by Jez Cajiao
“Kayt!” The boy, Caron, shouted, breaking free from the cat dude’s grip and running to her. He took her in his arms protectively as he checked her over, then dragged her back away from me, glaring at me with distrust clear on his little face while I was distracted with a new pop-up.
Congratulations! New spell learned: Focused Heal-All
This apprentice-grade spell includes over a dozen sperate weaves designed to heal specific injuries, and can be customized to focus on specific areas, or can be empowered with higher levels of mana to supercharge the target’s normal healing abilities.
Cost: 25mana – unlimited
Duration: 5 seconds - unlimited
“You…ah…you planning on doing that for all of us?” The cat asked, scratching one ear awkwardly as I met his gaze. “I know it took a lot out of you, but…” I couldn’t help but give a weak chuckle as I laid back on the floor, stretching my back out and taking a deep breath.
“Aye, well, we can talk about it. I’ll not leave anyone hurt that I can help, that’s for sure.” I said.
“You mean that?” The voice came from a woman that hadn’t spoken yet. She looked grim, hardly an ounce of fat on her anywhere, dressed in rags and with great bags under her eyes. Her body was covered in angry red welts, long lines crisscrossing her body that made me think she’d pissed off someone that liked a whip.
“Yeah. Yeah, I do,” I said. “What about you? What about all of you; what are you wanting from me?”
“From you? Depends, what you offering? And what’s it gonna cost me?” she replied, folding her arms across her chest and frowning at me.
“Lydia! For the love of the gods, woman, shut up! He’s already fought to free us from their clutches and healed Kayt! If you turn him against us, so help me!” The catman interrupted us, lifting a finger to her in warning before turning back to me. “You ask what we want from you? What you’ve already given, my lord; protection, healing, and if you have any to spare, maybe a little food? We’re slaves, all of us. We want a fresh start, somewhere to live and raise our children! We know why we were brought here. We’re to be fed to that thing that claims the Tower. Now we’re trapped here. What do we want; we want freedom! Get us out of the Tower, and any of us that survive will bend the knee. We’ll serve you, my lord!”
“I’m no lord,” I muttered, even as the group of slaves started speaking up, agreeing with the cat.
“You might not have been, but if you save us? We’ll serve you as sworn men and women. Nations have started with less. Give us your protection, and you’ll be our lord,” he said quietly, putting one hand on my shoulder and staring into my eyes. “I don’t know much, but I know a good man when I see one. We need your help. Will you take us?” I snorted in disagreement as I returned his look.
“I’m not a good man. Hell, I’m spending most of my time just trying not to be a bad one!” I said, shaking my head. I closed my eyes and thought for a second, hearing the voices all around me peter off into silence as they waited.
You have been offered a Quest: Who will you be?
The slaves sent as tribute by Lord Barabarattas have offered to swear loyalty to you, provided you escort them to a safe location and swear to protect them.
Rewards: Twenty-seven villagers of varying loyalty, Title, and ???
Will you accept?
Yes/No
I took a deep breath as I read the notification that floated before me. Varying loyalty? Wow, what a way to sell it…
“Ah, fuck it.” I muttered, mentally hitting ‘yes’ and accepting the quest. After all, I was halfway there. I’d already killed the creatures of the Tower. All I had to do was seal it back up so that random creatures couldn’t get in, and at least there’d be people that could make me dinner and help out. I opened my eyes to find that everyone had a strange look on their faces as they read something that only they could see. I realized that they had all received prompts at the same time I’d accepted the quest, and they were reading them now. After a second, the cat looked at me and grinned before bowing deeply.
“Thank you, Lord! I see we’re already classed as slaves of the Great Tower. I had hoped that, as we will be swearing to you…”
“Oh, fuck that!” I growled out. “You’re all free. I’m having nowt to do with slavery! If someone can find that damn key again, you can use it to free yourselves.”
“And Toka?” he asked, gesturing across to the still form of the androgynous healer that I’d crippled.
