* * *
Telnia had long left her seat and was storming throughout her sitting room, finding the room too small to adequately release her anger.
“Where is that eccentric!? How could the messenger fail so completely!? How hard is it to guide him here, where could he…”
Telnia broke off when the door opened and rounded on her butler, her anger stewed to perfection and she was ready to lambast the man but found herself aghast when she found him returned alone. Her mouth remained open, her anger replaced by shock. She stood for a few moments before her anger returned, renewed and now rage.
“You.. You…!” her rage was so great she found herself unable to speak for a few moments before she continued.
“You forgot where he was to be found? Has he already left? Did you fail to arrive in time? How are you unable to…”
Her tirade continued for another good small bell as her anger raged without constraint and her anger shifted from verbal to physical, her fists pummeling against the butler without remorse leaving deep bruises across his torso, arms and even several on the sides of his face as her mana enhanced slaps thundered just shy of snapping his neck. The butler remained unmoved, knowing his place and remaining silent. After another several moments, her rage subsided enough that she was able to step back, her anger spiking a bit more as she realized she’d failed to stop her assault soon enough for his bruises and damage to be healed with his HP.
“Now you must use a precious health potion! See what you have done? Explain, clearly, your failure before I refuse the health potion for you!”
The butler remained stoic and bowed before standing, explaining succinctly without emotion or accusation.
“I arrived at his inn to find him in his morning meal with his apprentices. I informed him to come immediately and he refused, stating he wished to finish his meal. I informed him, as you stated, of the requirement of his immediate presence but he refused once again. He then gave me a statement for you. A question, rather.”
Telnia narrowed her eyes, looking carefully before she nodded, “And what excuse does he have for his failure to appear before me?”
The butler bowed once again, remaining bowed as he began speaking again, “He asked that I ask you these questions, as your master. ‘Does the apprentice command the master or the master the apprentice?’ He then asked a second question: ‘Does the apprentice come to the master or the master to the apprentice?’ After, he then asked that you give your answer to him directly. He will not accept an answer from any other.”
Telnia stared at her butler for several moments before she shrieked in utter rage. Her shriek lasted and when she returned from her insensate rage, she found the room empty, her maids, butler, and servants leaving her the room in consolation. Telnia, First in Line for Matriarch did not leave the room that day, although several rather expensive pieces found their way to the street outside through the beautiful panoramic window overhanging the street.
* * *
Joe found himself within the walls of the clan and heading ever inwards until they were near the Matriarch’s and Gwenvair’s home. They didn’t go in, however, and walked around the outside of the home courtyard and walls to the back. Behind the Matriarch’s small keep like home was a vast expanse of trees and lawn, all manicured beautifully, although there were some areas that appeared to be more like gardens of the herbal or medicinal type than just beauty. The space between the Matriarch’s walls and the outer city walls was quite large and they took another four or five minutes of walking to reach the walls. After they’d walked for a couple minutes, some smaller plots and homes showed up again, although they appeared to be sized more for hermits and single people than families, but not necessarily for the poor. They still held an opulence to them that separated them from a hovel, despite their sizes being about the same.
They wove their way through these small homes and made it to the city wall where they found several more of these small single room tiny homes lined up against the walls as well, almost looking more like guard stops now, rather than homes. The wall was quite massive, both in height and breadth, but the stairs leading up were quite widely spaced, which confused Joe a bit as he wondered how people could get to the walls quickly enough if the stairs were few and far between. The rear of the wall, however, was not shear, and rose up in a stepped format, much wider at the base than at the top, with the back of the wall shaped like a stepped pyramid of five steps, each step over twenty feet tall and closer to thirty feet tall. Man… if that’s about ten meters per step, then… what is that…. A forty or fifty meter tall wall? That’s… that’s big! Joe found himself looking on the wall in wonder, not having realized how tall the wall was. Were the city walls around the commoner area this big?
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As they came upon the walls, Joe turned to the nearest stairs. Gwenvair stopped and looked at Joe, seeming a bit surprised. Joe paused and glanced at her.
“What?”
“Uh… your section of the wall is over there,” Gwenvair pointed slightly off from their current direction.
Joe nodded, “Is there a closer set of stairs that direction?”
Gwenvair blinked at that, surprised a bit, “No?”
Joe paused, thoughtful. Uh… there must be a way … up? But… how… ooh! “And how would Garnedell, Zilnek, and Kilniara get up?”
Gwenvair’s eyes rose at that, “You wish to… You will protect the… us?”
