Deceiver

Chapter 6

Kapeo

 Maeia grabbed my hand as she made an escape and tried to drag me back towards Aoife's house. She had seen her before I did, whatever she was. I watched, frozen in place, as a glowing purple woman grabbed Aoife from behind and disappeared. For once, this was an incident I had never heard of happening in Annas' realm. I don't think anyone had.

Long after Aoife was gone, I stood staring at the spot where she'd been. Where she should be. I found myself torn between two options. I could take Maeia to the safehouse and trust that Aoife could take care of herself, which I didn't entirely trust at all. I could also wait. Our position had clearly been compromised, even though Annas probably didn't know where Aoife lived, but I could find a way to wait, even if it meant leaving Maeia behind. I had newfound beef with the gnome girl after the sacrifice she hadn't had the right to make.

Maeia complicated things. I had seen the way that she shunned everything around her in this new god realm she'd stumbled upon, and I empathized with her but also resented her. Of the three of us, only Aoife had been born here, however, that was not to say she'd had it easy either. Being bound to a trickster god in exchange for your brother's freedom from the war draft was not something to be taken lightly.

Maeia's dislike of my kind-of-home realm obviously meant that she wanted to leave immediately, but I wasn't sure. Another difficult part about fleeing the realm was that while Aoife trusted Buri and Hibe, I didn't, and I wasn't sure that their portal wouldn't track us. I hadn't been around the court for long enough to know for sure, and now Aoife was gone.

The sun set as Maeia lay snoring in bed, but I sat at the window, waiting for my friend to come back. The sun rose again and I began to feel that she wouldn't come back here, even if she was okay.

As Maeia slept, I began to throw together supplies. There was a high probability that we would be attacked, and while I knew that she could definitely make an escape, I had no idea if Maeia could fight. I would need my own weaponry with maybe some to spare.

The gnome stirred as I pulled my personal favorite of Aoife's weapons out from her cabinet. This one had always been just a little too tall for her, but it fit me perfectly. I smiled broadly at the staff as it gleamed in the new sunlight. I ran my fingers over the notches in its sides and felt it hum gently in my hands. Aptly named the Damager, the staff had been made to have every single combat weapon that its owner could wield enchanted into its very metal.

I slid my fingers down to my personal favorite notch, third from bottom, and my smile grew wider as my beloved axe swung out. This would do just fine.

I was just beginning to rifle through the potions under the bed when Maeia awoke with a start, gasping for air. I slid out from under the bed and stared at her. In my opinion, the gnome was not worth sacrificing my best friend and the most competent general I knew to some unknown purple woman, but perhaps Aoife knew better than I did. I watched her as she turned to look at me, and I wordlessly slid under the bed.

The bin under the bed contained a great many things, and only seemed to get bigger as I went through it. It was not, as it turns out, only filled with potions, but also an array of weapon slings, belts, and holsters, along with a set of throwing knives, and a large glowing staff. I slid the whole bin out from under the bed and decided that perhaps it would just be best to take the whole bin with us. I had no idea what Aoife had done to it to make it hold so much, but I did know that she needed a housekeeper or house-organizer. I would mention it if I got her back. When I got her back. I had some hope that she wouldn't just die on me the minute she was kidnapped.

I shuffled the bin into my bag and turned to Maeia. She stared at me from the bed which she had not bothered to move from, and turned her head softly to the side.