On My Brother's Grave: Reconnaissance: A LitRPG Adventure (Vatenkeist Online Book 1)

by E. M. Hardy

  Torin laughed, right in the face of danger. “I’ll give you one chance to stand down. If you don’t, I will murder you right here and now.”

  I knew there was a high chance that he could indeed kill me and send me back to the Cael’vron Save Girl. If he did, I doubted they would let me back inside the castle. Torin was likely a very high-level NPC. He was a Pugilist, for one thing, and that wasn’t a class players could pick right from the outset. He was also working directly on the Grand Duke’s council, so he had to be powerful enough to maintain that position. I, on the other hand, was just a Level 3 Hunter bluffing my way forward.

  “Does it look like I give a crap?” I did my best to intimidate him. “The Ascendants are taking full control of the region. It’s time to take some of it back from ‘em. Of course, if you’re one of them, then I might as well cut your throat right here and now.”

  Bam!

  Torin sent a knee to my gut and I flew off to the other side of the room. I felt my ribs crack from the impact and I crashed down against his wooden bed. I quickly checked my HP and dreaded to see I had only 7 hit points left. Another blow from him and I’d die, losing all my gear and special items in the process.

  Fortunately though, I had already played my lucky card. Right as I got up on my feet, Torin noticed I had snuck a small bottle of rum underneath him. I still had the flaming arrow in my hand and I quickly nocked it on my bow.

  “Like I said, you better start talking or we’ll all die,” I told him. “That wasn’t a bluff. You, me, the Grand Duke… we’re all going to die this very instant if you don’t tell me what I want to know.”

  Torin spat on the floor and looked at me in frustration. “It’s just one bottle. Like that’s enough to cause a big explosion.”

  Now was the time to deliver the coup de grâce. “You’ve got it all mixed up, pal. That bottle isn’t the main surprise. If it blows, then my allies up in the sky will rain down on this castle with every cannonball they’ve got. By the time everyone else figures out what’s going on, it’ll be too late. They’ll have bombed this place to the ground.”

  For a moment, he took into consideration what I just said and I feared he would figure out I was lying. He was the Master of Secrets, after all. Did that mean he knew we were from the Silver Blades? Did any of his spies tell him we did not have the resources to hire an entire skyship to bombard this place?

  “You wouldn’t dare,” he finally replied. “You would not dare.”

  I fired. The arrow struck two inches away from the bottle.

  “I do,” I shot back at him. “I will signal an air raid and kill us all if you don’t talk now. So think really carefully about your next choice of words.”

  That finally got him to cave in, and Torin admitted, “I’m not an Ascendant, but I can tell you I’ve seen Ascendant symbols in the solar. I saw a letter once but it was sealed. The seal was a sword and shield in a circle with wings, the symbol of the Ascendants. I never saw it again but I do suspect that the solar is where an emissary and a receiver exchange messages. It’ll be the first place you should inspect.”

  “That’s it? You almost made me blow up this entire building for that?”

  He looked at me with a face of sadness. “While I am the Master of Secrets, I am pretty sure the Ascendants are listening in somehow. They know of secrets even I could never know. They’re everywhere. Telling you this truth feels like I’ve signed my own death sentence. They will come at us and they will not stop.”

  “Not unless the Silver Blades kill them first,” I answered, finally unveiling some truth about me. “Now go. Continue on with your day. This conversation never happened.”

  I left him in his room and made my way to the solar. It was during this short trip that I came across Lord Gorghen. The dwarf bowed courteously at me and I responded in kind. He then turned towards the hallway leading to the solar. When he noticed I was on the same path, he looked at me.

  “Lord Corbin, was it? Will you be spending some time in the solar?” he asked me. “It is one of the best studies in all of Cael’vron.”

  “As a matter of fact, I am,” I replied. “My companion is currently occupied with the necessary documents to present to the Grand Duke. With the little free time available, I would like to read more regarding levitation crystals.”

