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The first time Emily meets Beca Mitchell, she's sort of star-struck. She's been playing with Benji for four months by that point and she has been a constant feature in his stories the entire time; 'Beca, my old DM' this and 'when Beca ran a campaign' that. There was always sort of a mythic quality to his stories, Emily was never sure how much of it to believe.
On first blush Beca definitely doesn't stand up to the stories. Emily's not sure what she was expecting, some sort of hulking goddess carrying around leather bound copies of the DM's Guide maybe? Definitely not the short, grumpy senior she's seen sneaking through hallways most mornings. Still, there's something about the other girl that makes Emily sit up and pay attention.
Benji literally pulls out her chair for her, Beca only rolls her eyes.
"Dude," she says, laying a hand on his arm. "Relax."
He smiles at her tremulously, which is basically par for the course with Benji, and scrambles away to sit in his usual spot behind his screen. When he first invited her, Emily actually thought Beca was going to be running the game. And maybe she is in a way.
Everyone except for Benji is mostly unfamiliar to Emily, they're all seniors for one and girls for another. Jesse and Donald, the other two players in their regular game didn't get invited. Actually now that she thinks about it, Emily isn't actually sure if she was specifically invited. It's not like she knows any of the other senior girls now sitting around the table.
Literally everyone knows Stacie is going to like build rocket engines for spaceships or something, and she might have said a handful of words to Emily in passing in the library but they've never met. She's only seen the other two girls, Flo and Cynthia-Rose, from a distance. They all have that ease of conversation with each other that tells her they've hung out, like a lot, which makes Emily feel almost like she's intruding.
But none of them have been anything but friendly to her. Beca gave her a nod and even though they're in Benji's basement, somehow it feels like a point of pride, like she's been admitted into some secret club or something.
Maybe it's because everyone is clearly looking to Beca as the leader. All turning to watch when she walks in, perking up and focusing on their sheets and notes and dice. Waiting for an invisible signal.
Once he's settled Benji gives Emily one last nervous smile before addressing the table as a whole.
"Why don't you all introduce your characters," he says.
Flo almost jumps out of her chair as she drops her voice low and booms out, "Puerto Semin's finest blade, Andres Enzo Julen Avila y Catalá, at your service."
"Human fighter," she adds as an afterthought.
"Mae Jamis, artificer," Stacie says, pushing up glasses she doesn't need or have. "Human."
"Damys Uxel, Paladin of the Wyrmking, the Lord of North Wind, Bahamut."
Cynthia-Rose doesn't really do anything in particular, but somehow Emily can tell she's playing a part as much as the other two. Something shifts in her eyes. Then it's Emily's turn.
"Um, Tharine Wi-Willow. Cleric of, um, Lliira? I'm an elf, " she cringes. It fit the character but none of her anxiety was feigned.
If any of them notices though they don't say anything. And a moment later even she forgets.
Beca shifts in her seat and says, "Allie the Nightingale," somehow she's made her voice go soft and teasing, "Teller of tall tales, singer of sad songs, entertainer for all ages, and the love of half the world."
And with that they're off. Emily has to sit in awe of the others for a while, each of them is obviously much more comfortable playing their characters than she's ever felt. Maybe just because they've played more. It's intimidating but it's also just really really cool to witness and hard not to get caught up in.
She finds herself playing more and more into her character as their sessions go by. That's maybe getting ahead of things though.
That first session is basically just their character meeting in some backwoods tavern, hearing some distant screams from one of the farmsteads and running to investigate. Finding a peasant dwarf woman struggling to pry a giant wheel of cheese from a kobolds hands, they almost immediately find themselves surrounded on all sides by a whole troop of the scaly little things.
And they just seem to keep coming every round. Ten of them in total, but they're only third level so it's plenty scary. For Emily at least.
She tries to stay close to one of the others the entire fight, mostly that ends up being Beca.
"That's... " Cynthia-Rose waits for the rattle of her die to settle. "Sixteen to hit."
"Roll damage," Benji says.
"Six."
He nods, makes a note and stands to topple the little plastic figurine. Emily is up next, after one or two of the kobols, she can't remember. She's not really sure what to do, that's three down and at least another two hurt and for relatively little damage to themselves. Unless something changes the fight is basically over, but she feels kind of useless.
"Okay, this guy is going to run."
