Shadows in the Smoke - 12 - Telling Tales

"The People's Republic of Itria is not a particularly large nation. It does not benefit from the naturally defensive borders of some other nations and its peace-loving People have no desire for expansion. However, this does mean that its existence is constantly threatened by its larger neighbours. Only the ingenuity and hard work of the People protect the Republic from conquest by the Empire, or worse, the Lands of the Dead."

The Struggle for Freedom by Bjarne Midthun

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"I…" Ester looked down as she thought desperately. She needed to come up with something, they'd been so nice to her and she was meant to be making friends here. Or at least being friendly.

She couldn't tell them one of the horrible stories, those weren't funny and, worse, would make the Empire look bad. But then, all of the funnier stories would make her look bad, which might be even worse. She winced internally at the thought of how some of the Empire's more conservative nobleborn or Mages might react to even her less dangerous escapades. Perhaps she should just tell them something about analysing Schemas?

"Well…" Ester played for time as she cast her mind back. They probably wouldn't want to hear one about her fighting either. What would be entertaining, but not too violent? "One of the things we focus on in the Watch is unlicensed use of magic." She hesitated, half expecting one of them to launch into a rant about oppression of the commonborn or something like that. Their polite nods left her feeling vaguely guilty. "Of course most of them are harmless, but sometimes they can be very dangerous through incompetence or malice."

"Indeed," Captain Gondahl leant forward, "you wouldn't believe some of the…"

"Shhh! It's Ester's turn." His mouth snapped shut at Sonja's admonition.

"Thank you." It took Ester a second to get over her surprise at Sonja's intervention. Did she really want to hear what she had to say that badly? "Umm, there was a woman who had been making tinctures, she had a surprising amount of Talent, but they were having unexpected effects. The Watch arrested her for her crimes, that was not difficult, she only seemed to focus on making tinctures. I was given some of her supply too analyse. Your 'forensics'. I took them down to my room, the space I occupy for my work, and started on the analysis. It was all very normal for something like that. She had been making love tinctures and everything I had taken supported that. Surprisingly sophisticated tinctures, for a witch, that would act on inhibitions and desire."

She thought back to that day and flushed. Maybe it wasn't all that amusing a story after all, but it was too late to backtrack now.

"I was writing down my findings when a Watchman burst in gasping for breath. He managed to stutter out that I was needed in the cells, but couldn't get much more than that out when he was in such a panic." She took a breath. "I ran straight there, down four flights of stairs."

"What did you find?"

Ester grimaced. "There were four Watchmen down there. Two of them were wrapped in each other's arms enthusiastically…" her face blush deepened and she quickly moved on. "The other two were groveling on their bellies in front of the witch. They must have removed her from her cell and she was laughing with delight as they tried to kiss her feet."

"Blood and fire. What had she done?" Captain Gondahl at least seemed impressed.

"Was it some kind of contact based tincture?" Lieutenant Enberg seemed intrigued.

That had been the really interesting question. "Perhaps, but the witch would have been searched and the Watchmen would have been careful not to touch her with their bare skin, given her Talent. As soon as I entered the room I found myself gripped by an inexplicable urge to help the witch. It felt like she was a dear friend that I loved very much. There was a sweetness in the air that I could not quite describe and the urge to embrace her was almost overwhelming." Ester pursed her lips as she thought back to it. It had actually been one of the most embarrassing feelings she'd ever had. "Obviously she was using magic to affect everyone around her, but it was like nothing I had ever seen. I focused and was able to force my mind past the effect, but when I tried using disjunction it did nothing."

Lieutenant Enberg frowned. "So what was it?"

"I nearly lashed out at the witch, but I did not want to kill her when we might need her alive to find out what she had done to the Watchmen." She'd nearly smeared the old woman across the wall in her outrage and fear when she'd realised how she'd been affected. "I tried again with disjunction, putting my full power behind it, and again it did nothing. She was screaming at the groveling Watchmen to protect her and they were getting up with murder in their eyes. I did not want to hurt my fellow Watchmen, especially as they seemed to be innocent victims of the witch's magic. I had to think fast." It had been a bit of a gamble, a wild guess really, but there was no harm in making herself look good to the Republicans. She was meant to be impressing them after all. "It could not have been touch or a spell, so I worked out it must be something in the air. I blasted fresh air through the room and my mind cleared straight away. Even the Watchmen stopped advancing on me."

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"So it was some kind of gas?"

Ester nodded. "The witch had somehow smeared herself in it and then activated it later on. It was very clever actually, I had never heard of anything like it."

"She sounds like a dangerous woman. I assume the Empire's justice would have been as swift as the Republic's?"

"Of course. A criminal like that could not be allowed to continue." Actually, the witch had been taken away by two of the new governor's men a day later. They had said she would face justice, but Ester wasn't sure. The more cynical part of her couldn't help but imagine what Sir Vitaly would do if he could smear a tincture over himself that would make everyone around him want to worship him. The rest of her fervently hoped never to find out.

"Quite right too." Sonja waved at the bartender. "Another round, Citizen!"

It took Ester a moment to realise her cup was empty. Was that the second? It was very nice. She wasn't sure she should have anymore though.

