Lineage

I leaned back in the chair I’d been sat down in, Luna using her healing magic to repair the damage I’d sustained to my body while Zane sat across the room, staring off into space before suddenly speaking to me.

“You’re still bitter about losing, aren’t you?” He asked.

“How could you tell?” I asked with a salty chuckle.

“Because I looked after you for ten years,” he said with a smirk. “I can tell what mood you’re in from how you’re breathing.”

“Can you really read me that easily?” I asked.

“Like an open book, buddy,” he nodded. “And I’m saying it’s probably gonna be best to let the loss go and just relax a little, okay?”

“Hell, Zane,” I said, looking over at him. “I’d never thought about it like that. Now that I’m aware of the act of calming down, I’ll get right on it.”

“Huh. I’d forgot that you were this sarcastic,” he noted.

“It’s like half my character appeal,” I shrugged. “That and the sex.”

“Indeed,” Zane nodded, crossing his arms and leaning back in his chair. “D’you want me to explain to you in explicit detail why you lost?”

“Is it because I’m shit?” I asked.

“Yes,” Luna nodded.

“You keep out of this,” I growled.

“Just sayin’,” she shrugged.

“Well don’t,” I sighed. “Continue?”

“No, the reason you lost isn’t because you’re a detriment to all fighters-” he began.

Luna coughed.

“Shut up,” I snapped.

“Just sayin’.”

“The reason you lost is what I am in comparison to you,” Zane explained. “I’ve never told you this before, but I’m not exactly a normal human.”

“... Go on,” I urged.

“You know that whole mutation thing you and your family can do?” He asked.

“Yeah… how d’you know about that?” I asked.

“Celestia explained it to me a while back,” Zane said. “It’s not really that hard to find out either.”

“Right… continue?” I urged again.

“I’d get further if you stopped interrupting-”

I made a noise akin to that of an elephant drowning in quicksand to get him to tell the story.

“Alright. Fuck, Richter, you haven’t changed at all,” he smirked. “We’ll get on with story time.”

“Yay!”

“Anyway, while the mutations you get from animals are exclusive to your species, certain humans with a strong enough physical form can endure mutations of their natural abilities, such as enhanced strength, speed, and stamina. Now I’m not able to throw fireballs and punch a hole through a mountain-”

“Ha! Pussy.” Luna laughed.

“... Thank you for that, Your Excellence.” Zane chuckled.

“S’all good.” She said, giving him a thumbs up.

“But my physical abilities are far beyond that of a normal human,” Zane continued. “And even beyond an alicorn who has no access to their magic.”

“Wait… how does that work?” I asked. “I thought I’d just be able to call lightning and start fires immediately. Since when does my magic allow me to become physically stronger?”

“Did we never tell you that?” Luna asked. “An alicorn who has access to their full power instinctively channels it through their body to become insanely strong. You can call on your inner store of magic as well to boost your power level to insanely high heights, some of us able to destroy terrain by merely unleashing that power.”

“Can you do it?” I asked with a cocked eyebrow.

“Of course,” Luna nodded. “I’ve been doing it for years, though and have mastered calling on my magic for extra strength. You, however, seem to have defied all expectations for our species and been unable to break the seal on your magic, something no alicorn in recorded history has failed to do by your age.”

“So basically…” I began. “I’m just the worst?”

“Pretty much,” Luna nodded, finishing up the healing process by fixing the bruises before stepping away and admiring her handiwork. “There we go. Good as new.”

“Thanks…” I sighed. “I was supposed to feel better about this… wasn’t I?”

“I tried to help… but I think we kinda got sidetracked,” Zane said, scratching his head. “Basically, what I was trying to say was: You shouldn’t feel bad about losing to me as A: you weren’t at your full strength, and B: you cannot physically go toe-to-toe with me due to the enhancements I’ve got. Its simply impossible. But I know that’s not gonna make you feel better. So how about we go do something that will make you feel better?”

“Such as?” I asked.

“Brutally slaughtering people for the promise of money,” he said, giving me a thumbs up sign.

“... Yay!” I grinned excitedly. “Murder!”

“Ah, ah, ah,” Zane corrected. “Not murder, permanent justice.”

“Is that what we call it to help us sleep at night?” I asked, reciting the first half of an old joke we used to have.

