Chapter 45: Companion Arc

“S-Sir?”

“Wwwwwwhhhhhhaaaattt iiiittttt?” Stones those colors were awesome~

“Wh-What in the name of the twelve happened here?”

“I got stoned, good… Ah, not the sex kind.” I reached up at grabbed at the immaterial light above me. It floated just out of reach, dancing and glinting like the little tease is was.

“What?!”

I could hear her blush, funny to hear a visual, even Bella giggled: could you hear a visual? Experiment idea~ though I did not know why she of all people would blush. “I am fine Arc, hush and go.” It felt so good, why she did she have to be so loud? The light swayed and bobbed, breaking into dozen of different shades of earthen colors, each tinged with a golden aura.

“No! I-I mean, no sir, um, please pull yourself together!”

Why did she act like that? Important experiment, going sooooo good~ Felt so good, almost over too, but I did not want the colors to go~

A bell chimed around me and the pretty lights suddenly came together and grew larger. I grabbed at it, but the spell went right through my hands to hit me in the face.

“Gods!” I shouted, immediately regretting everything that happened in the last few minutes. I attempted to sit up before settling for rolling over instead. I felt stoning horrible, the painkilling chemicals that I had been experimenting with had only been a fairly small amount, but it had sent my mind places I never dreamed of.

I swore to never use that on myself again and immediately made to note to inoculate myself to that effect. It was a good discovery, but without a way to produce it in large batches outside my body the snip spell would still be more effective.

That said, it was a bit terrifying how good it actually felt. I did small experiements like that in the past, but never to that level. Despite everything I changed about myself, addiction was a danger I could never fully avoid, especially when the source of said addiction could come from my own body.

“Sir? What happened? Are you alright now?” She kept her distance like instructed, least I or my personal wards kill her by accident, but other than that the woman was nearly insufferable.

I glanced over at Arc, the odd woman I rescued from the burning village. She was apparently some peddler’s wife who had insisted they stop by her old home village. In her early twenties she was attractive, oddly without children, and now ‘indebted’ to me, to the extent that she had refused to leave myside after the patrol found us.

Said patrol had arrive to investigate the smoke trail and found the two of us and a few newly minted eunuchs. Not being interested in calling a mage a liar, they had ‘escorted’ us back to town where other mages could start asking us more serious questions.

Unfortunately for me, it turned out that the woman had no living family, surviving belongings, nor any talents beyond ‘balancing books,’ whatever that meant. As a result, I seemed to inherit the unfortunate obligation of taking care of her.

Naturally I tried to object, but Bella surprised me by insisting that we take her along. At first she pointed out that, because of my little trick with my ears, we needed to keep an eye on her, which did make sense. However, that line of reasoning also sounded more like me than Bella.

It was thus, to my astonishment, that Bella hid the reason why from me, instead asking me to trust her. While, technically, all she was doing was blocking me from seeing her one part of her mind, it still threw me because that I did not think we could hide anything from one another anymore.

I could see that there was no malice coming from Bella, but it still made my skin crawl that she felt the need to hide anything, especially when I literally had my entire being open for her to investigate. That I was almost always the one in control of our body meant she was also free to poke around my thoughts as she pleased, while I would need her to take over in order to see her secret.

That I had come to accept that Bella had her current level of access to my brain was already a large indicator of the level of trust I had in her. Bella was a part of me, regardless of my desirers and if she betrayed me, we would both likely die. So it was that the woman stayed, but I had a storm or curses come to mind when it happened. Still, the decision that had turned out to be surprisingly worthwhile in a few different ways.

“Sir?” I blinked and realized I had been staring.

I sighed. “I was experimenting on myself. The effects were quite odd, but nothing to worry about overall.” If I could create an aerosol version of that and put it inside an iron container, it would be a brilliant ay to immobilize large amounts of people with a low death rate.

“P-Please do not do that Lord Elf, what would I do if you died?”

