The Gift and The Curse

Chapter 2 - Trouble Brewing

Well, fuck.

The pair of eyes staring daggers at me from the window weren't disappearing no matter how much I prayed for them to go away. Did they see me? Of course they did, but did they realise what I had done? That was my main concern.

There was little reason to panic, I thought to myself wishfully. It was dark. He couldn't have seen my face well. If I leave, he wouldn't ever find me. On one hand I could run now, but that would confirm any doubts they might have. On the other, if I stayed but they had indeed seen what I'd done that was hardly any better. It didn't help we were on the edge of the slums, and there were guards at the Centre only a shout away.

The best thing to do was just to get on with it. Maybe if I collected myself, got on with my errands, filled the bucket and walked away, they'd leave me alone. What would they want with me anyway? Yeah, yeah that could work.

The person who saw me, of course, didn't think so.

No, the next thing I knew was a pair of rough hands grabbing the back of my shirt and manhandling me away from the well, into the boisterous warmth of 'The Rim's Inn. I struggled, merry faces of people enjoying their drinks passed by. Oh, no worries that someone was being kidnapped right before their eyes, just another Sunday for them!

A door opened and then slammed shut behind us. It was dark, slightly damp, with the smell of hops and wine perforating the walls. A brewing room, or a storage closet? There were no windows, only one way out. There were also no witnesses, I thought to myself without even realising what that implied.

He threw me at the wall, forcefully, but with no intention to really harm. That was always a good sign. I winced, bearing the impact, while trying to get a better look at the guy. He was perhaps a little taller, and gnarly to boot.

"What the hell was that?" he spat angrily.

"Tssss, that kinda hurt. Did you really have to chuck me like that?", buy time, I just gotta buy time and weasel my way out of this. I was about to keep going and change the subject, but he didn't let me.

"Shut it, I saw you."

"Saw me what, getting water from the well? I'm sorry, if I had known it belonged to this Inn and that you were such a prick-"

"You wielded magic."

I paused. His eyes glinted at mine in the dim. "Wielded magic?"

He froze.

No one referred to magic as being 'wielded' unless they were once tied with the now disgraced Magician's Guild.

"You were doing magic. I saw you." he snarled, as if that little correction would save him. "What's worse is that wasn't just some beginners level work. Someone taught you."

Images of Marcus snapping my neck and cracking my skull flashed by. Losing an apprenticeship was one thing, but revealing that he taught magic, a capital offence, was not even comparable.

Fleeing was my best option. There was no was he could find me again. I stepped for the door. "Look, I don't know what you are on about, so let me just go and we can forget about all-"

"You stay where-"

His hands reached for my throat. He was older, taller, much more well-muscled than my gangly ass.

There would be no witnesses. No one would believe him. In a moment, I could run and this would all be over. I knew what I had to do.

The power beneath my skin answered, almost too eagerly. It erupted, like a wild beast being let off its leash. It slammed against him, pushing him to the wall. But it didn't stop there.