“Yeah, some of us are rather unsavory,” said Olaf. “But there are also plenty of good ones.”
“I know, you six have proved as much many times over,” said Mardi. “I should have trusted you more.”
“Are you ready to trust us now?” Olaf asked.
“Aye, my people are only alive tonight because of you six. Now, I have heard the reports from my officers and General Hammersmith, but I have not heard your reports. Please, tell me everything, starting with how you managed to secure the Hammerpeak Mine,” Mardi ordered, presenting a much more composed figure.
It took a little time to tell Mardi the story. A lot had happened that day, from the gremlins to the beginning of the attack, each of us having our own perspective. It even filled in some of the blanks for me on the details I was missing. And finally, telling her about the battle for the cannons.
“You lot really do manage to find trouble wherever you go,” Mardi commented at the end.
“I’m pretty sure it’s the other way around. We don’t go looking for trouble, it comes looking for us. Likes to keep things spicy and unpredictable, love,” said Micaela cheerfully.
Mardi snorted. “You might have a point. I suppose the big question, what next?”
“Resources, Hammerton’s and Anvilton’s,” I said, jumping in. “I saw that diorama in the officer room. Anvilton is way ahead right now. We have adventurers on our side now and the Anvilton adventurers will be licking their wounds, at least for a day or two. We need to make the most of that time. Starting with raids on their resources, your officers will need to determine whether that means stealing the resources or destroying them.”
“Hammerton also needs to start securing more of their own resources, starting with your lumbermill and factory. Adventurers can continue collecting bear meat to help feed your people,” Olaf added in.
“And you now have a number of players with a good deal of stealth capability, you should really consider setting us loose in Anvilton, let us deliver a little payback,” said Heath, surprising all of us with his suggestion. It wasn’t that we hadn’t thought of it, just a surprise that Heath did.
Gras stomped to get our attention.
“No,” I said as soon as he started to sign, cutting him off.
Gras huffed and looked like he was about to break his silence when I held up a hand stalling him.
“Patience,” I said before looking back to Mardi. “There is something else that we need to discuss.”
“The Shale Dwarves,” said Mardi, looking between Gras and me.
“Yes, you have a lot of enmity toward them, but they are not all your enemy. Those two dozen rebels should be proof of that,” I said.
Mardi frowned. “I know . . . I know that . . . I do . . . it is just hard for me to accept. The pain of that betrayal, it still feels fresh, like it just happened yesterday.”
“So, do you want to smash Anvilton into the ground? Erase them from existence? Or do you want to save them from a corrupt leader and free them from bondage? Give them and yourself, justice?” I asked.
“Justice,” Mardi said softly. “I want justice for what was done to me. I want justice for the pain the Dwarves of Anvilton are suffering at the hands of the Duke.”
“Are you willing to work with the Anvilton Rebellion to make it happen?” I asked.
“I am,” said Mardi. “I will do whatever it takes to end this war, preferably in a way that leaves Anvilton and Hammerton intact.”
“Good,” I said, knowing that what came next would be a gamble but there wouldn’t be a better opportunity and the longer we waited the more it would anger Mardi. I looked to Gras, enjoying the dumbstruck look on his face. This time, I was making my own hand sign telling him ‘go ahead’ with a wave of my arm from him to the Duchess.
Gras cleared his throat. “Duchess Mardi du Hammer,” he said in a clear timber, much different from even the voice he had used around us, gone was the scratchy unused quality. “I am Gras du Anvil, 2nd son of the Duke, Shrove du Anvil. I am the leader of the Anvilton Rebellion and I beseech you, please, help my people,” he said, finally dropping a knee and bowing his head.
“Did you know about this?” Mardi demanded, suddenly pointing a finger at me.
Perhaps I should have thought this out a little more.
“We all did,” said Olaf, jumping to my defense.
“And you did not deem me worthy of such knowledge?” Mardi asked hotly.
“If we told you this morning, what would you have done?” I asked.
