Glory to the Brave (Ascend Online Book 4)

by Luke Chmilenko

  “All life is complicated, regardless of if they are spirits or made of flesh and bone,” he acknowledged, his face turning a little darker as he continued to speak. “Which is why you saw the fear on our faces when you described your encounter with the slave-king. For I believe that based on your words, that it was an ancestor spirit, a spirit that represented the collective will and essence of the Nafarr people from before they fell.

  “Much like a spirit of a wolf would represent the ideal vision of the animal, so does an ancestral spirit represent an ideal vision of a people, all the traits, virtues, and even memories that their culture held dear, condensed into a single entity. So much so that it forms its own identity or retains its former one if it was once a living being.”

  “That…that is a lot,” I said numbly as I tried to wrap my mind around the man’s description, a single thought jumping out at me. “It almost sounds like you’re talking about a god.”

  “And what is a god, but a truly powerful spirit?” Garr replied before going on to give all of us a shrug. “I do not profess to know what may, or may not, truly quantify as such, but on my own witnessing of the Shasine, I know that ancestral spirits are incredibly potent beings in their own right. And in case of this slave-king, it is truly fortunate that you stopped him before he could regain what power he lost over the half a millennia since the fall of his people. I shudder to think what he may have been able to achieve had he not been.”

  “You and all of us,” I agreed, once again recalling my thoughts from just a few minutes earlier. “That would have been a nightmare.”

  “Without a doubt,” Garr agreed, his gaze playing over our group and seeing the other questions written on our faces. “Ah, I can see that my words have opened the floodgates. Perhaps we have time to answer one or two more? Afterward it would perhaps be best that we resumed our journey. We still do have quite the distance ahead of us, do we not?”

  “We do,” I replied, trying to factor in the distance back to Aldford with the faster pace that we were able to sustain now that we had Garr and the other druids to speed our progress. Originally, it had taken us almost thirty hours of non-stop movement, roughly the equivalent of three normal days of travel, to blaze a path through the Hartwyld to Khudazal. It was a pace that we’d only been able to manage due to Spirit of the Wild giving us an edge in speed and our sleep shifting efforts in jumping between the game and reality, allowing us to continuously move with just a single rest stop. With the ability to move even faster and without fighting creatures on our return trip, it was my guess that we’d be able to shave a third of that time off, even with the extra distance added to travel to Aldford, instead of Valor’s Point. “If we push hard for the whole day and don’t take any breaks, we should be able to make it back to Aldford sometime late tonight or really early tomorrow morning, assuming that we don’t run into any surprises.”

  “Then, I’m taking my question right now, because I don’t want to wait that long,” Halcyon interjected eagerly before anyone else could say anything, turning his attention fully on Garr. “So. About your experiences with the corruption…”

  Chapter 50

  Tuesday, April 23rd, 2047 – 1:05 a.m.

  The Wild

  “What is that?” Garr exclaimed as we finally stepped free of the forest, a chorus of voices from the other gronn echoing out a few seconds behind him. “I-Is that—”

  “The tree? Yeah, it is,” I replied with a slight smile as I turned to look westward and saw the familiar azure beacon far on the night’s horizon that signaled the end to what had been an exceptionally long journey. “We shouldn’t be too far away now. Maybe a quarter-hour or so if we have one last burst of energy in us to set a good pace.”

  “I’ll set whatever pace you want, Lyr, so long as there’s a soft bed waiting for me at the finish line,” Halcyon grumbled in response, his voice slurring in exhaustion. “And I mean literally at the finish line because soon as we’re past the gates, I’m passing out on top of the first comfortable thing I can find. Mages aren’t made to run for as long as we have today.”

  “Neither are rogues,” Constantine chimed in an equally tired tone. “But on that note, you’re sorely mistaken if you think you’re the one getting the first soft thing. I call dibs.”

  “Dibs? You can’t call dibs on something we haven’t even seen yet,” the mage growled back. “That’s not how it works.”

