Wandering Warrior: Judge - Chapter 3 (Patreon)

Chapter 3

The walk through the muddy streets was far worse than when I had stepped inside the general store.  My almost empty pack was now overstuffed, and I sank deep into the muck with every step.  I used my staff to keep me upright, eventually stumbling through the thick wooden doors of the inn just as full dark was setting in.

“And who might you be?”  The common room was almost empty, not counting the innkeeper and his two serving girls that were cleaning up.  I only saw a group of three figures hunched over their drinks in the far corner, their features hidden in shadow.  The sense of danger I got from them distracted me from answering the innkeeper right away, and his hand dropped behind the bar before he repeated himself.  “Stranger, I don’t appreciate being ignored, especially by someone who comes in right before we lock the doors for the night.  It makes a man wonder about your status, if you catch my meaning.  Now, let me ask you one more time.  Who are you, and what do you want?”

“My apologies, innkeep.  I was distracted for a moment.”  My eyes drifted over to the far corner again, my instincts screaming danger at me.  “I’m just a traveler, looking for a meal and a place to rest through the night.  And a bath, if you have one.”

“Mattie, get the man a plate of whatever’s left in the kitchen, and grab the room key for number six.”  One of the women nodded quickly and dashed off to do as ordered.  The second serving girl continued cleaning, doing her best to stay away from the three in the corner.  The innkeeper looked back at me, his bald head shining in the lamplight.  It was warm in the room, and the thin man was sweating profusely.  “It will be six brass for the night, two for the meal, and two more if you want a bath prepared.”

“A whole copper for just one night?”  I shook my head.  This whole village was run by crooks.  After briefly remembering who had been in charge, I suppose I wasn’t all that surprised.  “I’ll leave off the bath, and if there are bugs in my bed, I’ll only pay half.”

“We don’t have bugs here, but you pay up front.  Otherwise, you can leave.”  The innkeeper shrugged, and turned back to wiping down his bar.  “Don’t matter to me either way.”

“Fine then.”  It was hard not to grit my teeth, but I walked over and put down another thick copper coin on the bar top.  “I’ll have the bath, and there better be an ale included in the price of that meal.”

The innkeeper swapped the coin for a mug of foaming ale, once again shrugging.  “That’s fair enough, I guess.”  He snapped his fingers at the other serving girl, and pointed at a doorway on the opposite wall.  “Jess, get the boiler going, and prepare a bath.  Worry about the tables later.”

She left, making sure to walk next to the wall opposite the people in the corner.  At least I knew it wasn’t just me that didn’t like them.  The first serving girl came back from the kitchen and set a large platter in front of me.  It was mostly steamed vegetables, with a few chunks of what smelled like mutton mixed in.  A loaf of crusty bread - obviously speckled with weevils - was set on top.  Not exactly the best value for my money, but good enough that I couldn’t complain.

A brass key with a symbol carved in the side was next to my fork.  I guessed it was their written form of the number six.  I had long ago given up trying to figure out how to read and write all the various kinds of languages I had come across.  Whatever magic moved me from world to world only included the ability to speak whatever was most common for the region I ended up in.  Learning a new one every year was pointless.  If I really needed to know, the ‘Identify’ skill would tell me what something said.  It was amazing how far context clues could get you in life.

“Bath’s ready.”  The soft voice at my elbow made me jump.  I turned to look at the serving girl, truly noticing her for the first time.  She was mostly unassuming, except for her eyes.  They had slits like a cat, and I had to stop myself from lashing out at the sign of a lycanthrope.  If she was working here and openly unafraid of showing her eyes, it meant she was safe to be around.  Either an evolved form that could hold off her shift, or the child of a woman bitten while pregnant, and couldn’t shift at all.  “It’s this way.”