Mardi blushed red and stammered a bit. “Fine . . . you may have had a point,” she finally relented. “Alright, stand up . . . Gras was it?”
“Yes, your Grace,” Gras replied, looking as if the words pained him to say. He stood a moment later, looking around nervously as if expecting to be attacked any second now.
“All this time, Ash was Gras,” said Mardi, shaking her head slightly, a chagrined look upon her face.
“Sorry, your Grace,” said Gras, wincing as the words left his mouth.
Mardi took a deep sobering breath. “I suppose there is much for us to discuss. And none of this ‘your Grace’ stuff.”
“Thank God Ivaldi, I do not think I could have called you ‘your Grace’ one more time,” Gras groused.
“What is that supposed to mean?” Mardi asked, putting her hands on her hips.
“Err . . . no offense, but . . . uh . . . you are not my leader . . . neither is my father for that matter,” Gras tried to explain himself.
“I suppose you want me to help you become the leader of Anvilton?” Mardi asked pointedly.
“No, I do not want your help. I want my people to rise up on their own and overthrow my father. Asking you for help makes Anvilton beholden to you. The last thing I want is for my reign to start with a debt of that size hanging over it,” Gras replied, pausing to take a breath. “But, if today showed me anything, it is that my father is dangerous, far too dangerous to risk a coup that might fail. And as your people have as much at stake as my own. I, therefore, need your help . . . maybe as much as you need my help.”
Mardi seemed to consider her words before speaking. “You believe we need your assistance as equals. What do you offer?”
“First, my people have information, things like troop numbers and supply details as well as patrol rotation details. Second, when the time comes, my people will fight for our freedom, which will bolster your own numbers. Third, if you want peace as badly as I do, then you will need me standing at your side as an equal. With the years of enmity between our people, there is no way they would ever bow to your leadership, which would ultimately lead to another war if you were to attempt to claim Anvilton as your own,” Gras reasoned out.
“That they would not follow you either if you did not present strength does not hurt either,” Mardi said, seeing through at least part of Gras’s statement.
“No, that is also true,” Gras admitted, acknowledging her point. “It is why I said, I need you as much as you need me. I trust the adventurers you have surrounded yourself with. These adventurers have shown me their trust and have earned my trust in return. They have shown me how much they trust you by how hard they fought for you. I hope that this trust can be the foundation of trust between us.” It was almost poetic.
Mardi didn’t react, neither frowning nor smiling she turned to my group and me. “Do you trust him? I mean really trust him?” she asked.
Truthfully, I didn’t trust him, not completely. The fact that he threatened Mardi’s life with a hidden Assassin proved just how little I could trust him. However, when he was presented with the chance to come clean and make his case, he stepped up, put his own life on the line when it mattered. But his statement felt hollow like it was a political ploy of some kind. And he hadn’t done anything to prove himself trustworthy in the short time we had known him. He didn’t help with the gremlins. He didn’t help fight during the recent attack according to Heath’s report. It all spelled out that he was only
interested in serving himself. “No,” I said honestly.
“Not at all,” Olaf added before I could elaborate. “I trust he is your best chance for peace but no, I don’t trust him. Not even a little and he hasn’t done much to prove otherwise. Heath, you were with him inside during all this, what do you think?”
“Nah, mate, he disappeared on me at some point and I don’t think it was because of the Bard’s song,” Heath replied.
“He tried to blackmail and threaten Jack the first time he met him,” Rose added. “Not what I would call trustworthy.”
I could see Gras’s face fall as his carefully crafted statement fell apart.
“You overreached, trying to use us like that,” Micaela said, absent of her usual kindness. “We’ve bled and died for Mardi, so did you really think we would lie to her for you?”
