Zilo had been saved by Leo from his would-be killer, Carten Manos. Zilo looked to the trail toward Deneval to see Maldrek, Cruxis, and May also making their way toward Shadeville. Each one of them looked very cross from having to walk for the last week and a half.
"Zilo! You just had to do it, didn't you! This was our job, not yours!" Leo continued to scold him.
"Hey it's not that big of a problem. Besides we ended up solving the case anyway." Maldrek's head perked up at this and he asked the bard, "Really? You found the killer?"
"Yes, but it looks like he got away."
May slapped her forehead as she asked, "Which one of you idiots let them get away?"
Zilo silently pointed at Leo with a bit of a mischievous grin on his face. Leo slapped down the hand and shouted, "How in Dema's name is it my fault?! I just saved your butt!"
Zilo smiled as he turned his face and in a pompous tone he retorted, "From the killer, who is currently floating to safety."
Leo made a double-take, looking back and forth to the river he just blasted Carten into. Understanding, Leo stamping his boot in anger. Maldrek let out a bit of a chuckle before turning to Leo and saying, "Welp, best get swimming Leo."
Leo, Maldrek, and May began to scan the edge of the river as Zilo turned to Cruxis and asked, "Hey, if you all are here, then who's watching the tavern back home?"
"We left Aria in charge, but Clay is there to-," Zilo's eyes widened in shock, remembering the hitman that would kill Aria in 3 short days. He whistled for Presto to come over. He mounted the horse with a few winces from his many cuts and arrow wounds. He took off, not waiting to explain to the others.
He could hear the shouts of his confused friends at his back as he and Presto took off toward the Capital of the land. He was very hurt, but still conscious and still determined to get home before the hitman would strike.
He regretted that he returned the Shells of Sending to Maldrek a few months ago when Aria finished her bardic training. A message back home to warn her would have been a great help. He shook the thought aside, it was too late for regrets, all he could do now was return to save the woman he loved.
After the first day of travel, Presto and Zilo were tired, but Zilo refused to let the horse stop. Vivace wouldn't have taken this kind of forcefulness, but Presto's more tame nature and keener mind let the horse see what its rider was feeling. While Presto was not able to comprehend the worry Zilo held, he did see the stress that the bard was feeling, and continued to push himself, and didn't resist for the rest of the race home.
As the second day fell to a close, now Zilo was the one at the edge of collapse. He was wondering what the harm would be in just closing his eyes and letting Presto follow the trail himself. His eyes fell and he saw the black shade of sleep fall over his vision, only to see Aria, with a dagger in her chest.
The bard jolted up from his snooze and with renewed vigor continued. He had considered a lot on the road with only his thoughts, and his feelings towards Aria. He had known her for a short time all things considered, but he knew that losing her would something he couldn't bear. She may fight him on somethings, and she might not laugh at all his jokes, but her wit, her spirit, her confidence, he would not let those things be snuffed out.
The third day came to an end, and night fell. Presto raced into Deneval with Zilo astride him. Both horse and Fetchling's eyes were bloodshot as Presto collapsed in front of the Sword and Sorcery tavern. Zilo rose to see the torches were out outside, forcing him to use his dark vision. The door was off its hinges. Broken off by a tool of some kind. The only light was from inside by the bar torchlights that had yet to be snuffed out for the night.
The bard tried to rise, but his body wouldn't do it. His wounds from his battles had worn him down, he had lost too much blood, and the ride had been grueling. His buckler and sword weighed him down like shackles on a prisoner.
He brought his right arm over to undo the fastenings on his buckler. With his left arm freed he could undo his belt and free himself of his sword. He could stand, or at the very least lean on the walls of the tavern. He looked around; the chairs had been flipped up for the night and the floor was left half swept. He could see toward the bar was Clay with a wounded temple and barely moving.
Zilo lurched forward but fell from his weakness. He then slid to Clay's body and nudged his boot. The boy awoke and looked at Zilo.
"Z-Zilo, is that you sir?" Zilo couldn't even speak from his mouth drying out halfway through his third day of riding. Clay did his best to stand with his head cracked from the bar counter. Zilo sat up and began to fade a bit, but he was awoken from the sound of someone falling from the staircase to his left.
He tilted his head to see Aria, breathing heavy with cuts along her shoulder and her side. She was gripping her shortsword. Aria's eyes slowly open to see Zilo, half dead and barely holding on at the bar with Clay.
"ZILO!?" She shouts as she scrambled over to him, she places both of her hands on his gaunt cheeks. Clay then says, "Aria, you okay?"
Aria's eyes flick over, noticing Clay's wound, and she casts Cure Light Wounds on both the boy and her man. While the wounds did close, Zilo was too exhausted to move anymore beyond small actions. By the time she finished, a man had finished walking his way down the stairs.
In his hands were a pair of daggers. He had a hood on, with a short brown goatee poking out. He was dressed up in a leather jerkin just as the thieves of the Green Dragon Guild had been. This was Jake, Wisp's hitman to kill Aria for disobedience.
Aria rose and held her blade forward. She charged the man with a thrust, but the man easily deflected it and cut another wound along Aria's left forearm, making her lose the power to grip her weapon with both arms. Zilo looked to Clay with his eyes frantic, pursuing his lips and sucking in air a few times.
It took Clay a little bit to realize Zilo needed a drink, so the young boy snatched a bit of wine from behind the counter and popped it's cork, flowing the contents into Zilo's mouth. With a cough and a sputter, Zilo's lips could move fully again, and he spoke weakly,
"My... boot..." Clay got to work taking off Zilo's boot as Zilo watched his student fight. Aria began to calm down now that she had to defend a boy and a bard. Jake would try to flicker his daggers about, but Aria began to deflect them. As Zilo observed this, he began to smile as he saw her eyes.
She was doing it, she was reading her opponent like he had been trying to teach her. Her eyes focused on his face, not his weapon. She could see his attacks before he made them, like how bards are trained to fight when they are required to. Zilo let out an instinctive grin as he felt something be put in his hand.
Clay had found it, and now was the time to use it. The bard's arm shook as it rose and pointed at the killer attacking Aria. and with a weak voice, Zilo spoke.
"...Lightning... Bolt."
A streak of power flew out of the wand Clay had given him and punched the killer square in his side. He was blasted out through the wall and the tables that were between the wall and the bar were set ablaze as the man was knocked through the wall and out into the streets. Zilo's arm recoiled from the blast and the wand was sent spinning as Aria looked to Jake to make sure he was done and dropped her blade.
Aria looked to Zilo, whose head was drooping with a grin of happiness that everything managed to work out. Aria ran over to Zilo and began to look him over as she began to ask him,
"Zilo, what happened!? Are you okay? Who was that man? Where did...?" Her questions were all at once stopped as Zilo wordlessly asked a question of his own. He had reached his hand into his pocket and produced something he was holding up to Aria. He had an engagement ring and with the ring was a questioning stare into Aria's eyes.
Aria's hands covered her mouth and nose as her eyes began to water. She was just as speechless as the bard was right now, only managing to get across a small nod in agreement to Zilo's proposal. Zilo's arm faltered and landed on his leg, still pinching the ring. Aria reached down and slipped the ring onto her finger before clutching onto Zilo. Both smiled warmly as they took a few moments together before beginning to tend to the bar.
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