Chapter Sixty-Six: Friction

Silence reigned in the library, scraped away only by the sound of shuffling paper and the scratching of a quill. Meg was working, collating her notes into a more comprehensive read. Tim was quietly reading a simple novel that was popular amongst the educated rich of the cities. Due to its simplistic phrasing, it was accessible to some of the less capable readers, and had thus been able to become successful, in spite of the difficulties in production.

Tim was clearly concentrating on the novel. Meg didn't teach him how individual words were written, instead teaching him how specific combinations of letters sounded, and then leaving him to sound out words to recognise them himself.

After one day where he had spent an hour slowly detailing the burgeoning love and subsequent activities of a mostly mythic king and his illegitimate half-sister from millennia ago, Meg told Tim that he could either learn to read in silence or take himself elsewhere. As a result Tim now kept his mouth firmly shut during his learning sessions.

The book was thankfully past that part and was now detailing the king's battle against the forces of the God of Darkness, who were at the time much larger in size and preying upon ordinary citizens. Tim, as someone who knew people who were citizens of said god, and had fought against the worst of them, was getting annoyed at some of the inaccuracies.

The silence was broken as Tim put down the book and spoke out.

"Wanna go to Helen's?"

Meg flicked her eyes away from her work. "Is the ravaging tale of incest boring you?"

"I'd have preferred it if it was still about the romance, now it's about war and I'm kinda sick of it."

Meg looked at Tim blankly for a second. "I'll be honest, that's not the reaction I'd expect from you."

"Well let me put it this way... Would you rather listen to a veteran talk about battle, or some guy who doesn't know what a magic circle is try to tell you about magic?"

"The veteran, at least they have experience and stories, and wouldn't be incredibly insulting to listen to."

Tim gestured at Meg with his palm, and she realised his point.

"Yeah alright. It's been a while, maybe she'll have heard something."

"Even you're getting bored of sitting around all day huh?"

"It makes a nice change of pace, and I'm a little stuck anyhow."

"What are you even doing? You keep leeching power off me but never explain what it's for."

"I'm trying to find a way of using spells without having the main draw come for the individual activating it. That way extremely powerful spells could be used without potentially killing the person doing it."

"Isn't that one of the fundamental principles of doing magic though?"

"Is it for single use spells, yes. But continuous spells can maintain themselves, so if I can figure out why, it shouldn't be impossible."

"...I'd ask you more but I get the feeling it'd all go over my head."

"That is why I never bothered talking to you about it before."

"...Fair enough."

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The next afternoon, Tim and Meg arrived in Riben. As per usual Meg headed in first, and went over to the bar.

There she found one of the girls working there under Helen, and Meg bought drinks and sat down at one of the tables, followed shortly by Tim.

"Helen not about?" He asked as he sat down.

"Didn't see her."

"Hmm, I'll go ask."

Tim got up and went over to the bar. After spending a good while longer with the barmaid than it should've taken to ask one question, Tim returned.

"She's about, she should be back in a minute."

"Right, when she gets here maybe I'll let her know that you were hitting on one of her girls."

"Please don't, last time she nearly banned me, she's extremely overprotective."

"I'll think about it."

"I'm holding your cooked meals as a hostage."

"Well that's hardly fair is it?"

"Life's not fair and neither am I."

"Asshole."

"Just doing what's necessary."

The two sat around and continued to playfully bicker until Helen came into the inn. After quickly chatting with the barmaid, she was informed of Tim and Meg's presence, and immediately headed over.

"Well look who's back." Tim said when he noticed Helen approaching. "Not like you to be out and about."

"I was pressured into taking a break and decided to visit some friends around the village." Helen said as she took a seat.

"Yeah, went to ask if they needed help with anything more likely."

"Hush, if the others hear you I'll be locked away until they think I've rested enough."

"They're just trying to look out for you." Meg chimed in.

"Well they can pack it in, I'm as fit as I ever was and I'm not planning on stopping anytime soon."

"It'll all catch up with you." Tim said, finishing off his drink.

"Not today it won't."

"Hm."

Tim got up and went to get another drink, and while he was gone the two women caught up. Once he got back, Tim asked the question that he always asked when he visited.

"So, any interesting news?"

