Well it’s a start I guess.

The map display showed a meandering overhead view of the path she’d taken so far. It started out in a tiny cluster of buildings which must have been her original village. Apparently it was called North Stoneford. From there she could see where she and Rebus had gone off the road and moved through the woods with her original group, and then onwards generally northwestwards. They didn’t appear to have left the forest at all until they hit the scar from the battle with the Demon King. The edge of that dead zone was labeled “Battlewaste”, which could only have been a new name. Her cozy room in the ruined keep was in a small unlabelled square, but a bright spot marked her current location.

But a few minutes of poking around in the interface rewarded her with a small victory. Her contacts list could be linked to the map, with colors assignable to anyone she wanted that would show up on the map as well.

Ravi and Sam were green and red now with their names in tiny text right alongside, but the truly exciting development was that Silira was a bright yellow dot, even though she was apparently still cloaked.

This. Now this is good.

She smirked and wished she had someone to brag to about it. Rebus was laying by the still-warm remains of the fire and appeared to be asleep. He probably wouldn’t get it anyway.

She zoomed the map way out, and set Andrew the Paladin’s color to bright blue. There was no joy on that though.

Probably linked to my communications range I bet.

That was something she needed to work on. Now she had a way to cloak herself - even if only for a short time - and apparently a freaking wyvern to ride on. Not all of the pieces were in place yet, but a shopping trip was starting to look like a possibility. There had to be some way to expand the map without going everywhere herself.

But one way or another she was already itching to try out her new flying pet.

She flicked back over to her contacts and was met with two surprises. First of all, Silira was no longer cloaked. She went back to the map, and the woman was still near the entrance to the keep. Was she planning a visit?

The second surprise was not just one, but two new contacts.

UNVERIFIED CONTACTS

Sinestra of Old Stonekeep; High Witch; in range

Filth of The Deep Swamp; Assassin; in range

I’m guessing they’re on our side.

Not that Filth was a very encouraging name, whatever side he was on. She instantly assigned them various shades of red and flipped to the map. They were way out in the blank space, so presumably somewhere near the edge of her range. They were also very obviously together as they were nearly side-by-side. She spent a few moments watching them, and they were heading in her general direction, for now at least.

She was tempted to text Ravi about it, but held back. They were far enough away that she could afford to wait a while, and there was no sense in giving out her range so easily.

In the meantime Silira was clearly inside the keep now.

I’m the host after all, so I’d best put in an appearance.

She’d been too tired to pay any attention to them last night, but it might have been the same two goblins guarding her door this morning. She waved them away when they tried to walk behind her and told them to go find something to eat instead. She wasn’t interested in having an entourage.

Walking down the cold stone stairs again, she had to step over her children the whole way. While she eventually found the wildmen all clustered around the fire in the big room downstairs, the goblins appeared to have just just dropped wherever the urge took them. The stairs were thick with sleeping forms.

There was no sign of Sam or Ravi at all, but when she came to the entranceway, Remrag was already awake and conferring with Gravmok and one of the goblin mages. When he saw her he jumped up, closely followed by the other two.

“Mistress,” he said. “We were wondering about waking you. There is someone here.”

Nice opening, thank you.

“It will be Silira the Agramalek. I have sensed that she was coming.”

“Mistress. She is through there, tending to the wounded.”

He pointed at a nearby doorway.

“Silira,” she said. “Thanks for your help here. My children need it.”

The White Mage was kneeling at a row of the more badly mauled victims of last night. There were about a dozen of them, but nobody else appeared to have actually died during the night - she assumed Sam and the goblin mages had made some efforts to keep everyone alive and felt a twinge of guilt that she’d never even thought about it.

“It’s my pleasure,” Silira said. “I sensed a battle nearby but even on my mount it was a bit tricky finding this place. It’s kind of lost in the rockslide.”

Sure you did.

Ashley spent a while walking from patient to patient while Silira worked. The first one’s eyes went wide when he realized who was standing over him.

“Mistress,” he burbled, “So sorry for attacking you. We couldn’t help it!”

He’d lost a hand - there was no fixing that. The rest of him appeared to be serviceable enough though.

