One Normal Day
Dugan
The next day, after an actual breakfast, I met up with Poppy, who had decided to take a rest day and not jog to school--I would never understand her. On the bus, near the front, we commandeered seats and cracked open the window to let some cool air in.
"Do you have any progress with Annabel?" Rolling my eyes--Arabella had just texted me the same question, verbatim--I dug out a notebook and thrust it at her.
"All my notes, so far. Last page has theories." Predictably, she skipped ahead, eyes going wide at the proposed reasons as the bus jolted back into motion.
"That's not possible, right?" The sigh I gave in response was enough for her to read through properly; I nearly cast a spell in reflex as Poppy's backpack unzipped itself, Arabella winking at me from inside it before carefully closing it. I had no idea if Poppy even knew, looking up to find her rolling her eyes at me, having seen where I was looking.
"It's kind of hard for me not to notice. She did it for part of yesterday, too--pretty sure she takes breaks from sneaking around in there." Arabella was on the shorter side, coming from a line of non-longshanks halflings, and at just under three feet I could see it working.
"Which of these do you think is most likely?" Poppy was looking down at her phone, reading questions from Arabella.
"Honestly? I've been thinking about it--turn the page." The page beyond the theories page was the concoction of waking up mid-sleep to wide-awake, dream forgotten in trade for two pages of mad scribbling.
"Essentially, he's both father and patron, due to her having somehow inherited the mark of oathbreaker from her other parent. I don't know enough about that type of magic to say one way or another about the oathbreaker thing, though." She nodded slowly, followed up by Arabella texting my phone--'Poppy cut off Annabel's dad's arm yesterday', how insightful--bus coming to a stop again to admit further passengers. From the row behind us, I heard a warlock sophomore raise their voice and address us.
"Who's father is what?" Without even looking up, I cast a spell I'd studied the night previously, two gold coins blinking out of existence mid-flip.
"My sister's pet slime cube ate my notes from yesterday." Everyone within earshot blinked, save Poppy, jaw hanging open at both what I'd said and what I'd done afterwards. When I frowned in confusion at her, her incredulity only grew--but she did lower her voice.
"You can do that?" Dryly (I was studying dunamancy, for crying out loud) I clicked my tongue and indicated the copious notes I'd taken.
"I happen to enjoy dunamancy. Learning other spells is still allowed; it was useful." She shook her head while I scrolled through the paragraph of frantic questions Arabella was asking about gift of gab, the spell I'd used. By the time I'd fielded at least ten questions about magic, the way that magic works, and even magical history, we were stepping off of the bus to meet up with Annabel and Siobhan on the steps up to Aguefort.
"Can you give me, like, a single second? I can't type this fast." Sensing I may end up with a rogue in my backpack soon, I took a preemptive step apart to join with the other two on the edge, with Annabel between us.
"What's the schedule today? 'A normal day at Aguefort,' right? Bell?" Clearly not having known she had a nickname, Annabel looked up from her crystal in confusion before rolling her eyes.
"Ideally. I'm not always in the mood for adventure, y'know?" Poppy's face scrunched up slightly, compounded by her walking face-first into Coach Daybreak, who laughed as he took a step backward to absorb the unintentional blow.
"Strong shoulder, there. Mr. Seacaster must've forgotten to mention to you about the Owlbears, eh? I'm Coach Daybreak." Daybreak was a fighter, based on his musculature and voice.
"No, he found me. Just not all that interested in it--would rather focus on adventuring. Thanks for the offer, though." The man adjusted his baseball cap, a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth as he replied.
"I've discussed with Ms. Jones; she'd be willing to extend some extra credit your way, since it is good fighter practice." With the rest of us standing around awkwardly (or hiding in her backpack), Poppy's eyes narrowed slightly.
"How much? I don't work for free." Daybreak laughed, leaning on his axe for support--though I noticed that his eyes never shut fully; a smart fighter.
"Fifteen percent on every assignment; Corsica was very impressed with how you nearly gutted her on Monday--not to mention, taking an afternoon to rescue someone from Dis. Contingent, of course, on you joining the team." She considered his words, exchanging a glance with Siobhan, who shrugged.
"Without a sword, I'm better in one-on-ones. There a position for that?" Daybreak's eyes lit up, staring over our heads as an idea seemed to strike him.
