Quick Change Volume 1: Slyborn
Page 24
Seth chatted with Verun about the choice through their mental link, but he didn’t seem to have any ideas about which would be more useful. Seth had noticed that about Verun over the previous few days. He was a large, powerful animal, and he had inherited some skills and memories from Pahan, but he was still forming his own personality.
He was somewhat indecisive, and wasn’t really sure how he felt about things when Seth asked his opinion. Seth had to keep reminding himself that Verun was still somewhat childlike. He was excited to see who the lion would grow into.
After a few more minutes of consideration, Seth went ahead and unlocked Position II, still leaning toward how useful the spell could be in battle, and how much easier that might be to utilize if he didn’t have to physically touch someone to activate it.
Just then, Verun banked hard left and began climbing. Seth’s stomach did a flip, and he grunted, squeezing the lion with his legs. Verun was heading for a stony outcropping, and Seth saw a massive white lion standing on the edge of the cliff, watching the column of soldiers walk by down below. Verun alighted next to Pahan moments later, and Seth hopped off his back, walking towards the newly minted wild spirit.
Seth put his hand on the giant lion’s flank, feeling the rough fur under his palm, and said, “I’ll miss you, my friend. We’ll be back soon, if all goes well. What will you do now? What do wild spirits do at all?”
Pahan looked at Seth, huge eyes meeting his gaze, and said,
Verun said,
Chapter 36
Any Howlingshields that had been left behind in Vardon heard that the guild was marching toward the city, Verun and Seth flying openly above the force, with no trace of their force in sight. The mercenaries were lost in the wind well before the Adventurers’ Guild made it back to the great walled city.
For Seth, the next several days went by in a blur. He spent his mornings out in the wilds, hunting down monsters for experience, trying to make the most of the tail end of Djinia’s Blessing before it expired. He’d spend the afternoons and evenings running around the guild headquarters, helping them pack innumerable boxes and supplies into wagons. There had been some looting while the force was unoccupied, but much of the valuables were in secured vaults, and the looters weren’t master criminals who could penetrate them.
The dead had festered in the courtyard while the headquarters was unoccupied, and Seth helped dig individual graves for all of them that first day back in Vardon. It was unpleasant, but it was his duty.
He noticed that people treated him quite a bit differently now that he wore the red cape signifying his association with the guild. People moved out of the way as he strode through the streets of Vardon, not exactly fearful or respectful, but something in-between. He wasn’t sure how he felt about it.
A group of four Transportation Guild members walked past him as they made their way to their guild hall on his second day. Three of them acted like they didn’t see him, and the fourth sneered at Seth as they passed one another. He wondered whether there was actual violent animosity between the two groups, or just a sense of competition and rivalry.
Seth had been flying Verun openly over the city. He hadn’t been a fan of letting everyone see them at first, but Aurora had convinced him it was good to make their enemies wonder how they’d obtained a magical mount.
On his third day in Vardon, Seth was summoned to Aurora’s office. He knocked on her door and heard her yell to enter. He went through the door and took a seat at the desk inside. There were reports and paper strewn over the desk, but the office was mostly empty, already packed up for the most part.
Aurora said, “Hi Seth. I wanted to tell you that this morning I received official notice the high council will be recognizing my promotion to commander level, and wants me to keep command over Slyborn for the near future. Unfortunately, though, they’re sending one of their six members to personally oversee the setup of Slyborn as our new regional headquarters.”
Seth said, “Congratulations on the promotion! Why is a high council member coming unfortunate?” He held his hand up for a high five, but she just stared at it, uncomprehending. He grimaced and dropped his hand.
Aurora sighed heavily before saying, “Because they’re sending Liora the Light, the current holder of the mage seat on the council.”
Seth replied, “Okay…you do realize I don’t know who that is, right?”
Aurora looked at him like the world was collapsing around her. The dread was plain in her eyes. “Liora is my mother.” Seth wasn’t sure what to say, but Aurora continued, “Anyway, that isn’t what I wanted to talk to you about.” She picked up a couple of pieces of paper and scanned them for a moment before saying, “I’ve been reworking territory assignments for everywhere under the Vardon headquarters’ domain. Someone will need to go to Bosqovar, someone will need to head to Murkwell, since we’re keeping Ivon in easy reach for now, and there are several more territories without guild members right now. I wanted to know if you wanted one of those spots, or if you’d prefer to be stationed at Slyborn for now.” She gave him a hard look and then said, “Or…if you even wanted to stay with the guild at all, now that the whole Howlingshield incident is contained.”
Seth thought about it in silence for a few moments before saying, “The future is something I’ve done shockingly little thinking about lately, so if you need my help, I’m in. I think I’d prefer to be at Slyborn, close to people I actually know and Pahan for now.”