  “Says the man who failed to call dibs when he had the chance,” Constantine replied, the pair’s bickering fading as they moved past me, allowing Arcturus a chance to comment.

  “The tree must be truly massive to be seen from this far,” he said with clear awe in his voice as he glanced over towards me. “I understand better now when you said that mere words would not do its description justice.”

  “Just wait until you see it up close,” I replied as I signaled for the gronn to follow me, the group having stopped to stare at sudden appearance. “There’s nothing in the world like it.”

  “I imagine not,” Garr agreed as he and the others moved along with me, their eyes rarely leaving the western horizon. “To see something that has tapped directly into the ley line…it is a wonder beyond measure.”

  With the gronn continuing to mutter and talk excitedly amongst themselves, we all began the final leg of our trek, eager to finally be back home in Aldford and feeling the relentless exhaustion that had built up over the course of the day. It had been a long, yet mercifully uneventful trip back through the Hartwyld, the safety of Garr’s and the other druids’ magic allowing us to go as far as to even take short, and much-needed rest cycles back in reality. The brief rests helped turn the sixteen-hour return trip into something manageable for us to endure, each of us suffering from some level of sleep deprivation due to the odd hours that we’d forced ourselves to keep to over the last few days. For many in the group, those breaks took the form of desperately needed naps to help bridge themselves through the day, having them log back in feeling somewhat refreshed and in good spirits. But, of course, me being me, using those breaks as a chance to relax or sleep as the others did had been the last thing on my mind, at least at first.

  Instead, my plan had been to use them as a chance to catch up on everything that I’d missed over the last few days, having delegated all of my responsibilities to the others that had stayed behind so I could better focus on the raid itself. During that time, the best I’d been able to get were a few highlights from Constantine whenever he jumped back out into reality to pass along our own updates. The result left me feeling more than a little out of the loop now that we were heading home, and I wanted to get a jump start on remedying that as fast as possible.

  Which, as I discovered earlier today, had been exactly what Freya anticipated I would do.

  Still remembering how her face had appeared on my monitor the second that I sat down at one of the suite’s computers, I’d been greeted by a prerecorded message that she’d left for me, it beginning with a particular admonishment about the dangers of burnout. Of course, with her knowing me well enough to guess what I was going to do, she also knew exactly the information that I’d be looking for, summarizing it in a fraction of time that it would have taken me to look up.

  Starting first with the most obvious and pressing thing that I would be interested in, the war, she’d outlined the various skirmishes and even one battle that they’d been able to surprise the orcs in. From her summary, I learned that the orcs had spent the last two days attempting to envelop Valor’s Point from both sides, using their superior numbers to force us into defending a wide front, which Freya admitted was working. There were only so many defenders to go around, and both she and Sierra had been forced to make hard choices on where to best position them without completely stripping the base.

  It was one of those choices in particular that allowed one of our skirmishing groups to completely surprise a large warband that had been attempting to flank Valor’s Point through the Hartwyld, catching them in a poor
position with little magical support. The result ended up being over a hundred dead orcs at the cost of a dozen or so exhausted mages, along with a small forest fire that mercifully burnt itself out before it could spread too far. But, of course, as much as that lucky decision helped on that occasion, it was the best victory of any kind that we’d been able to claim. The orcs’ relentless pressure on both the western flank and Valor’s Point itself was steadily taking its toll in territory, death penalties, and a gradually increasing corruption counter among the defenders.

  Which still makes me wonder if it isn’t a good idea to head to Valor’s Point tonight after we get the gronn settled, I asked myself as we all continued to move towards the now not so distant tree, the thought of making the trek to the base causing a renewed wave of exhaustion to wash over me. Or maybe, on second thought, it can wait until later in the morning. I’m not so sure I’m up for the trip, now that I think about it. With how tired I am, I’d either get lost, or even worse—I’d end up walking into an ambush.

