Trial by Fire

[yutzen]

(Another from the archive, another prompt (by Make Up A Wizard back on Cohost), another main line story, another little something for Ziv and Sherry alike.)

Wizard who believes all guards are bastards

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"Oh, no, I met Sherry pretty early on actually, just a bit after getting thrown out! In a way, she was a customer, 'cause she needed a way outta the Spires - you looked SO lost back then! - and I thought 'hey, having a hitchhiker helps a bit, right? No one hiding stuff picks up hitchhikers, they'll probably think I'm gullible!' So after hiding what she paid, she hopped on, and... well, sometimes bad luck and bad decisions work out pretty nice! Say, Sherry, why don't you tell 'em?"

---

"Yeah, go right ahead sir, have a look!"

Along a wide road of smoothed stone, flanked on all sides by pillars of black, geometric basalt, a roofed iron wagon had been stopped in its trek. The sparking bulbs at its corners and the luminous rods held by those surrounding it were just about the only lighting in the cavern, aside from very distant specks of a tower-laden city left far behind - though distant rock formations seemed silhouetted by the faintest of red, as if the very earth had a glimmer of its own.

The driver, a mostly chiropteran figure stood tall in front of her belongings, showing only her yellow eyes and a big, fanged grin; nearly all the rest was covered in a long, dusty cowl that almost reached her ankles. She motioned almost theatrically towards the back of her vehicle, now that it had its back compartment open. "Oh, right", she said in her high-pitched voice, "I did bring some white-welt in those jars over there, got a brother that loves that tea. That's not a problem, right?" She asked with a lilting, cheery tone, knowing full well that wasn't a problem - that laid elsewhere, entirely out of sight, in places where she hoped the armored fellows she was talking to wouldn't imagine existed.

The driver then briefly turned her ear towards her restless traveling companion, wearing a similar cloak - though visibly oversized for her stature - that showed even less under all the fabric, no matter how tightly it stuck to her heavy form. The only thing visible under the cowl were the shape of a wet, rounded snout and the pin-prick reflections of every light before her, glinting off rounded goggles somewhere in the dark. 'Lords below', she wanted to say, 'I really hope you know what you're doing', but even the tiniest whisper might be heard by the three Vezarym that had stopped their ride for inspection. All Usherrimi could do was trust this smuggler, this "Ziv-Ziri", and be ready to act if it didn't work out... And once the Vez herself had made sure she was staying put, she stepped aside and let them pass.

The silvery helms of the three guards, pointed and featureless, betrayed no emotion, not even a glance at each other. The one in the fanciest armor - a thoroughly articulated getup that even had scales worn over the ridge of his wings, and had protection all the way to the ankles - chirped an order in their language to a subordinate, who immediately stepped towards the back of the carriage. The two persons of interest stood back, watching the guard's thin breastplate shimmer in the lights as he made it past the others, and started to rummage through their belongings, between sharp clicks of his tongue.

Another chirp from the (presumed captain, and the other guard spoke up. "Where are you heading, ma'am?", she asked Ziv-Ziri, without a glance or an ear turned towards her company.
"Straight to Tov-Riki! Gonna be staying there for a while!" Ziv-Ziri's smile was sharp and sure as ever as she fed them part of the truth; she'd stay there 'a while', and then keep going well past the Hollow-Lands, with her (and her real cargo's) true destination deep in the sands of the Gyre.
The guard spoke up again, as the captain took notes. "Do you have a residence within Tov-Riki?" It sounded intrusive, but in the Consortium, such questions were expected.
And so, the bat already had an answer: "Not mine, but my brother Lemniz lives there! Gonna be staying with him for a bit of a family vacation!" Made sense - aside from the part where Lemniz was neither her brother nor an actual person - that little town was one of the few places in the Consortium with a river you could swim in without being swept away.

But then came the elephant in the room: "Who's the individual traveling with you, ma'am?"