"Not really... not yet. But I have an idea--be at the field after school. Oh," as he turned to leave, the broad-shouldered man swung back around, "And, with a sword? Still one-on-one?" With a toothy grin, she half-unsheathed Saint Sitre, showing the bone-white blade to him before replacing it.
"Doesn't matter how many, then."
"And, Dugan?" I'd watched a few classmates turn in examples of flashy spells they'd learned, fireballs or admittedly impressive illusions, and when my name was called I checked my notes, grabbed a bag of dust from my desk, and walked up to the front of the classroom. I'd considered where exactly I wanted to do this, and attempted to be as unobtrusive as possible before tossing a yardstick up horizontally, waiting until it was arcing back down before casting a spell with a duration of an hour--thankfully, it wasn't in the way.
"What spell is this?" Reaching up, I grabbed it out of the air and moved it around in my hand, before holding it out to Runestaff and letting go. When she grabbed it, her hand jerked slightly; but the yardstick was frozen in place.
"Immovable Object. For an hour, it can sustain up to four-thousand pounds, and is only movable by those I designated, so--myself." The slightest scowl mixed with a glimmer of admiration preceded an 'A', and I set it down across her desk before heading back to my seat with an empty bag. A few other interesting spells went off, such as a conjure lesser demon spell and a remarkable feign death spell, my focus drifting a bit further as I contemplated Arabella's case. If Dispater was truly both her father and patron, the complexity of how magic worked could make her one of the most powerful paladins in recent history through strength of bond alone; why had she been told she was a cleric, then?
"Hello!" A shriek and jump preceded a reflex casting of slow that was slapped aside by the strongest counterspell I'd ever encountered; standing in front of me, grinning, was Principal Aguefort.
"Chronomancy! You've embarked on a journey into the greatest magic of all; once you can cast four timestops within each other or tear the very heart of a dying star out with your bare hands, I will teach you... the deepest secrets of time!" I felt him eject me from a timestop back into real-time, principal having vanished without even being visible to anyone else--what a guy. After a couple more people went, the last few minutes of class were spent in disscusion, which usually meant anything other than classwork.
"What were the Nine Hells like?" I frowned at a half-orc wizard and shut my book carefully.
"I didn't go, but Avernus was described as hot and dry, while Dis was cold and wet. Good contrast." He laughed, adjusting a set of glasses on his face and glancing at the yardstick, which was still firmly stuck in place.
"Think I could skim your notes on that? Seems useful." I had a more extensive copy of notes at home, and handed him the copy I had with me; by the time I got to the door, he had rejoined me with a perplexed look.
"How exactly did you develop understanding of a spell from these notes? It looks mostly like random jargon." Raising an eyebrow, I tapped the side of my head and grinned.
"Most of it is up here. That just reminds me of important parts." Stepping out, I immediately was shoulder-checked by Poppy into the nearest lockers--thankfully, Arabella's arm somehow reached out from a locker to prop me up--and I scowled at Poppy, who was nonchalantly talking with Siobhan.
"Don't make me start casting spells." She turned back, smiled wide, and gave me a side-hug as we made our way down the hallway; a weight settled into my backpack as I presumably gained a rogue in my inventory.
"Are we all excited for Poppy's bloodrush tryout? Might make a good post to the page." Siobhan nodded, busy nearly-constantly browsing social media. We'd already gained a substantial amount of followers from her stunt in Avernus, plus she was regularly making "things fighters say" and "how to catch a rogue" videos that were popular.
"I was planning on it. Maybe your arm will give you an advantage, too." After a few checks by myself and Annabel, the arm seemed to have grafted somewhat healthily to her shoulder; the surge of healing spells it had received worked wonders even on such a bad injury.
"It might, actually. Might change my stance for extra reach with a sword." The conversation devolved into Arabella texting Poppy questions and her answering them aloud, lending itself to a fairly entertaining one-sided conversation until we'd gotten lunches and found seats at a table in not-great-but-not-bad position within the cafeteria.
"Can you believe what happened in here a few days ago? Pitched battle, maybe even where you're sitting." Poppy looked wistfully at the counter as if wishing for pitched combat, while Siobhan posted and Annabel helped me sneak food into my backpack, which sat between us. Now that we were seated, Arabella popped her face out of the bag and spoke, which saved time.
