The former temple was crowded tonight.
It always was after big robberies. The giant marble atrium was filled with tables and lanterns. A few musicians were using the dais, playing rowdy songs. Anthros were dancing, swinging mugs of frothy ale around and laughing merrily. A bear bartender and a few barback raccoons were slinging mugs of cold beer at the installed bar.
The two new beaver brothers were the star of the show tonight, each deep in their cups and groping anyone close, especially each other. They were both handsome, so Oswin guessed they’d be popular. Their beds would certainly not be cold tonight, at least.
In the corner, Ami the raccoon boi and his new daddy were getting to know each other. The boi was in his daddy’s lap, grinding against the fat coon’s bulge. His daddy was running his paws over his new toy, whispering things into the young coon’s ear that had him giggling. That blissed-out look in Ami’s eyes told Oswin he’d made the right choice for the fat otter.
And above all the chaos of the evening, the giant stuffed nine-tailed arctic fox loomed over the scene. It was certainly an impressive center piece for the run down temple turned hunting lodge, but Oswin doubted the now dead god would totally agree. Stains marred its soft white fur, some of alcohol while others were clearly… other stains.
“Come on,” Oswin grabbed Veles arm and escorted him to the bar, “Jacques!”
The stag flagged down the fat bear bartender with graying fur on his muzzle.
“Hrmph?” Jacques asked, voice a rough gravel.
“Two flagons of ale, please, for me and my friend here,” Oswin grinned, pressing Veles forward.
The bear’s eyebrows shot up. “Ein?”
“Uh, no,” Veles squirmed uncomfortably, “I’m Veles.”
“Ah, my eyes are bad, lad,” The bear grinned apologetically and winked at the stag, “He’s a real looker, eh boy?”
“Heh, yeah…” Oswin smiled down at the puma, who smiled back.
“Here ya love birds go!” Jacques handed the two cold flagons of beer, “Enjoy!”
“Will do!” Oswin waved, then pulled Ein… Veles… back to a table in the corner.
They sat down and observed the chaos and roar of the happy crowd. Together, they drank their beer. Oswin was damned thirsty after such a hard day and the hike here, but he kept himself to conservative sips. Still, they were both halfway through their flagons before Oswin started talking.
“So tell me about magic.” Oswin said.
“Oh, so light conversation then,” Veles winked. “Um, what kind?”
“How many kinds are there?”
“A bunch. Twelve schools of magic. Then there are offshoots like Advanced Summoning, Soul, Gem, shit like that.”
“Advanced summoning?” Oswin sipped his beer.
“Sure. So, you know how summoners can temporarily bring angels and demons and stuff into battle to fight for them?”
“Yes. I mean not really, but I get the idea?”
“Right. It’s called Conjuration. Advanced summoning is for more permanent things. There’s danger to it, obviously. Which is why its advanced.”
“Oh. Gems?”
“Gems and Rune magic are ways to Enchant objects, some more temporary than others.”
“I see. So Enchantment is powerful?”
“Well, you need to know all the other schools of magic to make different enchantments. You want gloves that shoot fire from the fingers? Better know Evocation magic. Want a cape that turns into bat wings you can fly with? Better know your way around Transmutation magic.”
“So it’s better to be well-rounded as a mage, then?”
“Sometimes. In combat, being an expert in Evocation and Abjuration is a good idea. Abjuration is for things like Shield spells.”
“Ah. So…”
“Mages are very tricky and the ways we use magic can appear different and quirky but at the end of the day, it all links up to the twelve schools of magic.” Veles finished. “It’s a system. Soul Magic follows rules too.”
“Can you deal with Rodrigo?” Oswin leaned forward.
“Maybe.” Veles bit his lip with a sharp tooth. “I’m a little new to all of this and my last few attempts haven’t exactly ended in success.”
Veles took a quick glance around the room, “It really depends on how its written into his character sheet. I’ll have to take a look at him before I can say for sure, but worst case is probably just that I move the curse to someone else.”
“The biggest issue we’re going to have is time. I recently got an impromptu lesson in this kind of magic from a master, but she could use Time Stop to give herself as much time as she needed to make the changes that she wanted.”
“You can’t?” Oswin asked curiously.
