by Jez Cajiao
I looked around and found Bane standing nearby, his friend T’lek half hidden behind him.
“Ah, are you okay?” I asked them both, unsure of who I was asking myself. Bane had a myriad of small cuts covering him and was covered in black blood, but he looked far better than little T’lek, who kept Bane between us.
“I am, Lord. Thank you. If you had not done as you did, we would not have survived. My friend would be dead,” Bane said, starting to lower himself to one knee again before I snapped at him.
“For…stop! Seriously, Bane, we already covered this. There’s no need, especially not when we’ve fought side by side! If there’s something formal going on, or we’re around people who don’t know me, then you can be all formal if it’s appropriate. Otherwise, just talk to me, man, and call me Jax!” Bane straightened up but paused before he replied.
“I know what you said before, Jax, but for what you did, Flux was right when he spoke earlier…what Lord of the land would do as you have done? I have heard the tales of the cities, the warnings of how we must always be on our guard against them, how they and their people will always seek to take what is ours. That we can recognize them by the way they will give nothing but words, and take all that isn’t nailed down…”
“And take the nails too…” T’lek muttered.
“Hah, yes! We were warned of this, and it’s not just old tales. It’s confirmed by those like Flux who lived amongst the city dwellers. He was beaten and captured, lost friends and family to the city dwellers, looked for missing friends, only to find their remains for sale in the shops of apothecaries he trusted.”
“We are taught from an early age that while not all are bad, that the other races are not necessarily born evil, we must nevertheless be on our guard constantly.”
“Sounds like you’ve had a shit experience with them,” I said.
“Yes; one that has been repeatedly reinforced. Then we meet you. You ask for nothing and give us back our weapons, forgiving our attack. You heal those who harmed you, and you fight at our side.” He shook his head, tendrils rising and then falling in rhythmic patterns. “You confuse us, but we trust you, not because of your words, but your actions.”
“Good job, really, since my words are usually wrong.” I muttered self-consciously, then realized he’d have heard that and had to explain. “Where I come from, actions matter more than words as well, Bane. I’m not good with words; always say the wrong thing at just the wrong time. I’ve had a lot of experience of people that stab you in the back…” I said, thinking back to my ex and the last time I saw her, naked with her ‘friend’ Martin. A quick blur of faces and memories scrolled through my mind. She was far from the worst, just the latest in a long list of reasons to distrust people.
“Look, I helped you because it was the right thing to do. I’m not going to let a child get hurt, not if I can help it, and I wanted to recruit Decin and his crew, so I was getting something out of it…”
“You risked your life to save those that might have refused you, Jax, because you wished to give them a home? It is not a gain to only you,” Bane said, entirely dismissing my point. He strode alongside me, half carrying the smaller T’lek. I looked over at him and checked my mana. I’d wanted to do this before, but had decided to wait until my mana had recovered enough to help all of the Mer. Now that Flux and Cheena were off scouting, though…
I waited until we were back in the main room, then spoke to them both again.
“I’m going to summon some water for you. It’ll only last about fifteen seconds before I need to let it go, so make the most of it, okay? You both ready?” I asked, getting quick nods from them both and I cast ‘Summon Water’ beside Bane and T’lek. The purified cool water bubbled up from the stone floor to form a spring five feet high like a small fountain. There was a moment of shock from T’lek before Bane pushed him forward into it.
The smaller Mer stood reveling in the water, breathing it in and seeming to absorb it as fast as drink it, his gills fluttering like crazy. Eventually, Bane gently shifted him and leaned into the water in his place, catching the last few seconds that I was able to extend it by. When the spell died, and the water fell to the previously dusty floor, T’lek slumped despondently.
“Don’t worry,” I said reassuringly. “I’ll summon another as soon as we get people healed and the control room activated. We just need to find it!” With that, a much livelier Bane began striding around the room, poking and prodding at the seemingly arranged piles of debris. Hanau and Riana joined me, and the four of us started searching the room, T’lek jumping to help when Bane snapped at him.
