Aberavon was the new seat of Caleb’s power. As a town of some two thousand people, settled right up against the river, it could not hold the number of fighting men Caleb had brought with him, and so had to be expanded.

New walls were built around the town. A sprawling complex of military barracks outside, with their own trenches and palisades, stretched out into the hills. The new influx of trade that came in from the river, ballooned precariously, overwhelming the simple docks, and stretching a queue down the river.

Thankfully, we’d been given a place to stay in town with an older couple, dwarves, named Wulbrik and Wulnera. They were kind, but brusque, and apparently a little confused by my ‘Red Hand’ title, as that was a clan of notorious outlaw dwarves.

Oh, and I say ‘we’ meaning Bernie and me. Rachel was across the way toward the docks.

Then, we sat on a balcony overlooking the town square, dominated by a fountain with a statue of Caleb, sword held high. I cradled some tea in my lap. Bernie’s chair sat across from me.

We tried to enjoy the view.

The sun rose low on the horizon, staining the river orange, and chasing away the winter clouds. The mornings were warm here, though snow still hid under eaves, and among the gutters of roofs.

She looked back at me, lank brown hair wafting against her brow, and smiled.

“What?” I asked.

“I’m excited to get on the road again,” she said.

“We’re supposed to kill a dragon,” I reminded her, “that’s crazy. Remember that one that Sofia brought, it’s like that but bigger, and they want us to stab it with a sword?”

“Apparently the brain is right behind the eye. You just,” here she made a popping noise with her mouth and pantomimed stabbing with a sword, “and it’s dead immediately.”

“Somehow, I believe there is more to it than that.”

Helena got away pretty easily. Her father had been waiting for her in the snow, and they ported out with a scroll. Mark was furious, less that we let a potential lead go, and more that his wards against enemy teleportation inside the building had been thwarted. He figured she’d been able to get around it since it was a class ability, not a spell, but he wasn’t sure.

We were here waiting for supplies to be put together, and the final list for who will come with us to be decided on.

Caleb wanted Mark and Braelyn and anyone else with magic to stay with him. He was pushing a big counteroffensive into the Mountain Clans, and needed all hands on deck.

As far as I knew, it was just Rachel, Bernie, and me, though I had pushed for Cal to rejoin us. The Black Lions had all agreed to go with Caleb, so no Dalara or G’nash.

I wondered how we were going to do this on our own. I checked my stats like maybe they held the answer:

Beznik of the Red Hand the level 5 Mageknight and level 5 War Bard

Hit Points 74, Armor Class 19 (Half Plate +2)

STR 13 (+1) DEX 14 (+2) CON 14 (+2)

INT 13 (+1) WIS 10 (+0) CHA 17 (+3)

Items: Certainty +4, Mythril Half Plate +2, Provoker +2, Redeemer +3

Abilities from Fighter: Adrenaline Rush (170% time dilation, double movement speed) and Second Chance (Twice per day heal +25% HP), Sympathetic Weapon (you may place a weapon you have sympathy with in a dimensional pocket space and remove it at will). Improved Weapon Swapping (you may use your Sympathetic Weapon Ability on a second weapon) Spellcasting.

Abilities from Bard: Dazzling Strikes (weapons attacks give off sparks, potentially distracting opponents). Inspiring Words (+60% movement speed, 10% instant healing, and +30% extra damage modifier to a party member of your choice). Improved Inspiration (You add your charisma bonus to the damage allies inflict while under your inspiration, and your Inspiring Words refresh twice as fast). Student of War (extra weapon damage equal to CHA bonus). Spellcasting.

Skills: History, Performance, Persuasion, Social Drinking

So, in addition to the second weapon I could summon with my improved feature, I also got some new spells. The most interesting being ‘Magic Quiver’ which, for one spell slot, would replace real arrows with magic ones as you drew the bow back. It needed another spell slot after it’s given me 128 arrows, but that was plenty. With these two things in mind I bound Provoker with the phrase “quack, quack, bitch.” This way I could focus on a more ranged build.

I still had Certainty strapped to my backpack though. Damn thing caught on door frames and branches alike, but I’d be grateful for it if we ever got overrun.

After a light breakfast, some scones and cured meats, we met Rachel in the square, and headed out of town into the tent city that was the barracks. After being waved in by multiple sets of guards, we finally made it to Caleb’s tent.

Inside, he was surrounded by thirty people, all vying for his attention. Braelyn ushered us to a bench. A gap in the mass of people parted for a moment, and I was able to see the man himself.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

What had been a well manicured beard was now bushy, and threaded with more gray than I remembered. He stood over the map with a tense set to his shoulders, and he tugged on the gorget of his plate armor absentmindedly, like a man unused to a white collar shirt.

He shouldn’t be unused to plate armor. I almost never saw him out of it.

Caleb glanced at us, spoke something to the man near him, then waved us over.

We approached.

“Cal won’t take no for an answer, so you may have him,” he said. “He’s waiting at the Southern Checkpoint with your supplies, such that I could spare. Apparently some gnome girl is going as well. How she learned about your mission, when it’s one of our most guarded secrets, is beyond me.”

“Berryhop has a slate,” I said.

“Ah,” he said, his smile strained. “Yes. That may as well happen. Mark swore to me that they couldn’t be made easily when he procured one for Mia, but I seem to be coming across more of them by the week.”

“Who else has one?” Rachel asked.

Caleb held his hand out.

“Here’s what’s happening,” he said, turning to us and standing to his full height, which again wasn’t quite as tall as me, but there was something about the man that caused you to shrink from his full attention. “I have a kingdom to rescue, and a legacy to protect, and if you can’t be trusted to be part of that, I cannot have you in the way.”