  Stifling a yawn as my wandering thoughts continued to swirl, I paused for just long enough to check my surroundings before losing myself in them once again, recalling the next part of Freya’s briefing and how her face had tightened anxiously as she broke the news. Apparently, during our absence, an update had managed to come through from our impending reinforcements, warning us that not only would they be a little late arriving in Aldford, but that they’d also run into a problem on the journey.

  Inasmuch as several hundred extra tagalong adventurers and NPCs joining their exodus from Coldscar could be described as a problem.

  Having rapidly grown in intensity over the last few days, the guild wars surrounding Coldscar had expanded to the point where it had completely consumed the entire region, turning it into a vicious bloodbath. Guilds that had desperately tried to stay neutral throughout the conflict had found themselves brutally dragged into it against their will, suffering raids from one, if not both, of the two major alliances as they each moved to consolidate territory. This then prompted a large flood of refugees, more than anything we’d been expecting to look for a way out of the conflict.

  Which, as fate had it, happened to be to join both the Legion and Lionheart guilds as they cut a path westwards and out of the now war-torn lands, finding safety in the numbers that they had.

  Burdened with the need to now protect both themselves and their tagalongs, the group’s progress couldn’t help but slow down as a result, their now noticeable presence inevitably attracting the predatory eye of opportunistic raiders who they were then forced to stop and defend themselves against. Fortunately, though, from what Freya went onto relay after the initial bad news, the delay was relatively minor in the grand scheme of things, adding roughly two more days until the bulk of the reinforcements arrived in Aldford—something that given the sheer number of people now on their way towards us would actually work in our favor since it would give us more time to figure out where to put all of them when they finally arrived. Furthermore, she also said that she’d been told that several groups of adventurers had chosen to break away from following the main group at their slower pace, instead choosing to rush ahead to Aldford on their own. So while we had to still wait a bit longer for the guilds themselves to get here, small groups of adventurers had already begun to arrive as early as this past morning, giving us a desperately needed boost in manpower.

  Once those two major topics were out of the way, the message wound down with a brief update on Lazarus and the others, Freya telling me that the trio had finally departed Coldscar for Eberia with a handful of other adventurers accompanying them. Unfortunately, she gave me few more details beyond that, but from what I’d been able to infer, the group had found a promising lead to follow in their investigation on who had tried to kill Veronia’s father and were eagerly pursuing it. Then with that final bit of knowledge imparted into me, I was promptly told in no uncertain terms to go and get some sleep, which with my curiosity being sated, I was actually able to do.

  And is likely the only reason why I haven’t passed out mid-stride today, I added in silent gratitude to the woman’s efforts to see me rested, half wondering what state I’d be in right now if I hadn’t taken her advice. Probably passed out and sleeping in my pod after the game kicked me out for exhaustion.

  With my thoughts winding down as we finally got close enough to Aldford for it to appear in the distance, I found myself exhaling a sigh of relief as my eyes landed on it. Illuminated brightly from both the azure glow of the massive oak tree towering above and mage lights that had been installed along the palisade bordering the town, the sight brought the immediate feeling of coming home—something that I hadn’t realized I’d missed. Unable to help but speed our step just a little bit faster now that our destination was practically within arm’s reach, it was less than a handful of minutes from when it had first appeared until a familiar voice called out to greet us.

  “Halt!” I heard Ioun shout from a distance, the once-villager now turned guardsman just barely visible from on top of the gate that guarded Aldford’s southern entrance. “Identify yourselves before coming closer!”

  “Ioun! It’s me, Lyrian!” I called back to the man as we continued to advance a few steps farther so that the light radiating outward from the town would cast us as more than just fuzzy shadows, allowing us to be identified all the easier. “We’re back from our journey and have a group of new allies accompanying us! We’d like to be let into the town if you don’t mind.”

  “Lyrian?” he called back at first in apparent confusion as he squinted towards us, a more confident exclamation ringing out a second afterward. “Ah! It is you! Come inside quickly then! An alarm just went out a few minutes ago! It may not be safe out there!”

