Will

"Hey! You're that fortune teller feller, aren'tcha?" Buck asked, standing dangerously close to the gaunt little man. "Where'd you come from, anyway?"

"I need to have a word," Will said quickly. "Could I please have a minute alone with him, my lord?"

Buck looked between Will and Corvin. "I mean, I guess so. Is something going on here I should know about?"

The fortune teller grinned wide like a shark. He had made Will's knife vanish somehow. "Plenty. But it is considered uncouth to listen in on others' fortunes. In the end, we must all preside over our own destinies and none others'."

The lord chuckled and ran a hand through his wavy hair. "I suppose you have a point there, friend. Still, I'm getting awfully curious about all this…"

It took some doing, but Will eventually managed to convince everyone to evacuate the farmhouse, leaving him and Corvin alone in the living room. The fortune teller went around picking through the mess of books that Fletcher had left littering the floor, but did not seem in any particular rush to make conversation.

Will studied the man closely with Detect, but couldn't figure out what was going on with him at all. He was Crow somewhere in there, wasn't he? He was supposed to be a woman, though, so if he was using an Illusion to mask his appearance Will should have been able to see straight through it, but for all intents and purposes he appeared to be just the creepy little man he presented himself as. Had Sam been mistaken…?

Identify [Name].

[Failed. Targeting error.]

Corvin spun around to face him, grinning madly. "Trying to sneak a peek under my skirt? You really are a rude boy, aren't you? Nothing like my little Darling."

Will took a step back until the backs of his thighs bumped the coffee table, but refused to be deterred. He needed to understand what was going on.

Detect [Skill Effects].

The room lit up with a brilliant web of light, whorling currents of infinitely fine threads that braided together to form undulating tendrils of power. They coalesced around the fortune teller in a cocoon so bright and so tightly woven that the man himself was not even visible through it. Will's mouth fell open as he struggled to comprehend the enormity of the skill expression around him. There was… so much. An unfathomable volume. Picking apart each individual cast was like trying to separate every grain of sand on a beach.

"What…?" Will muttered. This couldn't be possible.

Identify [Skill Effects].

He tried and failed to parse the strands of billowing skill effects constantly interacting and moving and intermingling. He saw Compress, Repel, Attract, Stasis, Teleport, Accelerate, Amplify, and even more he couldn't Identify; all working in tandem toward some unknown purpose like parts of a great machine, all present in such incredible quantities that he could not wrap his head around it. These weren't cantrips. The sheer amount of AP required to cast all these skills…

"This is a trick," Will said, not feeling particularly confident. "You're trying to psyche me out."

"You just don't give up, do you?" Corvin said, chuckling. "Well, curiosity killed the cat, or so they say. Although, from what I hear, you've got quite a knack for avoiding certain death. Reminds me of someone else I know."

Will became aware of an ominous throbbing in his skull, and was forced to let go of his latest casts of Detect and Identify before he worked himself up to another seizure. The web of light winked out of existence, and when he caught sight of the person within once more, he had entirely transformed. Gone was the thin fortune teller, replaced by a busty woman with a big messy mane of hair, sloppily clad and wearing a pair of weathered wooden clogs.

"I don't understand," Will hissed. "How is this possible?"

Corvin—Crow, whatever—was not particularly forthcoming, content to simply watch him while wearing an infuriating grin.

He could only think of one possibility. Somehow, she had found a way to create Illusions capable of targeting extrasensory perception. He'd never heard of such a thing, but it was the only thing that made sense.

What he did feel confident about, however, was that this was the real Crow. Only someone of truly prodigious talent could create such a masterful disguise. Not to mention the web of false skill casts. The effort required to create an Illusion complex enough that it could even be Identified without revealing its secrets…

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"Ta-daaa!" Crow said in a sing-song voice, arms thrown wide. "Surprised to see me? I had a bit of a fight with Sam, so I thought I'd come here in disguise to avoid wearing out my welcome, but it seems you've found me out! Argh, I must really be losing my edge—this keeps happening to me lately."

His brain finally catching up with the gravity of the situation he'd found himself in, Will forced calm and sketched out a polite bow, ignoring the painful protests of his leg and stomach. "Crow the Godkiller. I didn't think I'd be hosting such a legend in my home tonight, but you're welcome nonetheless."

"Really?" Crow asked with a hard blink, a hand on her cocked hip. "Aren't you gonna get all up in my face or whatever?"

Will straightened with a tiny wince. "Why should I?"

"Ah…" The woman scratched at her scalp. "I dunno, it's just that Sam is kinda feisty like that, so I assumed you'd be the same."

