Viridian Gate Online: Embers of Rebellion: A litRPG Adventure (The Firebrand Series Book 2)

by J D Astra

  The tears at the brims of his eyes spilled over as his lips trembled. He jerked me forward, and suddenly, I was in his embrace. I wrapped my arms tightly around his back and rocked him side to side as he sobbed. It had been a hard time for him, not just the last few days, but possibly his entire existence. He needed someone to hold on to him, someone to hold on to, while he felt the world he knew fall away. He wasn’t a slave. He was free, and he could do what he wanted with that freedom.

  He pulled back, sniffing as he wiped at his eyes.

  “Let’s get something to eat,” I said with a smile. It’d been many hours since I’d eaten, and I was one hundred percent ready to chow down. He grinned, wiping the last bit of wetness from his cheeks.

  Otto joined us around the pot of Quarry Grub, already mixed with whatever didn’t get eaten at breakfast, and we had three bowls poured. We scarfed down firsts, and then seconds, while Otto told his story of killing me, and his capture that led to torture. He skipped over the things Patrick had been showing him, but I knew it had been Kayleen, and whatever had happened to her.

  Renzik told of how he and Eisen were captured. I was surprised to hear him tell the story of how they came around a corner and bumped into a full patrol of Vastatores Vitae, yet Renzik still blamed the capture on his own negligence after killing two of the Risi death soldiers. He argued he should’ve stealthed ahead, but when Otto said he would’ve left his ward behind, which was even worse, Renzik flushed with color. It seemed he was trying to find a way to take full responsibility for something that was not even a little bit his fault.

  I cut him off as his self-abasement began a downward spiral, and began telling the story of how, with the help of the rebels, we brought the entire city of Alaunhylles to pure chaos. Otto nodded as I mentioned the use of the Camoa-moa poison in the water supply and gave an approving grunt before saying, “Thinking like a tactician.”

  Otto turned to Renzik as we deposited our empty bowls in wash bins. “Are you certain you can’t come with us?” Otto asked, a hint of longing in his tone. I couldn’t believe it. Otto actually and truly liked him. He’d given Jack the silent treatment and practically beheaded Cutter, but Renzik was A-Okay it seemed.

  The Dokkalfar nodded, a kind smile on his face. “My place is here until my wife is mine again.”

  “This is noble,” Otto said with a hard pat on Renzik’s shoulder. “Family is worth fighting for.” Otto paused, gripping Renzik’s shoulder and giving it a slow shake before he went on. “We’re going to need good people to help us fight the long war.”

  Renzik chuckled. “You are my friends, I will not forget.”

  Naitee put a gentle hand on my back as she stepped up beside me, scroll in hand. “It’s ready. It’s not perfect...” Her eyes darted to Renzik and back to me as she whispered, “I don’t venture south often. Not my favorite place.”

  Naitee took a deep breath and smiled, running a finger down the wrinkles in my forehead I hadn’t realized formed. She passed the scroll into my hand. “Not to worry,” she said, “I’m sure it will be close enough you can do the walk before nightfall.”

  Arcona approached with a satchel in hand, her teeth clenched and eyes roving over the ground at Otto’s feet before they met his face. “We had this made up for you,” she said as she passed him the sack. “It’s potions, some food, blankets, dry kindling, things you might need if you get stranded in the Storme Marshes.”

  Otto’s cheeks flushed a deep green for but a second as he reached for the bag. “Thank you, Jukal. Your hospitality has been a welcome reprieve from being hunted by our enemies.”

  “I will keep a candle lit for Kayleen.” Arcona dipped her head and released the bag as she stepped away. Otto held the sack in place, watching as Arcona made her way back into the crowd of freed slaves.

  It would be a shame if nothing ever came of that. Arcona really held Otto in high regard, even if the last five years were full of doubt, and Otto obviously had feelings for her. Whether or not he’d admit that to himself, or do anything about it, I’d have to wait and see.

  “Well that was interesting.” Naitee broke the awkward silence as she moved around me and grabbed my empty hand. “Time for you to be off,” she said with a smile, then leaned down and whispered in my ear, “I will call on you soon. Prepare yourself.”

