Zones of Alacria- The Dragon Gate

by K R Dimmick

  A notification blinked at the side of my vision.

  Congratulations! You have completed the quest: Save the NPCs 1

  You have received 40,000 XP.

  My little XP bar trickled past the halfway mark, reminding me how much work I still had to do to get to level 10. I guess even though they didn’t like it, I had managed to warn three NPCs about the sigils. I double-checked the red number at the top. Thankfully, it was still at the number two. That meant I hadn’t been unconscious long.

  “What happened?” I croaked.

  “They arrested us,” Mikael looked at me like he thought the hit to my head must have affected my brain. “I couldn’t very well leave you behind after they knocked you out, so now we’re both stuck in here, apparently waiting for Andrew to come and collect us.”

  Okay, so the day could get worse. I stood up and started pacing around the cell. On the second lap, I looked out at the cell opposite us. There was a thin man in a ripped, brown leather jerkin curled up on the floor. His pale blond hair had a patch of what looked like dried blood in it. His chest rose and fell slightly as he breathed though, so whoever he was, he wasn’t dead.

  To my right, I could see the entrance to the prison, and between us and the door were two guards dressed in the red uniforms of Ratters Town. As I watched, a third guard entered. He saw me and glared, so I quickly backed away and went to sit next to Mikael.

  “So ya gonna join the attack on the elves tomorra?” asked one of the guards. “I’m thinking it might impress Rosie if I bring her back an ear. I figure she might even agree ta marry me.”

  “She could do a lot betta than the likes a you,” another guard muttered.

  “Settle down. It’s not like we’re getting out of guard duty. If ya desperate enough, ya could always cut the ear off our guest. I don’t think he’s gonna wake up anytime soon,” said a third voice.

  I guess that meant the person in the cell opposite us was an elf. Poor guy, what a bad time to be in Ratters Town. I looked closer, but his skin didn’t seem to glow like the other elves I’d met. Well, all except for Kailu’s skin, but then, he was always covered in soot, so maybe I simply couldn’t see the glow through the dirt.

  “I come bearing drinks from the illustrious leader of the Dragon Hunters, Andrew,” declared a new voice I thought I recognized.

  Creeping slowly and quietly forward, I peered around the corner of the cell. Sure enough, there stood Allion, with a flamboyant hat covering the telltale sight of his pointy ears. The scumbag was in league with Andrew?

  A cheer went up from the guards and two of them each grabbed a bottle.

  “We can’t drink, we’re on duty!” the third guard yelled at the other two. “Put those down and stop being a disgrace ta ya profession.”

  The first two looked a bit guilty and started lowering their bottles.

  “Nonsense. Andrew himself sent these. If you don’t drink them, you are essentially insulting him. Now you wouldn’t want to do that, would you?” Allion asked them slyly.

  The first two guards both shook their heads and picked up their bottles again.

  “Come on, just a few sips to show you respect the man in charge,” wheedled Allion.

  “All right,” said the reluctant guard. “Guess a bit won’t hurt.”

  “Cheers,” Allion exclaimed, lifting his bottle and clinking it against the others’ bottles.

  “Down the hatch!” “Bottoms up!” The guards responded merrily.

  Suddenly, the three of them toppled over and hit the floor with a loud thud. Allion put his untouched bottle down and started rummaging around on the desk and then in the guards’ pockets to find the cell keys. He grabbed them out of the stoic guard’s pockets and stood up with a large grin on his face.

  “Time to return the favor and rescue you back, I think,” he said loudly, walking toward our cell.

  My mouth fell open. I guess I’d been wrong about him being in league with Andrew. Well, being rescued was a very nice surprise.

  Allion put the key in the lock and opened the cell door.

  “I don’t know how long we have, so we’d better be quick, before all three of us are locked up in that nasty looking cell,” he said, standing back with an exaggerated shiver.

  Mikael and I quickly got up off the floor and hurried out of the cell. Allion turned to leave.

