by Stone Thomas
“I suspect Akrin’s power had something to do with that,” I said. “I’m still not sure I understand how time travel works.”
“So you timelined back?” She frowned. “That means you ran into my father.”
“Akrin is your father?” I asked. “His worldview seems… different than yours.”
“Don’t be so diplomatic,” Nola said. “I only had the displeasure of his company a few times each year, but it was enough to see him for the self-obsessed, corner-cutting, rule-bending, shyster, huckster sneak that he was.”
“Wow,” I said. “Don’t hold back or anything.”
“He’s the kind of guy,” she continued, “that would take one look at your full HP on your way to a boss fight and then decide you were in dire need of a random encounter with an OP mid-boss that didn’t even drop any loot!”
“You’re really worked up about this,” I said.
“Sorry,” she said. “Whenever he came to visit, he’d rope us into these game nights that lasted for hours. We played graphite-and-parchment games sometimes. He was a sadistic dungeon master.”
“Every parent scars their children some way or another,” Biddy said. “Just be glad he wasn’t the god of wooden spoons. His kids’ scars are not just psychological.”
“So he didn’t live with you?” I asked.
“He had his temple, she had hers. That’s how it works with the gods. Cities take a long time to build and no one wants to leave theirs behind. I was lucky that I stayed with my mother. Akrin cared more about his little games than anything else. He was the worst kind of game player, too. An RPG.”
“A what?” I asked.
“A Really Pushy Guy,” she said. “I’m glad our game playing days are over.”
“About that,” I said. “He agreed to send us along, but he sort of demanded the chance to play a game with Halcyon’s god one day. That was before I knew any of this though.”
“Yuck. But if that’s what you promised to get here faster, it was a good bargain,” Nola said. “I’ll deal with him. That is, if he ever shows up here. Spending time with me was never a priority for him.”
“If you two don’t mind,” Biddy said, “I have a few dozen people ready to pledge fealty and settle in.”
“Sure,” I said. “Biddy, can you take the lead on that, and also help this guy install the bastion stone? Under the altar seems to be the customary place for it. I need to check out our goblin mine.”
“So you did recover a bastion stone!” Nola said. “It looks… deader than I remember it.”
“It’s a dud,” I said. “At least for now. I think your mother took it offline and drained it so Duul would leave it for us. Now we just need to fill it again and find a high level builder to reactivate it.”
“Well,” she said, “at least that’s something. Go check out the mine with Cindra, but leave the twolf here. He’s a good guard dog. He’s chased away several goblins that tried to sneak in the front door.”
“Six of them,” Brion said, “though one was missing an ear, so 5.98 goblins would be more precise.”
You haven’t fixed him, I said.
No, Nola said. His mind is all knotted up. I’m not sure I’ll ever unravel it. Everyone seems to like him the way he is though so maybe he’ll just stay the quirky lionkin who thinks he’s my head priest?
I sighed. I didn’t like him, and I didn’t want him here. The sooner he was gone, the better.
“Cindra,” I asked, “will you come with me to the — wait. Do you smell that?”
“Fire,” she said.
My eyes went wide. One thing we didn’t have was a fire hydrant.
+31
I raced up the stone steps that led from the base of Nola’s front door to the top of our hill, Cindra close behind. “Wait for me outside,” I said.
Flames escaped the chow house’s windows and licked at its roof. Thick black smoke billowed from the building’s openings. “You worthless buffoon!” a woman yelled from inside.
“Roda,” I muttered, sprinting toward our settlement’s only remaining store of food.
The front door to the low stone building was already open. A few goblins, no more than a foot and a half tall bolted from the fire and into the open air as I stepped inside. In the center of the burning building was Roda, our culinarian, with a frying pan held in her outstretched hand. Cowering before her was Yurip Knobble.
Nola, I said, send Ambry, fast!
I’ll reach out to her mind, Nola said. The sage stone should allow for that.
“Give us another curse then,” Roda yelled, swinging her weapon at the man. I beat back the urge to cough as I approached her and put a hand on her shoulder.
“We have to get you out of here,” I said.
“I’d rather watch this petty imperial burn,” she said. Her forearms, like mine, were a sapphire shade of blue. “He was fussing with my fire and now look!”
“It wasn’t goblins?” I asked. A few of the obnoxious creatures crowded around a sack of flour that lay along the back wall, trying to stamp out the flames that sprang from the cloth bag’s corner as they dragged it toward the door.
“I wasn’t fussing with the fire!” Yurip yelled. “I was testing the temperature of the chick-hens, which were collected without valid hunting licenses, to ensure the meat was neither diseased nor undercooked in accordance with imperial health code sections 28 and 34.” He raised a hand and shot a scofflaw’s curse at the goblins that were trying to steal the last of our settlement’s food. “My checklist got too close to the fire.”
“Hunting license,” Roda muttered. “I’ve got your hunting license right here!” She brandished her frying pan weapon again.
I pulled at Roda’s arm. “It’s not worth it,” I said. “Let’s go.”
