Chapter 54

Tom stood at the edge of the pond and threw a stone. It skipped thrice, and the motion of throwing it properly caused his stomach to twinge. He ignored it. Klein brushed against his legs intermittently, purring quietly at the joy of having his master back, but the small Worsican Lynx eventually went off to hunt.

He was following the Healer’s instructions, taking walks twice daily now that the initial healing was over. He wasn’t quite back to full health yet; even with magic. He had nearly been gutted and something like that takes time to come back from. But he was doing better, and healer had told him that light exercise, such as walking around his estate and throwing rocks into the pond, was good for him in this point in his recovery.

“I do not see the point in this game,” Lo said, the monster sitting on his haunches nearby. “Are you trying to fill the pond one pebble at a time?”

“No, I’m trying to see how many times I can skip the stones,” Tom explained.

“For what purpose?”

“It’s good exercise.”

“So is slaying those who are lesser than yourself, but you have not done that in months,” the monster pointed out.

“I’m not really a ‘slaying those who are lesser than myself’ kind of guy, Lo,” Tom pointed out. “That’s what I have you and Brutus for.”

The Minotaur Champion was also nearby. The two surviving minotaurs that Tom had Spawned during the attack had joined the others at Alpha dungeon. They had competed with Brutus for leadership of the minotaurs, but while the two newest monsters in Tom’s menagerie had been Spawned at level forty-five, Brutus and the other two minotaurs had been delving in Alpha dungeon for weeks.

Brutus was level forty-three now, but although he was two levels shy of the new additions, he was of a higher Race. The Minotaur Champion had quickly put down the competition with only the briefest of competitions. Fortunately the others held no hard feelings, and were in fact happy to have the pecking order established.

Brutus picked up a stone, it was nearly the size of Tom’s head, and threw it into the water. The stone didn’t skip, but the splash it made was impressive; the monster had put some force behind it.

“Were you trying to skip it?” Tom asked.

“Yes,” Brutus agreed.

“Yeah, I think you need a smaller stone for that. And it should be flat, or at least smooth, if you can find one. Like this,” Tom said, giving the monster one of the stones that he’d collected during his walk.

The minotaur looked at the little pebble in his hand. It was smaller than one of his finger bones. He flicked it into the pond with all of his might. It skipped once, although it was more of a ricochet. The stone passed over the far shore completely rather than landing in the water a second time.

“Not bad,” Tom said. “Maybe a little less force on it next time?”

“Yes,” Brutus agreed, and he went in search of more stones to throw into the pond.

“I’m really happy you guys got so strong while I was gone,” he said.

“You know that if I get stronger than you once more, I may break the bond between us,” Lo said. The monster shifted uncomfortably.

“Am I holding you against your will, Lo?” Tom said.

Lo considered. “No. I might have said yes before, when you were a weakling. But the bond between us is properly powerful now. Even on your deathbed you were a proper alpha.”

“Is there anything that you want, Lo?” Tom asked.

“A mate,” the Korgoath Alpha answered promptly.

Tom chuckled. “I see. None of the females in your pack are interested in you that way?”

“No. It is most vexing,” Lo agreed.

“I’m sorry. I could maybe spawn a few more Korgoath for your pack. Maybe a new female would--”

“They would be children. It would be improper for me to be their mate after being their alpha during their formative days,” Lo said quickly.

“Ah,” Tom said. “Yeah, I wasn’t thinking, sorry.”

“You do that,” Lo said. Tom glared at the monster, who returned his stare with a solemn one-eyed expression.

“Do you want a larger pack? I could spawn more Korgoath for you to lead,” Tom offered. “Not for mating, obviously, but--”

“My pack is a good size,” Lo said. “Any larger and reaching higher levels would be difficult as we are forced to spread the experience too thinly. It would be best if we could find mates by finding another pack and exchanging members.”

“I see,” Tom said. “I’ll keep my ears open for news of any Korgoath packs out there.”

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Lo remained silent, unwilling to thank the human for something that he hadn’t even done yet. Perhaps if Tom did find a pack with a female that was willing to be his mate, he would acknowledge some feeling of gratitude, but more likely he would simply accept it as his due.

Tom went through the twenty or so stones that he’d collected during his walk, then he Conjured twenty more to skip. Brutus returned with misshapen stones of various sizes and weights and threw them into the pond as well. He wasn’t very good at skipping the rocks he threw, but he tried.

Eventually Tom grew bored with the activity. He said farewell to his monster lieutenants and returned to the manor. He spotted Mark the stableboy taking care of a horse that he didn’t recognize on his way in and realized that he was likely to have a visitor, so he spent a moment straightening his suit.

Unsurprisingly, Nigel met him at the door and informed him of the identity of the visitor. Visitors, in fact. Grant and Nora had both arrived while he’d been on his walk.

Tom met them in one of the parlors. Grant stood to shake his hand, and Nora shifted nervously.

“Is everything going fine with the guild?” Tom asked after they’d said their hellos.

