Watcher’s Fate: A LitRPG Saga (Life in Exile Book 3)

by Sean Oswald

  “A trap? It looks like you are painting a snake onto the wall of their bedroom. I somehow doubt that Lady Emiri will thank us for defacing her property.” The monk’s nervousness at his duty had worn down his usual reserved nature.

  “Typical elf, if you don’t understand a type of magic, then how could the rest of us mongrel races know anything about it? Am I right?” Balayria wasn’t even looking at him as she was busy putting the finishing touches upon her work.

  “There. It’s done,” she said with a smile.

  “So what does it do?” Sara chimed in before the monk could say anything further.

  “Well I am glad you asked my little artistic apprentice.” Balayria didn’t mention that she was glad for anything that took Sara out of her fear. “Come here and look over the design with me but be careful not to stand in front of it. I don’t think you should trigger it as it is set to go off against humans only but you are half human after all.”

  Sara and Krinnk edged over nervously to where Balayria stood, and she began to show and explain the different elements she had worked into the painting upon the wall. It was essentially a hooded, coiled snake rising up as if ready to strike. Sara thought it looked like a cobra, like the one from that karate movie her dad liked. After admiring the artistic components, she felt out for the magic within the paints as Balayria had taught her. She could sense how the magic flowed through and blended together just as the various hues of paint did, somehow taking tiny threads of magic and creating something greater than just the individual parts. The reds and yellows were pretty, but they also blended into so many different shades to create the striking image before her.

  Now that she’d seen it, she repeated her earlier question, “So what does it do?”

  “You tell me, apprentice.” Balayria said with a toothy grin of short tusks that made others uncomfortable but was cheerful to Sara.

  Once again, Sara closed her eyes and tried to feel the art. Her small hands wandered over the painting. She hovered over the work for fear of smudging but could still feel herself connecting with it.

  Balayria had high hopes for the little half-elf. She was smart and compassionate as well as adorable, which was a rare combination. Most importantly though, she was a natural artist with no preconceived notions about what made for good art or what magic could do in art.

  “I get the impression of a giant snake pouncing out of the wall and swallowing whole anyone who disturbs it,” Sara said, looking expectantly at her teacher.

  Patting Sara on the back, Balayria said, “Very good, that is exactly the intent of the work.”

  As she received the praise, a notification popped up in her mind’s eye.

  You have gained 1 point in Painting as a result of your ability to perceive the intent in another’s work. Such gains are rare and harder to come by the further you progress.

  * * *

  Current level: 31

  “You mean that you have painted a sigil which can conjure a giant sepia?” the monk asked aghast, slipping into using the Moon Elf word for snake. “In this enclosed space with the child here?” he continued.

  “No, the art conjures a force which for a limited purpose can carry out the intent which such a serpent might have,” Balayria answered.

  Further discussion was cut off as the door handle to this inner room visibly moved. Everyone went quiet. The monk prepared his best attempt at his master’s Dragon Fist technique, Krinnk began to spin the sling he carried to build speed, and Balayria pulled Sara behind her while pulling out a pinch of glitterdust. The pressure against the door was gentle as if someone was testing it. The door had a heavy bar holding it in place so it wouldn’t go down easily. The monk was thankful that Lady Emiri had finally listened to Daichi and allowed the builders to put it in place. While it wouldn’t keep a determined intruder out, it might delay them–at least for a bit.

  For her part, Sara didn’t understand everything that was going on, but she knew that there were bad men hurting all of the people in town. Not all of them liked Sara, but she couldn’t bear the thought of any of them being hurt. She wished that there was something more that she could do, but every time she looked inward to that character screen all she got was a listing that she was level sixteen and could not fully access her sheet until her tenth birthday. She wasn’t sure how many days had passed since they had arrived in Eloria, but she didn’t think her mom would miss her birthday. Last year they had a swimming party for her. She couldn’t imagine what kind of fun things they could do here.

  Of course, the wonder of childhood was that Sara stood thinking about her birthday party in a room with three people preparing to protect her from the two men trying to find a way past the heavy wooden door. Through it all, she was mostly oblivious. She had forgotten to be scared and even started to tell her friend about her birthday. “Hey, hey Krinnk, I just …”

  Before she could finish, Balayria had grabbed her firmly but not roughly and placed a large hand over her mouth. “Shhh child. They will hear us.”

  But the damage was already done. The men outside heard the sound inside and realized that their prey was so very close had begun in earnest to work on the door. Suddenly, a small pink yet transparent hand appeared on the inside of the room. Everyone was caught off guard by it, and Sara couldn’t help but think that it was rather pretty. Then, that same hand began to pry open the wooden bar.

  That was enough to get Krinnk to launch a rock at it from his sling. His aim was dead on, and the small hand disappeared with a pop like when a balloon gets sat on, audible but muffled. The elf and monk looked at each with concern on their faces even as Krinnk loaded another rock into his sling. By the time the leather pouch was spinning around again, two hands had appeared, one pink and the other a faint misty gray. This time with two hands working, the bar was almost up and away before another rock slammed into the gray hand, dispelling it.

