by Aleron Kong
Nilan. She loved music.
Urim. He was the funniest dwarf in his village.
Tanor. His favorite pie was blue melon.
Simple truths, every one of them. The point was not to sum up their lives, though. The purpose of the monument was to keep the memories of the dead alive. To show a small piece of their personality and soul.
The last inscription brought a tear to Richter’s eye.
Petal. She smiled with her whole heart.
At a word from Richter, Futen extinguished his light plunging the meadow into relative darkness. The monument was draped in shadow, but only for a moment. Gloran finished his assignment. Using the basic soul gem, he powered a simple spell. Each letter of the monument glowed with a soft white light. The immortalized memories of the dead illuminated the night for the living.
A prompt appeared in Richter’s vision.
You have created a monument to the dead of your village. You have shown that you honor the sacrifices of those who have given their lives on your behalf. Your people respect what you have done, and feel they can put their faith in a ruler who values them. Loyalty +300.
Know This! The deaths of your villagers coupled with your admission of guilt, created a segment of your population that resented you. At different rates, their Loyalty had been falling since the attack. If left unchecked, their Loyalty may have fallen to the point that they would desert the village, or even worse, actively rebel. Your monument has stopped this Loyalty drain.
You have completed a Secret Quest: Heavy is the Head. Your power comes with responsibility. There is no manual to living a good life as an individual. There most certainly is no easy way to lead an entire people. You accepted this quest implicitly by your actions and your Mastery over the Mist Village. Never forget to honor your people as you demand they honor you. Reward: Your people will feel more comfortable speaking with you which can lead to further quests in the future.
The villagers stood in silence looking at the monument. Tears fell freely from more than one eye, and many paired off to hold one another. Now that the enchantment had been shown, Richter cast Far Light several times against the cliff face. The light was just enough that he could make out everyone’s faces. They all stood quietly to honor the dead. After a time, one of the men who had been quiet during dinner walked up to Richter. Analyze showed that his name was, Sedrin. It also showed that his disposition was ‘Distaste.’ It was the first time Richter had seen any of his villagers with anything other than a friendly disposition.
Sedrin’s jaw was tight with emotion and Richter could see his eyes were red rimmed with unshed tears. He stood in front of Richter and it was unclear whether he intended to throw a punch or not. When he did extend his arm, however, it was with an open hand. Richter looked at it for a moment. He was wary in light of Sedrin’s negative disposition toward him. He did stick out his own hand though. Whatever was about to come, the man deserved to have his say. The two men clasped wrists.
Sedrin spoke, his voice nuanced with unexpressed feelings, “Petal was my daughter.” He stopped for a moment, needing to compose himself. “Thank you for remembering her. I will come to see this plaque often… she did smile with her whole heart.” The tears fell from his eyes as Sedrin finally found catharsis.
Richter placed his hand on the man’s shoulder. He communicated in touch what his words would have failed to say. Petal would be mourned and remembered by both of them.
When Sedrin had composed himself again, he spoke in a rough voice, “I promise to stand by you now, my Lord Richter.”
The slightest bit of extra emphasis had been placed on the word ‘now.’ A prompt appeared.
Your relationship with Sedrin has improved from Distaste to Neutral.
Richter nodded his head in understanding. More people came up and had variations of the same conversation with him. It was an emotional time as many more tears were spilled, and stories of remembrance were spoken for all to hear and witness.
As painful as speaking of their departed loved ones must have been, it was also cleansing for the villagers. Facing their pain, and being able to share it, was like lancing an emotional abscess. Feelings of hate and anger were drained away. It caused pain as the spiritual wounds were exposed again, but it also left everyone feeling clean. After tonight, individuals, and the community as a whole, could heal.
The stories went on for a while, and Richter had to renew the lights several times. There were a few more things he had planned to do, but he decided to leave it for another night. He slipped off to his room and fell asleep.
CHAPTER 8
Richter woke to a sharp pain in his neck. He tried to move his arm and swat at whatever was sticking him, but couldn’t lift his hand. Panic began to set in as he realized that he couldn’t move any part of his body voluntarily. At first he thought he must be dreaming still. Maybe he had awoken in REM and his voluntary motion was disabled. The evolutionary defense mechanism that kept you from running off a cliff if you were running in a dream. Somehow he knew this was no dream, however. He was simply paralyzed.
He heard a buzzing in his ear, then a large wasp flew into his field of vision. The thing was a big as his thumb! Not quite as large as the hellbug Xuetrix had summoned, but still more than large enough to freak Richter out! He made the connection between the bug and the pain in his neck. The damn wasp must have stung him and caused his paralysis somehow!
As soon as he had that thought, he experienced another two sharp sticks in his thigh. He couldn’t even look down to see what caused this second pain. His helplessness was maddening!
Even though he couldn’t move his body, he could still think. Accessing his personal interface, he saw an icon that looked like a man with ropes tied around him. A countdown timer was next to the icon. 10, 9, … There was a second icon that just a picture of a head with wavy lines around it. It had an almost ten-minute countdown attached.
