Chapter 115 Human Misery.
Mortals without a leader,
are like clay before drying.
Ready to be molded and shaped.
Ready to do anything to survive.
Once a leader arise and shape them.
They’ll die to protect their values.
Rakisha, Mother of all Demons.
We pass through the wooden gates on foot. Zoe and Berthold flank me from both sides. Ryon walks in the front, looking everywhere at once. And Sharla wears a shape of a middle-aged unattractive woman in order not to draw too much attention to herself.
One-story wooden housings are the most common around here, crows are crowding the slanted rooftops, occasionally swooping down to taste the bodies scattered on the bloodied streets. These are bodies of all kinds, from children to the elderly. They are thrown out in the sun without care, their bloodied empty eyeholes stare into the clear sky above.
The bodies are at different stages of decomposing, and the bugs swarming them tell me I’ll probably have to deal with a plague in addition to the gang wars. Most of the older bodies are spotting stab wounds, but the newer bodies seem to have died from hungar and disease, the sigh of their shrunk skin along with the unbearable smell brings a bile of acid to my mouth.
The city can’t wait for its rightful queen! I heard they’ve prepared a party for you a month ago… I repeat Marasi words in my head. Yeah, right! When I get back to Red Cedar, I’m going to squeeze his little neck and pop his peaskull like a nut!
A group of young and dirty men exposes themselves from behind one of the houses. They carry makeshift weapons and armor of all kinds. Rusty swords and knives, crooked spears, forks, and pikes. Wooden shields that have been roughly hammered together from furniture that had been repurposed.
A bald middle-aged man leads them, biting into a half-rotten apple. “Oy travelers, turn back, nothing to see ‘ere, only death.” His smile is missing a bunch of teeth, his face bruised, but there are a pair of keen brown eyes behind the bruises.
“Thanks for the kind warning, stranger, but I’ll take my chances,” I reply curtly, observing the young men behind him. Most of them are too young, in their late teens, some of them are even in their early teens. Not a real threat. “Can you lead us to the Fishermen’s territory?”
One of the teens behind him whispers something about taking our stuff only for another to kick his foot. The bald man is the one to speak. “Ah, you’re looking for sanctuary. They no longer take people in, you better take your chances with the monsters outside.”
“Just take us there,” I insist.
His face creases into a smile, “nothing is free in the world.”
I tuck my hair out of my face. “I suppose not, what would you like in return?”
His large predatory grin shows a couple of black teeth in his mouth in addition to the missing ones. “I’m a sucker for redheads. An hour in the hay with you, my dear, and my men and I will lead you past the other gangs to the safety of the fishermen. I can even convince them to let you in.”
Ew… I’ll pass... “Ask for something else, I can bring you food.”
The teens behind him react excitingly to the word food, and I can hear a few of them suggesting to take my food forcefully only to be silenced by the others. “Oh? You had food to offer, you should’ve said so from the start!” the bald man's exclaims. His tiny brown eyes still dart around my body in a way that makes me want to wash.
I take out a small pile of Jerky from the bag on Berthold’s shoulders and hand them to the bald man, doing my best to suppress my disgust.
The man snatches the meat from my arms and chews on a piece like a starved wolf, a few of the teens attempt to snatch a piece, only for him to slap their hands.
“Wouldn’t it be better to ration it with this famine?” I raise an eyebrow at him. "Your men seem hungry..." Snake this man, I'll take one of the teens to show me around...
“Heh, dunno if I’ll live tomorrow. I’m a man of my word, and I wasn’t always… this.” He gestures at himself with a sigh. He eyes the remaining pile of meat, splits into seven semi-equal parts and hands each to one of the seven young boys who follow him. The group makes the meat disappear in a blink of an eye. “Follow me to the Fishermen, folks!” He turns and march down the street.
Ok... I guess I misjudged him... I bet he's extremely hungry and he still gave these boys his meat... Dire times makes everyone into monsters, I should know that best... It's amazing he still kept some sense of dignity... We follow the man, when Ryon puts a hand on my shoulder and whispers in my ear. “He be leading you to his gang buddies, he lies!”
Right… I was too naïve! “I haven’t caught your name?” I ask the bald man.
“I never gave it, name’s Gushar.”
