I’ve decided to title the entire series as Bandit’s Sin, and this particular arc as Overture. From here on, the real action kicks in, and the writing will – well, may – take a darker edge. Please forgive me if you don’t like it, I will try and keep the humour in there…but this is how I tend to write things once I get rolling.

I’m switching between POVs for this one. Just so I can juggle the parts I want to say into coherent order. >_> Any confusion caused is unintentional and apologised for.

Thanks for reading! =D

EDIT: Argh, my god, this SUCKS! I think I’ve been bitten by the Bad Writing Bug >_< Please don’t kill me for the crap quality of the chapter. Hopefully I’ll be able to exorcise the sucky writing streak before long.

—-
i. Li
“I’m quite sure the doctor said ‘fresh’ air, not ‘fish’ air,” he groaned, slumped against me on one of the benches near the wharf. I shoved him back upright and watched one of the newcomers to Victoria Island arguing with Pason; after a while, the sailor threw up his hands in disgust and ushered the newcomer onto the boat along with a group of annoyed-looking magi. Then I turned to him and glared; remembering the trouble I had come through to save him from death by food poisoning, I wondered why I bothered.
“Well, if you keep on complaining, you won’t be smelling anything any more,” I said, brandishing my claw threateningly. He looked at me, amused, then grinned that familiar grin that made my hand creep towards my Steelys. And, as usual, stop myself. Unwillingly.
“Imagine how cool it would be to be a Jr Necki,” he said, folding his arms. “You could…smell with your tongue.” I looked at him blankly and tried to imagine what exactly was transpiring with him; it was hard to tell most of the time anyway, and-
“Then you wouldn’t need a nose,” he said dreamily. “And when you were making faces at someone, you could just stick your tongue out and say, ‘Sorry, I think I smell something,’ and they wouldn’t be able to-”

“Shut up,” I said, leaning back. He did, briefly. Then he continued, “But if you think about it…”
“Please,” I groaned. “You’d get chased down and ground up into a drink for some lazy momma’s boy dungeon guard to give to his mum. It wouldn’t be that fun.” All my hopes that the bubbling fiasco had made him any less insane had been trashed the moment he was able to open his mouth without throwing up. His first words, in fact, had been, “You should have avenged me.”

The spate of swearing I was lining up in anticipation of his next outbreak of inanity was interrupted by a voice, yelling at us “Hey!”

I looked up at this new annoyance. It was a magician, replete in the obligatory pointed hat, wearing a split piece and pants.
“Hey to you too,” I said, slightly puzzled. From the look on Az’s face, he was feeling the same way. The next thing I knew, I was narrowly avoiding getting a dented forehead as the magician gestured dramatically at us both with his metal wand and declared, “You noobs embarrassed me! I’ve trained myself really hard and now I’m going to own you both!”

This was the exact moment where the two of us turned to each other and cracked up laughing. Hysterically. The magician looked ticked off, and I supposed I couldn’t really blame him. Nonetheless, it didn’t stop me laughing so hard I was actually choking by the time he got really annoyed and used Bolt on me. I Hasted out of the way just in time; the bench was ruined, and now it was my turn to be annoyed.

“Okay, ‘noob’,” I said dangerously, drawing a handful of Steelys. “Now you’ve really made me angry.” Ignoring Az’s mutterings about clichés, I leapt up and glared at the magician. He seemed to be realising that he had important appointments elsewhere, and was turning to leave before I snarled, “Where do you think you’re going?”

ii. Az
I watched her chasing after the magician guy, slinging knives left, right and centre. None of them connected; that wasn’t the way she worked. Instead, she would just keep missing, on purpose, chase them all the way out, and…
“Hah! Noob! You missed!”
I grinned as she stopped dead and screamed at him, “I’m missing on purpose, you idiot! You want me to play serious? FINE!”

I think she must’ve used up half her inventory of Steelys terrorizing that guy. I’ve never seen a non-thief without Haste on run that fast.

