I looked at my oldest brother, who was lying on a cot in the corner of a doctor’s office, and frowned.
Jonathan was unconscious, but one of his arms was so badly mangled that it made even my injuries after the Orukthyri fight look light. I looked at the doctor who was attending to the injured scouts in the tent.
“Will there be any permanent impact on his arm? And is his life in danger?” I asked, as Sallia and Felix inspected Jonathan’s wounds in more detail.
“There shouldn’t be any threat to his life. He got back in time for us to treat any potential risk of infection. However, his grip strength might be affected in his right arm after this. Or his arm might not work at all. It’s hard to say right now. I wouldn’t get your hopes up about your brother making a perfect recovery, little miss.” said the doctor, giving Jonathan and I a sympathetic look. “But at the very least he’ll live.”
My frown deepened. I looked at Jonathan, wondering if my healing spell would help at all. So far, my healing spell seemed to help with muscle fatigue and speed up the natural process of recovery in the body. However, I didn’t know if I could fix the potential for permanent limb damage. Healing Jonathan right now might even have the opposite effect of what I was hoping: it might permanently ‘heal’ his arm into a crippled state if I didn’t know how to set his bone properly. However, while my arms and legs had been broken during the fight with the Orukthyri, my abnormally resilient body had seriously mitigated the damage I took during the fight. Even though my bones had broken, they hadn’t shattered. Jonathan’s arm had been partially pulpified. Even if I wanted to set the bones in his arm, I had no idea where to even start. And clearly, the doctor didn’t either.
Sallia gently patted my shoulder and shook her head. “I don’t think your healing ability is strong enough yet, Miria.”
I gritted my teeth, looking at the possibly ruined arm of my brother, and nodded. I had been practicing my healing spell a lot when I used it on myself recently, but it was still much weaker than my extinguish spell. I suddenly realized that perhaps I needed to expand on the mental image I was using for my healing spell. Thus far, my healing spell was usable, but anytime I ran into a serious injury, I felt the major shortcomings of my healing abilities.
At the very least, I hadn’t formed my fifth rune yet, although I was almost ready to start forming it. Even if Jonathan’s arm healed in a crippled fashion, perhaps I could find a way to fix it with a new rune ability? It was worth thinking about, at least. I decided to hold off on forming my fifth rune until I knew more.
I looked at my brother’s arm again, wondering if there was anything I could actually do for him right now. Unfortunately, I couldn’t think of anything.
It took a few more minutes for my mother and the rest of my family to arrive. Ruman and Laura were particularly noisy, and made exclamations of surprise and horror when they saw Jonathan’s arm. Although Ruman held it in better, being nearly an adult now, Laura wasn’t too much older than me, and wasn’t used to seeing bloody and mangled limbs.
Seeing noisy children invade the medical tent, the doctor glared at all of us, and Laura stopped making noises. However, Laura wasn’t the only one who was surprised by Jonathan’s state, even if she was the most vocal about it.
My mother, upon seeing my injured brother, turned white moments after entering the tent. My father looked physically sick as he stared at Jonathan’s arm, before he took a few deep breaths. Then, he gently put an arm around my mother, while Ruman and Laura joined Sallia and Felix in inspecting Jonathan while he slept.
I couldn’t help but think about Jonathan’s dreams of coming an adventurer. He wasn’t dead now, but if his arm was permanently crippled, he might need to give up on his dream of becoming an adventurer. With only one good arm, he would probably be dead weight in any adventuring group. His dream of journeying to the surface had already been difficult beforehand, since most adventurers that returned alive were spellcasters or shapers. But with only one good arm, his dream became almost impossible to realize. The thought that my brother might have to give up his dreams made me inexplicably upset, and I couldn’t help but be reminded of Sallia and Felix during our last life.
“Is he going to be all right?” asked my father, speaking more softly than my big sister as he stared at Jonathan’s sleeping form.
“There should be no threat to his life,” repeated the doctor. “He might still retain some use of his arm as well, although it will be weaker than before even if it does heal. Don’t expect much from his right arm when he wakes up. And I have no idea what his mental state will be like, of course. But again, there is no threat to his life. And where there’s life, there’s hope.”
