Watcher’s Fate: A LitRPG Saga (Life in Exile Book 3)

by Sean Oswald

  One person’s gain didn’t have to be another person’s loss. Emily believed that people are stronger together. Eloria had challenged that view. She admitted she had temporarily been seduced into another way of thinking. No more.

  Oh yeah, she would do her part. She had never been one to shirk responsibilities, and if part of her responsibilities were to level up, she would do that. However, from this day forward she was determined that her personal power would only be a distant second to helping the people of Eris’ Rise grow together. She believed that better education, health, manufacturing, and even spiritual awareness would be the path to redeeming the people, and she felt like she had God or Shanelle’s blessing in that. It of course was a truism that people working within the auspices of a religious structure always felt like they had God’s blessing, and Emily was not immune to that.

  Right now there was so much to do. It seemed like there was always another meeting to go to. Steffen Eikhorn had been a joy to meet. While he definitely believed in the nobility, he seemed to take very seriously his obligations to the people, and that extended to the Murkwood simply because he considered the people here to be his countrymen. His attitude towards the elves was a bit stiff though never hostile, yet her status as a Chosen of Shanelle seemed to exempt her from that. In the various meetings, she had found out that magical messages had been sent to the Albian king just like she had been in communication with Yua. His orders had been to help Dave organize a strong military. While they were told that they couldn’t count on any further reinforcements, they were still admonished to prepare as well as they could so hopefully, come next summer, things would have calmed down in the capital and more troops could be sent.

  The newcomer who was most difficult for Emily to deal with was the priestess, Gabriella. She, in conjunction with Father Elias, the priest of Shanelle, kept pressuring her to focus on expanding their church. Well, she guessed it was her church too. They wanted a stronger presence and preeminence over the other churches in Eris’ Rise. When it had just been Elias, she had been able to ignore him more easily, but now they were tag teaming her, never overtly demanding anything but always slipping some little point into every conversation. She had to dismiss the two of them with instructions to tend to Sir Jaselm. The paladin’s acid scarred lungs were currently beyond their healing capability, even with her new Tier 2 spell, Lesser Heal. Emily had learned in the past that acid or burn wounds were amongst the hardest to heal with magic and that only seemed to be magnified when the wounds were inside the body.

  Yet for all of the tension with the young priestess about church business, that hand’t caused Emily the most distress. She both wanted to thank the woman for escorting Jackson back to them, even if it was only for the duration of some harvest festival, and likewise wanted to claw her eyes out. Her son was clearly growing up, and not just because of the pounds of muscle and two inches of height he had added while away from them. No, the way he looked at the pretty young priestess proved as much as anything that her son was no longer a child. Emily was only thankful that Gabriella didn’t seem to flaunt her beauty the way that Leyna had.

  Beyond the meetings, Emily was still worried about more personal issues. She felt obligated to find a way to heal Jaselm and was still very worried about what to do for the miner Kraden who had lost a hand and foot to the hell slime. She had made a holy oath and received a specific quest to aid him with some important rewards, but more significantly, there would be some dire consequences if she didn’t manage to finish it. The quest notification was still burned into her mind.

  New Quest Received: Redeem the Miner.

  Success Conditions: Provide a way for Kraden to replace his lost hand and foot. You must do so within 7 months of receiving this quest.

  * * *

  Reward: succeed and you will gain 5 permanent faith points, +75 faction with Kraden, +25 faction with the people of Eris’ Rise, +10 faction within the Church of Shanelle, and Tier 2 in your class Daughter of Redemption. Fail and you will suffer the opposite in loss of faith, faction, and will forever lose the opportunity to reach a higher tier in your class.

  * * *

  Life is conflict and redemption is a core conflict waged within the souls of men. The battlefield of this conflict is laid out upon the person of Kraden the miner.

  It was an important reminder to her. How she treated this one individual was just as important as how she tried to unite the people. Originally she had seven months to complete the quest. Now that time was down to a little more than six months. Even the Tier 2 healing spell she had learned from Dave’s new spell book didn’t help with the healing. The elder elves, and even Yua who she consulted, had all assured her that there was magic capable of regrowing amputated limbs, but they equally assured her that no one on Talos possessed such magic. It was a thing of legends from at least Tier 5 if not higher. That left Emily with trying to find other options. Back home, prosthetics could have been made to fit the man. So while she didn’t know how they would do it with their primitive technology, she still held out hope that by combining the skills of the blacksmiths and enchanters that such a thing would be possible.

  Ultimately she was brought out of her private thoughts as one of her ever-present bodyguards alerted her that they had reached the new farm she wanted to visit on the edge of town. Looking around, it was just a small house for the human couple that had agreed to this task and their children. Around the house was a half-built fence clearly meant to encompass a large area for animals to graze. Immediately up against the house was a much smaller fenced-in area which had already been completed and was home to three creatures.

  “Greetings, Baroness Murkwood. Thank you for coming to see us,” called out Gavin, the farmer who had agreed to this task. His wife was a short distance away on the other side of the house hanging laundry to dry in the brisk autumn air, their two youngsters playing by her feet.

