Chapter 27

Tom communed with the Gamma core through Alpha, and he was unsurprised to find that the dungeon had another minotaur guarding it. He checked on Beta and learned that the core had taken to spawning gnolls for its guardians. The single Korgoath remained, but there were no more spiders or asps in the depths of that place.

After some consideration, he instructed the Gamma core to resume Seeding iron, while he set the Beta core to Seed copper. He didn’t see any reason not to leave that ability active in his conquered dungeons, now that he’d thought things through.

Satisfied, he tucked the Alpha Core back in its sack and slung it around his shoulder. He was never very far from it, even when they were above ground as they were now.

The others were in the nearby town, while Tom was babysitting his minions. Several days had passed, and they had been alternating between traveling above or below ground every few hours. Klein brushed against Tom’s leg, and the boy leaned down to scratch the familiar absently.

The capital was still some distance aways, but they were well past the halfway mark. Welsius was a large kingdom, with the capital Profons squarely in the middle. The current landscape they were passing through was filled with rolling hills and sporadic groves of trees. It was pretty, but Tom still preferred his tunneling method of travel. He simply felt so exposed above ground for whatever reason.

A shadow flashed over head, too large to be a bird. Tom looked up and spotted the griffin circling his little camp. He tensed up until he spotted the rider on the beast’s back. Wild griffins were dangerous predators, but if this one was tamed then it was unlikely it would be a man eater.

Tom wasn’t the only one to notice their guest. Klein jumped onto the boy’s shoulders, and Tom winced as he felt the familiar’s sharp claws secure purchase. The Worsian Lynx hissed.

The Korgoaths bristled as well, growling with the spines on their backs erect. The minatour let out a bellow. The posturing continued for some time, but when the griffin landed some twenty meters away in the clearing, nobody moved.

“Are you Tom Weaver?” the rider asked, raising their voice to carry the distance.

“What if I am?” Tom challenged.

“I have a message for you, from the Queen of Koratia,” the rider answered. “And a gift.”

Tom frowned. He knew that Koratia existed, of course. It was one of the six great nations. If he thought for a minute he might even be able to remember the queen’s name. But the kingdom was too far from Welsius, with blight and wastes in between them, for much trade to take place between the two countries. Now that he thought of it, the griffin rider had a slightly strange accent.

“What does the Queen of Koratia want with me?” he asked.

“Why, for you to come visit her fine kingdom, of course,” the rider said. “The journey will be long, but I assure you it will be worth your time. Fenard doesn’t appreciate how to treat a controller. In Koratia you would live in the finest estates. Plural, you would have multiple mansions dedicated to your use, and teams of servants to see to your every whim. You would dine on the finest food, you would sleep on the softest of sheets, and you would want for nothing.”

Tom frowned as he understood. “And all she’d want in return is for me to maintain her Cores for her?” he asked.

“There is that,” the griffin rider admitted. “But if I understand your class correctly, you will be driven to use your abilities regardless. Why not use them for the good of a kingdom that truly appreciates them?”

“While I appreciate the invitation, I’m not going to defect at a moment’s notice,” Tom said.

“Of course not,” the rider admitted. “Do not think of it as defecting. Think of it as expanding your horizons. The offer will remain open for your entire life, Tom. Even should Queen Gloracia pass into the next life, you shall be welcomed into our kingdom with open arms by her successor.”

“I don’t think King Fenard would appreciate you trying to lure me away from his service,” Tom said.

“No, indeed I suspect he would not,” the rider agreed. “I’ll not pressure you any further than I have. But before I leave, the gift.”

The rider pulled out a satchel and tossed it into the clearing between them.

“Among other things, this satchel contains a scry-mirror with a direct connection to Queen Gloracia. I encourage you to speak with her at your leisure. Tom, you must realize by now how valuable your Skills are. If not, discuss things with the queen and she will edify you. King Fenard will want to keep a tight grip on you, but the queen believes in a lighter touch. I shall leave you now. I wish you a long life and happiness, Tom Weaver.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

The griffin flapped its wings, then launched itself into the air. A moment later it was gone. Tom crossed the clearing and picked up the satchel. Inside was a pocket mirror, three books, and one hundred sovereign marks in gold coins. He blinked in surprise as he counted the coin; it was an extremely generous gift.

The books, he learned after examining them, were texts which spoke extensively about his class. One of them was a guide to developing the Conqueror Subclass. Tom set that aside for now; he’d read it later to see if he could gather any wisdom for it, but he hadn’t unlocked that subclass. One of the books spoke extensively about maintaining Cores, while the final book was a collection of sayings of past controllers speaking of their skills.

