Chapter 3 - Bluebells Departure and Vince’s Temptation
Vince awoke in the morning to find Bluebell sleeping soundlessly next to him. He reached out and pulled back her fine hair and looked at her sleeping and smiled. Pulling back the cover just enough to slip out he carefully exited the soft bed and started getting dressed.
Bluebell shifted in her sleep and woke up sensing his absence, “Vince? What are you doing?”
She rolled out of bed and stood up completely naked, looking at him curiously as he struggled to put on his harness. This time Vince only smiled as he looked at Bluebell and said, “Getting dressed, it was nice to spend the night with you.”
Rubbing the sleep from her eyes she stretched and yawned, “I’m surprised. You learn fast, but that doesn’t mean you can excuse yourself in my presence.”
Vince blushed and put on his bronze cap, fully dressed while she stood proud and naked before him. As he leaned down to pick up the bronze armor Bluebell shook her head, “I hate that armor. I wore it so you would feel comfortable around me. Hand me my robe.”
He grabbed the soft tiny silk robe and smelled her scent on it, “You smell like strawberries…”
Bluebell laughed as he handed it to her, putting it around her body, before pulling out a pair of white panties and slipped them on underneath her robe, checking for Vince’s probing eyes, but he didn’t even try to sneak a peek.
“There goes another romantic opportunity.” She whispered, “One less man to worry about wanting a piece of me.”
“What was that?”
“Forget it.”
Bluebell pulled the pearl from her pocket and put it in her each, motioning for Vince to do so as well.
“Morning everyone, Vince is still with us.” said Bluebell.
“Lucky bastard! Did she shave all of Ronfaure forest for you?” asked Hiko immediately.
“She did…” started Vince, but Bluebell’s smirk cut him off.
Her evil laugh resounded through the pearl and she said coldly, “Of course. He passed all the tests, but where Hiko failed, he didn’t even twitch.”
“Wonderful we got a queer like Fist…his didn’t twitch--” Hiko was once again interrupted by the now familiar sound of a crushed pearl and loud laughter.
“Anybody know where Chammy went?” asked a new voice.
“Oh! Jules! She’s finishing up interrogations now.” answered Felix. “I think she’s up to the jewels.”
A distant voice cried out, “Rended and plucked!”
“Good news, we just got three souvenirs. Bad news, no information. Orcs are really terrible at giving information…” sighed Chammy.
Bluebell nodded and said, “We need that sword. Keep at it. Oh…and Hiko is on clean up duty.”
Bluebell turned to Vince and smiled, “Perhaps we should continue your training, or get you started on magic.”
“Where do I learn magic?” asked Vince.
“Sororo has a shop. I’ll run down and get you a few scrolls so you can study them over and learn them.” Bluebell said as she tied her hair into two pigtails, “I’ll help you study and practice, but I’ll have to go ahead and finish a mission later on tonight.”
“Sure, thanks for all your help.”
“No problem. You are a man worthy of praise. You’ll become an excellent adventurer and comrade.”
Bluebell opened the door and waited for Vince to leave with her before closing and locking it behind him, “Tonight you will be ready for taking on the hill if you continue to practice, but since its only mid morning…come with me to Sororo’s.”
Crossing the crowded markets once again as people rushed was no easy task. You could take five steps before you ran into someone or were forced to detour around a moving current of people. Everything managed to change as Bluebell turned a corner off of the entrance to the Metalworks. The crowded streets became desolate and quiet. The sound of your own footfalls resounded and echoed in the high stone valleys of Bastok.
A small little house with steam pouring out from the front stood before them. Elegant words were carved into the sign: “Sororo’s Magic Emporium! 15% Off for Local Heroes!”
Pushing her way through the large Hume sized doors, Bluebell entered the shop to find the small Tarutaru Sororo fixing up a library of scrolls. Using a step ladder to reach even several feet off the shelf he pulled and rearranged magic scrolls with great difficulty and some muttering.
“Sororo. I have a new comrade that needs some spells.” Bluebell called out.
