The Hand We're Dealt - Chapter 13

The green-haired girl skidded to a stop in front of me, her red eyes going wide in the dim light.

She was panting and her clothes were tattered and torn despite being of likely-decent quality once upon a time. What was left of her pants were riddled with holes, which couldn't have been that comfortable in the cool night air. Neither could the long tunic she was wearing, which had had its sleeves torn off. Her boots, at least, looked to be mostly in one piece, even if they were coated in a thick layer of mud, lesser stains of the same substance splattering her other clothes and exposed skin as well.

Her eyes, though…

They were those of a cornered animal, quickly taking an assessment of myself and Hector as we blocked her path and trying to decide if she should cut into the woods or try to push past us.

“That's as far as you go, brat,” the lead man called, stopping roughly ten feet behind her as the two men with him stepped out to the sides to block her. All three were huffing heavily with exertion. “You'll be going back where you belong.”

All three were clad in long coats, riding leathers, wide-brim hats, and had firearms and knives at their waists. Even if pistols of the day weren't all that threatening to someone who knew what was to come in just a few short decades, a lucky shot would still do the job just as well as a futuristic frangible round with an armor-piercing tip.

“Gentlemen! Come now, I'm sure whatever the girl's done it can't be worth all of this-” Hector stated, spreading his arms wide and smiling broadly as he stepped forward.

The girl twitched at his approach, taking a quarter-step back before freezing as she remembered what lay behind her.

“Shut it, gigglemug,” the lead thug snarled, his hand going for his knife and flicking it out. “We've chased this little shite across too much land and burned too much time to let some fop like you get between us and our rightful pay.”

I frowned as the gang each took a half-step forward, the postures of predators attempting to see if their prey would run.

“How much?” I asked, looking from between the girl to the men chasing her, catching their attention again.

“What's that, runt?” One of the tagalongs asked.

“How much?” I repeated, reaching for my pocket and the expanded coin purse within it. I couldn't manage anything wild like what I'd read of in various books in my first life, but I could make the leather pouch three times as large as it should have been, weigh far less than that size would indicate, and electrocute any unlucky pickpocket who tried to grab it. “You're tracking her down for coin, you said. How much for you to say she fell into a river and didn't come out? That way you save yourselves the trouble of dragging a maltempered child back that long distance.”

The three men blinked at that, looking Hector and I over as the girl-

Emerald, my memory whispered.

-took the opportunity to continue to catch her breath. Though, with the way her legs were shaking with adrenaline, I doubted she'd make it much further in the dark and uneven terrain. Although, she might surprise me given how far she'd already come if her pursuers were telling the truth.

Lead thug huffed, amused. “Even if you had the coin, chum, couldn't do it. Love to, as it'd make my life easier, but her pa wants her back something awful. And he's not the kind of man I wanna' make angry.”

I hummed in response, considering the answer.

On the one hand, that changed the situation somewhat.

I'd been thinking this was the pursuit of an escaped slave. Slavery was still legal in New Hampshire, sadly, but Vermont was just across the river. If this was a simple case of 'escaped property,' the solution would be to get her to a state where things weren't so cut and dry. Vermont had, thankfully, written the abolishment of slavery into their constitution upon declaration of statehood. It was unlikely that the chase would end there, but the laws would potentially create a snarl in their pursuit.

But, if the girl wasn't a slave...

I don't know that. Her father could be a plantation owner and simply want to keep an embarrassing dalliance under wraps.

Another unfortunate interpretation in line with the times.

“That begs the question of why a girl would run from her father... and why a father would have her pursued over such a great distance,” Hector stated, his tone unsettled.

I flashed back to the discussion Hector and I had just had about his own family.

The subject would be raw for him, one member of a family imposing their will on another.

“I don't get paid to ask questions, city boy,” the thug spat off to the side, “now you gonna' geet or we gonna' have to move ya?”

“That's enough of that,” I stated, making my decision as took a step forward and nodded reassuringly towards the girl. Then I turned back to the men, shifted the document case in my arms, and focused my magic into my eyes. “Go to sleep.”

The men stared at me for a second, then bristled, their eyes going wide.

One of them snatched his gun from its holster and pointed it at me. “He's on of 'em, Unc! Just like the Voodoo Man! You stay back, demon! I got silver shot in this here gun!”

Idly, I fingered one of the rings on my fingers, activating it even as the situation became much more complicated.

“Look,” the lead thug stated, licking his lips and very clearly reassessing me in light of the new information. “We don't want no trouble. We're here for the girl. Jus' let us take 'er and we'll be gone, yeah?”

