N2 Ch1: Tavern Brawls

This is the first chapter of one of my current novel projects, which I call 'the neiral project.' the formal title for the second book in this series, (that this comes from,) is titled: The Queen's Move.

this is a sequel, so it's got a really minor spoiler in it. If you don't care, and are just browsing, go on ahead and read this, (I appreciate all feedback.)

Otherwise, you may want to read the first novel project first. email me if you're interested.

(Oh yeah, and please don't think I'm egotistical for using the name of Maugh Quaran as my screen name. The character existed before I started using that name.)

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Chapter 1
Tavern brawls


It had been just over six months since Jessica Dire had met the Caligan Maugh Quaran, and it would be a dramatic understatement if she admitted that things had changed. Much like a hammer pounding a watermelon, her life had been first bruised and then shattered. Now, months later, Jessica found herself looking down at a small group of buildings with the sunset behind her back. She wondered how she had gotten to this point.

“The town’s name is Yorensdale.” The man who spoke to her had a calming voice, one that she’d gotten used to hearing. He had been her only companion this latest stretch of her life. It was a soothing sound, but she knew that such softness was a carefully crafted deception.

Maugh Quaran was as soft and quiet as a raging tempest.

“What are we doing here?” Jessica asked. She fingered the scarred tissue across the left portion of her face.

“Well, I thought this was as good a place as any to reintroduce you into a human settlement.”

“What if I don’t want to go back to them?”

“I won’t make you.”

Jessica almost turned back. She’d spent most of the last six months wandering in the peaks of the Interi mountains, where the rocks were too steep and jagged for normal travel. “I’m not ready to go back and face anybody yet.” Candles lamps flickered on in the city as the evening sky darkened.

“You are.” The Caligan, still in the form of the dull red-headed man, disagreed with her.

“What am I going to do down there?”

“I don’t know. Go down. Watch the people. This is a small settlement that only exists for the silver mine that they’ve dug into the canyon. There should be something that you can do to be sociable.”

Jessica just watched the buildings and wondered again how she had gotten this far.

“Renyx was too antisocial, and it always caused him problems. I was hoping that you wouldn’t fall into that same trap, my lady.”

"I won’t.” Jessica had never liked hearing about her predecessor, simply because Maugh rarely had anything positive to say about him. She wondered what he would say about her when she was gone.

She sighed, and then drew a blue porcelain mask from her right pocket. She fixed its satin strap around her head and pushed it in place, covering her scarred face. “I’ll go down and buy a drink. I need a new set of crossbow quarrels anyway.” She adjusted the leather bandolier that she’d bought to hang her crossbow across her back, and made sure that it was secure.

Jessica began the steep climb down the face, looking for a hold to start with.

“Why don’t you just jump down?” Maugh asked her, with a sly smile on his face.

“Because it’s over a hundred feet down.”

“You would make it just fine.” The Caligan’s eyes held a deep amusement. “Think of it as a test of, well, the changes you’ve undergone.”

Jessica ignored him and lowered herself over the edge.

“It’s your time that you’re wasting. I’ll wait for you down there.” He leaped over her head and down the face of the cliff, to land with a heavy sound far below her.

“I didn’t think that he’d be going with me.” Jessica grimaced, and continued her climb. It took her a few minutes to reach the bottom, which was only a few yards from the first building.

The street was relatively well lit, for which she was grateful. It felt good for her to be back in civilization, even as rugged as this place was bound to be. Jessica didn’t speak to the miners and mercenary guards that were coming in from their previous work, but she did enjoy their presence as they walked down.

One whistled in her direction. “Look at that one, mates,” he commented to the two men who were walking with him.

Jessica didn’t look in his direction, but instead examined the buildings. “Do you know where I can find a decent smith or metalworker here in town?” she asked aloud. “I need to buy crossbow bolts.”

“We work the mines, lady. There are plenty of metal workers here. Two buildings down that way is the man who makes and repairs our tools. He ought to have something for you there. After you go, you can stop by the tavern. I’ll be there to buy you a drink.”

Jessica suddenly felt very self-conscious. Maugh had brought her a clean set of clothing months ago, a white pair of pants with a rose pattern running down the outside of one leg, and a matching shirt with Maugh’s red sigil on the opposite side. The clothes were thick enough for the cold weather, but they were made from a rich fabric, and were strikingly out of place here in the mining town. They were also just a little bit dirty from her climb down the rocks. Regardless, the cut was flattering.

