by Jez Cajiao
Decin grunted, and I waited.
“Aye, we understand, Lord. It just be a bit annoyin’, seein’ loot tha’ we canna take a share o’; yer know how it be.” he explained after a second, realizing I was waiting on him.
“I do, and I’ll not be stealing your ship from you entirely, to be clear. I have claimed it, as part of the Tower, and it is now my property. Fuck with me, and I WILL take it from you, but I want you to captain it for me. I’ll provide upgrades and repairs, give you missions, and reward you when you do well, but you are master aboard your ship, second only to myself and Oren. Do you understand?” Decin didn’t look happy, but he nodded, and I turned to Flux.
“I’d like to see if we can work together in the future, Flux. Our settlements, I mean,” I offered, watching him carefully. “I think we worked well today, and I could use the help in future. You’ve probably already guessed, but I’m a bit crap at all the fancy talking, so I won’t even bother. I want to try to negotiate a deal with your people. We need food, crafting, and basically all the rest of the bits that make a city work.”
I shifted, trying to get comfortable, and explained who I was, how and why I ended up in the UnderVerse, and what the current condition of the Tower was. I held little back, hedging only on the defensive capabilities of the Tower. I guessed Flux was the key to his people, by the way the others jumped when he spoke, and the way he acted without thought. I needed him and the Mer.
“…now we’re at war. It’s a war I would not have gone looking for, but if someone treats his people that badly, and tries that shit with me…it was always going to happen,” I finished with a shrug.
“Tell me truthfully…do you think you can win?” Flux asked me after a long break, while he and Decin digested what I’d said.
“I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t.” I said calmly. “If I thought I couldn’t win, I’d have gotten everyone on the warship, and we’d have looted the Tower and fucked off. I would never risk lives without reason, but we’ve found a home here. The Tower is damaged and decrepit at the minute, but the potential! Once it’s repaired, it will be a powerhouse. The ability to literally build our own Golems ensures our productivity. The Tower will be our bastion and our capital; we can secure the local area, gathering what we need, and keep our people safe. I can’t imagine a more secure or better start to a nation than we have. It’ll be tough, but nothing worthwhile is ever fucking easy, mate.”
I straightened, knowing I could be saying all of this better, but I didn’t know how. “I can get materials; I can get the physical things we need; what I don’t have is the most valuable resource of any nation: I don’t have enough people!”
“And you want us to what? Join you?” Flux asked slowly, and I nodded.
“Ideally, yes, I do. I want you to join me, but if that’s too much to ask, then I want us to at least trade. Tell me what you need, what you want in return, and I’ll buy food and goods from you for my people.” I shrugged as I looked at him, knowing he was studying me minutely. His tendrils were fully extended, and an almost uncomfortable thrum filled the air. “I think you’ve got a good measure of me from today, but if not, then come and help me. I’ll take you at your word if you swear you mean me no ill will. Come to the Tower and help me to make it a home for both our peoples, and you can leave whenever you want.”
“I’ll discuss it with my people,” he said finally. “I will return in the morning to the shore where we first met. That is the best I can do at this time.”
“Thank you, Flux,” I said, smiling at him, and he nodded his head, letting his tendrils relax as he got to his feet. I stood as well and we gripped each other’s wrists, shaking once and releasing. With that, he turned and set off walking through the ruin, disappearing around the corner, and I sighed. I liked Flux, I reflected, and I hoped he’d accept my offer, or at least not dismiss it out of hand when he spoke to his people.
I finally turned to Lydia, noting the way she sat, exhausted despite the hours of rest. “You haven’t had any healing, have you?” I asked her, getting a shrug in return, and I shook my head at her. Sitting back down, I drew in a deep breath and cast ‘Battlefield Triage’ on her.
It focused in on the most grievous wounds first, moving through her body in stages, fixing each injury as far as it could before I ran out of mana three seconds later. She wasn’t fully healed, but she looked a hell of a lot better than she had before.