“That’s… a different matter. Something’s wrong there, care to tell me about…it?” I said, drawing a tired breath, getting back to my feet and trying to ignore the mana migraine. These damn things were getting too common now, and I resolved to try to see if I could get through a day without one and get a real night’s sleep. Probably optimistic, but a man could dream.
“Toka is a…Toka is a murdering fucking animal that tortured and abused anything and everything it could. It used to be a human male, caught by the slavers and tortured until all it understood was pain and pleasure. They gelded it, staff and stones removed, and then healed the wounds over, experimented on it, broke it again and again. It kept getting fixed and broken until it was remade as this thing. Loyal to whoever gives it enough pain, gifted as a healer, but sick in the head. All I know is that it's been free to come and go for years, and it spends its time trawling the slave pens. It goes out of its way to find the most innocent and abuse them, breaking them until they’re like it. Now the Lord Barabarattas has a dozen of them at his beck and call, torturing anyone he decides deserves it. I’d say kill it, and slowly, for the things I’ve seen, but the God’s know it’s not entirely its fault that it is what it is.”
“Well, I…”
“Give it to me.” A voice growled from the slaves and we both looked over to see who’d spoken. A tall, stick-thin elven male drew nearer, looking down at Toka and back to me. “Please, Lord, I’ll swear any oath you want; just give me that sick fuck. I’ll make sure it suffers!”
“And why…” I started to ask, but he cut me off.
“Look at it! Just look at it! The outfit it wears, it’s made from my people! My wife is part of it, for all I know! Just give it to me. Let me kill it for you, if you won’t do it yourself. That thing deserves to suffer!”
I spun again, taking the few steps to cross the floor to where the bleeding creature sprawled and leaned in close to look at the ‘leather’ outfit it wore. There were several different colors woven in together, which I had already noticed, but then I saw it. On one wider section it wore over a shoulder, the material had a brand burned into it, the same brand many of the other slaves wore, except it was folded, following the twists of the braiding. My anger must have shown on my face as even Toka looked scared suddenly, the enjoyment it’d been showing gone in an instant.
“Is it true?” I asked in a low whisper. “Are you wearing the skin of people you’ve murdered? Tortured?”
Toka swallowed hard and looked up at me, licking its lips as if unsure what to say.
“Ye… ye were tellin’ the truth, laddie!” The dwarf interrupted as Bob brought him back across to where I crouched. “I need yer help! They be my lads, crashed down there. Mebbe ah can fix ma ship, mebbe no, but ah can save ma lads! Help me, laddie. Help me to save ‘em, an’ ah’ll be your man fer life! Ah swear it!”
I looked up at him, fury and disgust in my eyes as I growled. “What makes you think I want your help? You were with this creature! And those fuckers that are over there!” I gestured at the dead men, then at the piles of weapons. “You’re fucking thieves, stealing from me, and you want my help? Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t help you get to your men right now, using the fucking fastest route!” I pointed to the edge of the balcony and saw the dwarf’s eyes widen in fear again.
“Wait!” came a whisper from my right, and I turned my head. The young elven girl was on her feet, pushing her way through the crowd that seemed to have formed around me. “I… he helped us, Lord. H
e helped to keep us alive. After Lord Barabarattas’s men took over his ship, they made him come here, but he still slipped us food and water when he could, even after Toka was given permission to hurt him if he did it again. He helped us.”
“Did you?” I snarled at him. “Did you help them, or were you a coward that went along with things, keeping your mouth shut and looking after your own?!”
“Ah’m both,” he whispered, eyes downcast. “Ah’m a coward, an’ ah helped them when ah could. Ah tried to keep me ship afloat, feed me family, an’ pay the Lord’s damn taxes so they’d no take me ship away. Ah helped them when ah could, just like when ah tried to ignore ye hidin’ there, but ye got stuck in an’ started fightin’ and ah had to do what they said.. Please, Lord, help me. Ah’ll do owt you want.”
“Is this Toka as bad as they say?” I growled, trying to stifle the anger flooding me, and the dwarf grimaced, spitting on the floor before nodding abruptly.