“When will he wake up?” asked my father, who hadn’t taken his eyes off of Jonathan. While my mother was the most vocal about being worried when Jonathan and I talked about wanting to fight and adventure, I suddenly realized that my father was no less worried. He just didn’t express it as vocally as she did.
“Probably within a few days. I imagine he got flung around a bit during a fight with an Orukthyri. Based on what I’ve heard, he’s lucky he escaped alive.”
I felt a small glimmer of hatred at the thought of Jonathan getting flung around like a rag doll during a fight. When Sallia and I had fought in close-quarters combat against the Orukthyri, we had barely escaped permanent injuries, and our bodies were incredibly sturdy by this world’s standards. We were weaker than the Orukthyri, but while we were much weaker, most Orthanoids were completely overwhelmed by the Orukthyri. The idea of my oldest brother getting flung around like a rag doll made me want to go and massacre the warband that had taken up residence near us.
I looked at my healing arm and legs, and frowned.
When I was well enough to fight again, there would be a reckoning for the Orukthyri, if I had any ability to contribute to the upcoming battle against them. I knew that it wasn’t the Orukthyri’s fault that they had been twisted into the creatures they were now. But I still hated what they had done to my brother and Sallia.
My family sat around for a while longer, while my mother and father drilled the doctor for information about Jonathan’s injuries and Laura and Ruman mostly sat to the side, dazedly staring at Jonathan.
The doctor didn’t seem to know much about the actual fight where Jonathan had gotten injured: all he knew was that the fight had been particularly bad, and Jonathan had been thrown into a wall at full force by an Orukthyri before the scouts managed to escape the fight.
After questioning the doctor, my family and I, as well as Sallia and Felix, who had accompanied me, simply sat in silence as we watched Jonathan fitfully twitch in his sleep. Whenever he moved too much, the doctor would come over and pour a little muscle-relaxant into his mouth. This stopped Jonathan from stirring or moving around too much, meaning our family was essentially just staring at him.
My mother didn’t take this opportunity to say ‘I told you so,’ or express her concern over my lifestyle choices, although I had expected her to. However, occasionally, she turned her worried gaze away from Jonathan, and towards me. I could tell that she was thinking about the fact that I had come home in a stretcher just a few days ago.
It was as if when she looked at Jonathan’s crippled arm, she was thinking about my future, as well. I couldn’t refute that idea, since it was entirely possible that I would die or get maimed during our adventures on the surface in the future. If I lived that long, at least. However, if I sat around doing nothing, the three of us would permanently die, so I needed to keep moving forward, even if it was terrifying. So I opted not to say anything at all. I didn’t want to get into an argument right now.
Eventually, Sallia, Felix and I left. I wanted to get a better idea what the scouts had found.
* * *
After visiting Jonathan, I went to find Lauren and Ella. Since I wanted to hear about what kind of situation the city was facing, I needed to get news from one of my teachers. While they weren’t officially part of the military, I knew that Lauren had a pretty good social network, and my teacher had at least some connections in the city. I would have asked Jonathan directly what he had seen, but since he wasn’t conscious right now, I would need to ask my teachers instead.
I found both of them discussing things with each other not too far away from Ella’s house. The two seemed to have grown closer after the fight at the border cavern, and after carrying me back to the city on a stretcher, they had made greater efforts to get to know each other. I waited until they weren’t speaking, before I walked up to them.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
“Teacher Lauren, or teacher Ella, do you have any updates on the Orukthyri threat?” I asked.
Ella simply shook her head, but Lauren gave me a curious look.
“Why do you want to know?” He asked. “The city does usually require that adult shapers and spellcasters move to defend the city in cases where the city is facing destruction or war, but those laws haven’t actually been invoked in a long time. And even if they were invoked right now, you aren’t old enough to be drafted into the army. You’ve already done more than enough. You managed to turn the battle at the fort around, and that’s already far beyond what anyone expects of you. You don’t need to think about this until you’re older.”