  “Wait!” I said urgently. “We can’t leave that guy here. I’m pretty sure he’s an elf from what they were saying before you arrived. We have to get him out, too.”

  Allion looked like he was about to argue, when the pile of rags moved and looked up at me.

  “Kailu?” I asked, as the face of the leatherworker I knew stared back at me, looking distinctly like he was about to pass out again.

  He reached up to rub the back of his head where the dried blood was.

  “Allion. Unlock his cell, right now. We can’t leave Kailu here.”

  Allion’s lip turned up briefly at the corner before he forced a smile onto his face.

  “Of course,” he said, unlocking Kailu’s cell. “Although I think we might need to help him walk.”

  “No need. Now that I’m out of the cell, I’ve got my skills back.” I cast Wound Seal on Kailu and watched the cut on the back of his head knit back up. His eyes re-focused as he became aware of his surroundings again.

  “Orianna?”

  “No time to explain,” Mikael said, grabbing Kailu’s elbow. “We need to leave, now.”

  The four of us managed to stealth past the gate guards and make our way back out into the forest. It was amazing that they hadn’t told them to be more aware, but thankfully, Andrew hadn’t expected Allion to rescue us.

  We learned that Kailu had been struggling to sell his leather pieces in Milgate, so he’d come to Ratters Town for the weekly market. As soon as the guards had spotted his ears, they’d attacked him, knocked him out and put him in jail to see what Andrew wanted to do with him.

  Andrew was starting to seriously piss me off. He needed to be stopped, or this first zone was going to be completely run by him, and no one would ever get past it. It was bad enough that the nobles had made a pact with the Cartel to create the lottery that put us in the game in the first place. To then have a corrupt despot on this side, too, was just unacceptable.

  I could see the edge of El Silvam in the distance. I had no idea how I knew where Boon’s Forest ended and El Silvam began, but I guess the blessing must have given me the ability to spot it.

  Quiet. Hide. Soter suddenly appeared out of the trees next to me.

  I held my finger to my lips and motioned for everyone to hide in a nearby bush.

  “… don’t know why he expects me to still do grunt work,” complained a voice I wish I didn’t recognize.

  “We know, Colt!” said Saris, clearly having heard this complaint before. “Now that you’re in the guild leadership, someone should be feeding you grapes and tending to your every need.”

  Colt, Saris and Baynor walked around the bushes we were hiding in. Colt was glaring at Saris, while Baynor looked like he’d rather be just about anywhere else.

  Weirdly enough, Saris and Baynor were lugging a huge cage between them which contained about 5 small rabbits and a couple of brown squirrels.

  “If you two were better at making traps,” Colt glared at Baynor and Saris, “We wouldn’t have to do this anymore.”

  Maybe Andrew was making them all learn trapping. No idea why he would, though, and I couldn’t exactly jump out and ask.

  “It’s not like you’re any better, you know,” grumbled Saris. “At least we’ll get tomorrow off, and I’ll finally get to discover a new area without getting one shotted.”

  “Maybe you should put some more points into Toughness, then,” sneered Colt, “At least it took them a while to finish me off.”

  “We’re supposed to be on the same side, you know,” muttered Baynor, “Why can’t you two…”

  They finally walked out of earshot.

 
Crossing back into El Silvam, Kira materialized out of the forest in front of us. Unfortunately, so did about ten other elf hunters, and all of them had their bows pointed directly at Kailu.

  “Stop!” I yelled, jumping in front of Kailu. “He’s with us.”

  “This should be entertaining,” said Allion, taking a step backward and crossing his arms. He briefly lost his refined appearance as his lip curled up again. “A human defending an outcast.”

  “He’s a friend of mine.” I declared.

  Kailu looked rather surprised, like no one had ever stood up for him before.

  “It’s okay, I’ll just leave,” he said. “They did tell Skye and me never to come back.”