“Damn, I should have seen that coming,” said Gras, sighing defeatedly. Taking a deep breath, he stood straight and spoke, a fire in his eyes that wasn’t there before. “Fine, they do not trust me. They have no reason to trust me either as they said, I tried to blackmail and threaten them the first time I revealed myself as Gras to Bye-bye. I have hidden in the shadows for most of my life, learning what I could from whomever I could. There is a reason my class is ‘Guerilla’. I would fight and kill anyone if it meant reclaiming my city and freeing my people, even you, Duchess.”
“And would you give up your claim to the title of ‘Duke’ for it?” Mardi asked.
“If that is what it will take,” said Gras, frowning. “But what I said earlier still stands. My people look to me as their hope for a better future. I am not my father. He would kill anyone to keep his power. He killed my mother in front of me when my brother failed with you. My father called her bad breeding stock. When I ran, he sent guards after me. I didn’t get far when one of them caught up to me. I fully expected to die that day. Instead, that guard hid me away and smuggled me out of the city. Handed me over to someone he trusted, my tutor and caretaker, Krangle. I realize, telling you this may well sign his death warrant as well as my own, but at this point, we’re all dead if we do not work together. I am willing to die for my people, Duchess. That is who I am and what I am willing to do to free my people. How far are you willing to go?” It wasn’t exactly the same story he told before. It made me wonder which story was true. It also made me wonder if Gras even knew the truth of how he came to live in Hammerton.
“So, this is the real Gras then?” Mardi asked, voicing exactly what I was wondering. This was more akin to the Gras that ambushed me in the woods that first day. Cutthroat and willing to do whatever it took to win.
“Yes, this is the real me, the person I became to survive,” Gras answered adamantly. “Now, what do you need from me to prove I can be trusted?”
Mardi remained silent, just long enough for me to speak up with what I wanted from the start. “Your Assassins, the one you told us you were hiding. I want them, all of them,” I said clearly, making sure I didn’t leave any room for trickery.
Mardi’s eyes narrowed, her glare focusing on Gras.
“An insurance policy,” Gras tried to explain himself. “One I do not need anymore. Your cook, Magda, and your maid, Sabine, they were both in my employ. Please, do not punish them for work I put them up to. If it will make you feel any better, they did not have much of a choice in the matter.”
“Blackmail again?” I asked, starting to pick up on the way Gras handled things.
“Yes,” Gras answered.
“Barkley is good though, right?” Heath asked, surprising me again. It almost sounded like he cared for the old butler’s well-being.
“Yes, in studying him I found that he would have been . . . difficult to say the least, such is his loyalty to the Duchess,” Gras replied.
That was no small relief. I liked Barkley, he did me a real solid with that reservation for my date with Rose.
“Assuming they confess everything, at the very least, they will be fired and investigated, but provided they haven’t done any real harm, then they will not be punished. Any other spies I should be aware of?” Mardi asked.
“Sergeant Angler was my contact within your military,” said Gras.
“And with him dead during the attack, that cannot be confirmed,” said Mardi, frowning in thought. “Anyone else?”
“I already told you about my caretaker, there is no one else. I did not need anyone else. I told you before, I do not want your help. My people were chosen only to keep you out of my way and keep me informed,” Gras explained.
“What about Loral?” Micaela asked.
“She is not involved,” Gras snapped, showing his first bit of emotion since his initial plea to Mardi, since then he had been all business.
As if chum had just been added to shark infested water, Micaela jumped on it. “I knew it! I told you he has a thing for her,” she said excitedly.
“I do not hold feelings for her,” Gras snapped. He closed his eyes and took a deep calming breath before continuing. “Not like that. She is . . . akin to a sister. She was kind to me when we were children despite all the anger directed at me for being a Shale Dwarf.”
“Are you sure?” Micaela asked, her head leaning to one side then the other as she studied him.
“Yes, I am sure,” Gras replied, crossing his arms and refusing to look Micaela in the eyes, despite her getting right up close to him.
“Alright, we will leave Loral out of it,” said Mardi. “I know now we can trust you to do everything you can to keep her safe.”
“So now you are blackmailing me?” Gras demanded.
