Gunwitch

Mikowai Lazar, [Egzekutor]

Mikowai scanned Viswa’s town square with narrowed eyes. Something had changed since the last time they’d been here. Something felt off. Something wasn’t right.

They’d been coming here for years to collect their “protection fee”, always the same day of the month, always the same time. Every single time mayor Bujok had been waiting for them in this exact spot to hand over the gold. This time, though, there was no one, and that bothered Mikowai.

After standing there for a while a man named Hubert had come out of the town hall and asked them if they needed anything. Hanka had demanded to see the mayor and the man had sweatily scurried off to the mayor’s estate.

Perhaps he didn’t have the money? Perhaps the mayor was ill? No. That couldn’t be it. He knew the cost of being late. He knew what would happen not just to him but the entire town. No one dared to stand against Banda Masvih. When they came to collect, they collected. If you didn’t have what you owed, they collected.

Mikowai slowly pulled his trusty axe, “Zabójca” from his back.

“What are you doing?” Hanka asked, slight irritation in her voice.

He gave a slow nod in the direction of the mayor’s estate. “I don’t like it. I don’t trust it. I have a bad feeling about this. He’s never late.”

Hanka laughed and shook her head. “Really, Miko? He knows the rules. He knows us. He knows Maswav. Everyone does.”

Mikowai grunted in response. Her words hadn’t put him at ease, and even though she kept smiling and appeared confident, she tied her long blonde hair in a ponytail. She felt the same then. Something was off. The rest of the crew didn’t seem to notice or care, which only added to Mikowai’s ominous feeling. Were they about to get ambushed?

He glanced around, but there was no one. Literally no one. The town had never been this quiet and empty before.

Not too long after the man named Hubert had entered the mayor’s estate, a woman came out, followed by a young girl and a maid. The woman was stunning. Radiant. Her golden hair seemed to move in slow motion. Something sparkled in her eyes. Her features were perfect. Her figure—

Mikowai shook his head. Focus, damn it. This is a distraction. We’re about to get ambushed.

But when he looked at her he couldn’t help but feel calmness seeping into his body, putting him strangely at ease. Perhaps there was no ambush. Perhaps the mayor really was sick and he’d sent this woman to deliver them the gold.

One of the men yelped, startling Mikowai. He turned and saw Emil rubbing his eyes, then looking at the floor and back at the beautiful woman. Emil was shaking. He was terrified.

Something was wrong!

Every time he looked at the woman the calmness washed over him. Some kind of mental magic, probably.

Mikowai silently cast [Clear Mind], boosting his mental defenses and dispelling any mind magic that might have been cast on him. Hanka’s head snapped to him as soon as the spell formed. He felt a pulse of magic radiate off her as well. She probably cast the same.

When he looked at the woman now, he no longer felt a sense of calm. Instead, he felt dread creeping in. But how was that possible? [Clear Mind] should have made him immune to mind magic. Unless…

The woman stopped in front of them. “Good evening. You wished to speak to me?”

“We wished to speak to mayor Bujok,” Hanka said calmly.

“I see,” the mysterious woman said. “I am the mayor of Viswa now.”

“Lies,” Hanka spat. “We were here last month. There have been no changes. Do you think you can fool us?”

The woman shrugged. She was either completely unaware of the danger she was in, or she was so powerful that she didn’t register them as a threat. The sense of dread kept building up inside Mikowai’s gut. It bubbled up. It stung. Something was wrong.

Hanka folded her arms. A mistake, Mikowai noted. Never cross your arms, keep your stance ready to defend yourself.

“Fine, I’ll humor you.” Hanka rolled her eyes. “What happened to Bujok? Don’t lie.”

“He, uhhh… he slipped and fell,” the woman said, not even trying to hide the obvious lie.

“He slipped and fell…”

“Totally. He slipped and he fell and he died. It was a real tragedy. We’re all very sad about it as you can imagine.”

The line was delivered so flat, so uncaring, that it sent a shiver down Mikowai’s spine. She knew. This woman knew exactly who they were and she just didn’t care.

Hanka sighed. “What about Pilch? Shouldn’t he be next in line?”

“Yeah,” the woman said with a frown. “Funny thing about that. He also slipped and fell. Can you imagine the odds?”

