Chapter 084:
Anton spent only a few minutes with Verona, Kal and Cetina selecting their food and water supplies for the journey. Usually they would use their horses to carry their supplies but since they were not bringing them, just in case something happened to them and they had to deal with Dana’s fury, they picked things that were light and easy to carry. Thankfully the stall owner also sold some large cloth bags that Anton and Verona carried on their backs underneath their Brackenlace cloaks. The packs weren’t heavy so it wasn’t a problem. Once again Anton made sure both Verona and Kal were close by, Kal in between to limit any chance of someone discovering her Beast-kin nature. He also liked having them both within arm’s reach.
As they weaved through the people swarming the streets of Porswea something was bugging him. It wasn’t the people around them, and the potential for them getting too close, but someone that was following. Cetina walked behind by several long paces. More than enough distance for other people to weave in between them causing her to bob her head about to make sure she was following them. While she didn’t hold her head down she acted like she didn’t belong with them.
Anton frowned as he looked back at Cetina, her grey and purple eyes making contact with his. “Cetina, you don’t have to walk that far behind us.”
Cetina smiled, a faint hint of pain on her face. “I’m fine.”
“Come on.” Verona waved her forward. “Don’t be like that.”
Cetina sighed and picked up the pace. Anton had yet to get anything out of Cetina about what happened to her. While he wasn’t entirely confident that things would actually turn out for the better for her after they left he didn’t expect things to go so bad so quickly. The growing bruise on her face was disconcerting, considering he knew that she was a very strong woman underneath her relatively loose clothes.
“How much money do you have left?” Anton turned his head back to Cetina. “I take it they didn’t take any?”
Cetina shook her head now that she was just a few paces behind them. While she didn’t loom over them she was the tallest of them all, a few inches taller than Anton. “They didn’t know that I even had a coin to my name. I…I’ve never had any before. So I’ve still got most of it.”
Anton nodded. “That’s good to know.” Cetina smiled. “As soon as we get a moment I’ll heal that bruise…I’ll make sure to leave the scars, if that’s what you want.”
Cetina nodded. “That…It would be good if you could keep them. These mean quite a bit to me. I know that’s something stupid to say but it reminds me of the few good times I’ve had.” She idly rubbed her bruised cheek with her gauntlet.
The moment that we get back I’m going to have a long chat with Duran and those two women. If we need to we might need to take Duran with us so he gets away from them…Convincing him that Beast-kin are alright might be a bit of a stretch. One step at a time though.
“Once again I can’t do anything to help.” Verona chuckled as she shook her head. “Maybe I could use my power to heal…maybe. Knit wounds together with the blood…”
“Or keep someone’s heart pumping.” Anton added. “That could be useful.”
“Can it do that?” Kal asked.
Verona shrugged. “Who knows? I guess it’s kind of like the opposite of what Anton said, that I’ve only thought about using this to fight. But I don’t think anyone is going to let me practice on them.”
“Certainly not when you’re glowing.” Anton reached around Kal and squeezed her arm, Verona flashed a smile back.
“I don’t think a Blood Berserker is meant to be a healer.” Verona chuckled. “Not with that kind of name.”
They soon arrived at the mercenary district and found it to be bristling with activity. Armoured mercenaries swarmed through the district, hundreds of carts loaded with supplies made navigation through usually empty the plaza difficult. Anton directed all four towards the Graterious Mercenary Guild. Outside were hundreds of armoured mercenaries, some Anton vaguely recognised from the previous day, all with an air of nervousness and excitement around them.
“This definitely looks like the place.” Verona smiled as they slowly entered the crowd. “How are they going to move so many people?”
“Lots of carts.” Anton replied. “I remember that logistics, moving people and resources, is always a challenge. Especially in a place like this. Where everything is moved by beasts and where most people can’t read. It’ll be interesting to see how they manage it.”
Very few gave them anything more than a cursory glance, far less now they were wearing their hoods up. Most of the limited attention was directed at Cetina thanks to her height and unhooded helm, though her blue patches of hair were hidden by her iron helm.
“But.” Anton continued. “If Lord Cassius is as rich as I’m guessing he’ll have the resources to get enough carts to get these people there.”
“I didn’t think I’d have to ride another cart so soon.” Cetina wore a pained smile.
“Do you still have your horse?” Verona asked. Cetina shook her head and said nothing more. An awkward silence filled their space, once that Verona tried to fill. “Did they say we would be rewarded on how many Goblins we killed or if we just turned up?”
Cetina gripped the pommel of her sword. “If what they told me is correct it’s the second one. Though that’s why the people from the guild will be coming along.”
“To make sure we actually fight and don’t just hang back doing nothing.” Anton looked around. “They certainly would want their monies worth. And that’ll help us get noticed too.”
“Hopefully in a good way.” Kal quietly added.
“Why are you trying to get noticed?” Cetina asked. “Is it to get better jobs or fall in with the nobles and lords? Considering what you’re capable of.”
“Sort of.” Anton replied. “Sort of.”
He didn’t want to tell Cetina they were planning to head to Seocuria as soon as they were done here. Since she knew of Kal’s real identity it would only confuse her and throw up a myriad of difficult questions, ones they couldn’t answer in public. Cetina tentatively accepted his words but it was clear that she held some reservations about his response.
“I don’t see anywhere we are supposed to report in.” Anton mumbled as he scanned the idle mercenaries around them. “They were just making little marks on the paper when we signed up.”
“Are you three staying out of trouble this time?”
Anton recognised the voice but not to whom it belonged to. They all turned to the source and saw the two armoured mercenaries from yesterday moving through the crowds, the same two that helped them peacefully deal with the six scantily clad idiots from the other day. Anton took a moment to study them better. The man looked to be in his middle to late forties, a short brown head of hair with a few flecks of grey starting to show through. His armour, and that of his female companion, were a mixture of iron, Bosciycium, and hardened leather. Many scratches and scuff marks adorned the armour, marks that looked genuine and not made to give the appearance they had been in battle. At his side was a sword and a small shield attached to his back. The woman appeared to be the same age, a slightly weathered face with her short hair tied up in a ponytail. Anton saw the large Bosciycium mace on the woman’s back, she didn’t have a shield but the size of the weapon, and the woman wielding it, probably meant she didn’t need to worry about it.
