Chapter 114: A Hand Refused

"Sister! It is most pleasing to see you! There was no doubt that we would meet again, but even I, Malachor of the Tundholde, never guessed that it would come so soon!" the giant half-demon's right head boomed.

"It is not so pleasing," the left head said at once. "And I had guessed all along that we might find them here."

Malachor stood before me, right arm folded across his chest. His left hung limply at his side. It had taken little time for the half-demon to get off of me. People had been watching us on the street, and Ash had suggested we step into a narrow alley that ran next to the inn from which the half-demon had been flung out.

"I am not entirely displeased to see you either," I said. The last thing Malachor had declared in the Academy was his desire to join the Great Hunt. Solara let out a chirp from atop my crown, in what was surely a greeting of her own. She was pleased to see the half-demon.

"And you, little one!" The right head grinned wide enough to show all its teeth. "You have grown mightier still in my absence! I felt a great power from you before, and it seems you have begun to grow into it. Most impressive. Most impressive."

"It is somewhat impressive," the left head said, "though perhaps most of the growth is volume, and not power."

Solara answered the left head with a chirp of tremendous volume. It did not, perhaps, help her case.

"And you, Ash," the right head said. "It is most pleasing to see you as well. Though, naturally, you are a pair, and so it is no surprise at all to find you at our Sister's side!"

"They are a pair," the left head allowed. It was a rare moment, the two heads agreeing on something.

"It's good to see a familiar face," Ash said, arms folded and smiling. "You haven't changed at all."

Malachor nodded sagely. "That makes one of us," the left head said, glancing down at our arms. "Sigils. Hmm."

"Erm- pardon, but who is this?" Alisa stood behind Ash and me. She glanced between us, and then stared up at Malachor with something caught between wonder and confusion.

"This is Malachor, Alisa," Ash said, stepping aside and gesturing toward the hulking half-demon. "He was one of the Crests at the Academy. I guess you never ran into him, huh?"

"I… did not," Alisa said slowly. She inspected Malachor, and whatever she found in her inspection only made her eyes go wider.

"Alisa," the right head said, nodding to itself. "A proud name. Though, I am afraid I do not know you. But let that be no matter of importance, for I can simply know you now!" Malachor's right leg stepped forward, and his right arm unfolded and extended outward. "I am Malachor of the Tundholde, and this-" he gestured toward his own left side, "-is also Malachor, again of the Tundholde!"

"How many times must I tell you to stop introducing us like that?" the left head sighed. Malachor's left side stayed exactly where it was, such that the half-demon reached out to Alisa half-sideways.

Alisa hesitated. She looked at Ash. The Hero gave her a nod, and only then did the girl take the half-demon's hand. Malachor shook it with enthusiasm. Enough of it that the girl's whole body shook too. "Well met, Alisa! Though I do not know you, I am certain you must be a great warrior in your own right, if you travel with these two!" the right head said proudly.

"You have not noticed, have you?" the left head drawled. "She has a Line."

The handshake stopped. Only for a moment. The right head looked down at Alisa's arm, at the silver Line upon it. I saw Alisa's chin rise. Saw the girl readying a thorn of one kind or another. "A Line," the right head murmured. Then the handshake resumed, stronger than before, until I half thought the girl would rise clean off her feet. "Only a Line! Then she must be truly mighty, to travel with these two!"

Alisa stared at the half-demon. "...Thank you?"

Malachor released the girl, and folded his right arm across his chest once more. His left stayed at his side.

"Malachor," Ash said, looking past him at the wall of the inn. The same inn he had been flung out of. "Did you have some trouble? There was shouting."

"Trouble?" the right head boomed. "Hardly! A minor disagreement, taken a touch too far. That is all. A small inconvenience, one that I, Malachor of the-"

"They threw us out of the inn," the left head said, "because someone lost their coinpurse."

"Yes! I was trying to explain to the good man just that. He did not listen. No doubt because I did not tell him loudly enough!"

"You… lost your coinpurse," Ash murmured, half to herself. "That would explain things. I assume you tried to pay, and-"

"He lost our coinpurse," the left head said sourly. "I was a fool, for I allowed the purse to be carried on the right side. A grave error."