He takes one of the figures and marches it six squares, "But before he does he's going to take another potshot at you, Allie," he rolls. "Ah, that seven probably won't- oh but, one of his friends next to you, so he has advantage… and that's a natural twenty!"
Benji grins and Beca shrugs.
"You take… ooh, ten points of bludgeoning as the fleeing kobold whips his sling around and launches a rock right into your head. A trickle of blood pours down into your eyes and you feel a bit woozy for a second."
Emily frowns, that's the most damage any of them has taken and it's not the first time Beca's been hurt though she's not sure how low she is exactly.
"And this guy," he takes one of the few unoccupied kobolds. "Is… just going to run."
He moves it completely off the gridded mat they're using as the battlefield, then turns to Emily, "You're turn Em. I mean Tharine."
She does a quick calculation, trying to find a spot where she can be in range for both Beca's Allie and Flo's Andres, then picks up her figurine, an early gift from Benji for her birthday in a couple of months, and moves it.
"Once I'm there I'll channel divinity to use Preserve Life, healing Allie for, um twelve and Andres for three."
Emily stares at the field, nods, "That's it."
"Right and seeing that, these three are going to start running too," he says, grabbing three that had been heading towards Andres just a turn again and beelining them for the edge of the map instead.
One makes it off. The other two are still technically on the field, but literally on the edge of it, there's basically no chance of catching any of them for anyone. Well, maybe if they used ranged attacks with she and Flo technically have. They're running though, it doesn't seem right.
Apparently Flo disagrees though because she has Andres dash after the one that hit Allie with the critical hit, she gets right up to it but can't do anything else. She'll get an opportunity attack when it runs. Stacie just has Mae trot over towards Tharine and Allie. Then it's Cynthia-Roses turn again.
"Damys is going to walk as close as she can get to the kobold," within ten feet that is.
Which is technically a distance she can attack at because her pike has reach, Emily supposes.
"Then she's going to call out," Cynthia-Rose says, pointing to the little kobold figurine. "O Might Bahamut, witness this spiteful drudge of the many-colored scaled evil and by your power, STAY IT!"
"And use Nature's Wrath."
So they get a prisoner.
Emily is almost immediately distracted from that, as Benji says, "Out of the cellar door comes the dwarf woman you saw earlier, struggling with the giant wheel of cheese. She comes straight up to Allie."
"Ohh thank ye lassies, she says," Benji can't really do voices, but he tries. "Rottin' scaley thieves stole half o' me larder. Woulda made off wi' everythin' weren't for you."
"We aim to be of service, Misses," Beca says in her Alie voice. "Miss?"
"Miss Oasten," he has her giggle.
Beca nods and makes a note.
"Miss Oasten. Over there, seeing to the prisoner, are my esteemable companions Andres and Dumys," she points to Cynthia-Rose and Flo, then to Emily, "This is Tharine and there is Mae," Stacie had positioned her little miniature near one of the corpses.
"And I am Allie," Beca says. "Now that we are introduc-"
Benji does his best impression of a girlish lovestruck sigh, Emily resists the urge to roll her eyes as he says, "Aye, I know. You're the Nightingale, oh but it is such an honor."
"The honor is all ours. Now, these kobolds…"
And they go on to conduct two parallel interrogations, with Benji switching off playing their grateful dwarven peasant woman and the frightened kobold prisoner. It's funny to watch him going from one to the other. Emily finds herself growing increasingly suspicious. Trying to parse out hidden messages in everything she hears.
Not just from the kobold, but the dwarven woman too. There's something about her that set her on edge and she can't quite say what it is. None of the others seem to pick up on it.
Eventually they piece together that the kobolds are recent arrivals who have mostly been stealing food from the locals, in the western area of the region, Miss Oasten's farmstead is the farthest they've taken from. Their prisoner is not very forthcoming. Constantly saying only that 'she' needs to be fed, so that 'she' can regain her strength and repeating its name. Kon.
It leaves them unsettled.
They take the prisoner back to the tavern they started in and Allie, Beca, is able to persuade the owner to stick it in a corner or the cellar and put his son to guard it. After that the party heads out into the wilderness and starts heading in the direction they think the kobolds probably went. Supposedly there's some ancient ruins in the area.
Because of some poor rolls they end up stumbling around, running into a pack of wolves, and realizing they are thoroughly lost only a few hours in, then they're completely unable to make heads or tails of the hastily drawn map Tharine made with her scribing tools. They decide to take a long rest and try again in the morning.
