Trouble comes in Pairs

Chapter 4 - Are we the baddies?

Fuck. I hadn't slipped up in a week. This was the reason I wanted that tablet translated. A while after I started using this magic rock I started having magical accidents. It was void magic, a very very dangerous type of magic and not having control scared me.

I could have just gotten rid of the thing but well… I didn't trust anyone else with it and with all the people after us it let me protect myself. I also kinda enjoyed being a stupidly powerful mage. I was well below average before I got this rock and I didn't want to lose what I had gained.

My accidents usually involved a surge of void magic I couldn't contain that ended up destroying something. I was normally able to direct it away from people but it had to go somewhere. This time it was the outer wall of my room at the inn. Rue and I can't afford to have this fixed. I really didn't want to have to deal with the city guard because it'd just make us wanted criminals in the capital like were weren't already in a third of the kingdom.

I snuck out of my room and into Rue's. I was shaking a bit hoping no one would find me.

A while later, the door swung open, "Yo sis, sup." Rue strolled in as upbeat as ever. "What're you doin in my room?" she asked with a smug look that told me she knew exactly why I was in here.

I flipped her off.

"Does that mean you don't want to sleep in my bed tonight?" She didn't get a reply. "Sis, it was just another accident. Stop with the little pity party you're throwing yourself and cheer up."

"Shut up." I was curled up hugging my legs on the bed. I had closed the curtains so I wouldn't get sunburnt. I finally noticed she had a few new bloodstains. "What did you do?" I accused.

"I went for a walk… and maybe killed a few people hired to kill you." She confessed with a bit of mirth. "Zura's dad hired them to off you which is hilarious considering how weak they were. Don't look at me like that. If I didn't kill them you'd have done it and then whined for like a whole hour that you killed four people before forgetting about it."

Fucking Rue assuming everyone was as awful as her. "I wouldn't forget about it!"

"Oh really? So who were the last five people you killed?" Her smug look had yet to disappear.

"There was… someone from this morning, and uh…" Gods, did I really stop paying attention to how many people I've been killing? "I'm a monster." I whispered to myself.

"Nah, I'm a monster. See the fangs?" She pointed to them. "You just have too many enemies. Besides, dwelling on every person you kill would drive you insane. It's okay to not care about slaughtering a few asswipes here and there. If anything you're making the world a better place."

That was the opposite of reassuring. I'd accepted my sister was a horrible person, but me? I-I tried to be good, but… I don't know what happened.

She sat down next to me and started rubbing my back. "Sis, you're like the nicest person I've met. If you don't qualify as a good person then no one does."

Despite her words only troubling me further, it helped that she was physically here. I'd never admit it to her but I was glad to have her around.

She broke the silence. "It's about time for our evening dose. How much do we have left? It'd fucking suck to run out in the middle of the dungeon."

I reached into the void and pulled out some lunarvine. "We have about ten days' worth."

"Yea, I don't know if this a day trip kind of dungeon or like the month long kind. We should get some more before we leave." She told me.

"Do we have enough coin?" Why I trusted Rue with the coin was beyond me. Okay, actually it was because most of our coin came from her assaulting people between jobs.

She went wide eyed. "I fucking forgot to grab their shit! Ugh, we might have enough, but maybe we can get the rich girl to buy it instead. Then again she's paying for that missing wall."

I groaned. It came back to my fuck-up. On top of it, we needed to figure out a way to get more lunarvine or else… I just grabbed my bit of the dried herb and slid it under my tongue. Rue did the same. It at least forced her to shut up for a while.

She ran her hand through my hair and I scratched behind her ears. Just a pair of fucked up misfits here.

We heard a commotion from next door as people discovered my actual room and the state it was in. Azura had gotten us a pretty nice inn, it was either her bribing us with good will or the rich girl didn't understand how most people live. All that meant was that the damage I did was more than Rue and I could make in a year.

A pounding on our door forced Rue to get up as I hid on the bed drowning in my black cloak. I don't understand how she could stand dealing with the angry innkeeper. The fact that it was my fault made it hard to ignore the yelling. Normally I could chalk it up Rue being Rue and just ignore shit but this was on me.

Rue bullshat her way into directing them to charge house Trabrandt as the room was under their name and thus they were liable. She had to have thought about it before hand because her spontaneous bullshitting was never this good. And now I was reminded of the time she convinced me I was adopted. I grumbled internally.

Slamming the door after them, she turned to me. "If the idea of fucking with Zura's dad wasn't so enticing I'd have ripped that guy's throat out. What a cunt." She collapsed on the bed next to me.

I got up and went to go use the private bath because this place had those. She peeked her head in. "When did this get here? Ya know what? I could use a bath too I have months of gunk to clean out."

"I'm taking one first." I grumbled at her waiting for her to leave so I could undress.

"Nah this is my room we're bathing together like when we were little." I used magic to fling her away and slam the bathroom door. A moment later it swung open. "Oh no you don't, I need you to scrub the bloodstains around the base of my tail."

I didn't have the energy to argue with her. "Whatever take one if you want. I'm going to bed." I changed in the corner with my body hidden by my cloak.

"Winter… Fine be that way." She went in and enjoyed a bath. The faint smell of wet dog lingered in the air.

I cuddled Ms. Flamescourge in a bed that had no right to be this comfy. Rue came in and commented on my dragon. "Holy shit you still have that old thing? Wow, anyway move over I need some room."

I was soon reminded of the other reason I usually got my own room. She fucking snores. I didn't fall asleep until exhaustion overtook the awful noises she was making.

Two hours of sleep later I awoke to a pounding on the door. Rue was still snoring so I pushed her with my feet until she fell out of bed and dealt with it.

"Oh great it’s the dog." Said an angry Azura. She barged her way in.

Rue verbally jabbed her. "I know you're eager to get in my bed but it's a bit occupied at the moment."

"I'm not here to… I thought you were messing with me when you mentioned a missing wall! I swear to the gods if you two did it on purpose,"

Rue cut her off, "It was a fucking accident, I told you this shit happens sometimes. It's why we want into the stupid fucking scroll place. Sure I'd do it to fuck with you but Winter's not fucking like that." She grumbled. "Why are you waking us up in the middle of the night?"

Azura looked a bit taken aback until Rue mentioned the time. She walked over to the windows and opened the curtains. I immediately hid under the covers. "It's past noon."

"Sis, you were supposed to wake me up! We were supposed to take our shit hours ago." Rue exclaimed as she tried to pull the covers back.

I grumbled, having barely gotten any sleep I held the covers where they were. Also there was now a lot of sunlight in the room and I was only wearing my night gown. Also Azura was in here, and I was only wearing my night gown and holding Ms. Flamescourge who I definitely had to hide from her.

"Winter get your pasty ass out here and give me my meds!" Rue yelled.

"Close the curtains!" As I yelled that Rue stopped trying to get me out and I heard the sound of them closing. I stowed my dragon in the void so Azura wouldn't see and came out. My right eye was twitching from lack of sleep, my eyelids felt heavy, and I hadn't reapplied my eye enchantments to be able to see properly.

"Fuck sis what happened to you?" Rue sounded concerned, despite being responsible for my lack of sleep.

I pulled a bit of lunarvine out, threw a bit at her, shoved mine under my tongue and laid back down to get some sleep.

Rue left with Azura.