Disposable Hero Ch. 02 Pt. 06

As they rode off a dark presence was lurking in the shadows watching the plan had worked so far the guardian was on his way to the surface, as they rounded up any others survivors from both sides and even the dead were dragged off.

Once they cleared the compound and were out of view of the others Alak saw Dirzune with three others one looked very young, he told the others what he saw.

Hearing this Henri grabbed his pistol and walked up to Dirzune, a man with mostly blond hair stepped in front of her and walked up to him saying, "We mean you no harm. If we did we would have attacked already."

Henri asked scanning for any sign of movement and wondering why she was letting this man talk asking, "Then what do you want?"

Rikton looked Henri in the eye, Rikton's eyes it had none of the condescension Henri had seen from the others and said, "I would like to talk to you man to man. If that is alright with you?"

Henri had to hand it to this Drow, he had balls and they must be really big to speak like he was.

Henri wanting to see if he could start trouble said, "I haven't met a Drow man yet, so surprise me."

Rikton smiled at the statement, clearly he knew more than he was telling Henri and said, "We would like to come with you. I am a powerful mage and Dirzune is a very powerful priestess.

The other two are our children and we want to give them a better life on the surface."

Henri shouted to Dirzune really he wanted to see her disagree so he could leave them behind, "Do you agree with what he is saying?"

As she walked up Henri stepped back to have room to move should they try anything.

She asked Henri, "What did he say?"

So Henri explained everything still looking for her to disagree with him.

Dirzune said, "Remember how I was asking if you would do the right thing? Well this is the right thing."

Henri almost laughed at the thought, it was beyond absurd and said, "You, just had their house attacked and you expect me to do the right thing.

Well a bullet to the face would fix that problem."

Dirzune flushed with anger and was about to speak when that blond Drow stepped in again, showing a lot of courage gaining Henri's respect for the moment and said, "As her husband I would rather you not.

Besides I don't think my children would like to see their mother murdered before their eyes.

I am not asking you to trust her but to trust me. Have I ever done anything to harm you?"

Henri knew the blond Drow had him and he said, "No, you haven't. However, you can't fault me for not trusting any of your kind."

Rikton smiled all his research on humans was right and said, "Then give me a chance to prove you wrong."

Henri sighed, this one was different and Henri was certain he knew it.

Henri said, "I am going to give you the rope to either hang yourself with or you will be the first Drow to earn my trust."

Rikton held out his hand and they shook, for Henri it felt odd to shake the hand of a Drow, who knows maybe this is the beginning of a new direction in his interactions with these people.

They settled into the last wagon with Henri, Zilvra the strange man who was called Rikton, Dirzune and their two children.

Henri unholstered his weapons and set them on the wagons floor as he did he saw both Rikton and Zilvra looking at them. He stripped his weapons and started cleaning them, felt strange to Henri they had a hum to them.

Zilvra sat down next to Henri and asked, "What are you doing?" with Rikton watching him as well. Not so much him as his aura and the magic that radiated off his pistols.

"Cleaning my weapons they are very fragile and need to be kept clean," he said very casually.

"How do they work? I saw them work and heard the loud noise they make. How did it do that?" she asked baffled as Rikton moved closer. He wanted to know how they worked as well as study how they interacted and how that affected their auras.

Henri took out a bullet from one of the pistols cut the slug from the charge, tipped the casing over looked at the powder in his hand and said, "That powder is very strong magic, and when it burns it explodes. Since the magic can't go anywhere, it pushes this. We call it a slug this travels so fast you can't see it, a slug can go through the armor of any knight here."

Henri wondered if he probably shouldn't tell her, but it looks like they would need to work together so he might as well start building trust.

He hopped that for maybe the first time in her life she might have somebody to lean on and he wouldn't have to sleep with an eye open.

Zilvra was shocked that this could go through armor and Rikton looked on in disbelief. For Rikton these two were the most fascinating thing ever. Henri had just confirmed what he was beginning to suspect, that humans were developing the science into a very powerful form of magic, or so he thought now he was learning this was not magic at all but simple alchemy. While that did explain how his pistols worked it don't explain how they got imbued with magic.

She asked Henri, "And how does that work?" pointing to the pistol.

"Well this is a bullet; we put them into these clips. We then slap the clip in the pistol like this. After that, we slide the top back like this and a bullet goes into what we call the chamber ready to fire." He explained.

He handed her the gun and said, "Put your hand like this and your finger there now push that lever towards you."

She shook her head no and said, "It will go off and hurt you."

"Just do it," Henri saw the safety on and said.

She did, and nothing happened so she tried two more times and finally said, "It doesn't work did you break it when you put it back together."

"It won't fire until you flip this lever here, now it is ready to kill. We call that thing a safety as long as it is like this the pistol won't fire. Always remember guns don't kill people, swords don't cut and arrows can't pierce, people only other people can do all of that." He said.

He took the pistol from her set the safety and holstered it and continued to clean his other guns while Zilvra and Rikton watched.

The rest of the day was uneventful and as they set up camp bedded down for the night, besides the servant on watch two others reflected on what they are seeing and feeling.

Dirzune looks at her lover and says, "Do see what I mean about him? Are we truly doing the right thing? It isn't to late to drag him back."

Rikton raised an eyebrow in disbelief and said, "I see that you have been keeping far to much from me. I will have to teach you to see auras, because his is a site but hers that is something to be hold. With everything that has happened you would rather go back then learn things we would never have permission to learn other wise. As for us dragging him back, we are missing about 40 of your best from your former Shrilara and that might be an understatement. If we take him then we need to know more about him, other wise we will wind up on the other end of that deafening stick. He seems certain that we have no way to protect ourselves from it."

Dirzune had no reason to doubt Rikton's logic but his statement about Zilvra had her at a loss as she said, "What makes her so interesting that I would need to see?"

He loved it when she was curious about something, it reminded him of the young drowess who had captured his heart all those centuries ago, not will to just tell her he said, "Do you remember what her mother wanted to be?"

Searching her lengthy memory she said, "Didn't she come to you so she could be a Harbinger?"

He just smiled and said, "That is correct, she wanted to do the rights to be Lloth's Harbinger, she trained so hard but her aura never got strong enough to cleanse and hold a soul. That is when she took an interest in Alak my most promising student and head of house Hla'ath."

Rikton watched as Dirzune ran through the whole affair and remembered how Akordia became matron of house Hla'ath, even the powerful magic that all but Zilvra had displayed, drawing her conclusion she said, "Are you telling me she is a Harbinger? That she can house souls like a sorceress?"

He looked at the dreaming Zilvra and said, "Her aura is strong enough, but no she would not be a one, she would be something else, something new. As you know Harbingers hunt the undead and bring them to Lloth. She has skills as a fighter and a thief that a Harbinger would wish for, she would make a frightening sorceress with the souls she could hold. That is why sorcery is forbidden denying Lloth a soul is a death sentence. What is truly amazing is the power of her aura around her head, it is almost like a Mind Flayer's aura."

She interjected saying, "Are you saying she is some kind of psion?"

He just shook his head and said, "I am certainly going to teach you to read auras. A Mind Flayer's aura is very calm and in control of that power, Zilvra's aura around her head is strong like a Mind Flayer's but is chaotic, so if I had to say I don't think she has any powers like a psion would. It does make me think about that like she has and if it shapes it or controls it. We must learn more about them, our lives just might depend on it."