I Can't Get the Vampire Rogue to Romance Me

Chapter 75 - Harrowheart Returns

At that intrusive sound, Sigismund heard, because she popped her head out of the waterfall. Immediately her eyes snapped to Evangeline's full of concern and then by silent agreement, both women swam over to where they had abandoned their towels once the other males had gotten out of the mineral-cloudy water. A second, louder banging at the door, woke Hagor up, who snorted sharply at his fairly deep sleep being interrupted. Artmond only moved to indicate he was awake, rolling up from where he laid on his side to look over his shoulder at the door.

Valerian was on his feet instantly at the second knock, moving at a quick clip to the door, not sparing a glance at the two women as the hauled themselves out of the water. They both scurried over to where they had both laid out their clothes with one of Sigismund's cleansing stones resting on top, effectively "washing" their garments with magic while they bathed in real water.

Evangeline only bothered to pull on her looser shirt and pants before snatching up a dagger, which she kept along the side of her thigh. Just in case.

There was a third knock, as loud as the second, just as Valerian got to the door. "Who is it?" he called out in a sing-song voice.

He had to lean in, but his superior hearing seemed to catch the answer.

Hagor seemed to hear it too, because his face relaxed and he gestured for the branches securing the door to release it from their secure grip.

"Who is it?" Evangeline asked, coming up beside Valerian.

"Harrowheart," he said.

"Oh thank the gods, you guys didn't ditch me!" the orcess declared as soon as the door opened. "You cannot believe how much trouble the damn priests were giving me. I fought the damn vampire-wolf thing too! I deserve to be in their 'sacred pools' as much as the rest of you guys! You cannot believe the fit I needed to pitch to get here. I should have just stuck with all you all instead of going back to my forge to pack! Serves me right!" She looked around at the group, beaming brightly to be there, then dumped a very loaded up pack by the door and beelined for the remains of their private buffet. "Oh yes! I'm starved."

She seized a handful of nuts that she unceremoniously shoved into her mouth, as her other hand poured herself a libation from the remains of a pitcher of beer into one of the last empty glasses. That slipped down her throat so fast, she might as well have just drunk it straight from the pitcher.

No one in the group said anything as they looked to each other with questions in their eyes, until all gazes landed on Evangeline, the group spokesperson.

"So, you've decided to join us?" Evangeline asked belatedly, while Valerian shut the door and Hagor gestured to resecure it with branches.

"If you'll still have me, yes!" Harrowheart declared around mouthful of sliced meats. I definitely want to see what I can do to help you guys with your collars. I may not be able to remove them, but given enough time, I might be able to modify them."

What an ass, Evangeline thought, burning a Meta point. She was going to get a long rest soon any way.

Then a new smile slipped over the rogue's face. "That sounds great. And I already know what modification I would like you to work on first."

# # #

"So yeah, there is supposed to be this book written in Phoenician that this old wizard talked about when I was a kid," Harrowheart said as she pulled a wooden comb through her wet hair, having finally bathed and dressed after polishing off the remainder of their buffet. If they wanted any dinner, they were going to have to leave the baths to ask for it. Everyone else in the party had also dressed fully, looking the cleanest the all had in a while. Even the would on Evangeline's shoulder had fully healed up, and despite Valerian's warning, hadn't really left much of a scar to speak of. It was so much better than the lat time Evangeline had needed to go to an emergency room to get stitches.

"So we need to go find your clan to retrieve this book?" Hagor asked.

"No, no. He still has it. He lives in Greater Green now," she said.

"Oh excuse me, friend," Hagor said, shifting in his seat as he realized what he had done. "I just assumed that your clan captured him and held him prisoner. That was unjust of me."

"Oh no, we captured him," Harrowheart assured. "Our shaman wanted to eat him to try to absorb his power and everything, but he was one of those talking, talking, talking, types and managed to convince the elders to let him go instead. The shaman wasn't none-to-pleased about that, but I think the elders were already getting sick of her by that point."

"Okay, well put a pin that for some other campfire chat some other time, because that sounds really fascinating. So you think this book might have the instructions we need to modify our collars to allow us to separate from each other a bit farther or maybe even completely?"

Harrowheart set down her comb and reached to slip her fingers under Evangeline's collar, which the rogue had allowed her to do at the start of this conversation so she could examine it further. "Yeah. I don't actually know what these marks mean, but they look a lot like the lettering he had in that one book. If the magic in these collars was spelled with these runes, knowing what they mean would help me know if we can modify it enough to change the rules of the spells. Then yeah, I should be able to modify them with a lesser magic chisel."

The vampire tsked. "So you're proposing we go to Greater Green? Another backwards, wayward village in the middle of nowhere where we'll be lucky if they even have a local tavern on the mere possibility of finding a stuffy old wizard book?" Valerian asked.

"You got somewhere else you really need to be?" Sigismund snarked.

Valerian affected his courtiers bow that always seemed like it had a edge of mockery. "Oh, don't get me wrong, my fellow companions, as much fun as its been to have to look at all of your lovely faces every moment of every day or night, I would think going directly to something more metropolitan would be more likely to have wizards and resources that might actually help us."

"Well, the nearest place I would call a city is a two week journey from here on foot. Greater Green may be out of our way from that, but we could get there in three days, if we hoof it," Harrowheart supplied. "It's just an idea. If he'll help us out, since the book is written Phoenician, it's the only lead I can think of."

Everyone had thinking faces on turning the two arguments over, then Sigismund looked to Evangeline. "And what does Meta think of that?" she asked.

"Who's Meta?" Harrowheart asked, tying her shoulder length hair back into a short ponytail.

"My special ability," Evangeline said. "It's a kind of pre-cog."

"Oh nice!" Harrowheart said, "must be really useful for a Rogue."

Their leader nodded, then blew out a breath. "Okay, this may take me a few minutes. I'm going to burn all of my points, which means I might not fully remember everything I say, so I need you all to keep track of it for me."

"Got it," Sigismund said, and dug into her bag to retrieve a few sheafs of paper, a sealed bottle of ink, and a writing quill.

"Where did you get that?" Artmond asked.

"The shop, of course," Sigismund countered as she slipped out a piece of flat board and clipped the paper to it. "It's just a standard scholar's kit. Nothing fancy."

"Okay, we ready?" Evangeline asked, cutting of Artmond's next unhelpful comment.

Sigismund poised her dipped quill over her paper and looked at Evangeline expectantly.

"Okay, here we go," Evangeline said, blowing out a breath. Then she said, "What an ass."