Eventful Days

Chapter 138

After the attempted poisoning I’d taken it for granted that Elim wasn’t going to be happy or let what was going on with the Viscount and Baronet go easily. Mostly because it had involved a blanket order against his family which would have included his mother and daughter. Elim had related the issue to me calmly, but there had been an underlying fury to it. The kind that said “scorched earth” to me.

I fully expected things to get hectic after that. Elim’s plan wasn’t to go around murdering but it still involved being in the other man's territory with a giant target on his back. If he’d been alone I’d have been a lot more worried than I was. Dig two graves and all that.

My general hope for any kind of restraint on Elim’s part relied on the presence of his family. I was confident he wouldn’t do anything to endanger them. Also that his mother would take him to task if he did anything stupid in the heat of the moment.

While I was mulling events over, a point reward notice popped out of nowhere. I was not one to look gift points in the mouth, but there was a fairly profound moment of confusion. I hadn’t done anything to earn them.

Jacka Pearce CE +4

Lemuel Dinsmore LE +2

While I was trying to figure out what happened three bodies were suddenly dumped in my inventory. Seeing two names matched the award the mystery was solved but raised a new question. I hadn’t had any idea that I’d get points for people that Elim killed.

Not that I minded. It was just a little jarring along with the fact that it seemed like Elim’s alignment was the one that mattered for the award this time. I doubted I would have gotten that many points, in that spread, given that I was Chaotic Neutral now. Oddly though it also didn’t seem like he was punished for getting a fellow lawful. I wondered if Good mattered more in context or if there was something else to it that I wasn’t aware of.

Six points was six points though. A non-zero percentage of my thoughts were embroiled in an ethical debate for a few minutes after that. Not of the killing itself, that was self defense, but rather how much advantage I could or should take of this revelation. It didn’t take me long to come to a conclusion.

It wouldn’t be good to try and encourage Elim to kill just to meet my tithe, not when I still had months on the clock. I needed to set up a flow of adventurers and ensure my long-term success, not distract myself with quick fixes. Especially since it would put Elim in danger and his services as my procurer of stuff was much more important.

If it came down to it though, the last three months of the year specifically, I would see about making an arrangement. The image of Elim dressed like a B-movie executioner came to mind, oiled abs and all, and made me snort. Tempting, but it was a terrible idea to be that kind of lazy and dependent.

Since I had no worries about Elim vs. local mooks, what with him having a heroic class, I wasn’t prepared when things took a bit of a turn. Elim’s encampment was attacked, not good. More importantly, his mother and daughter were separated from Marlow. Storm had also lost track of them when he’d gone to guide Tiller and Elim over to the camp before the fight started.

Marlow had already sorted the attackers with the help of the hired hands by the time Elim and Tiller arrived. He called me and I was more or less watching what was happening through a video call as they left to find Erica and Bess.

“How close are you?” I asked.

“Nearly to the entrance but the scent of men and beasts is still on the same path,” Marlow replied. I gave him credit for having the sand to say it after the amount of shouting Elim had done over him leaving Erica and Bess at the spirit glade. It had picked up in intensity when they were on the way and discovered the scent of a small group tracking the pair.

“Elim-” Tiller said, turning pale. Given the angle of the video call, I could barely see her, but she didn’t look well. Elim got an arm around her immediately, helping her stand. She’d been connected to Storm and apparently, that could give her motion sickness depending on what the bird decided to do. Given his penchant for being an asshole, random barrel rolls weren’t out of the question.

“Marlow’s right, but there's a man dead in the glade. Fuck, didn’t pull out quickly enough before Storm-” Tiller looked vomitous.

“Can you get him to keep looking?” Elim asked.

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“Once he’s had his snack,” Tiller said grimly. Elim made a face but didn’t let her see it and I felt myself cringe in sympathy. Why she’d gotten ill all of a sudden making perfect sense.

I was doing my best to stay calm, and mostly succeeding, but it wasn’t as if I wasn’t concerned. Perhaps it was unwarranted optimism but from what I knew of Erica she wasn’t even close to helpless. She might not win in single combat against a man, but she could probably get away even with Bess.

They arrived at the glade and took a look at the dead body, but weren’t overly interested in it or the grisly mess Storm had made of the face.