"We lost our coinpurse," the right head boomed.

Solara let out a chirp from atop my head. The chirp was made in support, though in support of which head was a mystery even to me.

"Why did you allow yourself to be thrown out?" I asked. "Surely no guard at a mere inn should be able to manage it." Yes. That was the question I had since the half-demon had first been thrown onto me.

"Ah, but you underestimate mighty Lob! Though he may be small of height, he is certainly wide of… width. Charged like a great Warmog, he did."

"It would be inadvisable to fight a citizen of Azareth," the left head cut in. "And so it was simply not worth the effort."

"That was one small factor," the right head allowed, with great reluctance.

I had thought the half-demon strange when I had first seen him in the Academy. It seemed the strangeness had only grown with time.

People moved down the street that fed into our alley, and many of them slowed as they passed its mouth.

"Well, friend, what are you going to do now?" Ash asked. "I've only seen a little bit of it, but it looks to me like this city plans to profit off this Hunt as much as it can manage." The Hero glanced at me as she said it. A meaningful look, and one I deciphered at once, for the same thought had already occurred to me.

"You require funds," I said. "And we have need of a fourth." I gestured toward Ash, and then at Alisa. "You have two Crests." I gestured at them in turn. The yellow shield upon his left arm, and the orange upon his right. Then I extended my hand toward the half-demon, palm up. It was a familiar gesture. I had invited every one of my retainers to my court with it. "Join us on the Hunt as our fourth. And this small matter of coin will be dealt with."

Malachor looked at my hand. Both heads wore the same expression, and both their mouths had thinned into lines. He did not reach for it.

"I am afraid that I- that we cannot," the right head said. "I mean no offense to you, Sister. It would have been a great honor, and together we would have carved our tales into these people's Namestones. But I cannot."

"Why?" I demanded. No one had ever refused that hand.

The left arm rose, and folded across Malachor's chest to join the right. "We have promised ourselves to another party," the left head said. "And we keep our word. Even when that word proves… inconvenient." The last word came with much reluctance.

Slowly, I lowered my hand. They had already sworn themselves to another, then. That was a reason I could accept, even if the accepting vexed me. "Very well," I said. "I hope these fellows you have joined are worth the joining."

"Oi! Where the hell did you get to?"

The call came from the mouth of the alley, and we all turned toward it. A short man stood there, with a face that resembled, but was not quite, that of a rat. He was not a Beastkin. Nature had simply been cruel to him. He had short brown hair, and a long sword hung at his right hip. His sleeves were rolled to the elbow, and down his left forearm ran a single Line of dull orange.

"So this is where you ended up," the man said. His voice carried a strange rasp. "What in the hells are you doing back here with all these shady folk?" He pointed at Malachor. "Come on. The others are waiting." His gaze swept across the three of us once, and then returned to the half-demon. "Unless these strangers are bothering ya. Then we'll have some problems."

I raised an eyebrow. Perhaps he could not see our marks in the shade between two buildings.

"Ah. That is my companion," Malachor said with a small nod. "I must be going." He thumped his right fist against his chest. "May we meet again soon. On fields harsher than this one." The right head bowed. The left nodded. Then the hulking half-demon was moving toward his 'companion', such as he was. They turned a corner, and were gone.

"He- they are very strange," Alisa said, finally. "I'd heard a rumor or two at the Academy, but… well, I didn't think they were actually two people." She was still staring at the place where Malachor had gone, as if the half-demon might return at any moment.

"There are stranger things in this world, girl," I said. "You would do well to remember that."

"Lys," Ash said. "You saw that too, didn't you? About the one who came for him."

"I did," I said. I was already walking back toward the main thoroughfare. Absently, I reached up and adjusted Solara upon my crown. She had begun to tip too far over toward the left.

"Strange," Ash said. "Though I suppose Malachor was looking for something other than raw power? Or maybe we were just too late."

"Who can say," I said. "I would have liked to have him as our fourth. I had thought it rather fortuitous, to run into him in the manner we had. A shame." Solara let out a small chirp of her own, as if she too were disappointed. And perhaps she was.