It was, in summary, far more information than he’d had before. Picking up the second book, he began scanning through the text, searching for any hint on how to recover a core’s HP.

~~~~~~

The mirror for Anaxis, one of several agents in Welsius, activated suddenly, drawing her attention. Tildra, spymistress to Queen Gloracia II of Koratia, set aside the report she’d been reading to give the spy her full attention before connecting the signal.

The face in the mirror was not the one she was expecting. Instead of a grizzled thirty year old man, there was a boy. A rather plain looking child, thirteen or fourteen by her guess. Auburn hair, soft features, ordinary. Tildra was not caught by surprised often, but she allowed herself a fraction of a second to feel that emotion now, before she schooled her expression into a friendly smile.

“I assume that I am speaking with Tom Weaver?” she said, disbelieving that Anaxis had made contact with the boy.

“Yeah, that’s right,” Tom said. “Are you the queen?”

“No, but I can fetch her,” Tildra answered. “Unfortunately the queen does not have time to sit by waiting for the mirrors to flash. My name is Tildra, and I am one of Queen Gloracia’s many advisors. Shall I find the queen? It will take maybe fifteen minutes if I do, do you have the time to wait?”

“No, I don’t think so. The others are coming back soon, and I don’t want Antoine to know about the mirror,” Tom said.

Tildra’s smile twitched slightly. “That is Antoine Durand, the Vanquisher? He is in your company?”

“Yeah, they were out buying supplies when the griffin rider found me,” Tom explained. “I don’t think they’ll be gone very much longer. I just wanted to say that I’ll be thinking about the offer. I don’t know what I want yet, but if I don’t like how King Fenard treats me I’m not going to put up with it.”

“And indeed you shouldn’t!” Tildra agreed. “If you came to Koratia, you would be--”

“Yeah, the griffin rider already told me that you’d spoil me rotten,” Tom said, interrupting her. “My family is here, though. And honestly, I don’t know if that sort of thing is for me. I’m going to give King Fenard a chance first before I decide anything else.”

Tildra forced her smile to remain warm and friendly. “Of course, Tom. You sound like a very clever young man, and one who’s not afraid to look out for his own best interests. Is there anything you need or want from us in the mean time? We’d love to keep an open dialogue with you, even should you decide to remain in Welsius.”

“I’ll call again sometime,” Tom promised. “If I think of anything I need help with, maybe I’ll ask you guys.”

“We’d be honored to help--”

“I gotta go.”

The connection was abruptly cut off, the mirror fading back into her reflection. She cursed, biting her thumb. Anaxis had just earned himself a promotion for opening a direct line between her and the newly minted Controller, but she wished she had more information on the boy.

He mentioned family. If they were important to him, then they could be a lever. The question was how to utilize that information to manipulate him without earning his ire or being too obvious about it.

~~~~~~~

There was no hiding the satchel the griffin man had given him, so Tom simply admitted to the contact with the foreign agent when Antoine returned. He showed the man the books, withholding the scry-mirror which had taken him fifteen minutes to figure out how to operate. Tom had been expecting Antoine to be upset, for some reason, but the man shrugged it off.

“The offer he gave you is definitely genuine. Gloracia would throw gold at you should you cross the blight and defect to her kingdom,” Antoine admitted. “The journey itself would be perilous, but once you arrived you would live in luxury. I can’t honestly say that you shouldn’t entertain the offer, although I think you should continue to Profons for now and at least see how life is under King Fenard before you launch yourself across the continent.”

“Right,” Tom agreed. Then he shifted the satchel and pulled out one of the books. “But first we’re going to try to heal Alpha Core.”

~~~~~~~

Silva landed in the village square, dismounting to allow her pegasus to recover from the ride. It was unfortunate that the pegasi’s aerial stamina was inferior to some of the other flying mounts. They were fast, but couldn’t support heavy riders, and for every hour of flight they required thirty minutes on the ground. They were significantly faster than mundane horses, and their overall speed was comparable to the more sturdy griffins and hippogriffs.

The search for Tom Weaver and Antoine Durand had not been going well. While the Vanquisher was perhaps the most well known Hero for three centuries, most people assumed that he was dead of old age, seeing as he rose to prominence fifty years ago. It was easy to forget that extremely high leveled individuals have increased life spans, considering the difficulty most people had in reaching those heights.

As for the boy? Tom’s only feature that was somewhat distinguishing was his hair color, which was less than common, but not extremely rare either. Otherwise he was just an ordinary looking lad, according to the descriptions she had of him.

Adding in the descriptions of the other two companions, the Warrior lad and the Sorceress, hadn’t helped in the search either.

She stepped toward the inn to begin questioning the innkeeper, which in her experience was often the best informant to start with, but the man met her outside. Ten minutes later, a local lad was showing her the footprints of a minatour, a pack of Korgoath, and several horses. They vanished into the ground suddenly, but she had a direction now. It was the first sighting she’d had since they’d left Tilluth Valley, and she’d be damned if she’d let them escape again!