  If I hadn’t been looking at Allion, I would have missed the brief look of utter shock that crossed his face like his world had turned upside down.

  “It’s not okay. King Faelyn said they’d made some mistakes before and that they were changing things. They let Cara live among them now, and she’s human. I think you should be allowed to at least talk to them again and see if they’ll let you come back.”

  “I have to say I know Kailu as well, and he’s honorable,” Mikael stepped forward. “I don’t know the full story, but I’m willing to vouch for him long enough for him to talk to the King. How about it, Kira?”

  Mikael gave his best rakish smile with his arms wide, looking at Kira.

  I could see a faint blush appear on her face and I knew we’d won the battle.

  “Fine. Step down,” she said to the other hunters, who promptly disappeared back into the forest. “I’ll let you come in and talk to Faelyn on one condition.”

  “Name it,” said Kailu, who was looking hopeful for the first time since I’d met him.

  “You come in as a prisoner,” declared Kira, pulling a length of rope out of her inventory.

  A short while later, our group crossed the barrier into El Sanctum. Kailu was in the center of the group, with his hands tied behind his back. Waiting for us once again was the King and Queen. Obviously, one of the hunters had taken it upon themselves to run back and report the situation.

  “Your majesty,” I said, kneeling down and really trying to get into this role-playing thing. “Kailu Banni has been a loyal friend of mine since I arrived here. The Dragon Hunters have attacked him, now Ratters Town is against him, and all of it is because he’s an elf. He can’t go back to either place or Andrew will simply arrest him again. I don’t know why he was banished, but I’m hoping you could find it in yourself to at least consider giving him a second chance.”

  Kira pushed Kailu forward, causing him to fall onto his knees in front of the King. He looked up hopefully. I crossed my fingers silently, willing the King to let him back in.

  “Untie him,” demanded the King.

  Kira moved forward to comply.

  “You broke our laws and fell in love with a human. There’s a reason those laws exist,” said the King.

  Kailu looked down at the ground.

  “Any child that is half elf, half human, will never be accepted by the humans. So, to survive, they need to be accepted by the elves. This means they need to be brought up as an elf, which is something no human parent would ever allow to happen.”

  The King looked sadly at Kailu.

  “Humans are too fearful of the ways of the forest to raise an elf. They don’t know how to trust an elf’s natural abilities to commune with nature. If a wolf,” he indicated Soter, “walked up to a human child, the human would try to kill it, instead of realizing their child was being gifted with a bonding. It is the reason we had to take your child away to be raised as a full elf. However, I was young and acted rashly. I’ve since learned about love and how, when the heart decides what it wants, there’s nothing your mind can do about it.”

  King Faelyn glanced over at Queen Elysyia and she smiled back.

  “I’ve also learned about the depth of a mother’s love and why taking the child away caused your wife Skye to lose her mind and kill herself.”

  Tears started dripping down Kailu’s face. I glanced over at Allion to find he’d gone as white as a sheet.

  “I’m truly sorry, and I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me for what I did,” implored the King. “Ever since I earned my name, I have often wished I could right the wrong I did to you. We changed a lot of our customs the day I heard about Skye’s death. I vowed to never let that happen again. Instead, we now have a human, Cara, who lives among us and will happily accept any others who genuinely wish to join us, like we have with Aliz.”

  The King reached out to Kailu and helped him to his feet.

  “I’m so grateful the opportunity has finally arrived for me to rectify my actions. Would you consider returning to live once again in El Sanctum and share your crafting skills with us, to better our lives? I ask that you once again accept your position as one of our own.”

  “Yes, I will,” stuttered Kailu, tears now streaming down his face.

  “Then all that is left to say is welcome home, Kailu,” the King said warmly, holding out his arms.

  They embraced.

  “I also give you back your earned name,” the King stated as Kailu wiped his eyes.

  “Residents of El Sanctum,” King Faelyn declared loudly, “I present to you Kailu Corium. Once again an esteemed member of our family.”

