Keeper

by Tom Larcombe

  “Oh, truly?” Freya said, in a pleasant voice that slowly turned cold as she continued. “Did you know that the spirits of these users then possess the inhabitants they have summoned? Control them in body and mind? Drive out those shards of ourselves that inhabit and control the inhabitants and leave those shards to wither and not rejoin us as they normally would?”

  The anger possessed Odin's face once more.

  “They would dare?” he thundered again.

  “As would I dare oppose them in such,” she said, her voice ringing clear and strong. “Eddie, the mortal you cannot bring yourself to name, is in the world-traveling mortal area nearest to where those creatures they have summoned normally exist. In giving him my boon I have also strengthened those who might resist such a perversion of our world. It is in my thoughts that those who have abused our inhabitants intend to release them in the area they would normally dwell. Then possess them and send them after something. What else but the world-traveling mortals would they target? Especially if they already have the power to summon the creatures and items of our world?”

  “I shall report this and we shall see what the devs think of it,” Odin said, his face now more abashed than angered.

  “You do so, and I shall continue to watch over those who I believe will be the most successful in resisting and repelling these perversions,” Freyja said.

  She turned her back on Odin and, without another word, left his hall.

  ~ ~ ~

  Eddie woke with a groan. Last night had been a long one. The adventurers, all excited about the possibility of player generated quests, had spent hours discussing businesses they could start. Paul had been there, but Becky had been noticeably absent. That had finalized Eddie's suspicions for him.

  He'd thought about telling Paul, but something stopped him. The fact that Becky was trying to play the game, despite the obvious fact that her parents would prefer she not do so, had him rooting for her, at least a little. He was pretty sure that if she hadn't been stealing Lucky that he would have been even more behind her actions. He'd decided to let that go for now, but he made no promises as to what he'd do if she resumed her attempts to charm Lucky.

  He pulled himself out of bed, noting that Tiana was already up and out of bed herself.

  I wonder if she headed straight back to the temple to keep working? I know that my first thing for today is going to be finishing the smithy. All I need to finish it off is to complete the roof. I wonder if Opron is planning on staying in it. I suppose I could offer him a spot in the bunkhouse on the farm. He found it comfortable enough before.

  Eddie snickered to himself as he remembered finding the dev sleeping in his bed.

  Maybe he'd prefer a room in the inn?Or he could pay Paul to make him a house, or maybe ask Jern to make it if he'd prefer stone instead of wood. Doesn't matter though, for now I've just got to get the smithy done.

  Eddie pulled on his clothes and stumbled downstairs. The scent of coffee caught his attention and he followed it into the kitchen where he found Tiana and Liv talking. His eyes went wide, fearing the possibilities, but they seemed to be calm enough. He stumbled to the stove and poured himself a cup of coffee. As he sat there and sipped, he slowly came more awake.

  “Eddie, you didn't have to waste a gold. I could have brought you a starter dough from my own place once I recovered my own,” Liv said, when she noticed him waking up.

  “I didn't even realize I was going to make a quest,” he replied. “I just kind of spouted it out and the quest made itself.”

  “Well, at least you got Asta's dough. Her bread is probably one of the top three in the area. We'll just need to feed it and let it grow a lot before you start making bread for the inn. Otherwise there won't be enough of it for a single table even. Have you thought about hiring on a baker perhaps? He could do pastries and bread early, before we open for breakfast even, and have that all waiting when you open of a morn.”

  Eddie held up his hand, palm out, and waved it back and forth.

  “Hold it. I suppose you know just the person to hire? Wait a while, ask me that again after I finish waking up, okay?”

  Liv turned back to Tiana.

  “These lazy layabouts, definitely a man, they all do that,” Liv said.

  Eddie peered out through the window, where the sun had just begun to rise above the horizon.

  “Hey, it's barely past dawn,” he said in his own defense.