Joe paused at that, considering, “I have never been to a monster tide before. Are there attacks that will reach the walls or go over the walls? What protection would you need on the walls? In my home, even the weakest would likely only need to hide behind the wall and they would be perfectly safe from almost any attack… except maybe an attack from the sky. Are attacks here similar?”
Gwenvair thought for a moment before waffling in her answer, “Yes? I’m… uncertain…”
Joe thought for a bit, leaving Gwenvair some time to expand her reply but found her floundering so interjected, “Do you have crenellations?”
“Crenel… I do not know what those are?”
“Uh… small sections of the wall that stick up to higher than a man’s height so people can hide behind them, but there are holes between them so people can step back and forth into and out of cover?”
Gwenvair blinked at that before she smiled, “Your clans must be incredibly wealthy. We are not able to do such a thing.”
Joe grimaced at that, now less willing to step in himself if there were no meaningful defenses. He thought for a bit before he tried once more.
“Very few beasts on my planet… plane are capable of long range attacks. They must come close to you before they can harm you. Those who can attack at range, still must be pretty close before they are able to do so as well. The attacks the beasts are able to … throw… are easily defended by a simple wall. What of the attacks here? Specifically for these three?” Joe finished by nodding at Garnedell, Kilniara, and Zilnek, quite certain that Gwenvair had defenses of her own supplied by the wealth of her clan.
Gwenvair quickly nodded at that before beginning, “Our beasts are similar as well, although there are some who can cast attacks long range as well as magical attacks that walls cannot defend as a fire attack can engulf a wall. There are also …” Joe blinked as Gwenvair kept speaking and time seemed to slow and a presence of mana began to well up around them. The other four did not seem to notice at all, listening as Gwenvair kept speaking, but Joe glanced around, watching with awe and intense curiosity. He first tensed with some worry but then relaxed when he realized that polyglot was powering up and he waited for it patiently to catch up and release Gwenvair and time to begin again.
“There are also … psychological, mental, and pressure attacks that attack as a wave and walls do not do as much to protect at the top of the walls.”
Joe nodded at that, his face becoming grim, “And if they were to stand on the third or fourth level of the wall?”
Gwenvair quickly nodded at that, “That is where I stand to support the Matriarch.”
Joe thought for a bit and nodded himself, “Then I will do the same.”
Joe turned to the other four, “Make sure to watch Gwenvair and hide where and when she does. OK?”
The other three quickly nodded and Joe then turned and continued towards the stairs. The others excitedly followed up behind him as he went up the series of stairs. When he made it to the top, he took a moment to stop and look out over the fields. It was a split level wall, with the outside of the wall about chest height to Joe. There were steps lining the entire edge between the differing heights at the top of the wall. The steps were for going up to stand at and defend the outside. The width of the wall was divided in about a quarter to three quarters fashion with the lower inner height having three quarters of the width and the higher outer half of the wall only about a quarter of the width of the wall. It was obvious that higher outside wall was the ‘combat’ section of the wall, but it was still wide enough to allow a good four or five people to walk side by side without being too close to the edge. The view from the top was breathtaking and even a little terrifying as there were no crenelations or guard wall to protect against falling off, just as Gwenvair had stated. Although, she didn’t say there was no guard rail or any kind of protection against falling off!
Joe grimaced a bit, looking over the wall at the empty field stretching hundreds of meters between the wall and the forest line. He stepped forward and came to the edge of the wall to stare down at the field at the bottom of the wall. He didn’t step forward far enough to see the base of the wall, the fifteen or sixteen story drop almost overwhelming even to him and he didn’t have a fear of heights.
He stepped back before turning around, finding the others looking at him attentively, although Garnedell was distracted quite a few times by the incredible view. Joe smiled as he watched Garnedell’s excitement before he turned to Gwenvair.
“Lead the way? I’m not sure where to go from here.”
Gwenviare smiled and nodded, “This way. The Matriarch asks that you hold the wall by her side.”
Joe smiled, “Not trusting me?”
Gwenvair flushed at that and turned back, worry flickering over her face until she noticed his smirk and she then breathed deeply in consideration before she made a decision and returned a smirk of her own.
“How could we trust a strange man!”
Several soft gasps rose from the others on the wall and Joe looked around, noticing the others standing around in studied nonchalance as they pretended to hear nothing. Joe smiled, his own smirk returning strong.
“Am I a strange man?”
“How could you not be?”
“So. I’m tall, dark, mysterious… and handsome?” Joe hid his flinch. That was stupid.
“Handsome? I think that may be a bit… too far!”