  The dwarf stroked his beard. “Very interesting topic to get into, indeed. I myself once hoped I could discover more properties about the crystals and unlock even more uses for them. Alas, I failed just like everyone else. It seems they can make big things fly, such as skyships and even some islands, but nothing more. The smaller the object, the more difficult it is to stabilize the crystal’s power.”

  Well, that at least let me know levitation crystals were solely for flying. That was a little disappointing – I could think of at least half a dozen other ways to use a levitation crystal other than making ships ride the skies.

  We turned a bend and entered the solar. It was much bigger than most studies, with three floors of bookshelves and scroll tables. There was a central study area in the center where we could read and write. Gorghen bowed and moved on ahead to the law section. I watched silently as he picked up a few scrolls in the section labeled “Strovport Regional Laws.”

  He was the Master of Law, after all. To maintain my cover, I moved up to the second floor and stayed in a section where I had a direct line of sight. I needed to keep my eyes on Gorghen. I pretended to get a few books but, to make sure my deception was complete, I made it a point to gather writings regarding levitation crystals.

  “Boring,” I whispered to myself when I saw the dwarf seated on a table, perusing some book on rural land administration. It didn’t look like he had any other plans and, for the first fifteen minutes, he did nothing but read the darn copy. I made it a point to stay as distant as possible while still keeping Gorghen in my line of sight.

  Then, the doors opened and in walked Elia. To my surprise, she was accompanied by Gygan. Both of them approached Lord Gorghen and joined him in his seat. I raised an eyebrow in question and watched from a distance. I didn’t pay much attention to Elia or to Lord Gygan, keeping my gaze solely on Gorghen, particularly his hands moving underneath the table.

  Chapter Twenty Four

  For a good half hour, they seemed preoccupied with matters of the state. I saw Elia and Gygan pull up a ledger and they were discussing several charts with Gorghen. Maybe these were documents regarding the financial state of the Duke’s land or something she had thought of to further enhance our Golden Dragon disguises. Whatever it was, they were all very busy down there.

  And then, she briefly looked up at me and gave a quick wink. That was when it hit me. I finally figured out why they were down there talking to Gorghen. It was all a distraction. They were keeping him busy so I could just observe his movements.

  That meant she had already screened Gygan. If he was on her side, there could only be two suspects left right now: Tellos and Gorghen. There were obvious signs that Tellos was not to be trusted. He was a warlock with uncontrollable power. That alone made him an untrustworthy companion, yet somehow he found himself on the Grand Duke’s council.

  Gorghen, as the Master of Law, looked like a respected and well-reputable man. For some odd reason, that made me feel much more suspicious about him than Tellos.

  I occasionally had to look down at the huge volumes in front of me. Gorghen kept a careful eye on me and it appeared as if the other staff members in the solar were as well. They must have been working with him or for him. It was also possible the Ascendants employed him or were using him. Or maybe he was doing their bidding without him even knowing.

  The same could be said for Tellos. There was the off-shoot chance that both of them were working for the Ascendants.

  Another fifteen minutes passed and still I saw nothing suspicious. I was beginning to lose hope when Elia and Gygan both stood up and prepared to leave. Gorghen rose up as well and he shook their hands.
As he did, he kept his other hand behind him and made a strange gesture with his fingers. My eyes darted around and I noticed an elf servant observing the motion before going back to attending to the books, placing them on the shelves.

  That was all I needed.

  I left my spot, ignoring Gorghen at this point, and letting Elia and Gygan go and do their own thing. Instead, I focused on following the elf. She didn’t notice me just yet, fortunately, and she kept on walking down another aisle until she picked up a random book off a shelf. She then briefly stopped and looked around. Quickly, I halted and turned around and out of sight. When she thought the coast was clear, she opened the book and inserted a note. She then placed it back in and continued to walk off as if nothing happened.

  “What the hell was that?” I muttered softly. Out of caution and concern, I glanced around, making sure no one else was following and watching me. There would be no point in my mission if someone was spying on me as well.