“Thank you, but I’ll pass. I just need to restock my bolts.”

“Anytime, miss,” the man called. “My name is Tyson, and I’ll be waiting for you if you change your mind.” His companions started up some banter and they laughed and joked on their way to the tavern.

She found the smithy fairly easily, but it was closed for the evening. The open-air forge was devoid of any tools or workers, and the fires had already been brought low for the night.

“I suppose I’ll have to find something to do for the evening, and wait until tomorrow to buy the bolts,” she mumbled to herself.

“Go to the tavern; see what’s going on there.” Maugh startled her a bit when he spoke from the shadows of the smithy.

“All right, I’m going,” Jessica replied. “Leave me be.” She turned on one heel and made her way to follow the three miners that had hailed her. They were easy to follow, and she kept out of their notice as they made their way into the wide and loud common room of the Dawn’s Dancing Tavern and Inn.

The door was propped open to give a little ventilation, and Jessica could hear the crowds inside. She almost turned back, when she saw the three men enter, but she made herself walk boldly into the common room. There were probably only fifty people that worked in the silver mines up above, and twenty guards that were hired to keep their earnings safe. Jessica wondered how many of those men and women—if any—had decided to stay home tonight. As it was, the common room was crowded.

Jessica looked on at the men and women inside. The serving girls
hurried around passing out drinks and flirting outrageously, while various groups of patrons had separated into their different activities. One man was playing a violin. He was playing a fast rhythm which would have been easy to dance to if there had been more room to dance. Some were playing at cards, others at dice. Some were telling stories, laughing uproariously when a punchline was thrown. Most of the them who were dressed in the common worker’s clothing were men, but Jessica was surprised to that many of the mercenaries—identifiable by the light leather armor that most hired blades wore—were women.

All in all, they were having a good time. Jessica had been raised as a noble within the Palediem nation, and had never been exposed much to this kind of common revelry. It was interesting for her to watch, but it was like watching a bowl full of strange fish and knowing that you would never join in their swimming.

She mentally set the feeling to one side and stepped through the open doorway. More than a few heads turned as she entered, and the conversations lulled just a bit.

“Hello, beautiful.” One man, who was not the one she’d been following, had the guts to call out to her, adding a sharp whistling noise to the catcall.

Jessica was half tempted to ready her crossbow, just to shut them up, but she was in Kardan, still, and she did not want to provoke any unnecessary fighting. She was afraid that she’d hurt someone who didn’t deserve it.

“Calm yourselves and act like adults,” Jessica responded to the crowd in general.

"What did you have in mind?” the man returned rudely.

Jessica ignored him and found a seat in the corner, which was one of the few tables that had gone unoccupied. She wasn’t seated alone for very long, however, before the man she’d met earlier--Tyson, he had called himself--made his way over to her table and sat down. He had left his friends to play at cards, and the crowd in general went back to what they had been doing previously.

“What can I buy you to drink?” the man said, “and where are you from? Your accent tells me tells me that you’re not a local.”

“I’m from the Anagel province,” she said, looking at him cautiously.

“Very good, I’m from Rhui Tan, born and bred, but I came up here to make some money in the private mines. The state mines don’t pay as well.” He grinned. “They don’t pay at all, that is. I was hoping to make a little bit of money up here, and I could dare say that I have. And to drink?”

Jessica thought about it, and she wondered how the drink might affect her. Maugh had changed her physically, had made her body stronger and more resilient than the average human being.

“To drink?” the man asked.

“You’re persistent, aren’t you?” Jessica said.

“I consider it a good thing.”

“I’d like an ale for the lady, please?” He shouted to one of the servers.

“Brandy,” Jessica corrected him.

“All right then, you heard her.” He smiled at the serving girl, who rushed back across the room to fetch them their drinks. “So, if you’re from the Anagel province, and I’ll assume that means Palediem, how did you get all the way here?”

“That’s a long story.”

“I’d settle for your name, if that’s not too long to tell.” Tyson gave a winning smile.

