You absorb 25 Morbolger Essence.
Your Evasion has risen to Level 15.
+1% Evasion speed (+15%).
-1% Stamina cost (-15%).
+2% Time decay (+6%).
Your Beast Magic has risen to Level 25.
+3% Beast Magic potency (+75%).
-2% MP cost (-10%).
The Morbolger collapsed to the side, a desiccated husk of cinder and ash. Hal stepped out of the fumes, his [Shaper’s Coat] still smoldering with patches of flame licking up the sleeves.
More than one voice gasped at his sudden appearance. Noth’s head whipped to the side and before Hal could sort out what was wrong, she lunged at him.
The last thing he saw was her raven black hair flaring out behind her and a pair of wide, vulnerable golden eyes shining with unshed tears before they collided.
Her lips crushed against his, and all thoughts of the Morbolger fled from his mind as his arms came around to wrap her in a tight embrace.
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Noth’s collision nearly bowled Hal over, but it was the kiss that stole his strength. He only took a moment to return it, full-force.
All of the words left unsaid, the stolen glances, coy smiles, and hope that Hal didn’t dare let into his heart came out in a rush of heat and passion. He lifted her up and spun her about in the air to the cheer and whooping of several nearby dwarves surprised by the spectacle. A few shouted out, “Finally!”
“If yer done teasin’ the lass’s beard, we got ourselves a little green problem that needs sorting,” Durvin said, his voice unusually gruff.
They broke apart - reluctantly - and turned to look at the dwarf beside them. Out of the corner of Hal’s eye, he was treated to the fierce glare Noth leveled Durvin’s way.
It was hardly a surprise when even the battle-hardened dwarf shrank under that golden glare. He cleared his throat and looked anywhere but at Noth.
Hal couldn’t resist smiling at Noth. They each kept an arm around each other while turning to face Durvin more fully. “What do you mean, this isn’t the first Morbolger that’s assaulted the wall?” Hal asked.
“Got a few of ‘em up and down the wall,” Durvin motioned to the large stains of green on his butterfly axe sticking up over his left shoulder. “Seems our buildin’ is attractin’ the buggers. An’ ye got the Rangers scrounging up food and finding sources o’ wood and ore.”
Durvin scratched his beard and gave the pair a sidelong look. “Yerselves make a fine addition to the Ironspine Band,” he started to say, but Hal raised a hand to forestall him.
“But you would like us to see what’s going on,” Hal interrupted. “Considering the amount of work that still needs to be done, and the recent increase in everybody’s Construction skill, we aren’t needed quite as much.”
“Don’t ye go shovin’ yer words in me mouth, boy! I ain’t fer sayin’ all that! Keep yer hands on that fine lass, lest she get bored o’ ye! All’s I’m saying is it wouldn’t go amiss, if ye were to look into where them green wriggly-wraggler’s are comin’ from.”
“Up for a little adventure?” Hal asked Noth.
The woman’s cheeks were still high with color but they seemed to darken an even deeper shade as she smiled and nodded. “Always,” came her reply.
Once the pair were alone, walking through a glade to the north with the sun nearly at its zenith above their heads, Noth turned to look at Hal. She had been quiet ever since agreeing to this excursion.
“Hal?” she asked. Something in her voice, an unsteadiness perhaps, caught Hal’s attention so fully that he stopped walking. Noth’s expression was open and vulnerable when she added, “Was that improper?”
Hal burst out laughing, and just to make sure that Noth didn’t get the wrong impression he wrapped his arms around her in a tight hug. “No,” he said emphatically, once his laughter had subsided. “Not at all, Noth. That was braver than me. I should have done that days ago.”
Noth angled her head to look into Hal’s eyes. “I might have hurled you across the room, if you had,” she said with a tinkling laugh. “But when I saw you get covered in that burning pitch… I realized how much you meant to me. It didn’t even dawn on me to look at the party menu to see if you were really hurt.
“My eyes believed what they had seen and I felt a piece of my heart wither at the sight….”
“Noth…” Hal said, squeezing her tighter.
“I could not stand to think of you hurt, or gone from me, even knowing that it would be temporary.” Noth gripped Hal tighter, almost painfully so. When she spoke next her voice broke on every word. “Don’t you know how much you mean to me?”
Returning the hug in kind, Hal said, “I do now. And I want you to know that you mean just as much to me. I don’t know what I would do if I ever lost you. I have come to rely on your presence, your gentle soul. We are bonded in more ways than either of us probably knows. I do not think it is normal for a Manatree to bestow its gift upon two people at once.”
Dashing her hand across her face to clear the moistness from her eyes, Noth pulled back and laughed a little. “Emotions are hard.”
Hal joined her in her laugh and nodded his agreement. “They are tricky for the most experienced of people. There is no shame if they get the better of you from time to time. After all, that is what it means to be alive. Nothing is static or certain, it’s part of the fun.”
Noth’s doubting expression turned curious, then pensive as she thought over those words. When she let go of Hal and they resumed walking to the north, she said, “I pity my sisters.”
