Ch: 243 Only The Lonely
Two days after the raid on Salt Creek village, Rolf Belen found himself in court, hearing testimony for hours on end. As a justiciar knight of Order from a neutral domain, the cases landed in his lap. Duchess Sheng’s personal guard had been involved in the fiasco, thus, the temple wanted an impartial arbiter to review the results. Far too few of the defendants were ‘available’ for trial… “Thirtyeight slain, seven captured, of those, only four are fit to face trial.” Rolf muttered unhappily.
“There was a storm, much chaos.” Wendel said calmly. “They resisted, we insisted.”
“To be clear, the four unmaimed prisoners are attributed to you, I am not suggesting any impropriety on your part…” Rolf sighed. Sadly. “I understand the fury such sights can bring…”
“Do you, young lord Belen?” Wendel asked softly. “They made me many new brothers and sisters… The suffering is only just beginning for those children.” He clenched and unclenched his wooden hand in agitation. “We will welcome them into our home, as we have so many before, but it is a sad joining, my lord.”
#
“Well, at least I will be spared interviewing Luna…” Rolf murmured into Angie’s shoulder that evening. “Poor lord Finraddle drew her lot.”
The tiny girl swatted him on the shoulder with all her unimpressive might, bruising her palm on his bronze skin. “Ow! Luna is your friend and mine!” She yelped. “Be nice.”
“My dear, if the reports of the witnesses I’ve interviewed are to be believed, she slaughtered a half dozen men that night, I won’t tell you what state she left the pirate captain in… I would rather not have to ask her any uncomfortable questions, in my official capacity.”
#
“Twelve?” Sir Arthur Finraddle squeaked.
“Meh, Khan caught up to me while I was pacifying the captain, he cramped my style.” Luna grumbled unhappily. “A lady doesn’t want her husband to watch her disembowel a pirate on her honeymoon, it sours the mood.”
“Yes, journeyman Maus…” He mumbled awkwardly.
“Luna. Sir Finraddle.” She snapped at the skinny knight. “Killeen Maus died at ten years old. She dashed acid in her own face in an attempt to dissuade men like these, while she was enslaved. I am Luna.”
She slumped in her seat when the man flinched back in alarm.
“Sorry, I had a tough session with my therapist spider last night, we’re working through some things…”
“Err… that will be all, journeyman… Luna.” He muttered, long after she had stood and left the room, unbidden.
#
They spent two quiet, pleasant days in that little cove, after the storm blew out its short, violent life. Liam, Dannyl, Gary, the kids and Becky went boating up the stream and along the coast, skimming along in Seahorse, taking jaunts wherever they pleased. After predawn workouts and breakfast, they spent mornings roaming, gathering herbs and samples of local resources; returning each afternoon just before lunch. Afternoons were for enjoying the beginnings of summer together, as the entire team got some well earned rest.
“According to Cameron’s directions, there’s a road that leads up to lake Caldera ten miles north of Port Sill… It looks like we can pick it up just south of us and get there quicker than sailing to town, messing with all that, then heading out…” Gary offered, while pointing to the thin line of the road, snaking up the mountains above them.
“Why the big hurry, Gary?” Dannyl asked. “The lake has been under ducal quarantine since that squid attack. Anybody that’s in danger up there is at their own risk.”
“Exactly. That poor guy has been up there alone all this time, in a hostile environment. He needs our help.”
“The squid?” the young artist asked carefully.
“Damn it! Yes, the squid…! I wonder about you guys, sometimes.” He sighed. “People can’t all be cute and cuddly like Nara and Axio. I have friends with fur, scales, tentacles and shells… remember Marceline? Lots of folks wanted to write me off at first glance too, I’m not leaving anybody behind.” He gave a hungry grin.
“Unless he turns out to be a jerk… Then it’s calamari time.”
“You are one weird dude…” Dannyl mumbled.
“I’m planning to climb a mountain to talk to a squid, weird is underselling it a mite, brother.” He scooped Amy up in his arms and stood up grinning widely.
“Time for talking is done, now we need to head inland.” Liam grumbled.
“First, I need to clear away the house and boats… that’s going to take some concentration and focus, so everybody needs to head outside and be ready to move.” The musician passed Amy off to Shai, then headed out to the garden overlooking the pool and assumed a comfy, cross legged seat on the lawn. After a few minutes of breathing exercises he slipped into a deep state of meditation, nearly lost in his own heartbeat.
“Everybody, get geared up, we’re moving afoot.” Liam said softly. “I don’t think this is going to take very long.”
