Still the beginning of a longer story, Master of the Dungeon.
This is early Chapter 2, followed by: The Archer and the Blacksmith (2).
Just before dawn, Zon the Nullifier stood at the foot of a shared bed. The occupants of this farmhouse lay still, paralyzed by their own brains as they slowly regained consciousness. Zon inhaled deeply, stealing the waning dreams of a farmer and his wife. Their minds revealed many things. A marriage had turned sour and resentful. Unfulfilled, one had broken their vows yet again last night, without remorse. The other overcharged customers, and cheated at card games with friends. Perfect.
Sorcha explicitly granted him use of only a few scattered spells, a fragment of his full potential. This arrangement was still much better than his last. When it became important to replenish himself, there was one rule: seek out what her mother would have called the sinners. He could now forgo human food and drink for another month. In exchange, these agrarian people would not remember most of their past arguments, and live simpler lives together again. With luck, they would remember each other’s names.
Zon returned to the loft of the long barn behind this farmhouse, and perched in the highest shadow. Hours later, he watched as a brown striped cat with white paws climbed through an open window. The cat jumped onto a chair off to one side and sniffed at a small table. A tin cup lined with pipe ash was nestled close to the nub of a burning candle. Two empty bottles were discarded on the straw-flecked dirt floor.
The cat suddenly and violently cleaned one shoulder, then stared up into the loft, flicking his tail back and forth. “Er, meow?” he asked. Intelligent eyes watched silently as the highest shadow dripped and floated to the barn floor, like an autumn leaf.
The cat remained unfazed as the shadow slowly stood up to nearly seven feet tall, keeping his hood pulled low with one pale hand. Zon said, “That form suits you, Aeron.”
“It is Sorcha’s magic,” said Aeron-cat. “I just have to think of what I want to be for the night.”
“Right.”
Aeron-cat surveyed the barn, lined with goat pens and a sleeping herd. “How are you doing, Zee? This early morning, without a cloud in the sky, is not shaping up to be very gloomy, sorry.”
Zon thought of the farmhouse. “This town has boring problems.”
“I think we are planning to leave in a few hours.” Aeron-cat yawned dramatically. “I have been meaning to ask, if you will answer. How is that tied into place exactly, the living darkness that you wear, or whatever that is?”
Zon said, “I once stole a fragment of the Web of Fate. That will hold most anything, if you twist hard enough.”
“Simple rope holds my pants up,” said Aeron-cat.
“When you wear pants.”
“I left them folded somewhere nearby. They no longer fit me right now,” said Aeron-cat. “Hey, I saw lots more spider webs in the last building I visited. It hasn’t been cleaned out in months! No rats, though. The local hunters with this shape must be doing their jobs.” He scratched at an ear with a back paw.
“I am sure Sorcha will buy your breakfast soon,” said Zon.
“Hey, I still have enough left for that.” Aeron-cat licked at the sides of his mouth. ”Anyway, this was a waste of time, if you ask me. No beast has had any news of chicken stealers, not even the hogs, those light sleepers.”
“Maybe, it is the same as that last job we were on together? The one in South Hill?” Zon sighed. “I need to get back off of this continent someday.”
Aeron-cat nodded, and said, “You think neighbors ate the chickens?”
“Do not underestimate the depravity of man, my feline friend.” Zon reached for the candle, and snuffed out the flame between two white fingers. “For example, this might have fallen over and fire could have burned all of these nice slumbering animals. How absolutely dreadful.”
Aeron-cat flexed a front paw, and asked, “Do you want to see the spiders?”
“Okay.”
Aeron-cat scampered over to the wall, wiggled his rear a little in the dust, and leapt back out the window.
Still the beginning of a longer story, Master of the Dungeon.
This is early Chapter 2, followed by: The Archer and the Blacksmith (2).