Nessa found herself wandering the docks of Queensedge with a fake smile on her face. Without the usually so dramatically timed rains of Io to mimic her mood, she made her way along the lower of the tiered piers. Stopping on a small outcropping of wood, the little Alchemist looked to her side and rested her scarred hand on the splintered wood of a support beam. Deciding this place was as good as any, she plopped herself down and let her legs dangle off the edge above the water below. She sat there for a long time, just watching the water ebb and flow back and forth as the sounds of the city of sailors surrounded her. Hundreds upon hundreds of stories carrying on without her, a strange comfort found in the forgotten lives held in the faces of strangers she'd never forget.
"On a scale of doomed to the greatest that ever was… How's our odds?" She asked the city at large, kicking her legs softly.
She reached for a stray pebble on the dock behind her and clutched it tight. She tossed it forwards as hard as she could, grunting softly in exertion. With a resounding 'plunk' it disappeared beneath the gentle waves. All the way down to the bottom of the bay it sank, resting there, perhaps never to be touched again. Forgotten.
"Yeah, I figured." Nessa hunched over, resting her elbows on her knees. "Nessa of the Redeemer… Buried at sea, corpse fed on by the gulls. This is why I can't have anything nice."
A set of stumpy feet marched along the docks, the jangling of gold and excess adorning a large red coat that preceded a burning grin on the back of the Gnomes head.
"Is that a little Nessy I see?" A booming voice called out.
She snapped her head up, eyes widening somewhat in vague recognition. She spun around. A grey skinned Dwarf stood, the posture of a pious man mixed with the gallant extravagant dress of a fellow who wanted to show off his ill gotten gains.
"Sal?" She rubbed her eyes for good measure.
No illusion this time, a grin with twice the boldness of her own stared at her with his hands on his hips.
"None around with a smile so heavily laden with purpose for you, young lass." He folded his arms as he stepped closer, standing beside where she sat. "Looking far too down for the shining star of Anspool."
She let out a soft scoff as she looked down at herself, a tired smile resting on her lips.
"I'm just bein' pouty. Missed you, Sal." She straightened her back, resting her weight on her palms. "Been busy."
"As have I, Nessy. Seems we've both had a change of employer." Salazar pat her on the back with a big meaty hand.
"Ah, fuck… you show affection like a damn Ogre. I got small bones, y'know!" She let out a soft laugh as his cheer forced its way into her clouded mind. "Yeah… I really have. You're not with the..?" She trailed off, giving him a knowing glance.
"No, no... I've found a much better paying employer." He folded his arms, resting his shoulder against the support beam as he leaned against it. "Living among the Free Isles now?"
"Oh, nah… Just here for a spell. Signed on aboard Cyrak's old ship. Remember him? We'll be leaving soon so lucky you found me, huh?" She gave a small shrug, still feeling his grin on her but looking back out to the waves.
"Lucky indeed." He bared his shining teeth to the coast, a golden canine glinting in the light of Soeul. "You want to talk, lass? You look like you want to read me your little book of formulas again. Ye really have that much news?" He let his grin lower to a content smile, knowing the woman too well to attempt to meet her eyes.
"No… I talked enough today. Right now I just want to lay down in a field for a couple days… pick some herbs…"
"And one glass of cheap red." He finished, tapping the side of his nose in a knowing gesture. "Still take it for the shakes?"
She lowered her head softly, crossing her legs as she allowed herself to relax just a little bit.
"Yeah… I hide 'em better though."
"I'd have hoped it'd have worn off by now, it's been… bloody years, lass."
"Yeah, well, it hasn't." She snapped, a sudden flare of defensive anger that surprised the two of them.
She quickly shrank from his eyes, turning back to the view before her as her hands clumsily fiddled with each other. When she spoke again, it was barely a whisper.
"I'm… sorry…" She muttered like a guilty child.
"It's alright, girl." Sal said softly, his voice calm as a choir of angels.
Another set of boots thumped up alongside Sal, a gruff looking human, face clad in a black bit of cloth that hid the lower half of his face. He silently looked between Sal and the Gnome, asking one very pointed question with his cold eyes. Sal bowed his head in response, looking back to the unaware Gnomette.
"What'd I always tell you? You need never apologise to me, Nessy. The Gods are watching over you, they are." Sal continued, watching the newcomer slowly draw a pistol from within his coat.
"Thanks, Sal… I guess I'm still just a little sensitive about…" Nessa began, her words trailing off as her eavesdropping ears perked up.
