Chapter 13 Homecoming.
You can do anything you want if you have the power.
Harm, rob, burn, kill, torture, destroy.
But be aware, there are always consequences to your actions.
Whether a child looking for vengeance.
Or an altruist with power, who will seek your death.
-Rakisha, mother of all demons.
{26} Mayan (December) the 6th
I wake up in my bedroll. I can’t remember falling asleep, not that it matters. I am surrounded by my friends and pawns.
I leave the tent. Lezere is currently sitting near the fire, carving arrow shafts from a piece of wood and chatting with Kolag who’s in the midst of grilling our breakfast.
Purson and Janara are occupying the other tent. Janara's moans were quite loud during the night, it made my time with Kolag extremely awkward and silent. These two don’t have a single sense of shame about it. I guess knowing they can die any day makes their desire for each other shine even brighter.
A part of me is jealous of how happy they are, even wishing Purson would see me in such light at times. Yet I chase these thoughts away quickly. Janara is the only thing in the world Purson cares about, that much is clear.
I take a skewer from Kolag’s hand and bite into the juicy meat in an unladylike manner. Being a lady doesn’t matter when you’re a slave, nor a neophyte fighting for survival.
For someone who can’t touch solid food, Kolag's cooking skills are superb, and we are all in agreement for having him cook every night.
“I'm headed to Nurio, I need to check on my home. You guys can enjoy the free time you have…” I wipe the oil from my mouth, and eye the bones of my devoured rabbit. At least I know how to skin them... I don't think hunting them would be a problem with a 'Pull' spell...
“We'll come with you, chief,” Lezere says after exchanging a quick look with Kolag.
“Why? This…”
“Would you mind the extra security, milady?” I can tell Kolag is smiling behind his bucket.
Smug bastard… “Fine.” Not at all actually… you’ll make for great meat and metal shields… I'd rather if you die instead of me… I'd rather if nobody died... Sina was enough and I barely knew her... what about my family? Are they still alive?
Janara and Purson exit their tent smiling like a pair of idiots. Purson’s hand rests on Janara’s shoulder and she clings to him like a lost child. “You’re headed to your home?” she asks, her face flushed red.
“Yes, are you coming with too?” The more the merrier I guess…
She exchanges a look with Purson. “It’s up to you Purs, I’m ok either way.” I can tell from her voice that she doesn’t want to come, but doesn’t want me to think that she doesn’t want to come.
“Thanks for the invitation. But we’ll go back to Velten village and spend some time together.” Purson says at the end.
Smart guy… I don’t want them to come, not if they don’t want to… “Good! You should enjoy some of this freedom.” I say with a smile, trying to hide the envy in my voice. I wish I had something like that too…
“Yeah, enjoy that freedom in the sack kaka!” Lezere cackles. “Say, Janara, how big is it?” She presses the attack, and Janara face turns beet red.
“Do you mind?” Purson asks angrily, his face flashes red too.
“Ah, pretty small.” Lezere notes, “I bet I wouldn’t even feel you in there, eh?”
“Ahem!” Kolag clears his throat with an echo. “We should be on our way.”
*
A few hours later we’re on our way.
The snowy roads are mostly empty in the midst of winter. We have to fight the occasional starving goblin, and a small pack of wolves once. The wolves run away as fast as they can at the first display of magic, almost as if they have a special sense for it.
It’s only Kolag, Lezere, and me on the snowy road.
As Kolag makes camp for the night I join Lezere on her hunt, I want to practice. I thought I’d be helpful since I can pull a rabbit to my hands from fifteen meters away with my magic. Unfortunately, I make too much noise and scare them away.
Lezere ends up teaching me how to move silently and not alarm the animals, how to move downwind so they won’t be able to smell me. After three days of attempts, I manage to hunt my first rabbit with my magic.
The spell throws the poor creature to my hand and bruises my freezing fingers in the process. Holding it with ‘minor telekinesis’ I stab its throat. The next step is to bleed it and skin it. I do it all under Lezere’s instructions. I won’t always have her around, and I’ll need to know how take care of my food.
