Morning sunlight shone through the recently cracked stained glass windowpanes of the Tarnished Blade. Amelia, Tanya, and Patricia made their way downstairs for breakfast.
The tavern’s tarnished namesake hung, once more, above the bar. It was Ned’s heirloom and despite Tanya’s pleading, she wasn’t allowed to keep it as a reward for her part in defeating the demons.
“Hey Ned,” Patricia called down to the exhausted barman. “What’s for breakfast?”
“You breakfast? or normal-people breakfast?”
“Me breakfast.”
Ned rummaged through his shelves, “Are you looking for bitter?”
“Possibly… Do you have anything burny?” Patricia asked.
“If you’re looking for bitter, we still have a bit of Helbog Witches’ Brew left, nobody buys it but you. For burny, there’s Turlen’s Widowmaker, quite popular among visiting dwarves for drinking dares and tests of manhood. We also have a new bottle called Dragonsbane that someone dared me to try to sell. It’s halfway between an herb bitter and an Alchemist’s Fire.”
“I’ve had Turlen’s, it’s not so bad. Let’s try the new one, I’m feeling lucky. Pour me a triple,” Patricia said.
Ned dug out a small bottle, made from black obsidian glass. There was a stylized picture of a dragon skull, with ‘X’s over its eyes and its tongue hanging out, on the side. Ned put on a pair of leather gloves before opening the bottle and kept his face well clear of the fumes. The liquor itself was bright orange in colour, cloudy and opaque. Not wanting to ruin one of his good bar glasses, Ned served it in a copper cup. The alcohol hissed and bubbled against the metal, slowly turning the shiny copper green.
Patricia gingerly took a sip and felt the fiery concoction burn its way down. It hurt so good…
Tanya and Amelia each ordered some ‘breakfast’ too. Tanya chose a hoppy red ale, and Amelia settled on a light wheat ale with notes of citrus. The two humans ordered some slices of cured ham as well, but Patricia didn’t order any food. She didn’t want anything to dilute the burn. Taking their respective drinks and meals from the bar, the trio sat at one of the tables.
Patricia took a sip of her drink and swallowed it with a grimace, “So you know how I said that guy who blew up the mansion was powerful? It turns out I was even more right than I thought.”
“Yeah… he sorta fucked us, didn’t he?” replied Tanya.
“Actually, come to think of it, I was only partially right,” said Patricia. “I said Archmage, but if the title of Archmage means someone who is at the pinnacle of all known magic, then Zal’Gotherak is actually one step beyond that. The King of Undeath is closer to a force of nature than he is a man. He’s more than a millennium old, and despite numerous attempts to reclaim the lost kingdom of Ossa, none have succeeded. It’s like the Red Dragon Patriarch suddenly waking up, flying over, and blowing up some random lord’s mansion in the middle of nowhere. This whole situation is ridiculous.”
“Seems like you know a lot about this guy,” Tanya commented.
“You live a while, you learn things,” Patricia replied with a shrug.
“Could you tell us what you know?” asked Amelia.
“I just know the basics you’d learn from any history book. Ossa was once a prosperous human kingdom with technology and magic that was centuries more advanced than the other nations on the continent. Their military was massive, and their population was more than ten million. They were an unrivaled superpower, even the Aldmerian Empire of today pales in comparison.
“The exact reason for the coup d’état is lost to history, but the human who would become Zal’Gotherak apparently had some grievance with the royal family of Ossa. He turned himself into a lich and raised an army of undead. He slaughtered his way through the entire nation, and every human he killed was added to his ever-growing army. He was unstoppable. His horde was endless, and his elites were nearly unkillable. He exterminated every sentient creature within the borders of Ossa, raised them all as undead, named himself king, and stopped.”
“He stopped?” Amelia repeated.
“Yeah, that’s the weird part. He could have continued and conquered the whole continent. At the time, nothing could have stood up to his army. Even now, it’s questionable whether Aldmeria or Ryth could stand against him if he chose to unleash his horde. But for some reason he stopped his conquest. Ossa has been completely silent for the last nine centuries. That makes his recent career change into mundane mercenary even more puzzling. It’s totally out of character for him.”