"Well, I know of a good thing that happened and a bad thing, though knowing you you'll probably dislike the good thing more."

"Get it out of the way then."

"In Themil-"

"Ugh."

"-they've been doing rather well for themselves. Apparently the Baron there has improved the area quite a bit, and now the place is booming. Plus, I heard that he's managed to get all the homeless people there off the streets and into work, so that's definitely a positive."

"Were there many homeless there?" Meg asked.

"Depends, we talking summer or winter?" Tim asked bitterly, and Meg pursed her lips awkwardly.

"What's the bad news?" Tim asked Helen. "Maybe it'll cheer me up."

"Do you like the idea of gangs of people stealing food and money."

"Not really."

"Well that's unfortunate, because there's a group of bandits up North harassing and raiding merchants and caravans. No-one's died yet as far as I know, but that probably won't last."

"Faaaaaaaaantastic." Tim said with a sour expression.

"I'm surprised no one has been killed." Meg said. "That's not what you'd expect."

"They've only been going after small groups and loners they heavily outnumber, who usually just give up. Once they have what they want they apparently just let them go."

"At least they aren't killing them so they can't talk."

"Yet." Tim again responded darkly, and a shadow hung over the three for a moment. They began to talk about more menial things, and after a while, they were joined by Charlie, who had finished his work for the day.

"What are you doing these days anyway Charlie?" Tim asked the boy. "You're getting a little old to just be helping around the place aren't you?"

True enough, it had been a few years now since Meg had returned back to the realm of reality, and Charlie wasn't the same brat that Tim would slap around while sparring.

He was a slightly larger brat that Tim slapped around while sparring.

"Well..." Charlie said, getting a little embarrassed now he was being asked about his personal goals. "I'd like to try travelling, see the world and meet people, you know?"

"Look out Helen, we've got another Perry here."

"Perry?" Meg asked.

"My son." Helen replied. "He's off travelling somewhere, he only drops by and doesn't stay long, so you haven't met him."

"So you're trying to work odd jobs to get the money to go off travelling?" Tim drew the conversation back to Charlie.

"Yeah, I don't want to go off without any money and end up starving in a ditch by a road somewhere."

"Yeah, it'd be better to have some money on hand until you can learn where to get quick jobs to make money on the fly. Not gonna help you if it get's stolen or you get attacked though. And I doubt money from tending to horses is going to pay for protection on top of supplies."

"Yeah... Guess that means you'll just need to help me learn to defend myself then." Charlie said with a cheeky smile.

"That way, instead of getting your money stolen and living rough for a bit, you'll be murdered instead. Brilliant idea." Tim heartlessly burst the boy's hopeful bubble with a dose of reality.

"Oh come on, you're always fine."

"Yes, but I don't need money to survive. I have long since grown immune to the problems that would usually come with eating raw plants and dirt."

"...That's a joke, right?"

"Always cook potatoes."

"Tim's questionable experiences aside..." Helen interjected.

"Raw dandelions are actually not too bad, but people stopped eating them so much cause they're bitter."

"You would probably be okay if you started off by doing some smaller trips first."

"You can also eat salsify roots raw, but make sure you cut them up."

"Stop now." Meg said quietly and nudged Tim.

"That's what Perry did and he's doing fairly well for himself."

"Yeah, I'll have to think about it. I don't want to have to live like an animal, eating plants straight out of the ground without even cleaning them."

"Oh that's not the worst of it, when you're eating discarded chunks of bread that got dropped in a muddy puddle, that's when you know you're in a bad place."

The other three stared at Tim with disgust while he calmly drank.

"...That's disgusting." Meg said.

"I am aware, I'm the one that ate it."

"...If this was in a city, you realise that water might have-"

"I do, yes."

"And that doesn't bother you?"

"Am I dead?"

"No?"

"Then there you go."

Somewhat grossed out by the implications of what Tim had said, the other three shifted the conversation, and they kept going until it was time to turn in.

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A knock came on the door as Meg was about to go to bed. A little surprised, she opened the door slightly to see who it was. Peeking through the crack, she saw it was Tim, and opened the door.

"What is it?" She asked, and stepped back as Tim entered the room and closed the door behind him.