“Oracle…” I said suddenly, as a thought occurred to me.
“Yes, Jax?” she asked.
“At the end of the battle yesterday, you asked me if it was okay to give out a healing spell…who did you give it to?”
“I gave it to Ardbeg; he’s one of Cai’s people, and he had the best affinity with Life magic. It wasn’t much, but…”
“Can you get up to Oren? Tell him to get back to the Tower and bring Ardberg back with him as fast as he can?” I interrupted her, and as my stomach rumbled, I added, “and bring back enough food for everyone. Hell, bring back a Golem, too! Tell Cai I want as many alchemy ingredients gathered as he can manage. When we get back tomorrow, I’m going to start teaching someone basic Alchemy, and we’re going to make sure we have enough damn potions in the future!”
Oracle spun in place and blurred away at high speed, disappearing down the corridor as I turned to Decin and Lydia who were both watching me. “Well, let’s get started. I know we’re all wounded to one degree or another, but for the next few hours, let’s get the main room cleaned, as best we can at least. Once that’s done, we can shift to removing the dead. By then, we’re going to have at least one Golem to help us, and it can do the truly gruesome bits.”
Chapter Twelve
It had taken Oren about ten hours to make the round trip to the Tower and back, and he brought an extra handful of people with him to help. Oracle had returned to my side, assisting me as we all worked, trying to return the ruin to a livable condition. We knew Oren had arrived when there was an almighty crash from above, dust suddenly falling from several places as the ruin creaked ominously.
He’d apparently decided that the best way to clear a space for the warship to land wasn’t to use the cannons, but instead to drop the Golem off over the side in the area he’d thought was near to the ruin. He’d in fact dropped it directly on top, and it was only blind luck that it hadn’t done more damage or killed one of us.
Oracle had found a way through to the surface at one point, an enterprising badger having cleared some of the way before being eaten by goblins, and she immediately used it to get out to see what had happened.
Once she finished berating Oren, she took control of the Golem, and commanded it to clear the immediate area of smaller trees, then the larger.
Soon after the Golem began its work, the Servitor Golem was finished charging, and it stepped from the recess in the wall where it had been stored, causing the room to explode in panic for a few minutes.
Once I’d settled the room, I took control of the Servitor Golem, glad that it was a higher class than the other one stationed in the Great Tower. Those Golems needed to be directly controlled when they were as simple as the first level or ‘Basic’ versions. In the Tower, Seneschal or Heph usually controlled them; here in an outpost, however, they either needed a local commander or to be semi-autonomous.
The Servitor was a level three or ‘Complex’ class Golem. All I had to do was give it orders and it would obey, returning to me if there was an issue. Much of the condition of the Waystation was beyond its ability to fix properly, as the structure was magical in part, but the walls and floors, it could do, and the magical nature of the building could repair the rest.
I ordered it to clear the goblins’ kitchen first, sorting the bodies into three categories: goblin, animal, and sentient. I was worried it would need more direction than that, but it clattered away happily. It took it less than an hour to do a job that would have taken us days, and when it was done, it was immediately redirected to begin clearing a way out of the ruine
d Waystation. Oren landed as soon as he could, and Ardberg and a team from the Tower worked their way through the corridors to us from the old goblin entrance.
By the time the sun rose, the building was partially uncovered, and the ‘Simple’ or level two War Golems that were charged were being commanded by their unit commander, a ‘Complex’ Warrior. The commander Golem took charge of the lower leveled versions effortlessly and directed them to clear out corridors, shoring up sagging roofs and walls, and generally uncovering a building that had been entirely lost to time until now.
Riana was running from one section of the building to another, examining uncovered walls, carvings, and the occasional rusted hulks that she swore were important finds. I just left her to it and sat on the warship deck, talking quietly to Oren, and idly flicking through the intermittent notifications I received from the Waystation, when I found one I’d earned a few hours before and missed.
