by Elliot Burns
Elena held up her hand. “Perhaps its better if you learn this for yourself,” she said.
Jack noticed that a mean-looking cloud was spreading across the sky and looming above the land. His land. It was going to rain, and he wondered if the thatched roofs of the peasants’ houses could take it.
“What do you mean?”
Elena stared at him. “It might be time you learned about your enemy. There are other things I need to show you, too. This will be disturbing.”
“I can handle it.”
Chapter Eight
A dark vision
Elena led him out of the meeting chamber and through the castle. Mav followed behind, though he stopped every minute to tap on sections of the walls as if he expected there to be hidden compartments.
“Where are you taking me?” asked Jack.
“There’s something I need to show you. It won’t be nice, but you must see it.”
“Okay. Where are we now? I want to start memorizing the castle route.”
“We’re on the east wing,” said Elena. She took big strides, and Jack got the sense she could bound ahead of him if she chose to. Blunt Fang walked next to Jack, but every so often he wrinkled his nose at him and sniffed, as if he was storing his scent. Hopefully this put Jack on the safe list.
“How are you getting on with your stats?” said Mav.
“They look pretty straight forward,” said Jack, as they walked. “Apart from nearly all of them. I get HP and combat, but what about the others? Warmongering, Peacekeeper, things like that?”
Ahead of them, there was a rare spot of wall that wasn’t bare. This was a long hallway with many interconnected passageways, and it seemed endless. On the wall were the stuffed heads of creatures that had been hunted. To Jack’s surprise, he saw one stuffed head that was the same species as Blunt Fang.
“Don’t worry, I’ll have it taken down,” he said, and stoked the animal. It wrapped its antennae around his hand as he groomed it, and Jack realized Mav was right about how slimy it was.
“There are 5 different ways a lord can lead,” said Elena. “Warmonger. Peacekeeper. Tycoon, People’s Leader, and Tyrant. Most of these are self-explanatory.”
“A Warmonger starts fights. A Peacekeeper is good at diplomacy. A Tycoon earns money, a People’s Leader thinks about his people’s wellbeing, and a Tyrant rules them with fear,” said Jack.
Mav had caught up with them and listened to the conversation. “Aye. I could give you plenty of examples of lords and Krals that fall into each, except Peacekeeper and People’s Leader. You’ll find rulers of that kind in short supply, lad.”
“Lad?” said Elena, incredulous. “I think you mean lord.”
Mav nodded. “That what I said. Lord. It’s my accent.”
They came to the end of the passageway. Elena hesitated a millisecond, then took them right. She had the castle mapped out in her head, which was impressive considering how labyrinthine it was.
“And what do these have to do with me?” said Jack.
Mav answered before Elena had the chance. “The way you act defines what kind of lord you are. Start a war, and you get a reputation for it. Other lords will either fear you, or want to destroy you. In other words, behave like an arse, and your stats will start to look arsey.”
“Not quite,” said Elena. “The thief is right in one part – the way you act defines your lordship. If you act in a kind way toward your people, you would be awarded a People’s Leader point for the action. After getting 3 points in any given category, you will be given a choice of 3 perks to choose from, which will help you rule your lands.”
“So, if I start a fight, I get a Warmonger point. Get 3 of them, and I’ll get a warmonger perk to choose from?”
“Correct. You’re catching on fast. You will be a great lord.”
“Pretty much the explanation I gave,” said Mav.
“It’s nothing like it,” answered Elena.
“Come on you two,” said Jack.
They came to turning. There were four doors ahead of them, none of them marked.
“We need to start labelling where things are around here,” said Jack. “It’s like this place is deliberately confusing. And I could do with a map.”
Elena nodded. “No problem, Lord.”
“So, which door?” asked Jack.
Mav held up his hand. “Leave it to me. After decades of raiding tombs and exploring dungeons, I’ve got a sense for these things. I can tell which door to pick just by looking at it. It’s like a hidden talent. A feeling, you know? The air of Royaume swirls around me and whispers its secrets to…where are we going again?”
“The library,” answered Elena.
Mav nodded. “Yeah, the library. Got it.”
He looked at each door in turn, then talked as he made his choice. “You know, Lord Jack, there’s a dungeon north of here. Curve Spine Cavern. It’s pretty famous, because it’s said to hold treasure. But nobody has ever come out of it alive. Except me.”
“Here we go…” said Elena.
Mav ignored her. “I went to it as part of a group. Five of us, all adventurers. Tough guys. Men who knew the danger, but wanted to go and find treasure. I had a family, back then.”
At this, he paused for a second. His face changed, and even Elena looked at him differently. As though she felt bad for him. Then, the expression disappeared in an instant.
“So, we tooled up. We planned the raid to the minutest detail. We investigated rumors and bought maps, even if we couldn’t verify the source. Everything we heard told us one thing; there was a monster living in Curve Spine. Whatever it was, it was killing everyone who went inside.
“Thirty of us went into Curve Spine. I’ll never forget the air in there, Jack. Like everything good in the world had turned to rot. The deeper we went, the more I thought we’d made a mistake. And then finally, we reached the centre.
“But there were no monsters in Curve Spine. Not the creature kind, anyway. No. You see, what we found in the centre of the cavern was a family. A human family numbering 50, who were savage beyond belief. It looked like they’d been living there for centuries. The scuttled along the floor naked, lifting rocks and running at us to dash in our heads. We found ourselves in a battle.
