The next morning there was a shock when he appeared back in the main audience hall for the morning briefing.
“Where were you!?” Lady Amethyst asked from the central seat.
“Huh? Oh!, I fell asleep, after something occurred to me about the key.” He said shrugging
“Fell asleep, where were you?” She said.
“In the mirror room,” As if that explained it.
“Doing what?” She asked.
“Well it occurred to me that I never actually searched the room properly, so I searched it.”
She stared at him for a moment, “You find anything?”
“As a matter of fact, I found a few things, I’m not sure if it’s a joke, but I found something I wasn’t expecting.”
“Oh?”
“I figured out why the key breaks apart, let’s just leave it at that, for now.” He said leaning in and kissing her on the cheek.
“Uh why does the key break apart?” She asked.
“There are other locks, inside the room. I have good idea who made the extra dimensional space.” He said holding up the key.
Brigette and the commander came in,” When were you going to mention that map?” The commander asked.
“I was going to turn it over to you today, and the book as well as the translations.” He said removing the map and two books from the small bag at his hip.
“I am just disappointed you didn’t tell me sooner.” He said looking at the map and books. “I understand you want to take Brigette and some others and find this elven vault or the tower, see if it is really there. When were you thinking of venturing out into the blight?” He said a little irritated.
“I was thinking that we could head out after we deliver the supplies to the fortress we are responsible for. It takes a day to get there, a day back. If I wanted to go out with the gold rank teams to scout for a week or so I don’t see that as a problem.”
The commander sighed,” Yes there have been other lords who have gone out into the blight, I just don’t like sending out some of my best people. Who were you going to leave in charge.”
“Well Coreen and Helen, as well as Isabel will be staying Abigail and Kiki have no business going into the blight. My wife isn’t too keen, but if we take horses we should be all right. I haven’t asked anyone else, as I wasn’t sure who would be interested.”
Newton, Beth and Eve came into the audience hall. There was greeting of morning as well as acknowledgment of each other.
“I heard you wanted to talk to us,” Newton asked.
“I’m planning a trip into the blight, wanted to know if you were interested.” He asked Newton.
Newton glanced at Beth, “No, I appreciate that you offered. Beth and I are going to stay here and work on concrete, production. Eve?”
“I don’t think I would be much help out there, after hearing what you did to the demons, I think you outclass us in levels and just sheer tenacity, I wouldn’t want to slow you down. I can keep an eye on things here.” Eve said shrugging.
Miguel sauntered in hands in his jeans, they looked worn. “Hiya what did you want to see me about?” He asked.
“We are thinking about going into the blight after delivering supplies, you interested?”
“Phhht, no. I have a good thing going here. I even have a blacksmith that will help me make a combustion engine.”
“What?” Bloodstone asked.
“Yeah, in high school, I was in a vocational program, for car repair, I know how to rebuild engines. Is that all you wanted to ask me?”
“Well if he’s staying I’m going,” Eve said ignoring Miguel.
“Have fun,“ Miguel said and walked back out of the room.
“How about you, can you spare a week or two in the blight?” He asked Brigette.
Brigette turned pale, “I.. um …I don’t know.”
Xyrediane and Rana came into the audience chamber followed by Marcus, and three winged drakes, Hijala Greenscale, Enevia Rustscale and Illapressa Lavandarius entered.
Enevia was talking to the other two, “She’s more than a scribe, at least from what I have seen, she does good work as well. I didn’t know she was that powerful.”
Hijala nodded, “I will guard her would you stay and protect those that are here?”
The other two nodded.
“You wished to see us?” Kijala asked.
“With the others helping the seagent, hold the other keep, I wanted to know if any of you would be interested in going into the blight with me?”
Hijala stepped forward, “I pledged to protect you and yours, as have Enevia and Illapressa. I will journey with you and they will stay and protect your assets here.”
“I think I will go with you as well, I won’t speak for Rana.” Xyrediane said.
“My sword is yours Lord Bloodstone.” Rana said bowing very low with a flourish.
Marcus looked unconcerned, “My sword is always yours to command”
Zach and Kuya walked in the goblin were between them talking. The goblin stopped and hid behind Kuya.
Ke’lara came in with two guards followed by Violet, and Coreen.
Ke’lara nodded to Bloodstone.
“Thank you all for coming we are going to discuss somethings important to me, as well as Brigette and the Kingdom. First before we get started, I want you all to be aware of the situation.” He gestured, and the two guardsmen closed the doors from the outside.
“We have come into possession of a map, and an old text, that indicated there is a possible cache of magic in the blight, the goblins know the place, and refer to it as a place of death. While we don’t know precisely where it is, there is the possibility of recovering a large number of magic items or magic knowledge, or at the very least know where to go to begin researching how to get into said vault. In addition, there is a place that Brigettes old team found, that is also the place they died. Brigette has been very helpful, in the past weeks with her skill and knowledge of magic. I want to try and bring them back.” He held up one hand, “To be more precise I want to if she is willing to show us where they fell.”
There were many puzzled looks.
“They are all dead,” Brigette said softly.
“I have been preparing, to go into the blight. I want to interview the gold teams that have been out there. Brigette informed me her team never went that far north. One of the issues we will have is food and water. Water during the rainy season isn’t a major issue and with Xach and me able to use ice magic we can harvest water if we need to. Food is the only issue I can see being a slight problem.
“I can give everyone a bag of holding to hold food for the trip.” Coreen said.
“That helps it doesn’t solve the problem, I plan on being out no more than two weeks, but I want to be very cautious, we might get stuck out there for a week or more, so a month of rations as well as an emergency supply. We will also need feed for the horses. I think I have solution to that, something I found earlier today. There were three scouts that I went out with Lady Aladeana, one of them went with her to the capital, one of them was killed during the attack and the third, is helping get provisions ready.”
“Getting more scouts is something we have tried to recruit, there have been no takers since most of the kingdom is still in disarray after the attacks.” Coreen said.
“I decided to offer anyone who wants to take a scout position, double the normal fee, no class required. I would like to have your help in assessing their potential before giving them the scout class.”
Bloodstone opened the doors and looked out in the hall there were only two people standing in the hallway. The young man at the front of the line looked like a stable hand, he was husky, and his clothes were not rich or lavish. The small woman behind him, looked nervous and was dressed in functional cloths she was in a brown dress, and a heavy white linen shirt, that looked warm.
“Just you two?” He asked.
The young man smiled, “Yes sir”
The woman squeaked out a “I think so, there was another, but he went to the privy.”
Bloodstone looked at the two guards who were very intimidating outside the doors in the chainmail armor and pikes. “If he comes back send him in”
“Yes, my lord” The guard on the left said.
He led the two of them into the audience room. The two of them froze when they saw how many people were in the audience room, as well as the commander and Brigette.
“No need to be nervous, this is just an interview, there are no wrong answers.” He walked over and sat down in the central chair on a slightly raised dais. The chair itself was simple and comforatable, it was not extravagant, but functional.
“Tell me who you are and why I should hire you as a scout?” He asked them after he sat down.
The young man licked his lips, and nodded, “I am Jeremiah Gardener, I am the youngest son of six children and I want to make a name for myself. I am too old to take an apprenticeship. I have a strong back and some levels as a farmer, as well as animal handler. To be honest the gold is what caught my attention ten gold coins if you get hired no levels required.”
Bloodstone nodded and looked at the woman. “Your turn.”
The woman turned bright red, “Er…um…I’m Stephanie, I was abandoned as a small child and grew up working here in the fortress, running errands and doing laundry. If your pardon sir I want to make my life better.”
“Admirable, the two of you need to prove yourself to me. Either of you ever held a sword?”
“No, my lord” Jeramiah said
“No, my lord” Stephanie said as well.
“You both wondering how I am going to do that. In fact, I am guessing that others in the room don’t see you as being scout material. I would disagree, so I will give you a chance. You both say having a chance is fair?”
The young man nodded, the girl looked upset. “How can a test be fair, if we don’t know what it is?” The girl asked.
“It’s a simple test, I am giving you authority to do what needs to be done, I want you to disarm everyone here.”
The commander tensed, his hand reflexively dropping onto his swords pommel.
Everyone stared at Lord Bloodstone, and there was a long moment of total silence.
Stephanie looked around the room, “I don’t know if I can do that.”
“Why not?” Bloodstone asked.
“There are casters here, I don’t know how they could be disarmed.” Stephanie said looking around the room.