“We are.” Anton replied, Verona chuckled at his words.
“That whole incident had nothing to do with us.” Verona added. “We were just trying to leave peacefully.”
Cetina threw up a black brow as she looked between them but didn’t ask what they were talking about as the two mercenaries approached.
The male mercenary smiled, a few teeth were missing, and raised both his hands. “You don’t need to tell me that. I understand completely that you did nothing wrong. I just didn’t want to be involved when the city watch turned up to deal with six dead bodies.”
Anton didn’t know if he knew they were mages or if he thought extremely little of the skill of the six idiots. Nevertheless he was grateful for his help. It could have turned nasty if they hadn’t shown up.
“Thanks anyway.” Verona smiled at them. “Do you know where we’re meant to go after arriving here?”
“Just wait a bit longer.” He replied. “We’ll be dragged off soon enough.”
“I don’t believe we caught your names last time.” Anton said to the two mercenaries. Both smiled and glanced at each other.
“My name is Citrio and this is Livia.”
Livia gave them a small wave as she smiled warmly.
“A pleasure to meet you both.” Anton nodded. He didn’t offer to shake their hands, just in case they started wondering why Kal wasn’t going to shake theirs.
Livia looked between all four of them. “I hope that your four know how to fight properly.” A wicked smile graced her face. “Better than those six whores at any rate. We’re going to be fighting thousands of Goblins tomorrow.”
“We’ve fought them before.” Verona replied. “They aren’t much of a trouble on their own but they can swarm you pretty easily.”
“That they can.” Citrio slowly nodded. “I’ve heard there’s more than just the Yellow’s and Green’s at the fort.”
“What other colours?” Kal asked.
“There’s meant to be some Black Goblins and some Orange and even some Purple ones are meant to be there as well.” Citrio shook his head. “That’s going to make things interesting.” He turned and smiled at Livia, his face cracking up into a demented smile as he looked beyond her. “Oh dear. This day just got a lot more interesting.”
“Why?” Cetina asked, moving closer to follow his line of sight.
They all tried to follow Citrio’s eyes. Anton sighed loudly, so too did Verona and Kal, while Cetina looked on confused. About ten people deep into the crowd Anton spied the bare back of one six idiots, the clean scars once again grating on Anton’s mind. All six wore the same clothing they wore the other day, none of it suitable for combat. They stood in a tight huddle, chatting with each other as their eyes nervously darted about. He wasn’t sure if they were genuinely nervous or they were wondering why they weren’t getting full attention. Or why they were even joining in this job if they were so nervous and underequipped.
“What are they wearing?” Cetina asked, her voice full of honest curiosity.
“The same crap they wore yesterday.” Anton replied, eliciting an odd look from Cetina. “I don’t think they’re actually fighters. Well, perhaps in the bedroom.”
The tiniest hint of a flush rose over Cetina’s face as she looked once more and the images flashed through her mind. Verona, Citrio and Livia chuckled at the sight of her embarrassment. Anton found it quite cute. Doubly so considering what she had been through the past few days.
One of the six, the one that made the pass at Verona, turned and looked in their direction. He made eye contact with Anton but all the bravado from yesterday drained from his eyes. Now they were on true even numbers, all heavily armed and armoured, they didn’t have the courage to try anything. Anton gave them a tiny wave and smiled warmly, something that only seemed to disturb the man as he looked away with a thinly veiled look of annoyance.
"Okay…” Cetina frowned lightly at Anton. “Did something happen between you guys?”
Verona groaned and chuckled simultaneously. “We’ll tell you on the way. It’ll be something to pass the time. Just always remember to wash your mouth when you’re done.”
“Oh dear.” Kal quietly mumbled as she shook her head.
Cetina only nodded in response, though it was clear she didn’t exactly understand what Verona was hinting at. Nevertheless, despite the opportunity to see Cetina even more embarrassed when Verona told her story, it might be a good opportunity to find out exactly what happened between her and her father.
A loud horn bellowed out through the plaza, silencing the idly chattering mercenaries.
“Here we go.” Citrio said, nodding to the source.
Anton could just see over the heads of some of the mercenaries and saw several hundred Graterious Soldiers, those looking like roman soldiers from their glory days, entering the plaza leading a new stream of large Ix pulled carts. These were considerably larger than the carts Anton was used to, something he guessed was the equivalent of a small truck in this world. They pushed a path through the mercenaries and began to circle through the plaza.
A much smaller whistle came from back towards the Graterious Mercenary Guild. The blonde man that worked at the job board stood upon a large crate to stand above them. He removed his hand from his mouth and clapped his hands loudly, the sounds of the wooden carts was only growing louder.
“Can I have your attention please?” he yelled, more asked politely with a firm voice. Nearly every mercenary present stopped and looked at the man. “I hope that everyone has gathered here. We’ll have a count when we’re on the move but right now we need to get moving.”
Several of the large carts stopped in front of them.
“Everyone please hop on and we’ll get on our way. Please…” There was almost a pleading to his voice now. “Please keep yourselves well behaved on our journey. We don’t need any fights breaking out before we get there.”
A few chuckles came from the mercenaries, a few looks were directed towards them, but all quickly moved to the carts. Anton grabbed Verona’s and Kal’s hands, both looked towards him in surprise as he led them towards the carts.
“We don’t want to get a bad seat.” He said to both girls. “The last thing we want to be is separated…”
Both nodded as they quickly moved to the front of the que and found a relatively empty cart. They moved to the front, placing Kal between them, and sat on the uncomfortable wooden seats.