“Your concern is touching, but it was only a pain numbing spell. Instead, I would suggest that you worry more about what would happen if someone heard you calling me ‘Lord Elf’ understood?” I shot her a glare as I was slowly sitting up straight. My head was pounding and I wished for the umpteenth time that I had something to take care of such things.

After immediately seeing my looks she bowed her head and let out a stream of apologies.

I had told her time and again over the time we spent together that I was not an Elf and she was certainly not obligated to stay by me. Still, she insisted and continued to tread on my nerves whenever we talked. Regardless though, she was good at something I greatly appreciated: talking with people.

I was good enough at talking to individuals, changing to play to one person at a time, but she was good at talking with merchants, mothers, and whoever else was nearby, all at the same time. In a crowded market the woman was the single most helped person you could ask for when looking for information.

Which was exactly what I had her doing the past few days. “Did you hear anything about the River Stalkers?”

“Yes! Ah, I mean yes sir, I found out that they are not too far away to our north. Maybe half a days’ hard ride.” She looked so stoning proud of herself I nearly broke out in laughter.

“Good job.” I turned away and moved to the bed where I had my traveling pack ready.

The lodging had been provided along with a small reward for capturing the bandits alive. Or more specifically, the Lord Ferrum gave us a pass that basically meant we had free lodging in his lands. Unfortunately we were already at the edge, making the thing useless from here on out.

That the bandits we captured indeed talked about the Stalker’s knife made it necessary to rush a bit. Though the seal itself was unrecognizable after the fire, the connection had still been made, meaning I had to get moving, fast.

As we left the town we were interrogated in Ferrum House, was already gathering up a ‘small’ force to go and talk to the River Stalkers. That this force seemed to consist of a fair number of mercenaries was worrying, but not unheard of given the nature of the raids and boiling tensions to the south. They were moving fairly fast as a result and would only be a few days behind.

I planned to try and set things up with the Stalkers ahead of time so that everything could be settled as peacefully as possible, before things got too out of hand.

Somewhat ironically, Bella actually asked if I was seriously prepared to kill for them. She, of all people, knew just how motivated I was not to kill anyone. She also knew what I had several plans in place to try and avoid just that.

Would I suffer the Guilt because some group I had a slight connection to looked to be set up for murder on a fairly impressive scale? No. Would I suffer the Guilt because some group had a traceable connection to both me and some people I was concerned about? Yes, I would kill their whole clan if that was what it took.

Men and women alike carried the same weight as far as the Guilt was concerned. That I knew and liked Janeen to the point where I killed her rapists in the past did not matter. I had killed my own family before, so compared to that Janeen was practically a stranger.

On the subject, family stupidity was never an excuse to seek revenge to this degree. It was the one thing about the Stalkers that well and truly disgusted me as well as made me question if they were really unrelated to this madness. No matter who was in the wrong, or the situation they found themselves in, clan fought for clan.

They even had a feud with Bella’s father, Nathan, back in Entrials over the fact that he had apparently killed one of their clan after catching him trying to steal a horse. The way I heard it, only the clan leader Mathalaus, the fact that one of our brothers had magic, and the Lord-Mayor’s personal efforts had kept the clan from killing Nathan in revenge.

I did not know what happened in their past to make their ‘clan’ move to Entrials in the first place, but I did hear from Mathalaus himself that they were driven away.

If that constituted a revenge that burned small villages than I would normally stay away, but I had a stoning mithril coin that, apparently, no smith would work without a duke’s personal order! Furthermore, ‘DeMorte’ was already recorded as having the coin!

I could not throw it away as a mage’s magic imprint would lingered in the strange metal for months. I could not remake the thing, through a smith or on my own, because that would set off anyone who saw it. I could not hide it away from any real attempts to search me, because only iron could truly hide it and that would draw attention. AND to top it off the thing tied me to the River Stalkers and thus to Entrials, to mother…

I shook my head, “probably a stoning Nalk’s fault.”