  “Of course, I confess to being curious as to if this is a fool’s errand which I have given you or if something can come of it,” Emily replied.

  “Well if you want, I can show you just what we have learned so far. Please be careful of the mud though.” Most of the former serfs seemed to like her but never could get comfortable with the way she wanted to speak to them as equals.

  Emily chose to take it in stride, “Thank you, but a little mud won’t deter me. This isn’t my first time getting my hands dirty.”

  With that, she walked over to where he had moved to by the animal pen next to the house. “So what have you got to show me?”

  “Well, my Lady, it's really the darndest thing I have ever seen.” Gavin blushed as he wasn’t sure if such language was appropriate around a noblewoman or a Chosen of Shanelle for that matter, but she didn’t say anything, and neither of the elven guards in their strange attire next to her so much as twitched a muscle. “They are growing like weeds. Anything that I feed them they eat and usually faster than I can see how they even chew it. If you will pardon the expression, they wolf down everything that I give them. Grain, corn, root vegetables, meat, even trash, I haven’t found anything they won’t eat.”

  The farmer stood there idly tossing handfuls of dried corn from a bag he held. Emily noticed that three little puplets, which Mira had saved three days ago, were already more than twice the size they had been and reached her hand out to pat the heads of the creatures yipping and jumping for handfuls of corn.

  No sooner had she extended her hand than Gavin burst out, “No my Lady!” while trying to push her hand away. The stoic moon elf guards moved in a lightning fast reaction. One of them body checked the farmer that resulted in him ending up on his backside with two fighting sticks held over him. Meanwhile, the other elf moved to protect her from any other enemy but was too slow to prevent one of the puplets from biting down on her extended hand. Her superhuman agility was not enough to pull back before her hand was punctured by a set of small but sharply tipped canine teeth. Reflexively she jerked her hand back while her new skills
prompted an awkward kick through the fence into the side of the small creature’s head. The wound in her hand was torn open and bled profusely as she escaped.

  All three puplets began yapping at the elf standing over Gavin and began to make a low growling sound. This prompted both guards to turn their attention to the young beasts while one of them asked Gavin, “Why have you attacked Lady Emiri?”

  “I didn’t …” the terrified farmer began before Emily was able to cut him off.

  “He didn’t do anything. This is my fault. I should have asked him if it was safe for me to touch the animals.”

  “But he has caused you to bleed,” the other elven guard said even as a soft glow formed around Emily’s hand in response to her healing magic.

  “I did it to myself. This wasn’t your fault at all. My husband and I are the leaders, but we are not better than anyone else here. We all rise or fall together. And more importantly, as long as I lead here, we will judge people by their intentions and actions and not by any fault of social standing,” Emily said impassioned.

  “As you wish Lady Emiri,” both of her Meiyo Eihei said.

  Rather than ask one of her guards to help Gavin to his feet, Emily made a bigger statement by extending her hand to help the man up. It almost went very badly because her strength was still lacking, but she managed to get him up without falling into the mud herself. “So what was that about?”

  Bashfully, Gavin said, “The best I can tell my Lady is that they are very pack oriented creatures. I think they have accepted me as the alpha, but they are aggressive in a way that I have never seen for a farm animal.”

  “So do you recommend that we put them down then?” Emily asked.

  “If that is what you wish, my Lady.” The farmer’s eyes staring at the ground as he answered.

  “For Shanelle’s sake man, I am not ordering, I am asking your opinion. You know far more about raising animals than I do. The most I ever had was a few kittens and a pet dachshund when I was growing up.”

  Unsure about her references, he answered, “Well I don’t mean to speak out of turn, but they grow amazingly fast. I would think that within two or three weeks they will be the size of full grown hogs or wolves or whatever it is that they are. Best yet, while they do eat a lot, it isn’t in proportion to how much they grow.”

  “What do you mean?” Emily asked, genuinely confused.

  “Well, sure, we feed them about three times what I am used to feeding the hogs I raised back in Duke Holstein’s land, but they also grow five or six times faster. And they don’t seem picky at all about what they eat.”

  “Hmm … so perhaps there is a magical component to their growth,” Emily speculated. “I will ask my daughter, Mira to take a look at that possibility, but you have to assure me that you will safeguard her from being attacked by them. I can attest that those teeth are sharp.”

  “Of course my Lady, but if I may be so bold, Mistress Mira comes and visits the little beasts every day, and they are quite fond of her. My children, they treat as litter mates for the most part, but they are quite affectionate with your noble daughter.”

  Emily shook her head at the way the man spoke. It is going to be a long day.

  Interlude 6

  Duke Holstein and Lord Itsu

  Ten miles to the southeast, another pair of nobles were also having an uncomfortable conversation. “What were you thinking? If you had sent your tree-huggers in faster, we would have swept the speck of a village away,” Duke Holsten said, his voice rising in volume with each word.

  “Pffhh … If your so-called warriors were able to stand up to some farmers for more than a few minutes, everything would have gone to plan,” Lord Itsu answered the charge with an air of disdain and a confidence he didn’t feel.