  His words fell on deaf ears as Liv and Tiana continued their conversation. Eddie sighed and took his coffee into the common room. Sprawling on one of the benches, he worked on drinking his coffee and waking the rest of the way up.

  Liv had promised him eggs the night before. Not enough for the breakfast crowd, but enough for him to have the scrambled eggs he'd been dreaming of. A few minutes after he went out with his coffee, she came out with a platter that held flatbread, scrambled eggs, and a slab of venison. Eddie sniffed for a brief moment before getting ready to dig in. He caught himself before he did though.

  “Thank you Liv,” he said, “both for the eggs and cooking this up for me.”

  She graced him with a brief smile.

  “As Tiana told me, it's best to keep the boss happy when you have one. Besides, the look on your face at seeing those eggs is thanks enough.”

  She waited until he took the first bite, then turned back to kitchen, getting ready to prepare the breakfast they'd serve to everyone else.

  Eddie took his time with his food. He anticipated maybe three hours worth of work, at most, on the roof of the smithy. He'd worried that there wouldn't be enough lumber to finish it and he might have to bring more up, but his farmers had been on the task he'd offered them and by the time he left yesterday, they'd succeeded in splitting enough logs into rough hewn planks that he'd be able to finish. The ones they failed on weren't going to go to waste either, those chunks would make fine charcoal, he was pretty sure.

  He still didn't have a Collier, and he'd meant to ask Liv about it several times, but forgotten. So he hurried the remainder of his breakfast and went back to the kitchen.

  “Liv?” he said.

  “Aye?”

  “I need to hire someone else. I don't suppose you know a Collier, do you?”

  “A what?”

  “Someone who makes charcoal from wood?”

  “Oh, aye. I know one of them myself and I know of a couple more even if I don't know them personally.”

  “Would any of them be interested in working for me, or even just setting up an operation in this area and I can buy their finished charcoal from them?”

  “I can put out the word. I don't know the one I know all that well and the others will have to get the word third or fourth hand. So it might take a bit.”

  “The sooner the better,” he said. “Let me know if there's anything I can do to help with that.”

  She shook her head.

  “You're just bound and determined to turn this area on its head, aren't you?”

  “No, I'm just...” he stopped and thought about it for a minute.

  “Wait. Yes, I guess I am. I want the area to grow, to get more people here, and to get healthier financially. Make it a trade hub and even more. So, I guess I am.”

  “Good, it's about time the Meadowlands made it back to what it once was,” Liv said. “I'll put out the word for your... Collier?”

  Eddie nodded.

  “I'll put out the word for one tonight,” Liv finished.

  ~ ~ ~

  Eddie waited until the inn opened for breakfast before heading out to the smithy. Once he was there, his estimate was right on, it wasn't even lunch time when he placed the last board. When he had, he stepped inside to admire it.

  He's going to need an anvil and tools, Eddie thought, but just about everything else is here, even a quenching barrel he can fill at the stream. Time to let him know.

  Eddie had no idea what Opron had been doing with his days. He'd seen him in the inn every night though. So he sent him a pri
vate message, letting him know that the smithy was done. Osmond and Brandr had cleared the swathe of trees that Opron had wanted removed, and even now Eddie could hear the chopping and occasional “Timber!” of Ingolf clearing the intended road to the spur.

  Just for a moment Eddie considered surprising Opron, but when he looked at anvils on the Auction page, he discovered that they were all either 'pick up in person' or had astronomical delivery fees.

  “So much for that idea,” he muttered, then closed the smithy building and headed back towards the inn. He stopped to chat with Ingolf for a minute as he passed, then continued on his way. The lunch rush, what there was of it, didn't normally start until noon, but when he got there, he found lots more adventurers than he'd expected to be there. It wasn't until he could hear them that he realized why.

  Well, I guess everybody really does hate Old Jeffries, he thought as he heard adventurers offering things for sale, or speaking up for things they wanted.