“So long as you serve me well, it will all be forgotten,” she said. There was no point in tormenting the injured after all. The sooner they got well the sooner they would be useful.

“I swear Mistress,” he croaked and struggled to get into a position to bow to her. She pushed him back down.

“For now you heal and get strong. That is the job I have given you.”

“Yes, Mistress,” he whispered.

Further along, one of the huge Trolls was splayed out in a bulging pile. His head looked bizarrely tiny when he was laid out like that. He didn’t have any obvious wounds, but he was unconscious and breathing raggedly.

Silira knelt down and put her hand on his gigantic chest, and closed her eyes.

“Your Spectre’s work. His life force is badly reduced, and won’t recover easily. With some time and care he may come back, but it won’t be fast.”

I guess we’ll see how much time we can afford. If not, then we’ll just have to cut our losses with this one.

“I really appreciate your efforts,” she said. “I’m sure all my children do too.”

The White Mage gave her a wan smile.

“You’ve become more powerful. I can see that much. I guess I should congratulate you.”

Ashley shrugged.

“Like I said from the start, I’m just trying to survive. I’ll take whatever advantage I can get for it.”

Silira nodded.

“That’s understandable. I hope you won’t forget about what we talked about though. You’re in a unique position. You could do a lot of good.”

For whom, I wonder?

“Leading everyone home again falls under that heading, don’t you think? We’re going to relieve the siege at Amora and give them back their castle. All they have to do is let us. I will take all my children out of the human lands.”

“So I’d heard.”

“Really? How so?”

Silira stood up from her position at the unconscious Troll’s side.

“Two of the Company passed by me at one point. We had a chance to catch up.”

Ashley was about to start grilling her on that - it would be good to get an idea of what the relationships between the various groups really were - but they were interrupted by Sam and Ravi walking in with two goblins in tow.

“Mistress,” Ravi started before Sam could get a word out. “We’ve had time to set up some maps. We’re hoping you will consult with us. We need to make some decisions.”

“Certainly! Silira here can join us.”

Both of them frowned.

“No offense to Silira,” Sam said. “But is that a good idea?”

“The Unburdened don’t take sides, correct?” She looked at the mage. “I’m sure we can count on her discretion.”

That’s right, poor innocent me just thinks you’re the best.

The last thing she wanted to do was spend a whole meeting pretending she couldn’t see someone who was standing right there. On top of which she could change any orders she gave once she knew the woman was actually gone.

“Of course!”

Sam of the Red Waste[4]: I really don’t think this wise.

She waved her hand dismissively at him, making sure Silira saw. The woman was clearly far more dangerous than anyone appeared to know. Ensuring she really believed Ashley was on side - or at least was oblivious - seemed like the sensible thing to do.

The two goblins who were with them fell to their knees when she turned to them..

“You two,” she said commandingly. “You will kneel in my presence if it’s a formal occasion. We won’t accomplish anything if you’re doing it every time you see me. A short bow is acceptable.”

“Yes mistress,” they said.

“Better,” she said. “If you judge it’s an emergency you can dispense with even that.”

Goblins respected practicality.

Observe how sensible your supreme leader is.

She recognized both of them. One of them was muscular and covered with a meshwork of scars on his arms and chest. He had joined them in Ravi’s company; Agrax, she brought up with a quick scan. The second one had been on the other side last night, but nobody seemed to be holding any grudges. He was a leaner, younger goblin with surprisingly smooth skin. She knew enough of goblin ways at this point to be surprised that he was in conference with Ravi. No obvious external evidence of fighting ability was an awkward blank spot on their resumes.

Unless he’s just so good that he’s yet to be injured.

She would hold her opinion until she had more indication of what his qualities were. In the meantime her quick appraise showed that he had a very high Sneak level. She was pleased that her fingers barely twitched. His name was Grabgob.

“Grabgob,” she said. “I haven’t spoken with you yet. I can see how good you are at surprising your foes.”

He gave her a big smile full of teeth.

“They never see me coming, ma’am,” he said. “They dead before they know it.”