Congratulations! Through hard work and perseverance, you have increased your Wisdom by one point. Continue to train and learn to increase this further.
That made three points my Wisdom stat had jumped in twenty-four hours, which seemed insane, until I thought about the fact that I’d essentially been casting healing spells continually for the entire night. I’d scrapped the notifications that told me about a spell levelling up, keeping only the ones that told about reaching an evolutionary point, but when I looked at my stats, I found that not only was I close to reaching that point with my Firebolt, but I was at level twelve with my summoning spell!
Repairing Bob alone had been enough to bring me to that stage, since I’d had to basically rebuild him entirely, twice over, in the last forty-eight hours.
“Well, laddie, ye ready to head down to’ th’ shore? Meet up wit’ yer Mer-mates?” Oren asked, and I grinned at him, making him look at me askance.
“Yeah, let’s go…” I laughed. “Hey, back home we had legends of mermaids. You made me think of them when you said that; are they real here?”
“Mermaids? Ye mean th’ female Mer? Aye, how else d’ye think ye be gettin’ wee Mer kiddies?” Oren replied, confused.
“No, I mean…oh, forget it. In my world, Mermaids were half human, half fish, supposedly beautiful women that would lure sailors to their death.”
“Aye, still female Mer, laddie…” Oren said, turning to shout orders to the crew. Oracle and Bob began heading over from the ruin, where Bob had been working to clear a section with her direction.
They clattered up the makeshift gangway that had been rigged to lift the loot aboard. Bob took up station halfway down the ship, watching everything, while Oracle flew to me.
“I don’t know…” I muttered, thinking about Cheena. “They were supposedly beautiful creatures, made sailors jump over the side of their ships, drowning willingly to die in the arms of the mermaids while boinkin’.”
“Hah! Ye dinna know many sailors ‘til now, did ye! I tell ye, most o’ ma crew would no say no to a tumble wit’ Cheena after a week’s sailin’, and after months? Ye’d be beatin’ them wit a shitty stick just to get their attention!”
I grinned at him, remembering my time in the army, and reconsidered Cheena for a second. I couldn’t see it myself, but after months on deployment… yeah, the world looks so much different that a civvie would ever understand. I shrugged, making my way to the upper deck, near Oren and Jory, the ships old helmsman. I leaned forward, resting on the railing, and watched as the ship slowly raised itself, lifting through the trees that surrounded the Waystation and into the clear morning sunlight. We slowly turned, the lake coming into view, and began to head down toward the shore. I stayed there for a few minutes as Oracle sat by my side, neither of us speaking as we enjoyed the other’s company, the fresh morning breeze bringing the smell of the forest mixed with the clean scent of the lake.
I’d never really thought about being able to smell water before, but it had always been there, and here, surrounded by the forest, it was clear when the breeze brought it to us. We watched the morning fog gently rolling off the water, and I relaxed.
It was beautiful, and even though it only lasted a few minutes, it felt fantastic.
All too soon, we were coming into land on the shore, touching down close to Decin’s ship. It was as fixed as we could make it now, the engineers taking advantage of the extra time we’d given them to fix a few other issues.
As we came to rest, I saw Decin walking out of the Captain’s cabin, and he gave a little wave as he saw us. He’d found the damn purple robes Oren had told me about and was wearing them proudly already.
Flux was there as well, waiting in the shallows with a dozen other Mer, and I recognized both Bane and little T’lek among the group. When I walked to them, I noticed I couldn’t see Cheena anywhere, but as we came to halt, and Flux and I gripped wrists in greeting, I saw her emerge from the water as well.
“Well met, Lord Jax.” Flux said, and I glared at him. I immediately felt the subsonic vibrations I’d come to associate with laughter amongst his people as he held up all four hands in apology.