“My brother was hurt by an Orukthyri,” I said. “And I want to see if there’s anything I can do to help the city and keep us safe from the potential threat. If the city falls to an Orukthyri invasion, I’ll die too. So I might as well keep myself in the loop and see if there’s anywhere I can help out.” At the very least, my madness-inducing water had some effect on the Orukthyri until they adapted to it. While I couldn’t control a large battlefield on my own, I wouldn’t be useless in a fight. And after seeing my brother and Sallia get hurt by the Orukthyri, I wanted to get rid of these creatures.
“So you want to take revenge against the Orukthyri?” Asked Lauren, giving me a more probing look.
I paused for a moment, before I nodded. “I do. And I also want to know what the state of the city is like, in case something goes horribly wrong. I don’t want to be blindsided by my brother getting hurt. I didn’t even know he had volunteered for a scouting mission until I heard that he was in a medical center.” I wasn’t going to dissuade Jonathan from pursuing his goals, since it was his right to choose his path in life. However, I didn’t want him to die without me knowing he was in danger, either.
Lauren seemed to think for a few full minutes. We stood at the side of the street, locked into an awkward silence as Lauren considered my words and Ella gave the two of us curious glances. However, she didn’t seem to have anything to contribute to the conversation. Even if Ella also had some connections in the city, I realized that her connections might be even thinner than I had imagined.
Finally, Lauren sighed.
“Very well. Ella, do you mind if I take your apprentice to get up-to-date information on the Orukthyri?”
Ella shook her head. “My apprentice is free to choose her own path in life. I won’t restrict her actions. And I don’t have the connections to get up to date information. I’ll probably just get turned around, since most members of the military are already busy. I know your social network is more robust, so maybe you can actually get some useful information.”
Lauren nodded. “In that case, Miria, I’ll take you with me to get some updates on the warband. But don’t do anything silly like try to take revenge on your own. I’ll ask someone to find ways you can help without putting you in an impossible position. Even if you want to help and want to get revenge against the Orukthyri, if you die without accomplishing anything it would be a waste. Come with me,” he said.
Lauren quickly left Ella’s house, and I followed after him. We walked further and further into the center of the city. I dully noticed that the houses had more and more white paint on them as we got closer to the center of the city, and they were decorated with more and more dragon symbols.
Eventually, we came to a large building that was almost entirely white, red, and black. The color of adventurers, violence, and nobility.
Lauren quickly led me into the building. At the front of the building, a busy-looking man was filling out paperwork. When Lauren came in, he stopped for a moment, and gave Lauren a respectful nod.
“Do you know where Nells is?” Asked Lauren. “If he’s free, tell him that Lauren is here to see him.”
“Scout Leader Nells is currently discussing things with the leader of the surface fort and the general, but I believe they’ll be finished talking in a few hours,” said the receptionist.
Lauren simply nodded, and took a seat with me at the corner of the room while the receptionist returned to his paperwork. Two hours later, the receptionist glanced at the clock, left his desk for a few minutes, and then returned to the room.
“Nells can see you now,” he said.
The two of us were led into another office room, where a bald man was sitting behind a desk. If he were a human, he would have been in his late forties, meaning he was probably around ninety years old. He has a rather muscular build, and I noticed that there was a fair amount of white thread woven into his clothing.
“Great Shaper-caster Lauren. I heard you wanted to see me. Normally I would love to share a drink with you, but you’ve caught me at a pretty bad time. What brings you here?”
“This little lady wants to know about the Orukthyri warband. And she also expressed some interest in helping out, if there’s a spot for her,” said Lauren. “I would also appreciate an update on recent news.”
Nells gave me a curious look, before he sighed. “Well, it’s not like the scouting reports about monsters are secret. Not sure how useful a kid would be in a fight, though. Does she have any useful skills?”
“Possibly. She performed pretty well during the skirmish at the border fort.”
“Ah, is she one of those two kids?” Asked Nells, giving me a much more interested look.
Lauren nodded. “She and my apprentice Sallia are the two who performed well during the fight.”
Nells gave me a much more amicable grin.
“In that case, I’m more than happy to share. The Orukthyri warband seems to have taken over one of the ruined cities nearby. We’re still not sure how they got into the underdark, but at this point, it doesn’t really matter. What’s important is that they have several routes towards our city, and a few of those are primary tunnels. Meaning we can’t just collapse all of the entrances to the city and call it a day, unfortunately.”