She could hear it plain as day, the slow metallic drag of a hammer being cocked as quietly as possible. Her fidgeting hands clammed up as her whole body was gripped by fear in an instant. A thousand different emotions all smacking her at once, a type of pain and terror that would have forced Nessa to hold still and take the bullet in a morbid paralysis had this been her mere weeks ago. In the half second that she had to process all of this, her left hand found purchase in her belt of vials. The fake-mage had no idea what the potion could be and didn't have time to consider it. She pushed on the bottom of it with her thumb to slide it out of the leather strap. Nessa gripped the crystal container tight and flung it behind herself as hard as she could. The vial smashed against the nearby wall of a building and a thick, black cloud of smoke erupted out, surrounding the three in an instant. Nessa scrambled to her feet, holding her breath as she heard a shot ring out next to her head. She gripped her ear as the piercing whine screamed at her. Disorientated and terrified, she picked a direction and ran as the two coughed and sputtered in the smoke behind her. As it started to clear, carried away on the seaside breeze, the gunman spat his words with a Federation grit.
"Little shit! Where'd she go!?"
"That'd be your job to find out, wouldn't it?" Sal coughed out a grinning reply. "I'll return to him, tell him the good news."
The gunman glared at the Dwarfs smug assurance before turning his head to hear the wood creak under tiny footsteps on the upper pier above him. With a curt nod to the Dwarf, he started off after Nessa, not returning the friendly wave of farewell Sal offered behind him.
Nessa's legs burned as she sprinted onwards, panicked eyes darting about as she searched for any face she recognised, anyone she could hide behind. Plucking a tried and tested potion from her repertoire, she chugged the horrid brown sludge. As the potion went to work, her skin turned a woody brown, lumping together and cracking like the aged bark of an old oak tree. Panting through her mouth, she looked down towards her vial belt, praying she had some other vials at the ready. She continued onwards along the empty, tiered docks of Queensedge east side, seeing only one left. She started to pull it out as another shot rang out. The bullet ripped into her tiny shoulder, the force of the impact sending her staggering to the ground. The Gnome impacted the wood hard and rolled from the force as the vial slid from her hands around the corner of a building into an alley. Her head struck that very same corner, bursting her brow and sending her vision into a blurry daze. Carried on by a mix of frantic willpower and alchemical alterations, she crawled hastily into the alley after her potion, hearing the hate-filled voice of her pursuer.
"Found you, you slippery little fuck!" He called as another shot struck the edge of the building, just behind her leg.
Among the ringing whine of the lingering gunshot, her pained ears still managed to pick up the approaching footfalls of her attacker like the thundering drums of the apocalypse themselves. The little Alchemist looked to the potion and, in an adrenaline filled haste for time she didn't have, she swung her fist down onto the crystal, smashing the vial and coating her fist in the wax-like contents in the process but not without getting shards of the vial stuck into her skin. She crawled a few inches further into the alley, the searing pain from her bleeding shoulder spiking with every moment as the bullet wedged itself further into her flesh. She practically dragged herself behind a crate for a moment of prolonged safety. Nessa brought her hands together, snapping her fingers next to her hand coated in the strange melted-wax substance. The flint pieces sewn into her gloves struck against one another, sparking a bit but not catching. She snapped again, once more nothing. The Gnome felt the thumping boots of the gunman approach in sync with every fifth beat of her pounding heart. As he rounded the edge of the crate, Nessa's final snap sparked, the flame catching along her palm. The substance ignited all at once, coating her hand in a burning flame that left her unscathed.
"Hold still, you miserable-!" He began as he levelled the pistol at her.
Acting now or never, Nessa lunged forward with all the energy she had left, grabbing at whatever she could on the man with her burning hand. Due to his own arrogance in having bent down to execute the cornered Gnome, Nessa managed to slam her hand against his face, gripping it as hard as she could to mush the flames and shattered crystal shards into it. He let out a cry of shock and pain as the bandana around his mouth was burned into his flesh, along with a grubby hand print from his victim.
Once the initial shock of pain passed, the gunman jerked his arm across himself, bashing the young woman across the face with the grip of his pistol and knocking her arm away from him. She was almost thrown to the side by the blow but still focused as every fibre of her being shifted from flight to fight. She threw her burning hand back towards him, this time grabbing at his gun arm when he went for another swing at her. Her lashing hand caught his wrist, the flames forcing his hand to seize up and drop the pistol to rip it away from her. Roaring in pain through gritted teeth, he swung his foot forwards to kick the woman back into the planks.
