by Aleron Kong
CHAPTER 30 -- Day 112 -- Kuborn 2, 15368 EBG
At his command, Terrod and Caulder started to get together their best fighters. Richter told them to choose people that had both speed and endurance. This was going to be a surgical operation. They would find the sprite, add him to the war party and haul ass back to the safety of the village. He specified that everyone needed to be clearheaded. Richter himself had had an ale or seven, but his high Constitution had already filtered out most of the effects.
For the first time, Quasea stepped forward and volunteered to help. The Dark magic adept said that there was no better time for her to offer aid. Richter wasn’t about to argue. Besides, he thought, she was right. Only two distant moons were present in the sky, and neither were full. He simply thanked her and sent her to stand with Terrod. Zarr also stepped forward and told Richter he had a spell that could increase the speed of a group going through the forest.
“My child can guide you with better accuracy as she gets closer,” Elora said. “We will both go with you.”
Richter shook his head, “I wish I could refuse the help of both of you, but I will need your child to have any chance of finding the sprite. You, however, cannot come, Elora.”
“Lord Richter,” the queen said in a stern but high voice, “I will not allow my newly born offspring to go into danger without me. Pixie young are born with some inherent memories and so are not as helpless as most newborns, but they are still children. They are without guile. I can’t let my daughter go into such danger without me.”
Richter looked at Elora, forcing himself to listen, and not just speak without considering her viewpoint. She made a valid argument. He knew next to nothing about pixies in general, let alone pixie children. The fact remained, the queen was ignoring the more important issues.
“Elora. I understand what you are saying. This is your child, and you take her safety seriously.” She nodded earnestly. Richter pointed up, “Then what about them? All of your other children need you as well. They need you now.” He sighed but didn’t shy from what he said next, “The other point, though, is that you cannot risk yourself. Your children are precious, but you, and you alone, are the key to the survival of your entire race. If you die, then pixies vanish from the face of The Land. You must stay here.” Elora opened her mouth to argue again, but Richter beat her to the punch, “If you die, the Quickening dies as well.”
The queen’s mouth snapped shut, and tears welled in the corner of her luminous eyes. For the first time since emerging from the cocoon, Richter saw the young girl that the queen still was. “I have to protect my daughter. That is what a queen does. My mother gave her life for me!”
He wished he had time to comfort her, but the forest was full of danger, and a lone sprite was lost in them. “Protect all of your children, Queen Elora,” Richter said formally. “As your liege, I order you to safeguard them while I search with your daughter for her meitu’meidon. This is my command.” He felt like an absolute shit speaking to the vulnerable woman like this, but maybe the best thing he could do for her was to give her an escape hatch from her guilt.
The pixie queen’s face firmed and despite the tears rolling down her cheeks, she replied just as formally, “As you command, my lord.” Elora called to the Life pixie girl that had tried to fly off on her own. The child came and hovered in front of her mother. “You will obey Lord Richter immediately and without fail. Find your meitu’meidon and return immediately to the Quickening. I name you Yura.” Richter’s ability translated the name as ‘Seeker.’
“I will take care of her,” Richter said. Elora nodded and corralled the rest of her children towards the silver trunk of the Quickening. A few seconds later, they had all disappeared into the leafy canopy. The chaos seed walked over to the captain of his guard, and Yura floated along behind him. Before he spoke to the captain, he looked at Alma. “Your main job is to keep her safe,” he told his familiar, indicating Yura.
*I will see her back safely to Quickening, master.*
*I know you will, my love,* he thought back.
“Yura, you will stay with Alma the entire time. If things become dangerous, you will ride her back to the village even if we have not found your meitu’meidon.”
The pixie girl bowed her head and in a small voice spoke in pixie-speak, “Yes, Unca Wichter.”
His heart twinged at hearing her small voice. What was he doing? Was he really taking a newly born child out into the wild at night? He shook his head. Elora would not have asked him to do this if it wasn’t necessary. Richter supposed he could understand if these two were truly bound by fate. What would it mean if one of them died? Would either of their lives have meaning afterward?