“This is going to seriously ruin our butts.” Anton said as he thumped on the wooden seats. “I’ve got an idea. Verona, we’re going to need to borrow your cloak as well.”
Anton and Verona removed their cloaks and placed on the wooden seats. It wasn’t the best padding, the Brackenlace didn’t bounce too much, but it was better than nothing. At least they wouldn’t need healing when they arrived at the fort.
Cetina arrived next, looking a little sheepish, as she took the seat next to Verona. She glanced at Verona’s new armour, a barely disguised look of envy, as she tried her best to get comfortable. Cetina’s armour, a well-made iron chest piece, and arm and leg pieces, looked a little cheap compared to any of theirs. However hers had seen combat and kept her safe. That was far more important than looking good or expensive. Citrio and Livia sat on the opposite side as the rest of the cart filled with other mercenaries. The floor quickly filled with packs and crates, many not belonging to the mercenaries.
“Is that the food?” Anton asked.
Citrio threw up a brow. “Yeah. We’re only going to be gone for a few days so it’s not that hard to supply food and water. Did you bring your own?” Anton nodded. “Well, that’s a good habit to get into. You never know what could go wrong out there.”
Livia frowned as rested against Citrio’s shoulder. “You don’t want to be fighting over the last scraps of food when your miles away from people.”
Anton couldn’t disagree. That’s why they’d always packed so much, and collected what they could on the way, so they didn’t run out and run into real strife.
From Kal’s story Seocuria is meant to be a relatively dry place. Thankfully the boat will mean that we don’t have to worry about going inland. Still, it’s something we should always keep an eye on.
Another horn blasted through the mercenary plaza the carts began to rumble forward and out of the plaza.
---[]---
Their cart was void of all speech as they trundled out of the city of Porswea and travelled towards the north. To the north of the city the sprawling slums continued, perhaps even more extensive and rotten than the previous area. This time the residents kept well clear of the convoy. They took one look at the armoured convoy and decided that there wasn’t much chance for begging. Again Anton was overwhelmed by the smell of human filth, the girls were as well, but the mercenaries appeared rather tolerant of it. Perhaps they knew that in a few minutes they would be free of the smell.
Once free of the slums the land opened up into something Anton didn’t expect. Fields of crops and plantations spanned the horizon with hundreds of small farming hamlets dotting the landscape. The stone road, one quick glance revealed the stones were roughly cut into squares but tightly packed together, led them through several of the small hamlets. Many people, looking far better than those in the slums, at least lacking the haggard and desperate eyes, came out and marvelled at the precession going past. The hamlets looked poor, compared to the city of Porswea, but not destitute. A small wooden fence surrounded the hamlets, alongside many large huts and barns filled with boxes of grains, fruits and drying meat.
Something gnawed lightly at the back of Anton’s mind as they exited the hamlet. “Say, you two.” He looked to Citrio and Livia who were idly looking about. “Why doesn’t anyone in the slums just come out here and nick some food?”
“They do.” Citrio replied. “You didn’t see the wall on the way out?”
Anton looked back to Porswea. He could just make out ropes hanging from the top of the wall, bodies hanging from the bottom. There were hundreds of them on this side of the city.
Citrio nodded as he looked back to Anton. “Having those there keeps them in line. Makes them remember what’s waiting for them if they steal.”
“There’s that many thieves?” Verona asked.
“Not really.” Citrio smiled. “Some of them are thieves, yes, but most are prisoners or people that have died from sickness. They’re just there to keep them from doing something stupid.”
“Of course they could just join the army.” Livia added softly. “Or work the fields, or be a labourer. Something…”
“We’ll probably be meeting some of those willing to escape their wretched lives today.” Citrio looked back to Porswea. “At least they are willing to do something about their lives.”
“I doubt they’re going to look as good as the soldiers around us.” Anton nodded towards the driver of the cart. While the man steering the large creatures wore causal clothes the two next to him wore the bright encompassing roman styled iron armour. One looked back but didn’t linger for more than a second.
“They won’t have stuff like this.” Citrio lightly tapped his chest piece. “But they don’t want them to die by the thousands. If they’re lucky they’ll have some metal armour, but most will have to do with hardened leather…And making sure they aren’t hit.”
“We had leather armour before this.” Verona perked up. “It’s saved our lives quite a few times. Quite a few for me. So they should be fine, as long as they aren’t stupid or race into battle too early.”
Both mercenaries smiled, and quite a few more nodded as they listened in. A silence overcame the cart once again as they continued to roll through the countryside’s nearly endless plots of farms and plantations. Anton spied a glance to Cetina every so often. She had said nothing after taking her seat and simply stared at the wooden floor of the cart. She bounced and rocked back and forth with the cart but could have been dead if her mouth didn’t twitch in pain from the bruise. Finally he caught her looking up and returned a small smile, one that the bruise somewhat limited, but didn’t say anything and looked back down after a few seconds. It would be highly inappropriate to start discussing what happened to her now. Every other mercenary was silent and probably just waiting for something to start.
Every so often they came across a particularly large hamlet, possibly as large as Atros was now, and in the distance he could see the small trails of smoke rising into the sky. They weren’t as numerous or as thick as Porswea’s but there were other large cities out here. Graterious appeared quite heavily populated, at least in the south east of the empire. The idle thought stirred Anton into action.
“They said that it would be sometime tomorrow that we arrived at our destination.” Anton said like an open ended question. Again Livia and Citrio looked to him and smiled. “Since…Since we’ve been out of civilisation for some time, I was hoping that you could explain a few things for me.”
Both mercenaries nodded. “Sure.” Citrio replied. “We’ve got more than enough time to spare. What do you want to know?”
“Really just the basics, and an answer to a few stories that we’ve heard of.”
“Go for it.” Livia leant back into the cart and pulled out a small water skin.
“I know that this area is controlled by Lord Cassius, and that the Emperor of Graterious is called…Deciums, but I’m sure that he doesn’t have absolute control.”
