The War Thief

A Deal

"What do you mean you don't have it?" Terrence heard his voice crack ever so slightly. He clenched his fists and took a bated breath.

The girl shrugged her shoulders.

"I sold it."

The crow on her shoulder refused to stop watching Terrance's every move. It was starting to make him feel even more on edge.

Terrance squeezed his eyes shut and pinched the bridge of his nose. "I only lost track of you for an hour. How did you already get rid of it?" he shouted over the wind that was starting to pick up speed. It was forming a vortex around them as the sun was beginning to hide behind the horizon.

"You must be new to this stealing thing. I can teach you if you want," her voice was even until a slight chuckle she couldn't contain at the end. "I already had a buyer lined up. Now will you leave me alone?" The girl looked like she was pondering just leaping off the edge and taking flight.

Despite the panic Terrance was fighting off, he couldn't help but be intrigued by the girl's demeanor. She had an air of confidence and peace about her wrapped together.

"Not until you get that token back for me. In which case I may as well learn your name so that it will be easier to keep track of you."

"Brenna," she said. "But why do you possibly think I'm going to bother getting that token back for you?"

Terrance paused to think of a plausible answer. "Well, Brenna, I assume you're a Raven?"

"A Raven?" she turned to look at him. Both her and the crow stared at him blankly for a moment. The rushing wind ruffled the crow's feathers and pushed them upward into almost the shape of a crown on its head. "Oh, is that what you call us?" she laughed. "You've got our race's name wrong, I'm a Kalah. Don't you Ipsas know your history?"

"I know it well, that's just what we call you. Whatever you call yourself, I know where you're from, and my family is undergoing meetings to come to a peace treaty between your kind and mine. That token you stole was given to me by your clan's leader personally."

"Donovan?" she gasped, her attention now completely his. "You've met him?"

Terrance nodded. "He entrusted that token to me for safekeeping. Thanks to you, if he discovers I've lost it, all this work will be for nothing and he'll be ready to declare war for the first time since our ancestors settled here. So are you willing to fix this problem you've started, or will you be the reason the Ipsa have to fight against the Kalah's black magic?"

Terrance as well as the other leaders of the Ipsa were already at the end of their rope dealing with the Raven's, or rather, Kalah's antics. Their dabbling in magic was not withheld during the ambassadors' stay in Nolotah, and it was putting all the natives on edge. All of the Ipsa ambassadors were eager to reach a conclusion to the meetings and see the Kalah off as they leave the island, and in turn leave the Ipsa at peace.

Brenna's crow took flight once again and hovered nearby on the updraft from the cliffside. She stared down at the waves crashing against the cliff beneath her with her mouth slightly open, half forming a word. She stayed that way for a while, pondering. When her crow cawed at her, she looked up and escaped her thoughts.
"Alright," she said. "I know my kind likes to make fun of your choice of isolation, but I don't want to be the one who forces you out of it."

"Good choice. Help me get it back, and then we can go our separate ways and never see each other again, deal?" Terrance extended his hand out to her, but refused to move closer.

Brenna looked at his outstretched hand, still several yards away and chuckled a little. She took a few paces towards him and grasped his open hand. "Deal."

"Fantastic, which way shall we go?"

"That way," she pointed outwards at the open sea.

"I'm sorry, care to elaborate?"

"The guy I sold it to was a Waynum. He was already on his way back to Bek." Brenna calmly stepped away from the cliff and started her trek back the way they came. "Come on. We're going to need a boat."

"Bek?" Terrance exclaimed as he kept pace with her. "You couldn't find someone closer to sell it to?" He dreaded the thought of coming in close quarters with the Waynum. He didn't even want to think of the option of venturing into their capital. Their magic was much more powerful than the Kalah's, and that was not something he was prepared to encounter.

"Calm down, he isn't there yet. He isn't even to the mainland yet. It's about a week's journey once he gets there," she said. "We can probably intercept him before he reaches Bek."

"We better," said Terrance, "dealing with a single Kalah is one thing, I'm not about to go meddle with the Waynum."

"I don't blame you, they're a bit stuck up anyway."

It was obvious from her tone of voice concern was not what lead Brenna's motivation to steer clear of the Waynum. There was a bitterness and resentment in her voice as she spoke of them. Terrance could tell she wasn't eager to interact with them either.

"I thought the Kalah got along well with the Waynum."

She scoffed. "Seriously? They mock the practice of Skintiia more than your kind. They think Te Fabula is the only 'true' form of magic just because they're born with it and don't have to learn it for themselves."

"I hadn't realized."

"Oh sheltered islander, you've got a lot to learn about the real world."

When they reached the closest port, Terrance left a letter at the post to be sent back to the castle to inform his parents he would be absent for the remainder of the peace treaties. They then continued on to select passage to the mainland.

"Have you ever been to the mainland before?" Brenna asked Terrance as they boarded a small merchant ship.

He paused for a moment before answering. "Not particularly."

Brenna laughed. "This is going to be interesting for both of us."

Author's note:

A bit of a short chapter, I know. But I'm trying to get the ball rolling with this story so I can keep it going. Please let me know what you thought of the chapter! Which of the three races mentioned sounds the most interesting?