“When did I ever say something like that?” Kate says. “All I’m saying is we don’t have enough information to make any viable strategies against him at this point. Until we find some weakness to that magic of his, we should be grateful for the time Barry’s bought us with his trade, however long it may last.”
“Maybe you’re right,” Daren says. “Hopefully, the time Barry’s bought for us will be enough to find out Eiden’s weakness.”
He turns to me.
“Barry,” Daren says, “I think we should start heading for one of the cities. We should focus on getting you home as soon as possible. It’s not like they’ve announced the objectives yet, so we should have enough time. I’m pretty sure I saw a road sign that pointed towards one of the cities on our way here.”
“Oh, uh… That’s a good idea,” I say. “We should totally do that!”
Kate frowns at me.
“Barry,” she says. “May I have a word with you, in private?”
“Err… Of course,” I say, and I follow her out of the cave.
As we make our way out, Daren winks at me and gives me a thumbs up. Leave it to Daren to completely misinterpret this kind of a situation. Sometimes I wonder if he even understands body language at all.
Once we’re at the cave’s entrance, Kate stops in front of me, and she looks me straight in the eye with that serious determined look of hers.
“You lied to Daren about your true purpose in joining this tournament, didn’t you?” she says.
“And what if I did?” I say.
“Why would you hide this from him?” Kate says. “Do you seriously think he’ll consider you an enemy just because you’re competing for the same prize? And even if he did, do you really think he’d have any reason to fear you?”
“Everybody lies,” I say. “Everyone has something to hide. You’re no different. It’s not like you ever told Daren about the Beacon of Hope, did you?”
Kate’s determination from her eyes has now been replaced with uncertainty.
“What do you know about the Beacon of Hope?” she says.
“Not much, really,” I say. “Eiden just said you’re a survivor from that place, but he wouldn’t give us more details. He said we should ask you in person. So what is this Beacon of Hope, then?”
She hesitates.
“It’s… complicated.” Kate says.
“Uh-huh,” I say. “See what I meant? You’re hiding stuff from Daren too. How’s that any different from what I’m doing?”
“It is different,” Kate says. “And you should tell Daren the truth. But you’re free to do what you want. That’s all I had to say on the subject.”
With these last words, she turns her back on me and storms back into the cave.
Maybe Kate’s right. What was I thinking when I lied to Daren like that? He’s shown me nothing but honesty so far, and I’ve betrayed his trust. He’s going to get upset about this, but I’d rather tell him the truth now than have him find out later on his own.
“Daren, I have something to tell you,” I say as I enter the cave.
Kate, who was preparing to go back to sleep, is now watching me intently, waiting to see if I’m really planning to go through with it.
“Hey, now, Barry,” Daren says, “you really shouldn’t start a conversation like that. Usually, conversations that start with these words never end up well.”
I take a deep breath.
“I wanted to tell you that I lied to you yesterday, about the real reason I’m here,” I say. “The truth is that nobody forced me to come to this place. I came here of my own free will. I came here because I want to win this tournament. Because it’s been my dream ever since I was a kid to become a mage, and the Magium can grant me that wish. I’m sorry I haven’t been honest with you about this.”
“Oh,” Daren says.
His eyes are a lot colder than usual.
“Well, now I know,” he says.
“Now you know…” I tell him.
Kate is smiling at me faintly, but Daren is looking more serious than I’ve ever seen him before. I decide to give him some time to think about what I’ve said, and I head back towards the cave’s entrance. As I reach the exit, I suddenly hear a woman’s scream coming from far in the distance. At the same time, I get a warning message floating in front of my eyes, telling me to not hurt her because she’s one of the locals.
Although she’s pretty far away from here, judging by the faint traces of magic that are coming from her direction it is safe to assume that she’s being attacked by monsters. They don’t seem to be very big, or particularly powerful, so we’re likely talking about a handful of goblins.
The rules of the tournament are a bit hazy on what would happen if we were to save one of the locals from a monster attack. The general rule is to not intervene at all in the affairs of the people of Varathia, but it’s not being enforced through a spell, like the rule that prevents us from directly hurting them, for example.
From a logical perspective, it would be less risky to not intervene. There’s no way to know for certain that taking an action here would not get me banned from the tournament. But then…
The woman screams again, this time louder, and sounding more terrified.
What the hell am I doing? This isn’t the time to worry about tournament regulations. That woman’s life is in danger. We need to act now.
“Daren!” I shout. “Come quick!”
“What?” Daren says. “What’s wrong?”
“One of the locals is being attacked by a group of goblins nearby,” I say. “If we hurry, we can make it in time to rescue her!”
Daren gets a serious look on his face and grabs his sword.
“Let’s go,” he says, and he follows me as I head in the direction of where I heard the scream.
As we get closer, we can sense the monsters’ magical auras with more precision. There are four of them, and they have the woman surrounded, but it doesn’t seem like they’ve drawn blood yet.
