Talus watched without interest as the woman's trembling fingers traced flickering orange squares into the damp air. Even he could tell that the spellwork was sloppy. Edges misaligned, coloured-light flickering uncertainly inside the shape, all telltale signs of an unsteady mind and a hand too used to shaking. The forming glyphs hummed with an uneven, dissonant thrumming, like a fractured drumbeat struggling to find its rhythm.
Despite Thalora's fear of whatever had slain her escort, she still managed to complete casting her spell. A heavy, resonant pulse rolled outward as the spell took hold, the air shuddering like distant thunder on the verge of breaking. Abruptly, a stuttering barrier manifested in the area around her, forming a gridlock of interlocked, asymmetrical shapes dynamically shifting to remain together.
Talus could see many gaps briefly form from the delay between changes. Each flicker of instability was punctuated by a deep, hollow thud, like stones colliding beneath their feet. The Magi's evident desperation made no impact on Talus.
Thalora stood unsteadily in the marsh water, her boots sinking deeper with each frantic shift of her stance. A threadbare cloak clung to her, soaked through with swamp filth and the sour stench of old Bogfire. Her bloodshot eyes darted between Talus and Crow, wild-eyed with the unfocused paranoia of someone who had gambled away too much. Money, sanity, trust.
"You're not here for me," Thalora rasped at Crow, her magic flickering dangerously as her fingers curled tighter. The haphazard barrier groaned, a low, straining vibration rippling through its unstable structure. The dome between them wavered, barely retaining its shape. "Tell me why you're here, or I swear I'll-"
"You've had too much, Thalora," Crow cut in, voice steady despite the way his body still trembled from whatever he had seen outlined in the water moments before. Talus appreciated how quickly he had gathered himself.
"I've never been more sober in my life. But the drink…" Thalora trailed off, her frantic gaze snapping back to Crow.
"I know how it is," Crow continued, forcing a weak chuckle. "Drink enough, and the shadows start shifting on their own. You can't trust your eyes even in the noon sun."
She opened her mouth, then closed it. Thalora's fingers twitched at her sides, the floating orange squares pulsing weakly as doubt crept into the Magi's mind. A weak, uneven thrum shivered through the air. Talus could read the range of Human emotions passing over her face, easily guessing at her thoughts. She hadn't seen either of the men physically do anything. To Thalora, neither of them was the true threat. Whatever may have killed the four men was still out there with them. Probably watching. Waiting.
Talus watched the exchange in silence, indifferent to how it would end. He would kill Crow and the Magi without hesitation if he felt it best served his purpose.
It wasn't fear that kept Crow from voicing his suspicions about Talus. It was something far simpler and the same one that had allowed the man to sleep peacefully through the night right next to what he considered a battlefield shade. Greed and ambition. Crow had weighed the cost, and the price of silence was easy to bear in exchange for the chance at a better life.
"Did I do this? My magic has become more unstable as of late. And, I sometimes wake up in strange places with no recollection of how I got there. Gulp," Thalora muttered quietly, dropping her hands to her side.
The Magi's shoulders sagged, a final, sluggish boom sounding as her magic collapsed into dim, fading embers of orange light. Crow glanced at Talus, shocked at how effective he was in gaslighting her. She stared at the sinking corpses in a daze, blaming herself for their deaths.
"Just show her the Radiant Blood Flower," Crow suggested, turning to face Talus. The man licked his lips, betraying his nervousness at giving Talus an instruction.
Crow no longer knew what to expect from the colourless boy who had crawled from the pile of corpses right next to the arcane flower that only Magi were interested in. His brain was struggling to piece together the fragments of information. Talus wasn't interested in enlightening him, but he moved to withdraw the Radiant Blood Flower from his shirt.
"You are an official Magi, correct?" Talus asked Thalora, shielding the flower from direct view until he got confirmation. His words shook her out of her reverie.
"Of course. What do you take me for, some sort of scullery girl? Pfft, did you not just see me use magic? Crow, why are you dragging around a halfwit?" Thalora scolded. Crow chuckled and wryly shook his head, thinking about how blunt she was.
"Just answer the lad, he has something you will want to see," Crow replied.
"Fine. Yes, I am an official Magi, whatever the shards that's supposed to mean. How else would I know how to cast spells?" Thalora scoffed, swaying in a stern stance with her hands on her hips.
"Good. I wish for you to assist in teaching me," Talus said, presenting the Radiant Blood Flower.
"I don't think you should be making demands of me, boy. Is that actually real?" Thalora reprimanded, abruptly changing her tone to lean closer. She tentatively reached out to stroke a red petal of the flower. "Shards, I've only ever seen illustrations of a Radiant Blood Flower before. It's true. The Mana around it behaves differently, like a square peg in a round hole. It just doesn't quite fit together. I've been dreaming of the day I got my hands on one of these. With this, I can get back into the Arcane Council's good graces. Crow, I can't believe you found one and brought it to."
Crow puffed up as he listened to the barely contained excitement in the Magi's voice, gaining confidence in his bartering power.
"You were always my first pick of the draft, Thalora. I always look out for those I've shared a cup with. And, we've spilled more than a few over the years. Now you can go back, no more trudging around after battlefields like a grave rat. What are you doing out here with the likes of them, anyway?" Crow replied, greasing her up. He rubbed clammy palms together, warming them up. He nodded sideways at the rotund belly of a corpse protruding from the shallow water.
"I thought long overdue that I got out here and started rummaging through corpse pockets. The men accompanied me for insurance, they thought I was trying to skip town without settling my debt. Things were never going to get done staring at myself turning grey in the reflection of a half-empty Flagon. The terms of my exile, although the Council didn't call it that exactly, included bringing back a Radiant Blood Flower," Thalora replied. Her fingers never left the flower, although Talus didn't allow her to take it from him. "Just the shard's own luck that the time I decide to get my boots wet to look, is when one fell right in my lap."
"Ha! Who are you fooling? That flagon was never just half empty, more like the dregs at the bottom. The drink makes you look prettier than reality too, I bet. Thalora, I think you know already what we want for the flower. Me and the lad are coming with you. If you can't do that, then you have a good idea of what happens next…" Crow trailed off, leaving the threat unfinished as he pointedly looked at the bodies floating around them. Thalora took the hint. She pulled her hand away from the flower, and Talus tucked it away inside his shirt.