“Right, Gushar? If you’re leading us into an ambush, there’ll be a hell to pay. And by hell, I do mean hell… Fotyr”
The boys tense up, aiming their weapons at me with shaky hands. One of them breaks off and runs into a nearby alleyway only to be tripped by Ryon. Ryon presses a knee into the boy's back and presses a dagger against his throat without drawing blood. Berthold draws his bow fully, aiming at the two young men with knives in their hands. Zoe raises her hand, preparing herself to cast a spell. While Sharla disappears like she was never there.
Gushar backs off and falls on his ass, raising his hands defensively. “Ok ok. You got me! I can’t get you to the Fishermen. I’m with Marvu’s raiders. We're supposed to watch the gates. I had no idea you’re a sorceress, Your Grace. Please don’t hurt me!”
Phew… Ryon’s experience really comes in handy with these things… “Do you know the way to the Fishermen?”
“Yes, but they’ll kill me if I get too close.” He still holds his hands between me and his head, looking fearfully at the flickering flame in my hand.
“Just give me directions then.”
“Head north, to the docks. Please don’t hurt me!”
Right! That's where the river is... Should’ve thought of that… I disperse the flames. “Thanks. You may want to try your chances outside the city with the monsters...” I give him the same advice he gave me. In his defense, there's something decent about him, he split the meat with the boys and he tried to make us leave the city before he tried leading us into his ambush. Or maybe he had an ambush outside as well? "Let them go." I order my group. Ryon releases the young man and Berthold lowers his bow.
Gushar lets out a nervous chuckle, gets up, and runs toward the open gates, followed by his small group.
“Thanks, Ryon, good catch!” I pat his shoulder.
“You welcome, can I have jerky? Or we eat when we get to da’ Fishers? I’m hungry! Agilla don’ lemme eat her food before I snake her.”
Right… I hand him a piece of meat. "There. I need you sharp. We’re headed north, keep your eyes peeled.”
"I thought you'd kill them," Berthold comments, eyes still darting around the deserted corpse littered street.
"Should I?" I raise an eyebrow.
"NO!!! Ahem... I mean, no." Berthold looses his grip on the bow, face awash with red.
"What is it, Berthold?"
"Why did you threatened that man like that?" he inquires instead of answering me.
Why really? The answer is simple. "Because it was the quickest way to expose whether or not they're leading us to an ambush or not. The ambush isn't something he could control. It's not something he could've told me what I wanted to hear. Were you expecting me to serve him cookies and tea?"
Berthold snorts. "Would you have done it though? Cut off... you know..."
"What?! Ew! No! I'd just blow off his head or something."
Berthold shakes his head and mumbles under his breath. "Ew... no I'd just blow up his head in a gory beautiful exposition that covers me with lots of ew blood..."
I feel the blood rushing to my face and I glance at the others. Aside from Sharla who gives me a teasing smirk they don't seem like they've heard his words. "And arrow that's sticking out of someone's eye is so beautiful, Berthold. The very picture of beauty!"
He grimaces and backs off a step. "S-sorry. I didn't realize I was l-loud." The clear fear in his big blue eyes hurts me in more than one way.
I cross my hands on my chest and turn to face him. "Berthold... I'm not going to harm you, ok? You're a friend. You're all like family to me. I pretty much walked up to an army to save Lezere. You can criticize me as much as you want, and you can do it to my face. I won't hurt you for it. I might not agree, but I'll listen. Now, did you have a problem with how I conducted myself?"
He looks into my eyes for a long moment, then shakes his head and steps ahead in the stinking street.
What's his snaking problem?
I advance with the rest of my group, and soon enough we assume our original formation, eyeing the alleyways and rooftops for potential threats. As we advance further into the city, we see more living people. They sit down at the side of the earthy streets, or peek from the windows. These men and women are malnourished, most of them stare at a vague spot with hollowed eyes, while some follow us with their eyes. Coughs and low whispers is the only sounds to be heard.
There are no corpses here. These people are at least smart enough to stay away from the corpses or to carry them toward the gate area.
A group of malnourished men comes out of an alley to block our way. There are about twenty of them, all holding makeshift weapons that look in an even worse condition than the weapons the teens at the gates had, and very few of them have bladed weapons, mostly wooden bats with bronze nails in them. “Give us your food!” Their leader demands. “All of it!”
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“I’m here to solve your food and gang war problems, give me a couple of days and you won’t have to worry about food.” I reply with an attempt to smile, but it's hard to smile with the sights around me. This is all my fault! If I hadn't delayed. If I hadn't insisted on some stupid morals this wouldn't have happened... If I hadn't insisted that I can't consume human meat and got stuck possessed by Luard's soul, they wouldn't have to suffer! Was it worth it?! Is my conscience clean now?!