Jeramiah took a step forward and said loudly to the commander, “you will disarm”
The commander looked the boy over, “I don’t answer to you boy, I answer to the king himself.”
Jeramiah looked back to Bloodstone, “I have been given authority by the lord to disarm everyone here.”
“I don’t recognize that authority, boy.” He said grinning.
Stephanie walked over to one of the drakes, “I have no way to disarm a drake, this is not a fair test”
“It’s a fair test,” Bloodstone said looking at the looks he was being given.
It was Rana who first spoke, “You are being unfair to them, there is no way these children could disarm everyone in this room.”
Bloodstone looked over at Rana and smiled, “There is.”
The door opened, and a dark haired scrawny kid walked in and was adjusting his breeches. “Oh sorry, was told I could come in.” His hair was a mess, and he looked like he had wet his hair, to try and flatten it.
“You must be the last applicant, tell me who you are and why you want to be a scout.” Bloodstone said as he nodded to the guards, and the door was closed again.
“Me, I’m William, I just want a meal and if I get to learn a class then at least I won’t be on the streets.” He said looking at each of the people in the room.
“What do I need to do to be a scout?” William asked.
“We are having a test, on my authority I want you to disarm everyone in this room.” Bloodstone said.
“Oh,” He said looking around.
“Think you can handle that?” Bloodstone asked.
The kid walked over to the door and opened it. “EVERYBODY OUT NOW!” He shouted.
No one moved.
“By the authority of the Lord, you are all to leave the audience room now!” William said a little softer. The guards looked confused and stepped into the room.
Bloodstone walked out of the room into the hallway, after some moment the others followed him outside. The three applicants stood in the audience room.
Bloodstone clapped, “Well done. The guards would have called for help if no one had moved.”
Everyone looked confused.
“Please come back into the audience chambers,” he said to the others.
Two days later, ten wagons were lined up with an escort that was heading out to the forward fortress.
The commander stood off to one side with Coreen, Bloodstone and William were standing next to them.
“I would like to know what you did with a two months’ worth supplies,” The commander said.
“They are in a safe place, and I still need to keep a few secrets.” He said winking at Coreen.
“I have the ledger of the expenses, if it’s a question of the expense, I have no problem covering it.” Coreen said to the commander.
“I just don’t like the fact that Brigette agreed to go off with you, what did you say to her that changed her mind.” The commander asked.
“I didn’t, Rana did. As for what was discussed I haven’t talked to her since the other day in the Audience chamber.”
Bloodstone leaned in and kissed Coreen on the cheek, “We should be back in about three weeks, if something major comes up you know how to reach me.” He said tapping his right ear.
Helen, and Isabel walked over to the group. Hellen was wearing an immaculate maid outfit, and Isabel, was wearing a functional warm dress. She didn’t appear to be happy with being left behind. Her eyes were red and puffy, as she had been crying recently.
“I could still go with you.” She said hopefully.
“We discussed this already, you need to keep an eye on Kiki and Abagail. You have no combat abilities, and I refuse to put you in danger.” He said firmly.
“It’s not fair!” She pouted stamping a foot.
“Life rarely is, I’ll see you in three weeks or so. Try not to drive everyone crazy.” He teased.
Helen didn’t hesitate and stepped closer and hugged him. “Don’t do anything crazy.” He kissed her gently and stepped back. She was a little taken aback by the kiss.
“I plan on coming back.” He leaned in and kissed Isabel on the forehead. “William, you ready to go?”
“Yes, my lord.” He said staring at Isabel.
The two of them mounted horses and the wagons began to move along with the escort. They rode next to Lady Amethyst and Brigette. Lady Amethyst was giving him a disapproving look.
“What?” He asked.
“Nothing,” she said and turned back to watch the big doors open and the wagon train begin to head out.
Kuya sat next to the goblin on a wagon. “Big doors” The goblin said, “Big doors!”
“Who is going to be fixing that large fissure,” Brigette asked.
“Oh right, Xyre”, he called.
Xyrediane looked over at him and mover her horse closer, “What?” She asked.
“I was wondering if you or Brigitte could fix that fissure Xach made the other day?”
She looked over at him, and then over at his son, “I guess you must have heard someone talking about naming it.”
“Yea, and some of them were not flattering if you need help fixing it or a mana boost”
Xrediane laughed, “Sure I’ll look, when we get out to it. I feel like you want to ask about something else.”
“Well I wanted you to know I understand if you and Rana want to leave, far be it from me to get between what you have for each other.”
“Its fine, we both feel like your someone to follow. Even now you’re worried about us. Most humans don’t like half elves, never mind half gazers.”
“It’s raciest to think I am better than you or Rana, I know I am not, your both special to me.” He said
putting his horse into a canter to follow the wagons.
Xyrediana rode her horse next to his, “You haven’t said what your plans are once you get to the fortress outpost. Looking at your actions the past couple of weeks, since I have known you, I have no idea what your thinking.”
“I want to make sure I keep my family and friends safe. Brigette has helped me a lot these past few weeks and given me an awareness of how magic works. I have a question for you, what if everything you knew about magic was wrong?”
“What do you mean wrong?” She asked.
“What if I told you that magic has its own set of rules?”
“I have never heard of magic having rules.”
“What is the most dangerous spell you know about?”
She was about to say something and stopped to think about it. “Do you mean on a battlefield, or a single target?”
“Any of them,” he smiled.
“Maybe earthquake, or a fireball, or something along those lines.” She said.
“I know of a spell, that can erase someone from existence, not just from today forward, as if they never existed. That’s not even my idea, for the spell.”
“How is that dangerous, I don’t recall ever seeing that spell in any of the books you have.” She asked.
“Time, imagine that I erase say Mr. Sutter from existence, every interaction since he was born changes. Every person he hurt everyone he interacted with in his lifetime, gone.”
She stared at him, “That’s terrifying, and you know this spell?”
“I know how I could build it its knowing that I could, that terrifies me.”
“Are you thinking of using it on the monster that killed Brigettes team.”
“No, never something like that should never be used, I will destroy it with conventional spells.”
“How would you erase something like that,” She asked.
He looked over at her, “I’m not going to tell you either.” He rode ahead leaving her.
Rana came up on her other side, “What was that all about?” She asked.
“I think I scared him,” She said to Rana
“You scared him?” Rana asked and rode her horse up next to him. “You scared of Xyre?” She teased?
He looked over at her, “No, I just don’t want to talk about dangerous magic with her.”
“How about with me?”
Bloodstone laughed, “Not really, I do have a question that I wanted to ask you.”
She rolled her eyes, “Sure, you always ask weird questions.”
“What’s the lifespan of a half gazer? I did some research and I didn’t find much on your species. Your people seem to be very rare to begin with.”
“No idea, I’m not as old as Xyre. Is that all.” She said smiling showing her pointed teeth.
“No, I mean.” He sighed, “I don’t even know how to ask you the right questions. I will just come out and ask. Are you happy with the situation?”
“It’s not Ideal, you are not bad for a human. You treat me and Xyre, as equals. I think I am waiting for you to disappoint me. I haven’t liked humans for a long time, I hate Sutter, you…I hate to admit, but I find myself wanting to impress you.”
“You don’t need to impress me, Rana. You already did that.”
She slowed her horse and let him get ahead of her. Xyrediane rode next to her, “What did he say to you”
“Nothing,” she said looking away.
“Then why are you blushing.” Xyrediane asked.
“I’m not,” she said turning back to her.
A half hour later they approached the rift that had been carved into the landscape. No one had been out to see how bad the damage was.
“Wow that’s deep” Xach said looking over the edge after it had been deemed safe to walk on.
“Fix it,” Bloodstone said to Xach.
“I don’t know how.” He shrugged and walked back to his horse.
“See this is what I have to deal with.” He gestured at Xach
“Can you fix it, Xyrediane asked?” watching Xach get on his horse.
There was an exasperated sigh, “I guess, it’s going to be a lot of work.” He walked to the edge of the rift and stepped off the edge.
There was a gasp as he just dropped off the edge.
“Did he just walk off the edge?” one of the wagon drivers said.
There was a rumbling from the rift, and jagged spikes began to erupt from the walls.
“What happening,” someone asked.
“Xyre?” Rana asked.
“Something is moving a lot of rock, its… ohhh! Everyone get back” She said.
A fountain of molten rock began to erupt from below the ground below the fissure.
“What about Lord Bloodstone?” Rana asked, as the lava was shooting up about ten feet and falling back into the fissure.