We soon realized the piles of debris were actually loot, or at least what goblins considered to be loot. Some were totally worthless, shiny pebbles and weird shaped wood, small piles of what looked like birds’ wings, and in pride of place on one heap was a pile of broken glass. There was also, thankfully, some actual loot. A pile of copper and silver coins, the gold ones being kept in a bag near the matriarch. A set of cooking pans and some shells that shone strangely, but that Bane insisted were valuable.
There were also a handful of gemstones, three flasks that bubbled even when kept totally still, which reminded me of lava lamps, and a pair of manastones, both were inert, completely drained of mana, but they were intact, placed atop a pile of stones that were shattered into pieces, so I guessed either they could be recharged, or put to some use.
When we were nearly finished searching the room, Riana finally called out from where she’d been examining the far wall.
“Is this something?” she asked, and we all dropped everything to crowd around and look at it.
The wall itself looked the same as the others, composed of simple carved stone blocks that stood one atop the other in an offset pattern. Typical brickwork, I thought…but then a sense of wrongness tugged at me.
I examined it closer, trying to figure out what it was, Oracle joining me. We searched it for a few seconds before feeling a throbbing that made me shake my head. It felt like we were coming in for a landing too fast on a plane; the rapid pressure change lasted only a few seconds before stopping, and I looked at Bane questioningly.
He stared at T’lek, who had all his tendrils extended out like a lion’s mane. The pair of them spoke quickly.
“There, it’s…”
“Solid, it’s not…”
“It’s a door!” T’lek finished as they cut each other off in their excitement.
“Where?” I asked, and both of them pointed at the wall where we’d been looking.
At first, I couldn’t see it, just observing an unbroken wall, but after a few seconds, my meridian enhancement finally activated, and I saw a faint blue glow outlining a symbol carved into the wall.
There were dozens of them. Various carvings dotted the room, and they were all coated in hundreds of years of dust, and, more recently, soot from the goblin’s fires, the smoke of which had gradually escaped through small cracks in the ceiling.
What made this symbol different was the glow; as near as I could see, it was identical to two others carved into the other walls, but as I studied them, the glow started to build on them as well, but … it was red.
My instincts mixed with my trap knowledge, and I knew instinctively that using the wrong symbol would be a fatal mistake. I was fairly confident in the blue glowing symbol, but I still ordered everyone else from the room while I examined it just as Oracle arrived, calling out that the others were on their way.
Riana muttered complaints at having to leave the room, but Hanau clipped her across the ear, and she quieted down, casting irritated glances at her friend as she rubbed the side of her head. I reached out, took a deep breath, and brushed as much crap off the symbol as I could, revealing a starburst pattern with a stylized tower in the middle. I pressed the tower gently, then applied more pressure, until at last there was an audible ‘click,’ followed by a much louder clunk, and a cloud of dust was expelled from the wall.
I jumped bac
k, covering my mouth with one hand, and trying not to breath the dirty air in. It didn’t take long for the dust to settle, thankfully, and when it did, there was a clear rectangular outline visible in the wall. Riana stepped forward and put to words what we’d all seen without realizing it.
“The door was hidden, but whoever made it never considered hundreds of years of dust! They’d filled in the lines to look like it would have when it was new, which meant the dust couldn’t fill them! I knew there was something wrong with it!”
“Well spotted, Riana,” I said, then coughed as a little dust got into my mouth. “Everyone, keep back, please. Oracle, can you get in there? Take a look around?”
I asked and she flew over, going partially insubstantial as she passed through the crack. A ‘whoop’ of joy resounded on the other side.
“It’s here, it’s the control room!” she cried out and we moved forward again, waving the dust out of the way until it was clear. By this time, Decin and the others had joined us and were happily digging fingers into the revealed cracks along the door. Hanau called out as we were all getting ready.
“Okay, people! On three, you pull, move back one step, and release!” He called, and the crew, obviously used to following his orders, responded in unison.