  There was one person, but it looked like the cleaner. In the real world, it was those sorts of people who would get hired as spies since no one would suspect them. In this game, however, I couldn’t expect players to think things through that way. Still, I needed to be careful just in case these Ascendants were that shrewd and smart.

  Thankfully, the cleaner didn’t seem to pay me any attention and just moved on down to dust the other aisles. When she was gone, I looked back around and saw that Gorghen had left. The elf he had communicated with was gone as well. She had moved down to the first floor of the solar and was studying a series of scrolls.

  When I was sure no one was looking, I hurried to the book and checked the note inside. I found a parchment with a short paragraph:

  We need to speed up the plan. Someone is onto us. Gorghen has met a spy posing as an employee for the Golden Dragon Trading Bazaar and Bank.

  Damn it, they knew. They had probably seen right through our little play. I had enough of this quiet back-and-forth. It was time to pull the covers on all this and get some direct answers. Gorghen was our guy and this letter proved it.

  I pocketed the note and ran towards the young elf. Before she even knew what was going on, I grabbed her by the collar and smashed her down on the table. The other staff members were in shock and, for a moment, no one dared to even speak.

  I took my dagger and drew it up close to the elf’s left eye. “Where’s the Ascendants’ headquarters? What are they doing in this city? Who else are confirmed members?”

  She struggled and tried to kick me off. When that didn’t work, she screamed for help. Two of the bystanders came in to pull me off, but I grabbed her and shouted, “Nobody take another step closer or I’ll cut her freaking eyes out! Now, lady, give me some answers! What the hell do you know about the Ascendants?”

  “I know nothing!” she frantically screamed back. “I honestly have no idea!”

  I stabbed the dagger right through her shoulder. Blood spurted out and she howled with a deafening and horrifying voice. I then twisted the blade a little, breaking the collar bone and causing more blood to spill out.

  “I know you know something, so you better tell me what I want or I will cut out your tongue and gouge your eyes out before I feed you alive to the freaking hounds,” I threatened her. “I will torture you in so many ways you’ll beg me to kill you but I won’t… so talk.”

  Doors opened. A few guards rushed in. Elia and Gorghen weren’t among them, so I still had a few moments to interrogate this lady before all hell broke loose. None of the guards came any closer, fortunately, but they did have their swords out. To my dismay, Lady Avygael was there too. She had her two-handed sword in hand, unsheathed, and ready to strike.

  “Lord Corbin, put the knife down and let Letitia go,” Avygael said. She raised her sword and directed it at me. “Lord Corbin! I will only make this request one more time before we charge in.”

  “Lady Avygael,” I said. “Listen very carefully to me. This woman is a spy. She’s working with a malevolent force aiming to take over this whole city, maybe even the whole Kingdom of Strovnia.”

  “Why do I suspect you are the real spy here, Lord Corbin?” Avygael retorted. “Are you even a real employee for the Golden Dragon?”

  I twisted the dagger in the woman’s body and then slammed her head against the nearest table. Blood flew out of her mouth. I banged her head again and, this time, I heard the satisfying crunch of her nose breaking and several teeth coming loose.

  “Tell me about the Ascendants!” I demanded.

  “Gorghen’s one of them! H-He collects the data we gather and brings them in a ledger. T-they’re stationed somewhere in Cael’vron, I swear it!”

  At that point, all the guards put their swords down. Even Lady Avygael lowered her guard.

  “The Ascendants are here?” Avygael asked, in shock. “What is the meaning of all this, Lord Corbin?”

  “First, let me tie up the loose ends,” I told her. I pulled the dagger out of Letitia’s shoulder and, with one quick jab, stabbed her right through the brain. She was dead before she could hit the ground. I then stared back at Avygael and said, “I need to speak with you in private. Don’t let anyone leave this room, but don’t let anyone in either, especially not Lord Gorghen.”

  Avygael looked at her men and gave a nod of approval. Quickly, they all took position around the doors. All of the solar’s staff members were gathered in a tight circle in the center of the ground floor. Avygael walked over to me, glanced at the corpse, and then slammed her sword down on the table.