“No, I am not. I have absolutely no intention of harming Loral in any way for being a good and kind person. But knowing you have someone here you wish to protect tells me you will fight that much harder to ensure we win. It gives me a reason to trust you, small though it may be,” said Mardi, finding a single redeeming factor. The one I had been looking for but not found until now.
I watched a lot of the tension in Gras’s arms and back release as he seemed to finally relax, whatever fear that had been holding him in place didn’t quite melt away but was at least alleviated to some degree.
“Good, sounds like we’re all on the same page now,” said Olaf, clapping his hands together. The sudden noise dispelling the remainder of the tension.
“Does that mean we can go back to Mardi’s and sleep?” Baby asked, yawning cutely. It was easy to forget there was a grown woman playing in that body, it was just too childishly cute.
“Food first,” said Heath, patting his belly.
“I would not say no to a drink or two myself,” Mardi added.
“Wait,” said Gras, halting us on our walk toward the exit. “Is that it? No more questions or demands?”
Mardi halted and turned to address the Shale Dwarf, “Gras, it is late. Nothing will be decided tonight, even the adventurers need their rest. Tomorrow morning, we will call for an assembly and with you next to me we will announce our intention to fight back, to free the oppressed, and when that is done, we will meet with my General and the few remaining officers I have left so we can discuss the next course of action. For now, we need rest.”
I was exhausted when we returned to the manor. It had only been this morning we were wiping out a gremlin infestation. It felt like weeks had passed since then.
“Copper for your thoughts,” said Rose, sitting next to me, scooting her chair over so she could lean her head on my shoulder.
“Only a copper? My thoughts must not be that valuable,” I joked.
“Nope, but there are parts of you I would pay a silver for, maybe two,” Rose joked right back.
I couldn’t help laughing and giving her a kiss. “Thanks, I needed the laugh.”
“Your thoughts are worth way more than a copper, Jack,” said Rose seriously. “Anyway, what’s the plan?”
“I have no idea,” I answered. “There are so many things we need to do.”
“One thing at a time, Jack, just like you
always say. What’s the first step?” Rose prompted me.
“Mardi’s assembly, meeting the leadership,” I said.
“Forget that, we know about that. What do you need to do?” Rose asked.
“Training. I need training and a lot of it. I’ve gained 4 levels and need a lot of stats. Right now, that is our priority,” I answered.
“Good, how do we get them?” Rose asked.
I sighed. I had actually been thinking about just that. “We need a library. I don’t know about acquiring more skills, at least not ones that require activation to level, but passive skills. Things to increase stat gains, things that increase damage or defense. Like a ‘find the weak spot’ kind of thing or something for ‘critical blocking’ for you. We also still need more magic, specifically buffing spells. Everyone should have at least one buff spell for their top two or three stats. My buffs hit all stats but if I don’t start working harder to level them up then they do me no good.”
“We need to go back to the mines,” said Micaela, joining the conversation as she sat two beers and shots down in front of Rose and me. “I need stone, Olaf needs ore. It’s past time he and I both upgrade our weapons plus it’s great for strength training. That said, all those miners would be more than happy to receive some buffs.”
“If we hire on an additional wagon or two, we can run trains of bear meat to the city as well,” said Olaf.
“I will get Krangle to give me whatever wagons we need,” volunteered Gras, surprising all of us.
“Just be mindful of time,” warned Mardi. “It will not be long before Anvilton attacks again.”
“Which is where I come in,” said Heath. “Give me four or five other adventurers under my command and turn us loose and I promise you, Anvilton will be chasing their own tails in no time.”
“I think we have a plan,” said Baby. “But only for a few days, we can’t afford to wait too long to get back into the thick of it.”
I downed my shot. “Then let’s get some sleep, we’ve got work to do tomorrow,” I said, picking up my beer and drinking deeply.
Chapter 18
World Tree Online: The Mountain Valley War: 2nd Dive Concludes Page 30