When we finally get within visual range of the attackers, my suspicions get confirmed. They’re goblins, alright. Vile and hideous creatures, not taller than four feet, with fangs instead of teeth, crooked noses, pointy ears and green skin. Despite their appearances, goblins are quite intelligent and are usually organized in clans with clearly defined hierarchies, unlike most other monster races. They’re also smart enough to make and use tools, as well as weapons and armor.
As soon as they see us, one of them yells something to his allies. I suddenly realize he’s speaking in one of the ancient languages that my stat device has taught me.
“Human warriors!” he says. “Forget the woman. Retreat!”
“Wait,” I call out to him in their tongue.
“The human speaks our language?” says the goblin that spoke earlier, who appears to be the leader of the group.
“Yes,” I say. “Now tell me, why did you attack the woman?”
“Because we are starving, human,” the goblin says. “We weren’t going to kill her. We just wanted to take the food she carries in her backpack.”
“Why are you out here, robbing people?” I ask him. “Shouldn’t your clan be providing you with food and shelter?”
“We were banished from our clan two days ago,” the goblin says. “We did not have enough money to pay our yearly tribute. Now, we are outcasts. We live from scraps. We don’t even know how to tell the difference between poisonous and edible berries so we can’t live off the land.”
“How much was the yearly tribute for the four of you?” I say.
“Two copper pieces,” the goblin says.
Two copper pieces? That’s barely the price of a loaf of bread. Come to think of it, goblins can’t really work for humans openly since they are considered monsters. There are people that are known to smuggle goods and weapons to goblins, but they are rare, and they operate outside the law. It shouldn’t be surprising that money is a lot more valuable for them than for us.
I ha
ve money to spare, but the question is… do I want to give even two copper pieces away to some monsters that attacked a defenseless woman just a minute ago?
After careful consideration, I grab two copper pieces out of my right pocket and toss them over to the goblins. Their leader catches the two coins from the air, and he is now looking at them as if he can’t believe his eyes.
“What is the meaning of this?” he asks me.
“Two copper pieces,” I tell him. “For your yearly tribute. Now you can go back to your clan and stop robbing people.”
“No, I don’t believe you!” the goblin says. “It’s a trap! Don’t listen to a word he says. It has to be a trap!”
“Um… Excuse me… mister goblin?” I hear a woman’s voice from behind me, talking in the goblins’ language.
I do not recognize the voice, so I turn around to see who just spoke. I realize it’s the woman that we saved from the goblins. Now that I get a good look at her, I am briefly stunned by just how beautiful she is. She has long auburn hair, a thin waist and a warm smile, while her facial features are soft and feminine, unlike those of Kate, and her light-brown eyes radiate kindness. She is wearing an auburn dress to match her hair, and she appears to be somewhere in her mid-twenties. In her hand, she is holding some blue berries that she is now showing to the goblins.
“I overheard you talking,” the woman says, “about having trouble distinguishing between edible and poisonous berries, and I thought I might be able to help!”
“You can… understand us too?” the goblin says.
“Yes,” the woman says, “although not as well as this man standing beside me. I only got half of what you were discussing, but enough to understand why you attacked me back there. I am an herbalist, so I know quite a bit about plants. Although I can’t teach you all I know, I can tell you a general rule that you can follow in order to make sure you don’t get poisoned. You should stick to blue berries, as they are common enough to be found in any region of this continent, and even the most poisonous of them only give you a stomachache at most. As for finding the ones that are not poisonous, it is enough to look for blue berries that are of a dark color. Only light blue berries are dangerous.”
She eats one of the dark blue berries she is holding in order to demonstrate she’s not lying, and then she throws a bag full of them over to the goblin leader.
“Here,” she says. “I’m sure you will make much better use of these berries than I will. I only just ate. And please, don’t attack defenseless people anymore.”
The goblin seems almost paralyzed. He hesitantly takes one of the berries and eats it. Once he sees for himself that it was not poisoned he starts to cry. As he sobs, one of his goblin friends comes to hug him, and they start crying together.
So this is what it’s like to be a goblin. I never knew. The woman with the auburn hair is looking at the goblins and smiling happily. It’s incredible how happy she can be for some monsters that were about to rob her blind a few minutes ago.
Once he regains control of himself, the goblin leader turns back to us and says:
“Humans, I will never forget your kindness. I, Uluk Mihtun vow that I will repay this debt, to both of you. We will meet again. Until then…”
The goblin puts his left hand on his stomach, and his right hand on his chest. The rest of the goblins mimic his gestures, and they all say together:
“Tunak Madar!”
Tunak Madar… If I’m not mistaken, from what the stat device has taught me, I gather that this is one of the highest forms of respect and gratitude that exists in their language. It has no translation in any other languages that even comes close to its meaning.
As the goblins leave, I turn around to see that Daren is frowning hard, and rubbing his forehead, while Kate is just standing there, looking at us with her jaw dropped.
“Alright,” Daren says. “Can someone explain to me what just happened?”
The woman laughs softly.
“I’m sorry,” she says. “I realize this whole situation might have seemed really strange if you didn’t understand what we were saying. In short, the goblins have been exiled from their clan two days ago due to lack of money, and they had to resort to petty theft in order to not die of hunger, so we helped them as much as we could! But, where are my manners? My name is Rose. Thank you all so much for your help. I don’t know what I would have done without you!”