“Thank every god.” Citrio coughed harshly. “If he was it would be worse than living in the Deweth Clansmen, whatever that’s really like.”
“Not the best leader?” Verona asked quietly.
“No.” Livia’s face turned a bit more sullen. “I actually feel bad for him. And his children. There’s…there’s something wrong with their heads.”
“Like…Are they silly or something more?” Verona asked.
“Something’s wrong in their heads.” Livia continued. “They’re crazy. Their whole family is crazy. It’s only thanks to people like Lord Cassius and Umbris that the whole place hasn’t descended into anarchy.”
“Who…I understand that Cassius controls the south western area of the empire, the maps that I’ve seen are pretty old and a little sparse on detail, but what territory does he control?”
There was a slight pause, barely perceptible, before Citrio answered. “He controls the eastern third of the empire. Good man, from what I’m told. He and Lord Cassius are very close and essentially allies.”
It’ll be good if we can get on Cassius’s good side. Put a good word into his friend and then we can get that boat…
“So who’s the third one?” Anton asked.
“Lord Vulusius.” Citrio replied. “I’ve seen the man before once. I didn’t get a good feeling from him. He’s not ugly, he’s a relatively normal looking man, but he’s got this look, like everything’s just a game to play. It freaked me out.”
“And he’s the other side of this civil war then?” Verona asked. “Lord Vulusius…and Emperor Decima against Lord Cassius and Umbris.”
“Yes. Though the Emperor is really only in power thanks to Vulusius. He’s an extremely rich man. More so than the Decima, Cassius and Umbris combined.”
“I’m going to hazard a guess here.” Anton began. “But he funds the Emperor so he can put forward whatever laws he needs to make more money?”
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“Yeah.” Both replied simultaneously.
“Huh. I guess I was expecting something a little more original.”
Citrio shrugged. “What’s more original than wanting more money?”
Anton couldn’t refute that. That was something prevalent no matter which world he was in.
“His territory is to the north, bordering Seocuria. He makes a killing off using the Beast-kin to mine his gold and silver. And everything else.”
Kal’s fingers gripped on the cart but she held her composure. Anton only looked out his periphery, lest he attract any untoward attention.
“A very dangerous man then.” Verona folded her arms and looked out to the fields.
“Only if you cross him and expect to live.”
Verona smiled and nodded.
“I overheard someone hinting at why this civil war thing is about to kick off.” Anton began. “Something about messing with someone else’s family?”
Everyone in the cart grew very dark and withdrawn. By asking one thing it appeared they had become social exiles.
"Family is sort of an understatement." Citrio grumbled. "It's not a pleasant tale, if you really want to hear it."
Anton glanced to the other mercenaries. It was quite clear they did not.
"Just the quick version. Without the icky parts. Which it seems like there might be a few of."
Citrio stretched out his armoured legs and gently rubbed his chin. "Okay. So, Cassius had a daughter. And extremely beautiful one at that. A gorgeous face, dazzling green eyes and red hair that flowed in great waves. She had quite the body as well." Livia shot him a look but didn't interrupt. "She was to be married to the son of Lord Umbris."
"A political marriage?"
"Yeah. Fairly simple one at that. The boy seemed quite nice, a little weak and naive perhaps but a good person. Most amazingly they didn't hate each other." Anton raised a brow to that. Citrio chuckled again. "Well, they weren't in love, but they didn't hate each other. So that makes it miles better than most political marriages. Who knows, they may have fallen in love over time."
"As it's meant to be." Livia added. He caught Verona making a tiny nod.
"But it wasn't meant to be, was it?"
Now the mercenaries looked truly sad.
"No." Livia sighed. "No it wasn't."
"You see, Emperor Decima has a son. Many kids, actually, but this was the next in line to the throne. So you can imagine that people tend not to say no to the first prince."
That'll warp his sense of self. Everyone he meets exists to serve him.
"And he found out about this marriage. He saw her and wanted her. Long story short...and cutting out the icky bits...he did."
"Fucking disgusting is what it was." Livia barely held back her utter contempt for this prince.
"The young man committed suicide. But everyone knows he was poisoned by the Emperor's guard. The daughter lasted a few days later before jumping to her death. Right from the top of one of the capital's spires. She did actually jump...But the rumours say she was riddled with bruises. Ones that could not be caused by the fall."
"That... That sounds utterly horrifying."
"It was." Livia replied. "Cassius and Umbris were utterly furious, beyond simple political implications. Both had lost someone precious to them. They became firm allies after that. The next part of the story is kind of vague, it's only going off rumours, but both men demanded the prince be held accountable for his crime, something never heard of in the history of the empire."
"That's where Vulusius comes in." Citrio continued. "He, somehow, convinced Cassius and Decima not to go to war."
"Basically you're the aggressor and I have mountains more money than you." Livia added.
"Essentially, yes. Even though Cassius and Umbris had a much larger army, constantly fighting of the Clansmen or pirates and marauders, they chose to not fight. And by the time they realised what happened Vulusius had bolstered his army so they were now on equal terms and would destroy the empire as they wrestled to the death. And that... That pretty much brings up to now. Both sides are getting ready for all-out war but neither ready to take the first move. It's been like that for eight winters now and doesn't look like it's going to get better any time soon."
"So much death because of one person." Anton said aloud.
"It's the madness that afflicts the line of the Emperor's." Livia said. "It makes them go crazy. Men and women. Doesn't matter which. All are mad."
In these sort of times I'm sure it was lead or mercury that made people crazy. The Romans used lead as a soft and easily workable metal and had it near their water and food, not realising it was slowly killing them.
"I saw him in Porswea." A man three seats down from Anton spoke up. "He was afflicted by something powerful and terrible that had taken hold of his soul, even I could see that. Not even the Holy Father could have saved that man. His...His jaw looked like it was broken and was jutting out further than his nose."
Something rattled in the back of Anton's head. "Was there anything else off about him?"
