Cali stewed silently at the foot of a three-story building.
She had started following Ren because of his incredible ability to attract untold amounts of anguish and trouble. Wherever Ren went, chaos inevitably followed, and chaos brought danger – the drug that she had been addicted to for so long. The thing that made her heart race and cheeks flush. The only thing that up until now was capable of making her feel anything at all. Now they were sitting around and wasting their days in a safe, boring city.
If this were the same Cali as six months ago, she would have ditched him immediately to find something entertaining. But that had changed. Benadora had already planted the seed of an idea in her mind back when they were on Versia. Cali knew that Ren was entrancing her for an entirely different reason. She couldn't quantify that reason or even explain it, but it was there. Emotional honesty did not come as a challenge to Cali. She was straightforward like that. She kept her secrets, but she understood herself well enough to know that something had changed; even if she couldn't explain what it was or when it started.
Was it love? Cali didn't know what love felt like for comparison. She held some fondness for her family, those of whom were left. But that wasn't the same kind of love. It was a love without lust. A love that did not elicit feelings of jealousy. She felt jealous when Tahar declared herself to be Ren's wife. Was that all she needed?
Ren had made it extremely clear that he wasn't going to make a move on her until she demonstrated emotional maturity. It was a perfectly patronising thing for him to demand. Cali didn't understand the reasoning behind it, or why he placed himself as the best person to judge whether that so-called 'maturity' had been reached. A combination of keeping her away and trying to protect her perhaps? Cali didn't need protection. People who protected her were annoying. She could handle herself.
She held nothing against Tahar. Tahar was nice. Tahar knew how to fight. She didn't shy away from excitement like so many others. Regardless, losing to Tahar was not in her interest. Cali needed to be faster, more emotive. She needed to express herself more openly and convince Ren to take her seriously. It was easy to make that an objective, but doing it was another question. How could one change their entire way of being at will like that? If only things could be that easy.
Ren had left to perform errands. For all of his posturing that he needed a break, he was starting to get restless as well. He was a man incapable of believing that 'good times' could ever be on the horizon. If something terrible wasn't happening, it soon would be. It was a sadly pessimistic, if realistic, way to live.
Cali was always ready to go. She found herself with nothing to occupy her time with. She had humoured Tahar and Ren and demonstrated her skills with the piano, but it was not something she derived personal enjoyment from. It wasn't exciting enough. It didn't hold a candle to facing down the huge body of a rampaging dragon. That was a high that would be hard to replicate – it was almost too good. Cali wondered if she had taken things a step too far.
A pair of mud addled feet stopped at the edge of her vision. The overhanging edge of her hat prevented her from seeing their face at first. She didn't move – initially believing that it was someone who had no need of her. The standoff continued for a minute straight before she finally conceded and tilted her head upwards to meet their gaze.
It was a man. He smiled, "Good day."
"Hello. Can I help you with something? If you are trying to sleep with me, I'm afraid you'll be left disappointed."
It wouldn't have been the first time an enterprising bastard had asked for something so crude, and for what benefit?
The stranger waved his arms disarmingly; "No, no. Nothing of the sort!" But as the folds of his cheap jacket moved, Cali caught a glimpse of a weapon tucked into his belt. Her suspicions were immediately raised. Cali was not one for subtly. She pointed down to his beltline with a slight sneer on her features.
"Are you trying to kill me?"
"Why would you say that?"
"Because strangers don't often come up and ask for my assistance. Many are afraid of my appearance. The fact that of all people you approached me, suggests that you have a more specific reason for doing so. Violence is the first remit of most - and the most pressing issue for me to worry about."
Sequester, in all of his years of working in the field, had never seen such unbound paranoia as this. She had seen straight through him without sparing a second glance, was this really how the people in the city lived and treated each other?
Cali pushed away from the wall, "If you try to kill me here – someone will intervene."
"I'm not trying to…"
Sequester could not protest his innocence. Cali simply turned and started walking away. It took him a moment to realise that she was disappointed by the idea of being saved by a third party. Some of the rumours he had heard about her, and what Joseph had told him about her in the tavern, they were true. She was not sound of mind.
He followed. Cali took him on a long journey through winding alleyways and long streets until they suddenly emerged out into an empty dirt field. The intersection between agriculture and urban industry left many of these empty plots between the walls and the outside. There wasn't a soul to be seen. A single rotting structure had been haphazardly left next to one of the dirt roads.
"Out with it then," Cali demanded, "What faint justification will you provide me?"
Sequester pulled his coat closer over his shoulders, "You're an associate of Ren Kageyama. He is a great evil that pervades the Federation and the Kingdom. Surely you have seen that with your own two eyes."
"I do not worry myself with definitions of good and evil," Cali intoned, "They are merely labels. Words that connect together into a convincing story."
"Do you think that Kageyama is evil?"
Cali leaned on the shaft of her halberd, "No. I do not."
"Even if he steals and kills?"