Jessica noticed, looking at him from across the table, that he did have a good-looking smile, and a pair of deep blue eyes. They reminded her of Nathan, which stung at her a bit.

“What’s wrong?” the man said, seeing her wince. “Did I say something?”

“No, you just reminded me of someone.”

“Someone important?”

“He was.” She nodded once.

“Ah well, why don’t you tell me about this important person who makes you cringe?”

“I’m not in the mood to talk,” she said.

“Hm. Well, then drink a bit, it will relax you.” The serving girl returned and Tyson handed her the glass directly from the woman’s tray. “So, should I make something up to call you, or will you tell me who you are.

“My name is Jessica Dire.”

“That sounds familiar. Should I recognize that name?”

“I don’t know.”

He took a slow drink from the glass in front of him. “You’re dressed well, to be this far away from any big cities. What brings you traveling out this far?”

Jessica looked at her own glass, the amber liquid sparkling in the lamplight. “I don’t know, to be completely honest.”

“Trying to forget something?” Tyson said. “Or someone?”

“You know, it’s not very polite to approach a stranger and start prying them for details on their personal life. I understand that you’re trying to make conversation and maybe even make a pass at me, but can you find something else to bother me about?”

“Well, you don’t make the conversation very easy, and it looks like you’ve got some pretty heavy things on your mind. I was just trying to help you unload.” The man stood and walked away. “When you’re ready to be a little friendlier, then I’ll be over here with these louts.” He gestured back to his friends, who were laughing about something in the card game that they were playing. “Enjoy your brandy.”

Jessica watched him go with a bit of reluctance. The man had actually been very courteous, for a Kardan, and she had shrugged him off. She almost apologized, but instead just leaned back and rubbed one finger around the rim of her glass. “What am I doing here?” she mumbled to herself.

You’re here because I don’t want you to be awkward around other mortals. The thoughts were forced into her mind, and they were not in her own voice.

“You told me that you’d stay out of my head,” she said quietly.

I’m not reading your thoughts, you’re speaking aloud. Forgive me if I have good hearing.

Conversation stopped abruptly as a tall man stepped through the doorway. Jessica was the only one in the room who didn’t stare as he walked in. Maugh Quaran, in the guise of a human being, stepped into the room. He had red hair, spiked up and back, and wore a gray leather suit with the same red sigil that Jessica bore on her own clothing. Jessica could feel waves of energy rolling of him, but she suspected that she was the only one in the room that had noticed. She herself had not fully recognized the effect before she had begun working with him.

For just a moment Jessica could see his gold eyes, streaked with red, but Maugh blinked and they took a more human brown color, with red flecks in the corneas. It was still unnerving, if not quite as much as it had been previously.

Conversation slowly returned back to normal as he sat another empty table across the room from her.

So, how was the entrance? She could see the smile on his face as he again projected his voice into her mind.

“What can I say?” she said. “Do you plan on leveling this tavern tonight?”

I don’t have any plans at the moment. That’s the nice thing about the weekend, you just don’t need to make plans.

“Then let me know when you’re done playing around,” Jessica said under her breath. She slid her chair back and stood.

“You didn’t finish your drink, pretty.” The man who had made the catcalls at her earlier practically stumbled over to her table and nearly knocked it over. “But that’s all right. If you’re leaving, then why don’t you and I go find someplace comfortable to spend the evening.” He slurred his words and leered.

“I’m not interested.” Jessica had a few more abrasive words to give the man, but she was so irked by his brash statement that she couldn’t put the words together. She could feel a rush building in the back of her mind, and the table shook beneath her hands. She pulled her hands away, and the table continued to shake for a moment before she regained control.

“So that’s how it’s going to be?” He sniffed, and his hand went for his belt-pouch. “Fine then, how much do you charge?”

The rush built up again in her mind, and Jessica’s glass shattered on the table. She glanced down, and then back up at the man. Push, she thought, putting a bit of strength behind it, and the man was thrown back off of his feet. He tumbled, knocking over the table full of card-players and filling the room with curses and the spray of spilling alcohol.

The room again went quiet, as almost everyone slowly stood to survey the situation.

“You’re going to pay for that, wench.” The man was helped to his feet by a pair of his friends, and his expression was stone sober. “Nobody insults me like that.”

