by Edward Brody
“I guess we stay here and defend Edgewood,” I answered. “At least until the Scourge attacks have stopped. Either that or we pack up and relocate.”
“Edgewood? I think you mean Burntwood,” Aaron said.
Everyone turned to him, scowling. Aaron’s timing seemed especially bad that day.
“I’m just saying,” Aaron said, raising his hands defensively. “These kinds of things are bound to happen. But it’s your call… We can move, but eventually we’ll have similar problems no matter where we go. Eden’s Gate isn’t designed to be a free ride of peace and harmony.”
There was a long moment of silence where no one said anything as we considered our options.
“We know Edgewood,” Gerard said. “It’s not an ideal location, but it has easy access to Highcastle, Newich, and Thorpes. It’s near the sea and we have—or at least had—the cover of trees. Plus, we don’t pay taxes since it’s elven territory, and we get pretty much exclusive business from the dark elves. Strategically speaking, we’ll have a hard time finding someplace comparable.”
Gerard made a lot of good points, and even without the cover of trees, we still had three buildings standing and a shop full of goods. That was better than the nothing that we’d have anywhere else we’d go. We didn’t even have a wagon to transport anything.
I turned to Aaron. “Do you think you can fix the damage to our buildings?”
Aaron sucked air between his teeth. “I can patch the holes, and with a little grunt work, I can clean up the burns as well. It’ll take a while, though. We’ll need builders and wood to replace the downed buildings.”
“What about the burnt trees and ash?” Ozzy looked down to his armor, which was smeared with soot. “We can’t live in this filth forever.”
“We’re looking at weeks of work,” Jax said, “but with axes and other tools, we can clear all the burned trees.” He tilted his chin at Aaron. “If the fighting ever ends, we should all work together to rake and plow the soil. It won’t be pretty for a while, but it’ll be livable.”
“Let’s do whatever we can for now,” I ordered.
“Is this even Edgewood anymore?” Jeremy asked. “I mean without the trees?”
“We could build a fence,” Jax suggested, “perhaps plant new trees. Highcastle knows better than to try to claim any of the land as the Freelands just because the trees were burned down. At least, I think…”
“Won’t it take years for the trees to grow back?” Gerard asked.
There was a moment of silence before Rina finally said, “I’ve heard of a salve or a potion. Something that accelerates tree growth dramatically. I’m not sure of the name, but people spoke about it in the Endless Sands. It was the only way they could get trees to grow in some dry areas over there. We’d need a lot of it, though.”
I rubbed my chin. “Maybe we’ll have to search out this sal—"
I swung my head at the loud sound of a branch cracking and reached for my sword. Everyone stood up in unison and readied their weapons for another attack.
“Get ready!” Jax yelled harshly.
My chest heaved, and my breath grew heavy in anticipation of more invaders coming our way, but I was confused when I saw one of or High Elf guards in the distance step away rather than attack, then a dark elf guard running, unarmed, towards the sound rather than getting in a defensive position.
“What happened?!” the dark elf shouted into the forest.
“The Scourge,” came a tired, stressed reply.
I recognized the voice as Keysia’s right away, and I started jogging in her direction. The rest of Unity were right behind me.
As I neared the edge of what was typically our clearing, I saw Keysia limping forward, dragging a bloodied, immobile dark elf with her. His head was down, and one of his arms was slung over her shoulder. Keysia was covered in soot, and her skirt was torn, but she otherwise looked unharmed.
“Keysia!” I closed in on her and knelt down to help alleviate some of the weight she was carrying. The lifeless dark elf felt cold as I lifted his free arm and nudged my shoulder under his armpit. “Are you okay?”
“No,” Keysia answered. “I’m not okay.”
I turned and shouted, “Rina! Can we get a heal for this guy?!”
“That’s no use,” Keysia said. “He’s dead. He’ll need to be resurrected.”
“Damn…” I muttered. “The Scourge did this too?”
Keysia nodded.
Jax closed in and pulled the other half of the dead elf from Keysia’s shoulder, taking her position underneath the body.