To her credit, her answer neither wavered nor skipped a beat, but it painted an unflattering picture. "I picked her up along the road! She was walking straight towards the Hollow-Lands, and I thought, 'hey, she could use a lift!' This place is bad enough with help, you know?" And again she turned her ear towards the Ifchi, before everyone's gazes followed, including the one previously looking in the trunk... and, as accorded, Usherrimi said a quick, low-voiced greeting in Ishiss' language - though she added a touch of Riverside accent of her own accord. Just in case. Wouldn't do to sound like she's from too far away.

"I can translate if you need", Ziv offered. That one also felt like an improvisation.

"That won't be necessary, ma'am". That guard's tone was was less than promising, but a scolding was getting off easy. "Picking up strangers on the road is dangerous business, traveling alone as you are. You could've been in serious danger."

This smuggler had a reply for that too at least: "I mean... yeah, I know, but she was also alone, in the middle of this place, and I mean... look at her!" Straight for pointing at her near-penniless, ragged, frowning self, huh. Usherrimi didn't even try to hid the dour look on her face from that one, maybe it'd even help move things along quickly. The smears of ash on her slimy face - even her skin being black as coal couldn't hide those - sure drove the point across, too. 'Trust the professional', she repeated in her head, drowning out the rest.

The armored Vez tried, and failed, to hide a snort. "I get what you mean, ma'am, believe me, but I'm serious. Appearances are deceiving..." She paused, and leaned in for a few words she thought the olm wouldn't understand, "...though I'll give you one thing: Looking like that, stranded around here, don't think this one's even got a spark in her." Now Usherrimi had to hide her expression, looking down and trying not to flare her gills in offense.

Ziv-Ziri could only plaster a smile on her face until she could move on; they all might as well just play along. So far so good, even the one sifting through the wagon seemed just distracted enough to miss things, and that meant they'd probably be off and away from this soon enough... But there was a look in the captain's face that wasn't amusement, or stoicism. Ziv hadn't noticed it yet, too focused on the "friendly" one, but behind that helmet, Usherrimi could see the gears in his head were turning. Was he catching on? No, his ears were fixed on the Ifchi, like he thought she wouldn't notice just because his eyes were elsewhere. She knew how bats worked, and the clicking of his tongue gave him away...

"Don't be so sure, sergeant", he said at last, yet again in the Consortium's tongue, "spark's got nothing to do with it. Prowling around the Spires, pretending to be lost, right before giving some tourist doe eyes to hitch that ride to the Hollow-lands? Right through the Deltas?" The captain shook his head, huffing in what sounded like disdainful amusement. His next words were proud, almost smug, as he placed his hand on his subordinate's shoulder: "What you have here, sergeant Tikriz, is a spy. Eyeing claims, spotting mines, and sifting through the silt to let everyone know just where Consortium digs are, and just what they've found. I'd bet you fifty Crowns I could find a chip of gold in some pocket of hers, one that belongs to us." The other two looked at him with inscrutable eyes behind their helmets, as he leaned back on spread wings, humming. "Ah, the miners won't hear a thing, but the Dredger's Guilds... they'll want to know about this."

Usherrimi tensed, clenching her fists under her cloak. Just like that, everything had gone to shit in less than a minute, and over... this, something worse than she could've even imagined. And the worst part, the part she couldn't get out of her head, and made her blood boil, was... Had she been wandering odd places? Sure. Was she making deals with a smuggler? Unfortunate but true. Was she a wanted criminal? ...criminal, maybe, wanted, yes, if you counted Ishiss. But was she a spy? Some prowling rat out for others' lowly, material secrets, crawling in the mud for others' gold of all lords-damned things!? All for someone that already had plenty of it already, and would scarcely give her any!? This slanderous fabrication is what she was going to fucking prison for!?