  He slipped inside the inn, unnoticed in the crowd, and saw that all the tables were full. People were laying out items for sale on the tables, alongside the platters of food that were already there. He quickly went back to the kitchen where he found Liv hustling, trying to keep up with the orders.

  “I'm sorry Liv, we've never been this busy at lunch before,” he said.

  “Don't apologize, just give me a hand,” she replied.

  Eddie quickly washed his hands and jumped into cooking mode, helping her get the orders out in something resembling a reasonable amount of time.

  When the lunch rush was finally over, Eddie's stomach was rumbling. Despite grabbing a bite here and there while preparing orders, he hadn't had a proper lunch and his stomach was upset about that. Preparing one last plate of food, he grabbed a mug of the weakest ale he had, then sat down out in the common room.

  There were still a few adventurers there, finishing up their trades and lunches. He got friendly smiles and waves from just about all of them when they finally noticed he was there.

  Well, it's not exactly under the radar, but this kind of attention? Because of my inn? I think that works for me, he thought.

  Eddie was still eating when the door to the inn swung open and Opron walked in. He spotted Eddie at the table and came right over.

  “You finished it?” Opron asked eagerly.

  “Yup, all you need is an anvil and tools.”

  “I've got the tools, but I need to make my own anvil to get to third level in smithing. Doesn't have to be anything fancy, but I've got to make one. I've spent the last few days looking for the materials I'll need to do it.”

  “Ah, I wondered how you'd been keeping yourself busy,” Eddie replied.

  “Well, I've got most of what I need. I could use your help on one more thing though. I need a box to fill with sand and clay for my mold. I'm going to cast an anvil since that'll be the easiest way to do it. Not as high a quality on the end result, but I can use it to make a better one later on.”

  “You need the sand and clay too” Eddie asked.

  “Nah, my inventory is full of the stuff,” Opron replied. “That's what I've been doing, Down near the lake there's lots of sand and clay available. Plus I was talking with Paul. He had a very good picture of what was missing, or twisted, with the carpenter craftsman class. I've got a few pages of notes and suggestions from him.”

  “Good, what about metal? Are you going to need ore or something?”

  Opron grinned.

  “Nope, the goblins are going to take care of that for me.”

  “What?” Eddie asked, incredulously.

  “Indirectly anyhow. You know those lousy shortswords a lot of them wield?”

  Eddie nodded. He was wearing one of those himself.

  “Well, I've gotten a lot of adventurers to donate some. All I had to do was tell them I was setting up a smithy nearby and they couldn't give them to me fast enough. I'll just melt those down to use for the anvil. I've got crucibles and tongs for the melt, hammers to snap the swords down so they fit. I just need the box to make the mold in.”

  “I've got some extra lumber up there, so let me finish eating and we can go do that now,” Eddie said.

  Opron grinned broadly.

  “Took longer than I'd hoped to get set up, but doesn't everything take longer than you expect?”

  “Oh yeah, tell me about it,” Eddie said.

  They settled back and chatted as Eddie finished his meal.

  When they headed out for the smithy Eddie whistled and was relieved when Lucky showed up right away. He'd been worried about Becky trying again or somehow getting around Lucky's new protection. She took off down the road with them, dashing into the woods now and again, frequently returning with small game. Eddie simply added each corpse to his inventory as she brought them back, rubbing her between the ears and telling her what a good huntress she was.

  It took less than an hour for Eddie to go up and make Opron a box for casting his anvil. When he left, Opron was hauling sacks of sand out of his inventory and pouring it into the box while the forge fire was heating up with plain wood. Opron had some coal from his starting gear and he was planning on using that to melt the swords once he had them all broken up, but he'd said that the whole process would go faster and easier with a good bed of coals to start from.

  Eddie left him muttering about temperatures, mixture ratios for his clay, and the heat dispersion abilities of the sand. Opron waved a hand absently as Eddie announced he was leaving. Then stopped dead and turned as Eddie was walking out.