“You're not taking the girl,” I stated clearly, my senses combing over the men and finding... just the faintest glimmer of power on them. It wasn't much, perhaps just a charm or two, likely what had kept my hypnotism from being effective.

Which made sense, if they were after the daughter of a practitioner.

Without those, she could have simply looked them in the eye and told them to forget she ever existed, magical hypnosis being one of the most basic tricks someone could do. It was also one of the most common ways for magical children to defend themselves.

Or so my master had informed me, at least.

“I may be young, but you'll find I'm quite capable,” I stated firmly, my pulse pounding in my ears as my heartbeat sped up.

“It's either face you down here and now or face down the Voodoo Man without his daughter,” the lead thug stated, passing his knife to his other hand and drawing his gun slowly. “And I figure I've got better odds 'sidering the devil I know and what he'll do ta'me.”

That declaration hung in the air for a long moment, and I nodded. “Shame.”

Then their necks snapped as their heads spun a hundred and eight degrees.

One of the guns went off, but only managed to injure an innocent tree off the path, the sound ringing out loud in the air as the bodies toppled over.

“Jesus,” Hector swore, heaving a deep breath and removing a handkerchief to mop at the nervous sweat on his forehead. “Warn a guy, Henry, I damn near soiled myself.”

I snorted and rolled my eyes. “Sorry. But I guess soiled trousers are better than new holes in your body. Remind me to make you something to protect yourself.”

“More than what I've already got?” He asked, chuckling. “The ladies in New York think I'm a tad superstitious with the charms I wear already.”

“What I gave you won't do dick all against a bullet,” I shook my head, then turned to the girl. “You wanna run, you can run. You want help, I'll help. Your choice.”

Red eyes stared at me for a long moment, her gaze flickering between me and the downed men.

“Jus' like that?” She asked, a trace of disbelief in the faint French-accented English falling from her lips.

“I didn't kill a bunch of men who were going to force you to do what they want... in order to make you do what I want, instead,” I shrugged.

She bit her bottom lip and looked around us, her gaze still harried. “He'll send more. Or come hisself. I should go.”

“Will he come tomorrow?” I asked, raising an eyebrow as I stepped past her, giving the girl a wide birth and pulling my own handkerchief free as I began poking and prodding at the corpses for their magic charms. “Or in a fortnight?”

She made an unhappy noise. “Unless Pere is right angry, he'll need time. If his blood is hot, less than a fortnight.”

So he has some form of fast-travel. That's not all that common in voodoo from what I know.

“Henry and Old Dutch will keep you safe,” Hector stated confidently.

I shot the other man a glare. “Henry...”

“What? Going to tell her differently?” He asked, a bit of his cocky confidence coming back.

I sighed and shook my head. “Don't make promises for my master.” I narrowed my gaze and focused on what was turning up from their pockets. They were simple things, made of animal parts, things I would expect from the voodoo school of magic. My mentor would simply call it witchcraft, of course, but there were-

I paused as the lead thug's necklace came free.

It was an elaborate construction of whittled and carved bone tied together with dried sinew and painted with something like tar. I held it carefully, making sure none of my flesh came into contact with the thing. Even wearing gloves, an extra layer of protection between me and... whatever this was, was welcome.

My sense probed it carefully, and I felt dark threads trailing off to the south.

After a moment's hesitation, I pulled one of their hats off and began dumping items of value into it, the magic trinkets at the bottom and insulated by the other material.

“They got anything nice?” Hector asked, his tone making it clear he disapproved of looting the corpses.

“I don't want to leave anything identifying or magical for someone to stumble on,” I replied bluntly. “The longer it takes for someone to figure out who they were, the less likely they are to remember the girl they were looking for when they wound up dead.”

Hector grunted from behind me, the sound indicating he still didn't like it, but wasn't going to contest my point.

“You've got a master? No, of course you do,” the third member of our group asked, then muttered to herself in recrimination. “He'll take me in? Keep Pere from taking me back?”

I hummed thoughtfully, estimating my mentor's anger over this mess I'd kicked up. On the one hand, he wouldn't be happy. He'd be sincerely unhappy, in fact. I was making an aggravation for him to deal with, especially if this 'Voodoo Man' decided to pay us a visit. On the other hand, though... if the girl's father was cut from that cloth, it almost certainly meant he was black, himself. Looking at her now... I'd wager her mother was mixed-race or possibly even fully white.

Professor van Beek was many things, but no one would ever accuse him of egalitarian views.