Richter sighed in relief, or at least he would have if he had any control over his voluntary motions. He didn’t know how this bug had made him lock up, but what he did know, was that as soon as this paralysis ended, he was going to deep fry that buzzing bastard! In fact! Why wait?
*Alma!*
As opposed to feeling the reassuring mental echo that he normally associated with his Psi Bond connection with Alma, he felt like he had no connection at all. It was like there was only static in the portion of his mind that normally had a clear connection to his familiar.
That’s when he heard her voice.
“My Lord Richter! Are you alright?” Natosca, the female prisoner, came into his field of view. “What’s wrong?” Her expression was one of intense concern.
Richter just stared back at her. He was completely frustrated by his inability to move or speak. He was also totally confused by her presence in his room. Why wasn’t she under guard? It didn’t matter, he only had three seconds left on his paralysis
“Don’t worry,” she said as she scratched his neck with something sharp. “The paralysis from the sting doesn’t last long. Now what I just put into your neck will last a bit longer.” Her expression morphed into cat like smile. She straddled his chest. She was right! Whatever had been on the pin she had just scratched him with had added another ten seconds to the paralysis countdown.
“It was so kind of all of you to take pity on poor, poor Natosca! Why, you even let me keep my necklace!” She withdrew the item from her shirt, and pulled it up over her head.
Richter stared at her with panic blooming in his chest. He kept his attention on the paralysis countdown. 9, 8, 7 …
“When you are in my line of work, I’m a Professed Assassin by the way, it pays to have clever little items like this.” She depressed two different points on the central medallion and it opened like a locket. Inside was a half-full vial of blue liquid and an eye dropper with a squeezable bulb at one end and needle at the other.
5, 4, 3, …
She kissed at him and then scratched his neck again. The c
ounter shot up another ten seconds. Richter struggled with his whole being to reach up and strangle the woman, but he couldn’t even move a pinky.
“My pet,” she turned a fond smile towards the wasp buzzing around her head before looking at Richter again, “is wonderfully useful, but he can only hold a small amount of poison. And at his current level, only a half a dose at a time! That’s why I had to administer the second poison immediately,” she said waggling the blue vial and needle at him. “It should block any pesky abilities you might have. You should feel honored. You have NO idea how much this stuff costs!” She traced her finger along his jawline, “You’re worth it, though! I mean, who knows what the Master of a Place of Power could be capable of!”
Well, Richter thought, at least now I know what that other icon means. 7, 6, 5, …
“Now I know what you’re thinking! You are waiting for your paralysis to wear off. Don’t worry though, there is plenty more where that came from!”
Natosca scratched him again buying herself another ten seconds. Then she held up one hand with her finger pointing down and held the other cupped underneath. At the end of her finger was what looked like a small crystal claw. Green liquid dripped from the end. As Richter watched, she uttered a word of power and her hand glowed green. Then, to his motionless surprise, the green liquid began to flow a steady rate from her finger into her waiting hand.
9, 8, 7, …
She smiled at him and scratched him again. Then, with deliberate slowness as if she had all the time in the world, she dipped the needle with the bulb into the poison in her hand. A quick squeeze of the bulb at the end, and a large amount of poison was sucked up into the eye dropper. He only needed a few more seconds, but she grabbed his arm and turned it up. Then with a practiced hand, she inserted the needle into the large vein in the crook of his elbow. The clock on his paralysis reset, but this time with almost two minutes worth of time!
“That’s better,” she said happily. “Now I won’t have to scratch you so much. Won’t that be nice!” Her face took on a pouting expression, “Before we go any further, I have to apologize. I normally don’t drag things out like this. I much prefer a knife to the brainstem. Brief flash of pain and then it’s over. I am a professional, after all!” she said with pride, placing her fingertips delicately on her chest.
Richter just looked up with impotent rage. If only he could cast a spell like Charm, but even though the spell only had a one second cast time, it still required a hand motion and word of power. All he could do was lay in his bed and let this little psychopath continue her soliloquy!
She continued speaking as if this was just a simple conversation between friends, “Despite what I would want, my employer wants you to know why this is happening to you, and what happens next.”
1:39, 1:38, 1:37, …
“So I told a small lie earlier about why I was here. It is true that Count Stonuk hired mercenaries to find you. Incidentally, I agree with you keeping them out of your village! They were almost all low level trash! They were barely even worth sleeping with, but hey, a girl has to eat... Where was I? Yes! Explaining why I lied to you. Like I was saying, those mercenaries were basically useless, but they did allow me and my partner, the Warrior in the other shack, to blend in. At least until we found a way into the village. I must commend you on an effective defensive enchantment, by the way. I thought I was going to have to go all the way back to Yves and buy an expensive True Seeing scroll, but then I heard about your hunters firing at the mercenaries!”