"Too bright. Need to do it at night, when the moon's out." Poppy nodded in agreement as the rogue paused to eat a cup of soup.
"Think we could hit the library, then bloodrush?" Only Annabel was in the mood for the library, others going off to do something else--Arabella made it into Siobhan's bag without any of us noticing--and once settled in my familiar fortess of books, I began doing homework. I didn't know what paladins did for homework, as she just appeared to be wandering back and forth while muttering to herself; the only indication anything was happening were the occasional soft glows of light put off by the head of the staff itself. I was specifically reading through history books, mostly due to the lack of many assignments on the first few days of school, scanning through a historical textbook about the Nine Hells while taking careful notes; never hurts to be well-read.
Poppy
"Hey there! So glad you could make it. Everyone is real excited to see what you've got." I handed Saint Sitre to Arabella, and walked down to the field to shake hands with Coach Daybreak.
"We'll see how it goes. Don't know if I'll be all that good." He shook his head, smiling, and gestured to the loose group of athletes stretching on the side of the field.
"Only rules you need to care about are no intentionally fatal injuries and no weapons. Dayne, want to see how she does?" Blond, tall and fully human, an older student jogged over, looked me over, and shrugged.
"Yeah, why not. Just don't cry when I run you over." Daybreak chortled, and instructed me to take up a position opposite Dayne; the goal was to get the ball, which was in my hands, to the end of the field behind him. Dropping into a low crouch, I waited for a whistle and, when the noise screeched into my ear from far too close, I darted forward at about three-fourths my maximum speed. I ended up standing behind Dayne before he noticed I'd even moved; instead of kicking him in the back of the head, I tapped his shoulder and ran--I wanted to see how fast he was. Judging by the panting noise slowly growing quieter as I neared the end of the field, and the cheers from my friends, he wasn't nearly fast enough; at the end of the field I turned, unsure as to whether I was supposed to stop or keep going. Dayne seemed bent on tackling me, though, so I planted a foot and dropped a shoulder into his all-out charge, stopping him cold and sending the fairly built athlete to the ground, gasping for air.
"Do I keep going?" Daybreak, from near the middle of the field, shook his head with a half-vacant look of amazement, which was mirrored on several faces on the team.
"You're good! Is he okay?" Dayne was both conscious and starting to breath again, and I hauled him up to his feet as Daybreak spoke over his shoulder at the stretching players; the blond scowled down at me, said nothing, and walked back towards them.
Siobhan
"I want to kill something." Arabella nodded in agreement from underneath the bleachers we were sitting on, passing me a piece of candy from a bag she'd snagged out of a vending machine; it was cooler to watch them practice through the slats in the rows, even if Dugan's legs occasionally got in the way. Poppy was taking a break to drink water and talk at us from the grass near the bleachers, having put on a clinic in both speed and non-violent takedowns against nearly every member of the Owlbears save a few--notably, the Seacaster guy was still yet to go against her.
"Go to the Far Haven Woods after this. There's a lot of rats and spiders, I've heard." Poppy pulled a face and peered over her shoulder as I spoke after Annabel.
"Could be good practice for fighting groups. Even if it's not impossibly difficult odds, it can still be educational, y'know?" She hemmed and hawed for a few minutes before finally agreeing, though there were a few other people she needed to level before the try-out was truly concluded (in her eyes; Daybreak said she could stop after Dayne, but Poppy was in the mood for exercise). Paired against a bulky junior named Ragh and Bill Seacaster's son, she looked the pair of them over while taking up positions and mumbled something to herself; later, Dugan would point out that she'd pricked her palm with a fingernail, which--to him--meant nothing, but having seen her do it in Dis, I had some inkling of what had happened. When the whistle blew, she fully vanished from sight, appearing horizontally midair between the two with a boot firmly kicking Ragh in the lower back while she stripped the ball from Fabian in a clean motion before landing on her feet, hip-checking Seacaster into the ground, and taking off for the other end of the field yet again. While perhaps not as sturdy as her, Fabian was close in speed, managing to hook an ankle around her foot as she moved to step forward. Instead of tripping or falling, Poppy (wearing a grin I could see from the bleachers) rolled forward and did a front handspring while kicking her legs over and barely losing momentum in her stride as Fabian tried to regain speed.
