* Objective: Defend the City of Scaleback *
The words floated there in CJ’s vision. That made it official, they were doing this. This wasn’t the kind of strategy he was used to, this isn’t something he would have to do in any of his games, but he was going to have to make it work. His life depended on it, and he wasn’t going to find out the hard way if he could be revived here.
This was going to require a plan. He needed to know how they could gain control of the city, what exactly they needed from the cityfolk after that, the size of the enemy force, and what they would be able to muster up against it. These were all questions he never really had to ask himself before, and hopefully he wouldn’t have to ask again.
“What will it take to get control of the city?” CJ asked. “How long, and how much help do you need from us?”
Chuck sighed. “I need to speak to my lieutenants, there are four of them across the city. Once I’ve gained their loyalty in this, we need to make sure we have access to weapons and the towers so that a small force can’t keep us locked out. From there we should be safe to confront the mayor, and then we can have the messengers get us in contact with the capital.”
CJ nodded. “I’m guessing there is an armory then, we have to secure that. For the towers, getting the lieutenants on your side should help there. The danger here is if it seems like we are staging some kind of attack, your men may became more resistant to joining you.”
“Exactly,” Chuck said. “For now, it might be best for everyone if most of you are seen right here in the manor, as if you don’t know what is happening.”
CJ looked to Byr, who looked back at him.
Byr said to CJ, “Is there something your power can do here? Or are we on our own.”
That was a good question. CJ appreciated that it was being asked, but he honestly didn’t know the answer.
“His power?” Chuck asked.
Most of the room looked to Mae. She said, “Show him. He has our trust. We won’t be able to do this without him knowing everything that is happening.”
CJ pulled his eye patch up, and then blinked open his eye. It felt weird, since he kept it closed most of the day. But since he didn’t actually ‘see’ out of it, there was no difference between it receiving no light and it receiving low light. He could see Chuck react to the glowing sigil in his eye, the man taking an amazed step forward.
“What is it?” Chuck asked.
“That’s what we’ve been figuring out one step at a time.” CJ said with a grin. “It gives me access to an updated map of whatever battle I’m in, and I can look up people and terms. Though when I look stuff up, it is usually only as informative as what I’ve heard from the people around me.”
“I don’t understand,” Chuck said. “Is this your attunement?”
“It was,” CJ said. “I don’t know where it came from or how I got it. But I can fill you in on all the details later, we could talk about this part for hours.”
“What do you know?” Byr asked.
At the moment, his eye was still showing him a vague map of the city. He knew that the other Akahi refugee bonds were in town, but he didn’t have an exact layout of the city or where everyone was. But he needed one.
“I need a better map,” CJ said out loud. “I think if I can get the layout of the city, I might be able to watch our movements from here. I also can’t see the captain on here, so I guess he doesn’t count as being on our side? Neutral parties only show up when they are in view, that means his troops will be hard to track.”
Larl stroked his chin. “Strange, Barune are allies of Akahi, why wouldn’t it show them as being with us?”
CJ thought for a minute. Even in games, the neutral allies were usually their own category. You couldn’t control them, and they would do their own thing. You would have to work around their movements and use that as part of your own strategy. “I think I know what is going on. Either way, even close allies don’t count for my map. If we want to see exact troop movements, we will have to make use of some Akahi guards.”
Byr shook his head. “You heard the captain, we can’t risk someone recognizing me or you out there, and realizing we aren’t all here in the mayor’s manor.”
“Wait,” CJ said. “We aren’t all as recognizable as Sir Byr here, right?”
Alyss raised an eyebrow, and finally stood up from the wall. She spoke in her usual quiet voice. “Disguises. We can put the other bonds in disguises and move them around the city.”
It was a good idea. “Can we make that happen, captain? Then some Akahi soldiers can watch over the towers until you get your people on your side. Plus we would know from here if everything starts falling apart, and we can make a move.”
Chuck nodded. “Yeah, no I think that can work. Brother Larl, if you’ll come with me, I can get you a map to bring back. Then I need to get to work.”
Byr clapped Chuck on the shoulder. “I won’t be able to repay this. I always knew you were a smart boy, I didn’t know you would be such an honorable man.”
They clasped hands again, and then Larl joined Chuck as they headed out of the room. Alyss closed the door behind them and then the room went quiet.
“This is a risky plan,” Byr said. “There is a lot we don’t know, like how Captain Chuck’s men will react to the idea of taking over the city.”