"Well, I'm not. Unlike Sam, I happen to have a brain. I know what you do to your enemies, and I'd rather not end up like them. Although, based on what Sam's told me, you're not our enemy, are you?"

Crow clasped her hands over her chest like a swooning maiden. "Aww, my little Darling's been talking about me? What'd she say? Only good things, I hope."

Will shrugged. "Nothing that'll stroke your ego, I'm afraid." Irrationally, he felt naked without a blade, even though he knew very well that a bit of steel would do little to protect him. He took a deep breath, in through his nose and out through his mouth, and forced his fists to unclench. "Are you here for any specific reason, or are you just checking in?"

Crow shrugged. "I heard there was a party, and I couldn't turn down the chance to score some free booze while also getting to keep an eye on my latest pet project."

"I see." Will motioned toward the kitchen. "Did you already fill up at dinner, or are you still peckish?"

Crow laughed. "Oh, I'm always hungry! Why, are you offering?"

"Sure. Come with me."

He brought her out into the kitchen. She hovered across the table and flopped down on the kitchen couch while he scraped together some unused leftovers from the feast and busied himself heating it up on the stove, mostly to keep his mind occupied so he wouldn't start spiraling.

A full bottle of wine appeared in Crow's hands out of thin air, and she began happily suckling at it like a baby.

"I'm curious," Will said over his shoulder, trying his best to keep his attention focused on the sizzling pan, "what is it that interests you so much about Sam? Is it just the fact that she's Jack Darling's daughter?"

Crow unsealed her lips from the bottleneck with a loud pop, and gave a contented sigh. "Well, that's part of it, I have to admit. At least at first. But you know, she really does have a certain… X-factor, that girl. You know what I'm talking about, don't you?"

"Sure," Will replied. "For better or worse, she's definitely one-of-a-kind."

"Exactly!"

"So your interest in her isn't related to the Omen Bearers at all?"

"Huh? Those losers? Why would I be worried about them?"

"I imagine they'd be enemies of yours, considering their patron."

Crow drank some more, burped, then said: "Uh, don't ask me, man. One day they're trying to kill me, the next they're trying to get me to join their little club—they keep going back and forth like that, bugging me all the time. But whatever, I don't care enough to figure out all that mess. Totally boring. They're part of the reason I've been keeping a low profile, so I don't have to keep dealing with 'em."

"Uh-huh."

"You're kind of serious, you know that? You should lighten up a little."

Will snorted. "I've been told as much."

Finished with the food, he took the thing of refried potatoes and cubed venison off the heat and placed it on the table on top of a large coaster, then cast Prepare. Crow floated upright with a happy noise and began eating straight from the pan as soon as he gave her a spoon, pausing occasionally to take a large swig of wine.

Will sat opposite and watched, his good leg bouncing with nervous energy.

"This… is pretty good," Crow mumbled through a large mouthful. "You know, I didn't really see the appeal at first, but now I think I get why Sam digs you."

"Good to hear."

Crow kept eating. After a while, she asked: "So you're really not going to try and mess with me, huh?"

"Not unless I have to. I'm happy to let you stick around and enjoy the rest of the party as long as we can agree on some ground rules." Maybe 'happy' wasn't quite the right word—he was still shitting his pants slightly—but there was absolutely nothing to be gained by getting confrontational with someone who could most likely atomize every single person on the property without even interrupting her meal.

"All right, what did you have in mind?" Crow asked.

"I'd prefer if you stay in disguise and refrain from interacting with Sam or Sunny. Don't cause any trouble, and don't hurt anyone. Finally, I want your word that you'll leave quietly in the morning. If you can agree to all that, you can stay."

Crow considered for a moment, idly chewing as she gazed up at the ceiling. Then she nodded. "All righty. That sounds fair enough. I was planning on giving my little Darling some space anyway. One thing, though."

"Yes?"

"You mind if I have a pass at that fella that was in here?"

"What fella?"

"The one with all the metal."

"You mean Griff?"

"Sure, him."

Will frowned. "As in, what? You want to have sex with him?"

Crow shrugged and laughed into her spoon, blowing a few chunks of potato back onto her plate. "What can I say? Scars are a turn-on for me."

"Uh… I guess that's fine? Just make sure Sam doesn't see you if you're planning to go wandering around in this form."

"No problem. Stealth is more or less my middle name."

Yeah, I'm thinking 'less', Will mused bitterly. Despite her incredible talent with skill casting, she had a distinctly juvenile sense of dramatic flair. He couldn't tell if it was intentional or not.

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