33 Firestarter (2/2)

”It's alright...” she replied.

Her blush hadn't disappeared one bit, but at least they brought color back to her face.

Aura's eyes surveyed the destruction around us. ”Did I do all this?”

”Yup,” I answered, half-impressed and half-terrified by her destructive power.

Edo walked over to stand in front of her and knelt before her. ”Forgive me, princess. I should have been there for you...”

”Nothing to forgive, my old friend,” she held his arm and helped him stand.

The smile she gave Edo was the smile she also turned on me next. ”Thanks for coming to my rescue, Dean.”

”Didn't do anything... this is all you,” I shrugged. ”We were a little late to the party.”

She raised her hand to me palms up. ”You came looking for me all the same.”

As she's seen me and Luca do it plenty of times, I guessed she wanted to try out her very first high-five.

I slapped her palm with my own before saying, ”Let's go home.”

Then I thought about something strange I needed to confirm with her.

”Aura... I only saw two bodies... I don't suppose?” I started but Aura finished my thought with, ”After he discovered who I really was, Roselle and one of his cronies left earlier in the day... they promised to come back with someone who would be interested in meeting me... But he never did.”

”Ah... too bad,” I answered. ”But... how were you able to cast your spell if they kept you guarded?”

Aura glanced back at the rubble. ”I... don't remember...”

And on that ominous note, our little adventure in Broken Sellsword's Canyon was finally over.

Kallista was gracious enough to handle the cleanup of the conflict's aftermath. It was the least she could do after we solved her drow problem.

I thanked her and promised that we would definitely be doing business with them again. Her response was to promise me a discount next time we passed by.

With our new equipment, Aura and Luca safely back with the team, our new recruits, and the drow refugees in tow, we made our way back north and back to the region west of the Calmlands to the Bastion of Fort Darah.

It was an uneventful three-night trip which took longer only because everyone had to wait for nightfall for me to return to the Fayne. We really had to get me an anchor so they could just carry it along whenever the unit traveled by day.

Darah magnanimously accepted the refugees after she learned how helpful they were in finding her niece. The great general really doted on Aura.

Thom, luckily for him, was very courteous to the great general. I supposed he figured out even he wouldn't survive taunting her. Plus, he was very grateful that his one-hundred-ten clan members would be given a new home within Darah's territory.

Darah ignored her advisors' opinions that accepting drow into the Trickster Pavilion would cause a scandal among the clan, but as she was one of the most powerful elders, she didn't think it would be a problem.

”Anyone who has a problem with me can face me themselves,” she boasted.

No one refuted her. Not even Commander Vardoom who grumbled that the general's whim was going to cause another headache for her subordinates. Darah smacked him good for that.

The patriarch sent word that he accepted Darahs decision to allow Thom's people to come under the protection of the Trickster's Pavilion. This might have been because Aura also sent a message to her brother pleading their case. Despite her past with the drow, she didn't judge them based on the color of their skin. This earned her quite a bit of fame among the remnants of the Hazy Moon.

After he learned who Aura really was, Thom just chuckled. ”She's special after all...”

Darah left the task of finding them a home to Commander Thors who was nice enough to commend me on accomplishing my mission despite the setbacks.

”You're working hard,” he said as he patted me on the shoulder. ”Keep it up.”

As for me, Darah was true to her word. For the next month, after we returned to Fort Darah, she personally trained me and my reformed hundred-man unit to the point where my soldiers puked blood. Even Luca and I were having a hard time.

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The Foolhardies' new composition included the original twenty-three members plus the thirty-five new mercenary recruits and thirty drow members which included ten healers. We now had seven officers, too. With myself as Commander, Luca and Aura as my Lieutenants, Varda as Quartermaster, Edo as Master Sergeant, Qwipps and Thom as squad leaders, and finally, Ashley, who was in charge of our unit's defense tactics.

Yeah, she joined us in Fort Darah half a month after we parted ways in Broken Sellsword's Canyon. It took a lot of cajoling and several sprite messages but I finally enticed her to join us after mentioning we would be entering Magesong territory soon. Apparently, she had been assigned a mission there by their Mother Superior and hooking up with the Foolhardies was the best way to get her in.

During one of these grueling training exercises Darah supervised, a fresh-faced Aura who didn't seem like she was affected by training—elven physiques were cheats in themselves—walked over to me and suggested something I couldn't believe.

”Hey... your two friends, the ones who helped you figure out how to fight drows,” she looked doe-eyed at me. ”I'd like to meet them.”