“Aye, and worse! Toka be a wretched thing, it delights in torture, skinnin’ it’s victims an’ makin’ outfits from ’em. You only seen this one; it’s got dozens! Some are made up o’ all kiddie’s skin. I saw what it were wearin’ a few days back, before we set off. Kiddie couldn’t’a bin more’n two….and it…”
I cut him off with a raised hand and yanked my blade out of Toka’s neck, loosing a spurt of blood and a groan from the creature. I stood up and lifted it, heaving it upright and ordering Bob to take it outside. I gestured to the Elf that had begged to kill it and had him and the others follow me.
Toka was bleeding out, and couldn’t have more than a few seconds left, so I cast healing on it, and then again, using almost all the mana that had regenerated and making my mood worse as my headache began to pound again.
“I’ll serve you! I’ll pleasure you! Anything you want, Master; thank you!” Toka whispered, trying to get its feet under it as Bob dragged it over to the edge of the marshalling yard at my direction. I checked down below and judged that the ship was far enough off to one side that it was safe, then told Bob to let the wretched thing go, leaving it standing unsteadily on its own feet..
Toka tottered at the edge of the platform, looking over the side at my gesture. “What? What do you want me to do, Master? You want me to go to them? Teach them their place? Make them fear you, love you like I do? I can do that for you; that and more!” It was practically salivating as it watched the wounded so many stories below.
“This is MY Tower. If you want to stay here, you follow my rules,” I called aloud, turning around to address everyone else. “They’re really fucking simple, for now at least. Rule one, don’t be a dick. Rule two, fuck with me, and you’ll regret it. Rule three, while you’re here, you’re family, so fucking act like it. Protect each other. No stealing, no abuse. We all work, and we all get to relax! Rule four, everyone gets a fresh start, but don’t abuse it.” I gestured to Toka with one hand, pointing at its clothes.
“Toka here, though, is literally wearing evidence of the fact it is a sick fucker that’s been torturing people, then making their corpses into clothes. That’s a fucking lightyear step too far.”
“I’ve been bad, I know. Punish me master… pun…” Before it could finish its sentence, I took three quick steps and spun, ducking low and lashing out with my right foot in a sweeping spin kick with all of my force. Toka cried out in shock as its feet shot out from underneath, its face falling forward into my perfectly timed uppercut that hit it full force. My enhanced Strength worked in conjunction with my other stat increases to send Toka cartwheeling off the side of the platform with a scream of terror, blood and teeth spraying as it went.
Chapter Twenty-Three
I took a deep breath and enjoyed the silence. Even speaking to that creature had left me feeling dirty somehow. Now it was off my Tower, and I felt a lot better for it, even if I did miss the perfect chance to…ah, fuck it... I straightened and took a quick step up to the edge and leaned over.
“Hadoken!” I screamed after Toka as it fell downwards, instantly feeling like the universe had been put to rights. I turned back to the shocked onlookers and clapped the elf that had asked for permission to kill Toka on the shoulder.
“Sorry, friend, but it’s my place to dispense justice. If you’d done it, it would have been revenge,” I said, making eye contact. “I understand why you wanted to do it, but it wouldn’t bring her back.”
I turned to look at the rest of the group, finding the dwarf Oren standing in the middle. Several of the slaves had their collars off and surrounded him, but none showed any hostility toward him. If that wasn’t proof, then I had no idea what would have been. I forcibly made myself release the anger I was holding toward him and gestured for him to walk forward.
“Okay; Oren, right?” I asked him, receiving a nod in affirmation. “I’ll help you, and your men, but you’re going to have to help me with them. They don’t know me, and as far as I know, they’re all assholes.”
“Nay, laddie! They’re good lads, ah swear it! Most ‘o ‘em ha’ bin wi’ me fer years!” He wrung his hands together unconsciously, and I looked him over again, noting the armor with its missing sections. I straightened up and gestured toward the stairwell down, walking back inside to look around at the mess. “Okay then, Oren, it’s that way to the ground. On the way, you can tell me your story.”