The Tarutaru leapt from his step ladder and landed gracefully on the ground. He waddled over to Bluebell and looked at her intensely before smirking, “Aren’t you the evil one, you did it to this poor boy as well.”
Sororo took out his pipe from within the coat and lit it, taking a few quick puffs before tilting his head up to Vince who was clad in bronze armor and appeared to be nothing more then Bluebell’s slave, “Red mage… Well I’ll be we don’t see many of those in these parts, or any mages at all around here. So how was the initiation?”
Vince shook his head, “I know how to fight now. That’s about it.”
Sororo nodded slowly and turned to the empty counter and shouted, “Zaira! Get your butt out here!”
A small Hume girl with black hair and a soft youthful face ran out of the side room and right up to the counter. Her ugly yellow and white cloak was disgusting and rather offensive to the eye, but at least she wore some slacks with her cloak, unlike so many others.
“Welcome to Sororo’s Scribe and Notary ple--”
“Skip the introductions. They want magic.” interrupted Sororo.
“Oh! Bluebell! I haven’t seen you in ages.” Zaira gasped and quaked in fear.
Bluebell turned to Sororo and grinned evilly, “She’s not even your own kind, but you fuck her don’t you. Poor girl would be lucky to even feel your pencil pee pee.”
Sororo’s eye narrowed as he lowered his voice and said, “Watch it, Bluebell! I won’t go into what you do to your ‘comrades’! They must be getting something for all that hard work. I bet you keep them real warm at night.”
Bluebell’s eyes become ablaze, “They can buy a slut if they want to be warm. A night with me and I would have to kill them. Besides only another of our kind would fit in me. You on the other hand are an interracial nut job.”
“You’ll never know the warmth of a man.”
“You’ll never know the love of a woman.”
“Go fuck your little comrades. Take your business elsewhere, Bluebell.”
“Miss your sluts gaping wide hole? A melon would be a better lay then her!”
Sororo’s eyes turned red as flames shot forth from the ground and engulfed Bluebell in scorching heat. The flames licked at her robe and then died away unnaturally quickly.
“Bluebell!” cried Vince as he saw the flames engulf her and sighed with relief as they died away .
Raising her fists to Sororo, Bluebell grinned, “Didn’t have the balls to kill me? You’ve been studying black magic I see.”
Sororo nodded and grinned, “What does the boy need, ice queen?”
Moving towards the counter, she reached her hands into her pockets and started pulling thousands of gold coins from them. They piled up on the counter with no end in sight. Handful after handful of gold coins covered the entire table and then she stopped, “Every scroll you got for Red Mages.”
Sororo’s eyes widened as the pile of gold gil streaked across the counter. Even the reserved Zaira couldn’t help, but stare in awe at the pile. Sororo quickly leapt onto the step ladder and started pulling scrolls from the library with haste, casting them onto the floor below, “Curative magic, time magic, enfeeblement magic, some standard issue low level elemental magic and of course buffing magic.”
A small mound of fifteen different bound scrolls piled up on the floor before Sororo jumped down and smiled, “This should start him off, but anything else he’d need to go to Jeuno or worse.”
Bluebell nodded and motioned for Vince to pick them up and store them in his pockets before turning to Sororo, “Thank you, Sororo. I can’t let this shop go under, now can I?”
“Just go.” Sororo’s eyes turned to Vince, “If you ever need to fix the urge, let me know. You’ll never find warmth in Bluebell’s Army.”
Zaira blushed deep red and nodded softly, “Please come again.”
Vince shook his head and followed Bluebell out of the store before speaking, “So it is true.”
Bluebell continued on walking towards the far off port in the distance, not stopping to face him, “I’m sorry, Vince. There is no passion and no warmth for you nor any of my comrades. Go play with a slut if you want to, but there is nothing that will keep me from my mission.”
“Just what is your mission?” Vince shouted.
Bluebell turned and with murderous eyes and a loud scream she yelled, “To exterminate every last demon that took everything from me! Even if I shall die before I accomplish this, I will become a specter and carry on my mission in death.”
“Where are you going?”
“Jeuno. I’ll be back tomorrow. Take care of yourself.” she said as she ran off down the streets towards the port. The airship dock ferried people back and forth from Jeuno to Bastok in four flights a day, “Go study your scrolls!”
