Jandar looked up at her and furrowed his brow. “What am I supposed to suck on?”
Nyx rolled her eyes. “Never mind. I’m just saying I took first dibs. I think you know why.”
Jandar nodded. “I do. Did you progress as well?”
“Yep. Got some skill and attribute level ups and another character level.”
Lexon spoke up. “Ain’t nobody gonna ask what I got?”
Nyx turned to the bard. “Sorry, Lexon. What did you get?”
“Not a bloody thing. Completely ignored and forgotten once again despite having saved your, especially that big meat head’s, lives once again.”
Nyx’s shoulders sagged. “You’re right. I didn’t even think about you.”
“I’m starting to see the full scope of bigotry toward, what’d you call us, NPCs. Nonplayer character… Might as well stand for non-person cunts.”
“I’m so sorry, Lexon. This level of individuality and self-awareness is new even for us…players.”
Lexon pointed a finger at her. “You were gonna say people, weren’t you? See, we aren’t even people to you lot.”
Nyx’s voice was soft and pleading. “I’m really sorry.”
“I can somewhat understand it of you, but hammer hands over there is a hoity-toity adventurer for a few days and completely forgets where he came from. It’s a sad testament to the human condition it is.”
Nyx removed her shortsword from her inventory and handed it to Lexon. “Here, you can have this. It’s a decent weapon.”
Lexon took the blade and admired it a moment before strapping it around his waist. “It’s a start, but gettin’ hand-me-downs is a bit like being tossed scraps instead of being offered a seat at the table.”
“What else do you want, bard?” Jandar snapped.
Lexon drew himself up and set his jaw. “I want an equal share of the gains as well as courtesy and respect.”
“You can have an equal share of the loot commiserate with your level of usefulness. The rest you’ll get when you stop being an annoying pain in the ass.”
“You drive a hard bargain, but I’ll take it.”
Nyx handed over his share of the money as well as the studded leather chest piece. “Here, this is a good fit for you too. What about the bow? Can you use it?”
Lexon examined the weapon and shrugged. “I’ll need some practice, but I like the prospect of keeping far away from things that might rend or pierce me flesh.”
“Better take the bracers too.”
“Fine. Are you happy now?” Jandar huffed.
“I am content,” he replied, looking away and jutting his chin skyward.
“Good. I hope content goes hand in hand with quiet.” He turned to Nyx. “You have any suggestions as to our course?”
“Not really,” Nyx replied. “I’d rather return to Truale than stay in Capria. I know the area better. I should be able to lead us to some of the dungeons and areas with bosses that might drop more eternity stones.”
Jandar nodded. “We’ll have to use the smuggler’s pass again. I don’t think we’ll be able to get through the normal border crossing point.”
“OK. I guess I’ll log out for a bit. See you in the morning.”
“Where do you think they go?” Lexon asked after Nyx faded away.
“You’re aware of that?” Jandar asked.
“Not until just now, but now that I am, I feel like I’ve known all along.”
Jandar shrugged. “I don’t know where they go and I don’t care.”
“Don’t be like that. She seems a decent sort.”
Jandar looked at the rock Nyx had been sitting on. “She’s a player. We’re just pieces in her game.”
“She did agree to give you the stones, and she’s sticking around. Anyone willing to be around you for an extended period of time must be made of some quality material.”
Jandar’s eyes flicked toward the bard. “You’re here, so what does that say about your theory?”
“I’d say it proves me point quite well. No one ever became a hero without a bard singing tales of their adventures.”
“I’m not a hero, and I don’t want to be one. I just want to…”
“Want to what; fix what’s wrong with the world? Free the people from the creators’ tyranny? Sounds pretty heroic to me.”
Jandar shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. She’s here because she wants to get into Matrice’s tower. It’s all part of the adventure, of the game. Why are you defending her kind? Why aren’t you angry?”
