by Ryan DeBruyn
Purple Princess!
Azoth mentally showed him the marks of combat on the cat’s body and finally responded, “They too busy fighting black beauty!” Rocky could hear the tones of admiration and wonder in Azoth’s mind voice, and he scratched the Chimera behind the ears. For now, they seemed to be pretty well defended, but Rocky would have to put the question to his people if they could find a way to domesticate this herd. He also was pretty confident that Purple Princess over there was a girl and that Azoth had a bit of a crush.
Maybe someone can tame her? Sela can talk to animals.
Having accomplished what he had set out to do, Rocky stopped trying to distract himself and asked Azoth to return home. It was time to address his people. Time to stop avoiding the responsibility he had as their leader, even if he had never asked for it.
Once he landed for the second time in his Territory, he was bombarded with questions about what happened today. Why were they attacked? Who attacked them? In response, Rocky asked the people the most avid and intense in their questions to gather everyone together. He stated to the group in a loud voice, “When everyone is here, we will go over what happened.” Many didn’t leave, but some did, and after a time, the others realized he would not answer until everyone arrived, no matter how insistent they were.
There is no point saying twice what hurts to say once.
Rocky remembered the team manager’s words to him when he was let go. He smiled at them, now seeing in them the truth that they held. When his team had let him go, they had insisted on waiting for his agent to arrive before beginning the meeting, and now, from his new perspective, he understood the action on a deeper level. In some ways, it was to protect himself from repeating the news over and over again, but mostly, it was to ensure that it was heard by everyone so miscommunication couldn’t occur.
His thoughts were interrupted by the approach of Tao, Gamma, and Bathilda, who all were picking their way very carefully towards him. Rocky chuckled, seeing the two Knights trying to clear a path for the Dragon who checked under her belly and then foreclaws before each step. It was like watching one of those animatronic creatures that moved in jerky bursts. To save her from any more awkwardness, Rocky met them about three-quarters of the way; that was just how slow the behemoths were moving.
“Tao, Gamma, Bathilda, nice to see you all! What happened up here once the party left the Grotto?” Rocky called in greeting, face hard, and his voice emotionless. His tone was unintentional, but being back in the Grotto, seeing the death firsthand was making him feel sick to his stomach. The question was easier explained; while he was aware of a portion of events, he wasn’t aware of a rather large chunk at the beginning and another portion in the end.
Tao began with the first moments of the attack, ”We heard screaming and rushed back from gathering wood. Only a few holes had opened in the South and West walls at first, which limited the enemies’ numbers for a time. Gamma bravely shouted for everyone to get in the tent quickly.”
Gamma scoffed, then growled, “Stop making it out like I was a hero. We protected everyone but should have been here when it started. We had pledged to be your defenders!” The group was looking at Rocky at that point, and he nodded, unsure what to say. That seemed to be the signal, though, because Gamma continued to fill him in, telling him of the enemy trying a few different tactics to break through to the people in the tent and of some of the braver individuals in the military and outside of it that saw the Abominations were just reforming over and over again and how they had found out fire worked to end that cycle.
Wish I had put it together sooner. I could have told them!
Tao took over at this point, continuing sedately and haltingly about the Hulking Abominations and his decision to trigger his Sanctuary skill. After this description, Tao pointed to Bathilda and stated with a bow, “Bathilda the Dark Scale will tell her tale of great victory from there.”
Bathilda blinked at the golem and then turned her massive head to Rocky, who craned his neck straight up to try to meet her eyes. He felt extremely small and silly in the posture, but he held it all the same, not wanting to disrespect the Dragon. “I used my Fire-Spit to burn the undead creatures from the safety of the sky?” she finally added, sounding like she was questioning how great a victory her arrival had really been.
After a moment, Rocky coughed. “Yes, well, that certainly explains why there are two large, charred patches of earth in the Grotto. Thank you for saving my people, Bathilda…” he finished rather lamely, then realized he had five Heartstrings that belonged to her and an explanation for what happened to another one. He pulled the five strings out of his bag and sheepishly began with a clumsy bow, “Umm… I have five more of your Heartstrings… uh… great Bathilda.”
The Dragon tilted her head questioningly at his tone. Then she asked with humor lacing her words, “You do realize you saved my life, right?” She bared her teeth at him and continued, “I am not going to kill or eat you after something like that!”
Tao poked her in the side and pointed to her mouth. “You need to work on your smile more. It is more like this.” Tao pulled his lips back from his mouth and made a face that could only be described as constipated. Rocky blinked in reaction, trying to understand what was going on.
Bathilda adjusted her lips and looked at Rocky again, teeth further bared, “Is this better?” This time, her nostrils flared, and she looked like she was ready to strike out like a snake. Tao looked at him as well with his constipated face, and Rocky couldn’t help but burst into laughter.
For the next thirty minutes, as people began gathering near the stage, Rocky explained what had been so funny and how Tao and Bathilda should never make those faces again. Tao looked studious as he listened to what Rocky listed as wrong with his ‘smile’, and Bathilda looked embarrassed like she was not used to failing at something. After the explanation finished, Rocky talked to them about what came next and even managed to find out about a quest Bathilda had for cleansing the blight from the land in the area. Her quest even stretched farther as she was expected to cleanse sites like this one all over the world! Which unfortunately made it so she couldn’t stay and help defend Algonquin Valley.