Hal kept an eye out for the few keinse that he knew would hang out south of Orrittam’s cave. If they were going to scout for the source of the Morbolgers, it would be best to do so with eyes in the sky.
Besides, Hal had other plans once they were out there. With Noth’s help, and the constant surveillance of the keinse overhead, Hal could place a few traps in anticipation for the coming attack.
And if it helped to stymie the creatures that were slowly coming to realize that the Shiverglades had uninvited guests, all the better.
“Why do you say that?” Hal asked, craning his neck up. He thought he saw a keinse but realized it was just a shadow of the canopy.
“They know nothing of this,” she said, reaching down and interlocking her fingers with Hal’s. She let go a moment later, even in the relative safety of the valley, there were still wild animals. Threats, however minor, that they both would do well to be able to defend themselves.
They were hardly a pair of kids out for a stroll.
Hal smiled at her. “But like you were, are they not content to have that existence?”
He remembered quite well how antagonistic Noth had been when she first became mortal through Hal’s actions. He thought he was saving her. The guilt he had felt over harming her, of causing so much pain to her was oppressive.
There was no way he would not have tried to heal her. But he realized, he would have done it even if she wasn’t hurt. He had no idea of her sensibilities or her desire to stay as an unfeeling creature.
Feeling the cold hollow sensation of being ethereal as Noth had been… that was enough for him to feel pity for her. To want to help her to know a better way of life.
And he had done just that. But it wasn’t without a great deal of grief and complaint on Noth’s part. Something he could hardly blame her for. Emotions and the myriad annoyances of being mortal must have sorely tested her.
“Only because they do not understand what living really means,” Noth said. “They think, as I once wrongly thought, that they understand what it means to be alive. But what they have is a hollow, empty existence of duty and witness. Nothing more.
“They do not love. I do not think I had ever thought so much about life and other people as I have since I became mortal. I thought it was a curse at first. So many emotions, ‘so many things I must do to keep up this charade of life’ I thought to myself.
“I cursed your name more th
an once. And for that I… I feel shame and guilt. You were only trying to help me, and I hated you for it. I did not understand the gift that was given so freely and without desire for recompense. What would you have done if I demanded to leave?”
Hal rested a palm on the pommel of [Emissary] as he thought about that. “I would have let you go and wished you well,” he said honestly. “It would have pained me to see you leave, but I would not have somebody who didn’t want to be here forced into accompanying me.”
Noth stopped and stared at him, a dark cloud passing over her fair features. “You really would have just let me go, wouldn’t you?”
“Well, not precisely,” Hal corrected. “I would have made sure you had at least a karak and supplies. Unless you were adamant about it and blatantly refused help, I would have given you all that could be afforded so you would have a fighting chance. But I would have missed you.”
“Even back then?” Noth asked quietly.
“Even back then,” Hal said with a soft chuckle. “You could be a pain in the ash sometimes, but there was nobody I would rather spend my time with.”
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Noth ducked her head and color warmed her high cheekbones. “I was dead before,” she admitted.
Hal’s curious raised eyebrow hardly seemed unexpected to her.
“Day in and day out I did the same task, lived the same life,” she answered his unasked question. “I took no risks, for none were afforded to me and I had no reason to seek them out. I craved the monotony of it all. The sameness, day after day.
“And what is death if not unending monotony? Sameness without reprieve. And yet, I was… not quite happy but I was invested in keeping the cycle going. Not for my sake but… because it was familiar. I was scared of the unknown. I knew my role, my place in things, and yet….”
“You feared what would happen if things changed,” Hal finished for her. “That your place would no longer be secure and you would be without purpose.”
Noth looked at Hal, a smirk playing across her fair features as she nodded her agreement. “Do you know there is a dwarven song about this very topic?”
That perked Hal up. “Do tell,” he said eagerly.
“It speaks of the sameness of every day and what I now understand to be an all too easy trap to fall into,” Noth explained. She cleared her throat and the voice that came out was not the typical bassy thrum of a barroom chant. Her voice was soft as a springtime breeze, clear as a golden bell, and sweet as summer rain.
“I swing my pick, I crack the stone.
The song I sing, is yesterday’s moan.
To Dagdamora’s halls I did not go.
So today my pick, I do not stow.
I swing my pick, I crack the stone.
The song I sing, guards me soul alone.”
Hal stared at her dumbfounded. It wasn’t just the haunting melody that she sang it in, it was the words she used. She spoke in dwarvish, and somehow he understood her.
“Sorry,” she said shaking her head as her dark curls bounced about. “You probably didn’t understand a word of that. It is about-”
“Doing the same thing day after day because you didn’t die the day before, and that if you didn’t die yesterday for doing that same task, surely you won’t die today for repeating it,” Hal interrupted. “What other languages do you know?”
“Many,” she said, her brow furrowed as she regarded Hal curiously. “Know you the way north?”
Hal pointed. “Why do you ask?”
“Because I just spoke High Elvish,” Noth said with a smirk. “That’s interesting.”
“I’m fairly sure I’ve heard the dwarves talking and I didn’t understand them,” Hal said. “So what’s different?”
“Perhaps you can only understand me,” Noth suggested. She was about to say something more when a high-pitched squeak greeted them from the treetops.