Lexon shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s a bit hard to wrap your head around the idea you don’t actually exist when you’re talking to someone about not really existing innit? I guess me natural reaction to such an existential paradox is to go on living me life as best I can, whereas yours is to be angry at everything and smash it with a hammer. It’s kind of poetic in a way innit? Is I, or ain’t I, that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or run amok and break shit with a hammer.”
Jandar shook his head and chortled. “I’d like to break you with a hammer.”
Lexon lifted his new bow and tugged on the string. “Try it and you’ll suffer the arrows of outrageous fortune.” The string rolled off his fingers and snapped the tender flesh on the underside of his forearm. “Ow, bloody hell that smarts!”
He tossed the bow onto the ground and began licking at the welt like a dog.
Jandar’s chortle became a deep, throaty laugh. “There’s your outrageous misfortune.”
“You’re an outrageous misfortune,” Lexon retorted, sulking as he nursed his mortal injury.
Nyx returned barely two hours later, startling Jandar as he kept watch.
“You’re back sooner than I expected.”
Nyx looked out into the darkness. “I shouldn’t be. It should be near morning. Shit, grab your weapons and armor. Lexon, wake up!”
Lexon flailed beneath his blanket and appeared to be trying to dig a hole in which to hide.
“What’s happening?” Jandar asked as he dropped the mail shirt over his head and strapped on his breastplate.
“The only reason more time wouldn’t have passed was if something was going to happen while I was gone that I needed to be present for. It’s called a micro instance. It has to do with the perceived time between the real world and the game world.”
Jandar furrowed his brow. “Perceived time? Time is time. An hour is an hour no matter where you are.”
Nyx shook her head. “No. The game can stretch or shrink time relative to how long I stay in game or logged out. It’s usually constant unless I’m logged out and something important happens during the time I should have been gone. Then it slows the game time so when I log back in I’m still part of it. The only reason you’re even conscious of me being gone is because you’re aware of the two worlds and character states. It doesn’t matter right now. Listen.”
Jandar cocked his head and heard the rhythmic, pounding strides of something fast approaching. Nyx vanished into the darkness while Jandar set himself for battle, choosing his two-handed maul since it sounded like those approaching were mounted. Lexon hid within a depression and fumbled to knock an arrow, dropping it three times in his frantic haste.
Three desert striders broke into the circle of light cast by the campfire, but only one of the beasts carried a rider. Jandar heard more than saw the arrow go streaking three feet overhead and a dozen more to the left of the rider.
“Hold your shot, you nitwit!” Jandar shouted when he recognized the man.
Lexon’s head poked up like a prairie dog. “Sorry about that. Me fingers slipped off the string. That was a lie. I panicked. Won’t happen again. That’s probably a lie too. I’m certain to panic again with a high probability of injuring meself or someone else. Most likely the latter.”
Another arrow plunked into the sand near Jandar’s foot.
“Shit! Sorry again. This time me fingers did slip off the str
ing.”
“Put the damn bow down!”
“Right,” Lexon called back and dropped the weapon at his feet.
Naidu, his robes bloody and torn, slipped off the back of his desert strider and stumbled toward Jandar. The blacksmith rushed forward and caught him just before he fell and gently lowered him to the ground. Nyx was at his side an instant later.
“Naidu, what happened?” Jandar asked.
The Caprian nomad looked up and motioned for something to drink. Nyx summoned a skin from her inventory and trickled water into his mouth. He coughed a bit until his mouth and throat were able to form words.
“Saefa sent me. He needs your help again. We all do.”
“What happened?” Nyx asked, echoing Jandar’s previous question.
“The king, he sent his army.”
“But we already defeated Khan Eoselm,” Nyx said.
Naidu shook his head. “He did not come for the khan, at least not anymore. He came for us. His soldiers attacked the village Saefa and his people were sheltering in for the night as they made their way home. They began slaughtering everyone. Saefa’s people, the villagers, everyone.”
“But why?”