“Sir?”

Moron, now you are cursing them out loud too. “Nothing, just cursing the fact this became necessary.”

“Ah… umm sir, do you really think someone is… only making them look like the culprits?” She seemed to trust me when I said the Stalkers had not burned her town, but she also shut down whenever I started probing too closely.

If she was not legitimately traumatized, than she was a spy, but I was still trying to decide which it was. Bella object to the idea for all of a fraction of a moment before I threw the word ‘Nalks’ at her and she shut up.

I took a deep breath and looked over my new equipment. “Yes, but I always prepare in case I am wrong.”

Indeed I had few options so I prepared for the worst. I needed to meet up with the River Stalkers to create an excuse for why I still had the coin. I could spin a hundred stories about how honorable they used to be, or how their smith had simply worked the coin for Nathan’s house and he had paid it to me.

To that extent, I had somewhat abused the hospitality we received when in that town. After all, I had brought the local guards ‘proof’ of who was raiding the nearby lands and then was ‘rudely’ interrogated for all of the day and a half that it took the Lord to arrive. That was I given a meager monetary reward that ‘did not properly reflect their gratitude’ meant I got them to make it up in other ways.

Though I never understood why wards put in weapons were called enchantments, it did not affect my work. As proof, thirty iron tipped arrows with small boom spells embedded in their shaft sat beside a bow with durability runes and a special ‘enchantment’ called line-up. I also had another group of ten arrows in my pack that I had enchanted with more viscous spells.

My other equipment had also slightly changed as I took the opportunity to build up some personal wards. To those without ability, it looked like I was wearing a simple traveling robes, but to mages it practically glowed from all the new protection spells. They were incredibly valuable for to keeping me safe, though they made it almost impossible to walk down the street.

Wards were usually too stupid to actively tell who was or was not a threat. Certain instructions could make them react to hostile intent, but if you (or whoever attacked you) were calm enough those were useless. Also, since they could not be activated or deactivated in a hurry it meant using them all the time was like walking around in armor covered in pointlessly sharp spikes.

Not that nobles tended to care…

Anyway to finish up my preparations, I also bought a rough piece of iron that I attached some bone material to in order to create a makeshift shield.

I would rather have gotten a well fitted iron gauntlet and made some specially constructed throwing knives, ones that I could enchant, but I had neither the time nor the money. Not to mention that this body was still changing, making specialized equipment of limited use.

While still fairly short, I was quickly nearing the average height of an adult peasant woman.

Over all, it had drained the generosity of my hosts as I bought the equipment and ate enough to enchant it all in less than three days. After that, we had set off, trying to run down the River Stalker clan before anyone else could.

Now we seemed to have caught up with them. “Make sure you wear that riding dress the previous Lord gave you.” I called back, grabbing my things and preparing to leave.

“Y-yes sir, immediately.” I really wanted that stutter gone, but it was mental, not physical, and- and why did she say immediately?

I turned back to find her stripping unceremoniously and starting to pull on the much nicer dress It had been a gift on the off chance that the Lord might want to meet us in person. Instead, he met me while she hid.

“As you do refer to me as in the masculine tone, should you really be so quick to change?”

She was just about to done her nicer outfit when she froze. “If your Lordship desires…”

Gorith’s tombstone her voice sounded dead, I wondered what sort of face she was making, but she was facing away from me. I wanted to sigh, but held it in. As someone who was a murderous, slaving, bandit in my previous life this was not my area. I had already given her the opportunity to take revenge and now she had to choose to move on.

Not that I was expecting that choice to come anytime soon. Sometimes time had to work before you could close the door on such events… Though they never could be fully closed. I was even prepared for most of what happened going in, but the rattling of chains had set me off for years after I violently ripped that particular noble family apart.