“I can’t.”

The woman nodded. “Hm.”

“And everyone else?”

The woman slowly glanced around as if she had all the time in the world. “You're not gonna believe this, but Viswa is a slippery place.”

“Right.” Hanka scowled. “You’re telling me everyone slipped and fell and everyone is dead.”

The woman shrugged again. “It’s the craziest thing.”

Hanka hadn’t moved her arms from her chest. Mikowai saw her clench her jaw. She was probably wondering the same thing. Either this woman had killed everyone, or they just walked into a trap, set up by Bujok because he was tired of getting extorted. Either way, this was bad.

Hanka looked at the ground, then back at the woman. “A slippery place. So what you’re saying, mayor, is that the debt has changed hands. Banda Masvih doesn’t care whose name is on the document, as long as the coin remains consistent. Viswa owes us gold for this month’s regional stabilization fee, and since you are now its mayor, that means you owe us gold.”

The woman tapped her chin and smiled. “I see. You intend to extort me. That is your intention.”

“Who said anything about extortion?” Hanka smirked. “It’s a regional stabilization fee. To ensure the stability of Viswa.”

The woman’s smile only grew larger. “That’s a slippery slope. People might think bad things will happen if they don’t pay up.”

“Bad things will.”

The woman sighed and nodded. She still didn’t seem impressed by the six man strong crew of enforcers. If anything she appeared a bit bored.

Seemingly out of nowhere, Hubert appeared behind her carrying a frog that was wearing a small golden crown. Mikowai blinked. What in the world was going on here?

“One moment,” the woman said as she turned her back to them and appeared to be speaking to Hubert… or the frog. Mikowai couldn’t tell, and he couldn’t hear what she was saying.

A familiar glow appeared and disappeared just as quickly. Had she just crafted a runeword? She turned back around, but her hands were empty. Something else then. All this was so very strange. This woman was strange. Everything felt wrong and Mikowai’s entire body screamed at him to run. But he couldn’t. Maswav would kill him if Hanka didn’t. He was stuck. All he could do was pray to Stvora and hope his instincts were wrong.

“Hey,” Hanka called to the woman. “You never told us your name.”

The woman giggled, which only increased Mikowai’s unease. “Oh, how rude of me. My name is Aurelia.”

“You’re supposed to say pleasure to meet you.”

Aurelia’s smile disappeared from her face. “Well, that remains to be seen, doesn’t it? If it’s a pleasure.”

“You never asked for mine,” Hanka said.

“Yeah. I didn’t. I’m not in the habit of asking names of people I will surely never see again.” She pointed at her temple. “Don’t need all those useless names taking up space up there, you know? Waste of effort.”

“But you will see us again, mayor Aurelia. Every month, same time, same place, same amount.”

Aurelia’s carefree smile returned. “I guess we will just have to agree to disagree.”

“I feel like you’re not taking us seriously,” Hanka said, uncrossing her arms. “There’s six of us, and only four of you. And one of you appears to be a [Classless] child. None of you look like you’ve ever been in a fight in your life, so I’m guessing there’s not a single combat Class amongst you.”

“Woohoohoo! Six guys!” Aurelia waggled her fingers. “Scary! I’m super intimidated right now. Please don’t hurt me!”

The reaction caught Hanka off guard, but she quickly regained her composure. “I see. You attempt to convey confidence by mocking us. I can see your class, you know.” Hanka laughed. “I could crush you where you stand. But I think maybe I should teach you a lesson instead. A lesson in what happens when you don’t pay Banda Masvih what you owe.”

She leaned closer to Franek and whispered something, then turned back to Aurelia with a smirk. “Perhaps a demonstration is in order.”

Aurelia raised a single eyebrow.

Hanka nodded at Franek, and Mikowai knew exactly what was about to happen. Six ethereal arms sprouted from Franek’s back, making rapid hand signals. Aurelia cocked her head, still unimpressed. The signals stopped and each ethereal hand spread its fingers. A purple beam of pure energy erupted from Franek’s mouth and shot straight into the gut of the classless girl. It pierced right through, blasting a hole in the wall of the town hall.

“Kasia! No!” Aurelia screamed as she dropped down next to the dying girl, her smile replaced by panic. Hanka only laughed.