  “We have to assume that aid won’t arrive before they open the door,” Balayria whispered. “Let me throw the glitterdust at them first, Krinnk will hit the first one through the door with his sling, and then you attack whoever seems most threatening. The warding won’t affect either of you, and hopefully, it will catch anyone that survived our first attacks.”

  “How many can your sepia ward capture?” the elven monk asked.

  Sara heard them speaking, and it broke her out of her wandering thoughts about dates and birthdays. She looked at the elf, and he seemed just as determined as Balayria and Krinnk. He really wanted to protect her too, so it didn’t seem right to her to keep thinking of him as the elf.

  Sara had met so many new people, and while she liked to always know everyone’s name, she couldn’t for the life of her remember his. It was a feeling she didn’t like, something which happened to her all the time. People calling her ‘sweetie’ or ‘cutie’ instead of remembering her name. That along with the obligatory cheek pinch or head tossle were the bane of every child.

  With that in mind, she tugged on his short robe-like top. It sort of reminded her of what they wore when she used to go to taekwondo classes with her dad. The tug was just enough to turn the monk’s attention to Sara and away from the door. “Sir? What is your …” Her question was never finished as the room suddenly burst into a flurry of activity. Two translucent hands appeared and pulled the bar off too fast for Krinnk to even react, and then the door’s lock turned allowing the door to swing open.

  Three men in black leather all burst through the door. In a passing moment, Sara realized that they all looked exactly identical. A cloud of glitterdust filled the air as Balayria reacted first. Each of the men simultaneously raised hand to face as though to wipe the magic powder from their eyes. A second later, Krinnk’s sling issued forth its rock which struck right into the head of the leftmost man.

  Then the monk activated his Dragon Fist attack and surged forward with a roar that was a pale imitation of Master Daichi’s technique. Still, it was enough for him to surge across the room and slam into t
he man in the center. Or rather, he ran not into but through him and into the wall with sufficient enough force to shatter the support timber inside the wall. It caused the entire wall to collapse and the ceiling of the room to sag toward the broken support.

  The men who had been hit both disappeared leaving only the one man on the right desperately splashing water from a skin into his eyes. The moment he looked up a loud hissing sound filled the room. Everyone felt the sound as much as they heard it, and it awoke a primal fear of the cold-blooded serpent.

  A green and silver snake of massive proportions struck forth from the wall and locked onto the still blinded assassin. The snake’s maw was large enough to entirely encompass the man as the magic of the ward settled onto him. The apparition of the snake disappeared even as the man struggled against the magic, ultimately losing to it with his muscles locked up and his body completely immobilized.

  Balayria released a sigh of relief as the enemy was paralyzed before a different human walked into the room dressed in the same black leather armor and wielding a short sword with an eighteen-inch blade in his right hand and a curved twelve-inch dagger in his other. It was a tossup as to which was more chilling–the assassin's soft chuckling or brilliant green liquid literally dripping off of his dagger.

  Chapter Two

  “At boarding schools of every description, the relaxation of the junior boys is mischief; and of the senior, vice.” — Mary Wollstonecraft

  Konig- Albian Capital City - Present Day, Flashback to the Arrival at the Royal Academy – Jackson Nelson

  Far to the east in the capital city of Albia, Sara’s brother Jackson was waiting in the pavilion just inside the gates of the royal academy. He was waiting for a ride home, something he had been accustomed to back on earth. Everyone in their family had a designated role. At least that was the way that he saw it. Dad made the money. Maybe it was outdated, but that was just the way it was. He admired his dad for working hard but sometimes would have preferred to have fewer things and more time with his father. Mom worked too but mostly she said she did it to pay for their hobbies and stuff. On top of all that, she was always busy at some church or charity event.

  It wasn’t that his parents neglected him. They always talked to him in the evening, and dad tried to make it to his ball games. Mom would invite him to help her with her projects. He had even sorta grown to like gardening because it was something that he did with her.

  Jackson always felt like he had to find ways to stand out. Mira got attention because she was the rebellious child. She was always arguing with mom, and he heard his parents talking many nights about how to handle his older sister. As for Sara, well, she was their perfect little angel. She could do no wrong. He and Mira got in trouble more often for not watching out for her than for most anything else.

  Yet despite that, he still loved his little sister. He was annoyed with her at times, but even at thirteen, he was wise enough to realize that he actually did care about her. Jackson really loved all his family. In fact, coming to Eloria had been something of a dream for him. He thought that they would get to go on all kinds of grand adventures together. It didn’t turn out like that though. Starting out at level zero made him handicapped. It was something that he felt every moment, every time one of them got hurt fighting to protect the family.

  Then when the opportunity to go to the Royal Academy had come up, he thought it was a mixed blessing. Jackson was enough of his father’s son to place a great deal of value on duty. He would miss being with his family, but it was a way that he could contribute. Besides, he thought maybe he would learn and grow stronger, strong enough to stand next to dad and mom and Mira. Of course, nothing could have prepared him for the reality of what life at the Royal Academy would be like.