Alisa took three quick steps past me and planted herself in our path. "What are you both talking about?" she demanded, chin raised. "Don't just trade half-sentences like I'm supposed to know what they mean."

I glanced at Ash. I had thought the meaning perfectly clear. Or at least, it had been to the Hero. "The man who came to collect him," I said, "had only a Line."

Alisa blinked. Then she turned and looked back at the corner the two had vanished around, and her brow slowly furrowed. "...Oh," she said.

We made our way back through the Recreation District, down streets where every second building seemed to be another inn. We had gone where our feet took us, and within the hour, the world had thrown a two-headed half-demon on top of me. Was that the pull of the Class? Perhaps. Or perhaps it was simply Fate, if that fickle Goddess was still out there somewhere.

Solara chirped from atop my head at everyone who passed, and she did it more loudly than she had before our strange encounter.

"You are feeling energetic, Solara," I said. "Even after the misfortune with your meal."

The phoenix's chirp abruptly ended, and through the bond I felt something that could only be called betrayal.

"We will acquire something better for you, Sol," I promised her. "Something worthy."

"There was a Food District, wasn't there?" Ash said. "Might not be a bad idea to stop by, once we're done."

"Wise words, Ash," I agreed. Solara's mood lifted at once. She loosed an approving chirp as we passed beneath a burning brazier.

We kept walking, and eventually we came upon a large sign, set upon an arch that spanned most of a street. Here Marks the Start of the Hunters District.

I glanced around as we passed beneath it, and sure enough, the many inns had all but faded away. In their place stood yards. That was the only word I had for them. Great open squares of packed dirt and stone. And there were nearly a dozen of them in sight.

In the nearest, a cluster of men and women stood before a row of wooden statues, each statue thrice the height of a man. They barraged the things with lightning and fire and ice. In the next yard over, a dozen Beastkin crowded around a circle of churned dirt, where two massive wolf-headed men crossed swords, blade ringing against blade.

In the third yard, men and women rode great beasts around a long dirt track. Some of the beasts bore the heads of lizards. Others looked like lesser cousins of the dragons I had known. Strange, for I had never seen these creatures before. They were small, wingless things with proud necks, and they were to true dragons what a candle was to Balefire. And there was another strange blue blob of a creature, sliding slowly along the dirt while a girl sat cross-legged atop it.

Solara let out a chirp. A long one.

"Someday, Sol," I told her, "I will ride atop you just like that."

Solara leaned out over my brow, craning far enough that her golden eyes found mine upside down. Then she let out a mighty chirp, all four wings flaring, and through the bond came determination, as if she was prepared to attempt the carrying here and now.

"Not today, Solara," I said, brushing her gently back into place. I did not doubt her conviction. I doubted everything else, including her wingspan.

"Huh," Ash murmured, watching the riders make their rounds. "They really are serious about the Hunt, aren't they?"

"You doubted them?" Alisa asked.

"No," Ash said. "It's just a nice change of pace."

"Perhaps," I said. Then I pointed at a structure farther down the road, on our left. It was a massive building of dark stone, and people streamed toward its doors from every direction. Above those doors hung a sign of two massive crossed swords. "What is that structure? It seems to me this entire district was built around it."

Ash squinted at it. "That's… that's probably the Adventurer's Guild."

"Probably?" I asked.

"They had a different symbol, back then," Ash said.

"A different symbol?" Alisa's brows drew together. "It's looked like that for the last three hundred years."

Ash and I shared a look. "Err… must be my mistake, then," the Hero said. "It looked different in some of the books I've read."

We walked. There were strong fighters on every side of us. Or at least, fighters who believed they were strong. I had sifted the strong from the weak for centuries, but now, we only had days.

"This Adventurer's Guild," I said. "Would you say it is a place where the strong gather?"

"Usually," Ash said.

I nodded. "Very well, then. Let us make for this Adventurer's Guild." And I was already striding toward it.

Malachor would have been invaluable. But it did no good to linger on what one could not have. It was his loss. If he knew the hand he rejected, he would prostrate himself before me and beg for the privilege.

If there was a worthwhile fourth in this city, I intended to find them.