The man shrugged. "It was a long time ago. Bit I remember seeing him through the crowds to see him with Cassius's daughter. His nose was gigantic, flat and wide. His tongue…I don’t even know if I saw it properly but his tongue always stuck out of his mouth…He didn’t look right."
That sounds like a bit like...inbreeding. That would explain the madness of the royal lines, if they kept marrying people far too close. And it's here as well.
Verona flashed him a look and Kal turned towards him as well. He tried his best to convey he knew what it was, which he guessed they both got, and sighed lightly as he looked back to Citrio and Livia.
"Sounds horrible, like something you would get at birth. And now because of him everyone's just waiting for it all to go off. Are you going to get involved?"
"We'll see when it kicks off." Citrio replied. "Don't really want to get killed but we don't want to see our city and home torched."
"Sounds like a tricky position to be in." Verona added.
"It is." Livia replied. "It weighs heavily on our thoughts."
"I've got another question. We were buying food in Porswea and we overhead something about a mage getting stabbed or something. Have you heard anything like that?"
"Oh. That." Livia chuckled heartily. "That was about this prick of a water mage from the academy that thought they could get whatever they wanted for free. This little bastard tried it at...somewhere you really shouldn't. Eventually the owner got so pissed that he walked up and stabbed him in the gut."
"I remember now." Citrio looked very happy recalling the tale, far better than just a few moments ago. "That was funny."
"Anyway, this little kid tried to use his magic but the owner grabbed his charm and ripped it off him. Then his was basically shitting himself as he got the crap beaten out of him. Then thrown into a back alley covered in shit."
"The real lesson there is to not be a dick." Anton huffed as he folded his arms. Kal and Verona chuckled and so too did Citrio and Livia. He glanced to Cetina but she was still lost in her thoughts. The convoy continued to roll forward, with only sporadic conversation to break up the journey.
---[]---
The sun had long fell behind the horizon, Verona and Kal had dozed off and rested against eachother, when a small horn sounded out along the caravan and the carts began to slow. Anton looked about and saw the other carts within their caravan begin to slow as well. They had been travelling since mid-day and quite fast at that. The large beasts would need rest soon, otherwise they would just fall over.
“Is this it for the day?” Anton asked quietly, not wanting to wake either resting girl.
Livia smiled at him while Citrio was looking out into the murky black night around them. The few torches that rested on the corners of the carts had barely illuminated anything beyond a few dozen meters. Flickers of orange lights barely illuminated anything in the flat open grasslands, they had no way of knowing if Goblins or anything else lay in wait for them.
“It is.” Livia replied, her words slowly waking Verona and Kal. “We’ll be setting up camp for the night and then we’ll be continuing at dawn. Should be arriving at the fort early in the morning.”
“That’s a little faster than they said. Have you ever been there before?” Anton asked. “We haven’t heard anything about the layout, and I’d rather not go in blind.”
“We’ve been through the area before.” Livia frowned deeply as Citrio turned away from the murky surrounds. “It’s a massive fortress, built like a six pointed star as tall as the walls of Porswea, with thousands of well trained and armed soldiers. For such a major military distribution centre…I don’t know how the Goblins were able to take it. Or how many we should be expecting to face.”
“I doubt someone would be helping them.”
“Not unless they liked being eaten or raped.” Citrio added dryly. “It seems that’s all those little bastards are good for.”
“You got that right.” Verona mumbled as she cutely yawned and stretched her arms. “I don’t think anyone’s going to be sad when they’re all dead.”
“But they don’t offer much of a reward.” Livia shrugged lightly. “So not many mercenaries go out of their way to fight them. If they get in our way we’ll cut them down. Those that actually hunt them are often inexperienced or very desperate, and only do it so they can get out of fighting them and onto something more lucrative. There are a few crazies that hunt them exclusively but there’s only a few of them and so many more Goblins.”
“Sounds like the place should be swarming with them.” Anton said.
“The armies are sometimes sent to deal with them.” Citrio looked back into the murky darkness. “But I’m not going to say that they aren’t just out there. Waiting for us to let our guard down.”
“It’ll have to be a short sleep tonight.” Kal stretched out her arms as she clicked her neck.
The cart rumbled off the stone road and began to bunch up with the hundreds of other carts in the convoy to form a large blob. As they had been travelling through open grasslands for some time there wasn’t anything like a camping spot. It appeared they literally just stopped on the side of the road. Citrio and Livia, and the other mercenaries from the guild, grumbled lightly as they hopped off the back of the cart. Anton, without receiving any specific orders, rose slowly and motioned for Verona and Kal to follow the mercenaries. He hopped off the cart first, onto dry and crisp grass, before helping Verona and Kal down. Cetina followed immediately after. She still didn’t look too good, a mixture of loss and sadness. When she looked up she forced a smile on her face but Anton could tell it was terribly forced.
“Now what?” Verona asked, raising her free arm and letting it flop to her side.
“This is pretty standard.” Citrio replied. “The Graterious soldiers will secure the perimeter while we take care of ourselves. Better get the fire going. I think we can all agree that we’re starving.”
---[]---
The small fire crackled and warmed their bodies as they finished their light meals. They didn’t bring much in the way of wood for fires, the space on the carts was limited and there wasn’t any nearby forest to harvest wood, so the number of fires were quite few. Thankfully it was a rather warm night so the fires were more for comfort and protection than warmth. Anton didn’t use any of his magic to help start the fires, letting the mercenaries start the fires with pieces of flint. Doing so would attract considerable attention and send the idly gossiping mercenaries into a frenzy. He had yet to see a mage within the mercenaries so they, and Verona and Kal, would become the centres of attention. The chances of discovering Kal’s identity would only be increased if he did.