She nodded and together they all headed into another large room. Silira tagged along behind them, clearly trying to be unobtrusive. When they got there, Remrag and Gravmok were waiting for them as well.

This is the top brass I guess.

“So what are we talking about?” she said, turning to Ravi.

“Well to start with, we should find the other groups we heard about. No reason not to gather them all. We’re good for supplies now.”

“We’re as safe as we’re going to be,” Sam said. “No sense in everyone trying to go get them. They can come to us.”

She briefly thought about the first group they’d sent out on a mission to go dungeon-crawling for her. There had been no word from them since.

“Great, but suppose they never come back?” she said. “Then we’re in the dark.”

Agrax nodded.

“That’s true mistress. But we're pretty good at staying hidden. Been doing it for a long time now.”

She appraised him again, paying attention this time. He had very high intelligence for a goblin. It might be that Ravi had been treating him as a trusted NPC when they were on the road together.

They were all standing around a table, so she took a seat. A dirty parchment map, made in rolls that had to be aligned with one another, was spread out before her.

“A real map!” she said. “This is a relief. Do me a favor and explain to me where we are and what’s around us.”

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

If it updates my display map then this is really good news.

“It’s out of date,” Ravi said. He pointed at a square. “That’s us.” Then he gestured across a broad swath of what looked like forest with a few rivers running through it. “All of this is gone now, it’s just the ruined landscape you saw.”

One thing was obvious; the scar from the battle was at the south end of a long line of mountains that cut the land in half. Going northeast would take them to open plains, but the relevant route seemed to be northwest towards the sea.

“Some of it still good,” Agrax said. “Over here, here is other side of battlefield. We get over there, we can still follow the map.”

“Where’s this Amora place we’re supposed to go to?”

“Some more rolls away,” Ravi said. “We haven’t got them out right now.”

“Indulge me.”

He nodded at Grabgob, who scurried over to a big gray backpack and pulled out a few more ragged rolls. He handed them to Ravi one at a time, who unrolled them carefully out on the table next to the others. It was a long table, probably made for communal dinners but even so the last roll was dangling off the edge.

While they were doing that, Ashley brought up her own map display. At first nothing seemed to have changed at all, but then as she stared at the map on the table, her own display started to catch up. It wasn’t high resolution, but she could see the long stretch of mountains heading north now, and the rivers and lakes and even the roads were all there. It was certainly good enough to see where she was headed at any rate, and a hell of a lot better than blank space. The spaces where she’d actually traveled showed up in clearer detail.

Ravi laid out a hand across the map, starting at the square that was their keep.

“This is about a day’s march in good weather. The wound from the battle will take about two and a half days to get across. We’ll be going slower than usual because it’s treacherous. Other side is about here.”

He pointed to what looked like a lake.

Ashley was already starting to stretch to see, so she got up with all the dignity she could muster and walked carefully around Ravi, peering down at the map and trying to absorb as much of the detail as she could while her own internal display slowly caught up.

“Quite a few rivers after that,” she said.

“Coming down from the mountains, yes.”

“Bridges?”

“If we head to the roads, sure. But there are usually a few fords too. Roads will mean human watchmen, guards, things like that. We don’t want anyone spreading the alarm.”

She shook her head.

“If we hear back from the Company with good news, then they’ll be expecting us anyway. Any reason we can’t just take an easy route?”

He frowned. She could tell he was making an effort to treat her with some deference, but it was also obvious that he didn’t like it.

“We don’t want to let them walk us straight into a trap. They’re going to try to take us out, have no doubt about that.”

Well whatever. The South Ford Crossing, Artifex said. That’s my waypoint now whether anyone likes it or not.

Rebus had come padding into the room while Ravi spoke. It didn’t look like he’d had any problem finding her. He leapt up onto the table with a loud thump and sauntered across the map, glancing around at it. With his new size, when he was on the table his head was on a level with their own.

“This is an important piece of equipment,” Ravi said. “Tell your animal not to put claw marks in it.”

“I’m safe as a kitten, I promise you,” Rebus said.

Grabgob snarled and stepped back at the sound, but Agrax just smiled and chuckled.