Stones, the word ‘slut’ still set me on edge, but I had to concentrate on the present. “No matter how attractive you are – and you are attractive Arc – I lack the anatomy for what you are thinking about.” I paused and briefly considered the slight fallacy of that statement before deciding to ignore it. My fingers were perfectly functional after all, but she seemed to be far too conservative to think of such things.

“Ah, that is right. Of course my lord. Hah, my apologies.” She resumed dressing and I refused to look away, trying to decide what that small ‘hah’ meant. She did not look at back at me though so all I had to go on was her stiff body language.

“No one has tried anything stupid have they?” I asked, looking over at the young woman’s body for any new bruises or scars.

“No.” How short. “Ah, I mean, no, Lord El-Sir ah, I…” She turned to face me and gave me what should have been a very nice view. My eyes moved down out of habit, but I quickly found that I was searching for injuries again without much thought, odd that.

After I was done with my cursory inspections I waved a hand prompting her to turn back around. It had only taken a moment, but I still found it interesting that she actually let me have an eyeful, even if she was likely frozen in panic or something. “That is fine, just remember that if you do not say, or do, anything, then nothing changes. If something happens, tell me.”

“Yes sir.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

I shrugged to myself, as long as everything was fine she would likely heal in time. I had talked to her and tried to say the right things to help her recover, but I was still unsure about how it had gone over. Regardless, she knew that I could not do anything if she hid something that occurred. If she did, then it would be her own fault.

She quickly finished dressing, never turning back until she was done.

I might not like the woman’s presence, but I did feel obligated to make sure no one touched her as long as she continued to be my servant. Both in the spirit of trying to heal instead of hurt and because it was simply my responsibility.

Even if it was only temporary, she had become my follower and I took that seriously. To that extent I even taught her some self-defense basics, though most of them were difficult for her because of her build.

I walked outside and was greeted by a man leading a horse, already loaded up for travel. I glanced back at her, “Good job, the horse was not too much trouble to get I hope?”

“No, but the owner did not stop giving me suggestive looks when he asked if I had ‘tried it yet,’ which was unnerving.” She sent me a brief questioning glance, but did not ask the actual question.

I took the rains and more or less dragged the horse over to her, the thing did not like me. Come to think of it, no animal had liked me since I went genderless… something to look into later.

Arc had told me before that she knew how to ride and this would give us two useful advantages. First, it means that I did not have to walk at her speed to bring her along, since I could be fully equipped and still outrun the horse for a time. Second, with my clothes and rough shield, I would be mistaken for a guard, which would give me a good idea of the River Stalker disposition.

A young, lone woman riding around making her guard run along behind her would tempt a bandit or two, especially if those bandits had mages, which is what it looked like. If the Stalkers came out to greet us peacefully, which was what I hoped would happen, than it would be another indicator that they were being set up.

If I was wrong for whatever reason – I would have an iron shield on one side and a nice sized horse sporting a woman in a fine dress on the other.

I passed her the rains and quietly mentioned the phrase “bedroom problems” before stepping back to let her mount the beast. I studied her wooden face as she nodded and quickly calmed the horse down. She did not lie about having experience then.

I made sure my wards recognized both her and the horse as comrades to protect as needed and we quickly set off. More rumors would be left in our wake, but I had given up on leaving anything besides an obvious trail, maybe when this was over… I know, I know, but let me dream on occasion Bella.

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Arc’s information was correct, though to preserve the horse we took a little longer than half a day. In fact we had left not too long after sunrise, so we arrived shortly before evening dinner, covered in sweat. I had sown a few cooling runes into our clothes, but it did not help that much, especially as we were wearing more layer than Arc and jogging most of the way.

While our muscles were handling the abuse remarkably, Bella had almost completely dedicated herself to making we did not overheat. More flaws to work out, but this was a fairly natural one as I had not had to test my endurance like this. Denser muscle and bone mass was wonderful, but I still had a lot to work on, thing that I was only now managing to stress-test.

I briefly tried in vain to find out why she wanted to keep Arc around, but she immediately turned her attention to blocking my efforts.