Anton picked a small fire next to their cart and sat down on the dry grass. Amazingly only two other mercenaries were sitting at the fire. Other mercenaries were resting or sleeping around other fires, the rest were either setting up tents within the sprawling caravan or idly chatting and resting on the carts. Graterious soldiers were keeping a strangely tight perimeter. He had an inkling that they were to prevent them from leaving than stop a sneak goblin assault. Anton returned to looking at the fire. It was strange that, after sitting down for most of the day, he wanted to sit down again. Perhaps it was that the ground was not bouncing and jolting with every stone and hole. At least his rear was no longer being tenderised.
“Right.” Verona mewled as she flopped down next to Anton, immediately resting her head against him. “Time to get some sleep. Are you going to stay awake for this first bit?”
Anton sighed as he pinched Verona’s cheek. “When you put it like that it sounds like you’ve already made your decision.”
Verona chuckled as she playfully palmed away his hand. “I was just checking. Besides, someone else has the same idea.”
Kal sat next to Anton, a little more gracefully than Verona, and laid her head on his lap while she brought the rest of her body to curl in front of him. Verona pouted and huffed when Kal tucked her legs underneath his. With her free hand she pulled her Brackenlace cloak tight to her body, just like a blanket, and tried to get comfortable on the dry grass. Anton smiled and gently rested his hand on Kal’s head. Through the layers of cloth he could still feel her Beast-kin ear twitch slightly under his touch. To anyone else it simply looked like she wanted to get cosy with him, and while that was definitely part of it, it limited anyone else getting too close.
“We should get as much rest as we can.” Kal suppressed a light yawn. “We don’t need to watch for enemies and tomorrow will be a big day. We need as much rest, and mana, as we can get.”
Verona opened her mouth to retort but held it shut. She simply seemed more jealous that Kal had beaten her to it. With a shrug she lay down next to Anton and reached out for his free hand, which he was more than willing to give up. A few seconds passed and they were sound asleep, Verona’s mouth slightly agape as she started to snore lightly.
Anton’s admiration of the sight was broken by a light chuckling from the other side of the fire. Livia and Citrio were nestled together and sharing light kisses, both had removed their metal armour, at least their top half, his hands were clearly searching for something underneath her shirt. They didn’t seem too concerned about the possibility of other mercenaries watching their actions. They appeared to be…Anton wasn’t sure what they were or what he would call their relationship, remembering what he saw when they came down the stairs in the Graterious Mercenary Guild. Perhaps they enjoyed swapping or watching. Though, when Anton looked down at the two beautiful women snuggling around him, he had no right to even think of judging someone else’s consenting relationship.
Livia gently slapped away Citrio’s hands as they reached for her breasts. “You’re insatiable sometimes, you know that? And we’ve got people watching.” Citrio smiled and nuzzled his bearded chin in her neck. She sighed and looked at Anton. “Sometimes he gets rather worked up before a big battle.”
“So do you.” Citrio retorted. Livia smiled and kissed him back.
“I can understand that it’s a good way to relieve stress.” Anton replied. Verona pinched his thigh lightly so he retaliated in kind. “Though that might be a bit tricky here.”
Citrio laughed. “When you’re in this line of work, where you could get killed at any moment, you end up not worrying about knowing two people are going off to have a little fun.” He pointed to a large caravan in the distance. It looked almost the same as the one they travelled with the Bebbezarian merchants. Many mercenaries waited in a line outside, mainly in pairs, with three very strong men stood out the closed entrance flap. It wasn’t hard to figure out what they were doing. “Though you might have a bit of an issue with that. I don’t think there’s enough room for the four of you in there.”
“Four?”
Anton turned to his side. Cetina sat next to them a few paces away on a small wooden crate. Her face was scarlet as she stared at Livia and Citrio, both now glancing at Anton with a deep look of confusion. Livia and Citrio frowned as they looked between her and Anton.
“Oh…” Citrio looked quite surprised. “I thought that, since we saw you four so close that you were together.” He looked at Cetina. “Since you were travelling with them I thought that…”
Cetina looked at Anton and flushed a little, many pinches were made, a few with a claw, on Anton’s legs as he tried to keep a straight face.
“No.” Cetina coughed lightly. “We just know each other from our journey to Porswea. They’re…they’re the only people in Porswea that I can actually trust.”
The mercenaries shared a knowing look but refused to elaborate.
Livia smiled. “If you did manage to get three women, without paying them, I was going to be very impressed. Though having two pretty women on your arms is pretty impressive.”
Anton laughed as he felt a flush come to his face, both the mercenaries laughed. He couldn’t deny that. “Although, we saw you coming down from upstairs in the mercenary guild with some interesting people.”
Citrio chuckled, quickly quietening as he looked down at the pretending to sleep Verona and Kal. “Nothing wrong with a bit of fun. Especially when they’re so soft and young.” Livia slowly shook her head as her tongue ran over her teeth. “Well.” Citrio removed his hand from Livia’s shirt and slapped his armoured thigh. “All this talk has gotten me quite bothered. So you need to come with me.”
Livia sighed and made Citrio drag her up, but she looked more than a little excited. She smiled awkwardly as she looked at the gear they were leaving behind. “I…I know that this is a little awkward to say this right now, but could you please look after our gear? We’ll be gone for a little while.”
Anton waved them off. “It’s fine. No one’s going to try anything. We’ll make sure of it. Go have some fun.”
“Thanks.” They both replied, linked their arms and made for one of the caravans.
Anton shook his head and looked to the weapons and gear they had left behind. While he didn’t think they would be stolen, the mercenaries around them were well behaved, at least those from the Graterious Mercenary Guild, there was every chance they could be stolen. Far in the distance he could see members of the Red Company, kept well away from the other guilds by impatient and annoyed Graterious soldiers, idly roaming while shouting and swearing at the soldiers. None were impressed by their behaviour or how they, heavily intoxicated with alcohol, wanted to start a fight with another guild.
He turned to Cetina, who was watching Livia and Citrio idly walking to the caravan, and lightly coughed. Cetina snapped towards him, her face more than a little flushed. “You know, Cetina, I thought you would be a bit better at talking about this sort of stuff.”
