DAMIAN ELDRITCH

We have made it back to Seastrand after our mission of clearing out the discovered bandit camps in the surrounding area. The fight with them has been long drawn out, and I am unable to shake the feeling that there is a specific purpose in them being here, beyond just it being a hub for businesses around the port and easy targets.

The way the bandits are organized is unlike typical thrown together groups of bandits. These are professionals, and every time we locate a camp, they are gone from it before our task force can clear them out. SOMEONE is helping them in either the task force or the local guard, or multiple people are and it’s costing a lot of lives and good people.

They started around the time Lucian was.. Two? Three years of consistent hunts and very little progress has been made. It’s a disgrace, and just when you think you caught the rat in a trap, it gets out and bites you back.

“Damian, are you still with us?” I snapped out of my thoughts to the meeting room of the Adventurer’s Guild, where a debriefing was happening regarding our mission, and realized the Chairman of this Guild branch was speaking to me.

“I apologize Chairman Vincent, the mission has taken a toll on my exhaustion, and my mind was thinking over the bandit issue.” I quickly responded, and Vincent simply nodded and said, “Understood. I expect you wish to get home to Lenora and your boy, Lucian, was it? How old is he now?”

“He is five years old, and turning six in a few months. Lucian is going to make an excellent adventurer one day, and far surpass his mother and I. I know that is something every parent says about their child, and I will just say this: Get in his good graces before he is too far out of reach for any of us.” I say to the room.

The reactions are mixed, to say the least. Well, I tried Lucian.

I look at the table map on the wooden stand, with markers for notable landmarks such as Seastrand or local villages and cities, and red pins for known bandit camps. “Now, all jokes aside, we need to figure out real solutions to these bandits. Who has an idea?” Chairman Vincent said to the group.

“Root out the traitors and set up a trap to catch them.” One of the lower E-Ranks called out. Solid idea, no easy way to implement, however. “How do you propose we do that? Round up everyone involved and torture the truth out of them?” Another of the E-Ranks called out. Hot shots looking to rise to prominence tend to bark the loudest.

The two men started to argue back and forth, and quickly turned into a pointless argument. “ENOUGH” Vincent shouted and released his magical aura into the room. Vincent was a 4th Tier Earth Mage, and his aura would make a 2nd Tier freeze up, much less the 1st Tier E-Ranks arguing. It probably felt like a mountain was dropped on their shoulders and they stopped speaking immediately, whether by choice or inability to.

Vincent glared at them for another few seconds, and then withdrew his aura. The veterans in the room knew Vincent had no tolerance for petty squabbles like that. “Well, Vincent. After three years, the ideas have seemed to dry up. Anything of note for us to know about lately?” I said to him.

“The capital plans to send out… specialists to help deal with the issue, since the performance here in their eyes has been… Lackluster on paper. They won’t listen to reason on that assessment either. The rumors of traitors amongst us has not helped either. The specialists are due to arrive at any time, but they are not held to any authority here, only the royal family. If encountered, do not cause offense, it is not something any of us can afford to handle.” Vincent said to us.

So, these specialists are not necessarily a good thing for us, or Seastrand. I will need to warn Lenora and Luce to not draw attention to Lucian’s… Talents.

“Do we still need to perform our normal patrols of known areas, or is it out of our hands now?” I asked Vincent, who looked uncomfortable at the question. “Frankly, I have not been told anything besides being prepared to strike on any given notice. They are intentionally not keeping us in the loop to prevent… Spread of information.” The room grew tense, knowing the implications of what was said under the table.

The traitors can’t reveal information none of us know.

I laughed bitterly, and said “I can’t deny that it’s probably the most effective solution we have at the moment, and so we will make sur-”

*BOOM*

A loud explosion outside of Seastrand had the entire room of adventurers standing and hands on their weapons in a moment's notice. “Let’s go find out the source of the noise, the bandits might have started something! Vincent, have the town guard reinforce the entry points to the city. The rest of you, with me!” I call out to the group and take control, and we quickly move out into the lobby.

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Once we get into the lobby, I see one of the local shop owners, Meredith, in a panic yelling at the Guild attendant, “There’s no time! The explosion came from the area Vincent’s home is at! They need to stop the meeting and go make sure his wife and son are safe!” It came from my house?!

“There’s no time to stop, my family might be in danger! I will thank you properly later, Meredith!” I say as I fully sprint out the door and down the main street of Seastrand.

Please be okay Lenora, Lucian. I’m coming!

LUCIAN ELDRITCH

Mana deprivation is something that every mage experiences, but can never get used to. It feels like your body has been wandering through a desert for days with no food or water. Starvation does not begin to cut how intense it feels.

I get into a half-meditation trance as I call the ambient mana into my body to start refining, just in case more trouble arrives. It’s not as effective as a full trance, but I can remain alert enough to protect my mother if necessary.

The exhaustion is taking its toll on me at the same time. When I feel my eyes start to close, I break the meditation trance and slam the rock into my thigh once again. The pain keeps me alert.. It keeps my mother and I alive right now.

