Chapter Thirteen

"That Kind Of Story"

Dueling is terrible business.

It's not a skill you can spend that much time polishing. Sure, if you wanted to, you could spend day in and out focusing on combat, but the problem with duels is that they're custom tailored to the combatants, so if you spend all your time, say, practicing your swordsmanship, and if your opponent chooses pistols, well, all that training won't do you a lick of good.

Duels are typically chosen between one of four major paths - firearms, blades, magic and unarmed - although I have heard tell of some truly exotic duels over the years, including various forms of creation and artistry. If stories are to be believed, there have been no less than four separate baking duels in recent times. And whichever skill it was you weren't training in, that's the one you're going to be asked to duel in, so either you're training for all of them all the time or don't bother.

You can guess which camp I fall into.

I spend a few hours each week keeping up all four skills, not just for dueling but for general knowledge and skillsets, although I confess, I do spend about twice as much at the firing range, because I know that when I draw the SoulEnders, I need to be as confident as possible and not second-guessing my every move. It was one of the things my father stressed to me the most as soon as it was decided I would take on the role of Gunslinger - I needed to be mentally prepared to pull the trigger any time I drew either and/or both pistols.

The SoulEnders were also obviously the reason that Nigel had chosen blades. The very existence of the two eldritch weapons (and my role with them as the Gunslinger) meant that I needed to be constantly training with firearms, and I would of course choose that given the option, which is why he wouldn't. I also wouldn't allow him to choose spells, as he was an actual wizard, while I only knew a handful of spells that I'd picked up along the way to help me do my job better.

The fact that he hopped to blades immediately made me a little bit nervous, but at the same time, I'd gone toe-to-toe with elvish lords before with blades, and that had only been reasonably challenging on my abilities. But this was an Atlantean. And he'd volunteered for the duel, which meant I couldn't expect him to be a slouch.

"This is a terrible idea, you know," my sister said to me. "There are seconds at a duel for multiple reasons, little brother, and with all the duels you've been through, you should know that better than anyone. He's hiding something."

"I know, Char, but our other options are even dicier than this, and I hate gambling."

"You think this is less dicey than simply blowing open the lock keeping the Queen asleep, and hoping that the spell disrupts properly?"

"Doing so would mean I'd unfortunately be condemning Saoirse Staire to death, and that would mean letting down my client here, something I'm never going to voluntarily do," I said to her, as we were driving back into town, heading towards Seymour's grove, Gao sitting in the back, Charlotte driving, and me trying to mentally get into the right headspace for what I expected I was going to have to do.

"I appreciate that, Sexton, but what makes you think this guy's going to honor his end of the deal?" Detective Gao said, more than a little cramped in the back of Charlotte's Mini Cooper.

"Oh, he's not. Not entirely," I said to him. "But he's got to let her go, because otherwise you're going to call me at the top and tell me she's not there. Speaking of which, I'm going to need your half of the pendant."

The Detective scowled at me before he reached behind his neck and unfastened the clasp before refastening it, holding it out to me, so I could take a much longer look at it now. I'm still not sure how I missed it on first pass, unless Gao simply hadn't had it on him when he'd come to any of our meetings. This kind of thing was almost noticeable without using the Sight, and I'm nearly certain I'd checked Gao with my Sight the first time I met him. The thing was like a small miniature star of magic, and even to the touch, it felt vaguely warm, slightly uncomfortable for me to hold, the spell inside of it bordering on breaking down. "I'm going to want that back, you know."

"Well, yes," I said to him. "After we've dealt with Nigel and unlocked the Queen, the lockets will be depowered, and you and Saoirse can get both halves back. It'll be easier to enjoy your wedding knowing you've helped avert an international crisis the likes of which the magic community hasn't seen in decades. Unless, of course, he gets the better of me, in which case, you should take comfort in the fact that you have your girl back."

"I don't think that'll be of much comfort, seeing we'll be crawling with Russian vampires, and have probably permanently ruined our relations with Atlantis," Gao said with a bitter laugh before he started to cough, reaching into his pocket to pull out a cough drop, popping it into his mouth. "Not that I understand the implications of even half of what I just said. So maybe don't do that, okay?"

"I'm not planning on losing the duel, Gao," I said to him, frowning in his direction. "I know I can seem a little crazy at times, but I'm definitely not suicidal. I'm going to do everything I can in my power to put him down and make sure he won't ever be back to bother you. But this guy thinks he's got all the angles covered, which is the one thing that does have me worried. Guy like this, doesn't take a shit without a plan. That probably means I'm missing something, which admittedly does have me a bit nervous, but I'll manage. I'm used to fucking up well-laid plans of mice and men. I've practically made a career out of it."