“So that’s who attacked us? Wow, I knew I was good at pissing off powerful people and picking unwinnable fights, but this is taking things to a whole new level,” said Tanya.
“Yeah, I didn’t know we were dealing with somebody like that,” said Amelia thoughtfully.
“Let’s hope that we’ll be off his shit list soon, once he has you interrogate his mystery prisoner,” said Tanya.
“He was honest about that part,” said Amelia. “He truly intends to leave us alone if I do what he asks and stay out of his way in the future. I’m a bit worried about who he’s taken prisoner though. What sort of secrets is he trying to uncover?”
“I suppose you’ll find out soon,” said Patricia. “It’s not like you have a choice now that you promised him.”
“If it’s something truly heinous… I could break my word and refuse to help. I would fall out of Verita’s graces, and I would likely be killed by the lich in retaliation, but it’s still technically an option available to me,” said Amelia.
“I guess that’s… good?” Tanya said skeptically. “Well, there’s nothing we can do about the almighty lich guy right now, so let’s switch back to practical stuff. What’s our plan going forward?” Tanya asked.
“I guess we’re back to the original plan we had back in Greenvale before… everything happened. Get to Dursten as quickly and safely as possible,” Amelia replied.
“The late Sir Thomas, our old protector, told us the road through the Wyrmspine Mountains was dangerous. Though since we have Lily and Patricia with us now, I’m not sure how much of a danger it would actually be.” said Tanya.
“Aren’t dragons supposed to be stronger than demons? I don’t know how much help Lily would be if a dragon chose to attack us. I know there’s a safe passage agreement, but not all dragons are friendly to humans, right?” said Amelia.
“For strength, it depends on which dragon and which demon you compare,” Patricia said. “Don’t count on me to fight one though. They’d shrug off my strongest magic and incinerate me in seconds. Dragonfire can’t be defended against, even by a pyromancer. But that shouldn’t be an issue. I’m not actually worried about dragons. The unhindered passage agreement way back when extended to all dragons, even the unfriendly ones, and they’re known for keeping their word when they make a promise. Also, the… mostly friendly Golds patrol the route occasionally, scaring the more hostile dragonflights away. So long as we stick to the path, no dragon will try to hinder us.”
“That’s good, but then why is the mountain pass considered to be dangerous?” asked Tanya.
“The Golds only care about keeping their word not to hinder us. They rarely bother to remove non-draconic threats. Drakes, Basilisks, Stone Giants, Vampire Trap Spiders, Hellwasps, and Goblins, among other things, can still be found along our route,” Patricia said.
“None of those sound very fun to deal with,” said Tanya.
Patricia nodded, “The mountains are home to some nasty creatures. It’s part of what drove the first dark elves underground.”
“Oh? I sort of figured dark elves had always lived underground,” Amelia said.
“Quite a few humans seem to think that, but nope. Once upon a time, several thousand years ago, there were no dark elves or high elves, there were just elves. Things changed when the Orc and Beastmen tribes, in what is now known as the Kingdom of Ryth, made peace with each other and thrived. They expanded their territory and forced the elves away. We fled to the mountains, and up there, there were two approaches to survival. Those that would become dark elves hid in caves and built sprawling underground settlements, hunting the plentiful underground flora and fauna for food. Those that would become high elves built large defensible fortresses aboveground and strictly controlled their population and birth rate so as not to cause food shortages. The result was a large population of underground-adapted dark elves, and a relatively small population of high elves living in their mountaintop metropolis of Starfall.”
“Hmm… I didn’t know that,” said Amelia.
“You’re like a walking sexy history book,” said Tanya.
“Thanks?” Patricia said skeptically. “That’s meant to be a compliment, right?”
Tanya grinned devilishly.
“Right, so crossing over the mountains…” said Amelia, getting the conversation back on track.