And being a practitioner of voodoo wouldn't do him any favors in my master's eyes, either. I couldn't be sure van Beek knew of it, but if he did... well, it was a blend of African paganism and Catholicism, ranking it below even the corrupted Irish Papistry in the old man's eyes. Moreover, he had strict ideas about religion and magic and where the line between the two of them belonged.

He was a man of God, after all, even while remaining a man of magic.

“I'll have to convince him,” I eventually stated with a sigh. “Now let's-”

Something snapped in the forest and I stiffened, going for another one of my rings. I'd already burned the charge for the kinetic force ring, now I'd need to resort to one of the elementals-

I'd need something reusable in the future.

Something that isn't a battery, but a conduit. A spell that can be cast again and again, the focus of which won't burn out, but that would require...

“Who goes there?” Hector asked loudly, turning and grabbing for his own knife. “I warn you, I'm armed.”

“I mean no offense.” There was a shuffle in the darkness and a man carrying a heavy sack stepped out of the forest. His eyes traced over the fallen bodies and, widening, locked onto me. “Y-young Bell, is that you?”

I narrowed my gaze against the growing dark, the moon coming up high.

Our eyes met, mine likely glowing faintly with the potency of the ointment I'd put on before leaving for the party. His, though... a normal person might not be able to make it out in this light, but the whites of his eyes were black.

I made a snap decision, the second one of the night.

Use one problem to solve another.

“Mr. Laffer,” I stated, rising from my crouch. “Fancy meeting you here this late evening. You're well?”

I could see Emerald tense out of the corner of my eye.

The man paused, staring at me in unnatural stillness, then nodded. “Aye, just a little hunting. I see you've got yourself into a spot of trouble.”

I suppose I'll decline to point out your lack of a gun, bow, or net.

I also wasn't going to point out the way his hands were caked with mud or that there wasn't any deep forest to hunt in given the direction he'd come from.

“Bandits,” I stated clearly, nodding to the girl next to us. “They were going to accost this young woman. Hector and I took issue with that.”

Nathan Laffer's jaw worked for a moment before he nodded. “Want me to get someone from the town, then?”

“I was hoping to keep things quiet,” I stated, pulling out the small purses I'd taken from the men and holding them up. “How about picking up some coin? You've got a family to feed, don't you sir?”

The man stilled again and I fingered the ring of fire on my off-hand.

“I do,” he stated at length, looking between the purses and the bodies. “That's evil work, though, Henry.”

“It was evil work they were doing and evil work that we did to them,” I replied bluntly. “You do some of that yourself, the way I figure... that means Hector and I don't need to worry about you saying anything, and we'd damn ourselves if we said anything about you. Keeps things nice and neat, don't you say?”

I ignored Hector's curious gaze and the girl's anxious posture.

“I suppose...” Nathan stated slowly, then nodded. “My boy's gonna' need new shoes soon. And it'd be nice to afford something for my wife.”

I dropped the coin purses and took a step away. “I'll leave you to it, then. Good night for a stroll. Shame we never met tonight.”

Nathan snorted, then nodded. “Off you go, I'll take care of things.”

I turned to Hector and nodded. “We're leaving. You too, if you want a bed tonight.”

The greenette sent one last wary look at Laffer as he waited for us to move, then nodded and followed me. Hector, on the other hand, looked between us and lingered. “Just like that, Henry... what if-”

“Now, Hector,” I stated firmly, jerking my head and moving forward. “We've no business being out any further this night.”

Finally, my friend's footsteps followed us with a muffled curse.

We got a hundred feet away before Hector planted his feet and looked back the way we'd come, “Okay, what was that?”

Emerald looked between the two of us before settling on me. “He does not know​?!”

“I don't know your name!” Hector replied hotly.

The girl blushed, her cheeks coloring almost to match her eyes in the dim light. “Mo chagren – that is, I am – how you say? Sorry? My name is Emerald. But you did not know what that was?”

“Mr. Laffer?” Hector looked between us cluelessly. “What am I missing?”

“You're missing that we're going to keep walking,” I stated firmly, then picked up a piece of wood and set it aflame with a muttered incantation, creating an improvised torch. “Nice to meet you, Emerald. I'm Henry and this is Hector.”

“Alright, alright, but make with the explanations already,” Hector muttered.

“The explanation is that the person we just encountered is a ghoul,” I stated, my tone low and serious.

“A ghoul?” Hector asked, frowning. “Like a vampire?”

“No, the vampire can be reasoned with,” Emerald shook her head, her eyes still a bit wide. “Ghouls cannot. They are animals that look like humans. They devour the flesh of men.”