When Keysia was free, she closed her eyes and shook her head. “It’s all gone…”
“Gone?” I asked.
Keysia nodded. “All of their… I mean all of our homes… the dark elf homes. Gone… The Scourge destroyed everything.”
I swallowed hard. The whole time that we had been defending Edgewood Village, only Keysia had considered the defense of the dark elves’ homes deeper in the forest. Even our dark elf guards had put most of their attention on protecting our village during the Scourge attacks.
“Everything?” I asked. “You can’t be serious.”
She nodded again.
“Are there still Scourge there?” I pressed.
“We killed them all, but not without casualties,” she explained.
Shal appeared, walking quickly from his station. “My brother? My mother? Are they okay?”
Keysia shook her head. “I don’t know… It was chaos. Everyone fled as fast as they could.”
There was another crackle of a branch, and I turned, startled at the sound. I saw another dark elf walking towards our village, then heard the sound of several leaves and branches being trodden, all from deeper in the forest.
Donovan appeared, carrying an immobile elf over his shoulders, then Garrik, the large elf who had once killed me, half dragging, half carrying two dead elves. Behind them came numerous elves—what seemed like all the dark elves in Edgewood. Some were visibly hurt, and others were carrying or assisting the dead or injured.
“Uh oh…” Jeremy said as he moved in closer to me. “This doesn’t look good.”
The last thing we needed in the middle of our defense and rebuild planning was a wave of tired, injured, dark elves flowing into our village looking for refuge. But if what Keysia said was true, where else would they go? Nowhere in the Freelands were dark elves accepted. Mist Vale certainly wouldn’t take them in.
I turned my head towards Unity. “Everyone help however you can! Potions and bandages if there are any left!” I looked directly to Rina. “I know you have time limits on your resurrections, so get prepared if you can…”
Rina looked at me sternly, gave a subtle nod, and all of our guild members rushed to assist the incoming dark elves.
Our village, which already looked like a warzone, started to look even sadder as the dark elves poured in, bloodied and battered, some moaning in pain and all of them looking desperate and worried.
As I worked with my guild to help the elves, my face began to burn with anger. As guild leader, I knew I needed to hide my frustration; the last thing my team needed was me walking around moping and complaining about how much we had lost. But deep inside I was severely disappointed at the level of setback, and for it to happen so suddenly after how hard we had all worked.
But what was even more frustrating was how much the ordeal was impacting my personal journey. I needed to get back to my mage training if I was ever going to help with the Ancients I had learned about, and how was I ever going to start fighting in the Arena or explore other parts of Eden’s Gate?
And now this?
The stress was starting to get to me, and I couldn’t believe Dr. Winston would make Eden’s Gate so damn hard. Not just hard to succeed, but the hardships in general. One moment I felt like I was getting ahead, and the next moment I felt a bit helpless and overwhelmed. What a rollercoaster!
I needed to contact Queen Faranni and update her on all that
was happening, and I needed to get to Highcastle to find out what was going on there. I had quests to do too… I couldn’t even remember them all since there was no damn quest log! Damnit Dr. Winston!
How the hell could Dr. Winston leave out a quest log? With all his planning, how could he intentionally leave such a simple thing out? I was tempted to use my report/page GM button to give him a little piece of my mind.
I wouldn’t have said that I was over Eden’s Gate, but the grief, death, and destruction all were really kicking my ass. It felt unfair. I was glad to have a team on my side to go through the struggle with, but I was beginning to think the world was far too unforgiving.
Chapter Five
2/17/0001
Rina rose onto her tiptoes as a light hue covered the dead dark elf that lay in front of her. After a few seconds, the elf’s leg squirmed, his body twitched, and his eyes opened slightly. When he saw Keysia kneeling near him, he jerked his head up and coughed. “I’m…I’m alive…”
“Yes, you’re alive,” Keysia said with a smile. “My friend revived you.”
Rina raised her palm in the air to top the elf off with a heal and immediately sat down in a meditative position.
