, I know you offer your, uh, services to soldiers and dignitaries and shit.  Do any of them still…  Like, is there still magic involved.”    “Sumtimes.”    “Do the Mors?..” Vince let that hang in the air.    “Sumtimes.  I’z tried ta stop o run o whute’er befer.  Semyon jus’, oum.  Chu know how Terri ca’ glamor people inta doin’ shit fer ‘im?  Is like dat, a little bit.  Is a charm spell sor’ a tin, essept da target is whoe’er I’z supposed ta be wit.  Illusionist magic, dough, naw dat fey nature shit.”    “Can’t you defend against it?  Like you did to me?”    “Ches, but it woul’ be very fuckin’ stupit ta lets Semyon o Yuri knows I ca’ do dat.  Ivan dun realize dat sor’ a tin important o whute’er.  ‘E’s off in ‘is own little world.  Viktor figured it out becau’ a whut Yuri does ta me.  I’z fough’ ‘im on anytin dat din’t feel righ’.”    “What do you mean, feel right?”    “Feel like healin’ magics.  If I’z can’t feel dat, I’z push it ‘way.”    “Okay, one more stupid question.  What the hell happened to the guy who had you before?”    Nero’s shoulders pulled up and in.  “I’z dun wan’ ta talks ‘bout dat.  Naw ‘ere.  Is naw sumtin nice.”    “Okay.”  He gave Nero a squishy hug, which, while not returned, made him feel better.    “Awake?  Awake, awake?”  Ivan came in.  “Oh, yes.  They said you were awake.  Good.  I.  I-I, sorry.  Very.”    “Is okay, Ives.”    “No.  No, you trusted me.  Hurt.  Not okay.  Bad.  Very bad.”    “I’z fine.  See, I’z righ’ ‘ere.”    “Yes, here now.  Not here later.  Took part.”  Ivan sniffed.  “Think so, anyway.  I did very bad.”    “Terri said I’z fine.  Dat da missin’ bits is back.  I dun real know whut dat means, dough, but I’z dun feel weird o nuttin’.”    “Shit, don’t cry,” Vince said.  “Uh, here’s your cape back.”  He offered it to the wizard.    “Thanks.  Sorry.  Had to hide the stuff.  Bad things.  Took part.  Glad you are okay.  Sad not okay later.”    “Ives, chu din’t takes par’ a mi soul o life o whute’er.  I’z mean, maybe chu did, but is back now, so’s is okay.”    “Too na-nice,” Ivan stammered.  “I was bad.  I used you.  It was bad.  I shouldn’t have done that.  Now Yuri wants to use you always.”    Nero had to tamp down his own fear.  He put on a broad smile.  “Dun worry.  Dat naw goin’ ta happens.  Dere a limited amount a magic in me, cha?  It will runs out, an’ den I’z jus’ a empty vessel.”    Ivan pressed his cape onto his face to awkwardly dry his tears.  “Yes.”  It came out muffled, so he took it away again.  “Yes, I will tell him that.  You will be empty after the tunnel spell.  He can’t tell.  Hopefully not tell Sem.  Maybe I’ll tell Sem, so this never happens again.  There are other vessels, too.  The new one is.”    “Cha, ‘e is.  So’s, when do we’z leave?”    “Soon.  Need to compress the tents.  Can do that now.  Then leave.  Then be home before nightfall.  Sleep in own bed.  Rest.  Relieved of duty until I say you’re not.”    “Sound borin’,” Nero said.    “Stay with Vince.  Vince wants you to.  Stay there, be safe.  Nice bed.  Very soft.”    “I, uh…  I don’t have regular training for a while.  I’ve got the other thing.  I can’t do it very long, so I’ll be back, uh, probably before you wake up.”    “Whut otro tin?” Nero asked.    “Dragon thing.  Training to ride the dragon,” Ivan said, happy to help.  “I can say it.  He can’t if it’s not to one of us.”    Nero looked at Vince, then back at Ivan.  “Okay.”    “Uh, just… okay?  That’s all you have to say?”    “‘Ey, I’z offered ta guess.  Chu clothes all smell burned.  It weren’t hard.”    “Sem picked him!  He should be proud.  Thought because the dragon saw him helping you, dragon would be nice.  Working.  Oh, wait.”  Ivan took his wand from his sleeve and flicked it while saying numbers.  “There.  Can talk now, to him.”    “Yeah, working every single time she tries to cook me.”    “Whut chu esspect ‘er ta do?  Chu keep ‘er chained in a cave dat smell like horse shit.  I’z woul’ trow fits, too.”    “But I don’t keep her there!”    “She dun know dat.”  Nero tossed the dirty blanket back on the ground.  “Come on.  Le’s get da tents all packed.”[/READ-MORE]