It does go better when their characters wake up. They manage to find their way to the ruins in a few hours and without running into anymore trouble. A lucky roll on Stacie's part stops them from just wandering in when they don't see anyone at first, and Mae points out a group of cleverly hidden kobolds. Once they spot those…
"... see another group laying on their bellies on a ledge of crumbling stone that used to be a second floor. And the tips of a few tails poking out of some bushes far to your right. Hastily painted skins covering gaps in stonework. Dense spots of fresh cut branches on the floor."
"There are easily twenty to thirty kobolds lying in wait," Benji says, then glancing up at the clock hanging on the wall, "And we'll stop there tonight."
A chorus of groans goes up, but after a quick series of checks on their phones no one else makes any more protests. Emily has to get up for church in a little more than seven hours and she still has to drive home. They say quick goodbyes and disperse.
Next week can't come fast enough.
She thinks about it literally everyday, in class and out, trying to work up a game plan for how to take on all those kobolds or maybe get past them. But she doesn't see how it can work. There are just too many of them and none of them except Flo's Andres are proficient in stealth. She's hoping the others will be reasonable and they can just turn around and disappear back into the forest, but she doesn't know them well.
That's not all that's on her mind either. Twice she has to stop herself from pestering Benji with questions about the dwarven woman, who she's still suspicious of, or for the others numbers. Really, they should have exchanged them sometime before the game got started but Emily was too nervous at the time to ask and no one else said anything.
It's only a game though so she tries to put it out of her mind. That doesn't work super well.
Finally Saturday rolls around and Emily is basically anxiously bouncing around her house all day until Benji calls her to see if she can bring some snacks and she all but invites herself over. When she arrives Beca is actually there too. They wave at each other once Emily has dropped the pretzels and chips she picked up on the way over onto the table.
She wanders her way awkwardly over and searches for something to say, her tongue seems to stick in her throat though. Beca eventually looks up from her phone and stares back. Raising a single eyebrow.
"Um," she says, finally finding her voice. "Benji's told me a lot about the games you used to run?"
How exactly she makes it a question, Emily isn't sure. Beca just keeps staring without making any move to respond. Instantly she can feel her pits start to sweat and she starts wondering if she said something offensive?
Usually she can keep a lid on what her mom calls 'the Sailor,' but nerves tend to make a mess of her self control and Emily is definitely nervous right now. Just as she opens her mouth Beca finally answers. Her question which really shouldn't have been a question.
"In middle school, yeah. We, uh, I- yeah."
She trails off.
Emily recognizes a sensitive topic when she sees one. And she doesn't know Beca nearly well enough to think it's a good idea to press, no matter how much she wants to because the moment of uncertainty made her want to wrap the other girl in a tight hug. Which is another idea Emily knows not to pursue.
Once she heard Beca Mitchel kneed a guy in the groin for grabbing her arm. Or ass. She's heard a couple different versions of the story.
Apparently tabletop gaming is not a safe topic, which means Emily desperately needs a new one, "So, how's school?"
It's so bad that she winces the second the words leave her mouth. Now that they're out though she can't exactly take them back.
"Fine."
Then, maybe realizing that she might have sounded rude, Beca adds, "You?"
"I have Mrs. McKadd- no sorry, Feinberg, for homeroom. She's, um-"
"Bitch," she whispers the word with such force Emily actually takes a step back. Beca glances at her, "Sorry, not you. I had her freshman year for english. Always paired me with Bumper Allen for discussions, said he was going places."
"Honestly, dude, it was kinda creepy. She is, like, obsessed with him and somehow that rubbed off on me; pops up in the weirdest places just to ask me bizarre questions."
"Beca," she said, putting on a surprisingly accurate voice. "Do you ever think you'll reach the same heights you did in your freshman year?"
Emily really isn't sure what to say to that, the extent of her interactions with Mrs. Feinberg have been rollcall related so she hardly has an opinion of her. Literally the only other thing the teacher has said in class was something that sounded like it was supposed to be advice, but that Emily didn't really understand. It had to do with marriage. Maybe?
"Sorry, sorry. I interrupted you."
Not really. She wasn't even really sure how she was going to finish that sentence.
"Oh, um, well I'm think I might do track and-"
Which is of course when Cynthia-Rose comes stomping down the stairs, followed by Stacie and Flo. They're early. Briefly she wants to shove all three of them back up the stairs and tell them to come back later, which is ridiculous both because she got here even earlier and because she's literally here to play with them.
