) What do you get when you put Kane, Viconia, Kagain, Edwin and free time together? Arguments…big ones.The Best of Friends…or Not
Kane Theaza, the Bhaalspawn warrior, took a large bite from his piece of bread and glanced around at his three companions. As usual, Kagain was shovelling his food down as fast as he could, Viconia was eating more slowly, occasionally looking up and smiling seductively as she felt her leader’s eyes on her, and Edwin was just pushing his food round and round his plate, keeping his eyes focused on it all the time. Apart from Kagain’s noisy chewing, there was silence. They had barely spoken since the vicious and bloody battle they had fought against four mercenaries just an hour or so before.
Despite Viconia’s healing, they still bore some wounds. Kane’s left hand and wrist were tightly bandaged, the ragged material covered in dry blood. Additionally, he carried a smaller dagger wound on his right side, just below his ribcage, and the bruise on his jaw was beginning to turn a deep purple. Kagain had a deep gash just above his eye, received when his helmet had been knocked off, and a second across his right forearm where he had raised his arm to protect his face. Viconia’s tunic and leather armour had been sliced at the shoulder and the half-healed cut was still visible. Edwin was the only one who had not suffered bad injuries, as the wizard of the group; he generally stayed back out of close combat and brought up spells to protect himself. He had one or two bruises, but that was all.
“What is wrong with you tonight, wizard?” Viconia said at last. “Your miserable face is beginning to put me off my food. In any case, I really don’t see what you have to be so upset about.”
“Aye, she be havin’ a point,” Kagain agreed. “We be getting’ ourselves hurt and bashed up and yer be getting of with barely a scratch on yer and yet yer still not bloody happy!”
“I am not miserable!” Edwin snapped, looking up at last. “I am just tired. I do not expect any of you monkeys to understand, but casting spells drains a lot of energy.”
“Maybe it would have saved you some energy if you had cast the right ones.” Viconia said nastily and Kane shook his head in despair. He had been wondering how long it be before that particular subject came up…
Although Edwin had been useful in the battle against the assassins at first, after a few moments he had begun to falter. Twice he had lost his concentration midway through the spell, first casting a fireball spell at his own companions when he was supposed to be summoning monsters to help them and then casting web, which had led to the battle taking a very nasty turn as both sides found themselves tangled in the sticky stuff. And after that he seemed to lose his confidence and was practically useless as one spell after another failed, usually because he forgot the words at the critical point, leaving the other three to take down their assailants alone. That was the reason they had come away so badly injured and although Kane did not blame Edwin, not really, he also knew that Viconia and Kagain would not let it drop easily. The rage had been building inside the drow and the dwarf ever since and they had obviously decided that now was the time to release it. It wasn’t as though the three of them got on well anyway, there was always snipping and insulting between the three of them, always arguments flying back and forth…and such a situation tended to really push tempers to breaking point.
“Yer nearly burned us all to death with that stupid misplaced fireball!” Kagain growled. “And what happened to yer after that? All that forgetting…some blasted wizard yer are.”
“How dare you talk to me like that?” Edwin scowled at him. “Sometimes spells fail, sometimes things go wrong, it happens to the very best wizards! I would like to see either of you trying to cast a simple spell. It would be a miracle if either of you were able to understand half of the words necessary!”
“What I cannot understand, wizard!” Viconia retaliated, growing more than a little annoyed. “Is that despite all your bragging about what a great and powerful Red Wizard you are, you certainly didn’t act like one today. You were the one who messed everything up and nearly got us killed! And all you can do now is sit there and look miserable. The least you could do is apologise to Kane and show a little concern, it was through protecting your useless neck that he injured his hand in the first place.”
“Yeah!” the dwarf agreed, still chewing noisily. As he spoke, breadcrumbs flew from his mouth across the table, a few of them landing in Edwin’s lap. The wizard gave him a look of disgust. “Though I be supposin’ that concern fer others isn’t somethin’ they be used to hearing over in Thay!”
“All right!” The wizard snapped in frustration. “I made a mistake and I am sorry! Is that good enough for you? (I swear that one day, when I’m even more powerful than this, I will make them pay for this apology).”
“That’s a little better.” Viconia said grudgingly. “I’ll assume that being a Red Wizard, you don’t know much about admitting that you are actually in the wrong so it is a start at least.”
“A Red Wizard apologises only on the very rare occasions he actually is in the wrong,” Edwin shot back. “But I am willing to bet that I still know more about apologising than a drow.”
“Perhaps,” Viconia agreed, much to his astonishment. “But then that worries me not for I have nothing to apologise for, whereas you are in the one in the wrong now.” She turned back to her food and the table briefly fell silent again. “Now that I think of it,” she started again a moment later, “this would not be the first time you have messed up while casting a spell, would it now? Only a few days ago, you ended up teleported yourself into the middle of a hobgoblin camp.”
“Anyone can make a mistake,” Edwin repeated through gritted teeth.
Kagain snorted. “One mistake, aye. Several in th’ same battle? Shameful, just shameful.”
“Kagain, Viconia…” Kane said warningly. He had made no attempt to interfere before now, knowing that his companions were capable of fighting their own battles, but he could see that Edwin was beginning to get upset. “That’s enough!”
“And when you tried to blind that mad mage we met and ended up hitting Kagain instead,” she sneered, taking no notice of Kane. “I don’t know where you got the illusion that you were a good wizard, Edwin. Perhaps you should go back to Thay and tell your teacher that you need a few extra lessons. Or maybe you should go back and tell your parents that you need a new teacher because the one they gave you was obviously completely and utterly incompetent!”
“How dare you…?” For a moment, Edwin seemed completely lost for words, which was very unusual for him. Seeing that her words had hit deep, Viconia and Kagain sat and smirked at the fuming wizard, waiting for the next stream of insults. However, much to their surprise, instead he stood up, knocking his chair to the floor with a loud crash, and then half walked and half ran to the main door. As they watched, he disappeared through it and slammed it shut with another bang.
“Nice work, Vic.” Kane said sarcastically. “So he made a few mistakes today, that’s no reason to be quite so hard on him. There was no permanent damage done after all, and what are we going to do for a wizard if he decides to leave us?”
“Good riddance,” Kagain muttered into his drink. “If he leaves, we just be finding another wizard. A better one.”
“You two are impossible,” Kane shook his head and stood up, reaching for his two long swords. “I’m going to go and see if he’s all right.”
Kagain shrugged and Viconia looked down at her plate, as their leader stood up and slid his twin blades back into their scabbards. “Well, well, well,” he muttered sarcastically, heading towards the door. “Isn’t this shaping up to be an interesting evening? And here I was thinking that I might be able to relax for a change. Some bloody hope.”
