CHAPTER 24
DEPARTURE
Mecha and I were on our way to see the King, it was midmorning and the fog had finally burnt off from the city. The sea air was fresh and while not warm it no longer held the dampness that the last few days had it still was heralding that winter was coming. I had explained to Mecha what I had seen in the abandoned city, and he had immediately set out to see the King. I, of course, had to go with Mecha.
We finally arrived at the Temple mount and were escorted into the palace by a chamberlain. Mecha whispered in his ear and the man left at a fast walk, I am not sure what Mecha had said but it worked. Sitting down we each had a glass of fine wine as we waited.
It was reminiscent of the times we had spent drinking in a Pub but there was an undercurrent now that had not existed back then. I was now a spy for the King and Mecha was the head of the Thieves guild and one of the Kings counselors. I had to admit it, I liked it better the old way.
As we sat and drank the wine Mecha asked a question that I knew would be asked. How did I find the secret entrance to the abandoned city? I was not sure how to answer him, so I said, “I will explain it to the King, there is no sense in saying the same thing twice.”
I knew that He was not satisfied with my reply, but I did not think he would want the Truth with a capital T. If Mecha and the King knew I was Tor, well I doubted that I would go anywhere except to the dungeons. That was not part of my plan.
Finally, the King arrived and greeted us, then Mecha stood and began to speak. “Your Highness, we have new of urgency to relay to you that might impact your preparations for the future.” Torn has been doing some exploring and battling to level up and become accustomed to his new abilities as a Paladin. During this time, he witnessed something that I fear will have consequences for the future, Torn, if you would relate to the King what you have seen.”
It was now my turn to be in the spotlight so standing up I said, “Your highness, I was recently in the abandoned city in tier three, and came across something that causes me concern for the city.” As I related what I had seen it became apparent the King was both incredulous and concerned. Once I was finished we sat for a minute until the king glanced at Mecha.
“Do you have trust in what he is saying Mecha?” The King asked. I looked at Mecha who nodded. “Then we must engage this enemy and rout out this Darkness, that has been festering for years. This will speed up your leaving Torn, I want you out of the city on the afternoon tide. If we are going to war with the Darkness within the city I want you out of the city before you are somehow drawn into this conflict. You are a magnet for trouble I can see, and I do not need more trouble laid down at my feet.” The King finished talking and then nodded at Mecha and I and left.
With that Mecha and I were dismissed, the King had not been too curious as to how I had found the park and the hidden entrance to the abandoned city. He was more concerned with Necromancers strolling around unchecked. I did not blame him, it was a situation that could be deadly if the war was coming you did not want to have the enemy attacking your own city from within and without.
I left Mecha to gather my belongings and meet at the docks. It had turned into a lovely day with a steady breeze and only a small chop on the sea. I had never sailed and I looked forward to the experience, I just hoped I did not get seasick and hurl lunch over the side.
Mecha finally approached and led me to a nice-looking ship, it was about 22 meters in length and 7 meters wide at the middle. It had one mast in the middle and a small mast near the front with an even smaller mast at the very front and one near the rear. The front and back of the ship were lifted higher than the main deck which itself was about ten feet above the water. The back of the ship stood almost twice the height of the front deck.
The whole thing reminded me of the ships Columbus had sailed to America with, the Santa Maria, Nina and Pinto. I activated my PIM and pulled up a picture of a replica Santa Anna from the Library of congress.
The replica ship and the one I was about to board were very similar. We would not have much room but I felt that we would be safe, the ship seemed solid. The journey should take about a week and a half if we had good winds.
Mecha hustled me aboard and introduced me to Capitan Draik who showed me around his ship, called The Golden Ass. I asked about the unusual name, and the Capitan laughed and said he named it after his ex-wife, because apparently, she was pretty free about showing hers for some gold to sailors from all over the world while the good Capitan was at sea.
That was a little more information than I needed but Capitan Draik thought it was funny. Capitan Draik and the Golden Ass, it stirred something in my memory, I think it might be an easter egg or joke planted within the game.
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I stowed my gear in a very small room I would be sharing with three others and then waited for Reona to arrive. Mecha whispered that she would be traveling incognito and that she would have six of the Kings guards with her all in disguise. After waiting for another hour she finally made her appearance.
With her arrival, Mecha departed, his final words being, “Trust none, and bring us back the information we need, along with some stolen goods.” As he left the ship Reona boarded and after a quick glance around asked the Capitan to guide her to her cabin.
Covered in veils and surrounded by three men and three women when she came aboard Capitan Draik immediately greeted her and then went to show her the cabin. The guards were left with the duty of loading half a dozen trunks in the hold of the ship and then finding their own cramped quarters and putting away their own gear.