Bloodstone said from behind them, “What about me?”
“We thought you jumped,” Rana said punching him lightly in the chest, ”I saw you drop, how far did you fall?”
“I went to the bottom, and opened a gate to the plane of lava, there no other viable way to fix a mess like that. It will be open for a while then the gate will close.”
The lava fountained for about hour, while they moved the wagons around the fissure. The heat coming from the lava was intense and they kept way back from the fissure as they went around it.
“How did you get back up?” Rana asked.
Bloodstone smiled, ”trade secret.”
Lady Amethyst rode up next to him, “Why didn’t you just use water?”
“I could have but then that makes a very deep fissure, and there is an aquifer under the fissure, this seals the area, I don’t want to pollute the underground aquifer, this will act as a plug” Bloodstone replied.
“When did you learn how to make a gate?” Xyrediane asked.
“I am using a specialized class, that can make magic in a different manner.”
“What class? I haven’t been able to see any of your classes since you got that strange one” Rana asked as she rode on his left side
“Artificer,” he said simply
“I have never heard of that class.” Rana said.
“Nor have I”, Xyredian said from his right side, “What does that class do?”
“It lets me manipulate magic in a raw state and make it do what I need it to do,” He shrugged, “combined with my other classes I can manipulate magic if I know the thought forms.”
“The what?” she asked confused
“Thought forms, how something would manifest. Even on an esoteric level there is some relation with imagination and will. There is a principle of this world that allows you to move your own fate along with your own will. Dare to dream big and you will move in that direction if your will is strong enough. I always had a problem in the past defining what will was, the truth is having a focus to do something to believe in it, even when the opposite is staring you in the face.”
“I think he’s rambling” Rana said, “I don’t understand half of what he just said.
They continued to talk as they rode, keeping an eye on the land, the black grasses blew in the slight breeze, and occasionally they could smell the burning rift. An hour later the grass was the only thing that moved and the slight trail they followed to the outpost. The trail that they followed was little more than a pile of rocks every hundred yards or so, that let in a straight line.
Two hour into the journey north, the one scout with them called a stop, “Body, over there” he pointed.
The scout trainees, and several others rode over to check it out. It was a corpse, and appeared to be a demon.
“There’s another over there.” One of the guardsmen with them said.
“Goblins”, Stephanie said pointing.
There were two goblins dragging a body. Bloodstone was the first to say something. “That’s a half elf.” The goblins dropped the body, the moment they saw the group and ran off into the grass.
“Anyone recognize him?” Bloodstone said dropping from his horse to check the body. He turned the body over to view the face to show the others. There was dried blood where his throat had been cut. Bloodstone looked back to where they had dragged him from and just saw tall black grass.
“Yes, hes with a silver rank team, they operate mostly to the west they were, ahh, the Blight wolves. They have six in their team, we should see if there are others around.” Brigette informed him.
Bloodstone checked the male half elves corpse, his body was slightly sticky with blood, and there were six arrows that had been broken off still in his back. One of the rear wagons rolled over to them, and they loaded the body onto the wagon. “Look for any other corpses, and let’s see if we can get the goblins to help us look.”
“They ran off” William said, looking around.
“Doubtful, goblins are scavengers, there’s other bodies around we just want to recover the adventures if there are any other bodies.”
Using the road markers, they continued in the direction of the fortress outpost. They came across several other bodies, all of them were demons, and some had been burned, cut or hit with arrows. Ten minutes later they found another Blight wolf, she was sitting down back to the marker pile, three goblins were standing back from her. She had a glowing pulsing orb of light in one hand and a dagger in the other. One of the goblins was a hobgoblin, muscular, with a large metal banded club. The hobgoblin didn’t move when the horses moved in his direction.
“Go talk to him, see if he will talk.” Bloodstone said to the small goblin that was on the wagon.
The small goblin looked apprehensive and jumped off the wagon and ran towards the hobgoblin.
There was exchange of words and body language, the small goblin walked back over to Bloodstone.
“He no talk.”
“Is he going to fight?”
The goblin looked back over his shoulder, “Wants to kill woman.”
“Is he [cheiftan]?”
The small goblin nodded, “Not know.”
He looked over the hobgoblin again, “Let me pass, she is clan.” He said to the hobgoblin.
The hobgoblin stood a little straighter, and defiantly took a battle stance.
He looked back over his shoulder and said loudly, “No one interfere, this is between me and this Hob” He turned back and started walking towards the woman. He was within striking distance of the Hobgoblin the Hobgoblin took a swing at Bloodstone. There was a loud crack as the club impacted a field of energy a foot from him. The goblin swung several more times, and Bloodstone continued to walk towards the woman. Each impact hit something and just stopped. The hobgoblin looked confused.
The other two goblins backed away as he approached and staying out of reach of the woman.
“You with the Blight wolves” He asked her as he knelt to her level.
She nodded slightly, “Who are you?” She rasped.
The big hobgoblin charged, at that moment club raised over his head and brought it down, the energy shield shattered, but stopped the blow. The goblin raised his club again.
“Just a moment,” Bloodstone stood and turned towards the hobgoblin. “You’re not a smart goblin, I haven’t taken any aggressive actions to you, hit me now and we will continue, the animosity towards your people.” There was no menace in his voice.
The hobgoblin paused, as if trying to decide what to do. “Why you not fight?”
Bloodstone looked at the hobgoblin, then at the woman leaning against the rocks, “Did you do this?” He gestured to the woman.
“If did then fight?” the hobgoblin said.
“Let us see what she says, “The goblins do this to you and your team?”
She looked up ,”Demons, goblin just came cause I can’t move. I haven’t had the nerve to look to see how bad it is. Are you with a new team out here?”
“No, now sit tight have to negotiate with the Hobgoblin here. Woman says demons, so I don’t hold you or goblins responsible, any more of them around here?” He asked the Hobgoblin.
The Hobgoblin looked very confused, “No fight?”
“Only if you insist, if you find any more humans bring them to the fortress”
“Humans kill goblins, goblin kill humans. Humans kill humans and half-elves” The hobgoblin stated.
“Why?”
The goblin looked even more confused; he turned and yelled at the two small goblins, and started walking off into the blight. “Not know why humans do things,” he heaved the club onto one shoulder and turned his back on Bloodstone.
Bloodstone walked over next to the woman and knelt and picked her up. She gasped in pain as he lifted her up he walked her to the wagon, specifically one not with the corpse in it.
“Where’s the rest of your team?”
“I don’t know, we got attacked last night. Did they send you to look for me?”
“No, we are running supplies to the outpost.” He turned and said to Rana, “What marker is this?”
Rana looked over at the pile of stones, “four thirty six” She replied
“I don’t recognize…” The half-elven woman looked around to the people on horseback. “Is that Brigette?” She said softly.
“Yes, you want to talk to her?” He asked
“She’s a legend, who are you again?” she said as the wagon started to move again, and hit a bump jostling her. She winced.
Bloodstone looked up at the sun in the sky, “Hey Rana, is it noon yet?”
Rana looked over at him, “No about an hour more”
“Can I have a word?” He said walking back to his mount.
Rana rode over to him, “Why?”
“You think you can distract her for a few minutes, he said looking over at the wagons as they moved.”
“I guess, why?”
“I need information, or we can wait till midnight tonight.”
“I can just let me know when.”
“Sure,“ he mounted back on the his horse and rode back to the wagon with the corpse. “Keep an eye out for anything unusual.” He said to the group as he rode back.
There were nods and several people were looking at the woman in the wagon.
Brigette rode over to him, “Why did you let that Hob go?” She said crossly.
“Not a fight that is worth fighting.”
“You could have taken down that Hob easy.”
“Brigette, get over your prejudice of goblins. I think I am starting to see why there’s been no unity in the world.”
“They are just monsters.”
Bloodstone glared, “That Hob knew that if he fought he most likely would die, we both knew it. Here’s the question is why he still attacked?”
“Who cares what the monsters think?” She said.
“You should care, as a mage, knowledge is power. If you know how a goblin thinks you can anticipate most responses, know what motivates them. The moment you think of them as mindless monsters, you are already at a disadvantage and underestimating them.”
“It was just a goblin.” She said defensibly.
“It was a goblin, that couldn’t back down. I gave him an out. This kill anything that moves in the blight is a mistake.”
“There are monsters that need to be killed,” Brigette countered.
“Not goblins, they are the one race that shouldn’t be hunted, they could be an early warning system, they hear well or better than humans, and smell better than humans.” He said looking around.
