I Can't Get the Vampire Rogue to Romance Me

Chapter 29 - What Race Am I Again?

People poured out of the cavern as smoke boiled out, coughing and hacking for air as they did so. As fast as the cloud of gray smoke rolled through, it blew out, leaving only trails of it coming along the vaulted ceiling of the stone structure, seeking escape.

Evangeline immediately covered her nose and mouth with the top of her shirt, slipping the cloth out from under the opening of her not quite entirely laced-up cambion. Even then the taste of the smoke was acrid. Like something between burning tire and incense.

Still, several people were struggling to leave the cave, including a small child with horns. Urgently, Evangeline rushed forward with Hagor right by her side. She scooped up the small child to carry her out, while Hagor went past to rescue an older woman who had become disoriented in the chaos.

Sigismund did what a cleric would do, and she started assessing people for damages and judiciously using her limited number of cleric spells on those suffering the worst, which was thankfully only a couple.

Valerian was nowhere to be seen, though he couldn't have been far, and Artmond ... well his heart was in the right place.

All of this had that strange veneer of familiarity about it all, but Evangeline realized that since hadn't burned a Meta point, she hadn't known it was coming until it happened. It seemed the longer and longer she lived... played... lived this game, the clearer those lines became. She knew she came from another world, but even when she was fully rested, she was having a harder and harder time remembering what her apartment looked like.

She would have been more worried about it if she didn't have her hand full in that moment.

"Is that everyone?" she asked anyone.

"Yes, I think so," one of the village's residents coughed, but another came up beside.

"No, Harrowheart is still in there. She's trying to put her forge out!"

That was all Evangeline needed to hear. Grabbing a nearby rag that someone was handing out, she tied it around her face as she rushed in with a couple others to help.

"What an ass," she said, but no one heard because of all the chaos. Instantly, she knew what was about to happen, and while there were several ways to solve this situation, she went straight to the one she liked best and thought most efficient.

"We need water over here!" someone shouted as Evangeline rushed past, ignoring the bucket they tried to thrust at her.

Instead, she grabbed a bow and quiver of arrows leaning against a wall. Shouldering the quiver on she couldn't help but giggle as her fingers just knew what to do, notching an arrow, though she had never actually shot one before in her real life.

Yet, despite that she couldn't see a damn thing. Well, she could see the forge well enough. It was highlighted with fire, burning on every surface, which included the wooden walls of this lean-to structure someone had created around the forge. Only the floor was stone, which was probably smart, but Evangeline didn't know much about best practices for forging. Many of the forge's wares hung from the wood structure, however, and those were pretty ruined. It was what had been dumped into Harrowheart's forge fire that was causing the chaos. Instead of red flames, blue ones were raging hot and angry.

Between the smoke and the darkness everywhere that wasn't the blinding light of the forge fire, she couldn't see her target, the emergency water that waited above the forge in a leather sort of bin thing. It hit her then that she was in fact still human. Races were a thing in this game, and she hadn't really thought about it until she realized she didn't have some of the natural advantages that came with that.

"What are you doing?" Hagor shouted, his own voice mildly muffled by the rag tied around his face.

She pointed above the burning forge and the source of all the smoke. "Up there is an emergency water trap, but the trigger to drop it is stuck. We have to hit it with a direct shot, and it will put the fire out!" she shouted amongst all the echoing shouts in the cavern. Hagor looked where she was pointing, his eyes narrowing as he scanned the dark. Then he nodded as his gaze landed on it.

"Can you hit it?" she asked, offering him the bow and quiver.

"Yes," he said, as he took the bow and slid out an arrow. He pulled the bowstring to his pointed ear as he lined up his shot. "Menara, I invoke your light," he said. The tip of the arrow shimmered with diamond-white light and a second later he loosed it.

Knowledge: Religion. He had just invoked a druidic prayer that bestowed the light cantrip and auspices which gave a bonus to hit.

It might have been overkill, but Evangeline saw no reason to not throw everything at this. They would take another long rest before they got into anything else really important.

Hagor let loose the arrow and it flew leaving a trail of the diamond light behind, like a mini comet from his bow. It hit true, and there was a ropey snap. Then the leather water trap above the floor flopped down, dumping its payload onto the burning forge. Immediately, the flames died, which again, she wasn't entirely sure if that was scientifically right, but this wasn't her world, so whatever.

"Good job," she said to Hagor and clapped him on the shoulder.

He offered her a pleased pair of smiling eyes since it was all she could see over his impromptu mask. "How did you know it was there if you couldn't see it?"

"Meta, of course," she answered.

"Well, blessings on your Meta for their timely knowledge," he said.

"And on your Menara," she agreed, feeling she needed to return the deity compliment. Though now that she heard it out loud, it wasn't like Meta was really her "god" or anything. More like her kidnapper, but that was a thought for later.

And judging by the haunted look that passed over Hagor's eyes at the mention of his goddess's name, she had a bunch of other questions she wanted to ask instead.

To be continued...

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