Chapter 1

A Job Complete

The destroyed and burning trees whizzed past as Bhors charged toward his shack. He couldn't care less who was there. Be it a official, his domina, or jesu himself, he was going to kill them. They put his years of work, just finished, at risk.

2 hours earlier.

Bhors let out a sigh of relief as his pen finally left the paper. As much as he loved the silky, almost ephemeral, gliding of the Roc feather pen across the paper, he could only work for so long. Taking a look out of his window, almost covered by the clutter of five years, he realized that the sun had passed its zenith. Surprised at how long it had been, he glanced at his clock. The two celled rectangle that had them mix power through the day showed that the latter cell was indeed a full two ticks passed half. It had been more than five hours since he started. He leaned back in his not so comfortable chair for the first time that day and stretched. Rubbing his sore shoulders, he gazed down at the result of almost a fifth of his life’s work, and a smile of satisfaction came unbidden to his face.

The rivers, valleys and ridges that had taken him countless hours to explore, the monster dens he could only get so close to, the natural trails, the three paths he had set as possible routes through the mountains, it held a complex beauty to him. The full, completed map of the West Barrier mountain range. What had taken the Cartographer Gratex ten years to do for the central Barrier range had taken him half the time. While he wasn't as conceited as to think it was all due to his personal skill, he had roughly 50 years of research and development into cartography and monster behavior on the Gratex, he was still quite pleased with himself. He could do without the soreness of leaning forward for five hours though.

Wishing he had taken the Red Pill instead of the Blue Pill, as he was liable to do after physical exertion, he got up to grab some tracing paper to send a copy to his Domina. Shuffling through his collection of artifacts and junk he had accumulated over the years, he set himself for the long hours of tracing ahead of him. Not finding the tracing paper in its usual place he searched under his emergency power cell collection and his pile of heating cores. It came to him that his tracing paper may be lost. Wanting to finish his tracing today, he stood in the middle of his room and thought hard about his goings of the last few months. After taking stock and disregarding the time he had spent mapping the last ridge, he remembered he had left his roll to the local maga the last time he had helped her fuel the towns power cells a couple weeks back, just before he had left to fill in the last bit of the map. Forgetting exactly why she needed it, he grabbed his coat off of his chair and left his small shack.

Making his way out of the small forest where he had built his home; he carefully navigated the traps and wildlife he had placed and corralled onto the winding path to his home. None of the traps were dangerous, and the wildlife he had cultivated here could do no more than cause a small scratch. While he didn’t have anything against the townsfolk of Opiugradi, he could only be distracted from work so many times before he had to take action. Pushing past a log fashioned into a vaguely monster like shape as he accidentally set off one of the traps, he felt the fatigue he’d pushed to the back of his mind come welling up to the surface.

Looking up at the large hill he had to climb over to get to town and feeling his muscles protest in response to the thought, he took out a bit of coffee gum from one of his many coat pockets. He carefully guided the power from the air and the power cells that were sewn on the inside of his coat. Sending it through the chimaera core he had on his belt and infusing the gum with the filtered power. He cut the infusion short when the gum held about a tenth of a cell. Double checking the amount of infusion he popped it into his mouth.

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Hoping that he didn’t infuse it too much, as he’d have to face the backlash later, he felt the rush of adrenaline and energy course through his body. With every step he took up the hill the soreness faded further away, until it was gone and he was on the road, headed downhill toward Opuigradi.

Looking out at the familiar cozy setting that had been somewhat of a home for the last five years as he came down the hill, he wondered for how much longer he had until he was called back to the Citadel. The wood and brick buildings of Opuigradi spread out almost at random was a far cry from the densely packed urban sprawl of the Citadel Suburbs and the meticulously planned silvery spires of the inner Citadel, but Bhors had gotten used to the laid back but serious tone of the hunter and gatherer culture. Reaching the bottom of the hill he could see Calis the trapper sitting, or rather leaning, guard at the towns north entrance.

“How’s it goin, Bhors, it’s been a couple months since ya been in town” asked Calis lazily as Bhors approached.

“its been quite an adventure” Bhors replied “explored the west ridge, and got trapped there due to a extremely large and extremely stubborn dragon.” Calis suddenly shot up, “it didnt follow you did it?” All relaxation in the usually lackadaisical trapper gone.

“Nay, took me two weeks, but I got free of it’s ire further up the mountain, part of what took me so long to return.”

Calis’s tension didn’t die down. Seeing this Bhors continued “ when’s the last time I accidentally lead one of the mountain monsters down here?”

“your first year” came the curt retort.

“True” Bhors replied “but when was the last time I ACCIDENTALLY lead a monster down from the mountain, I brought down that dire bull at the request of Mire to test the new residents.”

“ so you say” but the tension seemed to leave Calis as he said it, “but that is something Mire would do, wish she wouldnt” he muttered. “Monster business aside, what brings you into town? Here to meet your guests?”

“Guests? No I’m here to get my tracing paper from Yerah. What’s this about guests?”

“There was a party of five looking for you earlier this week, said you’d be expecting them, they should actually be at the mayor’s house, with Yerah, Duo Parita, eh?”

“Yeah” Bhors brow furrowed in concern, he has not gotten any messages the past week of work. “ do you know who they are at all?”

“No idea, Mire and mayor Derl said it was Ordo Politica business, and that we had no need to know, they did look very fierce though.”

“I see.” Feeling relieved, as it must be people from the Cartography Gratex to take a look at the map personally, Bhors started towards the mayors house after thanking Calis quickly.

“Hold on a second!” Calis said as he caught Bhors by the arm. “Your not in any trouble, are ya?” Calis asked quietly “if you are we gotch yer back”

Bhors smiled at the gesture and shook his head, “Nay, they are probably just officials come to look at my work” Calis nodded and let go “that means a lot though.” Said Bhors as he left for the manor, catching Calis muttering under his breath

“weird buncha officials, they are”

Making his way through the town exchanging pleasantries with the townsfolk, some welcomed and some unwelcomed, Bhors finally made it to the mayor’s house, which was off of the town center. Knocking on the door, cursing polite small talk for making him take double the time to get there, Bhors got ready to be even more polite. While he abhorred dealing with the Politica, he had to in order to have the resources necessary for his cartography.

He started as the door slammed open with tremendous force and large imposing woman walked out and stared down at him. “you ave a lot of explainin to do Bhors” growled Mire through clenched teeth.

Bhors was mostly unperturbed at the outburst as he had been the brunt of her rage a couple times before

“what ever do you mean?” he asked innocently. Glancing quickly sided to side Mire grabbed him by the shoulder and none too gently pulled him into the house. Bhors was both confused an alarmed by this, as Mire had never gotten physical with a non militarex. Being a TreMilitarex a simple hold could seriously injure a regular person, as of now that little stunt she pulled was going to leave more than just a bruise.

“What do you think your-!” His exclamation was cut short as she clenched his shoulder and leaned uncomfortably close.

“Explain!”

“wha-?”

Bhors was cut short again as Mire hissed in a furious tone, “Explain why we had five people bearing genevieves seal come to Opuigradi, that’s what!”