“Goblins do not smell better than humans. They are dirty monsters.”
Bloodstone stopped and stared at her. “Uh huh, I meant they smell as good as a bloodhound and hear just as well. They have survival traits that keep them alive as a species. They are intelligent as any other race. I did some digging there have been some goblin adventures, one recently on Izril, went crazy and killed a bunch of adventures in his team, a likely dispute about treasure.” He shrugged, “If one can do it others can.”
“Goblins?” Brigette said and rode over to talk to the woman.
The wagon with the corpse was in the fourth wagon, where the woman was in the second. He nodded and Rana, rode up next to Brigette.
Moving to the forth wagon he lifted the corpse up onto his horse. And then fell back letting the other wagons pass.
“There a problem my lord?” one of the wagon drivers asked.
“No, something just occurred to me keep driving I will catch up.” He said to the last wagon driver.
The four guards on horseback slowed.
“Stay with the wagons, I will be back with you shortly.”
The four guardsmen continued with the wagons.
He sat on the horse and shortly Rana and Xyrediane rode back to where he was.
“What are you thinking?” Xyrediane said.
“That something feels off, I want some answers before we get to the outpost.”
He hopped down and opened a door in the middle of the blight. The door opened into a somewhat large room, with a desk, that was covered in books and parchment. Off to one side of the desk was a large full length mirror. A cot folded up next to the mirror. He then dragged the body, unfolded the cot and place the body on it. There were also several large crates along the walls. A cloth covered something opposite the mirror, and against the inside wall.
“Keep watch, use the horses to block the door” he said to Rana
“Why this half-elf?” Xyrediane asked looking at the mirror.
“He was shot six times in the back the other blight wolf has a broken leg, no arrows. Doesn’t that seem odd to you?”
She looked over at the body, “His belt pouches are gone as well as his weapons, the goblins didn’t have them.”
“This armor should stop normal arrows, and who broke the shafts on the arrows? I can’t see the goblins doing that. Also something that Hob said. Rana anything?”
Rana stood at the doorway, “nothing that I can see, the wagons are getting farther. Should we be out here? When did you put all those crates in there?”
“Timing is something I am taking advantage of.” He pulled a small mirror from his bag of holding and held it in a manner to shine light on the mirror inside the room. “Do you know a sleep spell?” He asked Xyrediane
“You are asking that now?”
“Do you?”
“No, why”
“Nevermind, I will take care of it.” He looked over at the body bathed in the light of the sun. “It just occurred to me that we are going to need to redress him. I don’t feel like looking through the crates for extra gear for him.”
“We could do this tonight” she suggested.
“It might be too late then”
“Rana, can you see if you can find where he was killed? The goblins were dragging him from somewhere they ran the moment they saw us. The two goblins with the hob didn’t any idea why that is?”
“Who knows with goblins. I will look around.” Rana said, mounding back on her horse.
There was a flash and a naked male half-elf stepped out of the mirror, Bloodstone turned the light into his eyes. “Close your eyes, keep them closed. You’re going to be very weak for a bit, relax your safe.”
The elf closed his eyes and asked, “Who are you”
“Shush, someone is going to guide you, and once you’re over here we can talk.” He nodded to Xyrediane who picked up the clothes on the cot and then guided the half-elf to the door.
As soon as they both were outside, Bloodstone stepped and closed the door. The door fade instantly once the door was closed.
“Ok you can open your eyes” He said as he put the mirror away.
The naked half-elf opened his eyes, “I’m dead right?”
“Not anymore, and before you ask how it’s possible, I need some information from you. Your name and the group you are with for starters.”
Xyrediane dropped his clothes in front of him. She then backed away, putting her horse between him and her. The half-elf looked him over, then bend down to retrieve his clothes. “I don’t recognize you.”
The half-elf pulled six arrowheads from inside his clothes. The then put his clothes on minus the soiled undergarment. “I have a feeling, that it wasn’t a dream.” He looked over his clothes, and the arrowheads “I am Zail Morningflight, a ranger with the Blight wolves. I don’t suppose you will tell me what is going on?” He said looking around.
“Can you tell me what happened, what you remember?”
“We setup camp, me and the other Blight wolves, we have a standard way we setup camp off the trail but close enough that we can find the markers if we need to. We have set watches, two on four asleep. Sometime early in the morning, I was woken by the watch team that there was something wrong. At first, we thought it was demons, now, I’m not so sure.”
“What makes you say that?”
“Demons don’t always use magic, just come straight in and fight. This group used magic to blind us. We have tactics against demons, none of them worked. Either is was smart demons or it wasn’t demons. Our leader, Gerald said we should make a run for the outpost, since we were closer. We scattered and were going to meet up there. I was hit with arrows, I remember falling then, a blade was run across my throat. Horrible way to go if it was what happened.”
“Oh it was real all right, we found you being dragged off by goblins, with what you are wearing now. No weapons.”
“They got my bags as well I suppose. What about the rest of my team.”
“Found a half-elf woman not too far from here back to a marker pile, fending off goblins, seems she hurt her ankle. As for the rest, we will keep an eye out when we return to the group. Xyre, let him use your horse you can ride with me.”
“What if we are attacked,” Zail asked.
“I don’t think we will be, if we are, we are capable of protecting you. Oh yeah, here” he opened one of the saddle bags and pulled out a rain cloak and offered it to him. “I want you to not talk to anyone until we reach the outpost, you think you can do that?”
“I suppose, you still haven’t told me who you are.” He said wrapping the cloak around himself.
“Bloodstone, we are delivering supplies to the outpost.” He said.
“Zail, don’t let him fool you, he is the current lord of Deepwater.” Rana said looking for a reaction.
“Oh! So you’re the one who made that blade for Haran. We were coming to talk with you, seems you found me first.” He said pulling the hood over his head.
Xyrediane got off her horse and was helped up onto Bloodstone’s horse. She sat behind him awkwardly,” I won’t be able to cast like this”
“Rana you find anything?” Bloodstone asked
“This way” she said and rode into the grass. They followed her.
“What did you want to talk to me about?” Bloodstone asked as they rode.
“Two days ago, we encountered some goblins, and demons that were fighting. We watched them for a bit. The demons chased off the goblins from some demon corpses. We got the drop on the demons and found some rather interesting items on them. We were heading to Deepwater to get them looked at.
“I see.” Bloodstone said looking around as the four of them found where he had been killed, and the pool of blood left behind had left a brown stain on the black grasses. Zail’s tinder kit was found by Rana, its contents were dumped into the grass and the bag tossed aside.
“What did you find do you recall?”
“A couple of rings, a metal wand, A bag of holding with a weird seal on it my sister said we shouldn’t try and mess with it. We found a few pieces of armor, as well as a belt.”
“Sounds like another one of those rune seals” Xyrediane said listening.
“Might be, I could see why they would want to recover it.” He looked to Zail, “Do you think your team managed to get it to the Outpost?”
He shrugged, “I have no idea, I was behind everyone else. If my sister is still alive, my guess is that if one of the other wolves has it maybe. Gwill, or Kenton may have grabbed the backpack we had everything in, they are both pretty good at making themselves unseen.”
Bloodstone touched a metal bar behind his ear, “Contact Brigette” he waited for a moment.
“We are looking for the murder site, the Half-elf woman tell you anything?” He asked.
They did not hear the reply, but he was quiet for a minute.
“Ask her, about her team mates” Bloodstone said looking at Zail. He listened for a few minutes, “Ok, that’s about what I got as well. Tell her we found her brother.” He listened for a moment.
“That was her brother, but there will be a happy reunion.” He paused for a moment, “Brigette, have I ever lied to you. He is riding right next to me.” He listened, “I’m not being morbid. Ask Rana or Xyre if you don’t believe me.” He listened to her,” You will be surprised.”
He disconnected the message spell,”I feel, she thinks I have raised you as an undead.”
“Did you?” Zail asked.
“No I used an artifact to bring you back. You don’t need the details.”
“There is something else, as I was dying. I heard a horse riding away. I do recall that just before everything went black”
“Can I ask you to keep quiet. My wife will cast an illusion on you when we get back to the wagons, if anyone asks your name will be Kail, and your one of my soldiers.”
“You brought me back from the dead, I will do as you ask.” He said somberly.
They rode in silence until they found the campsite not too far away. The camp had been trashed, the backpacks and other gear was strewn about. Some of it was salvageable; the rest wasn’t and was left behind. They turned back to meet up with the wagons.
