Accidental Healer-Chapter 77 - Don’t worry Layton, you’re safe

We stood waiting with around 200 other fighters from Jordans faction. Tranquility remained safely in my storage. In just a few minutes the portal would open and we would face the raid.

As far as Jordan knew, I was just a high level healer. He knew I'd be able to cast my dome of protection for archers–albeit I had downplayed its usefulness somewhat–and that I had healing skills. Jordan viewed me as strictly a support class.

My fists clenched and unclenched. Ellison noticed and placed a hand on my shoulder. A lot had happened after my conversation with Mischief. A lot that did not sit well with me.

Mischief had been prowling through Jordan’s faction engaging in reconnaissance when one of the militia–an archer with decent sense stats–spotted him. The archer immediately shouted the alarm and for just a moment–Mischief panicked–revealing himself before bounding away through the faction.

Fortunately, Mischief and I had planned the entire scene the night before. I wanted to see what Jordan would do with a wildcard, especially one that we controlled. He had no idea Mischief was a member of our party.

Word spread like wildfire and in short order Tom had personally fetched us to be briefed by Jordan in his home.

We found Jordan hunched over prodding at dying embers in his fireplace. He turned as we entered the room and without a word gestured for us to sit. Jordan ran his hand through his hair and we all settled in.

“So…” He said in a huff. “I’m guessing you’ve heard the news spreading through our faction by now?”

Of course we had heard the news. People were talking about a massive shadow creature that resembled a panther lurking through the streets of the faction. In no time at all the members of Jordans faction had begun blaming Mischief for the disappearances. This wasn’t a huge surprise and we had expected they likely would.

But I wasn’t concerned with how the faction reacted, I wanted to know how Jordan would react.

“Which part? The fact that you’ve been plagued with disappearances or that you hadn’t seen the culprit until today?” Ellison balanced just the right amount of accusation in his tone.

Jordan took it in stride. Nodding along.

“You’re right, Ellison. It was wrong of us not to warn you of the potential threats we’ve been facing in our faction.”

“Potential threats?” I mused. “From what we’ve heard, sounds like you’ve got a murder cat prowling your streets.”

I wondered what Jordan might do. Cassie had painted him as a narcissist–so I figured the reason he brought us to his home was to downplay the weakness of his faction. Maybe he would worry about it hurting his position in further negotiations.

“That’s fair. I agree. It’s been a plague on our faction for a while now.” Jordan paused then leaned in conspiratorially.

“The truth is..." He let the words settle as he glanced out the front window. "The most trusted members of my militia have known about the monster for a while now.” He glances at Tom and lowers his voice.

“But you’ve seen the streets. People are panicking—we didn’t want to make it worse.”

Jordan shook his head. “I didn’t mention it because I felt we had it all under control.”

He pointed at Tom. “My men were closing in on the monster, we even thought we had discovered its lair.”

He shrugged. “But I guess we ran out of time.”

So, no surprise here. And without realizing who Mischief really was, Jordan had just been caught in an outright lie. For the moment, I pocketed that nugget of info to use if we needed it later. Now I was content to just allow Jordan to continue digging himself deeper.

“So you knew about this monster when we arrived then?” I prodded, egging Jordan on.

He nodded. “Again, I would’ve told you if I thought you were in any danger.” Jordan opened his hand towards Tom. “Tom, can you tell our guests we have this all well in hand?”

For a flicker of a moment Tom’s eyes widened. Nearly imperceptible but it was there.

Was he not clued in to Jordan’s lies before we arrived? Was Jordan really improvising this whole lie?

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“Right, well we’ve been tracking it of course. But as you might’ve heard, it has some type of stealth ability.” Jordan looked to Tom and urged him to keep going.

“We–uh–we feel it’s likely not a threat to capable fighters which is why it targets weak prey in our faction. Meaning if we can corner it, we can kill it.”

Poor Tom.

I couldn’t help but internally scoff—he had no idea how wrong he was. It would be hard for me to believe that Mischief wasn’t one of the most dangerous beings on the planet, let alone this small faction. If it was Mischief this whole time, there would be no one left.

“There. You see? With Nick and Ellison here you have nothing to worry about Layton." I reveled in Jordans lack of knowledge. "Besides, soon enough this monster will be hanging by its feet, you can trust me on that.”

To my left, Nick coughed and covered his mouth. Jordans eyes caught everything and the room fell silent besides the soft crackle of the dying embers. Jordan narrowed his eyes.

“The question remains then.” Ellison said, breaking the tension. “Now that people are aware, what do you intend to do? And how may we help?”

