Judy wasn't fully on board with this plan but it was for the good of the team, or so Gavin seemed to think. She didn't understand why he'd pushed to find the sword or come out here, but she could see it was important to him.
After dinner that night the various people her team leader had invited into their home arrived sporadically. Their team seemed to be the only one completely at ease at first, the others held an intense professionalism that Gavin was slowly chipping away at. She guessed that these people hadn’t taken time to relax in weeks of constant work. Even if it wasn't particularly arduous, it was slowly turning them into automatons.
“Your team must be worn down.” Judy said to Simon, the leader of the Storm Wardens. “Spending four nights a week out in the jungle eating field rations can't be good for the soul.”
He looked at her with his hawkish gaze, deciding whether to be irritated by her comment or not, thin eyebrows narrowing. He was a short man, powerfully built beneath his drab clothes.
“It's not so bad, relaxing even, what we're missing is training. There's not a lot of fighting to be done out there, I feel we're being wasted while your team is getting the good jobs.” he said, crossing his arms over his chest.
“I've been wondering about that. They obviously want contracts completed quickly, I'm not sure why it needs to be within a day. Surely there's a more efficient way to use us.” Judy said, falling into his cadence.
“The treaty the guild signed with the Nalan peoples says something about it, or at least the time frames the guild gives you is related to the treaty.”
“The guild doesn't seem to be very big on telling us what's going on, we don't even know where your team is working so every time we get a contract we have to spend time hopping through the jungle using line of sight jumps instead of just going straight there. It hasn't been an issue, but as you place more beacons we're going to be more pressed to get to each new location.”
“Really? We have our next week's plan here. Haylee gives us an updated route every week.
Simon pulled a fresh parchment map from a storage pouch, smoothing it out on the table. It showed a map of the wider area with their route to date mapped across it with marked locations of each beacon and half a dozen more locations scattered throughout the area. They were in a roughly even grid pattern, with some being close together and others further apart like a poorly made spiders web laid out over the world.
“This is excellent.” Judy said, copying the new locations onto her map “Thanks.”
“Not a problem.” Simon said, maintaining a somewhat rigid tone, “we could probably have a weekly meeting to discuss our plans with your team. I've found open communication is often the best policy.”
“Gavin says something similar, with a few more swear words sprinkled in though.” she smirked.
“He does seem like the type not to leave anything left unsaid.” Simon said, frowning.
“Very true.” Judy said, her smile widening as she glanced across the room at him animatedly chatting to a man from the other outworlders team.
“I'm curious.” Simon said, mulling a question over.
“Oh?”
“His skills don't match up with his confidence, I've seen him fight, he's nothing special.”
“You should ask him for a sparring match one of these days. I'd pay good money to see him wipe the floor with you.” Judy said, a hint of ice making its way through her friendly demeanour.
“Are you serious? He's a whole level below me.” Simon said.
“Ask him after the movie, he'll accept.”
“I think I will, if only to satiate my curiosity.”
“Shit.” Judy said, her head snapping around to a conversation happening on the other side of the dining hall.
“What?” Simon said, turning to follow her gaze.
“Gavin doing Gavin things.”
“I WILL NOT BE TALKED DOWN TO BY-” one of the wardens was saying, his tirade was being arrested by his team mate, the other outworlder Gavin had invited along. Gerome. His name was Gerome.
“Sorry, sounds like the team wants a show of force.” Judy said apologetically, shrugging her shoulders before leaving Simon to join her team.
“HE BLASPHEMED MY GOD! I DEMAND-”
“Mate, you're embarrassing yourself.” She heard Gavin say, she knew that tone, it was his ‘I'm going to pretend to be thoroughly unconcerned with whatever you're doing to show how far beneath me you are’ voice.
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He was completely at ease, reclining on his wooden chair like he liked to do, teetering on the edge of falling.
“You are the embarrassment.” Gerome said haughtily.
“If I wanted my own comeback I'd scrape it off your mums tee-” Gavin said, stopping himself “Sorry, that was a bit far.”
“WHAT?” Gerome bellowed, a sword materialising in his hand.
Haylee stepped between the two adventurers, followed by Val, Sam, and Klara. Judy quickly joined them, placing a reassuring hand on his forearm, though he seemed, as always, completely unphased at the commotion he'd undoubtedly caused.
“I demand he be disciplined formally” Gerome was saying through the crowd.