"She's got to have some sort of magic going. Maybe she's a god in disguise?" I snorted at Dugan, rattling the bleachers enough to tip over Arabella's water bottle.
"Well, what's your reason?" Frowning out at the grass, I hummed a small scale before answering.
"She only ever trains or sleeps. Who knows how long she's been doing it for, if monster hunting was a family profession." He hummed, not entirely convinced, and all of us watched as she very nearly broke the neck of a junior that tried to tackle her; after that, Daybreak called it for the day and she trotted back over with a slightly feverish grin.
"I might've been wrong about bloodrush. How did it look?" Most of us were impressed, while Arabella raised an eyebrow from beside me.
"Your foot placement was lagging towards the end. Is the only reason Burlang managed to get a hand on you." Poppy nodded, downing her water and mine before collapsing onto the bleachers next to Annabel. Glancing up, the sun was slowly descending, and I weighed the odds of going into the Far Haven woods even as Dugan shot Poppy a look.
"Still game for the woods? Seem a little tired." Her sword was already belted back to her side, and the fighter snorted at him as she jumped upright to balance on the row of bleachers.
"Figured you all would want to go sleep, or something. We ready?" Getting to the woods required us to move through the main building, Annabel stopping by a vending machine and getting a can of soda before we exited the opposite end of the school and made for the treeline. The forest itself was actually pretty pleasant, a mixture of deciduous trees, bushes, and even patches of flowers springing up around us as we walked; I didn't know how dangerous the spiders and such were, but with Poppy with us I wasn't terribly worried.
"Want to make it a contest? Whichever kills the most doesn't have to pay for ice cream at Basrar's." Almost as soon as Dugan mentioned Basrar's soda fountain, Poppy had vanished with Arabella into the trees around us; the less-mobile members of the party shared dry looks.
"Mostly a game to see which of them gets the most, eh?" I snickered, nodding to Annabel as the three of us continued the leisurely stroll. We did start to encounter a spider or two, though the prophesized rats were few; a couple stick-looking monsters scuttled out from the branches--Dugan's proficient aim with eldritch blasts was more than enough for them, though. Annabel used her staff both as a conduit and as a blunt weapon, crushing spiders and what Dugan called 'twig gremlins' with it and casting bolts of flame that were carefully aimed so as to not light the trees around us.
"It seems mostly to be good for reflexes, y'know?" Poking a dead spider with a stick, I nodded, standing and frowning through the trees as a far-off shout reached us. Judging from the similarly confused looks, everyone had heard it--Dugan was already marching towards it as Annabel and I fell into step beside him.
"Think someone got hurt? The spiders are venemous, but not deadly; just stings a bit." I shrugged, preparing a healing spell alongside Annabel as we emerged into a small clearing, in the center of which stood Poppy, sword blazing in the rays of sunlight that poked through the canopy. She was standing still, blade steady, and staring down a much larger spider that sat on a tree trunk, chittering angrily; about thirty dead spiders lay in the grass around her. Before anyone could do anything, the spider exploded into a ball of gross guts, mandibles, and eyes; Arabella dragged the three of us spellcasters into cover as a smartly-dressed woman stepped out from the opposite end of the clearing, eyes on Poppy.
"Killing bugs? Really?" Poppy didn't sheathe her blade, but did lower it slightly, head cocking to the side gently.
"And you are?" The woman, holding a large crystal like it was a clipboard, did a mock-curtsy and stepped into the rays of sunlight.
"Charity Blythe, Ministry of Adventuring. You could do very well working for the Council of Chosen, Ms. Prott." We couldn't see Poppy's face from this angle, but the scowl was almost audible.
"No, thanks. Isn't this a little young to be recruiting, anyway?" Smirking, the older woman took a sip from a cup of coffee.
"No age requirement. Besides, anyone who can cut off the arm of an archdevil in a single stroke would get... special consideration. Why even waste time with an adventuring party that's probably going to disintegrate after Aguefort, anyway?" The blade twitched back upward and stopped Blythe dead in her tracks, eyes dropping to the white steel for the first time.