“Hup!”
“One, two, aaaaand-a…. THREE!”
We all strained together, pulling at the seams with our fingers driven into tiny cracks, and just as we were about to give in, there was a creak, a pop, and a loud crack, followed by the door grating slowly open a foot. We dropped it then, all of us panting and trying to get our breath back, when a sudden scream made us all stagger back to our feet. One of the crew had been facing the entrance to the room and was pointing frantically. People began panicking and readying weapons, and…I started to laugh.
“Stand down, people; the cavalry is here!” I said, gesturing to people to lower their weapons. “How are you doing, Bob? Everyone okay?” I asked as the hulking skeletal minion stomped into the room, the rest of the squad trailing behind him. Several were limping, but the majority of their major wounds had clearly been healed by Oracle already. I turned to the crew and T’lek, who all remained concerned, and spoke up again.
“Seriously, he’s my minion. Relax, people.” I walked over to Bob and clapped him on a huge armored shoulder as I looked past him at the rest of my squad. They really did look battered, they were dirty, had streaks of blood covering their clothes and were clearly worn out, but they also looked triumphant. I turned back to Decin’s crew and T’lek and waved to the newly arrived group.
“Are you all okay?” I asked them, being met with nods and smiles before I turned back to the room. “These are my people; they came with me and stood shoulder to shoulder to kill the goblins and rescue you. You only saw the fight in here, but how many goblins do you remember seeing here?” I asked, getting grim looks from the crew and I went on. “Well, this small squad… these fucking heroes... stood strong out there, and we killed them. As near as we can tell, we’ve killed all the goblins now, literally hundreds, if not thousands, of the little bastards. They did that, so they damn well deserve your respect.” I said, a proud smile covering my face as I looked at them. Lydia stepped forward and spoke up, tired but firm.
“And you were there with us, Lord Jax. We fought for you.”
“Yeah, but I’m fucking fantastic,” I stated casually, giving a quick shrug. “I’d have not been able to do any of it without you, or without Bane, Cheena, and Flux.”
“Think a lot o’ yersel’ don’t ye… Lord.” Decin said, a grin on his face, and he ducked reflexively as Hanau’s hand flew past overhead. “Ha! Ye missed!”
He grinned at his partner, who gave him a black look before muttering something that made him grin unrepentantly back at him. “Bah, it be worth it!”
“You won’t think so later!” Growled Hanau before turning back to me. “I’m sorry, Lord Jax, he’s always been trouble to me…” I just grinned and shook my head. Bob stomped over to the jammed doorway and glowered inside, checking for any threat.
“Bob, open the door, please.” I said, gesturing to the crew to all back away. Bob braced himself against the wall and heaved, the sound of several bones cracking under the strain clearly audible. Bob’s health—or structural integrity, or whatever—meter dropped a noticeable amount, bringing him to twenty percent overall, but in a few seconds, the door was open far enough to easily get inside. “That’s enough!” I called out, and Bob released it, stepping back with a hiss as several sections of bone fell away from him. I patted him on one armored shoulder.
“Thanks, buddy. Don’t worry, I’ll get you fixed up again soon.” I stepped past him through the opening, Oracle flying into the room with me. The room was small, with a single large seat placed in the middle of it. Dead magelights hung on the walls. I walked around the table and sat in the seat which faced a small table and the entrance to the room. “Be warned, people, this could take a while,” I said.
As soon as I sat down, I felt a resonance from the seat and table, and I recognized the sensation of my mana being pulled from me.
I remembered the discussions I’d had with Oracle and others, including Xiao, and I closed my eyes, concentrating on my breathing as I began to meditate.
I sat there for what seemed like forever, and yet simultaneously felt like mere seconds. At one point, I heard Oracle speaking to the hushed group that watched, telling them I was meditating and reactivating the ruin. All I knew was that, even with my mana regenerating slightly more rapidly through meditation, it was sucked away faster than I could regenerate it.