To accuse Usherrimi Neshi Anei Var of something that venal needed an answer, whether this shiny son of a whore meant it or had some other motive, as these enforcers always did. And yet... she couldn't give it, could she? All three had turned to her, rounding in, already surrounding her, and this smuggler would just-

"Oh come on." Said smuggler derailed her train of thought right then and there, cutting in with a sharp voice. "No luggage, nowhere to drop her off, no knapsack, no anything, and hitching a ride in this thing with me? And you think she's some kinda spy?" She approached the captain, that smile of hers shinier than ever in the light, before turning towards the other two for sympathy, for an audience to convince. "Come on, doesn't that seem a little... silly, maybe?"

Alright, so this smuggler wouldn't just throw her into the fire, despite having everything to lose from it. At least someone had her back, even if she was a damn near stranger... But no good deed went unpunished, going by the captain's reaction: He immediately loomed before her, uncomfortably close, with one claw at his side already reaching for his weapon. "Oh?", he said, trying to hide his affront under a thick layer of sarcasm, "is there something wrong with my assessment, ma'am? A problem with the judgement of someone that's patrolled these Spires for a decade, mm?" He glared right into her eyes, and only pulled away once she shrank back from it. His next words had that certain smugness again, pointing with his thumb at the luminous city far behind them for emphasis: "How about we officially find out, then? You two and your wagon will be coming with us back to Tak-Fizun, this will need an investigation proper, wouldn't you agree?"

The Ifchi didn't need to be in this kind of thing for a decade to know panic when she saw it, brief as it was. The smuggler, chatty as she was, had brought up this would probably be the last time she'd be around the city. Was she wanted in there already? Maybe even one of those exiles she'd heard about - not a punishment where she came from, but the Consortium supposedly did that - and if she was found in here she'd be condemned? She'd have to be either bold or stupid to still do business nearby, but that did mean she might be in even worse straits than Usherrimi was. And all for trying to help her! Could've thrown her under, and she didn't, and this is what she gets! Oh, this was a disaster...

On the plus side, and the thought made her smile, this was perhaps the one scenario that let her go ahead and do what she did best.

The three were focused on the smuggler, what with the crack in her facade being impossible to ignore. Two of them were together in one spot, looming over vulnerable quarry as "enforcers" liked to do... She'd have to trust the smuggler with the third. Conveniently, perhaps, she was already backing away in fear, towards her own wagon. Perfect. The olm set her open hands besides her hips, the little sparks in them and on her gills hidden by her cowl...

"Actually", she said - in their language with the poshest accent she could muster - and waited for the two to turn around in shock...

And Usherrimi thrust her hands forwards, enveloped in a blinding flash. From her once-unassuming form, a ruinous wave of heat and force barreled forwards, cracking the stone beneath and before her, and turning her cloak to ashes in an instant - leaving a wine-red tunic, lustrous and shining in the light. The blast's targets weren't so lucky: The fire and fury crashed into them so fast they barely had the time to feel it, sending them- no, shotgunning what was left of them across the road and its pillars. By the time anyone present could be deafened by the blast, only a scatter of bone and molten metal spread through the Spires remained of sergeant Tikriz and his captain.

Falling to her knees, and still smoldering, Usherrimi grinned, raised her eyes towards the detritus of her art, and screamed into the dark: "HOW'S THAT FOR A FUCKING SPARK!?"

With that, she turned to the two Vezarym that remained. Ziv-Ziri looked shocked, horrified even, and from that slight convulsion, maybe oughtright nauseous. Not unexpected. Hearing the clicks and slides of something metallic, she turned to the other-

Usherrimi threw herself back reflexively, thrusting her white tail in front of herself before the extended spear that plunged right through it, and into two of her ribs, could reach something far more important.

