The Weapon

Chapter 4 - Small Talks

Hunter laid down as well. It was dark out which meant sleep on some nights. I didn't always get good sleep. Also I had been spending a lot of time recently magically asleep so that's kind of messed me all up.

"You going to sleep?" Warrior asked.

I shook my head. "I'm not sleepy yet"

"Suit yourself."

"So uh, who are you guys and why were you in the castle? Like I still don't know who any of you are. You just said you were saving me and then kidnapped me."

"Right…" He scratched his cheek. "So the Dark Queen has been hurting a lot of people, and we are trying to stop her and save everyone from her villainy."

I laughed a bit. "Her majesty is like super strong. How are you going to stop her?" Sick your hand in the fire. My head snaped a bit to the side. "No, Shut up."

"Uh what was that?" He looked concerned.

"T-The whispers said to put my hand in the fire, but I don't want to."

"And they do this often? I still don't understand what you mean by whispers."

"Well it's like when you're in a crowd and everyone's talking, and like you can tell people are talking but not about what. Sometimes people are close by or loud and you do hear them. That's what the whispers are like, there's always a crowd, but they are all talking to me instead of to each other." I was twirling my hair as it was uncomfortable to talk about them. Most people didn't even ask me about them anymore.

"Wow, that sounds awful. Has it always been like that for you?"

"Ever since I got my magic." I then remembered we weren't even talking about this originally. "I was asking about you not me."

"Oh yea. So we were wearing disguises to try and discover the queens weaknesses and that’s when we found you. Apparently you were important and we lucked into that guard telling us to watch you and well… you were there for that part." He explained.

"Okay, but why you three? Like a lot of people don't like her majesty but no one else sneaks into her castle and kidnaps me."

"We saved you… with kidnapping, but it was saving. As for us, we each have our own reasons but as a small group of skilled adventurers we can pull off a lot of things other people can't, like stealth missions."

"Weird."

Mage spoke up, "Can you two shut it. I'm trying to sleep."

"Yea." Warrior said.

I didn't agree to anything but I didn't feel like talking anymore. I stood up and started walking.

"Wait where are you going?" He asked.

"I'm free right? Doesn't that mean I can go where I want?" I asked him.

"I guess yea but it's safer to stay here." He told me.

"Cool." And I kept walking away.

Going places without needing permission was fun. I mean it was night so I couldn't see very well but that was details. Besides the runes on my bindings glowed a little once I stepped far enough away from the camp. Especially this one rune on my collar. She's tracking you just like last time. Stab the Mage.

"Shut up." They unfortunately did have a point. What if I was being tracked? She always found me when I ran or hid. But why didn't it glow before I left camp… did they have sneaky magic?

So even if I was hidden, now I'm not. So I can either wait for her majesty and find out who my new guard is, or I could go back to camp and hope they don't get caught.

I want to stay free for a while so I guess I'll go back. I turned around and stumbled back… except I couldn't see the light of the camp fire anymore. They had really good hiding magic. I started walking hoping to go back in and after a short bit of walking I could see them again, and also my stuff stopped glowing.

I looked at the warrior. "I think she can track me. My thingy started glowing when walked outside."

"Oh. That's not good. Hopefully Tae's magic keeps us hidden."

I nodded.

I started plucking grass from the northern hillside. There wasn't much dirt or trees around so I didn't have much to fiddle with.

After his shift, he woke Hunter and she got up while he slept. She waved at me and I shyly waved back. Kiss her. My face went red, and I quietly whispered to myself, "I-I can't just do that."

"So you have any hobbies?" She asked me. Her voice low as not to wake the other two.

"Not really… I guess I like drawing and exploring. You?"

"Woodcarving, sometimes I play the flute. Adventuring takes up a lot of my time."

"Oh, what kind of adventures have you gone on?" I really liked stories.

"Saved a village from some goblins. Uncovered a cult and thwarted their summoning ritual. Most of them aren't as interesting as those."

"You aren't good at telling stories are you." I was a little disappointed.

She giggled lightly. "I'm not, you'd have to ask Dray. He can get pretty lively with his descriptions."

"You mean Warrior?" I pointed.

"Yes. You really can't remember names?" Hunter asked.

I shook my head. "Not really, faces are bad too. I mostly go by voice and like stuff I notice, like you’re an ambered eyed hunter."

"So if you met another hunter with amber eyes you couldn't tell us apart?"

"Not by your face. I'd notice if they were a guy or really old or short or something. I'd also hear they have a different voice." I explained. "I get a lot of the guards and soldiers mixed up and outside of my current guard I don't try anymore." Behind you. I turned to catch whatever it was. It was nothing. I always fell for the ones saying there's something behind me.

"You hear something?"

I shook my head. "I do that a lot. They like to say things are behind me."

"The whispers?" She received a nod. "Maybe we can find a healer who can help with those."

"No. Her majesty tried but every healer she had said there was nothing they could do to help." I told her. "Besides there not always bad. Sometimes they notice things I don't. Like how I was being tracked when I left camp."

She went a bit wide eyed. "You're being tracked?"

"I think so. When I left the camp my collar glowed and a whisper said I was being tracked. I think it was right because it stopped when I came back."

"That's not good. That’s very bad. We might need to leave." She sounded worried.

"Well they must have been glowing while I was being carried right? So stepping outside wouldn't make a big difference."

"Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. This is really bad." She went over and woke Mage up. "We're being tracked."

"Wha… Tracked… Wait what?! How? When?" Mage asked waking up half way through that.

"Her collar. The one that was glowing before we setup camp and stopped after your nondetection spell."

"Oh, Oh shit." She got up and came over to my collar. I noticed her dagger and I was tempted but I promised hunter not to stab anyone. I decided to grab it anyway for if I changed my mind.

Mage did some fancy magic stuff to my collar. "I can't tell. The magic's not active now."

"She said it started glowing when she left camp." Hunter said.

"Well I'd rather wights not find us, so we aren't testing that. Maybe it'd be best if she left so we don't get caught and murdered."

"She's the source of the queens power and she was a prisoner, we can't give her back." Hunter argued.

"How about we just kill her that way we don't get caught and the queen doesn't get her walking mana fountain back."

I tensed up the dagger in my hand. I was about to stab her when Hunter countered. "We aren't murdering an innocent person."

"She threatened to stab right after she woke up." Mage shot back.

Warrior woke up. "What's going on?"

"Kallista's being tracked." Hunter told him.

"Oh yea, I was going to mention it in the morning." He said sleepily.

They both looked at him. "You knew?!" I actually don't know which one said that.

"Yea she mentioned it on my shift." He said sheepishly.

"I still say we kill her." Mage insisted.

"Taena we aren't killing her." Warrior said. "Killing her would make us just as bad as the queen."

Mage snorted a laugh. "Killing one person would not make us as bad as someone who kills thousands on a regular basis."

I heard a roar in the distance. I knew that roar that was a certain dragon I watched rise from the dead. I looked around to the three arguing over whether it was okay to kill me. They didn't seem to notice.

"Did you guys not hear that?" They looked at me. I heard the roar again closer.

"Hear what?" Warrior asked.

"The dragon roaring."

They looked at me weird.

Hunter told me. "I think we would have noticed a dragon roaring."

I sat there for a moment. Was I hearing things again? It roared so loud I covered my ears. Unfortunately, that revealed a certain dagger in my hand.