This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.
“They have guarded caravans cross over every so often,” Patricia suggested. “Most traders and commoners cross over in a big group like that. It’s a relatively small fee.”
“Should we really be near people if Lily is following us?” asked Amelia. “Also, what if someone targets me again and people get hurt in the chaos.”
“Well I can’t speak for how Lily will handle travelling in a caravan but actually, being in a group might protect you against assassination attempts. If we’re alone, assassins could blame our disappearance on the dangerous mountain fauna. In a group, your death would be suspicious and harder to blame on innocent animal attacks. If you vanished without explanation, people would know your disappearance was obviously an assassination, and the Church of Verita would investigate. If whoever is after you is capable of summoning Fallen Seraph demons, they could easily butcher the entire caravan, but then, the Aldmerian Empire would get involved. They don’t like traders disappearing. Depending on the situation, the dragons might also investigate, if only to prove their own innocence.”
“Plus, they’ll have better food,” Tanya pitched in.
“I guess we’re looking for a caravan then…” said Amelia, realizing that Tanya and Patricia already seemed to have made the decision.
----------------------------------------
The girls finished their breakfast, and a quick conversation with Ned told them where to look for a caravan. He hadn’t heard much news, everything in the city was still in disarray, but he at least managed to point the trio in the right direction.
On their way to the market square, where the caravans organized themselves, the girls took a detour to visit the wrath giant’s body.
Lily was still eating. More than half of the giant’s body was simply… gone. Most of the flesh had been picked off the bones, but the upper half of the skeleton remained. Lily sat on the giant’s skull, gnawing on a titanic rib bone, sucking the demonic marrow out of the center. She was totally black, coated in a uniformly thick layer of sticky demon blood. It seemed like the missing horn grew back overnight as well.
The street around Lily was… an interesting scene. The two demons were surrounded by a ring of burning candles. Tables were set up, piled with fresh fruit and meats. On the side opposite to the offering table was a pile of imp corpses, stacked high. Most of the humans on the street walked around the scene, giving the demon a wide berth, but there was a small congregation of humans kneeling around the edge of the candle circle, bowing their heads in supplication.
“Hey Lily, what’s all this?” Tanya asked, walking up to the scene.
*Crunch* “Dunno, said they wanted to appease me,” said Lily, crushing a mouthful of demon bone in her jaws.
“Do not upset the great one, she will not suffer fools…” came a warning voice from one of Lily’s new worshippers.
Tanya ignored him. “You threaten these guys or something?”
“No,” *Crunch* “I threatened some guards though. They poked me with spears, and it was annoying, so I grabbed the closest one and crushed his arm. Then I told them all to go away in Infernal. Most of them fainted at first, but then they woke up and left me alone after.”
“Yeah… that’ll make an impression,” Tanya noted.
Amelia’s voice sounded worried, “Did you-”
Lily interrupted Amelia’s question, “No, he survived. One of the guards gave him a red potion to stop the bleeding and then dragged him away. I could have killed him, but I didn’t.”
Lily glared at Amelia with annoyance, but Amelia just smiled back. “Thank you,” she said.
“You’re welcome?” Lily said uncertainly. “That’s what I’m supposed to say right?”
“Yes,” said Amelia, smiling.
“You must kneel… lest you invite her wrath…” hissed the voice of an older man kneeling on the ground.
“Hey Lily? Can I steal a pear from your offering table? They look tasty,” Tanya asked, ignoring the supplicant and eyeing the food.
*Crunch* “It’s not stealing if you ask permission.”
“I meant it figuratively. Like, can I take and eat one?” Clarified Tanya.
“Okay, just one though,” Lily replied.
“It looks like you’ll still be a while. We’re going to go to the market. If you finish early, you can meet us there, or go to the inn to wait for us.” Amelia said. “What sort of clothes do you want to wear?”
“Do I need to wear clothes?” asked Lily, her voice betraying her annoyance.