“No, the beautiful sounds of coins jangling in my pocket lull me to sleep instead,” he finished, both of us clicking our fingers and pointing at one another with cheesy grins. Seconds passed as we held the pose for the customary amount of time before I spoke in a droll tone.

“We’re really fucked up,”

“I know. Let’s go kill people.”

“Awesome!” I grinned as I followed Zane out of the room to see what new campaign of carnage he had in store for us.

It turned out that the specific campaign of carnage he mentioned was across the canyon and about four and a half miles west of the academy into the surprisingly close capital city of Winter’s Maw: the enormous, sprawling city of Everfrost, a name that was so unbelievably accurate it fucking hurt.

“So… when do we get to murder people?” I asked as we walked through the market district, ignoring merchants selling fish, jewellery, and other assorted wares. The two of us dressed back into our armour and equipped ourselves with our weapons once more, Zane having a similar gear set up to me besides a loosely-wrapped cotton scarf to keep the wind off, which I noted to him that I’d done the same thing with the shemagh Luna had given to me.

“In a few moments,” he said, weaving past a group of women before tapping me on the shoulder and pointing to a large wall with paper pinned to it. “See that? That’s the Job Wall.”

“I’m guessing the title explains it all?” I asked.

“I knew you were smart,” he chuckled, patting me on the back. “Let’s have a look at what we’ve got today, shall we?”

“It’s like a pick-and-mix of righteous slaughter,” I said in awe. “This is fucking awesome!”

“I’m slightly worried you’re developing unhealthy habits in life, my friend,” he commented, looking at me with a cocked eyebrow.

“Zane, you have no idea,” I said with a deathly serious look in my eye.

“Right,” he said, walking closer to the wall and examining the pieces of paper with a scrutinising glare. “You might wanna read over these things a few times, the cursive of the commoners in this city literally looks like they held the quill between their arse cheeks and wrote it on the page that way.”

“It can’t be that bad, surely?” I said, taking a piece of paper off the wall and reading over it for several seconds. “... Did this cunt misspell his own name?”

“Welcome to Everfrost, buddy,” Zane laughed. “It’s the city that gives uneducated and incomprehensible a new definition that most of the inhabitants can neither read nor spell.”

“I think I’m gonna like it here,” I nodded.

“Good to hear,” he chuckled. “Now, pick a job that seems either interesting, easy, or rewarding, and follow me over to the Guard Post to get them stamped.”

“Stamped?” I asked.

“Yeah, stamped.” Zane nodded. “To prevent people from ripping off the city with false claims of contract completion, they issued rules saying that to accept the contract you have to have the paper issuing the job stamped by an official member of the Royal Guard as well as bringing back a specific trophy to show that you completed the job and aren’t just lying.”

“Huh,” I said. “Seems like a good system. How many people try to bypass it?”

“You have no idea,” Zane smirked. “I’ve seen more people put more effort into finding out how to cheat the system than it would take to actually do the job. But enough on the social aspect, pick one and let’s get to work. It’s a good way to earn money and waste a few hours of the day.” After scanning the wall for several moments, Zane picked a contract off that seemed to his liking before waiting for me to do the same. I nodded, turning to the wall once more and skimming over contracts that were there: “Missing goat,”, “Dropped my pan in a lake,”, “Buy my wheel barrow,”... that was a weird one, “Missing dog named Duffy,”, and several others that seemed insanely fucking mundane.

“If you look higher on the board you get higher priority contracts,” he said to me. “Though, if you need a boost, Shortround, I’ll understand.”

“I’m five-eleven,” I stated. “Why are you calling me short?”

“I’m six-five,” he shrugged. “So that makes you short to me.”

“Do you derive pleasure in making fun of me?” I asked.

“Like you wouldn’t believe,” he laughed, crossing his arms. “But seriously, if you’re looking for murderers, bandits, and dragons, look further up on the board.”

“Fair enough,” I shrugged, standing on the tips of my toes (and ignoring the laugh from Zane) and looking at the higher priority contracts with interest: “Lost family brooch,”, “Treasure ship sunk, need gold retrieving,” and, the one that caught my eye, “Bandit Encampment Needs Clearing.”

“Bingo,” I grinned, taking it down off the wall and reading the finer details. “Supposed number of twenty, attacking and plundering trade routes, reward of three hundred gold… that’s a bit of a shit reward for killing twenty men, isn’t it?”