Bloodstone called Lady Amethyst with the ear device and had her meet them near the back of the wagons. Before Zail could interact with anyone he had her cast an illusion on him. Zail dismounted and hitched a ride in the last wagon.
Brigette was there shortly afterwards, and rode up to him .
“What kind of trick are you trying to pull, that’s not the same man you carried off. What did you do with the body.”
“What body?” he asked confused.
“The dead half-elf body you found earlier.” She said getting annoyed.
”Oh he got better we have him under an illusion to protect him, in the last wagon.”
She started to say something and then stopped and rode to the last wagon.
“Why are you doing that to her,” Xyrediane asked from his left side
“Not telling her about the mirror?” he asked.“Let me ask you a question, how valuable would that mirror be, you know roughly how it works, you have seen it work twice now.” He said and looked over at Rana on his right side.
“Half a million to a million gold, maybe more I haven’t really looked at it.”
“What if I put your name on a placard opposite the mirror,” he asked.
“What would that do?”
“If you died, you would revive there, without any gear, and the door would open in the last place the door was opened. How long could you last?”
“Is that how it works,” Rana asked.
“There are three ways to be resurrected, a corpse or body part, or the full name of the individual. I want you to think about what would happen if people found out I had something like that.”
There was a moment of silence, “Everyone would want it, they wouldn’t care how they got it. Loved ones who were killed or died.” Rana said looking around suspiciously.
“Does the king know about it?” Xyrediane asked.
“No, and I have no intention of telling him all my secrets. It’s not an issue now, without the key, there is no way to access it.”
“It would be priceless,” Xyrediane said softly, “Anyone with power would attempt to take it from you. I don’t see you selling it.”
Bloodstone laughed, “No, there are very few who know about the key and less who know about the mirror. To be honest I would destroy the key or the mirror if it became an issue.”
There was a shout from one of the scouts, there were three demons standing off staring at the wagon.
“My lord should we take them down?” The lead scout asked.
“No, might be a ruse to pull off a group we keep going to the outpost. If they get any closer, we will burn them down.”
The scout moved back to his position near the front of the wagons. The demons just watched and seemed kind of confused that no one moved to attack them. The three demons, looked strange, even for demons. The first one looked like an archer, as it had a bow in one hand, and a knocked arrow. It was insectoid looking and appeared to be as large as a horse. The second demon looked frail and reptilian. The last one appeared to be a warrior, as it had a large great sword, it looked more like a gorilla than human. Bloodstone stared at them and detected a faint glow around them. They moved off and the demons did not attack. Kuya, hopped off the wagon and Xyrediane and Rana rode over to her. She spoke with them as the wagons rolled past the two of them dismounted and hitched the two horses to the passing wagon. Kuya said something to them and the three of them just vanished.
When the wagons with the escort arrived, the small goblin jumped off the wagon and ran off into the blight. No one stopped the small goblin they just watched him go. The guards called down from the partially built wall and eventually the small passage that would eventually be the next gate to the blight was opened.
The commander of the outpost came out from the side area where they were barracked, “You made good time, any issues?”
“Maybe, saw a group of demons that were watching but didn’t attack. Then again, the amount of firepower we can level downrange at this time is a major deterrent. We found an injured person, on the trail.” He took the commander over to the half elf woman.
“Well that answers one question, you find any others? Nyteria is with the Blight wolves. There is still one of their group missing. They are the only team here; they came in early this morning like they were being chased.”
“I think they were. I will talk with them once we get things settled here. We have a few things we want to test, and several crates of micro blocks from the quarry.”
“Micro blocks?” The commander of the outpost asked.
“Oh, well something that I wanted to try, they are all blocks of stone that have been shrunk down. The pick axe that made them is in the main crate, it can undo the spell used. There are four of that I made, and we brought two as well as the material they were used on. You should be able to get a significant piece of the wall put together. We also brought several test grades of concrete mix. Once they see what the best formula is, we will ship it out here as fast as we can make it.”
“I saw that you brought two more wagons than normal.”
“Those two are going to be the standard for concrete and micro blocks from the quarry. We also now have a somewhat reliable source of volcanic rock. Once we start extending the wall to the ocean. There is something I want you to stop, as of today. Goblins parts are not to be paid out after today.”
“I don’t think that’s something you can order, that has to come from the crown.”
“Actually I looked it up, the local lord has jurisdiction on all bounties within his domain. The king can pay out bounties that we then get reimbursed for. However, goblins bounties were local to the wall lords, and I am letting you know that that specific bounty is rescinded, until further notice.”
The wall lord didn’t look very happy with that, “may I ask why? Goblins are easy for silver ranks to make some cash as well as to keep the goblin populations under control.”
Bloodstone looked at him, “I understand your misgivings I had Newton go over the bounty books, and we did a cost analysis, and found we are wasting a valuable resource.”
“Goblins?” he said perplexed.
“Let us look at it from a different perspective, one that I don’t think anyone considered. What if we asked goblins to be a local labor force, here to build the walls, and patrol the area as well as build the new settlements? We give them a wage, a fair wage, and in exchange they become part of the kingdoms labor force.”
“Goblins, I don’t think you understand goblins very well. My lord, I think your plan is daft, no disrespect.” he said
Two dwarves, and two humans came over to the commander, and Bloodstone “Sir, My Lord, May I Have a word with you?” The left Dwarf said
“Certainly this is Lord Bloodstone, he has just informed me that after today there are no bounties on goblins.”
The other Dwarf, looked up at him, “Why not? The Blight wolves have made some good coin removing goblins from the area.” The dwarf was in a chainmail shirt and leather pants. His red beard was neatly tied, and symmetrical.
Bloodstone realized that the other dwarf was a female, as her voice was softer and more feminine; the beard she sported was slightly smaller. She wore black leather armor and had two small swords that rode on each hip. Her beard and hair were blond, and also kept neat and out of her face.
The two humans stood behind them, and they heard the woman in the wagon call out to the four of them. The humans nodded and walked over to her and started talking.
“You find anyone else, out there?” The dwarf asked.
“As a matter of fact I did.” He waved the human over from the back of the last wagon. He had been watching the exchange with anticipation, he walked over.
“I would like you to tell me what happened last night,” Bloodstone said looking at the dwarf.
“We were resting, we were going to head to the capital, and get some items appraised. We heard about you from the gold team last week. We figured if you couldn’t identify the items we had found we could continue to the capital.”
“What happened?” Bloodstone asked.
“We setup camp and decided not to stop here and head directly to Deepwater, we were about half way there and decide to make camp and continue in the morning. Sometime in the middle of the night we were attacked, our ranger, Zail was the first to get hit with an arrow. We doused the fire, and grabbed our gear and ran to the outpost. We left a lot of our traveling gear there. We wanted to go back out and look for Zail, and Nyteria however we were informed that your group would be on its way here. It looks like we will have to go look for Zail anyhow.”
“Did anyone of your group figure out who your attackers were?”
“They looked like demons, though something was off.” He turned and yelled over to the humans,”Hey Kenton, come tell the lord about last night.”
The male human walked over, he too was dressed in black leather, and had a flowing black cloak. His dark hair was short loose and unkempt. His piercing gray eyes, looked over everyone standing there, “My Lord, I was the one carrying our loot bag, and they seemed to be looking for me, the odd thing is that I am a really good thief, and I am very good at hiding, They were as far as I am to you and didn’t see me. I heard them talking in common not that gibberish demons usually talk in.”
“And what did they say?” Bloodstone asked.
“Well I heard one of them say, I got one of them, I lost the others in the tall grass.” I didn’t hear the reply as they had moved away.
The continued to discuss the events from the night before.
Excerpt from the journal of Kuya
Day 1 of the Deepwater Trek of the Blight
Kuya sighed in discontent as the day dragged on. Esprit was sleeping inside her hood, so entertainment there was out of the question. Sitting in a wagon for hours was starting to take a toll on the girl and at times like these makes her mind wander to unnecessary thoughts or repeating daydreams. Nothing but black grass with hills in between!
“And then I said ‘that’s my silver!” the driver exclaimed jerking Kuya out of her reverie scowling at the rude interruption. She had a new idea for another spell she had been working on for months. She never told anyone what this spell was out of pure stubbornness of wanting to face a challenge alone without any assistance. Her ears hear a slight shuffling of footsteps over the hill to the left and she shifts her focus to the sounds to get a better clarification. She smirks when she starts to hear a faint conversation, ‘finally something interesting to distract me from my boredom,’ she thought.
