Chapter 35

It took us a few days to get back to town. We had to let the mayor know what we had found out. I still wasn’t totally comfortable with the way we had learned the information. Though I suppose sometimes harsh methods were required. Personally I was having mixed feelings about the whole situation, but I knew that right now our mission took top priority. We made our way into town. Once we got to the mayor’s office we asked to see him. Within a few minutes we were ushered in and asked to tell him everything we had found out or accomplished. Devin being the leader of our group took point and gave him the breakdown of what happened. “ We found the raider encampment that was on the map. The numbers were much higher than we had anticipated. About one hundred or more men. We watched them and waited for a group of them to leave. Once that happened we followed them. Initially only to see where they would go. We followed them to a group of over twenty men and we knew we had to act. We set up an ambush and after defeating most of them we captured a few of the survivors to interrogate and they gave us some useful though troubling information. They think someone high up in the Karengorn government is working against our own kingdom to weaken us so that they can attack us when we move our troops to deal with the threat at the border. At least this is what the man we captured said. This is all we have managed to discover so far and we wanted to report it to you as soon as possible.” The mayor looked troubled by this turn of events. “Thank you for bringing this to my attention. We will need to send word to the capital with this information. If your group is willing I would send you with word of what has happened and you can give your account of events as they happened.” Devin replied “We will of course take your message back to the Capital. We must also do our duty to the guild and report to them as well what has happened. I doubt the group we saw is the only one out there. This is much bigger than anyone could have realized.” The mayor nodded and said. “I’ll write a letter for you to take as well. Your testimony is compelling to me but sometimes the nobles in the capital only want to listen to other nobles. So I’ll send you with a letter that includes my seal to help you get their attention and to take you more seriously.” Devin said. “I appreciate that. We will gather some supplies to give you time to write your letter and then we will be on our way.” “Just give me half an hour and I should have the letter done.”

We left the office. We would resupply and have lunch and then meet the mayor back at his office. We just needed basic supplies and necessities. There was more than enough funds in the storage item to pay for a year's worth of supplies. So we headed to the general store to get what we needed. It didn’t take long for us to make it to the store. Only a couple of us went in. There was no need for all of us to crowd the store and make it harder for others to go in and do their own shopping. We waited outside until the business was handled. Once that was taken care of we set off for a restaurant to have some lunch before heading off on the long journey back to the Capital. We got to the restaurant and were quickly seated. A waitress walked over to our table and took all of our orders. I had the stew with fresh bread and the others ordered whatever they wanted. Devin said he would pick up the tab so we all splurged a bit. This would be the last meal not cooked over a fire for a while. Adrian was a master chef but eating in a restaurant just added something to a meal that you didn’t get sitting around a campfire. After having a nice meal it was time to go back to the mayor's office. He was standing there waiting for us when we arrived. He handed Devin an envelope and wished us safe travels. With all of the tasks we needed to complete done we headed out of the city gates and back down south towards the Capital. Another thing we had to keep in mind was that eventually the raiders would find out that someone had killed all of their friends and they would send people after us. Now you might be asking. How would they figure out who did it or where they went? Well that was simple. As much as the mayor would try to keep the information under wraps, people talk. There would be people that saw us go in and out of the office and there are sure to be people in the town that were working with the raiders. They would report back and then some of them would come to kill us before we could relay our information. So we had to be wary of an ambush. We spent the rest of the day on the trail. Once the sun started to go down we set up camp and had a quick meal. Once everyone had eaten it was time to turn it in for the night. Like normal it was Devin and my responsibility to stand first watch. Nothing happened while we were on watch and soon enough it was time for us to go to sleep. Devin figured we had a few days before anyone attacked us. It would take time for word of what we had done and where we were going to get to the raiders. Devin wasn’t worried. In fact he wanted us to take our time to give them the chance to attack so that we might gain some information from them. The rest of the night passed in a pleasant and dreamless sleep. Kalastrovax had been quiet for a while though I could feel his presence around me at all times. He would only communicate with me when it was absolutely necessary. I didn’t bother him with useless chatter either. I woke up the next morning feeling pretty good. I had gotten used to sleeping in the wild. I had never had a proper bed to sleep in as an orphan. Though now with my sleeping roll I was much more comfortable on the ground then I had ever been back at the church. Nothing compared to the comfort of an actual bed though. Which I had finally felt on my few stays in the Inns. Maybe I was getting soft in my new life as an adventurer. I would need to watch that.