“Uhm… when you’re around people, yes.” said Amelia.
“Stupid…” Lily grumbled under her breath. “Short dress, tunic or whatever, ending above knees. No movement restriction. Dark grey, not black. Better for blending in shadow. Strong fabric. No pants or panties… they feel weird.”
“Right.”
While Amelia and Tanya were talking to the demon, Patricia crept up to one of the kneeling worshippers. “There’s the body of a Fallen Seraph demon in the southwest corner of town. If nobody’s claimed it, it would make quite the nutritious snack for our demon friend.”
The kneeling human, a muscular man of about middle age, thanked the elf profusely, and ran off to collect it.
The girls said their goodbyes to the demon and left for the market.
----------------------------------------
The market was surprisingly busy. A lot of people lost a lot of things in the invasion, but many were able to scrounge up the gold required to buy replacements.
Tanya sold the broken Demonsteel sword to a collector of creepy artifacts for a hundred gold. That gave the group a solid amount of cash with which to buy things.
First up for Tanya was a better quality sword. The scavenged, alleyway thug, bastard sword had once been decent, but Tanya realized it had been poorly maintained and the chipped edge wouldn't be worth the effort of repairing. She went to the smithy and bought a solid, well made steel longsword. When she asked about Silversteel, the smith said he couldn’t work with the material, and weapons made from it typically cost upwards of a thousand gold. In other words, it was well outside of the party’s budget.
Amelia took a side trip to the Temple of the Pantheon and stocked up on replacement acolyte’s robes. The church sold them to their clergy for a small fee. Returning to the market, Amelia bought a large chest to store everyone’s things, and loaded up on underwear. She decided to buy a pair of quality boots too, since she realized she’d be walking quite a lot in the near future.
Patricia and Tanya loaded up on clothes too. Finding something appropriate for Lily was difficult. Most of the dresses they found were made for looks, using soft and comfortable fabric. Eventually they decided to buy Lily a gambeson similar to Tanya’s. Lily didn’t need the padded armour, but it was made from several thick layers of slash resistant linen that would be able to survive combat. They decided on a longer one, able to reach down to Lily’s knees. Most were split in the front like a coat, so they had to find one with a seam along the side of the body instead, so as not to reveal Lily’s privates to the world as she moved. They also had the confused armorer trim the long sleeves until they were almost at the shoulder, undermining the gambeson's protective qualities, but allowing Lily a better range of movement in her arms.
At Tanya’s insistence, because it looked ‘badass,’ they also bought a boiled leather breastplate, dyed black. It was a waste of gold. Lily’s bare skin was probably tougher than the leather. But when Amelia disapproved of the extra expense Tanya opened her eyes wide and gave Amelia a pleading stare.
“Please…” she said. “It’s only ten gold and it’ll look so cool! She’ll be like a sexy badass warrior chick with blade fingers.”
“Ugh… fine whatever,” Amelia surrendered to her old friend’s whim.
Patricia picked out a selection of camping and survival gear. Tents, sleeping bags, waterskins, backpacks, flint and steel. Amelia also looked for a spellbook of Verita’s spells, but the only one she could find cost five hundred gold, way more than the group had to spend.
With their shopping done, the trio approached a large group in the center of the market. It turned out that quite a few people wanted to leave Befield. Many had lost their homes and livelihoods, and wanted to go back to the capital, safe from the wild animals and the new threat of invading demons.
----------------------------------------
The man looked absolutely haggard. He wore fine clothes, but the rest of him looked… a little frayed. His hair was frazzled, and there were dark rings under his eyes. He looked at yet another approaching group of travellers with dread.
“Hello, I was wondering when the next caravan to Dursten is leaving.” Amelia said, wearing a friendly smile.
“Tomorrow morning. For walkers, the fee is ten gold per person. Additional ten gold for luggage carried in the cart.”
“I think we could manage that, but that’s cutting it close. Would you accept payment once we reach Dursten? The church of Verita would gladly cover the expense.”