  “An alarm?” I called back with worry, and we began to move once more, a sudden spike of cold shooting through my veins, extinguishing the earlier excitement I’d had at arriving home. “What happened? Did they say what’s going on?”

  “Only that Valor’s Point is under attack again!” Ioun shouted back to me as we all broke into a run, the sudden burst of adrenaline temporarily banishing the exhaustion weighing on us. “And that we need to secure the town and keep a sharp eye out for invaders!”

  “Damn,” I hissed in a near whisper, feeling my heart leap at the guardsman’s words as our sprint rapidly took us towards Aldford’s gate, the large wooden door swinging open just enough to let us through. There were only a handful of reasons why Ioun would have been told to watch for invaders, and they were all among the last ones that I wanted to entertain, especially this late at night.

  Gritting my teeth as a variety of scenarios rushed through my mind, we all took the bridge at a run, crossing in the span of a heartbeat before passing through the gate and entering into Aldford itself. No sooner did we step into the town were we greeted by the sounds of frenzied activity and movement, seeing both townsfolk and adventurers rushing through the streets as they reacted to the alarm.

  “Well, so much for crashing to sleep as soon as we got back!” Constantine exclaimed as we moved, pitching his voice loud enough to be heard over the noise. “What do you think happened?”

  “Nothing good if it has everyone up and awake this late at night!” I called back while motioning for everyone to follow me. “Come on! We need to report in and see if we can’t find out what happened and also if we’re needed anywhere!”

  Sparing a brief glance towards Garr and the others as I spoke, I made sure that they’d all made it through the gate before I led our group through the busy streets at a jog. This was far from any sort of welcome that I had envisioned for them, and the last thing that I wanted to have happen was for them to get lost in the growing excitement around us. Fortunately, though, the gronn had all taken the unexpected excitement in stride, their wide eyes darting around curiously to take the town and activity in, but otherwise remaining calm.

  Trusting that they would let me know if they ran into a problem, I focus
ed my attention on getting us to the town hall, knowing that there’d be someone there able to tell us what was happening. But as we neared Aldford’s heart, so did the number of people and excitement around us continue to increase, causing us to slow our pace, lest we end up trampling those in our way. Confused as to what could possibly be causing a slowdown, even with all the people on the streets, I impatiently tried to look ahead, managing to catch a short glimpse of a large oncoming wagon being pulled by a pair of horses.

  “What is that doing here—” I started to say as we were all forced to shift to the side of the street to allow the oversized vehicle a chance to pass. But as the crowd ahead of me parted ways, I found my voice suddenly catching as I saw what had been loaded onto the back of the wagon, my eyes landing on the singed and burnt shape of a ballista. “Damn! What happened to that?”

  “I’ll give you three guesses, Lyr, but something tells me that you won’t need that many,” Halcyon replied from beside me in a grim tone, his hand appearing just past my vision to point ahead. “Look, there’s more of them coming.”

  Turning to follow the man’s hand, it took me a second to see what he was talking about as I caught sight of several more wagons farther down the street, each of them heavily laden with either their own siege weapons or various crates of supplies.

  “Shit,” I cursed as I twisted to look back at Halcyon, seeing his eyes shift to meet mine, understanding flowing between us. “We need to get to the town hall, now.”

  Not wanting to wait for the street to clear as the procession of wagons continued to slow traffic, I led the group off the main road, ducking in between two buildings until we reached an adjacent laneway. Largely a remnant from Aldford’s younger days, the laneway was only wide enough to service basic foot traffic, and to my relief, it was empty enough for us to use it as a faster route through the town. Moving with a growing sense of urgency with every step I took, it didn’t take much longer from there for us to finally reach our destination, finding the square in front of the town hall packed nearly full of adventurers. Eyes widening as I rounded the corner, I only had a second to take in the sight before my attention was stolen away by a bright golden flash.