  The truth was that both of the nobles had suffered far greater losses than expected. Both had lost more than a third of their forces and had many more who were wounded. Itsu’s losses had been greater than those of Holstein in part because the Duke had been willing to order a retreat much faster and in part because of Dave’s fury in pursuing the attacking elves. They had each rallied their troops over the past three days and now were finally meeting. Both men were arrogant enough to genuinely place the blame for the defeat squarely on the other, and the table where the two were meeting had already been upended from one or the other acting out. The guards for each noble nervously eyed their counterparts from either side as their lords yelled at one another.

  “Elves don’t seem to be good for anything except pulling their bows. Well, that and catching arrows from the enemy! Tell me why I shouldn’t just end you here.” Holstein’s anger threatened to grow beyond his control.

  “You can try whatever you want, but it is not elven blood which will water the grass here.” Itsu’s hand strayed to the blade he wore at his waist. He was passingly familiar with it, but truthfully, he had worn it only for ceremonies since he had leveled up to his maximum level of nineteen more than fifty years before.

  Edwin didn’t miss the subtle motion but checked himself at least for the moment. All of his anger, and he was genuinely angry, was mostly for show. He was awaiting a pre-arranged signal. Then he heard three short bursts of a horn and all pretense dropped. His sword leapt from its sheath and only Itsu’s high agility saved him. The moon elf stepped back as the duke’s blade swung in a horizontal arc and even with his movement, it still sliced across the mithril mail he wore.

  All around them sounds of conflict broke out as the humans who outnumbered the elves four to one encircled enemies. The knight behind Holstein yelled out, “Kill all the long ears!”

  “What is the meaning of this?” Itsu asked as he barely parried another thrust from the duke.

  “Shut up and die,” Edwin spat out. Something about the prissy elf had always bothered him. The man was a coward, and he could see it. Yet even a cornered rat will fight for its life, and so he pressed the elf hard, seeking a quick end to this.

  Edwin’s strength and skill so greatly outmatched Itsu that the third hard thrust was turned into a disarming twist, and the elf’s sword went flying as he sucked in air hard from the sudden burning pain in his hand. (14) The hand wasn’t his concern for very long though as his nose was crushed when the hilt of the sword Holstein brought down followed through as he stepped in closer. (49) Another quick thrust and Itsu was then writhing on the ground with enchanted steel buried in his stomach. (412) The duke’s boot raised and then stomped down crushing the weaker man’s skull. (218)

  Contemptuously, Edwin pulled his blade free and flung the blood upon it at one of Itsu’s guards. “That was even easier than I anticipated.”

  The duke looked all around before engaging with one of the elven guards who was already being pressed by one of his men. The battle was going very well for him. Almost everywhere he looked the elves were down and dead or dying while his men continued to press in ever-larger groups against the few survivors. He was almost upset that he wouldn’t have another opportunity to kill more of them. Edwin really did feel the need to vent his rage for the defeat in Eris’ Rise.

  When no more enemies presented themselves, Duke Holstein ordered his guards to call the servants to set up the table and get him some refreshments. He took the moment to kick the closest elven corpse while waiting.

  “What now, your grace? Do we move on the town again?” Sir Belicus asked.

  “No. I don’t think that would be wise at this time,” Edwin responded while sitting in the chair one of the servants had scrambled to set up for him.

  “Pardon my ignorance, your grace, but we now have over five hundred men and a handful of casters,” Belicus said to question Edwin’s statement.

  “And?” Edwin responded between sips of chilled wine.

  “Surely you want to be rid of them … your grace?” The honorific was almost forgotten in his confusion.

  “No, we have more pressing matters to the south, and from what the scouts have said, General Eikhorn has been sighted here no
w. So we need to assume that Harold is aware of the situation, and it will be sufficient that they believe the attack was led by elves.” The duke’s tone made it clear that he felt he was educating a child, a particularly stupid child.

  Neither said another word though as the Contingency Band Itsu was wearing chose that moment to finally trigger. A dull green aura covered his corpse on the ground, and the elf was suddenly breathing again with an initial sputtering gasp for air in his empty lungs. A moment later, the powerful revitalizing effects of the magical heirloom had Itsu on his feet, looking around in shock. He quickly realized that his situation was dire and being the coward that he was, he started to run.

  “Interesting,” was all that Edwin said before hurling the crystal wine goblet in his hand at the resurrected elf with all his prodigious strength. The goblet slammed into the man’s head before he had taken a third running step and sent him skittering along the ground.

  The duke and all his men had swords drawn and were up to finish the enemy they thought they had already killed when a crack of thunder split the air around them and a portal opened allowing a gray robed figure to step out of it.

  “Seimion,” Edwin muttered as a purplish black ray shot from a blackened and withered hand which stuck out from the gray sleeve. The spell struck Itsu where he was upon the ground trying to struggle to his feet yet again. The dark energy danced along his frame causing his muscles to spasm, and an instant later, the elf was no more, the small amount of life he had been resurrected with snuffed out by the spell.

  “Yes, it is I.” The gray robed figure spoke in his usual chittering voice, but there was a certain impatient tone in his voice. “Do I have to do everything for you? You two couldn’t destroy one little village, and then after you killed this one, you were going to just what, allow him to escape?”