“Huh?” The exhausted man just looked confused.
“Oh, I didn’t introduce myself. Saintess Amelia Voss, Chosen of Truth,” Amelia smiled and held out a hand.
“Fuck… you’re serious?” The haggard man looked like his day was just ruined.
“What’s wrong?” asked Amelia.
“Okay, so a typical caravan would have about 20 carts of goods, and maybe 50 travellers. This time we’ve got over three hundred travellers, and barely any carts. Many people lost homes and livlihoods in the attack. We’ve got a sudden surge of people heading to Dursten where it’s safer. For me, that means I’ve got way more people than can protect with my usual guards, and barely enough wagons to carry luggage. And now… I’ve got a VIP to guard too? No, sorry, it’s too much. I can’t guarantee your safety.”
“I can help guard,” said Tanya.
“That’ll help but it’s not enough.”
Patricia stepped forward, lighting up her eyes with a blue glow thanks to Arcane Sight. “I am Patricia Thalassa, also known as the Cerulean Witch. I’ll guard the caravan for free if you waive our fee.”
“The Cerulean Witch? Like the old stories?” the man’s eyes opened wide.
“The very same,” said Patricia, holding up a hand and conjuring a ball of blue flame for drama’s sake.
Instead of feeling reassured, the caravan organized only looked more terrified, “Death in Blue, The Unstoppable Firestorm, now I need to worry about you blowing up the caravan too? Well, maybe it’s okay, you’re going to be carful right? You're not going to burn down my caravan, right?”
“Nope, I’ll be careful,” said Patricia.
“Oh, and there’s also a fourth person coming. She’ll probably help protect the caravan if we were in danger, but I wouldn’t count her as a guard exactly,” said Amelia.
The haggard man let his gaze fall upon Amelia, overwhelmed with dread, “Who?”
“Uhm… Lilizath,” said Amelia trying to make her voice sound casual. “She’s kinda sorta an unbound greater demon that single handedly killed the wrath giant that was crushing homes in the northwest during the invasion. She’s basically unstoppable, but normally quite well behaved if you don’t provoke her.”
“Oh gods,” the man groaned and held his head. He looked ready to refuse, but his eyes suddenly shot open with fear, “Wait. If I refuse to take you… will the demon find out?”
Amelia grinned deviously, “Don’t worry. Sure, she can run as fast as a horse and track people by scent, but if you decided not to take us, she probably wouldn’t take offense and chase your caravan down to kill you and eat your body. I can almost guarantee you’re safe from reprisal.”
Amelia was telling the truth. Lily probably wouldn’t care about the caravan at all. The caravan organizer took her words slightly differently, imagining the deadly consequences of angering an unstoppable demon. Despite knowing it was unlikely, that didn’t technically mean it was impossible and he couldn’t stop himself from imagining the worse case scenario.
“Fine, you can join the caravan, free of charge if the Cerulean Witch helps kill the bigger threats. Just… make sure your demon doesn’t eat anyone,” he said.
“Great! We have a deal!” Amelia said cheerfully. “Thank you!”
----------------------------------------
Having done their shopping, the three girls returned to the dead wrath giant. It was gone, and so was the table of offerings and imp corpses. They continued on and returned to the inn.
When they entered the tavern, Ned pointed to the broken staircase between the first and second floor. The repair cost would be added to group’s bill. The first wooden step was cleanly snapped in half, the victim of an excessively heavy demonic foot. Ned said the demon was bathing downstairs in the wine cellar, where she wouldn’t risk breaking through any floors.
Tanya and Patricia went upstairs, while Amelia went down to check on Lily. The demon was luxuriating in a large wooden tub filled with steaming water. She was clean, her white skin visible once again. She was also completely unconscious, eyes shut, breathing gently, fast asleep after an exhausting day of combat followed by another exhausting day of eating.
Amelia crept back upstairs, letting sleeping monsters lie. She was tired too, tomorrow morning they’d be leaving Befield and finally starting the next stage of their journey.