Monday, September 21, 2020

Prompt 13: Repairs

In spite of all their subterfuge, it should never be said that the rogues of Limsa Lominsa were nothing if not upstanding members of society. They were, after all, the keepers of the city's obscure set of rules. Quiet, respectable, and if anything just a bit rough around the edges. A truly well oiled machine of pure cohesion.

"You ain't allowed to have two of those damned cards in yer deck ya little gobshite."

Perne Iseterre pressed her hand of cards against the table with her left hand, and pointed angrily at the current state of the Triple Triad board with her right. She wasn't wrong. An honest game of cards meant that only one such powerful card could reside in anyone deck. But even on its best days, Limsa Lominsa only passingly resembled anything honest.

"Got no idea what you mean," the lalafel on the other side of the table said, his teeth flashing, the few golden inserts shining brighter than the others.

She narrowed her eyes at him, prepared to start one of the many arguments that were currently proceeding inside the Rogue's Guild, before a slamming door cut her off. Every head at every table turned to watch the trio that had so suddenly arrived awkwardly stumble through the tables and chairs. Two hyur and a roegadyn slamming through everything in the most awkward way possible.

The hyur were carrying the roegadyn, one struggling to hold up the giant man's shoulders, the other grimacing as she hauled him forward by his legs. Perne had seen them all running about in here before, albeit the roegadyn had been conscious then. Her eyes rolled when she saw the gash in the roegadyn's tunic, and the fact that they were winding their way towards her.

The lalafel across the table from her had long stopped caring, and was instead using the time to reach across the table to try to get a peek at her cards. She slapped his hand away,  which he reacted to innocently enough.

It was with a thud that the roegadyn was dropped in front of her. She looked between the two hyurs, fraternal twins, and then down at the unconscious brute of a man.

"The hell ya want me to do with this?"

The pair exchanged a glance, quickly looking from each other, then to her, and then down to the man.

"Well," they said in unison, before looking at each other again.

"You go," said the boy, waving his hands at the girl before she could argue.

"We reckoned you could fix him," the girl said, rolling her eyes at her brother.

Perne snorted, "Shoulda taken 'im to the damned Arcanist Guild then. Probably woulda been closer to the town gate anyway."

"But you were in the Arcanist Guild," the boy said, suddenly regretting that he'd put himself on the spot.

"Key word in that sentence bein' 'were'," Perne said, looking even more annoyed now.

Not wanting to drag the matter out any further, she produced her satchel, and slowly went through it until her hand fell upon a dusty arcanist's tome. She slapped it on the table, dust filling the air above it, and began flipping through the pages. It was an older volume, and the arcanists had surely made a few improvements since the publication of this book, but it would have to do.

Focusing on the roegadyn, she settled on one page, and summoned the rune from it as she had been trained to do. It was a shoddy job, done by someone who didn't want to be doing it and didn't seem particularly good at it even if she had wanted to. But a shoddy job was better than no job in this case. The gash in his chest seemed to start closing. His breathing steadied. He would live.

Before they could utter a word of thanks, Perne motioned them away, "I better not have to do this again."

Without another word, the pair nodded, dragging the roegadyn away, this time by his arms, to find a good wall to settle him on. Perne turned back to the table after watching them go, once again having to slap at the hand of the lalafel and fend him off from her cards.

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