“Yes. We’ve reopened our doors to the public and begun officially recruiting. Nora is scanning our applicants for any lingering conspirators, but--”

“But that’s all I’m scanning for,” Nora said quickly. She sighed. “It’s such a slippery slope, but I’m determined not to abuse my powers, Tom. As long as they don’t have any relationship to the people who tried to have you killed, I’ve been keeping silent on what I find when I poke into the applicant’s mind. Not all of the applicants are saints, or even very good people. But it’s god’s place to judge them, not mine.”

“I understand,” Tom said. “We are fortunate to have you, Nora. I don’t think that the conspiracy would have been unraveled without you, and there might have been followup attacks if you hadn’t helped the king identify and gather up the leaders.”

Nora shifted uncomfortably. “The truth is, Tom, I’m having some trouble reconciling my actions with my beliefs. I initially got involved with the investigation in order to help separate out the innocent people who were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. A lot of people were injured in the fighting and were scooped up into the dungeons, and the conspirators were happy to claim them among their numbers. What I didn’t realize at the time was that, by refusing to exonerate someone, I was effectively signing their death warrant.”

Tom paused to consider this point of view. “I can see where you’d find that troubling. You did save a lot of innocent people, however. Your actions ensured that only the guilty are being punished. I would feel terrible if I learned that innocent people were being executed for the attacks which they had nothing to do with.”

“It’s not a problem anyone can help me with,” Nora admitted. She sighed. “When I first got my powers, I was determined not to use them. I thought they were far too invasive. I still think that. Perhaps now more than ever before. But I couldn’t simply stand by and do nothing. I know that would have weighed twice as heavily on my consciousness as the path that I took.”

“How are you doing, Tom?” Grant asked.

“I’m pretty much back to full health,” Tom answered.

“I can see that. I meant, how are you doing? Someone tried to kill you, and they came very close to succeeding. I’m certain that must be upsetting.”

“It is,” Tom admitted. He glanced at Nora, who shook her head.

“I have better control over my powers now that I’ve had some practice using them, Tom. I’m not reading you right now, and I won’t unless you give me permission,” she informed him.

Tom nodded. “The truth is, I’m still figuring out how I feel about it. I mean, I’ve fought monsters before, but this feels completely different. With monsters it just makes sense when they try to kill you. That’s what they do. But what did I do to Toth that made him want to kill me?”

“It wasn’t your fault, Tom,” Grant said. “And in some ways, Toth was a victim as well. He was there the night that you summoned the others. He saw the Eye of the Watcher, and it filled him with emotions and questions. The conspirators took advantage of his beliefs, exploiting him and turning him against you.”

“I know that,” Tom said. “But it feels more personal than that. Toth hated me enough to stab me three times. I didn’t even know he existed until that morning when I read his name as one of the people I’d be Evolving that day. But despite the fact that we’d never talked, that he’d never seen me except for the one time, he hated me. How is that, I mean, are others who feel the same way?”

“I don’t know,” Grant admitted. “I’m not certain there’s anything that you can do if there is except for taking your personal security more seriously in the future.”

“I know,” Tom said. He sighed. “I hate it. I hate that I have enemies, and that there’s nothing I can do to change that.”

“Tom,” Nora said hesitantly, “How would you feel if I told you that I believe Toth had a disease of the mind? I’ve read his mind, and, well, you should know that he doesn’t hate you anymore. There’s something wrong with him.”

Tom frowned. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, as far as I am aware, he hasn’t slept since the attack. He’s … he’s a very tormented soul, Tom. I sense something in his mind affecting his thoughts, and I don’t think it’s natural,” Nora explained. “His thoughts keep circling around to you. He broke out into tears when we told him that you’d survive, and he has been begging every god he can name for forgiveness for his actions. He’s actively denounced everyone in the conspiracy that he could identify, and, well, he keeps asking to speak with you.”

Tom chewed his lip for a moment. “When he was attacking me, I used Claim on him.”

“That’s the skill you use on Monsters, to force them to obey you?” Grant asked.

“That’s right,” Tom said. “The monsters I spawn directly obey me by default, but I can force other monsters to obey me by using Claim on them. When Toth was attacking me, I acted without thinking. I Claimed him to make him stop.”

“And you were right to do so,” Grant said quickly.

“Indeed, there’s nothing wrong with defending yourself,” Nora agreed. “It, well, it complicates things though. I didn’t know about your skill, but the reason I came here was actually to petition you on Toth’s behalf. He’s scheduled to be executed next week. If this were my old world, I would be petitioning to have him declared mentally unfit to stand trial, but things don’t work that way in Welsius it seems. Tom, do you hate Toth?”

Tom considered the question for a moment. “I don’t know. Even if I hated the person who stabbed me, I’m not certain that that person still exists after I used Claim on him. I think I might actually pity him a bit.”

“I’m relieved to hear you say that,” Nora admitted. “Would you consider visiting him?”

Tom frowned. “Why would I do that?”

“I believe it would be of great comfort to him to see you alive,” Nora said. “And I think that it would be good for you as well. To confront your attacker, and see what has become of him.”

“I believe that Nora is right on this point,” Grant put in. “I believe that you’ll come to regret it if you allow Toth to go to the headsman without speaking with him, Tom.”

Tom looked out the window as he considered the advice.

“I’ll think about it,” He promised.