An Old Fight Retold, and a New Deal Offered

“God fucking damn it!” John swore to no one in particular. He should have known this whole thing was too good to be true. Hell, half of the people that he had recently met all had dropped hints that he was about to be betrayed, but did he fucking listen?! Noooooo, instead, let’s just trust the goddamn shifty AF Council Leader and just assume that everything will turn out good in the end! There couldn’t possibly be any feasible way that said person could be related to the people who tried to kidnap/kill him when he first awakened to magic.

Now John got to enjoy the rewards of being such a naive idiot. He got to be semi-trapped within a criminal guild while it was under attack by “The Order”, whoever those people were, with no Lifthrasir, no Mavis, and no Talia. At the time it had seemed fine to leave the two of them at home. After all, it was just going to be a brief tour and explanation with Lif, no more than an hour or two out of the day. Plus, Talia and Mavis were really getting into learning about human culture and getting to enjoy the benefits of living amongst John’s fellow mortals (apparently Alfheim had never gotten the Hearthfire expansion to Skyrim, so Talia had spent the past three days enjoying house building). At least John wasn’t dumb enough to go to a strange place without a weapon at all, but it was just the training sword that he used whenever he was practicing his swordsmanship with Enkleman. Not exactly the best thing to have against a guild that might be against him and an “Order” who might think he is a part of the guild and do… whatever they were planning on doing to the guild members. Arrest them? Kill them? Smite them? Who knows.

John began to pace, trying his best to think through his current situation. Sure, the Order and the guild would be rather preoccupied with each other, so he at least had a chance to be able to slip away. However, Lifthrasir’s tour of the guild was rather short, and had skipped any secret exits or ways to escape the guild’s halls other than the main doorway. ‘Maybe I can burn a hole in the wall?’ John thought, but then realized that he had no idea which walls would be outside facing walls or even if the outside facing walls would be flammable.

Just as John was about to go take a look at the reinforced windows to see if they were possibly breakable, a loud slam echoed through the chamber he was in. He quickly turned, noticing the door he had come through starting to buckle and crack. Someone was trying to get in. ‘Well, best prepare a greeting,’ John thought as he reached up and tapped the Uruz rune he had tattooed onto his shoulder. It was the only rune that he had been able to etch into himself so far, but already it had proven to be a wonderful investment in saving time and mana whenever he got into combat. Just as he was about to draw his blade, the door finally gave way, falling to pieces as an armor clad redhead stepped through.

“You look stronger,” Moira said, leaning forward and resting her arms on the table between them. When they had last met, she had been clad in plate armor teeming with divine magic. She looked more like an angel of divine retribution rather than someone he had gone to school with. Now, however, she looked like just your average teen. Granted, she was more muscular than the average student at Ashcroft, but now clad in a mini dress, leggings, and light jacket, she looked… well, normal. “Using your downtime here to work out?” she asked with a smirk.

“Oh sure. After my daily ****, I mean purification session, I love to get in a nice round of squats, some chin ups, push ups, and a nice beating from my fellow inmates. Really helps get the blood flowing down my face.” John rolled his eyes, before adjusting himself ever so slightly in the chair. “So, come to gloat about my being stuck here? Maybe wanna remember our little battle at The Scarlet Hand?”

John ducked just in time, barely avoiding the divinely powered warhammer that slammed into the wall where his head had been just moments ago. He gave a quick counter attack, his blade slashing across her chestplate, but much like his previous attacks, no damage came to Moira.

“You know, in my personal opinion, defence buffs that make you invincible are really BS. Also kinda cowardly.”

“Said the member of a guild who preys on the innocent newly awakened mages. You don’t get to speak to me about cowardice.”

“You know, I’ve been replaying our fight in my head a lot,” Moira said, shuffling through a couple of papers sitting on the table between them. “And I must admit, a couple of things don’t really add up.”

“Is that your way of admitting that I’m a better fighter, and your buffs were just BS?” John said with a slight smirk. “Because if so, then I fully agree with you on that.”

Moira smiled and shook her head. “No, I think at most you caught me a bit off guard. Wasn’t exactly expecting my dead classmate to show up at the guild I thought had killed him.” She pulled out one of the papers, sliding it over to John. On it was the mugshot that the Order had taken of John, along with his personal details. At the bottom of the sheet was a list of known magics, corruption percentage, and a recommendation of what to do with him once the prison was done with him (apparently he had potential to be a knight, a brainwashed and broken knight, but a knight nonetheless). “What doesn’t add up is… well, you being here.”