{26} Mayan (December) the 9th
“Nice catch chief! Yours to eat!”
“Thank you…” we head back toward the camp. “Tell me something Lezere. Wolves are orcs, dogs are humans, and cats are gnomes. What about elves?”
“Deer.”
“Why deer?”
“Don’t know, never met an elf.”
“Then how do you know to call them deer?”
“My father did.”
“I see… Do you mind if I ask how you ended up in the sapphire tower as a slave?”
She growls. “I’m not a slave! I’m no sheep!”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to imply you are. I only asked how you got yourself into this situation we’re in…”
“Pha! The red twisted shaman killed most of my tribe! The ones she didn’t kill she tried to make sheep, we aren’t sheep.”
“I see… I’m sorry.”
“Grrrrrrr…”
We reach camp. After skinning the rabbits I watch how Kolag cooks and seasons the meat. I need to learn. I listen as he talks about spices and herbs, the importance of salt in the food, and many other things that do not truly interest me. Unlike hunting the rabbit, which has some excitement mixed in it, the cooking part I find plain boring. Yet, I know I’ll need these skills if I’m ever to survive on my own in the wilds, so I force myself to listen.
“So who taught you how to cook?” I ask when we’re in the midst of filling our bellies with rabbit stew.
“My teacher, Yoren Zor Eluaz. He always said that a man can’t fight on an empty stomach. He died at the battle of the red fort, he was a good man…”
“I’m sorry.”
“It was a long time ago, I mourned his death and moved on…”
“Kaka, we drink and move on! Crying over the dead is what sheep do! We are wolves!” Lezere calls out raising her flask.
“There’s nothing wrong with a period of mourning.” Kolag says.
“If one dies a wolf there’s nothing to mourn! You bask in the stories of their power while their family feasts on their wolf’s flesh! As for sheep…” Her mouth curls in disdain. “No one cares!”
“Feast on their…” Kolag sounds horrified.
“You eat your dead?” I ask Lezere with a raised eyebrow.
“Only the strong wolves get the honor of being eaten by their family." She traces her hand over her muscular arm. "Some wolves are eaten by the wolf who had ended their lives. All this strength shouldn’t go to waste!”
“By Noxi! This is blasphemy!” Kolag stomps, his metal boot leaving a dull thud on the muddied snow. “Intelligent beings should be buried under a tree to continue the cycle of life! Not eaten like a rabbit!”
“We don’t eat them like rabbits, we eat them like wolves!” Lezere protests, sharp teeth exposed. “We absorb their power, so it won’t go to waste in the boneless' flow.”
“Have you eaten another orc?” Kolag asks with a threat in his voice.
Lezere shakes her head. “I didn’t have the honor.”
Kolag relaxes. “I’m glad. Forget what a tribe of savages told you, you’re half human too, humans don’t eat intelligent beings.”
Lezere shrugs, and the conversation continues in a different manner involving large magical monsters Lezere had encountered in her youth, or the bear she had slain by herself when she was younger.
*
{26} Mayan (December) the 10th
By late noon we arrive at a walled town. The sun glitters on the slanted snowy rooftops, and trails of smoke mark the many chimneys. This is Nurio, this is my hometown. My father ruled over the small city and its surrounding villages, and when he left for war the job fell onto me.
The familiar place incites a wave of nostalgia. The holes in the wooden wall from the assault had already been repaired, and things seem to have gotten back to normal. It's been seven springs since I was taken away from this place.
Confident, I step toward the gates with my companions in tow. We pass by the pair of guards in familiar uniforms, yet I can’t recognize their faces. I used to know them all by name, but these aren’t the same gray-haired guards I grew up with. These men are young, fresh recruits.
The town is lively, flourishing, whoever has been managing it in my absence had done a very good job. The snow had been cleaned from the main streets, and even a small market is up and running despite the cold. I keep looking around for a familiar face. I know a lot of people in this town, I grew up here.