  He touched Kailu on the head. Suddenly, his skin started to glow with that faint golden sheen the other elves had. The name above his head also changed from Kailu Banni to Kailu Corium and he broke out in the biggest grin I’d ever seen him wear, tears streaming down his face.

  “One of our own has returned. I declare a celebration is in order tonight,” pronounced Queen Elysyia.

  The elves all ran off to prepare for a party. This time, however, I wasn’t going to be drinking elven wine. I’d learned that lesson the hard way.

  34

  Time to Have Some Fun

  While the elves all prepared for the feast and wild party that evening, I left to go and find Aliz. I wanted to see if she’d made progress in decoding the journal. With my timer on day two already, I still had a few hours before the party to get closer to unlocking the potion I needed for the riddle.

  It had also crossed my mind that while Aliz could raise me up to Journeyman Alchemist, as far as I knew, there was no one who could raise us up to Master rank, so I had no idea how we were going to manage to make these potions, even if we could find the recipe. I suppose, in theory at least, there had to have been a very first Alchemist, and therefore, there must be a way to advance without help. Maybe Arik could find it in the history books he had.

  After some asking around, I was directed to Arik’s house where they were both apparently working. Standing at the bottom of a huge tree, I was faced with climbing one of the staircases grown out of branches and moss. Hopefully, it wasn’t as slippery as it looked.

  I started climbing. Soter decided to simply wait for me at the bottom. Probably a good idea. At least I wasn’t scared of heights. I couldn’t imagine trying this if I was. It was already unsettling to be able to see through the steps to the forest floor below, which was getting further and further away as I climbed.

  Finally, when I could barely make out Soter anymore, I reached the fifth walkway where I’d been told Arik’s house was located. The view was breathtaking, and I could see the forest and elven walkways laid out in front of me

  I turned back to the large tree the staircase grew around and I could just make out a doorway in the tree’s bark. A beautiful, blue flower hung to one side of the door. There didn’t seem to be a handle or anything, so I tried knocking on the wood. Not much happened, other than me breaking the skin on my knuckles. Before I could try again, a slim, slightly glowing hand reached over my shoulder and pushed the flower. I looked back to see a grinning elf.

  “Blue bell,” he said, as if that explained everything.

  All of a sudden, the door opened, revealing Arik staring back at me.

  “Com
e in, come in,” he gestured for me to enter.

  I turned around to thank the other elf, but he’d already disappeared.

  “The view up here is incredible,” I said as I walked in.

  “I’ll take your word for it,” Arik shuddered. “I’m afraid of heights. Yes, I’m quite aware that sounds like the start of a joke. An elf afraid of heights and all that, but it always looks like such a long way down.”

  “What’s the deal with the flower?” I asked, trying to change the subject.

  “It’s a blue bell. They work in pairs,” Arik said, pointing to another blue flower hanging on the inside of the tree. “If you touch one, the other produces a bell-like ring. Try it.”

  I stepped back out and touched the flower outside the door. Sure enough, with the door open, I could now hear a beautiful tinkling sound coming from the inside flower.

  Laughing, I walked into Arik’s house. It looked like it had been grown out of the tree it sat in. It was obvious it hadn’t been carved out or damaged the tree in any way, but there, in front of me, was a single room with a sleeping area, sitting area and working area. Every available wall space was covered with bookcases that were full of books. It was a scholar’s dream house. If I were being honest with myself, I was a little jealous.

  “If you’re so afraid of heights, why do you live at the highest level in the trees?” I asked Arik.

  “Well, I’m single,” he replied, as if that explained everything.

  When I continued to stare blankly back at him, he carried on.

  “The houses in the tops of the trees are obviously smaller than those in the bottom, so I really didn’t have a lot of choice,” he said. “The houses that are lower down are pretty much all occupied by families who need the extra space. I couldn’t very well make a family squeeze into this small space, just so I could be lower down the tree.”

  Well that made sense, I guess.