“The spirits are hiding your pup,” Marlow said, looking to the glade with his ears perked forward.

“Is she safe with them?” Elim asked, paling a little.

“Yes, and they will surrender her to me should you wish her returned early. Your mother bargained with them to protect her until sunrise,” Marlow explained. Elim looked deeply conflicted for a moment, but then took a breath and shook his head.

“Better to leave her where she’s safe for now. We'll get her on the way back,” Elim said flatly. Marlow woofed agreement then had his nose down to the ground, scenting. Storm was back in the air but climbing the hard way due to a lack of an easy thermal to catch a lift on.

“The other man, the one on the horse with the dog, is still tracking Lady Erica,” Marlow confirmed as they continued around the edge of the glade.

“Mistress, are you sure you can't do anything?” Elim asked, his desperation showing a bit more clearly.

“I can’t send her a stone or call… I could if I sent her a friend request but-” I paused, something unlikely but possible occurring to me. The system was a wonky dumpster fire half the time.

“Elim, I want you to say ‘open interface'. It will give you access to something like the window that appears when I call you or you access the item box,” I said.

“Open interface?” Elim repeated.

“Yeah, that, but this time with feeling. If it works you might be able to call your mother,” I said, hoping it would work.

“Open interface,” Elim commanded. Going by the way he jolted, coming to a stop like he’d nearly walked into a wall, I let out a sigh of relief. He’d probably nearly walked into a prompt or some other part of it.

“Mi-Mistress, I think that worked,” Elim said, now properly pale.

“Good, freak out later,” I said in excited relief. “Now think ‘send friend request’ to your mother. If it goes through you’ll be able to call her. She should know what to do when a prompt appears on her end asking to confirm it.”

“O-Okay,” Elim said.

Before Elim could confirm if it had worked Marlow growled, then let out a rumbling bay and took off like a dark bolt through the forest. The angle was wrong so I didn’t see where he went or what he was doing, though I did hear the scream of a horse. Elim made a swatting motion, closing the call.

I sat in the dark, staring at the space where the image window had been.

“What the actual fuck!” I hissed. I’d just been unceremoniously kicked out of the loop and it was not sitting well with me after spending the last hour on pins and needles hoping everything was alright.

“He likely didn’t want to risk being distracted,” Henry offered. I looked over at him and just shook my head. He’d been with me through the entire call, sitting on the far end of the couch and simply listening. Unfortunately, I wasn’t in a mood to be soothed by logic.

“I honestly thought I gave him communication stones,” I said, flopping on the couch. I could definitively confirm there were a couple of sets in the inventory, but not if I’d actually explained them to him. Now that I was looking at it, there honestly was quite a lot of stuff in it. Reasonably neatly arranged stuff, but still too much to easily go through.

“Even if you did, he might not have given her one yet, or she might not have had it on her when the trouble began,” Henry offered.

“That's… possibly true,” I conceded. Unlike the prior bit, that one actually was a little soothing. Henry hummed in agreement as I slumped against his side and he put an arm around me. We sat like that, just quietly waiting for nearly half an hour.

“Huh?” was the only response that escaped when something finally happened.

“42?” Henry asked in concern. I laughed as the tension broke.

“Erica and Tiller both just sent me friend requests,” I said between fits of laughter.

“Well… that's a little inconsiderate,” Henry said and all I could do was nod. Elim was calling though, so he’d likely just finished explaining everything – or possibly arguing with the ladies about what they’d just done. I left off the approvals for the moment, they bore a bit of discussion.

“I apologize for the delay mistress, I had some things to sort out,” Elim said when the call connected. Behind him, I could see an unconscious knight tied to a tree. Erica was beside the man, looking a bit annoyed but none the worse for the wear.

Oddly, a dog was standing over the knight and growling anytime anyone so much as looked at him. It wasn’t leaving its master at all, so I had to wonder how he’d come to be tied to the tree without anyone having to deal with it first. Right up until Marlow came into frame. The dog, not unreasonably, cowered at the sight of him while still not leaving the man.

“Thank you for whatever it was you did earlier, Mistress. The ‘in face’ thing is… odd but I imagine it will be useful,” Elim said, distracted. His focus wasn’t on me for entirely understandable reasons.

“Go be with your family, we can talk later,” I said, waving him off. Elim nodded, looking thankful, then cut the call.