“Milady Marisha! Is that you?!” The shocked voice belongs to Adeline, a middle-aged maid who served under my stepmother. “Oh my! You’ve grown, my little fairy! You look like a proper lady now!”
My hug catches her by surprise. We had a complicated relationship. My stepmother didn’t like me very much, and as her maid, Adeline was often sent to harass me. My little fairy wasn’t an endearing as she says it now, it was used for mockery in the past. But it’s all in the past now, I’m happy to see anyone from my old life. “Adeline! It’s good to see you! How is my father? Is he back home?” The woman is also a huge gossip.
“Oh milady, your lord father had never been the same since that day. Even if the young lord had come home your lord father won't stop drinking himself to oblivion…” The woman shakes her head as a few strands of graying hair escapes her coif, the last time I saw her hair it was still blond, she had grown older as well. “The poor lord. But now that you're here he'll cheer up! Yes! Come on! He'll want to see you!”
I let her drag me toward my home, giving a brief glance back to make sure Kolag and Lezere are following. “My brother is home you said?”
“Yes! The young lord had been training the new guards and he chased away the bandits who had been plaguing the woods. Unfortunately, the lady Ismira and the young lady Ariena had been lost to us. I feared you were lost as well milady...” My half-sister and stepmother… I’ll find them… I'll find Ariena… I never cared for her bitch of a mother… I just need to get stronger first…
I shift my focus and keep listening to the chatty maid. “…You’re alive! And that is great news! Your father had married an amazing new lady! She's been managing the town as well as you have in the past milady!”
I let her lead me on, listening to all the gossip. The maid worships my brother and his new knight order, she also holds an endless amount of praises for the new lady and her adorable baby. I have a new half-brother, and the woman is pregnant with another on the way. She tells me how the lady is the gentlest person on Lukam with stars in her eyes.
I don’t believe everything she says. These maids depend on us for their livelihood, they drink flattery with their mother’s milk.
The maid keeps talking about the new settlers that the new lady had brought, filling the town with new faces. How a few young people grew up and married while I was gone, who died in the attack, and how a few elderly passed away.
This is my home. But currently it feels weird, I have been gone for far too long. The formerly gray moss outer walls of the castle are now painted white, it seems like it’s been freshly coated not too long ago. The wooden gates have open iron portcullis hanging above that have never been there before.
On top of the white walls the flags of my house are fluttering in the wind. A black horse on a red field, the crest of the Vodit line. Regardless of how many changes this place went through, this is home.
We pass near familiar guards on our entry to the castle. The pair of elderly men smile when they see me and salute with a fist against their chest. I grew up around them, and as a child, I tended to ask questions from anyone I saw, mainly the guards and maids. I smile and wave as I pass by them. I'll talk to them later, I can’t dally here, I have to see my father first.
The familiar hallways of my home are a welcoming sight. Dark carpets covering the middle of each hallway, urns filled with flowers replace the various paintings, busts, antiques, and artwork I remember from my childhood. I guess they needed to sell these to ransom Wulf…
A maid I don’t recognize tells me my father is asleep. I head straight to his room, leaving Adeline behind to gossip with the rest of them. This is worth waking him up for. I just have to see him, and I am sure he would like to see me as well.
I open the large wooden door, my heart pounding in my chest. “...ever learn about this, I'll see you hanged! Now…” The feminine voice ceases talking when I enter.
A tall unfamiliar noblewoman stands over my father, along with a nervous middle-aged maid. The noblewoman lifts her piercing brown gaze in alarm. A brown crown of braids adorns her tanned face. She’s not from this area. Most people who are born here have lighter features, lighter-colored hair and eyes, and a fair skin.
The light curve of her abdomen tells me she’s pregnant, this must be my father’s new wife. “By Rakisha’s eyeless gaze! You scared me half to death!” she quickly gathers her wit. “Who are you?! A new maid?! This is the lord’s room! Get out!”
