The Forgotten Faithful: A LitRPG Adventure (UnderVerse Book 2)

by Jez Cajiao

  “They’re beautiful,” I said, and Oren grunted from where he stood.

  “Aye, laddie; they also be worth a small fortune! They be th’ same as a hun’red gold each, so use ‘em well!”

  “I will,” I said, tipping them back into the bag and putting it carefully in my pocket. I greeted the small group that wanted to join me and helped to lead them to the ship, finding myself escorting Ame to a seat on the deck as the ship readied to take off. I called to Oren to wait a few minutes, and Oracle and I prepared ourselves.

  I needed these Mer, and I needed to make a good impression on them. As near as I could tell, Ame was the only one that couldn’t ‘see’ or ‘sense’ or whatever; the others had various other issues, arthritis mainly, as near as I could see, but I wasn’t having Ame’s first airship ride be taken in the dark with no idea of what was happening.

  “I’m going to help you, Ame. Please relax as much as you can,” I said gently, and she responded in a surprisingly strong and vibrant voice.

  “You are our new lord?” she asked, and I started to nod before catching myself.

  “Yes, I’m Jax, Lord of Dravith and the Great Tower.” I said, and she nodded to herself.

  “Then I stand ready to swear the Oath. I will try to instruct your people as best I can.” she said matter of factly. “Although I cannot feel the world around me anymore, I can still teach, and I will…Arghhhh!” She cut off with a loud gasp as Oracle and I released the spell we’d been building. We poured our entire mana pool into the spell; two hundred and forty mana was infused into the ‘Battlefield Triage’ spell, and it soaked into her like water into sand. She was lifted from her feet in the first seconds of the spell, suspended in midair as the spell went on, until at last it cut off with a sound like the ringing of bells. I closed my eyes against the bright flare of a mana migraine as I took deep breaths. When I could see again, I looked at Ame, seeing what I could only assume was shock. Her tendrils were out, waving around frantically, and the rest of the crew and I flinched as a low vibration washed over us. It made my teeth ache, but only lasted a second before dying away.

  Ame stood there, her hands outstretched, shaking as she waved them about, then started reaching out and touching things; the deck of the ship, the people around her. She finally spun around to face me.

  “You? You did this?” she demanded, reaching out and grabbing my arms.

  “I did; well, we did,” I admitted and nodded to Oracle, who came to land on my shoulder. “And I’ll do the same for all of you in the coming days! It takes a lot of mana, so please, bear with me, but I’ll do it.” I said louder, speaking to the entire group. The air erupted with a barrage of low-level sonic vibrations as the group examined Ame minutely, and I tried to back away.

  “No!” Ame snapped as I tried to pull my arms free. “Explain this; I must understand! Will this fade? Will I return to what I was?”

  “I…I don’t think so…” I stammered, blinking at the ferocity of her questioning.

  “You don’t think so? But you don’t know?” she asked, then shook her head. “I must know! I have been locked away from the world, locked away from my life! I will not return to that!” Ame snapped at me, releasing my arms as she stalked to the side of the ship, pushing others aside and gripping the railing as she muttered to herself. I turned to Flux, who shook his head as I opened my mouth.

  “Don’t ask. I have never understood females, my friend, and that one least of all!” he said, eliciting a small chuckle from one of the crew who was nearby. I glanced over and saw him shaking his head. He froze when he realized I’d heard him and started to apologize, until I grinned at him.

  “I’m the same; never understood a woman yet, and I don’t think species matters like that!”

  “He should understand Ame by now!” Cheena chimed in from where she leaned against a nearby crate. “How long have you loved her for now, Flux?” she teased, and Flux gestured sharply at her.

  “What, you think she doesn’t know?” she asked, a low burble escaping her, and I guessed it was her version of a laugh.

  “She is the Runecrafter of the pod, she would never…”

  “Bah! ‘She’ is no longer ‘of the pod’, and I’ve not been any use as a Runecrafter for years!” Ame snapped, not bothering to turn around. “’She’ will discuss this with you later, Flux, and you’d better not try to hide! Things have been put off too long.” The fierce Mer woman turned back to me and strode over, the other Mer jumping aside. It was move or be walked over, considering the determined way she went.