"Don't get yourself killed, little brother, otherwise it falls upon me to have to pick another Gunslinger, and you know that's a job I'm ill-suited to do, especially since you haven't picked a trainee for apprenticeship yet," Charlotte said to me.

"You haven't gotten around to getting married and having children yet, so we'd be taking on people from outside of the family, and I don't think you trust anyone who isn't family to take on the Huntmistress job after you pass on, so why would you want me to do the same for the Gunslinger?"

"You aren't half the perfectionist I am, Dale."

"When it comes to this?" I asked her, shaking my head. "I'm much pickier than you might know. The SoulEnders... they're a very heavy responsibility, not anything you can dump on someone lightly. I spent a decade trying to wrap my head around what I was going to have to endure when I pulled that trigger for the first time, and I was still woefully unprepared for what it did to me."

"You're fine now."

"Wellllll.... It still sneaks up on me from time to time, but yes, I'm mostly locked down about it," I said to her. "Still, it's a hell of a thing to lay on someone, and I do want to get an apprentice sooner or later, so I can start training someone, even if they aren't the one who eventually takes over for me," I said to her. "I've been thinking about it so pretty soon, we may want to bring on some apprentices, even if they aren't family."

"You could always get married yourself," Charlotte suggested.

"I could also start sprouting offspring like seedpods, but I don't think either's all that likely. How about you?"

"Stop being so picky, Dale."

"You first, sis."

"Where does one go about recruiting for a person who might be asked to kill dozens, if not thousands of people over the course of their career anyway?"

"Police and military, I'd think," Gao volunteered.

"Except those people typically believe in the power of a hierarchical structure, like the government, or the chain of command," I said. "Those people believe that systems can be trusted. That following orders is always the right answer. We don't. Part of the reason the roles of Huntmistress and Gunslinger exist is to provide a counterbalance to all the other existing systems at play, unanswerable to the Lords and Queens and nobility that have entrenched themselves in the systems of power that could otherwise get away with all sorts of heinous shit. We're an outside, unbiased regulatory agency, you could say."

"There's still a person doing the job, so you're not entirely unbiased," Gao said to me.

"We can't have any allegiances to anyone else - we can't be foresworn to any lineage or royalty, we can't be subjects of anyone or anything. So yeah, we make friends and allies in all the various factions, at the end of the day, they know we're loyal to our own cause above all others, and that's to keep the balance, to prevent anything from getting out of hand and ruining the lives of all those millions of people out there who just want a warm bed and a hot meal waiting for them at the end of the day. My biggest job, all said and done, is making sure as many people as I can out there never know that any of this mess exists around them."

"And you, Ms. Sexton? What would you say your responsibility is?"

"I make sure the monsters that go bump in the night both follow the accords and that their rights are also represented fairly when it comes to the Great Council."

"The Great Council?"

"Consider it the United Nations for everything magical and mystical. It's a representative body that meets every season, brings forth the concerns and complaints of any individual group or stripe, and then offers the chance for legislature or redressal," I said to him. "We report to them, but we don't answer to them."

"There's a difference?"

"A massive one," my sister said. "If the Great Council were to say to me, 'we want you to reduce the vampire population by 10%,' I could tell them to fuck right off. But if they come to me and say, 'we would like to reduce the amount any given vampire is allowed to feed by 5%, can you keep tabs on that for us?' then I'll say 'sure, no problem.' But they can't dictate what I will and won't do. And if they decide they think someone's a criminal, they must convince my brother of that, which very occasionally means a trial."

"Been a long time since we had one of those," I said, shaking my head with a grin, remembering the mess that had been. "I'd rather keep it that way."

"What was the last one for?"

"Regicide," I said, hoping to leave it at that.

"I very desperately want to ask more about that, but it looks like we're at the bottom of Pioneer Park," Gao said with a sigh. "Don't fuck this up, Sexton, or you'll never hear the end of it."

"If I fuck this up, I'll never hear anything again, so it won't be my problem," I said, hopping out of the car as Gao hopped out after me. Before I closed the door, I peeked my head in, leaning in so I could whisper to Charlotte. "You know your part, right?"

"Don't worry about my end, little brother," Charlotte said, kissing my cheek. "You just worry about your end. Be smart, play hard."

"I got this, sis." After I closed the door, she drove the Mini Cooper off quickly, as I turned to Gao. "You know your part, right?"