A few goblins clambered up my legs while another one tugged at Razortooth’s handle. I shook the small green creature loose and it scampered off. Roda swung her frying pan at me, knocking another goblin from my knee. They were everywhere, and they couldn’t keep their grubby little hands to themselves. I continued to swat at goblins while Yurip strolled toward the door.
“Oh no,” Roda said. “You stay and suffer the consequences of your idiocy!”
“Enough!” I yelled. My command was punctuated by the chow house’s further deterioration. A support beam crashed down from the ceiling, sending scraps of roofing into the center of the cafeteria floor. I grabbed Roda around the waist and heaved her over my shoulder, no easy task. She wasn’t just a purveyor of food, she was her own best customer.
“Yurip!” I yelled. “Follow.” I ignored the goblins that still clung to my clothing and groped at my waist. Once outside, I set Roda onto her feet again. She had tears in her eyes.
“I finally had my own chow house,” she said. Her lip quivered as she spoke. “And he ruined it.”
Yurip, ignoring the woman, continued to cast curses at goblins as they ran through the streets. “Thieving little brats!”
Ambry ran toward us, careful to avoid the curses flying freely from Yurip’s hands.
“Ambry,” I said. “I’ve waited to unlock new skills for you, but I don’t think we have a choice now.” She nodded and I got to work.
Δ
Skillmeister View of:
Ambry Ingress
Base Attribute / XP to Next / Intended Change / Total XP Cost
-
9 Constitution / 225 XP to Next / none / Total XP Cost: 0
-
7 Vivacity / 175 XP to Next / 7 –> 8 / Total XP Cost: 175
-
14 Strength / 350 XP to Next / none / Total XP Cost: 0
-
12 Hardiness / 300 XP to Next / none / Total XP Cost: 0
-
12 Focus / 300 XP to Next / none / Total XP Cost: 0
-
14 Resolve / 350 XP to Next / none / Total XP Cost: 0
-
TOTAL BASE ATTRIBUTE XP COST: 175
Stats Affected by Change
-
[Constitution] Health Points (HP): 900/900
-
[Vivacity] Action Points (AP): 700/700 –> 800/800
-
[Strength] Phys. Damage Inflict Range: 140-171
-
[Hardiness] Phys. Damage Block Range: 65-91
-
[Focus] Mag. Damage Inflict Range: 120-146
-
[Resolve] Mag. Damage Block Range: 76-106
Skills For Weapon Class: Battle Staff
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Concuss 4. Whack an enemy in the head for a 16% chance at rendering them unconscious. Failed attacks cause dizziness instead. [28 AP to cast] [Requires: Strength 14, Resolve 14].
Improve to Concuss 5 to increase chance of causing unconsciousness to 18%. [29 AP to cast] [Requires: Strength 16, Resolve 16] [625 XP to improve].
Intended Change: None
Cost Subtotal: 0
-
TOTAL BATTLE STAFF SKILL XP COST: 0
Skills For Special Class: Flame Dame
-
Holding Fire 7. Conjure a single wall of flame up to 50 feet in perimeter that damages anyone or anything that crosses its path. [36 AP to cast] [Requires: Hardiness 10, Focus 10].
Improve to Holding Fire 8 to increase perimeter of flame wall to 64 feet. [42 AP to cast] [Requires: Hardiness 12, Focus 12] [3,000 XP to improve].
Intended Change: 7 –> 8
Cost Subtotal: 3,000
-
Locked. Red-Handed 1. Channel power through your hands to heat, melt, scorch, or boil whatever you touch with a damage multiplier against enemies that gradually increases to 2.0 the longer you maintain contact. [4 AP / second to cast] [Requires: Vivacity 8] [375 XP to unlock].
Improve to Red-Handed 2 to increase max damage multiplier to 2.5. [4.2 AP / second to cast] [Requires: Vivacity 10] [750 XP to improve].
Intended Change: 0 –> 1
Cost Subtotal: 375
-
TOTAL FLAME DAME SKILL XP COST: 3,375
Summary
-
Available XP: 3,449
Cost of Intended Changes: 3,550
Precision Training Discount (5%): 178
Total Adjusted Cost: 3,372
Total Projected Remaining: 77
Confirm?: Yes / No
∇
“I unlocked a new one for you, Red-Handed, and I improved your flame radius. By a lot,” I said.
“Back,” she said, then conjured a circle of flame around the empty building. In the past, this spell had kept cretins contained and threatened them with severe burns as the flame circle tightened and closed. Now, it swept toward the chow house, soaking up the embers that had landed on the grass outside the building.
“She’ll destroy the last of it then?” Roda asked.
“Vix will build you a new one,” I promised. “And we’ll buy food from somewhere.” Turning toward the lawmonger, I said, “Yurip, I need you to certify the gold mine. We need to start minting money or we’ll all starve.”
“I will not,” he said, “so long as it remains infested with goblins.” He turned to shoot another curse.
“You’re cursing up a storm,” I said. “You’re like a sailor that’s picked up a bad case of crotch monsters on fleet break. It’s not doing anyone any good.”
“You’re right,” he said. “Perhaps I should switch to the executioner’s curse.”
Everyone tensed up.