Captain Draik was suddenly everywhere on deck shouting out orders and whipping the crew into frenzied action. He passed me and laughed then said, “If that damn lady had been any later we would have missed the tide and would have had to wait till tomorrow.”
The man seemed to be in a fine humor, I guessed he was one of those who loves the ocean and sailing more than the land. Within half an hour we were out of the harbor propers and in the chop. The ship had a small roll from but it smoothed out as the sails were let out, we keeled over a few degrees and then began to head south and west, out towards the coastal islands.
From there we would make a gentle arc out to Sea and then come in to land at Goodstown. Usually, the ship would stop at several islands and do some trade deals or transport some goods. This time, however, we were on a tight schedule and would not be stopping.
The evening light was fading and I was standing at the railing overlooking the green sea foaming against the ship as we traveled. I had just lit a smoke when the leader of Reona’s guard approached. Nodding at me he grabbed a pack of smokes from his pocket and lit up. We smoked in silence for a few minutes until he flicked his cig into the sea and said, “The name is Cuevad and I and my troops have been assigned by the King to protect the Viceroy Reona who has been asked to be the royal ambassador to the Dwarven realms.”
I nodded and then asked, “Why was she appointed Viceroy, isn’t that a deputy or a regent for the king.”
Cuevad smiled and nodded, then said, “She was made viceroy of the three lower levels of the city, after the incident with the dwarves. That Banhammer has created some impressive items of war and has put us all into this precarious situation.”
I nodded it was all true, perhaps I should have felt some guilt about giving Banhammer the means to advance the technology of this realm. But what the hell you win some you lose some, I thought. I had died and lost the people I cared for and in the great scheme of things I could give a rats ass about Banhammer, the new technology, and the Kings problems.
Yet here I was, about to be thrust into both politics and war, maybe there was such a thing as karma.
It was apparent that Cuevad knew who I was and what I was going to be doing. Apparently, I would meet with him to arrange to meet with Reona. After exchanging further pleasantries he invited me to weapons train with his troops tomorrow. I could tell my level 5 was not impressing him, heck it was not impressing me.
I agreed and then headed to my bunk, the fresh sea air and darkened sky had reminded me that I needed to sleep. I quickly made myself ready for bed and then found myself asleep as soon as I crawled into my bunk.
The next day came early with a clear down and a light breeze. Half of the crew were busy, with the second officer standing watch and the other crew members and officers asleep. Due to the size of the ship tight quarters were maintained by the crew but they seemed a satisfied lot. They were competent and disciplined and did their work with efficiency.
By the time I stumbled onto the deck Cuevad had his people performing stretches and doing static exercises to increase blood flow and warm their bodies. After half an hour he nodded and said, “Alright it is time for some weapon practice, Torn here is only level 5 and without a doubt could use the benefit of our help.”
“Tasia, I want you to put him through the paces, start slow and evaluate, then increase until he is at his max. Torn, we are going to work you hard but hopefully, we will lay a good foundation of weapon skills. Most people choose a class and then set about to level and increase the class abilities and spells. Eventually, they become very powerful and in some cases deadly.”
“In the Kings guard, we have a different view on weapons craft, no matter what your class is, we train for weapons based combat without the use of spells or abilities. Only when you have progressed enough are you allowed to use your class abilities and any spells you have.”
I nodded it seemed to make sense and I knew that these people were part of the Kings elite guards. I could to worse than being trained by the best. I nodded and smiled at Tasia who smiled back. I had a sudden feeling that this was going to hurt.
The sun was smiling down on us and a small group of interested onlookers was observing me getting my ass handed to me by a very attractive human woman. It had started out well with us trading blows and getting to know the skill level of each other.
The mistake I made was using my racial ability to double my speed. I managed to land three hits on Tasia much to her surprise. I had gained the knowledge of how to use maces from the Knights, I just did not have the muscle memory that hundreds of hours of practice could instill.
Tasia, on the other hand, had hundreds probably thousands of hours of practice which coupled with reflexes honed for battle meant that she could read my attack or defense and respond before I could make my body obey my commands.
In short, I had my ass kicked. So began the first day of our journey. The good new was that Tasia told Cuevad that she had never seen anyone with my potential and that with work I could become a weapons master. All I needed to do was practice, as much as I could handle. Cuevad seemed delighted with the idea and immediately assigned a training schedule for every day, morning and evening.
Evidently, he thought I could handle a lot. He also told me I was to take my dinner in Reona’s cabin, it would be a formal affair. That gave me pause for thought until my ribs took a direct hit from Tasia.