It didn’t. The kids were seated in the dog cart, comfy and playing an improvisational ‘Little Brown Jug’ on their instruments, spurring Shai to dance. Once her bells started, it was a sure thing that Dannyl and Liam would start strumming along.
When Gary stood up, the house and boats were gone; only a fog bank remained, dwindling in the bright sunshine. His gifts were already spun up by Becky and Shai, everyone seemed raring to go… Even Otho seemed eager to lay down some miles. His tail was switching in the excitement of contemplating what new trees he would pee on today.
Gary smiled, a little weakly and rubbed his tummy uncomfortably. “It’s a lot of extra mass, my shadow has the bubbleguts right now…” He mumbled, as an embarrassing clot of dim shadestuff farted out from behind him and dissipated with a quiet sizzle.
“Fie, we shall make thee march at the end of the formation then, ye kin pollute the air behind us!” Shai danced by and gave him a musical hip bump to start him up and get the team in motion.
The coast road was wide and pretty well maintained, though it looked to not get much traffic. This side of the shallow sea was hilly and more rugged, road travel involved a lot of ups, downs and go arounds. There were few bridges over the many streams and creeks, instead the road wound upstream until it came to a ford or to a narrow spot that could be easily bridged. None of the crossings were washed out or impassable, but they added a lot of fiddling around.
Two miles south, the track they were looking for was marked by a triangular stone guidepost marked with blocks of color and shapes, rather than letters. Black square was the coast road, blue circle was the mountain road to crater lake… it made an abstract kind of sense in a largely illiterate society.
The little troop marched up the narrow gravel road, heading into the steep mountains above. Pines and redwoods towered over the narrow road, standing right up to the edge of the trail. Ferns, alder groves, brambles of blackberry flowers and elderberry thickets made the hillside off the road almost impassable, with their lush, tangled growth.
A frisky little breeze gusted downslope from time to time, cool and refreshing as they climbed the steep, switchbacked path. With a jolt Gary realized he could smell it, the actual sea… On the breeze skipping down the slopes he detected the cold tang of real salt spray in the distance. He almost fancied he could feel thundering waves crashing against this very mountain range, just a few miles away.
Even tireless magical stamina couldn’t overcome steep hills and a winding mountain trail. The whole crew was exhausted by the day’s climb, particularly since they kept on until fifth bell, in order to reach enough flat land to set up a camp. Lunch had been a simple brown bag affair on a slight widening of the road, overlooking a steep waterfall gorge, filled with ferns and bracken
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Their path led up higher and to the north and west, onto a wide upland valley with a low, conical crater rising from the rich, volcanic plains all around.
There were farm houses scattered on the wide quilt of cultivated lands, stretching off to the north in a green haze. Jagged, tumbled mountains surrounded the valley, eroded and worn until only the peaks and scattered boulders showed their stoney faces above the soil. The silent volcano cone stood bare and jagged, more recent than the surrounding landscape, but still ancient and extinct.
Most of the houses seemed to be built of the local porous volcanic stone, covered with creeping mosses and vines. There were a few tiny villages, but nothing approaching a town in sight. The low conical edifice looming up from the flatlands dominated the scene, jutting out from the mountains. A network of canals spread over the plain, ending in a few cataracts that tumbled down the mountainside.
Their road led up onto the plain beside a small pond, which spilled over the slope through a fissure in the rocks. They built a simple camp for the evening, summoning the subtlest version of home he could, just a few large pavilions, the hotspring and a pier, with Seahorse bobbing gently on the pond.
The effort seemed to take a toll on the musician, he settled onto a rug and some pillows he pulled from nowhere, for a nap. All three kids were sprawled on Gary within moments, making themselves comfy, while dinner was prepared.
“Member…” Amy said with a yawn. “S’not bedtime yet, so we gotta stay…” Another yawn interrupted her. “Awake…”
“Aww, darn…” She muttered, when her two brothers appeared right beside her with Gary.
“Early bedtime, huh kids?” He asked with his usual goofy grin as his divine houseguest appeared in the doorway.
“I have the shows all cued up! It’s ‘Sanjuro’, followed by the first ‘Lone Wolf And Cub’!” Marduk sang as he strolled over. “Oh… Gary…” He said softly when he noticed the musician. “What are you doing here?”
“Ducky… I am here, we’re inside me… More importantly, are you letting my kids watch hyper-violent samurai movies while I’m awake?” He asked very gently.
“It’s not my fault! There’s just so much of it!” Marduk complained bitterly. “It’s not just samurai movies! There’s kung fu flicks, pirate movies, then there’s the cartoons and ‘manga’! For being such a prude, you have some weird stuff in here!”