“Who’s next?” I asked. “We only have time for two or three more, and that’s if the Scourge doesn’t interrupt us.”
Keysia shook her head as she looked at the twenty or so dark elf bodies that had been lined up near the outskirts of our village. “There’s so many… I wish we could save them all.”
“I wish we could too,” I agreed, “but there’s only so much we can do.”
“Someone has to make the hard choices,” Jax said.
“After Rina resurrects who she can, what do they all plan to do?” I asked. “Our village is nearly wiped out too.”
Keysia lowered her eyes. “I’m not sure. I know it’s a burden to you and everyone, but I just knew they’d have greater protection with us… a better chance for survival. That’s why I brought them here.”
Jax let out a heavy sigh. “There’s so many…”
“We’ll figure everything out later,” I said. “For now, we just need to decide who Rina needs to rez next. Let’s not waste time arguing.”
“Liyanna,” a deep, harsh voice said from behind me. I turned to see Garrik standing there with his arms crossed. He was covered in small scrapes and had a large, bloody bandage wrapped around his bicep. He raised his chin to me when we made eye contact. “Liyanna, please… She has some basic building and tinkering skills. Enough that she can help erect tents with basic materials and supplies.”
Keysia nodded and looked down as if thinking about the proposal before looking back up and saying, “I agree… Liyanna next.” She stepped a meter or so away where an unusually stocky, dead dark elf was lying. “Her…”
Liyanna’s eyes were closed, but her mouth was still open, as if she had been shouting when she had died. Her grey cloth armor had a huge hole in the stomach area that was circled in blood. Her short, spikey, black hair was matted with mud on one side.
“And these two warriors,” Garrik said, pointing to two dead elves several bodies away. “They are strong and gave their lives to save the others.”
I lowered my eyelids a bit and glared at Garrik. We had gotten off to a terrible start when Aaron and I moved into Edgewood. In fact, he had been so against us living in the forest that he went out of his way to execute me unfairly during a duel. It seemed pretty audacious of him to enter our village and talk as if he had some sort of say now that his people were in distress.
Garrik noticed my glare, and his throat moved a bit as if he could taste my disapproval of him.
“It must be nice to have help from humans when you need it,” I said sarcastically.
Garrik’s face slumped, and he uncrossed his arms. “I… I…”
“You murdered me, if I remember correctly.”
Garrik looked down and sighed. He was quiet for several seconds before saying, “It was wrong of me…I was wrong.”
“Were you, now?” I asked in the same sarcastic tone. I was still salty from the extreme pain of death he had caused me that night. It’s hard to forget the intensity of having your head split open and listening to your heart stop beating.
“You’ve helped Edgewood tremendously,” he said. “You’ve given some of us jobs and fair trade. I never thought I’d see a day where humans and dark elves could work together like they do here. I admit I was wrong. I thought you would—”
“I’m glad you finally recognize that we’re good people,” I interrupted. “It took you long enough.”
“Without the ability to barter with you fairly, we would’ve been mostly defenseless today. We may have all died without the supplies you gave us access to. Even the mining operation prompted some of our elves to take up crafting.” He turned his head and looked to a High Elf who was stationed far away, scanning the perimeter for intruders. “And there are High Elves protecting Edgewood? I never thought I’d see the day. It’s almost unfathomable.”
“Don’t be hasty,” I warned. “They’re not happy to be here, so it’s probably best not to try being buddy-buddy with them. Their presence may only be temporary.” My eyelids lowered as I remembered who I was talking to. “And don’t even think of doing something stupid that would cause them to want to leave.”
Garrik took a deep breath. “Just the fact that they’re here…” He pressed his lips together hard, closed his eyes, and fell into a hard kneel in front of me. “Forgive my ignorance, Gunnar. Please let me serve as a guard in Edgewood. Allow me to restore my honor.”
I jerked my head back, and my cold stare softened. I wasn’t sure how to react to his complete change in demeanor, and it was the first time I had ever seen an elf kneel to a human anywhere, much less in a forest.