Richter focused on the task at hand. He gave a command before addressing his war party, and it was for Roswan. Richter told him to build defensible walls at the top and bottom of the hill leading up to the meadow. It had been in the back of his mind to do that for some time in light of the many valuable areas that were in the glade: the skath eggs, the Dragon’s Cauldron, the crystal garden, the Quickening, and now, the pixies. If Richter could have put the Forge of Heavens in the meadow as well, he would have. The builder answered with his customary nonplussed, ‘Grrrmmm.’ Richter took that as assent.
The chaos seed turned his attention to the group his captain had assembled. Terrod, Caulder, Ulinde, Quasea and Zarr stood next to two hunters with bows and two other guards in leather armor with maces at their waists and shields slung on their backs. He already saw one problem, “Caulder, there is no way you will be able to keep up with the pace I’m going to set with the medium armor you wear, let alone that vault door you call a shield. I don’t have time to argue. Besides, I need you to stay here and organize strike parties for tomorrow. I have a feeling we are going to be getting a great deal of company over the upcoming days, and we will need teams to do double time to escort pixies and then bring sprites back safely.”
Hearing the firm tone in his liege’s voice, Caulder merely saluted and walked off to bark orders at his fellow guards. Richter quickly analyzed the others and saw that one of the guards with maces was still level five. He told her to stay as well. Then he checked both swords in their scabbards. Looking around at everyone else, he brought them into his war party; then he took off at a fast jog. Behind him, Randolphus carefully gathered up the silver threads of the cocoon.
Richter sent out a mental call before he got to the village gate. He jogged through, the war party running past the sentries who stood at attention with fists covering their hearts. They whispered to each other afterwards, and one said he felt sorry for whoever and whatever had stirred their lord’s ire in the middle of the night.
The war party stopped at the inside of the of the second trench. The clustered together and Quasea cast a concealment and a high level darkvision spell on them while Zarr cast Strong Forest Travel. The very darkness of the night cloaked them from view and their movement speed increased by 50% as long as they stayed within the AoE of both spells. Richter gave both adepts three mana potions each and then they took off. His adder and familiar kept pace beside him as he led the party.
Miles flew by. The adepts periodically updated their buffs. One of the benefits to working with higher level magic users was that each knew enough spells that they could cast another similar spell while they waited for their stronger spells’ cooldowns to elapse. Yura took up position in Richter’s fallen hood, and she whispered directions to him. Alma scouted ahead. Twice the dragonling had them alter course slightly. The first time to avoid a pack of grey scorpions that were the size of cats. The second time to skirt a shambling humanoid with long arms and overly developed muscles. Richter knew he would have to go out again tomorrow and attempt to hunt these things down, but tonight was about finding the sprite.
While they traveled, Richter dealt with a series prompts that he had yet to address.
Your village has grown by leaps and bounds! Another one hundred and one sentients have been added to your p
opulation, increasing it to six hundred and sixty-seven. Never forget, there are consequences to your actions. The following adjustments have been made to your village values.
Average Morale has decreased from +755 to +641.
Average Loyalty has decreased from +801 to +679.
No change in Morale or Loyalty ranks.
After eight miles, Yura grew excited and said she could feel that they were close. The war party ran down a hill and saw the sprite. It was immediately apparent to Richter that she was different from the sprites he had seen before. The people of the Hearth Tree celebrated nature and lived in the forest, but they were civilized and structured. This woman looked almost like a wild creature. Her hair was gnarled, and she wore animal skins of various colors. She had a bow in her hand, and an arrow nocked. The weapon was pointed in the direction of the war party. It was clear that she could not see them, either due to the natural darkness, Quasea’s spell or the mists, but she had heard them. A blue nimbus surrounded the arrow as she charged it with her magic.