“I agree Byr,” CJ said, “But we don’t have a lot of options, do we? Your enemies are going to hit this city, and a whole lot of people might get hurt if these spies stop the guard from acting as they should. We have less than two days, and I bet it takes more than a day to properly prepare for a full scale attack.”
Byr nodded. “It does, they should have been preparing when they first saw troop movements. Every day counts.”
“We can do a lot from here,” CJ said. “We can watch out for sabotage, and see if this is all about to fall apart. But that requires us to move fast.”
“Sir Byr,” Mae said from her seat on the couch, “Do what you must. You know the guards best, you are still their commander.”
“Yes, my Lady,” Byr said. He saluted, and then headed for the door. “I’ll have them head to the towers as soon as they are in disguise. If I’m not back right away, look for them on your map.”
Then he left, leaving CJ with the Duchess and Alyss.
CJ slumped down into his chair. “I’m going to be honest princess, this is a little exhausting.”
“Stop calling me that,” Mae said as she face-palmed, “especially now. People will think you are some kind of fanatic.”
“Either way, this is not my usual kind of strategy. I am out of my depth.”
Alyss stood in the center of the room in a wide stance. “Really? Because it seemed like you had a pretty strong grasp on it there. I’m honestly impressed, before now you just kind of stumbled through everything.”
CJ looked up. She was glaring at him, and her passive expression made it hard for him to tell if she still hated him or not. “Oh, well thanks. I’m doing what I can. My power thing isn’t super useful here yet, but I’m going to keep my promise. I said I would fight for you guys, and I’m going to do that.”
Mae smiled. “I appreciate it. I know you don’t think you’re someone special yet, but training with you two has shown me that you are determined. I don’t know if I could ask for much more, CJ.”
He didn’t like being complimented. Well, actually he loved it, and he was thankful that they wouldn’t be able to tell how much he was blushing. But it also meant they were counting on him, and hoping he would actually be able to accomplish something. He knew from a previous life that that was a mistake. He wasn’t going to accomplish anything himself.
CJ shook off the thoughts. He had a lot of people counting on him, so he had to at least pretend to be useful for now. He could support the plans they laid out for him, and try to make the best of them. Even if he was just a giant radar dish for these people, that was an advantage the opponents wouldn’t have. That might make the difference for them to win this battle.
“Well, we shouldn’t get ahead of ourselves.” CJ said. “I’m sure we can ask for a whole lot more, and I’m going to try to provide just enough intelligence for us to get through this.”
Larl was returning. As CJ realized it, so did the other two. It made him wonder how much his negative feelings spilled over to them as well. He would have to watch out for that, or find a way to keep a better clamp on his feelings.
The door opened, and Larl came in with a folded up map.
“Here you are,” Larl said. “What was going on in here?”
CJ shook his head, “Nothing. Let me see that.”
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
He took the map from Larl and unfolded it. He didn’t understand the way they laid out their maps, there were unfamiliar markings that he assumed were there for scale and orientation. But it didn’t matter, he could see the wall that faced North, and the two towers along it. There was also a gatehouse in the center. The back of the city had a much lighter wall. As he was instructed before, it seemed like the city was constructed more to survive Mount Akahi erupting than to deal with an attack. The high wall met a river on one side, and a cliff on the other side. From there, the city streets were laid out like a maze, and then there was a keep near the center with four minor walls. The keep didn’t have towers, it just had a central structure that housed the court and could maintain troops in case of an attack. From there Scaleback petered out on the back end.
The city would be essential for this defense, but if Barune wanted to retake the city from the rear, it would be impossible to defend from that direction. Not a terrible idea on their part.
“Okay, I think I understand,” CJ said.
The map unrolled in his vision, taking over the vague map he had before. He had a perfect battle map of Scaleback, and he could almost make out some of the space in front of the city from their place in the manor. He could already see that several Akahi bonds were in the same building as him.
“Will it work?” Larl asked.
“Oh yeah,” CJ said. “This will work.”
After some discussion, CJ was standing around the table with the map along with Alyss, Larl, and Mae. He had items from the room on the map to represent what he could see, so the others could understand what he was talking about. Coins of different sizes represented the Akahi units, and small bits of trash were piled up to represent anyone else that popped up.
“I guess it all depends on how fast Chuck can get his guards on his side,” Mae said. She pointed to the Akahi bond near the Western tower. “We shouldn’t have to fight anyone if it all works out.”