“Clever cat,” he said. “I’ll make sure everyone knows you’re not for food.”

Rebus ignored him and moved over to where Ashley stood.

“Thing is,” Ravi said, “since they will know we’re coming anyway then there are two sets of choke points that would be sensible places to take us on.”

He pointed to a long, wide river that flowed into a series of lakes. They were like beads on a string, going all the way to the coastline.

“A lot of this is canyon,” he said, pointing at the connections between the lakes. “Too deep and too sheer to scale down and back up in numbers. There are three practical ways across. Two of them are bridges, guarded, and the other is a ford. Also well known and also guarded.”

“And the second set of choke points?”

He pointed further north at a range of mountains that broke from the line which marched down the spine of the land, and ended up at a long pointed prominence in the sea.

“Same problem in reverse. High, craggy mountains. Only two practical passes.”

“This seems like a bad route in general for an invasion,” she said.

“Nobody planned to go this way,” he said. “The goal was always the Temple of Ashnam. That was right in the middle of where the battle scar is now.”

She could pursue that later. It was probably past time she got caught up with recent history.

“Other side of the mountains then?”

“If you don’t mind taking an extra five weeks. We’d have to go pretty far north then south again to get back to the pass that Amora guards.”

“But we’d avoid their army that way?”

“For sure, but most of our forces are scattered around here. We’re more likely to gain a decent number on this route. And the longer we take the more time they will have to put some real muscle together. Right now it’s going to be whatever they can grab.”

“Silira,” Ashley said, turning around. “If we’re forced into a battle then a whole lot of people are going to die. Not just ours, but theirs as well. That sounds like something the Unburdened would want to prevent.”

The White Mage came up to the table, to the obvious discomfort of everyone else in the room. They’d been carefully ignoring her up to that point.

“I’m no warrior,” she said. “And we don’t have any kind of political influence.”

Somehow I doubt that.

“You’ve been around a long time,” Ashley said. “You must know people. All we want is free passage to do what we’ve already promised to do.”

Silira frowned down at the map.

“It will be the ruling council’s decision. Currently that mainly means Lord Hartfel and Lord Askis. They both survived the recent battle and won’t trust anything you say. From their point of view you’re most likely planning a feint from the south to distract them, while forces you’ve been gathering at Amora will go into action to move on their armies from the rear.”

Ravi nodded.

“Actually it’s not a terrible idea. I wish we had the resources to do it.”

“But the Kingdom is torn into pieces right now,” Silira continued. “Apart from the minor duchies aligned with the Highfield States, the provinces of Westfield and Praxim are in open revolt and cooperating with one another for their mutual independence. Which means the last thing the Ruling Council can afford to do is send most of what’s left of their armies south.”

Gravmok grunted.

“They get attacked if they do that. What I would do.”

“Precisely. So Hartfel and Askis will be under a great deal of pressure not to do that. But from their perspective they’re between a rock and a hard place. Invaders and rebels to the north, and the reconstituted army of the Demon King coming at them from the south.”

“And you said you were no good at this,” Ashley smirked at her.

Silira sighed.

“The Unburdened are all over the land. We try to keep as fresh as we can on what’s happening. It’s the only way to know where we can do the most good.”

“So what will they do?”

Ravi grimaced and looked at Silira.

“I know what I’d do.”

Ashley pursed her lips. Sam flopped down into a chair.

“They need to kill the Night Queen, and as quickly as they can. She’s the leader of what’s happening in the south.”

Agrax and Grabgob both started growling, and the other two goblins looked enraged as well.

“They come try,” Agrax said. “We show them what we can do.”

Ashley waved a calming hand at them all. She was halfway tempted to let them know that there was an Assassin heading towards her right at this very moment, but something told her she didn’t want to broadcast too much about that. Far better if everyone thought she was more ignorant than she was.

“It sounds likely,” she said. “But we’re serious about giving them back the fortress of Amora and heading north. That’s what we’re actually trying to do. Is there any…”

Ravi interrupted her.

“We need a free meeting,” he said.

Sam nodded, but Silira just stared down at the table.