“All in the day’s work!” I tell her.
“Oh?” she asks, smiling playfully. “I take it, then, that the reason you’ve joined this tournament is to help the people in need?”
“Well, I, uh…” I start to say, but I can’t seem to find my words.
“Don’t mind Barry,” Daren says. “He just likes to boast in front of pretty ladies. As you may have guessed, we are just some participants in the mage tournament that happened to be close by and heard your scream. I’m sure anyone else in our position would have done the same.”
“You are being too modest, mister swordsman,” Rose says. “Many others would have likely hesitated to help me due to the tournament’s rule of non-interference, that is to say, if they’d have even been tempted to help me in the first place. I would have liked to repay you for your kindness, but I did not bring any money with me, since I was afraid I might run into robbers.”
“If I may ask,” Kate interrupts. “What were you doing all alone in the middle of the wilderness?”
“Well, miss, err…” Rose starts to say, but she realizes that she does not know Kate’s name.
“Kate,” says Kate, as she points toward herself. She then curtly points towards me and then Daren, giving Rose our names as well.
Rose smiles, and she continues.
“Miss Kate,” she says. “I was out here looking for some very rare herbs that only grow in this area of the continent. There’s been an outbreak of oildrip in my hometown, and as an herbalist, I can recognize the plants that are needed for the cure.”
“I’m sorry, what’s an oildrip?” I say.
“Oh,” Rose says. “I did not know this disease does not exist outside of our continent. The doctors are unsure of its cause, but what happens is that the patients’ sweat becomes as thick as oil, and they get a very high fever, with violent coughing. Some of us have a natural immunity to it, but those that are not so lucky get quarantined somewhere and left there to die on their own. The only cure we know of for this disease is extracted from the very rare plants that I’ve come here to collect.”
“But why are you the one that came here to get the herbs?” Kate says. “Do you have members of your family that are infected? Why didn’t you at least hire some bodyguards to go with you?”
“Oh, no…” Rose says. “My family is fine, thank the gods. I came here because all of the sick are too poor to afford the money to send anyone to collect herbs for them. And I did not have the money to hire bodyguards to come with me either. I am no doctor, but I volunteer to help tend to the sick as often as I can. With the death of our grand priest, the number of sick people increases every day. He was the last person in our town that knew how to create food using magic, and as much as he has tried, he did not succeed in teaching his craft to any of his disciples. Many people are starting to get poisoned because of eating the wrong berries from the forest, others are dying of starvation, and others have resorted to… to…”
She pauses for a bit to bring herself to say the words that were on her tongue.
“animal hunting,” she finishes her phrase.
“Wait, so it’s true that on your continent it is forbidden to hunt animals?” Daren asks, shocked.
“It… was,” Rose says. “There was a time when each city in Varathia had at least ten people that knew how to create food out of nothing, by using magic. That skill was taught to them by the Creator, and they taught it to their disciples, as well as they could. But those that could pick up the skill were very rare and talented individuals. Since the very foundation of Varathia six hundred years ag
o, all of the cities relied heavily on the Creator to find these talented individuals, and to teach them this craft. But then, the Creator simply disappeared about a hundred years ago, and the number of people that still knew the food making craft started to dwindle.”
“With the risk of asking something obvious, who is the Creator?” Daren asks.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Rose says. “I forgot how little information about us reaches the other continents. The Creator was… the founder of our civilization. Everything we are today, we owe to him. He and the spirit protector of all animals, the great golden fox decided together six hundred years ago to end all war and hunger, uniting the human and animal kingdoms, and leading them into an age of peace and prosperity. They taught both humans and animals how to create what they needed with magic, and thus eliminated the need for work and conflict. Food, water, warmth, shelter, every one of those things could be obtained through magical means. From what I hear, it must have been paradise.”
“Why did the Creator disappear?” I ask her.
“Nobody knows, for certain,” Rose says. “There are many tales about what lead to his disappearance, but we have no way of knowing if any of them are true. Some of them say he went insane in the last few decades of his reign, and he simply left us without a word. Some of them say that he was disappointed with humankind and decided to abandon us. Others say he simply got bored with us and went to create another civilization on a different continent. Most people, however, think he died, and that the kings of Varathia decided to hide this from the people in order to avoid creating panic. As long as the people still hold a hope that the Creator might return to save them all, there can still be some sense of order.”
“But how did he manage to live for such a long time?” I ask. “From what you’re telling us, he must have lived at least a few hundred years!”
“Yes,” Rose says. “That is one of the reasons why there are more and more people that don’t even believe in his existence anymore. It’s already been a long time since he disappeared, and he didn’t really show himself to many people before, either. It was mostly only members of the royal families that got to see him. There are many that say that the Creator was simply an invention of the kings, and that they’re using his disappearance as an excuse, in order to keep the power to create food for themselves. In some of the cities, these groups of people have started rebelling against their kingdoms, and are on the brink of civil wars.”
Magium: The Mage Tournament: Book 1 Page 7