She smiled then, and her shoulders relaxed. Had she been worried he wouldn’t want to stay? She said, “That’s great to hear. There’s something else I wanted to share with you. I’ve received a few reports from some of our members out in the field, and it seems that monster attacks are way up. Something seems to have enraged all of the wild spirits, and the guild members are fighting more than they’ve ever had to. I’d like you to ask Verun about this, to see if he knows or feels anything, and if he doesn’t have any ideas, ask Pahan when we get back to Slyborn. We’re planning to depart the day after tomorrow.”
Seth said, “I will. How bad are the attacks?”
Aurora started to answer, but a loud knock sounded on her door, and the door opened before she could even respond. The man was a guild member. He was panting, as if he’d just run all the way to the office, and he said, “Commander, there’s been something spotted flying over the city. It’s some kind of giant bird, and it’s got…well…” His eyes flicked to Seth and back to Aurora before saying, “It’s got a person sitting on its back.”
Aurora acted first, shooting Seth a meaningful look
before striding past the other guild member towards the front of the Adventurers’ Guild headquarters. Seth scurried to catch up with her, and they walked into the sunlight together.
Several guild members were congregated in the open square that made up the center of the guild headquarters. They looked to the sky, and Seth heard one person shout their wordless panic. Seth gazed upward and saw the giant bird descending on the courtyard.
It was difficult to see too much detail from underneath, as the sun above created a silhouette effect on the massive beast. Huge wings fanned as it descended, and an abnormally long feathered tail swayed back and forth with each movement behind the bird. Seth mentally pinged Verun, and he answered that he was sunbathing on the southern wall.
Seth caught the vague sense of Verun leaping into the air and speeding towards him, but knew it’d be at least half a minute before he could cover the distance.
The giant bird settled, and Seth finally took in more detail, it resembled a massive male peacock, colorful green and blue feathers covered its body, and its tail feather pattern resembled a mass of hundreds of giant eyes staring in every direction. Its eyes were surrounded by a striking arrangement of white and black patterns, and Seth noticed its eyes held a similar eerie intelligence he’d seen in both Pahan and Verun’s eyes.
A woman wearing green robes that reminded Seth of a dense knot of vines sat astride the peacock, a gnarled wooden staff was strapped across her back, and Seth noticed glasses on her face, which struck him as a bit incongruous. Her blonde hair was styled in a bun on top of her head, with one of the peacock’s tail feathers holding it all in place.
Several more guild members spilled out of the building to Seth’s back, and arrayed themselves on either side of him and Aurora, weapons drawn. Aurora didn’t draw her weapon, so Seth followed her lead and waited while the woman grinned at us and scrambled down the side of her mount, somewhat clumsily. She casually walked over, heading straight for Seth and Aurora, seemingly unconcerned about the men and women flanking them with blades and bows drawn.
Her eyes looked between the two of them, and she said, “Hi! The name’s Riley. You two look like you’re in charge. What are your names?”
Seth intended to let Aurora answer, but after several awkward beats of silence he spoke up, “I’m Seth, and this is Auror—” He looked towards Aurora as he said her name and stopped talking when he took in the bewildered look plastered on her face. Only then did he realize Riley had been speaking English, and he’d started to respond in English, too. Oops.
Riley grinned at Seth and held her hand up for a high-five. She said, “So, I assume it’s you that’s been riding the flying white lion around here? Totally rad.”
The End - To be continued in book 2!
Acknowledgement
I’d like to start off by thanking my two beta readers, my wife Staci and my friend Austin. You two read a very unpolished version of this and gave me honest, sincere feedback, and I can’t thank you enough. The single act of reading through the whole draft may be one of the biggest things that anyone’s ever done for me. Thank you.
Next, I’d like to thank the two artists I worked with for this cover. The principle art was done by the very talented Jon Dunham. Jon, thanks for bringing the cover to life, and expertly dealing with the mountain of information I threw your way. Check his other art out at his website https://www.illustratjon.com/. The cover typography was done by Matt Davies. Matt, thanks for doing some awesome work on this cover, and handling my many small change requests to make it perfect. See Matt’s work at https://verymuchso.agency/.
I want to thank my editor, Tim Marquitz, for helping me polish this up, and giving me his honest advice, even when I didn’t necessarily love it. It’s a fine line, to give feedback on something that someone invested themselves in, and you walked it perfectly. Thank you. Find Tim at https://www.tmarquitz.com/.
Finally, thank you, person who’s found themselves at the end of my first novel. I hope you enjoyed the beginning of Seth’s story.
About The Author
C.T. O’Leary is a software engineer and fiction author from Kansas City, Missouri. He’s been an avid reader of fantasy and science fiction since childhood, and has recently begun writing the Quick Change series, an ode to his love of fantasy and video games.
Learn more at authorctoleary.com