A Chance Meeting

A Chance Meeting

---

Alanna sipped on her wine at the bar, pretending to read a scroll while instead reading the minds of the occupants in the noisy tavern.

"I'd sure like to get under those..."

She had to stop herself; it was the sixteenth lusty comment thought of her in the past three minutes and she wasn't in the mood. The inhabitants of this far-flung outpost of humanity were simply too unwashed or uneducated to deserve her time.

She instead turned her attention back to the wine; a decent vintage, surprising being this far from the Empire's fertile inner regions. She'd have to remember to pick up a bottle in the morning before she ventures out, lest she be without a decent drink for the several months the journey would take.

Looking back to the scroll set before her, she let out a soft sigh and took another sip from her glass. The scroll was a decent map of the badlands she was to venture through, and what it showed was vast. Several hundred miles of dry, desolate wastes, surrounding a large marshland in the center. Jagged mountain ranges guarded the east and southern borders of the wastes, and small 'x's dotted the map interspersed, mostly around the north and western edges.

"... like that, I bet she wants to be taken."

Seventeen.

Calling this map decent was of course only to be taken relatively. The fact was that the wastes were largely unexplored, and saying that these markings were where all of the savages of the land lived proved that no one had truly explored much outside of the border.

The door opened, nearly imperceptibly. Alanna felt the new presence in the room, without seeing him, scanning the room.

"

... three men in the corner but only one with a sword, twelve at the bar, ten unarmed, a giant of a man near the stairs, a mage, two men throwing knives at the eastern wall, and the most shapely wench this side of the..."

Did he really just skip over her like another borderland peasant? She looked down at her dress; no, her thigh is still uncovered from an entrance vantage point, breasts nearly popping out from her corset. It's not like he's into menfolk, seeing as he's dressing down that server. Maybe he's smart enough to stay away from a sorceress?

She turned her face gently towards the new occupant of the room as he ordered stew and ale and flipped a silver imperial towards the serving maid. His footsteps were hard to follow, but he must have been making his way to a table behind her.

"

... the gods for a hot meal. I wasn't expecting anything larger than a village after that trek through the mountains."

He wasn't thinking about her at all. Confused, she continued to read him.

"

... ask the people here if they know anything more of the lands to the south. They won't know where to find that wyvern, of-"

The thought stopped abruptly. Worried, Alanna tried reading another member of the bar, "

... only lost 8 cops that time at least..."

Well, that still works. Which means that our new friend here had actively cut her off. Alanna stretched her arms up, pretended to yawn and tilted her head to get a look at the man.

He stared back at her with green eyes, his feet propped up on the table around his mug while his arms were crossed at his chest. She quickly turned her face away, her arms falling back to her sides much more quickly than she hoped. Alanna picked up her wine glass and sipped once more, her eyes darting back to the scroll in front of her as she attempted to read his thoughts again.

"

I don't bite."

-

Talos of course knew that the mage at the bar, pretending to look over her papers, was an empath. He had too much experience to not recognize the sensation when you're being read, how it made the hairs stand up on the back of his neck.

So, he disengaged her from his mind. It came naturally to him now, dealing with these types in the past. He wondered briefly why this one was so far east. She's certainly not the town healer, not dressed like that.

The wench returned with his ale and stew and placed it on the table in front of him, returning his smirk as she scampered away to serve the insatiable tavern. He watched her float away, swaying her hips in that timeless way which brings in bigger tips from inebriated men.

Talos took two large gulps of the lukewarm ale and set it back down, lifting his legs to rest his tired feet on the table. He noticed the mage now conspicuously lifting her arms to get a better look at him. He anticipated that she'd either be angry or worried that he was able to cut her off from his mind so simply, and was amused by the mage's lack of covertness.

He glared at her with a smirk on his face as she glanced over at him, and she quickly folded when she saw him returning the look. Obviously not the most experienced mage, Talos thought, but she did look rather cute when she blushed. He felt her trying to probe him once more, and decided to reach out. "

I don't bite."

Talos thought, amused at himself with the brevity.

-

Alanna felt her face getting very warm after sensing the man's thought. She nearly buried her face in her wine glass as she brought it to her lips and drank the remnants of the liquid. "

Come to me, be a gentleman,"

she repeated as she attempted to enchant the stranger.

She waited a moment, lifting up her glass again before realizing it was empty. No footsteps. Nothing. She stuck up a finger while looking at the bartender, grabbing his attention and pointing towards her empty glass, pushing a copper towards the edge of the bar. Another moment wouldn't hurt.

Sighing once more, Alanna realized the stranger refused to be enchanted as well. With her drink refilled, she set off. She grabbed her scrolls and glass, pushed her legs together and gracefully pushed off from the chair. Many eyes were on her as she subconsciously looked over to the man at the back of the bar and slowly strutted over to him.

"... to get that piece of ass..."

Eighteen-no, focus!

Alanna knew she was beautiful, of course. Why else would she own such a seductive outfit? The way her radiant auburn hair flowed around her copper and ruby circlet, her corset pushing her perfect E-cup breasts up and together, the way her skirt showed just enough of both her alabaster legs to garner maximum attention. And the way it all flowed as she walked; sorceresses had to look somewhat ethereal, after all. All done by the best transmuter in Catriona.

But the man was interesting, of course. She was sure that's why she was walking over to him. None of these filthy borderlanders would be able to disable her reading capabilities, or reject her enchantments. He also seemed to be traveling in the same direction she was.

He was watching her each step of the way across the tavern, and gods did the tavern seem large now. She still couldn't read his thoughts as she neared, and she wasn't incredibly well-versed in reading facial expressions.

"Greetings, enchantress." the man said.

