Mother of Magic

Six Minus One Equals Five

Norman sat on the bed of the cell, dressed in the same simple jailhouse garb Silena had once worn and in this same cell. He had a leg wrapped in compression bandages and a cold pack in his lap. There was another cold pack on the junction of his neck and shoulder.

Norman was a mess.

Once again and as it was before with Silena, there was a table set up and covered in the professional work garb of a Guild assassin. No armor this time. Nor were there any magical weapons. In their place were 10 knives of various sizes and shapes. Brass knuckles. Some very long pins with rounded glass heads. Two snub-nosed revolvers that looked to have started their existence as Colt or Smith and Wesson style six-shooters. Now they had the barrels cut off to a nub. The remaining barrel's muzzles were rounded off and machined to a polished shine. No gun site. "With a barrel like this, no point in a gun site. They chop and shine this so it does not catch on your clothing when you extract it from its hidey-hole for close-in usage." Silena commented in a professional assessment. "These things are 38's but you could not hit anything accurately beyond a few yards. Better than a derringer because they hold more rounds but about the same ability to hit the broadside of a barn."

"Are the handles like that for the same reason?" Vivan asked. "Weasier ti hide?"

Silena flipped a gun around to look at the stubby handle. "Exactly right. They modify the frames and add these tiny handles. Makes them a bitch to fire. But as you see: very rounded and polished. Slide in and out of hiding, and hold on for dear life when you fire. Only the central part of the gun frames are normal-sized, which they have to be to hold the .38 or .357 caliber shells. Big tough cylinder to keep from the gun exploding when used. Hell of a kick especially if you plus-load the shells with powder. Dirty too. Powder everywhere."

Silena held up one revolver and twisted it around to show it to the others. "These things are not unique to Normie. Lots in the guild carry them. The Guild armory makes them by the dozen. Not a hacksaw job. They even re-blue everything. Makes the proportions really weird. This is not a great sleeve gun unless you are wearing a parka. It is popular inside the Guild because six large caliber rounds are good in a close-in firefight. More knockdown, and with the derringer-like accuracy? More rounds mean a better chance of actually hitting and hurting someone. Normie is a close-in fighter, so this is just his style. If he starts losing, he has these at hand. Drop back a step, pull, and fire. Since Normie is ambidextrous, one for each hand. That way he doesn't have to care if they are holding onto one hand. He has the other."

"All the Guild carries these?" Vivian asked.

"Nah. Mostly just the close combat types. Normie is the only one in The Six that has these I bet. It is hard to explain. Some in the Guild look down on something like this. Others do not like to be close up at all and prefer to kill at a distance. The sniper-types. For some, like Normie there, winning is all that matters."

"Why didn't he pull them on you?" Vivian asked.

"Because Stephanie gave me a bat. That meant I could keep him far enough away that throwing knives would have better range and accuracy. Also, I never let him get into the fight like that. Normie thinks he is better than he is. I will always win in any fight with him. I know all his tricks. All his weapons. When he likes to go to what move. How his ego responds to losing. Most dudes are like that. They hate to lose to someone like me. Which is kind of funny because in the Guild it's the ladies that have the best kill records. A dirty little secret that they do not even talk about inside the Guild because the male ego is fragile that way."

"Be losing a fight, you flash some tit, distract 'em and then take them down?" Vivian asked.

"That works sometimes. I would never count on it. If it happens to work, I'd take advantage of it. Natch. The thing is, Vivian? Not all men are distracted with a boob shot. For one thing? Probably 10% of the men don't like boobs. Other men are able to compartmentalize. Le is like that for sure. Not even with boobs like you and I have, Viv. Word to the wise: You can't count on them. It's usually enough in a fight with a man to just be a chick. They get overconfident from that. Normie knows better. Well. He should. But, like most guys, he also never learns. I except men like Le and the Sheriff here. Call men who fuck it up because they are fighting a lady? 80% Max. All that means in the Guild is you'd lose one out of five fights if you counted on that. Not good enough. In the Guild you have to win all the time or you end up in jail with busted balls like Normbo. Or worse."