She shakes off those thoughts and looks back to Beca, expecting to see her halfway out of her chair and heading to her friends. Instead, she's only looking at Emily expectantly. Oh, right she stopped in the middle of her sentence.
"Track and field," she finishes.
"Cool, cool. I have a, well I know someone who does track and field. And cross country and swimming and student government."
"Wow, that's a lot."
"Yeah, Aubrey's a special sort of motivated," Beca says.
Unfortunately that's the end of their conversation as everyone gathers to start the session.
"Right you pitches," Cynthia-Rose claps her hands. "Let's get this started. Mama is ready to roll her some dice."
Despite that inauspicious display of enthusiasm Emily is thankfully not the only one leery of taking on twenty to thirty kobolds and so after some discussion and watching them for a long time the party slips back into the woods. By the time they make it back to the tavern the left the night before most of that day has gone by in game. They talk the entire way about what they should do.
"... set bait for them?"
Stacie shakes her head, "They already know we're here. If they come at all, it will be in a big group."
Flo sighs and the rest of the group lapses into silence for a moment.
"What do we know about kobolds?" asks Cynthia-Rose.
Benji thinks a moment, then, "Does anyone have a History proficiency? Or… Nature?"
"I do," Emily says. "History, I mean."
"Skill check then."
She nods and rolls. Does some quick math in her head.
"Seventeen total."
"Okay," Benji says, looking at his notes. "So, from what you remember, kobolds aren't actually usually seen this far north. Old bones and mummified remains have been found, but they don't typically stray so far from the warmer climates down south."
"Uh, Damys, roll a straight wisdom check for me…"
Cynthia-Rose rolls and then grimaces, "Twelve?"
"Right, because you're a paladin of Bahamut you actually know a lot about kobolds, being servants of a sort of Tiamat, who represents greed and evil so the thievery makes sense though usually kobolds go after shinier prizes than simple food. You actually did encounter a number of them during your training down south and these looked different."
"It's hard to say how, they were pests to be driven off not serious foes. All you know is that the ones back at the ruins and at the farmstead weren't the same kind you fought."
They already sort of knew there was something going on. What was unclear. So they continue arguing over what to do; Andres suggests training and arming the locals to help take on the kobolds, to which Mae objects. Ten or twenty untrained peasants, young boys and girls and old women and men mostly, are not any great threat. Even against kobolds.
Damys says that they might be able to lie in wait in the surrounding countryside and pick off smaller groups over a period of some weeks, whittle down their numbers into more manageable chunks. None of it sounds very good to Emily, who really doesn't know what Tharine thinks of any of it. Thieves they are, but so far the kobolds have managed not to hurt any of the farmers in the course of their thefts.
Of course that can't last long.
Still Emily never likes having to kill things that are clearly thinking, not when they haven't hurt anyone yet. But what else can they do?
"How about this," Beca, or rather Allie, says. "Let's take our prisoner north to, um, the town… the one you mentioned."
"Widden," Benji provides.
"Yeah, and see what sort of help we can get. Couple of town guards or mercenaries, maybe? Pick up extra supplies and come back to deal with the problem.
"But," Emily starts. "Won't the people around here be in trouble?"
Beca shakes her head, "If the kobolds were going to march in and start killing they would have already done it. They have the numbers. If anything I think they'll stay away a little while longer."
It made sense, Emily finds herself convinced and so apparently on the others. So they go back to the tavern to collect their prisoner kobold, who they find in the cellar in the process of trying to tunnel its way out. Not very well, the cellar is well built with stone walls. It was making progress though and would have eventually gotten out.
They also learn from the tavern keeper that the town, Widden, is actually the seat of the sheriff so there should be a fair number of guards, or even toughs if none can be spared. With most of the day gone by the time they're ready they camp early the first day and take turns with the watches.
Because Tharine is an elf Emily actually ends up taking two watches, neither of which is with Beca's Allie which irks her for some reason. Mae ends up with her in the middle watch, bracketed by both of Tharine's watches.
"That's a big weapon," Beca as Allie says.
She's talking about Mae's heavy crossbow, which she hasn't fired once. Instead, so far she's zapped one kobold with lightning and hit some wolves with magic missile.
Stacie more than Mae grins back, "Effective. If you know how to use it."