"Dealing with other magic users can be such a pain." Lieutenant Enberg downed her own cup. "The worst is when they should know better of course. I don't suppose you've had problems with your Mages before?"

"No," Ester shook her head, resisting the urge to cringe at the thought of the Duke. He really should have known better. "Mages are…" she trailed off. She didn't even know where to start to describe the way that Mages were viewed to equality obsessed Republicans.

Fortunately Sonja just laughed. "No need to be embarrassed, Ester. Everyone has their foibles no matter how they act in public. I'm sure even mages get up to things, but maybe they just get a quiet word when they misbehave."

Ester had to suppress a grimace at that. The number of 'quiet words' Master Tabasi had had with her was high enough and then there were the private tellings off from Commander Savate. "Perhaps you are right."

Sonja just grinned at her. "Well no one is above the law in the Republic… but sometimes even we do have to make allowances." She nudged Captain Gondahl. "Tell her about Lindholm?"

The Captain's wince suggested there was something more than just a name there.

"Who?" Ester looked between them.

"Yes!" Lieutenant Enberg clapped her hands together. "That was an embarrassing one for sure."

Captain Gondahl let out a long suffering sigh. "Fine, fine. I was called out by the police on a Rest Day night. I can tell you I was not in a good mood about it either, it was late, cold, wet and miserable. Some garbled story of a drunk rogue Cantrist trashing a tavern, so they needed an Arcanist and Lieutenant Enberg here was on her vacation time."

What was vacation time? Also they still hadn't told her who Lindholm was. Before Ester could ask, the Captain kept talking. A new cup of mead arrived in front of her and she took a sip without even thinking.

"I hurried over there, expecting some drunk Cantrist in a fistfight. Every window in the tavern was broken and there was a man lying on the ground outside it, bleeding from the head." He shook his head at the memory. "I drew my cudgel and stepped inside expecting chaos. As I went in, I shouted 'People's Police Arcanist, on the floor now!' Only it was completely quiet in there. There were several people unconscious on the floor and the whole tavern was practically destroyed. Tables and chairs were broken. Someone had smashed straight through the bar. Like a battering ram or something. Then, in the middle of it all, there was a woman just sitting there with a cup of ale in her hand. She didn't look like much. Short, dark-haired, wearing a simple grey dress. She looked like she'd come straight off a factory floor. I wouldn't have looked twice at her if she walked past me the street, except she was utterly relaxed and completely untouched in the middle of of all that destruction and I'm not bloody stupid."

He paused to take a swig of his ale and Ester seized the opportunity.

"So was that Lindholm? Who exactly is…"

"Don't worry, we'll get there!"

Ester frowned and grumpily took another sip of mead. "Fine, sorry."

"I figured it must be some army Cantrist on leave or something, just based on the sheer destruction. I was ready for anything when I told her to get down on the floor and put her hands behind her back. Do you know what she did?" He didn't wait for a response. "She didn't say a word, just held up a finger and then downed the whole cup of ale. I shouted at her again and she just ignored me as she gulped it down. Then and only then, she gave me this wavering, drunken smile and lay down on her front without a single word. Like I said, she looked like nothing special, but you could feel something about her. Even when she was pissed as a newt. You can bet I had her bound, gagged and blindfolded faster than you can blow a steam whistle."

"So then what happened?" Ester still couldn't work out why they cared so much about this woman, but at least the mead really was very nice.

"We took her back to our headquarters and stuck her in a cell to sober up. I was going to interrogate her the next morning, but first I wanted to get back to bed." He shook his head. "I just got back to sleep when I was woken up by someone banging on my door. In the middle of the night by none other than bloody General Steensen."

"He commands the Nilrava garrison." Sonja interjected, which did nothing to explain the point of the story.

"Yes, exactly. Very important, very busy man. Liberty's blood, I've no idea why he was even awake at that time! A good man though, very proper and respectful. Didn't shout or make demands, just asked if we knew we had Sigrid bloody Lindholm in our cells." He grimaced. "Can you believe it?"

"No…" Ester wasn't really sure what she was meant to believe, so she took another sip of mead. "But who is she?"

Both the Captain and Lieutenant's eyes widened.

"You haven't heard of Sigrid Lindholm? I thought even in the Empire…? The Ashen Vow?"

Ester shrugged and glanced down at her empty cup. "I'm sorry, but no."

"The Republic's greatest war hero? She shattered the Lich King Arex's offensive. Transformed the way we fight the Dead. Broke them at Skarholm!"

"I'm sorry I didn't know that." Ester took a sip from the fresh cup of mead that had appeared in front of her. It seemed like they had a lot of problems with the undead. Was that because they didn't have an Inquisition? Did they have an Inquisition? Would it be rude to ask?

Her mind caught up with what Captain Gondahl was saying. "She? Sigrid is a woman's name?" Were they really talking like this about a woman?

"Ha!" Sonja downed her drink. "Of course Lindholm's a woman. In the Republic we don't have the Empire's ridiculous prejudices. If a woman wants to fight for the People then let her fight and blood and fire Sigrid Lindholm can fight!"

"Really?" Ester forced herself back under control, using another sip from the cup of mead to hide her facial expression. "How fascinating."

Perhaps the Republic would be even more interesting than she'd expected.

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