As a result I was actually thinking about finding somewhere to sleep when I found the Stalkers. Or Stalker actually, singular, as despite my previous experience in lurking around mountains and actual forests, spotting more than one was a difficult task.

Having spent over a decade guiding others in what to what people apparently called ‘the last forest’ meant that Stalkers had no need to stay in a town and cause trouble. That and they were called the ‘River Stalkers,’ in a land where fear of nature in any form seemed to be branded into people at birth. It was not a mental hardship to come up with the idea that they might follow rivers and streams.

Thinking about some of the people I had met over the years, I was honestly a bit surprised that any wooded areas still existed at all. If it was not for the need for firewood, ship timber, and to demonstrate their control over nature, I honestly believed that the tree farms would be burned out of spite. Though the one I found the Stalkers in was not the first to make me start doubting if some of these areas were actually ‘farms’ at all, given their noticeably larger size.

It would certainly be interesting if there were pliantly of forests left, but they were all called tree farms just to make the nature-phobic feel better. “It seems that they are in there, Arc, I hope you do not have too much of a problem with the trees?”

She glanced over at the trees though her vail, something I enchanted to make her look calm and distant no matter the situation. It serviced as a nice enough piece of misdirection. “I do not like going too far in, but if I am with an- w-with you sir, I will be fine.”

Was this infernal woman still stuck on the Elf thing? Gods above, at least she did not say it out loud, why do you want this woman here Bella?

“Good, just remember to remain silent and go along with what I say. I plan on telling some tales until we are invited in, since I would prefer they did not know I was a mage.”

I did not hear if she responded, instead concentrating on the sole figure lurking near the edge of the woods in clothing that I had not seen outside of Entrials. I wondered how many were hidden as I directed Arc to turn towards the trees.

Bella shifted in the back of my head as I used a brief gust of magic to cool and clean both Arc and myself. Now that she could relax Bella immediately started probing and mentally objecting to my plans.

I wanted the Stalkers to be good people, getting wrapped up in something they did not ask for. If that was true and we could keep all parties calm and avoid unnecessary deaths, then the hurried trip would be worth it.

That said, I had Arc on the horse, in her best outfit, for a reason. If they were responsible, if Janeen and her father Mathalaus had gone insane or been disposed of, then they might kill Arc out of paranoia. She did not have enough fat on her to be an epitome of magi beauty, but she would do.

Despite a resent loss in weight the woman was still bigger than me and I was the actual mage. As long as I stayed within a certain distance of her, she would likely be mistaken as the mage. If the Stalkers were the same ones I remembered

If they were not and they tried to kill Arc or myself for any reason, I would end the fight before it could truly begin.

As we turned towards him the figure disappeared for a few minutes, but he was back before we made it halfway to the tree line, with two new friends. They both had spears in hand and bows slung behind them.

My own bow was actually beside me on the horse, with the enchanted arrows right next to it, both easy for me to get to.

What could we expect from them? A welcoming atmosphere and a nice dinner? Calm extortion? Violent ambush? Rabbit attack? -Hush Bella, I promise not to hurt any of the ‘bunnies’ if I can avoid it.

As I got closer I realized that I could feel slight amounts of magic from them, but I could not place it before they started calling out. “Far enough, who are you and what do you want?” The voice was strong, but not arrogant or smug, he was at the least taking his guard duties seriously.

Words before violence, not necessarily a sign of friendliness, but a good start. “The lady and I were requested to go and find the River Stalker clan on behalf of someone.”

“Who sent you?”

“Someone who does not want our help stopped by a few random men.” Subtle enough, you stoning graveborn? If I did not recognize them by their habits then I could confirm it by the small ritualist scar that they gave members of the clan when they came of age. A small crescent on their face, which was currently hidden from view.

He glanced at one of the men beside him briefly and I did took the moment to do the same with Arc. She was keeping her head pointed straight ahead, but her eyes kept darting all around us, primarily leaping from tree to tree, but also occasionally sparing a glance at me.