"Hello, um, sir," she squeaked like she was back in school. He drew his feet back under the table and kicked the chair opposite him out from under it. "I take it this seat isn't taken?"

The man picked up his glass of ale, took one large gulp and set it down, savoring the moment. "It is now," the man grinned.

She absentmindedly placed her things on his table, gathered her skirt and sat down with her legs together. She couldn't see his entire body, but what she did see pleased her; toned arms, a thick neck, a handsome, scruffy face and piercing green eyes. His hand was back on his mug, his pork stew being left unattended for now.

"You're an unexpected sight this far east," the man declared, his eyes finally falling from hers to look over her scrolls. "I always figured most mages couldn't handle the destitution of the frontier."

He slowly lifted his hand from his mug and presented it to her, "Name's Talos," he declared. She accepted his handshake unquestioningly.

"Alanna; sorry about the whole..."

"mind-rape thing? I accept your apology," he chuckled, "I'm just glad I still have it in me. Enchantresses are rare to come by on the road, and I always figured stopping them in their proverbial tracks would be worth it just to scare them or piss them off."

She shook her head and giggled lightly with him, "Just surprising is all." She smiled while looking at his eyes and drank her wine. "I don't know any men talented in abjuration."

"Abjuration?" Talos asked with a raised eyebrow. "You still don't. I picked those tricks up naturally."

"

Is that even possible?"

, Alanna thought to herself. She noticed Talos' eyes wandering over her map, and pushed the scroll towards him with her free hand.

"I, um...

overheard

that you were traveling south. This might just be the most detailed map of the badlands in the world. Or at least I, uh, paid enough where it might as well be."

Talos looked it over, finally dipping into the bowl of stew to his left. In between bites he asked, "And the 'x's?"

"Orcs, the man mentioned. All known orc settlements."

Talos laughed, bringing up his hand holding the scroll to cover his mouth, "You mean they didn't tell ya that these Orcs are nomadic? And that there has to be at least a good thousand more tribes than there are 'x's?"

They didn't tell her that, Alanna thought. Come to think of it, she hardly knew anything about these creatures, besides their propensity for murder and rape.

"This won't do any good with the Orcs, but the rest looks fine. How much?"

Alanna blinked. "It's not for sale", she answered, grabbing the scroll back from him.

Talos laughed, released the scroll and looked back into her eyes as he continued to eat. "Had to ask," he said, "it'll be much more useful to you than it would be to me any ways."

Mid-sip, Alanna wondered to herself how he could possibly know that. If he was reading her mind, she was fucked; she couldn't detect his telepathic signature, which means he could be making her dance on top of this table naked at any time and she'd be helpless to stop him.

She decided to ask non-chalantly, "How do you figure?" not knowing she was looking more nervous by the second.

Talos took a final gulp of his ale, draining it, and set the mug down. He looked her up and down once more and stated, "Because. You're an enchantress, and anything past the Dracorange Mountains would be wholly uninteresting to you except for the ruins deep within the swamp here," he points on the map, "where the ancient school of Mschuleft was located. And since you've quite obviously enhanced your body to perfection, you're clearly from the college in Catriona, meaning you have little to no survival training unless you learned on your own."

"

What the hell?"

Alanna thought. "But,"

"But, I already know you have no survival skills because you're drinking several glasses of fine wine prior to setting off into an arid landscape for weeks on end, which is both mentally and physically draining for such an adventure."

"It's not that ba-" Alanna tried to interject stubbornly.

"Furthermore, you're wearing expensive boots, which means that you're either planning to sell them off, but why not do that back in the Empire where it'd fetch a higher price? Or, you actually plan on trekking through the wastes in those since you're far too young to be both an enchantress and master conjurer. Sure, you like the attention, most enchantresses do; and perhaps the plan was to originally charm your way through whichever Orc bands you encountered and find help along the way."

Alanna nodded subconsciously, not interrupting him this time. He wasn't wrong.

Talos gently put his fist on the table. "It's not a good plan. Eventually your powers will fail, and with the Orcs is not where you want that to happen. You bring what you need to survive, and if you find supplies along the way then all the better."

Alanna closed her mouth, just now realizing it was still agape from the last time she tried to speak. She looked down, her eyes welling up with tears.

"The girls at Catriona aren't here to ridicule you for picking enchanting as your core study; you don't have to prove anything to them, or to your parents, or whoever made you think you had to prove yourself by going out there. But here you are, at the edge of humanity, with nothing but failure glaring at you if you turn back."

She couldn't help but start weeping. He was right. She was going to return to the college of Catriona a hero, uncovering the lost tomes of Mschuleft to prove to the others that she was a strong sorceress. But this man, Talos, suddenly and surprisingly made her realize that she was completely out of her element.

He noticed her weeping and his voice shrank to a whisper, "There's no shame in turning back here. The old only get old if they're lucky, boring, or a coward. And you're much too pretty to be boring."

She looked up at him with red eyes, wiping them once with her finger. She responded wobbly, "I have travel clothes, thank you very much, and I know what I need to survive out there. I've planned this trip for weeks on the road out here and..." She glared deeply into his eyes as he started to stand up. "And I'm not a coward.", she added.

"Fine. My conscious is clear knowing that I at least tried to warn ya." Talos paused a moment, then put his backpack on and wrapped his sword belt back around his waist. He started to walk away then sighed lightly, as if forgetting something.

"A cloak, shirt, travel pants and proper shoes. Jerky, nuts, or hardbread for food, and as much water as you can carry," he said slowly and deliberately, glancing over his shoulder at her. "I leave from the main gate at mid-day tomorrow."

Alanna glared at him as he walked away, then put her head on the table and cried silently. With him gone, she couldn't control the thoughts of the tavern seeping into her head.

"

Fucking witch slut." "Whore..."