  “Flux said you have offered skill training, memories, and more. You can heal us, but you have no idea if it is permanent… I will be your Runecrafter, but I will need access to items to do this. I have brought what I have, but I will need more soon, depending on what you expect of me. I will also teach my secrets to others you choose, though this will come at a cost,” she said firmly. “I have been cut off from the world entirely for too long. My Worldsense was lost first, then I began to lose the feeling in my body. I knew not what I touched or where, being left with only a hint of the sound’s others made. I had planned to let go, as soon as my apprentice learned enough that the pod would not be left without a Runecrafter, when she was almost killed by her experiment, and she quit. I had nothing left and had resolved to give myself to the darkness,” she stated bluntly.

  “Now that I am here, I feel the world again. I have been granted a second chance. A chance to learn, to grow beyond my dreams. I will swear to you, but I will need support, information, and most of all, access to magic to make sure the darkness never returns!”

  You have been offered a quest!

  ‘Teach the teacher’:

  Ame was the greatest Runecrafter in a dozen generations of her people, but the encroaching darkness has changed her. She demands training to become all she can be. She is determined to learn and will not accept no for an answer.

  Accept? Yes/Yes

  I blinked at the notification before dismissing it and frowning at Ame.

  “I have the materials to teach you just about anything, Ame, but I’ll not waste the strongest healing spells and memories on you. I’m sorry, but you’re already skilled in something that could be insanely useful. I’ll give you some, and you can teach yourself from there, though…”

  “Who else will be as dedicated or driven as I am?” she replied flatly. “I need to know. My people gradually suffer from this deterioration as they age. I began suffering far earlier than I should. What if others have begun to decline? No, I will not accept this. You want assurances? Give me the basic tools, teach me, and I will prove myself! You need a healer? For your brain?” she asked, and I growled, moving forward until we were inches apart.

  “What do you know of that?” I asked her, my voice a low rumble, Oracle gripping my shoulder tightly in warning as she felt my anger rising.

  “I can sense damage in your brain, child,” she replied, equally quietly. “What made me an excellent Runecrafter was my attention to details, my manapool, and most of all, my Worldsense. I sensed your injuries when I reached out, glorying in no longer being trapped inside the decaying husk of my head. Teach me, and I will do all I can for you, I swear it!” Ame said fervently.

  I looked at her for a long time, well aware that we were being watched by the crew and the rest of the Mer, my anger and fear over the damage to my brain warring for dominance all the while.

  “Fine. I’ll give you access to healing spells, the basic ones… but you prove to me you’re worth more than that before you get anything else!” I snapped, then took a deep breath and softened my tone.

  “I’m sorry, Ame. I don’t like even considering the damage done to my brain, let alone discussing it aloud where all can hear.” She paused for a long moment, then stepped back and knelt smoothly.

  “No, Lord Jax, I am sorry. my fear and excitement drove me to demands when I should be thanking you and swearing forever to serve. I will earn your trust, and your forgiveness.” She
stood slowly, nodded respectfully to me, and then her right upper arm shot out and she grabbed Flux by one tendril, making him grunt in surprise. “Now, with your leave, Lord, I will take care of something else that’s been left for far too long.” I grinned at Flux and Ame and stepped back myself.

  “Fine by me, Ame. I’ll go make preparations for our return to the Waystation, and then home. Have fun!” I turned and started walking down the deck, leaving Ame and Flux to their conversation. Oracle gently kissed my cheek before she took off, darting up into the rigging of the mast, ready for the flight. She’d spent hours up there on the way over, glorying in the sight of the world flying by.

  I walked up onto the raised deck and stood with Oren, nodding to Jory as I propped myself against the railing.

  “How long?” I asked Oren, and he shrugged.

