Legacy of the Fallen

by Luke Chmilenko

  “I understand,” Léandre stated with a nod. “Yet…giving away such high-quality crafting materials…”

  The elder craftsman paused to shake his head, a look of distaste coming across his face.

  “Between the two of us, I can’t think of any others in Aldford who have the skill needed to craft them into something useful,” he finished. “At least not yet.”

  “I get what you’re saying, Léandre, but unfortunately that’s out of our hands. If unskilled crafters want to try their hand at crafting something that’s beyond them and ruin their materials, that’s their choice,” I said with a shrug. “But, I do have a couple of ideas of how to mitigate that.”

  “Oh?” The man replied curiously. “And what would they be?”

  “First, we offer to pay the other Adventurers out their share of the loot in cash or precious metals,” I replied, watching Léandre’s eyes widen at the suggestion. “There’s a large vein of silver down in the Grove that I’m considering buying off of an Adventurer, which we can then use to mint our own coins or just trade wholesale. Combine that with the money we have in Virtus’s coffers we can probably afford to buy a decent chunk of the scales, since that’s probably what we’d be the most interested in. Given how tight the currency supply is out here, I think most of the Adventurers will jump at a chance to get their hands on a pile of coin. Especially once they hear we’re churning out iron weapons and armor for everyone to buy.”

  “And they will then spend the money they sold the scales for!” Léandre exclaimed with an amused laugh. “Very crafty, Lyrian! I heartily approve! What’s your other idea?”

  “I knew you’d appreciate it!” I said with a smile. “As for the other idea I had in mind, I wanted to go back to what you said earlier, about some of the other crafters not being as skilled as we are. I think if we put out that we’re accepting crafting commissions, we can get other Adventurers to pay us to craft new gear for them if they supply the materials.”

  “Thus paying ourselves, increasing our own skills, and ensuring that none of the material goes to waste!” Léandre finished, his enthusiasm increasing with every word that he spoke. “I think this will all work nicely, Lyrian! I am onboard for anything you need from me.”

  “Great!” I exclaimed, my smile growing even wider. “I’ll let—”

  A loud bang followed by the sound of several things falling to ground interrupted me, the noise prompting both of Léandre’s and my head to twist in its direction just as a string of expletives filled the air.

  “Oh fucking, stupid hell!” Jenkins growled as he bent over to pick up a rack filled with tools that he’d knocked over.

  “Oh shit, Jenkins!” I called out in concern as Léandre and I both rushed towards the man. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine, I’m fine,” Jenkins grunted as he lifted the rack off the ground and stood it up again. “I just need to get used to this stupid thing and completely forgot I’d moved this rack by the door the other day.”

  “Are you sure you don’t want to take it easy for at least a day? None of us would begrudge you that.” Léandre asked, prompting Jenkin’s head to snap back to glare at us.

  Giving me a perfect view of the large eyepatch that covered where his right eye had been.

  “I’m fine,” Jenkins replied a bit testily, before shaking his head and waving a hand at Léandre in apology. “I have it easy compared to the others.”

  “Yeah…” I said sadly, suddenly feeling my heart drop like a stone as a wave of crushing memories that I’d been purposefully avoiding rushed to the forefront of my mind.

  Despite our victory in managing to seal the Ley Line below Aldford, there had been one particularly sour note to take away from our victory, one that we all knew was coming but at the time hadn’t wanted to face.

  Namely being the aftermath of Carver’s attack on the camp.

  With ash in our hearts as we made our way back after sealing the Ley Line, we returned to the burnt out and largely destroyed remains of Camp Sentinel, the place having been razed nearly to the ground. Brought low from our triumphant victory as the consequences began to set in, it didn’t take us long for us to find Quincy’s body along with a handful of the townsfolk among the wreckage, burnt and sliced to pieces. Fearing the worse, we then all tore through the camp in search of the others, only to find that they had managed to escape down the other passageway that led into the camp and warding it tightly enough that Carver’s group hadn’t been able to follow.