After around 10 minutes of the meditation cycles, my mana deprivation has alleviated some, but the physical exhaustion is still affecting me. I should not be surprised, I killed three men, and crippled a fourth. His wounds are painful, but not deadly. The Adventurers Guild, or my father can handle the rest with him.

Now that I think about it, there’s no way I can explain the situation to anyone that isn’t my father. The hell do I even say to him? “Sorry Dad, we were attacked by bandits, and I killed all but one so you can extract information from him.”, like any normal five year old would.

I heard the sound of yelling and heavy, armored footsteps marching towards me, and I slowly began to piece together what was being said past the exhaustion.

“LENORA! LUCIAN! ARE YOU THERE?!” A man’s voice yells. I know that voice, it’s my father’s! “DAD, I’M HERE!” My body is so damn tired. This body of mine might literally be the death of me someday.

“CALL OUT FOR ME AGAIN SO I CAN FIND YOU! LENORA! LUC-” My father and a group of me arrive in the area and freeze up at the scene. They look around, and see a man hysterical from the pain pinned down to the ground with earth magic, and a broken and twisted leg. A man burned to a crisp with a staff beside him, a woman unconscious on the ground, pale and blood stains on her chest with puncture holes from the arrows. Unconscious, but alive.

Potentially the more gruesome sight? The young boy sitting beside the woman, covered in blood with two dead men beside the woman and him. The men with a sliced or stabbed throat. The boy was young, but the killing intent in the scarlet eyes of his made the group of veteran adventurers stop in their tracks. They felt danger in those eyes of his.

My father ran towards Mom and I, and when the group behind him tried to follow, I ignored the pain and channeled spell-less Earth mana in my hand and smacked the ground, sending forth a faint but visible alone behind my father.

“None of you will approach my mother. I don’t know any of you, and I don’t trust you to not be part of the bandits who tried to kidnap us. Cross the line without permission, and you will die.” I coldly said to them, not taking my eyes off of them as my father approached. It’s a bluff, and I just have to hope it will work.

The group did not try to go past the line, and looked around at the bodies before waiting for their captain to explain.

My father quickly dropped down to my mother’s side, and checked her pulse and breath. He breathed a sigh of relief when he seemed to confirm she was okay, just unconscious now. He was not a healer, but an experienced adventurer knew basic first aid at the minimum. “Lucian, tell me what happened.” My father said in a tone I haven’t heard from him. He was the same as me. Barely controlling his rage.

“Mother and I were on the way to the market to get groceries for a welcome back dinner for you. Noticing the forest was unusually quiet, I warned mother and used wind magic to detect the locations of the people. Mother quickly casted a water magic shield, and held off the attacks for a while and we waited for help to show up.” I took a deep breath, talking this much was hell for now but the situation needed to be explained.

“Help never came, and we were focused on the two men here attacking the shield with their weapons, that the archer, the man crippled over there.” I motion towards the hysterical Gren near the adventurers. My father glares at Gren with such intensity, he would have gone crazy, even without the pain.

“He managed to pierce Mom’s shield with two poison arrows and when I had noticed, she was already on the ground unconscious with the two arrows in her chest. I thought she was dead, and she almost was.” My father tightened his body and clenched his jaw with such force I felt the earth under him threatened to break. A fearsome Earth mage, indeed.

One of the adventurers, a weak looking man yelled out, “Boss, there is no time for this. We need to find the killer of the-”, and my father looked at him and said, “Another word before I give the clear, and nobody will be able to save you. This is my wife and son, and you will not interrupt him again”. He looked at me a little more warmly, and said “Continue, Lucian”.

“Mom’s barrier fell, and the men approached us saying they were going to.. Make slaves of us, and wanted to test out Mom first before they put the slave crests on us.” The rage boiling in my father’s eyes is filled with more anger than even I had when I fought the bandits.

“I took advantage of them underestimating me and used my magic to kill them. The only thing of theirs that touched Mom was the arrows, Dad. I healed her, and took the antidote from the archer and gave it to her. she has not regained consciousness, but she’s okay now right, Dad?” I asked my father. My skill was in combat, saving lives was an indirect result of my killing more. She looks okay, but I don’t know for sure if the antidote worked.

“Your mother is the expert with healing, but what she has taught me says she will recover. We will know for sure when she wakes up however”. He was having a hard time maintaining his cool in this situation.

He gently picked up Mom into his arms, and took one last look at the area and said, “I am sorry that I wasn’t here to protect you both. We can talk about the details of this later, but just know that I am beyond proud of you for doing what was needed to keep her safe. Thank you for protecting my wife, son.”

Proud of me? I can’t recall anyone ever saying that to me, especially not after I murdered multiple men and crippled one. It left a conflicted, but warm feeling in my chest and I nodded to my father.

“Men, break the crippled man out of the binding and drag him along with us to the clinic in Seastrand. We need to make sure both my wife, and he survive.”

“That won’t be necessary. We will be taking possession of that man as a suspect in our investigation.” An unknown voice came from the shadows of the forest near us. It was hard to tell where the voice came from.