“I won’t have anything to do with that,” she said.

“No?” he said. “But if any good comes out of it, you’ll be happy enough to be part of that, right? So long as your hands are clean?”

She shook her head.

“Regardless. But I can head to the Capitol. I have some connection with Lord Garvis, and he’s always been a voice of reason.”

Ashley dashed out a quick text to Ravi.

Ashley[4]: Are these nobles NPCs or Players?

Sam held up a hand.

“Whatever we do, we should wait on word from the Company. The Paladin should be back sometime soon.”

Ravi looked distracted, but then nodded.

“Agreed. We can drive ourselves nuts with hypotheticals. We should find out what the official word is.”

Simultaneously his text came back to her.

Ravi of the Deadmoors[4]: All NPCs noble families don’t even marry players in.

Ashley stood up from the table.

“Let’s take a break and sort through our thoughts. Plus there’s more than enough to do already.”

Sam looked annoyed that she was calling an end to the meeting, but Ravi shrugged.

“I want to send out the search parties right away, so that’s good. We need more bodies sooner rather than later.”

Sam was welcome to fume. She had plans for the rest of the morning.

“Why me?” Silira said. She had looked genuinely surprised when Ashley asked her to come.

“Just a girl’s outing, okay? I’ve been stuck with the boys for a long time now. I could use a break, honestly.”

One of the minor local goblins was leading them up a twisty staircase that was strewn with rubble and bricks. Rebus padded along behind, but seemed unnaturally quiet when they were alone with the White Mage. The sky above was bright blue through the missing parts of the tower, and before long they ended up on a ruined balcony overlooking the mountains. The battle scar was wide and barren to one side, and craggy shattered peaks ran along the other.

“Here, mistress,” the goblin said. “Best high up spot.”

She nodded at it and turned back to Silira.

“Hang on a moment,” she said and paid attention to her display. Mounts were buried under inventory, which seemed stupid, but after a moment she realized she could pin it to her ordinary field of view. Or to a finger bind, but that was impractical.

Not until I have more, at least. But then again having an instant out might be really handy too.

After a moment there was a piercing roar from the sky, and something sinuous and black descended from the heavens towards them.

“A legit wyvern,” Ashley said. “That’s kind of awesome.”

The creature was sleek and shiny, with black scales that glistened. They looked like they might be slippery. It landed with a thump and folded its wings down, and whipped its tail around itself as it crouched down for her.

“Very powerful looking beast,” Silira said. “It suits you.”

But her expression seemed a little rigid.

Appraise revealed it to be level 30, with high intelligence and strong magical capacity in addition to enormous strength and agility. She was a little disappointed with the level, but presumably that could go up. Its name was a blank.

Which might mean it’s my own, rather than a hand me down from the Demon King.

“For what it’s worth,” Rebus said, “I’m really not interested in flying.”

“You can wait here,” she said. “But I could have a basket fitted for you to ride in. We can ask the Gnolls about that.”

“Mistress,” the Wyvern hissed, “I can carry your familiar if you wish.”

It lifted a taloned foot and curled it as if it were holding daintily on to something.

“Pass, pass, pass,” Rebus said. “I’d rather have the basket.”

“We need a name for you,” she said to it. “Do you have any preferences?”

“Whatever pleases you will be sufficient,” it said.

“Hmmm… your full name will be Obsidian. Like the viciously sharp volcanic glass. It’s really black too, like your scales.”

The creature made a sound something like purr, but with a lot more growl in it.

“This is a good name, thank you.”

“But I will call you Sid.”

“I am your servant.”

“But only I get to call you Sid. Everyone else has to call you by your full name. You tell me if they don’t alright?”

It nodded in a long, lithe wave of its neck.

“This is Silira. She and her mount will be joining us for a little ride.”

“As you wish.”

She clambered on to Sid’s back. The base of his wings bulged with muscles; enough to form something vaguely like a saddle. Surprisingly his scales had some kind of traction to them despite their slick appearance and she was in no danger of sliding off. She looked over at Silira.

“Shall we?”

The woman nodded and made a gesture in the air. Instantly there was a musical call from up above. Something fiery red and glowing was descending.