  But despite managing to evade being massacred by the invaders, there had still been several injuries among the survivors, with the two most serious ones falling onto both Samuel and Ritt. The mage having been caught in the wrong place at the wrong time and suffering the loss of both of his legs from a particularly deadly blast of magic that had sent a wave of acid splashing over them, leaving little for Shelia to save by the time she was able to assist. Ritt on the other hand, had earned his injuries through heroism, desperately holding the tunnel’s entrance with Jenkins by his side as the invaders tried to overrun them before the ward could be put into place, the effort costing him his entire right hand and the better part of his forearm.

  “Speaking of that,” Léandre said breaking the morose silence that had fallen over us. “How are they doing today?”

  “As well as they can be,” Jenkins replied with a shrug, immediately knowing who Léandre was asking after. “Ritt is in…decent if somewhat low spirits, which is understandable given his loss. Samuel on the other hand…”

  Jenkins paused to shake his head with a sad expression, “…may never be quite the same again, even if he eventually does receive the healing to replace his legs.”

  “He lost a friend,” I said, feeling a wave of a guilt and anger surge through me at the loss. “One that he’d been through a lot with.”

  “Yeah,” Jenkins said with a deep sigh. “A loss like that hits the heart deeply.”

  “I think I’ll go and drop in on them both,” I stated, feeling that I had to find a way to assuage my guilt of being drawn into Ignis and Carver’s scheme which had resulted in us not being around to defend the camp. “Are they still both at the Town Hall?”

  “They are,” Jenkin confirmed. “Shelia’s set aside a room for them for the time being where they can rest in peace.”

  “Good,” I replied as I took a step towards the door before turning to look back at the smith. “And are you sure you’re doing okay yourself?”

  “I really am,” the man said, this time without any venom or anger in his tone. “Like I said yesterday, I’ve lost an eye before during The War, and I eventually had it regrown by one of the army chaplains a few weeks later. Shelia thinks she’ll be able to do the same thing…eventually, once her faith reaches a point to where she is able to wield such magic, but I’ll also be the first to admit that I don’t know what that means exactly.”

  It means that she needs more levels, I thought silently as I nodded at Jenkins, knowing that there was no way of simply telling him that.

  “We’ll figure it out one day,” I said to the man before giving him and Léandre a wave as I turned to leave. “Alright, I’m off. I’ll drop by again in a bit.”

  Hearing the pair bid me farewell as I left the Foundry, I made my way outside and started walking towards the Town Hall, the good cheer that I’d woken up with now slightly muted. Cutting through Aldford, it wasn’t long until the building came into the sight, which I couldn’t help but notice was completely dwarfed by the now massive trunk of the Ætherwarped Oak tree.

  If that thing gets any bigger, we’re going to have to tear the Town Hall down and rebuild it somewhere else! I thought, glancing up at the tree for the second time in the day. It was definitely going to take time until the tree no longer caught my eye every time I stepped outside. Moving to walk past the tree as I approached the Town Hall’s entrance, I managed to get nearly halfway past it before I heard my name.

  “Hey, Lyr! You’re up!” Halcyon called ou
t, the greeting causing me to look over my shoulder just in time to see him and Stanton come into view, the older man leaning heavily on his cane. “Have a minute?”

  “Sure,” I replied as I turned away from the Town Hall and towards the two mages. “What’s up?”

  “We’re just doing our last checks on the tree,” Halcyon explained, his gaze shifting over towards Stanton. “Everything looks to be good. Very good actually. That spell we cast somehow managed to anchor itself in the tree. It’s working perfectly as far as we can tell.”

  “As much as any of us can tell what ‘working perfectly’ should look like in a Nafarrian spell such as this,” Stanton said, his voice sounding cautious yet lighthearted. “Yet since the ground has not erupted into a fiery conflagration of doom I am tempted to agree that we are safe for the time being.”