Keysia strolled closer to me. “He once requested to become a guard when we were looking for more, but I knew you wouldn’t be keen on the idea of having him here.”
“You were right,” I mumbled. I made a smacking noise with my lips and smirked again. “I forgive you, but I don’t trust you as an Edgewood guard. Maybe in time that’ll change, but for now, you should get up and stay alert for any orcs or goblins of your own accord…”
Garrik stood back to his feet and gave a subtle nod. “I understand your hesitation. But once again, thank you for what you’ve done. I will pay you back for my mistakes in time. That I promise you...”
“Yeah, sure.” I pursed my lips and gave a quick upwards nod to the bulky elf—accepting his thanks but making sure he knew I still had contempt for him.
As Garrik walked away, Aaron joined me where I was standing. He lined up beside me and looked towards the assembly of dark elves. “What are we going to do about all this?”
“What do you mean exactly?” I asked.
“What do you mean, ‘What do I mean’?” He raised his chin towards the elves and crossed his arms. “We’re in a bit of a crisis situation.”
“Yeah… well, obviously, we’re going to help them for now if we can,” I replied.
“And then what?”
I rattled my head and shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe we can help them rebuild their homes somehow.”
“Hmm…” Aaron squinted his eyes and panned over the sea of elves. He pinched his chin and muttered, “Yeah… I’m sure their shanty shacks wouldn’t be too hard to build. We could even charge them for each shack we build for them.” Aaron said. “We can probably get a nice chunk of change out of that.”
“That’s fucked up,” I said, shaking my head. I waved my hand out towards the horde of elves. “They need help, not someone selling them homes.”
“It will be a nice business venture, home building, or…” One of his eyebrows raised as he continued to rub his chin. “Hmm…”
“I’m not sure that’s the best idea in this situation,” I said. “This is their forest too, after all.”
“Maybe… But I’m getting even more ideas…” Aaron perked up, grab
bed the cloth of my robe, and tugged me out of earshot of everyone else.
“What is it?” I asked. “You haven’t had many good ideas lately… Unless ‘I’m going to go craft’ or when things get heated ‘I’m going to hide’ are good ideas.”
“Hey, hey.” He waved his arms. “I hold the fort down when everyone is away, and I’m a partial driver of our economy, if I’m not mistaken. Without my crafting, we’d be—”
“I know, I know,” I said. “Sorry, I think the stress is getting to me.” I flipped my hand in front of me and tried shifting the discussion back to the original topic. “Anyway, what’s your idea?”
“Well, you know, I try not to spoil too much about gameplay in Eden’s Gate, given I was a developer and all…” Aaron smirked.
I smiled a little. “Oh, so you know something that can give us an advantage then?”
“Possibly an advantage,” Aaron confirmed, raising his hand and tilting it from side to side. “I’m sure some Reborns have figured it out already, and we would’ve gotten there naturally too, I suppose.” He scanned the elves again. “But this disaster might actually speed the process up for us dramatically.”
“What process?” I asked.
“Well, as you already know, there’s a system for building homes in Eden’s Gate, opening shops, hiring merchants, and bringing on guards and mercenaries to protect you and your property… the basic village building features of the game.”
“Yeah…” I shook my head. “What’s the point?”
“There’s another feature that expands on that.” Aaron smirked. “Colonization.”
“Colonization?” I questioned. “Isn’t that sort of what we’re already doing?”
“Sort of,” Aaron said with a nod. “But if you have enough ‘citizens’—” He made quotation marks with his fingers. “—willingly living under your village’s influence, you get some uh… different things.”
“Citizens?”
“By design, as a village grows, NPCs will eventually be attracted to it and attempt to move in if you let them, or you can actively try to sway them. Usually, this takes quite a while… one person at a time… one family at a time... children are eventually born, and the colony naturally expands. Most of the time that requires a vacant home for them to stay in—after all, why would someone move into your city if there’s no place to stay? If you own the land, you can issue building rights for them to build their own home, or if you have building rights—as we do—you can build the home yourself and sell it.”