“Yurip,” I said, as calmly as I could with the chow house still burning behind us. “Come to my office. We need to talk.”
“My business is outside,” he said.
Cindra took a step toward him and, taking a page out of Biddy’s book, pinched his ear and dragged him toward the building Vix had been preparing for me.
I pushed open the door to my new office, stopped dead in my tracks by the room before me. This was what Vix thought of me as a leader, as a man. The square room had a dark wood desk sitting at the far end, positioned to watch the door and a polished wooden table that sat in the middle of the room with eight chairs tucked under it. Stone bookcases lined the rear, with four candlestick holders on each side wall.
This was, by far, the best-decorated and best-furnished building on the entire site. She must have worked with the woodworker, the metalworker, and a disproportionate number of laborers to get this in place so quickly.
I’d have to thank her properly for this gift later.
I walked around the central meeting table and leaned forward while Cindra pulled Yurip inside the building. “Your behavior—”
“Was justified,” Cindra said, raising a hand to put me on pause. I let her. We were in her territory now.
“I recognize the importance of what you do for the empire,” she lied.
Yurip brushed soot and debris from his shirt.
“Any frontier settlement would be lucky to have your expertise on hand.” She lied again as Yurip adjusted his posture and straightened his back.
“In fact,” Cindra said, “it must take quite a lot of patience and attention to detail to do your job in this far-flung territory, where settlements and cities don’t have a long tradition of following the empire’s every decree.”
Finally, for the first time since I had met the man, Yurip smiled.
The expression, common to humans everywhere, soon fell from his lips. That smile knew it didn’t belong there, like lipstick on a chick-hen.
“What’s the matter?” Cindra asked.
“You,” he said. “The intestines of justice will not be constipated by your trickery!” He squinted his eyes shut, preventing Cindra from using Eye of Beholding any further. She stepped around to my side of the table and pulled me toward the back of the office space.
“He wants to feel important,” she said. “He’s been a tiny little person in a gigantic empire that never cared for him enough to give him a permanent home.”
“You saw all that?” I asked. “I didn’t think you had quite enough time with him.”
“I didn’t need to use a skill to see what’s going on with him,” she said. “The way he clings to his little checklists and the tiny role the empire gave him. He feels powerless, sad, unsettled. I don’t think he likes this Yurip any more than we do.”
I sighed. “Yurip, I have an offer to make you.” He turned toward me, eyes still shut. “As the city gets larger and more complex, it will be too much for me to handle on my own. I’ve never seen a city’s operations behind the scenes, but you have. I’d like to offer you a job, as a supplement to your imperial lawmonger responsibilities. Halcyon needs a chief administrator. The position, of course, comes with an office.” I held my hands out and gestured toward the walls around us.
He opened his eyes. “You don’t mean that, do you?”
“I do,” I said. He looked conflicted, which was a good sign. He wasn’t outright rejecting my offer. His brow furrowed as he thought hard about what to do.
Finally, he responded. “I can’t just ignore the law and help operate an illegitimate settlement.”
“Yes, you can,” Ambry said, leaning against the frame of the open door. “Dire Directive.”
Yurip’s face lit up. “If there were a reason to trigger that, I certainly could accept a post here. It would take a severe threat to the imperial order though, one which I haven’t witnessed or verified.”
“Then before you answer,” I said, “there’s something I want you to see: the future.”
Nola, I asked. Does that amulet allow you to share premonitions with other people too, beyond just me?
Perhaps, she said. What do you have in mind?
I want to show Yurip what’s at the end of this war if we don’t pull together while there’s still time.
Okay, she said. One dire glimpse of fiery doom, coming right up!
+32
The world before me faded into a blur. When it came into focus again, I wasn’t standing in a well-furnished office atop Nola’s hill. Instead, I stood at the gleaming white ga
tes of the Imperial City.
“I’ve never actually been to the Imperial City,” Yurip said. A vision of the lawmonger stood next to me, half transparent like a ghost. “Is this it?”
“Yes,” I said. I hadn’t been there either, except in my visions of the Great Mother.
Vibrations carried through the air and the ground as a rumbling sound swelled behind us. We turned back and saw an infinite sea of black metallic bodies charging toward us. Large, open mouths were the faces’ only feature, filled with long sharp teeth that bent in odd directions. Each small cretin carried a weapon just as black.
Breaking through the ranks of the vaguely person-shaped monsters were war dogs, their hulking muscular bodies bounding ahead on all fours. The ridges of their spines poked out from their black bodies.
“What are they?” Yurip asked, taking a step behind me as Duul’s army rushed us.
“Evil,” I said. “They are war incarnate.”
“How far in the future is this?” he asked.
“Years?” I replied. “Months? Weeks? We don’t know yet. It depends on how we handle the present.”
Towering above the cretins and war dogs were dozens of generals standing more than a story tall. Those who didn’t carry weapons held their fists balled and ready.
The first war dogs leapt toward us and we dodged out of the way. I had never been so close to danger in my earlier visions, but none had been through the power of premonition. My heart raced as I realized, I didn’t know whether we were safe here like this.