“I do not know. Saefa and his people fled into the desert. We did our best to slow the soldiers’ pursuit, but nearly all are armed with bows or use spells to kill us before we can engage them. They retreat if we try to come anywhere near them.”
Nyx looked at Jandar. “It’s the debuff, mortalitatis amplecti. They found out it has spread and are trying to contain it.”
Jandar clenched his teeth and wagged his head. “Animals!”
Naidu clutched at Jandar’s armored chest. “Saefa says he knows a place where they all might find safety, but it is far off, and they’ll need your help to reach it. He also said they may need your protection from what might still dwell there.”
“Where is this place? What lives there?”
“To the south. It was once a thriving city, but a volcano destroyed it long ago, and now it is home only to the ghosts of the people who once lived there.”
Lexon sidled up behind Jandar and spoke over his shoulder. “Sounds like what you need is a hero. Tis a shame Jandar insists he’s not one of those. Is there someone else we might be able to find?”
Jandar’s elbow snapped back and caught Lexon in the stomach. The bard whoomphed and staggered backward.
“You don’t look fit to ride,” Jandar said. “How do we find them?”
Naidu pointed over his shoulder. “The striders know the way back. I’ll tell them to return to the others once you’ve mounted.”
You have been offered the quest: Exodus. Difficulty: Hard. Quest conditions: Get Saefa and his people to safety. Reward: Variable depending on how many survives the trip. Secondary objective: Establish a safe, permanent settlement for them and yourself.
Do you accept the quest, Yes or No?
Jandar selected Yes without hesitating. He felt at least partly responsible. It was probable that most, if not all, of Saefa’s people had contracted the debuff from the adventurers helping the khan, but he had started the whole thing when he had killed them the first time in Whitbell. He cursed Edison for creating it, but his actions has allowed it to spread so quickly.
“Are you going to be all right here by yourself?” Jandar asked.
Naidu nodded. “My mount won’t leave me and will keep me safe. I will find you when I have recovered my strength.”
Nyx shoved one of her minor healing potions into his hand. “Drink this. It will at least stabilize you.”
Naidu gripped the small bottle and gave her a weak nod. “Hurry. They do not have much time.”
The three of them rushed toward the sand striders. Jandar climbed onto the back of one and Nyx the other. Lexon looked at Naidu’s mount, but it hissed and snapped at him.
“Looks like this wagon’s full. I’ll just wait here for the next one,” he said.
“Climb your skinny ass up behind Nyx,” Jandar growled. “It can carry the both of you. The two of you together barely weigh as much as I do.”
“And you ought not be ashamed of it. Matrice made each of us beautiful in our own way no matter what shape she chose for us whether it be tall or short, homely or fetching, lean or fat.”
Jandar glared at him. “I am not fat.”
“Of course not. Fat is in the eye of the beholder,” Lexon replied as he seated himself awkwardly behind Nyx. He leaned forward and said in a stage whisper, “And the look in the eye of his sand strider said, ‘fuck me, why do I always get the fat ones?’”
Nyx’s hand flew to her mouth and she sputtered through her fingers. Jandar scowled at the bard a moment before Naidu barked a command and the beasts wheeled around and began loping across the desert. He and Nyx held the desert striders reins in a loose grip and gave them their head, trusting them to find their way back and at their own pace.
The bipedal lizards ate up the distance with their long-legged strides, tirelessly bounding across the desert without slowing. In two hours, they crossed the same ground and more that had taken them the entire night and most of the following day to cover after leaving the tomb. Several men with spears, bows, and a variety of makeshift weapons charged over a mound.
Jandar jerked the reins, bringing his lizard to a halt, and threw up his hands. “Hold! Naidu sent us. We’re looking for Saefa.”
The men took a few steps forward before lowering their weapons. “It’s the adventurers and that minstrel,” one of them called out, likely to others nearby who remained hidden.
“Minstrel!” Lexon practically shrieked in Nyx’s ear. “I ain’t some dirty lute plucker, caterwauling for a few coins and a trollop’s fancy! I am a bard of the Lyrical Order—”
“That’s a lie,” Nyx said.