Cetina frowned but kept a smile. “Why do you say that?”
“Well…when we were back in the forest you didn’t have any problem with talking about Virgil and…and your sister. You made some quite interesting sounds and motions then.”
Cetina laughed. “But that’s different to this. I couldn’t care less who she fucks. Stupid whore.” She coughed as she shook her head, a tiny hint of hidden embarrassment on her face. “Sorry.”
Anton waved her down. “It’s fine. I was actually going to ask you if you could look after their gear for me.” Cetina raised a black brow when Anton lightly patted Verona and Kal. “I really can’t move.”
Cetina smiled and moved to sit in the middle of their gear. She took a moment to have a peek at the gear, she seemed quite impressed by its quality, before tucking her legs underneath her chin and stared at the flickering flame. Even though the other mercenaries were laughing and drinking it felt like their small circle had fallen into a cold silence.
As she continued to stare into the flame Anton saw something slowly breaking in her eyes. Whatever happened to her it continued to eat away at her heart, even more so when she had time to stop and think.
While I can’t do anything about it here, just talking about it will help. It’s better than keeping it bottled up and letting your mind just run itself into the ground. Festering away…
“Cetina?” Cetina snapped up to Anton, her eyes still a little distant. He took a deep breath before he continued. “What happened?”
A shiver of fear ran through her face. She gripped hard on her shoulders as she scrunched her eyes tight. Slowly she started to nod. “Okay. I supposed I should tell you what happened. You did give me quite a bit of money.”
Anton’s first instinct was to clarify that the gold they gave her was unrelated to his concern now. That she wasn’t obligated to say anything to them. He held his tongue as it would only make the situation all the more awkward. Cetina took a deep breath and reached for something on her hip. She produced a small water skin and downed its contents. Judging by her reaction, the sharp breath and the scrunched eyes, it contained quite a bit of alcohol.
Verona hauled herself up and rested her arms on Anton’s shoulder while Kal lifted her hood to show she was listening. Hearing this was more important than a few minutes of closed eyes.
Cetina attached the empty skin to her hip and stretched out her legs. “Well, it really began straight after you left. Just like you all said it would.” She smiled lightly at seeing Verona and Kal paying attention as well. “Not…Not right away. We found somewhere to stop while Dad tried to find out how to set up a business in Porswea. That seems easy enough, anyway, the other people that I travelled with, the other guards, they started acting funny. Like they were…Dolls.”
“Dolls?” Anton asked, simply for clarification. “Like they were puppets?”
Cetina nodded. “Yeah. Everything about them was so stiff. They started to have trouble steering the horses properly. I tried asking what was wrong but they didn’t answer me, not that that’s different, but Dad didn’t seem to notice the change either. We got moving again and found a large old storage barn that we could use to get started. Again, nobody wanted to help me, but that’s normal.”
Anton let out an involuntary grumble upon hearing how she was being treated normally. It seemed to lighten Cetina’s mood a little.
“While I was doing that I started having these weird headaches, not like I hadn’t drunk enough water or had bumped it. I don’t know where it came from but some moments I could barely think. Then I heard arguing from upstairs between my father and Eluria and Sancha. I…I don’t remember what it was about, the headaches were really bad then.”
“Sounds like you were drugged.” Verona quietly offered.
Cetina slowly nodded. “That would make this all easier to deal with. Anyway, I tried to head upstairs but the others blocked me. I couldn’t understand what they were doing so I tried to force my way through. They wouldn’t budge, but they still acted like they were all puppets attached to the same string.” Cetina held out both her hands and pretended to puppeteer. “Even their legs moved perfectly together. Like they were all controlled. As one.”
Verona squeezed Anton’s arm and Kal his leg. It sounded extremely familiar to something they met upon entering Graterious; The Ancient Listeners, a bizarre cult that apparently could live extremely close to Goblins, which moved in the same marionette style Cetina mentioned. A cult that used children and the flesh of Goblins in their rituals. He thought they had seen the last of them only a few minutes after meeting them. Now it seemed their reach was much further than their small section of forest in the south west of the empire.
“So…Um…I eventually fought my way through them.” Cetina scrunched her fists. “You were right, I’m a lot stronger than I thought I was.”
“Did you kill them?” Verona asked.
“No. But I was wearing my shield on my back when I fought my way through. That’s where I lost it.” Cetina sighed as she looked to her side, where she would have laid her large iron shield. “I ran inside and found my father…” Any warmth on her face instantly drained as she desperately held back tears. “I…I don’t know what happened next. Eluria and Sancha were holding onto his arms, all looking like they’d just had sex…He told me to go and never come back. Ever.” She shrugged hopelessly. “The next thing I know I’m screaming at him. I can’t even remember what I was saying.” Her gloved fingers gripped hard onto her shoulders as she ground her teeth. “I was so fucking angry. There might not have even been words for most of it. Just screams. Then Eluria punched me in the eye, saying that I was a worthless whore and never welcome back. And my father just stood there, like I was nothing. I…I snapped.”
Verona patted Anton’s hand and gently moved over to Cetina while Kal pulled herself up to rest next to Anton. Cetina glanced at Verona when she sat next to her and gently held her hand. She didn’t recoil or fight, simply staring into the flame.
“I shoved Eluria back with everything I could and then I ran. I ran from there, crying my heart out. I never thought I could cry like that.” Cetina shook her head as she wiped away the tears. “When I stopped I realised I had already run halfway to the other side of Porswea. Then…Then you sort of know what happened.”
Cetina looked up at the night sky and said nothing more. Anton felt more than a little angry at Duran but parts of her story didn’t make much sense. He didn’t get the impression that she was lying. The bizarre change in Duran and the Bebbezarian guards that she spoke of sounded like manipulation by magic. Then there was the head-ache she claimed to have at the time. Was that some side effect of it not working entirely? The Ghlotsm and the Thumpers both had some immunity to magic…There was only one way to know for sure. Anton gently patted Kal as he stood up and moved to the other side of Cetina. Tears were still in her eyes as she looked at him in confusion.