“You take what you can get in the working world,” Zane shrugged. “I could get you a job in a meadery where you can earn three gold a week as well as your choice of brew if you’d prefer it?”

“I’ll take the gold,” I sighed, lowering the piece of paper and looking towards the guard post. “I’m guessing we get them stamped and then go our separate ways?”

“Yeah, we can meet at the Horse and Cart,” Zane nodded. “It’s just right off the main path in the Pleasure District. You’ll know you’re there when you hear the music.”

“Pleasure District?” I asked as we began to walk towards the guard post.

“I’ll tell you when you’ve gotten the contract out,” he said with a shrug. “Now, go on and get it sorted out.”

“Right,” I nodded. I walked over to the guard post, weaving through the crowd of people that walked through the streets before coming to the desk where a bored looking man in the city’s guard armour sat. His drab eyes looked up at me and he spouted a line I’m sure he was sick of saying, judging by how forced it sounded.

“Welcome, good sir,” he growled. “Do you have need of our valiant force or do you wish to serve her royal majesty in any way you can?”

“The latter,” I said, placing the contract down on the desk. He looked down at it with a sigh, reading the finer details before nodding. He stood up without a word and walked away from the desk and into the back of the building. I stood there for several moments in an awkward manner, listening to the sounds of street vendors trying to attract customers, the faint sounds of tavern music, and what sounded like some kind of brawl several buildings over. The guard returned with several things in his arms, setting them down on the desk, before handing me a new piece of paper.

“Lucky you,” he said with a bitter grin. “The bandit leader, Josie, is one of those Neko things. Heard they’re all whores from a good source.”

I nodded my head, knowing that he was referring to a Nekomata, which is a species of catgirls that often went into thievery due to their desire to possess expensive and shiny, objects for their collections. They were an excitable race of creatures, unable to sit down for very long and constantly twitching as well as, as the guard had mentioned, a sex addiction due to their other desire for positive attention, and sex is the most positive attention you’ll get from someone. They were another race of animal girls, all classified as Ferasapiens due to their mix of both human and feral animal genetics, mixed in with Kitsune and She-Varg, fox and wolf girls that often took more domestic roles as either bankers in the case of the Kitsune and their love of money, or as maids and servants in the case of the She-Varg, due to their pack animal nature leading them to be extremely loyal to anyone they viewed as an alpha. They were treated like regular humans and able to live like them, but a lot of people were distrustful of them, especially the Nekomata and Kitsune because of their selfish and thieving nature. Though not of all of them were like this… this case clearly didn’t help the stereotype.

“Why’s that lucky for me?” I asked with a cocked eyebrow.

“It isn’t,” he said. “The Neko are sneaky little cunts. She’ll probably try to seduce you and then knife you in the back before you even get a chance to pull out.”

“I’ll keep an eye out,” I nodded, looking down at the stuff he put on the table. “What’re these for?”

“Standard equipment, in case you don’t have your own,” he answered. “First one’s a map of the surrounding three hundred miles with each known road mapped out for you in case you get lost, the second one is a pouch belt for you to keep whatever you take with you on, though it’s not premium quality so it may break on you some time, and the third one is a leak-proof bag.”

“What’s the last one for?” I asked.

“So you don’t spill blood everywhere when you carry the slut’s head back to prove you killed her,” he shrugged.

“Nice,” I nodded, taking the pouch belt off the table and belting it to my waist, just lower than the regular belt I wore before taking the map and the bag. I folded the map up more and tucked it into a pouch before doing the same with the bag, the thicker material needing more space, so it went in a larger pouch.

“And there you go,” he said, stamping the original notice with a special insignia and handing it back to me. “Good luck to you, kid.”

“Thanks,” I said, giving a curt nod before heading back over to Zane. “That’s that. Am I good to set off now?”

“Not at all,” he answered. “We haven’t even got you kitted out proper yet.”

“Fucking hell,” I growled. “There’s a lot of work that goes into this, isn’t there?”

“We haven’t even started talking about wards, oils, potions, and weapon runes yet,” Zane laughed. “But since you’re going after a few measly bandits and not an Zerrellian Leviathan, I think we can skip most of that process.”

“Most?” I asked with a cocked eyebrow.

“Most,” he confirmed. “Follow me.”

“Yay… fetch quests,” I sighed, rolling my eyes. He lead me through the bustling streets, ducking under enthusiastic merchants and dodging past the bards asking for coins and into an area of the city where the roads were paved with a single line of blue cobblestone.