The tiny god fumed and stamped his sandal at him. “I can’t hide all these needles in your haystack, cause it’s all needles, hardly any hay!”
“Don’t be mad at ducky!” Rio scolded him firmly. “You know that we’ve all been… We were all… Stop treating us like babies.”
“Gary’s not ready yet Rio…” Amy said softly. “He can’t han’l it yet.”
The tiny girl sighed, looked her musician in the eyes and whispered softly.
Dream, Forget. Rest.
Gary smiled blandly and yawned, before he evaporated away in a cloud of dream stuff and the sound of a soft snore. “I don’ like doin’ that, Ducky… We havt’a be more careful.” Amy grumbled. “That trick only works ‘cause he trusts me… Now naptime’s ruined! Raincheck on ‘Samurai Movie Day’ Wilf, sorry.”
Together, they all hugged Ducky and made the effort needed to send themselves into normal naptime. “Gotta be more careful…” She whispered as they vanished.
#
“Impossible! It would lead to total economic collapse!” Master Ullmacht said, as loudly as he dared. As the chairman of the Trade Association and a leader in the cult of Crafts, he received wide latitude, even in the portrait conference chamber of his duke…
Wisdom prevailed on him to remain politely urgent. “Without the indenture auctions, most private warbands will begin hemorrhaging profits!” He spoke with utter conviction and restrained himself from shouting the obvious facts at their collective graces.
“Yes, their profits are foremost on my mind…” The warrior duke in oil on canvas said sternly. “I have recently hired an ‘analyst’...” The blonde warrior turned his portrait in profile and spoke softly to someone out of frame. “Are we sure about that word… it really sounds like a rude…”
“Leo, focus…” A soft, feminine voice whispered. The bluff warrior duke blushed and turned back to his peers with a sheepish grin.
“I’ve hired an ‘analyst’ to… do numbers things… comparing reports and ‘casualty statistics’ across different ‘metrics’ and ‘statistical models’...” He shrugged.
“In any case, her initial findings are startling. I will be sharing her final report with each of you, the Orphan’s League and the general public soon.”
“The suspension of the indenture sale is the bare minimum needed to bring the Orphan’s League to the table. We did not do this arbitrarily.” Duchess Sheng’s painting said curtly.
“You northerners have it easy…” Duke Esterhaus complained sourly, breaking protocol and drawing sharp glares from the majority of his painted peers. “I have pirates, slavers, bandits and the empire sniffing at my heels… what am I to do once you’ve saddled me with all these green orphans and undercut my private contractors?”
“That is a topic for closed door discussion, duke Esterhaus…” Belen snapped. “We will address your concerns, as well as those of your peers… later.”
“Back to the topic at hand, the council’s ruling is final. This year’s crop of indentures will be taken into the ducal guards of the several realms. Prepare yourselves, this will be a difficult transition for us all.” Belen scanned the gathered noble portraits and sighed. “Those who need seasoned troops should not be shy about requesting aid.” He grumbled. “We are in this together… Let’s end this before anyone’s mage passes out.”
“Too late Belen…” Young Julius chuckled. “Cousin Dolan has been a still life for a few minutes… Perhaps it’s a commentary on his conversational skills that no one noticed, that’s a little sad. I should send him something nice.” With a graceful wave and a saucy wink to Grace, Julius became simply paint on canvas.
“The kid has style…” Mubarak muttered, as he too fell still.
#
The longer Rolf wore Gary’s crazy chainmail suit, the more he decided he was keeping the damn thing. It had become his go to workout and training apparel; since it added weight and mass, while shifting his center of balance in many of the same ways as his field armor. The chain suit offered most of the benefits of training in his armor, without the discomfort and increased maintenance needs that would entail.
That the mad boy’s armor protected him at least as well as his plate mail… was something he tried to avoid contemplating too deeply.
These ruminations ran through his head as he executed a simple warmup routine, before his combat training lessons. Shaking off the lassitude of mid morning took a few minutes, as the young knight attacked the training equipment with vigor.
He ran a few dozen wind sprints, carrying a fifty pound medicine ball; then worked out on a wooden training dummy until his strikes and blocks flowed smoothly. A few rounds of the obstacle course with his friend the medicine ball got his blood pumping, before a few minutes of cooldown with his favorite meditation kata brought him into a warm, almost ecstatic mood.
His class of late teen orphans and squires formed up, while he was removing his mail and shucking down to a simple training outfit of breathable white silk.
‘Gary is an excellent tailor…’ He mused happily, while Angie and Ester cheered lustily, as though he were doing a salacious dance.
“Silence in the training yard!” He smiled as he barked at his rowdy spectators.