Tim leant his back on the door, and Meg watched him in silence. He had a serious expression, and clearly wasn't there to mess around.

"I'm going to be heading off tomorrow." He said, and Meg's face darkened slightly. "I don't know how long I'll be. I can pay for you to stay here for a while, or find someone to take you back to the library, which is it?"

"...You're going North, aren't you?"

"That's right."

"And what exactly are you going to do there?"

"I would've thought that was obvious."

"Say it."

"I'm going to hunt down those bandits Helen told us about."

"And kill them?"

"Yeah."

Meg glared at Tim, to which he raised his eyebrows slightly.

"You know they haven't actually killed anyone?" She said confrontationally.

"That you know of." Tim replied, a little confused by the anger in Meg's voice. "Not that that particularly matters." He added.

"Why?"

"...Why what?"

"Why doesn't it matter that they haven't killed anyone when you're going to go kill them?"

"Meg, they're stealing from people."

"Yeah but they haven't actually hurt anyone have they?"

"And how the hell do you know that? They've been stealing food, how do you know someone hasn't starved because they didn't get supplies? There are mining towns that rely on those merchants to deliver food to survive."

"Well maybe they're starving themselves but have no way of making the money to buy food, and have to steal it. You don't know. You're just going to execute them without even trying to find out."

"Correct, that is exactly what I am going to do."

Meg glared at Tim who simply stared back at her unflinchingly.

"This isn't right."

"Irrelevant."

"What if they're good people that're only doing it because it's the only way they can get by?"

"Well what would you have me do? Just let them carry on raiding caravans and stealing food until either they kill someone or the army crushes them?"

"You could actually try to help them first."

"If they wanted help they'd have asked for it, it's not like there haven't been calls for aid before."

"Maybe they did but no-one cared."

"Now do you really believe that?"

"It doesn't matter, it's a possibility."

"Okay, let's say I did help them. Let's say I found a village that needed workers and had them all go there to help farm and whatever, and have them pay back the people they stole from. If they then decide they don't like working, and go back to stealing and robbing again, what then?"

"Well, they'd need to be punished, but you don't have to just kill them."

"Punishment is supposed to deter people from committing crimes Meg. What should happen to them?"

"They have cells in cities don't they, for criminals? Can't they be locked up there for a bit?"

"Those cells are for petty criminals and those awaiting execution, there aren't that many of them. The larger groups I've seen in the past can get into the region of a hundred men, you think we should ship them off to every city in the country? And then of course force the innocent people of the area to give up their food to feed the people stealing from them?"

"Maybe! People deserve a second chance."

"No they don't."

Meg looked at Tim in shock, and he glared back at her.

"Why should innocent people have to pay the cost of giving a second chance to someone who wronged them? You don't see deer going up to wolves and forgiving them for killing and eating their families."

"We aren't just animals Tim, we're humans. We're better than that."

"Said the woman who was going to end the world for revenge."

"And I was wrong. Okay?"

This time Tim was shocked, but his expression immediately soured again.

"So you're saying you forgive the people that killed your family?"

"Not a chance." Meg spat back. "But I wouldn't have them killed for it. They were slaves to their dogma. If they were born today, they wouldn't have done it, it wasn't their fault they did what they did."

"You seem to be forgetting precisely why the world doesn't hunt down people like you anymore. The only reason magic users like you aren't still being hunted is because the gods stopped trying, because I was killing everyone they sent."

"There's no problem that has to be solved by murder."

"That's your opinion."

"It's how things should be done."

"Yeah well you don't get to decide that."

"And you do?"

"Yes."

"Why? What gives you the right to decide how the world works?"

Meg glared at Tim defiantly, and Tim simply responded,

"Because there isn't anyone in this world that can stop me."

Tim stepped towards Meg, and her defiant look turned to one of fear as he drew close. He bent down slightly, and put his face close to hers.

"The amount of power required to change the world is immense. You think you have that power? Prove it. I'm the one keeping the world as it is.

Stop me."

He pulled back, and spread his arms, leaving himself wide open. Meg glared at him, and after a while, he put his hands down, and moved towards the door.

As he reached for the door, Meg spoke out to him.

"I'm coming with you."

Tim stood still for a second without turning.

"...Whatever."  He said, and left.