"No. You're scaring off the spiders, y'know? You walk louder than an owlbear." I didn't know what Blythe said next, as the four of us hiding had been so enraptured in the conversation that we didn't notice the blur of black fur that tackled me into the clearing, fading rays of sunlight permitting a full panther to sneak up even on an incredibly skilled rogue. Claws raked into my face, and I cast a spell on instinct as I weakly held back it's jaws.
"Wait!" The panther, Poppy, Charity, and the rest of my party all froze in place, humanoids confused while the panther was nothing short of astonished; I'd just cast speak with animals, and likely to everyone else it sounded like I'd just growled up into the snapping jaws. When the panther responded, instead of a hissing snarl, it spoke in a lightly accented and rumbling baritone--clambering off of me as I stood back up.
"You speak... my tongue?" I nodded shakily, then held up a 'so-so' motion with my hand.
"I used magic to do so. How did you get here? Your species aren't native to Elmville, or even Solace." If a panther could scowl, this one did, pawing at the ground with wickedly sharp claws as I healed myself.
"I would not know; since birth I have been in a traveling zoo, in the Baronies; I only recently escaped." My scowl mirrored the panther's, and I glanced at the others as it settled back onto it's haunches, large eyes staring directly at me.
"If you would like us to... close the zoo, I'm sure myself and the rest of my party would. Nothing and no one should be kept in a cage." This seemed like a good idea to the panther, and I grinned up at Dugan, who had stepped into the clearing cautiously; from behind me, Blythe stepped on a stick (presumably trying to make a stealthy exit) and the panther tensed, eyes dilating wide even as claws shot back out--but a finger shaking in it's face coupled with a scolding diverted it's attention rapidly.
"If you want to join up with our party, you're going to have to change your diet. Only those I say are food are food, okay? What's your name?" The panther looked down, a bit abashedly--some sort of magic had been worked with my scolding, but even I couldn't tell what--and did an approximation of a shrug.
"They called me Panthera in the zoo. Don't have another name."
"Let me think this through." The five of us, plus Panthera, who Poppy had shortened to Thera on the walk over (unsurprisingly, no bus driver would allow a full panther onto their bus) made our way to Annabel's house, as her parents were working late. Arabella, who spoke through steepled hands resting on their elbows at the kitchen table, looked over the collection of notes Dugan had taken on everything that had happened so far; Annabel was showing me how to make cookies while Poppy did yoga in the living room nearby.
"Primarily, the concern is how exactly Charity Blythe knows what happened with Dispater, since the... incident with a member of the Council happened both afterwards and in Avernus, not Dis. Dispater being your patron is also very interesting, Annabel." The tiefling shrugged, withdrawing a carton of eggs from the refrigerator while I got bowls and other baking equipment ready.
"I never really knew who it was, actually. Always had spells and stuff, so I didn't think about it too much." Arabella nodded, Dugan scribbling a few notes down while Poppy joined in mid-handstand.
"I'm more focused on Blythe. The Ministry of Adventuring just... sent someone down to Avernus? It looked like he was coming down to Dis, as well--tailing us, maybe?" Dugan's writing sped up, and Arabella hummed to herself with a bite of takeout pad thai.
"Could've been going after Annabel... no, it wouldn't have been enough time for word to get out. Considering Blythe didn't even ask us about seeing him, too--do you think he was there to tail you, Poppy?" The fighter dropped from her handstand, arms crossed almost before her feet had hit the ground and a contemplative look blooming across her features.
"Maybe. But why?" Dugan raised an eyebrow, and I turned away to help measure dry ingredients while they continued.
"The Prott family have been monster hunters for a long time, right? Maybe she heard you wanted to get into adventuring and decided to try and poach you?" At the word, Thera's claws slid out before retracting with a pat on the head from me.
"That's a distinct possibility. Especially now that I have my family's blade." We shared dark looks, Annabel seemingly growing frustrated at my inability to properly bake and taking over fully; with a roll of my eyes, I dug out drinks for everyone and opened a bottle of lemonade for myself while sliding into the chair next to Arabella, across from Dugan.
"Still technically a normal day." Annabel snorted from the counter, and I half-smiled at Dugan's confusion.
"Bloodrush, job offers, no monsters. I'd say that's a normal day, right?" Poppy sat on the end of the table to my right and kicked her feet up before leaning the chair back at a fairly dangerous angle--shooting me a wink, she addressed Annabel.
"Should we schedule another one for tomorrow, Bell?"