I couldn't have known. If I had, I'd avoid Luard's soul to begin with and just travel here first...
If, if, if, would've, should've, excuses! At the end, my precious high morals got hundreds of people to die in misery. Stabbed in the back, starving to death, disease... how many more will have to die just so I can keep my conscience clean? Why can't I just do what needs to be done?!
Or... I'm looking for an excuses to eat human meat... just so I can get stronger...
My fault in this doesn't matter right now. I'm here, so how do I help these people?
I can import food from red cedar, I believe we have an excess there due to the deal with Gemhand… and too many people died... Will it be enough to feed them all? Should be, at least for a while, many of them had died, so there are less mouths to feed here too…
"Master? What do we do?" Zoe's voice wakes me up from my daze. She's backing off, her hands raised. Berthold steps back by her side, his bow half drown. Ryon holds a dagger and a small crystalline device in his hand, and Sharla is missing again.
The men step forward and circle us, raising their clubs in a threatening manner. “Hod myrsha!”
The guy collapses with a loud sickening crunch; Both of his legs bent in an unnatural way. The rest of the group scream and runs toward the same alleyway they came from and down the streets.
Not just them. All the people who were sitting out on the streets run away. They disperse into the houses and alleyways, clear fear replacing their apathy. Wooden windows and doors are slammed, and after less than a minute the earthy street is silent and empty, bathing in merciless sunlight.
The man with the broken legs on the ground in front of me wails in pain. He squirms on the ground, trying to crawl toward his club, as if it'd help.
"Did you have to break his legs?" Berthold demands to know, I can hear the blame in his voice.
I grimace. "I didn't mean to..." I am here to help them, not hurt them. I don’t blame them for trying to rob me, but I guess I also don’t care that much about their lives. If they persisted, I’d kill a few to scare them off or kill them all if they kept coming. Why am I so cold about it? Can’t I at least sympathize with these people? Can’t I feel sorry for them? I don’t know them… I’ve seen plenty of death… I’m going to do my best to help them, but apathy helps me stay sane, nothing is wrong with it… It's my fault they're dead! Mine! Apathy... I doubt I can save this man... I should kill him... it'll end his pain...
I kneel near the crying man. He looks at me with a pair of horrified gray eyes. I can't kill him! not like this... I've been where he is, not the exact same, but I know the feeling... he wants to live. I won't kill him! Snake my apathy. "I'm... I'm sorry... I didn't mean to break your legs, I just wanted to make you fall and miss your swing. I'm here to help, I want to save the people of this city, this includes you too." I hand him a pain resistance potion. "This will help with your pain. I cannot heal your legs, but I'm going to..."
*Wooosh*
Something sharp touches my back lightly with a tap. With a rapid heartbeat, I turn to see an arrow falling to the ground and a nervous brown eyed archer standing on one of the nearby rooftops. My new armor just saved my life.
I am about to attack my assailant, but Berthold beats me to it. He draws and losses an arrow in a fluid motion. The man gurgles and falls off the slanted rooftop, clutching the arrow in his throat.
“We take cover!” Ryon declares, leading Sharla and Zoe to an alleyway. I follow suit, and Berthold follows us, scanning the rooftops and windows with his bow half drown.
I focus on the wounded man who's laying on the ground. He reaches for the potion I gave him and gulps it like it'll save his life. An arrow sprouts from his body, he stiffens for a moment before his shoulders slump, the rest of the potion spilled on the earthy street. I close my eyes and feel Zoe's hand on my shoulder.
This is all my fault! If I had only eaten Luard's without worrying about...
STOP! Enough. Focus. No time for this now. I need to make some sense in my morals, but I'll do it later. Now I need to focus.
“I’m gonna check for more!” Ryon climbs the nearby house like an agile cat, using the window and gutter as footholds. I hear him running to the other rooftops. We spend about two minutes waiting, before we hear some shouting from nearby. Ryon comes back a minute later. “I kill two. No more thugs to kill, we go,” he says, sliding down from the rooftop.
"Venom... I hate killing people." Berthold mutters under his breath and shakes his head.
Zoe shifts and places her hand on his shoulder now. "I know, it's bad, but he tried to kill us, and his group killed the poor man on the street. You did the right thing. We did the right thing."