  “Iff’n yer ready now, we can be back at th’ Waystation in a few minutes, then soon as th’ Golems be sent on their way, we can be off. We do no be as fast as Decin’s ship; she be built fer speed, a courier an’ scout, an’ we have damaged engines to boot, but they be better than they were. Mebbe another five hours to get back to the Tower, wind willin’.” I nodded to him, gesturing upwards, and he grinned, shouting orders.

  It took less than a minute before we lifted from the sand where he’d landed, the ship creaking as the engines took the strain. Sails slowly extended and boomed as they caught the wind coming off the lake. We picked up speed, the ship tilting gently as we lifted higher and higher, more engines coming online, driving us into the air.

  Oren took us up slowly, circling around and heading to where the ruined Waystation Four stood. We weren’t even halfway before Decin overtook us, his smaller ship built, as Oren said, for speed.

  I’d hardly had the chance to see Decin’s ship before, but as it passed us, I watched it. It had four engines on the sides, two front and two back that lifted and directed it, one large engine at the back for thrust, and then three sails, one on either side and one above like a traditional ships mast. She was almost entirely wooden, a deep golden oak color with a blue line painted diagonally across the hull halfway up her side. The name that stood out proud on her rear was ‘Libertas’ and I frowned, trying to remember the meaning. Liberty? Liberate…no, Freedom, I translated.

  I’d never been taught Latin at school, but Xiao had battered enough of it into my thick skull that I remembered that, at least.

  “So laddie, yer got yersel’ a new hanger-on, eh?” Oren asked, and I looked at him quizzically. He gestured behind me and I turned, my eyes almost skipping over him, until he moved.

  “Bane?” I asked, and he straightened up, no longer seeming hard to see. Instead, he was a heavily muscled four-armed warrior again, who casually stepped forward from where he’d been crouching. “What are you doing here?” I asked him and he gestured to me.

  “You saved my life, forgave my assault, helped me save my friend’s life, and healed me when I was injured. Where else would I be, Jax?” he asked me, as though confused.

  “Well, you could be anywhere; explore the ship… talk to your friends, hell, watch Ame kick Flux’s ass, if you want. I mean, why are you here, specifically why were you skulking around behind me?”

  “Ah!” Bane said, understanding. “I’m here as your bodyguard.” He thrummed happily.

  “I don’t need a bodyguard…” I replied, and Oren called over, interrupting me.

  “Aye, ye do, laddie, and no’ just Bob neither!” I turned around and gave Oren the finger, making him laugh as Bane went on.

  “You are our leader, and you are at war. You need bodyguards. Flux, Cheena, and I have discussed this. We will take shifts until a proper team can be arranged,” Bane said matter of factly, moving to look over the side of the ship, then back to watching everything around me.

  “What do you mean, you ‘discussed this’? Look, mate, I need people, yeah, and I really need fighters, but a fucking bodyguard? I don’t need that,” I said flatly. Oren spoke up again.

  “A lord needs bodyguards!” Bane nodded in fervent agreement.

  “It’s true; how else would you survive assassins?”

  “I…” I was about to tell him to fuck off and that there weren’t any assassins about, when I remembered the bastard in the stairwell, right before I met Oren and the assholes that were keeping the others as slaves. Bane would have been insanely helpful then. And he’d have been awesome help in facing the slavers… and the SporeMother, actually.

  “See, you know you need a bodyguard,” Bane said, seeing the expression on my face and gesturing around us.

  “You can’t defend against all sides, and especially not when you sleep. You need us, and we already agreed to serve you. You earned my life thrice over in the goblin battle… you helped us, now let us help you.”

  I still wasn’t sure, when Oracle spoke in my mind.

  “He’s right; we need them… and we trust them, don’t we?”

  “I do. I like Bane and the others, but…”

  “But it’s ‘just you’, and you don’t need a bodyguard?”

  “Well, yeah, basically. It seems wrong.”

  “But throwing yourself into battle to save them wasn’t?”

  “No…”

  “We need them, and they need us. Let them help. It’s important to them. They’re an honorable race, and you helped them.”