CJ nodded. “It feels weird to sit here and wait though. What are we going to do if he fails? Just take the whole city by force?”
He looked between them all, and no one looked back at him as he said that. They didn’t want to think of it either.
Larl shook his head. “If it starts to fall apart, we can discuss it with Sir Byr. He is likely already brewing a strategy for that exact situation. No need to worry about it.”
CJ didn’t agree. If this was all just up to Byr, they wouldn’t even be where they were now. Not that he blamed the man, he just couldn’t be everywhere. He was already busy enough just trying to lead his own men. Besides, he didn’t have CJ’s eye, which meant he was at a slight disadvantage. Of course he also had decades of military experience, which more than evened it out.
“Where is Byr anyway?” CJ asked. “He was supposed to be back already.”
“He might be organizing another group.” Mae said.
It was worrying. CJ was used to political intrigue that couldn’t have that much influence on the story. Stuff like someone just hating or liking the protagonist based on a few choices. Maybe you could get an additional party member or a rare item. But if he made wrong choices here, someone could die. It made his chest feel tight.
In his eye, he was seeing clear icons move around the areas of three different pucks representing Akahi bonds. The clear icons would move past slowly, so CJ had already deduced that they represented civilians like before. Occasionally he would see a green icon. When he saw tethers before he made his allegiance, they were yellow. That made sense as a neutral color. Green seemed to represent allies, the soldiers of Barune would come up green until something happened that changed that.
He saw something, a blue icon sweeping in from the East over the cliffside. It had a feather icon on it, and immediately he could see green and clear icons as it went over the town. It was moving fast too, unobstructed by the buildings.
“Guys, guys!” CJ tried not to panic as he reached for a small broken jar cap to use as a new icon. “Someone is approaching, looks like an ally. They are doing this somehow?”
As he put the icon on the physical map they all looked at it, and then looked at him.
“Looks like he is headed here,” Larl said.
“He?” CJ replied. “Who is it?”
“Can’t you check?” Alyss asked.
It was true, he could. He focused on the icon, and it brought up the attributes of the bond.
|Whitetune’s Bond 75% Bond Affinity
|2 Unit Bond OK
|Members: Whitetune, Duskbreeze
|M. Spd A.Avg (flight)
|>Facets
Whitetune? He didn’t know who that was, but it seemed like no one else was surprised to see him approaching. Also had a high movement speed, and they were flying? There was still some aspects of this world that he had to figure out.
“Whitetune? And they are flying?” CJ said in confusion.
Larl chuckled. “So it is him, just as I thought. It is good to know he found his way back to us.”
|Whitetune 5% to next Milestone 2 of 10 Milestones
|Winds Attunement Soulstone Tier 1 Human - Skyman
|Allegiance: Duchy of Akahi
|
|Strength 4 | Control 5
|Stamina 8 | Resilience 4
|Command B.Avg | Health B.Avg | Mov. Spd A.Avg (flight)
|
|>Facets
|>Artifacts & Relics
|>Bond - 2
Another attunement, and not one of the four that CJ was told about. CJ’s understanding of the whole system was still loose, but he thought that most tier 1 soulstones would be attuned to one of the four he heard about within the last few days. Instead, this was a whole new one. But This Whitetune was also a Skyman, something new.
|Skyman|
|Human subtype
|The Skymen, also called Wind-dancers, are one of the three tribes of humanity.|
It seemed he was going to have to ask for more.
“What are Skymen?” CJ asked.
No one was surprised he was asking a question out of nowhere at this point. Now that he revealed the presence of his Field Guide, his bad habit of asking seemingly random questions made more sense to everyone.
“You and I are fieldmen,” Larl said, “Alyss is a Hillwoman. The last group are the rarely seen Skymen. They don’t like to be around the rest of us if they have a choice. There is some bad history there, but the short version is that the Skymen have built their own nations where the rest of us would have trouble reaching them.”
“Those that do build,” Alyss said.
“Good point,” Larl said. “Some are wandering nations, they pick up and move between several roosting areas.”
CJ watched as Whitetune came to the building they were located in. He didn’t know how Whitetune guessed their location, but their icon was approaching fast. CJ walked over to the window, just in time to see a shadow approach from above. He peeked up, and saw a massive winged person land on the side of the building.
Like the Hillmen, this Skyman looked pretty average. They were wearing Akahi colors, but with a tight sleeveless top and no shoes. The Skyman looked down to peek through CJ’s window, then scrambled up the side of the building with a sound like a giant squirrel clattering up a wall.
