A door slammed.

  It startled Wei out of his stupor, and he grabbed a mop and bucket that were lying just inside the entrance to the kitchen as Paulie gave him an approving look.

  With his sister occupied, and The Dented Helm almost returned to a workable state, it didn’t take too long for Wei to find himself finished, and as he returned the cleaning equipment to where he’d found it, the [Innkeeper] gave him a large platter of refreshments to take out for the Vanguard and others to snack on.

  Olives, roasted onions, cheeses, nuts, bread, pickled eggs. Frozen mushrooms in a chilled bowl. Some fruit slices that seemed to wriggle. A platter of biscuits that looked more like rocks that the [Innkeeper] assured him Borgrim would like.

  He tried them with the others as he set it down on the table to a chorus of cheers, which came more for the announcement from Kira that she’d take the edge off the worst hangovers with [Purge Poison].

  As they settled down at a newly-repaired and refurbished table, Mira turned to him.

  “So, Wei. Did you find your way round well enough yesterday? What are your plans for today?”

  Mouth a little numb as he swallowed one of the frozen fungi, he pulled fourteen gold coins, added a silver one and three coppers, and pushed it over to her.

  “Not too shabby.” Borgrim remarked, poking through the small pile. “I’d’ve thought you’d have gotten a little more from Xian’toth though. Or did you hold onto some of the items?”

  “There is also the ore.” Wei said, nodding in the direction of the courtyard where the stable and the Vanguard’s cart lay, boxes too heavy for him to lug around stacked on the back...along with other things. “The tinker I sold it to said he’d be by to pick them up for six gold if they were forged into bars.”

  The Vanguard of Valour that were at the table looked at him with blank expressions.

  Lio was the first to speak.

  “Tinker? Did you not speak to the iratihian? He was here last night… if you couldn’t find him you only needed to ask.”

  Wei flushed, and it was Kira who figured it out first. The [Paladin] spoke in a quiet but supportive voice.

  “You chose not to. Because of the wake.”

  He shrugged, and nodded.

  “It just seemed - insensitive. I didn’t want to take advantage.”

  Borgrim snorted and rolled his eyes.

  “Coulda waited a day or two to ask. Or just be a real merchant and hit people when they’re down - that’s what the most successful would do. No’ much use in us getting you a Skill if you don’t use it lad.”

  “Shut up Bor,” Lio said, throwing him a dirty look, “you’re still drunk.” He focused on Wei. “It’s fine, but we would’ve been willing to help; Borgrim might not have the most tact, but he isn’t wrong.”

  Mira kicked the dwarf under the table as the [Ironshield Anvilguard] made as though to speak again, and the dwarf just glowered and stomped off to get a drink. The [Ranger] and [Monster Slayer] - leader of the Vanguard - took over.

  “Ignore him, and don’t worry about us. We’ve been through a lot - individually and together. Let’s focus on what you have and what you need to do for now. We’ll introduce you and your sister to Zephira - the [Healer] we mentioned if you like. We can visit the guild too and see to anything Nyssara hasn’t settled up, and speak to Xian’toth about selling your magic items. Those will be the biggest gain for you - much more than the bits and pieces you picked up on the journey here. Did you find any [Alchemists] by the way?”

  “Ah, no.” Wei’s flush didn’t fade as he told them about his trip to the Crucible Court, but Mira and Kira and Lio nodded understandingly.

  “I try to avoid the place myself,” Lio said, eye twitching from a bad memory, “but maybe we’ll have to suck it up and go.”

  “Not after last time.” Mira shuddered. “Maybe we can ask Xian’toth to be an intermediary on our behalf.”

  The group of adventurers and Wei sat back in their chairs as Borgrim returned with watered-down wine - which was all the [Innkeeper] would serve for the time being. Other tables began to finish their lunches, and a handful came up to Kira to beg her to purge their hangovers. Almost all of them dropped the glitter of coins on the table in thanks despite the [Paladin] insisting it wasn’t necessary.

  Others came over just to chat though. Only a couple at the start, and then a wave as The Dented Helm opened for business properly, and the Vanguard introduced Wei to each of them in turn, mentioning the young student’s Skills as a [Wagon Driver] and budding [Trader].

  First was a person who struggled to see over the table, and Wei was introduced to Lillina - the first halfling he’d met. She could have been a child, had it not been for the slightly-off proportions and eyes that had seen a whole host of dangers. He wasn’t sure what a [Heathland Champion] was, but the confidence and competence she exuded was backed up by the newly-acquired gold guild token she showed the group.

  The next to approach were an adventuring team: a trio of people all armed with bows who Lio informed him in a muted tone had been close to the Slayers of Abroath. They listened to Mira in stoney silence as she recounted the Vanguard’s mission to look for the Slayers, and the elemental creatures they’d found, and the remains they’d had to leave behind.

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  By the end of the tale their faces were unreadable masks, but Wei heard the crack in the voice of their leader, a woman called Faldana, as she thanked him for finding proof of their fate, and for bringing their tokens back to the guild.

  “I begged them to wait until we’d finished our last job.” Faldana said, her voice little more than a whisper as she looked towards the door, as if expecting to see him walk through it. “But Helgrim never listened. Too eager to rush into danger. Risk and reward. That’s the game we all play. Elementals though…a bad way to die.”

  Wei paled and reached for a calming tonic that wasn’t there as the shadows in the room seemed to lengthen, and the scrape of a chair along the floor sounded like the scream of a schoolboy being torn to ribbons. He shook for a moment, then Kira reached over and laid an unnaturally-warm hand on his arm until the tremors faded, though when they spoke, they were in his voice still.

  “We found a few of their belongings, if you wanted to…”

  Faldana waved off his implied offer and left with the two other archers in tow, and Lio kicked Borgrim again as the dwarf sighed in relief.