“Thank you.”  I hurriedly finished my plate of food, and downed what was left in my mug before following her.  She had similar features to most people in the region, slender with dark hair, but her eyes made the more subtle differences stand out.  She moved almost silently, and her motions were almost unnaturally fluid.  The tips of her ears had a tiny point to them, and were slightly oversized for her frame.  It wasn’t quite as pronounced as the elves had been on the eighth world I was sent to, but still noticeable.  My guess was some kind of cat shifter.

“My mother was bitten while she carried me.”  She turned to look at me as she held the door open.  “I could feel you staring at me.”  I opened my mouth to apologize, but she shook her head and looked down at her feet.  “It’s okay.  Everyone does it.  I’m used to it by now.”

“Can you shift?”  My question seemed to surprise her.  Apparently, most people didn’t continue talking after finding out she carried the taint.

“I-I can’t.”  She shook her head, and looked back down at her feet.  “Even on the full moon, the most that happens is my fingernails growing really long.”

“That’s probably a good thing.  I imagine some of the hunters out there wouldn’t stop to ask questions if you could manage more than that.”  I moved past her into the room, placing my hand on the doorknob.  “Thanks for preparing a bath for me.”

“It’s my job.”  She shrugged, and pointed at the knobs hanging over the wooden tub in the center of the room.  “The white handle is for hot water, and the black one is for cold.  To drain it, just pull on the middle one.  Soap is on the rim of the tub, and towels are in the cabinet.”  Before I could say anything else, she turned and left.

“Not one for conversation, I suppose.”  I dropped my pack, and jumped into the steaming water with all my clothes on.  It had been a month since I had used a bar of soap, and what I was wearing needed a good scrubbing too.

After draining and refilling the tub three times, I finally felt clean enough to get out.  Then I had to scrub and wash the three pairs of even dirtier clothes in my pack, which then caused me to need another bath.  While it was draining for one last rinse, I was doing my best to wring out my sopping clothes, the whole time debating in my mind what I would be willing to give up for a functioning washer and dryer.  Before settling on what was an acceptable loss, my thoughts were interrupted by a scream.  I froze, trying to gauge if it was a ‘I’m about to die’ scream, or a ‘oh, I saw a spider’ scream.  There is a difference.  A second scream confirmed it was the ‘I’m about to die’ version, and I took off running for the door.

On the way out, I only had time to grab my mace leaning against the door.  It was the weapon I had the most experience with, and I had brought it with me for the past eleven worlds.  It was a custom piece I had made myself, modeled after a flanged mace I had seen in a museum once.  The whole thing was one solid piece of blessed star metal, with six thick ridges of metal for the head and a spike poking out the top.  When I had first made it, the blades had been sharp enough to cut silk with only a touch.  That changed immediately after I walked with it for the first time, and the heavy end banged against my calf as it hung from my belt.  Really, who needs sharp blades on a mace?  It didn’t make much of a difference, especially when I was using all fifty of my strength stat to pulp whatever I was hitting.

As I rushed into the room, naked as a jay-bird, I entered just in time to see a vampire rip the throat out of the serving girl named Mattie, who had brought me my food.  The innkeeper was backed up against the closed door to the kitchen, holding back two vampires with what looked like a silver letter opener.  The other girl, Jess, was peeking over the edge of the bar, her eyes flashing in the lamplight.

“Get back!”  The innkeeper swiped at the outstretched hand reaching for him, leaving a burning gash on the palm of the vampire.  “Damn you, Tren!  How dare you turn, and then come into my place after.  Get back!”

“No need to get upset, Frons.  It isn’t like I want to drain you.  I just want to bite you!”  The undead creature snapped his fanged jaws at the innkeeper before leaping clear of the silver swung his direction.  “Trust me, you’ll love the change.  You won’t believe the rush!”

“Liar!  Back, you unclean thing!”  He tried swiping at the vampire a second time, but the other one darted forward and smacked the letter opener out of his hand.  “No!  Trinity save me!”