"Worthless little freak!" He spat as he squatted down to pull a knife from his boot. "I'm gonna fucking gut you."
Nessa felt another wave of panic shoot through her body as she found herself on her hands and knees again. She let out a hacking cough as a result of the blow to her gut and started crawling again. Just attempting to get away from the man who stomped closer. Her eyes locked onto it, his pistol. Pushing forward, beyond her limit from the short scrap, through pain, terror and anguish she dragged the very world under her hands with her legs carried limply behind. She reached out for the weapon, fingers so tantalisingly close.
"No you fucking don't!" The man barked, grabbing her by her ankle and reefing her closer to him.
As she was dragged suddenly along the splintered planks, Nessa rolled herself onto her back and swung her free leg up wildly at the human. Her foot struck his burned hand as it gripped at her other ankle, drawing another roar of pain from the assailant and forcing him to drop her. He swung his blade in response, slashing the Gnome along her wood-coated shin as her leg recoiled. The fake-mage pushed herself away with her elbows and feet to avoid another slash and Nessa sent one last hopeful attempt behind herself with her flaming hand. The gunman reeled his arm back to lunge forwards and plunge his blade into the woman's heart, but as he stepped closer the Gnome felt her hand come into contact with something metal. She gripped it tight and pulled it to her chest, one of her grubby fingers finding the quickly heating metal of the trigger and squeezing as hard as she could with her eyes tightly shut.
The shot rang out, a singular bang that froze Nessa solid as the kick from the gun blew itself out of her hands, clattering across the wood behind her. The Alchemist kept her eyes shut for a moment as her ears continued to ring, awaiting the searing pain of unforgiving steel plunging into her gut. Instead she felt the planks she lay on quake as a body hit the floor. She cracked an eye open, staring at the upturned boot of the laying man. Nessa's eye twitched, the reality of her actions settling into a pit in her stomach as her eyes burned the man's twitching, bloody face into her memory. The powerful pistol at this close range had half blown his face off. The mess of gore and bone, scattered brain matter and burnt flesh that was the face of someone she once knew, even in passing, etched itself onto her soul with a burning quill. A memory that would haunt her to the end of her days. It came first with a short exhale of breath, a quick push to empty her lungs entirely, then a deep breath in to ready her throat and finally a loud, piercing scream as Nessa cried out in horror. Frantically, she began to hyperventilate and kicked her feet against the wood, scrambling her wounded body back away from the corpse as it shook and twitched in the throes of death. Her back thumped into a crate behind her as she ran out of space to flee from her own sin. Hugging her knees close to her chest as the screaming pain of the hole in her shoulder blade sparked up with every strain of the muscle, Nessa continued to break down. She tucked her head downwards, wide eyes staring at her shaking hands as the flames that coated her fist died out. The fake-mage started to gently rock herself back and forth, muttering incoherent words in Gnomish as tears streamed down her cheeks. The bleeding, the pain, the self-preservation fueled frenzy, it all disintegrated in her mind as all she could focus on was the life she had just taken. Her stomach churned, a burning in her throat that she recognised signalling her to move. She threw her weight to one side, doubling over sideways to involuntarily spill her guts onto the ground. The sickening taste and sight of her own bile barely even registered as she weakly dragged the back of her hand across her chin and slumped back against the crate. With the potion now among her earlier meal on the docks, Nessa's skin slowly started returning to normal, if a bit paler. With it came the no longer numbed sensations of pain that rocked her body. Clenching her teeth tight, she rested her head back against the crate, attempting to look anywhere but at the corpse. Unsure of what to do next, she did the only thing her body could decide on. She sucked a haggard breath in, the air coming in waves in between the hics and sobs of her ongoing outburst and then let it out, equally as shaken.
"Port Militia! Show yourself!" An authoritative voice ordered.
The Militia! Had she heard it minutes ago, she would be overwhelmed with relief. But now? All they would see is a burned corpse as a culprit. Nessa knew there was no way she could explain things. Not now. Her body screamed at her, absolutely refusing to let them get this far and stop. The Alchemist gripped at the edges of the box, running on little more than willpower at this point. Clawing her way to her feet, Nessa steadied herself on the crate and attempted to orientate herself. Picking any direction but the way she came, she pushed off the box and settled into a staggered run further into the city. Hitting into walls as she came to turns, grabbing onto anything her height for support, she pushed herself beyond any limit her body could handle. Leaving a trail of blood and tears, the Gnome's mind shut down completely as she was carried onwards back towards the Redeemer, or as close as she could get before her body gave out.