  Naitee pulled away, her eyes stern and smoldering. She radiated heat as she gave my hand a final squeeze, then she released me. The fire in her eyes made me want to move, to act, but for what? Why? What was there that needed to be done?

  She smiled and rubbed a hand over my cheek. “You’re so eager, but you’re not ready just yet. You need to let go first, then Asima will have room.”

  I opened my mouth to ask what she meant, to tell me more about Asima the Fire God, but she patted me on the cheek and turned away before I could get any words out. She stood next to Renzik, her hands clasped at her navel as she smiled serenely.

  “Shall we be on our way?” Otto asked as he swung the sack over his shoulder. The timer in the corner of my vision demanded to be resolved, so my questions for Naitee would have to wait no matter how bright they burned inside me.

  I turned to Otto and flipped the scroll in my hand, then held it out to him. “Do the honors?”

  He ran his finger under the seal and popped it off. A shower of brilliant sparks lit up our corner of the Great Room as a glowing doorway manifested, revealing gnarled trees and green waters. I looked back at Renzik, who smiled softly as his eyes misted. He raised his hand to his chest and bowed his head. I dipped my head in return and reached out for the glowing portal.

  I hoped I would see him again.

  The Swamps

  WHY HAD JACK SET UP camp in the most inhospitable, humid, arachnid-filled swamp? I picked up my foot with a thick thluuurp as I took another step in shin-deep mud. Naitee had gotten us as close to Yunnam as she could, but we’d still been dropped five miles off target.

  Otto and I had been laboring through the swamp, out Stamina critically low, for two hours, and we were finally nearing the border of the Ak-Hani clan territory. Not that I wasn’t fond of a hike, but the setting was... unsettling. The trees were simultaneously beautiful and terrifying with their twisted branches, dark leaves, hanging vines, and glowing moss that hid terrors like giant arachnids, corrupt wolves, and more.

  Otto took a big step up and managed to get his foot on some kind of dry land. He offered his hand to me and I took it. Both of my feet thluuurped as he pulled me free of the mud. I shook off the bottom of the Initiate’s Robe and a pound or more of caked-on dirt fell away.

  “This is miserable,” Otto commented as he stared around the tightly knit trees.

  “Couldn’t agree more.” I blew a stray curl of hair from my eyes and opened my map. We’d made it to the path that led into Yunnam, but there were still two miles ahead of us. “Ugh, so far,” I said as I closed my map and took Otto’s offered water. He’d agreed to carry most of the provisions since he had much more Stamina, and higher regen.

  “Quiet,” Otto whispered as he reached for his sword, covering me with his other arm.

  I buffed him and myself with Burning Halo with a quick thought. “What is it?” I whispered back.

  A strange voice called from somewhere in the massive, moss-strewn trees. “Are you the Outsiders who come for Grim Jack?” It was a woman, though she could’ve been anywhere from twenty to fifty years old. Her voice was weathered, a touch raspy, and she seemed to speak only in a loud whisper. There was an accent to her words, similar to Renzik’s, but not quite the same. Renzik seemed to have been domesticated in some way, his words sounding more Imperial. This woman was the unfiltered, pure version of what a Murk Elf would sound like.

  Otto spoke lowly at me through the side of his mouth. “Did he mention an escort?”

  “No,” I breathed, my eyes hunting through the trees as I readied a fireball.

  “If he did not mention us, that is his error. We have come to guide you to the safe
ty of our home, Yunnam.” She spoke again, but I was no closer to finding her among the dense vegetation.

  “We’d feel a lot better if we could see you,” I called out, my voice just above normal volume since it was clear she could hear me when I whispered.

  The blackened bark of a tree only twenty feet ahead rippled as a figure emerged from stealth. She was lean, muscular, with gray skin a bit lighter than Renzik’s and dark hair mostly covered by a deer-skull mask. Her armor was sharp, bones and teeth of dead animals adorning her bracers and shoulders. Multicolored feathers hung from her soft-booted ankles and some from her jerkin. Her leather leggings were embroidered with beads, likely formed from bones as well. A pair of daggers sat on her hips, and a leather strap ran across her chest that connected to her quiver at her back.

