“I have no doubt about that,” the armored half-elf replied before going on to shake his head as if trying to find the words to articulate himself. “But it’s not just that. Compared to…well, pretty much everything short of maybe Coldscar itself, there really isn’t anything back that way that even comes close to competing with Aldford. And that includes the people there, too. I mean, don’t get me wrong, like Janus said, we kind of knew what to expect. But also now that we’re here…”
“You can actually see it firsthand,” I said, slowly starting to understand just what exactly the man was trying to articulate. “Were things really that bad back there?”
“Not at first,” Neria answered with a shrug. “But by the time we realized we had to leave, absolutely. If not even worse.”
“Then it’s a good thing you did,” I replied, our conversation temporarily lapsing as the road we were following opened up to reveal Aldford’s town square along with the base of the ætherwarped oak tree beside it. Pausing to take in the sight, and to also absorb the sudden aroma of food that accompanied it, the three guild leaders looked stunned by what they saw waiting for them.
Which was a buffet large enough to feed an army.
Completely filling out every inch of the square was a series of heavy-laden tables, each of them covered with a near-endless variety of food. Ranging from still twitching dishes made from the strange vegetables that had been pulled from the Twilight Grove to giant mushrooms harvested from the Emerald Forest and stuffed with behir meat, the display looked surreal at first glance. But of course that was only the beginning of the course with even more food still yet being prepared by the small army of cooks and chefs at the far end of the square. Busily moving between a row of cooking fires, ovens, and spits that had been set up just for this occasion, they were all in the process of ensuring that everyone who arrived would have something to eat.
“W-w-what is all this?” Neria stammered, recovering the fastest of the three as they all stared at the feast with wide eyes.
“It’s dinner,” I replied with a smile, turning so that I could better see all three of their incredulous expressions and raise an eyebrow. “What? Did you think that we wouldn’t feed you all after you got here?”
“I, uh, well. I mean…” the woman said before trailing off, clearly at a loss for words, her eyes dancing between me and the food ahead.
“Come on,” I said, motioning for the three to proceed onwards. “Part of the perks of being the guild leaders is that we get to eat first. Once both your peoples are finished being sorted out outside, they’ll get sent along this way for their chance for a bite, too.”
Continuing to glance between me and the feast ahead for a few more seconds, it only took me a second gesture and round of encouragement to get them moving, the tantalizing aroma of food wearing down whatever other reservations they may have had. Having had a fair amount of time to prepare for their arrival over the last few days, the dinner was the second step in our plan to receive the new adventurers. It not only gave me the opportunity to connect and talk with the three guild leaders on a human level without a large crowd around us but to also ensure that both they and the other arrivals knew that they were truly welcome.
Which they absolutely are, and in more ways than a giant mountain of food could ever really say, I thought, feeling pleased with how smoothly things had gone so far over the last half-hour as both Amaranth and I trailed the three guild leaders towards the buffet.
After our initial meeting outside of Aldford had finished and we all managed to get past the awkwardness of introductions, we’d quickly moved onto the process of getting everyone formally invited to join the town—a task which we assigned to our local justicar. Thanks to his role of enforcing the order of law within the town, and the inability to be lied to, he was by far the best person to handle the oath that all newcomers would have to swear before being added to the town charter as prospective citizens. Simple in nature, the oath was essentially a binding vow to obey all of Aldford laws while they aided the town in its defense against the orcs. Attached to that oath was also the understanding that if they aided us with honor that they would then be welcomed as full citizens of the town, with all the rights and responsibilities that entailed.
It was something of a twist of the original approach that we’d taken with Freya and the others when they arrived, requiring an act of service to prove their commitment to the town, rather than a material contribution. We thought that it was the best solution that we could come up with given the circumstances—and one that we thought would appease the adventurers that had already joined and contributed to Aldford over the last few months. Beyond that consideration too, we also wanted to apply the lessons we’d learned from players such as Mozter and Ignis, who we’d let into the town with no such rules binding them. As such, the oath had been phrased in a way to give us a level of assurance that should there be betrayal or troublemaking after being sworn in, those adventurers could then be punished accordingly. Which in this case, given that we were at war, was almost certainly an immediate banishment to a Tower of Atonement elsewhere—something that everyone had all heartily agreed was fair given the circumstances.
And something that I hope will never need to happen, I thought as the four of us worked our way down one of the tables, filling a plate each as we went. In Amaranth’s case, however, the cat simply made a beeline towards where all the cooks were stationed, stopping once at a table as his nose caught the scent of something interesting before moving on. Grabbing a little bit of everything as we moved, I listened to the three guild leaders comment to one another over the food, Janus in particular seeming rather adventurous as he paused to inspect what looked like a series of spiked tentacles on a dish.
“Deepburrow spike root. Good choice,” Ragna’s voice called out, causing us each to look up and see the woman approaching with a large platter in hand. “Taste like honey chicken inside but very wiggly and fights on way down. Make sure to stab strong when taking and eating, else will try to escape.”