“I'm lady Marisha nuk Vodit, and this mansion is my home! And who are you exactly?” I raise my eyebrow at her.
The maid who recognizes me immediately steps between us nervously with a confused curtsy. "M-milady. This is l-l-lady Rakisha, I-I-I m-mean Marisha, sh-sh-she's the l-l-lord's eldest daughter!!!” I remember the maid’s name, Ilsa. She keeps glancing nervously at my father's sleeping figure.
I find it odd. I’ve never heard Ilsa stuttering before. She was a gentle soul and well-liked by everyone, she also never harassed me. Then again, this woman had just threatened her with hanging. Why would she do that? Ilsa is harmless…
My father should've woken up from all this noise, he'd get up from every little noise when we were kids, he'd get angry if we played near his door… why isn't he waking up? A drunk stupor?
“Ah, lady Marisha, I've heard a lot about you from my husband.” The noblewoman wears a fake smile, the kind my stepmother used to wear in my presence. “Let us leave the room and let my husband sleep, we have much to discuss.” She heads toward the door, in an attempt to lead me out.
I hold her wrist firmly and stop her in her tracks. “Wake him up.” This is obvious, I’ve caught her red-handed. I just don’t want to believe what’s right in front of me.
“I'm sorry, he just fell asleep it'd be rude to…”
“Wake – him – up!!!” I scream at her.
“I…”
“You can't, can you? Because you've just killed him!”
“How dare you!” She wrestles her hand back from my grip and backs off.
“It's true milady, she poisoned your father!” Ilsa calls out in a panic.
“Guards!!! Guards!!! This maid had poisoned the lord! Help!!! Help!!!” The tall woman backs off. She attempts to run, but Kolag and Lezere stand in her way.
This bitch took my father away from me! I was so close! After seven long years of not seeing him! After so long of enduring slavery and hardship, I was about to finally see him and she took him from me! And for what?! The land he owned? His little bits of wealth that weren't even enough to ransom me?! My eyes fall on an unfamiliar baby, laying in a crib near my father's bed. She had a son with him… of course, it's for the land… DeAtH… I'm EnDiNg hEr!
Without a second thought, I press my hand against her chest and channel my mana. “Myrsha ritsa.”
She collapses, still trying to call for help, but blood comes out of her mouth instead of sound.
I head for the Little monster. my only regret is that I hadn't killed him in front of his mother. I put my hand on his head and… “Myrsha ritsa!”
“No!”
Nothing happens. Kolag grabs my wrist and lifts it forcefully before I can do something I might regret later. “I know your pain… that monster deserved to die, but this is a baby! I won't let you harm him!”
I look at the little monster. Kolag has a point, and whether I like it or not, this baby is also my half-brother.
I just lost my only chance to kill him on a high moral ground.
Was I going to kill a baby?! What the fuck is wrong with me?! There's no moral ground for that!
I'm glad the bucket head stopped me, this is my brother! His mother doesn't matter! It's my little brother! I don't have much family left...
Unless he finds out I killed his mother… then he'd be out for revenge… I better finish him now when I still can…
I’m not killing a baby! No way in the five hells!
Wait… this doesn't make sense, my brother is here, and he's still alive, why would she kill my father for the baby?!
Oh no… Wulf!
*~*~*
Power level: 1st stage apprentice.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
Mana pools status:
Neck-Bridge: formed max amount of gems drained per day: 66
Fire: open. 4 gems
Gravity: formed. 41 gems
Cantrip known:
Fire: Nuriss’ flame.
Gravity: Lumina’s kinetic burst. Tukado’s repulse. Tukado’s lesser shield. Imari’s minor telekinesis. Leo’s pull. Leo’s Grounding. Alino’s light body. Alino’s heavy body.
Focus capability: 8 patterns
Social status: A neophyte evoker.
Wealth: 58 magical gems. 89 diamonds.
Items: 2 healing potions.
Companions:
Kolag of house Befar
Lezere of the black fang tribe
Injuries and scars: Missing two thirds of the right middle finger.