I took a look in my pack and tried to see if there was anything to eat; a bit of rummaging uncovered an apple, some salad and an orange. After the bubbling fiasco, I’d rather not set eyes on another citrus. Ever again. And I wasn’t feeling in the mood for anything heathy-ish. So a deeper rummage uncovered a speed potion and some Meat; why I had this was beyond me, but hey, free food. Plus, speed potions tasted like strawberry. And-

The next seconds slowed down to eighth-time. Get up, grab pack, push off, spin, draw weapon. I narrowly avoided being eviscerated by the axe swing; nonetheless, the shock of the force behind that hit jarred my wrist badly as I blocked with the cutter, and I swung my other hand back as my personal time returned to normal, yelling, “Psycho on the loose! Psycho on the loose!” The psycho in question didn’t do me the courtesy of stating name, reason for murderous rampage or even the obligatory cry of something like, “You killed my [title of loved one here]! Raaaah!”

Well, they had the obligatory cry, but they didn’t use any words. Just sounded like what a Crimson ‘Rog would be sounding like if it was jabbed in the butt. And the axe was swinging back the other way; I dodged out of the way and braced myself for the shock of the return swing. Which hit hard. I swore I could feel my wristbones cracking. Oh, my poor conducting skills. Goodbye. You served me well.
“Who are you and how did I make you angry?” I yelled, taking note of my enemy. Axe, therefore a Fighter. Skirt, therefore a girl, or perhaps a man in disguise…no, let’s not go there. Helmet, therefore wanted to remain unknown, or maybe just being cautious. No answer; they swung the axe at me again and this time I could feel the whistle of the metal as it scraped along the metal of my armour.

When the fighter next swung, I leapt over the axe blow and slammed my shinkita on their helmet so hard I heard it ringing. It hurt me, too. My brush calligraphy would never be the same again. But they appeared to be stunned for a while. In the meantime, I powered up Dark Sight and felt myself go invisible. She was strong, vicious and faster than you’d expect a fighter to be, but I had the power of darkness on my side, and a wicked few years of bandit training…jeez, and I was the one telling Li she was clichéd.

I took a quick glance around the area, wondering where by the Dark Lord Li was, for that matter. I could really use some ‘sin-
“Finesse,” growled the fighter, and I turned, wondering how she had known what I was thinking. Then I realised; she wasn’t reading my mind.

It was a name. A name I knew.

I was so shocked I completely lost control of the cloaking and appeared in full sight, right in front of this enraged fighter with a huge-as-all-Zakum-axe.

Probably one of the worst moments of my thief career, now that I think about it.

iii. Li
I heard the yelling and crashing just as I’d chased the mage to the edge of the wharfs, and mentally cursed my…friend and his ancestors. Holding up a Steely and summoning the most psychotic grin I could manage, I took one step towards the petrified mage, who instantly dived off the pier. So much for that. Switching Haste back on, I sped towards the township – and Az – praying inwardly that it was just Az being an idiot, nothing more-

The huge crowd of people, mostly jobless youngsters, grouped around the place we had been sitting before, testified that it was definitely ‘something more’. I wanted to scream and kill them all for standing around like tourists. I didn’t; instead, I shoved my way in through the rookies, ignoring the yells of “cool noob” and “plz”, and, when someone grabbed onto my arm, gave them the good old glare of fire. They let go quite quickly.

I dropped to my knees beside the barely-moving form. A few rips and tears, the metal of his Pilfer rather dented, no open, gushing wounds that I could see. The fact that he was out cold and he didn’t seem to be breathing was the most worrying. My fingers traced the slash mark in his clothes while my heart ran laps in my chest; who? Why? How? Az had been- was an awesome warrior when he wasn’t screwing around. Dismay – and fury – were beginning to close around my head, like a pair of metal jaws.

“If all you’re going to do is sit there and gawk, then get out of the way,” a voice said.
“He’s my friend,” I said, the words bringing me back to my senses. I rummaged for a potion, hoping against hope that we would have restocked since leaving Kerning, despite the knowledge that we had been dead broke since Ellinia. A misplaced hope, as it turned out; I went for his pack before a hand stopped me.
“Do you want your friend to remain breathing? If you do, I’d suggest you move. Now either help me, or step back.”
—-
Ooh. Trouble seems to have hit. Vacation time has been cut short by this mysterious fighter; who is she? Who is the new person on the scene? Will we find out about the meaning of the name ‘Finesse’ to Az?

Next chapter, forthcoming.