Chương 20: Bad Luck

Ch 20. Bad Luck John was awoken by the smell of bagels and coffee hitting his nose as well as a delicate red hand drumming gently against his chest. He sat up quickly and took stock of where he was. Seeing his books on the walls, his desk to the right of him and Andressa standing over him he realized quickly he had fallen asleep on the couch in his office.

"Did the fey find some way to weasel you out of your apartment?" she asked.

"Or do you just enjoy work so much you decided you'd never leave?" John sighed and pushed himself up, realizing there was a blanket on him that he hadn't grabbed himself. He let out a tremendous yawn as he pushed his hair out of his face.

"I thought I was just going to lay down for a minute before I headed home. I didn't expect to fall asleep."

"Well, you already had clients pushed back to midday so you could rest. You still have a couple of hours until the next one gets here."

"Who is it today?"

"Her name is Magni, a retired adventurer who's been having a lot of problems lately and is having trouble dealing with them."

"Yes, I remember her." He stood up and stretched. He saw that on his desk was a cup of coffee as well as a plate with a few bagels.

"You went to Hilda's for me?"

"I did," she said. She was already a deep crimson from the discomfort she'd caused him by waking him up and her sharp teeth seemed particularly white against the color as she smiled at him. It was very fetching.

"Thank you. I appreciate it."

"You're welcome. I'll give you some time to…" she looked him up and down.

"Freshen up."

"Thank you so much," he said much less sincerely than his other thank you just moments before as she smirked and left the office to go to her desk. John felt quite a lot less than his best. He went to the small bathroom he had off of his office and took a few moments to splash water onto his face and fix his hair. Once that was done he went into his desk and dug up a small scroll. He unfurled it, and read the small inscription inside causing a small spark of blue magic to appear and spread across him.

It removed the sweat from his shirt, the wrinkles from his suit, and cleaned him up a bit to boot. He mostly had the scroll for if he'd spilled coffee on himself, but this seemed a worthy use as well. With that done he sat down at the desk. His coffee was still warm and had been sweetened just the right amount. He took a sip and then a bite of his bagel. He coughed a little as he realized that it wasn't his usual plain cream cheese spread on it. He chewed it slowly, gauging the taste. It wasn't bad.

It seemed to be cream cheese with some kind of honey flavoring. He took another bite and found it much more pleasant now that he'd been expecting it. He brushed his desk clean of crumbs and got his notes ready. He still wasn't feeling like he was at one hundred percent, but he was feeling much better now that he had some food and some coffee in his stomach. It wasn't something he'd want to repeat, but he felt like he could tackle the day at least.

About an hour later he heard the door to the waiting room open and someone walk in. He heard a bit of hesitation in Andressa's usually perfectly professional tone. He stepped out of his office with a smile to greet his new client. Magni was a tall, broad-shouldered woman with a very delicate face that contrasted strongly with the build of a warrior. She had dark brown hair tied in a sensible ponytail and wore a simple tunic and pants with what looked to be an iron-spiked club at her waist.

Her looks gave him no pause at all until his eyes drifted to the amulet she was wearing around her neck. It hung on a thick black-iron chain, but the amulet itself was gold. It was in the shape of a monstrous skull with small green flames burning in the eye-sockets of it and a kind of strange evil whispering emanating from it. John initially felt a kind of dark chill pass through his very soul when he saw it, but managed, thanks to his many years of practice, to hold onto his smile.

"Good afternoon, you must be Magni," he said, holding out a hand for her to shake. She took it in her powerful grip.

"Magni the Misfortunate lately it feels like." Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!

"Ah," said John, his eyes drifting quickly to the amulet and then back.

"Well how about you and I go back to my office and we have a chat about it."

"Makes sense to me." John held the door for her and then went through the usual pleasantries and offers of tea.

"So, why don't you tell me in your own words why you wanted to see me today?" he asked, his own conclusion already drawn the moment he'd seen her.

"Well John, it all started after me and my friends defeated Kabanda The Warlock prince in the realm of dread. We all found a massive haul of loot, and after divying it up I decided I wanted to retire. Just live off the gold and relax for the rest of my days, you know?"

"Is that, uh, where you got the necklace?"

"My neckl-" Her eyebrows went up and she clutched the amulet in her hand holding it up.

"Yes! Sorry, I forget that I'm wearing it sometimes. Yeah, I found this and decided I'd keep it. Probably the only good thing left to me."

"Suuure," said John, trying not to jump the gun.

"Please, continue your story." She nodded.

"Well, once I got back my friend Renfrie, a bard adventurer friend of mine, convinced me to invest in a shipment of ginseng back across the near-infinite-ocean."

"Did it sink?" he asked.

"It did! How did you guess?" He looked again at the malevolently pulsing amulet.

"Well, you did tell me you were here because of a run of bad experiences. It wasn't too hard to figure out, but I'm sorry I keep interrupting you. Please continue."

"Well, that cost me a good chunk of the fortune I'd only just made, but I thought it was okay in the Unbreakable Vault of the Guardians of Wealth, but uh… it turned out to be not so unbreakable after all. The odd thing is, they only stole my gold." John nodded, less than surprised to hear that as the necklace stared into his soul with eyes of fire.

"After that, my new home that I'd just bought got swallowed up by a sinkhole. It happened literally the day after I moved all of my things into it. Of course, when I went to tell my boyfriend I found him rolling around in bed with an elvish woman. Nearly killed him then and there. Now I'm living at the Inn of Rowan, one of my fellow adventurers from before I retired, but he blamed me for his lack of customers. At this point I feel like there must be something wrong with me."

"I don't think it's you," said John.

"Well, I appreciate you saying that, but do you have any exercises you'd recommend for handling bad situations like this? My friend who came here before said you recommended some breathing exercises and helped her get a potion that helped her manage day to day?"

"Well, I'd be happy to help that way, but I usually like to make sure that there's not some physical or magical reason for the way people feel first."

"Oh, do you think I could be sick or something?"

"No, I uh, think it's the obviously cursed amulet you're wearing." She scoffed.

"What? This thing?" she grabbed it and a wave of chill hit him making him shiver.

"It's just a necklace. I swear I had to explain this to Rowan and even Illisidi, our mage, when she told me not to pick it up. It's just jewelry."

"Okay, fair enough. If it's just jewelry, why don't you take it off?"

"What?" she said, her tone changing just a bit.

"I mean, you could take it off for just a second and place it on the couch right next to you. I mean, you don't sleep with it do you?" She frowned and some of the color drained from her face.

"I don't want to. It goes really well with my outfit." John nodded.

"Okay, that's fine. Maybe I'm totally wrong. Would you excuse me for just one moment? I want to ask my secretary something."

"Oh, okay." John stood and walked to the door to his office. He stepped out and closed the door. There were two guards waiting in the waiting room. One of them mouthed, "Is it in there?" John nodded and whispered.

"Yes, please don't hurt my client if you can help it." They nodded, and counted down to three before slamming the door open and running inside. Unfortunately, John's office balcony window was open and Magni was nowhere to be found. John sighed.

"Dammit." Andressa shook her head.

"The curse sensor went off the charts with that thing." The guards came back inside.

"It's okay. An object that powerful is bound to be trackable. We'll have her taken care of." The other one shook his head.

"Curse screenings are free. How many damned adventurers are we going to have to take amulets from?"

"Least it wasn't a sword this time."

"At least there's that."