  “What! It’s like the lad wants to give it away…”

  It was all business today it seemed, as others approached and began to discuss missions and quests they’d seen, or asked of the state of the countryside the Vanguard had passed through over the past couple of days. There were easily a score of people chatting and reminiscing in the space around the group at any one time. Some were acquaintances from around the city that hadn’t been able to make it to the wake. More were adventurers trading information or asking after any new loot the Vanguard had come across - to which Borgrim and Lio dropped hints that there might be a couple of items coming through Xian’toth.

  And then there was Emborlo - a black-furred minotaur dressed in only a kilt who had the physique of a bodybuilder and brought a rising heat to Wei’s neck and face. He was a [Battle Shaman] who simply indicated he was on the lookout for potions too, if Wei or the Vanguard found a good supplier.

  When Naila reappeared from her nap an hour later, Wei was both relieved and disappointed.

  The press and variety of people had been fascinating for a while, but when Xiaoling had come out from the kitchens and sat down in a chair that Kira had pulled over for her, the reality of his situation had hit him again.

  His sister was still mute, and almost entirely unresponsive. The only difference after her stint washing in the kitchen, as he and a returned Nyssara had fed her and given her water to sip, was that her hands were now wet.

  But any sort of progress is positive. Isn't it?

  Leaving Mira, Lio and Borgrim to talk to the adventurers in the inn, Kira made her excuses and escorted Naila, Wei and his sister to the [Healer] they’d spoken about.

  As they passed through The Dented Helm’s courtyard his eyes drifted over to the dark opening opposite, where the outline of the cart could just about be made out, the snuffling of the ironback boars audible even over the noise of the inn’s patrons.

  Wei forced his eyes away before he could dwell too long on the body that still rested within, nestled in a crude wooden coffin between boxes of ore.

  He was silent, on the walk to the [Healer]’s house. Neither of the Vanguard of Valour that took them were the chatty type. Not like Lio and Borgrim. Naila might have been, had she not been swathed in bandages, but the [Patchweaver] walked as though the burns beneath were still painful after weeks of recovery. The [Paladin] on the other hand, just didn’t seem the talkative sort, though she greeted a few people she recognised on the way warmly enough.

  Xiaoling, of course, didn’t say a word. Nor did she skip ahead. Or smile.

  As they grew closer and closer to the central hub of Troston, Wei grew increasingly nervous. Mira had warned him that as you approached the middle of the city, the more expensive things became. He could see it in the merchant’s wares: food and jewelery weren’t piled up in great mounds, they were neatly displayed. Shopkeepers were less aggressive in their pitches - most didn’t even shout - but they drew attention all the same. Even the cut of peoples’ clothing changed. You might not know what kind of fashion was the current trend, but you could tell quality fabric when you saw it.

  This doesn’t bode well for the [Healer]’s prices.

  Eventually they stopped outside a two-storey townhouse and Kira rapped at the door.

  It opened almost instantly, and at first Wei thought a halfling had answered it before he realised it was just a child.

  The young boy showed them in and directed them to a room to wait, but before they could sit down a woman trotted in.

  Trotted.

  Even if the Vanguard hadn’t spent the cart-rides and evenings round the campfire telling him about this world over the past couple of days, he would have recognised what she was.

  This time, it was Percy Jackson and Harry Potter both that helped him adjust to the situation.

  The centaur towered over him - closer to Naila’s height, or perhaps a shade taller.

  She limped though. He could hear it before he even saw her, and when she entered the room he realised one of her legs was wooden from the knee down. And she was covered in scars. She didn’t look like any medical professional he’d ever come across.

  The centaur woman looked up and her eyes sparkled.

  “Aha, look who has returned once more. The chargrilled crocheter. The toasted tailor. The…”

  “...seared stitcher?” Naila supplied with a wry smile.

  The centaur woman gave a snort that was almost a whinny.

  “Is it time to change the dressings already? You don’t normally bring a crowd. I charge extra if I’m teaching.”

  The firbolg [Patchweaver] looked to Kira, who rolled her eyes.

  “Another patient, Zephira. We’re hoping you can do something for this young lady - Xiaoling.”

  The centaur brushed over Wei’s presence and looked to his sister as Naila pointed her out, stepping in close to get a better look.

  “Sounds irathian. Is she part-irathian? Doesn’t seem to have enough eyes. If she is, I don’t have much experience with those lot. Not enough of them around.”

  She circled Xiaoling, and Kira cleared her throat and shot a glance towards Wei before pressing ahead with a version of the truth.

  “No. She's human. We pulled her out of a bad situation in the Fractured Wilds, along with her brother.” She nodded towards Wei. “She hasn’t spoken since. She’s catatonic. I tried a couple of things, but…”

  The centauress glanced at Wei but trotted right up to Xiaoling and reached out to move her head. She snapped her fingers out of Xiaoling’s line of sight, then blew gently into her face, then pulled out a gold coin and waved it slowly in front of her.

  There was no reaction, and the woman trotted back.

  “Well, she's not faking it.”

  Kira sighed as Wei mentally questioned the [Healer]’s credentials.

  “We’d figured that out, Zephira. Some sort of battleshock was our best guess.”

  “Let’s see.”

  The centaur got in close once again, and spoke in a low, intense voice that Wei could have sworn was full of longing.

  “[See the Fear in Their Eyes].”

  It only took a second, and Xiaoling didn’t move, but Zephira reared up on her back legs with a cry of surprise, and half fell into the wall behind her.

  Kira and Naila were on their feet in an instant, and Wei was lunging for his sister, but as the centaur scrambled to get to her feet, and brush herself off, she seemed more embarrassed than concerned.

  “Well, that’s certainly something.”

  Hi all! Welcome to my book, Miscast Heroes.

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