Emily frowns, it feels like she's missing something and she doesn't like it.
"Oh? And do you?"
"I've had some practice."
"You'll have to show me some time," Beca finishes. Cynthia-Rose rolls her eyes heavily.
It takes two more days of travel for their characters to reach Widden, on the second night Tharine notices something overhead but can't make out what it is exactly except that it's big. Nothing attacks them on the road. Benji describes them getting some strange looks, mostly directed at their prisoner but as he's clearly restrained no one comments.
Emily supposes as the seat of the sheriff maybe it's not so uncommon to see people bringing in others tied or chained up. For rewards and the like.
Their path through town takes them into the market square. Only a few stalls and patrons mill about for business, with the local market day just passed the usual farmers, herdsmen, weavers, and craftsmen are absent but there are still the town's own proprietors hanging around. A couple of leathersmiths, a blacksmith, the local alchemist, and three woodcarvers hawk their wares along with various townspeople selling their own products.
Benji has them roll perception. Which is how not a few feet into the market Allie sees something amongst one of the woodworkers' wares. She dashes off without a word. The rest of the party is forced to follow after her. Tharine meanwhile spots someone in the crowd behind them, an older scarred human woman, quickly turn away when she glances around.
As it turned out what Beca's bard had spotted was a dusty old viol tucked just behind them. When Tharine and the others come up they find her examining the worn instrument under the seller's watchful eye, a youngish human man, he hardly seems like to have made it in the first place.
"Strings was in a right terrible condition," Benji was having him say. "No one hereabouts has the knowhow to fix 'em up, nor make no new ones."
"Did your master ever say where he got it?"
"Ain't rightly sure was he that found it," he continues, shaking his head. "Way he spoke o' it, mighta been in the shop since forever."
"How much are you asking?"
Benji makes an effort to do his 'thinking' face.
"Twenty."
Allie scoffs, "No strings, covered in dust, without even the bow? Twelve."
"No, sees I got the bow here somewhere," Benji says first, then dropping the voice, "Roll persuasion."
She does and Emilt can see straight away it's low, maybe not disastrously but certainly not a good roll.
Beca frowns, "Fourteen."
He nods.
"Ah, tell you what. Seeing as you're such a lovely girl, I'll sell it for eighteen. Without the bow."
She eyes Benji for a long moment, searching, the persona of Allie completely dropped for that pause and then she slips right back into it in an instant.
"Oh come now, it's hardly an instrument without the bow. Besides, who else are you going to sell it too?" Beca asks, fluttering her eyelashes and leaning over the table in a way that has Emily nearly going ass over tits. No one else seems affected.
Well, no one else real at least. Benji laughs to himself and makes a roll behind his screen.
"W-well, m-maybe you have a point," he strokes his chin.
Frowning, Emily decides she really doesn't like this punk. She wants to do something but isn't sure how she could help except by scaring him. Which isn't exactly in line with her deity, Lliira is a goddess of dancing and festivals and happiness.
Of course Allie, Beca, is a bard and bards entertain people and perform at festivals. Maybe that's close enough.
"Tharine steps up behind Allie and plants the shaft of her spear in the dirt pointedly," she says.
Benji and Beca both give her a look that she doesn't quite know how to decipher.
"Roll intimidation," he says.
The die goes tumbling, she doesn't have proficiency in charisma but it's her second highest score after wisdom. Luck is on her side.
"That's, uh," it's only a simple addition, "Sixteen."
He laughs quietly to himself and nods.
"You're not big, and no one has ever accused you of being scary looking. But what you are is a haughty elf and prominently displaying the holy symbol of the Lady of Joy, who while she isn't the main deity worshipped in the region is well recognized. He gulps and looks between you and Allie, then says, ah mayhap I could part with it for sixteen?"
"Bow included," Benji adds quickly.
Beca looks at Emily then looks back to him and shrugs, "Really? That would be lovely."
She starts to mark it down, then before the party can move on she looks back at Benji.
"What about the old strings? It might be awhile before I can find proper replacements."
He grins, "Ah, hmm, might be I still have them. Come by later this afternoon."
Then they finally set back off again for the sheriff's tower. Without any more distractions, though they do agree to come back to the alchemist before the leave, they make it easily. Emily keeps trying to check for the woman she noticed but never spots her again as they make their way.