“Ah will, Lord, an’ thanks! Errr, b’fore we go, though… ah… we still might have a wee problem…” He looked at me, then the rest of the group, hesitantly rubbing his hands together in discomfort.
“Out with it.,” I said, trying to keep my face calm.
“Well, laddie, it be like this… we’re not a party o’ two airships… we be a party o’ three.” He paused, waiting for the feared explosion of rage from me. Instead, I set off running to the balcony and looked up into the clear sky, searching all around and trying to spot the second and third ships. When I couldn’t see anything, I turned back to him as he came running out behind me, huffing to a halt and holding up his hands to calm me down.
“There was three of us, laddie. Two transports, me an’ Decin, we were hired t’ help transport troops and mebbie cargo t’ and from somewhere top secret. No details, just a pouch o’ gold and a wink. Ah could’na refuse; ah were almost outta manastones fer ma ship. Anyway, few days before we be due to leave, one o’ the big ships made it back from patrol, mebbe a hun’red feet long, forty across the beam, big six engine thing, hardly needs her sails at all, proper shark o the skies. The lord was’ne expectin’ her back for weeks, but she were damaged. They decided she’d last long enough for this delivery and put a team aboard t’ do the most urgent fixes en-route. Thing is, she landed a few days back, told us t’ go ahead, that her captain had ‘some business’ in a village we passed. She were supposed t’ catch up. If Decin thinks I be dead, and everyone else as well, he’ll be looking for ’em, wantin’ t’ bring ‘em back for some payback.”
“And what are the chances of him finding them? Wait, first, what are the chances of them getting there? They were pretty banged up…”
“Ah did’na see them crash, laddie. Might ha’ gotten far enough away t’ feel safe and land fer repairs. Might be alright, might be on fire somewhere; I just dinna know!”
“Okay. Right, give me some space, all of you…just…go be somewhere else for a bit, okay?” I said, gesturing to them to bugger off as I walked over to the edge of the stone balcony and sat down. My feet dangled over the edge as I ordered Bob to keep everyone away from me for now. I searched through my pockets and bags until I found it, sitting there as calm as could be, waiting until I needed it. The scroll of Summon Arcane Eagle.
Scroll of Summon Arcane Eagle
Further Description Yes/No
Details:
This scroll will summon an Arcane Eagle construct. This air affinity spirit will last 600 seconds and share all it sees with its summoner.
Rarity
Magical
Durability
Charge:
Yes
87/100
1/1
I pulled it out and looked it over. It was maybe six inches long and had been rolled up tight. A wax seal secured it, with the spell details embossed in the wax. I looked it over for a few seconds more, noting the signs of age in it before breaking the wax seal with one thumb and unrolling it.
Do you wish to activate ‘Scroll of Summon Arcane Eagle’ at this time? Be aware; as the seal has been broken, this scroll will begin to deteriorate at a rate of one point of durability per three minutes.
Yes/No
I mentally selected ‘Yes,’ of course, and the spidery handwritten letters that made up the page burst into blue flames, quickly consuming the parchment until I held a handful of cool fire. The flames roiled in my hands, weaving in and out and picking up speed until they formed a ball, which then grew to an egg. As the seconds passed, the egg grew bigger and solidified, becoming heavier and more tangible, until all at once, something inside shook the egg, and cracks appeared across the surface. As the cracks grew, it was obvious something was breaking free, something that was quickly too big to have been inside the tiny shell, yet I’d seen its birth mere seconds ago. It was an eagle, an eagle that grew even as I looked into its eyes. The bird was made from blue fire that seemed solid, until it shifted slightly, and I could see through it. Even as it finally stopped growing, reaching its full size, with a wingspan of easily six feet, it still seemed to weigh almost nothing, and appeared to be a hologram and then solid, from second to second.
I sensed a faint drawing sensation begin, one that grew stronger by the second, until I made eye contact with it. The next second, I was perched on my own hands, staring at my own body holding me. Okay, this isn’t freaky as fuck or anything, AT ALL…