  He had spent the past few months here as a student, and that time had been anything but pleasant. As a level zero, he didn’t have the strength or speed or even intelligence to keep up with most of his classmates. He wasn’t the only level zero, but there was only one other, and Gianna was a foreigner. Besides that, her status as a royal princess of Miromar and her own uniquely odd personality kept her isolated from the rest of the students, even Jackson who had tried to reach out to her. Albian, patriarchal society, and overly defined gender roles protected her from much of the abuse that Jackson received as a both a level zero and the son of “that upstart nobody who the king made a noble.” Where Jackson ended up with broken bones, collapsed lungs, and more bruises than he could count, Gianna only got called names and generally shunned.

  He remembered the day he was dropped off at the academy. He had been riding into Konig with the knights of Shanelle. The trip cross-country had been sorta fun. They all taught him various camping things like how to set snares, build a campfire, and so on. He had grown closest to Sir Kade Melcheht. He was the youngest of the knights and less inclined than the others to treat Jackson as the son of the Chosen and more like a boy who wanted to learn.

  As they rode over a hill and Konig first came into sight, Kade said, “Have you ever seen anything so glorious as the jewel of Albia?”

  Jackson looked on. “Well it is the biggest city I have seen in Albia.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean lad? Albia is a massive city with some of the most splendid public works. King Bornstein and both the church of Shanelle and Mispat have spent tremendous resources to make this the first city amongst all human cities.”

  “I didn’t mean to say anything. It really is a pretty big city. When I came here before, I only got to see inside the palace and a few streets outside the palace. It's kinda pretty from outside, looking down on it. I like the way the sea is sparkling in the background,” Jackson replied, trying not to offend the knight.

  “Pretty big? Pretty big? There are over half a million souls under Shanelle’s gaze inside Konig at any given time. Oh and I had forgotten that you were teleported into the capital the first time.” Kade sounded simply flabbergasted that Jackson wasn’t in awe of the city but didn’t say anymore.

  There was a line of people outside the city with bags, carts, and even wagons extending probably a quarter mile from the gate. Jackson asked, “What are all those people waiting for?”

  “We timed our arrival so that we would be here near the time the gates open. Those are people waiting to be admitted to the city,” Kade answered as though it was the most obvious thing.

  “Why do they have to wait outside the city?”

  Kade stared at him and didn’t seem to know what to say, “Well um … they are commoners traveling to the city either to buy things or sell things. They have to be checked out before they can enter the capital.”

  “Won’t that take hours though?” Jackson asked.

  “I suppose so. I never considered it too much before. But why does it matter?”

  Jackson scratched his head. “Well, I suppose it doesn’t. I guess I just report to the school when I report to the school.”

  “Oh no silly boy, we don’t have to wait in that line,” Kade responded.

  “Huh, why? Is it because we are a group from the church?”

  “Well that too, I suppose. Church contingents are allowed through on an expedited basis, but that isn’t why we get to go to the front of the line.”

  “Why then?”

  “Because of you of course, Master Nelson,” Kade said as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.

  “Me, oh? Students get to enter first?” Jackson asked puzzled. That didn’t make sense to him. Back home students were usually last.

  All around him the other soldiers and knights were chuckling discreetly. Clearly he was missing out on some joke. Kade even started to look like he felt guilty for embarrassing Jackson. “No, it's because you are a noble, the son and heir of a baron.”

  Jackson clammed up then. He didn’t trust himself to point out how wrong such a way of thinking was. On the one hand, he was his parents’ son and had no interest in a rigid social hierarchy, but on the other hand, they had b
oth cautioned him to try and fit in and keep his different, more earth-centric views to himself.

  Awkward silence followed, and the group rode up straight to the head of the line. Jackson could hear the grumbling coming from different people in line, but they all stopped short of drawing attention to themselves.

  It was only a short horse ride from there till they reached a building within sight of the palace. It was walled off from the surrounding areas but looked like it abutted up against the wall around the palace. The gate that they rode up to was made of an ornate silver metal and shaped to appear like various birds in flight while still forming a solid gate. As they rode up, the gates opened and Jackson saw four rows of people waiting. Off to the side was a group of a dozen soldiers and twice as many women who looked to be cooks or maids or something like that. Directly in front of him was a group of five men and one woman standing very rigidly and waiting for their horses to stop. Finally, ten feet behind these six people were two rows with twenty students each. At least Jackson guessed they were students because they all seemed between a couple years younger to a couple years older than him.

  The horses stopped, and he dismounted like he had learned to do during the cross-country trek. As soon as he was off, one of the men in the middle stepped forward and bowed. “Greetings, Master Nelson. It is a great honor to welcome you to the royal academy. My name is Headmaster Jarvis Talcum. I will oversee all of your time here at the Royal Academy.”

  After that, he was introduced to Master Weber who teaches field lore, Master Meyer who teaches battle craft, Master Jurgen who teaches history and politics, and Master Simons who teaches general magic. Priestess Fischer, from the church of Karbanot, was introduced as overseer of student health as well as first aid and Essence magic teacher to any who happen to be so gifted. Captain Eihardt, the head of the guards that patrolled the school grounds and ensured the safety of the nobles’ children, was introduced. Finally, Matron Lang was introduced as the head of all the servants and would oversee his sleeping quarters, make sure his clothing was tended to, and provide meals.