“The problem was that it was dark, and this was their environment. They attacked. The cave people used the darkness against us, and I heard screams of pain as our adventurer party dwindled. Blood was everywhere. All over the floor, my clothes, my face. They killed more and more of us, until I realized that we had no chance of winning. So, I did the only thing I could.”
A silence stretched out in the castle passageway. Jack felt cold. He thought that if he closed his eyes, it would feel like he was in Curve Spine Caverns. He’d go there one day and wipe it out, he decided.
“What did you do?” asked Elena, listening to Mav with something that approached respect.
He shrugged. “I found a pile of bodies, and I hid under them. I listened to rest of the lads scream as the cave dwellers smashed their skulls. Then I heard the cave lapse into silence, which was even worse because it meant my party were all dead. But I waited under the stink of the corpses for two days, just watching for a chance to sneak out. And when it came, I took it.”
None of them said anything for a few minutes. It sounded horrible, and it firmed Jack’s new resolve to go to Curve Spine and rid it of the cannibal family. First, he’d need to improve his combat ability. He guessed he’d also need to get an army.
“I bet you’re wondering how this relates to me choosing which door to go through,” said Mav.
Elena nodded. “The thought had occurred.”
“Well,” said Mav, striding over to the second door along. “My instincts are second to none. I always know what to do, where to go, and when. They’re honed over years of adventure and survival, and right now, they are telling me that the way to the library is through this door.”
Then he grabbed the handle and opened the door wi
th a flourish, exclaiming “Behold!” as he did so.
The first thing Jack noticed when the door opened was the rush of chilly air. Then, taking a step forward, he realized that in the room ahead, the far-end wall had a hole in it. It looked as if it had been hit by a cannonball. There were no books of any kind or anything to suggest it was a library.
Elena sighed, walked to the third door, and opened it. “This is the library,” she said.
“One last thing,” said Jack, before they went it. “My stat sheet lists 4 powers – what are they?”
“Now might not be the best time to discuss that, my Lord,” said Elena, and walked ahead into the library.
When Jack followed her, he saw that this wasn’t like any library he’d ever seen. Rather than shelves of books, this room was full of green vines. They lined all four walls of the room, completely smothering the brickwork. It smelled like the inside of a greenhouse. Some of the vines twisted out of the wall, and their ends curled around to form a tight circle. In some of these circles, were crystals.
“Another wrong turn?” asked Jack.
Elena shook her head. “I told you that you have an enemy,” she said.
“Not the coffee cup guy from the nursing home, is it?”
Mav looked at him strangely.
“Forget it,” said Jack.
Elena crossed the room and walked to one of the vines on the wall. When she reached out for it, it seemed to stretch toward her as though it wanted her to stroke it. She touched the crystal attached to it and closed her eyes for a few seconds. Then, she walked to the vine and crystal next to it.
While he watched Elena choose a crystal, Jack couldn’t help but wonder who she really was, and what her role was. He’d been so confused in the castle that when she turned up and seemed to know who he was, he’d latched onto to her for information. Now, though, he was beginning to question her presence.
Mav, on the other hand, he felt sure of. The man was a thief, that was certain. Rather than cast doubt, this made Jack trust him even more. The reason was that Mav didn’t try to hide what he was doing or who he was. He was a thief and adventurer, and that was that. Truth was something Jack could work with.
Jack turned to the old man. He walked close to him. Just a foot away, he could smell him. There was an aroma of spice, like aftershave but more natural.
“Who is she, really?” he said, keeping his voice low. Then he cast a glance at Elena. She had her fingers on a crystal, and her eyes were shut. If she’d heard him, she didn’t show it.
Mav leaned toward him. “She’s a Tacher. And I’ve seen enough to know that you need to watch them.”
“What’s a Tacher?”
Before Mav could answer, Elena opened her eyes and turned to them. She beckoned Jack over. “This is the one,” she said.
Jack joined her in front of the vine. Up close, the crystal extending from it gave off a cold feeling.
“Touch it,” said Elena.
Should he trust her? She was a Tacher, and Mav didn’t seem too happy about Tachers, whatever they were. Then again, he’d watched Elena touch the crystal, and nothing had happened to her. He needed answers, so it didn’t seem like he had much of a choice.
He reached forward. Rather than just touch the crystal, he closed his hand around it.
Light flashed in his eyes. More than that, it seemed to flood through him. The room shook, and the walls seemed to fade. It was as though the place was dissolving around him. He heard a ringing sound, like the buzz of an alarm going off. It got louder and louder, until he thought he’d have to cover his ears. Then it stopped.
He wasn’t in the castle anymore. The scene had had changed, and he found himself stood in a village. He heard men and women screaming. He couldn’t see the source of it, but he felt a dark presence nearby.
Something was wrong here.
“You,” said a deep voice.
Jack turned to it. And that was when he saw him. A sense of evil crept over him, and he suddenly got the sense that Royaume had dark things in store for him.
Thank you for reading The Forgotten Throne. This was part 1 in the story, with part 2 on the way. From here on each part will have a lot more LitRPG elements in it, and we will start to see how Jack copes with being a lord and mastering his skills.
I’ve set up a mailing list so that I can tell you when the next part is ready. If you want to know when book 2 is out, just join the list here: http://eepurl.com/cRyhZ9.
All it takes is your email address so I know where to contact you.
I hope you enjoyed the story so far!
All the best until next time,
Elliot.