“Please! Your Grace!” A malnourished middle-aged woman stumbles out of the house near us. “You have to save my baby! He’s sick. He’s going to die!”
“I’m sorry, I don’t know how to treat diseases. I can’t help you. I’ll come back later.” I came to save the city, I can’t stop and help individuals. I know this what Kolag would do, but it’s impractical. Besides. I don’t know how to treat diseases yet, I think there should be a cure disease spell, but I haven’t learned it… and now my grimoire is locked and I can't learn it anyway... maybe a potion? I think I saw a potion like that in the alchemy book...
The woman kneels and tugs my skirts. “Some food then? Please? We’re starving!”
“Here.” Zoe offers the woman some bread. “We’re good sorcerers, we’re here to help.”
“No!” Ryon calls out as his legs touch the ground.
Zoe glares at him angrily. “Why not?”
“Food make others kill her for it. Unless she has a stash. Then others beat her for food," Ryon explains.
“Good point.” I turn to the woman. “Eat it here before we go.”
She nods and chews on the bread with a detached look in her eyes, then enters the house and closes the door behind her. I can hear a baby crying from within the house. If her baby is crying, it probably still has a chance… if its condition was bad it wouldn’t have the strength to cry… I attempt to comfort myself with logic, but it feels hollow.
I exchange looks with my companions. Sharla’s currently gray eyes are cold, she doesn’t care a single bit for these folks. Zoe’s brown eyes are full of pity and disgust. I see guilt in Berthold’s blue eyes, and Ryon’s green looks as if none of the sights are affecting him one way or another.
I sigh. "Let's go... There's not much we can do here. We need to find these fishermen."
*~*~*
Interlude 115.1
Nolkum Marvu.
"The Queen had entered the city!" Jalim reports. The tall dark haired boy fidgets around nervously.
Marvu's scales shift from surprised cyan to cowardly blue and angry red before he gets his Scalespeak under control. The Queen? Is Queen Phoebe back? How? No. "Queen Inara?" Marvu lifts his eyes from his desk and scan the human man silently. Marvu focuses on the human face, that's how human convey emotions, that's how most races convey emotions. He knows humans can't read Scalespeak, but he still makes sure his scales aren't conveying anything that's on his mind. Still, Marvu can't help but shift a few of his scales to angry red again. Olfgram Gemhand had assured him that Queen Inara will be occupied for a while. Marvu never trusted that shifty human, and that's a good thing. Marvu doesn't even trust his own kind, the Silioes, and that's a good thing. Yes... Trust is unprofitable, but a show of trust is the way to profit. Yes...
"Yes, sir!" The young boy calls out loud enough for Marvu's weaker ears.
Marvu never trusted his own men, and that's a good thing, but the boy has no reason to lie and Marvu trusts his own logic. "How many men did she bring with her?"
"Around forty humans and twenty orcs, sir!"
So little... Marvu could wipe them out in a single skirmish. No. This is a trap, this has to be a trap, no one is that stupid or this arrogant. Marvu's scales shift to cowardly blue weaved with shameful pink. He gets control over his scales and school them back into confident purple. It doesn't matter, he reminds himself. Humans can't read Scalespeak. Yet, he should not form a habit of speaking his emotions just because there are no other Silioes around, he'd be abused amongst his kind. This is why he left the sea and his kind behind.
"Tell captain Silde to test the Queen's forces. Tell him to be very careful. Did you catch the monster hiding in the city yet?"
"No, sir." The boy shouts again.
Marvu traces his thick tongue over his slick square teeth and a happy gold takes over his scales. "Ah ah, my boy. Let the beauty and the beast fight their battle. We we will watch, with snacks! Yes! For profit!"
"What should I tell captain Silde, sir?" The boy shouts his question. Marvu can't help his envy of human's superior hearing sense. His eyes swing around his temples to the missives on the table in front of him.
"Ah... Tell him I give him free reigns over Apricot City. we have better and more profitable things to do, no?"
Jalim nods and leaves the room. Nods. Why do humans nod all the time? Can't they just give a proper affirmative green?
No, they can't, Marvu reminds himself. Humans might have a stronger hearing, but they're blind to scalespeak. What a miserable existence...
*~*~*
The sheet is under the tag.