They booed him for that…
He strolled up and down the line of armored squires and tattered orphans. “Squires, form up and come at me however you’d like, while I lecture…” He ordered crisply, without skipping a beat.
“Now… the fundamentals of self defense must always begin with learning to use our own bodies and senses…”
Rolf strolled casually over to the knot of hesitant squires and tripped one out of the crowd, with a little effortless footwork. His chosen victim, a young man in War’s colors clattered to the training ground turf with a confused grunt.
Rolf abandoned the confused young man and circled the cluster of squires like a shark. “Mindless aggression can be a useful tool, just as hesitation can break your opponent’s timing…”
He kicked another armored youth square between the buttcheeks with a dolorous clang, when he lost track of the swift moving young knight in white silk for a moment.
“Every element and essence of your being can become a weapon or an asset, but only if you master your body and mind first…” He had a War squire nearly two feet taller than himself doubled over, with a lock of the man’s ponytail knotted around his own wrist.
The poor fellow’s hand was bent around, through his own belt and held in place by a single pinkie finger, in Rolf’s delicate pinchy fingered grip. “If you do not master your own body and mind… you allow someone else to overmaster you…”
When all eight squires were dusty, battered and breathing heavily, the young knight waved them back into formation with a placid smile.
“Now that we are all ready…” Rolf said with a grin. “Today’s lesson is going to be unarmed combat!” He almost giggled with excitement. “This is going to be fun, I’m going to beat you all senseless, for instructional purposes, of course… with first aid lessons to follow!”
Short, burly and blonde, the young knight smiled happily, while strapping on a pair of padded gauntlets, to match his knee, elbow and shin pads.
“Do we get safety gear as well, Sir Rolf?” One of the armored squires asked awkwardly, looking with some concern at the orphans in common clothing. “Not all of us are…”
“No, not needed…” He muttered abstractedly, still fiddling with his gloves. “Special training gear, the fellow that made it calls it the… well, nevermind what he calls it! This should be fun...”
The Nerflord’s Panoply, enchanted cloth armor. Spiritual enchantment, no elemental affinities. Rank, Copper. Rare garment.
Effect: Buddha’s Cherry Blossom Strike, opponents struck with these enchanted pads receive a short term aura shield effect, buffering impact and concussive forces. Kinetic energy will be dispersed over the target’s aura; this effect drains the target’s Mana and Stamina.
Effect: Heaven’s Moonlight Blessing, wielder suffers Mana drain, in exchange for increased Stamina recovery, while in combat.
Effect: Breath Of The Ancient Sage, wielder’s senses and sense memory will be enhanced, facilitating learning, recall and skill attunement. This effect drains Mana.
Two hours later, twenty young squires and orphans were sprawled on the training ground lawn, battered, buffeted and exhausted. They gasped and wheezed, looking like they’d just been in a pillow fight for their very lives… and lost badly.
“Oh, he is not getting these back either!” Rolf crowed, still immaculate in his white silk, if a bit sweaty. He brandished his puffy boxing gloves and grinned. “I love these things!”
“Maybe you should take those off…” Ester mumbled. “It was hilarious, watching you pummel the stuffing out of them… but you look a little pale.”
“Oh… drat…” Rolf grumbled happily. “Gary showed me how to stop the charm on these things… it’s…” He wobbled a little and smiled weakly. “...might have overdone it.” He folded neatly in half and thumped face first into a comfy position, his training armor forming into a comfy spot for a nap.
“Well, let’s have a couple of these burly mortals carry him over to the shade. We can have tea while he sleeps it off…” Ester chirped happily. “We can sneak in a cuddle!”
The young, dark haired girl in the duchess’ livery shook her head sadly at her unicorn. “I’m not letting you off the hook… you hurt a person, just because you could.” Angie leveled a calm and challenging stare at her companion.
“You’re being a little dramatic, he’s hardly a ‘person’...” Ester whined, as she sat on Rolf’s sleeping form.
“We are not going to let this go. You need to let go of this unreasoning hate and make amends, before we can Contract with you; Eponna said as much last night.”
“Hmph…” She snorted and hung her pale, silver haired head sadly.
“He grates against me, just his presence is irking and vile… the dead thing hiding inside him…”
“That ‘dead thing’ is him and he’s never hurt you, quite the opposite in fact. You sit here on Rolf and think about that… I have duties to attend to.” Angie said tartly, as she strode off. “Duke Belen has sent some preliminary reports from his new analyst, the preliminary data is very concerning.”
“Nerd…” Ester whispered softly, as she snuggled up against her sleeping boy, for a good long think.
#