“Actually, it used to be a quest for destroying and cleansing the site of that initial explosion,” Bathilda continued after she told him of her new quest. She paused for a moment and looked around at everyone listening to her. Instead of trying to talk more quietly, she increased her pitch, “I originally landed and began summoning my deepest fire to breath it down the massive, steaming crater I had found and deemed to be the cause of the problem.” She took in a deep breath like she was going to breathe fire here, and everyone gasped.
Rocky did along with everyone else, but when she continued, he realized she was just an excellent storyteller, “Suddenly, something below me ordered ‘Don’t move a claw!’ and mid inhale, I felt something take hold of me, a magic I had never felt before.” She wrapped one of her foreclaws around her neck dramatically and swung her head around in the air like she was being attacked.
“I couldn’t move my feet, no matter how hard I fought. My head and tail, though, were my own…” Bathilda continued to entertain the people present with the story of how Apothis had captured her and how she had thought she was doomed. By the time everyone was present, she had reached the point of the story when Rocky had arrived and given her a chance to fight again. It hadn’t lasted long, but she had made the most of it, fighting with tooth, tail, and fire until they had finally set up the spell circle again. The way she told the story, she had killed thousands upon thousands, and Rocky again admired her skill in storytelling.
When she ended the story with finally being set free and her eternal gratitude to whoever had accomplished it, Rocky shook his head as he saw the obvious cue she had left him. He stepped forward with the pendant and five Heartstrings. He reverently placed both hands on her lowered chest and saw the same glowing magic take over, and the pendant begin growing larger and
larger until it fit snugly around her neck.
The crowd erupted in cheers and jubilation, and Rocky turned to them a hero who had bad news and some sad tidings, but thanks to Bathilda’s help, the blow was muted.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Once Rocky announced what had happened and why their Territory had been under attack, he was surprised and somehow disappointed to find that no one was upset with him. No one was angry with him. The why was rather simple, though, to the people of the Grotto. Everyone across the entire world was fighting desperately for their lives. They had been fighting for their lives for the last month in two locations, and unfortunately, every one of them had become far too familiar with death. There was anger, though, for sure, but it was directed at the circumstances, inwardly at themselves, and in a rare few survivors, at the golems.
Tao and Gamma surprised Rocky by sitting and taking the verbal abuse. Going so far as to, when Rocky went to intercede on their behalf, silence his interruption and allow the grief-stricken citizens to continue. Rocky swallowed the lump that formed in his throat at the scene, and instead of interceding, as he had planned, he went to sit between the two. He felt constant emotional turmoil as so many problems were laid at the feet of the two honorable Knights, but he tried to offer them his support. Even with him present the people chose to berate the golems and not him. He stayed quiet like the Knights and listened because he knew that they were the outlet, but he was the one at fault.
It grew worse before it got better, as the grief-stricken began pulling out hair and running hands over tired faces. He felt something inside himself shrivel up as another woman cried, “We thought I was pregnant. How can I bring a child into this new world without him?!”
He didn’t believe she was looking for an answer, and his soul reached out to her. Luckily, another individual reached out to hug her, and they held each other as their world metaphorically broke around them. Rocky swallowed and continued to listen as a burly man forced out, “I have no one left…” He looked around at the other grief-stricken citizens, “How many people have already died? This place was supposed to be safe…”
His anger had been simmering the entire time, but those words engaged a switch inside him; he felt his emotions begin stirring together, creating a maelstrom of hate. Apothis had attacked his home; he had attacked their new home. The only thing that assuaged the firestorm of hate was when he vowed he would never let someone attack this place again. In that place, listening to the cries of people he had tried to protect, he silently swore he would destroy Apothis and any threat to the Valley, even if it killed him!
The scene continued until everyone had voiced their piece; Rocky stood up to help the broken-souled, cried-out citizens back to the Guild Tent. As he lifted the first individual, he was surprised to find Sela beside him, helping. He didn’t know when she arrived, but he was happy to see her. She was looking at him with tears openly running down her face. He brushed a hand across his own face, which came away wet, trying and failing to find a bright side in this situation.
After a moment of their eyes being locked, they carried each person who had just lost a part of their very souls back to the Guild Tent. During the screaming, each one had torn out hair, clenched their fists, and screamed themselves red in the face at the loss of their other half. Some of the group women, some men, every one of them equally broken that day. To help with the self-inflicted injuries, Rocky cast Dark Mend on each soul they carried back, feeling it wasn’t close to enough to heal the deep hurt they suffered and vowing he would find a better way to help these people.