“Okay,” CJ said, “Who is Whitetune?”
Mae spoke up. “He is one of our scouts and messengers. A loyal man, who was out on a mission when everything happened. I worried what would happen if he tried to return to Akahi while we were gone.”
“Well it seemed he figured out where we are,” CJ said. “Damnit, where is Byr? Shouldn’t he be talking to this guy?”
“True,” Larl said.
CJ looked at his map again, and watched the icons moving around in his vision. Then it struck him.
“Why Byr?” CJ asked as he slapped the table.
Everyone stood up stiff. “What?” Larl asked.
“I was wondering where he went. Then I checked the bonds moving around the map to see who is leading them. Of course Byr isn’t back already, he is here watching the gatehouse.” CJ pointed at their bond in the center, watching the gatehouse area between the towers of Scaleback.
Mae crossed her arms. “Impossible, he said he was-”
CJ looked at her, and she let her words fade.
“Okay, yes I can see him doing that.” She admitted.
There was a knock at the door. CJ swept the items off the map, and then folded it up. Alyss walked over and cracked the door.
There was a Scaleback guard outside. He whispered something to Alyss, who nodded before closing the door again.
“Whitetune is on the rooftop. This guard is already with Chuck. He says we can send two people to the rooftop to talk to Whitetune, but we can’t stay there long.”
Mae looked to CJ. “It should be me and you. You have the best idea of the plan, and can explain it to him. He will want to see me to verify what is going on.”
It made perfect sense. CJ nodded, and followed her to the door. “The rest of you, wait here. No one else get any fancy ideas.”
Within minutes they were up on the rooftop of the building by way of a stairwell and door. It was a little windy outside, but not as chilly as CJ would expect.
The two Skymen stood on the rooftop, one Scaleback guard standing beside them.
The Skymen had similar wings, black plumage with yellow feathers along the lower fringe. Their hair matched. Whitetune’s partner, Duskbreeze, had darker skin and appeared to be female. Her feathers were duller, almost appearing gray instead of black.
“My Lady,” Whitetune said when Mae approached. He saluted, and then did a bow with his wings up and extended. Duskbreeze matched him. “Sorry it took this long. Word around is confusing.”
While everything CJ heard was translated immediately, even he could tell that Whitetune was speaking with some sort of accent. His grammar was truncated, it felt like everything was flattened down as much as possible.
Mae walked up close enough that she could speak quietly without the Scaleback guards overhearing the full conversation.
“Loyal Whitetune, Duskbreeze, I’m excited to see you both. I wish it were under better circumstances. Akahi has been taken, by a blasphemous army straight from the princedoms. Now we are being exiled back there, and we have to survive to reclaim our home.”
Whitetune stood to listen to her words, and watched intently as she spoke. Then both Skymen looked over to CJ without saying a word. CJ could see that their eyes were an intense mix of colors from orange to green.
“You two, this is CJ of the Eastmen, and he has sworn to help us in this fight.” Mae said. “I want to explain everything that is happening, but for now I need you to work together with him.”
Whitetune did a shorter bow. “Akahi is quiet, not abandoned. It’s taken?”
CJ nodded. “When we left, it was on fire, and swarming with Ash Walkers.”
Both Skymen flinched at the word.
“No,” Whitetune said.
“Right now, we have word that an army of Ash Walkers are on their way here. But the information was intercepted by spies. I could really use your help. I need an estimate of how long we have until that army arrives here from the pass trail. If you could find that out and come back here, it would be a huge help. War is coming to Scaleback, and we have to defend it as best we can.”
Whitetune looked back to Duskbreeze, who waggled her head back and forth while turning to look out over the city. Whitetune thought for a moment, his hands on his hips and his tucked in wings occasionally twitching.
“Okay,” Whitetune said. “We return when we see them.”
“Thank you,” CJ said. “Good luck out there.”
They didn’t reply. But as they walked away, CJ could just make out the both of them talking again, but in a different tone. It came through clear for the moment he could hear it, without the forced accent.
“This is going to be dangerous,” Whitetune said to Duskbreeze. “Fly high, and fly fast. I can tell they are desperate.”
They took off, and soon they were vanishing objects in the sky.
“That should give us a better idea how much time we have,” CJ said. “They move fast, no matter what they should stay ahead of the enemy army.”
“I hope you’re right,” Mae said.