Bait

“I don’t know, I’m just nervous.” “You’ll be fine. I have more to worry about than you do, I’m the weakest out of all of us.” Skylar replies. I give her a slightly anxious smile. “Yeah I know. It’s just that this could go really badly, really quickly.” “That’s why I’m here, dingus.” Mia chimes in. I sigh, unable to hold back a chuckle.

‘Ivy, are you all good?’ ‘Stop worrying Gemma. We will be safe.’ One of the interesting things to come out of this plan is finding out that the mental connection with Ivy has range limits. Or at least, that’s the theory. We haven’t actually found the limit yet, since Ivy is back at Mia’s house while Skylar, Mia and I are at the uni campus. But since the connection has gone slightly fuzzy with the increased distance, it’s a safe bet that there is a range limit somewhere, and that we just haven’t found it yet.

I take a bite of the sandwich that Ivy lovingly prepared for me. Over the past week, she’s not only gotten more skilled in food preparation, but she’s also figuring out our taste preferences (it’s easier for her to do this with me given our mental bond), and each meal she makes all of us, she tailors each serving to each of us. It’s remarkable how quickly she’s picking up on the craft.

I look around the open area. There aren’t many people in sight, which makes us an attractive target due to the fact that there aren’t many witnesses around. Conversely, it also means that we can spot any potential enemies pretty clearly. “Are you sure there’ll be an attack?” I ask Skylar. She nods confidently. “Oh yeah, there’ll be one. The bounty will have gone up, since nobody has managed to kidnap you yet.”

“And there it is. You both feel it too?” I ask them. They both nod. “Alright, let’s do this. Remember, you don’t fight unless things go south.” I say, directing the last part at Mia. She waves it off. “Yeah yeah.” The three of us enter the barrier and I sent a mental note to Ivy, who appears by my side a moment later by using her aid ability. Standing directly in front of us is an all male gang. Mia sits down behind us, making sure to signify that she won’t be fighting.

“Well well well-OOF!” Skylar knocks the wind out of him with a fist of shadows. He doubles over in pain as I observe each of the gang members, finding that we safely out level them by a decent margin. I relay this to Skylar who nods and responds with a question. “Do these guys look familiar at all to you?”

I narrow my eyes and study the faces of the men for a few seconds before realisation hits me. “Holy shit, these are the guys we fought together that day!” I laugh as I realise. “Small world huh?” “I thought so. We beat them last time, this’ll be a piece of cake.” Skylar replies. As previously agreed, she takes the lead and Ivy and I follow behind her. This is because Skylar is more equipped to deal blunt damage, whereas my skills are much more overtly lethal.

One of the gang members snarls at the three of us. “You killed our friends. You killed Mario! You’re gonna pay for that!” “Look mate, just don’t. Here’s how it’s going to go: you’re going to tell us who sent you. You’re going to walk away peacefully. Nobody has to get hurt.” One of them hurls a fireball at her.

Skylar is too quick and erects a small barrier of shadow to block the incoming spell, before sending shadows careening into the pyromancer’s stomach. “We beat you before. We’re stronger now. You cannot win here.” Skylar proclaims assertively, showing the same steel that I remember seeing in her when we first met.

One of the men snarls again and Skylar shrugs, gesturing to me. I send an icicle into his foot, impaling it into the ground. He shouts in pain and desperately tries to wrench it free. The casual displays of power from Skylar and I, have the gang hesitating. Skylar repeats her previous statement, in the hopes that they’ll finally give us the information we want without any more ****.

“Tell us what we want to know. Who sent you?” One of them speaks up, in a slightly shaky voice. “N-nobody sent us. There’s a public price on The Gamer. It’s five million.” Skylar considers this for a moment before asking her next question. “Who’s offering the price?” “We dunno, we swear! It’s anonymous.” The same guy keeps answering.

“Who would know?” “There’s a bar, The Hidden Pour! You might get a good tip there!” “Where do we find it?” Skylar continues her rapid fire questioning. The man gives us a location and we all take note of it mentally. “Thank you.” The icicle impaling one of the gang members dissolves. “Ivy, heal him up.” Skylar instructs. She walks over to him and heals his wound, being careful not to touch him.

Once she’s done, we turn to walk back to Mia, who is standing up and looking quite happy. We raise our hands and exit the barrier. “I think that went pretty well.” I comment. “I like when you do the talking. Makes me nervous when I have to.” Skylar laughs, the earlier steely fire in her demeanor quickly gone, and replaced with a fairly relaxed attitude. “You need to work on your social anxiety.” “Hopefully raising my charisma will help with that.” “I’m so proud of you all!” Mia jumps in, hugging us all. “Do we try to find that bar now?” Ivy asks. “I don’t see why not. You’ve finished all your classes, right?” I ask, directing the question at Skylar. She nods in response. “Let’s go then.”

It takes us about half an hour to get to the location that the gang member gave us. We were worried at first about travelling on mundane public transport with Ivy. We have gone on a few walks around Mia’s neighbourhood, but she hasn’t gone any further than that, besides just now at campus. Walks around a quiet neighbourhood are one thing, public transport and crowded areas are another thing entirely.

It turns out that our worries in that regard are completely unfounded. She doesn’t exactly fully blend in and we get quite a few people turning their heads our way. Skylar and I are worried about this, but Mia is quick to reassure that people aren’t looking at us with animosity or disgust, but with curiosity and some desire. Ivy’s outfit isn’t super revealing either, so save for a dirty look or two from people in their 60s and 70s, we arrive without a hitch.

“Are we sure this is the place?” “The auction certainly says so.” Skylar comments. “The world is a really beautiful place.” Ivy chimes in, having been happily admiring all of the scenery between our college and here. She continues to do so now, looking around at the bustling streets of activity and the various buildings around us. “I love you.” I tell her. She smiles and replies in kind. “Let’s see what we can find.” Skylar says, raising her hand. The three of us follow suit.

“This is definitely it.” I say, closing the window and looking around. It isn’t a huge barrier, the shimmering walls are visible some 20 metres away from where we’re standing. Where the streets were once busy and full of people, they’re now deserted. The building in front of us is a small building, with a neon style sign on it, lit up with the words ‘The Hidden Pour’.

In front of the building stands a bulky man, looking to be in his early thirties. He holds a tablet in front of him and watches us passively. Skylar strides confidently up to him, and we follow her lead. “Can we enter?” She asks politely as he moves to block the door. He shakes his head, then turns the tablet to face us. “I need to scan your mana signatures first.”

Skylar nods and places her hand on the tablet. It beeps after a second and she removes her hand. He gestures for us all to do the same, and one at a time, we do so. “An artificial spirit huh? Little rare around these parts.” He comments. “Alright, you’re free to go in. Don’t cause any trouble though, or you’ll be banned from coming back.”