Richter motioned for everyone to stop. He took cover behind a tree, and the other party members did the same. “We are friends,” he called out in sprite-speak. “I have brought your meitu’meidon.”
At his words, a visible relief crossed her face, but she was still not wholly convinced. “I cannot see you.”
“Put down your weapon and I will come out to meet you. My name is Richter, and I am the lord of these lands. I have brought a war party to bring you to safety, but we cannot linger, the woods are not safe at night.”
She hesitated for a moment longer but then discharged her arrow at a nearby boulder. A large boom sounded, and a few stone chips flew, but otherwise there was no harm done. Though the sprite skill Imbue Arrow was impressive, once the mana was committed, the arrow had to be shot. That meant that any bad beasties out there now knew their position.
Richter had Quasea dismiss their concealment, and he selected the sprite female and gave her immunity to the mists. Analyze showed that her name was Moesa. What was interesting was that her race was ‘forest sprite’ not ‘wood sprite.’
Name: Moesa Race: Forest Sprite Disposition: Neutral
Forest Sprites have the same reverence for nature as their cousins the wood sprites but to a greater degree. They cherish unbroken wilderness and strive to live within the natural order of life. More solitary than other sprites, forest sprites can often forge bonds with animals. Forest Sprites get three points to distribute per level, and each level gives +2 to Dexterity.
Age: 23
Level: 7, 39%
Health: 150 Mana: 78/100 Stamina: 140
Strength: 12
Agility: 15
Dexterity: 29
Constitution: 15
Endurance: 14
Intelligence: 10
Wisdom: 11
Charisma: 9
Luck: 9
“Moesa,” Richter greeted her when she was able to see him. “I have someone who wants to meet you. This is Yura.”
The golden pixie flew from out of his hood and towards the forest sprite. Moesa’s face took on an expression of wonder, and she started to go down on one knee. Richer strode forward and quickly grabbed her arm. The sprite looked at him in hostility, and one hand reached toward a hilt at her belt.
“We don’t have time for this,” Richter said in sprite-speak. “There is plenty of time for the meidon once we are safe. I cannot risk Yura being out in the wilds any longer.”
The sprite’s face calmed, and she nodded, “This is wisdom. I am certain something has been stalking me.”
Richter’s eyes widened, and he looked around, “Then let’s not waste any more time. I am going to bring you into my war party. Do you assent?”
She nodded, and he brought her into the last position in the war party. Quasea reestablished their Dark magic concealment, and they took off. Yura wanted to fly next to her meitu’meidon, but a firm word from Richter was all it took for the pixling to go back into his hood again. With Alma leading, they were able to avoid any attacks and safely made it back to the village. The journey had taken several hours, but they had been successful.
Richter left the adder outside of the walls again, telling it to hunt and keep guard, and led the forest sprite up to the Quickening. He was somewhat unsure about leading a stranger to the celestial tree, but he decided to put faith in the pixies’ cosmic bond. “Allow me to bond with Yura,” Maose demanded.
Richter was exhausted after battling for almost an entire day, not to mention a forced run through the woods at night. He just waved away Moesa’s bad manners and arrogant request, “You’ll come meet the queen. She will decide who is bonding to whom. Now come on!”
Richter walked to the Quickening, Maose continuing to speak in agitated tones behind him. Yura stayed in his hood as he ordered. As soon as the forest sprite saw the celestial tree, her mouth snapped shut. When she was under the actual leaves, a look of wonder crossed her face as the Song of Joy and Remembrance took effect. Richter wasn’t sure what her alignment was, but having between five and fifteen characteristic points added to your stats all at once must have been astounding to the forest sprite either way. One odd thing was that the remaining sprite guard seemed to be glaring daggers at the forest sprite, but Moesa barely spared him a glance. She looked with interest at the silver shells around Sion and the sprite guard, but she fell to her knees in adoration when Elora and the other pixies flew down from the silver canopy above.