"I call you once I've got Saoirse in my arms, when I can touch her and talk to her, not a moment before," Gao said to me. "Why is that, exactly, that I need to touch and talk to her?"

"This guy's a master of illusion," I told him. "I want you to be sure it's her. I want you to talk to her, touch her, make sure her skin feels the way you remember it, that she knows things that only the two of you would know about. If it isn't her, I don't want to put the amulet even into play."

"Got it." As I started to walk up the slow, laborious climb upwards, I heard Gao call out behind me. "Hey, Sexton?"

I paused, looking back over my shoulder. "Yeah?"

"Whatever happens up there... thanks," he said, as if the weight was starting to slide from his soul, hope seeping into the dark corners that had been without light for weeks. "I know you've done your best, and I appreciate that. Man to man."

"One way or another, Detective, your girl is coming back to you."

I kept walking up the hill and took one of the SoulEnders out of its holster, feeling its familiar weight in my grip once more, like a century's worth of prices paid all at once, but yet, not dragging me down in the slightest. My father once told me that each unjust kill I made with the weapons would make them feel heavier in my hands, and I took comfort in the fact that never once had either pistol felt like they'd gained a bit of weight since I started using them. There was always the possibility that my dad was lying to me, but I'd heard similar tales in the archives, so I like to think it's true that I'd never had an unjust kill.

As I made it to the top, I stepped into the Grove to see both Seymour and Nigel standing there, the unicorn off to one side, their whole posture screaming nervousness and fear, wilting away as best as they could, shaking their head a little. "For the record, Dale, I'm against this," Seymour's tone as upset as I'd ever heard them. "This isn't just some sparring circle. This is my home you're using to duel within."

"Not my idea, Seymour, but don't worry. I've brought sugar cubes and even a few chocolate bars to make up for it at the end of it," I said, keeping the SoulEnder still pointed at the ground, even as I lined up a shot on Nigel in my mind. "Okay, Nigel, I'm here, so send the girl down."

"Already on her way," he said to me, his voice still full of alien tones and uncomfortable inflections. "I thought we'd agreed upon blades, Gunslinger, so why have you got the SoulEnders out?"

"Y'know, I thought to myself, Nigel, that I just don't trust you to hold to the terms of an honorable deal, and if you're going to try something, I need to be ready to make it right," I told him, tapping my trigger finger along the chamber, respecting trigger safety. "Until I hear from my client, we're at an impasse, but I can wait. I've done you the courtesy of not aiming at you."

"How kind of you." I noticed Nigel reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone, typing a message on it before tucking it away once more.

A few moments later, my phone rang, and it was Gao. "Hey Gao, you still seeing giant cats in your hallway?"

"You mean wolves?" Gao chuckled on the other end of the line. "That was just the once, and you said you'd killed that guy. Oh, I get it. Checking to see if I'm me, huh?"

"Never can be too careful. You got her?"

"Funniest thing... I saw her standing at the edge of the park for a second, then she hesitated, stepped back into the park, and then walked out a few seconds later," he said. "Got her in my arms now, and she's definitely her."

"Good looking out. You and she can go home now."

"What about you?"

"Either you'll hear from me, or you won't. Not too much to worry about either way. Your role in this little mess is concluded."

"You know if you don't make it out of that duel, I don't have to pay you, right?"

I grinned slightly. "Trying to make sure I'm going to collect, huh? Don't worry, Detective. I'll handle it." And then before he could say anything else, I hung up on him. I glanced up at Nigel. "Knew you'd consider trying a ringer, but I'm making sure my client gets what he's owed. The rest of this, it's just loose ends."

The Atlantean almost looked amused at my bravado. "Oh, so you'll just give me the other half of the pendant and let me go on my merry way?"

"Might've done, honestly, but you challenged me to a duel, and now I've got honor on the line, and you turned it into a whole thing..." I laughed and shook my head wearily before glancing over at my unicorn associate. "Seymour, you got his half of the locket?"

"Hanging off my horn," Seymour said. "You can add yours to it and the winner collects both."

I walked over towards the unicorn, reaching into my pocket with my left hand to pull the pendant out, moving to hang it on Seymour's horn with the other half.

"Your SoulEnders as well, if you please, Gunslinger, just so you aren't tempted to draw them during the duel. I brought a pair of longswords, which you can inspect and choose between," Nigel said, gesturing to a box in the center of the grove. He stepped over to it and opened the top of it, revealing two weapons of high-level artistry, before stepping back, removing his suit coat, hanging it from a nearby tree, giving himself more mobility.