“You make a good point. I’ve asked repeatedly for the warden to send me to a nice beach in Tahiti, but apparently my requests keep getting lost in his inbox.” John attempted to shrug. “Eventually he’ll see it.”

“John, be serious.”

“I am. Every session he pulls me in for, I always make sure to ask for a transfer.”

“Why wouldn’t you ask to be released instead?”

John tried to shrug once again. “Because I know it won’t be treated as a serious request. As far as you and the rest of your Order is concerned, I’m just as guilty as the rest of my fellow prisoners, so why bother asking an honest question that I know will be denied. Might as well have some fun.”

“Speaking of your fellow prisoners…” Moira pulled out another paper, this one with a list of dates along with both John’s name and other prisoners' names. “They seem to have a large amount of dislike for you.”

“Probably penis envy,” John said with a smirk. “Either that or general jealousy of my charm.”

Moira’s cheeks reddened ever so slightly, something she attempted to cover up by giving a small cough. “Yes, well… um… I, uh.” She took a deep breath, before continuing, “I think we both know that there is some deeper reason for their hate.”

“Well, I would say my penis is able to reach pretty deep.”

“John!”

John gave out a short and loud laugh before taking a quick breath. “Alright. Tell me, what reason might that be?”

“Well, if I may quote one of your fellow prisoners…” Moira pulled out another paper, and began to read from it, “‘That John ain’t one of us. He’s a,’ excuse my french, ‘fucking snake in the grass piece of shit who should’ve died when we got here.’” She looked up at John before continuing, “I could also quote another inmate, who said, ‘Fuckin’ newbie got our leader killed. Glad he didn’t get to join the guild yet.’ Care to explain these away, John?”

John stayed silent for a moment, before softly whispering, “For what it’s worth, Lifthrasir isn’t dead. Or, at least he wasn’t when I last saw him on the day of the battle.”

Moira leaned forward, her gaze rather intense. “Do you know where he could have gone? Did he tell you anything?”

John barked out a short laugh. “If he had told me anything, I would have never stepped foot in that guild in the first place. No, I have no idea where the man went, other than I guess back to Alfheim to hide away.”

“How do you know he’s from Alfheim?”

“‘Cause I saw him there? That’s where he’s council leader and where he got me a stay of execution.” He gestured to her other papers sitting neatly on the desk between them. “I told this all to the prison guards when they asked me who I was and what magic I had. Is it not included on your little sheet there?”

Moira scowled. “Unfortunately, no. I don’t think that the guards took you seriously and thus didn’t keep a proper dissertation of your story down.” She pushed aside some of the papers and leaned forward, causing John to become acutely aware of how busty the paladin was that now sat in front of him. He quickly **** his eyes to stay level with hers as she started to speak again. “How about you tell me what happened to you. How did you get to Alfheim, and how do you know runic magic?”

So John began to talk. Granted, he kept it shorter than the first few times he gave this talk, and he skipped out a few details. He made sure to leave out Talia and Mavis’ names, instead claiming that Talia had stayed outside the barrow with her mother and just omitting Mavis entirely. He explained how he was able to obtain runes through his oddly flavored magic, and even how he was able to talk to a couple of gods that he had used the runes of. (But not all of them. His vision of Hel and Baron Samedi stayed with him alone, along with his discussion he shared with Heimdallr.)

Moira did not ask many questions, aside from the odd one here and there to clarify his powers and what he was actually able to do with them. She did not seem surprised when he mentioned reviving a dead form of magic, but then again she had gotten to see him use said runes firsthand during their fight. She said nothing at all when John sped through the week that he took between returning home and getting to the guild, but she probably just assumed he used it to relax and recuperate.

“... So then I went to the guild, got toured around for about an hour by Lif, and then when I was going to start asking a few questions, one of the people who had been in the barrier with Brett came up and started screaming at me and then you guys attacked and… yeah. We fought, I got put in here, and Lif was nowhere to be seen.”

“That is quite the tale, John,” Moira said with a small smile. “Honestly, if it weren’t for the fact that you seem to be quite honest and that I saw your powers firsthand when we fought, I probably wouldn’t have taken you seriously either.”

“Yeah, it does sound a bit crazy. I mean, I go from out of shape lonely nerd to handsome magical felon in a couple weeks? Plus, you know, getting contacted by the gods themselves.”

“Speaking of that, you mentioned that your powers originate from Gaia?”

“Yeah. She’s a bit of a smartass at times, but seems to have things in control. At least, she did when I would talk with her. She’s been pretty silent for the past month.”