It took a thousand mana to reactivate the interface, Oracle helping me to sense what was needed, but even with the meditation, it took just over four hours to complete it. I finally blinked my eyes open, my constant state of headache beginning to dissipate as I looked around, finding the table humming with energy, and Oracle grinning at me. My notifications activated on their own, a single popup blazing to life before my eyes, golden letters flowing from nowhere to fill my vision.
Congratulations!
You have cleared Waystation Four and have the prerequisite authority and abilities to claim this structure and the surrounding land, adding it to your territory as a ‘claimed location’. As this territory holds less than Ten (10) percent of sentients that are actively hostile to your rule, it can be claimed.
Do you wish to annex this territory now?
Yes/No…
“Flux, you there, buddy?” I called out, hearing a few sounds, and he stepped into my peripheral vision.
“I am here. What is it?” he asked calmly.
“I’ve been offered the choice of annexing this territory to my already controlled lands. It’s telling me that there are less than ten percent of actively hostile sentients in its area. How will your people react if I claim this?” I asked, concerned, as I didn’t want to piss off my new neighbors.
“Bah, they will be fine with it, I sent Cheena, Bane, and T’lek back to them several hours ago with Gaul’s remains, and your ships now hover above us, so I know that Bane passed the message onto them as well. My people will regard you as a valued and powerful friend at the very least. Your claiming of this territory matters not to us; we already knew you were the rightful liege of the land from the earlier notifications. Go ahead and claim as you will.”
“Thanks, mate. Okay…here goes!” I said and mentally selected ‘Yes’. There was a slight pause before a new notification sprang to life, swiftly followed by a second.
Congratulations!
You have annexed new lands into your own, providing the following benefits if the land is worked:
Fishing Rights: You own a large body of water that is teeming with life. +5 to food production in all this territory.
Mining abundance: This territory has two ancient abandoned mines within its borders. Gain +10 copper or +13 Iron ingots per day once these mines are cleared out and mining is at full capacity.
Support
ive Population: You have gained the trust of some of the residents of this territory, and the others believe you to be benevolent. +2 per day to loyalty of the population, provided you take no hostile action against them. This bonus may change due to events.
Attention: Citizens of the Territory of Dravith!
Lord Jax of Dravith has expanded his territory and has claimed an additional three hundred and twelve square miles of lands by defeating the previously hostile occupants!
All titles, Deeds, and Laws in the Territory of Dravith are held for review, and can be revoked, altered, annulled, or approved.
All Hail Lord Jax of Dravith!
I took a deep breath, seeing by the golden edges on the second prompt, along with the gleaming red letters, and the fact it required reading all the way to the end before I could dismiss it, that this was a territory-wide announcement.
I dismissed the prompts, resolving to discuss the bonuses with Oracle and the team later and saw by the look on everyone else’s faces, that thousand-mile stare, that they were looking at something only they could see. Yup, they’d all got that again. Last time it had happened, I had a momentary mental image of someone having sex…and then that jumped up in the middle of their vision…I knew I wouldn’t be happy, but it amused the hell out of me as the one that caused it! I turned to Oracle and she looked at me expectantly.
“Okay, so the Waystation is awake. How do we find out if the mana collectors are intact?” I asked, and she grinned at me.
“Concentrate and ask for the status of the Waystation, of course!” she replied, and I frowned in turn.
“I never had to do that with the Tower…”
“Of course not. You have Seneschal for that, but without a wisp, all you have is the interface. This one is a more basic one than the Creation Table in the Tower, but it’s also in better condition, so…” she shrugged and gestured to the table before me, and I got the hint, concentrating and visualizing what I wanted the table to show me.
Since activating the ruin, the one thousand mana that I’d donated to it had filled the shallow well that sat in the center of the table first, then had spread out to bring life to the structure as best it could. The liquid mana that remained in the well had taken on the consistency of quicksilver, and as I concentrated on the Waystation, it began to shift and eddy.