Victory

Janno wiped the blood on his blade on the crumpled body of Miko the thief, whose days of thieving, robbing and stealing were over.

Janno and Silos had made quick work of Miko and his two remaining cohorts near him. Silos had gone back to help the others as Janno faced Miko in a personal showdown of sorts. The thief found out that quickly that his two daggers were no match for a longsword wielded correctly by the user.

The fighter glanced back at the battle scene as Elektra walked over to him, a bright smile on her pretty girlish face. The sorceress obviously had been tossing a couple of spells down.

"I got two of them," she claimed happily.

"Good for you," Janno said drily. He didn't need a happy-go-lucky sorceress doing a body count in this group. "What of the others?"

"Oh yeah," Elektra said quickly, her smile vanishing, replaced by a slightly injured expression. "It went almost as well for them too. Caroline dispatched a couple with her sword also, she's real good."

Janno nodded and waited for more. Realizing this, Elektra blushed and quickly went on, "She took a slight wound to her chest, only a flesh wound from what Gloria said. Other than that, two of them fled and the rest are finished." She said it with a note of satisfaction.

"Well, things went very well for our first time out," Janno remarked. "No one in our group died and we defeated the bad guys. You can't ask for more than that."

Elektra laughed. For a moment, Janno thought she batted her eyelashed at him. But she quickly turned and rejoined her sister Gloria who was tending to the wounded.

Rosella the bard walked up the fallen body of Miko and started to rummage through his clothing. Janno guessed that she was searching for her missing item. Sure enough, Rosella stood up and walked back to Janno...holding a harp in hand.

Noting Janno's curious gaze, Rosella smiled. "It isn't any harp, it has some very unusual magical properties, so it is quite unique."

Magical properties. Janno knew about magical weapons, but he also heard of magical items. He hadn't imagined that a harp could be magical, but it was possible. After all, he reasoned, if a whole suit of armor can become magical, a small-sized harp that Rosella was carrying could be to. "What sort of magic does it possess?"

Rosella gave a wary glance. "Well.....when I play it, the effect created is one of relaxation, more tranquil and peaceful thoughts. Angry people become mollified. Upset people aren't so anymore. If I play a different set of tones, people get very happy and festive and so on. Basically, it can help change hate into....well...more positive emotions."

Janno stared at the harp. That was intriguing. A musical instrument to create more peace and happiness. It probably was quite valuable. No wonder Rosella wanted it back.

Before he could say anything, Elektra returned and asked, "So what are we going to do now? Celebrate?"