I mentally sighed and patted her horse, sending a light calming spell through them both. It was a bit of wasted mana, but if it could distract the Stalkers than all the better.

That said I was disappointed in Arc. If the woman could not keep calm when only faced by a few guards I would have to seriously consider leaving her as soon as possible, least any guard worth his salt actually notice her. Odds were that I was breaking 4 or 5 laws in any given kingdom by simply carrying around this piece of accused Mithril or use human bones for armor and I did not want their attention.

Yes, yes, Bella, I know you have some mysterious plans for Arc, however, if you are not going to tell them to me, than she at least needs to be useful in the short term. If I cannot use her to act out a part, than I will tell her to find her own path after all of this is done. No Bella, if it were anyone else

Ignoring my internal probing as I once again tried and failed to discern Bella’s plans for Arc, I looked back to the others as I heard the man start speaking again. “We are from the River Stalker Clan. Who are you and why are you here?”

“We are friends of the clan with a message for Mathalaus, if he still lives, for his daughter if he does not.”

“You did not answer the question.” He growled.

“You did not prove your identity.” I replied. The men spread out and one even leveled his spear at me. “A friend of the clan sent me,” I announced, “I am supposed to see Janeen or her father for the purpose of confirming that I am delivering the message to the correct people. If you are just some murderous morons eager for death than please state so now so that my lady may rest in the shade as I slaughter you all.” I hit all three of them with a small amount of killing intent, causing them to stop moving.

Not only had I now mentioned two of their clansmen by name, I had also relieved their relation to each other, and announced my determination to meet with them specifically. If they turned me away at this point, I was just going to find a tree and bury the blighted mithril coin, before leaving them to their fate.

I released my killing intent and added one last tidbit, “We are trying to warn your Clan in good faith, if the attempt fails because you turned us away, than you can deal with the Lord’s wrath on your own.”

After letting them think that through for a few moments I was about to turn around and give up when they finally relented. “Fine, come along and behave yourself,” one of the other guard quickly came over a very brief exchange ended with: “if you make any trouble, know that we have enough mages and iron to stop you quite quickly.”

I turned to give Arc a reassuring smile, which she returned gratefully, before I turned back to the men. “We have no intention to start trouble, if we need to wait for wards to be prepared, then so be it.”

“That will not be necessary, they are already prepared, please follow me.”

As we walked I figured out where the magical presence around them originated from.

It was their spears, specifically the wooden shafts. Come to think of it, while not an uncommon weapon where I was from, in this world enchanted spears were a rarity. Spears were still common enough in their various forms, but in some cases they could be more expensive than swords… At least the basic iron swords anyway, as gold inlays were disturbingly practical when you could use magic.

Was every one of their spears imbued with magic? The wood would channel it well enough, but I never saw the things back in Entrials… The clan was much better prepared than I originally thought. Anyone going to face them would have a serious problem on their hands, I knew, I spend decades doing just that.

Fun, I was likely walking into a heavily armed camp, near dusk, in a lightly forested area, with an otherwise useless burden that I felt at least partially obligated to protect. I smiled as we walked, the whole situation felt familiar and slightly nostalgic. A feeling that only got more powerful as we reached the outskirts of the encampment where the Stalkers were actually staying.

A spread out affair, there were a few cooking fires and various tents spread out through the small forest. The Clan was more numerous than I remembered, with hundreds of clan members easily within sight despite the dimming light. Though one thing did strike a chord in me, although they were quickly herded away when the clansmen saw us, I also saw groups of children playing together.

The feeling of nostalgia quickly receded and I instead felt a grim premonition. If they were attacked here… gods above and below, blood would flow. An old oath, the feeling of inclusiveness attached to a clan, the children? If it was me, I would only risk a minor extortion fee and then stay far away, otherwise it had all the makings of a bloodbath.