“I’m sorry, it will wha—” Janus started to ask in response to the woman’s words, his fork on the verge of stabbing into one of the large tubers. But before he could even finish phrasing his question, the root he was aiming for suddenly writhed and flexed, causing him to flinch back in surprise. “Oh! It’s alive!”
“No, not alive, just wiggly plant,” the half-orc matron corrected, smiling at his reaction. “Taste best with a little sauce from beside it. Try it if you like.”
“Sure, why not?” the man replied, letting out a chuckle as he recovered quickly, going on to skewer the root and drop it onto his plate before turning back to reach for the aforementioned sauce. “It’s always good to try something new once in a while.”
“So it is,” Ragna said as she went on to present the platter that she’d been carrying towards us, which I saw consisted of a variety of deviled cockatrice eggs. “I also have extra goodies for you all not on tables. Those on right, super spicy, breathe like dragon afterward. Those on left, tangy and sweet.”
“Oh, yes, please on the spicy ones!” Mithaniel replied with noticeable excitement as he shifted over towards the platter, grabbing a handful of the eggs. “I love hot food. The more the better.”
“Well, you’re in the right place then,” I commented with a chuckle as I watched all three take a few samples of the eggs, adding to what were already nearly overflowing plates.
“Okay, I think I’m done here,” Neria said as she balanced a pair of the sweeter eggs on top of the food she’d already taken. “I don’t think I have any more room for anything else.”
“Me either,” Janus replied, the man needing to hold his fork to his plate so that the deeproot he’d taken didn’t knock everything off.
“Great!” I said, seeing that Mithaniel had already managed to take a bite of one of the eggs and was in the process of turning very red. “Then we can head into the town hall over there. We have a room set aside so we can talk
and eat privately. There’ll also be something to drink there, too, if you’re thirsty.”
“That…would be great,” the armored half-elf managed to get out in a shaky voice as he offered me a nod then turned towards Ragna. “These eggs are…amazing! T-thank you!”
“Happy you like!” she replied with a wide smile. “There is many more if you want. Come find when ready.”
“Oh, I will,” Mithaniel promised hoarsely. “I just need a bit of something to chase it first.”
“I’m sure you do,” I commented with another chuckle as I motioned for the group to follow me. “This way then, it’s not too far.”
Thanking Ragna as we departed, we made our way towards the nearby building with our food in hand, a trotting Amaranth quickly catching up to us with a massive flank of behir meat in his mouth. Entering inside, it didn’t take us long after that to get ourselves settled into our room, everyone eagerly digging into their food.
“Erm, right, so what were we talking about again before the food stole away our train of thought?” Mithaniel asked he finished downing a large cup of water.
“Coldscar and how it and everything nearby doesn’t even come close to measuring up to this place,” Janus replied as he continued to struggle with the wriggly plant on his plate, trying to pin it in place so he could cut it.
“Ah, right,” the half-elf said as he shifted over to look towards me. “And it really doesn’t. Even before things went to hell, there were only a handful of places that had any level of development to them. Hard to have anything last when it would just get burnt down or captured a week later.”
“Places which were basically owned by either Bastion or by Serenity with a few exceptions among the unaligned guilds,” Neria added in between bites. “I’m not sure how much you might know of the area when it comes to the nitty-gritty stuff, but those are the two major guilds, or alliances rather, responsible for the current war.”
“I’ve only managed to keep up on the highlights,” I replied, vaguely recalling Paul mentioning something about the two guilds when we’d spoken to him about which guilds to attempt to recruit. “But with the feed delay and everything you’ve all went through on your way here, I’m sure that pretty much everything I know is woefully out of date. In either case, though, why were these guilds at one another’s throats anyway? From what I saw, it’s not like there was a lack of space to expand into around Coldscar and with The Ascendancy encroaching, too…you’d think that would pull people together.”
“You’d think,” Janus said with a snort. “I mean, you’re not wrong. It did at first. But when the topic of exactly who would oversee said people came up—that is when things started to go off the rails.”
“Ah,” I answered with sudden understanding, recognizing the problem. “Because everyone thought that it was they who should be in control.”
“Pretty much,” the man replied. “At first, there were a bunch of guilds in the pot who wanted a say in how things were done, mine included, but that got whittled down fast as Bastion hit their stride and got more involved. At the time they were easily the strongest and most organized guild around, which bought them a lot of credit, especially when they started consolidating their influence by merging with a bunch of the smaller and midsized guilds.
“Of course, as soon as they started doing that, so did the other guilds in an attempt to strengthen their own claims,” Janus continued. “Which is how Serenity eventually came to be. Unlike Bastion, it wasn’t ever really its own guild, but rather an alliance of a bunch of others assembled together who just didn’t want to see it have total control. We almost joined too. ‘We’ being Legion, that is. But the more things went on, the more I found out that the only reason why people were sticking together was to spite the Bastion leadership, so I pulled out completely.”
“Spite has always been a great motivator over the ages,” I said, shaking my head as I listened to the group’s explanation of the region’s politics. “So what ended up happening after that? I know from the feeds that there was a bunch of fighting with the Ascendancy at one point.”