Do you think they’d do this if they knew who you really were? Maugh said inside her head.

“Shut up,” she replied aloud, both to the smiling Caligan and to the tough who was walking back toward her, backed up by a pair of heavy thugs.

“Leave the woman alone.” One of them got blindsided by Tyson, who threw himself forward to put his whole weight behind an already solid punch. He landed it right behind the ear on one of the drunkard’s wingmen.

To a room full of partially inebriated miners, the sound of a fist striking flesh was as clear and commanding as the call-horn of an army. Accordingly, the room erupted into violence, as figurative lines were drawn and people took sides, either with Tyson and his small group of friends, or the drunkard and his group.

Jessica shook her head, trying to clear out her mind and to make sense of what exactly had just happened. Some weapons were brandished, knives and shortswords mostly, and Jessica looked around.

“Enough!” She shouted, and her voice had more strength in it than she had ever ha, enough to shake the windows. She cocked her crossbow, working the mechanism with an ease and speed that she never could have matched before she had undergone Maugh's change. “Nerith,” she said under her breath, and fired her crossbow. The blue streaking of light caught into the chest of one of the closer men and physically bowled him back through a crowd of people.

One of those knocked to the side had been about to hit Tyson with a chair, and he looked over at Jessica with wide eyes. She calmly reloaded her crossbow and began making her way toward the door.

The first one to take a swing at her was the other of the drunkard’s backup men. Jessica watched the fist coming in and shifted her shoulders to avoid the blow. She stepped in and kneed the man in the gut before pushing him aside.

The second man was just another member of the crowd, getting in on the evening’s entertainment. He made a short charge, and Jessica’s eyes met his for just a moment before gathering the same rush in the back of her mind and pushing it forward. The man was lifted over the crowd and struck the far wall, splintering the wood paneling.

No one else approached her as she finished the short walk to the open door.

“You’re going to pay for this!” The tavern’s keeper shouted at her, lifting a heavy crossbow from under the counter. “You started it, and you are responsible for the damages.

“Forget it,” Jessica said over her shoulder as she stepped out the door.

The night air was refreshing, and she breathed it in slowly. The stars were steady far above, and she watched them as she walked back down the street.

“That went remarkably well.” Maugh followed her out, and she could hear the grin in his voice.

“Do you think so?” Jessica asked. “I think I just walked into a room and set the whole place cascading into violence.

“Well, that’s exactly what they were looking for, is it not? You didn’t make any of them fight.”

“Did you?”

Maugh Quirin laughed quietly. “No, although I must admit it was very tempting. Almost as tempting as stepping up and joining in the fray.”

“You really would have torn it apart.”

“Well, yes, but not much worse than what they’re already doing in there, don’t you think?”

“Possibly.” They continued walking until they were nearly out of sight. Jessica turned and gave the small town one last look, and she thought she could see someone standing outside the door, watching them leave. She wondered if it was Tyson.

“So did you enjoy that?” Maugh asked.

Jessica’s immediate reaction would have been a resounding ‘no,’ but she stopped herself. Deep down, she knew that the Kardans were violent, and that they were starved for some kind of amusement. It really hadn’t taken much of an effort to set them into a fight that had probably taken place before, and over equally trivial matters.

“Did you enjoy it?” Jessica returned his question.

“Of course. I am a being of chaos, and I revel in the struggle. The rage and energy that flows through the minds and veins of every man and woman in that room. It’s a great thrill.”

“They were drawing steel. What if someone got hurt?”

“What of it?”

“It wouldn’t bother you if any of them had gotten seriously injured over something so trivial.”

“Not in the slightest. They chose to fight, and they will pay the consequences of it. My enjoyment is watching the struggle. It’s like watching the tide crashing against a rocky coastline, simply marvelous to observe.”

“Ah, that’s enough dialogue for now.” The Caligan stepped away from her, into the trees. “I’m glad to hear that you enjoyed it.”

Jessica looked at him and smiled. It had been a release, and one that she needed quite badly. Chances were good that no one in there had been killed or permanently injured, and it had blown off the stresses that had built up in her head over the last six months.

Jessica looked to the flickering lights, and could no longer make out the individual buildings.

“I suppose I did.” She rested her crossbow back over her shoulder and walked away from the small town of Yorensdale.