“I’m a bard of no order who can create magic with his songs what can change the hearts and minds of those who hear it! Minstrel indeed,” he finished with crossed arms and an insulted harrumph.
“I’m sure he didn’t mean anything by it,” Nyx said in consolation.
“A foul word is like an arrow. Its meaning don’t mean diddly if it pierces your heart.”
“I’m sure you’ll survive,” Nyx said as she slid off her mount.
The guard waved them forward. “Come, Saefa will be glad to see you have arrived so quickly.”
The two desert striders broke from their handlers’ grasp after they topped a low rise and saw the rest of their pack. There were no tents pitched or a single fire burning within the camp. Jandar’s quick count estimated there to be nearly three hundred people huddled in small groups within the patch of low ground, a third or more of them children.
A dozen or so desert striders paced within a paddock made of a single rope tied to chest-high stakes driven into the ground in a large ring. A similar corral contained a score of goats. Haunted eyes tracked them as they threaded their way through the clustered groups of people to a knot of men in a heated debate.
Saefa saw them approach, and his shoulders and eyes looked as if someone had just removed a heavy load from his back. “My friends, bless you for coming to our aid once again, and bless Naidu for finding you. How does he fare?”
“Exhausted and beat to hell, but he’ll live,” Jandar replied. “What happened here?”
One of the men in the group, a tribal elder by the look of him, spat on the ground. “King Aelim, may Matrice curse his name, has begun slaughtering his own people.”
Saefa said, “I have heard that he believes we are carrying a plague, the very one that caused Truale to close their borders, and is trying to stamp it out through culling.”
“It is ridiculous!” the elder snapped. “None of these people are sick. It is an excuse to punish us for Khan Eoselm’s betrayal.”
Saefa held up a hand to still the chieftain. “He allegedly has people who can see who carries this plague. There are purges going on all over Capria, but we represent the largest concentration. He decided there were so many
afflicted in the village we were in that it was easier to eradicate it entirely.”
He waved a hand at the expanse of people around them. “Most of these people are from that village, those who survived the purge. Others have joined us from nearby villages and towns with similar tales of slaughter.”
Nyx stepped up next to Jandar. “What were you arguing about?”
Saefa turned his head to glance at the other tribal leaders and elders. “Where to find safety and how to get there. Some want to fight the soldiers.”
“Naidu said you had an idea of where to go.”
“A haunted place that will mean a more horrible death than the soldiers will give us!” the same vociferous elder barked.
Saefa ignored the man. “That is one reason why I asked Naidu to find you. It is true that where I propose to go is rumored to be a cursed place, you two—”
“Three,” Lexon piped in. “Then again, I don’t much fancy tangling with ghosts. They aren’t much for appreciating music, what with all their moaning and shambling about.”
Saefa ignored the bard. “You all have magic that could protect us from them. Perhaps even drive them away or put them to rest. I am not a magician, so my understanding of such things is limited. Much of what I know comes from speaking with Balshamma.”
“Who is Balshamma?” Jandar asked.
“A powerful kahinni, a mage or wizard you call them. Her ability to speak with the wind has so far allowed us to stay ahead of the king’s soldiers. But she is old and exhausted. Had you not arrived this night, it is unlikely we would have seen another.”
“How has she been keeping the soldiers away?” Nyx asked.
“She can summon winds to throw off their arrows and sandstorms to conceal us. But as I said, she is exhausted.”
“I can do that with the eternity stone,” Jandar said. He looked at Nyx. “The stone has a large but limited supply of energy, but I can channel mana into it. If you could send me as much mana as you can with your leeching spell, I should be able to maintain enough of a wind to stay ahead of them.”
“I have to take the mana from others,” Nyx replied. “With this many people who don’t use it, I can do it without them even knowing, but I would rather have permission, or at least tell them what I am doing.”
Chaos Unchained- The Mad Smith Page 29