  “And what about Eberia?” I asked, remembering that the completed quest hadn’t mentioned anything about the Æther being restored to the city. “Do you think the Æther will flow back towards the city now?”

  “I believe so?” Stanton replied, giving me what I thought looked like an honest shrug. “I have no idea how long it will take the Æther to reach the city, but barring any other complications, it should.”

  “Which means,” Halcyon stated. “Eberia should at least now have a fighting chance to stand up to The Ascendancy.”

  “That is our hope,” the spy said in an earnest tone. “But as you all know, the future is never certain.”

  “No,” I agreed. “It really isn’t.”

  “Anyway,” I continued after a brief moment of silence. “I was just heading to check on both Ritt and Samuel. I haven’t seen them yet today.”

  “I haven’t either,” Stanton said as grimace came over his face. “And I should as well.”

  “Same here,” Halcyon added in a somber tone, the three of us then turning towards the Town Hall.

  Just in time to see a flash of light fill the air as an Adventurer respawned, followed by another and another until there were well over a dozen people standing in front of the Town Hall.

  “What the fuck just happened?!” Halcyon exclaimed as loud cursing and shouting erupted from newly respawned Adventurers. “I don’t think anyone went out today!”

  “Those aren’t our people, Hal,” I replied, my blood going cold as I rushed forward towards the group.

  The screaming and cursing continued to build as I approached, prompting a crowd of Adventurers to rush out of the Town Hall to investigate what was happening. By the time that I managed to get to the group, the building had nearly emptied itself, with dozens of Adventurers all pushing forward to see what the commotion was. Scanning the group of people that had just respawned, I found my eye land on a trio of familiar faces in the crowd, my heart stopping the moment that they met my eyes.

  “Cassius,” I breathed, seeing the man’s angry expression fixate on me.

  “Lyrian,” the man replied with barely contained rage. “Shadow’s Fall…is gone.”

  “What?” I exclaimed, taking a step forward towards the man. “What happened?!”

  “Carver happened!” Cassius snarled loud enough for everyone to hear, which prompted angry shouts from the crowd around us. “He destroyed it! All of it! For no reason at all!”

  “Tell me everything,” I said, feeling all of the joy from last night’s victory vanish at the mention of the man’s name, replacing itself with a burning hot rage that began to roil within me.

  Damn that man! I shouted internally, feeling my hands shake as I listened to Cassius explain what had happened, his voice barely audible with how loud my heart was pounding. Staring at him blankly as he spoke, I eventually felt the anger within me cool, until it formed an ice cold hate centered on my heart.

  “I’m sorry you all got dragged into this, Cassius,” I heard myself say in a calm voice the moment that the man finished speaking. “This is our fault. My fault.”

  “Fault?” Cassius repeated almost in disbelief. “I don’t care about fault! I care about vengeance! About making Carver pay for what he did to us!”

  A deafening chorus of angry voices shouted out in agreement at Cassius’s statement, the mood instantly turning bloodthirsty. I could hear demands being shouted, along with angry threats and vengeful promises, the crowd rapidly whipping itself up into frenzy.

  “Enough!” I shouted, thrusting my hands in the air before the emotions reached a boiling point. Repeating myself, I turned my body to look out towards the crowd while keeping my arms raised, waiting until the noise died down and everyone’s eyes were on me.

  “We all want vengeance for what Carver has done!” I declared pitching my voice loud enough for everyone to hear. “And why wouldn’t we? He has done countless things to demand vengeance for! First, his followers spent weeks attacking and raiding our settlers! Then when we put an end to that, he ambushed us in the wild! Demanding that we apologize for defending our own people! Everyone here knows how we answered that!”

  A vicious roar rose up from the crowd in response before dying back down to a dull roar.