I should've done this a long time ago, but it used to mess with the copy paste when I moved things to Patreon and I just neglected it. I've had too much to do. I'll now start putting these sheets under spoilers right before I upload a chapter.
Apologies for any inconvenience.
Power level: 3rd stage apprentice.
Mana pools status:
Crown-knot: Affinity 10: connected: 1 gem replenished per minute.
Neck-Bridge: Affinity 6: formed: max amount of gems drained per day: 79
Abdomen-storage: Affinity 5: formed: 16 gems. Conversion ratio: 6:1
Air: Affinity 4: formed: 26 gems
Fire: Affinity 2: formed: 13 gems
Light: Affinity 3: formed: 19/20 gems
Water: Affinity 6: formed: 39 gems
Earth: Affinity 1: formed: 6 gems
Wood: Affinity 2: formed: 13 gems
Gravity: Affinity 9: connected: 84/95 gems
Cantrip known:
Air: Shavi’s Breeze, Shavi’s Sword. Shavi’s Hair Dryer, Aria’s Enhanced Hearing. Aria’s Sonic Scream. Aria's Increased Voice.
Fire: Nuriss’ Flame. Effrat’s Firefly, Effrat’s Fire Breath. Sorladika's Lesser Heating. Nuriss’ Ignite. Oniga's Soap Creation.
Light: Noxi’s Light. Lako’s Blinding Light. Rika’s energy hand.
Water: Water Evocation, Water to Ice, Ice to Water, Water to Vapor, Vapor to Water, Mayan’s Icy Spike, Ayla’s Water Jet. Ayla’s instant freeze. Ayla's Flowing Shield. Ayla’s Freezing Vapors. Hot Water Conjuration. Boiling Waterjet.
Earth: Alice’s Oil Summoning, Reiko’s Acid Spray. Alf's Copper Bolt
Wood: Arigor’s Lesser Vines. Kolosu’s Vegetable Summoning.
Gravity: Lumina’s Kinetic Burst. Tukado’s Repulse. Tukado’s Lesser Shield II. Imari’s Minor Telekinesism. Imari’s Jump. Leo’s Pull. Leo’s Grounding. Alino’s Light Body. Alino’s Heavy Body. Alino's Orbiter.
Transmutation: Oniga's Laundry.
Spells known:
Light: Rika's Electric Channelb1
Gravity: Alino’s Weightless Bodyb1x2. Tukado's Pushb1x3. Tukado’s defense IIIb1x4. Imari’s Lesser Flightb2.
Life: Brigit’s Lesser Cure Poison. Brigit’s Skin Restoration.
Focus capability: 18 patterns.
Social status: The Queen of Red Cedar City. Shaman of the Twin Moon Tribe. Inara, Daughter of Mysteries. Apprentice to the Maven of Mysteries. Sorceress.
Personal Wealth: 1465 Magic Gems. 1420 Golden Peas, 45 Silver Scales, 32 Copper Bits.
Personal Items:
Magical necklace. Contains 100 gems of general mana, can be drained like a mana pool. It’ll recharge by itself at the rate of five gems an hour.
1 potion of lightning body.
1 potion of mana, medium grade.
5 potions of Lesser Healing.
4 potions of Pain Tolerance.
An enchanted belt with eight pouches, the enchantment keeps the pouches’ content fresh. Each pouch may contain 10g of petals or six potion flasks.
Glitter ingredients. (1 bag)
Fresh rose petals, 36g
Fresh lavender petals, 7g
10 empty soul bottles. Glass with a diamond stopper, put in scaled leather wrapping.
The Great White Egret grimoire. Dedicated by the Maven of mysteries to Inara. 30/100. Locked.
Present Companions:
Sharlafyn Nettledew
Zoe
Ryon
Berthold
Languages:
Toml’a
Sinteo
Myrsha
Felul
Nim
A'arkalu
Injuries and scars:
Curses:
-
Kingdom’s treasury: 3836 gold coins. 123 magical gems.
Kingdom’s citizen: 3,881 humans, 1,836 human children. Twin Moon Tribe: 1,158 orcs. 293 orc children. 529 sheep-slaves.
Kingdom's army: 1,156 Orc Warriors. 324 Footmen. 49 Peacekeeper Knights.
Notables at Court:
Tasiya Keyholder.
Jolla SilverQuill.
Talbot Bookkeeper.
Marasi Chef extraordinaire (spymaster.)
Old Gardner Tiom.
Balgrum Orc Chieftain.