“Esprit, ashky antu shykaq. Nu mallaka dushka,” she muttered in what sounded like a guttural elvish.
The green drake Hijala riding next to the wagon asked her “What was that Miss Kuya?”
“Hm? Oh nothing, just another muse is all,” she said with a slight smirk tugging at the corners of her lips. Esprit arose from his slumber with a small chirp. Esprit, is a thought mite and is…well, let’s just say it’s a type of ‘thought form’ with sentience.
“Pi, pi,” Esprit chirps floating at eye level brushing up against her cheek with his soft ‘fur,’ Kuya flinched slightly at his touch. Esprit is a peculiar creature round and looks fluffy like a cat, but the ‘fur’ itself felt like warm air in a physical form with two thick tuffs of hair sticking up like antennae. He was light gray in color with golden eyes and was big enough to fit in the palms of Kuya’s small hands.
“Esprit I need you to be my little detective and spy,” she said telepathically. Esprit’s tuff of fur flicked like a cat would flick its ear. Esprit’s version of cocking his ‘head’ to the side in curiosity; being a ball of fur makes body language a bit tricky to express. Kuya’s blue eyes softened slightly in amusement, but it vanished quickly as it appeared.
“See those ‘unknowns’ there?” Esprit glanced at the source of the sounds and narrows his golden eyes in concentration.
“I require information on why they are here and what they want. If they are a threat, then I will proceed with the appropriate course of action. Keep a mind link open and relay their words to me.” Esprit chirps in affirmative and disappeared in a blink. Kuya closed her eyes in concentration and mutters two spells to hide her magic signature and to cancel out any unnecessary background noise.
“Imbryem,” she muttered and a scene formed in her mind of the unknowns looking down at her group from the hill. She smirked, “Perfect, it works.”
“What should we do? Should we take out the silver group or wait?” the frail looking reptile said in hushed tones. The large insect like creature shifted to its weight in a sort of fidgeting fashion.
“Either way we need to grab the stuff those silvers are carrying,” the gorilla replied. Esprit shifted to float behind the reptile and blinked.
Kuya relaxed her shoulders and took a deep breath.
“Something doesn’t seem right here….” she muttered under her breath. She moved her hands to make a circle with her fingertips closing the circle. She started to chant.
“Qaz, shenna, ublyyk.” Her fingertips started to throb with power slowly like a drumbeat.
Ulluzon efydal udan ta vay vi fos seklan ut mavye sel televes.” Her nailed start to glow a faint blue as the spell intensified. A drop of sweat glided down from her temple to her chin.
Qaz, shenna, ublyyk. Spull Qaz…” As the last syllable was said everything went quiet and in Kuya’s mind’s eye she saw the illusions on the unknowns start to slowly vanish like receding fog. Esprit chirped quietly as he observed the group’s reaction.
“Uh…when did you say the illusions wore off?” the once insect looking demon asked nervously..The gorilla turned human turned and saw his fellow members take on their true forms.
“What the-”
Kuya smirked in triumph at another successful spell and shifted her attention to her ear piece device.
“Contact dad.” Bloodstone picked up in half a ring.
“What did you do?” he asks accusingly. Kuya scowled in annoyance.
“Nothing….yet. I wish to take a stroll and stretch my legs,” she says opening her eyes only to close them in pain. She rubbed her eyes to rid herself of the spell’s effects and blinding sunlight that intruded on her pupils.
“Stupid sunlight…” she muttered.
“Why?” he asked suspiciously.
“I have something to take care of.”
“Only if you take your brother with you.” He answered.
“No.” Kuya frowned feeling a bubble of anger appearing in her gut.
“At least take Rana and Xyrediane or Hijala.” He says with finality. Kuya sighed in exasperation, “Fine! I’ll take Rana and Diane.” After exchanging a few words, promises, and pleasantries Kuya called over Rana and Xyrediane. She waited till they dismounted and hitched the horses to the passing wagon. She then said very softly that she wanted to show them something fun and before either of them could say anything they vanish.
[Teleportation]
The frantic trio watched as the string woman tried to cast the spell of illusion only for it to fizzle out and fail.
“Why isn’t this working?!” the human yelled at the string woman.
“I don’t know. This shouldn’t happen. Spells don’t just….stop working!” the string woman said panicking at the new problem.
“Timotheus. Faira. Enough, do you want to alert the wagon supply group?” the centaur shouted a little loudly. Timotheus and Faira clamped their mouths shut and started to fidget.
“What do you suppose we should do then?” Faira asked. Slow clapping could be heard behind them.
“Well, I propose you stop spying on us and run back to the rock whence you came,” a female voice replied coyly. The three gold members whipped their heads around to see a pale redheaded girl with steel blue eyes garbed in a black and silver tunic with a long sleeved black shirt underneath. She wore black pants with a silver stripe on either side ending under the pockets, and black shin high boots. She also wore a black hooded cloak with crescent moon patterns on the bottom in the back that seem to also be silver. A small necklace hung from her neck it looked to be a willow wood pen with three diamonds etched on it vertically. A silver bar held a blue orb that seems almost alive and five iridescent ‘feathers’ facing skyward ranging from largest to smallest were on one side of the orb. Two women stood behind her flanking her on both sides. Xrydiane was wearing a shimmering black robe belted at the waist, with several pouches and a bag on her hip. A small silver dagger was on the other side. And what looked like two wand holsters with wooden wands in them. Her hair was tied back and put up showing her pointed ears. Next to her Rana The half gazer was decked out in a chainmail shirt, and red leather pants. The clothing underneath the chain barely showed through, her hair was also tied back, the two blades she had on each hip looked dangerous, her bag and pouch were also on her hip and the small of her back. They remained quiet and alert ready to fight if needed.
“Who are you?!” the human shouted taking out his large sword. His companions followed in suit, arrows notched and ready to fire and the last one took on a stance.
“Who I am matters not to you or your companions, but I suppose you wish to give me an identity…hmm ah, I know.” She grins evilly as a spark of mischief passed through her eyes.
“You may refer to me….as your worst nightmare.” The centaur scoffed at her and arrogantly walked forward facing Kuya.
“And what is a little girl like you going to do? Poke us with that little pen?” the other two chuckled at the taunt causing Kuya to frown in slight annoyance.
“Not taking me seriously, I see. How rude to assume my skill with just my stature? Do not assume I’m weak just because you tower over me, pony boy.” Kuya flexed her fingers and begins to think of a spell.
“Pony b-how dare you!” the centaur snarled aiming the bow at her and firing. The arrow snapped in half in midair barely leaving the bow. It dropped to the ground and turned to dust. The mage frowned in confusion while the centaur sputtered over his words. A smirk appeared on Kuya.
“[Bind].” The three enemies before Kuya froze in place unable to move. No matter how much they tried to move anything not a single eye was able to blink.
“Confused yet? Allow me to explain in simple terms for the idiots in class. I cut off your brains’ access to the rest of the nervous system making you rooted in place. Have fun trying to move because you’ll only fall on the ground.” She explained chuckling sadistically. Esprit narrowed his eyes in disapproval as he sat on her right shoulder. Kuya winced slightly before her whole body relaxed. Rena and Xyrediane glance at Kuya’s reaction curiously. The centaur growled in response.
“Now, now no need to go feral on me. I’ve only just begun.” She said taking three taunting steps towards the now rooted group. The mage started to mutter, but her body just wouldn’t respond.
“Feh, I don’t even need to use my staff on you, but this is sorta boring….so I’ll release you.” She snapped her fingers and the three before her fall to the ground. She chuckled in response.
“You son of- I’ll kill you!” the human quickly got to his feet and charged at Kuya with a battle cry.
‘Good thing I placed [Sound Barrier]….wouldn’t want my dad finding out about this, yet.’ Kuya pondered teleporting a foot in the air away from the warrior’s sword. The sword hit the ground with a thud creating a small crevice in its wake.
“Rena, Xy can you kite the warrior for a bit, please?” Kuya asked as Esprit jumped into her pen’s orb causing a rippling effect.
“What?” Rana responded confused. Kuya sighed, “Never mind just…come up here,” she said snapping her fingers creating a dense translucent cloud next to her. At the same time she teleported Rana and Xyrediane onto the cloud, causing it to bounce a little on impact, but still staying in the air. Kuya flew overhead and placed her right hand under her chin thinking. Snapping her fingers she grinned.