  “Explain,” she said.

  “My name is Fhauste and I am a member of the Silver Blades,” I told her. “We got word that someone in court is a member of the Ascendants. We found out by rescuing – well, in your terms kidnapping – Ohren. He was an informant who had betrayed them, and he confirmed one of them was in this court, fooling everyone here, including the Grand Duke. Lord Ritorio asked us to investigate as well. That is one reason why we’re here.”

  Avygael soaked in the information with a stern face, never letting in how she felt about this. “The Ascendants are bad news, that much is true, yet what do you think is their purpose in taking a position here?”

  “Honestly, I have no idea,” I told her. “All we know is that they’re up to no good. Lord Commander Vahn Alben believes they’re trying to take control, like behind the curtains. You’ll have the King and Grand Duke Sivahl, but the Ascendants will be the ones pulling all the strings.”

  She wasn’t buying all of it. “How do the Silver Blades plan to take out the Ascendants?”

  “You are not going to like this,” I started off. “It involves isolating them in Cael’vron first. We want to bomb the skyship dock to ground them. During that time, my guild mates are going to take the fortress at White River.”

  Avygael, as expected, was furious. “You’ll bomb the skyship docks? Are you out of your mind?”

  “Believe me when I say I wish we had a plan less drastic but there’s no working around the fact that the Ascendants are too powerful and too influential. We cannot beat them in a straight fight, so we need to immobilize them until we gain the power that comes with White River. Gaining that foothold will grant us thousands of soldiers, and even then it might not be enough to take them on.”

  “What if you win?” she asked. “You’ll be celebrated as liberators but then what? You’ll just pick up where they left off?”

  I shook my head. “All we want is to get rid of them and the influence they have on the people. They’re not even the real enemy. We want to get rid of them so we could get more powerful and eventually take on the Horde.”

  Avygael burst out laughing. “That’s ridiculous! Even the King of Stravnia wouldn’t want to oppose the Horde. If you say you’re after them, I applaud you, but there’s no hope. Gaining a few fortresses like White River won’t be enough. They own an entire kingdom.”

  Holy crap, was she telling the truth? Could gamers really be that
powerful in here?

  “We’re going to try,” I told her. “Win or lose, we’re going to try.”

  Well, the Silver Blades were going to try anyway. My journey with them would end the moment we defeated the Ascendants. I was sure the bastards would still be around but, if this plan worked, then the rest of the virtual world would know that they’re not invincible. Their power over the people would end.

  If it didn’t, I was going to find out who they were in real life and murder them. Then they wouldn’t be able to hurt anyone anymore. Elia and I would have our vengeance and I’d never have to log back into this game ever again.

  “Very well,” Avygael said as she reached out to shake my hand. “Come then, Fhauste, and let’s do this. I need to gather the men I trust to safeguard the Grand Duke and his family. You and Elia need to force Gorghen to tell you where the Ascendants’ headquarters is located.”

  “Do you think there will be fighting?” I asked. It definitely seemed like she was expecting trouble given how she had decided to protect the Grand Duke.

  “I trust my men but, if this librarian and Lord Gorghen have infiltrated the castle, then surely there are more. Once word gets out from this solar or the moment you attack Gorghen, chaos will ensue. There’ll be war. We’re all actively declaring war against the Ascendants, Fhauste.”

  “I’m sick and tired of running around playing spy,” I told her. “Go, do your duty and I’ll do mine.”

  She waited not a second longer and just gave me a final nod before she gathered her men. She left two to watch over the solar staff members. None of them could be trusted.

  Now it was all up to Elia. She had to get Gorghen in the right spot and find out where they were located in the city. I had to do my last part of the job and, fortunately, it was going to be the most fun.

  With the bottle of rum still in my pack, I headed out of the solar and descended down into the kitchens. If there was one safe place to cause a ruckus, it was the only area of the castle no member of the duke’s family would ever head into. That was the perfect place to blow stuff up.