Showing the guards at the bottom of the tower their prisoner is enough to get them inside but after that they're left waiting for a long while. Until near sundown in fact. There is a consistent stream of other people, of all sorts, coming from the stairs leading up so the delay at least seems to be from genuine business rather than anything more sinister.
Finally another guard collects them and leads them up the short flight of stairs onto a landing and then into a spacious office where they are met by a gray-haired woman in a set of fine robes. Flo's Andres edges himself to the back of the party, ostensibly to guard the kobold.
"What do we have now, captain?" she asks in Benji's voice. Not even looking up from the ledger she is writing in.
"A party of adventurers, come from three days south, down near the river Ban with a… kobold prisoner."
She looks up and takes in the party in a sweet before her eyes alight on the prisoner in question and fixes it in place. There's a long moment in which none of them say anything.
Then Beca speaks up, "Madam Sheriff, we encountered a gang of ten four nights past, stealing from a farmstead in that area. After dispatching some, most fled… but through the night we tracked them to their lair, alas they were too many for us to meet on our own. So we come to you, to ask-"
"Captain," she interrupts. "Whose patrol is that way?"
"Samson, but ma'am we had to move his squad north to Oldmill to help with the bandits. Clagon and his squad were supposed to take over, but with the issue of the gnolls about Tarn Hills…"
"Mmm, yes. I do remember."
Then the sheriff turns back to them, though rather than addressing Allie she addresses the whole group, "How many were there?"
"Oh, and Tharine, make another perception roll," Benji adds.
"Many, no army, but more than a match for five," Allie answers. "We were hoping-"
"Twenty at least," cuts in Cynthia-Rose's Damys. "Likely as many as thirty. Maybe more. They have made their camp in some ruins nearby and have the area well fortified."
"Yes, and we were hoping," Beca continues as Allie. "That you might be able to spare some men to help in clearing them out, or failing that help with hiring some mercenaries."
"Twenty one for perception."
Benji raises an eyebrow, "Okay. Out of the corner of your eye you spot a shape moving in the window, like a head ducking down below the sill. The sheriff sighs heavily, and says,"
"Unfortunately, as you have just heard we are short of available men. We might spare a squad in… two weeks time. Or a couple of the men in three days. As for mercenaries, there are none to be found, at least not that I would trust to fight their way free of more than underbrush. Hunters and trappers and farmers are all Widden has."
Emily shifts Tharine over to the window and though the sheriff and captain give her strange looks no one comments beyond that. When she glances through it she sees nothing though. Just the town below, people milling about.
There's some more back and forth with the sheriff trying to see what more help they can get, but beyond a promise of 'appropriate rewards' for dealing with the problem there seems to be nothing else she can or will do. So they leave the tower feeling disappointed and like maybe they wasted some time. As the sun is setting they have to find lodgings for the night, easy enough though this time they have to keep their prisoner in one of their own rooms. That was another thing, the sheriff offered to take it off their hands and execute it.
Something both Emily's Tharine and Allie argued strongly against. Damys and Mae were less opposed, but did not press the issue.
Barely a couple of hours later, as Tharine is watching over their prisoners, things have apparently changed. The others are approached while eating in the dining area of the inn, by a fellow adventurer who the sheriff contracted to help them. An older woman, scarred, wearing heavy armor who Emily instantly realizes is the one who was following them in the market.
Of course none of the others saw her and Tharine never brought it up so of course they accept. She struggles the rest of the night to explain her misgivings to the others once Mae relieves her so she can eat dinner, but she can't really explain why they should be suspicious of this woman. Simply having seen her is hardly a good reason for distrust.
So the next morning they head off, after a brief stop at the woodcarver and the alchemist's stalls to collect what they hadn't the day before, with their new companion back in the direction of the kobolds.
Throughout that day, night, and the next they learn a little bit about the woman. Her name is Hava and she had been born in a land far from here and travelled recently after some trouble in her homeland. A defender of the weak, this task seemed a natural fit for her.
She also enjoyed poetry, singing, and dancing. Once she had brought an entire mountain side down on an unspecified enemy chasing down a group of fleeing refugees, which was how one of her fingers had gotten a permanent, if slight, bend to it. And she had similarly grandiose stories for every scar on her. Not all of them entirely made sense, Hava spoke common with an accent that suggested it was often spoken where she came from.
On the second night, before they all settle in to sleep, Hava starts a strange conversation.
"What is your greatest desire, Damys?"