“Hoy, looky here boyos!” Steve the keinse said as he swooped down to circle around Hal and Noth. “Chill and brisk today!”
“Very chill!” cried another keinse somewhere up above.
“Brisk as well!”
“Chilly and brisk!”
“Fine weather for a flight!”
“That’s what we were coming here to ask you about,” Hal said, trying to keep his eye on the circling bat-like keinse. “You remember the deal?”
“Sure do, sure do,” Steve said. “We help you, ol’ Shimmerscales stays happy and gold.”
“Gold!”
“Very gold!”
“Happy and stuck!” cried one keinse.
“Gary, we’ve talked about this,” Steve said, swerving to roost back among the high branches. “You know the big guy don’t like it when we talk about his situation.”
Keinse, it seemed, didn’t understand how to modulate their voices. Hal guessed when most people couldn’t understand them it didn’t matter. He looked at Noth and the woman shrugged her narrow shoulders.
For as scatterbrained as the keinse were, they quickly sorted out what Hal wanted from them and broke up into four distinct “clouds” as they called them.
Steve alone, it seemed, would fly above their heads close enough that he could hear the reports from the four clouds of keinse and relay their information to Hal.
They headed back toward the caravan shortly after, trailed by Steve the keinse high above. The four clouds of keinse spread far and wide until Hal could barely make them out. They would fly ahead while Hal gathered the rest of their party.
As much as he wanted to go out immediately with Noth and slay any creatures they came in contact with, that was an egregious waste of resources and time.
Two people, alone in a wilderness they did not understand, were just as likely to get ambushed or lost as to find their quarry. If not more so.
At the same time, as they approached the caravan, Hal was on the lookout for Ashera. He knew precisely who he was hoping to convince to join them.
After a little asking around, they found not one but two of the people Hal was looking for at the Town Hall. Now that it was designated as a recreation area, anybody not currently working - or those that were taking a break - were hanging out inside.
It wasn’t a large crowd thankfully. But it was enough people that Hal understood what it meant by lowering workforce efficiency. He didn’t blame them. And the increased Morale bonus more than made up for the slight loss.
Ashera had a small notepad, clearly doing inventory on the various drinks that magically appeared once the Town Hall was given its recreation designation.
Her back was to them, so she didn’t see either of them come in but she must have heard it. Several dwarves greeted the pair happily. More than one or two Hal recognized from the Ironspine Band, several of them sported bloodied bandages.
Hal couldn’t help but grin at that. They deserved some time off to rest and recuperate. More than that, he was glad they weren’t too badly hurt to enjoy some dwarven “holy water.”
Thankfully nobody had died, but it was a sharp reminder just how dangerous the Shiverglades were. Dwarves were far from weak and those of the Bouldergut Clan were no strangers to the dangers of the wilds.
That they were caught unawares was a troubling development.
Once they were back from their excursion, Hal had every intention of seeing if they could post lookouts up high on the ridges that made up the east and west walls of the gap.
He had no Building Schematics for a guard tower, or anything quite as fancy or specific as that. But he would ask around to see if anybody else did. Just because he didn’t specifically have the schematic did not mean he was prevented from building the thing.
So long as somebody else had the Building Schematic, they could create a copy for Hal or otherwise oversee the building of the structure and it would automatically be added to the Settlement’s list of schematics.
At Hal’s nod, Noth broke off to the side room to recruit their fourth party member while Hal approached the bar. The wooden barst
ool creaked as Hal sat down on it and leaned on the polished counter.
Ashera looked over her shoulder at him. He hated the look of quiet sorrow that had returned to her sea glass green gaze. “Come to take another task away from me?” she asked.
“I’m sorry about that, Ashera,” Hal said honestly. “Did they not report to you to oversee everything?” The words were for her benefit. Hal knew Ashera well enough to know that wasn’t the issue. But he was giving her the opportunity to explain herself.
“They did,” she said, then sighed and turned around. Ashera placed the notepad with her elegantly curling script on the counter between them. “I will not take a sinecure role, Hal. Horald had more than enough experience not to report to me and there was little I could do to make his task more efficient.
“I gave the role over to him as it should have been from the start. And instead, I found another role. One that I am good at, bookkeeping.”
Hal did well to suppress his sigh. This wasn’t going too different from how he thought it would. But it was still frustrating.
He was not going to give up on Ashera or her problem. He made a vow and even if other things necessitated that they had to be taken care of first, he was not going to leave her to her fate.
“Do you remember the Oath I made you?” he asked her.
It was a while ago, and a great deal had happened since the Manastorm they were caught in. The Oath of Compassion Hal had sworn between himself and Ashera was a solemn vow that Hal would get Ashera’s magic back.
Barring that, he would find another way to grant her the magic she was robbed of without incurring the penalties of acquiring a fourth Class. He meant to keep his Oath, even if it took him years.
And what better way to find a way to reunite Ashera with magic than by going out into the unknown wilds of the Shiverglades where the very air was thick with mana?
But he didn’t think that Ashera would ever forget. She would remember, even if she would never remind him.
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