  “Thanks Eddie, I would've had a lot less time for actual forging while I was in-game if I hadn't had your help.”

  “You're welcome. Just remember you'll be training an apprentice. Liv said the boy should be here in a couple of days. Also, you might consider letting another player in here as well. Delgar, he's another hammer dwarf, is a smith. At least I think he is. Maybe the two of you can get this place in shape quicker than you could on your own?”

  “Send him along when you see him. We'll at least discuss the matter,” Opron said.

  Then he turned back to the casting box and went back to his muttering.

  Eddie left the smithy and was immediately jumped by a bobcat with fish breath. She eagerly licked his face as he groaned.

  “You do that to me on purpose, don't you,” he said, as she continued to lick him. “Come on, we need to go help Tiana with her temple now.”

  ~ ~ ~

  Eddie went right past the inn, going straight to the temple plot to join Tiana. She was still working on the tree in the center and he could see that it was much larger than when he'd left the day before. She was currently sitting, resting against the tree, and he assumed she'd run her mana out and was regenerating it.

  “You want me working on the walls again?” he called out.

  She nodded before standing and coming over to give him a hug.

  “Yes, please,” she said. “I need to go check the auction screens and see about some different plants for the lot. There's more room than I'd thought before so I'd like to fill it in.”

  “I don't know what overall theme you're going for here, probably nature?” he said

  “Fertility and abundance,” she replied. “So everything needs to be large, healthy, and a lot of it needs to bear fruit or something of the sort. The roses do, they provide petals and rose hips you can eat or use for tea. The tree in the center is a nut tree. It's game world specific, not a real type of tree, but the nuts are delicious. The tree can get up to eighty feet tall too, with a huge spread of branches and leaves. That was half the reason I picked it. Aside from that I'm putting in lots of smaller fruiting bushes and trees on the rest of the land.”

  “Well, I was thinking you might put in a pond?”

  “Ooh, I like that idea,” she said. “Maybe put Koi or something like that in it. Get you to build a nice, graceful arching bridge over it with benches along the edges.”

  “So yeah, doesn't have to be more plants, there are other
things you can do also,” Eddie said.

  “Well, I'll think about it. Next time I need to regen mana I'll walk around the grounds, see what will fit and what I can think of.”

  “Good, now I'm going to get to work on the wall here. I need to track down one of those dwarfs later on. Delgar was the one that's a smith?”

  She nodded.

  “I need to tell him that Opron has openings for more smiths at the smithy and he should go talk to him if he's interested. That way, when Opron has to leave we'll still have a player smith. I think that's important because I'm pretty sure we players learn our skills much faster than the NPCs do.”

  “Good plan. Assuming Delgar is interested in the offer,” she said.

  “Well, he could also build his own smithy, but he'd have to buy everything. This way, he already has a place to start working.”

  “You never know, some people just want their own place. It won't hurt to ask though.”

  She walked back over to the tree to sit down again. Eddie watched as she walked away from him, still amazed that they were together, and still enjoying the view as she moved. Lucky had taken up residence next to the base of the tree while they'd been talking and Eddie smiled as she settled down and started petting the bobcat, who dropped her head on Tiana's leg. Then he turned to the roses and started casting.

  ~ ~ ~

  Eddie was disappointed when he got back to the inn to take up the cooking shift for dinner. He'd only been able to do eight more sections of Tiana's wall. Even though the Conjunction skill allowed him to do exactly what she'd asked, he could only do two small sections each time before needing to regenerate all of his mana and most of his stamina. As a result he'd only gotten the eight done, plus he hadn't made any progress on the Conjunction skill itself, it was still at a one.

  Once he was in the kitchen and started cooking, he felt a little bit better. Even if he couldn't help Tiana any more today, he was still doing his part to make the adventurers happier, while making himself some money.

  Enlightened self-interest, he thought, chuckling at himself, that's the way to do these things. It makes both sides happier this way.