“Look, I didn’t like the movie Twilight very much, but I was a big fan of the Blade franchise.  So, if I were you, I would turn around and walk out like a bunch of good undead, and wait for me to come and kill you in your lair.”  Giving away the element of surprise was a dumb move, but even I couldn’t make it across a room filled with tables and chairs in time to save the surly innkeeper from two apex predators.  Well, three apex predators, but the other one was busy drinking someone.  Everyone in the room turned to look at me when I spoke, and I couldn’t help but smile at the widened eyes peeking up from the bar area.  Naked victory poses really put me in the best possible light.  Hopefully.

The vampire formerly known as Tren looked back at the innkeeper and pointed a thumb at me.  “Who’s the crazy naked guy?”

The innkeeper shook his head.  “No idea.  Just stopped by for a night.  Charged him double, though.  Didn’t like the look of him.”

Tren nodded at the innkeeper’s reply.  “That’s plain-old good sense.  You gotta make crazy people like him pay to be around normal folks.”

The vampire drinking from the serving girl formerly known as Mattie poked his head up from behind the table he was crouched behind.  “I can see why.  He looks shifty.”

I shook my head in disbelief.  “You’re kidding me, right?  You’re vampires.  You murder people and drink their blood.”  I pointed my mace at the innkeeper.  “And the two of us are going to have a discussion about fair business practices.”

“Enough stupidity.  Let’s just kill the crazy guy and turn your friend.  It’s a long way back to the Mausoleum, and the Destitute will be angry if we’re late.”  The vampire who had knocked the letter opener out of Frons’ hand finally spoke up, his dry and raspy voice marking him as an elder vampire.  That made him the biggest threat.  The older the vamp, the more powerful they became.  I had no idea who or what a ‘Destitute’ was, but I definitely recognized it as a title.

“I have some questions you are going to answer before I kill you.”  I thought about the threat for a moment.  “Kill you again, I guess.”

The vampire drinking Mattie dropped her and threw a table at me, so I took a step back in the doorway and let the wall catch the heavy hunk of wood.  The plaster walls barely held up to the impact, catching the table and momentarily blocking the rush of undead as all three charged me.  It was ripped out of the way by Tren, who I introduced to the head of my mace in as violent a manner as I could manage.  He spun away from the doorway missing most of his face, throwing black blood over the sawdust-covered floor.  The vampire flopped bonelessly to the ground and didn’t get back up.  Which, apparently, was a big surprise to the other two.

“Back!  His weapon can hurt us!”  The elder vampire hissed at me after shouting to his friend, and backed away as I walked through the door.  “Who in the demonflame are you?”

“You mean besides being incredibly awesome?”  I flipped the imaginary switch in my head that changed me from James, into the man given an endless quest by faceless and uncaring gods.  I swung the head of my mace into the back of Tren’s neck, pulping the spine and finishing off the undead creature.  I made a fist, lifting my middle finger and thumb in a snapping motion that activated another spell that seemed to work no matter where I was.  The blessed star metal of my mace glowed a vibrant blue before I even said the command word.  “I’m what this world has been missing.  My titles are many, but most know me as the Chief Justice, appointed by the gods of many worlds to judge those who commit any gross wrongdoing, and mete out the proper punishments they have earned.”  I lifted my glowing mace, and pointed it at the two undead cowering before me.  “Your judgment, for the crime of murder, is Purification.”

One of only four active spells given to the Paladin Class I had earned on my sixth world activated, and light blazed from my weapon like the noonday sun.  With nothing more than a flick of my wrist, the light left it like a lightning bolt, destroying the vampire that still had blood from Mattie dripping down its chin.  There was only a scorched mark on the floor of the inn to mark its death.  The purification spell also scalded the elder vampire, crisping its exposed skin as it forced out a rasping scream of pain.  Not the ‘I just saw a spider’ kind of scream, either.

I knelt down next to the monster, gently placing the spike on the head of my mace on its temple.  “Now, like I mentioned earlier, you and I are going to have a little talk.”