I took the SoulEnder in my hand and put it back into its holster, then folded the leather strap over it and snapped the button shut, so they couldn't be drawn by anyone other than me while I still breathed. I slid the dual shoulder harness off one arm then the other and moved to hang the pair from a nearby tree. "I won't ask you to hold these, Seymour, but I will ask that you keep an eye on them until I'm done here."

"If he wins?"

"Then Charlotte will come and get them, and she knows what to do with them," I told the unicorn. "We were just talking about it, so I'm sure she remembers the emergency protocols."

"Whatever you say, Dale," Seymour mumbled. "And I'm sorry I didn't mention Nigel before, but "I was under a spell preventing me from talking about it unless asked about something related to it. I couldn't even hint at it."

"Yeah, I figured something like that, Seymour," I told them. "Don't beat yourself up about it. I realized far too late there had to be some reason you wouldn't have brought it up."

"One last thing, Dale... be careful. I'm not sure, but I think he's got some kind of trick up his sleeve."

"I'll be careful."

I moved over to the box and opened it up to see the two blades. I took a long moment to inspect both blades, taking one out and then the other. Neither one had any magical enchantment on them, nor did they have any concealment or trickery about them. They were functional without being fancy, designed with practicality in mind rather than presentation. Exactly the kind of weapon perfect for this kind of thing. Both were equally balanced, without flaws or obvious stress fractures. They'd been well maintained and were ready for this sort of thing. I also inspected the box itself, making sure there wasn't anything hidden in there.

Thinking too long about it was only going to make me more nervous, so I picked the blade on the left, the one furthest away from me when it was presented, and walked back from the box, allowing Nigel the room and space to do the same uninterrupted.

"You know I've had centuries to practice this skill, Gunslinger, while you're only human," Nigel said, taking his blade from the case, whipping it through the air.

"Except you're a magician, Nigel, in addition to being an Atlantean--"

"Former Atlantean--"

"Whatever," I sneered dismissively, giving a few test swings of the blade. "You spend all of your time studying spell books and hunting down ingredients... me, I'm in combat all the goddamn time. You can't be anywhere as ready as I am for this. You probably don't even remember your last duel. Just a few days ago, I was talking about a duel I had just a few years back, where I beat the upstart in question so badly, I broke a girl's heart. You? You're just some worthless little shit who decided he could fuck around in my backyard without consequences. Maybe you thought, 'Eh, it's a new Gunslinger, and so he won't be shit, and I can push him around,' but, honestly, Nigel? It's people like you I cut my teeth on coming up, and I'm so fucking over you folks now. People like you who are convinced that you've got whatever edge it is you think you need to not be just another notch on the SoulEnders. But at the end of the day, you're just another punk bully trying to prove he's tough by pissing on someone else's turf."

"Enough talk," Nigel said, adjusting himself to be in a longpoint guard position.

I, naturally, adopted the fool's guard, and grinned patiently. "Fair enough. Have at me."

His opening strike was a downward slice, intended to try and cleave one of my arms off, and I think he expected me to block, which was why I chose to step right and away from the path, letting his blade carry through its motion and chop through empty air. I needed to see what kind of fighter I was against, but when I stepped aside, I couldn't help but take an exploratory slash against his hip, and sure enough, my blade sliced through fabric and into flesh, his greenish blood leaking only a little from the graze wound. I might've been able to wound him much deeper than that, but I'd been hesitant to commit too much to the attack, so my cut had been a bit more than superficial, but nothing serious. "First blood to you," Nigel said, glancing at the cut I'd left in him. "But this isn't to the blood; it's to the death."

"You sure about wanting those stakes, Nigel? I'd let you back down if you--"

He took the advantage of me being mouthy to get in a strike, one that I was just barely able to deflect with a swipe of my own blade, pushing it back into a safe zone, away from my body. I'd adequately gauged his speed, but I'd certainly underestimated his strength. I'd never fought against a merman before, so I wasn't entirely certain how strong they would be, but this was much more than I had even guessed in my worst-case scenarios. His strikes had power behind them, which meant this wasn't going to be as long a duel as I'd expected it to be, not if I wanted it to end in my favor.

Nigel must've seen the bit of surprise on my face, because he launched into a volley of quick strikes and slashes, a litany of fury and power crashing into me, as all I could do was keep blocking, parrying and sidestepping, although a couple of the slashes had gotten close enough to lick little streams of my blood from my thighs, and that stung like hell. For half a second, I thought it might have been poison, but no, it was just the normal pain one gets from a blade wound.