She grabbed the spear as tightly as she could, but the thing was slipping between her slimy fingers as the remaining guard flapped his wings in an attempt to force it further in. Locked in a struggle, she couldn't even try to muster further flames right now: A blast like that took a lot out of her, she needed a moment, and even if it hadn't, concentrating was far harder with a telescoping spear digging into your chest. All she could do was keep sliding back and struggling, watching her tail bleed, seeing the hate in the glowing eyes behind the mask-

Before they went much wider and fearful... and then, blank. The olm saw a spatter of blood that wasn't hers, and glanced to see a sharp, metallic tip, far shinier than the armor of anyone present, emerging right beneath the helmet's jaw guard.

Ziv-Ziri's gloved hand shoved the third guard aside, sliding her knife out of his neck, and reached in to yank the evoker back to her feet with a single, panicked pull. "We gotta run, we gotta get going fast, they had to see that all they way up there, hurryhurryHURRY!" As she got back to her feet, Usherrimi couldn't help but notice she was trying really hard not to look at the body, or her own knife, stashed between her now-bloodstained robes so haphazardly it was worrying. No time for that though. Nothing left to do but slam the trunk shut, get back in the wagon, and get going. The engine thankfully roared back to life pretty quick, and after shutting the lights to make them harder to follow, off they went... But not after Ziv had to brace herself after making the mistake of looking back at the mess they made.

"What a mess... how did that happen!?" Ziv-Ziri broke the silence after a few minutes, once they had veered off the beaten path. "I was doing so well, and then that guy just... where did he get that idea!? Are you a spy? I mean I'm not judging but-"
"No", Usherrimi answered, almost curtly. Her next words were much softer. "No, probably just an assumption. Or an excuse, and a deal with this... dredging guild. He got it in his mind that we had to go. Or I had to go and you had the impertinence of questioning him. We were damned either way."
"...yeah. And we're damned now." It took actual effort for the smuggler to not slam her head into the steering in frustration. "I'm twice as screwed if I ever get caught here, and now you're screwed too 'cause they had to see that."
"Twice, you say... you already were. And I already was, otherwise I wouldn't be here." The olm couldn't help but shake her head with brows held high. "This just seals that deal, doesn't it? Still sounds like something of a change of plans for us both." She then reclined in her seat... allowing herself a small smile. "On the plus side, we're neither dead nor in prison."

And there was Ziv's smile again, now with some actual sincerity to it. "Yeah, we are... Thanks for saving my ass back there, with the... sorry I screwed up and it had to come to... that, but... thanks."
"Look, I think we can both agree those two had to go. Though..." The olm mused, and turned to face the Vez. "Thank you, in fact. It would've been easier for you to just let them take me, but you went and spoke up even if it meant pissing them off." She saw Ziv's interruption coming, and cut in: "I don't care if it didn't work, you did."
That one gave the smuggler some pause. "I mean... what kind of Vez would I be to just leave you out to dry, right? It's now how I do things in my enterprise! Even if I'm the only one in it, hee..."
Usherrimi raised a brow, mock-unimpressed and with a sly smile. "Oh is that how you're going to play it, Ziv? Transactionally? Makes me wonder why they hate you... But I guess it indebts me to you for the attempt. And for the help with that last one."
"It's more of a mutual debt-", the bat began, before narrowing her eyes with a muted grin. "Oh, you're playing me, aren't you? Well, you got me!" Turning back to the road, she sighed... and then, glanced back at Usherrimi. "Though if you wanna put it like that, I could use more like... what you just did, if we're both screwed."
"Looking to turn it into an enterprise of two then?" The olm snorted, but didn't actually drop her own smile. She did need a living, and more importantly, smugglers went places - roaming these caverns for secrets would be so much easier... and she'd have a boss that had her back this time. "Mm... I warn you, subtlety's not my finest suit. But if you don't mind that, and have a spot that needs some of my Art..."

And to drive the point home with that theatrical flare Usherrimi seemed to love, she stretched out her gills and lit their tips with violet flame to match her eyes, as if she were a chandelier...

"...then, in your terms, you got a deal, mm?"