Sid growled.

“You be good,” she said and patted the base of his long neck. “Silira and her mount are both guests here.”

The creature that landed on the stones looked like a blazing orange serpent, with elongated wings made out of flame. It was beautiful.

No surprise I guess. Are you flexing a bit, Silira?

Not that she could blame her. If she had that mount, she’d probably want to show it off too. A quick appraise showed it as a level 57 Firewyrm.

Silira grinned over at her.

“I thought Aspilin here might fit the theme. She’s distantly related to Wyverns.”

She felt a little shudder go through Sid’s frame. It might have been a snort.

“Aspilin. Pleased to meet you,” Ashley said.

The Firewyrm’s eyes, in contrast to the rest its body, were brilliant blue. It raised its head up high and looked down at her and Sid.

“Well met,” it said in a voice that was exactly as calm and melodious as Ashely was expecting. But it looked away from them again quickly.

“Where do you want to go?” Silira said.

“Up. Out. Away from all of this for a few minutes.” She gestured at the mountain peaks. “Up there, how about?”

Silira nodded, and without a word began to ascend skyward.

“Sid, follow them,” she said.

A last look back revealed Rebus already splayed out in a patch of sunlight, while the minor goblin watched them leave.

The moment they accelerated up into the air, she forgot about Silira completely. For the first time in weeks she felt free, and seeing the world drop away below her she couldn’t resist laughing out loud.

“Faster!” she cried out at Sid, and his wings beat great arcs through the air. Each wingbeat was a rushing wind and a tremendous thump. Within moments the ground was speeding by at incredible speed.

For a second she seriously considered saying, “fuck this”. She had her mount, she had some spells, and she could get by. Ravi and Sam would probably be relieved if she just disappeared. They could run things like they wanted. She could keep going and put weeks and months between her and everything down there. It was very tempting.

But she caught a glimmer off to her right. It was Silira on her mount, apparently easily matching them for speed.

“Can you beat that thing?” she yelled, crouching down against Sid’s neck.

“I would love to,” Sid growled back.

Suddenly his body tightened up in some way she didn’t exactly understand, and the arcs of his wingbeats stretched out so that they nearly touched near his head, and then whooshed down along to almost meet his tail. Each pulse felt like she was being shoved backwards, and she clamped down on his sides with her thighs.

They were going faster now, much faster - they caught up with clouds and passed them again within moments. At first Silira fell far behind, but then Ashely saw the orange glimmer of her mount speeding up on them from the left. The Firewyrm soared past them, more than outmatching their speed.

“Don’t feel bad,” she yelled into the wind and patted Sid’s side. “That thing is way too strong. We’ll get you leveled up and then have another race with it. Let’s slow down.”

“Mistress,” Sid rumbled. He didn’t seem totally comforted by her words.

When she looked around, she realized she didn’t have a clue where she was. The battle scar was nowhere in sight. There were some mountains behind her, but they didn’t look familiar at all.

Silira flew an arc back around to them and when she came into sight, Ashley could see that she had a big smile on her face as well.

“Thank you,” Silira shouted. “I think I needed that! It’s been a long time.”

Ashley waved.

“Don’t tell me where we are, I want to get used to working this out!”

She intended to flick over to her map, but stopped dead on the contacts screen.

Oh shit.

CONTACTS

Silira of New Highwater; White Mage (57); in range; Uncloaked

Andrew of Highwater Fold; Paladin (54); in range

Sam of the Red Waste; Necromancer (53); in range

Ravi of the Deadmoors; Barbarian (53); in range; Uncloaked

Annelyn of Soren Free State; Sorcerer (52); out of range

UNVERIFIED CONTACTS

Sinestra of Old Stonekeep; High Witch; in range

Filth of The Deep Swamp; Assassin; in range

Peter of New Highwater; Thief; in range

Sumitra of The Grange; Hedge Witch; in range

Gustav of Sandpile; Sorcerer; in range

Victoria of North Hill; Warrior; in range

She quickly flipped all the new contacts red and switched over to the map.

God damn. They’re coming at me from all sides.