"You have a very simplistic view of people," Cali responded. She knew she could not claim the high ground on a nuanced subject like this. But her opposing side did not know of her true nature, and so she elected to play the role of a woman who cared.
"How so?"
"He may steal – but is that earnestly the worst thing he could do? I have never once seen him kill another without reason. He has a firm grasp of his senses. He exists under the same rules that all of us do, and is driven to do the self-same things. In a world where money is everything, all of our decisions become coloured by it."
"What's your point?"
Cali pressed him; "If Ren were a richer man, I believe he would be a 'good' one. He does not enjoy that luxury of choice."
Sequester closed his eyes and exhaled. He had not expected such a robust and meaningful response; part of him had anticipated a frothing vindication of the man and his faults. Perhaps the tales he had heard of Stigma's corrupting power were just that – tales, meant to scare boys and girls and keep them on the right path. But still, he had his orders. Her own rationality was not evidence of innocence. She had aided and abetted the man they hunted. John was firm in his insistence that La'Corvan be struck down with him.
"Has he not clouded your senses and morals?"
"If you are hoping for an easy and clean excuse to wash your hands of my blood – I'm afraid you will be left wanting once again. I followed Ren before he even started to comprehend the full power of the sword. It was my decision to make. I fail to see why it is relevant. As an Inquisitor, you will have murdered innumerable innocent people."
"I have not!" Sequester roared, "Everything I do is for the sake of protecting them!"
"You are blinded by righteousness, yet enslaved by those who hold authority over you. You unflinchingly march forth and slaughter on demand without thinking. Good and evil mean nothing to me, or to you. Spare me your scant excuses and get on with it."
Sequester had heard enough. She had delivered her final ultimatum like a handful of ice, not ever once letting an ounce of emotion leak from her lips. He reached down into his cloak and drew his sword. It was not the type of weapon he wanted to face off against a Halberd, but it was the best of a bad lot. All of the other leftovers were much worse.
Cali took her time getting into position. Sequester's eyes were glued onto her trigger finger. At any moment, she could fire a powerful ranged attack at him. He did not have the armour to survive even a basic magical blow. She had the initiative. She had the longest range and the deadliest weapon. He needed to find a window of attack that she could not anticipate.
Sequester's efforts were being frustrated by an unusual bout of patience from Cali. She remained motionless - pointing the sharp end of the Halberd in his direction without moving a muscle. She was waiting for him to make the first move. The silence was ended by the loud snapping of a bow-string. Out of the window of the old house, a bolt flew through the air and embedded itself into the back of Cali's leg.
Crying out in pain, she fell down into the dirt. But Maritan believed that she was safe within the confines of those rotting timbers. Her theory was put to the test in sudden and violent fashion. Without thinking, Cali rolled over onto her stomach and pulled the trigger. The speed of her reaction to the unseen ambush shocked both Inquisitors.
"[Ignite!]"
Maritan could not escape from the building in time. The speed of the flaming ball was too much, it ripped through the front façade like a knife through butter and ignited outwards into a devastating explosion. The extremely flammable interior busted in every direction, throwing flaming timber and straw in a large radius. Maritan was thrown to the ground as the percussive force of the magic swept her off of her feet and hauled her through out of the glassless windows.
She rolled in the mud, trying to extinguish her singed clothes. She could already feel a painful stinging on her left cheek where some of the fire had nicked her. The bow she had used to fire the opportunistic shot was left inside. Sequester swore under his breath. He hadn't expected her to utilise her one shot on attacking Maritan like that! Her now still body filled him with fear.
Cali was unperturbed. She reached down with her free hand and tore the head of the arrow from her leg without a second thought. The damage was done. The arrow had torn tendon and flesh, rendering her left foot unusable. The time it would take to reload her Catalyst and cast a basic healing spell would be enough for them to finish her off.
"An amusing trick," she murmured. The wooden pole that she clung to provided unsteady support as she balanced on one leg.
"You don't fight a war by handicapping yourself!"
"I thought that you Inquisitors were meant to be noble." Cali was not disappointed by the revelation. A drunk Ren had extolled warnings about them on many occasions before. Sequester answered her jest with anger. He charged with his sword held aloft and brought it down in a vertical slice. Cali hopped back and folded her Halberd into a defensive position. She pressed the tip of her disabled foot against the ground like a dancer and waited.
He tried again, but repeating the same assault was not going to work. Cali braced herself and dodged again. As Sequester tried to regain his foot, she pressed forward with the shaft and struck him in the chest. The breath was robbed from his lungs as he was sent sprawling out onto his back. There was an unseen strength in that lithe Ashmorn body. They were back to where they started – paces apart and staring each other down.
Sequester couldn't believe what he was seeing. Cali's face was as neutral as it was the first moment they met. The pain running through her body was nothing more than a nuisance. Her ice-cold stare depicting someone who was composed even under the worst pressures he could imagine.
"Again," she said.
Again, and again.