Yura flew over to Elora. Mother and daughter held hands and placed their foreheads together while hovering in the air while sparkling dust fell from their bodies to evaporate a moment later. They let go, and Elora flew to look at Richter, “Thank you for bringing my daughter and her meitu’meidon back safely, my lord.” Elora nodded to her daughter. The Life pixie flew down to nestle inside of Mosea’s hands. They touched foreheads, and a shell appeared around them. A prompt appeared in Richter’s vision.
Quest Update: Fate’s Companion I. You have successfully brought two meitu’meidon together and enabled the formation of a meidon. Continue to bring celestial pixies and sprites together! Each meidon created gives the following rewards.
Reward: You gain 100 XP per meidon created.
Reward: The leader of the group that brings a sprite safely to the Quickening to form the meidon gains 250 XP for each instance.
Reward: The supporting group members that bring a sprite safely to the Quickening to form the meidon gain 100 XP for each instance.
Richter checked and saw that he had had indeed just gained two hundred and nineteen XP. It wasn’t a lot, but by his guess, there were about seventy more pixies that were still waiting to bond. He didn’t know why some of the other pixies weren’t clamoring for their meitu’meidon. Maybe the sprite hadn’t been born yet, or maybe they were just too far away, but there were still dozens of pixies waiting. This repeatable quest could be exactly what was needed to level his strike teams.
He wanted to speak with Elora more and ask questions about her abilities and her people, but the long day of battles and stress had done him in. It was probably his imagination, but he thought he saw a blinking battery in the corner of his vision that didn’t have any bars in it. Richter walked up to the trunk of the Quickening and sat down with his back against it. Alma flew down to rest in his lap. In a few moments, the lord of the Mist Village was sound asleep, while glowing pixies pranced above his head.
CHAPTER 31 – Day 113 -- Kuborn 3, 15368 EBG
The next few days fell into a routine. Periodically, one of the pixie children would get agitated and say that they felt their meidon’meitu were close by. Then either Richter would form his war party, or another strike team would venture out to find the sprite. There were occasionally monster attacks, and minor to moderate injuries, but nothing that the village healers couldn’t handle. Without Sumiko, several guards were forced to rest in bed for days, but thankfully no one died. More and more meidons appeared around the Quickening until
the area looked like a tiny silver egg forest. For some reason, no one else that Richter shared that observation with thought it was as clever as he did.
That wasn’t to say that his people weren’t friendly. He actually noticed that since the birth of the pixies, and the resultant relationship boost with everyone there, his people smiled at him even more than usual. The men were quicker to salute and the women were more free with their smiles. In a few cases, it was clear that they would have been free with a good deal more if Richter were interested. In general, his people just seemed happy and productive. It gave Richter a warm feeling as he patrolled every day and led more sprites to their pixie counterparts.
Many of the sprites that arrived were of the forest subtype. One added perk was that many of them brought saplings or plants with them as gifts for their pixies. Many of the trees and herbs were rare. As such, they would hand over the trees before entering the union. Richter had each planted somewhere along the empty eastern edge of the village. The chaos seed wasn’t sure how the trees were going to help yet, but he was sure they would. Even more importantly, it let him finish a quest and get another.
Congratulations! You have finished a Quest: If It Grows From the Ground II. You have brought five rare herb to Isabella: Stillwater Lantern, Shiverleaf Frond, Hellfire Shrub, Tulaberry, and Target Lilly. As this was a villager supplied quest, it will aid in the progression of your Administration skill.
Reward: 1,563 experience (base 2,500 x 1.25 x 0.5).
Reward: +5 Village wide Loyalty. +10 Loyalty for anyone with the Herb Lore or Alchemy skills
Outside of retrieving the pixies as they entered the mists, Richter started following a pattern. His Sustenance Belt let him make due with only two to three hours of sleep a night. When he woke each morning, he would immediately start performing mental exercises with Alma for two to three hours. The advanced Psi Bond let him progress quickly and after four days he increased his rank in Self Awareness from novice to initiate.