How smart was the Lord of this area? How ‘honorable’ were his intentions and what would it take to make him go away?

Life seemed to be a series of never ending questions like that, though death was always the final answer.

I looked over at Arc periodically, but she was more interesting in our surroundings than scared of them.

Eventually we arrived at a larger tent that was set up between two rows of trees and had its own protection wards anchored inside it.

I hardly took note though as I heard a familiar voice drift out from within the large tent. I had forgotten how fond I became of that young woman in the past and as we were led in I barely gave the guards in the room a cursory inspection (There were 6 of non-mages with enchanted spears, iron mail, back up iron weapons, two mages around 5 circles stood behind her) before focusing on her.

I felt the hollow pang of my lack of a sex organ as I admired Janeen’s curves, partly out of habit, partly because she was quite the beauty. Dressed in exceedingly practical and unrestrictive clothing, though now covered by a basic robe, I appreciated her for what she was, a fierce woman and hunter.

I quietly allowed my eyes the briefest moment to reacquaint themselves with Janeen’s figure and noted that her hips seemed to have grown even more appealing after giving birth.

Inevitably though, my eyes came to rest on the clan’s scar on her cheek for a moment and I felt a flicker of annoyance. It was a slight imperfection on arguably the most attractive women I had met in this world. Still, I nodded in satisfaction when seeing that familiarly fierce look of determination.

“You must been Janeen.” I bowed my head respectfully.

“You must be someone I do not know.” She responded coldly. “Who are you and why are you looking for my father? Moreover, does the guard intend to do all the talking? Does your Lady’s tongue not work?”

“My name is DeMorte and the lady is not a Lady in the titled sense, she was there to make sure the rumors were false.  I was sent here to warn you that the Lord believes that you are responsible for the attacks that have been occurring recently.”

Her face did not as much as twitch and I suppressed another nod. Janeen had grown up as well as I thought she would, despite her… attack. Though if I looked for it, I could easily find reminders in her stiffness and the look of disgust towards me, a male outsider.

Still, if there was anything I had a bad history of, it was seeing what I wanted to see, so I made an effort to check Bella’s point of view. She saw it, but not as a scar, just as normal suspicion.

“An interesting statement. Why does it mandate you bringing along a fake Lady though? To make your words seem more like lies? Furthermore, what do we care of your rumors?” Well, maybe a bit more than ‘normal’ suspicion, depending on one’s view.

I reach behind me and took out the mithril coin that had caused me so much trouble and held it up slowly as I felt several in the room tense up. “I was told to investigate the clan and try my best to settle thing peacefully, to which, I brought along a survivor of one of the most recent attacks.” I saw Janeen’s twitch in more than just her eyes. Something about it made me think a memory of her own attack had just come to mind. “Incidentally, this was given to me by a young woman, a cleric of Hoh with sharp ears, as payment since she could not investigate herself.”

I produced the coin, “She said that Mathalaus would recognize it.”

The coin caught Janeen’s eye and she visibly relaxed, letting some of the tension flow from her body for a moment. Then her cold and distant face was back, though the previous tension in her body did not return. “I will see that my father hears of this, however he will not be free until to speak with you until tomorrow.” She reached out to take the coin, to which I responded by moving it just out of reach.

“It is meant to be both my payment and mark of safe passage, the young lady even made me fill it with my mana to mark it as such.” It stretched believability, but I gave that lie with a look of paranoia that should have communicated just how much I wanted to keep the mithril.

Another, much smaller and more controlled, twitch ran through Janeen. “I will give you my word of-

Suddenly part of Bella’s plan seemed to unfold itself in my head. “Your word means nothing to me.” I let my cold voice freeze the room’s occupants. “Promise it to her,” I jerked my head at Arc who I saw jump out of my peripheral. “Promise it to the woman who allowed herself to be ridden into a camp full of people that the Lord considers responsible for her rape and the death of everyone she loved.”