Vince waved goodbye as Bluebell continued to run on down the port and dipped behind the wall, vanishing from his sight. He sighed and turned back towards the winding pathway and headed for his barren home. After what felt like an hour he managed to find his way back into his house and sprawled out on the floor.
“Bluebell…I wish I could hold you once more.”
Vince turned out his pockets and broke the binding on the scrolls and began to unfurl them. The writing inside was difficult to read, but was easily able to understand some fragments of the sentences.
“Curative…magic…focusing the mind to heal the body.” he read aloud as he started skimming through a basic cure spell.
Over and over he read the scrolls, finding that each spell required more and more skill to even begin to understand the next. Many scrolls were beyond his knowledge, advanced magic such as combining elemental power to a weapon. These kinds of scrolls required understanding and using lower level magic before building up to them. Vince continued to read the scrolls and at last had mastered five of them before a knock came at his door.
Vince stretched as he got up and moved over to answer it. Surprisingly a beautiful Mithra girl stood before him wearing an outfit similar to a bikini with a loincloth. Without a moments notice she let herself in and smiled at Vince, “How’s it going, Vince?”
The voice was familiar, but this was his first time seeing the girl, let alone a Mithra. Her brown ears shot up over her head and she had a long furry tail. While possessing feline traits she was undoubtedly human in form and a slight difference of soft peach fuzz ran down her entire body.
“Who are you?” Vince asked, completely confused as to why this strange girl has just invited herself in.
“I’m a friend of Chammy, but more importantly I’m here for you.”
“Me? Why?”
The Mithra lowered her voice so it was soft and sexy, “I’m going to keep you nice and warm tonight.”
She smiled and started to unhook her bra, but Vince’s sword was soon pointed at her neck, “Don’t you dare.”
The mithra smiled and pointed the blade away with her bare fingers, “Its already paid for. Tonight, I’m all yours.”
Vince moved the blade back to her neck and lightly grazed the skin while doing so, “Bluebell?”
The Mithra nodded, “A man should not die without knowing a woman’s warmth.”
Vince pulled his weapon back from her neck and threw it against the wall with a clang, “Get out.”
The girl’s eyes widened and she slowly turned her back and walked out of the still open door, turning her head just enough to show a soft smile she said, “You are the first to ever turn down my visit… Perhaps you would care for a meal since we have the whole night to kill.”
Vince tapped his link pearl in his ear and said, “Nice try, Bluebell.”
Hiko gasped, “You should have taken her! I mean come on! She’s the best I ever had!”
Chammy’s chuckle resounded through the pearl, “The night is still young, Vince. No man has ever resisted Misi’s lure for long.”
Vince stared the girl who waited for him outside the threshold, “Misi. Dinner sounds great.”
She laughed and grinned at him, “You are wasting your chance to come out looking good. You’ll be buried within me for sure, giving your seed to a sterile girl.”
Vince smirked, “A woman of a hundred conquests?”
Misi smirked, “Hundred virgins, but I do serve your comrades very well…”
“Hiko said you were the best.”
“Care to find out for yourself?
“Not really.”
Vince piled up the scrolls in the center of the room and followed Misi outside, closing and locking the house behind him. Misi smiled and grabbed a hold of his left hand and laced their fingers together.
“How can you live there? Do you like sleeping on the floor?” Misi asked.
“I need to get some furniture, but that’s alright, I don’t mind the floor.” Vince shrugged, trying it up, but did not break from holding her hand.
As the two walked down the streets towards some unknown restaurant plenty of people stopped to stare and whispered under their breath about Misi and “that guy” she was with.
Vince mumbled, “Popular aren’t you.”
Misi blushed softly, “For the wrong reasons, but I don’t mind.”
After a walk of shame for Misi, they reached a small little stand on the side of the street run by a large Galka. A hulking man that resembled a gorilla with thick fur and naturally huge muscles. Dressed in a cooking apron and a chef’s hat, his uniform struggled to stretch around his body. As Misi approached the Galka called out, “Misi! What’s this you got company tonight?”