“Woah,” I stammered, “what’s all this—”

“I’ve given you gifts, and you’re welcome to them, but after you leave I don’t want to so much as hear from you. You won’t have my protection, you certainly won’t be taking any more supplies than what you’ve been given. Go fight your dragon, go make your own legacy, but it won’t be off my back.”

“This is how you treat friends?” Rachel asked.

“A real friend would have been there for me when my son died.”

“I lost an arm,” she said. “I was busy.”

“It seems fine to me,” he replied, his eyes placid, and his gaze direct.

“You could have teleported along with Braelyn at any time,” I said. “Seen us at the tower.”

“No I couldn’t,” he said. “And if you knew anything about me, you wouldn’t have even suggested it.”

Braelyn put her hand on Rachel’s shoulder. We followed her out of the tent without saying goodbye.

“He doesn’t mean any of that,” Braelyn said as soon as we were out of earshot.

“I think he did,” Rachel replied.

Braelyn put her hand on Rachel’s cheek, and a look passed between them. Then the elven woman returned to the tent, and we were alone in a sea of activity.

“Come on,” Bernadette said, “let’s get on the road.”

The walk to the Southern Checkpoint was circuitous, but it took us past blacksmiths, and horses, and men carving new ballista bolts. Nobody rested, or sang songs, or ate food. It was a thousand people all focused on one thing: war.

So maybe it was good that we had parted ways with Caleb. Fighting skeletons and monsters was one thing. Fighting other people, people like G’nash, people with families like Wu’ulush, those kinds of people, it didn’t sit right with me.

We should have focused on the elves first. If Caleb had turned his army toward the Kingswood, actually helped us on our quest to kill the dragon, then maybe he wouldn’t even need to fight the orcs. Maybe they’d have to help him because his position was so strong.

I said as much on our way. Rachel reminded me that she’d spent plenty of time fighting orcs. They weren’t all cuddly like G’nash. And their raids on Caleb’s villages were not bloodless.

That got me thinking a bit. I still wasn’t sure he was making the right move, but I also didn’t have all the info that Caleb had. Maybe from where he was sitting, this made more sense than where I was sitting.

Or maybe I was just upset at having been basically cut out of the man’s life. I’m sure Braelyn was right. He’d get over it, yeah?

Once we reached the Southern Checkpoint, basically a gap in the palisade with guards, we saw Cal, sitting next to a pile of backpacks and smoking his little rolled cigarettes.

“Cal!” Bernadette said, running to him. He stood and she kissed him on the cheek.

“I wasn’t even sure you folk liked me,” he said.

I slapped him on the back.

“It’s just nice to see a friendly face,” I said.

Berryhop came from around a post. Rachel hugged her in greeting. I politely waved.

“Rachel said it wouldn’t be too weird if I tagged along for a bit.”

“Not at all!” Bernadette said.

“Good to have you,” I said.

Her smile was strained. Then she looked at Bernadette, and it became less strained.

No idea what that meant.

Caleb led a cart and donkey. The cart was loaded for a month or so of travel, with enough food, most of the water, and a hell of a lot of arrows. We also had more rope than we could feasibly carry and some wood to fix the cart should it need it. Caleb had set us up pretty well.

The donkey also meant that Berryhop didn’t slow us down nearly as much as if she’d been forced to keep up with the taller folk.

“So,” I started, as we sat on a log eating some fresh bread and cheese, a delicacy only possible on this early section of the trip, “what’s our first quest?”

“I got it!” Berryhop said, pulling her slate from her pack. “So according to my notes, you have several quests within a couple days of the route to the Kingswood.” She’d apparently been getting information on our quests from Braelyn and Rachel. “In order of when we’d arrive to them, the first is a mysterious floating tower over a lake. Could be quite dangerous. Another is the Bloody Hand Bandits, a notoriously violent group of kobolds, goblins, and orcs, which is strange because they’re not known to co-operate. The furthest is a town that is experiencing mysterious disappearances, like a dozen prominent young men and women have vanished in the last year.”

“Why not all of them?” Cal asked.

“Depends on the level and the time each quest takes us,” Bernadette replied.

“Level?” Cal responded.

“Rachel told me about that!” Berryhop cut in. “Each of the Prophesied Heroes are assigned a level, that advances based on how many good deeds they’ve done. She wouldn’t tell me why, but I assume it’s a gift from the gods to encourage helping those that need it, instead of chasing glory.”

“Okay,” Cal nodded sagely, giving no indication he understood.

“The levels, Berryhop?” I prodded.

“Oh! The tower is level 12, the Bloody Hand level 8, and the disappearances level 9.”

“Higher level means higher rewards,” Bernadette added. “I say we go after the tower.”

“It’s first, as well,” I added.

“Any reason we shouldn’t?” Cal asked Rachel.

She pulled out her phone, scrolled through it for a bit, reading the quest hook, before answering.

“Says that it’s dangerous, but that combat can be avoided with careful decision making.”

“Oh, well, then we’re screwed,” Cal said, eating a hunk of bread. “Probably should prepare for a tough fight.”

“We can be clever if we need to be,” Bernadette said.

“Yeah, and you lot have me now!” Berryhop added.

Cal rolled his eyes. Rachel laughed.

“What?” Berryhop said, not getting the joke.

“Well, you dodged dating him,” Cal said, jerking a thumb at me, “so I know you must have more sense than some.”

“Hey!” I said.

“Eh,” Bernie said.

I gave her a shocked expression. She kissed me on the cheek, and squeezed my thigh.

“Sounds like it’s decided,” Rachel said. “To the tower!”