I frowned. While I fully intended to get even with the Orukthyri, for the city as a whole it was undeniably best if we could just collapse the passageways between us and the warband. However, based on Nell’s words, that wasn’t an option here.
“The warband seems to be about 150-200 strong. Some of them were out attacking smaller caverns at most points in time, so we didn’t get a perfect count, but 150-200 total Orukthyri is a reasonable estimate. Over half of those will be combatants, so we should expect at least 100 enemies in a combat-ready state.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Lauren also start frowning. Even the lowest estimate of 100 combatants was dangerous, and we might have to face more than 100 enemies. There might be heavy casualties among the soldiers and spellcasters who took part in the battle. And there was a risk of the city losing the fight.
At least it wasn’t as bad as it could have been, though. If the warband had 500 members and we couldn’t collapse the tunnels between us and the enemy, the Overseer probably would have started evacuating the city. As it currently stood, we had a chance.
“Is there any possibility of luring the Orukthyri into a side cavern and collapsing it on top of them?” I asked. Even if it was impossible to trap the main tunnels, trapping the side tunnels was still possible.
“Probably not. This warband seems even dumber than most Orukthyri, perhaps as a price for their exceptional magic resistance. However, they seem to have a certain preference for sticking to larger caverns and tunnels, and those tend to be the ones that are reinforced. We did manage to collapse a few caverns on top of them, but after we dropped a dozen or so, they’ve wisened up to the tactic. We probably got twenty of them, but that still leaves a massive problem.” Nells sighed. “Honestly, we were lucky it even worked as many time as as it did. Setting up a cavern to collapse at just the right time is very difficult.”
I frowned even more. My best idea for how to deal with the Orukthyri was gone, just like that. Then, I brightened up as I realized something.
“What if I could lure a few Orukthyri into a cavern that’s primed to collapse?” I asked.
“How? They’re aggressive, but now that they’re used to us collapsing caverns on them, they won’t pursue lone targets into small caverns anymore. Do you have an idea?”
Without a word, I walked to the side, and summoned a small whirlpool of madness water using my fourth rune.
Nells gave the whirlpool a curious look. I could see a very, very subtle desire start to enter his eyes as he stared at my whirlpool of water. A desire that I remembered very well from my first life.
It was the desire to sink into the water, and never return. However, Nells seemed to have decent control over his emotions, and so he wasn’t very affected by the water. But he could clearly tell what my madness water did. “Is this your attunement?”
“Part of it. I can do a few different things with my attunement, and this is one of them,” I said.
Nells gave the water a more calculative glance. “Are you sure it will work against the Orukthyri?”
“It worked against the ones at the border cavern, at least for a bit. They got used to it pretty quickly, and then it stopped working against them. But it can still drag them around for a little bit before they become immune to it.”
“How far can you move it? How long can it last? Are there any other variables associated with using this attunement?”
I started explaining how I had used my ‘attunement’ during the fight with the Orukthyri. I also took the opportunity to promote Sallia’s exceptional fighting abilities, since I knew that Sallia would hate to be left out of a fight. I didn’t mention Felix, since I felt he wouldn’t want to come along, and he also was a little weak in this world. If he decided he wanted to join us, Sallia and I could find a way to squeeze him into our group later, but I would ask him for his opinion first.
After I finished explaining, Nells seemed thoughtful.
“That might be useful. Let me think about it. I’ll get back to you and Sallia tomorrow morning, if Sallia is also interested in helping. We might be able to work something out.” He paused, and gave my arms and legs a more considering look, before he grinned. “And an extra day or two should also give you time for your bones to heal up a little more, since I notice that you’re being rather careful about where you put your weight right now. I’m quite surprised that you’ve recovered this much in only a couple days of healing, but you’re clearly still a little injured. I’ll also work out a remuneration for your help. Even if you’re still a kid, it wouldn’t be fair for you to work for free,” he said.
I nodded. It was all that I had hoped for from this meeting.
Lauren thanked Nells for his time, and I went to go meet Sallia and Felix to discuss our plans.