“I know, I know, my friend; you don’t like the rank unless it’s needed, but let’s get the formalities out of the way first, shall we?” Flux gestured, and several older Mer stepped forward, each bowing their heads to me. “These are the leaders of our pod. The closest you will get to pronouncing their names are Yuti, Ja’la and T’mon. T’mon, is father to T’lek, and demanded to be part of this meeting.” T’mon stepped forward first, dropping to one knee and bowing his head low.
“This one owes you the life of his only child. I will not forget; ask, and if it is within my power, it is yours,” he said simply. I reached out, taking his hand, and gently pulling him to his feet.
“No, as much as I want and I need from yourselves, I’ll not bargain for a child’s life.” I said. “There is no debt.” The Mer exchanged looks, and Flux laughed again, speaking to them.
“You see now, he is not like the Lords we have encountered before!”
“We thank you for this gift, then. Flux has told us of your adventures, both before meeting him, and together, and he put your proposal to us.”
Ja’la said, stepping forward as the other two moved fluidly to flank her. “With regret, we must refuse. We cannot bind ourselves as a people to one so new to our world, or allow ourselves as a people to be drawn into your war.” I gritted my teeth, pushing my disappointment down, as she went on. “However, we are not rulers as you are. We are Elders to our people, and while our word is respected, it is not law. We have given our recommendation to our people, and advised we wait. We will learn more of you and we will reconsider in one year’s time. This is against the wishes of some of our pod. They have declared that they will follow you if you will have them. We ask that you treat them well, should you accept them, and have brought gifts to show our thanks to you.” She stepped back, both her companions moving back at the same time, and she gestured to the water where another group of Mer waited. They slowly began walking out onto the shore, and as they left the water, I saw that they were dragging a large net between them.
“First, food.” Ja’la said, gesturing to the flopping fish caught in the large net. It looked like something a small trawler would pull, and I guessed several tons of fish being presented. It took almost a dozen Mer to pull it onto the shore, and they returned to the water as soon as it was done. “Next, goods. We have several sizes of armor that we had completed for sale to the cities; these, and the weapons we would have sold, are here for you.”
“We have also included some of our alchemical ingredients, as they are highly sought after, and Flux made us aware that you have a need of them.”
A second group of Mer walked out of the water, bearing these items in three large chests, placing them carefully before returning to the depths.
“Finally, people.” Ja’la said, gesturing to the third and final group of almost a dozen Mer. As they moved forward, I noticed that several had to be helped along, having obviou
s difficulty. Flux stepped forward then, gesturing to a female Mer that stood several feet back and faced off to one side aimlessly. “This is Ame, the Runesmith I spoke to you of, she and several others are skilled crafters, but their age or infirmities have robbed them of the ability to practice their craft. They have offered to swear to you if you can make use of them,” he explained quietly.
“Of course, I will, and gladly!” I said, a grin on my face as I looked at my new crafters. I would have healed them without them swearing to me, but, well…I needed them.
“Last of all, there are a couple of other Mer who wish to join you in your adventures. We cannot spare many; we are a small pod, after all, but equally, we will not hold them against their will.” Ja’la said, and she gestured to the remaining Mer that stood with Ame and the other infirm. I noticed that Cheena and Bane were among them, and I felt my heart lift. I liked them, and hell, I trusted them, and that was saying a lot for me.
“Cheena and Bane you know already; the others that are armed are Jana, Hel, and Katerin.” Flux clapped me on the shoulder, “Also, seeing as I can’t let such young and inexperienced warriors as them out of my sight, I’ll be coming along, too.”
I couldn’t help but grab his hand. My smile ran from ear to ear as I looked at him and the others.
“Thank you! Thank you, my friends. You’ve no idea how much I hoped you would join me,” I said. As the Elders and other Mer began making their way into the lake again, T’mon waded over to me and held out a pouch.
“It’s not much, but take this and use it well,” he said. “I will be watching, and know that in a year, if you’ve kept faith with us, you’ll have more than one friendly voice speaking for you amongst the Elders.” With that, he turned and set off into the water with the others. I opened the pouch, shaking a handful of small black pearls into my open palm.