“There was, but it didn’t last for very long,” Neria said, taking over for the Janus as he paused to eat, finally managing to take a bite of the deeproot. “I’m afraid I don’t know all the details, since we sat the whole thing out too, but at one point, push came to shove, and both the guilds moved to block the Ascendancy’s advance in a huge forest valley far to the east of Coldscar. It’s apparently the only pass between their region and the greater Coldscar one. In either case, though, they ended up doing exactly what they’d set out to do. Because the Ascendancy abruptly pulled out of the area with their tail between their legs shortly afterward.”
“Wait, they did?” I asked, more than a little surprised to hear that bit of information. “I never knew that. I thought they were still encroaching on things.”
“Yeah, well, they still are, but just on the other side of the pass now,” Neria replied, a small scowl coming across her face as she spoke. “And this was also where things got even messier, because as soon as the Ascendancy got chased out, was when the two guilds started to bicker at one another. With the external threat now supposedly gone, Serenity was ready to disband again into their separate guilds, but Bastion wasn’t, preferring to continue to grow as the massive organization they’d become, supposedly to be ready for Ascendancy’s return.”
“Which I guess sounded plausible on the surface,” I offered, finding myself drawn into and intrigued by the group’s explanation of Coldscar’s politics.
“Sure did,” she said with a nod. “But by that point, everyone knew that Bastion aspired over and above just being an adventurer’s guild. They wanted to expand their influence into Coldscar and Eberia’s political structure. Whether they were looking to be a positive force or a negative one is still up to the jury.”
“Well, except for the biggest strike against them being that they were kind of assholes and didn’t really care who knew about it,” Mithaniel interjected. “Not all of them, mind you. But the few interactions I had with their leadership gave me a very ‘if you’re not working with us, you’re working against us’ sort of attitude. At least when it came to other players.”
“Which I imagine goes a long way toward making friends or improving the situation,” I commented, having been exposed to that sort of thinking more than once in my gaming and professional life. “Okay, so how did all of that lead to the guild wars? Because from what I saw, things were looking rough in your area—and for quite some time before this whole war started.”
“Now that, I’m afraid, is the million-dollar question, because we have no idea, only bits and pieces,” the half-elf told me with a shrug. “All that we know for sure is that they both came back from the valley pissed at one another. Then a short while later, a bunch of people straight up defected from Serenity to join Bastion, which made them both angrier and drove tensions way up.”
“Oh, good,” I grunted. “Nothing like an actual or perceived betrayal to spice things up.”
“Right?” Mithaniel stated, shaking his head. “Anyway, after that, things went downhill fast. People started leaving the area as well as picking or even changing sides between the two. Not to mention too there were several suspicious raids on both guilds by bandits and rogue adventurers, enough that it wound everything up even further. Each side accused the other side of using the unaligned adventurer guilds in the area as mercenaries or cut outs to attack the other.”
“It was originally during that stretch that you reached out to us,” Janus said. “Which seeing as what happened afterward, I’m doubly glad you did. Had we been even a day slower in moving, there’s a good chance we’d probably have been roped into the war or have been forced to pull back to Coldscar.”
“We were lucky the timing worked out,” I replied graciously, seeing both Neria and Mithaniel nod in agreement with the man. “And we’re happy that you all managed to make it here safely too.”
“So
are we,” Neria said as she glanced down at her now mostly empty plate, then over towards me, each of us having eaten steadily throughout the conversation. “But yeah, that’s the quick and dirty version about what life was like back in Coldscar. There are some bits we can go into a bit more detail in if you’d like…but I imagine now that we’re here, we’re the ones that are going to have to get up to speed about the local issues here, rather than the other way around.”
“And something tells me, that the local issues here are a little more challenging than anything we had to deal with back in Coldscar,” Janus added dryly, earning a polite chuckle and a nod from everyone at the table.
“You’d be right on that,” I replied. “Which is why as much as I’d love to hear more about what you all went through, we should probably get you all up to speed on what we have going on here. Especially since I was hoping to introduce you all to our other impending guests first thing tomorrow. I have a feeling that they’ll be really excited to see you all.”
“Well, I happen to love meeting new people, so that sounds like a perfect way to spend the day,” Neria said eagerly, a devilish smile showing no doubt as to just who those guests were.
“That’s great to hear, because there are a lot of them to meet,” I stated, matching her grin with one of my own before clearing my throat and beginning the process of catching the trio up on everything that had happened over the last week. “So to start with the biggest news first…”
Chapter 61
Friday, April 26th, 2047 – 12:32 p.m.
A sweeping arm blurred past my vision as I threw myself sideways into a cartwheel in order to evade it, planting my left hand hard into the ground for stability. Moving ahead of the wicked blade attached to the limb, I felt it sail straight over me, its razor-sharp length passing harmlessly through the spot that I’d just been standing. But the agile dodge hadn’t been the only thing on my mind as I evaded the construct’s attack, taking the opportunity to slash out with my new sword, Savagery, towards the retreating arm and feeling it bite deep in the process.
Glory to the Brave (Ascend Online Book 4) Page 77