Jordans eyes slowly shifted away from Nick. “For now, our main focus is defeating the upcoming raid.”

“Once that's handled, I plan to make a public announcement to the faction letting them know everything is well in hand.” He glanced one last time at Nick. “Like Tom said, once we corner the monster that’ll be the end of it.”

Mercifully, Nick maintained his composure this time.

“What if it attacks again?” I asked.

“We still have time, the abductions only ever come at night. The cat is an ambush predator, relying on its natural camouflage.” He smiled.

“Yes, the monster is scary, but it’s a coward. It runs when faced with real danger.”

For all Jordan's lies, I couldn’t help but marvel at his ability to spin every element in his favor. Cassie made it clear that Jordan was most likely the strongest fighter in the faction. That didn’t scare me at all, I was confident if things came to a fight.

The thing that really scared me? It was his words. That was Jordan's real weapon. They were more dangerous than anything else we had faced so far.

“Well. I’m convinced.” I said cheerfully. “Are you sure you don’t want any help reigning the monster in? I’m pretty good at healing if things go south.”

Jordan’s look was sympathetic.

“Oh I’m quite sure. A battlefield’s one thing—but a hunt? That’s no place for a healer.”

And there it was. The first slip of the mask. Jordan had allowed himself to reveal his true narcissistic nature. His condescension oozed from his gaze. Maybe the look should’ve bothered me.

It didn’t.

“Thanks Jordan.” I chuckled slightly. “Honestly that monster does sound pretty scary. Your people are lucky to have you around.”

-

(Perspective shift)

Tom peeked through the blinds watching the three walking from the house.

“Did you hear that smug emo prick laugh?” Jordan fumed.

Tom didn’t look away from the group. He knew what it meant when Jordan got like this. The poor kid probably wasn’t even twenty years old.

“I don’t know.” He gave the group one last look before letting the curtain fall. “It sounded like it was a cough to me. You're making too much of it.”

He knew it was a lost cause but he figured he would at least give it his best shot to try and defend the boy.

“A cough?” Jordan’s voice came out calm. “What are they playing at? Do you think they saw through it?”

Tom didn’t know why Jordan even asked. He couldn’t read people like Jordan. If he had to guess?

“No. I think they bought it.” Even if Nick really had laughed it was probably just juvenile immaturity.

“They know more than Jordan thinks.”

Tom sighed and covered his eyes with his hands. He felt he was going crazy. His guilt was building to a crescendo. He had even begun hearing voices in his own mind that whispered of his sins.

The voice spoke of darkness, of pits created for men just like him. They told him he was even worse than Jordan, that at least Jordan was a man of action. He had replayed those thoughts in his mind for so long it was no surprise they had developed a voice of their own.

“Ellison is smart.” Jordan paced with his hand on his chin. “I think he will see reason. Layton is young, impressionable. We can work with that.”

He stopped his pacing, and smiled. So he had the plan.

“Nick is the pawn here. We can use Nick to get Layton to move." This was how Jordan's mind worked. People were just pieces to be played to accomplish his goals.

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"He needs to have an accident." He stroked his chin. "Layton already feels the weight of leadership, he admitted as much. Hell he tried giving it away already. Just a little push."

Tom hated seeing Jordan’s mind at work. He had already seen the results of his plans unfold before.

“Once his friend falls it will be the straw that breaks the camel's back. We’ll have Layton right where we want him.”

Jordan turned to Tom.

“I’ll need you to be discreet, you’ll need to make it look like an accident.”

Of course it would have to be Tom. The voice slithered into his mind.

“I see how you watch the boy with dark hair, he scares you.”

Tom shivered. Nick did scare him. His dark eyes penetrating eyes seemed to see more than they should.

“And how the hell am I supposed to do that?” Tom surprised himself with his own outburst and flinched.

Jordan let the words hang, giving Tom time to realize his own mistake.

“It’s a battle Tom–things happen when you're in a battle.” Jordan plucked the poker from the fire taking a step towards him.

“I’m sure you will know what to do when the time is right.”

How did Tom let things get this far? Unbidden, the voice whispered the truth in his mind.

“Even if you are caught it doesn’t matter. He’ll just use his magic words, Nick will be dead and so will you.”

The voice was always right. Jordan knew that even if Tom slipped up and was caught killing Nick he could just explain it away and it would be Tom to face the music. Anger began to swell in his chest. His fist clenched jaw working. Then he met Jordan's eyes, the poker still a soft orange in his hands.

His anger crumpled and his eyes met the floor. Maybe it would be a blessing if he died.

“Coward.”

The voice was right again.