House of Winchesters by Denis Vinnik

They met on the day of illness,

when every third citizen was poisoned by a mysterious disease that made people kill their friends, their family, their loved ones. Every adventurer from the city was gathered in the town hall that night. It was still hard to tell what really caused the illness to show its colours, but one thing was for sure – this infection came from a house of Winchesters, a wealthy family that had supplied this city with potions of great variety for centuries. They were tasked with a quest that night – to go and figure out what transpired in that mansion, the guards were too busy keeping the streets secure.

His friends called him Phil. He was young, around 20 years of age and ready for adventures. Though he was quite young for a quest like this one, still his spirit burned red-hot and there was no place for fear in his heart. With his trusty, given to him by his father, he made his way to the Winchesters’ home.

Despite the streets being well lit, the night sky was spectacular that night, to the point that he could not take his gaze off it. He had just moved to this city searching for any work and had no ally with him. At that moment, the group stopped, and he smashed into a figure in front of him. His eyes switched from the starry night to that individual. She was an elf, covered in thick layers of cloth dyed in dark red colours. The elf looked back at him, her facial expression showing signs of great annoyance. Still, as their eyes met, the young adventurer felt something else, something deeper.

At that moment, foreman told the adventurers that they’d reached the manor, and after he went over the strategy once again, they pushed into the lavish house. Just as expected, the Winchester family didn’t meet them. The house was filled to the brim with dwarfs, ready to fight. All hell broke loose and many adventurers were killed on the spot, but it was just the beginning.

As the group of survivors travelled deeper into the basement where potions were brewed, Phil noticed a piece of jewellery that was left on the carpet. In an instance, he recognised the earring – it belonged to the lady elf he crashed into a while back. Putting it into his pocket, he rushed to catch up with his group. As he got closer and called out to her, an arrow flew in his direction, but before it could end our young adventurer’s life, it stopped in the air, arcane particles holding it in place.

“Duck down!”- she shouted to him, her voice strong as her spell casting, yet elegant, typical for elves.

He immediately obeyed her command, and not a second later, another arrow flew through the place where his head had just been. Panic began to set in the group, but she didn’t have a care in the world. Now that she knew the trajectory of arrows, she could figure out the archer’s position. As she pointed a finger in that direction, the arrow held by her magic sword through the air, hitting the enemy straight in his head.

Now that the danger was gone, she turned to Phil

“So, what was it? “- she asked him, her voice was now much more serene

“What? Oh, y-yes. I wanted to give you t-this. I think it b-belongs to you?”– he replied as he extended his shaking hand with the earring.

As she looked at it, a smile appeared on her face and she let out a little chuckle.

“I guess my earring saved your life today, don’t you think?”

“It sure did.” His voice was now calmer, but his hands gave away that near-death experience scarred him. “Thank you, may I know the name of the lady who saved my ass?”

“You may call me Kenia”

Now, he didn’t feel alone. As they travelled deeper and deeper into the house of brewmasters, they talked and talked, covering each other’s backs in battles. Soon enough, they stood before the door leading to the main room.

As large door opened, they were met by a group of dwarfs, with potioneer in charge. Battle was fierce, and with many casualties. In the end, only four tired adventurers were left to fight, including Kenia and Phill. At one moment, Kenia called out to everyone that she almost depleted her mana and that soon enough she would not be able to cast any more spells.

“I still have enough mana for a teleportation spell!”- she cried out. “Enough to save all four of us!”

While the two other individuals didn’t listen to her or couldn’t hear her in the heat of the battle, her voice grabbed Phill’s attention. A he turned his head towards her, he noticed arrowhead glinting in the dark that was pointed straight at her

“Kenia, look out!”- but she couldn’t hear him.

Throwing his father’s sword to the ground, he jumped towards Kenia. Noticing him, she understood that she was in danger, but this time it was too late, the arrow was some 5 meters away from hitting her, but before it could strike her in the head, Phil took the hit instead.

“Phil, you idiot!”– she shouted

The arrow hit his torso and went through his armour. He could not hear anything any more, watching as Kenia seemed to cry out to the others as everything faded into black.

He woke up in an apartment covered with elvish decorations. “How long was I out?” he wondered. At that moment, the door to his room opened, and Kenia came into the room, her hands filled with potions. As she noticed that Phil had woken up, she dropped all of them to the ground, rushing to him and tightly embracing injured Phil.

“Thank you,”- she whispered. “I could not save them, but I managed to teleport us away”

Though elves don’t usually partner with humans, as he was in her embrace, he felt that maybe this was just the beginning of something bigger.