“They're obligate carnivores,” I replied bluntly. “They can't eat plant matter at all, and while they can subsist on animal blood in emergencies, they'll slowly go mad with hunger if they don't eat human flesh.”

“So, those bodies...” Hector asked slowly, his face looking sick.

“Are no longer our problem,” I replied firmly. “Neither is Mr. Laffer. Unless he comes to harm me or mine, my business with the man is concluded.”

“That's not-” Hector began, then cut himself off. “It's not right, letting a monster like that live in town. We should-”

“Your friend is not of our world,” Emerald observed with a frown.

“What's that supposed to mean?” He asked, scowling at the girl.

“It means you don't meddle in things that are not your business to meddle in,” I replied. “Mr. Laffer has a wife and three children. They're also ghouls in all likelihood. Are you planning to put the entire family to the torch?”

Hector was silent for a moment as he contemplated that. “Wouldn't it be a kindness? Not to force a life like that upon a child?”

“And how do you plan to do this thing?” Emerald asked, frowning at him. “Ghouls are very strong, very fast, and take much to put down. Who will aid you? Or will you simply volunteer yourself for their next meal?”

Hector grimaced and looked away, clearly pondering his options.

“Leave it alone, Hector.” I advised him strongly. “No one in town has gone missing recently. Laffer is likely preying on bandits and vagrants to feed himself and his children. He might even be eating vampires or werewolves. Don't judge the man because of what his nature forces him to eat.”

“...fine,” Hector grunted. “I'll drop it. I'm leaving for New York again in a few days, anyway, and you know this stuff better than I do, anyway. Just watch yourself, Henry.”

“I always do,” I promised, though my mind was elsewhere.

Danger had found me again, it seemed. While the devils that had appeared were... well, not harmless, but didn't actively intend danger or threat. And my rings, while a nice stopgap, only had a certain number of uses to them before I needed to recharge them.

...yes, I'd built them by mimicking Harry Dresden's stuff, but that didn't exist yet so no one could sue me.

I needed... something reusable. What had I been thinking about?

Not something that stored energy, no. Enchanted items only had a certain amount of 'space' to program things in. Trying to put too much into any given item usually ended badly. Explosively badly. No, no energy storage, that limited the versatility. Or... could I store energy in the spell design itself?

That was... hmm... if the spell already had power built into it and a loose design overlaid with it...

Could I make a spell that cast itself?

Well, could I do that and not have it go rogue and try to kill me? A spell that produced flame would only know how to burn, after all. A spell that created water would flood. Maybe have it be modal? An active state and a dormant state?

That was... possible?

But big. Really big.

Like... actual 'grand magical working' big. That shit needed balance and structure and intricate design. In fact, that was probably better. If I made an entire set, I could use the elemental variances to counterbalance each other! Light and dark binary balance? Or the classic platonic set? I could also go with an oriental variation and use wood/metal instead...

“-and what's this, then?” The voice of Professor van Beek asked, slightly slurred, drawing me out of my ponderings.

I blinked, then gestured to the girl cowering behind me as she stared at my mentor. “The three men with her got eaten by a ghoul. We got away. Can we put her up for the night?”

Hector gaped at my audacity, Emerald seemingly just as stunned.

“Hmph,” van Beek muttered, scowling at the greenette. “She's got the taint of sacrificial magic on her.”

Emerald cringed and looked down, unable to meet the accusation.

I shrugged. “She seemed to be running away from someone, likely the man who put the taint on her. I'll see to her needs.”

The Professor snorted and rolled his eyes, a sure sign that he'd had too much to drink. “Lord save me... fine. You'll deal with whatever or whoever is coming after her. It'll be a good chance to see how you deal with another practitioner. That'll tell me if I've been too lax with the lash.”

I twitched slightly, but nodded. “Thank you, Master.”

He grunted again. “I'm off to bed. If she wakes me, I'll kill her and have you clean her up.”

Oh, good, I almost thought he was going soft there for a moment.

Looking at Emerald, I waved her in. “You can stay.”

I chose to interpret the noise she made as excitement instead of fear.

~~~

Not a super-long chapter for this one like usual, since it was the runner-up for the top-tier vote, but we're at least moving past the current cliffhanger.

Meet Emerald! She's not had a good life.

Hopefully this will be an improvement.

Hopefully.

Anyway, I hope everyone enjoys the last chapter of September. I'll have the new polls up later tonight after I take a break. Thank you again for all of your support and I'll have another update out in a few days. No idea what it will be at this stage, but I'll take a look at what hasn't gotten an update recently.