Misi smiled and nodded, “Resistive, but he’s done well so far.”
The Galka turned to Vince and smiled, “You are a keeper then. Take good care of her. Moving on…what do you want to eat?”
Misi jumped and placed a few high value gil on the table and shouted, “Sole sushi for me! Vince what do you want?”
The Galka handed a plate of sushi to Misi from underneath the stand and smiled turning to Vince. Trying desperately to avoid the sight of Misi cramming the sushi into her mouth.
“Uh... You have Galkan Sausage?” Vince asked.
Misi started to choke and banged her hand on the table hard, trying to force it down. After a moment she gulped and gasped for air before yelling, “What!? How rude!? You swing that way? Clear Stone is not like that!”
Clear Stone roared with laughter as he reached into a pack and pulled out a few sausage links, “Here you are. These were slow roasted the natural way over the fire.”
Misi gasped as Vince grabbed a link and pulled it free before eating the spicy sausage with ease, her mouth hanged open, “Those things are like fire! How can you eat those things?”
He savored the spicy flavor and swallowed before smirking, “This was my favorite thing to eat ever since I was a kid. My parents were terrible can crystal synthesis, so we made everything the old fashioned way.”
Clear Stone nodded, “Truly it tastes better that way, a master cook knows both of those fine arts, but I fear everything is going the easy way now. Glad to see some people love old fashioned cooking.”
Misi gave a sigh of relief and shook her head before slowly eating her sushi off the plate. Though Vince disregarded Misi as he asked, “You are from the cooking guild in Windurst?”
“That’s right. I’m one of the craftsmen, but I always have my hands full. So I cannot take my tests. This shop is a full time business after all.”
Misi and Vince waved goodbye to Clear Stone and he called out to them, “Remember tomorrow’s morning special is Carbonara!”
Misi turned and shouted back to him, “Alright! See you tomorrow morning!”
Misi smelled wonderful, she was a beautiful sexual angel that outshone all the other women in this dreary town. Vince kept lowering his head in thought, occasionally mumbled under his breath and refused to make eye contact with Misi. Avoiding staring at her body or facing her for who she was, Vince became increasingly distant as they walked through the streets of Bastok. Her scent had lingered far too long and become arousing and her revealing ‘Come hither’ outfit had grabbed a hold of his attention.
Misi took an unexpected turn towards a lower residential district that was unearthly quiet and devoid of light. As they walked down the back alleys of Bastok, Misi stopped and turned to Vince, “You should know something Vince…”
“What is it?”
Misi bit her lip, “The offer was not just a mere test, it was an order. I’m sorry, but I’ll be taking it from you.”
Vince reached for his sword, but it was still back at his house laying on the floor. Quickly he moved to get away as Misi pinned him to the wall, but she held him down, “Let me go. I don’t want this!”
Misi grabbed Vince’s subliger and received a slap across the face, knocking her back to her senses. Misi’s eyes filled with tears and she moved back completely shocked, “Have I lost all my charm…”
Vince shook his head, “You have it, but I don’t want a one night fling with you. I’m not that kind of guy.”
Misi nodded softly, “You love her for real, don’t you?”
Vince nodded and for the first time all night, looked into Misi’s eyes that were filled with love and warmth, “Yes.”
Misi wiped away her tears and turned away from Vince, “If I am not careful I’ll fall in love with you. You are the only one out of countless men and women to reject me. Ever since I was a kitten, I’ve never been told no.”
“You are looking for love in all the wrong places.”
“Perhaps, but if anything I love everyone in Bluebell’s Army. I will continue to warm and care for them as always, but don’t despise me or feel sorry. It’s the life I am proud to live.” said Misi as she started down the streets alone, but stopped for a moment to add, “You passed your second test. Bravo.”
Vince sighed and thought, “Bluebell…what are you doing to me. Why do you have to test me?”
Darkness fell quickly as the sun dipped behind the Metalworks shrouding the alleys in sudden pitch black darkness within minutes. Leaving Vince to wander through the darkness until he tripped over a small object in the middle of the street that shouted, “Watch where the…YOU!”