“Ah I know let’s play a game! Whoever is the last one standing, wins!” she exclaims with a clap. The three enemies exchange looks in confusion the mage – Faira breaks the stare and begins to cast fireballs and ice shards at Kuya. The spells dissolved a foot away from her in a cloud of mist. Faira clicked her tongue at the same time the warrior – Timotheus took a running start and jumped at Kuya swinging his sword in a wide arc. Kuya casually dodged and used the spell Bind on him again. She glared at him in annoyance.
“I’ll break you last, human,” she says sinisterly.
“[Apathetic Rune],” Kuya said with a hint of sinister glee. The centaur suddenly fell to the ground and feels unmotivated dropping his bow in the process. The mage snaps her attention to the centaur in alarm.
“Ave!” she yelled, “Get up you idiot! I don’t think I can take this kid on my own.” Ave doesn’t respond choosing only to lie on the ground.
“Ave!”
“He can’t hear you. He’s having an emotional crisis. He won’t be helping you little mage because he doesn’t feel like it.” Kuya chuckled floating down to the ground she took a stance of her own with her feet planted firmly to the ground and her arms placed behind her back. Standing up straight with her knees bent slightly her hands behind her back started to crackle with blue electricity that appeared briefly until it transformed into a black and purple ball.
“You….you’re a monster!” Faira yelled thrusting her arm out and fired an electrical beam. The spell bent around Kuya and disappeared behind her. Kuya’s grin widened showing her canines.
“Pff I did warn you,” she replied flicking her wrist towards the warrior who had been struggling to get his body to move. The black and purple ball flew over to the warrior and phased into his head. He fell to the ground unconscious. The mage’s eyes widen in fear. A loud scream pierced the silence as the warrior on the ground writhed in fear and agony still unconscious. The mage began to back away from Kuya only to stop at the small drop off. Kuya hummed in approval at the warrior’s reaction. She opened a small book and jotted down notes in her journal.
“Haunted is a success, but a bit too powerful for a weak minded human, oh well.” She slapped her book closed with one hand and put it away in her bag on her belt. Her pen started to grow in length until it was a head higher than Kuya. She looked at the mage, “I’m sorry, what did you say?”
The mage sputters, “You….I thought y-you were gonna break him last,” she replies meekly as her whole body begins to quiver in fear. Kuya looked at the warrior and cocked her head to the side.
“Oops…I forgot. Meh, its fine the worst thing that could happen is PTSD from night terrors,” she replied, nonchalantly poking the whimpering warrior with the butt of her staff. He jerked away.
“P-please, don’t kill me. I-I’ll do anything you ask, please!” the mage begged tears streaming down her face. Kuya scrunched her nose in disgust.
“I’m not going to kill you. My dad needs the information from you. I’m just playing a game because I’m bored, and you happened to be here. Besides one of our party members were going to have to deal with you sooner or later, I just placed dibs on being the first responder.” She explained twirling her staff in the air and catching it. Faira blinked back tears confused and weary of the redhead. Before Kuya could speak again the centaur appeared in front of her with Timotheus’ sword in hand with his teeth bared in a snarl. Kuya’s eyes widen in surprise and jabbed the ground with her staff, at the same time Ave’s body suddenly slams to the ground by an unknown force. The sword falling out of his hands a few inches away he tried to get up only to fall back down again. Kuya clicked her tongue.
“My, my, someone here has a strong will interesting, but attacking me like that it not okay.” Kuya frowned jabbing the sharp end of her staff into his right hand and twisted it. Ave screamed in pain as blood spilled out from the wound. She took her staff out and the blood got absorbed within the staff leaving behind a clean end. A red aura flickered in and out of existence around the staff briefly. The centaur growled at Kuya enduring the throbbing pain in his hand and an emotional drain.
“Don’t give me that, pest,” she replied curtly as the iridescent feathers slowly dipped downward facing the earth. The air around Kuya started to feel cold and a sense of dread filled the air until Ave, Faira, Rana, and Xyrediane felt their lungs compress making it harder to breathe. The sky starts to darken until thick storm clouds start to form silently overhead. Not a single breeze was felt. The air felt still.
“You know….I can just…delete you from existence and provoking me like that will only lead to well, I would say death, but sadly this would be far worse really. Allow me to show you an example.” She says as her expression begins to look somber and kicks up a large rock in the air. With a wave of her staff the rock disappears into nothing. Kuya frowns, “Okay, bad example, but you get the gist of it.” Faira faints from stress and Ave’s eyes widen in confusion.
“Pi pi!” Esprit exclaimed flying out of the staff’s orb and into Kuya’s face. Kuya relaxed and the air returns to normal along with the clouds. Esprit narrowed his eyes at Kuya in disapproval and shook its body ‘no.’
“Fine! I’ll just….knock them out then.” Kuya replied shrinking her staff back into a pen and flicking her left wrist towards Ave. He blacked out hitting his head on the ground with a loud thud.
“Room 73 Open,” a dark hole in reality opened up and gobbled the three unconscious gold team members up. Their weapons vanished as well in one fell swoop. Kuya clapped her hands in a cleaning motion and began to walk away from the scene until she and the other two disappeared with a loud snap of her fingers.
Kuya and Rana and Xyrediane appeared in front of Bloodstone and the others. Kuya quickly cast a spell that dumps the bodies out of Room 73 and said, “I found these, but I think I broke them. I only wanted to play a game and well, they couldn’t handle it. I was really hoping for better toys to test out my 13 other new spells. You can have them; I’m done playing with them. Gonna go take a nap,” she said yawning. She walks away leaving a very disturbed Rana and Xyrediane in her wake. As she walked away something briefly appeared on her left hand before vanishing.
“Uh, did she just assault a Gold team?” The commander asked.
“It looks like that, hold on; let me go get some clarification.” He caught up with her and had a discussion far enough away that they couldn’t be heard. Lady Amethyst walked over and listened in to the conversation.
There was an exasperated, “You did what?!” from Bloodstone. Kuya shrugged and said, “I was bored and they were spying on us, so I tested some spells out….nothing too severe,” muttering the last part earning a disapproving grunt from Esprit. She turned and walked into the main part of the fortress. Bloodstone and Lady Amethyst stood gaping turned and walked back to the commander. “I think they pissed her off. I want these three arrested under charges of assaulting a silver rank team as well as working against the crown.”
“You’re not serious” he said.
“I am, Rana, Xyre can you fill in the commander?”
Xyrediane looked pale and just nodded. Rana said softly, “I thought you were dangerous. She’s on a whole other level. She tossed those three gold team members around like they were playthings.”
“I apologize, my kids can be eccentric”
Rana stared at him with all her eyes, as if seeing him for the first time. She then began to explain to the commander and him what happened, as well as how she felt about the whole situation.
“I want their gear confiscated, and laid out for inspection, by the time I get back. Also can you get someone to help her off the wagon,” He said to the commander pointing to the half-elf.
His order was acknowledged with a slow nod. “As you command my lord.” The guardsmen moved aside when Kuya walked past. The green scaled drake followed her.
It was at that moment, that several guards urgently came over to the commander, “Sire, my Lord there are a group of about fifty goblins coming to the north gate. There are six hobs with them.”
“Well it looks like I have some negotiating to do, as for them” He said gesturing to the centaur, the human and the string woman,”If they resist, let my wife know. I want to talk to them after the negotiations.”
“Wait, what’s this about negotiating with the Goblins?” The commander asked.
“Long story, let’s see what we can accomplish first.”
With that he turned and walked to the two large doors that faced north. He had the guards there open one of the doors and walked out.
The goblins looked thin, even the hobs, while they were mostly muscle, you could tell they were hungry. A small goblin and a hob walked to stand in front of Bloodstone. The small goblin was the same one who had been rescued by Kuya, and he looked better than the other goblins.
The Hobgoblin, said to Bloodstone, “You chief of stone place?”
“Yes, I have stopped the murder of your people. I would like to make amends, though I am not sure how to get the rest of my people to trust you.”
The goblin stared at Bloodstone, “This one says you feed goblins,” he poked the small goblin.
“We can, I would like to work together with you.”
“Human bad, kill goblin.”
“I understand, maybe I can make a gesture of goodwill.” Bloodstone waved to the door and one of the wagons drove out. Rana and Xyrediane were in the driver’s seat. There were two barrels and several bags. They drove the wagon and then turned it back towards the outpost.