Moira gave a small sigh, looking down for just a moment as her posture went from inquisitive to defeated. However, it was only for a split second and almost instantly she was back to her inquisitive self. “Right. Uh, anyway. You mentioned you can open a portal to and from Alfheim. Can you take others through it?”

“Sure. Can’t you?” John asked. “I mean, not you specifically, but doesn’t the Order have someone to do that?”

“No. Well, we have someone to do something similar, but they are more or less contracted help, and we actually can’t open a path to Alfheim, not anymore at least.”

“Why not?”

Moira sighed, leaning back in her chair. “A few decades ago, the Order had been trying to clean up a skaven problem that had been leaking into the real world. They discovered that the skaven had opened, well, chewed portals into other realms, allowing them quick retreat from the Order if ever cornered. The Order discovered that the skaven clan originated in Alfheim, and decided to move in for the kill without consulting the leaders of Alfheim. Needless to say that they were not enthused to find about two hundred paladins and knights sitting on their front doorstep ready for battle, and thus told us that we were banned from ever going back to Alfheim.”

“And that stops you because…”

“Because we don’t want to enter a war with Alfheim, and because no mage will open a portal for us into Alfheim in fear of retaliation from the light elves. But you…” Moira smiled, scooting her chair forward as she pointed at John. “You not only have the ability to enter and leave Alfheim of your own free will, but you do it with an ease that I have never heard of. You said you just appeared in the woods of Alfheim?”

“Yeah…”

“Well, if any other mage were to create a portal there, they would have to connect that portal to a special place in Alfheim, one that would have the Order instantly caught if any of us went through. But you could easily sneak us in-”

“No.”

Moira stopped, a look of confusion coming across her face. “N-no?”

“No. I already almost got executed there twice now, I don’t wanna see if third time’s the charm.”

“But John, this could be our one big chance to get Lif-”

“And then once you get him, I will be back in prison once again. Either yours or the Councils, but either way, no. I am not sticking my neck out for you guys.”

“John, if you help us with this, I can assure you your freedom-”

“No. N. O. No, Moira.” John wished he could cross his arms or fold his legs, but unfortunately restraints made that a tad difficult. “Promising me my freedom is not good enough, especially since it’s clear that you desperately need my help.”

Moira held her gaze for a moment or two, just staying silent as she looked John dead square in the eyes, before finally lowering her gaze. “Fine. What is it that you want, John?”

John grinned like a cheshire cat before slowly listing off, “First, I want a total pardon guaranteed, even if we don’t find Lif.”

“Fine. We were going to offer that anyway.”

“Good. Secondly, I want some form of compensation for the month you guys kept me in here. Monetary or gift or… something. I dunno. You took a month of my life away in prison, Moira. I deserve a bit of freedom.”

“I’ll… I’ll talk with my father about what we can do.”

“You do that. Third, I want protection and help for my mom.” John shook his head, looking down at his feet. “I’ve… I’ve been scared to think what might have happened to her while I’ve been in here. She’s not Abyssal, but if there are any other guilds like the Scarlet Rose, and they planned to kidnap me at home…”

Moira leaned over, lifting John’s chin so he would look at her. “Don’t worry. We’ve had to give protections to mundane family members before. She will be protected and taken care of, I can assure you that.”

John nodded before leaning away from Moira’s touch. “Good. Fourth, and finally, I want to catch Lif myself.”

Moira looked confused. “Why?”

“Simple. The guy not only tried to trick me into joining his guild, but clearly he wanted to use me for something, otherwise I doubt he would have put so much effort trying to keep me alive in the first place.” John looked down at his hand, which despite his Gamer Body perk of no physical damage being left on him, the phantom pain of Dimitri stomping on his fingers to break them still lingered despite it being days after the action. “He got me arrested, put in prison with his cronies for a month, and clearly has some secret plan in place involving me. Personally, I wanna know what his game is and put a stop to it. Then laugh at him from the other side of the bars as he’s carted away to solitary.”

Moira shook her head. “John, you should know from your time here that the Lady does not approve of those who seek vengeance.” However, as she finished saying that her face broke out into a grin. “But, she also loves those not of her order helping those in the Order out. So I think that balances out the whole vengeance bit.” She clapped her hands together, and quickly a pair of knights strode into the room. One stood at John’s side, keeping a close eye on him as the other reached down and unlatched John’s right hand. As he did so, Moira extended her own hand across the table right into John’s reach. “As Warden of the Golden Rose, paladin to our Lady and bringer of justice to all, I agree to your terms, Jonathan Newman. Do we have a deal?”

John quickly grabbed her hand, and unlike the deal he made with Lif those weeks ago, this time he knew that this one was going to do only good things for him.