“Is that some kind of way to tell where you are?” I asked, slapping him on the back and pointing at the ground.

“Yup,” he nodded. “The green tells you you’re in the Market District, the purple tells you you’re in the Fashion District, the gold tells you you’re in the Business District, and the red… well, you’ll see soon enough.”

“Right, you didn’t mention the blue district,” I pointed out.

“That would be the Armoury District,” he answered.

“So I’m guessing the districts are colour-coded, meaning that the Market is green for vegetables and food, the Fashion is purple because of regality and class, the Business is gold because… gold, the red is obvious to be honest,” I listed. “And blue is the Armoury district because…”

“If I’m honest,” he said with a smirk. “I have no fucking idea.” With that, we came to a halt outside of a large shop before Zane opened the door and we walked inside. The walls were lined with all kinds of different weapons and armour, ranging from greatswords to daggers, and cuirasses to full suits of armour. I let out an impressed whistle as I examined the shop’s selection, noticing Zane walking over to the counter and talking to the shopkeep while I browsed the selection. The two began to converse briefly as I picked up a broadsword off the wall, staring at the craftsmanship with a critical eye before noticing that the quality of steel was vastly inferior to the sword I had strapped on my back. I was no blacksmith, but Luna had taught me to notice the different things you should always be mindful of when purchasing a sword from a common blacksmith.

The first thing you should do was never buy a sword from a common blacksmith and always get them custom made from a master smith with a certificate of proof of their training. A few other things to look for were the consistency of the thickness of the blade, bending or curling at any point in the sword that wasn’t intentional, and weight distribution throughout the blade. I placed the blade back on the rack with a disappointed look, this obviously being caught by the shopkeep who spoke to me soon after.

“They’re all disappointing, aren’t they?” He asked. “Low rent crap from amateur smiths used by amateur fighters.”

“Aye,” I nodded. “I myself come from a privileged family and as such am used to a much higher quality of craftsmanship than what I see before me.”

I have no fucking idea why I mimicked Celestia’s dialect for that sentence.

“There’s barely a craftsman that has the patience to link mail rings much less the skill to do it well,” he sighed. “I have heard stories of a master craftswoman to the far east.”

“Craftswoman?” I asked in surprise. “Are we talking East as in the Continental east or the Asian seas?”

“Neither,” he answered. “The capital of Resheph holds claim to a legendary craftswoman that’s able to create anything to a god-like standard as long as she’s got the materials she needs and the money for it.”

“Huh,” I chuckled. “I might have to keep that in mind.”

“You do that,” he nodded. “I’ll stick here with my shit wares and sell them to people that don’t know any better.”

“Right,” I chuckled, going back to browsing the amateur equipment while Zane and the shopkeep continued to discuss something. I looked around what I now knew was a second hand store before I was tapped on the back by Zane who then gestured towards the door.

“You done?” I asked.

“Yeah,” he nodded. “Got what we needed.”

“Which was?” I questioned as we headed out of the door.

“The bandits are holed up in an old castle a few miles west of the city,” he explained. “The shopkeep said that he’s had most of the gear you saw traded into him by a ‘an adventuring warrior’ for a high price.”

“And I’m guessing our adventurer is one of the bandits?” I asked.

“Looks that way,” he nodded, crossing his arms as he leaned against the wall of the shop. “So, we’ve got a Nekomata running a group of bandits holed up in an ancient fort that are robbing passers-by. Sound like something you can handle, kid?”

“I’m sure I can take on an antsy cat and a few bandits,” I grinned. “Wish me luck?”

“No,” he answered jokingly.

“Well fuck you too, buddy,” I said with a grin.

“Before you go,” he began. “The shopkeep said that they might be holding an ‘unknown object of great value’ in that fort of theirs. You know what that means?”

“An unknown object can’t be reported missing because they don’t know what it is?” I asked with a smirk.

“You know it,” he grinned. “See if you can find it, nab it, and bring it back to grab some extra coin for us to spend.”

“Us?” I asked. “That’s my money, jackass.”

“Alright then, you stingy prick,” he chuckled. “I’ll see you at the Horse and Cart, like I said.”

“I’ll just follow the red brick road, I’m guessing?” I asked.

“I knew you were a smart kid,” he said, patting me on the head before making his way off into the city, leaving me to my work.