I crawled out of my tent and walked over to the fire. Like most days Adrian had breakfast cooking and I was looking forward to a meal. I made a plate and sat around the fire chatting with the others in the group. We hung out for a while just enjoying everyone's company. Though eventually that had to come to an end. We packed up and hit the road. Time passed in much the same way as our other journeys. We would walk all day with stops at midday for lunch and stops at night to eat and sleep. This was how the days passed by. Until the ambush that we had waited for finally appeared. A group of men appeared in front of us out of the forest. More and more men began to appear all around us. We all raised our weapons. We were ready for a fight. I couldn’t get an exact number of how many people were around us. Though we were definitely very outnumbered. The man who was the obvious leader walked to the front of the group and said. “Well, well, well. We managed to find you. You're a slippery group. If we hadn’t had men stationed inside the town as well as outside the gate you might have been able to get away. Though you can’t leave twenty-five men dead in your wake and expect to get away without someone coming for you. Well that enough chit chat. You know why we are here. You’ve learned too much and now we have to put you down before you can tell those people in the Capital.” They didn’t waste anymore time. They charged at us. Blades clashed against blades. Arrows flew overhead as well as towards the raiders from Charlotte. Morigan started raining down magical attacks on the raiders. Devin and Adrian were engaged in melee combat. Sora and I used a mix of magic and melee to fight back. The fighting was a blur. Attacks were raining down from all sides. We were dishing out as good as we got. For every injury one of us received we gave the same or worse back to the raiders that surrounded us. Even with the numbers advantage it wasn't enough to overcome the skill of these more experienced adventurers. They had seen so much combat and fought in so many battles that this was just second nature to them. They methodically worked their way through the group and after a while only our small group was left standing. We were injured but they were dead. We began searching the bodies of the raiders for anyone that was alive. There were a few that were still breathing but they were in no shape to be interrogated. The man who had been the leader of the group had been split in half by Adrians mighty sword. Bodies were charged from our spells and covered in arrows. The carnage was something I was slowly getting used to. Body parts laid sprawled across the ground and after we made sure all of the men were dead we set about the grizzly task of searching and then piling up the corpses. We burned the bodies and then Morigan set about healing everyone's wounds. One of the things we had bought were the healing draughts in the town. We used them to heal the minor injuries and anything more major she wrapped up and put a salve on. After everyone was taken care of and the business of the day was done we walked for about an hour to put some distance between us and the scene of the battle. With this battle we had more than likely bought us some more time. It would take a long while for the main part of the group to figure out these men weren’t coming back. By that time we should be back to the Capital and within the safety of those walls. We were lucky that we had been on the lookout for this ambush. We had pretty much known it was coming the entire time. That extra awareness of what was likely to happen had helped us be prepared for the battle. None of us had known when it was going to happen but we knew it was coming.

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We set up a campsite and everyone just sat around the fire and just relaxed. Fighting that hard was a lot of work. We still had a while to go before we made it to the Capital. We still had a few more days of travel left. We would take it easy over these next few days. We had all taken injuries. None of them are too bad but we would still take our time to heal. That night after we had supper we talked about what had happened today. Everyone complimented each other on their abilities in the fight. Everyone had done an excellent job during the battle today. It was good for the team to give everyone feedback on how they performed. After chatting for a while it was time for the others to go to sleep. I stood watch with Devin until it was time for the guard change and then I climbed into my own tent. I slept hard and well. Fighting like that really wore you out. The next day we ate a quick breakfast and then continued on our way. We walked at a leisurely pace. We were in no rush to get to the Capital now that we were no longer being hunted. We walked on for the next few days only stopping when we needed to eat or sleep. With our new slower pace it took us a little longer to get there but eventually we made it close enough to where we could see the city walls. We walked until we got to the gate. We were quickly let in by the city guard. Adventurers were almost never questioned by the guards so we were let right in. We wasted no time once we got through the gate and immediately headed to the adventurers guild. Once we got there we walked up to the receptionist and asked for an audience with Veronica. She told us we would have to wait for a while. Veronica was out in the city on business. We waited around the guild for a few hours before Veronica finally arrived. She was notified that we wanted a meeting and we were told to meet her in the nearby conference room. We all went in there. Veronica was sitting at the head of the table and waved for all of us to sit down. “So what is this information that you need to tell me? I hope it's worth the trouble of this meeting. Adventurers of your rank should know that asking for a meeting like this without a proper reason is grounds for punishment.” Devin said. “We understand that. We wouldn’t ask for a meeting without having a reason to. As I’m sure you are aware. We were sent out on a contract to the north to hunt down raiders near the border. We also took some time to give Sora and Alex some proper training so that they wouldn’t die on their next contract. So we’ve taken them under our wings to show them what it means to be proper adventurers. Anyways. We were hunting these raiders and managed to take out a few groups of them.Then we finally found the main group of over one hundred raiders. We watched them for a while and once they sent out a small group we decided that we should follow them. After following them for a while they met up with a group of twenty five men. We decided we needed to take this group out before they could join the main group. We set an ambush and killed most of them. The ones left alive were interrogated for any knowledge they had. After that I executed the men. The information we gathered is very troubling. Some official high up in the Karengorn government want to weaken our border so that they may attack us while we are weak. After finding out everything we could about their plans we went back to the mayor to consult with him on how he wanted to proceed. He sent us back to the Capital with a letter.” He showed her the letter before continuing. “We left the town for the Capital and were ambushed along the way by the same group of raiders. They even said why they wanted to stop us. That brings us to now. I wanted to get your thoughts on how to proceed.” Veronica looked lost in thought for a moment but said. “We will have to set up a meeting with the King.” You are welcome to stay in the rooms here while we work out the finer details. It will probably take a few days to get a meeting. For now hold onto that letter I’ll send someone for you when everything is arranged.” With that she got up and left the room. One of the receptionists came in and showed us to the rooms that were reserved for the guests of the guild. These next few days were sure to be interesting.