Bloodstone picked up a small tarp that was on one side and covered the dirt and grass with it. He then set the barrels and six burlap bags. “This is food for you and your people.” He tossed a small leather bag to the small goblin and another to the chief. The small goblin caught the one toseed the other landed at the chief’s feet.
“Magic bags. You can take all of this here in those bags.”
The goblin chief looked unconvinced, several of the goblins behind him were sniffing and there was a look of hunger.
“I will be here for two more sunrises, then I will be going to the white death tooth.”
“Human stupid, go there, only death.” The chief said.
“There is one more thing,” Bloodstone threw another bag at the chief’s feet that clicked as it landed. “There is gold in that pouch to purchase more supplies. Someone here or at the wall fortress will honor those coins only from you or your people.”
The goblin chief picked the two bags up and talked with the small goblin.
Bloodstone hopped up and sat on the back of the wagon. They rode away slowly.
The chief sniffed the bags and the barrels. He called for the other hobs to come and they picked everything up and were gone in a few minutes. He tossed the bag of coins over his shoulder and it clincked as it hit the ground. The small goblin retrieved the bag.
Rana and Xyrediane waited before talking to him.
“They are goblins,” Rana said.
“Yeah, I expected to much.” He said somewhat defeated.
“Why is that so important to you?” Xyrediane asked as they entered the fortress. The door closed behind them with a loud boom.
He looked at the two of them, “Imagine the animosity that humans level at you magnified to where your running for your life every day of your life. That’s how the goblins live.”
Rana started to reply and stopped, “I, never thought of it that way.”
“That still doesn’t explain your disappointment.” Xyrediane said.
“I’m not a people person, never have been. I just don’t have the patience I guess. I have flaws like everyone else, I guess I should admit I messed that meeting up badly.”
“About your daughter, how can I put this.” Rana started, “She terrifies me. I have never seen anyone do what she did.”
“It wasn’t the actions, it was how she did it.” Xyrediane said, “It was calculated, and brutal.”
“I am sorry, I thought that she was taking being in this world better. I’m easy going, I have a thirst for knowledge. My daughter is very creative, adding magic to her skills make her very dangerous, she doesn’t have the limitations society in this world has ingrained, she’s a gamer, but a different breed of gamer. She will focus on something till she gets bored and finds something new to focus on. She has added magic to her creative toolbox. I asked her not to make any spells along certain lines of thought, that doesn’t mean she won’t.”
“What is going to happen to those gold adventures?” Rana asked as they got down off the wagon. Several guardsmen were watching them.
“Depends on the answers I get. Speaking of adventures, can you let the blight wolves know I want to talk with them. I have a few things I need to do prior”
“Sure, “ Xyrediane said.
The two women walked into the adventures side of the fortress.
Bloodstone stood next to the wagon, when Zail walked over to him, “If it was they were the ones whom attacked me, they should still have my weapons and gear.”
Bloodstone walked over to a guardsman, “Where has their gear been laid out.”
“We are using two tables in the eating hall.”
“Let’s go look.” He said to the human next to him.
There were two tables of gear in piles, the human and sting person’s gear were on one and the centaurs was on the other.
Brigette was looking over the equipment, and two guardsmen stood by looking bored.
“You recognize anything”, he asked the man standing next to him.
“Who is this?” Brigette asked.
“This is our missing blight wolf, I have him under an illusion, for his protection and to get some answers. Go ahead you can answer her questions.”
“I don’t think your very funny, I know what I saw.” There was a hint of anger as well as apprehension in her voice.
Zail smiled, “I am Zail Morningflight, I am most definitely one of the Blight wolves. That bow is mine.” He said pointing to a bow on the table.
Brigette looked at a ring on her finger, the gesture was subtle but they both saw her look.
“How, is this possible” she asked.
“How is what possible”, Bloodstone asked.
“I know I saw you carry off a corpse.” She looked down at her ring.
“I am not denying that.”
“You are not going to tell me are you.” She said staring at him. He was a few inches taller than she was, so she had to stare up at him.
“No, I don’t trust you enough.” He said looking at Zail.
Illapressa Lavandarius came into the eating hall, the changes she had endured over the past couple of weeks were evident as she walked solemnly. She was a Drake who had been an adventurer and was now trying to decide what she wanted to do with the incredible power that had been bestowed on her. Her scales were metallic light and dark blue, and made her scales appear to shimmer. There was the scent of ozone, when she entered a room. There was also a presence about her that made people look at her as she entered. The wings on her back were folded and made it appear as if she wore a metallic blue cloak. She walked over to Brigette, Bloodstone and Zail. “My Lord, Brigette” She nodded to the human next to them. She then made her way to get some of the stew that was being served.
Zail stared at her, “Who is that?” he asked.
“Illapressa Lavandarius”, Bloodstone said watching her as well.
“Seriously!?” Zail said somewhat loudly.
“Why do you know her?” Brigette asked.
“I met her a couple of years back, That’s a drastic change. She was such a meek drake, back then” He said somewhat in awe.
“Well if there is some of your gear here, we need to go talk to your teammates.” He looked at Brigette, what’s the normal practice if a gold team turns out to be criminals?”
Brigette looked upset, “They are removed from the king’s rolls, and usually face the crowns justice. I don’t think I have ever heard of a gold team ever doing that. They also inform the adventures guild and they can get demoted, or kicked out.”
Bloodstone took pictures of the items, as well as asked Brigette in inventory everything there, the items belonging to the Blight wolves would be returned. She gave Bloodstone a look that the conversation was not over.
Lady Amethyst dropped the illusion on Zail just outside the area for the adventurer’s. Bloodstone spoke with Zail just outside.
“I would appreciate, you not saying anything about your recovery.” He shrugged, “Do what you think is right.”
He followed Zail into the adventures area, the other five were sitting and all rose and greeted Zail.
“I would like to talk to the Blight wolves, officially. We found out who attacked you and injured Zail, to near death.” He said avoiding the look Zail gave him.
The red bearded dwarf, “We think it was demons.” The rest of the wolves nodded except Zail.
We have some items in the laid out in the eating hall, I would like you to go look. I will be waiting here, until you return.
The four of them filed out, Zail sat with his sister, “Why did you tell them that?” He asked.
Bloodstone shrugged, “You know a secret, its valuable, but it’s also dangerous. Tell me what it would take to have you keep quiet about your experience?”
Zail looked him over slowly, “What if I told you I wouldn’t keep quiet?” His sister listened intently, her foot elevated under a small cushion.
“That’s your choice, it would make things more difficult for me, if it was common knowledge. I’m not going to do anything if that’s what you are worried about.”
Zail looked at his siter then at him, “Something tells me if I asked you for something you would try to accommodate me. I’m not ungrateful for what you did, I just don’t see a reason that you would do that. What’s your motive?”
“No motive, other than it’s the right thing to do, I wanted answers you supplied them.”
“I find it hard to believe you would use some artifact to bring me back from the dead, what’s the catch?”
His sister gasped but didn’t say anything.
Before he could reply the four team members returned, they were a bit upset. “Why are some of our things as well as Zail’s displayed?” The red bearded dwarf asked, clearly taking the lead.
“Those were taken off a group, who were impersonating demons and appeared to have been the ones who assaulted you.”
There was a clamoring of outrage, from the silver rank members. Bloodstone held up his hands, “There is going to be a trial, tonight, so you can give your version of the story.”
Brigette came in with Illapressa. The two of them were talking. Brigette walked over and stoof in front of Bloodstone, “I spoke with the three gold rank adventures they say your daughter assaulted them unprovoked.”
“Do you have any issues then representing them for their trial?” He asked.
“Trial?” She asked.
“Did they tell you how they came into possessions belonging to the blight wolves?” He said holding up one hand, “I don’t want to know.”
“I want an explanation, about the corpse we found on the way here.” She said clearly angry.
“After the trial.” He said looking over the Blight wolves.
The commander came in, and walked over to them, several guardsmen followed. “They are hopping mad, about some crazy girl mage attacking them. Are you serious in the charges?”
“I am, and you are going to have to preside over this since you’re the highest ranking official here. I can’t preside over it since my daughter is involved as well as one of my wives. If you want gather of twelve guardsmen that were not involved or were resting and have them decide. You can just control the proceedings.”
The commander nodded, “We can have it in an hour here, does that work?”
“It’s your fortress, I am just delivering supplies.”
The commander stood a little straighter, and turned and walked out of the room, he began shouting orders.