I almost started a speech on the subject, but cut myself off instead, letting my anger at certain memories flow out physically instead.

Janeen stared at for a moment, with no one else speaking, though Arc did stutter for a moment before falling into her own stony silence. After a deep breath Janeen spoke again: “I will extend the Clan’s hospitality to both of you and I give my word to you both that you will not be harmed while here.”

I nodded, “I thank you for your offer and accept it. I look forward to speaking with your father tomorrow.”

*     *     *

Not far to the South, at a temporary camp:

Raanan Ferrum was not a fool, but he was greedy, which was dangerous.

Leo looked through the multiple possible possibilities in the near future, using the Nalk method of peeking into other dimensions to confirm his estimates.

As this Game’s Architect and the functional “GM” he knew just how badly this one event could go… That none of the other Nalks had stepped in to stop it worried him.

There were so many different ways that he could fail and the results of that failure would have long lasting effects, yet no one had stepped in to stop him or come to his aid.

There were thousands of Nalks in any given Game and although many had started placing bets on the results, none had stepped in to stop or even delay the events.

Raanan wanted to take the river Stalkers’ mithril and use it for his house an attempt which would likely turn into a bloodbath under the best of circumstances. Under the worst, with DeMorte helping the Stalkers, even the collapse of the Kingdom was not totally out of the question. Granted, the odds of that specifically happening were roughly the same as Leo playing ‘Global Thermonuclear War’ anytime soon.

Looking at Raanan Leo once again tried to follow the various predictions and pathways that events could take into the next few years. After taking various twists and turns he peeked into another dimension, looking for the ‘worse possible result’ just in case he missed something.

Peeking was only meant to confirm a Nalk’s suspicious after all, which was why it was frowned upon as a Game Move, but for Leo it was fine. Less than a full cycle remained before the Game Started and he was being overly redundant.

Everything from the sun’s output to the bird migrations had been checked twice at the minimum, least another little ‘interference’ take place, especially where DeMorte was involved. That stoning man could aggravate a rock and probably learn something new when it tried to kill him.

Then Leo found it.

‘You are the worst curse I have ever had to deal with DeMorte.’ Leo inwardly cursed and immediately made an energy package that rippled outward to alert all Players of his change. Then he turned to Rannan and made the smallest of corrections.

Not noticing that something was manipulating him, Rannan’s eye swept past the maps and papers that appeared on his incredibly expensive magic display. A magic device created by his family to help sort the ungodly amount of paperwork that went with wartime events.

By chance his eyes fell upon the small box, made out of the finest gold, crusted in gems, and infused with so much magic that even the untalented could feel its presence.

On an impulse, Rannan walked over and withdrew his dagger. A quick cut and a small trail of blood collected into a single drop of blood that lingered for a few seconds, getting slowly heavier, before it fell onto the box.

Instantly the first ten seals were released and Rannan cast the complicated spells to release the last few from memory. The resulting click informed him that it was unlocked and he opened the lid of the golden box.

It had been decades since anyone in the family had cause to use it, but he did not know how much trouble the Stalkers were going to make. He might need it for the fight that was brewing in the south east.

The black metal of the Zugoran neckless did not glint, it simply sat in its container, reflecting nothing in its passive black exterior. It did not need to glint menacingly, nor did it need to aggressively devour all the light around it. It simply existed in as a pitch black, raindrop shaped, piece of metal with some string running through its bronze housing, turning it into a neckless.

It simply lay there…

That was all it had to do to terrify the Lord Ferrum into slamming the lid back on the box.

Leo confirmed the seed of fear was planted and peeked back into the infinite expanse of universes that held everything that could be. Naturally if he looked hard enough he would find that event again, but this time he settled for making it an infinitesimally tiny possibility.

After all, compared to the fate of one or two kingdoms, the idea that a god would get involved was much more pressing. A continent or two falling to ruin was common and even expected to a certain degree, but a god interfering with the Game was not.