For the next few minutes, we continued that dance, neither of us getting much more than a scratch on each other, until a misdirected slice from his blade cut cleanly across the top of my calf, a sharp pain sprouting from my body as the wound began to leak blood.

My mobility was shot, which was what he'd been going for. I'd been using the open space against him time and time again with my nimbleness and agility, and by clipping one of my legs, I wouldn't be anywhere near as evasive as before. That meant I needed to strike soon.

"You lose concentration for one second in thi--" Nigel said as he attempted to lunge in again, but much as he'd been reading my style, spotting for weaknesses, I'd been doing the same to him, and as good as he was, he was impatient, and when he thrust in, he tended to overcommit, something it was my turn to take advantage of. So, I just dropped all my weight to the right, and swung with the blade on my left, slicing right across his chest, hitting one of his ribs which prevented my blade from going too deep, even though it was a nice, heavy gash, and probably enough to win the fight.

Sure enough, half a second later, I saw the blade fall from his hands as I moved to stand back upright, bringing my blade up again. He was clutched at the wound, as if his hands could staunch the bleeding. "Yep, one second is all it takes," I said to him. "I did tell you this wasn't going to go your way."

"And you should know it's not over until it's over," Nigel growled as his hand whipped out a concealed pistol that was pointed at me for less than half a second before his hand exploded.

Charlotte had been watching the entire duel from a very safe distance the entire time, because I hadn't trusted Nigel one bit, but she'd been under very strict orders not to interfere unless Nigel showed intent to break the trust of the duel. If he did, she was basically told not to hold back, and make sure I was out of danger. It looks like she'd brought the Big Boy, her.50 caliber rifle, and the round had basically destroyed his entire hand along with the grip of the gun. There was a bloody stump oozing green blood that Nigel was staring at as I set the sword down on the ground and slowly walked over to reclaim the SoulEnders from the tree by Seymour, giving Charlotte a wave, so she knew I could take it from here.

"Dale," Seymour said, "you're not going--"

"Shut it." I slid the harness back over my shoulders, securing it in place, and then drew both pistols from their holsters as I started walking over towards Nigel, who was trying to use magic to close up the wound, all to no avail. He was deeply in shock, but even before that, he'd struck me as a person who only planned in the short term, not the long. "It won't work, Nigel. Seymour's presence is just eating your magics, which you'd have known if you'd ever paid even the slightest bit of attention any of the times while you were here."

I could feel the SoulEnders warming in my hands, their eagerness almost infecting me, knowing how excited they were now that they were drawn, egging me on to use them.

"Don't bother posturing, Gunslinger," Nigel spat at me. "You're not going to shoot me. I'm unarmed, defenseless, and you're a protector, not--"

The pistols in my hands erupted into eldritch fire before the next word could escape his mouth, two streaks of green flame bellowing from the barrels, as each of the two bullets passed through one of his eyes and out the back of his skull, the SoulEnders glowing ominously in my hands as Nigel's soul was shredded and eviscerated, destroyed beyond any hope of redemption, obliterated, so even if there was some kind of afterlife, he would never see it.

"This ain't that kind of story, and I ain't that kind of guy," I said to his lifeless, soulless corpse below me. The weapons in my hand drank in the ribbons of his lacerated soul remnants, consuming them like a junkie getting a fix after a long stint of sobriety. They wanted to keep going, to keep killing, but I put them back in their holsters.

I decide which lives they take, not them.

But this one deserved taking.

I turned to glance over at Seymour, as I limped back over to them, grabbing the two pendants from their horn as I saw the unicorn looking at me in an entirely different light now. I'd suspected as much, but Nigel was simply too much of a threat to allow him to live.

Seymour had known what the Gunslinger did; they'd just never seen it with their own eyes before, and that can leave quite the lasting impression.

I made my choice.

I don't regret it.

I opened up my satchel and tore open the bag of sugar cubes, scattering them along the ground, before I unwrapped the couple of candy bars I'd brought with me, tossing them in the middle of the sugar cubes, leaving Seymour their bounty. It wasn't their fault that Nigel had chosen this spot, and I didn't want them thinking I was cross with them.

"Sorry about the mess, Seymour."

"What am I to do about the body, Gunslinger?" Seymour shouted as I started to walk back down the hill.

"I'll send someone to take care of it, Seymour."

The SoulEnders felt the same weight going into the holsters as they had coming out.

A righteous kill.

Another one in my ledger.