54, 53, 52, …
“After that, I had an idea! Why waste money forcing my way through the mist when I could get your people to bring me here! A couple of bruises, a little back story, and then I was ‘rescued’ and brought right to you,” she smiled happily again. “I feel like I’m bragging, though. Like I said, I am an Assassin, and I was sent here by Ronin. You must have really pissed him off because my services do not come cheap! Were you the one that burned down his hideout on the docks?” She patted his leg, “You know what, none of my business. You shouldn’t feel the need to answer that just because I’m on top of you.” She giggled.
27, 26, 25, …
Richter did the only thing he could think of. He allocated his free Characteristic points into Constitution. He hoped that it would hasten his body’s ability to fight off the paralysis. It might also give him a few more minutes of life. He did get a 120-point boost to both his maximum health, but as soon as he placed the points, she looked at him like he was a cute but devilish boy.
“Naughty, naughty! You little rascal,” she said, tapping her finger on his nose. “That’s not just any poison running through your body, it’s a piece of me! Did you think I couldn’t tell when your body started clearing it faster? Let’s just fix that. She pooled more poison in her hand, drew it up and then injected more of her poison. Richter screamed inside his own head.
“That’s better. Now where was I?” She started mumbling under her breath, head rocking back and forth. Richter realized that she was replaying the one-sided conversation to herself, “top of you. Ahhh! Now I remember! I was about to tell you what happens next! Well after you die, I am contracted to bring Terrod back to Yves. Now, I know what you’re thinking. How can I find my way back through the mist? Don’t you worry! My little pet is immune to them. He’s a simple thing, but I do love him so! Even though he wasn’t smart enough to hunt and find your village, he is more than up to the task of flying in a straight line. I will just follow him until we are out of your mists, then I’ll be able to make my own way back! I appreciate your concern, though,” she said with a bright smile.
“Now unfortunately, Ronin paid extra to decide how you die. I’ve had to borrow a dagger from one of those men you set to guard me. I had a very sharp dagger just for this task, but when I decided to get captured, I had to leave it outside of the mist with the rest of my armor and weapons. No use complaining over what we can’t change though, right? Oooh, you’re so reasonable and agreeable! I love it!”
The woman climbed down from her perch above him. She then loosened his armored pants and pulled them down. She grabbed his manhood in one hand, and held the dagger in the other. She looked at him with concern in her face, “I hope for your sake this knife is sharper than it looks or this might take a little while to saw through!” The guards blade was barely sharper than a butter knife. The next minutes of his life felt like an eternity.
She worked with a calm efficiency, not deterred or affected by the sprays of blood that her actions elicited. By slowly cutting through his member, she ensured a prolonged and, more importantly, slow Bleeding status. This was why she was sawing as opposed to just chopping she explained, with a tone akin to discussing the proper technique for baking bread. His health began to drop at a prodigious rate, but not fast enough in Richter’s opinion. His most heartfelt desire was to simply die.
Before she was done with her hellish work, Richter lost consciousness from the pain, but it did not save him. He came to from her slapping him across the face. Based on the timer of the poison blocking his abilities, he had been out for more than a minute. Unfortunately, she remained as diligent as ever at renewing his paralysis.
She admonished him lightly for passing out. The mad woman seemed to take it almost as an insulting question of her abilities. Despite being paralyzed she had been able to see that his eyes had lost focus. She removed a strip of bed sheet she had used to staunch the bleeding, before scraping over the raw area with her dull knife to renew his exsanguination. Then she started sawing his genitals off of his body anew.
Richter was fairly certain he was losing his mind. The only thought that existed was the burning nova of pain in his center. Finally, she was done. His health bar was flashing and he only had seconds of life left. The assassin had spoken the truth, though. She was a professional. She had gauged to torture to leave him just enough life to suffer one last injustice. She manually opened his mouth, and forcefully shoved his cock and balls inside. He began to a
sphyxiate as his own member lodged in his windpipe. Looking him in the eyes, she tenderly touched his cheek as his vision narrowed until all he saw was blackness.
Richter died.
CHAPTER 9
You have died.
A blur of colors and the sensation of great speed, complicated by a lack of all emotion. He felt a great pull that threatened to dissolve the core structure of his personality until he felt as if he was falling from a great height with a heart clenching stop…
“Where is she? WHERE, IS, SHEEEEEEE!?!”
Richter was standing naked in the center of the Great Seal. His head whipped back and forth, searching for the object of his rage. His scream echoed off of the vaulted ceiling of the Great Seal room. Another shriek came from Alma, coupled with a release of psychic energy that would have made Richter wince if he wasn’t strengthened by his fury. He screamed incoherently. A thought occurred to him, and he quickly looked down to be sure that he had been reborn intact. Relief greater than any man had ever felt in history swept through him, but he still wasn’t satisfied until he physically patted his package and ensured that both the branch and the berries were there. After that, it was time to go back to red hot rage!
“Where the FUCK is that bitch!?!”
There were several other people in the room. Sion stood with an arrow half drawn and pointing in his direction. Hisako stood near him with a serene expression, but the tension in her shoulders belied the calm impression she was trying to convey. Sumiko looked at him with an expression of pure horror. Randolphus stood staring at his liege with an unreadable expression.
“Where is SHE?”