When they were done, Sela stood beside him, and together, they looked up at the night sky. She whispered, “The first lesson a commander must learn is that a decision must be made logically and quickly.” Rocky glanced at her face reflected by the light of the stars and saw that same strength he had seen in her the first day they met. “The second lesson a commander must learn is that once a decision is made, it must be seen through to the end. The last thing a commander must learn is that there is an acceptable cost in every decision and there is an unacceptable cost.” She finally turned to him and reached up to place a hand on his shoulder. “Today, you made many difficult decisions, but they were all right decisions. Today, you followed those decisions through to the very end, even putting your life on the line to complete them. And today, we paid an acceptable cost to save the lives of thousands. Today, I am proud to be your…” she took a deep breath and nodded at him, squeezing his shoulder simultaneously as she finished, “I am proud to be your Guide and to follow you.”
They stood there like that for a while, and Rocky reached out and pulled her into an embrace that felt right. He didn’t realize he was crying at first, but once he held her body close to his and had her unwavering strength in his arms, his shakes and shudders were obvious. Sela held him back and let it run its course, nodding as he recited names on a list that she knew existed but wished didn’t until he finally let go of her with an embarrassed, “Thank you…”
She smiled and changed the topic to something different, “I think we have left Garnell waiting long enough, don’t you?” Her voice uncharacteristically wavered slightly, and she gave a small cough at the end to cover it.
Rocky smiled, the expression looking odd when paired with his puffy eyes and nostrils. He nodded, and together, they walked to the shop and put on disguises. Once they were in the bazaar and made their way to Garnell, they were surprised that he paid for a private first-class meeting room but accepted the invitation.
Once they were in the opulent private room again, Garnell immediately started to speak, “I have been made aware of veins of information. I should say I have been made aware of a universe-altering Eternium vein of information!”
Rocky blinked behind his mask and turned to Sela confusedly to find her doing the same to him. Rocky turned back and spoke into the silence, “I think that was cryptic enough to leave us a little out of the loop, Garnell. What exactly have you learned, and why does it affect us? Or I guess how?”
“Sorry about that. I can’t speak about the information meself yet. I have signed an NDA that lasts two-weeks.” Garnell paused with a shrug and then held out a hand. “I am the middleman here. If ye meet with someone who asked me to make introductions, I will gladly share the benefit she had promised me with ye.”
Sela tilted her masked head. “Only meet with this person? No obligations besides that? What has she offered you for this arrangement?”
Garnell sure was leaving them with a lot of questions in this meeting. It was strange because excitement and worry radiated from the Karacy in equal parts, and it was clear for everyone to see. Garnell spoke into the silence, “It’s a bit open-ended of an offer. First off, it is a favor in return for the information she shared with me.” He looked at them sheepishly. “If after ye meet with her, ye feel the information she has for you isn’t enough in trade then I will gladly make a deal through my wares or a favor to be named later.”
Sela seemed to shake herself as she declared, “We will meet with this person, but we will do so in our current garments. We may choose not to speak with her after her news. If that is the case, we will leave after the meeting and come back to discuss our repayment at a later date, agreed?”
Garnell nodded eagerly, and then his eyes stopped focussing on them as he looked at something in front of himself but invisible to them. After a long few moments, his gaze changed back to them, and he claimed, “One of the other party’s people has gone to inform them that ye are here. I doubt it will take very long based on the last meeting we had.”
They stood in place awkwardly for a full five minutes, not sure how to react in the strange situation. Sela seemed to choose to stay silent and stoic, and Rocky attempted to do the same. After the five minutes, though, Rocky whispered, “Can we sit down at least?” Sela jumped at the noise, which could only mean she too was a bit out of her depth here.
The group sat down, and Garnell opened his mouth
but shut it with a click a few times before he finally started, “Don’t worry. I have shared with her nothing about ye. Just that ye may be the people she was looking for.” That statement brought more questions to mind for Rocky and did little to make him feel at ease with the meeting.
A multicolored Kobold popped into existence in the room, and both Sela and his heads shot in its direction. Garnell jumped up from his seat, gushing, “Good, ye are here.” Then he pulled a chair out from the other side of the table, looking awkward and excited as he moved.
The Kobold sat down and studied the masks and kimonos they wore. After a time, she impatiently asked, “Are you two from the Etherless Void?” In answer, Rocky looked at Sela, and she looked at him. Then they both looked back to the Kobold, and Rocky knew, under his mask, his face was pure confusion, so he assumed Sela’s was the same.
The silence stretched for a time, and the Kobold looked to Garnell, who shrugged sheepishly and nodded in their direction. “They have accepted the meeting under the condition that they don’t’ have to talk with ye if they choose not too. Maybe explain the whole situation to them?”
“Where would I even start, Garnell?” the female-sounding voice of the Kobold spat out, seeming exasperated before she took a deep breath and visibly calmed herself. “Okay, this will make it harder, but let’s start at the beginning of my story and the plight of my people.”
For the next hour, the little Kobold told a harrowing tale of planetary invasion, systematic genocide, slavery, and oppression. Rocky was riveted by the tale she spun, and his heart went out to her and to the other Kobolds who had been nearly obliterated on their own planet by the Guild Collective. That was when the story finally connected itself to them. “We got lucky and found a Territory deep within the planet that the Guild Collective doesn’t know exists. Even the Mechano-Lords and their ‘technology’ can never sense us so deep beneath them.” The instant she added Mechano-Lords, Rocky had jumped slightly. It was accidental, but he saw the Kobold’s eyes widen in recognition.