  She was menacing as hell.

  My gut tightened as I looked on her, and three others materialized from the shadows: two men and another woman, all dressed in a similar fashion with animal skull masks.

  “Here we are,” she said, almost a challenge as she raised her arms out beside her, a bow gripped in her right hand. “You can put away your fire, Abby.”

  The use of my name brought some relief, and the fact that they came out of stealth was... welcoming, I supposed, though the woman was being quite cold. I straightened up and dismissed the fireball, then stepped around a battle-tense Otto.

  “Did Jack send you?” I asked as I took another step closer. If they were friendlies, it wouldn’t be an issue, but if they weren’t, I’d be in range for Inferno Blast, and they were clumped up perfectly for it.

  The woman pulled her mask back, revealing a sharp face with high cheekbones, sparkling purple eyes, and full lips. The hair on the right side of her head was shaved down to a half inch while the left had hair down to her chin.

  “Not exactly,” she said, her grip on her bow still tight. “We are pressed for time, it is faster to travel with us. There are many traps on Ak-Hani lands, and many dangers.”

  “We’re well aware of the dangers,” Otto growled, his white-knuckled hand gripping the hilt of his sword.

  The woman raised a brow. “Fine,” she said as she shrugged, “make your way without us.”

  “Wait,” I called as she and her posse moved to retreat into the trees.

  “We do not have time for games, Outsider,” she hissed. “Are you following, or not?”

  I took another two steps forward and put my hand out to shake hers. “We got off on the wrong foot. You know I’m Abby, this is Otto. You are?”

  She looked at my hand and moved the deer-skull mask back over her face. “Amara,” she said through the blunt teeth of the late herbivore. “Let us go.”

  I looked back at Otto and nodded for him to release his sword. He did so, but not without grinding his teeth from side to side and grumbling in protest. The other Ak-Hani stepped aside, allowing me to follow Amara as she moved along the narrow, barely-there path.

  “So,” I started as I pulled up behind her, “do you offer to escort outsiders often?”

  “Never,” she snapped. “Grim Jack is our honored guest, he would be upset if you did not survive.”

  I looked back to Otto, who seemed most uncomfortable to have the three Ak-Hani walking behind him. Two, rather—the third had disappeared. My toe caught on something and I tripped forward into Amara. She turned in a blink, pushing me back with malice in her narrowed eyes. Otto drew his sword, and I heard bowstrings grow taut behind us.

  “What is this?” Amara demanded.

  “I tripped,” I said, hands upraised.

  Her lips pressed together into a fine line, and she raised her bow to point at me. “I am not a babysitter, I am a huntress. Take care of yourself, or walk by yourself.”

  With that she turned back to the disintegrating path and continued on. I put my hand on Otto’s sword arm, and he returned the weapon to its sheath.

  “Friendly bunch.” I muttered louder than necessary as we continued on.

  Otto grunted in reply. “The Maa-Tál are not known for their hospitality. We are fortunate we’re not here under different circumstances.”

  With the path, though it frequently broke up into puddles of marsh, the remainder of the journey was easy going. We encountered a few wolves and some large bog frogs, but all were dispatched with a few pulls of the hunters’ bows.

  When we were only a few minutes outside of Yunnam, the sounds of chopping wood and breaking stone became prevalent. There were Dokkalfar working on trees and large black rocks all along the path, each taking a moment to stop their work and look at the outsiders as we came through. They would whisper to one another, look between me and Otto, and then land on Amara, who would walk on, uncaring of their gazes.

  The vegetation thinned quite significantly as we approached the outer wall of the city. Dokkalfar sat atop the existing wood wall, using the new materials to build archery stations and more. But it was obvious the secondary effort was to allow space for a new wall. Probably Jack’s idea. The workers were taking chunks of the broken black stone, slapping them with a thick paste, swamp mud likely, and laying the stones in tetris-like order outside the wood barrier.

  They were preparing for war.

  Amara stopped at the door to the palisade gate and turned to me. “I will take you to my father’s home, and you will be respectful.”

  Heat rose in my chest at the threat, so I asked, “Is there anything specific us Outsiders should know so we can be more respectful?”