  “Then, when he realized he couldn’t beat us with force, he turned to betrayal, using someone we had taken on in good faith to exploit our trust, and came dangerously close to succeeding,” I continued, hearing a low hiss echo through the air, everyone knowing all too well who I was talking about. “And when we stopped that plan, he lashed out at our ally, one who had done nothing to deserve it, and burned Shadows Fall to the ground.

  “Which in turn has brought us here to this very moment,” I stated, spreading my hands to indicate everyone standing around me. “Carver has proven time and time again that he will stop at nothing to see us dead, to see this town, this region, completely razed of anyone who isn’t under his direct control. Which means that we only have one recourse left to us if we want to hold onto our freedom, and everything that we’ve worked so hard to build.

  “As such,” I stated, slowly turning around to look at everyone around me, meeting as many eyes as I could. “I declare that as of this very moment…

  “We are at war.”

  Epilogue

  Monday, April 1st, 2047 - 11:34 pm

  Eberia – The Royal Palace

  Graves

  I climbed the stairs to the tower with a nervous energy coursing through me, prompting me to clench my hands tightly as I ascended up the stone passageway with nothing but my thoughts to keep me company. Something that I was all too used to by now.

  Today’s the day, I announced in my head for what had to be the hundredth time. I’ve done everything that has been asked of me and more. It’s time that I got something for my end of the bargain, instead of moldering away in this castle for another month.

  Steadying my resolve as I continued upwards, I eventually reached an ornate wooden door at the end of my journey. Pausing to make sure that my robes were presentable, I then reached out and knocked on the door exactly three times then lowered my hand in preparation to wait. To my surprise the door opened almost immediately, swinging soundlessly on well-oiled hinges and revealing a warm and welcoming chamber beyond.

  That was the fastest she’s ever opened it for me, I thought, making sure to keep my face completely impassive as I entered the room, feeling the door drift shut behind me and close softly. Is that a good sign? Or a bad one?

  Glancing around the room silently, I found her sitting in the open windowsill, legs drawn up close to her chest as she stared out at the two waxing moons in the night sky, the rest of Eberia visible below. Turning to face her, I took a few steps forward before stopping, preparing myself to wait once more. But once again, I found myself surprised as she didn’t wait to speak out.

  “I just found out that against all odds he actually succeeded,” she said to me, her head unmoving from her gaze on the moons above. “Two days ago.”

  “Did he now?” I replied, feeling yet another surge of surprise shoot through me. There was no need to explain who ‘he’ was. “That was…unexpected
.”

  “It was,” she agreed, falling silent as she stared out for window for a time. “Yet it presents us with options that we didn’t have before. Ones that were otherwise closed to us.”

  “Is there something that you wish to change then?” I asked, dreading a positive reply. It would be impossible to change what we’d already set in motion here in Eberia, at least not without a drastic and bloody effort.

  “No,” the woman replied with a shrug. “It will play out how it is meant to play out.”

  “Then what are our next steps?” I asked, her mercurial moods having long since ceased to surprise me. At one moment she could be raging hotter than an active volcano, the next as cold as a blizzard, then as serene as a monk. Though whatever she was today was something I hadn’t seen before.

  “That depends,” she replied, finally turning away from the window to look at me, her eyes boring into me with a knowing look. “Are you finally going to voice the request that has sat on your tongue for this long?”

  “As I’ve said before, numerous times, if I recall correctly,” I hissed feeling a sudden spike of anger shoot through me. “Stay. Out. Of. My. Head.”

  “Oh my, I’ve forgotten how your anger kindles at that.” The woman let out a short giggle. “But rest assured, I didn’t need to peek inside your mind to see that you are growing restless within this golden cage, Graves. You hide it better than most people in your place would.”

  “Then you understand I need to get out of this castle, this city even,” I stated, the nerves that I’d felt earlier vanishing completely now that the ice had been broken. “I think it is time that I was rewarded for my service, or if not, at the very least the freedom to leave.”

  “You want to try for your revenge already?” I saw a look of surprise cross the woman’s face. “Even after what I just told you?”