“No. That’s a ninth level spell, way beyond what I can do. This is the kind of thing that takes a lot of concentration, which means I’m going to need a lot of time to make sure that everything works as intended.”
“Okay,” Oswin nodded.
Veles took another swig from his flagon, his eyes roaming over Oswin’s chest and to his well-muscled arms. Oswin noticed the sudden attention and he grinned and flexed, letting the muscles pop. Veles licked his black lips, and Oswin’s cock twitched in his tight leather pants.
“Impressed?” Oswin asked, bouncing a thick pec.
Around them, the rest of the bar was growing more… explicit. Ami was bouncing up and down in his daddy’s lap, the DILFy raccoon’s cock sliding in and out of the boi’s pink hole. Stream and Creek were lewdly making out with other beavers, their tails slapping the floor in a way that seemed erotic at least. Veles twirled his whiskers, eyes flicking around the bar, taking in the atmosphere before he answered Oswin’s question.
“Well…” Veles stroked his furry goatee, his eyes focused on someone behind the stag. “I mean, you look good. Impressive arms and pecs, but it’s not that impressive when you compare them to the other men in the crowd…”
Oswin paused and glanced behind him, trying to see who the puma was looking at. Suddenly, his arm was lifted up as Veles shoved his snout deep into his armpit. The stag looked down bemusedly as the cat snorted and huffed, the long raspy tongue of his lapping at the musky fur there. Then Veles sat back, face screwed up and goofy-looking, huff and panting, licking his nose.
“What was that about?” Oswin asked, amusement leaking into his voice.
“I just wanted to get a whiff straight from the source.” Veles panted, eyes still crossed, “Mmm, almost as good as that loincloth.”
“You could have just asked,” Oswin grinned, spreading his legs and running his hoof over his crotch, “I’d love to indulge you, my musk-huffing kitty.”
“I don’t ask,” Veles eyes focused on the deer’s cocky grin, “I take what I want.”
Oswin grinned and took a deep swig of his beer. “Noted.”
“Noted,” Veles mocked, the puma grinning, “So tell me about this Ein guy. You were crying about him earlier, right? He wasn’t just someone you were friends with, right?”
“...I suppose I could say more about him.” Oswin said, “You do look a lot like him. He was a friend of mine. All he wanted, originally, at least, was to make improvements to the town. Like, upgrades to the lumber mill and stuff, things that would make banditry unnecessary.”
“You said he was a friend? Like, a friend with benefits?”
“Just a friend,” Oswin grimaced, “He was straight.”
“Huh, everyone around here seems gay, so…”
“Right, well, we don’t exactly procreate to make more bandits.” Oswin shrugged. “I mean, you’ve seen it yourself.”
Oswin didn’t say that he’d wished Ein was gay. He didn’t say how much he loved him. That all he’d ever wanted to do was hold him, build a cabin for him, keep him safe from the evil mayor forever.
“Right, you transform people into more townspeople.” Ein… Veles said.
He looked so like him, it was hard for Oswin to keep them separate.
“He wasn’t the first of our friends to die.” Oswin took another swig of beer. “There was Kavon. He was this bear who was everyone’s friend. Wanted to negotiate with some of the bandit leaders to make some of the caravans that were supplying the resistance in town have safe passage. Someone fished him out of the river a few miles out of town.”
“You mean?”
“He had a distinctive scar that carried over after Rodrigo was done with him.” Oswin paused again, “nobody recognized him until he was already on the grill.”
“But all he did was make the suggestion to Rodrigo?”
“Yeah. That was when I realized that we were being too idealistic. This town needed a more gray approach to morality. Ein objected, saying we couldn’t compromise our values.”
“That’s true,” Veles nodded.
“No, it isn’t!” Oswin snarled. “What good were Kavon’s values to him, if they did was get him killed? Or Ein’s? Ein wasn’t the only person Rodrigo dosed with his potions; his entire family ended up in that lumbermill! What good are uncompromising morals if they get you killed?”
Veles swallowed a gulp of beer and looked away.
Oswin flinched. Was he wrong? There was no way they could have saved the town without looking at the situation realistically. His opinion was based on the facts. It wasn’t just some feel-good emotion like Ein used to make his decisions. That was why Oswin was alive and Ein was…