  She leaned in closer, her violet eyes narrowing to slits under her mask. “Knowing when to hold one’s tongue is a good start.”

  One of the hunters behind Otto spoke up. “Amara, you are too hard on them. She is asking a serious question.”

  He seemed to have missed my sarcasm that Amara picked up on, but she shifted her gaze to the man. “And you are too soft on them, Baymor.”

  She turned back to the gate and pounded twice on the door. “It’s Amara, we have Abby.”

  The door creaked as it opened in to the city. It was nothing like Alaunhylles, or even Harrowick. It was nothing like anything I’d ever seen. The houses and businesses sat on sturdy stilts, lifting them out of the swamp, and some were carved directly into the fat-trunked trees. The thicket roofs were all fresh straw and thick mud that hung well over the makeshift porches and stairs leading up to the entries.

  Yeah, nothing like Harrowick. How charming.

  Amara led us down the dirt path through town as the citizens cast curious, and sometimes angry, glances our way. Signs of flooding were apparent on the palisade wall, watermarks on various levels of the wood from a foot to three feet up, but it looked like the village had withstood all of the weather quite well.

  Glowing moss clung to just about every surface, sparsely here and then thick there. It was beautiful in its own way, but not somewhere I wanted to spend more than a few nights. Hopefully Jack would be willing to consider a different place to settle in, something with more... amenities.

  The path wound past shops with bone-carved wind chimes and barrels capturing water runoff. Oh yeah, I was not going to be calling this place home anytime soon.

  Amara stopped at the base of a particularly large tree with steps leading up to a home that had been built partially inside the trunk, and around it. It was interesting looking to say the least, and not the most inviting with its gnarled black branches as thick as Otto was tall.

  “After you,” she said as she waved her hand toward the stairs.

  “Thank you for the effective escort. We’re grateful to not be dead.” I dipped my head and reached out for the railing. The stairs were worn, as though they’d been tread many times, and the railing soft.

  I was panting a bit when I reached the top and gave the door a gentle knock. It opened a second later and before me stood a man who was not at all what I expected from Amara’s father. He was about a foot taller than me and a foot wider than me, with biceps to rival Otto’s. His long dark hair was streaked with silv
er, and his bushy eyebrows crept most of the way up his forehead. He wore colorful cloth robes decorated with feathers, but not much else. No pauldrons, no bracers, no shoes...

  He grinned, showing off his two-missing-teeth smile. “Welcome to my home!” His baritone voice rattled my chest. He put a hand out in greeting, and I shook it fiercely.

  “It’s nice to meet you, sir...”

  “Chief Kolle.” He grinned wider as he patted my shoulder. Chief? This was the chief of Yunnam?

  His smile widened at my surprise as he said, “I’m pleased to see my daughter has successfully retrieved you. Please, come in.”

  He stepped aside, pulling me along into the room as he did. The inside was a far cry from the outside. It was warm, homey. Handcrafted dark wood shelves loaded with ancient books lined the walls next to weapon racks and glass cases of artifacts. A low table sat at the far end of the room surrounded by colorful pillows. Otto introduced himself to Chief Kolle and joined me in the surprisingly welcoming home.

  “Amara,” Chief Kolle said with an audible smile, “please keep our honored guests company as I wake Grim Jack. Make some tea, the journey is not easy and our herbal remedies will set them straight.”

  “Yes, Father.” Amara bowed as she removed her skull helm and passed him through the door.

  “Please, sit, you are weary. I will return shortly with Grim Jack.” Kolle sidestepped as the remaining hunters joined us in the treehouse.

  The door closed behind Chief Kolle and it was quiet. My heart thrummed in my chest; I was eager to see Jack, eager to know the answer to the quest I’d been working toward for a week. The timer flickered in the corner of my vision, another hour down. Soon that timer would be gone, and I’d know the truth.

  Guilds and Goddesses

  THE TOWN OUTSIDE THE window was winding down as the luminescent moss, probably similar to Lumalgae, glowed brighter with the setting sun. It was just past 6 PM game time, and the day’s escapades were beginning to weigh on me. My muscles were sore, my eyelids droopy, and a yawn crept into my jaw every few minutes.