“That is not going to happen.” Haylee said “Blasphemy isn't a crime, nor is it something the guild is interested in policing, if anything it is your behaviour that is unbecoming of a warden, especially given the disparity between your ranks. You are expected to hold yourself to a higher standard than what you've demonstrated here.”
Haylee spat the words, straightening up to her full height. She normally had the look of a harried middle manager just trying to do her job, but now she wielded her authority like an axe, her spine straight with the support of the power of the guild at her back.
“It's okay.” Gavin said “I think this is all a big misunderstanding, what I meant to say was that I wondered who would win in a fight between a priest of Paragon and a-”
“I did not misunderstand your words.” Gerome said “you have insulted my faith.”
“You're a priest of Paragon right, how about we settle this like children then go our separate ways.” Gavin said.
“Like children?” Gerome asked, his tone shifting to confusion.
“Yeah, meet after school behind the bike shed and kick each other around a bit.” Gavin said.
“I accept.” Gerome said.
Gavin sighed, Judy could feel the disappointment radiating off him. She felt herself flush with irritation, this was supposed to be a relaxing night for them all, not some dick measuring contest.
For his part, Gavin at least looked ashamed with himself, she could feel he truly didn't want a fight but had backed himself into a corner.
“Rules of engagement?” Gavin asked.
“Full contact, no restrictions, we go until one of us is incapacitated” Gerome said quickly, cracking his knuckles.
“No surrender?”
“No” said Gerome, his smug freckled face splitting into an evil grin.
“Not gonna lie, leaving it up to you to decide when to stop yourself doesn't sound like a great time.” Gavin said.
“I'm sure your team will step in before you die. ”
“I won't allow this to happen.” Haylee said, asserting herself again “there will be no fighting between teams.
“It’s okay, Gerome and I are just after a friendly sparring match, it's not really any different to how we train every day. Just the other day Sam broke three of my ribs and Val stabbed me in the kidney.” Gavin said dismissively, “and besides, we've got healers on hand to make sure no one gets a sprained ankle or whatever.”
“Fine,” Haylee said, stalking off, muttering under her breath.
“Alright.” Gavin said, clapping his hands, “shall we do this now then?”
Judy disappeared the tables into her inventory as the crowd drew to the corners of the room, leaving Gavin standing in the middle of the floor facing off with his opponent. He was still wearing his odd outworlder clothes, making no effort to draw a weapon. Geromes armour formed around him, a sword and shield appearing in his hands.
“What is this?” Gerome said gesturing with his sword, “where is your armour? Your weapon?”
“I once fist fought a gorillion during my guild test to prove a point. Thinking about doing the same here.”
Val groaned beside her, having seen how that fight had gone.
Gavin went through a simple martial arts kata, ending with him giving Gerome a ‘come here' gesture.
Gerome obliged, activating a power not unlike Sam's assault of the valkyrie ability, wings of fire plumed from his back, shooting him across the too small gap.
Gavins portal rose between them, the arch intercepting Geromes path. His wings of fire battered the stone as he passed through, breaking them apart. The portal winked out, the pearlescent void vanishing while Gerome was half way through. His torso landed with a heavy thud on the other side of the room while his legs skidded a bloody trail across the floor to stop at Gavins feet.
“Huh, that didn't work how I thought it would.” he said as Gerome shrieked in horror.
Gavin bent to touch the limbs at his feet, turning them to ash. A look of shock, amazement, and revulsion crossed his face. Judy could feel the unease at what he'd done through their bond, like he'd accidentally crossed a line he hadn't known was there.
Klara healed her team mate, his legs regrowing in moments. Without a word he and his team filed out of the room.
“Well.” Gavin said “I was going to show you Die Hard, but I'm not super in the mood for an action movie now. Give me a minute.” he said, taking a long couch out of his inventory and sitting on it.
“Well, maybe I don't want to spar with him after all.” Simon laughed, breaking the silence, “that was quite something. Offensive portal use? I haven't heard of someone trying that.”
“How did Gerome go through though? He's level three” Judy wondered aloud.
“And so is my portal ability as of last night. Come on, I've got the perfect movie.”
Judy sat down next to him, feeling the tension beneath the surface threatening to bubble over. He used his feelings like pieces in a game of strategy, sprinkling them out when he felt it would be beneficial. Now was the time to salvage some joviality from the evening, apparently.
The knights all knew dark emotions simmered beneath the surface, no one said anything, waiting for him to bring himself to talk about it in his own time. For now, he seemed content to use her illusion power to recreate a movie about talking lions.