"To do good and cleanse the world of evil," Cynthia-Rose says.
"No, no," Benji shakes his head, and continues as Hava. "More personal, what is the goal of your wanderings in this world? The legacy you wish to leave."
That Cynthia-Rose has to think about a bit harder, but after a moment she comes back with an answer, "In the South… every home, town, each market, has a shrine to my lord Bahamut. I wish to see some measure of that devotion spread to these lands."
"To found an order to continue that work after my life has been spent."
Hava nods, "An admirable aspiration. Your lord is Just and Wise and leads his people well. Mae?"
Stacie seems surprised to be called on next, but she hardly hesitates before answering, "To perfect my armor for one," she knocks her hand against her chest, which unlike Mae's is not covered by plate, "After that? Make more wonders. Teach others like myself, usher in a golden age of magic and knowledge never before seen."
"Lofty. And typical of your wizards everywhere."
She shrugs to that.
"What of you Allie?"
"Oh I'm simple, really," Beca says, ready for the question. "See the world, meet interesting people. Love more than a few of them," she winks at Hava through Benji. Emily frowns. "Eventually die in splendor and comfort as a party goes on around me."
"Is that all you truly desire? Pleasures of the flesh?"
"Come now," Beca counters. "You can't tell me you've never had a spiritual moment while laying with someone, and if you do then I might just have to-"
"Why are any of you telling her these things?" Emily interrupts hotly. "We hardly know her, we didn't even bother to see if the sher-"
Beca scoffs, "Stop acting like my spurned lover Tharine."
Emily's brain grinds to a halt and she lets out a gasp. Before she knows it she's standing up and sending her chair tumbling to the ground behind her as she replays the event of the last two sessions in her head. As heat explodes across her face and neck, Emily turns and makes for the door.
Dimly, as the door shuts behind her, she thinks she hears Beca mutter a soft, "Fuck."
Ignoring Mrs. Applebaum's question she dashes out the back door, once outside she briefly debates sneaking around the side of the house to get in her car and just leave before deciding against it. So, instead Emily climbs into the far too small tree house Benji's dad built him when he was eight, and stews in her humiliation. God, she's been walking around with this huge crush for nearly a week and forcing it on the entire group for hours.
And she didn't even know. Could they all tell?
Just a few minutes go by before Emily hears someone climbing up after her. She can't make herself look.
"Hey," Beca says.
Perfect. Just what she needs, to be humiliated again by having this conversation with her crush. With a frustrated sigh Emily throws herself back and lets out a strangled half sob.
"Dude, look, whatever I said," she reconsiders. "The one thing you have to know is that I'm a clueless asshole."
"So… I'm sorry for whatever I said."
Emily laughs, "You didn't say anything."
"I- what? I didn't?"
There's a long pause as Emily waits for Beca to put the pieces together, "Huh."
She doesn't say anything after that though and so Emily just stares up the cool rays of the sun dancing across the bare tree branches. Her heart pounds. And she waits.
"Okay, so, uh can you-" Beca cut herself off. "Look, dude, can you like sit up? It's really hard having a conversation with your chest and chin."
Emily debates just flinging herself to the ground below. No. She closes her eyes and sits up, then slowly opens them again to meet Beca's. She's actually blushing a bit.
"So… it's not something I said?"
She shakes her head, "No. When you said that, I realized you were right. I was acting like that."
Which only seems to confuse her more.
"Well, yeah, your character-"
"No I was acting like that," she stresses.
"Huh, I don't see- oh. Oooh."
"Yeah, which I know, is ridiculous. Because I'm only a sophomore and we barely know each other-"
But Beca surprises her again, "I mean we can fix that."
Emily blinks back at her, uncertain of what exactly she just heard. Her brain spends at least five seconds trying to connect her crush and the words that just came out of Beca's mouth before she can say anything.
"What, what? You mean, you and me… on, like a date?"
She nods, "Sure, yeah, absolutely. I mean you're kind of unfairly gorgeous," Beca blushes very prettily at that and rushes on, "And two years isn't really that much of a difference. It's not like… a commitment or anything, it's just- yeah I mean, yeah."
"If you want."
Emily nods, probably a little too eagerly.
"Cool," Beca nods too. "Cool."
There's a couple beats of quiet where they're just staring at each other, then looking away, then turning back to stare.
"But, um, later? 'Cause I kinda want to get back to the game."
Emily laughs.