“Cetina. I want to check something, with your permission.” She frowned even more deeply as she looked at Verona, who seemed to understand what he was about to do. “It’s not going to hurt and I might help me understand something.”
Cetina wasn’t up for any objections, though she didn’t know what Anton was planning to do. He placed his hand on her armoured shoulder, much to her confusion, and closed his eyes.
I don’t think I want to say this aloud, just in case I’m wrong and it sets Cetina on the wrong path.
Okay. Tethra, Goddess of Prayer, has magic been cast upon Cetina?
The answers to his questions using the prayer power had always been rather vague, never a word in his ear or head, only a feeling. This feeling that came back was a yes but it wasn’t clear what it meant.
“Anything?” Verona asked.
“I’m not sure.” Anton replied, eliciting a frown from the lightly red eyed Cetina. “But I want to try something else. This…this might feel a little weird.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Just trust me. This is going to feel a little weird.”
Cetina frowned but didn’t say anything as Anton closed his eyes once again. This time he tried to push the prayer magic into Cetina, to search for something. While he doubted she had the ethereal grain lodged in her body symbolising a developing mark of the Old Gods there was a chance that he could find something. Cetina gasped and tried to recoil away as he started to search through her.
“What, what are you doing?” Cetina asked.
“Does it feel like there’s water running underneath your skin?” Verona asked quietly.
“Yeah?”
“Just wait a moment.” Verona patted her hand. “Anton knows what he’s doing.”
Anton opened an eye and saw Verona throwing him a look. He hoped he knew what he was doing. At least he knew not to try this why using the lightning or fire magic. That would end in disaster for her. Anton kept searching and found it quite hard to search through her body, like he was pushing through mud. When he looked through Verona and Kal there wasn’t any resistance, before and after their activation, but this was new. He moved carefully just in case there was some risk involved with using the magic this way.
She said that she had a head-ache of some kind. I should check her head first.
He directed his attention upwards, Cetina let out a strange whimper as the magic reached her face, and he found something. For a moment he thought it was another lodged grain but it wasn’t that. It was more like a wisp of smoke, a green smoke, which tried to coil its way around and through her brain. Whatever it was it wasn’t strong and dissipated with the tiniest touch of his magic. He tried to form his magic around the few remaining puffs but it was impossible to get a hold of it. Nor was there any way of getting it out so he could inspect it further. A few brief waves of his magic and is was all gone. He quickly searched through her body but couldn’t find any more.
When he opened his eyes again Cetina stared at him in disbelief. “What…What was that?” A faint smile drew on her face. “That was really weird. I hope you don’t do that to just any woman.”
Verona chuckled. “Did you find anything?”
Anton scratched his head. While he was a little hesitant to tell her what he found he knew that, after everything that she had been through, she deserved to know the truth. “Sort of.” Cetina frowned deeply. “Well, firstly, I had a bit of trouble searching with my mana. It felt like I was pushing it through mud, and I’ve never had that problem before. Secondly…I found something like green smoke coiled around your brain.”
Cetina’s face drained of colour. She stared blankly at him, completely stumped but what he said.
“Whatever it was it dissipated the moment that I touched it with my magic. There wasn’t much, like it was just a tiny wisp. It’s all gone now but I’ve got no idea what it was. Well, that’s not entirely true. I think it might be some sort of magic, which probably caused your headaches during…that. But I’ve got no idea where it came from.”
Anton looked to Kal. He doubted that she would know but there was a chance that she had overheard something. His faint hopes were dashed when she shook her head. “Sorry. I’ve never heard of something like that.”
Anton nodded and turned back to Cetina. “Sorry, but I don’t know what it all means.”
Cetina rubbed her temples with her leather gloved hands. “I feel a little bit better. I’ve had a headache ever since then but it’s been getting better slowly. It’s completely gone now.”
“Well, since I’m here I should try and deal with that bruise of yours.”
Anton held is hand on Cetina’s shoulder and chanted a prayer to heal the bruise on her face. The mana flowed out of his body and into Cetina, but again it felt sluggish and required more mana than he expected. Not enough to be concern him but enough to be noticeable. The slight discolouration on her cheek quickly faded as Cetina touched the former bruise. She seemed equally happy and surprised that it disappeared.
So…There’s more going on with her than just that green smoke. I’m going to guess that’s not from her, but it feels like she’s got some sort of magic inhibition. Not to the same level as the Ghlotsm or those rabbit Thumpers, but there’s something. I healed that Bebbezarian guard without any issue…but she’s not one of them. She said that her mother came from across the sea to Bebbezzar. That would explain why she looks different to the rest of them. Maybe that’s why it felt difficult to use my magic. She has some innate resistance. Does that mean she could use magic at all?
A light cough from Cetina brought him back to the present. “Thank you, Anton.” Cetina bowed her head. “I feel a little better.”
“It’s not a problem.” Anton smiled at her. “If you get injured come to myself or Kal. We can heal just about any non-fatal wound.”
“Really?” Cetina looked at Kal with no small amount of awe. Kal didn’t know how to react so she scratched at her head. That was enough for Cetina. “I’ll do just that.”
“I think it’s time for us to go to sleep, for real this time.” Verona gave Cetina’s hand one last pat before she stood up and moved back to her previous position, Anton taking his as well.
Cetina looked a little happier, as happy as he expected she could be, and continued to look into the small fire. All around the mercenaries were slowly starting to go to sleep and gather as much strength as they could for the coming fight. It was a nice change of pace for them to not have to worry about arrange a guard rotation, where they could actually sleep, though Anton knew that he wouldn’t be able to sleep properly until he had a roof over his head and a decent bed. Verona and Kal resumed their previous arrangement and drifted off to sleep, Anton hoped properly this time, while he sat in silence, his sight drawn to the silent and still Cetina, watching the flame reflected in her grey and purple eyes.