  I forced a smile and clapped Bane on the shoulder.

  “Thanks, mate; glad to have you with me,” I said, trying not to growl. I’d be talking to Flux about the matter later. I did NOT need a goddamn twenty-four-hour bodyguard. Fair enough when we were out and about, some help would be great… but not all the time, and not at the Tower!

  I was about to say something else when the ship started to descend, gently lowering itself through the surrounding trees to come to a rest in the clearing before the ruin.

  I strode down the deck, taking pleasure in the low voices of the Mer as they discussed their first airship ride. It seemed they’d enjoyed it, judging from the lack of screaming and vomiting, anyway.

  I passed Bob, who stood calmly on the deck watching everyone before slowly walking along behind me. Oracle flew down from above and landed on my shoulder, and I sensed Bane following along, more than seeing or hearing him.

  I took a deep breath, resigning myself to the situation, when I caught sight of Flux and Ame. He was gesturing toward me, an edge of panic in his voice as he explained that he needed to go and help me.

  “No, no! Don’t you worry, mate! You stay here and sort things out with Ame; I’ll be fine!” I called to him, grinning evilly… got you, you bugger!

  We’d had to spread the engineers out on Decin’s ship to fill the spaces of crew that had been killed, and I’d had Lydia, Jian, and Arrin take up station on his ship as well, just in case. That had meant that Hanau and Riana had been able to stay in the ruin with the Golems, watching over them as the new ones activated and joined the effort to repair the structure.

  The Complex War Golem, the one that was directing the others, I decided to call ‘Sarge’, on the grounds that anytime you needed anything done in the army, you got a Sergeant to sort it.

  Sarge was standing at the top of a flight of newly uncovered stairs in the middle of the ruin, working with the Servitor that was slowly sealing three walls around the entrance.

  Off to one side, I could also see the large slab I’d ordered it to build to close off the entrance to the ruin.

  As I walked up, Oracle went flying past me, landing on the Servitors shoulder, and reaching down into the clear gemstone embedded in its chest. She blurred for a minute as she lost concentration, her form going out of focus, until she straightened up and flew back to me.

  “It’s almost done,” she said, hovering before me and nodding happily. “The Servitor and the Golems have cleared a pathway down to the main areas, they’ve taken the bodies and piled them up in preparation to be burned, and the ruins can be sealed off whenever you want. Once the slab is in p
lace, nothing will be able to get in easily to interrupt.”

  “Sounds good. Let’s get everyone out and have the funeral, then the last Golem should be finished charging, and we can head back to the Tower.” Oracle gave me a last grin, then flipped over and sped toward the ruin, diving in and searching far more quickly than I could have for anyone remaining inside.

  “Oren!” I called, and his face appeared a few seconds later over the side of the ship in response. “Get the crew together! We’re going to have the funeral as soon as the others are here.” He nodded in response and whistled to Decin, waving him in.

  I walked over to a large uncovered slab of stone and sat relaxing in the sunshine for a few minutes, Oracle landing next to me within moments. We talked quietly, enjoying each other’s presence, and I had just started to wonder if her top was actively growing lower cut as I looked, or if it was my imagination, when a loud roar ruined the mood.

  I jumped to my feet, people all around us doing the same. I felt the ground shake, and Sarge, followed by three other Golems, rushed over to take up station between us and whatever had made the noise.

  A few minutes passed, with screeches and roars coming closer… until we got our first look at what was making all the noise.

  The rest of the Golems had formed up around us, the Servitor and Construction Golem from the Tower loaded aboard Oren’s ship, just in case, as were almost the entirety of our people. My squad had surrounded us, with the Golems forming a second ring, further out.

  At first, all we could see was movement between the trees, then flashes of a huge grey creature surrounded by smaller, faster ones. As the minutes passed, they came closer and the screams became clearer. One group was composed of goblins, chanting and screeching randomly, punctuated by the pain-filled screams of a human male. He was being dragged along by the creature that made the loudest noises, and as it came into view, I used ‘Identify’.